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Sci-Tech: 3G (3rd Generation Mobile Technology) Study Note General studies
What is 3G ?
3G is short for third-generation mobile telephony services.
based on an International Telecommunication Union standard called IMT-2000.
3G services were first launched by NTT DoCoMo of Japan in October 2001,
followed by Korea in January 2002.
Difference from 2G
3G phones work in higher bandwidths of 15-20 MHz,
currently available mobile phones are loosely regarded as 2G or 2.5G, and use 30-200 KHz
bandwidth.
What is Bandwidth?
measure of the width of a range of frequencies used while transferring data from one point to
another, and is measured in hertz.
Advantages / uses
1. facilitates faster, better and simultaneous delivery of audio and non-audio data.
1. 3G networks offer
1. download speeds of 14.4 Mbits/second
2. uploads of 5.8 Mbits/second.
2. with 3G services telecom carriers will be able to provide video broadcast and other value-
added services such as
1. tele-medicine,
2. mobile banking,
3. stock transactions,
4. e-learning etc, through wireless communications at a faster pace and with high
quality.
3. Various government services (e-governance) to the masses would be facilitated through
the medium of mobile phone powered by a higher bandwidth of 3G.
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Importance of the topic
1. General Studies G/S : Prelims , Mains (Science & Tech Portion)
2. Essay / Interview.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2009/06/sci-tech-3g-3rd-generation-mobile.html

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[Notes on] General Studies-Mains 2009s Important Topics
Medstream project
(the Infrastructure Corridor) between Turkey and Israel
will lead oil, natural gas and optic fibers/water/electricity
India has shown great interest in the project, and that it wishes to participate as a major investor
in the project.
New Constitution of the Maldives
In June 2008,
assembly, called the Special Majlis, competed a new constitution
It was ratified by the president on 7 August 2008, with proposed elections to be held in October
2008 and March 2009
it states that a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives and therefore it removed
citizenship from around 3,000 Maldivians (0.85% of the population).
B.K.Chaturvedi Committee on Oil And Gas Procing
Recommended
The committee had recommended rise in petrol and diesel prices
imposition of Metro Extra tax of Rs 2 per litre on diesel in four installments in large cities
where the fuel was being used in expensive cars.
bringing petrol prices in alignment with market rates by march 2009 and diesel by 2010 with an
indicative ceiling, which means prices would have to be increased every month
Committee is also against subsidized LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) supply and says
there should be one time increase of Rs 75 per cylinder and only six refills should be permitted
this year.
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all subsidies should have a monetary ceiling and should be restricted to only below poverty line
families.
a proposal of smart cards or cash transfers for such families.
completely slashing import duty on petrol and diesel.
South Asian Water Disputes
Indo-Pakistan dispute over the Wular Barrage (The Indus Waters Treaty),
Indo-Bangladesh water dispute over the Farakka Barrage (The Ganges Water Treaty) and
the Indo-Nepal dispute over the Mahakali River Treaty.
Project Arrow
department of posts (DoP) launched Project Arrow,
to bring the rural populace in direct communication with the outside world and
bring benefits of development to their doorsteps.
one-stop shop for retail products and
offer a single window facility for banking, money remittances and other financial products and
services including social and
civic initiatives such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and National Old
Age Pension Scheme.
Collection Of Stats Bill 2007
To widen the base for data collection to cover individuals and households along with industrial
and commercial units.
amend the Collection of Statistics Act, 1953to meet the challenges arising out of liberalisation
and globalisation regime manifested, particularly by the WTO Agreement.
Penalties for offences, such as refusal to furnish information or providing incorrect data, would
vary from Rs 1000 to Rs 10,000 individuals and industrial and commercial enterprises.
The offences would be tried in a summary way to avoid prolonged litigation.
Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi
Indian vocalist in the Hindustani classical tradition.
A member of the Kirana Gharana (school),
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renowned for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional
music (bhajans and abhangs).
In 2008, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian honour
Ganga River Basin Authority
for comprehensive management of the basin.
Ganga Basin states of
Uttarakhand,
Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar
Jharkhand.
West Bengal
ministry of environment and forests will issue the notification under the Environment
Protection Act,
replace the current piecemeal efforts to clean up the Ganga with an integrated approach that
sees the river as an ecological entity.
authority chaired by the prime minister will consist of the chief ministers of the Ganga basin
states as members along with related ministers of the central government.
SACOSAN-III
Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN-III), New Delhi, 16-21 Nov 2008
The Prime Minister said that sanitation has to be located in an integrated framework of public
health policy to ensure that sanitation activities are indeed adequately funded.
20 per cent of toilets built in the country are not functional due to lack of adequate maintenance
and poor construction?
Nirmal Gram Puraskar is an incentive based scheme given to gram panchayats for achieving
complete sanitation facilities in their villages by the Rural Development Ministry.
BIMSTEC
On 6 June 1997, a sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC
(Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar joined the
organization as a full member at a Special Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on 22 December
1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC.
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BIMSTEC provides a unique link between South Asia and Southeast Asia bringing together 1.3
billion people 21 percent of the world population, a combined GDP of US$750 billion, and a
considerable amount of complementarities. A study shows the potential of US$ 43 to 59 billion
trade creation under BIMSTEC FTA.
BIMSTEC covers 13 Priority Sectors lead by member countries in a voluntary manner; namely,
Trade & Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport & Communication, Tourism, Fisheries,
Agriculture, Cultural Co-operation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health,
People-to-People Contact, Poverty Alleviation and Counter-Terrorism and Transnational
Crimes.
Shaurya missile
a canister launched hypersonic
surface-to-surface tactical missile
developed by the Indian
Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO)
for use by the Indian Armed Forces.
range of between 600-700 km
capable of carrying a payload of one-tonne conventional or nuclear warhead
International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009)
is a year-long celebration of astronomy, taking place in 2009
coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a
telescope by Galileo Galilei
publication of Johannes Keplers Astronomia nova in the 17th century.
The Year was declared by the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations
Raghurajan Committee on Financial Sector
Recommended
hasten the development of the debt market so that banks dont bear all the risk of infrastructure
investments.
He also called for setting up small local area banks so that there is faster financial inclusion.
He thinks that renminbi (Chinese currency) will replace $ as internation currency.
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RBI would lose creditability if it monetizes the deficit.
He said one way the RBI can distance itself from the government is by transferring the
responsibility of debt management to the government.
debt management office basically manages the issuance and auction of government bonds. This
is currently being done by the RBI.
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
is an organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies.
CARICOMs main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its
members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate
foreign policy
Seat of Secretariat
Georgetown, Guyana
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
7-9 January 2008, Chennai
9 January being the arrival of Mahatama Gandhi in india from South Africa.
event has been organized every year since 2003
sponsored by the
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry).
generic drug
is a drug which is produced and distributed without patent protection.
The generic drug may still have a patent on the formulation but not on the active ingredient.
International Year of Natural Fibres
United Nations General Assembly declared 2009 as the International Year of Natural Fibres
objectives of the International Year of Natural Fibres would be:
To raise awareness and stimulate demand for natural fibres;
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To encourage appropriate policy responses from governments to the problems faced by natural
fibre industries
To foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibres
industries;
To promote the efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres industries.
National Water Grid
by Sir Arthur Cotton, that extraordinary engineer-economist who formulated a comprehensive
sub-continental plan for the formation of a national water grid
plan involved navigation and irrigation, storage
took into account irrigation of a vast extent of land and was not restricted to navigation alone.
Andhra Pradesh Government has installed his statue on the Tank Bund in Hyderabad along with
the other heroes of Andhra.
He is perhaps the only Englishman whose statue was installed in India after Independence.
UNDP mission on National Water Grid 1971-72 felt that Indias national economy in its
development and growth will be confronted with the problem of increasing scarcity of water
within the next thirty years. From basic compilation of future water demand and water yields it
becomes evident that by the year 2000 or so, the National Water Grid will be a vital necessity.
Darfur Peace Agreement,
signed May 5, 2006, by the largest rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Mini
Menawi, and the Sudanese Government, is an important achievement for peace in Darfur
Trans-Asian Railway (TAR)
is a project to create an integrated freight railway network across Europe and Asia.
TAR is a project of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
has sometimes been called the Iron Silk Road in reference to the historical Silk Road trade
routes.
Nishant
is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
developed by Indias ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) a branch of DRDO for the
Indian Armed Forces.
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primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory and also for recce,
surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment,
Stiglitz Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System
In 2009, Stiglitz chaired the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary
and Financial System, informally known as the Stiglitz Commission,
convened by the President of the United Nations General Assembly
to review the workings of the global financial system, including major bodies such as the World
Bank and the IMF, and to suggest steps to be taken by Member States to secure a more
sustainable and just global economic order
Internet telephony
refers to communications services voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications
that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analog
voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol
(IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.
Benefits
Routing phone calls over existing data networks to avoid the need for separate voice and data
networks.[25]
Conference calling, IVR, call forwarding, automatic redial, and caller ID features that traditional
telecommunication companies (telcos) normally charge extra for are available free of charge
from open source VoIP implementations such as Asterisk or FreeSWITCH.
Costs are lower, mainly because of the way Internet access is billed compared to regular
telephone calls. While regular telephone calls are billed by the minute or second, VoIP calls are
billed per megabyte (MB). In other words, VoIP calls are billed per amount of information (data)
sent over the Internet and not according to the time connected to the telephone network. In
practice the amount charged for the data transferred in a given period is far less than that
charged for the amount of time connected on a regular telephone line.
The ability to transmit more than one telephone call over a single broadband connection.[26]
without the need to add extra lines
Secure calls using standardized protocols (such as Secure Real-time Transport Protocol.) Most
of the difficulties of creating a secure telephone connection over traditional phone lines, such as
digitizing and digital transmission, are already in place with VoIP. It is only necessary to encrypt
and authenticate the existing data stream.[27]
Location independence. Only a sufficiently fast and stable Internet connection is needed to get a
connection from anywhere to a VoIP provider.
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Integration with other services available over the Internet, including video conversation,
message or data file exchange during the conversation, audio conferencing, managing address
books, and passing information about whether other people are available to interested parties.
**
Source :google Wikipedia-Indian Express.
Topic list Courtesy: Arunesh on IO Forum

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2009/09/notes-on-general-studies-mains-
2009s.html

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[Notes] Geography Planets : For Prelim General studies
(ignore the minute details given here. That type of questions are no longer
appearing in UPSC)
Terrestrial planet
are smaller in size; rocky in structure; slow rotation on the axis and have lesser satellite. Inner
terrestrial planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
Jovian planets
are huge in size; spin very fast and have higher number of satellites. Outer or Jovian planets are:
Jupiters, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
- Earth is the densest of all the planets; Saturn has the lowest density (less than water 0.5)
- Mercury is closest to the sun.
- Uranus and Venus rotates retrograde (i.e., from east to west), other planet rotates in the same
way as earth (from west to east).
- Venus is the only planet whose period of rotation (243 days) is longer than the period of
revolution (225 days) around the sun.
- Uranus is tilted at 90, so it almost rolls around the sun. Mars tilted at 23 in the same way as
the earth, so experiences four seasons as earth.
- On its sunny side, Mercury can reach a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit! (But Mercury is not
the hottest planet in the solar system. The hottest planet is Venus.)
Ref: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/what-is-planet-mercury-58.html
atmosphere mainly made of C02 (90%).
- Mars glows with reddish light because of high iron content; it has thin atmosphere (containing
free oxygen at very low-level), also has frozen water at polar region. Due to these factors, Mars is
considered as the first planet that will be colonised.
- Jupiters internal temperature of Jupiter is very high, close to starting nuclear fusion. Mainly
hydrogen is present around the Jupiter.
- Saturn is the second largest planet; it looks yellowish light (due to the presence of ammonia).
Ring around Saturn is made up of dust particles, frozen ice, and frozen ammonia.
-Uranus grows with blue light.
- Neptune grows with the greenish blue light due to presence of methane.
- Pluto is the coldest, darkest, and the strongest planet. It is smaller in size and does not fall in
giant planet category
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Satellite:
Asteroids:
- Mercury and Venus have no satellite.
- Earth has one satellite: moon
- Mars has two satellite: Deimos and Phobos.
- Jupiter has 19 satellites, one of the satellite known is Europa, containing large number of deep
oceans. It contains possibility of extra-terrestrial life.
- Saturn has 21 satellites (10 discovered by Voyage 1&2)
- Uranus has 17 satellite (12 discovered by Voyage 1&2)
- Neptune has 11,-one of this is tital.
- Plutos satellite is Charon.

Comets:
Minor planets of the solar system, small rocky structure, revolving around sun mostly between
Mars and Jupiter. These are considered as debris of large planets existing between Mars and
Jupiter as is evident from the distance between them.
Earth has long history of collision with: (i) comets, and (ii) asteroids.
Sedimentary rocks of 65 million years ago have high iridium content which gives evidence of
collision of celestial body.
- Miss distance: a celestial body coming closer beyond 9,00,000 km, may not strike earth. This
is called as miss distance.
Syzygy:
Member of the solar system, found revolving around the sun beyond the path of Pluto, generally,
at outer edges of the solar system.
Comets are made of pre-mordial substance from which solar system are made. Since, they are
undisturbed due to far location, study of comets may give more information about evolution of
earth or other planets. Comets are made up of frozen ammonia, dust particles and ice crystals
and other chemicals.
- Halley Comet: appears after a period of 76 years.
- Halle Bopp: one of the largest comet with 40 km diameter.
- Comet Swift Turtle: calculated to collide on 14 Aug.2126 A.D. in Australia
- Comets making journey towards sun develop small head and long tail, due to heat only as it
approaches Jupiter. Tail extending millions of kilometers in the outer space. Tail always point
away from the sun. Solar wind is responsible for the formation of tails since solar winds goes
away from the sun.
It is the alignment of three celestial bodies along a straight line; Viewed from one of these
bodies, the other two will either be in conjunction or in opposition. An inferior planet, whose
orbit lies inside that of earth, can, in reference to the sun as seen from the earth, be either in
inferior conjunction or in superior conjunction; unlike a superior planet, whose orbit lies
outside the earths, and unlike the moon, it can never be in opposition to the sun as seen from
the earth
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Earth
-Looks bluish white, body due to the presence of ocean and ice-caps.
- Earths core is mainly made up of iron and nickle; mantle is mostly solid.Outer core due to its
movement gives magnetic field of earth manifested in Van-alien Radiation bell. Van-Allen
Radiation belts are two concentric circles. Inner belt is more energetic and situated at 3000 km
above the equator. Outer concentric circle is less energetic and found at 16000 km above the
earth. Van-Allen radiation belts are formed due to concentration of solar-winds.
Fastest Rotational Period (descending order) -Jupiter > Saturn > Neptune > Uranus > Earth >
Mars > Pluto > Mercury > Venus
Density (Highest to Lowest) -Earth > Mercury > Venus > Mars > Neptune > Jupiter > Uranus >
Saturn

this one is most imp because they generally ask from it >
- Sequence of planets distance from the sun:
Mercury< Venus< Earth< Mars< Jupiter< Saturn< Uranus< Pluto traces elongated elliptical
orbit.
So, from 1980-1999, the distance of Neptune was more than Pluto.
Size (Biggest to Smallest) -
Jupiter > Saturn > Uranus > Neptune > Earth > Venus > Mars > Mercury > Pluto
Courtesy : Aarthiias

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2009/09/notes-geography-planets-for-
prelim.html

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[Q] Dilemma over Potato-Microwave question in CSAT sample paper as different answers given
by magazines
Vijay asked, i have a doubt about a particular question which came in prelims-2010 as well as in
sample CSAT paper by UPSC.
If a potato is placed on a pure paper plate which is white and unprinted and put in a
microwave oven, the potato heats up but the paper plate does not.
This is because:
A. Potato is mainly made up of starch whereas paper is mainly made up of cellulose
B. Potato transmits microwaves whereas paper reflects microwaves
C. Potato contains water whereas paper does not contain water
D. Potato is a fresh organic material whereas paper is a dead organic material.
Now, in Competition Wizard & Pratiyogita Darpan issues,the answer to the above question is
given as option (c)But in Competition Success Review-February 2011 issue,the answer to the
above question is given as option (b)So could you plz throw some light as to what is the correct
answer to the above question..?
Correct answer is
C. Potato contains water whereas paper does not contain water
Quoting from NCERT class-12 Physics Chapter 8, page 281
Basic principle of a microwave oven
It generates microwave radiation of appropriate frequency in the working space of the
oven where we keep food.
This way energy is not wasted in heating up the vessel. In the conventional heating
method, the vessel on the burner gets heated first, and then the food inside gets heated
because of transfer of energy from the vessel.
In the microwave oven, on the other hand, energy is directly delivered to water
molecules which is shared by the entire food.

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URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2011/01/q-dilemma-over-potato-microwave.html

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[Science] Physics 4TF
Latest trend of UPSC in General Studies prelim paper, is
Give 2 or 4 statements and ask the candidate to identify the true/false statements.
I call them 4TF questions (4 Statements: True or False)
So here is something for practice in Physics section.
Identify the true and false statements from following list
1. If the Rainbow is in front of you, the Sun must be on your left Side.
2. The order of colors from outside to inside is : VIBGYOR.
3. Mirage occours only on land.
4. Mirage occours only in hot areas.
5. A Matador uses red cape during Bull fight because Bulls (and other bovines) hate red
color.
6. A bat uses Echo to determine location of an object.
7. Ultra Sound imaging and X-ray Machines run on same principle.
8. Diesel-Trucks dont have spark-plugs in their engine.
9. In a Vaccum chamber, Helium Ballon and stone will fall at the same velocity.
10. Solar cell produces AC current (Alternative current).

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/02/science-physics-4tf.html

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[Science] Tuberculosis and DOTs Therapy
Possible questions
4TF related to DOTs and TB for CSAT,
2 markers for mains: MDR:TB, DOTs etc.
Essay/Interview: Healthcare reforms in India. How to eradicate Polio, TB and Malaria
etc?
Crux of DOTs program for TB is this:
If people dont take anti-TB drugs regularly, New version of TB bacteria will evolve,
New version of TB bacteria= hard to kill.
Pharma Cos dont have interest in investing for R&D of new TB drugs (because profit
margin is low)
So what should Government or W.H.O. do?
ans. Make people take drugs regularly. Thats why you need DOTs program.
Here goes the refined answer:
MDR TB: Multi-drug resistant TB
TB patients have to complete the full six to nine months of antibiotic therapy required to
cure the disease.
However Many people stop taking antibiotics when they begin to feel healthier, but
successful treatment of TB requires therapy beyond the period of obvious symptoms.
When patients fail to follow the prescribed treatment, they may become actively
infectious, spreading the disease to others.
The TB bateria who survive this phase become resistant to the given anti-biotic course
and when they reproduce again, it is very hard to kill them.
When a strain (version) of tuberculosis bacteria is resistant to two or more first-line
antibiotic drugs it is called multi-drug resistant TB or MDR-TB.
When it is resistant to three or more second-line antibiotics as well, it is classed as
extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB.
Big pharmaceutical companies donot like to invest billions of dollars in research and
Development of new TB drugs because of the low profit.
So, This problem of non-compliance (i.e. patient not taking drugs regularly) has led WHO to
initiate DOTS program.
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What is DOTs therapy for TB?
World Health Organization (WHO) started a program called directly observed
treatment, short-course (DOTS).
DOTS requires health workers to monitor patients to make sure that they follow the
complete course of treatment.
Important elements of this program:
1. Political commitment to a National Tuberculosis Control Programme
2. Microscopy services to detect sputum.
3. Regular uninterrupted supply of anti-TB drugs.
4. Direct observation of the treatment for at least initial intensive phase. As a part of DOTS
strategy health workers counsel and observe their patients swallowing each dose of
powerful combination of medicines.
TB and HIV
Anyone can become infected with TB, but people with HIV are at greater risk of getting sick with
TB disease.
Epicenters
Number of TB patients worldwide:
#1 is India (Worlds largest Democracy also has the largest number of TB patients)
#2 is China.
Similarly Polio is confined to four nations only: India, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and
Pakistan.
BCG vaccine
It is a vaccine for TB protection.
but the vaccine is now very old and not very effective against new strains (versions) of bacteria.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/02/science-tuberculosis-and-dots-
therapy.html

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[Science] Pulse Polio Campaign, India a Polio Free country?
Demo Questions
#1) Identify Correct statement(s)
a. Polio virus directly damages the muscle cells and thus causes paralysis of legs.
b. Polio vaccine cannot be taken via Injection.
c. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only Polio Endemic nations in the world.
d. India achieved complete Polio Free Status in 2012.
Ans
1. Only 1 and 2.
2. Only 1,2,3
3. Only 3
4. All of them
#2) Name of the chemical compound used in Indelible Ink Marker Pens during Elections and
Pulse-Polio Campaigns.
1. Lead Acetate
2. Silver Nitrate
3. Chromium Sulphate
4. Zink Bromide
What is this disease?
Polio virus enters the nervous system and infects nerve cells that control muscles. Then in most
cases, it causes paralysis of legs.
How does is spread?
Polio-virus spreads in human feces. People become infected with the virus through
contaminated food and water, especially in areas where sanitation and hygiene are poor.
Vaccination?
Jonas Salk of USA developed the vaccine to fight Polio in 1950s.
He could have made billions of dollars by getting Patent rights for his vaccine but he
didnot patent his discovery.
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Salks vaccine, is known as the inactivated polio-virus vaccine (IPV)
World Health Organization (WHO) had launched massive campaign against Polio, they
provided the funds and India started Pulse Polio campaign in 1995.
Polio vaccine can be given both orally as well as by injection. But in Pulse Polio
campaigns, oral-vaccine is used, because it is cheap and doesnt require skilled medical
staff for injections.
Prevalence
Till 2011, Pak, Afghan, India, Nigeria (PAIN) were in the list of Polio endemic countries.
In January 2011, last polio case in West Bengal. The traditional polio endemic states of
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have not reported any cases of polio.
So according to WHO protocol, Indias name is removed from the list of Polio Endemic
countries in 2012 (No new cases of polio for 12 months continuously.)
However, India is not yet a complete Polio Free country, because According to
protocol, India will have to remain polio-free for the next two years to achieve complete
polio free status.
Problem in Vaccination
Sometimes infants get fever, diarrhea after vaccination as side effects, but then some
people exaggerate and start spreading rumors that Polio vaccine causes Impotency
in Children.
Because of this reason many poor and illiterate parents particularly in the Muslim
communities of UP and Maharashtra, didnot allow the health-workers to enter into their
areas.
Health workers and district administration did their best in spreading awareness and
breaking myths. And hence not much public-resistance to Polio vaccination in those
regions, nowadays.
Earlier
Tuberculosis and DOTS therapy
Answers of Demo Q?:
1. Only 3.
2. Silver Nitrate.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/02/science-pulse-polio-campaign-india.html

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[Science] Animals, Plants, Disease etc GK
Since past four years, UPSC has been asking questions related to disease, plant and animal GK.
We might see an increase in such questions under the Biodiversity topic of syllabus. So here
goes something
Which of the following statement(s) is/are true?
Crocodile and Alligator (Ghariyal) ?
1. Crocodiles can live in Freshwater habitat only.
2. Alligators (Ghariyal) can live in Saline water habitats.
3.
Crocodiles can regrow teeth for lifetime.
About Cheetah and Tiger
1. Cheetah doesnt have retractable claws like cats.
2. Cheetah belongs to Dog family while Leopard belongs to Cat family.
3. Siberian Tiger is the largest and Chinese Tiger is the smallest tiger in size.
Why is only Female Mosquito responsible for spreading Malaria?
1. Male feeds on plant nectar, only female feeds on human blood.
2. Plasmodium parasite cannot survive in Male Mosquitos body.
Dengue vs Chikungunya
1. Both Male and Female Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes cause Dengue fever in Human.
2. Dengue is a viral disease while Chikungunya is not a viral disease.
Bamboo vs Coconut
1. Bamboo is a grass, Coconut is a palm
2. Both Bamboo and Coconut are palm
3. Both Bamboo and Coconut are grass.
No need to panic, if you havent gone through such information, because There is no
end to the list of diseases, Animal or plant GK as such, but better be prepared about
some big and important ones.
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and keep your brain open while reading any book / newspaper item. UPSC wont
generally ask from some relatively unknown disease or animal but will try to confuse you
from well known stuff!
Im intentionally not providing the
answers within this article, so that you dig up on your own and
subsequently come across some more related information.
Recommended Books for such questions
Do read all Science and Geography NCERTs [Can be downloaded for Free by clicking
me]
Any one General Studies manual. I would recommend GS Manual byTata Macgrawhill
Publication. It has got truckload of mock questions and its Science portion is especially
good.
The Hindus S&T section.
Baaki toh Bhagwaan aur google search maalik hai, because there is no end to this!

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/03/science-animals-plants-disease-etc-
gk.html

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[Science] Principle behind famous consumer products: Odomos, Hand Sanitizer etc
In Prelims-2010, UPSC had asked about principle of Sugerfree (Artificial sweetener).
So based on that here goes some more; which of the following is true?
What is the Principle behind Mosquito repellent cream? (Odomos)
1. It contains a special volatile chemical that creates burning sensation in mosquitos respiratory
system and eyes.
2. It contains a chemical that masks the distinctive body odour that human skin emits, making
you virtually invisible to mosquitoes.
(Correct answer #2)
How does diabetes glucometer work ? (Waseem Akrams Accucheck meter ad)
You put blood drop on the strip. Strip contains chemical compounds: chemical reaction, color
change. The glucometer measures the color-intensity and gives you the blood-glucose
measurement.
Home Test kit for Pregnency (Accutest Cadila)
It detects the amount of HCG ( Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) in womans urine .
The levels of this hormone rise after the embryo has been implanted in the womb and the strip
changes color after chemical reaction from urine drops.
Anti-perspirants (that John Abrahams ad)
Basically the aluminum chemical penetrates the armpit cells and makes them swell hence the
sweat cannot come out.
Emergency contraceptive pills. (i-pill, Piramal Pharma)
They contain same hormones as in normal contraceptive pills but in heavy concentration and
hence prevents fertilization.
Instant Hand sanitizer (Lifebouy, Dettol etc)
They Contain alcohol (not soap). Alcohol destroy the baterial cellmembrane and then
evaporates. So you dont need water to wash off your hands.
24

Mortein Rat kill cakes. (why Chuhe mare baahar jaakar?)
Not very sure but apart from poison, it contains a chemical that makes Rats thirsty hence they
run out of house in search of water.
Ive given direct answers above, but UPSC is notorious for
adding almost genuine and valid sounding false options in the answers,
so as I said in the Aukaat, Accuracy and Aim: dont push your luck, if you dont know the exact
answer: just leave it.
Some more products (you dig):
1. Hair Colors with and without Ammonia (Laurel Paris etc.)
2. Goodknight mosquito coils, liquid vaporizers and silvermats.
Lets brainstorm, please add products and principles from your side!

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/03/science-principle-behind-famous.html

25

How to get PDF
[Download] The Hindu Science & Tech Material From Jan.2011 to Apr.2012
Finally, Ive consolidated all articles of The Hindu (Science and Technology) published since
January 2011 to April 2012.
Following Zip file contains the consolidate study-material in MS Word and PDF format. Size
only 4.6 MB
Screenshot

Download Links
http://www.mediafire.com/?yiev1vt64j2ctat

OR Alternative Link

http://www.mediafire.com/file/yiev1vt64j2ctat/The_Hindu_Science_&_Tech_from_Jan_2011
_to_Apr_2012.zip
26

Background detail
Thank you Mr.Syed Waseem Pasha, for giving the list of The Hindu S&T links
Ive split 2011s article, according to alphabetical order: A to F in first file, G to N in
Second File and so on. Otherwise itd be 800 articles in single MS word file = very
inconvenient for reading.
Few articles and sentences may be missing here and there, because this material is
complied using automated programming scripts. I havent manually checked each and
every paragraph.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/04/download-hindu-science-tech-
material.html

27

How to get PDF
[Science] "This Weeks Questions" compilation from The Hindu S&T (Jan 2011 to Mid Apr 2012)
Earlier I had uploaded the compilation of all Science and Tech articles from The Hindu between
Jan 2011 to Mid Apr 2012. (Click ME if you havent got it yet)
But in that compilation, I didnot include the list of This Weeks Questions So here it goes.
List: Jan 2011 to Mid Apr 2012
How is it that not one drop of honey leaks from the bee hive?
When we heat a cup of water in micro-oven why is the upper part hotter than the lower
part ?
How does rubber act as an electrical insulator?
Why is it hard to pull an empty mug completely immersed upside down in water?
Whereas the twinkling of a star is ascribed to the light travelling through varied layers of
different densities of air and hence the refraction angles go on changing and hence the
feeling of twinkling, the same is the case of a planet. Then why does the reflected
light from a planet appear steady?
Why do we feel hungry very frequently during winter?
What material is a bullet-proof vest made of and what happens to a person wearing the
vest when shot by a gun?
Why does water conduct electricity while air does not?
Over electrified railway tracks, there is only one electric line. How is just one line able to
supply power to the locomotives? Do they not require a minimum of two lines to make a
circuit (as in regular power supply). ?
Why do the blades of a rotating ceiling fan gather more dust, than the blades of a
stationary fan (logically a rotating fan blade should disperse the dust)?
Why do we not feel the fragrance of our perfume in our body after 10 or 15 minutes of
usage, whereas others can smell it for a long time?
In which part of the honey bee is the nectar stored till it is deposited in the bee hive?
When we wake up after having a sound sleep we find our face to be swollen(eyes, lips ).
What is the reason for this?
Why do we use only red, blue and green colors in 3D glasses?
Why do we use oil along with petrol in two stroke engine but not in four stroke engine?
Why do we feel the jerk in our body, when we hear the sudden noise like bursting
crackers ?
Why do diesel internal combustion engines require no spark plugs to ignite the fuel
unlike petrol engines?
At what speed does the electron move around the nucleus?
Is there any difference in the atmosphere like temperature, wind pressure etc. between
Arctic and Antarctic regions?
How does an accelerator of a motor vehicle work?
28

Why does the sound quality from a radio set degrade, when lightning strikes near the
radio set?
Why does graphite conduct electricity but diamond doesn't, though both are made of
carbon?
Why is it said that eating reheated cooked food and taking left over/preserved food are
not good for health?
When at rest why is it that athletes have only 40-60 heart beats per minute compared
with non-athletes (70-100 beats per minute)?
How does the severed body of a hen jump and make noise even when the brain
command from head is completely cut off?
We are asked to avoid wearing black dress on sunny days but why do we use black
umbrellas?
Why do snakes crawl from left to right instead of moving straight?
Why does the sky sometimes show different colours during evening such as purple,
violet, orange, yellow, etc. ?
How does an electronic weighing balance/machine work?
Why do tears come when we are in grief?
When we take excess water or proteins our body eliminates them, but when we take in
excess fat it is stored in our body. Why?
Why do we have to release the clutch slowly for the first gear while driving vehicles,
whereas for the subsequent gears we can release the clutch with ease?
We see the sky in the shades of all the colours of the solar spectrum except green. Why
not green?
What happens to the very minute rubber particles worn out from the tyres of
innumerable vehicles that ply our roads?
Why does honey not decay for many days?
Why do we feel a jerk in our body, when we hear sudden noise like that of bursting
crackers?
Why does a tubellight does not glow immediately like CFL bulbs?
Why are we asked to switch off our mobile or keep in flight mode when we are travelling
in a flight.
Wind blows out fire, at the same time it spreads fire. Why this phenomenon?
Why is diesel used as fuel in buses, trucks and ships instead of petrol which has higher
calorific value?
Why is the gravity on moon less than that of earth ?Is the hair on human body due to the
incomplete evolution?
How is it that not one drop of honey leaks from the bee hive?
When we heat a cup of water in micro-oven why is the upper part hotter than the lower
part ?
How does rubber act as an electrical insulator?
Why is it hard to pull an empty mug completely immersed upside down in water?
Whereas the twinkling of a star is ascribed to the light travelling through varied layers of
different densities of air and hence the refraction angles go on changing and hence the
feeling of twinkling, the same is the case of a planet. Then why does the reflected
light from a planet appear steady?
Why do we feel hungry very frequently during winter?
What material is a bullet-proof vest made of and what happens to a person wearing the
vest when shot by a gun?
Why does water conduct electricity while air does not?
29

