DRDO’s Rail Track Rocket Sled

• comprises five precision-aligned rails, each four-km long; specially designed rocket motors; aerodynamic sleds; and advanced instrumentation.

• allows the simulation of interception of a missile coming in at a supersonic speed.

• simulating the velocities encountered during the re-entry of crew capsules to be used in India’s manned missions to space and the parachutes that will be deployed to bring back the Indian astronauts safely to earth

System of Rice Intensification(SRI)

• requires less water and seeds, and increases yield on any type of land.

• farmers can get five times more paddy production• rice seedlings, less than 15 days old with just two

leaves, are planted singly and spaced optimally to permit more growth of roots and canopy.

• Seedlings are removed and relocated when young to avoid trauma to roots and minimise transplant shock.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)

• Sweden on 23rd May 2014 said it would sue the European Commission over a delay in identifying harmful chemicals in everyday products, which it blamed on chemical industry lobbying.

Shale Gas• Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped

within Sedimentary Rocks (shale formations) (shale gas is typically a dry gas primarily composed of methane.)

• Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can be rich resources of petroleum and natural gas.

• Sedimentary rocks are rocks formed by the accumulation of sediments at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Common sedimentary rocks include sandstone, limestone, and shale.

• Shale gas belongs to the category of unconventional reservoirs which includes coal bed methane, gas from tight sandstones and gas hydrates.

• It is expected that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply.

Induced hydraulic fracturing /hydrofracturing/ fracking / fraccing

- mining technique in which a liquid (in most cases water) is mixed with sand and chemicals and the resultant mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore.

- This creates small fractures in the deep rock formations

Harmful effect

• CONTAMINATION

- During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater.

- Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells.

• documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water have been reported.

• Only 30-50% of the fracturing fluid is recovered, the rest of the toxic fluid is left in the ground and is not biodegradable.

Air Pollution Waste fluid is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful

VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone.

(Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air. For example, formaldehyde, which evaporates from paint, )

• Earthquakes Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping massive

amounts of water into the earth's crust to break apart rock, Many scientist found it to be assosiated with earthquake.

India and Shale Gas-India has very little domestic gas production.

- 6 basins have been identified

- EIA (Energy Information Administration)—US federal authority on energy statistics and analysis..estimated Indian shale gas reserve to be 96 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

- This (96 TCF) is enough to take care of India’s gas demand for 26 years (ONGC)

• New Shale Gas Policy announced by the Centre in October 2013

• Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC) will explore 30 additional shale gas wells in India over the next two years…. first such well in inaugrated in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. (November 2013 )

• ONGC had signed a memorandum of understanding with the ConocoPhillips, US. The two undertook joint studies of the four basins: Cambay, Krishna Godavari, Cauvery and Damodar.

• Based on the studies, a shale gas pilot drilling programme was firmed up Cambay Basin in technical collaboration with Conoco.

Green Tobacco Sickness

Green Tobacco Sickness

• acute nicotine poisoning.• occupational poisoning that can affect workers

who cultivate and harvest tobacco. It occurs when workers absorb nicotine through the skin as they come into contact with leaves of the mature tobacco plant.

• Children and young age group most vulnerable

Some occupational diseases

• An occupational disease is a disease or disorder that is caused by the work or working conditions…

• Bagassosis – Sugar cane fibre• Pneumoconiosis – Coal mining• Farmer’s lung - moldy hay• Asbestosis – asbestosis mining • Byssinosis – Cotton textile industry• Computer vision syndromme - software

professionals

Maglev train

• Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, which means that these trains will float over a guideway using the basic principles of magnets to replace the old steel wheel and track trains.

• The magnetic field created by the electrified coils in the guideway walls and the track combine to propel the train.

Bt var. kurstaki wettable powder

• powder containing Bt bacteria is one of the ways of using this microbe's pest-controlling attributes (without actually putting their specific genes, such as Cry1Ac, into the plants.)

• developed by the Rajendranagar (Hyderabad)-based Directorate of Oilseed Research and licensed for commercial production to some 40 medium scale enterprises engaged in bio-pesticides business.

Advantage

- it automatically degrades after being applied on the crops without leaving any toxic residue and, thus, is safe for human beings and livestock.

- it kills only the harmful insects and spares crop-friendly ones, including predators of harmful insects.

Probiotics

• The World Health Organization's definition of probiotics is "live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host"

Pre Biotics

Carbon Dating

• Why in News ? (5th May Indian Express ) - THE Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which started

excavations in Sarnath in feb-march 2014 to ascertain the famous Buddhist site’s true age, has reportedly found C14 carbon samples dating back to 395 BC. The ASI has now sent the samples to the United States for analysis.

