current affairs for ias exam 2011 science technology defence environment july 2011 www.upscportal

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UPSCPORTAL Cur re nt Aff ai r s : h t t p : / / u p sc po r t a l.c o m / c iv i ls er v i ce s/ c u r r en t - a f f ai r s

The UniverseMay Bave Been Born Spinning

A new study found an excess of counter-clockwise

rotating or "left-handed" spiral galaxies like this

one, compared to their right-handed counterparts.

This provides evidence that the universe does not

have mirror symmetry. Credit: NASA,

ESAPhysicists and astronomers have long believed

that the universe has mirror symmetry, like a bas-

ketball. But recent findings from the University of

Michigan suggest that the shape of the Big Bang

might be more complicated than previously

thought, and that the early universe spun on an axis.

To test for the assumed mirror symmetry, physics

professor Michael Longo and a team of five un-

dergraduates catalogued the rotation direction of

tens of thousands of spiral galaxies photographed

in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.The mirror image

of a counter-clockwise rotating galaxy would haveclockwise rotation. More of one type than the other

would be evidence for a breakdown of symmetry,

or, in physics speak, a parity violation on cosmic

scales, Longo said.

Disc overy of Natural Antibody

Brings a Universal

Flu Vac c ine a Step Closer

Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single,

near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new re-

port from scientists at The Scripps Research Insti-

tute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical company

Crucell. They describe an antibody that, in animal

tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad

variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and

potentially pandemic strains. The finding, pub-

lished in the journal Science Express on July 7,

2011, shows the influenza subtypes neutralized

with the new antibody include H3N2, strains of

which killed an estimated one million people in

Asia in the late 1960s."Together this antibody and

the one we reported in 2009 have the potential to

protect people against most influenza viruses," said

Ian Wilson, who is the Hansen Professor of Struc-

tural Biology and a member of the Skaggs Insti-

tute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research, aswell as senior author of the new paper with

Crucell's chief scientific officer Jaap Goudsmit.

Spermoc om et

Scientists from Northern Irelands Queens

Univeristy Belfast developed a new test called

spermocomet for male infertility which will save

time, money and heartache for couples around the

world.The Spermocomet provides unique informa-tion that no other test offers. It can predict the suc-

cess of infertility treatments by measuring dam-

aged DNA in individual sperm. This will result

into reduced waiting times and improved chances

of conception.The Sperm Comet test is so called

because it appears like a comet in the sky.

Our Milky Wayin Midst of Life Crisis

Planetary scientist say that our Milky way is in its

mid life crisis as a result of which it will slow down

its process of production of stars in the next bil-

lion years. As per the aeronautics the galaxies are

classified under two categories namely- energetic

blue galaxies and the lethargic red galaxies. The

blue galaxies produce stars at a massive rate while

the other one are slowly dying. But a team of sci-

entist from the Swinburne University of Technol-

SCIENCE & TECH


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ogy says that our Milky Way falls into neither of

the two categories. It is in fact a green valley gal-

axy that lays half way between the blue galaxy and

the red galaxy. This is the first time ever that sci-

entists have compared both the galaxies with our

Milky Way as the Astrophysical Journal reported.

Though we are in our own galaxy and to deter-

mine its state was a tough job to accomplish was

reported by the Astrophysical Journal.

Indian communica tion

Satellite GSAT-8Suc cessfully launc hed

Indias communication satellite GSAT-8 was

launched successfully. The satellite was launched

by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana.

The satellite was launched to enable powerful ser-

vices direct to our home. The satellite weighs

3100kg and is one the heaviest and high powered

satellite developed by the Indian Scientist at the

Bangalore- headquarters ISRO.

