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Subject: Science and Technology

  • [pib] Energy-efficient Photodetector for Security Application

    Indian scientists have fabricated an economical and energy-efficient wafer-scale photodetector using gold – silicon interface, for security applications.

    A basic question on the working principle of Photodetectors can be asked in the Prelims.

    What are Photodetectors?

    • Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation.
    • A photodetector has a p–n (positive-negative) junction that converts light photons into the current.
    • The absorbed photons make electron-hole pairs in the depletion region.
    • Photodiodes and phototransistors are a few examples of photodetectors. Solar cells convert some of the light energy absorbed into electrical energy.
    • The material cost and the intricate fabrication processes involved in realizing high-performance detectors make them unaffordable for day to day applications.

    Applications

    • Photodetectors are the heart of any optoelectronic circuit that can detect light.
    • They are employed for a wide variety of applications ranging from controlling automatic lighting in supermarkets to detecting radiation from the outer galaxy as well as security-related applications.
    • They range from simple devices that automatically open supermarket doors, to receivers on the TV remote controls.

    What did Indian researchers achieve?

    • The scientists have fabricated gold (Au) – silicon (Si) interface, which showed high sensitivity towards light demonstrating the photodetection action.
    • The Au–Si interface was brought about by galvanic deposition, a technique for electroplating of metals, wherein water-based solutions (electrolytes) are used, which contain the metals to be deposited as ions.
    • In addition, a nanostructured Au film also was deposited on top of p-type silicide (having an excess of positive charges), which acts as a charge collector.

    Benefits

    • Being a solution-based technique, the method is highly economical and enabled large-area fabrication without compromising the detector response.
    • The process is quick, taking only minutes to fabricate a detector of any arbitrary area and exhibited a rapid response of 40 microseconds.
    • This photodetector displayed long-term environmental stability.
    • The Indian invention provides a simple and cost-effective solution-based fabrication method for high-performance photodetector.
    • It could help detect weak scattered light as an indication of unwanted activity.

  • ‘The Long March 5B’ rocket

    China has successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft in a major test of the country’s ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon.

    Can you recall the historical link between the name “The Long March” and China’s History.

    The Long March 5B

    • Long March 5 or Chang Zheng 5 is a Chinese heavy-lift launch system developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
    • It is the first Chinese launch vehicle designed from the ground up to focus on non-hypergolic liquid rocket propellants.
    • The maximum payload capacities of the base variant are ~25,000 kilograms to Low Earth Orbit and ~14,000 kilograms to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
    • The spaceship is expected to transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 — and eventually to the Moon. It will have a capacity for a crew of six.

    Back2Basics: Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit

     

    • About 35,786 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, satellites are in geostationary orbit. From the center of the Earth, this is approximately 42,164 kilometers. This distance puts it in the high Earth orbit category.
    • At any inclination, a geosynchronous orbit synchronizes with the rotation of the Earth.
    • While geosynchronous satellites can have any inclination, the key difference to geostationary orbit is the fact that they lie on the same plane as the equator.
    • GTO is a an elliptical orbit used to transfer between two circular orbits of different radiuses in the same plane—used to reach geosynchronous or  geostationary orbit using high-thrust chemical engines.

  • How Remdesivir tricks coronavirus?

    A new research has found how Remdesivir treats coronavirus and described the exact mechanism of interaction between the virus and the drug.   Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral made by American pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences that was first developed to treat Ebola.

    DNA/RNA related terminologies, Genes and Genomes, etc. always find their way in UPSC Prelims.  Most recent one was-

    With reference to the recent developments in science, which one of the following statements is not correct? (CSP 2019)

    (a) Functional chromosomes can be created by joining segments of DNA taken from cells of different species.

    (b) Pieces of artificial functional DNA can be created in Iaboratories.

    (c) A piece of DNA taken out from an animal cell can be made to replicate outside a living cell in a laboratory.

    (d) Cells taken out from plants and animals can be made to undergo cell division in laboratory petri dishes.

    How Remdesivir kills coronavirus?

    • Remdesivir is designed to obstruct the stage of replication, when the virus creates copies of itself, followed endlessly by the copies creating copies of themselves.

    How does replication take place?