- ASI achieved the objective to know what happened at

Sarnath between the time of Lord Buddha and emperor Ashoka. The monastery existed there as per literary evidence and that has now been proved,

• Radiocarbon dating (or simply carbon dating) is a radiometric dating technique that uses the decay of carbon-14 (14C) to estimate the age of organic materials, such as wood and other fossils..

•

• The Earth's atmosphere contains various isotopes of carbon, roughly in constant proportions. These include the main stable isotope (12C) and an unstable isotope (14C). Through photosynthesis, plants absorb both forms from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When an organism dies, it contains the standard ratio of 14C to 12C, but as the 14C decays with no possibility of replenishment, the proportion of carbon 14 decreases at a known constant rate. The time taken for it to reduce by half is known as the half-life of 14C. The measurement of the remaining proportion of 14C in organic matter thus gives an estimate of its age

• The half-life of 14C(the time it takes for half of a given amount of 14C to decay) is about 5,730 years,

Project Persephone• Building self-sustainable spacecraft that can survive at interstellar space.• the research is looking at how a long-duration manned mission out of the

solar system could feasibly survive. • any future ‘generation ship’ we build will need to be entirely self-sustainable

in terms of not only food and water, but cultural advances as well.

• In essence, any manned vehicle we one day send into interstellar space will need a 'flourishing ecosystem'.So these mission needs to be self sustainaible

• These ships could then be used to rescue and house the human population in the event of a global catastrophe

• The project is part of a study being funded by both National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Google Glass

• Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD).

Advantages

• With the glasses,everything will appear right before you eyes. From directions to texts to a video chat, taking photos, even online shopping, it will all be possible on with your glasses.

• Allow people to interact with the virtual world without distracting them from the physical world. It’s designed to interact closely with your senses, without blocking them.

Healthcare• Glass can make a huge difference in hospitals

to increase the efficiency of staff and accuracy of treatment given to patients.

• The camera will play a pivotal role - allowing nurses or doctors to scan barcodes and tags to identify patients, bring up medical records and verify the correct medication and dosage is being applied.

• Augmented Reality • Glass can superimpose information over real-world happenings,

which will allow the tourism and leisure industry to enhance and support the customer experience.

• City and museum tours can be brought to life by overlaying historicals buildings and artwork with key facts or audio descriptions. Users will also be able to take pictures and video and email the files to themselves so they can capture memories hands-free.

• Simple tasks like food and clothes shopping will be revamped. • Apps could be developed allowing Glass to highlight the health

benefits of foods and any promotions. Retail assistants will be able help customers with their queries on the shop-floor by providing information on products and checking stock levels.

• Even the construction, retail and real estate agencies will benefit from augmented reality. When designing buildings, bridges and vehicles, the architects, builders and engineers will be able to pop on Glass and see what the finished article should look like, instead of relying on 2D blueprints or pictures.

• Similarly, those selling or letting houses will be able to provide real-world tours without having to get clients to visits all properties. This could save the buyers/renters time as they would only need to visit houses in the real world they like the look of in the virtual world.

• Navigation• Getting directions through Glass is easy with

users having to say “Ok Glass, get me directions to [location]”. The route is then displayed in front of your face, making it easy to follow.

• Concerns have been raised about how distracting this will be for people operating vehicles.

• Assistance for the disabled it has the potential to make life-changing

difference for those with disabilities. example :- enhance communication between

parents and their deaf children.

• Police and military• With complaints about the behaviour of police

forces and military personnel on the rise, Glass can be used to record activities in the field as it provides a point-of-view perspective and doesn't obstruct activity.

• Better equip police to perform challenging functions.

• Journalism and mass media applications - technology's live reporting applications,

including conducting interviews and covering stories from the a reporter's point-of-view.

Criticism

• Intrusion of privacy - recording people without their permission - People wearing may surreptitiously record

and broadcast private conversations

• Safety considerations Concerns have also been raised on operating

motor vehicles while wearing the device

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances.

• Bluetooth networking transmits data via low-power radio waves. (UHF)

• It communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (actually between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz, to be exact).

• This frequency band has been set aside by international agreement for the use of industrial, scientific and medical devices (ISM).

Astra Missile - successfully test-fired from Sukhoi (May – 4,2014 )

• Astra is India's first Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile and has been designed and developed indigenously by the DRDO.

• The 60-km plus range missile possesses high Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) making it highly reliable.

