S & T (Oct 15) (1)

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/s-t-oct-15-1 1/14

GS-III Module

Science & TechnologyPrelims-cum-Mains-2016

Current Affairs

VOLUME – 1

(October –

2015)

By

Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari(Scientist in IIT Delhi)

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)


[Science & Technology: Current corner by Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari]

Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari (PhD IIT Delhi) working as a scientist in IIT Delhi with the association of

Department of Science & Technology (GOI)2

1. What are neutrinos? Why have the scientists a lot of interest in its research?

Comment.

Ans. The neutrino

was postulated first by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain how betadecay could conserve energy, momentum, and angular momentum (spin).

The word "neutrino" entered the international vocabulary through Enrico Fermi, who

used it during a conference in Paris in July 1932 and at the Solvay Conference in October

1933, where also Pauli employed it. The name (the Italian equivalent of "little neutral

one") was jokingly coined by Edoardo Amaldi during a conversation with Fermi at the

Institute of physics of via Panisperna in Rome, in order to distinguish this light neutralparticle from Chadwick's neutron.

Neutrinos are so abundant among us that every second, there are more than 100

trillion of them passing right through each of us — we never even notice them. This is

the reason why INO needs to be built deep into the earth —1,300 meters into the

earth. At this depth, it would be able to keep itself away from all the trillions of

neutrinos produced in the atmosphere and which would otherwise choke an over-the-ground neutrino detector. Neutrinos have been in the universe literally since forever,

being almost 14 billion years old — as much as the universe itself .

Neutrinos occur in three different types, – ve, vì, and vô. These are separated in terms

of different masses. From experiments so far, we know that neutrinos have a tiny

mass, but the ordering of the neutrino mass states is not known and is one of the key

questions that remain unanswered till today. This is a major challenge INO will set to

resolve, thus completing our picture of the neutrino.

Neutrinos are very important for our scientific progress and technological growth for

three reasons. First, they are abundant. Second, they have very feeble mass and no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Pauli



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_decay


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_momentum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_angular_momentum


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(physics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Amaldi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Amaldi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(physics)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_momentum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy




8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





charge and hence can travel through planets, stars, rocks and human bodies without

any interaction. In fact, a beam of trillions of neutrinos can travel thousands of

kilometers through a rock before an interaction with a single atom of the rock and the

neutrino occurs. Third, they hide within them a vast pool of knowledge and could open

up new vistas in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics, communication and even in

medical imaging.

Further, they have much more significance such as- first, neutrinos may have a role to

play in nuclear non-proliferation through the remote monitoring of nuclear reactors.

Terrorist groups can potentially use the plutonium-239, which is made via nuclear

transmutation in the reactor from uranium-238, in nuclear devices. Using appropriate

neutrino detectors, the plutonium content can be monitored remotely and used to

detect any pilferage. Neutrino research can be our answer to ensure that no terror

group ever acquires nuclear weapons.

Second, understanding neutrinos can help us detect mineral and oil deposits deep in

the earth. Neutrinos tend to change their “flavor” depending on how far they have

travelled and how much matter they have passed through in the way. Far more

importantly, we believe that this same property might help us detect early geological

defects deep within the earth, and thereby might be our answer to an early warning

system against earthquakes. This is where an area of Geoneutrinos is applicable. First

found in 2005, they are produced by the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and

potassium in the Earth’s crust and just below it. Rapid analysis of these Geoneutrinos

by neutrino monitoring stations — a process called Neutrino Tomography — could

provide us vitally seismological data which can detect early disturbances and vibrations

produced by earthquakes. Third, as we now know, neutrinos can pass right through the

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





earth. They may open up a faster way to send data than the current ‘around the earth’

model, using towers, cables or satellites. Such a communication system using

neutrinos will be free of transmission losses as neutrinos rarely react with the atoms

in their path. This can open up new vistas for telecom and Internet services. Some

scientists further believe that if there is any extraterrestrial form of life, neutrinos will

also be the fastest and most trusted way to communicate with them.

Fourth, neutrinos are the information bearers of the universe — which are almost

never lost in their path. India’s effort in studying neutrinos at INO may help us unravel

the deepest mystery of the universe — why there is more matter than antimatter in

the universe. Some scientists believe that formidable neutrino research can help us

understand dark matter. Dark matter and dark energy make up 95 percent of the

universe, far more predominant than ordinary matter in the universe — but we hardly

understand it. Neutrinos are the only way to detect this great mystery which may

completely alter our understanding of the universe and physics. Searches for this dark

matter can only be carried out in INO.

This is the reason why our scientists believe that the neutrino is our mode of access to

some of the most unimaginable technologies, and therefore, with INO, India is poised to

take its rightful place at the helm of neutrino research.

2. Nobel prize 2015 in medicine has been given for a big social cause behind it.

Substantiate.

Ans. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 was divided, one-half jointly to

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura "for their discoveries concerning a novel

therapy against infections caused by the roundworm parasites" and the other half to

Youyou Tu "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria".