    • Once the virus enters the human cell, it releases its genetic material, which is then copied using the body’s existing mechanism.
    • At every stage of infection, various human proteins, virus proteins, and their interactions come into play.
    • At the replication stage, the key viral protein at play is an enzyme called RdRp (an enzyme is a kind of protein that speeds up chemical reactions within a cell).
    • It is RdRp that makes the copies, by processing components of the RNA of the virus.
    • University of Alberta researchers called it the “engine” of the virus in a paper last week, in which they described the action of Remdesivir against this “engine”.
    • In scientific literature, such an enzyme is called a polymerase (the p is RdRp stands for polymerase) or a replica.
    • In any case, this is the enzyme that is targeted by Remdesivir.

    And how exactly does Remdesivir target this enzyme?

    • In order to replicate, the virus processes raw material from the virus RNA, broken down by another enzyme with that specific function.
    • When a patient is given Remdesivir — the inhibitor — it mimics some of this material and gets incorporated in the replication site.
    • With Remdesivir replacing the material it needs, the virus fails to replicate further.
    • These coronavirus polymerases are sloppy and they get fooled, so the inhibitor gets incorporated many times and the virus can no longer replicate.

  • Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE)

    A team from IISc Bengaluru and UK based researchers has created a blueprint for accurate prediction of monsoon, tropical cyclones and another weather-related forecast under the BoBBLE Experiment.

    Aspirants must note:

    1) BoBBLE is headed by which organizations?

    2) Its purpose and application

    What is BoBBLE?

    • The Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment or BoBBLE in short is a project funded by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Natural Environment Research Council of UK.
    • BoBBLE tries to determine, quantify and model ocean-atmosphere interactions that drive variability in the South Asian monsoon.
    • The experiment created a blueprint for future weather system observational experiments for accurately forecasting monsoon rainfall.

    Why need BoBBLE?

    • The Bay of Bengal (BoB) plays a fundamental role in controlling the weather systems that make up the South Asian summer monsoon system.
    • In particular, the southern BoB has cooler sea surface temperatures (SST) that influence ocean-atmosphere interaction and impact the monsoon.
    • Compared to the southeastern BoB, the southwestern BoB is cooler, more saline receives much less rain, and is influenced by the summer monsoon current (SMC).
    • To examine the impact of these features on the monsoon, the BoB Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE) was undertaken.

    BONUS:

    1) How technology development in monsoon forecasting can benefit realizing the dream of doubling farmers income by 2022?

    2) Discuss the role of Bay of Bengal in monsoon dynamics. (Hint: the link between the two lies in Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD))

    How is the experiment carried out?

    • BoBBLE will deploy two ships, six ocean gliders and eight floats to collect an unprecedented range of oceanic and air-sea flux observations.
    • These will occupy locations in the southwest and southeast Bay, as well as tracing east-west and north-south paths between those locations, measuring ocean temperature, salinity and currents.

    With inputs from http://www.walker.ac.uk/research/projects/bay-of-bengal-boundary-layer-experiment-bobble/

  • [pib] UV Blaster: A UV Disinfection Tower

    The DRDO has developed an Ultra Violet (UV) Disinfection Tower for rapid and chemical-free disinfection of high infection-prone areas.

    GYAN:

    We have a UV filter in our home based water filter.  Ever wondered, how do UV rays kill viruses/bacteria?

    UV Blaster

    • The UV blaster is a UV based area sanitizer designed and developed by Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC), the Delhi based premier laboratory of DRDO.
    • It is useful for high tech surfaces like electronic equipment, computers and other gadgets in laboratories and offices that are not suitable for disinfection with chemical methods.
    • The product is also effective for areas with a large flow of people such as airports, shopping malls, metros, hotels, factories, offices, etc.

    How does it work?

    • The UV based area sanitizer may be used by remote operation through laptop/mobile phone using wifi link.
    • The equipment has six lamps each with 43 watts of UV-C power at 254 nm wavelength for 360-degree illumination.
    • For a room of about 12 x 12 feet dimension, the disinfection time is about 10 minutes and 30 minutes for 400 square feet area by positioning the equipment at different places within the room.
    • This sanitizer switches off on the accidental opening of a room or human intervention.

