1. First images from James Webb Space Telescope released by NASA
Tags: Science and Technology
NASA on July 12 released the deepest and most accurate infrared image of the universe ever taken from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
What is the image about?
Webb's first deep field galaxy cluster is SMAC 0723 which is filled with thousands of galaxies including the weakest objects seen in the infrared.
The image of Webb is about the size of a grain of sand held on a hand, a tiny piece of the vast universe.
The collection also includes fresh images of another galaxy cluster known as Stephen's Quintet, first discovered in 1877.
James Webb Space Telescope
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched by rocket on 25 December 2021 from South America’s north-eastern coast.
It is the most powerful infrared telescope ever launched by NASA.
It has been built in collaboration with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
It has opened a new era of astronomy.
Its goal is to search for the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.
It will reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help to understand the origins of the universe and the human position.
It reached its destination in solar orbit about 1.6 million km from Earth after travelling 2 weeks in space.
It is also considered a successor of the Hubble Telescope which was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990.
2. IIT Madras researchers develop AI tool to identify cancer-causing genes
Tags: Science and Technology
An Artificial Intelligence-based tool named 'PIVOT' has been developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
PIVOT
PIVOT is designed to predict genes that are responsible for causing cancer.
This AI-based tool will help in developing strategies for personalised cancer treatment.
PIVOT is able to predict cancer-causing genes in patients.
The PIVOT tool was developed based on the machine learning model, which categorises genes as tumour oncogenes, suppressor genes or neutral genes.
It successfully predicted oncogenes as well as tumour-suppressor genes such as TP53, and PIK3CA.
How does this work?
PIVOT is a machine learning tool.
It uses a variety of data, including mutations and gene expression, to predict cancer-causing genes.
These genes are called driver genes.
It helps in formulating personalised cancer treatment strategies.
3. Around 60 StartUps registered with ISRO
Tags: Science and Technology
Nearly 60 startups have registered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) since the recent opening of the Indian space sector to the private sector by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Important facts
Some of the registered start-ups are working on projects related to space debris management.
This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh after inaugurating the ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Operation at ISRO Control Center in Bengaluru on July 11.
Other startups have different offerings from nano-satellites, launch vehicles, ground systems, research, etc.
Earlier on June 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said during the inauguration of IN-SPACe that the space policy would be announced soon.
The policy will define the role that private companies can play in space missions, providing access to infrastructure and services owned by ISRO.
Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe)
IN-SPACe at Bopal in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was inaugurated by PM Modi on June 10.
It will be the nodal agency that will allow space activities and use of Department of Space-owned facilities by non-government private entities and ensure greater private participation in the sector.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
ISRO was set up on 15 August 1969
Chairman of ISRO: S Somnath
Headquarters of ISRO : Bengaluru, Karnataka
Space Station from where ISRO launches rockets - Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
4. ICMR-VCRC develops special female mosquitoes to control Dengue, Chikungunya
Tags: Science and Technology
ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre has developed special female mosquitoes to control Dengue and Chikungunya.
Important facts
These female mosquitoes will mate with males and produce larvae that do not contain the virus.
Two colonies of Aedes aegypti have been developed by ICMR-VCRC, Puducherry. who are infected with wMel and wAlbB Wolbachia strains to reduce the spread of viral disease.
These are called Aedes aegypti (Pud).
After getting permission from the government, these female mosquitoes will be released outside so that they will form larvae that are free from the viruses of these diseases.
Mosquito-borne diseases
Malaria - This disease is caused by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito.
Malaria fever is caused by a virus called Plasmodium vivax.
Dengue - Dengue virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), dengue is the most widely spread disease by mosquitoes worldwide.
Chikungunya - Chikungunya, like dengue, is caused by the bite of the Aedes mosquito.
Yellow Fever - This disease is caused by the bite of a human from the Aedes mosquito, especially Aedes aegypti.
Yellow fever is caused by flavivirus.
5. India’s first Autonomous Navigation facility, TiHAN launched at the IIT Hyderabad
Tags: Science and Technology
The Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh inaugurated India's first autonomous navigation facility, called TIHAN, on the campus of IIT Hyderabad.
Important facts
The navigation facility has been developed by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology with an outlay of Rs 130 crore.
What is Tihan?
It is a multi-disciplinary initiative that aims to make India a global player in 'smart mobility' technology for the future and the next generation.
The platform will facilitate high quality research between industry, academia and R&D laboratories locally and globally.
TiHAN stands for "Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation".
Importance
TiHAN Test Bed strives to make India a global leader in autonomous navigation technologies.
TiHAN-IITH will help in precise testing of next generation autonomous navigation technologies.
6. IISc researchers develop an analog chipset named ARYABHAT-1
Tags: Science and Technology
Researchers at IISc Bengaluru have recently developed a prototype of an analog chipset named "Aryabhata-1".
Important facts
The team has created a design framework for developing the next generation of analog computing chipsets.
These chipsets can work fast. It will use less power than the digital processors used in various electronic gadgets.
It has been designed by Prateek Kumar, a PhD student at IISc.
Aryabhata-1
Aryabhata-1 stands for "Analog Reconfigurable Technology and Bias-scalable Hardware for AI Tasks".
These chipsets could be beneficial for applications based on artificial intelligence (AI) such as object or speech recognition apps, including Alexa.
It is able to be configured with multiple machine learning architectures such that its ability to perform robustly over different temperature ranges enables it to work with digital CPUs.
About Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
IISc was established in the year 1909 at Bangalore, Karnataka State with the active support of Jamsetji Tata.
Hence it is also known as 'Tata Institute'.
