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Science & Tech

October - 2014

Science & Tech

•  ISRO will launch the third of seven series of satellites to put in place India’s own navigation system on par with US’ Global Positioning System (GPS) from the spaceport of Sriharikota on October 10.

• The Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) 1C satellite would be launched on the 28th flight of India’s PSLV-C26 from the SatishDhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, some 100 km from Chennai.

•  As part of its aspirations to build a regional navigational system equivalent to GPS of the US, ISRO plans to send seven satellites to put in place the IRNSS.

•  The first two satellites in the series, IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B were launched from Sriharikota on July 1 2013 and April 4 this year respectively.

•  Being developed by India, IRNSS is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in the country as well as the region extending upto 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.
   

Whale shark found washed ashore at Panambur

•  A 10-ft-long whale shark was found washed ashore at the Panambur beach. The whale shark, among the largest fish species in the world, is commonly found in deep seas around the Lakshadweep Islands, and it, probably, is the first incident of a whale shark found washed ashore at Panambur.

•  An average whale shark is around 30 feet in length and weighs around 9,000 kg.

Preterm birth kills most children under 5 years in India

•  Of the 6.3 million deaths in children under the age of five years, nearly 52 per cent of deaths during 2000-2013 occurred during the neonatal period (0-27 days after birth). Preterm birth complications, pneumonia and intrapartum-related complications have been found to be the three main causes of death in children globally.

•  According to Li Liu from the Institute of International Programs and the first author of the paper, there will be 4.4 million deaths in children younger than five years even in 2030 if the present trend continues.

•  In 2013, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and China together accounted for half of deaths in the world in children aged under five years, and 52.5 per cent of all neonatal deaths. In the case of India and Pakistan, the three leading causes were preterm birth complications, pneumonia and intrapartum-related complications.

Measles will be the Target after eliminating polio

•  An ambitious drive to eliminate or control a host of diseases, including measles, which affects lakhs of people and leave many killed every year will be launched, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.

•  Dr. Vardhan said the government was already working towards eliminating measles by 2015 and Rubella, also known as German measles, and ‘Kala-azar’ or black fever by 2015.

•  It also aims to eliminate parasitic disease Filaria by 2015 and Leprosy at district level by 2017.

•  “We got rid of Smallpox in 1977 and Polio in 2014. There is no reason why we cannot finish others,” he said during a press conference.

•  Dr. Vardhan said the government has called a meeting of health secretaries from across the country on October 9 in this regard, following which a nationwide programme will be launched regarding elimination of such diseases and others.

India should increase Coverage of antenatal care: WHO

•  In 2013, globally, preterm birth complications were responsible for 15 per cent (0.96 million) of deaths in children under five years of age. It is a leading cause of death in neonates (0-27 days after birth). According to WHO, about 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) every year. Such births are seen both in the developed and developing countries.

•  India ranks first in the list of 10 countries that account for 60 per cent of all preterm births; the U.S. is ranked sixth in the list.

•  “India has little more than 50 per cent of antenatal care coverage. So in order to face the issue of premature births, low birth weight babies and stillbirths, the first aspect is to increase the coverage of antenatal care,” Dr. FlaviaBustreo, Assistant Director General at WHO told this Correspondent. “During antenatal care, health workers can detect whether progress of foetal growth is happening normally, pregnant mother’s nutrition is good or look out for any other complications.”

‘Virtual breast’ will improve cancer detection

•  A Computer-generated 3D ‘virtual breast’ software, that mimics the intricacy of the real organ, could improve cancer detection, scientists say.

•  Many medical professionals encourage women to get mammograms, even though the tests are imperfect at best: only a minority of suspicious mammograms actually lead to a cancer diagnosis, researchers said.

•  Researchers have used a different type of test, ultrasound elastography, to pinpoint possible tumors throughout the body, including in the breast.

•  “It uses imaging to measure the stiffness of tissue, and cancer tissues are stiff,” said Jingfeng Jiang, a biomedical engineer at Michigan Technological University.

•  Those images can be breathtakingly clear: In one elastograme the tumour is as different from normal breast tissue as a yolk is from the white in a fried egg. However, not all images are that precise.

