Current Affairs On Science and Technology 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014
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PREFACE
The Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014 is designed to provide all the events that
happened in the field of Science & Technology from January 2014 to June 2014. The eBook is a
comprehensive coverage of the Science & Technology news of the first six months of 2014 that
carries any probability of being asked in Civil Services Exam and Indian Forest Service Exam and
all the PCS exams. Besides, the eBook will also be useful for different types of competitive
exams like SSC, Banking, LIC, Railway and all other competitive exams.
The Science & Technology eBook is divided into ten important sections. These sections are
Biotechnology & Bio-informatics, Robotics, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Science, Space Science,
Electronics, Atmospheric Sciences, Health & Medicine, Information Technology and
Miscellaneous. All the sections covered provide the detailed description of the news and events
that made headlines.
Events like IRNSS-1B Navigation Satellite launched, India's Maiden Mission to Mars completed
100 days, WHO declared India a polio free country, TrueHb Haemometer developed,
Ununpentium, a super-heavy Element developed and many more are precisely covered to allow
you to identify the answers of the questions being asked in the exams.
Representation of verified facts and figures along with fine-tuned analysis and comment makes
the events easy to understand and perceive. The aspirants of competitive exams will definitely
be benefitted by the content of the eBook.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ............................................................................................2
Biotechnology & Bioinformatics .........................................................8
Human Proteome Map deciphering 84% of human proteins published .................................................................8
Scientists at NDRI cloned female buffalo calf Lalima...............................................................................................8
Scientists created first living Organism that transmits added Letters in DNA ........................................................9
Artificial blood made by UK Scientist set for first human trial by 2016 ................................................................10
Scientists created man-made chromosome for complex-cell organisms ..............................................................10
Indian-American Scientist Anil Jain developed First 3D model of human fingerprint called Phantom ...............11
Danish amputee first in the world to get Bionic Hand ..........................................................................................12
US scientists genetically engineer Tulasi to increase pharmaceutical value ........................................................12
Robotics........................................................................................... 13
Korean Scientists developed robot Raptor that can outrun Usain Bolt ................................................................13
Peeper, the humanoid robot that can read emotions unveiled by Softbank .......................................................13
Robots can be programmed by casually talking to it: Cornell University Study ...................................................14
Worlds first Android Newscasters unveiled in Japan ...........................................................................................14
Boston Dynamics of US developed Life-sized Anthropomorphic robot called Atlas ............................................15
Bluefin 21- a robotic submarine - deployed to solve mystery of lost Malaysian plane MH370 ...........................15
Nanotechnology............................................................................... 17
Scientist developed new biochip to detect blood sugar via saliva ........................................................................17
New titanium dioxide tiles developed to fight against Air Pollution ....................................................................17
Silver nanowires-based nanoscale Fingerprints developed to protect credit cards .............................................18
A Smartphone battery Nanodots that recharges in 30 seconds developed .........................................................18
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NIT Odisha developed technology to turn Plastic into fuel ...................................................................................19

Nanotechnology may prevent Cancer from spreading ..........................................................................................20
Nuclear Science & Technology .......................................................... 21

Kudankulam became Indias first nuclear plant to generate 1000 MW power ....................................................21
MIT Scientist designed the Worlds first floating nuclear plant ............................................................................21
Anu Vidyut Pariyojana launched in Fatehabad, Haryana ......................................................................................22
Space Science................................................................................... 24
Worlds most powerful telescope ATLAST to be built by NASA to track aliens life .............................................24
PSLV C23, carrying five satellites, launched successfully from Sriharikota ...........................................................24
NASA developed high-tech cages to carry rodents to ISS ......................................................................................25
NASA Simulator successfully Recreated Space Dust ..............................................................................................25
KOI-3278: A Self-Lensing Binary Star System Found in Lycra Constellation..........................................................26
Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size Planet discovered in the Habitable Zone ...........................................................27
ISRO successfully launched IRNSS 1B from Sriharikota .........................................................................................27
Europe launched a satellite, Sentinel-1A to monitor earth for climate change ...................................................29
ISRO decommissioned Communication Satellite INSAT-3E ...................................................................................30
HR 5171 A, the largest ever yellow hypergiant star discovered ............................................................................31
Asteriod named 2000 EM26 with potential hazard raced past Earth ...................................................................31
Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, Mangalyaan, completed 100 days ................................................................................32
Australian astronomers discovered oldest known star in universe ......................................................................33
River of hydrogen flowing through space seen with Green Bank Telescope ........................................................34
NASA discovered potentially hazardous asteroid 2013 YP139 ..............................................................................35
Scientists measured the distance to galaxies accurate to 1% ...............................................................................35
Saturns Ring 4.4 billion years old ..........................................................................................................................36
Hubble discovered clouds on new planets .............................................................................................................36
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Electronics ....................................................................................... 38
Scientists developed sensing skin technology that can detect cracks in concrete structures ..............................38
Worlds first Electric Plane E-Fan completed its first flight ...................................................................................38
Solar Plane SOLAR IMPULSE 2 unveiled in Switzerland .........................................................................................39
New software app Sandesh Pathak developed to help farmers ...........................................................................40
Foldscope: A low cost microscope invented ..........................................................................................................41
NIST launched world's most accurate clock, NIST-F2 ............................................................................................42
Union Minister of RT & H inaugurated Electric passenger bus ..............................................................................42
Cambridge University Scientists printed eye cells using Inkjet printer .................................................................42
New eyewear system developed to give superhuman ........................................................................................43
Atmospheric Science and Ocean Development ................................. 44

CSIR and IMD signed an agreement to develop drishti system .............................................................................44
TERI developed cloud based open-source Web-GSI tool .......................................................................................45
ASI & Google jointly launched the 360 degree online view of Indian heritage sites ............................................45
Email Miles, a system using GPS developed to track the emails ...........................................................................46
Scientist discovered Method to curb greenhouse gases .......................................................................................46
Scientists designed Moclic software to predict weather .......................................................................................47
Health & Medical Science ................................................................. 49

WHO declared Ebola as Global Health Emergency ................................................................................................49
Italian scientists designed kidney dialysis machine for newborn babies ..............................................................50
Report on Health for the worlds adolescents released by WHO ..........................................................................50
Unique enzyme SOD discovered by CSIR to increase shelf life of fruits and vegetables ......................................51
3D model of malaria parasite genome created for the first time .........................................................................52
Ambar Srivastava of IIT-Delhi developed TrueHb Hemometer to test haemoglobin ...........................................53
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WHO certified India as Polio Free country .............................................................................................................54

An artificial heart that beats in animals developed ...............................................................................................55
New Molecule HSP90 with potential to kill malaria parasite discovered .............................................................56
New class of Antibiotics Oxadiazoles discovered ..................................................................................................57
Researchers at CAPRISA discovered potent antibodies to neutralize HIV ............................................................57
Indian- American Scientist Sangeeta Bhatia developed a cheap paper test to diagnose cancer .........................59
NRI Dr. Hemant Thatte developed SOMAH Solution to preserve organs .............................................................59
New layer of cornea discovered by Indian doctor Harminder Dua .......................................................................60
Union Government launched HIV Salvage Therapy ...............................................................................................61
Union Government banned cosmetic companies from testing on animals ..........................................................61
Smart contact lens unveiled by Google to measure glucose levels in tears .........................................................62
Union Government allowed imports of frozen human embryos to boost infertility treatment..........................63
Indigenous Glucose Monitoring Device launched by Union Government ............................................................63
Information Technology ................................................................... 66

CERT-In detected Smartphone Virus Dendroid ......................................................................................................66
Heartbleed: A new security threat .........................................................................................................................66
South Central Railway launched HYLITES ...............................................................................................................68
Talking Cars Unveiled: USA may soon made it mandatory by 2017 ......................................................................68
Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology launched National Cloud ..............................69
Dexter, Private Information Stealing Virus, detected in online banking transactions .........................................70
Indias Supercomputer, PARAM Yuva-II ranked 1 in India ....................................................................................70
Miscellaneous .................................................................................. 72
Earth's largest water reservoir located inside Earths mantle ...............................................................................72
myCopter Project to be unveiled in Braunschweig, Germany in November 2014 ...............................................72
Palaeontologists discovered the fossil of worlds largest dinosaur in Patagonia, Argentina ...............................74
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New Element 117 named Ununseptium set to join the periodic table .................................................................74
Scientists discovered new mineral Putnisite ..........................................................................................................75
Indian-American engineer Abraham Pannikottu announced to develop Zero Pressure tyres for US military ....75
Indian origin boy Shubham Banerjee developed low cost Braille Printer ............................................................76
Researchers at Chinese Academy of Sciences developed fire-resistant paper .....................................................77
101st Indian Science Congress concluded ..............................................................................................................77
First Paperless Public Library of World BiblioTech opened in USA .......................................................................78
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BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOINFORMATICS

HUMAN PROTEOME MAP DECIPHERING 84% OF HUMAN PROTEINS PUBLISHED
Human Proteome Map (HPM) deciphering 84% of human proteins was published in British Journal
Nature on 28 May 2014. This is for the first time that a near complete protein maps of human beings.
The draft map of human proteome was drawn by an international team of scientists led by Akhilesh
Pandey of the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S and Harsha Gowda at the Institute of Bioinformatics in
Bangalore.
The proteins deciphered have been derived from 30 histologically normal human samples and have
been encoded from 17294 genes. The identified proteins cover more than 84% of the annotated
protein-coding genes in humans. The number of identified proteins, as per the study, stands at 30057.
The draft map of the human proteome was prepared using high-resolution Fourier-transform mass
spectrometry.
The research could offer deeper insight into why humans suffer from diabetes, cancer and cardiac
problems among other diseases.
From bacteria to humans, genes are made up of units of DNA known as base pairs. The sequence of base
pairs in genes informed about a cell's molecular machinery what proteins to produce. Ultimately, it is
the proteins that carry out a myriad processes essential for life.
SCIENTISTS AT NDRI CLONED FEMALE BUFFALO CALF LALIMA
Scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) on 2 June 2014 cloned female buffalo calf,
Lalima. Lalima was produced through indigenously developed Hand-guided Cloning Technique.
Lalima weighs 42-kg and is a female calf. It is the seventh buffalo clone produced by NDRI.
Scientists used the institute's indigenously developed hand-guided cloning technique where somatic
cells from an ear of a Murrah buffalo were taken to produce a clone. Murrah is high milk yielding mature
buffalo.
The team of the scientists involved in the production of this cloned calf, are Dr. S.K. Singla, Dr. M.S.
Chauhan, Dr. R.S. Manik, Dr. P. Palta, Dr. Shiv Parsad and Dr. Basanti Jyotsana.
In the Lalima case, she was produced after standard gestation period, born through normal parturition
without any assistance and had normal birth weight.
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IMPORTANCE OF THE HAND-GUIDED CLONING TECHNIQUE