It is a public research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design and management.
IISc was granted deemed university status in 1958 and Institute of Eminence in 2018.
7. Three new Exotic subatomic particles discovered with the Large Hadron Collider
Tags: Science and Technology
The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment has discovered three never-before-seen particles.
What is the discovery?
CERN, (European Organization for Nuclear Research) was investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark”.
The three “exotic” particles, a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” were found.
These are a kind of new hadrons.
The discovery will help physicists understand how quarks bind together in these composite particles.
What are Quarks?
Quark is a fundamental component of matter and is defined as an elementary particle.
These quarks combine to produce composite particles called hadrons.
They usually combine together in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons.
The most stable of these are neutrons and protons which are components of the atomic nucleus.
They can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, called tetraquarks and pentaquarks.
These exotic hadrons were predicted by theorists nearly six decades ago.
Tetraquarks and Pentaquarks
Atoms contain smaller particles called neutrons and protons, which are made up of three quarks each.
Most of the exotic hadrons discovered in the past two decades are tetraquarks or pentaquarks.
They contain a charm quark and a charm antiquark.
8. Ukrainian mathematician becomes second woman to win Fields Medal
Tags: Science and Technology International News
On July 5, a jury of the International Mathematical Union awarded the prestigious Fields Medal to four mathematicians, including Ukraine's Marya Vyazovska.
Marya Vyazovska
Wiazowska is the head of number theory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.
Wiazowska is the second woman to win the award in its 80-year history.
She is known to be an expert in solving spherical packing problems.
She was awarded the prize for solving a version of a centuries-old mathematical problem where she proved the densest packing of equal regions in eight dimensions.
Wiazowska was born in 1984 in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union, and has been a professor at the cole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland since 2017.
The other three winners are -
James Maynard - number theorist at the University of Oxford, UK
June Huh - specialist in combinatorics at Princeton University in New Jersey
Hugo Duminil Copin - studies statistical physics at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies (IHES) near Paris.
35-year-old James Maynard was presented this award for his contribution to "analytical number theory".
June Huh, 39, was awarded the prize for "changing" the field of geometric combinatorics.
Duminil-Coppin was awarded for solving "long-standing problems in the probabilistic theory of phase transitions".
First women winner
The first woman to win the prize was Mariam Mirzakhani in 2014, an Iranian-born mathematician who died of cancer three years later in 2017.
Indian-origin winners
Two of the winners are of Indian origin.
Akshay Venkatesh of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton – was awarded the award in 2018.
Manjul Bhargava of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University was honored in 2014.
About Fields Medal
Fields Medal is often described as the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
This highest honours in mathematics is conventionally awarded to people aged under 40.
The medal, along with $15,000 Canadian dollars ($11,600), is awarded every four years to between two to four candidates for “outstanding mathematical achievement”.
Of the 60 mathematicians who won the Fields Medal earlier this year, 59 were men.
The prizes are normally announced at the opening of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM).
This year’s congress was scheduled to begin on 6 July in St. Petersburg, Russia, but the plan was scrapped following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The award ceremony was held in Helsinki and the Congress concluded as a virtual event.
International Mathematical Union
It is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization.
Its purpose is to promote international cooperation in mathematics.
It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC).
founded - in 1920 and has existed in its current form since 1951
Location - Berlin, Germany
President - Carlos E. Kenig
9. "Hermit" - A new spyware
Tags: Science and Technology
Lookout, a cloud-based security company, recently discovered a new spyware called "Hermit".
Important facts
Hermit spyware is capable of affecting Android and iOS devices.
As TechCrunch reports, security researchers from Lookout have reported that national governments have used the Android version of Hermit spyware in "targeted attacks" in Kazakhstan and Italy.
Hermit spyware
Hermit is a commercial spyware and has been used by governments in northern Syria, Kazakhstan and Italy.
It was first detected in Kazakhstan in April 2022, when the government violently suppressed protests against its policies.
It was also deployed in Syria's north-eastern Kurdish region and by Italian authorities for anti-corruption investigations.
How does Hermit work?
According to the report, the Hermit Android app is distributed via text message.
The message seems to be coming from a legitimate source.
The malware can impersonate telecommunications companies and other apps developed by manufacturers such as Oppo and Samsung.
Malware Effects on Android and iOS Devices
The Hermit Android malware is modular because it allows spyware to download additional components that are required for the malware to run.
Like other spyware, Hermit malware also uses various modules to record audio as well as collect call logs, messages, photos, emails.
It can redirect phone calls and reveal the exact location of the device.
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on a computer and collects information about users in the non-knowledge of them.
The presence of spyware is usually hidden from users.
Spyware is secretly installed on users' personal computers.
Spyware collects a variety of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits and the sites that are visited.
10. DRDO carries out maiden flight of unmanned combat aircraft
Tags: Defence Science and Technology
The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully carried out the maiden flight of the Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator from the Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga, Karnataka on July 1.
The aircraft performed a complete flight, including take-off, way point navigation and touchdown.
The flight was conducted in a fully autonomous mode.
It is designed and developed by the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a premier research laboratory under the DRDO.
The unmanned fighter aircraft is powered by a small, turbofan engine.
The vehicle's airframe, as well as its undercarriage, flight control and avionics systems, were indigenously developed.
The program is associated with the development of India's fifth generation stealth fighter Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft or AMCA.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
It is a premier defence research and development agency under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
It aims to make India self-reliant in critical defence technology and systems.
It was set up in 1958.
Headquarters - New Delhi
Chairman - G. Satheesh Reddy