Over electrified railway tracks, there is only one electric line. How is just one line able to
supply power to the locomotives? Do they not require a minimum of two lines to make a
circuit (as in regular power supply). ?
Why do the blades of a rotating ceiling fan gather more dust, than the blades of a
stationary fan (logically a rotating fan blade should disperse the dust)?
Why do we not feel the fragrance of our perfume in our body after 10 or 15 minutes of
usage, whereas others can smell it for a long time?
In which part of the honey bee is the nectar stored till it is deposited in the bee hive?
When we wake up after having a sound sleep we find our face to be swollen(eyes, lips ).
What is the reason for this?
Why do we use only red, blue and green colors in 3D glasses?
Why do we use oil along with petrol in two stroke engine but not in four stroke engine?
Why do we feel the jerk in our body, when we hear the sudden noise like bursting
crackers ?
Why do diesel internal combustion engines require no spark plugs to ignite the fuel
unlike petrol engines?
At what speed does the electron move around the nucleus?
Is there any difference in the atmosphere like temperature, wind pressure etc. between
Arctic and Antarctic regions?
How does an accelerator of a motor vehicle work?
Why does the sound quality from a radio set degrade, when lightning strikes near the
radio set?
Why does graphite conduct electricity but diamond doesn't, though both are made of
carbon?
Why is it said that eating reheated cooked food and taking left over/preserved food are
not good for health?
When at rest why is it that athletes have only 40-60 heart beats per minute compared
with non-athletes (70-100 beats per minute)?
How does the severed body of a hen jump and make noise even when the brain
command from head is completely cut off?
We are asked to avoid wearing black dress on sunny days but why do we use black
umbrellas?
Why do snakes crawl from left to right instead of moving straight?
Why does the sky sometimes show different colours during evening such as purple,
violet, orange, yellow, etc. ?
How does an electronic weighing balance/machine work?
Why do tears come when we are in grief?
When we take excess water or proteins our body eliminates them, but when we take in
excess fat it is stored in our body. Why?
Why do we have to release the clutch slowly for the first gear while driving vehicles,
whereas for the subsequent gears we can release the clutch with ease?
We see the sky in the shades of all the colours of the solar spectrum except green. Why
not green?
What happens to the very minute rubber particles worn out from the tyres of
innumerable vehicles that ply our roads?N. Dharmeshwaran,
Why does honey not decay for many days?
Why do we feel a jerk in our body, when we hear sudden noise like that of bursting
crackers?
Why does a tubellight does not glow immediately like CFL bulbs?
Why are we asked to switch off our mobile or keep in flight mode when we are travelling
in a flight.
30

Wind blows out fire, at the same time it spreads fire. Why this phenomenon?
Why is diesel used as fuel in buses, trucks and ships instead of petrol which has higher
calorific value?
Why is the gravity on moon less than that of earth ?
How do igloos protect eskimos from the severe cold?
Why is it not safe to use a mobile phone while it is being charged?
Why is copper used for making electro magnets? why are other substances like silver or
gold not used?
How does coconut water form in a coconut?
While landing the rear wheel of a plane touches the ground first. Why?
Why are liquids transported only in cylindrical containers?
Why does the place where one is slapped look red?
An unripe fruit turn sweet a few days after plucking. How?
How do plants convert solar energy into chemical energy?
How are bones opaque to X-rays?
A baby which is deaf by birth, may also be dumb. Why?
In the rainy season clothes when not dried properly start stinking. Why?
Why does water appear white when it falls from a height?
Why is coldness not felt when we cover our ears with a cloth?
In a railway track at a curve, the inner track is comparatively less in height then the
outer. Why?
Biscuits kept in room temperature lose their crispness after some time, more so if the
weather is chill. But the same kept in the much cooler temperature of a fridge remain
crisp even after a few weeks. Why?
How does an unripe fruit turn sweet a few days after it is plucked?
Why do we experience more static electricity during winters?
How does a flying helicopter hover in one place in the sky?
Why does the ocean not leak into the earth through the fissures on ocean floor?
Why do almost all the aeroplanes take a circular route, via Canada to reach Chicago?
Pens do not write on oily paper. Why?
Why do birds of same feather flock together?
Why is the flame of the candle yellow in colour?
How does refrigerating onions prevent them from causing tears in our eyes when
chopped?
Note: This compilation is done using automated programming scripts, so It might have skipped
a few questions.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/05/science-this-weeks-questions.html

31

How to get PDF
[Revision] Science-Tech Highlights from The Hindu 2011 AF
Note:
This is very brief revision note for S&T portion of CSAT GS Paper I.
Original source: The Hindu S&T 2011_A-F.pdf < regular readers know what that
means ;-)
Im running out of time so the content is not properly classified and sentences are
incomplete.
More will be published soon, from the remaining pdfs. UPDATE: Part II has been
published, click me to read it
Message to those feeling extremely stressed for 20
th
May : Heroes may not be braver
than anyone else. Theyre just brave five minutes longer.
1. Carburettor
2. Biodiversity
3. Muscle
4. Artic vs Antarctic
5. Radioactive food
6. Bats n bees
7. Evaporation
8. Hydrogen fuel
9. Mobile switched off in airplane
10. Probiotics, prebiotics
11. E.Coli
12. Diesel engine
13. Dish TV
14. Euthanasia
15. Burning flame

Carburettor
Carburettor gives air and petrol mixture and fuel injection pump gives a spray form of
diesel using a nozzle to the engine input side.
When we press the accelerator, a small plate like opening allows the carburettor to draw
more air from atmosphere, and also this action draws more fuel(petrol) from the fuel
tank
Venturi action means a fluid or gas flowing through a constricted section of a tube
undergoes a decrease in pressure, so due to pressure difference fuel comes from the tank
32

When we use the choke option in the vehicle during starting problem, it is qualitatively
changing the ratio of air and fuel for easy starting during winter or cold condition of the
engine.
Biodiversity
Cactus is getting attention in every continent as vital crop for increasing plant cover,
carbon sequestration, livestock feeding, conserving wildlife, medicinal and cosmetic
uses
Goa-based National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR).
Muscle
What enables the ants to carry heavier objects is their relatively smaller body size
Larger animals like humans need to put most of the muscles in use to carry their own
mass. In other words, larger animals have to carry their own weight, besides the heavier
objects; so they are able to carry only slightly heavier objects.
Thus, ants could use more muscles to carry bigger loads than their own mass, which not
only applies to ants, but also holds good for most of the insects.
^ this is because of the square cube law
Ants and termites perform the same ecosystem service functions in dryland agriculture
that earthworms perform in cooler and wetter areas and have a significant positive
impact on crop yields in dryland agriculture

Artic vs Antarctic
Two regions, the Arctic and the Antarctica, are located around the north and the south
poles of the earth, respectively.
Rotation at the (Antarctic) south pole is opposite to that at (Arctic) north pole. This is
manifest in the nature of wind circulation and in the water whirlpools. Also, being in the
two opposite hemispheres, there exists a complementarity in the seasonal changes.
Winter period at the Arctic happens to be the summer in the Antarctica and vice versa.
Arctic is an ocean with frozen ice cover. It is surrounded and partly contributed by the
edges of land masses, while the Antarctica is an ice covered land mass (continent)
surrounded by oceans. This leads to differences in the temperature patterns in the two
regions.
Much of arctic zone is surrounded by relatively warmer ocean water with minimum
temperature above -2 degree Celsius. In the Antarctica the interior regions do not benefit
from the moderating influence of the ocean waters.
Radioactive food
Brazil nut is probably the most radioactive food. Scientists have measured 700Bq of
radium per kg of Brazil nut.
Roots of the Brazil nut tree pass through acres of land; They have a tendency to
concentrate barium; along with barium, the roots collect radium as well. Radium appears
in the nuts. Many vegetables like brinjal, carrot etc. Also contain the radioactive isotope
33

Bats n bees
Fruit bats use biosonar to =see their surroundings
Wet bat needs more energy to fly because damp fur provides less protection than when
dry. Wet fur also affects the bats aerodynamics, which in turn also costs energy
Raindrops affected the bats echo-finding capability.
India ranks second to China in the global map in vegetable production
Average beehive produces as much as 45-50 kg of bee dung a year, neatly deposited
around the beehive as high nitrogenous manure. ?When it rains, this pollen dung gets
washed into the soil, breaks down and provides an excellent natural fertilizer.
Hence, to a farmer rearing bees in a field to pollinate the crop, he gets an additional
bonus in the form of manure
Bionic eye =A microchip packed with 1,500 light sensors is implanted to the back of the
eye.
Sensors convert light to electrical signals, which stimulate nerves in the retina to pass
down signals to optic nerve which would gap into the brain to form an image.
Blue Brain Project =Blue here symbolizing supercomputers. Project aims to build brain
models.
Evaporation
Evaporation is the physical process by which molecules of a liquid leave the liquid
surface into the vapour phase. This takes place at all temperatures
Evaporation rate is proportional to the area of the exposed surface. Hence, in large
water bodies like ponds, lakes and oceans, the amount of water transforming into vapour
phase is considerably large even at ambient temperatures,
This water vapour which saturates the air just above the water body, gets swept
Away by wind which replaces the saturated air by fresh air containing less of water
vapour. And, water vapour is lighter than the air and so, the water vapour floats up.
This leads to further evaporation of water from the water body.
Accumulation of water vapour forms the cloud mass.
Hydrogen fuel
Hydrogen makes a great fuel because of it can easily be converted to electricity in a fuel
cell and because it is carbon free.
Downside of hydrogen is that, because it is a gas, it can only be stored in high Pressure or
cryogenic tanks.
Biofortification = effort to increase the amounts of available micronutrients in staple
crops such as cassava
NASAs Cassini spacecraft studying Saturn planet.
Mobile switched off in airplane
At high altitudes, the pilots have to largely depend on the avionics and computer-assisted
coded signal communications. All the wireless signal trafficking is accomplished by
modulated radio and microwave transmissions which type the cell phones also owe their
functioning to.
If there are any mobile phones on board in the cabin of the flight in = on mode during
takeoff, flight and landing, the microwave transmission between the mobile phone
34

towers and the mobile phones might interfere with the communications the flights are
busily engaged in (between the cockpit and the control towers).
Thats why we are asked to switch off our mobile or keep in flight mode when we are
travelling in a flight.
Anyway, the cell phones cannot serve as phones on board the flights because the cell
phone towers on the ground cannot connect themselves to the phones at such high
altitudes and such high flight speeds.
Nanopatch, having 20,000 micro projections per square centimetre, is designed to
directly place vaccine into the human skin, which is rich in immune cells. And unlike the
needle and syringe, which places vaccine into the muscle which has very few immune
cells
In 2003, China became the third country to send an astronaut into space on its own, four
decades after the United States and Russia.
China plans to send a drilling machine on board its fifth lunar probe, Change-5, in 2017
to drill the moon surface deep and bring back rock samples to the earth
Primary function of the clutch is to disconnect the engine from the remaining parts of
the power transmission system at the will of the driver by the use of a suitable lever
thereby permitting the engine to run without driving the vehicl
We start the vehicle from a stand-still position, the force that the engine has to overcome
to get the vehicle moving is the friction between the tyres and the road surface and it is
proportional to the weight of the vehicle and the contact surface area of the tyres.
To get the vehicle moving, the driver engages the clutch and then shifts to the primary
gear whose gear ratio is such that when engaged, the final drive moves at a considerably
lesser speed when compared to the engine.
Lovejoy =recently discovered Comet.
Indian poultry breed, called Kadaknath is native to Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh.
Breed is famous for its black meat known for its quality, texture and flavour. An attempt
was therefore made for conservation and promotion of this high value Indian poultry
race under National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP)
Computed tomography (CT) as the best way to detect cocaine in the body of a =mule.

Probiotics, prebiotics
We call these organisms, and/or their molecules, as probiotics and prebiotics. The
microbes are called probiotics, and the indigestible (to us) material that they feed on is
the prebiotic. Prebiotics are nonliving material such as starch or husk, while probiotics
are live organisms. (And biotic means relating to, produced by, or caused by living
organisms).
Without them, we cannot make some essential nutrients such as vitamin K, or
metabolize bile acids, cholesterol and some short chain fatty acids. They also help us in
fighting pathogenic bacteria and viruses a case of internal colonizers acting as
defending soldiers against alien invaders.
E.Coli
Escherichia coli, a bacterium that is found in the gut, spreads easily through faecal
contamination of food and water. It is a common cause of urinary infections, and can
also produce pneumonia and life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitalised
patients
35

Disease-causing strains of E. Coli, K. Pneumoniae and other Gram-negative bacteria
have emerged with special genes that produce enzymes and make the bacteria immune
to the effects of a wide range of antibiotics. (related: TB resistance and DOTs)
NASAs Dawn spacecraft To study the asteroid Vesta.
Diesel engine
Why do diesel internal combustion engines require no spark plug to ignite the fuel unlike
petrol engines?
Spark plugs are used in the petrol engines to ignite the air fuel mixture whereas in diesel
engines the presence of spark plugs is not necessary.
Technically petrol engines are Called as spark ignition engines ( SI ) and diesel engines
are called as compression ignition engines (CI )
In SI engines air and fuel (petrol) get mixed in the carburettor and then it is supplied to
the engine through inlet manifold, then the air fuel mixture is compressed inside the
cylinder.
At the end of compression the spark is ignited and then combustion takes place
The air from the atmosphere is sucked into the cylinder of the engine and then the air is
compressed to high pressure which eventually leads to the increase of temperature, so
when the diesel is supplied at end of compression stroke, the temperature developed is
more enough to ignite the diesel, this makes the fuel to burn and then expansion of gases
takes place from where the power stroke is obtained.
In petrol engines spark plugs will be present but in the case of diesel engines fuel pump
will be present.
Dish TV
During rains, the TV programs telecast by dish TV providers are disrupted or blocked.
Why?
Loss or weakening of satellite signal during bad weather is called =rain fade or =rain
attenuation.
Rain fade occurs due to the presence of moisture in the air between the transmitting
satellite and the receiver site. Moisture interferes with the satellite signal. The raindrops
weaken the transmission by absorbing and scattering the electromagnetic signals.
Earlier satellite television was broadcast in C-band radio in the 3.4-gigahertz (ghz) to
7-ghz frequency range. Currently, digital satellite TV is transmitted in the Ku frequency
range (10 ghz to 14 ghz )
Longer wavelengths of C-band are less susceptible to rain attenuation than the shorter
Ku and Ka wavelengths.
Destructive tsunami generated by the March 2011 Japan earthquake was a =merging
tsunami that doubled in intensity over rugged ocean ridges, amplifying its destructive
power before reaching shore.
Euthanasia
Assisted dying or assisted suicide is not illegal in Switzerland
Other countries excluding Switzerland have legalised assisted dying Belgium,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Epigenetic memory enables plants to remember the length of the cold winter period in
order to time flowering so that pollination, seed dispersal and germination can all
happen at the appropriate time.
36

Radiation typically kills many bone marrow cells, which can lead to a compromised
immune system in patients, leaving them vulnerable to infections and other health
problems.
Hibernating animals provide good example for utilizing fat reserve as fuel. For instance,
polar bears go on hibernation for about seven months and, during this entire period, the
energy is derived from the degradation of stored fat.
Fats can also support the bodys energy needs for long periods of food deprivation.
Burning flame
All fuels get oxidised by burning; but, all oxidation reactions do not constitute burning.
Flame is quite an accidental feature. Thus, iron burning in oxygen gives no perceptible
flame. The intense light is due to the incandescent solid. On the other hand, phosphorus,
sulphur, wax, etc., burn with a flame because these solids are volatilized at the
temperature of combustion.
The colour of the flame depends upon the material undergoing the reaction and the
temperature.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/05/revision-science-tech-highlights-
from.html

37

How to get PDF
[Revision] Science-Tech Highlight from The Hindu 2011 G to N (Part II)
Click Me if you didnot see Part I. Now continuing from where I had left
1. Gagan
2. Nasas glory spacecraft
3. Graphene
4. Heartbeats
5. Robot
6. Bee colony
7. Supercomputer
8. Stem cell
9. Earthquakes
10. Power project
11. Microwave
12. CRT monitor flickering
13. Moon ownership
14. Nanotech for water filtering
15. NICRA
16. Ndm-1

Gagan
GPS aided geo augmented navigation (gagan), a joint effort by the indian space research
organisation and the airports authority of india.
To help pilots land their aircraft in bad weather and poor visibility, several airports in the
country are equipped with ground-based instrument landing systems (ils).
When two strains of bird flu infect the same host, they can readily swap genes, a process
known as reassortment. The 2009 h1n1 pandemic virus was itself a triple reassortant,
with its genes drawn from bird, human and animal strains.
This mix of genes created a virus that readily infected humans, was easily transmitted
from one person to another, and to which most people had no immunity.
Nasas glory spacecraft
Data from the glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and
tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect earths climate.
38

The taurus xl also carries the first of nasas educational launch of nanosatellite missions.
This auxiliary payload contains three small satellites called cubesats, which were
designed and created by university and college students.
Graphene
The worlds thinnest and toughest material, could spur the development of next
generation computer chips, besides revolutionising materials science.
Its amazing properties open the way to bendable touch screen phones and computers,
lighter aircraft, paper thin hd tv sets and lightning-quick net connections, and more.
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, whose discoverers shared the 2010 nobel prize
for physics for work on the material.
Why does graphite conduct electricity but diamond doesnt, though both are made of
carbon?
Whether a substance is an electrical conductor or not is not decided by the type of atoms
or the kind of element or compound alone but is by the way the atoms of an element or
molecules of a compound are joined together to form a condensed matter (liquids and
solids). Such a formation should allow passage of electrons from one end to the other
Haemoglobin a1c (hba1c) test has become the preferred way to diagnose diabetes among
the millions of americans who have diabetes but show no symptoms. The simple test
measures longer -term blood sugar levels without requiring patients to fast overnight.
Heartbeats
As a general rule a heart rate between 60 and 100 is considered normal. The heart is a
pump. It pumps blood into the system at about 72 times pm. In other words to keep the
system adequately supplied with blood, the heart has to work around 72 times a minute.
Heart has two sides, the right and the left. The right side pumps blood to the lungs and
the left side to the various parts of the body through the aorta, the largest artery.
The output of the heart per minute is called the cardiac output (co). Co = sv x hr and is
about 5 litres per minute in a resting man.
That is, when at rest, about 5 litres of blood is necessary and enough every minute. The
demand for blood will naturally rise in an exercising man.
In an exercising man the heart beats at a higher rate, with more force and deals with
more blood than in a resting man.
As a result the heart becomes stronger and increased in efficiency. In course of time it
learns to pump more blood per beat; that is the stroke volume increases. Such a heart
can pump 5 litres of blood in less number of beats.
Thus, in the case of an athlete the heart is able meet the target with less number of beats
per minute. What a non-athletes heart achieves with 72 beats an athletes heart can
manage with 60 beats.
In comparison to a non-athlete, an athletes heart may beat at a slower rate by virtue of
his emotional stability. But as the stroke volume is more, it will not affect the blood
supply to the system
Robot
Hondas human-shaped robot can now run faster
Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing
more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the honda motor co. Brand
39

Asimos technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the
intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern japan.
The mechanical arm can open and close valves at fukushima dai -ichi nuclear power
plant, which went into meltdown after the march tsunami, according to honda.
Bee colony
Have a single queen (fertile female), few hundreds of drones (males) and thousands of
worker bees (unfertile female).
Worker bees, three weeks after emergence, visit flowers. During this visit, the entire body
of bees gets smeared with pollen.
Apart from pollen, bees collect nectar from flowers and store them in their stomach
(crop). Honeybee stomach is technically called crop
Bees, when they return to hive, vomit (regurgitate) the stomach contents into the comb
cells meant for that
How best to measure a kilogram
At present, this unit is defined by a lump of platinum cast in 1879 and located in a safe at
the office of the international committee on weights and measures in paris.
Before 1889, the metre was judged to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the
equator to the north pole.
Icelands capital city is reykjavik.
Supercomputer
Fastest supercomputer with a computing speed of 2.7 petaflops is said to be in china.
Petaflop is 1,000 trillion sustained floating-point operations per second.
One exaflop is 1,000 times faster than a petaflop performing 1 million trillion
calculations per second.
Maitri, indias second permanent research station on the antarctica
Stem cell
Usa -in several states, abortion is illegal. Indeed the issue of a womans right to abortion
went all the way up to the nations supreme court in the year 1973, and its landmark
judgment gave a woman the right to terminate her pregnancy in the first trimester as a
constitutional right.
The unborn child is not legally classified as a person; the u.s. Supreme court also noted
then that if the personhood of the preborn is established, then the case for the right to
abortion collapses, because the foetuss right to life is then guaranteed specifically in the
constitution.
The debate thus turns to the issue of is a foetus a person.
George w. Bush stopped the u.s. Federal government funding for research involving
human embryonic stem cells, on the ground that since it can give rise to a human, we
should not be tinkering with it, since that would be equivalent to man playing god
What then is a person?
French thinker rene descartes insisted on thinking or cognition as a must, stating je
pense donc je suis (or cogito ergo sum in latin, or i think, therefore i am in english).
Earthquakes
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New zealand sits on the pacific ring of fire, a vast zone of seismic and volcanic activity
stretching from chile on one side to japan and indonesia on the other.
Wellington has always been considered much more at risk because it straddles the plate
boundary.
A place called laquila in italy, which suffered an earthquake on april 5, 2009, causing
large scale damage to property
Astrono mical units (au, the distance from the sun to earth)
Power project
Koodunkulam to add 2000 mwe to grid of the 2000 mwe power to be generated by
kudankulam nuclear power project units 1 and 2, the allocation of power to tamil nadu is
925 mwe. States industrialisation plans will be hit if project is reversed
Microwave
When we heat a cup of water in a microwave oven why is the upper part hotter than the
lower part?
Substances, with polar molecules such as water, alcohols, oils, etc, absorb microwave
radiation to elevate the rotational movements of their molecules. When foodstuffs to be
cooked by microwave oven are kept in this kind of kettle, the majori ty of the microwave
power reaches the water and tends to hasten the molecular rotations
When we heat a cup of water alone in a microwave oven, the water gets all the microwave
energy and becomes hot. But the upper part of the water is hotter than the lo wer part
because
Hot water moves to upper regions of the container because its density is less than normal
waters. Therefore, as and when water is getting heated, the hot water moves upward due
to lower density through convection
As the cup of water kept in microwave oven is hardly stirred, the temperature gradient is
more obvious.
It is by the combined effect of uneven distribution of microwave energy and differential
densities of hot and cold water that the upper part is hotter than the lower part when we
heat a cup of water in a microwave oven.
CRT monitor flickering
Why does a crt monitor flicker when shot with a digital camera?
Working of crt is based on a principle called scintillation. In simple words, scintillation is
the process by which some atoms emit light when they are excited by ionized or charged
particles (typically electrons)
In a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, there are 1024 x 768 = 7,86,432 electrons involved
to display one static flash of image.
When a camera snaps a picture (or covers a video) there may be some particles which do
not emit light during the short time gap when the shutter opens and closes (in videos
between intervals when light is sampled, called as frame rate). This causes loss of light in
those areas or pixels, which we refer to as flickering
Moon ownership
1967 outer space treaty makes it clear that the lunar surface has no owner.
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Nasa is expected to come up with a set of recommendations for spacecraft and
astronauts visiting the u.s. Government property on the moon.
Despite the lack of ownership, nasa is hopeful that other countries will respect the u.s.
Sentiments. Incidentally, the restriction list contains more than the historical sites. For
instance, the list includes studying discarded food and abandoned astronaut faeces.
For example, studying the discarded food will reveal the viability of bacteria on the moon
and, if present, how they have mutated and survived after years of exposure to solar
radiation.
Nanotech for water filtering
Both water molecules and bugs are so tiny that they are measured by the nanometre,
100,000 times thinner than a human hair.but at the microscopic level, the two actually
differ greatly in size. A single water molecule is less than a nanometre wide, while some
of the littlest bugs are 200 nanometres.
New nanotechnology is likely to make drinking water a lot more safer and keep
infections at bay by filtering out deadly bugs at the source.
Nanomembrane containing pores about 55 nm wide, large enough for water to slip
through, but too small for bacteria
NICRA
National initiative on climate resilient agriculture (nicra) project was launched
Nicra has been promoted in the xi five year plan by icar
This project is being implemented in 100 districts in india
The project aims to enhance the resilience of agriculture
Manually operated weather station to record daily rainfall, minimum and maximum
temperature, relative humidity and wind speed.
Stocking of fish fry in temporary water ponds.
Artificial insemination centre for cows and buffaloes. Improved water harvesting
structure
Ndm-1
Gram-negative bacterial strains with ndm-1 (new delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1) gene,
also called the superbug,
The lancet infectious diseases journal. The ndm-1 gene enables gram-negative bacterial
strains to become resistant to carbapenem, a powerful antibiotic.
People living in the northern hemisphere have bigger brains than those staying near the
equator, says a study
This is because living in low light conditions means the eyes and brain need to work
harder in order to process images to a good level of detail, or high resolution
As you move away from equator, theres less light available, so humans have had to
evolve bigger and bigger eyes. Their brains also need to be bigger to deal with the extra
visual input. Having bigger brains doesnt mean that they are smarter, it just means they
need bigger brains to see well where they live.
For more Science articles, go to the Archive: www.mrunal.org/science

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[Revision] Science-Tech Highlight from The Hindu 2011 OtoZ (Part III, The End)
Part I, Part II were released earlier. This part III, is the last part about highlights of The Hindu
S&T Jan 2011 to Dec 2011.
1. Emu
2. Plastic bottle
3. China space program
4. 3D glasses
5. Malaria drug resistance
6. Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C18)
7. Empty mug
8. Heat of Earths crust
9. RTIS
10. Food heating
11. Gecko robot
12. Sky color
13. Snake movement
14. ISRO
15. Twinkling stars
16. Vit.D
17. Swollen face
18. Food ripening
19. Tubelight vs CFL
20. Lab meat
21. Wet wood
22. International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO)
Emu
A flightless bird, is also the largest bird in Australia and the second largest in the world
after its distant cousin, the ostrich.
Emu oil estimated to be highly medicinal is gaining its popularity in the pharmaceutical
industry and is priced around Rs 4,500 per litre. It has zero percent cholesterol. It is
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being farmed in different countries and also in India. Emu farming, or golden farming
as it is popularly known in Orissa.
Plastic bottle
In the case of the plastic bottle, when hot water is poured, the molecules of the polymer
get sufficient energy to overcome the barriers between the existing structure and more
relaxed structure and hence the material of the bottle relaxes to the new more compact
structure. Hence
They are seen to contract as a response to application of heat as by pouring hot water on
or into them.
China space program
Chinese astronauts remained in space so far was 115.5 hours, or nearly five days, during
the mission of Shenzhou VI in 2005.
China will build a space station in 10 years and will probably carry out manned
explorations of deep space in the future
3D glasses
Why do we use only red, blue and green colours in 3D glasses?
It is possible to produce any colour just by mixing/ controlling the relative intensities of
these three colors. Hence these three colours are called primary colours
3D glasses make use any two of these primary colors ( blue, green and red) one for each
eye as the intensity of the third colour can be inferred from difference between total light
and the sum of intensities of these two colours to get the complete information on colour
of the object or image to be seen through the 3D glass.
Malaria drug resistance

Artemisin and its derivatives have saved countless lives after the single-celled parasite,
Plasmodium falciparum , that causes the most dangerous forms of the disease became
resistant to the drug chloroquine.
However, strains that are resistant to even artemisinin have emerged in parts of South-
East Asia and could potentially spread, as has happened with earlier antimalarial drugs.
Indias Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) initiated action earlier this year to stop
the production and export of these drugs.
Exposure of malaria parasites to suboptimal doses of artemisinin is a primary cause of
the spread of resistance
Although oral artemisinin-based monotherapies could be effective when taken for the
full seven-day course, patients often stopped taking them after just a few days when the
symptoms generally subsided. Parasites that were sensitive to the drug could get
eliminated, allowing drug-resistant strains to proliferate and get transmitted to other
people
To prevent that from happening, the global health agency recommends that artemisinin
be given in combination with another drug. Such artemisinin-based combination therapy
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(ACT) should, it says, be first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria caused by P.
Falciparum
Oral artemisinin monotherapy is banned in India, according to the Guidelines for
Diagnosis and Treatment of Malaria in India published in 2010 by the National Institute
of Malaria Research in Delhi and the Union Health Ministrys National Vector Borne
Disease Control Programme.
This year, DCGI wrote to all State Drugs Controllers requesting them to cancel licenses
to manufacture oral artemisinin-based monotherapies with immediate effect. The
manufacturing of such monotherapies for export should also be stopped.
Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C18)
It put four satellites in orbit, The satellites were: Megha-Tropiques, an Indo-French
mission to study the weather and climate in the tropical regions of the world; srmsat,
built by students of SRM University, near Chennai; Jugnu, put together by Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur students; and vesselsat from Luxembourg.
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
Empty mug
Not only is it hard to pull out any empty mug completely immersed upside down in water
but also it is harder to push an empty mug upside down into water.The latter difficulty is
mainly due to the buoyancy, the air sac, captured inside the mug
However, when we try to pull out the same empty mug or the mug already drowned, in
an upside manner, we experience certain difficulty of pulling it out. This difficulty stems
from a different cause and owes to the surface tension phenomenon of liquids
Amount of force required to open apart one unit length of the liquids surface is defined
as the surface tension of the liquid. Its value is unique to the liquid and is highly sensitive
to the temperature, pressure and purity of the liquid.
Fathers of radiation genetics, Hermann Muller, was awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in
medicine for his discovery that X-rays induce genetic mutations.
This helped him call attention to his long-time concern over the dangers of atomic
testing.
Environmental toxicologist Edward Calabrese, whose career research shows that low
doses of some chemicals and radiation are benign or even helpful, says he has uncovered
evidence that Muller knowingly lied when he claimed in 1946 that there is no safe level of
radiation exposure
Heat of Earths crust
Radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in Earths crust and mantle is a
principal source of earths heat some 44 trillion watts that continually flows from
Earths interior into space
RTIS
Real-time train information system (RTIS) for a dozen important trains through which
passengers can access the accurate train running information.
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The facility will not only be available to passengers on these trains but also to the public
who are accessing the website www.simran.in, and through SMS from railway enquiry
number 139. Passengers will be provided with the information about the location of the
train, its running position on time or late, next stop, nearest approaching/crossed
station and the speed.
The Railways intends to provide this facility in all passenger and freight trains by
December 2012.
Food heating
Eating reheated cooked food and taking left over/preserved food are not good for health?
The raw materials such as rice, pulses, fats etc are in such chemical architecture that we
cannot assimilate. That is why, by cooking process, they are chemically converted into
smaller molecules that can further be managed by our digestive system, from mouth to
intestines, through a series of enzymatic processes (mostly hydrolysis).
If the cooked food is left out for a while, a host of microorganisms invade the food stuff
and work on the molecules in their own physiological ways because the cooked food stuff
is now in a bio-manageable molecular status.
These microorganisms leave their own chemical signature on the food stuffs over time. If
such a type of food is reheated, not only are the useful remains are warmed or further
hydrolyzed but the microorganisms themselves and the chemicals they have excreted are
also heated and chemically processed.
These alien chemical and biological entities are likely to generate poisonous molecules
upon reheating. Similarly, food stuffs, left for long, are also likely to be contaminated by
the invisible microorganisms along with their excreta during their regime on this food.
Thus, a leftover/preserved food is also a source of possible poisonous content.
It is not true that all the processed foods undergo infections by pathogenic organisms. It
all depends on what type of natural preservatives are added, like tamarind, salt, oil,
sugar etc
All foods which are used in our set up, might have been refrigerated, and hence the
bacterial growth is inhibited.
We should heat the canned foods above 60-70 degree C, so that the toxins are destroyed.
Gecko robot
The adhesive pads on geckos follow this same principle by utilising a large number of
fibres, each with a very small tip. The more fibres a gecko has in contact, the greater
attachment force it has on a surface
Wall-climbing robots could be used to clean windows, inspect buildings, crawl up pipes
and help in search-and-rescue operations
Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) played a key role in the shift in the global climate
that began about 38 million years ago. Early ACC was vital to the formation of modern
ocean structure.

Sky color
When the suns rays enter the atmosphere they collide with particles and gases in the
atmosphere.
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Shorter wavelengths, like blue and violet, scatter a lot more than long ones when
particles are relatively small. Under these conditions, scattered light also tends to
disperse equally in all directions, which is why the sky appears so saturated with blue
color.
Skys color can change based on dust, pollution and water vapor, which affect the
absorption and scattering of sunlight differently.
Reddish tinge of sunsets is due mostly to the fact that the sunlight travels through more
atmosphere to reach our eyes.
Snake movement
Unlike mammals which primarily use their legs, snakes and reptiles tend to use their
bodies and spine as a major part of locomotion
Snake alternately tightens and relaxes a set of muscles along each side of its body to
produce horizontal waves that travel down the body
ISRO
ISRO) is drawing up plans to develop the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota into
a centre for assembling satellites and rockets in the near future.
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad
ISRO and INCOIS were working together in the area of environment and climate
monitoring
Twinkling stars
Why do stars twinkle? Why does light from planets not twinkle?
Little pockets of air that have different density, temperature, humidity etc. Than the
surrounding air. The density contrast causes refraction, and as different cells move in
and out of your line of sight,
This movement is seen as twinkling by the eyes; if you take a photograph over several
minutes, as astronomers often do, then the image becomes blurred.
Why dont planets twinkle? This is because, even though they may look point-like to
naked eyes, they are actually much bigger than the typical seeing. This means that you
observe the combination of light which has passed through different atmospheric cells.
Thus, the turbulent effects are averaged out, making the planets look steady.
Vit.D
How does exposure to sun help to produce Vitamin-D in humans?
Vitamin D, a fat soluble vitamin
Ergocalciferol is designated as vitamin D {-2} and cholecalciferol also as vitamin D {-3}.
Humans make 90 per cent of their vitamin D naturally from sunlight exposure to their
skin specifically, from ultraviolet B exposure to the skin, which naturally initiates the
conversion of cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D { -3}.
In contrast, sun exposure to the skin makes thousands of units of vitamin D naturally in
a relatively short period of time. Therefore Vitamin D is regarded as Sun Shine Vitamin.