Hubble Observes

Aftermath of Possible

Asteroid Collision

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Tele-

scope have captured rare images of a suspected

asteroid collision. The snapshots show a bizarre

X-shaped object at the head of a comet-like trail

of material. Their findings will be published in the

Oct. 14th issue of Nature. In January 2010, astrono-

mers began using Hubble to track the object, named

"P/2010 A2," for five months. At first they thought

they had witnessed a fresh asteroid collision, but

were surprised to learn the collision occurred in

early 2009. "We expected the debris field to ex-pand dramatically, like shrapnel flying from a hand

grenade," says astronomer David Jewitt of the

University of California in Los Angeles, who is a

leader of the Hubble observations. "But what hap-

pened was quite the opposite. We found that the

object is expanding very, very slowly." This sug-

gested an older collision than the team had antici-

pated. P/2010 A2 is located in the asteroid belt, a

reservoir of millions of rocky bodies between the

orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers estimate

that modest-sized asteroids in the main belt smash

into each other about once a year. Catching aster-

oids in the act of colliding, however, is difficult

because large impacts are rare while small ones,

such as the one that produced P/2010 A2, are ex-

ceedingly faint. The Lincoln Near-Earth Research

(LINEAR) Program Sky Survey first spotted the

objects comet-like tail in January 2010, and in-

deed some astronomers thought it might be a

comet. But only Hubble discerned the X pattern

offering unequivocal evidence that something

stranger than a comet outgassing had occurred.

Drug Shield for Bac teria

A new technique which targets antibiotic-resistantbacteria and shields patients from the toxic parts

of an antibiotic drug has been developed by Cardiff

University scientists. Dr Elaine Ferguson from

Cardiff University's School of Dentistry has

utilised a new technique which attaches tiny nano-

sized biodegradable polymers to the antibiotic drug

- colistin. Use of the drug colistin to fight infec-

tion has been limited as it is known to be toxic to

the kidneys and nerves despite the fact that it has

been found to be effective against new multi-drug

resistant bacteria, like NDM-1. Cardiff University

scientists believe the new technique will help un-

der-used antibiotic drugs like colistin to be used

to fight against the spread of life-threatening bac-

terial infections.

"The technology we've developed came as a di-

rect response to an urgent medical need for better

antibiotics to safely treat patients with life threat-

ening infections. Very few new antimicrobial drugs

have emerged despite intensive research, with onlytwo new classes of antibiotics developed in the

last 30 years," according to Dr Ferguson who

worked alongside Cardiff University's Professor

David Thomas and Professor Timothy Walsh to

develop the technique. "Our new approach allows

existing effective therapies to be improved to help

patients with severe infections who may otherwise

suffer significant side effects after treatment. "The


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polymer shields the drug molecule making it less

toxic to the body while, at sites of infection, there

is an enzyme present which removes the polymer-

specifically activating the drug where it is needed"

she added.

Best-PerformingMachine of the World

A Japanese supercomputer, K Computer built by

Fujitsu Co. grabbed the title of world's best-per-

forming machine thereby returning Japan to the

top of the computer arms race for the first time in

seven years. Installed at Japan's Institute of Physi-

cal and Chemical Research, K Computer is also

known as Riken. Japan last held the top spot in

2004, with NEC Corp.'s Earth Simulator.The Japa-

nese government-funded K Computer performsmore than eight quadrillion (8,000 trillion) calcula-

tions per second. K Computer is a play on the Japa-

nese word kei for the number 10 quadrillion, which

will be the number of calculations the machine is

targeted to handle once it is completed in 2012.The

Japanese machine is a major step up from existing

supercomputers. It is more powerful than the next

five fastest computer systems combined. Accord-

ing to the Top500, a compilation of the 500 most

powerful computer systems in the world, deter-mined by a group of academic and government

researchers, Riken can perform three times as many

calculations per second as the No. 2

supercomputer, designed by China's National Uni-

versity of Defense Technology. The Japanese gov-

ernment invested more than 100 billion yen ($1.25

billion) in the K Computer project and aims to

position Japan among the leaders for

supercomputers, which can be used to tackle com-

plex problems related to climate change and

weather patterns. The project also aims to increasethe competitiveness of Japan Inc. by providing a

powerful computational tool to develop break-

throughs in drugs, materials and new

technologies.Riken can also be used to bolster the

push for renewable energy by discovering the most

efficient materials to convert the sun's rays to elec-

tricity, or protect people from natural disasters by

predicting the impact from earthquakes and

tsunami.The K Computer is packed with comput-

ing muscle. It stitches together 68,544 processors

each equipped with eight cores for a total 548,352

electronic brains. At full capacity, it aims to have

640000 electronic brains. The machine will be

equipped with enough horsepower to slash the time

required to run a simulation of a beating human

heart reacting to new medicine to two days from

two years.