This new achievement of producing cloned calf from adult lactating animals by Hand-guided Cloning
technique will facilitate faster multiplication of elite germplasm and help to face the challenges of
increasing demands of milk due to growing human population.
The worlds largest population of buffaloes is in India and they contribute about 55 per cent of the total
milk production in the country.
Practically there are two windows in which cloning technique will be very useful to dairy sector for faster
multiplication of superior germplasm i.e. (i) through males by producing clone of progeny tested bulls
and (ii) through females by producing clone of high yielding lactating females.
ABOUT CLONING
Cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in
nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning is the process
which is used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms.
Dolly, a Finn-Dorset ewe, was the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was cloned at
the Roslin Institute in Scotland and lived there from her birth in 1996 until her death in 2003 when she
was six.
SCIENTISTS CREATED FIRST LIVING ORGANISM THAT TRANSMITS ADDED LETTERS IN DNA
Scientists have engineered a bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA letters or
bases that is not found in the nature. Cells of this unique bacterium can replicate the unnatural DNA
bases more or less normally for as long as the molecular building blocks are supplied to it.
This bacterium has been engineered by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).
Generally two pairs of DNA bases namely A-T and C-G encodes the life on Earth in all its diversity, while
the newly engineered bacterium is an organism that stably contains these two bases along with the
third, unnatural pair of bases.
CONCLUSION OF SCIENTISTS WITH THIS NEWLY CREATED DNA LETTERS
As per the scientists this solution shows, that other solution for storage of information is possible and it
also took them closer to expanded-DNA biology. This expansion will lead them to many applications
from new medicines to new kinds of nanotechnology.
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The team led by Romesberg has been working since 1990 to find the pairs of molecules that could serve
a new fundtional DNA bases - and, in principle, could code for proteins and organisms that have never
existed before.
This report was published on 7 May 2014 in an advance online publication of the journal Nature.
ARTIFICIAL BLOOD MADE BY UK SCIENTIST SET FOR FIRST HUMAN TRIAL BY 2016
Researchers in the UK on 14 April 2014 for the first time announced to conduct a test on patient of
artificial blood made from human stem cells. The trial was conducted by the team of Professor Marc
Turner, medical director at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) at the University of
Edinburgh.
The trial test would be conducted in 2016. The trial will involve three patients with thalassaemia, a
disorder of the RBCs that requires regular transfusions. They will receive around 5 ml of blood initially to
test whether the cells behave normally in the body.
If successful, the trial could pave the way for manufacturing of blood on an industrial scale. The
successful trial could even supersede donated blood as the main supply for patients.
Blood cells freshly made in the laboratory are likely to have a longer life span than those taken from
donors, which typically last no more than 120 days.
They would also be free from infectious agents such as viruses or the rogue prion proteins that cause
Creuzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
Trial test would aim to produce relatively rare O rhesus negative blood that can safely be given to 95%
of the population, and the skin cell donors will have to belong to this blood group.
The blood cells will be created from ordinary donated skin cells called fibroblasts which are genetically
reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state. The resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the
same ability as embryonic stem cells to develop into virtually any kind of body tissue.
Chemicals will be used to coax the iPS cells to mature into red blood cells suitable for injection into a
living person.
A 5 million pound strategic award from the Wellcome Trust charity have funded the research being
carried out by a consortium that includes blood donation services in England, Scotland and Ireland.
SCIENTISTS CREATED MAN-MADE CHROMOSOME FOR COMPLEX-CELL ORGANISMS
Scientists of an International team have created the first artificial chromosome for complex cell
organisms. Earlier, chromosomes have been created for simpler Prokaryotic cells. This artificial
chromosome was functioning like a normal cell when it was inserted inside a Yeast cell.
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The new chromosome is known as SynIII. The process involved designing and creating 273871 base pairs
of DNA - fewer than the 316667 pairs in the original chromosome. The research is significant as the
Yeast organisms consist of Eukaryotic cells like Humans, plants and animals. Yeast share about a 2000
genes with humans. The invention thus can play a significant role in redesigning the animals and other
complex life forms.
PROCESS
Researchers identified coding of one of yeasts 16 pair of chromosomes.
They used software to remove its repetitive and less used regions and added tags to it.
They then created an artificial version of this altered chromosome.
The artificial chromosome was inserted inside a yeast cell.
It was able to reproduce like normal cells.
Yeast gained new functions such as chemical switching which help researcher to scramble the
chromosome into thousands of different variants which can make genetic manipulations far
easier.
About 50000 changes were made to the DNA code of the chromosome.
The research can help in design, synthesis and organisation of an entire eukaryotic genome.
INDIAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIST ANIL JAIN DEVELOPED FIRST 3D MODEL OF HUMAN
FINGERPRINT CALLED PHANTOM
Indian-American scientist Anil Jain on 6 March 2014 developed the first 3D model of a human fingerprint
called Phantom. The development could boost the accuracy of fingerprint-matching systems and
improve security technology.
The team of computer scientists led by Arun Jain at Michigan State University developed the 3D image
by first making a two-dimensional image of a fingerprint and then mapping it to a 3D finger surface. The
3D finger surface complete with all the ridges and valleys that make up the human fingerprint, is made
using a 3D printer.
Although the 3-D model does not yet have the exact texture or feel of a real finger. However, it could
advance fingerprint sensing and matching technology.
The ultimate goal is to have a precise fingerprint model with known properties and features that can be
used to calibrate existing technology used to match fingerprints. Tools like this would help improve the
overall accuracy of fingerprint-matching systems, which eventually leads to better security in
applications ranging from law enforcement to mobile phone unlock.
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Anil Jain is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and at present is the lead computer scientist & Distinguished
Professor at Michigan State University. He has six US patents on fingerprint matching and has written a
number of books on biometrics and fingerprint/facial recognition.
DANISH AMPUTEE FIRST IN THE WORLD TO GET BIONIC HAND
Dennis amputee, Aabo in February 2014 became the first person to receive a bionic hand, which allows
life-like sensation to be felt from the devices artificial fingers. The Dennis amputee was able to feel
what was available in his hands by the sensors, which has been connected to his nerves of his upper
arm.
This work was done by the Italy surgeons, who connected the hand with the nerves in his upper arm.
These relayed signals direct to his brain, which allows him to control the force of his grip. Restoration of
senses of touch and feel to amputees is a major goal in the field of neuro-engineering.
Aabo lost his hand in a firework accident about a decade before. The research project was carried out by
an international team, which included robotic experts from Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
The sensors to the artificial hand sensed the measure information about touch using computer
algorithms in which the research team of scientists transformed the electrical signals they emitted into
an impulse that sensory nerves could interpret.
The researchers implanted four electrodes onto the nerves in the patients upper arm during the
operation that were connected to the artificial sensors in the fingers of the prosthetic hand, which
allows him to touch and pressure and sent feedback directly to the brain. Details of the operation of the
amputee were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
US SCIENTISTS GENETICALLY ENGINEER TULASI TO INCREASE PHARMACEUTICAL VALUE
Scientists at Western Kentucky University, US genetically engineered Tulasi or basil to enhance its
pharmaceutical value.
Scientists genetically engineered Tulsai to produce eugenol, a compound found in basil. Eugenol has a
pharmaceutical value which controls the breast cancer. Tulasi is a medicinal plant and has anticancerous compounds called metabolites.
ABOUT TULASI OR BASIL
Tulasi is scientifically called Ocimum tenuiflorum or Ocimum sanctum.
Tulasi leaves are used in Ayurvedic medicine and it is known to promote the longevity of life.
The herb Tulasi is used to cure the respiratory disorders and to combat cardiac disorders.
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ROBOTICS
KOREAN SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED ROBOT RAPTOR THAT CAN OUTRUN USAIN BOLT
Korean Scientists on 1 June 2014 developed robot Raptor that can outrun Usain Bolt, the fastest man on
the Earth. The Raptor was developed by Korean Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology (KAIST).
The robot Raptor is very fast, although, robot can run only on a treadmill. The Raptor can run at 46
kilometers per hour or 28 miles per hour much faster than the Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt who run at
top speed of 44.7kph (27.44 mph).
The Cheetah is even faster than both Bolt and the robot Raptor. It is capable of running as fast as 47 kph
(29.3 mph).
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF RAPTOR
The robot has two nimble legs and a mechanism that mimics a tail
Raptor is a compact, 3kg machine, with legs made of lightweight composite material
Raptor has feet made from carbon-fiber prosthetic blades.
Raptor has springs for its Achilles tendons.
Raptor has a tail that helps keep him balanced, the tail moves back and forth like a spinning
counterbalance to keep the robot steady.
Raptor used its tail to dodge or jump over obstacles like wooden blocks that are placed in its
way. It can even use the tail to help it knock some of the obstacles out of its way.
PEEPER, THE HUMANOID ROBOT THAT CAN READ EMOTIONS UNVEILED BY SOFTBANK
Worlds first humanoid robot named Peeper that can communicate and read emotions was unveiled in
Japan on 5 June 2014 by a mobile phone company Softbank Corp. The robot will go on sale for general
public in Japan in February 2015 and will be priced 198000 yen (1900 US dollar).
The humanoid robot equipped with an emotion engine and can recognise emotions by reading facial
expression, body language and tone of voice was engineered by Softbank after teaming up with French
robot maker Aldebaran Robotics SAS.
ABOUT PEPPER, THE HUMANOID ROBOT
It is 120 cm tall and weighs 28 kilograms