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Swollen face
When we wake up after a sound sleep our face (lips, eyelids) are swollen. Why?
During sleep , all these movements are absent, no facial movements , no lip movement,
no blinking etc, hence the so called muscle pumps are totally absent. If the sleep time is
prolonged beyond certain limit, the venous engorgement due to slow respiration with
slow suction, and lack of muscle pumps swell the interstitial space and cells, underneath
the skin, resulting in accumulation of fluids, which create a swollen eyes and lips.
Food ripening
A simple technology practiced in households to trigger ripening is to keep un-ripened
and ripened fruits together inside an air tight container. Since the already ripened fruits
release ethylene, ripening will be faster. Another method is to place the fruits intended
for ripening inside an air tight room and induce ripening through smoking inside smoke
chambers. Smoking chamber Smoke emanates acetylene gas. Several fruit traders follow
this technique to achieve uniform ripening especially in banana and mango
Some farmers dip unripe mature fruits in 0.1 per cent ethrel solution (1 ml of ethrel
solution in 1 litre of water) and wipe it dry.
Fruits ripened using calcium carbide are carcinogenic and should not be consumed.
Traders use calcium carbide that emits acetylene gas
Chikungunya is primarily spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito
Tubelight vs CFL
Why does a tube light not glow immediately on switching on like a CFL bulb?
Both the tube lights and the cfls work by the same principle. These lamps consist of a
fluorescent phosphor coated glass tube filled with a mixture of the inert gas argon and
mercury vapour.
Gas is excited by the energetic electrons emitted from the cathodes provided at the ends
of the tube.
These excited gas atoms interact with the phosphor material coated on the walls and we
receive the light from this glowing phosphor material.
Initiation of the gas excitation is accomplished by extracting electrons from a heated
cathode, by using an instantaneous high voltage pulse generated by a ballast circuit
These features of the ballast circuit often require more than one attempt for the gaseous
excitation. This leads to slower start and start-up flickering of the tube lights.
Lab meat
Churchills chicken-based comment, was in the 1930s: 50 years hence, we shall escape
the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing
these parts separately under a suitable medium.? Well, Churchills prediction might
come true in a few years hence. Researchers are applying the technique of cell and tissue
engineering to grow edible meat in the laboratory, or in vitro.
Why would anyone want to grow meat in the lab? Because we need to grow crops to feed
livestock, which alone takes up 26 per cent of the available area and equally substantial
water. And livestock contributes 18 per cent to global warming. Plus, to paraphrase what
Churchill said, animals are not efficient protein factories; much of what we eat as meat is
proteins (muscle). Why then not grow meat in the lab and save space, water and reduce
global warming?
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Wet wood
More smoke is produced when wet wood burns. Why?
There are four stages (sequences) of fire: incipient, smouldering, flame and
heat. Initially, the wood is to be ignited (lit) by an external heat source, say, a
match. When the wood reaches a temperature of about 150 degrees C, the cellulosic
material starts decomposing ( thermal decomposition and degradation). There is no
visible smoke, flame or significant development of heat. However, a large number of
combustible particles are produced. This constitutes the incipient stage. As this stage
continues, the combustible particles increase until they become visible a condition
called smoke. Smoke is made up of compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. But, no
flame or significant heat develops at this stage also.
This is the smouldering stage. As the fire condition develops further, ignition occurs and
flame starts at about 500 degrees C. The level of visible smoke decreases and the heat
level increases. This is the flame stage. Finally, large amounts of heat, flame, smoke and
toxic gases are produced. This constitutes the heat stage
Wood is a hygroscopic material. That is, it tends to absorb moisture from the
air. Normally, it contains about eight per cent of water.
In the case of wet wood, a very high proportion of heat is taken away as the latent heat of
evaporation. Therefore, there will be a hindrance for reaching even the third stage, let
alone the fourth one. However, the second (smouldering) stage continues without any
hindrance. Accordingly, more smoke is produced when wet wood burns.
International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO)
Hydrography impinges on every activity at the sea, the most important being provision
of nautical charts and publications for worldwide navigational safety with 24 X 7
updating service under the IMO /IHO/UN Conventions.
Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and
description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers. It also
seeks to provide prediction of their change over time, for the primary purpose of safety of
navigation and in support of all other marine activities

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[Science] Monoclonal Antibodies: Meaning, Uses
The topics such as monoclonal antibodies, nanotechnology, chemotherapy, stem cell therapy
etc. are important from GS (Mains) Paper II, point of view.
1. What is Antigen?
2. What is Antibody?
3. Who produces antibodies?
4. What is monoclonal antibody?
5. What is Cancer?
6. How to make monoclonal antibodies?
7. What is the use of monoclonal antibodies?
8. Pregnancy detection kit
9. Cancer detection
10. AIDS detection
11. Limitations
Before going into discussion about Monoclonal antibodies, to get the basics of immune system.
What is Antigen?
Antigen is a foreign substance/bacteria/virus anything that enters into the body.
In short antigen is the bad guy.
What is Antibody?
When antigen enters the body, our immune system produces y shaped proteins called
antibodies.
These antibodies, stick to the antigen (badguy) and either is destroy it or mark it as
target for T-cells to come and destroy.In short, Antibody is the good guy.
Who produces antibodies?
In the previous article of basics of blood, we saw that bone marrow produces white
blood cells.
There is one special type of white blood cells, known as B cell.
The B cells produce these antibodies.
What is monoclonal antibody?
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From the discussion so far, you can see that antibodies are good guys and if we could
reproduce these antibodies in a lab, it can be used to fight various diseases.
Before going into the applications (uses) of monoclonal antibodies,, let me beat around
the bush for a while.
What is Cancer?
When the cells of your body, keep dividing and growing uncontrollably, a big cell mass is
developed, this abnormal cell mass is known as tumour. These uncontrolled growth of
cells, is known as cancer.
The characteristic of a cancer cell is that it keeps dividing and growing for infinite time.
How to make monoclonal antibodies?
You take one normal healthy b-cell, and combine it with a cancer b-cell. Thus you get a
hybrid B-cell, that will keep multiplying for infinite time and keep producing antibodies
for you in the clinical lab. Such antibodies are called monoclonal antibodies.
What is the use of monoclonal antibodies?
Pregnancy detection kit
You may have seen TV-ads of pregnancy kits. How do they work? The strip special type
of monoclonal antibodies on it. So when urine drops are poured into this kit, if the urine
has human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), these monoclonal antibodies will attach to it,
and the strip will change its colour. Thus, giving the proof that lady is pregnant.
Cancer detection
you create special type of monoclonal antibodies that artist to cancer cells in the body.
Now you sprinkle special radioactive material on these monoclonal antibodies.
Now give it to patient, these monoclonal antibodies will travel through his body can
attach to the hidden tumour. Then you check radioactivity on the X-ray machine and you
can see the location and severity of the tumor.
AIDS detection
You take out the blood of a person, add monoclonal antibodies in it, along with some
drops of deactivated virus, and check chemial reactions. Thus you can detect whether
person is HIV positive or not.
Limitations
when it was first discovered, people thought that monoclonal antibodies could be used as
magic bullets or panacea for all diseases.
But it didnt work out like that, why? Because monoclonal antibodies are prepared from
the B cells of a mouse. So when it is introduced in our body, our own B-cell treat it as an
antigen (badguy) and a circle around and destroy these monoclonal antibodies.

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[Science] Thalassaemia,Hemophilia,Leukemia & the Basics of Blood
1. What is bone marrow?
2. Why is bone marrow important?
3. What do red blood cells (RBC) do?
4. Why do red blood cells have red colour?
5. What is anemia?
6. What is Thalassaemia?
7. How does a person get thalassaemia?
8. Treatment Of Thalassaemia
9. What is Sickle cell anaemia?
10. What do white blood cells (WBC) do?
11. What is leukemia (blood cancer)?
12. What is platelet?
13. What is Hemophilia?
In CSAT 2011, we saw a (but static) question from blood groups.
Although It is not necessary that UPSC will again ask something from blood-topic again,
but a serious player should be well versed in such Static/Theory parts of science.
Static Question: means, it is given in the books/manuals (or indirectly related). Such
question doesnt have current-affairs and can be solved easily if your basic concepts are
clear.
What is bone marrow?
it is a soft, pulpy tissue that fills the cavities of bones.
Why is bone marrow important?
Because It produces all of the bodys blood cellsred blood cells (RBC), white blood cells
(WBC), and platelets.
What do red blood cells (RBC) do?
They transfer oxygen from the lungs to the cells.
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(technically correct):
It is not red blood cell, but red blood corples (RBC). because cells have nucleus,
RBC doesnt have nucleus so it is not a cell and hence they die after 120 days. (or
atleast thats what the Anatomy professor had told me.). but to keep the matter
simple, I shall refer It as RBC/ Red blood cell.
Why do red blood cells have red colour?
Because they contain haemoglobin.
Haemoglobin contains iron,
that's why red colour.

Photo by Dr. Tony Brain/Science Source/Photo Researchers, Inc.
What is anemia?
When your blood has less hemoglobin (=Hence Less RBC)
so, less oxygen is transferred from your lungs to your cells.
That's why less energy is produced, and you get tired very easily. That is anemia.
Majority of girls in India, suffer from Anemia because of malnutrition.
What is Thalassaemia?

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When you bone marrow produces defective type of red blood cells, you have
thalassaemia.
It means your own blood cannot carry oxygen from lungs to the cells so you need to have
a healthy persons blood in your body.
And since red blood cells have a lifespan of only 120 days, you require regular blood
transfusion from a normal person.
Thalassaemia is a genetic disorder. (=heriditary disease)
means it is transferred from one generation to another.
Mind it: thalassaemia is not a contagious disease. (means you cannot get it by infection,
like in common cold, swine flu or chickenpox.)
It is important to learn the mechanism of thalassaemia for CSAT prelims point of view
(WFST questions). Because it is an example of Mendels experiment on peas given in
the NCERTs.
Anyways, Ill try to simplify by getting not so technically correct.
How does a person get thalassaemia?
Suppose a person has recessive (=bad) gene that causes thalassaemia. But he himself
doesn't show the symptoms of thalassaemia, he appears totally normal. So we'll call this
guy a carrier.or Thalassaemia Minor. E.g. Amitabh Bacchan and Amisha Patel. About
6% of Indian Juntaa is Thalassaemia Minor.
Now Another lady is completely healthy and doesn't have any bad genes. We call her
non-carrier.
When Carrier marries with non-carrier, the baby thus produced will be either normal or
carrier. (50-50% change) but there is 100% guarantee that the baby will not have
thalassaemia disease.
But, if two Carriers marry, there is 25% chance that their baby will be suffering from
thalassaemia. See the photo for chart, to get the idea.
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Image by Microsoft Encarta 2009. 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
For this reason, prospective brides and grooms should not only check the kundli
(horoscope), but also their blood reports. Just think about future of your baby, the
expensive medicines and inconvinient blood transfusion for the rest of his/her life.
Treatment Of Thalassaemia
as we saw, defective bone marrow produces defective red blood cells and so thalassaemia
occurs.
So to fix thalassaemia permanently, we have to get fresh and healthy bone-marrow from
a donor and transplant it in the patient. = Bone marrow transplant.
Problem: hard to find compatible donors and it is very expensive.
What is Sickle cell anaemia?
Normal and healthy red blood cells look like a round/oval/coin shaped drug tablet, like
in this photo.
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But if a person has defective genes, his bone marrow will produce RBC with sickle shape
(that agricultural tool) like in this photo.
Because of this abnormal shape, such sickle RBC cannot flow freely in the tiny blood
vessels = less oxygen supply.
Sickle cell anaemia, has the same genetic mechanism/Mendels law explained in
thalassaemia case.
Interval WFST
which of the following statements are true?
Thalassaemia is a contagious disease.
if a person with recessive genes for thalassaemia, marries with normal person, there is
50% chance that the baby will have thalassaemia disease.
Sickle cell anemia is not a hereditary disease.
In normal Anaemia, healthy diet improves the blood quality but in Thalassaemia/ Sickle
Cell Anaemia, diet will not bring improvement in Blood quality
Enough talk about RBC, lets move to second type of blood cells called white blood cells (WBC)
What do white blood cells (WBC) do?
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They are the policemen of our body.
They defend our body by attacking virus, bacteria and other antigens. (=badguys): no
FIR, No Chargesheet, No court case, Direct encounter.
But here is a problem: during organ transplant (kidney, liver, etc), these WBC also
consider the forieng Kidney as badguy and attack it. so patient is given variety of
immunosuppressant drugs.
It is the same reason why doctors insist on organs from siblings and relatives. Because
then WBC will not be very angry with them!
What is leukemia (blood cancer)?
WBC / white blood cells are also known as leucocytes.
When your blood has abnormally high number of WBC, you have leukemia, also known
as blood cancer.
What is platelet?
When your body gets injured, after some time blood stops flowing from the wound.
Because of this platelets, blood gets clotted.
So, they are also good guys, otherwise , even in the smallest injury. Your bleeding will not
stop and you will die.
Platelets are also known as thrombocytes.
What is Hemophilia?
It is another hereditary blood disease characterized by the inability of blood to clot.
means if you get wounded, the bleeding will not stop.
Mechanism is similar to Thalassaemia / Mendels law of heredity.
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Interval WFST
In Hemophilia bone marrow produces defective type of red blood cells (RBC).
In Thalassemia, blood clotting does not occur.
Hemophilia doesnt follow Mendels law on heredity.
Vitamin E is helps in Blood clotting and is soluble in water

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/05/blood-disorders.html

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[EnB] Shale Gas: Advantages and Disadvantages as an Energy source
1. What is Shale Gas?
2. Whatre the Advantages of Gas as a source of Energy?
3. Whatre the problems with Gas as a source of energy?
What is Shale Gas?
Shale gas is natural gas formed from being trapped within shale formations.
Shale gasan unconventional source of methane, like coal-bed gas (in coal seams) and
tight gas (trapped in rock formations)
It is Colourless, odourless, lighter than air.
In Europe shale gas isnot used because of green rules and limited property rights. But In
America, use of Shale Gas has already started and In future, it will give a spur to the
domestic manufacture of anything needing large amounts of energy.
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Whatre the Advantages of Gas as a source of Energy?
A flexible fuel, capable of heating homes, fuelling industrial boilers and providing
feedstock for the petrochemicals industry, where it is turned into plastics, fertiliser and
other useful stuff.
It is also making small but significant progress as a fuel for lorries and buses.
Biggest advances have been in power generation: because it is cheaper to generate
electricity from gas, and the process releases up to 50% less carbon dioxide than does
coal.
Gas power stations are relatively cheap to build, beating nuclear power hands down in
terms of capital costs, and in most cases they are also less expensive than renewables.
Whatre the problems with Gas as a source of energy?
It is difficult and expensive to transport.
Because of those hefty transport costs, gas does not behave like a commodity. Only one-
third of all gas is traded across borders, compared with two-thirds of oil.
Gas has no global price.
Gas prices in different parts of the world are set by quite different mechanisms, they vary
wildly across the globe.
Gas pipelines cost million of dollars a kilometre to build.
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alternative is to ship the gas in liquid form, as LNG. But projects to liquefy gas also
require huge investments
GK: Gazprom is Russias huge state-run gas producer and supplier of 25% of Europes
gas.
Ref.
http://www.economist.com/node/21558432

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/07/enb-shalegas.html

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[Science] Higgs Boson Particle, CERN : Meaning, significance
1. What is Standard model?
2. What is Higgs Boson particle?
3. Big Bang and universe Formation
4. What is CERN?
5. How do they find God particle?
6. Why waste money on a stupid experiment?
7. Who is Bose?
What is Standard model?
The standard model is a theory of Particle Physics.
It says all the material around us is made up of 12 matter particle (also known as
Fermions).
The other 11 particles predicted by the model have been found and only Higgs particle
was not yet found, so the CERN was trying to find it.
What is Higgs Boson particle?
This particle is theoretically responsible for mass, without which there would be no
gravity and no universe.
Therefore it is also called the God particle.
The Higgs particle was proposed in the 1960s by British physicist Peter Higgs as a way of
explaining why other particles have mass.
CERN has been attempting to find evidence of its existence.
Big Bang and universe Formation
The Big Bang occurred approximately 13.75 billion years ago, and it is responsible for the
creation of the Universe.
But after the Big Bang, the universe was a gigantic soup of particles racing around at the
speed of light without any mass to speak of.
It was through their interaction with the Higgs field that they gained mass and eventually
formed the universe.
Thus finding the Higgs particle can throw more light on how universe was formed.
What is CERN?
The European Organization for Nuclear Research also known as CERN
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It is the worlds largest nuclear physics laboratory carrying out various experiments,
It is situated at Geneva, along France-Swiss border.
It has been operating several particle accelerators the latest one being the Large Hadron
collider.
How do they find God particle?
They use the Large Hadron Collider.
It is the worlds biggest and most powerful particle accelerator
Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions around it before smashing into
each other to create many millions of particle collisions every second in a recreation of
the conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when the Higgs field is believed
to have switched on and did the magic.
Why waste money on a stupid experiment?
Yep, some Jholachhap leftist from JNU might say why waste so much money and
electricity finding this elusive God particle, while millions of people die in poverty and
starvation in India and Africa?
Well, It is not hard to show that expenditure on basic science often leads to discoveries of
enormous economic and practical importance.
For example,
discovery of the nucleus = led to nuclear power stations, that provide clean energy.
Only through the discovery of electromagnetic waves = mobile communication became
possible.
Only after Faraday gave the laws of induction, we could invent the motors, and one of
them is currently rotating the fan inside your Computer cabinet to cool your CPU.
So only God can imagine at this point, what inventions will follow once the God
particle is thoroughly studied and how itll benefit the mankind.
Who is Bose?
The work done by Bose and Albert Einstein laid the foundation for the discovery of the
God particle.
The sub-atomic particle boson is named after Bengali physicist Satyendra Nath Bose
whose pioneering work in the field in the early 1920s changed the way particle physics
has been studied.
He was awarded Indias second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in by the
Government of India.
What makes totally awesome- he never received a Ph.D, nor was he awarded a Nobel
Prize, though the Nobel committee recognised other scientists for research related to
concepts he developed.
Archana Sharma
(may be for random 2 markers)
a scientist of Indian origin, working at CERN involved in CMS experiment over there.
She has been involved in this since 1987.
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More articles on Science n Technology are archived at mrunal.org/snt
Ref
Inputs from Mr. Manikandan Soundararajan
http://m.indianexpress.com/news/god-exists/970403/
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/about/BasicScience3-en.html

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/08/snt-cern.html

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[Science] RITSAT, PSLV, Agni V, ICBM and Mars Mission
A guest article by Mr. Manikandan Soundararajan
1. Risat I:
2. PSLV:
3. Advantage of PSLVs
4. Agni V:
5. What is ICBM:
6. Mars Mission:
Risat I:
Radar Imaging Satellite-I first of its kind in India.
Launched using PSLV-C19.
Microwave Remote sensing satellite with a Synthetic Aperture Radar payload.
Advantages and Applications:
Imaging surface feature during both day and night conditions.
All weather monitoring.
Microwave remote sensing helps cloud penetration.
Applications in paddy monitoring, disaster management during floods, cyclone.
Orbit:
Polar sun synchronous, solar powered.
Sun Synchronous satellites are those which follow solar time i.e you can find the satellite
over one country at same local time every day, follows the clock of sun essentially to
harness the solar power.
Such satellites are used mainly for remote sensing, spy satellites.
PSLV:
Polar satellite launch vehicle- normally carries a payload of 1600kg.
Puts satellites in sun synchronous orbits of 620km above earths surface.
Workhorse of Indian satellite programs- Earned the name following 20 continuous
successful missions of its total 21 flights.
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PSLV-XL a variant of PSLV was used to launch Chandrayaan-I.(India only nation to use
PSLV for moon missions, normally Geo synchronous launch vehicles(GSLV) are used for
such missions).
Advantage of PSLVs
they are economic compared to GSLVs, but payload of PSLVs is around 1600kg, while
GSLV has a payload capacity of 2500kg.
Next addition to our launch vehicles GSLV mark III with payload capacity of 5000kg,
This will boost India to commercial market launches.
Agni V:
Agni V a surface to surface Inter-continental ballistic missile developed by DRDO of
India.
Only 5 other nations of the world have such capability.( US,UK,France,China,Russia)
Agni series of India has 5 versions starting from 700Km to 5000Km target distance.
Agni 5 capable of traveling 5000+ Kms
has capability to attack multiple targets( called MIRV system) on ground, making anti-
missile shields inadequate.
What is ICBM:
ICBM = Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile a range of missiles traveling a distance more
than 3500 Km and attacking specified Targets.
Ballistic missiles are those following a parabolic trajectory.
They mainly rely on using the gravitational force during their downward flight.
Cruise missiles on the other hand are guided throughout their travel path to attack
targets effectively and accurately.
But ballistic missiles compact and less expensive.
Mars Mission:
India planning a mars mission similar to Curiosity mission of NASA, to be launched by
November 2013.
Official announcement was made in Independence day speech of the PM.
Already sanction to the tune of Rs.125 crores has been made.
Technical details of this mission are still not revealed.
ISRO is in-charge of this mission.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/08/snt-agni-ritsat.html

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[Science] Cloud Computing: Meaning, Advantages, Disadvantages
This is a Guest article by Manikandan Soundararajan
1. What is Cloud Computing?
2. Definition of Cloud Computing
3. Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
What is Cloud Computing?
Situation 1
I am looking for a house. My first constraint, being a middle class man, obviously is
money. The House owner here is ready to give his house on rent to me. But demands
more than my budget. And this is a house which can accommodate more than 4 persons.
Now we both came to a deal:
I shall share the house with 3 other persons.
They shall share the rent.
Now the deal is both economical and efficient in the usage of the living space.
Situation 2
I want a cycle, I want it to be the latest, the best, but only for a month. Here came the
cycle salesman. He gave me a fair deal, a decently modern cycle which I can own for
myself just for 1 month after which I have to give him back his cycle with usage charge
for his service.
These transactions are pretty common in our daily life. Do you understand these? Then
you have understood CLOUD COMPUTING only thing, replace the house and the cycle
with hardware and software.
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Definition of Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing provides the infrastructures (both software and hardware) as services
on a semi permanent (rented) basis
you dont add physical assets (server computers, Air conditioners, special IT staff to
maintain those server rooms etc.)
instead you are provided with great flexibility and choice in your purchase is known as
Cloud computing.
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Based on different computing resources, services include
Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing
Pros Cons
No responsibility of creation,
maintenance of systems.
Data security.
Need for high speed internet connection
Type Purpose Provider(Eg)
Infrastructure as a
service (IaaS)
Entire systems (virtual machines) will be provided to the
users. Users can access the systems through internetService
providers charge based on the resource allocated
Amazon
Platform as a
service (PaaS)
In this model entire system along with the operating
systems, software is provided.
Google App
Engine
Software as a
service (SaaS)
This one is more commonSoftware created by service
provider.
End users use these services on a subscription basis
Yahoo, Gmail
Storage as a service
(STaaS)
Storage is provided getting rid of maintaining separate
storage devices.
Windows
Skydrive
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Easy implementation and
economical.
Flexibility in hardware and
software i.e., pay as you use.
Easy up-gradation to match
current technology.
Efficient usage of resources.
Location independence i.e.,
accessible from anywhere.
(Essentially a big constraint for a country like
ours).
Universal standardization required which makes
interoperability among providers difficult as of
now.
Dependent on service providers even for trivial
applications.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/08/sci-cloudcomputing.html

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[Science] Genetically Modified Crops, Bt-Brinjal, Cartagena & Nagoya Protocol: Meaning, Issues
A guest article by Manikandan Soundararajan
1. What are DNA and Gene?
2. What do we need here?
3. What is the necessity for GM technology?
4. Current issue:
5. Recommendations of the committee:
6. What is this GEAC:
7. Procedure to accord approval:
8. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
9. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB)
10. Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
What are DNA and Gene?
Always a human gives birth to humans, and a baby is said to inherit his/her parents
characters. This is made possible only because of the so called genes. Genes are the
books where all your personal, family characters are coded passed on to you from your
parents.
DNA is a polymer of nucleic acid specifically deoxyribonucleic acid which is in turn is
comprised of sugar component and nitrogenous base.there are 4 type of nitrogenous
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base that is adenine , guanine, cytosine and thiamine. It is the sequence of theses
nitogenous bases that determine our genetic charecter. [courtsey- Ritesh's comment]
DNA aids in protein synthesis.
Their expression gives you characters.
What do we need here?
Scientists have now mapped, analyzed these genes of various plants and animals. i.e.,
understood the ABC of gene make up
Here now they are capable of manually rearranging these genes, inserting a part, deleting
one changing the way one behaves, like stunted coconut trees giving coconuts at your
arms stretch.
Such organisms are called TRANSGENICS, transformed genetic make-up.
What is the necessity for GM technology?
Already a population of 7 billion and growing energetically.
3% increase in agri production needed to ensure food security to this population, while
current growth rate is only 2%.
Stress on land resource already huge- use of insecticides, pesticides.
27% of worlds undernourished people proudly are Indians- Urgent need to feed those
hungry mouths. Else National shame will be the result- as our PM remarked on the
HUNGAMA report.
To address above problems GM aids the development of specific traits in crops like:
1. Herbicide resistance
2. Pest resistance
3. Viral resistance
4. slow-ripening
5. Fungal and bacterial resistance
6. Quality improvement (protein and oil)
7. Value addition (Vitamins, micro-and macro-elements)
Ok then let us move quick into this akshayapaatra Hold on, every coin has one more side:
Biosafety first concern
Direct health effects (toxicity)
The stability of the inserted gene
Nutritional effect associated with genetic modification
Any unintended effects which could result from the gene Insertion.
Autonomy of farmers affected because the seeds of these tech crops are monopolized and
are marketed by big private firms. If he is unable/does not provide us the requisite seeds,
we have a problem.
Genetic erosion of our local varieties.
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Bt Brijnal
Current issue:
In India it all started with Bt cotton and Bt Brinjal, regarding control, regulation,
marketing production, safety of such crops.
Here the Bt refers to Bacillus thuringenesis soil bacterium from which the genes are
introduced in to the native cotton and brinjal varieties.
The gene gave an expression in cotton which produced a protein in the cotton crop that
was toxic to the boll worms and stem borers (pests) i.e., pest resistant variety.
Now the issue with us already with many political parties, farmers complaining
introduction such GM cotton, Brinjal(stopped after initial intro) as the cause for
increasing farmer suicides in Karnataka, Vidharbha region. High input cost of seeds,
genetic erosion of local varieties, farmers dependence on private seed cos are said to be
the reasons.
In this scenario our parliamentary committee on Agriculture has submitted a report on
CULTIVATION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD CROPS PROSPECTS AND EFFECTS
Recommendations of the committee:
No GM food trials, till a stronger regulatory system is established.
Current regulation by GEAC (Genetic Engineering appraisal committee) flawed, GEAC
under dept. of Biotech which has one of its aims to spread modern biotech. One cannot
regulate his own product is the reports view.
Farmers of cotton already under strain, new Bt cotton seeds are expensive, input costs
high, yet farmers are left with zero choice.
Strict labeling giving choice for consumers to know what they buy is must. Especially
imported foods are now a concern.
What is this GEAC:
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Established under MoEF,
GEAC is the apex body to accord approval of activities involving large scale use of
hazardous microorganisms and recombinants in research and industrial production
from the environmental angle.
GEAC is also responsible for granting approvals relating to release of genetically
engineered organisms and products into the environment including experimental field
trials.
The GEAC also has the powers to prohibit, revoke, supervise and take punitive action in
case of non-compliance, furnishing of wrong information or in case of any damage to the
environment.
Procedure to accord approval:
laboratory and greenhouse experiment,
open field trials for generation of biosafety data,
commercialization and market approval
Large scale production.
International conventions related to this:
The committee report passes references to all these conventions.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
CBD is a legally binding agreement adopted during Rio Earth Summit in 1992. India
signed the CBD and ratified it. USA is not a party to this Convention.
While reaffirming sovereign rights of nations over their natural resources, this
Convention establishes three goals: conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use
of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of
genetic resources.
India is hosting CoP-11 to the CBD to be held in Hyderabad in October 2012, which is the
year of 20th anniversary of Rio Earth Summit is an added information.
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB)
The CPB, the first international regulatory framework for safe transfer, handling and use
of LMOs(living modified organisms) signed on 2000. India has acceded to this Biosafety
Protocol.
Difference between LMO and GMO is that GMO is a broader term including LMOs
within it, all organisms live, dead whose genes are modified are GMOs but LMO as the
name suggests are living organisms which are genetically modified.
The objective of the Protocol is to contribute to ensuring an adequate level of protection
in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of LMOs resulting from modern
biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of
biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, and specifically
focusing on trans-boundary movements.
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As a Party to the Protocol, the first and foremost requirement is the setting up of a
National Biosafety Regulatory Framework India has introduced the national biosafety
rules even before the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted at Rio de
Janeiro in 1992.
Even though the text of the Protocol has been adopted, several critical issues such as risk
assessment, liability and redress, documentation and identification of LMOS for Food
Feed and Processing etc., are still under discussion.
Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
The CoP-10 to the CBD held in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010 adopted the Nagoya
Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing .India is a megadiverse country rich in
biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. Hence, implementation of the ABS
provisions of CBD is of special interest to us.
The objective of Nagoya Protocol is the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from
utilization of genetic resources. The Protocol establishes a clear framework on how
researchers and companies can obtain access to genetic resources and to associated
traditional knowledge, and how benefits arising from the use of such material or
knowledge will be shared with locals.
The ABS Protocol is expected to address the concerns of biodiversity rich countries such
as India relating to misappropriation of genetic resources and associated traditional
knowledge.
Reference:
CULTIVATION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD CROPS PROSPECTS AND
EFFECTS-BASUDEB ACHARIA (chairman)

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[Science] Bio Fertilizers & Green Manure: Meaning, use, advantages, disadvantages
For GS (Mains) Paper II.
1. Biofertilizers
1. Examples of BioFertilizers:
2. Pros and Cons
2. Green Manure
1. Examples of Green Manure
2. Pros and Cons of Green Manure?
3. Advantages
4. Disadvantage
Biofertilizers
a substance which contains living microorganisms
when applied to seed, plant surfaces, or soil, it promotes growth by increasing the supply
or availability of primary nutrients (nitrogen, Phosphorous etc.) to the host plant.
Examples of BioFertilizers:
1. Rhizobium,
2. Azotobacter,
3. blue green algae (BGA)
4. Azospirillum
Pros and Cons
Advantages Disadvantages
1. It increases crop yield by 20-30%,
2. replaces chemical nitrogen and
phosphorus by 25%, and stimulates
plant growth.
3. It can also provide protection against
drought and some soil-borne diseases.
4. Bio-fertilizers are cost-effective relative
to chemical fertilizers. They have lower
manufacturing costs, especially
regarding nitrogen and phosphorus use.
5. environmentally friendly also helps to
1. Their effects are is slower compared to
chemical fertilizer.
2. Difficulty to store: theyre sensitive to
temperature and humidity changes.
3. much lower nutrient density requires
large amounts to get enough for most
crops
4. requires a different type of machine to
apply than chemical fertilizers
5. sometimes hard to locate/purchase in
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some extent cleanse the plant from
precipitated chemical fertilizers.
faraway rural areas
Green Manure
green manure is a type of cover crop grown primarily to add nutrients and organic
matter to the soil.
Typically, a green manure crop is grown for a specific period of time, and then ploughed
under and incorporated into the soil while it is green or shortly after flowering.
Government of India provides subsidy Subsidy on the purchased of seeds & cost on
production of seeds for green manure plants.
Examples of Green Manure plants

Leguminous plants Non-leguminous plants
Example Cowpeas, soybeans
sudangrass, millet, sorghum, and
buckwheat.
Why are they used? for their nitrogen fixing abilities
for weed suppression and
addition of biomass to the soil.
Pros and Cons of Green Manure?
Advantages
1. soil improvement and soil protection.
2. provides forage for pollinating insects.
3. Root systems of many green manure crops to efficiently penetrate compact soils thus
increasing the aeration of the soil.
4. The deep rooting properties of many green manure crops make them efficient at
suppressing weeds
5. They fix nitrogen in soil, thus Less chemical fertilizers are required.
6. provide habitat for predatory beneficial insects, they kill and eat the pests / harmful
insects thus less pesticides are required.
Disadvantage
1. Leguminous plants require good amount of irrigation.
2. The time factor: you cannot plant the primary marketable crop during green manuring
phase.