There are five U.S. supercomputers in the top 10

ranking, including the third-ranked system called

Jaguar at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak

Ridge, Tenn. The rest of the top 10 include two

machines from China, two from Japan and one

from France.The Top500 list is compiled by re-

searchers at the University of Mannheim in Ger-

many, the University of Tennessee and the NationaEnergy Research Scientific Computing Center

which is affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley Na-

tional Laboratory in California.

Anti Mosquito Ga s

US scientists from the University of California on

1 June 2011 developed a gas that can get rid of

mosquitoes. The Scientists created three classes

of odour molecules that swamp the mosquitoes

senses and as a result it becomes impossible for

the mosquitoes to sniff out human blood. The

chemicals used by scientists bamboozled the tiny

censors helping the mosquitoes to trace CO2 (Car-

bon Di-oxide) in the air.This discovery will help

in providing protection against mosquito-borne

disease like dengue, yellow fevers and malaria.

Cure for Glaucom a

French Scientists developed a two-minute cure forglaucoma that uses intensely focused beams of

ultrasound. This technique enabled scientists to

heat up and kill cells in the tiny gland that pro-

duces an eye liquid called aqueous humour and

stop it secreting so much.The new technique could

benefit thousands of people who suffer from the

eye disorder. Glaucoma is caused by a build-up of

pressure in the eye which can damage the optic


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nerve and result into loss of vision and even blind-

ness. Those who suffer from serious glaucoma

undergo surgery to unblock thin tubes which drain

away aqueous humour.

First Ever Drug

to Treat Celtic Gene

A research team led by Queen's University devel-

oped the first ever drug to treat Celtic gene in pa-

tients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). Those

patients suffering from cystic fibrosis who took

the drug showed significant improvement in the

lung function, quality of life and a reduction in

disease flare-ups.The drug (VX-770) is a signifi-

cant breakthrough not only for those with the Celtic

Gene, known as G551D, but also for all other Cys-

tic Fibrosis sufferers because it indicates that thebasic defect in Cystic Fibrosis can be treated. This

is the first drug aimed at the basic defect in Cystic

Fibrosis to show an effect.Though it may or may

not improve the life expectancy, the improvements

in the breathing tests and the reduction in flare-

ups suggested the survival will be better.This is

the first drug to show that treating the underlying

cause of Cystic Fibrosis may have profound ef-

fects on the disease, even among people who have

been living with it for decades. The remarkablereductions in sweat chloride observed in this study

support the idea that VX-770 improves protein

function thereby addressing the fundamental de-

fect that leads to CF.VX-770 will open the defec-

tive channel in the lung cells of people with Cys-

tic Fibrosis and allow proper lung clearance of

bacteria. This is a ground breaking treatment be-

cause it treats the basic defect caused by the gene

mutation in patients.

Werewolf GeneDiscovered

The Scientists on 5 June 2011 discovered a

werewolf gene which causes hair to grow all over

the body. The discovery could provide a remedy

for baldness. According to the Scientists, a genetic

fault is behind a rare condition called hyper-tri-

chosis also known as werewolf syndrome, where

thick hair covers the face and upper body. Based

on this finding, Scientists could use drugs to trig-

ger a similar gene mutation in people to cause hair

grow on bald patches.It should be noted that

Werewolf syndrome is very rare, in the past 300

years only 50 cases were recorded. Thick hair simi-

lar to wolf grows on upper part of the body and

face of a human being under this syndrome.