Pepper is also loaded with sensors that include touch sensors in its hand
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Uses sensors to monitor the happenings around before making an independent decision
It can learn things by interactions with humans and the experiences will be uploaded on internet
and shared with other peepers through cloud database
CEO of Softbank Corp, Masayoshi Son demonstrated the capabilities of Peeper of talking and reading
human emotions in Urayasu, Japan.
ROBOTS CAN BE PROGRAMMED BY CASUALLY TALKING TO IT: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
STUDY
A new study at Cornell University demonstrated that robots can be programmed by causally talking with
them. Till date, they needed specific instructions to conduct a particular task.
The study was conducted at Robot Learning Lab of Cornell University under Ashutosh Saxena, Assistant
Professor of Computer Science. At present, Saxena is involved in teaching the robots to understand
instructions in natural language from different speakers, account for missing information and adapt to
the environment at hand.
The robot has built-in programming language with certain commands that can translate the human
sentences for the robot. For example command find (pan), grasp (pan), carry (pan, water tap), fill (pan,
water), carry (pan, stove) and so on and these instructions can be translated for the robot by the
software and will be Fill a pan with water, put it on the stove, and heat the water.
Saxenas robot is equipped with a 3-D camera and can scan its environment and identify the objects in it
by using computer vision software and was previously developed in Saxena lab and the robot has been
trained to associate objects with their capabilities.
Saxena along with his graduate students namely Dipendra K Misra and Jaeyong Sung will describe their
methods from 12 to 16 July 2014 at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference at the University of
California, Berkeley.
WORLDS FIRST ANDROID NEWSCASTERS UNVEILED IN JAPAN
Worlds first Android Newscasters was unveiled in Japan on 24 June 2014. The Android was unveiled at
the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo at an exhibition called Android:
What is a Human.
The two androids, Kodomoroid (Kodomo meaning child) and Otonaroid (otona meaning adult) take the
form of a girl and a woman respectively.
The two androids can interact with humans, read the news and read Tweets in several different
voices. Although, their silicon skin and limited facial movement makes them appear somewhat strange.
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Both androids will work at Tokyos National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. The androids
will interact with visitors to collect data for studies into human-robot interactions.
THE MAN BEHIND THE ANDROID NEWSCASTERS: PROFESSOR HIROSHI ISHIGURO
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at the Osaka University
Graduate School of Engineering Science unveiled the Android newscasters under his project: a pair of
android newscasters.
Ishiguro, who has been developing robots for over 20 years, hopes that his research will help develop
more intelligent robots to be used in a large range of potential roles.
Ishiguro also has a robot built in his own image, which he sends overseas to give lectures, and had
previously developed the Telenoid R1, a robot designed for telepresence communications, which is also
on display at the exhibition.
BOSTON DYNAMICS OF US DEVELOPED LIFE-SIZED ANTHROPOMORPHIC ROBOT CALLED
ATLAS
Boston Dynamics of US developed a life-sized Atlas Anthropomorphic robot called Atlas. The robot was
developed as a part of a challenge to create a robot that could go at the places, which are dangerous to
humans.
The Atlas robot has been designed not as a warrior but it is a humanitarian machine and will be used for
the rescue purposes at the time of natural disasters.
The 6-foot-2-inch Atlas is a powerful robot in the form of an adult human. It moves with a variety of
lifelike and natural behavior, including dynamically-balanced walking, calisthenics, manipulation and
user-programmed tasks.
This robot has been developed by Boston Dynamics and is a brainchild of project of Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
BLUEFIN 21- A ROBOTIC SUBMARINE - DEPLOYED TO SOLVE MYSTERY OF LOST
MALAYSIAN PLANE MH370
Bluefin 21 - a robotic submarine - was launched on 14 April 2014 to solve the mystery of the lost
Malaysian plane MH370. The decision of sending a Bluefin-21 was taken when the search team felt that
the batteries of Black Box had expired making them incapable of sending signals.
This autonomous unmanned under water vehicle was launched from the Australian navy ship Ocean
shield and would go under Indian Ocean.
This submarine can create three-dimensional sonar map of any debris on the seafloor by using its sidescan sonar.
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ABOUT BLUEFIN-21
It is autonomous, underwater, highly modular vehicle.

It can carry payloads and multiple sensors simultaneously.
Its high energy capacity makes it capable of carrying extended operations even at the greatest
depths.
It can operate from various ships of opportunity worldwide.
Ease in transportability is another cause behind its application in time-critical and remote
operations.
The vehicle design consists of battery modules, swappable payload sections for in-field mission
reconfiguration. Its small size and capability to be launched and recovered from a simple Aframe or docking head allow it to take advantage of ships of opportunity. Use of INS provides
the best possible navigation accuracy to Bluefin-21.
BACKGROUND
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on 8 March 2014 disappeared
from the radar screens over the South China Sea with 239 people on board. The plane when
disappeared was heading towards Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Initially a multinational team searched the
plane in the South China Sea. Later it was learned that the plane had might have moved along two
corridors:
1. Northern corridor (Border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand).
2. Southern corridor (Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean).
However, by analyzing satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat
and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the
southern corridor. Its last known last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
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NANOTECHNOLOGY
SCIENTIST DEVELOPED NEW BIOCHIP TO DETECT BLOOD SUGAR VIA SALIVA
US scientists at Brown University have developed a new biochip sensor to detect blood sugar via saliva.
The advance is an important step towards a device that would enable people with diabetes to test their
glucose levels without drawing blood.
The biochip is made from a one-inch-square piece of quartz coated with a thin layer of silver. Etched in
the silver are thousands of nanoscale interferometers tiny slits with a groove on each side.
The new chip makes use of a series of specific chemical reactions combined with plasmonic
interferometry, a means of detecting chemical signature of compounds using light.
The device is sensitive enough to detect differences in glucose concentrations that amount to just a few
thousand molecules in the sampled volume. The grooves measure 200 nanometers wide, and the slit is
100 nanometers wide about 1000 times thinner than a human hair.
NEW TITANIUM DIOXIDE TILES DEVELOPED TO FIGHT AGAINST AIR POLLUTION
New titanium Oxide tiles were developed by the research team from University of California to fight
against Air Pollution. The coating of titanium dioxide mixture when applied to roof will clean up the air
of surrounding area.
The coating when applied to an average-sized residential roof breaks down the same amount of smogcausing nitrogen oxides per year as a car driven 17703km.
Researchers had calculated that 21 tonnes of nitrogen oxides would be eliminated daily if tiles on one
million roofs were coated with their titanium dioxide mixture. The coating will cost only about 5 US
dollar or 300 rupees.
Nitrogen oxides are formed when certain fuels are burned at high temperatures. Nitrogen oxides then
react with volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight to create smog.
ABOUT THE PROCESS
First of all, the researchers coated two identical off-the-shelf clay tiles with different amounts of
titanium dioxide, a common compound found in everything from paint to food to cosmetics.
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The tiles were then placed inside a miniature atmospheric chamber that the students built out of wood,
Teflon and PVC piping. The chamber was connected to a source of nitrogen oxides and a device that
reads concentrations of nitrogen oxides.
They used ultraviolet light to simulate sunlight, which activates the titanium dioxide and allows it to
break down the nitrogen oxides. They found the titanium dioxide coated tiles removed between 88 per
cent and 97 per cent of the nitrogen oxides.
They also found there was not much of a difference in nitrogen oxide removal when different amounts
of the coating were applied, despite one having about 12 times as much titanium dioxide coating.
SILVER NANOWIRES-BASED NANOSCALE FINGERPRINTS DEVELOPED TO PROTECT CREDIT
CARDS
Scientists from South Korea had developed Silver nanowires-based nanoscale fingerprints. This
nanoscale fingerprint would help protect the credit cards and other gadgets. The research was published
in March 2014 in the journal Nanotechnology.
Lead author of the research was Professor Hyotcherl Ihee from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology and the Institute for Basic Science.
Silver nanowires based Nano fingerprints are made by randomly placing 20 to 30 individual nanowires,
each with an average length of 10 to 50 micro metre. The nanowire pattern would be based on a thin
plastic film. The wire would be embedded into credit card to make it impossible to counterfeit the
object.
The nanowire pattern is invisible to the naked eye. The nanowire pattern can be tagged with a unique
ID, or bar code, which could enable a quick search in a database and ease the process of authentication
or counterfeit identification.
The pattern was prepared by synthesizing a solution containing individual silver nanowires, coating the
nanowires with silica, doping them with specific fluorescent dyes and then randomly dropping them
onto a transferable film made from flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
The fluorescent dyes allowed the patterns to be authenticated under an optical microscope and could
add another layer of complexity to the fingerprints if a number of different coloured dyes are used.
The fingerprints could be produced at a cost of less than 1 US Dollar per single pattern.
A SMARTPHONE BATTERY NANODOTS THAT RECHARGES IN 30 SECONDS DEVELOPED
An Israeli startup StoreDot on 8 April 2014 developed a new smart phone battery called Nanodots. The
new battery can recharge a smart phone in just 30 seconds. The firm demonstrated the battery
Nanodots at the Microsoft's Think Next symposium in Tel Aviv, Israel.
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The Nanodots batteries are made of naturally occurring crystals made of short chain of amino acids
called peptides. These are two nanometers in diameter with significant chemical properties. These are:
Due to their small size they can help improve electrode capacitance and electrolyte
performance.
It can fully charge a dead battery of a smart phone in seconds rather than hours.
These are environment friendly and non-toxic as compared to other Nanodot and quantum-dot
technologies that are heavy metal based.
These batteries are cheap to manufacture because nanodots are naturally abundant, and it
employs a basic biological mechanism of self-assembly.
In essence, Nanodots are a new generation of electrodes with new materials called Multi Function
Electrode
Although the battery demonstrated is the size of a small brick, but the company has announced to
develop the device small enough to pack into a standard smartphone by 2016.
The advance could change the way we interact with portable electronics, and perhaps even help realise
the dream of a fast-charging electric car.
NIT ODISHA DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGY TO TURN PLASTIC INTO FUEL
National Institute of Technology, Odisha, developed a commercially viable technology for efficiently
rendering common polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) into a liquid fuel.
This discovery may lead to re-using discarded plastic bags and other products to address growing
demands for fuel globally. Study was published in International Journal of Environment and Waste
Management.
LDPE is used to make container, medical and laboratory equipment, computer components and plastic
bags.
The team heat up the plastic waste to between 400 and 500 degrees celsius over a kaolin catalyst (a clay
mineral containing aluminum and silicon).This caused the plastic's long chain polymer chains to break
apart in a process known as thermo-catalytic degradation. The process released large quantities of much
smaller, carbon-rich molecules.
An analytical method called Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to characterise
these product molecules and found the components of their liquid fuel to be mainly paraffins and
olefins 10 to 16 carbon atoms long.
This makes the liquid fuel very similar chemically to conventional petrochemical fuels.
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Kaolin acts as a catalyst by providing a large reactive surface on which the polymer molecules can sit and
so be exposed to high temperature inside the batch reactor, which breaks them apart.
Recycling initiatives are in place across the world but much of the polyethylene waste ends up in landfill,
dispersed in the environment or in the sea.
The process, if implemented on a large scale, can reduce pressures on landfill as well as ameliorating the
effects of dwindling oil supplies in a world with increasing demands on petrochemicals for fuel.
NANOTECHNOLOGY MAY PREVENT CANCER FROM SPREADING
Nanotechnology may prevent cancer from spreading by using sticky nanoparticles. Researchers of
Cornell University (US) have designed these sticky nanoparticles. These are made by attaching Trail
protein and other proteins to the nanoparticles.
As per the results of earlier trial tests, Trail protein has the ability to kill cancer cells. These sticky
nanoparticles are injected into blood stream which attaches themselves with the white blood cells. Tests
revealed that as soon as sticky nanoparticles came in contact of cancel tumor cells which had broken off
the main tumour and were trying to spread, it kills them. It thus prevent tumour from spreading into
other regions. The test results are significant in human blood and mice.
The lead researcher Professor Michael King suggested that sticky nanoparticles should be used before
surgery or radiotherapy. This move would help in removing tumour cells from the main tumour.
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NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