•  Ultrasound elastography could be an excellent screening tool for women who have suspicious mammograms, but only if the results are properly interpreted, researchers said.

HIV pandemic’s genesis in the 1920s was in Kinshasa: scientists

•  A “perfect storm” of urban change that began in 1920s Kinshasa led to the catastrophic spread of HIV across Africa and into the wider world, according to scientists who used genetic sequencing and historical records to trace the origins of the pandemic.

•  Though the virus probably crossed from chimpanzees to humans in southern Cameroon years earlier, HIV remained a regional infection until it entered the capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

•  From the 1920s until 1960, the pandemic HIV strain — there were others that fizzled out — spread from Kinshasa, crossed borders to other nations, and ultimately landed on distant continents. It has infected nearly 75 million people worldwide to date.

Indo-Russian venture breaks new ground

•  When Mikhael and Sergei were students together at Dauria, a back of beyond region in Russia’s trans-Baikal region bordering region, little would they have imagined that they would team up with Indians, who also came out from smaller towns, to launch satellites.

•  The two Russians from a region known for crystal blue lakes and seasons divided between unremitting snow for half the year and rolling meadows for the remainder, next met at the Physics Olympics which Mikhail Kokorich won. It was when they were selected for admission at Novosibirsk University that they sensed their destinies were interlinked, narrates Sergei Ivanov, in a dapper suit while taking time off to talk on his cell phone with his company’s offices in the Silicon Valley and Munich.

•  The Indians too — Raghu Das, D. S Govindrajan and SachidaPadhi — chose career paths that differed from the usual trajectory of scientists\managers settling down to a life of security with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) or one of the corporate heavyweights that are contributors to its space launches.

Gene plays important role in Monarch butterfly's migration

•  The 3,000 mile or 4,800 km mass migration of Monarch butterflies in North America is one of the insect world's fantastic feats, with millions embarking on the arduous journey from as far north as Canada down into Mexico and the California coast each autumn.

•  Scientists who scoured the genome of these colorful insects offered new insight into this annual airborne adventure. They pinpointed a single gene related to flight muscle efficiency that plays a major role in the Monarch butterfly's migration.

•  The study published in the journal Nature, also identified the gene behind the butterfly's striking orange-and-black coloration.

•  "I find it amazing that these little butterflies live for months and fly thousands of miles to perform this annual migration," said one the researchers, University of Chicago professor of ecology and evolution Marcus Kronforst..

•  The number of migrating Monarchs has plummeted in recent years. Dr. Kronforst said while an estimated one billion Monarch butterflies migrated to Mexico in 1996, that number stood at about 35 million this past winter. Threats to them include habitat loss due to human activities, pesticides that kill milkweed and climate change, experts say.

•  While mainly a North American species, Monarch populations also can be found in Central America, South America and elsewhere. Those outside North America do not migrate.

• The researchers carried out genome sequences on 92 Monarch butterflies from around the world including non-migratory ones as well as on nine butterflies from closely related species. To study the genetic basis for migration, they compared the genetic blueprint of migratory Monarchs to those that do not migrate.

Tibetan plateau becomes focus of intense meteorological study

•  The Tibetan plateau has become the focus of intense meteorological study in a never-before attempt to understand its effect on climate locally as well as globally.

•  This development follows close on the heels of the massive floods which hit Kashmir and Pakistan recently.

•  The $49-million Chinese effort, in which the plateau is being flooded with sensors, is aimed to help predict extreme weather — both in Asia and as far away as North America — and give scientists knowledge on how climate change affects these events.

•  Having a high altitude, the plateau receives more sunlight, gets hotter than land at sea level. Acting like a giant heating plate it pumps air upwards which disperses in the upper troposphere, influencing atmospheric circulation and thereby, climate.

•  The heat also intensifies monsoons, which are caused by land-ocean temperature differences which in turn cause pressure gradients.

•  Being the biggest and highest plateau in the world, it disturbs the troposphere unlike any other structure on earth. However, there are little data on the impact on climate.

2020 plan for nature protection falling: U.N. report

•  International efforts to meet targets to stem the loss of wildlife and habitats are failing miserably, according to a United Nations report.

