S & T (Nov 15)

GS-III Module
Science & Technology

Prelims-cum-Mains-2016
Current Affairs
VOLUME 2
(November 2015)
By
Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari

(Scientist in IIT Delhi)
[Science & Technology: Current corner by Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari]

1. Why is Ebola considered as a disaster? Discuss
Ans.5 We are surrounded by natural hazards, and a zoonotic disease of epidemic
potential is only one in a list that includes earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, and
hurricanes. When hazards like these collide with poverty and human indifference,
disaster normally ensues. The eruption of the Ebola virus from the jungles of Kenema
in early 2014 was no different. Here was a naturally occurring biological hazard which
superstition, fear, fragile health systems, poor leadership, and dysfunctional
management spent much of 2014 turning into a global crisis. It did not have to be like
this.
At the end of 2012, a comprehensive multistakeholder "lessons learned" report was put
together by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and published by
the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health. It used the evidence of that years cholera epidemic
to outline actions to take to integrate "outbreaks of communicable disease of epidemic
potential" into national risk reduction strategies.
During the last week of July and the first week of August 2014, DFID-Sierra Leone used
this report and what was then known of the Ebola outbreak to point out to the
President, the Minister of Health, WHOs country representative, the donor community,
international non-governmental organizations, and the UN Country Team what they felt
to be shortcomings in the Ebola response. At these meetings, DFID made it clear that, in
their view, this was no ordinary outbreak; that it was unlikely to be contained as
previous Ebola outbreaks in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo had been;
and that it should be seen for what it was, a large-scale, slow-onset natural disaster
requiring an international multispectral response at levels similar to those mobilized for
the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013. It was
even pointed out that this was not a question of political, but of national, survival.
Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari (PhD IIT Delhi) working2as a scientist in IIT Delhi with the association of
Department of Science & Technology (GOI)

Therefore, the epidemic was to be treated or prevented as other natural disasters are
treated.
2. Write a short note on BRAHMOS.
Ans. The BrahMos is a short range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched
from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between the Russian
Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India's Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.
The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the
Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
It is the world's fastest cruise missile in operation. The missile travels at speeds of Mach
2.8 to 3.0. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service, with the
air and submarine-launched versions currently in the testing phase. An air-launched
variant of BrahMos is planned which came out in 2012. A hypersonic version of the
missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with speed of Mach 7 to boost
aerial fast strike capability. It is expected to be ready for testing by 2017.
BRAHMOS is a two-stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage
which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. The liquid ramjet or the
second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase. Stealth
technology and guidance system with advanced embedded software provides the
missile with special features.
The missile has flight range of up to 290-km with supersonic speed all through the flight,
leading to shorter flight time, consequently ensuring lower dispersion of targets, quicker
engagement time and non-interception by any known weapon system in the world.

It operates on Fire and Forget Principle, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the
target. Its destructive power is enhanced due to large kinetic energy on impact. Its
cruising altitude could be up to 15 km and terminal altitude is as low as 10 meters. It
carries a conventional warhead weighing 200 to 300 kgs.
Compared to existing state-of-the-art subsonic cruise missiles, BRAHMOS has:
o
3 times more velocity
2.5 to 3 times more flight range
3 to 4 times more seeker range
9 times more kinetic energy
Special Features
o
Universal for multiple platforms
Fire and Forget principle of operation
High supersonic speed all through the flight
Long flight range with varieties of flight trajectories
Low radar signature
Shorter flight times leading to lower target dispersion and quicker engagement
Pinpoint accuracy with high lethal power aided by large kinetic energy on
impact.
3. What is H1N1? What are the preventive precautions one can take to be saved from
it?