Hereditary Disease IdiopathicInfantile Hyperca lcemia

A breakthrough in genetic research uncovered the

defect behind a rare hereditary children's disease

that inhibits the body's ability to break down vita-

min D. This discovery led researchers to develop

the first genetic and biochemical tests that posi-

tively identify the disease. Until the discovery therewas no way of confirming the diagnosis.The he-

reditary children's disease, Idiopathic Infantile

Hypercalcemia (IIH) is among the top ten most

common inherited diseases. The body's inability

to break down vitamin D results in an excess of

calcium in the blood. Children with IIH suffer from

calcifications and tissue hardening throughout the

body, as well as calcification of the kidneys and

renal failure.According to estimates by research-

ers one in every 47000 people around 600 Cana-dians and 6000 Americans may suffer from

IIH.Developing a positive diagnostic test for IIH

is being deemed as a first major step in understand-

ing the disease.This research was conducted in

collaboration with pediatricians Martin Konrad and

Karl-Peter Schlingmann from the University

Children's Hospital in Munster, Germany, and

funded in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health

Research. The findings were published on 15 June

in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Laser Light Created with Living

Biological Material

For the first time laser light was created by scien-

tists, using living biological material; a single hu-

man cell and some jellyfish protein. Seok-Hyun

Yun, an optical physicist at Harvard Medical

School and Massachusetts General Hospital in


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Boston created the living laser with his colleague

Malte Gather. This was the first time that biologi-

cal materials were used to build a laser and gener-

ate light from something living.

The Criteria for Building a Laser:

Building a laser requires two things; (1) a lasing

material that amplifies light from an external

source (a gain medium) and (2) an arrangement of

mirrors (an optical cavity), which concentrates and

aligns the light waves into a tight beam.

Before the creation of living laser, the gain me-

dium has only been made from non-biological sub-

stances such as doped crystals, semiconductors or

gases. But in living laser, the researchers used en-

hanced green fluorescent protein (GFP). Green

fluorescent protein (GFP) makes jellyfish biolu-minescent, which is used extensively in cell biol-

ogy to label cells.

Seok-Hyun Yun and his team engineered human

embryonic kidney cells to produce GFP, then

placed a single cell between two mirrors to make

an optical cavity just 20 micrometres across. When

they fed the cell pulses of blue light, it emitted a

directional laser beam visible with the naked eye

and the cell wasn't harmed.

The width of the laser beam is tiny and fairly weak.

It is brighter than natural jellyfish fluorescence,

with a beautiful green colour.

How the technology can be used:

Biologists could turn cells of interest into lasersto study them.

The light produced has a unique emission spec-trum related to both the structure of the cell and

the proteins inside it. By analysing the pattern onecan get some idea of what is happening inside the

cell.

Doctors shine lasers into the body to gather im-ages or to treat disease by attacking cells. Lasers

could instead be generated or amplified inside the

body, where they could penetrate the relevant tis-

sues more deeply.

Sc ientists Set NewData Speed Record

A team of scientists on 23 May 2011 set a new

data speed record transmitting 26 terabits equiva-

lent of 700 DVDs- per second using a single laser

According to this team, the discovery will help tofulfill the worlds burgeoning high-capacity band-

width needs of cloud computing and 3D-high defi-

nition TV. It will also provide an environment

friendly method of transmitting data over long

distances.The scientists used a single laser to gen-

erate 325 optical frequencies within a narrow spec-

tral band of laser wavelengths and transmitted the

data over 50 kilometres of single mode fibre.Earlier

in 2011, Scientists from Japan set a world record

sending 109 terabits per second using multiple la-

sers. However, the date rate of 26 terabits per sec-ond achieved by the UK, Swiss and German sci-

entists is the largest line rate ever recorded using a

single light source.

WASP-17b

Moves Opposite

A team of astronomers from the Australian Na-

tional University (ANU) on 6 June 2011 discov-

ered that a planet named WASP-17b moves in theopposite direction to the spin of the star around

which it orbits. In fact, planets move around their

stars in the same direction as the star spins.This

discovery questions the planetary theories which

are based on assumptions that any planet orbiting

a star would be moving in the same direction in

which the star spins. This theory is applicable even

to our own solar system.