•  The Global Biodiversity Outlook 4, published as nearly 200 countries meet in South Korea in a bid to tackle biodiversity loss, paints a damning picture of governments’ efforts to meet a set of targets agreed upon in 2010 to mitigate the destruction of species’ habitats, cut pollution and stop overfishing by the end of the decade.

•  Conservationists said the lack of progress, nearly halfway to the 2020 deadline for the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (ABT), was a troubling sign and a reality check.

•  According to the report, the situation is worsening for the planet’s most threatened species, which include 90 per cent of all lemurs and species such as the blue-tongued forest giraffe and the spoon-billed sandpiper: “The average risk of extinction for birds, mammals, amphibians and corals shows no sign of decreasing.”

•  Only five of the 20 targets, which are broken down into 56 elements, are on track for 2020. Thirty-three show progress albeit at an insufficient rate, 10 show no progress; five show deterioration and three have not been evaluated.

India launches microscope uses peacock feather technology

•  India launched an ingeniously manufactured microscope that generates 3D images of objects. The Broad Spectrum Confocal Microscope has several applications in medicine and materials sciences. It uses an infra red beam which passes through a patented photonic crystal fibre made by the Central Glass and Ceramics Research Institute (CGCRI), Kolkata.

•  “The optic fibre produces multiple wavelengths from the laser due to its surface which has very small holes. This is similar to the way a peacock’s feather scatters light. This is projected on to the target object which allows us to see a three dimensional structure of the object,” CGCRI Director Kamal Dasgupta said.

•  The microscope was developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) along with Vinvish Technologies, Thiruvananthapuram, under the New Millennium Indian Technology Initiative, an effort launched by the CSIR over a decade ago to develop technologies through collaborative efforts by research laboratories and technology companies in India.

APJ Kalam stresses need to have carbon-free cities

•  Former President APJ Abdul Kalam stressed the need to have carbon-free cities across the globe for happy and healthy living of citizens.

•  Delivering the keynote address at the plenary session of the XI World Metropolis Congress that is currently underway in Hyderabad, DrKalam suggested that the delegates should deliberate on building carbon-neutral and fossil-free urban conglomerations.

•  “To have carbon-neutral cities is my dream. Whether smart cities or over-smart cities, the urban areas should be places for healthy living,” DrKalam said adding that “healthy living is possible only if we adopt methods of generating solar power and create non-carbonised environment.”

•  The growing migration to urban areas poses challenge in creation of clean environment, he said.

•  Recalling his recent visit to Chandigarh, the former President said the city was built by a Swiss architect and an expert urban planner and there are several points that can be learnt from it.

Inspiration from Butterfly wings to fight forgery

•  Harvard researchers have taken inspiration from ‘colour-changing’ wings of a butterfly to develop an artificial photonic material that is difficult to recreate and can help produce counterfeit-proof banknotes.

•  Researchers were inspired by the male Pierellaluna butterfly of Latin America that uses its wings to perform an advanced optical trick known as reverse colour diffraction to attract a mate.

•  Owing to the microstructure of its wings — made up of tiny scales curled slightly upward at the end to diffract light — the butterfly appears to change colour when viewed from different angles. Researchers have now figured out a way to use artificial photonic materials to mimic the insect.

Increased toilet coverage has a little health impact: study

•  New evidence has raised troubling questions about India’s 25-year strategy of pushing people to use toilets as a way to improve health.

•  In a paper published in the medical journal Lancet, researchers led by Thomas Clasen of the U.S.-based Emory University found that increased toilet coverage did not lead to any significant improvements in the occurrence of child diarrhoea, prevalence of parasitic worm infections, child stunting or child mortality.

•  For their study, Dr. Clasen and his team looked at 50 villages in Odisha’sPuri district between May 2010 and December 2013, where the then Total Sanitation Campaign to build toilets was in effect, and 50 otherwise similar villages where the campaign had not yet started.

•  One key possible explanation for the absence of a health impact, the researchers said, could be the patchy implementation of the scheme, and uneven rates of use of toilets — at the end of the study period, just 63 per cent of households in the villages where the scheme ran had any toilet, and two-thirds of this group reported a family member using the toilet. Usage was substantially lower among men than among women.