KUDANKULAM BECAME INDIAS FIRST NUCLEAR PLANT TO GENERATE 1000 MW POWER
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant on 8 June 2014 became Indias first nuclear plant to generate 1000
MW power. Unit I of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant reached its full capacity.
With this, the total nuclear energy contribution will increase to 5789 MW. Work on the Unit-first of
Kudankulam Plant was completed in 2013.
Before Kudankulam, Tata Mundra project in Gujarat had the distinction of being the largest single
generation unit in operation with 800 MW power capacity.
ABOUT KUDANKULAM POWER PLANT
Plans for the Kudankulam facility were first drawn up in 1988. It was supposed to open in 2011 but it
was delayed due to the large public protests.
The plant is the 20th nuclear power station connected to Indias power grid.
The Kudankulam nuclear plant project attained criticality in July 2013. Criticality is the point when a
nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining.
MIT SCIENTIST DESIGNED THE WORLDS FIRST FLOATING NUCLEAR PLANT
Scientist of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 17 April 2014 designed the world's first
floating nuclear plants. Jacopo Buongiorno, Michael Golay and Neil Todreas of MIT presented the
concept of the design at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers symposium.
In case of a tsunami or earthquake, the imminent danger to a nuclear plant is cooling failure inside the
reactor. The floating nuclear plant would be automatically cooled by surrounding seawater in case of a
major tsunami.
There are no particular limits to the size of such plants. The plant could be anywhere from small, 50megawatt plants to 1000-megawatt plants.
Also, a floating platform several miles offshore, moored in about 100 metres of water, would be
unaffected by the motions of a tsunami as earthquakes would have no direct impact at all.
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The concept of Floating nuclear plant was based on two technologies, one is light-water nuclear reactors
and the other is offshore oil and gas drilling platforms.
IMPORTANCE OF FLOATING NUCLEAR PLANT
It will be a boost for Asian countries, as these countries has a combination of high tsunami risks and a
rapidly growing need for new power sources. It would make a lot of sense for Japan as well as places
such as Indonesia, Chile and Africa.
The design of plant could also help to address practical construction issues that have tended to make
new nuclear plants uneconomical.
Shipyard construction allowed for better standardization and the all-steel design eliminate the use of
concrete which is responsible for the construction delays and cost overruns.
ANU VIDYUT PARIYOJANA LAUNCHED IN FATEHABAD, HARYANA
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation of 2,800 Megawatt nuclear power plant in
Fatehabad district of Haryana on 13 January 2014.
The project named as Anu Vidyut Pariyojna, will have four units of 700 MWes each and it will be built at
a cost 23502 crore rupees.
They are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) which will use natural uranium as fuel and heavy
water as both coolant and moderator.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) will build these reactors. This is the first time
Haryana will have a nuclear project.
In the second stage, the NPCIL will build two more PHWRS of 700 MWe each at the Gorakhpur site of
Haryana.
The nuclear plant will accelerate the pace of development of the area and it would also generate more
employment opportunities.
The NPCIL is already building four PHWRS of 700 MWe each, two units each at Kakrapara in Gujarat and
Rawatbhatta in Rajasthan. The units at Kakrapara are under advanced stage of construction and they
will attain criticality in 2016.
NPCIL is the sole body responsible for constructing and operating India's commercial nuclear power
plants. The company had 21 nuclear reactors in operation at seven locations. Total installed capacity of
nuclear reactors is 5780 MWe.
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INDIA'S THREE-STAGE NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Programme was formulated by Dr. Homi Bhabha in the 1950s. The objective of the plan is to secure the
countrys long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in
the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India.
The first stage consists of the pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR), the second stage consists of fast
breeder reactors (FBR) and the third stage consists of advanced heavy water reactors (AHWR).
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SPACE SCIENCE
WORLDS MOST POWERFUL TELESCOPE ATLAST TO BE BUILT BY NASA TO TRACK ALIENS
LIFE
The Royal Astronomical Society, London on 24 June 2014 unveiled the National Aeronautics and Space
Administrations (NASA) plan to build ATLAST or Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope
in Portsmouth. Once, built, it will be the Worlds most powerful and largest telescope.
The telescope will be able to analyze the environment of other planets and able to track the existence of
aliens life. The telescope will track the species which are about 30 light years away.
The telescope will be prepared and set up in space itself, due to the large size of telescope it is not
possible to send the telescope to space from earth via rocket.
For the setting up the telescope, NASA will send a group of astronauts to space via Orion rocket.
FEATURES OF THE ATLAST TELESCOPE
The telescope will be about four times larger than the existing 44 feet- Hubble Space Telescope.
The mirror inside the telescope will have a diameter of around 52 feet, which will be the largest
mirror ever created by any man on Earth.
The telescope will be located at a distance of 10 lakh miles.
Telescope to be ready by 2030
According to Scientists, the telescope will help astronomers in exploring more than 60 odd new planets.
It will also give insights into the proportion of oxygen and other gases in space, which either is, the
reason for sustaining life on other planets, or vice-versa.
PSLV C23, CARRYING FIVE SATELLITES, LAUNCHED SUCCESSFULLY FROM SRIHARIKOTA
ISROs PSLV C23 was launched on 30 June 2014 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in
Andhra Pradesh. The PSLV C23 carried five satellites belonging to four countries namely France,
Germany, Canada and Singapore.
All these five satellites were launched under commercial arrangements that ANTRIX (ISROs commercial
arm) has entered with the respective foreign agencies.
On its way, PSLV C23 separated all five satellites, one by one into their intended orbit and these
satellites are
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The French Earth observation satellite SPOT-7 of 714 kg which is similar to Indian Remote
Sensing System (IRSS)
14 kg AISAT of Germany
NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) & NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) of Canada weighing 15 kg and the 7 kg respectively from
University of Toronto, Institute of Aerospace studies/Space Flight Laboratory
VELOX-1 of Singapore from Nanyang Technological University is a technology demonstrator for
design of image sensor, MEMS-based determination and control system and inter-satellite RF
link
Till date, ISRO has launched 35 satellites of foreign countries onboard its workhorse, the Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
NASA DEVELOPED HIGH-TECH CAGES TO CARRY RODENTS TO ISS
NASA has developed high-tech cages to carry rodents to the International Space Station (ISS) from Earth.
The rodents carried by the cages will allow the researchers to study the long-term effects of
microgravity on mammalian physiology.
The first flight of the Rodent Habitat modules will be carried out in August 2014 aboard an unmanned
SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
The high-tech cages have been developed by NASAs Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California
and the new habitats are designed to transport the animals to space station as part of their long-term
accommodation.
The design of the transport module can fit into the racks in the pressurised cargo section of the Dragon
spacecraft. It has an access module for moving the rodents from the transporter to the stations rodent
habitat without having the mice escape and take up residence behind the control panels. Every habitat
module provides as many as 10 mice or six rats with all of the basics like water, food, fresh air and
lighting needed by them to live comfortably aboard the station.
The habitat modules include data downlink capability that enables monitoring of environmental
conditions such as temperature. The crew in space and scientists and veterinarians on the ground will be
able to monitor behavior and overall health of the rodents on a daily basis through the visible light and
infrared video system.
Overall, these rodents will help in studying the genetic strains of rodents and roles played by specific
genes in gravity sensing and responses.
NASA SIMULATOR SUCCESSFULLY RECREATED SPACE DUST
Scientists of NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California have reproduced the processes
that occur in the atmosphere of the red giant star and lead to the formation of planet-forming
interstellar dust. The complete work was performed on Earth itself and the information of reproduction
of the process was notified by NASA in its release of 7 May 2014.
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The processes that occur in the atmosphere of the red giant star were reproduced by using a specialized
facility called the Cosmic Simulation Chamber (COSmIC). The facility COSmIC has been designed and
built at Ames and it allows scientists to recreate and study dust grains similar to the grains that form in
the outer layers of dying stars in the laboratory.
With this facility the Scientists have planned to use the dust to gather clues to better understand the
composition and the evolution of the universe.
Scientists in their study found the materials which make up the building blocks of the universe are much
more complicated than it was originally anticipated.
STEPS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK
The team of scientists the process of work started with small hydrocarbon molecules which were
expanded in the cold jet spray in COSmIC and then exposed them to high energy in an electric discharge.
Further, they detected and characterized the large molecules that were formed in the gas phase from
these precursor molecules with highly sensitive detectors. Then these precursor molecules were
collected the individual solid grains formed from these complex molecules and imaged using Ames'
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).
KOI-3278: A SELF-LENSING BINARY STAR SYSTEM FOUND IN LYCRA CONSTELLATION
A student astronomer Ethan Kruse found a self-lensing binary star system in the Lycra constellation. A
binary star system is a place where two stars are so close that their gravitational interaction causes them
to orbit about a common centre of mass.
KOI-3278 looks like an upside-down planet and it could pave the way for new method of studying binary
star systems. This discovery was done at the University of Washington by using the planet-hunting
Kepler Space Telescope. The details of the study were published on 18 April 2014 edition of journal
Science.
The two stars of KOI-3278, at a distance of about 2600 light-years (a light-year is 5.88 trillion miles) take
turns being nearer to earth as they orbit each other in every 88.18 days. The two stars are about 43
million miles apart, approx distance of planet Mercury from Sun. The white dwarf, a cooling star thought
to be in the final stage of life, is about Earth's size but 200000 times more massive.
The finding has improved a research of 2013 undertaken by the California Institute of Technology, which
detected similar self-lensing effect minus the brightening of the light because the two stars being
studied were much closer together.
White dwarfs are used as indicators of age in the galaxy in astronomy. Expansion of understanding of
white dwarfs help astronomers by taking them a step closer to learn the age of galaxy.
The research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA.
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WHAT IS GRAVITATIONAL LENSING?