Ans. Influenza A (H1N1) virus is the subtype of influenza the virus that was the most
common cause of human influenza (flu) in 2009, and is associated with the 1918
outbreak known as the Spanish Flu.
It is an orthomyxovirus that contains the glycoprotein hemagglutinin and
neuraminidase. For this reason, they are described as H1N1, H1N2 etc. depending on
the type of H or N antigens they express with metabolic synergy. Haemagglutinin causes
red blood cells to clump together and binds the virus to the infected cell. Neuraminidase
is a type of glycoside hydrolase enzyme which helps to move the virus particles through
the infected cell and assist in budding from the host cells.
Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenzalike illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza.
Since the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, governments have emphasized the need to
take precautions to reduce swine flu cases.
Hand-washing: Washing hands regularly is a simple and basic task. This is actually an
important preventive measure but sometimes neglected by some. Health workers are
advised to wash their hands before and after having contact with patients. Body fluids
and blood are considered to be common carriers of viruses and them should be treated
as contaminants
Protective Gear: The use of disposable and gloves and face masks bring added
protection against swine flu. Not only are health workers doing this but also ordinary
citizens living in threatened areas. When going out to work or riding in public
transportation, people were advised to wear face masks to avoid inhaling contaminated

air particles. Remember that swine flu can easily be passed along through the air.
Wearing protective masks in high-risk areas is a good way to prevent swine flu
symptoms.
Getting Vaccination: Since the swine flu pandemic that swept the globe in 2009, calls
for better H1N1 treatment and vaccination have been made. Special H1N1 vaccines
contain antibodies that help fight foreign contaminants that enter the body.
4. "There is a need to regulate surrogacy not eliminate". Elaborate.
Ans. The government of Indias proposed ban on commercial surrogacy is a rather illthought-out move that could have a disastrous effect on the flourishing surrogacy
industry in India. It is disastrous, not just because it will spell an end to the multi-crore
industry, but because we are talking about the human lives which are at stake.
Embryonic human lives, being gestated in the safe wombs of alternate mothers, could
be in jeopardy if commercial surrogacy is suddenly and abruptly made illegal. What will
then happen to the women who hired out their wombs? What if they are left holding
babies they never wanted because the rules changed? What will happen to the hopes of
the thousands of commissioning parents, who have paid lakhs of rupees or dollars on
fertility packages? What if they cannot take their babies out of the country and India
does not recognize the children?
India has had time to think about these issues, as commercial surrogacy has been
around for a couple of decades now. The first surrogate baby in India was born in 1994.
The industry has since evolved, and today India offers some of the best fertility
packages in the world. Intending parents with a valid fertility visa can come to India
and get their IVF procedures done, hire healthy surrogates, return home, and monitor

the entire pregnancy from afar. They can also get proper exit visas to take the children
home after they are born. Earlier, the agreement between intending parents and
surrogates were oral and the latter was often underpaid and ill-treated. Today, there
are proper contracts to ensure that neither party is cheated. In many of the bigger and
better-organized fertility clinics, the surrogates are housed in special homes, given
proper diet, medical checkups and maintenance allowances.
Today the minimal regulation on the fertility industry in India is obviously woefully
inadequate. But any law which is put in place has to take into consideration the needs
and aspirations of the various people involved in this business. At the bottom of the
pecking order are the surrogates, who are in it because it is a means of livelihood. From
their perspective, there is nothing morally or ethically wrong because the babies are
conceived through injection (embryo implant) and not through sexual intercourse.
They do sometimes get attached to the babies in their womb, but to them the money is
more important and they are quick to move on after the birth of the child.
The problem lies with the bogus embryologists and doctors, the agents and touts who
lure and cheat surrogates, as well as intending parents. They are the exploiters.
Banning commercial surrogacy in India at this advanced stage will help no one. It will
only create chaos and push the business underground. Banning is easy. Framing a
proper law needs careful thought, good technical inputs and above all, political will.
5. Discuss the significance of LR-SAM for the internal security of India.