    Back2Basics: UV germicidal irradiation

    • UV irradiation is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet rays to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions.
    • UVGI is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air, and water purification.
    • UVGI devices can produce strong enough UVC light in circulating air or water systems to make them inhospitable environments to microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, moulds, and other pathogens.
    • UVGI can be coupled with a filtration system to sanitize air and water.
    • It has been used primarily in medical sanitation and sterile work facilities.
    • Increasingly, it has been employed to sterilize drinking and wastewater since the holding facilities are enclosed and can be circulated to ensure a higher exposure to the UV.

  • Rethinking the role of Intellectual Property in Corona crisis

    The article discusses the idea of creating a patent pool of the patents dealing with Covid-19. Such a patent pool will be effective in avoiding the possibility of the hostile response of societies towards patent rights. And also avoid the conflict between nations. corporations and international organisations.

    Purpose of patent rights

    • The purpose of creating and recognising patent rights is for the common public good, i.e., innovation should be made public in exchange for a limited monopoly.
    • Thus, patents need to be disclosed to the public in order to enable further research.
    • Should pandemics such as COVID-19be an exception to this?
    • With the outbreak of COVID-19, there are several innovations.
    • All these innovations may be the subject matter of patent applications around the world.
    • It will be a few years before patents are even granted.
    • However, friction already exists among various stakeholders.
    • For instance, one country made attempts to obtain exclusive rights to a vaccine being developed.
    • On the other hand, there are also collaborations taking place.
    • However, the spirit of collaborative solutions is only on the anvil.
    • The question that arises is whether the exclusivity that is recognised by patent rights will be detrimental to society.
    • Will patents create roadblocks or is there a solution?

    Possibility of conflicts over patent rights

    • Governments and international organisations need to arrive at a consensus in advance to ensure that the system is ready.
    • Procrastination would be disastrous.
    • Creating hindrances through exclusivity claims, in the wake of a pandemic, will result in dividing countries, corporations and international organisations.
    • This will not benefit patients and the world as a whole.
    • If patent owners create impediments on the strength of patent rights, the world will start despising patents and that is not a situation IP owners ought to be in.
    • Under the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) regime, there are several tools such as compulsory licensing that are available to ensure access to medicines.
    • However, beyond the laws, society needs to respect innovation.
    • To protect the sanctity and integrity of patent systems, and in order to ensure that an anti-IP sentiment is not generated globally, answers need to be found within the existing regime.
    • In exceptional circumstances such as these, there is a likelihood that societies may resort to extreme steps to protect themselves.
    • Before such ideas are floated, solutions should be created.

    The idea of creating a patent pool

    • One method by which aggregation and dissemination of innovative products can be ensured is by creating a patent pool.
    • Patent pools are usually effective in aggregating, administering and licensing patents related to specific areas of technology.
    • Such pools are usually managed by a central agency and the patents which become part of the pool are readily made available for licensing.
    • Some pools even publish the royalty rates payable for such licences.
    • Anyone who wishes to obtain a licence will be able to approach the pool, agree to the terms, and begin to manufacture and sell the products.
    • Such pools are prevalent in, for instance, standard essential patents related to telecom and digital innovations.
    • At the moment, individual efforts are being made by research organisations to create their own pools.
    • A more fruitful endeavour would be to create a global pool of COVID-19-related innovations, or innovations related to rare pandemics, in respect of vaccines and medicines.
    • This could be managed by a trustworthy international organisation.
    • All countries ought to have the right to implement these innovations without further permission from the patent-holders.
    • This would not require countries resorting to provisions such as compulsory licensing, state acquisition, etc.
    • Even if royalties are at a minimal level, the revenues would still be in billions of dollars owing to the large swathes of the population affected by the pandemic, who will need to be administered these products.

    Way forward

    • Creation of a pool and immediate licensing will ensure that there are hundreds of manufacturers across the world.
    • As a result, vaccines and medicines will be quickly available.
    • Such a pool needs the cooperation of not just countries and international organisations but also the hundreds of researchers, innovators, companies and universities involved.
    • Doha Declaration: Pooling of patent resources is also in line with the Doha Declaration on Public Health which is a part of the TRIPS agreement.
    • This declaration recognises the need for taking measures to ‘protect public health’ and ‘promote access to medicines’.