Gravitational Lensing is a common tool of astronomy that is used to detect planets around the distant
stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. This process is among the first methods used to confirm Albert
Einsteins general theory of relativity. Lensing within the Milky Way Galaxy similar to same is called as
microlensing.
KEPLER-186F, THE FIRST EARTH-SIZE PLANET DISCOVERED IN THE HABITABLE ZONE
Astronomers on 17 April 2014 announced that they have discovered an Earth-size planet, named Kepler186f. The planet is located in the habitable zonea range of distance from a star where liquid water
might pool on the planet's surface. It is a part of the Kepler-186 system, which is located about 500 lightyears from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
This Kepler-186f also called as the Earth cousin, orbits around a red dwarf (M dwarf), which is a type of
star much smaller and dimmer than Earths sun. Our galaxy has about 100 billion stars of which seven
out of every ten of them are M dwarfs.
The astronomers have claimed that discovery of Kepler-186f has confirmed that Earth-size planets
actually exist in the habitable zones of other stars. This also signals a significant step closer to find a
world similar to earth.
SIZE AND THE PERIOD OF ORBITING THE STAR BY KEPLER-186F
The astronomers claimed that the exoplanet is known to be less than 10% larger than Earth but
they doesnt know about its mass, composition and density.
It orbits its star in 130 days and it receives one-third energy from its star as Earth receives from
our sun.
The Kepler-186 systems star is half in size and mass of the sun and is a home of four inner
planets
Prior to the discovery of Kepler-186f, a similar Earth-like planet was Kepler-62f that was 40% larger than
the size of Earth and it also orbited its star in habitable zone. Kepler-186f is a tip-of-the-iceberg
discovery.
Elisa Quintana is the Study leader and is a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett
Field.
ISRO SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED IRNSS 1B FROM SRIHARIKOTA
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 4 April 2014 launched Indias 2nd regional navigational
satellite, IRNSS 1B from Sriharikota Space Station of Andhra Pradesh. The launch of IRNSS series would
enable India to have its own reliable and independent navigational resources for itself.
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The satellite was lifted off by the Polar Satellite Vehicle (PSLV) C 24 at 5.14 pm. IRNSS (Indian Regional
navigational satellite) was injected by the launch vehicle after four stages of 19 minutes of its take off
from Sriharikota.
This launch of IRNSS 1B is the 25th successful launch of the PSLV series by ISRO. This launch of the
satellite had brought India close to join the group of selected nations namely US, Russia, China, Japan
and European countries.
IRNSS series launch will benefit India from its applications including terrestrial, aerial and marine
navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management. It will also provide visual and
voice navigation for hikers and travelers.
ABOUT INDIAN REGIONAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM (IRNSS)
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an independent regional navigation satellite
system that has been designed with an aim to provide position accuracy better than 10m over India and
the region extending about 1500 kms around India.
As per ISRO, the series of satellite would provide an accurate real time Position, Navigation and Time
(PNT) services to users on a variety of platforms with 24x7 service availability under all weather
conditions.
THE IRNSS SYSTEM MAI NLY CONSISTS OF THREE COMPONENTS, NAMELY
Space Segment (Constellation of Satellites & SignalInSpace)

Ground Segment and
User Segment
PLAN OF POSITIONING OF SEVEN SATELLITES OF IRSS
Three satellites will be placed in the Geostationary Equatorial orbit

Two satellites each will be placed in the Geosynchronous orbit (GSO) with equator crossing at 55
deg East and 111.5 deg East and an inclination of 29 deg
Two spare satellites are also planned to be realized
OTHER FEATURES OF IRNSS

IRNSS will have two types of signals in L5 and S-band centre frequency, with the L band centre frequency
being 1176.45 MHz and S-band centre frequency being 2492.028 MHz. Both L5 and S-band consist of
two downlinks.
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IRNSS will also provide two basic services such as Standard Positioning Service (SPS) for common civilian
users and Restricted Service (RS) for special authorised users.
The best part of IRNSS is that the navigation software of the series is being developed indigenously at
ISRO Satellite Center.
ISRO is collaborating with NPL to realise a space qualified Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard.
Further, by the end of 2014 India would send two more satellites and three others will be sent in the
beginning of the year 2015. These launches would make the constellation complete and provide a
unique position to India in the world. India has also planned to launch the unique Mark III satellites by
June 2014.
EUROPE LAUNCHED A SATELLITE, SENTINEL-1A TO MONITOR EARTH FOR CLIMATE
CHANGE
Europe on 3 April 2014 launched a satellite named Sentinel-1A, designed to monitor Earth for climate
change and environmental damage and help disaster relief operations. Sentinal-1 is the first in a
constellation of hi-tech satellites and was lifted off aboard Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana of
the European Space Agency (ESA).
The 2.2-tonne satellite will scan the Earth with cloud-penetrating radar and is the first of half a dozen
orbital monitors that will be built and launched under the 5.19-billion US dollar (3.786-billion-euro)
Copernicus project, a joint undertaking of ESA and the European Union (EU).
Sentinel-1A after taking off separated itself from the rockets upper stage and further will be followed by
a partner, Sentinel-1B, which will be launched till end of the year 2015.
ABOUT SENTINAL-1
Sentinel-1 is a two satellite constellation with the prime objectives of Land and Ocean monitoring. The
goal of the mission is to provide C-Band SAR data continuity following the retirement of ERS-2 and the
end of the Envisat mission. To accomplish the goal the satellite has carried a C-SAR sensor that will offer
medium and high resolution imaging in all weather conditions. The C-SAR is capable of obtaining night
imagery and detecting small movement on the ground, which makes it useful for land and sea
monitoring.
Sentinel-1 is the first of the six missions in the framework of the Copernicus initiative and is composed of
a constellation two polar-orbiting satellites, namely Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B. These two satellites
will share the same orbital plane, while operating day and night performing Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SAR) imaging.
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SENTINEL-1 SERVICES INCLUDE APPLICATIONS LIKE
Monitoring sea ice zones and the Arctic environment

Assimilation of sea ice observations in the forecasting systems
Surveillance of marine environment, including oil-spill monitoring and ship detection for
maritime security
Monitoring land surface motion risks
Mapping of land surfaces: forest, water and soil, sustainable agriculture
Mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations
ABOUT COPERNICUS
Copernicus is formerly known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and is the
European Union's Earth observation and monitoring programme, a user driven programme, building on
the existing national and European capacities and establishing new infrastructure and services.
ISRO DECOMMISSIONED COMMUNICATION SATELLITE INSAT-3E
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO on 1 April 2014 decommissioned the Communication Satellite
INSAT-3E. The satellite was decommissioned after it completed ten and half years in orbit as it had
stopped working on 29 March 2014.
The satellite was facing problems for quite some time. Earlier it ran out of the on-board oxidizer. The
oxidizer along with fuel keep it Earth-locked and fixed over India and helped satellite to perform daily
functions.
In September 2012, the satellite blinked and disrupted services for about 24 hours and was restored
later. Also since 2009, only 25 transponders out of 36 were functioning properly.
ISRO claimed that there will not be any adverse impact on the users. It has started shifting process of the
INSAT-3E users on to standby capacities on some of its other satellites on 22 March 2014. The process is
still going on.
Now, the ISRO have 189 transponders on its ISRO/GSAT fleet. Other 91 additional transponders leased
on foreign satellites.
In order to prevent collision of the satellite with other working spacecrafts of other countries, the
Master Control Facility at Hasan will move the satellite into a higher orbit.
The satellite was launched in September 2003 and was expected to give 15 years of service. The third
generation satellite had 36 transponders (24 C-band and 12 extended).
During its service span, INSAT-3E performed following functions:
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Its C-band supported communication networks of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, National
Thermal Corporation and BSNL and other organizations.
Its 10 extended C-band transponders supported VSAT operators.
It provided tele-education services to the distant users.
It provided high communication services.
It facilitated efficient TV broadcast services.
HR 5171 A, THE LARGEST EVER YELLOW HYPERGIANT STAR DISCOVERED