PSLV-C26 to launch navigation satellite on October 16

•  A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C26, will lift off from the space centre at Sriharikota on October 16 at 1.32 a.m. to put a navigation satellite, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, IRNSS-1C, into orbit.

•  The launch window opens at 1.32 a.m. and lasts till 1.47 a.m. The 1,425-kg satellite has already been integrated with the four-stage PSLV in the first launch pad and the final phase of checks is under way. The 67-hour countdown will begin at 06.32 a.m. on October 13.

US approves two technology transfer licenses

•  While the decision in this regard was made just before Prime Minister NarendraModi's US visit, the announcement was made by a top Pentagon official during the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC).

•  "What is critical now is that we agree on some projects that we can use to continue building our relationship. Good intentions must lead to tangible results, or the momentum we have built will fade," said Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics during his address at the event.

•  Kendall, who is Pentagon's point person for the India-US Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), however, did not give details about the two licenses approved by US.

•  He said: "I have also set aside USD 20 million for strategic cooperative science and technology projects with India, something we have done with no other country."

•  Kendall, who accompanied Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel to India this summer, was highly appreciative of the developments and policy changes in India.

Astronomers most detailed map exoplanet’s weather

•  Using the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, a team of scientists — including an Indian-origin researcher — has made the most detailed map ever of the temperature of an exoplanet’s atmosphere and traced the amount of water it contains.

•  The planet targeted for both the investigations was the hot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-43b. It is a planet the size of Jupiter but with double the mass and an orbit much closer to its parent star than any planet in the solar system. It has one of the shortest years ever measured for an exoplanet of its size — lasting just 19 hours.

• “These maps can be used to constrain circulation models that predict how heat is transported from an exoplanet’s hot day side to its cool night side,” said Kevin Stevenson from University of Chicago.

A multi-sectoral approach to control dengue

•  Dengue fever is rearing its ugly head again in India with new cases of infections and even deaths being reported from different States. The world’s fastest growing vector-borne disease, dengue sees an estimated 50-100 million cases being reported annually in over 100 endemic countries.

•  Ever since its detection in the early 1950s, there has been a 30-fold increase in dengue incidence. Almost half of the world’s population is currently considered at risk of contracting dengue. The Southeast Asia region contributes to more than half of the global burden of the disease. About 52 per cent of the world’s population at risk resides in this region. Dengue is endemic in 10 of the 11 member states, and India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand are among the 30 most endemic countries in the world.

•  The good news is that deaths due to dengue have been brought down substantially. This is because of greater awareness among treating physicians on the proper use of World Health Organization protocols in providing care to dengue patients. This is also attributed to increased knowledge among communities to seek early treatment for symptoms that resemble those of dengue.
  However, an area of concern is that the number of cases has been increasing year after year. To understand it, we need to comprehend and keep pace with the changing epidemiology of dengue, especially the multiple ecological factors that influence its spread.

•  Being a vector-borne disease, ever-increasing numbers and varieties of mosquito-breeding habitats are being created with rapid and poorly planned urbanisation, globalisation, consumerism, poor solid waste and water management, and increasing population movement without adequate measures to prevent vector breeding.

Mars Orbiter sends pictures of Mars moon Phobos

•  His preparedness is understandably high but there could be a slump in the keenness of competition.

•  Almost 20 days after it successfully entered the orbit of the Red Planet, ISRO’s Mars Orbiter sent pictures of Phobos — the largest of the two natural satellites that orbit around Mars.

•  ISRO, the national space agency, has shared a tiny footage on its social networking site with a caption, “The larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, is seen travelling west to east over Mars in its typical orbit.”

ISRO re-positioned its Mars Orbiter

•  Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has repositioned its Mars Orbiter, as the national space agency, along with its counterparts around the world, is expecting Comet Siding Spring to fly by the Red Planet on October 19.

•  “We have repositioned the Mars Orbiter, as the Comet Siding Spring is expected to be close to the Mars on October 19. We have taken the Orbiter to a position farthest from the tail of the Comet so that it doesn’t affect the satellite,” A.S. Kiran Kumar, Director, Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, said.