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[Science] Mobile Tower Radiation and Steps taken by Government
1. What is Mobile tower radiation
2. Why is it in news?
3. Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on EMF Radiation.
4. Timeline
5. ICNIRP guidelines
6. What is SAR?
7. How and why does Mobile Radiation affect humans?
8. Animals and Mobile Radiation?
9. Steps taken by Environment Ministry
What is Mobile tower radiation
Mobile phone towers hold antennas and other communications equipment.
They flood the area for miles around with powerful high frequency radio waves to
support the use of cell phones.
This radiation allegedly causes health problem.
Im using the word allegedly because our Government said in parliament that mobile
tower radiation doesnt cause health problems.
Why is it in news?
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Because an MP asked in parliament whether radiation emitted from base stations are
hazardous?, the Government replied,
From all evidence accumulated so far, no adverse short or long term health effects have
been shown to occur from the RF signals produced by Mobile tower base stations.
But (just to be safe) well bring down the exposure limit of radio frequency fields (mobile
tower base station emissions) to one-tenth of the existing level from September 1, 2012.
Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on EMF Radiation.
EMF=electromagnetic field. Government had setup this Committee in 2011 to study the hazards
of Mobile radiation.
The Committees findings
1. most of the laboratory studies were unable to find a direct link between exposure to radio
frequency radiation from mobile towers and health;
2. scientific studies as yet have not been able to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship
between radio frequency radiation and health.
3. The effect of emission from cell phone towers is not known yet with certainty.
4. However, as a precautionary measure, the IMC recommended reduction of mobile tower
base station emissions to one-tenth of the present limit.
5. It suggested stricter SAR limits (1.6 watt per kg) for mobile handsets.
6. Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 should be amended so that only mobile handsets satisfying
radiation standards (SAR) should be permitted for import / manufacture or sold in the
country.
Timeline
2008
DoT has decided to adopt the International Commission on Non-Iodizing Radiation
Protection (ICNIRP)* guidelines in the telcom sector.
2010
Government sets up Interministerial Committee on Electric and Magnetic Field (EMF)
radiation and its effects on health.
2011 Committee submits report.
2012
DoT made rules to mandate to all mobile phone manufacturers to comply with the specific
and absorption rate (SAR)*.
ICNIRP guidelines
In short, they suggest that based on scientific research, if mobile radiation is below xyz level
then there is no harm to humans or animals. So all the Governments across the world should
make laws and rules to keep mobile radiation below xyz level.
What is SAR?
specific and absorption rate
it is a measure of the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the human body
while using a mobile phone) so that radiation does not affect human health.
Presently, Indias SAR limit is 2 watt per kg
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The Inter-ministerial Committee wants SAR to be 1.6 watts per kg. and that all the
mobile manufacturers gives specific information about SAR on their product packages.
This new SAR limit would not affect the mobile manufacturer because almost all of them
already adhere to the US standard.
However, itd increase the production cost for cheap mobile phone manufacturers
(Chinese type) because theyll have to use better quality material to comply to the new
SAR limits.
By the way, if mobile radiation doesnt affect health then why is all the hue and cry by activists
and PILs in Highcourts etc.? So,
How and why does Mobile Radiation affect humans?
Human body is itself is electromagnetic (very low around 10 hertz frequency).
Each of our cell has its own electromagnetic field when we exposed to the cellular tower
frequency which is very high our bodys EMF (electromagnetic field) disturbed and thus
caused very serious types of damages to our cells, brains etc
human body consists of 70% liquid. It is similar to that of cooking in the microwave oven
where the water in the food content is heated first.
Microwave absorption effect is much more significant by the body parts which
contain more fluid (water, blood, etc.), like the brain which consists of about 90% water.
Animals and Mobile Radiation?
You have ever seen a bee, sparrow, pigeon, or any bird flying and staying near the
cell tower?. I think No.
The reason is surface area of a bird which is larger than human body, so they absorb
more radiation.
Since fluid content is small due to less weight, it gets heated up very fast and also the
magnetic field disturbs their navigational skills.
Steps taken by Environment Ministry
The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) asked the Department of Telecommunications
(DoT) :
1. Not to allow new mobile towers to be constructed within a one-kilometer radius of the
existing towers.
2. New towers should not be permitted within a radius of one kilometer of the existing
towers.
3. Any new towers do not obstruct the flight path of birds, or increase the combined
radiation of all towers in the area.
4. Put in GIS mapping to help monitor the population of birds and bees or the welfare of
animals in protected wildlife areas.
5. Do not install any towers near zoos or any wildlife protected zones without consulting
Forest Dept.
Ref
Inputs from Shobhit Avasthi
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http://www.jtbl.org/index.php/blog/12-indian-government-to-set-new-sar-limits-for-mobile-
handsets-and-towers

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/08/snt-mobile-rad.html

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[Science] Blue Moon : Meaning and Occurrence
1. What is Blue Moon?
2. Why Blue Moon?
3. Why in news?
What is Blue Moon?
Blue moon is the second full moon in appearing in the same month.
By the way Blue Moon is just a term used to describe the second moon, otherwise, the
date of a full moon, all by itself, doesn't affect the moon's color.
So, second moon in the same month, will be pearly-gray, as usual and not of blue color.
Why Blue Moon?
The Moon is not actually blue.
However, greenish- and bluish-tinted Moons are sometimes observed just before sunrise
or just after sunset when large quantities of dust or smoke particles are concentrated
high in the atmosphere, filtering out the longer wavelengths of colours such as red and
yellow.
Smoke from forest fires and volcano eruption can cause blue moons.
Why in news?
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Because In the month of August 2012, The first full moon was seen on 2
nd
August and
second full moon was seen on 30
th
August 2012.
Next Blue Moon will be sighted in 2015.
On average, a blue moon occurs once every 33 months.
Ref
1. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1672923/blue-moon
2. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/07jul_bluemoon/

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[Science] Bionic Eye
Guest article by Sarath Chandra, For GS (Mains) Paper II
1. BIONIC EYE
2. Examples of Bionic Eye Implants
BIONIC EYE
The implants are said to be capable of completely restoring sight to blind patients, but only if
their blindness was caused by a faulty retina, as in macular degeneration (suffered by millions of
elderly people), diabetic retinopathy or any other degenerative eye disease.
latest developments in Bionic Eye Implants
Argus II Bio-Retina
roughly four-hour procedure
operation only takes about 30 minutes can be
done under local anesthesia.
Costing around $115,000 cost of about $60,000
involves the installation of an antenna
behind the affected eye that works in with
a pair of camera-equipped glasses, which
send signals to the antenna.
does not incorporate an external
camera but instead utilizes a vision-
restoration sensor that is actually
placed inside the eye, on top of the
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The antenna is wired into the retina which
creates display for the brain to interpret.
retina.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/09/snt-bionic-eye.html

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[Revision] The Hindu science & Tech (May-Aug 2012) for GS (Mains) 2 Markers
Introduction
This article is for General Studies 2 or 5 markers in UPSC Mains Examination (and some for
MCQs in CSAT, SSC, IBPS etc exams)
Earlier I had provided the revision notes for The Hindu Science & Tech (upto April
2012). Click on following links if you havent seen them already:
1. [Revision] Science-Tech Highlight from The Hindu 2011 A to F (Part I)
2. [Revision] Science-Tech Highlight from The Hindu 2011 G to N (Part II)
3. [Revision] Science-Tech Highlight from The Hindu 2011 OtoZ (Part III, The End)
Now moving on, here is the new list, made from The Hindu Science & Tech articles from 1
st
May
to 31
st
August 2012. (List is not exhastive, I might have missed some topics.)
1. Dhiraj 101
2. Balwan Pyaj
3. Coniophis
4. Spin OLED
5. Nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC)
6. NASAs Cassini spacecraft
7. CQD solar Cells
8. Change
9. Shenzhou-9
10. CO-4 grass
11. Dark circles around eyes
12. Dragon capsule
13. Zero farming
14. Pearlspot farming
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15. green rust
16. Kasalath
17. Telstar
18. OraQuick
19. Truvada
20. Type Ia supernova
21. How mosquitoes fly in rain
22. Can curd and yoghurt be called as probiotics?
23. lactose intolerance
24. Isocyanic acid
25. Jimmy Wales
26. Kinesio tape
27. Naper Bajra grass
28. Chromosphere
29. NuSTAR
30. Probiotics
31. Red tide
32. Refrigerated onions
33. Curiosity
34. Science Express
35. Solar storms
36. tropical enteropathy.
37. Nirmal Rajya
38. Mt Tongariro
39. Food Irradiation
Dhiraj 101
groundnut variety that does not need much water. (UPSC has nasty habit of asking some
rice/wheat variety every now and then.)
Balwan Pyaj
Onion variety has a longer shelf life as compared to other commercial varieties.
Coniophis
A transitional snake
an intermediate form between lizards and the highly evolved snakes seen today
combining a snake-like body with a lizard-like head
Spin OLED
Spin organic light-emitting diode (OLED)
U.S. physicists have invented it.
It is brighter, cheaper and more eco-friendly LED light than those currently widely used
in electronic devices.
Nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC)
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anti-oxidant compound
in the tree pulp
flexible, durable, and also stronger than steel.
help improve health and anti-aging products by neutralizing more of the harmful free-
radicals found in the body
NASAs Cassini spacecraft
For studying Saturn and its moons.
CQD solar Cells
colloidal quantum dot (CQD) Solar cells.
Theyre Very cheap compared to regular solar cells.
Change
Name of lunar probe launch of China.
first in 2007
Change 2 in 2010
both named for the Chinese goddess of the moon.
Shenzhou-9
spacecraft became Chinas longest-ever space mission and was notable for including the
nations first woman astronaut.
CO-4 grass
variety of grass used to feed the milking animals in South India.
Dark circles around eyes
Why do we develop dark circles around our eyes when we have had insufficient sleep?
Skin under the eye lids is very thin and delicate. This makes it prone to show both
dehydration and water-logging in an exaggerated fashion. Sleeping less also usually
implies overwork and poor eating. This results in a generalised dehydration causing the
thin under eye skin to go into a fine wrinkling pattern which gives the appearance of dark
circles under the eye.
On the other hand, it is common to have puffy eyes after a long bout of sleep. This can be
explained by the fact that when we lie flat the excess fluid that normally pools in the
lower limbs gets distributed all over the body.
Dragon capsule
unmanned space capsule
developed by a private U.S. space company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX),
Itll dock with the International Space Station.
In future private companies will try take on the task of transporting humans and cargo to
orbits around Earth.
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Zero farming
Zero farming method requires no ploughing, fertilizers or weeding.
It dispels the myth that hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and pest-control techniques alone can
guarantee good yield.
Concept revolves around the theory that nature knows best and hence it is better to
leave everything in her care.
Pearlspot farming
fish farming in captivity
requires minimum investment and harvesting is easy. Even small scale farmers and
women can grow the fishes in the backyard.
green rust
A rare kind of mineral
could be used to scrape toxic metals and radioactive species from the environment,
Kasalath
A rice variety origin in eastern States of India,
Growing rice in soil poor in phosphorus possible with this variety.
Telstar
was the first communications satellite, launched in 1962
2012 marks the half centuary of its launch.
OraQuick
Oral kit for HIV Test
It detects antibodies developed within 1-3 months after getting infected. It cannot pick
up acute or recent infection.
in a stigmatised disease like HIV, getting people to test is the hardest part. This is due to
lack of privacy and loss of confidentiality and fear of visibility in public settings. So
people desire private testing options.
The over-the-counter OraQuick test is a historic milestone because it is a step towards
destigmatisation of HIV and normalising an HIV diagnosis.
Truvada
oral pill to reduce HIV transmission
Type Ia supernova
important stellar phenomena, used to measure the expansion of the universe.
How mosquitoes fly in rain
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mosquitos strong exoskeleton and low mass render it impervious to falling raindrops.
Can curd and yoghurt be called as probiotics?
No. Curd and yoghurt cannot be called as true probiotics.
According to the 2001 definition of probiotics by FAO/WHO, it is important that for any
strain/product to be classified as a probiotic it must be or must contain live
microorganisms (generally numbering one billion) which are resistant to gastric acid,
bile and pancreatic juices and reach the target site (small intestine/large intestine) in
numbers sufficient enough to elicit a beneficial effect. It should be scientifically validated
through well controlled clinical trials.
Curd is defined as a product obtained by souring boiled or pasteurized milk naturally, by
harmless lactic acid bacteria or other bacterial cultures. It may contain a wide variety of
bacteria, which are not defined qualitatively/quantitatively. The number and type of
bacteria also vary from home to home.
Yoghurt, on the other hand, is obtained by lactic acid fermentation of milk by
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophillus, which
are not true probiotics as per the definition.
The role of buttermilk in treating diarrhoea has not been scientifically proven. But it is
given during diarrhoea to rehydrate, and hence it imparts some benefit.
lactose intolerance
In this disease patients cannot digest lactose since they lack the enzymes that are needed
to break down lactose, the milk sugar.
In fermented products like curd and buttermilk, most of the lactose is converted to lactic
acid/acetic acid by the enzymes that are found in fermenting bacteria. Hence these
products are easier to digest and used by those patients.
Isocyanic acid
Forest fires and emission of air pollutants, which include fumes from vehicles running
on diesel and slow burning of coal and charcoal, release toxic isocyanic acid in the
troposphere.
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia founder
Kinesio tape
a strong elasticated tape, was developed more than 30 years ago by a Japanese
chiropractor.
Popular among atheltes.
Kinesio tape can stretch and contract, inhibiting damaging movements but allowing the
right kind.
Runners can continue to train even when they have a problem.
Naper Bajra grass
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also called as NB CO-4 hybrid or Emperor grass.
This grass can be grown in most soil types,
can supply raw material to run one 10 MW biomass electric power mill, continuously, all
through the year without break
Chromosphere
area of the suns low atmosphere
constantly changing magnetic fields
NuSTAR
NASAs Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
to see the highest energy X-rays in our universe, in future help in the hunt for black
holes.
Probiotics
microorganisms that exhibit beneficial health effects for hosts when a sufficient amount
of them are ingested.
probiotics can shorten the duration of diarrhoea by half-a-day
Probiotics are generally beneficial in treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal
disease.
Red tide
a tiny aquatic organism in harmful algal blooms.When the algae are present in high
concentrations, the water appears to be discolored or murky, varying in color from
purple to almost pink.
They deplete the dissolved oxygen from water and release toxin substances thus killing
the marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms.
Refrigerated onions
How does refrigerating onions prevent them from causing tears in our eyes when
chopped?
When you cut the onion, enzymes start mixing and produce a volatile sulphur compound
that starts wafting towards your eyes.
The gas that is emitted reacts with the water of your eyes and forms sulphuric acid. The
sulphuric acid thus produced causes burning sensation in your eyes and this in turn
leads to the tear glands secreting more tears.
Thus you end up with watery eyes every time you cut onions at home.
When you chill an onion, either in the refrigerator or in a bowl of cold water, the
enzymes in the onion slow down at a molecular level.
This means that when you cut into a cold onion, the slow-moving enzymes and sulphur
molecules have less momentum when they combine to make the irritating sulphurous
molecules.
They also move much more slowly as they escape the onion walls and often will not reach
your eyes or nose. This simple tactic can greatly reduce or eliminate an onions ability to
make you cry.
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Curiosity
NASAs program on Mars exploration
Launched in 2011
test the soil samples to see if there are signs of life in the history of Mars.
determine Mars geological conditions and changes, and if there are any microorganisms
present on the planet.
Curiosity will test the Mars soil only with its own equipment after it lands on the planet
in August 2012
but future missions will bring samples back to Earth for more study,
Curiosity will help pave the way for future manned Mars missions
Curiosity also will take video images for the first time and send them back to Earth
The rover also will be the first to use nuclear power
will enable Curiosity to operate for at least a full Mars year (687 Earth days, or 1.9 Earth
years).
will travel almost 352 million miles (567 million km) to reach Mars
Science Express
a train for promoting scientific temper
began its fifth journey, this time to raise awareness about the countrys unique
biodiversity
The Science Express Biodiversity Special (SEBS)
Solar storms
Solar storms occur when the sun hurls large clouds of electrically charged particles into
space and these strike the earth. The solar cycle takes around 11 years to complete.
can overload electricity networks causing breakdowns, cause satellites to fail, and
endanger astronauts and people in aircraft
A solar storm in mid-March 1989 did in fact disrupt power supplies to millions of
Canadians for several hours and cut contact with around 1,600 satellites.
Since then many electricity networks have improved their equipment, but preparations
need to be made, not only for events similar to those in the past, but also for the extreme
events that might arise only once in a thousand years.
the cycle will rise in strength to a peak in 2013.
tropical enteropathy.
This is a condition which affects the intestines (hence entero-) by killing or disabling the
villi and microvilli covering the surface of the small intestine, and helping the absorption
of the digested food into the blood and lymphatic systems.
It also leads to inflammation and mal-absorption. The benefits of whatever the child eats
are not being transferred and utilised in the system for growth and development.
And the cause of tropical enteropathy is infection by the bacteria found in faeces.
Children (and adults) living in conditions of poor sanitation are affected in great
measure by such faecal bacterial infection leading to enteropathy.
Nirmal Rajya
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Sikkim Is Indias the first Nirmal Rajya 100 per cent open defecation-free state.
over 626 million Indians do not have access to toilets, Government has initiated the
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) or Total Sanitation Campaign, which would attempt to
banish open defecation within a decade.
Mt Tongariro
Volcanic Mountain in New Zealand, recently eruptions were felt.
Food Irradiation
useful process employed in preservation of food, control of sprouting of items such as
potato and onion and control of food-borne diseases.
Irradiation destroys or inactivates organisms that cause spoilage thereby extending shelf
life of certain foods.
One of the reasons for the unpopularity of food irradiation is the mistaken notion that
irradiated food is radioactive.
These radiations do not have sufficient energy to make food radioactive.
No radioactivity is produced or released during the process.
For the entire Archive of Science and Tech articles, go to this link: mrunal.org/science

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/09/snt-hindu-may-aug12.html

89

How to get PDF
[Science] VitaVallis, Trap Crops, GRAIL, Nexus-7 and E-cigarettes (2 markers for GS Mains)
1. GRAIL
2. Trap Crop
3. VitaVallis
4. E-cigarettes
5. Nexus-7
GRAIL
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is an American lunar science mission
in
Why? to study the gravity field and geological structure of the Moon and determine its
interior structure.
Trap Crop
A trap crop is a plant that attracts agricultural pests, usually insects, away from nearby
main crops.
For example, a few Mustard plants are grown near near strawberries to attract bugs and
thus protecting the main crop (strawberries).
Similarly, Marigold can be used asa a trap crop in potato farming.
It results into more profits for the farmers, due to reduced insecticide use and pest
attack.
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VitaVallis
It is a nano-dressing for applying on wounds.
Created by Russian scientists
It helps clean up wounds of all known types of toxic bacteria.
It does not get stuck to the wound and heals burns, cuts and any septic and infected
wounds two to three times faster than traditional methods do.
The dressing stops bleeding, ends inflammation, eliminates swellings and stimulates
skin regeneration. It also helps kill pain and remove foul wound odour.
it contains no antibiotics and is therefore effective against drug-resistant bacteria
E-cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes are devices that deliver nicotine through a vapour, rather than
smoke. There is no combustion involved but the nicotine in the device is still derived
from tobacco.
It used by smokers trying to quit the lethal habit of smoking can actually cause lung
damage
Nexus-7

Tablet PC from google.
Made in partnership with hardware maker Asus.
Contains Jelly Bean version of Google's operating system (OS)

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/09/snt-vitavallis.html

91

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[Science] Nirbhay, NAG, NAMICA, Helina, LAHAT, Tropex-2012, RISAT, SPOT-6, Project,
Glass and Glivec
Some more Important Science and Tech topics for General Studies.
1. Nirbhay
2. NAG
3. NAMICA
4. Helina
5. LAHAT
6. Tropex-2012
7. Shoor Veer
8. National Large Solar Telescope (NLST)
9. RISAT 1
10. ISROs 100
th
mission
11. Project Glass
12. Glivec
Nirbhay
sub-sonic cruise missile
Nirbhay is Indias equivalent of Tomahawk, a long-range, sub-sonic cruise missile,
developed by the U.S.
developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
will travel at a sub-sonic speed (less than the speed of sound).
NAG
fire and forget anti-tank missile.
can destroy enemy tanks four km away
NAMICA
Nag Missile Carrier
It is a vehicle to carry and launch NAG missles.
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NAMICA
Helina
the helicopter-fired version of Nag.
Helina =Helicopter + Nag
LAHAT
Laser Homing Attack or Laser Homing Anti-Tank missile
anti-tank missile, will be used in the upgraded Arjun battle tanks.
Tropex-2012
theatre-level readiness and operational exercise
conducted by the Indian Navy
To test new platforms, weapons sensors, communication systems and tactics in order to
optimise the network combat power of the fleet.
Do you recall JIMEX? If not go to www.mrunal.org/diplomacy
Shoor Veer
Combat exercise in the Thar Desert in 2012
To test Armys operational readiness to undertake swift multiple thrusts across the
border.
Army and IAF tested new battle fighting concepts with real time pictures of the battle
zone provided to a centralized command using fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles and
attack helicopters
National Large Solar Telescope (NLST)
worlds largest solar telescope
set up by the Department of Science and Technology, in Ladakh.
aims to study the suns microscopic structure
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RISAT 1
RISAT 1 is Indias first radar imaging satellite
It can scan the earth surface during both day and night under all weather condition.
It will help in paddy monitoring and management of natural disaster like flood and
cyclone.
ISROs 100
th
mission
Using PSLV-C21 rocket, ISRO launched two foreign satellites
SPOT 6: French satellite
Proiteres: Japanese micro satellite
From Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh
Project Glass

a research and development program by Google.
resembles a pair of normal eyeglasses where the
lens is replaced by a heads-up display.
Project Glass is a wearable computer that provides
information not through a screen, but rather
through your eyes.
It gives you data about your surroundings without
the need to whip out your smartphone and know
what to search.
For example, if you go into a bookstore, Google
Glass will be able to provide you with an indoor
map of the place, and lead you to your desired
book.
Glivec
blood cancer drug
Novartis is fighting a patent case in India for this drug.
Treatment of Glivec costs Rs.1,20,000 per month per patient. But Novartis maintains
they give it free of cost to the needy patients.
For more Science and Tech 2 markers, visit the Archive: mrunal.org/science

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How to get PDF
[Science] Answerkey to Mock Q GS II by Tushar (Science & Tech Portion only)
Few days, I had uploaded the Mock Questions for GS Paper II framed by Tushar. (Click ME)
He has provided the answerkeykey to the Science & Tech portion of that question paper. Here
it goes,
1. Modified Embaraer EMB 145I aircraft.
2. Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialization (ATAC)
3. Project Ahaar / BASIX-AAHAR
4. HuGaMMA Report.
5. MCA-21.
6. London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. (NTD)
7. Sevottam Model.
8. OVR SagarNidhi
9. Mobile Based Crime and incident reporting platform (MCIRP)
10. Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD)
11. ASTROSAT and its instrumentation.
12. Bio Toilet
13. The Defense Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR)
14. Reservetrol
15. In Vitro meat.
16. Difference between 3G and LTE mobile technology.
17. Difference between the CMOS and CCD image sensors.
18. Tandem Solar Cell and its advantages.
19. Gratzel Solar cell and its characteristics.
20. Nuclear Powered Crops.
21. Hydroponics and its potential advantages.
22. Curiosity rover
23. TARAs expedition
24. Saturated Fats
25. Pebble Reactor.
26. Generations of the Nuclear Reactors.
27. Trophy Molecules
28. Leap second and Y2K bug
29. Colony Collapse Disorder and its implications.
30. GHBs function in human brain
31. Date rape drug.
32. Foot and Mouth Diseases (FMDs) Vaccine
33. Markhor
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34. Gnathiid isopods and coral bleaching.
35. Transient Elastography
36. Adulterated milk: testing problem
37. NASAs Kepler Mission
38. Ballast water management convention (BWM convention).
39. What is Dirty fishing?
40. Environmental side effects of the Deep Sea Trawling.
41. Deep sea Trawl: advantages
42. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)
43. How nitrous fertilizers contributes to the Global Warming?
44. Uncany Valley in the Robotic Science.
45. Greenpeace Report on Bt-Brinjal.
46. Deep sea challenger.
47. Solar Impulse.
48. Flame and Stuxnet.
49. Karspersky Lab.
50. Sector33- an iOS application from NASA.
51. Voager1 and Voager2
52. A*star institute of technology.
53. Googles X Lab
54. Superblooms/North Atlantic Blooms
55. Ug99
56. N-u star telescope.
57. Coral Bleaching.
58. White Nose Syndrome.
59. RightingBot
60. Human Connectome Project
61. North Atlantic Bloom
62. Foundation B612 (Near earth Objects)
63. Lab on Chip
64. SeaFox-underwater drone.
65. Soyuz Rocket
66. IPv6
67. Aerostat Balloon at Florida Naval Air Station.
68. IRVE-3 by NASA
69. Fire Fly Cubesat satellite by NASA.
70. National Year of Mathematics
71. US Antarctic Blue Ribbon Panel.
72. Spin Organic LED
73. High Resolution Coronal imager (Hi-C) telescope.
74. Cluster beans (Guar) Gum and its industrial applications.
75. AirBus A350
76. Radio Tracking of Animals: 3 types
Modified Embaraer EMB 145I aircraft.
It is a result of Indias long standing quest to have full functional Airborne Early Warning
and Control System (AEWCS).
Embaraer EMB 145 are the aircrafts provided by Brazil onto which the AEWCS is being
fitted.
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AEWCS has been totally designed by DRDO CABS (Center for Airborne System) facilities
at Bangalore.
Its primary missions include airspace management, fighter positioning and intercept
control, signals intelligence, and support for maritime, borders, and Exclusive Economic
Zones surveillance and security.
With this, very soon India will be in the group of nations which have their own
operational AEWCS.
Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialization (ATAC)
Under this program, three organizations have came together
1. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO),
2. BASIX a Social Enterprise Group,
3. Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
to collaborate on long term basis to develop and execute viable and scalable models for
commercialization of the technologies developed by DRDO with the specific intent of developing
and enhancing livelihoods.
Project Ahaar / BASIX-AAHAR
Recently they (^FCCI_DRDO) have launched a project called Aahaar.
Aahaar is a hygienic, nutritious and convenient meal that tastes fresh yet has longer shelf
life, that is tasty yet quick to serve.
Roti has a shelf life of 15 days and the two variants of dal have a shelf life of 12 months.
HuGaMMA Report.
Hunger and Malnutrition Report (Refer Economic Survey 2012)
MCA-21
It is e-governance project of Ministry of Corporate affairs through which all corporate related
services are being provided on the online platform with a liberal procedures.
London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. (NTD)
The main problem associated with the NTDs is, NTDs are mostly confined to the Asian
and African countries out of which most of them are least developed. Health burden
because of the NTDs is tremendous.
WHO has designed a target to eliminate the most of the NTDs by 2020.
London Declaration of 2012 is a mile stone in this endeavor.
First time, many big Pharma companies and NGOs have come together and made a
commitment to raise the required resources to eradicate at least 10 deadliest diseases by
end of the decade.
Sevottam Model.
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This is the initiative of the government towards the Citizen Centric Adminsitration and
providing the quality services to the Citizens.
It includes ISO certification of the service provider, Citizen Charters, E-governance,
effective implementation of the RTI to enhance accountability.
OVR SagarNidhi
Sagar Nidhi a state of art ice-class research vessel can accommodate 30 scientists with
endurance of 45 days.
This is an Ice-class research vessel adopted with Dynamic Positioning System will keep
its position stable, which is required for oceanographic research.
It has a huge deck area for deploying ROV/Manned submersibles/ Tsunami monitoring
system
Mobile Based Crime and incident reporting platform (MCIRP)
MCIRP is funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and is
exclusive to NIA for tackling crimes and prevent acts of terrorism.
This is a step towards the utilization of mobile technology to curb the criminal activities.
This has been launched in July 2012.
Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD)

Developed by National institute of Ocean Technology.
One of the key research area of this institute is the conversion of the sea water into
regular domestic usable water.
There are variety of desalination process, one of them is a specific process called LTTD.
The concept of the variation in the ocean water temperature with an increase in depth is
98

used in the Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) to flash evaporate the warm
water at low pressure and condense the resulting vapour with the deep sea cold water.
Starting from a small laboratory based 5m3/day capacity scale model, the group has
successfully commissioned one 100m3/day capacity land based plant at Kavaratti and
one 1000m3/day capacity floating barge based desalination plant off the coast of
Chennai.
ASTROSAT and its instrumentation.
ASTROSAT will be a multi-wavelength astronomy mission on an IRS-class satellite in a
650-km, near-equatorial orbit.
It is currently scheduled to be launched by the Indian launch vehicle PSLV from the
Sriharikota launch centre in 2012.
The expected operating life time of the satellite will be five years. There were five
payloads on the launching vehicle.
Bio Toilet