Researchers have discovered the largest yellow star measuring 1300 times more than the diameter of
sun. The star dubbed HR 5171 A, was discovered nearly 12000 light-years from Earth in the constellation
Centaurus is the largest member of the family of yellow stars of which our sun belongs. The new image
of the star was released on 12 March 2014.
The star was studied by a team lead by Oliver Chesneau of the Cote d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France
with the Very Large Telescope in Atacama, Chile. In their study they found that the yellow hyper giant
star is much bigger than it was expected.
The researchers claimed that it is one of the ten largest stars found and is about 50 percent larger than
red supergiant Betelgeuse. The star is about one million times brighter than the Sun. Yellow hypergiants
are very rare and only about a dozen of such stars are known in our galaxy of which the most famous
known is Rho Cassiopeia.
These stars are among the biggest and brightest known stars and are at an unstable stage of their lives
and are changing rapidly. This instability allows them to expel material outwards by forming a large
extended atmosphere around themselves.
The team has also discovered a companion star of HR 5171 A that orbits it every 1300 days. The smaller
companion is only slightly hotter than the surface temperature of 5000 degrees Celsius of HR 5171 A.
ASTERIOD NAMED 2000 EM26 WITH POTENTIAL HAZARD RACED PAST EARTH
An asteroid named 2000 EM26 raced past the Earth at a distance of 3.4 million kilometer on 17 February
2014. The asteroid 2000 EM26 was tracked by the Slooh Space Camera atop the Mount Teide in Canary
Island, Spain.
The asteroid 2000 EM26 equal to the size of three football fields is 270 meters in diameter and is moving
at the speed of 12.37 kilometers per second.
The streaking of 2000 EM26 asteroid past the Earth took place one year after another asteroid exploded
over Chelyabinsk in Russia on 13 February 2013. The explosion of the asteroid had injured 1200 people
and sent shock waves shattering windows and damaging buildings in Chelyabinsk.
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The closest NEOs that moved quickly past Earth in our lifetimes was asteroid 2012 DA14 a 40000 ton
space rock with 30meter diameter.
ABOUT ASTEROID REDIRECT MISSION (ARM)
Tracking the asteroids or Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) has been a significant endeavour for NASA and the
astronomical community. So far 10731 known near- Earth objects have been discovered.
Towards this NASA is in the process of developing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). ARM will be the
first ever mission to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid.
ARM plans to use capabilities of the new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket and highpower solar electric propulsion to capture an asteroid in near future.
In developing ARM, NASA is assessing two concepts to robotically capture and redirect an asteroid mass
into a stable orbit around the Moon.
In the first concept, NASA will capture and redirect an entire asteroid. In the other concept, NASA will
retrieve a large, boulder-like mass from a larger asteroid and return it to the lunar orbit.
In both the cases, astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft will then study the redirected asteroid mass in
the vicinity of the Moon and bring back samples.
MARS ORBITER SPACECRAFT, MANGALYAAN, COMPLETED 100 DAYS
The Mars Orbiter spacecraft, also called Mangalyaan, completed 100 days in space on 12 February 2014.
As per the rough estimation, it has covered a third of its journey towards the Red Planet.
Till now it has completed its curved travel of 190 million km towards Mars (the Red Planet) out of its
total journey of 680 million km which it will be covering it over the next 210 days.
Although the orbiter has travelled 160 million km in a semicircular path, it is 16 million km away from
Earth if an imaginary straight line is drawn between the two because Earth is also moving in the same
direction.
The ground station of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) has been continuously
monitoring it from Byalalu on the outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka. ISTRAC is due to do a few course
corrections as the orbiter covers the remaining 490 million km using the pre-set propulsion system.
All the five instruments on the Mars orbiter were switched on for tests and were found to be performing
well on 6 February 2014,
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Subsequent to six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following the launch, the Trans Mars
Injection (TMI) Manoeuvre on 1 December 2013 gave necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from
Earth and to initiate the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric orbit.
Three more such trajectory correction manouevres are slated for April 2014, August 2014 and
September 2014. Then the spacecraft will be inserted into an orbit around Mars by an operation called
Mars Orbit Insertion on 24 September 2014.
The Mangalyaan is scheduled to be near the Red Planet around mid-September after travelling nearly
300 days.
The first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
on 5 November 2013. The main objective of India's launch is to check whether Mars ever had an
environment in which life evolved and to explore Mars' surface, topography, mineralogy and
atmosphere.
AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMERS DISCOVERED OLDEST KNOWN STAR IN UNIVERSE
Astronomers of Australian National University discovered the oldest known star in the Universe on 11
February 2014. The discovery was published in the journal Nature.
The star, known as SMSS J031300.36-670839.3, is in the Milky Way galaxy and some 6000 light years
from the Earth. The star was formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
The star was discovered using the ANU SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory, which is
searching for ancient stars as it conducts a five-year project to produce the first digital map of the
southern sky. The discovery of the star was confirmed using the Magellan telescope in Chile.
The composition of the newly-discovered star shows it was formed in the wake of a primordial star,
which had a mass 60 times that of our Sun. The iron content of the star was used to determine its age.
The low iron content in the star suggests it was formed in a low energy explosion. This is a new
discovery, as it means early supernovae were more varied in their energy than previously thought.
The discovery allowed astronomers for the first time to study the chemistry of the first stars, giving
scientists a clearer idea of what the Universe was like in its infancy. The discovery will open the way for
new approaches in examining the origins of the Universe.
This new discovery suggests early stars were much larger and would have burned more lithium than
experts previously realised. The stars burn the lithium, they blow up, and don't emit much iron. This
helps bring the lithium abundance into line with what the Big Bang theory predicts.
The Big Bang created a universe filled with hydrogen, helium and extremely small amounts of lithium.
Iron, along with other elements, was forced in stars and supernovae. While modern stars were created
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from multiple star explosions and contain many different elements, older stars are more simplistic in
terms of composition.
RIVER OF HYDROGEN FLOWING THROUGH SPACE SEEN WITH GREEN BANK TELESCOPE
Astronomers discovered a River of hydrogen flowing through space on 28 January 2014. Scientists had
discovered the never seen before river using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) of National Science
Foundations Robert C. Byrd.
The River flow in nearby galaxy named NGC 6946 and is around 22 million light years from Earth. Team
of scientists was led by D.J. Pisano from West Virginia University.
It may help the scientists to explain how certain spiral galaxies keep up their steady pace of star
formation.
Until now, scientists have discovered that the fuel for star formation had to come from somewhere.
Spiral galaxies like Milky Way typically maintain a rather tranquil but steady pace of star formation.
Rivers of hydrogen-known as cold flows may be ferrying hydrogen through intergalactic space, fuelling
star formation. But this was too diffused to detect, until now.
Others, like NGC 6946, which is located approximately 22 million light years from Earth on the border of
the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus, are much more active, though less-so than more extreme
starburst galaxies.
This raises the question of what is fuelling the sustained star formation in this and similar spiral galaxies.
Using the GBT, Pisano was able to detect the glow emitted by neutral hydrogen gas connecting NGC
6946 with its cosmic neighbors. This signal was simply below the detection threshold of other
telescopes.
The GBTs unique capabilities, including its immense single dish, unblocked aperture, and location in the
National Radio Quiet Zone, enabled it to detect this tenuous radio light.
Astronomers have long theorized that larger galaxies could receive a constant influx of cold hydrogen by
syphoning it off other less massive companions.
In looking at NGC 6946, the GBT detected just the sort of filamentary structure that would be present in
a cold flow, although there is another probable explanation for what has been observed.
It is also possible that sometime in the past this galaxy had a close encounter and passed by its
neighbors, leaving a ribbon of neutral atomic hydrogen in its wake.
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NASA DISCOVERED POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROID 2013 YP139

NASA discovered a new potentially hazardous asteroid named 2013 YP139 on 29 December 2013. It was
confirmed by the NASA on 15 January2014.
It was first discovered by NASAs Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). The
Researchers at the University of Arizona used the Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National
Observatory southwest of Tucson to confirm the discovery.
The 2013 YP139 is about 43 million kilometers from Earth. On the basis of Infrared brightness, it is found
to be 650 meters in diameter and extremely dark like a piece of coal. NEOWISEs sophisticated software
picked up the moving object against a background of stationary stars.
The asteroid circles the Sun in an elliptical orbit titled to the plane of solar system. It is possible for its
orbit to bring it as close as 482803 km from Earth, a little more than the distance to the Moon. But it will
not come that close within the next century.
NEOWISE was originally called as Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) which made the most
comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets.
In 2010 and early 2011, WISE discovered more than 34000 asteroids and characterised 158000
throughout the solar system. Its reactivation in September 2013 followed 31 months in hibernation.
SCIENTISTS MEASURED THE DISTANCE TO GALAXIES ACCURATE TO 1%
Scientists for the first time measured the distance to galaxies more than six billion light years away
accurate to 1%.
The analysis was revealed on 9 January 2014.
This new map was created from the BOSS Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey using Sloan
Foundation Telescope. This survey is one of the four projects being carried out by the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey III (SDSS-111), at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.
The analysis incorporates spectra of 1277503 galaxies and covers 8509 square degrees of the sky visible
from the northern hemisphere. This is the largest sample of the universe ever surveyed at this density.
Since 2009, BOSS has been collecting the data and will continue to gather till June 2014.
The BOSS map used baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) as a standard measurement of the distance
between galaxies. A BAO is an imprint of pressure waves from the early universe suspended in the
barren depths of intergalactic space.
Further, the phenomenon known as BAO is a subtle ripples in the distribution of galaxies throughout the
Universe. These ripples were created during the formation of the early universe as particles of light
(photons) and protons and neutrons (collectively known as baryons) created mammoth pressure waves
pulsing through the cosmos.
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The new results were presented by Schlegel and his team at the 223rd meeting of the American
Astronomical Society.
SATURNS RING 4.4 BILLION YEARS OLD
Saturn's iconic rings were formed about 4.4 billion years ago said the researchers at the University of
Colorado. This was announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on 3 January
2014.
The new study was conducted using data gathered by the NASAs Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft.
The main rings are believed to be extremely old, rather than hundreds of millions of years old said the
researchers.
Saturns main ring system is huge but razor-thin, measuring about 280000 kilometres across but just 33
feet or so in the vertical direction.
The rings are composed primarily of water ice, but they contain small amounts of rocky material
contributed by micrometeoroid bombardment.
The University of Colorado researchers used Cassinis Cosmic Dust Analyser instrument to measure how
frequently such tiny particles cruise through the Saturn system.
The researchers were able to reconstruct the orbits of many of these particles, finding that the lion's
share come from the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit.
HUBBLE DISCOVERED CLOUDS ON NEW PLANETS
Hubble discovered the two new planets, GJ 436b and GJ121 4b, providing the weather forecast for a
planet outside our solar system.
The Astronomers led by University of Chicago Laura Kreidberg and Jacob Bean W determined that both
the planets covered with clouds and contains hydrogen.
These clouds hide any information about the composition and behaviour of the lower atmosphere and
surface.
GJ 121 4b is about 40 light years away from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.
GJ436b is similar in mass to Neptune and GJ 121 4b is considered a Super Earth planet because of its
mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune.
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ABOUT HUBBLE
The Hubble space Telescopes launched in 1990 that orbits Earth. Its gaze has helped determine the age
of the universe and the existence of dark energy.
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ELECTRONICS
SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED SENSING SKIN TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN DETECT CRACKS IN
CONCRETE STRUCTURES
Scientists on 24 June 2014 developed new sensing skin technology that can detect cracks in concrete
structures.
Scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Eastern Finland have developed the
technology.
The technology will allow the authorities to respond quickly to damage in everything from nuclear
facilities to bridges.
HOW IT DETECTS THE CRACK IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES
The sensing skin is painted onto the structure, over the electrodes. A computer programme then runs a
small current between two of the electrodes at a time, cycling through a number of combinations.
Every time the current runs between two electrodes, a computer monitors and records the electrical
potential at all of the electrodes on the structure. This data is used to calculate the sensing skin's
spatially distributed electrical conductivity. If the skin's conductivity decreases, it means the structure is
damaged.
ABOUT SENSING SKIN TECHNOLOGY
The skin is an electrically conductive coat of paint that can be applied to new or existing structures. The
paint can incorporate any number of conductive materials. It will make the skin inexpensive. Electrodes
are applied around the perimeter of a structure.
WORLDS FIRST ELECTRIC PLANE E-FAN COMPLETED ITS FIRST FLIGHT
The Worlds first Electric plane named E-Fan on 9 May 2014 successfully completed its first flight. The
first flight was carried in Bordeaux, France.
E-Fan was manufactured by the Toulouse-based Airbus. It is a small experimental aircraft and is
powered by 120 lithium-ion polymer batteries and can fly with speed of 220kmph. The length of the EFan is little more than 19 metres and makes a noise lightly more than hairdryer and is co-friendly profile.
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An hour flight with the E-Fan will cost only 16 US dollar as compare to 55 US dollar for a flight in a petrol
powered plane of the same size. E-Fan will bring the cost of travel down by more than a third and
reduces the carbon emission. It is a step towards greener, quieter and cheaper.
SOME OF THE OBSTACLES OF E-FAN WHEN COMPARE TO LARGER AIRCRAFTS
Relatively low speed
Small size
Flight duration is restricted to a few hours
The manufacturers may further develop the technology to make larger aircrafts that would be powered
by a hybrid system.
THE MANUFACTURER PLANS FOR TWO VERSIONS OF THE E-FAN
Two-seater E-Fan 2.0 will be a fully electric training aircraft
Four-seater E-Fan 4.0 will be used for both training and general flight purposes and will be
powered by a hybrid system
SOLAR PLANE SOLAR IMPULSE 2 UNVEILED IN SWITZERLAND