•  ISRO, NASA and other space agencies in the world, which have sent their missions to the Red Planet, have taken precautionary measures to save their satellites from any possible collision with the space debris, which might be facilitated by the movement of the Comet near Mars.

•  According to U.S. space agency NASA, Comet Siding Spring has travelled many billions of miles and would come within about 87,000 miles of Mars on October 19. The comet comes from the Oort cloud, material left over from the formation of the solar system, it said.

MAVEN beams first images from Martian atmosphere

•  NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) in the Red Planet.

•  The SEPs are streams of high-speed particles blasted from the sun during explosive solar activities like flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

•  Around Earth, SEP storms can damage the sensitive electronics on satellites. At Mars, they are thought to be one possible mechanism for driving atmospheric loss.

•  MAVEN has clicked unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet, and yielded a comprehensive map of highly-variable ozone in the atmosphere underlying the coronas, NASA reported.

•  “All the instruments are showing data quality that is better than anticipated at this early stage of the mission,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN Principal Investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

•  “It is turning out to be an easy and straightforward spacecraft to fly, at least so far. It really looks as if we are headed for an exciting science mission,” he said.

•  MAVEN was launched on September 21 to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere.

Stem cells appears safe to treat blindness

•  An experimental treatment for blindness that uses embryonic stem cells appears to be safe, and it improved vision in more than half of the patients who got it, two early studies show.

•  Researchers followed 18 patients for up to three years after treatment. The studies are the first to show safety of an embryonic stem cell treatment in humans for such a long period.

•  “It’s a wonderful first step but it doesn’t prove that (stem cells) work,” said Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine at University College London, who was not part of the research. He said it was encouraging the studies proved the treatment is safe and dispelled fears about stem cells promoting tumor growth.

•  Embryonic stem cells, which are recovered from embryos, can become any cell in the body. They are considered controversial by some because they involve destroying an embryo and some critics say adult stem cells, which are derived from tissue samples, should be used instead.

•  Scientists have long thought about transforming them into specific types of cells to help treat various diseases. In the new research, scientists turned stem cells into retinal cells to treat people with macular degeneration or Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, the leading causes of blindness in adults and children.

•  In each patient, the retinal cells were injected into the eye that had the worst vision. Ten of the 18 patients later reported they could see better with the treated eye than the other one.

•  No safety problems were detected. The studies were paid for by the U.S. company that developed the treatment, Advanced Cell Technology, and were published online in the journal, Lancet.

Mars probes to observe cometary visitor

•  India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and four other spacecraft gathered around the Red Planet are preparing to greet an emissary from the far reaches of the solar system, Comet Siding Spring.

•  Around midnight this Sunday (Oct. 19), the comet — named after an Australian observatory from where it was discovered in January last year — will hurtle past Mars, coming to within about 139,500 km of the planet. That is almost one-third of the average distance between Earth and Moon, and much closer than any comet is known to have passed by Earth.

•  The Indian Orbiter as well as three American and one European spacecraft now around Mars will be training their instruments on the comet. Two U.S. rovers trundling about on the Martian surface will also peer up with their cameras.

•  These will be the first spacecraft observations made from close proximity of a comet that originated in the Oort Cloud, said Asoke K. Sen of the Department of Physics at Assam University in Silchar, who studies comets.

•  As the comet is coming into the inner solar system for the first time, it “will carry the signature of the pristine material out of which the sun and the planets were born some 4.6 billion years back,” he pointed out. Observations of the comet will therefore aid in understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system.

Another success of ISRO with PSLV-C26 launch

•  On October 15, 1994, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-D2) for the first time successfully placed an Indian Remote-sensing Satellite into orbit.

•  Twenty years later, on October 16, 2014, the PSLV-C26 lobbed the 1,425 kg Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1C) satellite into its precise orbit.

•  This mission was ISRO’s twenty-seventh consecutively successful PSLV flight. ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said, “The PSLV has done it again. IRNNSS-1C is up in orbit. "

•  After a flight of 20 minutes and 18 seconds, the satellite was injected into an elliptical orbit. The IRNSS-1C is the third among seven navigation satellites, with a wide range of applications from helping truck drivers to submarines, missiles and battle tanks locate their positions.

Cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’ test-fired

•  India’s indigenously developed nuclear capable sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’, which can strike targets more than 700 km away, was test-fired from a test range at Chandipur in Odisha.

•  “The missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher positioned at launch pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range at about 10.03 hours,” said an official soon after the flight took off from the launch ground.

•  “Flight details will be available after data retrieved from radars and telemetry points, monitoring the trajectories, are analysed,” the official said.

•  It is the second test of the sub-sonic long range cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’ from the ITR.

•  The maiden flight, conducted on March 12, 2013 could not achieve all the desired parameters as “the flight had to be terminated mid-way when deviations were observed from its intended course,” sources said

•  India has in its arsenal the 290-km range supersonic “BrahMos” cruise missile which is jointly developed by India and Russia. But ‘Nirbhay’ with long range capability is a different kind of missile being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

NFDB implementing several new schemes for fisheries sector

•  National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) is implementing various production oriented schemes for enhancement of fish production and productivity.

•  To increase fish production and productivity in reservoirs, a massive fish seed stocking programme was taken up in 21.15 lakh hectares of water spread area in 21 States.

•  Considering the need for promotion of hygienic markets, the board is focusing on developing hygienic markets across the country. For promotion of fish marketing and consumption, modernisation and construction of 252 fish markets were taken up.

•  NFDB is addressing the serious weak links in the supply chain by providing fishermen with 1214 mobile fish vending vehicles with ice-boxes so that they can earn more by reaching markets faster and the fish are also delivered in better condition.

•  To meet the quality standards stipulated by the European Union and other importing countries, assistance was extended for modernisation of 21 fishing harbours and 31 fish landing centres.

•  Considering the scope for development of ornamental fisheries in India by involving rural beneficiaries, especially women self-help groups, NFDB has launched initiatives by implementing different schemes.

•  Several families and women self-help groups are earning a livelihood through ornamental fish culture. NFDB has launched schemes for setting up of ornamental units such as backyard hatcheries, medium scale ornamental fish breeding units, integrated ornamental fish breeding units and aquarium fabrication units with 50 per cent subsidy.

India at very high risk of Ebola: U.S. expert

•  An infectious diseases and public health systems expert at Harvard Medical School has warned that the risk of India seeing an Ebola patient is “very, very high.” He predicted that India may well have “at least a few cases before the calendar year is over.”

•  “As long as the outbreak continues in West Africa, the chances that someone will end up in India and then develop symptoms are very high,” Ashish Jha, Professor of International Health at Harvard’s School of Public Health and Director of Harvard Global Health Institute, told.

•  Professor Jha also noted that in terms of preparedness to deal with a potential epidemic, “the bottom line is that India is probably not as prepared as it should be.”

•  He said that when the first case crops up, it would likely be at a public hospital in some mid-size or large city, where there may be serious questions about whether the institution had provided sufficient training to manage someone, even temporarily, until substantial expertise could be brought in.

• Further, Professor Jha said, he would want to know whether the hospitals had “proper protective equipment they need to care for [an] Ebola patient,” adding that he “worried” about whether hospitals across the country, even those designated as regional centres of excellence in each State, were “really getting the training they need to be safe and effective.

Series of power project clearances for Uttarakhand

•  While, the Supreme Court continues its stay on 24 hydroelectric power projects in the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi Basins with an installed capacity of 3,065 MW, the Uttarakhand Government has shifted focus on getting clearances from the Centre for other projects across the State.

•  In a major step towards restarting work on stalled projects, work on the 5,600 MW Pancheshwar multipurpose project, which was stalled for over 18 years, started after the proposal to restart work was discussed during the bilateral talks between Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Nepalese counterpart SushilKoirala, in August.

•  The proposed 5,600 MW dam is to be built on the Indo-Nepal border in Champawat district.

•  The 300-MW Lakhwar project, which is located in the Upper Yamuna River Basin in Dehradun district, is another project for which the State government has been striving to attain clearance. However, after being delayed under the Congress regime at the Centre, the project is set to attain final clearance after which the project work would begin.

•  Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar said: “The investment clearance for the Lakhwar project is expected within two to three weeks after which we could begin construction work at the project site.”