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





William C. Campbell, Prize share: ¼ Prize motivation: "for their discoveries concerning

a novel therapy against infections caused by the roundworm parasites" Satoshi

Ōmura, Prize share: ¼ Prize motivation: "for their discoveries concerning a novel

therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites"

Youyou Tu, Prize share: ½, Prize motivation: "for her discoveries concerning a novel

therapy against Malaria".

For Prelims

Nobel Prizes 2015

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald "for the discovery of neutrino

oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass"

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015

Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of

DNA repair"

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015

William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura

"for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused

by roundworm parasites"

Youyou Tu "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against

Malaria"

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

Svetlana Alexievich

"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/kajita-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/mcdonald-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/lindahl-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/modrich-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/sancar-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/campbell-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/omura-facts.html



http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts.html

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/alexievich-facts.html

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/alexievich-facts.html


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts.html



http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/







http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





time"

The Nobel Peace Prize 2015

National Dialogue Quartet

"for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in

Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011"

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred

Nobel 2015

Angus Deaton "for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare"

3. Why in elephants rarely get cancer? Explain.

Ans. Why elephants rarely get cancer is a mystery that has stumped scientists for

decades. A study led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University

of Utah and Arizona State University, and including researchers from the Ringling Bros.

Center for Elephant Conservation may have found the answer.

According to the results, it is found that elephants have 38 additional modified copies(alleles) of a gene that encodes p53, a well-defined tumor suppressor, as compared to

humans, who have only two. Further, elephants may have a more robust mechanism

for killing damaged cells that are at risk for becoming cancerous. In isolated elephant

cells, this activity is doubled compared to healthy human cells, and five times that of

cells from patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome. In Li-Fraumeni Syndrome only one

working copy of p53 and more than a 90 percent lifetime cancer risk in children and

adults. The results suggest extra p53 could explain elephants’ enhanced resistance to

cancer.

“Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer. It’s up to us to learn how

different animals tackle the problem so we can adapt those strategies to prevent cancer

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2015/


http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2015/tndq-facts.html

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2015/



http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2015/deaton-facts.html

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2015/deaton-facts.html



http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2015/tndq-facts.html


8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





in people’. So elephants have long been considered a walking conundrum. Because they

have 100 times as many cells as people, they should be 100 times more likely to have a

cell slip into a cancerous state and trigger the disease over their long life span of 50 to

70 years. And yet it’s believed that elephants get cancer less often, a theory confirmed

in this study.

4. What are stem cells and what are its potential benefits? Explain.

Ans. Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell

types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve

as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other

cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new

cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with

a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types by two important characteristics.

First , they are unspecialized cells capable of renewing themselves through cell

division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second, under certain physiologic

or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific

cells with special functions.

In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair

and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs, however, such as the

pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions.

Until recently, scientists primarily worked with two kinds of stem cells from animals and

humans: embryonic stem cells and non-embryonic "somatic" or "adult" stem cells.

Scientists discovered ways to derive embryonic stem cells from early mouse embryos

more than 30 years ago, in 1981. The detailed study of the biology of mouse stem cells

http://glosspop%28%27stemcells%27%29/

http://glosspop%28%27celldiv%27%29/


http://glosspop%28%27embryonicsc%27%29/





http://glosspop%28%27stemcells%27%29/

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





led to the discovery, in 1998, of a method to derive stem cells from human embryos

and grow the cells in the laboratory. These cells are called human embryonic stem

cells. The embryos used in these studies were created for reproductive purposes

through in vitro fertilization procedures. When they were no longer needed for that

purpose, they were donated for research with the informed consent of the donor. In

2006, researchers made another breakthrough by identifying conditions that would

allow some specialized adult cells to be "reprogrammed" genetically to assume a stem

cell-like state. This new type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old

embryo, called a blastocyst, the inner cells give rise to the entire body of the

organism, including all of the many specialized cell types and organs such as the heart,

lungs, skin, sperm, eggs and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow,

muscle and brain, discrete populations of adult stem cells generate replacements for

cells that are lost through normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.

Given their unique regenerative abilities, stem cells offer new potentials for treating

diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. However, much work remains to be done

in the laboratory and the clinic to understand how to use these cells for cell-based

therapies to treat disease, which is also referred to as regenerative or reparative

medicine.

5. How genetic data helps in identifying new species? Explain

Ans. By taking bits of a single gene, scientists are using DNA Barcoding to identify new

species. Discovery of new species is reason enough for a biologist’s enthusiasm. But

something which is seen as far more momentous — a technology called DNA barcoding

that made these discoveries possible in the first place, and that promises to

http://glosspop%28%27hesc%27%29/



http://glosspop%28%27ivf%27%29/



http://glosspop%28%27ips%27%29/

http://glosspop%28%27blastocyst%27%29/


http://glosspop%28%27celltherapies%27%29/


http://glosspop%28%27regenmedicine%27%29/







http://glosspop%28%27ips%27%29/




8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





revolutionize the otherwise daunting process of identifying the millions of species on

the planet, many yet unknown and unnamed.