Designed by DRDO and especially bacteria used.
It is invisible to the naked eye and originated in the uninhabitable climes of Antarctica.
This humble bacteria known as Psychrophile holds the potential to solve Indias
sanitation problem in the years to come.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is using these bacteria for
the bio-digester technology it developed for disposal of human waste in an eco-friendly
manner.
DRDO has already tied up with the Indian Railways for bio-toilets on trains.
The Defense Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR)
It aims to invent new varieties of vegetables and fruits that can be grown in high
altitudes and in cold deserts such as Ladakh.
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Year 2012 is mile stone in their endeavor. DIHAR has entered the Limca Book of
Records for making possible the production of 78 varieties of vegetables at the frigid
heights of Ladakh.
Reservetrol
Reservetrol is a natural compound found in many of the food articles like red grapes and red
wine. Recent studies have proved that it is very helpful to prevent cancer cell growth, the CVDs
and diabetes. It has also proved as life span enhancer for some of the organisms.
In Vitro meat.
It is lab grown meat with the help of tissue.
A particular part of the animal is being developed in the lab and then it can be used for
human consumption.
This invention holds a key for future food security. Apart from this, during long voyages
in the space as well.
Difference between 3G and LTE mobile technology.
3G and LTE are the mobile network technology characterized by their speed and method
of data transfer. As per UN Telecom Union the data transfer rate for 3G is 2Mbps in
stationary and 384 kbps in mobility.
Similarly for LTE (4G) is 1Gbps and 100Mbps respectively.
However, the stark difference between two is, 3G uses the switching between data and
calling functions whereas LTE/4G is totally based on Data i.e even calling is also
performed over data transfer. Therefore mobile handset requirements are totally
different for both.
Generation Definition Speed Technologies
1G Analog 14.4 Kbps AMPs, WMT,TACS
2G Digital Cellular 14.4 Kbps TDMA, GSM, CDMA
2.5G Packet data on 2G 20-40 Kbps GPRS
3G
Digital Broadband
packet data
Max 3.1 Mbps, 500-700 Kbps
(avg)
CDMA EVDO, UMTS,
EDGE
3.5G
High Speed Packet
Access
Max 14.4 Mbps, 1.3 Mbps
(avg)
HSPA
4G
Digital Broadband (All
IP)
100-300 Mbps (Max), 3.6
Mbps (Avg)
WiMax, LTE, WiFi
Difference between the CMOS and CCD image sensors.
Both are used in cameras.
CMOS CCD
Complemenary metal oxide semiconductor Charge Couple Devic
compact in size, require less power and find While capturing the image it converts the data
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application in many compact digital cameras
and mobile phones. It captures the image in the
form of pixels of different colors. Therefore,
pixel size is important for image quality
into analog electrical charges therefore the
quality of the image is preserved.
Nowadays combination of both the technologies is used in professional cameras.
Tandem Solar Cell and its advantages.
The basic problem with Solar cells is, they have very less energy conversion efficiency
(less than 10%). This is because; solar cell responses to a particular band of the
wavelength in the Solar radiation.
Tandem solar cell uses a different combination of solar cells to capture all radiation
within the solar radiation. As a result it gives higher conversion efficiency.
At present Tandem solar cell has achieved 10.6% of efficiency which has been certified by
US dept of National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (I dont know the year)
Gratzel Solar cell and its characteristics.
Again the same problem of efficiency has been addressed here.
This invention has got Millenium Technology Prize in 2010 for achieving highest
efficiency ever of above 10%.
This has been invented by a Chinese scientist MickelGratzel. Speaking of about its
characteristics.
It harvests the solar energy by virtue of color.It is called as die sensitized solar cells.
The concept was inspired from the wings of the butterfly.
Nuclear Powered Crops.
These are genetically modified crops. The only difference is that the genetic modification is
performed by the Particle Accelerometer like CERN. ( I dont remember the news that came in
somewhere in April/June)
Hydroponics and its potential advantages.
This is modern agricultural practice in which instead of soil, water with all required
nutrients is used to grow plants. This can be termed as a clean practice.
The potential advantages can be find in the urban areas where there is scarcity of land.
There people can grow fruits and vegetables in the buildings. (There was a big article in
one of the YOJANA)
Curiosity rover
Much touted news of recent time. Everybody knows.
TARAs expedition
TARA was the group of scientist, an NGO, based in France, later absorbed in UN.
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This group of scientists voyage across all seas around the globe and study about the planktons.
They have enumerated various types of phytoplankton and studied their role in the marine
ecology.
(There was a good coverage in National Geo Magazine in March/April. The question in the
prelims on plankton was inspired from this.)
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats are of concern because it responsible for Cardiovascular Diseases in Humans.
Therefore, the edible oil should have relatively less content of saturated fat. For example.
Ground Nut Oil (18%), Safflor Oil (Safola-10%), Coconut Oil (90%), Butter (60%). So butter is
ok but dont even touch the Coconut oil.
Pebble Reactor.
It is nuclear reactor of the 4
th
generation in which nuclear fuel is embedded in the metal
pebbles of tennis ball size.
And the balls/pebbles are feed in the reactor through funnel shape channel.
This methodology has many advantages such as easy loading and replacing of the
pebbles, easy maintenance, easy removal of the all nuclear material which takes time in
the reactors where nuclear rods are uses.
Presently the test reactors are operational in Germany, China, S Korea.
Generations of the Nuclear Reactors.
Please refer this image.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/GenIVRoadmap.jpg
Trophy Molecules
It is a big breakthrough in nuclear technology.
It is a step towards the design of safer 4
th
generation nuclear reactors.
Trophy molecule is referred to Uranium Nitrate which is used as nuclear fuel as it has
higher fissionable density and it is more stable.
The only problem is storage. Previously it required about -250
o
C to store it.
The recent breakthrough by the scientists of Nottingham University has solved the
problem.
They have invented a formulation of chemical such that now Uranium Nitrate can be
stored at room temperate.
Leap second and Y2K bug
Leap second is a one second adjustment that occasionally needs to be done to be
synchronous with the mean solar time.
The recent adjustment has been done on June 30, 2012. As a result, in many software
programs there was an occurrence of the error. The error is called as Year 2000 problem
/Y2K Bug in the IT parlance.
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Colony Collapse Disorder and its implications.
In many parts of the Globe it has been observed that the hives of the honey bees are
disappears suddenly.
This is called as Colony Collapse Disorder.
There is suspicion that the global climate change is responsible for this
disorder. Recently under ministry of the Agriculture, the scientist has proved by field
trials that the electromagnetic waves emanating from the mobile towers are responsible
for this. It is serious phenomenon because it isdirectly affecting the agricultural
production and ultimately the food security in many parts of the world.
GHBs function in human brain
GHB -full form is complicated-forget it!
It is a substance found in Human nervous system, also in beef, wine, and some alcohols
and in small quantities in almost all animals.
The salt of this substance is used as illegal steroid.
It is almost tasteless and odorless and can be easily mixed in drinks. In many countries it
is illegal.
In many cases of Rapes and sexual assaults in US recently, the extensive use of GHB has
been observed.
Moreover, when consumed, traces of the GHB cannot be found after few hours.
Therefore it is difficult to detect as well. In common parlance in US, it is called as Date
Rape Drug. This is also on the radar of WADA.
Date rape drug.
Refer GHB note given above.
Foot and Mouth Diseases (FMDs) Vaccine
One of the most economically devastating diseases in the world for those who raise cows,
sheep, pigs, goats, deer and other cloven-hoofed animals is foot and mouth Disease
(FMD).This incredibly contagious and fast-spreading disease causes fever, blisters on the
feet and mouth (hence the name), loss of appetite, drooling, and lameness.
There are three problems associated the traditional vaccine on FMD.
One- There are many strains of FMD and because of this there is no unique vaccine
applicable.
Second- Vaccine itself contains the FMD virus and it cannot be produce everywhere in
the world.
Third- even after giving vaccine confusion occurs that weather it is infection or
administered by vaccine.
Markhor
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Markhor is a goat species mainly found in the Central Asia, Palistan, Afghanistan region.
It is national animal of Pakistan.
The number of this goat was significantly low during 1990s. There were around only
2500 as reported by IUCN.
It has been labeled as Endangered. Recently the number has increased as a result of the
efforts of WCS ( The Wildlife Conservation Society). It includes the creation of the
Community based conservation committees.
These committees have worked together to enforce local and global laws which has
reduced the illegal hunting. At present there are 53 such committees are working in
Pakistan.
Gnathiid isopods and coral bleaching.
There have been reports of continuous deterioration of the health of coral reefs in the
many seas around the world.
Because of pollution and climate change, appearance of the coral reefs is changing to
complete white and it ultimately reducing their photosynthesis capacity.
This is affecting the ecosystem of the seas. It is called as coral bleaching.
The scientist of NSF has found out one of the reasons behind this phenomenon in the
Caribbean Sea. They have found new parasitic species which they have named as
Gnathid isopods.
These are blood sucking species are primarily responsible for the coral bleaching.
Transient Elastography
It is non-invasive method to test the human organs like liver, kidneys. In this method,
vibrations are applied to the body directed toward the target organ.
The response of the returning vibration gives the details of the organ such as its stiffness.
This can be compared with the healthy response.
Adulterated milk: testing problem
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Technically protein is defined as 60% of nitrogen. Accordingly all milk-tests have been
evolved to detect the protein content in the given samples.
However, the protein may be derived from animal or synthetic bases. Example 400 gms
water with 600 gms of urea, technically the mixture can be termed as 1 kg of protein.
Therefore there are some manual testing methods are required to detect the adulterated
milk.
NASAs Kepler Mission
Kepler mission is designed to find the earth like objects in the universe which are revolving
around the sun like star. Recently Kepler has confirmed earth like object which it has named
Kepler 22b.
Ballast water management convention (BWM convention).
Ballast water is the water pumped from the sea in the ship for the balancing purpose.
Along with the water many local species pumped into the ship .e.g. small fishes,
planktons, shrimps, crabs.
These species are getting introduced to new habitat when such the ballast water is
released. In the new habitats such species are evasive and causes the biodiversity loss.
To address this issue IMO (International Maritime Organization) enacted BMW
convention in 2004.
According to the convention a ship has to release the Ballast water above 200 miles from
the maritime boundary of the destination.
What is Dirty fishing?
Deep sea trawls have been used for mass scale fishing.
Along with it many unwanted species come in. Such unwanted species are again thrown
into sea. Sometimes, the scale such species are very high and thrown after long time after
catching.
This practice causes the biodiversity loss, therefore it is called as Dirty Fishing
Environmental side effects of the Deep Sea Trawling.
Deep sea trawls uses a big net which it dropped into deep sea for fish catching. Heavy
steel gates attached to such nets.
Each gate weighs about 500kgs. When a ship pulls such heavy nets, it rubs the ground of
sea which unearths coral reefs and many deep sea plants which are important for ecology
of deep sea.
In this way deep sea fishing is causing environmental hazard.
Deep sea Trawl: advantages
It was developed by the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT)
As Indian fishing industry is shrimp centered Indian trawls does not need the bottom
trawls.
Bottom trawls unearths the coral reefs and causes harm to environment.
The trawl developed by CIFT is semi-palagic (confined to upper levels in the sea).
This trawl is not causing harm to the coral reefs with lower levels of unwanted catch.
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Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)
Year 2012 witnessed numerous high intensity CMEs. CMEs are the massive bursts
occurring onto the surface of the Sun.
It causes the Magnetic solar winds ejections in the space. It also reached to the earth
causes the disturbances in the magnetosphere. It also affects various communication
satellites in the orbits of the earth.
How nitrous fertilizers contributes to the Global Warming?
Nitrous oxide is one of the major gases contributing to human-induced climate change; it
has a lifetime in the atmosphere of more than 100 years.
In addition, a molecule of nitrous oxide has more than 300 times the heat-trapping effect
in the atmosphere as a molecule of carbon dioxide.
Uncany Valley in the Robotic Science.

It is hypothesis which concludes that human acceptance towards the humanoid robots as they
becomes more intelligent will drop significantly at particular point when human will become
intolerant to the excessive intelligence possess by robots.
Greenpeace Report on Bt-Brinjal.
This news came on 30 April. The question of prelims could have been inspired by this
news. It has concluded that spread of the GE Bt gene would have considerable ecological
implications, as well as implications for future crop contamination and farmers rights.
Importantly, the spread of the GE Bt gene could result in the brinjal becoming an
aggressive and problematic weed.
This may affect the non target organisms and butterflies.
Deep sea challenger.
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Is a 7.3 metres (24 ft) deep-diving submersible designed to reach the bottom of
Challenger Deep, the deepest known point on Earth.
On March 26, 2012 (11 kms in Marina trench) , Canadian film director James Cameron
piloted the craft to accomplish this goal, becoming the first person to reach Challenger
Deep in a one-man craft.
Built in Australia by the research and design company Acheron Project Pty Ltd, the
Deepsea Challenger includes scientific sampling equipment and high-definition 3-D
cameras, and reached the oceans deepest point after roughly two hours of descent from
the surface.
Solar Impulse.

Solar Impulse
Solar powered aircraft designed in Switzerland. On 5
th
June 2012 it has made a history by
completing the first ever successful transcontinental flight from Madrid (Spain) to Rabat
(Morocco) through straight of Gibraltar. It was a 19 hrs journey.
Flame and Stuxnet.
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These are male ware programs designed for the cyber espionage purposes which are being
detected by the Russian Antivirus Software company (Kaspersky lab). It is believed that the two
maleware programs had been developed to spy the data of the centrifuges which are operational
in the Nuclear research facilities in Iran.
Karspersky Lab.
Refer Flame and Stuxnet.
Sector33- an iOS application from NASA.
This is an Apple application developed by NASA which is intended to teach aircraft flying skills
to students including the signaling and other necessary skills.
Voager1 and Voager2
These are the oldest unmanned space crafts launched by NASA under aegis of Voager Mission in
1970. In 2012 these space craft have moved out of our own galaxy (Milky way) and still
communicating with the earth.
A*star institute of technology.
It is the leading institute for electronics research situated in Singapore. Inventions such are
AMOLED, SPIN LEDs, hardware related researched had emanated from this institute.
Googles X Lab

We discussed this project in previous Science-Tech article. Go to mrunal.org/snt
It is a research organization, one of the units run by Google. It is associated with the
landmark innovative projects such as Self driving cars technology, augmented reality
glasses.
Recently it was in news because of the new successful neural network project. There
Google scientists created one of the largest neural networks for machine learning by
connecting 16,000 computer processors, which they turned loose on the Internet to learn
on its own.
Superblooms/North Atlantic Blooms
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It is also known as North Atlantic Blooms.It is an immense number of phytoplankton
burst into existence, first greening, then whitening the sea as one or more species
take the place of others.
There have been various predictions for its triggering. Previously it was concluded that
intense sunlight is causing the burst of the bloom. Recently it has been revealed that the
whirls of oceans are responsible for its triggering.
Springtime blooms of microscopic plants in the ocean absorb enormous quantities of
carbon dioxide.
Therefore the study of the phenomenon has become important to understand global
carbon cycle.
Ug99
The stem, black or cereal rusts are caused by the fungus and are a significant disease
affecting cereal crops. Crop species which are affected by the disease include bread
wheat, durum wheat, barley and triticale
An epidemic of stem rust on wheat caused by race Ug99 is currently spreading across
Africa, Asia and the Middle East and is causing major concern due to the large numbers
of people dependent on wheat for sustenance.
The strain was named after the country where it was identified (Uganda) and the year of
its discovery (1999
Scientists are working on breeding strains of wheat that are resistant to UG99. However,
wheat is grown in a broad range of environments.
This means that breeding programs would have extensive work
N-u star telescope.

NuSTAR (the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) is a space-based X-ray telescope
that uses a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources,
especially for nuclear spectroscopy, and operates in the range of 5 to 80 keV.
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This is the first space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of
the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton.
The launch was successfully conducted in June 2012.
Coral Bleaching.

Refer Gnathid isopod.
White Nose Syndrome.
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a poorly understood disease associated with the deaths
of at least 5.7 million to 6.7 million North American bats.
The condition, named for a distinctive fungal growth around the muzzles and on the
wings of hibernating bats, was first identified in a cave in Schoharie County, New York,
USA, in February 2006.
RightingBot
A lizard-inspired robot, called RightingBot, replicates the feat and its motion. If I remember
correctly it called as Zoobotics.
Human Connectome Project
The research effort called the Human Connectome Project is seeking to explore, define,
and map the functional connections of the human brain.
The Human Connectome Project seeks to map the complete, point-to-point spatial
connectivity of neural pathways in the brain.
North Atlantic Bloom
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Refer Superblooms
Foundation B612 (Near earth Objects)
It is a well known fact that there are asteroids in the space which are threat to life onto
the earth. NASA itself has identified such 1500 dangerous asteroids which it termed as
NEO (Near Earth Object).
Therefore, it has become important to keep eye on such dangerous NEOs. Interestingly,
the US based NGO has come up with the mission that it is wanted to launch its own
satellite for the same purpose.
The NGO name is Foundation B612.
Lab on Chip
A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a
single chip of only millimeters to a few square centimeters in size.
LOCs deal with the handling of extremely small fluid volumes down to less than pico
liters. The target is to analyze the blood samples so that quick diagnosis can be done. The
target cost of the credit card size analyzer is 1 USD.
SeaFox-underwater drone.
These are the underwater drone designed by the US on the similar lines of Predator Drones. It is
believed that it is part of the future possible war strategies against Iran.
Soyuz Rocket
Russian made Soyuz Rocket launched in July 2012 from Kazakhstan which carried three men
into the space. This was targeted to dock at International Space Station.
IPv6
This is new Internet Protocol number system which is in the process of the
implementation as the present IP numbers available are running short. Present number
system is IPv4.
As the number of computers, smartphones and tablets etc are increasing, IPv6 can cater
the need. The IP numbers can go up to 340 million million million with IPv6 which are
practically impossible to be consumed.
please see this comic to understand more: CLICK ME
Aerostat Balloon at Florida Naval Air Station.
It is a white 117-foot-long surveillance balloon called an aerostat by the military of America. It is
specially designed for surveillance in Afghanistan region.
IRVE-3 by NASA
Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) team that is working to develop an
inflatable heat shield.
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The technology could be used to protect spacecraft when entering a planets atmosphere
or returning here to Earth.
Fire Fly Cubesat satellite by NASA.
It is a small satellite designed by NASA aimed to capture the details of the lightening that
happens in deep space.
The satellite is also called as Firefly which will be launched in the year of 2013. Firefly is
designed to help solve the mystery of a phenomenon thats linked with lightning:
terrestrial gamma rays, or TGFs.
Bursts of gamma rays usually occur far out in space, near black holes and other high-
energy cosmic phenomena.
Scientists were surprised when, in the mid-1990s, they found powerful gamma-ray
flashes happening in the skies over Earth.
National Year of Mathematics
India has declared 2012 as National Year of Mathematics as tribute to Srinivasa Ramanujan,
an enigmatic maths maverick who despite dying aged just 32 had already achieved enough to
still be spoken of alongside Isaac Newton, Euclid and Archemedes.
US Antarctic Blue Ribbon Panel.
The Antarctica Blue Ribbon Panel encourages us to take a hard look at how we support
Antarctic science.
Recently it has made numerous recommendations to the US government that will
augment the research activities in Antactica.
Spin Organic LED

The new LED, known as spin-polarized organic LED or spin OLED, stores information in
the electrons spin and the electrical charges.
Apart from it as it is organic based it is eco friendly. In future it will reduce the burden of
e-waste.
High Resolution Coronal imager (Hi-C) telescope.
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This is the telescope launched by NASA in June 2012 which will take sharper image of
the Suns corona. In recent times, the CMEs have been intensified and scientists are
looking forward the detail images of the suns surface for analysis.
The telescope focused on a large active region on the sun with some images revealing the
dynamic structure of the solar atmosphere in fine detail. These images were taken in the
extreme ultraviolet wavelength.
This higher energy wavelength of light is optimal for viewing the hot solar corona.
Cluster beans (Guar) Gum and its industrial applications.

Recently, the commodity trading of the Guar is being aborted. (July-Aug2012). India is
largest producer of the Guar and exported as well.
The powdered Guar is used to create Gels which are useful in Ice-cream making. Another
one, the oil of the Cluster bean is useful for bearing lubrication.
It has special characteristics which automatically heals the corrosion in the bearings.
AirBus A350
This is the aircraft designed by the Airbus which has carbon fiber wings. The first test flight was
conducted in April 2012 and soon in coming years it will commercially launched.
Radio Tracking of Animals: 3 types
(This one contributed by Shobhit Awasthi)
VHF radio tracking
(Very High
Frequency Tracking
)
Usually Radio transmitter are placed in the collar of animal and
then scientists collect information about their health. Conventional
VHF tracking system consists of Transmiter, Receiving system and
Antenna.
Satellite Tracking
Satellite tracking is similar to VHF radio tracking, but instead of a
radio signal being sent to a radio receiver, a signal is sent to a
satellite. Scientists track their animal from computer. It is a lot
easier than VHF because scientists dont have to be near the
animal.
Satellite Tracking is far less accurate than either conventional VHF
radio tracking or GPS radio-tracking. But Statellite Tracking is
more useful over Antarctica and Arctic region since there were no
flights.
GPS Tracking
GPS tracking is the newest technology, The radio receiver picks up
signals from special satellites. The receiver has a computer that
then calculates the location and movement of the animal.
The data gathered by the receiver is then sent to another set of
satellites. The second set of satellites then sends the data to the
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scientists.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/10/answerkey-mockgs2-snt-tushar.html

How to get PDF
[Science] IPCC- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Meaning and functions
Guest article by Mr.Arpan Gupta
1. What is IPCC?
2. The Structure of IPCC
3. IPCC reports: how are they prepared?
4. Why important?
What is IPCC?
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
H.Q in Geneva
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international
body for the assessment of climate change.
It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988.
To have a clear view on the present scenario of Climate change and its future impact on
Enviornment, Livelihood, Economics.
It does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters.
It merely assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information
produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change.
Thousand of scientists contribute to provide info voluntarily.
It is open to all member countries of the United Nations (UN) and WMO. Currently 195
countries are members of the IPCC.
The Structure of IPCC
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Each group assess the report in their respective proficiency and then a succinct conclusion can
be configured out.
IPCC reports: how are they prepared?
Check this flow-chart
115

timeline of reports
Assessment Reports Year of Publication
first 1990
Second 1995
Third 2001
Fourth 2007
Why important?
The fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)
said that most of the warming that has taken place since the middle of the last century is very
likely the result of increase in the concentration of human-induced greenhouse gases. A hot
topic.
Fodder material can be mug up through the Yojana Disaster Management in India,
comprising
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Harnessing technology to employ systems which can efficiently predict monsoon, Early
Warning System and bla.. bla.
Formulating a National Action Plan.
Implementation and regular assessment
Ascertaining the post disaster effects which are generally not counted in monetary terms
as well as social terms.
Encourage the people to emit less and to plant more and all that.
Formulating the new policies like Carbon Trading, whose target is to ultimately bring
down the concentration of GHG irrespective of the nations.
Reference
1. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shelter-from-the-storm/1010463/1
2. http://www.ipcc.ch/

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/10/science-ipcc.html

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How to get PDF
[Public Health] Japanese Encephalitis Menace in India: Reasons, Prevention and control
1. What is Japanese Encephalitis (JE)?
2. What are the symptoms?
3. Geographical Spread
4. Solution for Japanese Encephalitis (JE)?
5. What is Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES)?
6. Why is Japanese Encephalitis in News?
7. JEEV (2 marker)
8. National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (5 marker)
9. Mock Questions
1. Mains
2. Interview
What is Japanese Encephalitis (JE)?
The suffix -itis means inflammation.
Encephalitis means inflammation of the brain
Meningitis inflammation of the meninges (the tissues that surround the brain or
spinal cord)
What are the symptoms?
headache and stiff neck
Convulsions
Weakness of the arms, legs
Pain behind the eyes
Raised body temperature between 38 and 41 degrees Celsius.
If untreated, it can result in to Coma, paralysis Mental retardation or death. fatality rate
can be as high as 60%
Geographical Spread
Flavivirus reproduces in pigs but doesnt infect them. So, Pigs are amplifying hosts. (also
water birds)
Mosquitoes belonging to the Culex tritaeniorhynchus and Culex vishnui groups they
usually breed in flooded rice fields.
These Culex mosquitoes are normally zoophilic, i.e. they prefer to take blood meals from
animals rather than from humans.
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These Mosquitoes usually prefer to drink the blood of such pigs. But when the
population of such mosquitoes increases exponentially (during rainy season, around
August), human biting rate increases.
And thus Flavivirus gets transferred from pigs to humans and damages our brain=
inflation of brain = Japanese Encephilitis.
Man is the dead end host, i.e. JE is not transmitted from one infected person to other.
In short, Japanese Encephalitis requires four things
1. Pigs with flavivirus (Amplifying host).
2. Rice fields (Mosquito breeding ground)
3. Culex mosquitos (carrier)
4. Human (The innocent victim)

Image from www.medindia.net
Therefore, JE is found throughout south east Asia, because Rice cultivation and pig rearing is
common.
But because of the critical role of pigs, its presence in Muslim countries is negligible.
Solution for Japanese Encephalitis (JE)?
1. Vaccination
2. Chemical vector control (e.g. spraying chemicals to kill mosquitos)= not good solution,
because the breeding sites (irrigated rice fields) are huge.
3. Keep larvae eating fish, such as guppies, in ponds.
4. Personal protection (using repellents and/or mosquito nets) = good idea.
5. There is no transmission from person to person and therefore patients do not need to be
isolated.
6. If there is large scale outbreak of JE, Government would need to eliminate pig
population = problem of livelihood.
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7. Rice growing farmers should never be encouraged to do pig rearing as a secondary
source of income.
8. Firstly, there is no curative treatment for J.E. (i.e. No magic pill, injection etc. that will
cure it). J.E. is treated symptomatically by reducing the fever, analgesics for headache,
sedatives for seizures and specialized intravenous therapy to reduce cerebral swelling.
Apart from Japanese, there is another type of Encephalitis, known as Acute encephalitis
syndrome (AES)
What is Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES)?
This is also inflammation of brain.
But it is caused by entero virus.
The virus comes in the air or water through open defecation and circulates mainly
through shallow hand pumps in the area.
Why is Japanese Encephalitis in News?
In India alone, the of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES),
which have claimed nearly 1,000 lives so far in 2012.
In Oct 2012, Government of India launched a Rs.4000 crore plan to tackle JE problem.
Main Target States : Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Assam
This plan will jointly implemented by following Ministries of
1. Health and Family Welfare,
2. Drinking Water and Sanitation,
3. Social Justice and Empowerment,
4. Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
5. Women and Child Development.
Plan has following components:
1. Vaccination of Children (1.5 to 15 years age group)
2. provide safe drinking water to the affected persons by replacing shallow tubewells with
deep tubewells (To prevent Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES))
3. Provide proper sanitation facilities. (Perhaps allotting more money under Total
Sanitation Campaign)
4. Provide alternative means of livelihood for pig-rearing farmers.
5. Set up special schools for mentally challenged children.
JEEV (2 marker)
JEEV is the brandname of Indias first indigenously developed vaccine for Japanese
Encephalitis (JE). There is no other vaccine available to private doctors in India
currently. But the company has yet to obtain approval of WHO to export this vaccine to
other countries. (important because this happened in Sept.2012)
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National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (5 marker)
It is a comprehensive programme for prevention and control of vector borne diseases
namely Malaria,
Filaria, Kala-azar, Japanese Encephalitis (JE), Dengue and Chikungunya.
It is covered under the overall umbrella of National Rural Health Mission.
Mock Questions
Please note: you can find truckload of potential MCQs Statements and 2 markers from India
Yearbooks chapter on Health and Family Welfare.
Multi Choice Question (MCQ)
Which of the following statements are correct?
1. Swine is the amplifying host of the virus responsible for Japanese Encephalitis.
2. Aedes aegypti mosquito is the main carrier of Japanese Encephalitis.
3. Poultry culling is essential during the outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis.
4. Japanese Encephalitis is widely prevalent in Arid and Desert areas of Africa.
5. Japanese Encephalitis can spread by talking or touching a patient.
6. The vectors of Japanese Encephalitis breed in large water bodies such as paddy fields.
Mains
1. To what extend the geography and climate of India are responsible for the menace of
Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya and Jap.Encephalities. Suggest long term mitigation
efforts required to uproot these diseases. (25 marks).
2. Suggest measures for prevention and control of Japanese Encephalitis in India (12
marks)
3. The JEEV vaccine has been making the headlines in the recent months. Who make the
ideal candidates for receiving this vaccine and what are its benefits? (2 marks)
Interview
1. As a district collector what steps would you take in case of an outbreak of Japanese
Encephalitis / Dengue / SARS?
Ref
1. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-nod-for-rs-4000cr-plan-to-fight-japanese-
encephalitis/1018801/
2. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/encephalitis/en/
3. http://www.baliadvertiser.biz/articles/paradise/2012/japanese.html
4. http://newindianexpress.com/business/news/article606368.ece

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general-studies.html

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[Science] Stem Cell Research, Controversy, Noble Prize 2012
This is a guest post by Mr.Manikandan Soundararajan
1. Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine (2012):
2. What are Stem cells?
3. Where are Stem cells found?
4. What are the application of Stem cells?
5. Organ transplant and stem cells
6. Controversy surrounding stem cells:
7. Stem Cell research in USA
8. Stem Cell : Pro and Anti Arguments
9. Birth to Death- Not only you, your cell also grows:
10. Significance of Gurdon and Yamanakas Discovery
11. Conclusion:
Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine (2012):
Given to John B. Gurdon and Shina Yamanaka for their discovery that
differentiation of cells is a reversible process (explained below).
What exactly are they talking about?
1. To understand we need some preliminary info regarding human reproduction and
development process.
2. Humans reproduce sexually i.e. require two parents (need a sperm and an egg)
3. The sperm fuses with the egg to form a fused product called zygote. This cell divides
itself to develop in to a baby.
4. Now here it is seen that we have only one cell (we know cells similar to brick of a
wall, are bricks of our body) zygote, which develops the entire human having eyes,
heart, lungs etc. i.e. one cell capable of producing an organism= totipotency
(potential to develop a total organism).
5. There are some other cells which have the capability to produce limited types of tissues,
some which can produce only one specific tissue based on which we classify them.. Look
into the figure for the classification.
What are Stem cells?
Definition wise a stem cell should be:
Able to divide and differentiate itself into specialized cells.
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Importantly should have the capability of self-renewal, i.e. reproduce itself.
Where are Stem cells found?
Usually human embryo is a very good source, where all cells are totipotent.
Stem cells are also present in adults called adult stem cells or somatic cells. These
cells are found in bone marrow [a very popular source], blood etc.
These cells do the important function of replenishing tissues, to be simple replacing
dead cells.
What are the application of Stem cells?
Stem cells can be potentially used to replace diseased cells, lost cells [malfunctioning
heart, trachea etc.].
A cure for Parkinson like diseases [A degenerative disorder caused by cell death in brain]
Type I diabetes can also have a cure with stem cells.
Cure for blood cancer- leukemia.
And another most important application in organ transplants.

Organ transplant and stem cells
We have heard something called antibodies, some antigens, some WBCs(Police force of
the body, ring a bell?? 8th class science). In higher classes, we were told, X has a kidney
failure, needs kidney transplant to survive, but the kidney has to be from a blood relative
else organ rejection will occur!
The actual story here: Our body has its own frontline defense white blood corpuscles,
which do not allow any foreign national whatsoever in to its boundaries. So an outsider
kidney=alien, rejected entry, so the only way is to get a replacement from relative. In this
application stem cells are a sustainable replacement
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Controversy surrounding stem cells:
Stem cells were essentially sourced from human embryos in the beginning, which
required embryonic cells. But some people saw this as killing of a child and charged it as
murder.
Also religious institutions resented to the use of embryos for research.
Use of adult stem cells face the difficulty in extraction.
Stem Cell research in USA
US is one country where issues surrounding stem cells and their therapeutic usage are complex:
State funding in stem cell & embryonic research was common in US
Problems started with legalizing abortions in 1973.
Now fearing that further state funding would encourage abortions, women
especially poor and vulnerable would be exploited ban was placed on state funding
on researches involving human embryos.
As usual private, scientist lobby and great range of possibilities like a cure for
parkinsons, blood cancer , cardio problems with the loophole of lack of regulation in
private sector all forced the government to lift the ban in 2001.
Bush administration was behind this policy framework, which got critics from churches,
anti-abortion movements, general public.
Even now US has only partially lifted the ban still a moratorium remains, whereby
embryos created solely for research only can get state funding.
Stem Cell : Pro and Anti Arguments
Favor Against
1. Promising cure for various ailments.
2. Private practice unregulated, so no use
closing state practice
3. Conversion ratio of an embryo into
living being very low, the remains are as
of now wasted.
4. So better we put them to use
3. Organ donation incases of brain death
legal, and to think organ donation can
increase murders=foolish
3. Similarly thinking embryo
donation=increased abortion is foolish
1. Legally Embryo the day it is formed=
Human life, so it enjoys all rights,like
Art 21=Right to life[Indian scenario]
2. Embryo sale can start, poor can be
exploited easily.
3. Not an Inclusive Plan as such, poor will
stay out of reach of benefits.
4. Ill effects of cloning like break of social
fabric,
5. misuse in the hands of terrorists etc
bound to happen
6. Not a panacea to all ills as it is made out
to be. Experimental results as of now
are not reliable.
Thus there was a need for pluripotent and totipotent cells for various purposes and that
too bypassing all the above ill effects.
It is here the two laureates [Gurdon and Yamanaka] came in with their contributions.
Now Lets try to understand what they did in simpler terms.
Birth to Death- Not only you, your cell also grows:
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In Life the cells of an organism proceed from initial undifferentiated stage to mature
specialized stage through the process of differentiation, like a student in schools, studies
science, history, geography, English while during graduation narrows his focus only to
his subject of specialization, during doctorate further narrowed thought to one area
in a subject!!
Similar to this our cells at birth manage all functions, with maturity they specialize: eye
cells for vision, heart cells for purification, pumping etc. And this natural process is
irreversible, that is once they mature, cells never exhibit their magical ability to be
the jack of all trades. This was the plight in 1950s.
Now in 1960s this person called Gurdon said Ordinary cells have only temporarily lost
their pluripotency and if necessary changes made can become stem cells.
Gurdon proved it in his experiment, he simply took the nuclei (grain of brick, i.e. part of
our cells, of course the master of a cell is its nuclei) of a mature cell from a frog replaced
it for nuclei in a newly fertilized egg (already told you egg cells=totipotent) and
developed it in to a new tadpole. i.e. here the nuclei of a mature cell developed the new
tadpole.
But the second person Yamanaka went further proving, no need the help of an egg cell
to develop a new offspring, just any mature cell, like that of a skin, can be simply made
pluripotent. His major contribution was he identified the required genes and codes for
making a mature cell pluripotent. The result was increased accuracy, efficiency in
converting a mature cell to immature cell.[Dedifferentiation]
Significance of Gurdon and Yamanakas Discovery
Their discoveries were answers to problems surrounding use of stem cells.
Was an easy way to convert ordinary cells to stem cells. A reliable source for pluripotent
cells
No destruction of embryos involved.
Basis for cloning, the discovery of Gurdon was the basis for cloning.
Yet some problems still remain in this technology:
Reliability, efficiency of conversion is still low.
If put to improper use without sufficient research can lead to uncontrolled, cancerous
growth of cells.
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Conclusion:
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Thus we see that these scientists have furthered a revolution and in here lays the answer
to many incurable diseases of today.
Though clinical trials, human experimentation are not into practice yet, some
preliminary treatments like bone marrow transplant, cardiovascular treatments with
stem cells have been demonstrated elsewhere is a sample for the success of the
technology.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/11/science-stem-cell-research-controversy-
noble-prize.html

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[Science] PREDICCS, LCROSS, HXMT, Life on Mars (Space related S&T from Hindu Sept-Oct-
2012)
1. Life on Mars
2. NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
3. PREDICCS
4. LCROSS
5. Hard x-ray modulation telescope (HXMT)
6. Zero Gravity effect
Life on Mars
Why life is possible on Earth but not on mars: some reasons
1. Our moon is of the right size, able to control the spinning of the earth and its axis of
rotation, thus stabilizing our climate and seasons.
2. ozone layer, which shields molecules on earth from being zapped away by cosmic
radiation
3. gravitational strength of Earth keeps useful gases from escaping off into space.
NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Used for acquiring 3-D views of the moons surface.
PREDICCS
web-based tool
for predicting and forecasting the radiation environment in near-Earth, lunar and
Martian space.
It will provide critical information as preparations are made for potential future manned
missions to the Moon and Mars.
LCROSS
NASAs Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing satellite,
It has detected presence of water locked inside the soil of moon.
Hard x-ray modulation telescope (HXMT)
Chinas first space telescope.
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Will be used for studying blackholes.
Zero Gravity effect
disembarking astronauts are taller than embarking ones.
This growth is due to zero gravity the vertebrae of the spine spread out.
Ref
Based on Hindu S&T Section in September, October 2012