Ans. There are plans for longer range versions of missiles, moving in stages to 120 and
350 km. A joint venture similar to the stalled MRSAM is going ahead full-steam- to

create a long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) for the Navy. That project is at an
advanced stage and government has shown no inclination to stall that JV. Barak-8/NG,
MRSAM and LRSAM are one and the same missile with different names.
Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) has undertaken joint
development of missiles viz. Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) for Indian
Navy and Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) for Indian Air Force with
M/s Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), Israel. Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) is
a joint development program of DRDO, Indian Navy and IAI, Israel. It has a range of 70
km using dual pulse rocket motor and active radar seeker in terminal phase and
inertial / mid-course update for guidance. The new missile, which is based on the
original Barak, features a more advanced seeker, alongside range extensions (up to 70
km) that move it closer to medium range naval systems like the RIM-162 Evolved Sea
Sparrow or even the SM-2 Standard. The Navy wants the LR-SAM for its four new
Kolkata-class destroyers, seven proposed Project 17A frigates, and the Indigenous
Aircraft Carrier (IAC).
India has successfully test-fired a long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) system
designed to protect ships from aircraft, missile and rocket attacks, which it developed
jointly with Israel, the Indian Defense Ministry said 30 November 2015. The LRSAM
destroyed aerial targets at extended ranges, making a 'quantum jump in air defense
capability' of the joint Indian-Israeli effort, the ministry noted. The system dubbed
Barak 8 completed three readiness tests.
6. The new way of determining the age of galaxy using the brightness of it. Explain

Ans. Offering a new way of determining a galaxys age, astronomers have detected
thousands of stellar pulses regular up-and-down changes in brightness in a
distant galaxy.
The team studied the elliptical galaxy M87, located 53-million light years from Earth in
the constellation Virgo. Researchers said they tend to think of galaxies as steady
beacons in the sky, but they are actually shimmering due to all the giant, pulsating
stars in them. Near the end of their lifetime, stars begin to pulsate, increasing and
decreasing their brightness by a large amount every few hundred days.
In our own Milky Way galaxy, many stars are known to be in this stage of life.
It is the first time scientists have measured the effect that pulsating, older red stars
have in the light of their surrounding galaxy. In distant galaxies, the light of each
pulsating star is mixed in with the light of many more stars that are not varying in
brightness.
The team focused on the galaxy M87 and examined a unique series of images taken
with the Hubble space telescope over the course of three months in 2006. Analysis of
the Hubble data showed that the average pixel varies on a timescale of approximately
270 days.
The regular up-and-down changes in brightness are reminiscent of a heartbeat, the
study said.
It is as if we are taking the pulse of the galaxy. Their discovery offers a new way of
measuring the age of a galaxy.

7.
What is the new material for cooling surfaces? And how does it work? Explain
Ans. Stanford University engineers have invented an ultrathin multilayered material

which can reflect sunlight from, say, buildings and thereby lower the temperature of the
building.
Though the technology is still young, the inventors believe that this can provide a
solution to air conditioning rooms, which now costs a lot of energy.
At a thickness of about 1.8 microns, the material is thinner than an aluminum foil. It is
made up of seven layers of hafnium oxide and silicon dioxide, each of differing
thicknesses, on top of a thin layer of silver.
It is designed to reflect both infrared light (which cannot be seen) and visible sunlight.
What is special is that the material reflects light at the frequency which is not absorbed
by atmospheric gasses. This is known as the atmospheric window.
When light with a frequency between 8 and 13 microns is beamed into the atmosphere,
it goes unabsorbed and escapes into outer space. This is the frequency window at which
the material reflects the infrared and visible light which strikes it. By this method, the
material can cool the interior by almost 5 degrees Celsius.
Though radioactive cooling happens in the 8-13 micron window, atmospheric gasses do
absorb radiation at about 10 microns. Since absorption at 10-micron band can also
warm up the atmosphere, of what advantage is this process? It is from the perspective
of the radioactive surface (the radioactive cooler) that there is a benefit due to this
process.