The term “Bar-coding” is actually an analogy. Much the same way that a small universal

product barcode allows a retailer’s scanner to distinguish a box of tissues from a can of

green beans, DNA Bar-coding technology allows scientists to use data from a tiny

snippet of a single gene to distinguish one species from the next. Although not perfect,

proponents say it is highly accurate in distinguishing almost all species of animals, with a

promising variation under development for plants. At a few dollars per species, it is also

remarkably cheap and, compared to traditional DNA analysis, lightning fast.

What is DNA Barcoding?

DNA barcoding first came to the attention of the scientific community

in 2003 when Paul Hebert’s research group at the University of

Guelph published a paper titled "Biological identifications through

DNA barcodes". In it, they proposed a new system of species

identification and discovery using a short section of DNA from a

standardized region of the genome. That DNA sequence can be used

to identify different species

The gene region that is being used for almost all animal groups, a

648 base-pair region in the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1

gene (“CO1”), is proving highly effective in identifying birds,

butterflies, fish, flies and many other animal groups. The advantage

of using COI is that it is short enough to be sequenced quickly and

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





cheaply yet long enough to identify variations among species.

The COI barcode is not effective for identifying plants because it

evolves too slowly, but two gene regions in the chloroplast, matK and

rbcL, have been approved as the barcode regions for land plants.

The Barcode Production Pipeline

Species identification using DNA barcodes starts with the specimen.

Barcoding projects obtain specimens from a variety of sources. Some

are collected in the field, others come from the vast collections

housed in natural history museums, zoos, botanical gardens and seed

banks to name a few.

In the laboratory, technicians use a tiny piece of tissue from the

specimen to extract its DNA. The barcode region is isolated,

replicated using a process called PCR amplification and then

sequenced. The sequence is represented by a series of letters CATG

representing the nucleic acids – cytosine, adenine, thymine and

guanine.

So if you wrote down the barcode sequence of an Arctic warbler

(Phylloscopus borealis), for example, it would look like this:

CCTATACCTAATCTTCGGAGCATGAGCGGGCATGGTAGGC....

And it’s image looks like this:

Once the barcode sequence has been obtained, it is placed in the

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) database – a reference library

of DNA barcodes that can be used to assign identities to unknown

specimens.

BOLD is a searchable repository for barcode records, storing

specimen data and images as well as sequences and trace files. It

provides an identification engine based on the current barcode library

and monitors the number of barcode sequence records and species

coverage.

Eventually, it might even be possible to embed the technology into an inexpensive

handheld device. When that happens, “it will do for biodiversity what the printing press

did for literacy.” a gadget is envisioned straight out of Star Trek, an electronic reader of

the catalogue of life on the planet that would enable anyone — school teacher, farmer,

curious child — to identify “what bit of biodiversity is biting them, appealing to them,

worrying them” in an instant.

For now, DNA bar-coding technology is limited to scientists with access to a few large

labs with the right equipment.

6. Analyses reason behind lack of research development in India. Suggest measures

to increase the research activities in the country.

Ans. The reasons behind a lack of research and development in India are as follows:

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





Technology Institutes needs investment in large amount to compete at par with the

leading institutes of the world.

There is No academic freedom, No quality teachers/faculties and low funding &

investments how one can expect our institutes to even feature in the top 200.

Another point to consider here is the widening gap between quality & quantity; No

doubt we have the largest pool of talented engineers and doctors in the world. But

are they really on the level with other engineering graduates from many developed

countries? The Answer is No, so we need to improve the Quality of them.

Major funding by the government from the Higher education budget goes to IIT’s

and IIM’s while state-owned and private institutes get a negligible share as

compared to the IIT’s. They’re suffering in lack of fund in infrastructure, how they

can even think of upgrading research centers, labs with the kind of funds they’re

getting.

Yes, they’re definitely ways to improve the overall condition of Research in institutes of

our country. Following are the steps that must be taken for attaining the required

objective:

Reduce Wastage of Public Fund: Government should rationalize numerous

subsidies and should invest that amount in research and development.

Priority to Education: Education budget should be given the highest priority in

country’s budget structure rather than spending the huge sum of funds on defense.

Improve Salaries For Teachers: Need quality teachers, qualified and well trained

academic staffs. For that Increase in the currently proposed salaries is a must. That

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





is the only way to attract young and brilliant minds in teaching sphere. Along with

the salary, the teachers are needed to be socially upgraded by giving them respect.

Autonomy To Engineering Institutes: Institutes must be given autonomy, free from

political pressure, Independent thinking atmosphere for free expression so

to provide better, easy and affordable way for students to showcase their talent in

research and innovation.

Create R&D Culture: Develop the kind of culture where potential can be used in a

rightful way. Our engineering graduates don’t lack potential; we just don’t know

where to use it for shaping it into reality.

8/20/2019 S & T (Oct 15) (1)





Documents

S & T (Oct 15) (1)