•  The project had received clearance in 1986 when it was under Uttar Pradesh’s Irrigation Department. Work continued till about 1992. The project work was later transferred to the UttarakhandJalVidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL).

•  A change in the authority undertaking the project required a new clearance, which is what the State Government was trying to seek. The project work was stalled even after 30 per cent work was already complete.

•  Work on a project proposed on the Tons river – 660 MW Kishau multi-purpose dam – was caught in disputes which were recently resolved by the Centre. The Centre agreed to bear 90 percent cost of power component of the project. The Centre also dismissed Himachal’s demand of a 50 per cent share in the enhanced power that would be generated in the existing downstream projects due to the project.

GSAT-16 in French Guiana ahead of launch

•  GSAT-16, the next national communications satellite, reached French Guiana and is on its way to the space port near Kourou ahead of an early December flight, European launch service company Arianespace has said.

•  The 3,150-kg satellite is scheduled to be flown on an Ariane-5 launcher numbered Flight VA221. Built at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, GSAT-16 was sent on a chartered cargo plane to the French Guiana capital of Cayenne.

•  Over the coming weeks, a team of ISRO engineers will routinely check, test and fully ready it for launch. The satellite carries C-band and Ku-band transponders which will support VSAT (very small aperture terminal) services, television services and emergency communications across the country.

•  ISRO advanced the launch date of GSAT-16 by about six months to meet increasing demand for INSAT/GSAT transponder capacity from various industry and government users, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan recently told. It will replace INSAT-3E, which expired a little prematurely in April, at the same 55 degrees east orbital slot over India.

•  The assembly of the satellite, its foreign launch and insurance cost Rs.860 crore, more than half of it going towards the launch cost. ISROcontracted Arianespace to launch both GSAT-16 and later the GSAT-15 communication satellite. The national space agency is still perfecting its two-tonne-class launcher, the GSLV, and cannot launch these three-tonne-class spacecraft.

5 more Ebola vaccines to be tested soon: WHO

•  The World Health Organisation says millions of doses of two experimental Ebola vaccines could be ready in 2015 and five more experimental vaccines will start being tested in March.

•  Still, the agency warned it’s not clear whether any of these will work against the deadly virus that has already killed over 4,800 people this year.

•  Dr. Marie-PauleKieny from the agency told reporters there could be millions of doses of an Ebola vaccine in 2015 if early tests prove that the two leading candidates are safe and effective.

•  If the early trials hint at success, larger trials testing the vaccines in West Africa could begin as soon as December, Dr. Kieny said. She said five other possible Ebola vaccines should start being tested in March

Elephants can ‘hear’ rainfall from miles away: researchers

•  Elephants are able to detect rain storms from distances as far as 240 km and move towards them, researchers working in Namibia have found.

•  Namibia, like much of south-western Africa, is hot and dry most of the year, the reason why animals living there have learned to take advantage of its rainy season between January and March, researchers said. Elephants are migratory animals, with herds on near-constant move in search of food and water.

•  Prior research has found that a herd will sometimes change direction suddenly for no apparent reason. To find out why, researchers tracked 14 elephants, each a member of a different herd. They also tracked rainfall using weather satellite data.

Laser scientists build tractor beam

•  Laser physicists in Australia have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam that is bright around the edges and dark in its centre, the Australian National University (ANU) announced.

•  It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam and moved particles one-fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 cm, around 100 times further than previous experiments, Xinhua reported.

•  The new technique could be used, for example, in controlling atmospheric pollution or for the retrieval of tiny, delicate or dangerous particles for sampling.

China launches experimental spacecraft to fly around the moon

•  China has launched an experimental spacecraft to fly around the moon and back to Earth in preparation for the country’s first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface.

•  The eight-day program begun on 24th october is a test run for a 2017 mission that aims to have a Chinese spaceship land on the moon, retrieve samples and return to Earth. That would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to have carried out such a mission.

•  China already has launched a pair orbiting lunar probes and in 2013 landed a craft on the moon with a rover onboard. None of those missions were programmed to return to Earth.

•  China has also hinted at a possible crewed mission to the moon at a future date.
   

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