Certainly most surfaces exposed to the sky radiate their heat out as thermal radiation
one could also call [it] thermal light since this is the heat all objects emit away as light
at wavelengths that correspond to the objects temperature. The entire goal of our
work is to harness this effect on the surface, specifically during the day, and not to cool
the atmosphere itself in any way.
8. Give a brief account of solar energy in India.
Ans. With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India's theoretically calculated solar
energy incidence on its land area alone, is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per
year (or 5 EWh/yr). The solar energy available in a year exceeds the possible energy
output of all fossil fuel energy reserves in India. The daily average solar power plant
generation capacity over India is 0.25 kWh per m2 of used land area, which is equivalent
to about 1,5002,000 peak (rated) capacity operating hours in a year with the available
commercially-proven technologies.
On 16 May 2011, Indias first 5 MW of installed capacity solar power project was
registered under the Clean Development Mechanism. The project is in Sivagangai
Village, Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu. In January 2015, the Indian government
significantly expanded its solar plans, targeting US$100 billion of investment and 100
GW of solar capacity by 2022.
Government-funded solar electricity in India was approximately 6.4 MW per year as of
2005. India is ranked number one in terms of solar electricity production per watt
installed, with an isolation of 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per kilowatt peak
(kWh/KWp). 25.1 MW was added in 2010 and 468.3 MW in 2011. As of 31 August 2015,
the installed grid connected solar power capacity is 4,229.36 MW, and India expects to
install an additional 10,000 MW by 2017, and a total of 100,000 MW by 2022.

Applications: Rural electrification, Solar lamps and lighting, Agricultural support, Solar
water heaters, Power grid stabilization.
9. Explain the process of birth and death of a new star.

Ans. All stars are born from collapsing clouds of gas and dust, often called nebulae or
molecular clouds. Over the course of millions of years, these protostars settle down into
a state of equilibrium, becoming what is known as a main-sequence star.
Nuclear fusion powers a star for most of its life. Initially the energy is generated by the
fusion of hydrogen atoms at the core of the main-sequence star. Later, as the
preponderance of atoms at the core becomes helium, stars like the Sun begin to fuse
hydrogen along a spherical shell surrounding the core. This process causes the star to
gradually grow in size, passing through the subgiant stage until it reaches the red giant
phase. Stars with at least half the mass of the Sun can also begin to generate energy
through the fusion of helium at their core, whereas more-massive stars can fuse heavier
elements along a series of concentric shells. Once a star like the Sun has exhausted its
nuclear fuel, its core collapses into a dense white dwarf and the outer layers are
expelled as a planetary nebula. Stars with around ten or more times the mass of the Sun
can explode in a supernova as their inert iron cores collapse into an extremely dense
neutron star or black hole. Although the universe is not old enough for any of the
smallest red dwarfs to have reached the end of their lives, stellar models suggest they
will slowly become brighter and hotter before running out of hydrogen fuel and
becoming low-mass white dwarfs.

10.What are "opportunistic pathogens"? What are the effects of klebsiella pathogen on
Humans?
Ans. Opportunistic pathogens are an organism that exists harmlessly as part of the
normal human body environment and does not become a health threat until the
body's immune system fails.
Klebsiella causes urinary tract infections, ventilator-acquired pneumonias and blood
stream infections (sepsis) among other conditions and is proving to be fatal in 30 to 40
percent of the patients who have contracted it usually during a long stay in the
hospital, particularly in the intensive care unit. A bug that doctors until about three
years ago treated with moderate-class antibiotics is now causing worry in intensive care
units of hospitals across the country. Doctors the report that third-generation
antibiotics carbapanem are failing to treat the Klebsiella pathogen, leading to
higher mortality in patients and peg the resistance at up to 50 percent. Colistin is the
last antibiotic available in the world for infections that the strongest antibiotics fail to
treat.

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GS-III Module

Science & Technology

Dr. Ravi P. Agrahari

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

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

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

3 times more velocity

2.5 to 3 times more flight range

3 to 4 times more seeker range

9 times more kinetic energy

Universal for multiple platforms

Fire and Forget principle of operation

High supersonic speed all through the flight

Long flight range with varieties of flight trajectories

Low radar signature

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

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

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

5. Discuss the significance of LR-SAM for the internal security of India.

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

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

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

Ans. Stanford University engineers have invented an ultrathin multilayered material

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

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

9. Explain the process of birth and death of a new star.

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

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

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