Cure for ProstrateTum ours Found

International scientists claimed on 24 May 2011

that they have found evidence that a medicina

mushroom used in Asia can completely suppress

prostate tumours by targeting cancer stem cells. A

team led by the Queensland University of Tech-

nology found that the turkey tail mushroom was


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100 per cent effective in suppressing prostate tu-

mour development in laboratory mice during early

trials. The compound, poly-saccharo-peptide,

which is extracted from the turkey tail mushroom,

was found to target prostate cancer stem cells and

suppress tumour formation in mice.The results

could be an important step towards fighting the

disease. The findings are quite significant and

there were no side effects during the trial.

Exemestane

The health-researchers found that a drug named

exemestane not only prevents breast cancer but also

has no side effects. Exemestane is also known by

the brand name Aromasin belongs to a class of

compounds known as aromatase inhibitors.

Exemestane is considered better than tamoxifenin preventing recurrence of cancer after a breast

tumour is removed.The health researchers con-

cluded these facts after a trial which involved 4560

postmenopausal women in the Canada, France,

USA and Spain.

17 Lost Pyramids Found

A new satellite survey of Egypt identified seven-

teen lost pyramids and more than a thousandunexcavated tombs. The research was carried out

at a US laboratory sponsored by NASA using high

power infra-red images which can identify differ-

ent material underground. Preliminary excavations

have already confirmed some of the findings in-

cluding the existence of two of the burried pyra-

mids, identified from space.

Flexible Solar Sheet

Developed

An engineer from the University of Missouri de-

veloped a flexible solar sheet that captures more

than 90 percent of available light. Todays solar

planes only collect about 20 percent of available

light. This new device was developed by using a

thin mouldable ssheet of small antennas called

nantenna. It could harvest the heat from industrial

processes and convert it into usable

electricity.Within five years the new discovery

could be incorporated into roof shingle products

or be custom-made to power vehicles.

Juno Mission: Gas Giant

Spac ec raft All Gassed Up

The Juno spacecraft completed hydrazine fue

loading, oxidizer loading and final tank pressur-

izations this week, and now the complete propul-

sion system is ready for the trip to Jupiter. The

spacecraft is currently at the Astrotech processing

facility in Titusville, Fla.Hydrazine is the fuel of

choice for most spacecraft because of its stored

energy. When the fuel is mixed with the oxidizer,

the liquid ignites in the propulsion system's main

engine to perform the spacecraft's four large ma-

neuvers. One of these maneuvers includes insert-ing the spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter in

2016.With the fueling completion, the spacecraft

is 99 percent ready for launch. Once the final ther-

mal blanket closeouts and wet spin tests are com-

plete, the spacecraft will be 100 percent ready for

installation onto the Atlas 551 launch

vehicle.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasa-

dena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the prin-

cipal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Re-

search Institute in San Antonio. The Juno missionis part of the New Frontiers Program managed at

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunts-

ville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Den-

ver, built the spacecraft. Launch management for

the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch

Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in

Florida. JPL is a division of the California Insti-

tute of Technology in Pasadena.

Herschel Helps Solve

Mystery o f Cosmic Dust Origins

New observations from the infrared Herschel

Space Observatory reveal that an exploding star

expelled the equivalent of between 160,000 and

230,000 Earth masses of fresh dust. This enormous

quantity suggests that exploding stars, called su-

pernovae, are the answer to the long-standing

puzzle of what supplied our early universe with


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dust."This discovery illustrates the power of tackling a problem in astronomy with different wave-

lengths of light," said Paul Goldsmith, the NASA Herschel project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion

Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who is not a part of the current study. "Herschel's eye for longer-wave-

length infrared light has given us new tools for addressing a profound cosmic mystery."Herschel is led

by the European Space Agency with important contributions from NASA.Cosmic dust is made of

various elements, such as carbon, oxygen, iron and other atoms heavier than hydrogen and helium. It is

the stuff of which planets and people are made, and it is essential for star formation.

Stars like our sun churn out flecks of dust as they age, spawning new generations of stars and their

orbiting planets.Astronomers have for decades wondered how dust was made in our early universe.

Back then, sun-like stars had not been around long enough to produce the enormous amounts of dust

observed in distant, early galaxies. Supernovae, on the other hand, are the explosions of massive stars

that do not live long.The new Herschel observations are the best evidence yet that supernovae are, in

fact, the dust-making machines of the early cosmos.

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