    A direct question on the issue can be asked by the UPSC, for ex-“Though IPRs have been provided to respect and protect the innovations and ideas, but in the wake of corona crisis, some strict provisions need to be changed. In light of the above statement, discuss the limitations of the exclusivity clause under the patents rights. And how can it be overcome in emergency situations?”

    Conclusion

    Public-private partnerships (PPP) need to be scaled up. Creation of the ‘PPP-pandemic patent pool’ at a global level, to pool all innovations, is the way forward. Let us not wait any longer.

  • Plasma therapy is no silver bullet

    The article discusses the issues with convalescent plasma therapy. The therapy has been in the news as a cure to Covid-19. The lack of conclusive evidence is a major issue. There are certain risks involved in large scale adoption. All such issues are dealt with in detail here.

    Importance of scientific research in dealing with Covid-19

    • The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to governments, health professionals and the general public at large, around the world.
    • Every response, administrative, social, economic or medical is being subjected to intense public scrutiny, as it rightly should be in the spirit of mature democracy.
    • Scientific research in medicine is the only means to overcome novel and complex diseases such as COVID-19 and that too thrives on the same spirit of debate and criticism.
    • Difficulty in establishing protocols: The difference is that the standards of evidence required, to generate consensus and arrive at the most optimal protocols, are far more rigorous and time-taking than in most other walks of life.

    Issues with plasma therapy

    • The convalescent plasma therapy, that is being currently studied by the Indian Council of Medical Research, through open-label, randomised controlled trial to evaluate it for both safety and efficacy.
    • The problem with the therapy is of the lack of established protocols.
    • What is involved in therapy? The therapy involves infusing patients suffering from COVID-19 with plasma from recovered patients.
    • In theory, the antibodies of the recovered person may help that patient’s immune system fight the virus.
    • While showing great promise, it is a line of treatment that is yet to be validated for efficacy and safety and cannot be deployed widely without caution.
    • The current evidence to conclude anything about the true benefits of this therapy is very thin.
    • Till date, there have been only three published case series for convalescent plasma in COVID-19 with a cumulative of 19 patients.
    • Given the very small number of patients involved in these studies and a publication bias in medicine, we cannot conclude the therapy will work on all patients all the time or even believe that the convalescent plasma was the only reason for their improvement.
    • The most important principle in medical ethics is “do no harm”.
    • The transfusion of convalescent plasma is also not without risks, which range from mild reactions like fever, itching, to life-threatening allergic reactions and lung injury.
    • To recommend a therapy without studying it thoroughly with robust scientific methods may cause more harm than good.
    • Further, convalescent plasma therapy requires intensive resources, healthy COVID-19 survivors to donate, a blood bank with proper machinery and trained personnel to remove plasma, equipment to store it and testing facilities to make sure it has an adequate amount of antibodies.

    Need for the Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT)

    • To say with certainty whether a drug is truly effective or not, the gold standard in medicine is to conduct a randomised controlled trial.
    • In RCT half the patients get the experimental drug and the other half do not.
    • Only if patients in the first half show substantial improvement over those in the second half, it indicates the drug is beneficial.

    Exploring other options and focusing on health infrastructure

    • Too much focus on one approach can take away the focus from other important therapeutic modalities like the use of oxygen therapy, antivirals, and antibiotics for complicated hospital courses.
    • To overcome the pandemic comprehensively, we should focus on strengthening health systems at all levels, including referral systems, supply chain, logistics and inventory management.
    • We need to work on protecting our healthcare workers, improving prevention methods, promoting cough etiquettes, effective quarantining and accurate testing.

    A direct question based on the therapy like- “What is convalescent plasma therapy and what are the issues involved in its adoption?” can be asked by the UPSC.

    Conclusion

    Even these times of collective uncertainty are no reason to lower scientific temper. Science should be driven by reason and evidence with hope as a catalyst but not by either fear or populism. Pushing one or the other therapy without evidence or caution can only set back our larger fight against COVID-19.

  • [pib] Earth’s Magnetosphere and its dynamics

    Scientists at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) have developed a generalized one-dimensional fluid simulation code capable of studying a wide spectrum of coherent electric field structures of earth’s magnetosphere which can be useful in the planning of future space missions.