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/11/science-prediccs-lcross-hxmt-mars.html

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[Science] SCOAP3, Electronic Nose, Baxter, Lytro
1. Electronic nose
2. Bio-inspired microbot
3. Nano-tech: Some new applications
4. SCOAP3
5. Baxter
6. Marconi vs Bose: Wireless
7. Lytro
Electronic nose
Prototype electronic instrument.
It can detect small quantities of harmful airborne substances.
can be used for Batch to batch consistency during production. (perfumes, food)
Detection of contamination, spoilage, adulteration
Bio-inspired microbot
Developed by China
It is capable of not just walking on water but jumping up and down on the waters
surface like the insect.
Nano-tech: Some new applications
1. Manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs): by adding them to soil, we can increase crop
yield.
2. radioactive gold nanoparticles= used for prostate cancer treatment in dogs. It has a
chance of being used in humans.
SCOAP3
Initiative by CERN. (those God-particle wallas)
Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics.
Under this project, about 7,000 particle-physics papers, published in subscription
journals, will soon become freely accessible to anyone from any part of the world.
Baxter
A humanoid robot with common sense, made in USA.
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It is designed to work safely alongside its human co-workers on factory production lines,

Baxter Robo looks like this
Marconi vs Bose: Wireless
Guglielmo Marconi is often credited with inventing radio transmission
But the record clearly shows that wireless transmission of electromagnetic waves was
first successfully demonstrated by Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose and that too in Kolkata
Bose reported on his experiments at the Royal Institution in London.
But soon after Boses talk, Marconi changed the design of his detector and cameup with
his invention.
Lytro
New type of camera that lets users adjust the focus after taking pictures. shoot now,
focus later.
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Lytro Camera
Ref
Based on The Hindu S&T Section, Sept-Oct 2012

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/11/science-scoap3-electronic-nose-baxter-
lytro-astar.html

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[Public Health] ENCODE, GPCR, LNT, Disease in Dish, RNTCP & other 2/5 markers from The
Hindu S&T (Sept-Oct 2012)
1. Antibiotic resistance
2. Super-spreading of Dengue
3. Humanised mice
4. RNTCP (Revised National TB Control Programme)
5. Reproduction
6. Spicy food and Tears
7. G-proteincoupled receptors (GPCRs)
8. Pineapple itching
9. Blank Slate Cells / Reprograming Cells / Disease in Dish
10. ENCODE project
11. Single-dose drug cure for malaria
12. HIV drops in India
13. Linear No Threshold (LNT) concept
14. Tobacco law & WTO
15. Mock Questions
16. Mains/Descriptive
Antibiotic resistance
It is the ability of certain microorganisms to withstand attack by antimicrobials drugs
Main factor for the rise and spread of resistant microbes= Overuse and misuse of
antimicrobials drugs.
The spread of drug resistance is faster in India due to many reasons lack of infection
control practices in hospitals, absence of antibiotic policy, sanitation issues in the
community etc.
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Super-spreading of Dengue
Super spreading means, one infected person passes on a disease to lots of others,
This is an important factor driving dengue transmission in places.
Since mosquitoes are concentrated in only a couple of homes in each locality, an infected
individual in those houses or in their immediate vicinity was likely to get bitten and pass
on the virus to a large number of mosquitoes, who then pass it on to many other humans
mosquito Aedes aegypti carries the virus for Dengue.
Humanised mice
It is engrafted with human liver cells.
Itll help research liver-to-blood stage infection of Malaria.
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RNTCP (Revised National TB Control Programme)
Meant for 2012-2017
It aims to involve private sector into the fight against Tuberculosis.
Nearly one lakh new multidrug resistant (MDR) TB cases are estimated to occur every
year.
The only way of reducing mortality and morbidity is by engaging the private sector
Reproduction
Q. Why does the immune system in females not attack sperms (foreign bodies) that enter the
female body?
human immune system is that it can differentiate self from others. This allows the
body to fight off any foreign cells which it encounters. That is why it is difficult to
transplant organs without suppressing the immune system
However, when it comes to reproduction, the human body not only ignores the sperm,
but also fails to recognise the foetus (which has half of its material from a foreign
donor) as a foreign body
Studies have confirmed the presence of markers on the surface of the human sperm
These markers on the sperm are universally recognised by any womans immune system,
and trick the immune system into believing that the sperm is harmless. That is why
reproduction can occur between any two people.
Spicy food and Tears
Why are tears produced in our eyes when we eat something which is spicy or spicy over
our limits?
When we eat food the sensory nerve endings on our tongue are stimulated.
This nerve also serves as the sensory nerve to the surface of the eye and face.
When we eat very spicy food the sensory nerve endings on the tongue are irritated and
an overload of noxious stimulus is carried to the eyes as well, hence tears.
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G-proteincoupled receptors (GPCRs)
Human cells have these receptors
It enables them to sense chemical substances hormones, poisons and drugs in their
environment.
2012 Noble Prize in Chemistry is given for this topic.
Pineapple itching
Why do we get an itching sensation in our mouth when we eat too much of pineapple?
Pineapple, botanically, is not a single fruit berry. It is a collection of individual fruits
(each fruit, marked on the surface by the near-hexagonal demarcation)
Pineapple contains a proteolytic (protein hydrolyzing) enzyme
When we have eaten the pineapple, this enzyme temporarily stays on the tongue and
interiors of the mouth and starts attacking the proteinous muscle parts of the tongue and
the mouth while sensitizing the nerve endings there.
These neurological signals, when transmitted to the brain, make us feel the pricking and
itching sensation.
Blank Slate Cells / Reprograming Cells / Disease in Dish
Terms associated with stem cell research done by Gurdon and Yamanaka (they got
Noble-2012 for it).
Once created, these blank slate cells can be used for developing into other cell types.
For example, Skin cells can ultimately be transformed into brain cells.
This Reprogramming allows scientists to create particular kinds of tissue they want to
study, like lung tissue for studying cystic fibrosis, or brain tissue for Huntingtons
disease.
By reprogramming cells from patients with a particular disease, they can create new
tissue with the same genetic background, and study it in the lab. That can give new
insights into the roots of the problem.
In addition, that approach allows them to screen drugs in the lab for possible new
medicines.
(more discussed in earlier guest article by Mr.Manikandan)
ENCODE project
ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements, which was started in 2003.
The goal is to find all functional elements in the human genome.
Until recently, the majority view has been that much of the DNA is junkDNA that is
never transcribed and has no biological function and only 1% of the DNA is actually
responsible for everything.
But ENCODE project has found that not one per cent but more than 80 per cent of the
genome has an active role or function.
Single-dose drug cure for malaria
Scientists claim to have discovered a drug that could cure all strains of malaria with a
single oral dose and also block transmission of the deadly parasite from person to
person.
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Will be made from synthetic molecule from the aminopyridine class.
HIV drops in India
HIV which causes AIDS was detected in India nearly 25 years back. Though more
than 2 million people are affected by the virus, India is said to be one of the few countries
which has actually made significant reductions in HIV infections.
India had witnessed a sharp decline in the number of new HIV cases a 56 per cent
drop in the past 10 years, because of the National AIDS control Programme.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) =Used for HIV treatment.
Linear No Threshold (LNT) concept
means that harmful effects of radiation increase with radiation dose and even small
radiation doses can cause some finite harm.
Some scientists challenge the validity of LNT concept.
They say, in low dose radiation we would be fine, and would not have any cellular
damage.
(then it leads to debate on mobile phone radiation etc. we already saw it in an earlier
article.)
Tobacco law & WTO
Australia enacted worlds toughest law on cigarette promotion, meaning tobacco
companies will be prohibited from displaying their logos on cigarette packs that will
instead feature images of cancerriddled mouths, blinded eyeballs and sickly children.
But Australia faces a potential challenge to its laws through the World Trade
Organization,
Three tobacco growing countries Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic
making official requests for consultation on plain packaging.
Consultations are the first stage of the WTOs dispute resolution process.
Mock Questions
Which of the following statements are correct?
1. Aedes aegypti carries the virus for Dengue.
2. India launched national antibiotic policy in 2007
3. Pineapple is a single fruit berry.
Mains/Descriptive
1. What are the salient features of National Aids Control Programme. Evaluate its success.
What steps should be taken in future, to reduce the spread of HIV even further? (25m)
2. Write a note on the Revised National TB Control Programme (10m)
3. Examine the need for a National policy on Antibiotics? 10 marks
4. Examine the ethical issues involved in Stem cell research. What is the policy of
Government of India, regarding Stem cell research?
Ref
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The Hindu, S&T section, September-October 2012

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/11/public-health-encode-gpcr-dish-
rntcp.html

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[Public Health] GeneXpert, Project Axshya, MALDI, Dermoscope, Bariatric Surgery,
Neurostimulator
1. What is GeneXpert/ CBNAAT?
2. Project Axshya/ Mr.Sputum
3. Bariatric surgery
4. Neurostimulator
5. MALDI
6. Dermoscope
7. Cataract
8. Femtosecond Cataract Surgery
9. Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion
10. Mock questions
What is GeneXpert/ CBNAAT?
Problem with MDR-TB= it takes almost 8 weeks, for doctor to diagnose this disease.
You already know about multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) , if not click ME
Basically the MDR-TB bacteria donot die with the conventional TB-drug.
GeneXpert/ CBNAAT is the latest device that can diagnose this MDR-TB in just two
hours.

GeneXpert TB-Detection Device
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Advantages of GeneXpert
Fastest detection of TB.
can be installed at any place and can be used by paramedical staff.
A health worker just needs to collect sputum of the suspected TB patient and mix it with
a chemical and put it under the Device and get the result.
World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved this device and its testing accuracy.
Government has decided to install these GeneXpert devices under Revised National
Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)
This device costs Rs.10 lakh, but Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), an
international NGO has donated funds to India to install it in various cities.
Project Axshya/ Mr.Sputum

Xshya= Sanskrit word for TB. Axshya=TB free.
Project Axshya is a civil society initiative to make India TB-free.
Bulgum Bhai (Mr.Sputum) is their mascot. He appears on TV, Radio ads, street plays, to
spread the message, If you have been coughing for more than two weeks, better get your
sputum tested
India has the highest TB burden in the world, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the
global incidence.
Union World Conference on Lung Health was held in Kuala Lumpur. This Mr.Sputum
project was featured there.
Now, Following terms/current affairs topics based on Cleveland Top 10 Clinical awards.
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Bariatric surgery
Bariatric surgery (weight-loss surgery)= of procedures performed on people who are
obese.
Basically it involves surgically reducing the size of the stomach or removal of a portion of
the stomach.
also helps lowering blood pressure and cholesterol of the patient.
Experts believe it can greatly help with Type 2 diabetes.
Neurostimulator

New therapy for Migraine (type of Headache).
Migraine is a chronic disease (long-term disease, unlike Common fever.)
Neurostimulator is a device size of an almond. see above image.
It is placed in the upper gum of patients mouth, through a small surgical incision.
When a patient feels a headache or Migraine coming, the device delivers stimulation to
block the headache pain.
MALDI
It is a new Mass-Spectroscopy technique to detect Bacterial infection in blood, sputum,
tissue etc.
MALDI=Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization.
MALDI can accurately identify bacteria in minutes, which allows doctors to more quickly
and appropriately treat infections.
Dermoscope
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Melanoma=Skin cancer.
To Detect Melanoma, earlier dermatologists had to put incision (cut) on the skin, take
sample, and observe It under microscope.
Dermoscope is a new handheld device for skin-cancer (Melanoma) detection.
The device uses imaging technology that, in less than one minute, visualizes the micro-
vessel structure of just below the skins surface. So Cancer can be detected without
incision.
Cataract

Lens clouded by Cataract
eye disease in which natural lens of eye gets clouded.(observe above image)
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Cataract is painless. But It causes blindness by obstructing passage of light, although the
patient can distinguish light from darkness.
Cataract is a common disease for people over 50 years of age. However, it can happen at
young age also, if a person is suffering from Diabetes.
Cataract can be successfully cured using surgery.
The present Cataract surgery involves using surgical blade or laser, to cut the the clouded
parts of lens (or removing the lens and planting a new artificial lens)
Femtosecond Cataract Surgery
Femtosecond=one quadrillionth of a second.
This is the latest surgical for Cataract, using a computer Laser system, now the the
surgeon can soften and break up the cataract within Femtoseconds.
This surgery is more precise and causes less inflammation after surgery.
Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion
Lung transplant surgery is required in patients with diseases such as Chronic pulmonary
disease, cystic fibrosis etc. (usually associated with heavy smokers.)
Problem: 80 percent of donated lungs, cant be used, either because theyre too full of
fluid, infected with bacteria, or otherwise damaged.
Ex-Vivo lung perfusion =A new way of treating these lungs and make them donor
friendly.
In this technique, a special chemical solution is injected into dead-persons lungs and
then he is kept on a ventilator for 4-6 hours. This can reverse lung injury and dry out
excess fluid. Then lungs can be removed and transplanted to the patient.
Mock questions
Q1 Consider these statements:
1. Cataract is an extremely painful inflammation of eye.
2. A diabetes patient is more likely to develop Cataract at young age.
3. Bariatric Surgery is required for Melanoma.
4. Dermoscope is a new device to treat dandruff, hairfall and baldness.
Which of above statements are correct?
a. Only 1 and 4
b. Only 2 and 3
c. Only 2
d. Only 1, 2 and 4.
Q2. Consider these statements
1. Mass Spectroscopy can detect viral infection but not bacterial or fungal infection.
2. Migraine is an acute disease.
3. Gene Expert is the latest AIDS detection test, 2 times faster than ELSA test.
Which of above statements are correct?
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a. Only 1 and 2
b. Only 2 and 3
c. Only 1 and 3.
d. None
Descriptive/ Mains GS
1. Project Akshaya (2m)
2. Enumerate the benefits of GeneXpert test. (5 marks)
3. Government initiatives against the menace of Cataract and TB. (10 marks)

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/11/public-health-genexpert-project-axshya-
maldi-dermoscope-bariatric-surgery-neurostimulator.html

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[Science] No Touch Breastscan, Chemin, TLS, CFL vs Tubelight choke etc from The Hindu S&T,
Nov 2012
1. No Touch BreastScan (NTBS)
2. CheMin
3. Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS)
4. Gale Crater
5. Volcanic Activity in New Zealand
6. Step-Throat and Salt water gargaling
7. Why no Choke needed in CFL?
No Touch BreastScan (NTBS)
Imaging device, based on thermography, to detect brast cancer.
Increased metabolism in cancer cells leads to increase in temperature.
The NTBS device looks for temperature hot spots at the surface of breast and detects
breast cancer.
However, US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has found no evidence to support
the claim that thermography is a replacement for mammography.
CheMin
Name of device in NASAs Curiosity rover.
Full name=Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument
It is used for soil analysis on Mars.
CheMin uses X-ray diffraction, the standard practice for geologists on Earth using much
larger laboratory instruments.
This method provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method
previously used on Mars.
CheMin found that minerals on the Red Planet are similar to those found in volcanic
soils in Hawaii.
Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS)
Name of device on Curiosity Rover.
The presence of methane is an important sign to indicate that life may have existed in the
planets past.
TLS analysed a small sample of Martian air to come to the conclusion, had actually
detected a few parts per billion of methane.
However, recognising that the reading was too low to be significant, it sounded a No.
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Gale Crater
Located on Mars planet.
Curiosity rover found signs that water may have flowed in the past through Gale Crater.
Volcanic Activity in New Zealand
New Zealand lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Earths tectonic plates collide,
making it a hotspot for volcanic and earthquake activity.
In the late 1800s, Mount Ruapehu, Mount Tarawera of New Zeland had erupted, caused
destruction of life and property.
Recently Mt. Tongariro erupted in New Zealand. This Volcanic mountain was used as a
backdrop in famous Hollywood movie Lord of the Rings
Step-Throat and Salt water gargaling
Why do we feel relief when we gargle with salt in hot water when suffering from throat
pain?
Soreness of throat is generally due to the infection of the bacterium called Streptococcus
.
So it is called strep throat.
A strep throat is usually inflamed due to bacteria making widespread damage on our soft
tissues or mucosa.
These inflammations (known as edemas) are usually filled with water.
When we gargle with warm salt water that is saltier than our body fluids (hypertonic
solution), through osmosis the salt draws out the edema fluid.
Moreover gargling with salt water does not actually help to heal the strep throat like a
medicine would, but it does provide temporary relief.
If we do not experience relief as a result of the salt water gargling and if the pain persists
we must consult a doctor to get proper antibiotic treatment.
Why no Choke needed in CFL?
Why is a choke required in a tube light and not in a CFL?
Both tubelights and CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) are low pressure mercury vapour
discharge lamps.
When electrical discharge could strike the column of the tube, lot of invisible UV
radiation having is generated.
This UV radiation when strikes the white coating inside the tube made of fluorescent
material- phosphors gets converted to visible light through the process of fluorescence.
Thus we see the white light.
For a conventional a tubelight, a choke is required, to initiate the electrical discharge
process.
But CFLs, being smaller in dimensions offering much lower electrical resistance do not
require such bulky chokes.
Instead the discharge in CFLs is initiated by much compact electronic circuits integrated
into the CFL holder.
Mock Questions
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Q1. We feel relief when we gargle with salt in hot water when suffering from throat pain, because
a. Hot Salt water kills the bacteria responsible for throat pain
b. Hot Salt water works as muscle relaxant
c. Hot salt water salt draws out the edema fluid from the throat.
d. None of Above
Q2. Find correct statement
1. Tubelight is a low pressure mercury vapour discharge lamp
2. CFL is a high pressure mercury vapor discharge lamp.
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q3. Which of the following is/are incorrect regarding devices of Curiosity rover?
1. Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) analysed the soil of Mars
2. CheMin analysed the presence of methane in the atmospere of Mars
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Ref
These terms are from The Hindu S&T, Nov-2012. For previous collections, visit
www.Mrunal.org/snt

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cfl-vs-tubelight-choke-etc-from-the-hindu.html

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[Science] TheHindu Dec12: Asteroid Mining, GRAIL, MoonKAMs, Liquiglide, Oraquick and
more Science-Tech for UPSC CSAT
1. Space related
o Asteroid Mining + Space Station
o Mercury Messenger
o GRAIL
o MoonKAMs
o Ebb and Flow, Sally Ride
2. Science-Tech
o LiquiGlide
o Plastic light bulb
o Nuke Desalination plant
o MakerBot Replicator
o Switchblade Drone
o Element 113
3. Biology
o Biological Plough Redgram
o Handheld Dental X-ray
o Why skin itching during wound healing?
o OraQuick Home
o Parkinsons disease
o Dogs in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
o NHRDF-RED-2
4. Mock Questions
Space related
Asteroid Mining + Space Station
NASAs plan for Asteroids?
NASA scientists are planning to capture a 500,000 kg asteroid, and transform it into a
space station for astronauts to refuel at on their way to Mars.
This technology would also open up the possibility of mining other asteroids for their
metals and minerals.
Some asteroids are full of iron which could be used for in the making of new space
stations
Others asteroids are made up of water which could be broken down into hydrogen and
oxygen to make fuel
NASA plans to accomplish this in next 10-12 years.
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Asteroids Comets
Small rocky or metallic body that orbits the
Sun.
Most asteroids are found between the orbits of
the planets Mars and Jupiter in a wide region
called the asteroid belt.
It is because of their small size and large
numbers relative to the major planets that
asteroids are also called minor planets.
small icy body in space that sheds
gas and dust.
A Comet appears generally as a
bright head with a long tail.
The length of the tail grows in size
as it approaches the sun. (because
Suns heat coverts the ice directly
into gas without melting).
The tail of a comet is always
directed away from the sun
Halleys comet, appears after
nearly every 76 years.
Meteors Meteroites
A meteor is usually a small object that
Occasionally enters the earths atmosphere.
At that time it has a very high speed. The
friction due to the atmosphere heats it up.
It glows and evaporates quickly. Hence known
as Shooting stars.
Some meteors are large so that
they can reach the Earth before
they evaporate completely.
The body that reaches the Earth
is called a meteorite

Comet and its tail
Mercury Messenger
Mercury is the innermost planet in the Solar System.
NASAs MESSENGER spacecraft has reported presence of water-ice on Mercury.
GRAIL
GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission.
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It is NASAs first planetary mission to carry cameras fully dedicated to education and
public outreach.
MoonKAMs
MoonKAM= Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students.
The MoonKams captures images of the moons surface and sends them to the students
for study.
Ebb and Flow, Sally Ride
Two NASA spacecraft Ebb and Flow, equippped with MoonKAMs and orbitting
around Moon since 2011 under GRAIL mission.
But they did not have sufficient altitude or fuel to continue science operations. Hence
NASA team crash-landed them on Moon in Dec 2012.
The place where they crash landed is named after Sally K. Ride, Americas first woman
astronaut.
Science-Tech
LiquiGlide

Ketchup wont stick inside bottle anymore!
A coating material for any type food containers glass, ceramic, metal and plastic.
It is super-slippery and non-toxic hence you can easily pickout last drop of honey,
fruitjam, ketchup or oil from the insides of food containers.
No scraping, rinsing of bottles required.
And the compound is safe enough to eat.
Other applications
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Keep ice off the wings of an airplane
Help easy flow in oil and gas pipelines where insides of pipes sees buildup of organic
compounds that clog supply networks.
For cosmetics: can pour last drop of expensive lotions out.
Plastic light bulb
a new kind of light bulb that uses plastic polymers and nano materials to generate light
It is more energy-efficient than current fluorescent lights and is easier on the eye.
It doesnt produce humming sound like those fluorescent tubes.
Nuke Desalination plant
Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Plant (NDDP) located at Kalpakkam, Tamilnadu.
It is the worlds largest hybrid seawater desalination plant coupled to an existing nuclear power
plant.
Principle:
when the pressure drops, the boiling point of seawater also drops.
The excess heat generated from nuclear reaction causes seawater to flash evaporate into
pure water vapour.
The water vapour is then condensed to produce distilled water.
MakerBot Replicator

Using makerbot, you can print your own 3D toys!
desktop-size 3-D printer.
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Instead of using ink, it spreads ultra-thin plastic layers, each melting into the layer below
to create a 3D-object.
Switchblade Drone
Its a kamikaze (suicide bombing) type drone.
The person controlling it uses a real-time video feed from the drone to crash it into a
precise targetsay, a sniper and its tiny warhead detonates on impact.
Element 113
Japan has created three atoms of the highly unstable superheavy element 113.
This element is yet nameless, but it has an enormous nucleus containing 113 protons and
165 neutrons.
Biology
Biological Plough Redgram
Pigeonpea, commonly known as redgram, arhar or tur,
It is leguminous plant.
it is capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen and thereby restores nitrogen content in the
soil.
Its deep rooting system helps in extracting nutrients and moisture from deeper soil
layers thus making it suitable for rainfed condition.
Deeper rooting system of the crop also helps in breaking the tough dry soil and it is also
called as biological plough.
Handheld Dental X-ray
Genuine Handheld X-ray sets are very expensive. But now Chinamade Cheaper products
are in the market.
But they do not have adequate shielding in the X-ray tube.
And leads to accidental leakage radiation.
In India, use of such medical X-ray instruments need approval from Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board. (AERB)
Use of radiation generating equipment not approved by AERB is a violation of the legal
provisions and will attract action under the appropriate provisions of the Atomic Energy
Act 1962
Why skin itching during wound healing?
Histamine =chemical mediator involved in the allergic reactions.
Histamine dilates blood vessels to facilitate the entry of immune cells onto the wound
site to ward off infection.
But It also acts on the nerve endings causing itching.
Itching can also be caused due to allergy for the ointments/ medications applied
When new skin that is formed is devoid of the normal oil glands .This dryness also
provokes the nerve endings causing itching.
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OraQuick Home

Oraquick-Detect HIV @Home
Its the first Do It Yourself testkit for detecting HIVthe same one that health
professionals use but without the trip to a doctors office or the need to wait days for
results.
Parkinsons disease
is caused by loss of the neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine (known as
dopaminergic neurons).
Researchers have now derived dopaminergic neurons from bone marrow stem cells in
monkeys to cure it.
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Dogs in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
Mudumalai tiger reserve = Tamilnadu.
Issue: Domestic dogs from surrouding villages are hunting small birds and mammals near
forest edges.
Why problem?
1. Lower prey availability for wild carnivores like tigers and leopards
2. These dogs may also be spreading rabies and other diseases to wild animals
3. Mudumalai, also has large populations of the endangered wild dog or dhole.
4. They eat infected carcasses hunted by domestic dogs=spread of disease.
5. Training village dogs to procure wild meat is a criminal offence under the category of
poaching. But the larger harm that goes unnoticed is that it indirectly threatens the
survival of non-target animals.
NHRDF-RED-2
New onion variety for North India.
Developed by National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF),
Nashik.
This foundation => established by National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing
Federation of India Ltd (NAFED)
Mock Questions
CSAT MCQs
Q1. Find incorrect Match?
NASA missions Location
1. MESSENGER
Mercury
2. GRAIL
Moon
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q2. find correct Match
Term Associated with
1. Shooting star
Asteroid
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2. Minor planet
Meteor
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q3. which of the following is not correct about Asteroids?
1. Theyre found in the Asteroid belt between Mercury and Jupiter.
2. Some of them contain metals and minerals.
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q4. Which of the following is correct about the tail of Comet?
1. It grows bigger in size as it moves away from the Sun.
2. It is always directed towards the Sun.
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q5. Correct Match?
Wildlife species Found in
Narcondam Hornbill Nagaland
Dhole Tamilnadu
a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both
d. None
Q6. (Decision Making Q for CSAT-Paper II) There are reports of domestic dogs hunting
small birds and mammals in a wildlife sanctuary and thus posing risk to the foodchain and
health of the wild animals. As the Chief Warden of this sanctuary, which of the following step
would you take?
a. Promise cash reward to anyone who kills those domestic dogs.
b. Set up Electrical fence to prevent those domestic dogs from entering in the Sanctuary.
c. Order people of the surrounding villages not to feed or shelter those domestic dogs, else
face punitive actions.
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d. Capture, Vasectomize and release those domestic dogs in area far away from the Wildlife
Sanctuary.
General Studies Mains
Write 20 words about following terms
1. Oraquick home
2. GRAIL
3. MOONKams
4. Liquiglide
5. NAFED
6. NASA MESSENGER
7. 3D-printing.
For previous entries related to Science-Tech, visit Mrunal.org/snt
want to add your entries, then participate in Current Affairs Marathon (click me)
Ref
1. The Hindu Science Tech (Thursday) editions of Dec 2012
2. TIME magazines best inventions of the year 2012

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2012/12/science-hindu-asteroid-mining-grail-
moonkam-liquiglide-oraquick-sci-tech-upsc-csat.html

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[Hindu Sci-Tech] Space, IT related: KSLV, Luna Glob, Black Beauty, COMET, SKA, SAGA-220
(Jan, Feb 2013)
1. Telescopes
o #1: Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
o #2: Solar telescope, Solar winds
2. Space mission related
o #1: Luna Glob
o #2: KSLV-1
o #3: Pishgam
3. IPK
4. Black Beauty
5. IO: the moon of Jupiter
6. COMET online monitoring system
7. Indias IT Development: SAGA 220
8. Ubuntu
9. petabytes
10. MillatFacebook (MFB)
11. Direct-to-Home (DTH) movie release
Telescopes
#1: Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
worlds largest and most sensitive radio telescope
will be 50 times more sensitive, and be able to survey the sky 10,000 times faster, than
any imaging radio telescope array previously built.
will be completed in 2024
Location: South Africa + Australia.
Benefit: developments in many technology areas, including antennas, signal transport,
signal processing, computing, software and data archiving
India is actively involved in this project
#2: Solar telescope, Solar winds
Will be built in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir .
Itll have capability to do both day and night astronomy.
Will help in understanding sunspots: process of their creation and decay.
Sunspots pose a threat to the communication system on earth as well as space satellites.
Increased sunspot activity=> increase in the outflow solar wind.
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Solar wind contains charged particles that can interfere with the operation of satellites
by introducing what is called background static.
Solar winds also interact with atoms in the upper part of earths atmosphere, wreaking
havoc with the communication systems on ground.
Satellites in low earth orbit face greater risk as during periods of heightened solar
activity.
Space mission related
#1: Luna Glob
Russia will launch this robotic lunar mission in 2015.
#2: KSLV-1
Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1)
South Korea will launch this satellite and gain entry to an elite global space club that
includes Asian powers China, India and Japan.
Earlier, South Korea couldnt launch satellite program for many years, because its main
military ally the U.S., feared S.Koeras arms race with N. Korea.
#3: Pishgam
name of Monkey that was recently sent to space and returned back, under Iranian space
mission.
In Farsi, Pishgam = Pioneer.
IPK
original kilogram known as the International Prototype Kilogram or the IPK.
It is made up of platinum-based weight.
All other measurements of mass are set against this IPK model.
Problem: This kilogram has become heavier as contaminants have built up on its surface.
Black Beauty
It is a 320 gram space rock from Mars.
Discovered in Moroccos Sahara Desert in 2011
It contains more water than any other Martian meteorite previously found.
could unlock vital clues to the evolution of Mars
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Black beauty: Rock from Mars
IO: the moon of Jupiter
IO Moon
Jupiter planet has 5 major moons.IO is the innermost of
them.
Earth as only one moon.
Has many active volcanoes. In fact, most volcanically active
body in the solar system
No
Smaller than our moon bigger than IO
Jupiter has a few natural satellites orbiting it
Doesnt have any natural satellites
orbiting it.
COMET online monitoring system
Communication Plan for Election (COMET) is made for use of Election Commission.
It is a high-tech SMS-based alert system.
Officials on the election duty just need to punch in a few letters to send various coded
SMSes.
The information is instantly available online and can be used by the Election commission
and poll officials in the state capital and district.
It also helps in monitoring events down to a particular polling booth at the click of a
mouse, for example
1. When did the staff reaching the polling station
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2. voting percentages every two hours
3. did the poll party reached safely at the EVMs deposit centre or not?
Indias IT Development
HEC-2M
First computer in India (imported from UK) in 1955. Installed @ Indian
Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta.
70s networks such as NICNET and the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT),
80s
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was developed by ECIL and Bharat
Electronics.
LPG reforms
(90s)
Led to rise of private players such as Infosys, Wipro, Satyam.
SAGA-220 Supercomputer built by ISRO @Vikram Sarabhai space centre.
PARAM Supercomputer built by C-DAC, Pune.
Ubuntu
Open source operating system (OS) Linux for computers.
Android = Googles open source operating system for smartphones and tables. (based on
linux)
Now Ubuntu is also coming to tablet platform.
petabytes
a peta is a million billion or 10 raised to power 15
MillatFacebook (MFB)
Pakistans version of Facebook.
website was launched after the Lahore High Court banned Facebook after some
members started a `Everybody Draw Mohammad Day competition.
objective was to provide a platform for all Muslims and nice, decent and sophisticated
people of all religious and faiths to come together and make a network.
Direct-to-Home (DTH) movie release
one of the controversies surrounding Kamal Hasans recent movie.
Kamal Haasan wanted to release his movie Viswaroopam on DTH platform as a pay-per-
view screening a day ahead of its intended theatre release. (=you can watch it on your
dish tv, tata sky etc.)
But Theatre owners and distributors said DTH is not video piracy-proof and hence, if
new movies are immediately shown on DTH= it will drastically cut ticket revenues.
Kamal Haasans argument: It is not impossible to record the contents of a digital set top
box. and he was just attempting to explore a legitimate source of revenue. Besides the
single pay-per-view show priced at Rs. 1,000 per activation = mostly upper middle/rich
class will watch. This will not hurt the business of theatre owners, because their target
consumer base belongs to different income group.