• All-weather missile with active radar terminal guidance, excellent ECCM (electronic counter-counter measures) features, smokeless propulsion and process improved effectiveness in multi-target scenario, making it a highly advanced state-of-the-art missile

Hybrid Cars / Hybrid Vehicle

• A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle.

• The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors. However, other mechanisms to capture and utilize energy are included.

• New research undertaken by the U.S. Department of Energy (Berkley National laboratory,california ) has found that hybrid cars are significantly more fuel-efficient in India and China

• The same road conditions that can make driving so frustrating in India, including heavy traffic, aggressive driving style, and few highways, makes them ideal for saving fuel with hybrid vehicles.

Regenerative braking, the option to turn off the engine when the car is stopped or in low-power condition, and additionally the hybrid system itself, comprising the electric motor and the batteries.

The Government in 2013 launched a national plan with the goal of getting six to seven million hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by 2020, and has already begun working with the Berkeley Lab to further analyse their results.

Gravitational lensing

• Gravitational Lensing refers to the deflection of the light in the presence of the gravitational field. It is caused by a massive body, such as galaxy or black hole between the object and the eye .

• Because of this cumulative effect, it causes optical illusion of multiple sources and stretching of the images

• The intensity depends on the size, mass of the massive body and the distance between object and observer

• Scientist in NASA have recently discovered massive cluster of galaxies showing gravitational lensing effect.

Application :- - Gravitational lensing can be used to make a

direct measurement of universe’s expansion rate. -This concept can be further used to answer

questions about the dark matter, dark energy, big bang theory, etc.

Why in News ?

• On March 17,2014 the BICEP2 collaboration that made exquisite measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the south pole over three years, with a state of the art detector array, announced the detection of a distinct signature of cosmic gravitational waves, possibly originating during an explosive phase of expansion dubbed inflation, occurring at the earliest moments after the big bang.

• BICEP2 belongs to a novel series of ground-based microwave telescopes at the South Pole designed to exclusively target the feeble 100 nano-Kelvin B-mode polarization signal in the CMB sky expected to arise due to primordial gravitational waves. .

(please see April 1,2014 article .. In the Hindu )

• What is the Big Bang?It is the moment when the universe is supposed

to have begun expanding. However, we do not yet have a good understanding of moments very close to the Big Bang.

• What are radiation and matter dominated epochs? The universe evidently consists of radiation and

matter. According to General Relativity, these form the source of expansion of the universe. Based on their evolution as the universe expands, one finds that the energy density of radiation is dominant during the early stages, while the energy density in non-relativistic matter dominated at later times. These are referred to as the radiation and matter dominated epochs.

• What are dark matter and dark energy? Various observations point to the fact that apart

from baryons (i.e., ordinary matter), which interact with light and hence can be ‘seen’, there seem to exist two other forms of matter in the universe, viz. cold dark matter and dark energy. The adjective ‘dark’ is used to imply that they do not interact with light.

• What is the Cosmic Microwave Background? It is a perfectly thermal and nearly isotropic

(i.e., the same in all directions) radiation, which is a remnant of the early radiation dominated epoch and hence is ‘cosmic’ in origin.

• What are anisotropies in the CMB? While the CMB is largely isotropic, i.e. carrying

largely the same temperature in all directions of the sky, it contains tiny (of about 10 parts in a million) deviations from isotropy, which are referred to as anisotropies.

• What is inflation and why is it required? Inflation corresponds to a brief period of

accelerated expansion of the universe during the early stages of the radiation-dominated epoch.

DRONES

• Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles which are either controlled by pilots from ground or they autonomously follow a pre-programmed mission.

• has the capability to fly autonomously via software-controlled flight plans working in association with global positioning system (GPS).

• UAVs are usually associated with the military but they have high potential to be used in non military ways too.

Military Application

BombingSurveillanceIntelligence gathering

Non milliatary Application

• Weather monitoring: Drones help to improve weather forecasts due to their capacity for high-altitude, with the ability to stay in the air for long durations.

• Environmental monitoring: for a range of activities, including scientific research, monitoring environmental conditions, analyzing the impacts of climate change, responding to natural hazards, wildlife inventories, fire fighting etc.

• Chasing criminals and traffic monitoring: gaining a better viewpoint of crime scenes, can be used for surveillance as well. Can be paired with a camera for capturing video and stills, or a thermal sensor for complete situational awareness.

• Surveying and 3D mapping: used for aerial surveying of crops, inspecting power lines and oil pipelines, and collecting data through 3D mapping.

• Film making: Drones provide an entirely new viewpoint in terms of film making due to its versatility, thus creating a thrilling movie experience.

• More recently, Amazon announced a plan to use drones for delivery of its products to customers.