    The newscard talks of not so new phenomenon but a basic terminology of space sciences. Kindly make a note of what the Magnotesphere is, how it is formed, role of solar winds, Geodynamo etc.

    Earth’s Magnetosphere

    • The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space.
    • It is generated by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.

    Features of the Earth’s magnetosphere

    1) Bow shock,

    2) Magnetosheath,

    3) Magnetopause,

    4) Northern tail lobe,

    5) Southern tail lobe,

    6) Plasmasphere,

    7) Solar wind.

    How is it formed?

    • Sun is the major source of plasma deposition in space around the Earth. Sun forces some of its plasma towards the earth in the form of the solar wind.
    • The speed of this wind varies between 300 to 1500 km/s, which carries with it solar magnetic field, called as Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF).
    • The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the Earth’s outer core.
    • These convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo.

    Why study the magnetosphere?

    • The Earth’s magnetosphere is a vast region which has a finite number of satellites hurtling through this realm.
    • The morphology of the plasma processes around the satellite can be understood quite well.
    • However, when they leave the observational domain of one satellite to enter into another, a vast blind arena is created.
    • How the morphology of these processes changes over space and time can be ideally deciphered only through computer simulations.

    Outcome of the study

    • Almost 99% of matter in the universe is in the form of plasma, Earth’s magnetosphere, too, contains this material and the plasma.
    • They have the ability to hamper the working of a number of satellites that have been placed in orbit in the magnetospheric region.

    Significance

    • Apart from the well being of these expensive satellites, the academic understanding of this region is quite essential to comprehend the cosmos in its entirety.
    • The study will help advance the knowledge of plasma waves, instabilities, and coherent effects associated with wave-particle interactions that are useful in planning of future space missions.
    • It can also lead to precisely controlled fusion laboratory experiments for ever-expanding energy needs of humanity.

  • Festival in news: Chithirai Festival

    For the first time, in place of Madurai’s Chithirai Festival, a simple celestial union is set to take place that will be streamed online.

    Match the pair based question can be asked from festivals as such. Recently, the following festivals were in the news: Ambubachi Mela, Thrisoor Puram, Meru Jatara, Nagoba Jatara etc.

    Chithirai Festival

    • Chithirai Festival or Chithirai Thiruvizha is an annual celebration celebrated in the city of Madurai during the month of April.
    • It is celebrated during the Tamil month of Chithirai.
    • It lasts for one month of which the first 15 days mark the celebrations of the coronation of Goddess Meenakshi and the Marriage of Lord Sundareswara and Goddess Meenakshi.
    • The next 15 days mark the celebrations of the Journey of Lord Alagar from Kallazhagar temple in Alagar Koyil to Madurai.

    About Meenakshi Temple

    • The ancient city of Madurai, more than 2,500 years old, was built by the Pandyan king, Kulashekarar, in the 6th century B.C.
    • But the reign of the Nayaks marks the golden period of Madurai when art, architecture and learning flourished expansively.
    • The most beautiful buildings in the city including its most famous landmark, the Meenakshi temple, were built during the Nayak rule.
    • Located in the heart of the city, the Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar temple is dedicated to goddess Meenakshi, the consort of lord Shiva.
    • The sculpted pillars are adorned with the exquisite murals that celebrate the ethereal beauty of princess Meenakshi and the scenes of her wedding with Lord Shiva.
    • The pillars depict scenes from the wedding of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar. There are 985 richly carved pillars here and each one surpasses the other in beauty.

  • [pib] HCARD robot to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors

    HCARD, a robot, to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors has been developed by a CSIR lab.

    It is very unlikely to create a prelim question on HCARD. However, developments as such help in exemplifying the scientific developments which helped contain such highly contagious outbreaks.

    What is HCARD?

    • The robotic device HCARD, an acronym for Hospital Care Assistive Robotic Device, can help frontline healthcare workers in maintaining physical distance from those infected by the coronavirus.
    • The device is equipped with various state-of-the-art technologies and works both in automatic as well as manual modes of navigation.
    • This robot can be controlled and monitored by a nursing booth with a control station having such features as navigation, drawer activation for providing medicines and food to patients, sample collection and audio-visual communication.
    • The cost of this device is less than Rs 5 lakh and the weight is less than 80 kilograms.