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luna-glob-black-beauty-comet-ska-saga-220-jan-feb-2013.html

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[Hindu Sci-Tech] Public Health, EnB related: Virtopsy, Vomitting Larry, Hydrogel, Mauritia
(Jan Feb 2013)
1. Gardasil and Cervarix
2. Vomiting Larry
3. Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)
4. Virtopsy
5. Health communication
6. COPSS Award
7. Mauritia
8. DNA as a storage device
9. Hydrogel
10. Saliva functions
11. Banana peel
12. Bio-inspired technology
13. Lizard : Adhesives
14. Velcro: Maroolimatthai
15. Porcupin: Surgical Patches
Gardasil and Cervarix
names of the new HPV vaccines made by GlaxoSmithKline.
The Health activists say it is not properly tested, theyve filled PIL in supreme court. their
arguments
1. Though both vaccines are claimed to prevent cervical cancer, the truth is cervical cancer
takes twenty or more years to develop. The vaccines have just not been around that long
to prove their efficacy!
2. neither of these vaccines had been studied to determine their potential to cause cancer
Vomiting Larry
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Vomiting Larry
Larry is a humanoid simulated vomiting system designed by British scientists. It is being use
to how norovirus spreads.
Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP)
Polio is a disease caused by a virus.
But AFP can also arise for other reasons, including infection by non-polio pathogens.
No child in India has been diagnosed with polio for nearly two years now and all the
indications are that the virus responsible for it is no longer circulating here.
However, the countrys polio surveillance system has indicated a sharp increase during
recent years in the number of non-polio AFP cases.
most of the countrys non-polio AFP cases occur in just two States Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh.
cases of children with non-polio AFP were not being monitored by either the polio
eradication programme or the larger state health care system.
As a result, there is no clear picture of what was causing the AFP, the kind of diseases
these children displayed, or how many of them were seriously affected
Virtopsy
Autopsy=examination and dissection of a dead body to determine cause of death.
Previously, doctors would use scalpel, cut the chest open and examine tissues.
Often, relatives of the dead donot agree for autopsies because of the disfigurement
caused by such cutting and incisions.
Now scientists have come up with a non-invasive technique for conducting autopsy. This
is called Virtopsy(=virtual autopsy).
Here, doctor examines the corpse in 3-D via computer screens.
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Virtopsy
Virtopsy combine the images from high-powered magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
computed tomography (CT) and surface scans of dead bodies.
Combined, the devices are referred to as a virtobot.
The technique allows the detection of injuries such as lesions and blows often
undetectable during a traditional autopsy, as well as air pockets, heart attacks and even
cancer.
The method has already allowed the discovery of haemorrhages and fractures that were
not picked up during conventional autopsies.
Health communication
It means generating awareness among population regarding a particular disease.
In India, two most successful examples of Health communication =polio + HIV
#1: Polio
Polio messaging for example was built on simple idea two drops that could save your
childs life. This message was everywhere from print, TV and radio from the more
urban and semi-urban audiences and on roadsides, on the back of buses and lorries and
in small village fairs.
A host of agencies worked together to develop this multi-pronged strategy
It was led by communication professionals. (and not doctors)
This helped in creating multiple strategies to engage diverse audiences.
#2: HIV
HIV was perhaps Indias most complex disease communication exercise
Because our Indian society has deep-rooted double standards, limited womens rights
and a complete lack of conversation on sexuality and sexual diversity. So talking about
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HIV may have been impossible. But Government took help of external agencies,
communication professionals.
thus HIV campaign used every possible medium and celebrities to transmit messages on
prevention, on treatment and on stigma.
Conclusion
Finally, public health authorities need to take up public health communications as a
priority. (because prevention better than cure.)
Health communication needs to be managed by communication professionals and not
doctors.
Public health communication must be multi-pronged, regionally suitable and easy to
absorb.
COPSS Award
In USA, this award is given to young statisticians below 40 years.
Dr. Nilanjan Chatterjee won the COPSS for his overall contribution to the field of
genetics and biostatistics.
He found that Smoking causes lung cancer, but smoking alone does not determine who
will develop lung cancer.
A person may have some good genes that reduce the risk of lung cancer. So what might
be important to know is what kind of genetic background a person may have to know if
he is prone to lung cancer.
Mauritia
It is a submerged continent in the Indian Ocean, recently found.
lies under Mauritius and extends more than 1,000 km northwards till Seychelles.
First scientists found crystals called zircons on Mauritian beaches.
Zircons are resistant to erosion or chemical change and some of the ones they found
were almost two billion years old, much older than any of the regular soil or sand
samples found on nearby islands.
Scientists thought such old crystals could only belong to a submerged continent.
they consulted satellite data which can help detect submerged land masses.
this continent Mauritia may have existed as an archipelago, a cluster of islands squeezed
in between Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent.
Study of this continent can help us in better exploration of oil and gas in the oceans.
DNA as a storage device
Scientists are working to use DNA as a storage device. (like how computer can store
information in form of 0 and 1). Similarly DNA could also save information using its 4
bases ACTG
Advantages Problems
DNA is a long-lived, stable and easily
synthesized storage hard drive. While
the current electronic storage devices
require active and continued aintenance
Data reading, writing speed is slow and
expensive at the moment.
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and regular transferring between
storage media
DNA based storage needs no active
maintenance. Just store in a cool, dark
and dry place!
Hydrogel
myocardial infarction= when heart tissue is destroyed, it blocks the oxygen supply to
heart muscles.
When cells of heart do not receive oxygen= they get permanently damaged.
Such damaged heart cells cannot regenerate, thus a thick scar develops in heart.
This is where Hydrogel can help.
Hydrogel is derived from a pigs heart.
The basic function of the gel is to provide a scaffold (platform) for new heart cells to
form.
Thus hydrogel can the damaged heart recover and function like a healthy one.
Saliva functions
The function of saliva (watering in mouth) is to
1. destroy pathogenic bacteria,
2. help in swallowing the food
3. serve as a solvent for the molecules that stimulate taste buds
aid speech by facilitating movements of lips and tongue.
It also helps to neutralize gastric acid when there is regurgitation (reflex act of ejecting
the contents of the stomach through the mouth)
reduces heart burn
In humans, the sight, smell and even thought of food causes salivationThis is because the
salivary secretion is conditioned. Ivan Pavlovs classical experiments of conditioned
reflex: A bell was rung just before the meat was placed in the dogs mouth, and this was
repeated a number of times until the animal would salivate when the bell was rung even
though no meat was placed in its mouth.
Salivation by humans on the sight, smell or thought of the tasty food is, therefore, a
conditioned reflex.
Banana peel
Banana peel stays yellow for a much longer time when it is covering the fruit, but when
we remove it, peel turns black in a few minutes. Why?
Blackening of the banana peel is due to the presence of an enzyme, which is oxygen
dependent.
As soon as we peel the banana the inner portion, the inner skin, gets exposed to
atmospheric oxygen much more than when it is still covering the fruit.
Inner skin is thin compared to outer layer.
While peeling, inner-skin cells get damaged and liberate chemicals known as amines.
This leaked out amines come into contact with enzymes present closely in the inner skin.
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This results in immediate oxidation in the presence of atmospheric oxygen = peel turns
black.
But this enzymatic reaction needs a little warmer conditions. That is why in summer and
hot conditions even the outer skin turns brown, black faster compared to that in cooler
environment.
Not only banana, fruits like apples, grapes and vegetables like potato, raw banana also
turn brown, black on peeling due to the presence of that enzyme
Since bananas are tropical fruits the cells get damaged due to chill injury when we
refrigerate them unlike apples which are temperate fruits which can be stored in the
fridge safely.
Bio-inspired technology
It is new branch of science and technology.
It learns from the properties and behaviour of plants and animals, particularly their
modes of defence and offence
Then it attempts to produce new technological products, inspired by these properties.
For example
Lizard : Adhesives
A household lizard can run effortlessly on the ceiling, defying gravity and without
dropping off to the floor.
Because the palms of lizard, contains millions of tiny hairs.
These hairs attach to the surface through very weak attractive forces called the van der
Waals interaction.
The force of each hair is negligible, but put together thousand and millions of them, and
that adds up to considerable strength. If you shave of these hairlets, lizard will become
not be able to climb walls.
After understanding this phenomenon, scientists have been able to make tape-based
adhesives (like Post It).
Velcro: Maroolimatthai
Cocklebur flowers plant is found in Madurai region of Tamilnadu. Locally known as
Maroolimatthai.
This plant has a number of small ball-like flowers
Each of them has lots of short pin-like hairs all around, which stick to your socks and
clothes.
A swiss scientist studied this structure designed Velcro, the hook-and-loop fastener.
Porcupin: Surgical Patches
Porcupin is a large rodent. It carries as many as over 30,000 quills on the back surface of
its body.
The quill has an unique structure, it allows for easy penetration into the skin and
beneath, but extremely painful during its removal or extraction.
The tip of quill is very sharp hence enables easy penetration.
But when it has to be removed by pulling it out, each of the barbs resists by opening up
(a bit like an umbrella), adhering to the skin, damaging it.
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Now scientists are creating synthetic quills using polymers.
Such a biomimetic or bio-inspired polymer patch would be useful for the development of
mechanically interlocking tissue adhesives or needles, trocars and surgical staples.
For more articles on science-tech, visit Mrunal.org/snt

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2013/03/hindu-sci-tech-public-health-enb-
related-virtopsy-vomitting-larry-hydrogel-mauritia-jan-feb-2013.html

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- Mrunal - http://mrunal.org -
[Defense] Current Affairs compilation 2012-13: missiles, joint exercises, operations,
organizations
1. Intro
2. Defense exercises
3. Missiles, weapons and vehicles
o Agni
o Aircraft destroyer
o Cruise
o Navy / Submarine
o Anti-Tank
o Tanks and artillery
o Rifles/ uniforms
o Indian Radars and Sonars
o Aircrafts
o Helicopters
o UAV/Drones
o Submarines
o Navy Ship
o Coast guard ships
o Coast guard vs Navy
4. Navy: New bases
5. Blue water navy
6. Defense PSUs
7. FDi limit
8. Exhibitions
9. Paramilitary forces?
10. Important organizations
11. Mock questions
Intro
Agni, Prithvi, Trishulwhenever youre preparing for UPSC, State PSC, IBPS, SSC or
LIC youve to prepare these things over and over again. Sometimes it feels as if Indian
Government tests these missiles not only to annoy China and Pakistan but also to annoy
the competitive exam aspirants. Anyways, earlier I gave the compilation for persons in
news 2012-13. click me if you havent read it already. Now here a new article dealing with
defense related current affairs (2012-13) and basic stuff.
If you feel any important term is missing, do mention it in the comments below.
Defense exercises
Kinda one of the most important topics for CSAT paper I. Its not that UPSC asks defense
exercises every year but just because it was asked once or twice then it becomes important
forever, especially when it has a catchy name hahaha.
Name Country force
169

Bold
Kurukshetra
India, Singapore in UP Army (Tanks)
Cormorant Strike
Iii
India, Srilanka, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Maldives. (held in Sri Lanka)
All 3
Garud Shakti
India, Indonesia Army
Indiaex-2012
India, US Navy
Indra
India, Russia, bi annual Navy
Iron Fist
Only India. In Rajasthan Air Force
Jimex
India, Japan Navy
Konkan
India, UK Navy
Malabar
India, US Navy
Milan
India and 14 other countries: Australia, Bangladesh etc. Navy
Passex
India, Japan Navy
Pralay
India only, in North East Airforce+Army
Red Flag
India, US in Nevada Airforce
Shakti
India, France in Uttarakhand Army
Shatrujeet
India, US in California Army (Infantry)
Shoor Veer
Only India, Rajasthan border Army
Simbex
India, Singapore Navy
Tropex
TROPEX=Theatre Level Operational Readiness
Exercise.India only
Navy
Vajra Prahar
India, US in Uttarakhand
Army (Special
Forces)
Varuna
India, France Navy
Yudh Abhyas
India, US in Rajasthan Army (Tanks)
^this is one of the uses of pib.nic.in
170

Missiles, weapons and vehicles
Agni
Surface to surface missile by DRDO.
Range increases as version increases.
Agni-
5
>5000kms.
It is Indias first Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
India is the 7
th
country to have ICBM. Other 6 are= US, Russia, China, UK, France
and Israel.
North Korea is also developing an ICBM named Taepodong-2.
Agni-
4
4000kms
Agni-
3
3000kms
Agni-
2
2000kms. Pakistans HATF-5 (Ghauri) has range of about 1300 kms.
Agni-1
700kms (some books/magazines say 800 but India 2013 Yearbook says 700 so I keep it
700).
Prithivi
Surface to surface. Short range (150-350)
Range increases as number increases: Prithvi I=150, II=250 and III=350kms
Its naval version is known as Dhanush. Dhanush can be launched from Navy ships.
Aircraft destroyer
Akash
Surface to air (SAM)
It can destroy many targets at once, using Rajendra radar system.
Its range is higher than trishul.
Astra
Air to air missile to destroy enemy aircrafts.
Trishul
Surface to air (SAM)
Destroy low level flying objects. E.g. from a ship against low flying attacking
enemy missiles.
Cruise
Brahmos
290 km range.
Only Supersonic cruise missile in the world. (speed close to 3 Mach)
171

Named after two rivers: Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
can be used against ship and land targets.
Can be installed on ships, submarines & aircraft and ground vehicles
Can receive navigation signals from both GPS (USA) and GLONASS(Russia).
Nirbhay
sub-sonic cruise missile
Nirbhay is Indias equivalent of Tomahawk, a long-range, sub-sonic cruise
missile, developed by the U.S.
developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
will travel at a sub-sonic speed (less than the speed of sound).
Navy / Submarine
Dhanush
It is the naval version of Prithvi II missile.
Nuke capable.
350kms
K-15 Sagarika
Can be launched from submarines. Range abt 700kms.
Will be used from nuclear powered submarines (like Arihant).
Varunastra
Anti-submarine torpedo
Anti-Tank
HELINA
The helicopter-fired version of Nag (anti-tank missile).
Helina =Helicopter + Nag
LAHAT
Laser Homing Attack or Laser Homing Anti-Tank missile
will be used in the upgraded Arjun battle tanks.
NAG
fire and forget anti-tank missile.
can destroy enemy tanks four km away
NAMICA=carrier of NAG missile.
Both of them did not perform well during field trials in Rajasthan.
NAMIKA
It is a vehicle to carry and launch NAG missles.
Invar
Anti-tank Missiles that can be launched from Arjun T-90 tanks. India will buy these
from Russia
Adrushya Anti-tank mine. By DRDO
Tanks and artillery
Arjun Main battle tank. (T90)Kanchan=name of the armour used on this tank.
172

Ajeya T-72 tank
SARVATRA Mobile bridge laying system. So armys tanks and vehicles can cross rivers.
DAKSH It is a robotic vehicle for disabling IED (explosives).
Pinaka Multibarrel rocket system (it looks like a truck with lot of rockets on its shoulder).
BHIM
155mm artillery gun. (these type of guns are known as howitzer) Bofors is also a
howitzer.
BMP-2 Infantry combat vehicle. To transport soldiers in the battlefield.
Rifles/ uniforms
INSAS
it is a self loading rifle (SLR)
by DRDO.
INSAS=Indian small arms system.
Before INSAS, we had ISHAPORE SLR.
Sujav
Compact communication and electronic warfare suit
Baby viper
An equipment for clearing land mines. By DRDO
Indian Radars and Sonars
First understand the difference.
Radar Sonar
RAdio Detection and
Ranging
SOund Navigation And Ranging
Uses radio waves Uses sound waves
Mostly used above water
(air)
Underwater.
Faster response
Slower (because speed of sound is slower than radio waves and
depends on medium through which it travels)
1. aerial and naval
navigation
2. air defense
3. checking weather
patterns
1. Locate submarines and mines in the sea
2. underwater surveillance and communication
3. mapping underwater terrains
173

Now lets check the DRDO projects related to Radars and Sonars
RADAR Sonar
Revati (3d radar for navy) HUMSA (shipborne)
Rohini (3d radar for airforce) MIHIR (airborne)
Indra Panchendriya, USUSH (Submarine)
Rajendra Tadpole

Darpan

3D Car 3D Central Acquisition Radar
^most of these are given in India Yearbook, thats why important for MCQs.
Aircrafts
(list is definitely not exhaustive)
SU30-
MKI
Fighter jets, India will buy them from Russia.
Dornier-
228
Transport aircraft
Saras Transport aircraft
LCA NP-1
Light combat aircraft, Naval prototype 1.Indias first indigenous naval fighter jet (that
can be used from aircraft carrier ships such as INS Vikramaditya).
It has STOBAR capability. STOBAR= Ski Takeoff but arrested recovery.
Tejas
Light combat aircraft. (LCA)Kaveri=name of Tejass engine. It is Indias first
indigenous gas turbine engine.
It single seat, single engine, supersonic, light-weight, all-weather, multi-role aircraft.
Darin-III It is upgraded version of Jaguar fighter. Developed by Hindustan Aeronautics ltd.
AEWC
Airborne Early warning and control system.
it is a really huge airplane , with high tech radar system.
It can detect enemy aircraft, ships and vehicles at long ranges.
Mirage Fighter aircraft, From france
174

MiG-21 Russia
By the way, fifth generation air-craft were separately discussed in another article long time
back. Click me
Helicopters
Mi-17 v5
Attack helicopter, India will buy them from Russia.Can carry out operation
in any weather, any terrain, day n night + disaster, Search-rescue
operations.
Rudra Attack helicopter.
Dhruv, Cheetal,
Chetak
Utility helicopter= transporting very few men, material etc.
AgustaWestland Transport helicopter. From Italy but deal is stuck due to scam.
UAV/Drones
NISHANT,
Rustom-I,
Lakshya-I
These are UAV= Unmanned Aerial vehicles. Developed by DRDO
NETRA
Mini-UAV. CRPF will use it to fight naxals. BSF in counter-insurgency.It looks
like that helicopter Mr.Lobo was building in 3-idiots (and then
heconveniently committed suicide so that Amir Khan could fix it and dance on
a song.)
Harpy, Heron,
Harop
These UAV are bought from Israel.
Submarines
INS Chakra
Nuclear submarine. We rented this from Russia.Only US, UK, Russia, France
and China had such nuke submarines. (we are the sixth one)
INS Arihant Nuclear submarine. Currently undergoing trial.
INS
Sindhurakshak
Submarine, bought from Russia
Navy Ship
INS Sahyadri
Stealth frigate.Project 17= Indian navy is building stealth frigates under this
175

project.
Teg, Tarkash,
Trikand
These are also stealth frigates. India bought these from Russia.These will be
used for anti-piracy operations.
Sudarshini Indian navy ship. It is on sailing expedition to ASEAN nations.
INS Vikramaditya
Aircraft carrier ship. Originally known as Admiral Gorshkov. India bought
this from Russia.
Coast guard ships
Again list not exhaustive, but following names were in news
Samudra
Paheredar
Pollution control
Rani Abbakka
Patrolling. By the way Rani Abbakka ruled over coastal parts of Karnataka, had
fought against Portugese in late 16
th
centuary.
Dahanu patrolling (mainly Maharashtra coast)
Rajkamal Patrolling
Coast guard vs Navy
Navy Coast guard
Admiral Director general
Overall Maritime-security Coastal security in Territorial waters
Anti-piracy Anti-smuggling
Reports to Defense ministry Same

Help fishermen in distressSearch and rescue

Marine pollution, environment protection
Navy: New bases
Dweep Rakshak Indian Navys new base in Laskhweep islands.
Baaz Indian Navys new base in Andaman Islands.
176

Blue water navy
It is a really powerful navy, can operate across the deep waters in open oceans. E.g US
Navy.
Indian navy also wishes to be a Blue water navy. The purchase/induction of
Vikramaditya, nuclear submarines, fifth generation air crafts etc. are part of that
strategy.
Defense PSUs
To run army, navy, airforce, coast guards or any other force you need weapons, vehicles,
uniforms etc. so who provides these materials?= 1) via import from Russia, US, Israel,
etc.+ 2) domestic production via DRDO, defense factories and PSUs.
Often, we import stuff from other countries, then our PSUs will refit them to suit Indian
terrain and requirements.
Now lets take a look at the organizations related with domestic production
The main boss is Dept of Defense production >Defence ministry
Under this Department of defense production, youve two type of organizations
Defense factories Make ammunition, explosives, weapons, uniforms etc.
Defense undertaking (or PSUs) HAL, BEL, other shipyards.
DRDO is a separate R&D organization that directly reports to Defense ministry. DRDO
does the research Development stuff. Once that is complete, mass production starts
with the help of factories / PSUs.
Tagline of DRDO = Balasya Mulam Vigyanam = the source of strength is science. (lolz
but first you need money to finance the scientific research, so then what is the source of
strength?)
Defense Undertaking (PSUs)
(list not exhaustive)
HAL
Hindustan Aeronautics ltd.
HAWK jet trainer
SU-30 MKI
LCA
Dornier (transport aircraft)
Dhruv (light helicopter)
Cheetal/Chetak (Helicopters)
BEL
Bharat Electronics
Sonar, communication devices, electronic systems for tanks, aircrafts.
Also develops solar cells, EVM (electronic voting machine) etc.
Shipyards
Garden Reach, Kolkata
177

Mazagon, Mumbai (and not Goa)
MIDHANI
MIshra-DHatu NIgam ltd.
Provides high quality metals, alloys, materials required for air-craft, tank,
weapons production.
NIRDESH
National institute for Research and Development in Defense Shipbuilding.
For self-reliance in defense production related to navy.
Near Kozhikode, Kerala
It is not a PSU but a society.
Private sector
Before 2001, private sector wasnt allowed in defense production. But now
26% FDI is allowed in Defense sector.
Issue: 26% is very low. It doesnt encourage foreign players transfer their defense
technologies in India, therefore Commerce ministry wants this FDI limit to be increased
to 74%. for more, click me to read the news article
Exhibitions
AERO india: air force related. 2013s show held in Bengaluru.
Defexpo India: weapons, machines related to Land, Naval and Internal Security. 2012s
show held in New Delhi.
Paramilitary forces?
Different books give different definitions of what is meant by Paramilitary forces.
For example, some would say Paramilitary = those fall under Home ministry and not
under Defense ministry. E.g. CRPF, BSF, ITBP etc. Others will counter it saying forces
like IB and CBI also fall under Home ministry but by no means theyre paramilitary.
In 2011, Government of India made the formal definition: Paramilitary force =headed by
Military officer (and not an IPS officer).
CRPF, BSF, ITPB etc are all headed by Director Generals but these director generals
are actually IPS officers (and not military officers.) Hence going by that definition, we
are left with only three real paramilitary forces
1. Assam Rifles
2. Special Frontier Force
3. Coast Guard
Ok then
1. what are CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB? =these are Central Armed Police Forces
(CAPF).
2. Then what are RAW and IB = they are intelligence gathering agencies (internal and
external)
3. Then what are CBI and NIA= they are law enforcement agencies.
178

Organizations
Establishment Years are not important but the chronology is.
1835
Assam
Rifles
originally Catchar Levy.
Also known as Sentinels of North East and Friends of the hill people
(kinda too clichd, hence unlikely for MCQs).
Falls under Home ministry (and not Defense ministry).
However, its DG is an army officer, hence it is a true/real paramilitary
force.(and the oldest one)
It also protects the Indo-Myanmar border. (SSB looks after Nepal,
Bhutan border)
1861
RPF
Railway protection force. Its evolution can be traced to Indian police Act
made in 1861. Under that Act, part of the British police manpower was
deployed for protection of railways.
1920
TA
Territorial army. Falls under Defense Ministry.
This is like a part time job. A member can continue his routine job /
business as a civilian and every year he has to render service in
Territorial army for a few months.
Similar force in USA = known as National Guards.
1939
CRPF
CRPF (originally Crown representatives police).
Sardar Patel renamed it to Central Reserve Police force.
Falls under Home ministry. This is the main fighting force against naxal
and internal disturbances.
1941
CBI
Under special police establishment Act. Later turned into CBI. (1963)
On TV channels, you often hear Congies giving argument that CBI is
independent because doesnt fall under Home ministry so we are not
controlling CBI.
It is a bogus argument because CBI reports to Department of personnel
and training, and personnel ministry falls under Prime Minister.
Although for corruption cases, CBI reports to CVC.
Similar force in USA=FBI.
1946
Home
Guards
Home guards. (Army has similar force known as Territorial army). These
are Voluntary forces (part time job). Work: bandobast during election,
rioting, traffic, disasters etc.
Home ministry frames the policies, functions, training for home guards.
The cost of force is shared between centre +states.
1948
NCC
National cadet Corps.
Motto: Unity and Discipline (Ekta aur anushasan.)
1962
ITBP
Indo Tibetan border police. Setup in the wake of Chinese aggression.
It was also responsible for KASABs security in Mumbai jail. Then they
asked crores of rupees and Maharashtra Government refused to pay.
179

Falls under Home Ministry.
1962
SFF
Special Frontier Force. For carrying guerilla operations behind Chinese
lines.
Falls under Defense ministry.
1963
SSB
Originally Special service bureau, now Sashastra Seema Bal.
It protects Nepal and Bhutan border.
1965
BSF
Border security force.
During war time, BSF will do the policing work in any enemy territories
captured by Indian Army + taking care of refugees and prisoner of war
(PoW).
1968
RAW
Research and Analysis wing (RAW)
Doesnt fall under Home / Defense / Foreign ministry. This
organization directly reports to PM.
Similar force in USA=CIA, Russia=FSB (earlier KGB), Israel= Mossad,
China=MSS.
RAW looks into External intelligence gathering.
IB (Intelligence bureau) under Home ministry looks into Internal
intelligence gathering. Before RAW was created (1968), this IB used to do
both internal and external intelligence gathering.
1969
CISF
Central Industrial security force. Protection of airports, PSUs, nuke labs
and powerplants.
CISF is a cost-reimbursement force meaning its cost is borne by the
client and not the taxpayer. E.g. if airport is getting CISF cover, then air
port has to pay them (so ultimately air-passengers have to pay.)
Infosys is the first private company to get CISF protection.
1985
SPG
Special protection group. Setup after Indiras assassination. Provides
security to PM, and his family.
1990
RR
Rashtriya Rifles. Counter insurgency in Kashmir. It is part of Army
(hence defense ministry).
1992
RAF
Rapid Action force
Made from CRPF
It was setup mainly for controlling riots. But nowadays also used in
disaster Management, anti-naxal ops, UN peace keeping ops.
Vajra= riot control vehicle of RAF.
Falls under Home ministry.
2008
COBRA
Combat battalion for resolution action. Made from CRPF. To fight
naxals.
Similar force of Andhra police Is known as Grey-hounds.
180

2009
NIA
National investigation agency. After 26/11 attacks. Just like CBI, this one
also reports to Personnel Ministry.
Lets try to consolidate some important stuff from above table
Defense ministry vs Home ministry
Defense ministry Home
1. Army: Rashtriya Rifles, Territorial
army
2. Navy
3. Airforce
4. Coast guard
5. For special ops: Marcos (Navy),
Garuda (Airforce), Ghatak (Army),
Special Frontier Force.
6. NCC
1. Internal security=CRPF, RAF, COBRA,
Assam Rifles(NE), CISF (PSUs, Airports
etc.)
2. Border security=SSB (Nepal Bhutan),
BSF (Pak, Bangla), ITBP (Tibet), Assam
Rifles (Myanmar)
3. Law Enforcement=CBI, NIA: but they
dont report to home ministry.
4. Intelligence=IB (internal) + RAW
(external) but RAW falls directly under PM.
5. For special operations=NSG
Special forces across world
For Surgical operations like airplane hijack, terrorist/hostage situation.
NSG India
SAS UK
Delta Force US
GSG-9 Germany
GIGN France
Shar-et-matkal Israel
Mock questions
1. Which of the following is not a UAV?
a. Nishant
b. Rustom
c. Netra
d. Dhruv
2. Which of the following has highest range in kms?
a. Prithvi
181

b. Brahmos
c. Dhanush
d. Agni-V
3. Which of the following country doesnt have ICBM missiles?
a. India
b. China
c. USA
d. South Korea.
4. Which of the following is not a Surface to surface missile
a. Agni
b. Prithvi
c. Trishul
d. None of above.
5. What is the FDI limit in Defense sector in India?
a. 0
b. 26
c. 49
d. 74
6. What is NIRDESH?
a. State of the art electronic communication system for Navy
b. An organization for making India self-reliant in defense technology
c. Joint naval exercise between India and USA
d. None of above
7. Correct statement
a. Garden Reach shipbuilders= Andhra
b. Mazagon dock= Goa
c. Both A and B
d. None
8. In terms of range, find correct order: from lower to higher?
a. Agni V, Sagarika, Dhanush, Brahmos
b. Sagarika, Dhanush, Brahmos, Agni V
c. Brahmos, Dhanush, Sagarika, Agni V
d. None of above.
9. Find the odd term
a. Helina
b. Nirbhay
c. Sagarika
d. Nirdesh
10. Find the odd sequence
a. Indra, Rajendra, Mihir, Revati
b. Mihir, Panchendriya, USUSH, Rajendra
c. Indra, Rajendra, Rohini, Revati
d. None of above.
11. incorrect Match
a. Mirage=Russia
b. J31=Japan
c. SU30-MKI=S.Korea
d. All of above.
12. Kaveri is an engine Developed for
a. INS Arihant
b. Light combat aircraft
182

c. T90 Arjun tank
d. none of above
13. Which of the following ship can be used during oil spills?
a. Sahyadri
b. Arihant
c. Chakra
d. Samudra Paheredar
14. Correct Match
a. Dweep Rakshak:Indian Navys new base in Andaman
b. Baaz: Indian Navys new base in Maldives.
c. Both A and B
d. None
15. First private sector company to get CISF cover was
a. TCS
b. WIPRO
c. Satyam
d. infosys
16. Which of the following is not a central armed police force?
a. BSF
b. CRPF
c. CISF
d. Rashtriya Rifles
17. Which of the following is not a central paramilitary force?
a. Assam Rifles
b. Special Frontier Force
c. Coast Guard
d. NSG
18. Which of the following doesnt report to home ministry
a. RAF
b. CRPF
c. SSB
d. RAW
Main article stop here. Now just some filler material.
Operations
this is too cliched for the MCQs.
Operation Why Force year
Blossom Evacuate Indians from Libya navy 2011
Black Tornado Kill terrorists responbile for 26/11 NSG 2008
Sukoon Evacuate Indians during Israel-Lebanon conflict. Navy 2006
Madath, Sea Waves, Castor,
Gambhir, Rainbow, Rahat
Relief after 2004 tsunami Navy 2004
183

Enduring Freedom
It was US operation in Afghanistan but India navy
escored American ships through straight of Malacca
Navy 2001
Talwar
Kargil war
Navy 1999
Vijay(99) Army 1999
Safed sagar Airforce 1999
Cactus To prevent coup in Maldives All 3 1988
Pawan Peace keeping in Sri Lanka Army 1987
Meghdoot Capturing Siachen glacier Army 1984
Triden, Python Attacking Karachi port Navy 1971
Vijay (61) Capture of Goa, Daman and Diu and Anjidiv Islands Army 1961
Polo Hyderabad freedom Army 1948
Now Some more misc. GK that is not much important for MCQs.
Field formation, in terms of no. soldiers= corps > division > brigade > battalion >
company > platoon > section.
In gallantry awards: Param Vir > Maharvir > Vir.
Ashok chakra = equivalent of Param Vir charka, given for bravery in peacetime. (e.g.
given to police officers who martyred during 26/11).
Medal of Honor = American equivalent of Param Vir Chakra.
Highest rank in Indian Army is not General but Field marshal. So far only two field
marshals: Cariappa and Manekshaw. In American system, these two are five star
generals and rest (e.g. V.K.Singh, Bikram Singh, ) are four star generals.
India= RAW (external intelligence) , IB (internal) Similarly UK = MI5 (internal
intelligence) and MI6 (external intelligence).
Finally some time pass questions/ food for thought
1. If India has CBI and US has FBI then what does UK have?
2. Every country would need a RAW but not a CBI why?
3. USA has FBI + US Marshalls. FBI looks after federal investigation and US Marshalls do
the transporting of federal prisoners, serving warrants and securing federal courts. On
that logic, While India has CBI, but why doesnt India have Indian marshals?
Answers for time pass questions
1. Nothing. Because UK is not a federal country. Although UK does have special police
forces to fight organized crime and narcotics. But in terms of jurisdiction and functions,
theyre not equivalent to CBI/FBI.
2. Hint given in answer 1.
184

3. because most of the federal prisoners in India are either out on bail or
doing Aiyaashi in the jail so separate police to transport prisoners=not needed.

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185

[Policy] Science Technology & Innovation (STI) Policy 2013: Salient features, highlights,
criticism
1. Timeline
2. SRISHTI
3. Key features of the STI policy 2013
o #1: Cash power
o #2: Manpower
o #3: Business
o #4: Climate change
o #5: PPP
o #6: IPR
o #7: Participation
o #8: Public awareness
4. Criticism
o #1: private sector =no social good
o #2: Indian private sector is lazy in research
o #3: no lesson from past
o #4: No structural / fundamental reforms
o #5: Conflicting Goals And Policies
Timeline
1958
Indias first Scientific Policy Resolution.
1983
New policy. focused on the need to attain technological competence and self
reliance.
2003
This new policy wanted to
1. Bring science and technology together
2. Bring higher investment into R&D to address national problems.
2013
Yet another science-tech policy. (made by Department of Science and
Technology).
2010-
20
India has declared this as decade of innovation
SRISHTI
Goal of new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STI) policy = SRISHTI.
SRISHTI= Science, Research and innovation system for High technology led path for
India. (that is not SRISHTI.that is SRISHTLPFI, but these Government officials will
forcibly turn any scheme into a catchy phrase to harass the UPSC aspirants.)
186

STI 2013 policy
1. Released in the Indian Science Congress at Kolkata.
2. use STI for faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth
3. focus on both STI for people and people for STI.
4. We will position India among the top five global scientific powers by 2020
5. Well release more research papers.
6. Well Encourage private sector to invest in Research and Development (R&D)
7. Well Achieve gender parity in S&T. (meaning bring more female scientists)
8. Global cooperation, science diplomacy.
Key features of the STI policy 2013
#1: Cash power
Average globle investment in Sci-tech-innovation = >1 trillion dollar (2009)
While India barely spends around 1% of its GDP in research, Development, innovation.
Therefore, Policy says, well increase the spending in sci-tech-innovation to 2% in next
five years.
HOW?= via private sector participation, PPP.
To increase the private sector investment in R&D, well create a conductive environment
(meaning well increase FDI, well give private cos tax reliefs, well reform the IPR
regulations and so on).
#2: Manpower
Well promote the spread of scientific temper amongst all sections of society.
Well try to attract talented and bright minds towards careers in science, research and
innovation.
Well increase the number of R&D personnel by 66% in next five years.
Well create environment for women to enter in R&D field.
well setup inter university centers= bringing together different disciplines of humanities
and science together.
#3: Business
Well identify 10 sectors of high potential and put more resources into it for S&T.
Indias share in high tech products is around 8% globally. We want to double this.
Well increase R&D intentsity in Service sector, small and medium scale enterprises.
The investment in S&T is risky. So, We (Government) will share the risk with private
sector, this will increase their confidence.
Well provide new financing mechanisms for entrepreneurs (=loans at cheaper interest
rate) so they can venture in R&D without the fear of failure.
Well create a public procurement policy that favors indigenous innovations. (for
example, if new type of pencil is developed by Indians and S.Koreans, then Government
departments will buy Indian pencils rather than Korean pencils)
Well achieve synergy between R&D policy for agriculture vs. STI policy.
#4: Climate change
187

We already Development National Action plan for Climate Change (NAPCC). The STI
policy will play active role in this.
#5: PPP
Well setup a National science, Technology and innovation foundation. This will help
investing in S&T projects via PPP.
Well setup large scale R&D facilities via PPP mode.
When it comes to giving public funds, well treat private sector R&D institutions at par
with public sector institutions.
#6: IPR
Well modify the Intellectual property rights(IPR) for social goods, IPR generated under
PPP.
Well launch Technology business incubators (TBIs) and science-led entrepreneurship.
Well provide incentives for green manufacturing.
For sharing IPRs between Investors and inventors, well setup regulatory and legal
framework.
#7: Participation
Inclusion
Well increase accessibility, availability and affordability of innovations, especially for
women, differently-abled and disadvantaged sections of society.
NGOs
Well give NGOs pivotal role for delivery science-tech-innovation outputs especially
related with rural / grassroot level.
Lot of new grassroot innovations are taking place, but they donot transform into
commercial applications, well try to bridge this gap.
Various ministries associated with socio-economic sectors, are already running schemes
for R&D in their sector. Under new STI policy, well try to leverage and coordinate these
spending.
State Governments
State Governments are important stakeholders, so well setup state specific plans under
new STI policy and well also strengthen the Sci-Tech councils / boards in the States.
Centrally developed plans for investments are rigid. Well provide flexible approach, to
fine-tune Five year plan schemes in response to rapid changes in S&T.
International
Well forge strategic partnerships and alliances with other nations through both bilateral
and multilateral cooperation in science, technology and innovation.
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Modern science requires truckload of resources. So well setup some international
consortia with other countries to create high cost global infrastructure.
Science diplomacy, technology synergy with other countries.
#8: Public awareness
People must be made aware of the implications of particular science-tech-R&D
initiatives- be it ethical, social or economic. (so that Jholachhap NGOs funded by
Videshi Taaqat(foreign powers), cannot use them as cannon fodder during protests
against BT brijnal, Nuke powers etc.)
We will release white papers on new science projects to generate awareness.
Criticism
#1: private sector =no social good
1. On one hand, STI policy wants inclusive Development and social goods. But on the other
hand, it says the investment in R&D sector is very low and well bring more investment
from private sector.
2. Here comes the problem: When private sector invests in R&D, their aim is always
profitability.
3. Theyre not much interested in delivery of social goods.
4. For example a drug company would rather prefer to do research on new diabetes related
drug / supplement rather than some new product to combat malnutrition. Same way,
iphone6 vs. clean energy / water recycling.
In this policy, Government says additional R&D investment will come from private
sector = indirectly theyre hinting that we (the State) are not interested in R&D
investment because we want to control fiscal deficit. But history tells us that no country,
has developed without massive State investment in R&D.
#2: Indian private sector is lazy in research
Government is already giving many tax reliefs to Indian corporates so they can invest
more in research, buying / import necessary machinery without hassle etc. yet they
donot invest that much in R&D compared to their American counterparts.
We take pride in our IT sector. But our IT sector is mostly involved in the back-office
tasks and software coding for international giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple. We
dont have an Indian brand of our own, that can compete with them.
Research Development has long gestation period. Indian businessmen are more
concerned with short term gains. Therefore, Government is over-confident when it
expects that Indian private sector to invest lot of money in R&D.
#3: no lesson from past
The new STI policy doesnt provide any analysis / reason why the last three policies
failed. And what precautions will they take to make sure this new policy wont be another
#EPICFAIL.
189

For example, It says India is not investing much in R&D sector, there is need to attract
more manpower towards science-research field.all these things have been
repeated thousands of times in previous speeches of Presidents and prime ministers and
policies.
#4: No structural / fundamental reforms
To break the stalemate in research development, Government needs to fundamentally
reform the higher education, the funding and autonomy of universities, IITs, IIMs etc.
No amount of private sector investment can compensate the loss through brain drain.
(and the Nobel prizes lost because of it). But the STI policy is not much concerned with
this angle.
#5: Conflicting Goals And Policies
Policy document repeatedly emphasizes that both economic growth and social good will be
pursued through STI. But there are two sets of problems here,
1. Can private sector funded R&D directly deliver social goods?
2. Can science really tackle the social sector problems (gender parity, inclusiveness) on its
own, without the necessary political will?
Mock Questions
Mains
1. Write a note on the New Science Tech Innovation Policy of 2013. (12/15 marks)
Essay
1. Gender Parity
2. Green Economy
3. Role of Science technology and innovation in social empowerment.
Decision Making question for CSAT paper II
Ok this is a non-serious question:
You are a Joint Secretary in Department of Science and Technology. And you have designed a
really great scheme for nuclear research / climate change / sustainable Development or
whatever. But your proposed scheme doesnt have a catchy name / phrase / abbreviation. Your
boss says hell not forward your file to cabinet approval unless you come up with a catchy name.
What will you do?
a. Ask your colleagues, facebook friends, wife, children, neighbors and relatives to help you
get a catchy name.
b. Name the scheme after Nehru Gandhi family and directly forward the file to minister,
bypassing your boss.
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c. Start from scratch. Throw away the file. Then First think of a catchy name and then
design a scheme that fits into that name.
d. Forget about the scheme, go home and watch TV.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2013/03/policy-science-technology-innovation-
policy-2013-salient-features-highlights-criticism.html

191

[Space Tech] Current Affairs Compilation 2012-13 for SSC CGL, UPSC CSAT
1. Prologue
2. The Basics
1. Basic: What does ISRO do?
2. Basics: ISS
3. Basics: Tiangong and Shenzhou
4. Basics: Atlantis Space shuttle
5. Basics: Soyuz spacecraft
6. Basics: spacewalking
7. Basics: Dragon capsule
8. Basics: Anti-satellite missiles
3. Space programs: India
1. Indias Launch Vehicles: PSLV vs GSLV
2. Indias Satellites: IRS vs INSAT
3. ISROs 100
th
mission
4. Indias own GPS: IRNSS
5. GAGAN
6. Space Vision India 2025
7. Cryogenic Engine
8. Chandrayaan-1
9. Mars Mission
4. Space programs: USA (NASA)
1. USA: MARS related
2. Curiosity
3. Gale Crater
4. Black Beauty
5. NASA: Moon related
6. Ebb and Flow, Sally Ride
7. GRAIL
8. LCROSS
9. MoonKAMs
10. NASA: Misc. Missions
5. Space Programs: Russia
6. Space Programs: China
1. Beidou
2. HXMT
3. Shenzhous-10
4. Shenzhous-9
7. Space Programs: Other countries
8. Telescopes
1. Ground telescopes
2. Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
3. Solar telescope
4. Space telescopes
5. Herschel
6. HXMT
7. Kepler
8. NuSTAR
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9. PIN: Persons in News (Space)
10. Mock Questions
Prologue
Previous I released two Current Affairs compilations (2012-13)
1. Persons in news, books, sports, Misc.GK = click me
2. Defense, missiles etc= click me.
Now moving to the third article on the series: Space tech.
For competitive exams, the Space tech is further divided into two parts:
Part What? Source
1. Theory / static
Basic info on planets, stars, supernova,
big bang theory, blackholes etc.
NCERT science textbooks/ GS
Manual / GK books.
2. Current affairs
Various space programs, satellites
telescopes, astronauts in news.
Newspaper, magazine, internet.
When it comes to MCQs (space tech):
Both theory and current affairs are important for For SSC CGL (Tier 1), UPSC CSAT,
CDS, NDA, CAPF, State PSC prelims exams.
However, for IBPS, SBI, LIC type exams, they usually dont go into theory. If they want to
ask space related questions, they generally ask it from the current affairs portion.
When it comes to Descriptive paper (Mains) of UPSC / State PSC
For space tech related questions, only current affairs is important (mostly 2 marker, 5
marker questions.) The theory portion doesnt come into picture, in the descriptive
papers.
The best way to prepare ^this (for mains)= maintain notes out of newspapers and
magazines throughout the year, and revise it often.
Mainly there are two types of players in competitive exam (based on their approach for Space-
Tech):
1. Those who donot prepare space tech at all, thinking Thik haifor 2-3 marks, why
bother at all!?
2. Those who prepare too much space tech e.g. On April 18, 2001, at 04.22PM, GSLV-1 was
launched. Its weight was 1540 kg and height was 49m.
Either approach is dangerous. Keep the middle path.
The Basics
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before dwelling into ready revision of Space-Tech current affairs, Im going to write
about a few basic concepts.
Please note: following basics are not necessarily technically correct. Theyre just meant
to help you visualize and remember things.
Basic: What does ISRO do?
1. When something is sent to space, it can be Manned (with astronauts) or Unmanned
(without astronauts).
2. The unmanned missions have two things:

Examples
One Launch Vehicle PSLV, GSLV
One or More Satellite(s) INSAT, RISAT, CARTOSAT.
sometimes, instead of satellites, it can be rovers, space telescopes.
The Launch Vehicle (e.g. PSLV, GSLV) sends the satellite(s) into the space.
After covering a particular distance, the satellite (e.g. INSAT, GISAT) gets detached from
the Launch Vehicle.
Then Satellite opens up its wings like a butterfly from cocoon. Those wings have solar
panels, they provide electricity to the satellite.
Satellite rotates around the earth and sends signals to and fro- thus it helps in
telecommunication, TV signal broadcasting, disaster/weather monitoring, sea navigation
etc.
If we put the satellite @35800 km in the equatorial plane, itll appear fixed from any
point on earth, and well call it a Geostationary satellite.
And the Launch vehicle then returns back to Earth, usually falling in the ocean or
uninhibited land. The scientists collect the launch vehicle and re-use its parts for next
mission.
Basics: ISS
ISS= International space station.
ISS is like a hostel in the space. Astronauts go there, stay for some weeks/ months do
some observation, research, repairwork and come back home.
US, Japan, Russia, Canada and many other countries have invested in this ISS space
station.
But China is not a partner in ISS project. China wants to build its own Space station.
Thats were Shenzhous-9 and Tiangong-1 come into picture.
Basics: Tiangong and Shenzhou
Tiangong-1= means heavenly palace.
This is Chinas experimental space station. So this is the hostel for Chinese astronauts
in space.
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Ok but how will you send Chinese astronauts to this heavenly palace? Ans. Via
Shenzhou spacecraft.
Shenzhou means Divine vessel.
In 2012, China used this divine vessel (Shenzhou 9) to send its first female astronaut
Liu Yang to that Heavenly palace (Tiangong-1)
In 2013, China will send more astronauts to that Heavenly palace (Tiangong-1), using
Shenzhou 10.
Basics: Atlantis Space shuttle
Ok recap again, to send satellites in the space, you need a launch vehicle (e.g. PSLV,
GSLV).
Similarly to send people into space, you need a space craft / rocket e.g. Chinas
Shenzhou. Americas Atlantis and Russias Soyuz also do the same thing.
The Atlantis is a space shuttle of NASA. It looks like an airplane.
Atlantis can be used for launching space telescopes, satellites as well as people in to the
space, as per the mission requirements.
And Atlantis can come back and land on earth like a regular airplane (except that during
the landing, Atlantis will open parachute to reduce its speed).
It had carried 33 missions from 1985 to 2011
Atlantis was retired in 2012.
Columbia is another example of NASAs Space Shuttle. But in 2003, it crashed during re-
entering into Earths atmosphere.
India born female astronaut Kalpana Chawla died in this accident. We named our
Weather satellite after her (KALPANA-1).
Basics: Soyuz spacecraft
Just like China uses divine vessel (Shenzhou) to send people into space, similarly
Russia uses Soyuz to send people into space.
In 2012, three astronauts (including Sunita Williams) were sent to International space
station (ISS) using Soyuz.
Basics: spacewalking
There are two types of missions/probes: Manned and unmanned.
Manned = sending people into space.
But what do people do in the space?
o They go to moon, hoist the flag of their nations, E.g. Neil Armstrong.
o They spend a few months on the international space station (ISS) or Heavenly
Palace (Tiangong) or similar hostel (space station. E.g. Indias first astronaut
Rakesh Sharma spent 8 days in a Russian space station.
But often the outside body a spacecraft/hostel (space station) requires some repairing,
maintenance or upgrades.
So, when astronaut goes out of the spacecraft, wearing that white suit and ballon shaped
helmet and does some walking/repairing work, that is known as spacewalk.
Currently Sunita Williams holds the longest spacewalk record for females. (50+ hours).
For males, it is Anatoly Solovyev (77+ hours).
By the way, Sunita Williams also holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a
woman. (195 days).
195

Basics: Dragon capsule
Ok so far we know there are hostels in the space (e.g. ISS, Tiangong). People go there,
spend a few weeks / months. But if it is a hostel, itd require food and supplies.
A private company (Space X) has designed the Dragon capsule to deliver the food and
supplies to space stations.
It successfully delivered cargo to ISS space station in 2012.
Basics: Anti-satellite missiles
We have learned the importance of launch vehicles, satellites and space stations.
But if an enemy shoots down our satellites then our banking and sharemarket system
will collapse, Our army, navy and airforce will not be able to attack back effectively, and
more importantly juntaa will not be able to watch IPL matches and saas-bahu serials or
log into facebook and orkut.
Back in 2007, Chinese military used an Anti-Satellite missile to destroy its own weather
satellite. This made Americans (and Indians) very nervous.
But we have Agni-V missile. It has range of 5000kms. If we make some modifications in
it, we can also use it to destroy enemy satellites. So now China is also nervous.
Basics part is over. now lets get to business: Space Tech related current affairs (2012-13) for
rapid revision. First well look at the space programs of India, US, Russia, China and other
countries. Then well look at telescopes and Persons in News (Space)
Space programs: India
Carried out by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
Chairman=Dr. K. Radhakrishnan. He had replaced G Madhavan Nair. (First Chairman of
ISRO was Vikram Sarabhai.)
HQ Banglore
Satish Dhawan Space
centre
Shriharikota, Andhra. We usually launch satellites from here. (or from
French Guiana in S.America).
Physics research lab Ahmedabad
Antrix Banglore
Indias Launch Vehicles: PSLV vs GSLV
PSLV GSLV
Polar satellite launch vehicle
Geosynchronous satellite launch
vehicle
Can carry upto 1600 kg satellite 2500kg
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Used for launching Indian remote sensing satellites
(IRS) such as CARTOSAT, RISAT, OCEANSAT,
RESOURCESAT
For launching Indian National
satellites (INSAT) such as INSAT 2E,
3A., GSAT-2,8,12.
Latest version is PSLV-XL. Can carry upto 1750 kg. It
was used to launch Chandrayaan, RISAT. And in future,
itll be used for Mars mission as well.
Next version is GSLV MK-III, can
carry upto 4000kg
Indias Satellites: IRS vs INSAT
IRS INSAT
Indian remote sensing satellites Indian National satellites (INSAT)
Monitoring natural resources, crops,
minerals, forest cover etc.
Telecom, TV broadcast, DTH, weather forecasting,
telemedicine, tele-education, search and rescue etc.
Launched using PSLV. Using GSLV.
Examples of IRS = CARTOSAT, RISAT,
OCEANSAT, RESOURCESAT
Examples of INSAT= INSAT-2E, 3A,. And GSAT-
2,8,12.
Now lets take a look at the satellites that have been in news recently (or mentioned in Yearbook)
Aditya-1
For studying Solar Coronas.
Astrosate-1
For astronomy.
CARTOSAT-
3
ISRO is building this remote sensing satellite.
It can take images of earth with resolution of 0.25 meters.
Itll be used for cartography and high resolution mapping.
GISAT
Geo Imaging Satellite.
Itll be positioned 36,000 kms above the earth.
Itll be used for disaster management, border security.
GSAT-10
This is Indias heaviest satellite so far.
It was ISROs 101
st
mission.
It was launched French Guiana.
It also carried second payload of GAGAN. (First payload of GAGAN was
sent via GSAT-8).
GSAT-7
Itll increase Indias telecommunication signals.
Indian Navy will also use it for communication.
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INSAT-2E
after serving for 13 years, this satellite completed its mission life in 2012.
INSAT-3D
Weather satellite (meteorology), search and rescue operations.
At present Indias meterological observation is done by two satellites
Kalpana-1 and INSET 3A. This INSAT 3D is more powerful and advanced.
RISAT-1
RISAT-1 is Indias first radar imaging satellite
It can scan the earth surface during both day and night, even in cloudy
conditions. So it is an all weather satellite.
Use= paddy monitoring and management of natural disaster like flood and
cyclone.
It was launched using PSLV-XL launch vehicle.
SARAL
Indo-French satellite
SARAL= Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa.
It was launched From Sriharikota, Andhra.
Itll be used for marine meteorology, oceanography climate monitoring etc.
ISROs first mission was to send aryabhatta Satellite into space. But at that time we did
not have our own launch vehicle, so we used a Russian launch vehicle.
Today ISRO has both Satellite + Launch vehicle. And we not only send our own satellites,
we also help other countries send their satellites into space, using our launch vehicles.
(ofcourse after taking cash for providing the Taxi/courier service.)
For these type of commercial activities, ISRO takes help of Antarix.
Antarix is a Government owned company, it works as the marketing and commercial
arm of ISRO.
ISROs 100
th
mission
ISROs 100
th
mission was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriarikota,
Andhra Pradesh.
Here, ISRO launched two foreign satellites using PSLV launch vehicle. The name of
satellites are:
1. SPOT 6: French satellite
2. Proiteres: Japanese micro satellite
By the way, recall that ISROs 101
st
mission was GSAT 10. And GSAT 10 is the heaviest
satellite ISRO has launched so far. (because 100
th
mission is extremely clichd and blown
out of proportion, so if UPSC wants to apply its Backbreaking
TM
move, itd rather ask
about 99
th
or 101
st
mission hahaha).
Indias own GPS: IRNSS
At present only three countries have their own global navigation systems
USA GPS
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Russia GLONASS. More discussed in earlier article click me
China Beidou
To deploy a global navigation system, you need to setup lots of satellites hovering around
the world, so they can scan and sent pinpoint location of anywhere to anywhere.
During the Iraq war, the Americans sent wrong GPS navigation signals to the Iraqi jets
and missiles, therefore Iraqis could not attack Americans forces in accurate manner.
Moral of the story = Dont rely on other peoples navigation system.
For the short term, We (India) are designing our missiles and fighter jets in such way
that they can use both GPS (American) and GLONASS (Russian) signals for navigation.
(so if we want to attack America or its ally, we can rely on GLONASS and vice versa.)
But for long term, we will need our own GPS like system. Therefore, ISRO is developing
IRNSS.
IRNSS= Indian regional navigational satellite system.
Now if you connect the dots: we need our own GPS (IRNSS) so we can accurately attack
enemies. And we will need our own Anti-satellite missile, to shoot down satellites of
enemies so their GPS cannot work accurately.
GAGAN
GPS aided geo augmented navigation (gagan)
It is a joint effort by the ISRO and the Airports Authority Of India (AAI).
Its main use is to help Air traffic control and helps pilots fly / land aircrafts in bad
weather.
But as the name suggests GPS aided meaning it is not a separate independent
navigation system. It depends on GPS (American navigation system). Therefore we need
IRNSS.
Space Vision India 2025
This is what ISRO plans to for future:
1. Use satellites for rural connectivity, security and mobile services
2. Increase imaging capability for natural resource management, weather and climate
change studies
3. Get better understanding of solar system and universe
4. explore planets.
5. Develop Heavy lift launcher
6. Develop Reusable Launch Vehicles.
7. Send Humans to space.
Cryogenic Engine
Cryogenic engines work at very low temperature.
ISRO is developing cryogenic engines
1. for GSLV launch vehicles.
2. for Chandrayaan-2 moon mission
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earlier ISRO had tried this in 2010 but it was an #EPICFAIL.
Chandrayaan-1
It was Indias first unmanned moon mission.
It found evidence of water on Moon. It also did the surved the topography, craters, polar
regions and environment of Moon.
This happened in 2008 hence too old and too clichd to be asked for MCQs.
ISRO is now working on Chandrayaan-2 joint programme with the Russian Federal
Space Agency, But Russians suffered a setback due to their Phobos grunt mission.
Mars Mission
India planning a Mars mission similar to Curiosity mission of NASA. (probably in
October/November 2013.)
Mohan made official announcement about this during Independence day speech.
Mars mission will be launched using PSLV-XL.
PSLV-XL is the most powerful version of PSLV launch vehicle. Earlier it was used for
Chandrayaan Mission, RISAT and GSAT-12.
This leads to Essay / group discussion / interview topic that when millions of Indians are
suffering from poverty and malnutrition, whats point of spending crores of rupees on Moon and
Mars mission? But this article is written for MCQs, so lets not dwell into that for the moment.
Space programs: USA (NASA)
NASA=National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
There is no end to NASA missions either, but from the current affairs point of view, I
would classify them into three: 1) Mars related 2) Moon related 3) Misc.
USA: MARS related
Curiosity
This is Maha clichd topic for MCQs but anyways
Name of the mission is MSL: Mars Science laboratory.
Under this MSL mission, NASA launched Curiosity rover to Mars in 2011.
In 2012, Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars surface.
This mission has following aims
1. Did life ever exist on Mars?
2. Find presence of water, and other life supporting elements.
3. Collect data related to geology, radiation levels etc. for planning next manned mission to
Mars.
Device on
Curiosity
Function
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CHEMIN
Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument
It is used for soil analysis on Mars.
CheMin found that minerals on the Red Planet are similar to those
found in volcanic soils in Hawaii
TLS
Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS)
Presence of methane in a planets atmosphere indicates that life may
have existed in the past.
TLS analysed a small sample of Martian air and detected very small
amount of methane.
Gale Crater
Located on Mars planet.
Curiosity rover landed here and found signs that water may have flowed in the past
through this Gale Crater.
Black Beauty
It is a 320 gram space rock from Mars.
Discovered in Moroccos Sahara Desert in 2011
It contains more water than any other Martian meteorite previously found.
could unlock vital clues to the evolution of Mars.
NASA: Moon related
Ebb and Flow, Sally
Ride
Two NASA spacecraft Ebb and Flow, equipped with MoonKAMs.
They were orbiting around Moon since 2011 under GRAIL mission.
But they did not have sufficient altitude or fuel to continue science
operations.
Hence NASA team crash-landed them on Moon in Dec 2012.
The place where they crash landed is named after Sally K. Ride,
Americas first woman astronaut.
GRAIL
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)
To study the gravity field and geological structure of the Moon.
LCROSS
NASAs Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing satellite,
It has detected presence of water locked inside the soil of moon.
MoonKAMs
MoonKAM= Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students.
The MoonKams captures images of the moons surface and sends
them to the students for study.
NASA: Misc. Missions
201

Cassini
It found evidence of water on Titan.
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn planet.
Dragon Space
X
Dragon capsule was designed by a private company space X. (and not
by NASA)
It delivered food, supplies and cargo to International space station.
It was launched using Flacon 9 rocket.
Fire Fly
Cubesat
It is a small satellite designed by NASA aimed to capture the details of
the lightening that happens in deep space.
This will help solving the mystery of terrestrial gamma rays, or TGFs.
Kepler
telescope
It is a space observatory of NASA.
It is used for discovering earth like plants.
Mercury
Messenger
Mercury is the innermost planet in the Solar System.
NASAs MESSENGER spacecraft has reported presence of water-ice on
Mercury.
NuSTAR
NuSTAR (the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)
It is a space-based X-ray telescope.
NASA launched this under Pegasus mission.
NuSTAR telescope will use high power X-rays to locate black holes,
collapsed stars and supernova remnants.
PREDICCS
web-based tool for predicting and forecasting the radiation environment
in near-Earth, lunar and Martian space.
It will provide critical information as preparations are made for potential
future manned missions to the Moon and Mars.
Space Programs: Russia
Luna Glob
Robotic Lunar Mission in 2015.
Mars500
Joint experiments conducted by EU, Russia, China for sending human missions on
Mars.
Phobos
Grunt
Mars has two moons. Phobos is the largest of them.Russian sent Phobos grunt
mission to study it. But the spacecraft failed and crashed into Pacific ocean.
Rus
Name of the two seater spaceship developed by Russia
Soyuz
rocket
Launched from Kazakhstan, carried three astronauts to International space station
(ISS), including Sunita Williams in 2012.
Space Programs: China
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Beidou
Before Beidou, only two countries had Navigation systems: USA= GPS and
Russia= GLONASS.
Beidou is Chinas own version of global navigation system.
Project will be fully operational by 2020.
HXMT
Hard x-ray modulation telescope
for studying blackholes. (recall that Americas NuSTAR is also meant for
studying blackholes).
Shenzhous-
10
Chinas next manned space mission.
It will also carry Chinese astronauts to Tiangong-1.
Shenzhous-9
It means divine Vessel.
Manned space mission of China.
It carried Chinas first woman astronaut Liu Yang to an orbiting module
Tiangong-1.
Tiangong-1 means Heavenly palace- it is Chinas prototype for future
space station similar to ISS.
Yaogan
For crop assessment and disaster management.
Chinasat
It is chinas new military communication satellite.
Space Programs: Other countries
Korea
Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1)
South Korea will launch this satellite and gain entry to an elite global space club
that includes Asian powers China, India and Japan.
Earlier USA did not let S.Korea developed launch vehicles for the fear of arms race
between North and South Korea.
Iran
Pishgam =name of Monkey that was recently sent to space and returned back,
under Iranian space mission. In Farsi, Pishgam = Pioneer.
Telescopes
There are two types of telescopes:
1. Those on the ground (e.g. SKA, Solar telescope in Ladakh) and
2. Those in the space. (Kepler, NuSTAR, HXMT and Herschel.)
^this list is not exhaustive, but these telescopes were in news recently.
Ground telescopes
Square Kilometre worlds largest and most sensitive radio telescope
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Array (SKA) will be completed in 2024
Will be setup in South Africa and Australia.
Applications: signal transport, signal processing, computing,
software and data archiving
India is actively involved in this project
Solar telescope
Also known as National Large Solar Telescope (NLST)
Will be built in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir by Dept
of Science and Technology.
This will be worlds largest solar telescope.
Can work in both day and night.
Will help in understanding sunspots: process of their creation and
decay.
Sunspots and solar winds pose a threat to the communication
system on earth as well as space satellites.
Space telescopes
Herschel
largest space telescope ever launched (2009)
It is named after Sir William Herschel who had discovered Uranus
planet.
This telescope is in news, because soon its onboard liquid helium
supply will be exhausted and itll stop working.
Helium is required to cool the instruments on Herschele space
telescope.
EU+US
HXMT
Hard x-ray modulation telescope
for studying blackholes. (recall that Americas NuSTAR is also meant
for studying blackholes).
China
Kepler
Launched in 2009.
To discover earth like planets.
Kepler was a German astronomer who gave laws to describe the motion
of planets around the Sun.
US
NuSTAR
NuSTAR (the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)
It is a space-based X-ray telescope.
NASA launched this under Pegasus mission.
NuSTAR telescope will use high power X-rays to locate black holes,
collapsed stars and supernova remnants.
US
PIN: Persons in News (Space)
Liu Yang first Chinese woman astro.
204

Neil Armstrong Apollo 11. 1969. First man to land on moon. Dead.
Sally Ride First American woman astro. Dead. A Moon crate named after her.
Sunita Williams
Longest space walk (female).Took command of international space station
in Sep 12.
Dr. K.
Radhakrishnan
ISRO Chairman.
Finally two topics:
1. CERN, God particle= http://mrunal.org/2012/08/snt-cern.html
2. Blue Moon= http://mrunal.org/2012/08/snt-blue-moon.html
Ok so these were the notable Space tech related events/ terms happened during Jan 2012 to
March 2013. If you feel any important thing was missed, or if there is any correction, do write it
in the comments below.
Mock Questions
1. Which of the following country is not associated with International space station?
a. Canada
b. Russia
c. Japan
d. China
2. Correct Statements
a. Tiangong-1 is the experimental space telescope of China.
b. Shenzhou-9 is the name of Chinese space station
c. Both
d. None
3. Longest spacewalk record for Female Astronauts is held by
a. Kalpana Chawla
b. Sally James
c. Liu Yang
d. Sunita Williams
4. Which of the following is not a telescope?
a. Hubble
b. Kepler
c. NuStar
d. Beidou
5. Incorrect Statement
a. Antrix is a privately owned company of Airtel.
b. Antrix is the commerical and Marketing arm of ISRO
c. Both
d. None
6. Find Incorrect Match
a. French Guiana=in North Africa
b. Satish Dhawan Space centre=Banglore
205

c. Physics Research lab= Pune
d. All of above
7. Correct Statements about Dragon Capsule
a. It was designed by Nasa
b. It was used for delivering cargo to International space station.
c. Both
d. None
8. Incorrect Statements
a. Indian Remote Sensing satellites are launched using GSLV.
b. Indian National satellites are launched using PSLV.
c. Both
d. None
9. Correct Statements about PSLV-XL
a. It is a launch vehicle, used in Chandrayaan.
b. Itll be used in Indias Mars Mission.
c. Both
d. None
10. Incorrect statements about Indian remote sensing satellites
a. They are used for monitering natural resources.
b. Theyre launched using GSLV.
c. CARTOSAT and RISAT are examples of Remote sensing satellites.
d. None of Above.
11. Incorrect Match
a. Aditya: Solar Coronas
b. Cartosat-3: high resolution mapping
c. GSAT-10: Indias heaviest satellite so far
d. SARAL: Indo-Japanese Tsunami prediction satellite.
12. Correct Match
a. Spot-6: Japan
b. Proiteres: France
c. Beidou: Japan
d. None of above
13. Find the Odd sequence
a. GLONASS, Beidou, IRNSS
b. NuSTAR, HXMT, Herschel
c. GAGAN, PISHGAM, SARAL
d. None of Above
14. which of the following country doesnt have its own Global Navigation system?
a. Russia
b. China
c. Japan
d. None of Above
15. which of the following is not the main aim of ISROs Space vision 2025?
a. Develop reusable launch vehicles
b. Develop Indias own space station.
c. Send humans to space
d. Use satellites for rural connectivity, security and mobile services.
16. Name of the mission under which Nasa sent a rover to Mars in 2011?
a. MSL
b. Curiosity
c. Pegasus
206

d. None of Above
17. Gale Crater is located in
a. Mercury
b. Saturn
c. Mars
d. Moon
18. Black Beauty is a space rock from
a. Moon
b. Mars
c. Saturn
d. Mercury
19. Who/ What is Sally Ride?
a. First female astronaut of USA
b. A Place on Moon where two NASA spacecrafts crash-landed.
c. Both of above
d. None of Above
20. What is the purpose of GRAIL mission?
a. Study the gravity field of Moon
b. Study the gravity field of Mars
c. Study the gravity field of Mercury
d. Study the gravity field of Venus
21. Correct Statement
a. Titan is one of the moon of Mars
b. Phobos is one of the moon of Saturn
c. Both
d. None
22. What is/ are common between NuSTAR and HXMT
a. Both will are space telescopes used for finding black holes.
b. Both are launched by NASA under Pegasus mission.
c. Both A and B
d. Neither A or B
23. Beidou is the
a. Space station of China
b. Mars mission of China
c. Global navigation system of China
d. None of above
24. Worlds Largest radio telescope:
a. Herschel
b. HXMT
c. Hubbles
d. Square Kilometer Array
25. In 2012, Sunita Williams went to ISS using which of the following spacecraft?
a. Atlantis
b. Discovery
c. Soyuz
d. None of Above

Article printed from Mrunal: http://mrunal.org
207

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2013/04/space-tech-current-affairs-compilation-
2012-13-for-ssc-cgl-upsc-csat.html
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