The upgraded solar-powered plane Solar Impulse 2 was unveiled on 13 April 2014 at Payerne Air Force
Base of Switzerland. The solar plane will circumnavigate the world in March 2015. The solar plane can fly
around the world for five consecutive days without using any fuel.
Swiss pilots Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard have developed the solar powered aircraft. Solar
Impulse 2 is a bigger and better version of the single-seater prototype that first took flight five years
ago.
The entire airplane weight only 2.3 metric tons (2.54 tons). To maintain its weight budget, the materials
in the updated plane are lighter than before, and it has more efficient electric motors.
The upgraded aircraft has a wingspan that is 72 meters longer than a Boeing 747 commercial jet. The
wings are covered with 17000 solar cells that power the plane's various systems.
The maximum speed of aircraft is 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph).
The original plane demonstrated that a solar-powered plane can fly through the night, hop from Europe
to Africa and cross the width of the United States.
The plane have an autopilot function, a toilet, a comfortable business-class seat and enough space in the
ergonomic cockpit for the pilot to lie down and either exercise a little bit, or get some rest.
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The purpose of the round-the-world flight is to showcase cutting-edge renewable technologies

developed by some 80 companies involved in the project.
ABOUT SOLAR PLANE
First prototype Solar Plane named HB-SIA successfully completed its first flight on 7 April 2010. The
plane was entirely powered by the solar energy by charging its batteries. The flight was conducted for 87
minutes and it reached an altitude of 1200m. The plane successfully fled across Europe, Mediterranean
Sea and the United States.
The plane was developed at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Laussanne (EPFL)
NEW SOFTWARE APP SANDESH PATHAK DEVELOPED TO HELP FARMERS
A new software app Sandesh Pathak was developed to help the illiterate farmers. The app uses text-tospeech method to help the farmers.
This application has been jointly developed by C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram , C-DAC Mumbai, IIT
Kharagpur, IIT-Madras and IIIT Hyderabad.
FEATURES OF THIS APP
It takes the received SMS message as input

It then produce content of the SMS message in form of a speech as output
It supports five Indian languages Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarathi and Telugu with options to
select language
The TTS engines of all these languages have been tested on the agriculture domain-related texts
and fine-tuned accordingly
It provides options to choose speed of the voice as normal, slow, slower, fast and faster.
It can be downloaded from the Appstore of the Mobile Seva Project of government of India.
CONTENT OF SMS
advice about dealing with problems such as fertilizer, insect, weed and disease management
updates on latest technology
weather forecast information
However, the app has its own limitations. It is not equipped to read out bilingual messages.
In Phase two, following activities would be undertaken:
To develop bilingual app.

To include 13 languages such as Malayalam, Kannada, Rajasthani, Assamese etc.
To include 13 flavours of English (with regional accents).
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More institutes will be roped in IIT Guwahati, IIT Mandi, SSN College Chennai, DA-IICT
Ahmedabad, University of Guwahati and IISc, Bangalore.
The app is part of the project launched by the Union Government to help farmers read messages. This
new application will enable SMS messages to be read out loud thus facilitating their understanding.
The app was developed because farmers are not able to read the received advice in the form of SMS and
as a result they are unable to use the advice.
FOLDSCOPE: A LOW COST MICROSCOPE INVENTED
A team of Scientists led by Manu Prakash from Stanford University developed an amazingly cheap
microscope namely Foldscope (due to it folding design). The research was published in Stanford Daily,
US in the first week of April 2014.
COMPOSITION OF FOLDSCOPE
Foldscope is made up of paper and contains three parts as follows:
a slip of paper which acts as the slide on which the specimen is kept;
a slide for the ball-shaped lens;
a piece that contains an LED light. This light will help in illuminating the subject under
examination.
MECHANISM
The users need to place their eyebrow against the paper with their eye close to the lens to view
the sample similar to traditional microscope.
Thumbs of users will control Magnification and image panning. This process also includes sliding
to view different parts of the image.
To control magnification a simple flexing mechanism is used.
CONCERNS
Eye strain;
Ergonomics;
Examination of potentially infectious samples very near to the human body.
To address these concerns, Researchers are now working on development of different type of
microscopes. Future Foldscopes will be designed in such a way that each type of disease will have a
correlating microscope which will be used exclusively for particular disease. Foldscope will minimize
price and bypass the difficulty of optimization present in traditional multipurpose microscopes.
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NIST LAUNCHED WORLD'S MOST ACCURATE CLOCK, NIST-F2

The US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the first
week of April 2014 launched a new atomic clock, named as NIST-F2. The clock has been designed to
serve the new US civilian time and frequency, along with the current NIST-F1 standard.
NIST has claimed that the NIST-F2 would neither gain nor lose a second in about 300 million years as it is
three times as accurate as its predecessor NIST-F1. NIST-F1 has served as the standard, since 1999. Both
these clocks use a fountain of cesium atoms to determine the exact length of a second.
The scientists of NIST claimed that according to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
(BIPM) data (NIST-F2) is the worlds most accurate time standard. BIPM is located near Paris, France. To
produce the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the international standard time, the agency collates data
from atomic clocks.
In the present world many technologies like cellular telephones, Global Positioning System (GPS)
satellite receivers and the electric power grid rely on the high accuracy of atomic clocks.
UNION MINISTER OF RT & H INAUGURATED ELECTRIC PASSENGER BUS
Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways (RT&H) R. Ramalinga Reddy inaugurated an electric
passenger bus in Bangalore on 27 February 2014. This bus is a first of its kind in India and has zero
emission level.
It is an initiative of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Cooperation (BMTC) with the coordination of
Utopia. Initially for trial runs the bus will be used between Kempe Gowda and Kadugodi for 3 months.
Main Features of the Bus
Eco friendly with zero emission level.
It has capacity of 31 seats.
It has a range of 250 km.
Battery management designed to monitor the temperature and voltage of electric cells to
ensure safety.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS PRINTED EYE CELLS USING INKJET PRINTER

In a bid to cure blindness, Cambridge University scientists successfully printed new eye cells using inkjet
printing technology for the first time on 10 February 2014.
One of the main reasons behind many eye diseases is the loss of nerve cells in the retina which can
further lead to the blindness. The retina consists of the precise arrangement of cells for effective vision.
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Scientists found that Piezoelectric Inkjet Printer can print the cells derived from the central nervous
system and eyes.
This printer on receiving a specific electrical pulse ejected the cells from a sub millimeter diameter
nozzle. They also used a high definition video technology to record the printing process with high
resolution and optimized their procedures.
The results showed that printed cells remained healthy and retained their ability to survive and grow in
culture. But, these results are preliminary. It was also confirmed that this printer can print two types of
cells from the retina of adult rat- ganglion cells and glial cells. Ganglion cells transmit information from
the eye to specific regions of the brain whereas Glial cells provide support and protection of neurons.
For the first time, this technology has been used successfully to print mature central nervous system
cells. Scientists believe that this technique can produce artificial tissue grafts made from the variety of
cells found in the human retina. These tissue grafts can later be used in curing blindness.
NEW EYEWEAR SYSTEM DEVELOPED TO GIVE SUPERHUMAN
The US based company Innovega unveiled a new eyewear system, the iOptik, on 11 January 2014. The
eyewear system was showcased at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The new eyewear system combines high-tech contact lenses and Google Glass-like smart glasses to
provide the wearer with superhuman vision.
The iOptik system has been developed to take the concept of wearable technology to the next level. The
prototype features up to six times the number of pixels and 46 times the screen size of mobile products
that rely on conventional optics.
The contact lenses provide the wearer with enhanced focusing abilities. It also allows the wearer to see
objects and images that are very close up, as well as those that are some distance away, in great clarity.
The glasses unlike Google Glass cover the whole eye. They are integrated with flat-panels or microprojectors that create a 'virtual canvas', onto which digital media such as photos, maps and social
media updates can be projected. They can also play games and watch films that mimic IMAX
performance.
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ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE AND OCEAN DEVELOPMENT

CSIR AND IMD SIGNED AN AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP DRISHTI SYSTEM
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) signed a
partnership agreement on 22 May 2014 for joint production of Drishti system.
The agreement was signed by Dr Shyam Chetty, Director, CSIR-NAL and Dr LS Rathore, Director General
of Meteorology, IMD. The agreement encompassed a wide range of research & development activities
for further development of various meteorological sensors.
The agreement paves the way for operational deployment of Drishti system at different airports where
IMD provides aeronautical meteorological services. A mega project for installing nearly 70 such systems
at various Airports of the India is being jointly undertaken by the two organisations.
Seven Drishti systems are working in three international airports. Out of seven, one each has been
installed at Choudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, (for the last 3 years) and Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata (for the last 1 years). Five systems are working in
countrys most stringent CAT IIIB airport, viz., Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, for the last
two years.
This cost-effective product is a mandatory system required at all airports as per International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The system is extremely
robust with high mean time between failures.
ABOUT DRISHTI SYSTEM
Drishti system is a sophisticated instrument for assessment of Runway visual range, which is a critical
parameter for safe landing and takeoff of aircraft in poor visibility.
Drishti Transmissometer, a visibility measuring system is an innovative, indigenous product first of its
kind, designed and developed by CSIR-NAL to cover the wide span of lowest to highest visibility (< 25 to
> 2000 meters) aiding pilots for safe landing and take-off.
Web enabled health monitoring, remote control of the system from any location in the country for
accessing the data and for maintenance are the other important features of this state of the art system.
Servicing is made user friendly and cost-effective by modular electronics and virtual instrumentation
concepts in the design.
Drishti has also received several prestigious awards during 2013-14 from National Research
Development Corporation (NRDC), Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE),
India, and Indian Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) as the most innovative, meritorious
product of the year.
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TERI DEVELOPED CLOUD BASED OPEN-SOURCE WEB-GSI TOOL

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on 13 March 2014 developed its first ever cloud based opensource Web-GIS tool. The tool was developed to estimate the rooftop solar power potential for Indian
cities.
The development of Web-GIS tool project was supported by
Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF)

Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST)
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI)
Confederation of Industry (CII)
SOME FEATURES OF WEB-GIS TOOL
It will act as a Decision Support System (DSS) to carry out the pre-feasibility assement of putting
rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system for a particular location.
It will help users to estimate potential green-house gas (GHG) mitigation through solar rooftop
route for a given location.
The web-GIS tool first will be launched in Chandigarh and later in other cities. The government was
already providing subsidies to the private sector to produce renewable energy.
If seen in international trends perspective, than Germany is one of the countries of the world that
produces 25 percent of its energy in form of solar power. Apart from this, there are many other
countries who are also investing in renewable energy for the benefit of the environment. This practice
also helps in saving cost on production of energy.
ASI & GOOGLE JOINTLY LAUNCHED THE 360 DEGREE ONLINE VIEW OF INDIAN HERITAGE
SITES
Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) joined hands with the Google to launch the 360 degree online view of
the Indian heritage sites on 20 February 2014.
The aim is to create a dynamic, immersive online experience by which people within India and around
the world can understand and engage more of India's diverse cultural heritage.
Under the first part of the project, a total of 30 heritage sites from across the nation have been mapped
using the Street View Trekker of Google. Under the Street View Trekker a person gets a step by step
walk around virtual tour of the place.
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The Indian heritage sites that have been mapped include the likes of Taj Mahal, Raigad Fort, Nagarjuna
Konda Buddhist Stupas, Fatehpur Sikri, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Red Fort, Aga Khan Palace, Agra
Fort and more.
The 30 monuments will also be now available to viewers on GoogleMaps and on the World Wonders
site, part of Google Cultural Institute.
In October 2013, Google had announced its project to capture the panoramic image of 100 Indian
Heritage sites with Union Ministry of Culture and ASI. In pursuance of the signed agreement with ASI
and Union Culture Ministry, Google created a virtual walkthrough application using its Street View
Trekker technology for the first time in India.
ABOUT STREET VIEW TREKKER TECHNOLOGY
The Street View Trekker technology was introduced in 2012, which is a Street View camera platform,
with 15 cameras on board that capture a 360-degree view of the area around. It is mounted on a
wearable backpack and the total unit weighs around 20 kilograms. The operator walks through
pedestrian routes and is designed to reach places that can be accessed by foot.
EMAIL MILES, A SYSTEM USING GPS DEVELOPED TO TRACK THE EMAILS
A new system Email Miles using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to calculate the number of
miles an email has travelled before reaching an inbox was developed on 18 February 2014.
The system uses GPS technology and internet tracking to determine where a message was sent and
where it was received. It then calculates the total distance between the two and displays it on the
screen alongside a map.
The system was developed by Inventor Jonah Brucker-Cohen to show how indirect the route of many
emails can be.
Brucker-Cohen said the system does all of its time and distance calculations using the internet and a
coordinate mapping system. When all of the mileage amounts are tallied, it adds them all and provides
the user with a map, the countries and continents and miles the email travelled.
SCIENTIST DISCOVERED METHOD TO CURB GREENHOUSE GASES
Scientists discovered a new method to convert harmful greenhouse gases into chemicals which can
produce synthetic fuels on 2 February 2014.
A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has developed a highly selective catalyst capable of
electrochemically converting carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) to carbon monoxide with 92 percent
efficiency. The carbon monoxide then can be used to develop useful chemicals.
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It was found that when a nano-porous silver electrocatalyst was used, it was 3000 times more active
than polycrystalline silver, a catalyst commonly used in converting carbon dioxide to useful chemicals.
Silver is considered a promising material for a carbon dioxide reduction catalyst because of it offers high
selectivity approximately 81 percent and because it costs much less than other precious metal catalysts.
Additionally, because it is inorganic, silver remains more stable under harsh catalytic environments.
The exceptionally high activity is likely due to the UD-developed electrocatalysts extremely large and
highly curved internal surface, which is approximately 150 times larger and 20 times intrinsically more
active than polycrystalline silver.
The active sites on the curved internal surface required a much smaller than expected voltage to
overcome the activation energy barrier needed drive the reaction.
To validate whether their findings were unique, the researchers compared the UD-developed nanoporous silver catalyst with other potential carbon dioxide electrocatalysts including polycrystalline silver
and other silver nanostructures such as nanoparticles and nanowires.
The research teams work is supported through funding from the American Chemical Society Petroleum
Research Fund and University of Delaware Research Foundation.
SCIENTISTS DESIGNED MOCLIC SOFTWARE TO PREDICT WEATHER
Researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) designed the software
Monitoring Climate Change (Moclic) through which is possible to organise, store and operate georeferenced data from climate elements.
Moclic can calculate bio and agro climatic indicators such as humidity, aridity, rain erosion and rainfall
concentration.
Using the new software information regarding temperature can be known more accurately which feeds
on data from weather stations in any state or country.
Moclic project allows an agronomist to obtain annual rainfall records and relate them to the crops
production figures for explanation of a possible event.
It is also possible to identify desiccation processes in a region which comes useful while considering the
seeds that can resist droughts or the optimization of rainwater catching techniques, storage or types of
irrigation.
The software is very simple and can be used by decision making characters, as governors, breeders,
physicians, farmers, students or anyone whose repercussions could have economic politic or social
effects.
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HEALTH & MEDICAL SCIENCE

WHO DECLARED EBOLA AS GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY
The World Health Organization (WHO) on 6 August 2014 declared Ebola as Global Health Emergency.
The decision was taken after a two-day emergency session held in Geneva. During the two-day session,
WHO appealed for global aid to help afflicted countries.
Ebola has so far claimed at least 932 lives and infected more than 1700 people since outbreak of the
virus in Guinea in March 2014.
States of emergency has been declared across Ebola affected West African nations, including Libera,
Guinea and Sierra Leone.
ABOUT EBOLA DISEASE
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe human disease.

Ebola Virus was formerly known by the name Ebola haemorrhagic fever.
There are five distinct species of the Ebola virus: Bundibugyo, Cote dIvoire, Reston, Sudan and
Zaire.
Bundibugyo, Sudan and Zaire species have been associated with large outbreaks of Ebola
haemorrhagic fever (EHF) in Africa causing death in 25-90% of all clinically ill cases, while Cte
dIvoire and Reston have not.
EVD outbreak is generally witnessed in villages of Central and West Africa, near tropical
rainforests.
The virus spreads through contact with an infected animal mainly Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae
family.
Person suffering from Ebola Virus develops symptoms after two to three days of contracting
with virus. These symptoms can be fever, sore throat, headache, nausea, muscle pain. In worst
of cases, person may get affected with Diarrhoea along with poor functioning of liver and
kidneys.
Ebola-infected patients require thorough care. No specific treatment or medications are
available to cure such patients.
Ebola Virus was first witnessed in 1976 when it infected people of Nzara, Sudan, and Yambuku in
Democratic Republic of Congo. Yambuku is a village near the Ebola River. The disease Ebola
Virus took its name from that river.
Professor Peter Piot of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine discovered the Ebola virus
in 1976 from a blood sample of a dying Catholic nun in Congo.
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ITALIAN SCIENTISTS DESIGNED KIDNEY DIALYSIS MACHINE FOR NEWBORN BABIES

Italian scientists designed kidney dialysis machine for newborn babies. The study was published in the
medical journal The Lancet on 23 May 2014.
Prof Claudio Ronco, from the International Renal Research Institute at San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza,
designed and developed the new machine to treat babies and small infants weighing between 2kg and
10kg.
The machine is capable to safely treat a newborn baby with multiple organ failure. Existing dialysis
machines are only designed for adults and have to be adapted for use in newborns. Dialysis machines
for adults can cause complications when used in very young children.
The new continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) machine named CARPEDIEM (Cardio-Renal
Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine) was created to overcome the problems of existing dialysis
machines.
The new machine replaces the lost function of the kidney by removing excess fluid and urine from the
body through blood vessels.
It allows the use of a much smaller-sized catheter than normal which could prevent damage to blood
vessels in babies.
It is estimated that 18% of low-birth weight infants are affected by acute kidney injury and it is
increasingly common in children admitted to hospital with an incidence of almost 20% in children
admitted to intensive care.
REPORT ON HEALTH FOR THE WORLDS ADOLESCENTS RELEASED BY WHO
Report on Health for the worlds adolescents was released on 14 May 2014 by World Health
Organisation (WHO). The report revealed that depression is the predominant cause of illness and
disability for both boys and girls aged 10 to 19 years.
According to the Report, the top 3 causes of adolescent deaths globally are road traffic injuries,
HIV/AIDS, and suicide. Worldwide, an estimated 1.3 million adolescents died in 2012.
MAIN HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT
Road traffic injuries top cause of death: Road traffic injuries are the number 1 cause of adolescent
deaths globally, and the number 2 cause of illness and disability. Boys are disproportionately affected,
with more than three times the rate of deaths than that of girls.
Increasing access to reliable and safe public transport can reduce road traffic injuries among
adolescents. Road safety regulations (e.g. alcohol and speed limits), establishing safe pedestrian areas
around schools, and graduated licensing schemes where drivers privileges are phased in over time, can
all reduce risks.
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Mental health problems take a big toll: Globally, depression is the number 1 cause of illness and
disability in this age group, and suicide ranks number 3 among causes of death. Some studies show that
half of all people who develop mental disorders have their first symptoms by the age of 14.
Adolescents with mental health problems need to be given the care they need. This can prevent deaths
and avoid suffering throughout life.
Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths have fallen: Deaths due to complications of pregnancy and
childbirth among adolescents have dropped significantly since 2000, particularly in regions where
maternal mortality rates are highest. WHOs South-East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean and African
Regions have seen estimated declines of 57%, 50% and 37%, respectively. Despite these improvements,
maternal mortality still ranks second among causes of death among 15 to 19-year-old girls globally,
exceeded only by suicide.
Deaths due to HIV rising: Estimates suggest that the number of HIV-related deaths among adolescents
is rising. The increase is predominantly in the African Region, at a time when HIV-related deaths are
decreasing in all other population groups. HIV now ranks as the second cause of deaths in adolescents
globally.
Some other infectious diseases still major causes of death: Due to childhood vaccination, adolescent
deaths and disability from measles have fallen markedly, by 90% in the African Region between 2000
and 2012. However, common infectious diseases that have been a focus for action in young children are
still killing adolescents
New data on adolescent health behaviours: The survey had showed that less than 1 in every 4
adolescents does enough exercise and in some countries as many as 1 in 3 is obese. But some trends in
adolescent health-related behaviours are improving. For example, rates of cigarette smoking are
decreasing among younger adolescents in most high-income countries and in some middle- and lowincome countries as well.
Critical period for preventing chronic disease: Adolescence is an important time for laying the
foundations of good health in adulthood. Many health-related behaviours and conditions that underlie
the major non-communicable diseases start during this period of life.
UNIQUE ENZYME SOD DISCOVERED BY CSIR TO INCREASE SHELF LIFE OF FRUITS AND
VEGETABLES
A Unique enzyme Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) was discovered by Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR). The enzyme will help increase shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
The enzyme was discovered by CSIR-IHBT during a survey at an altitude of over 10000 feet in the
Western Himalayan region from Potentilaastrosangunia plant growing under snow cover.
The characteristic features of this SOD lies in its stability and functionality ranging from sub-zero to high
temperature (above 40C) with varying specific activity.
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The CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur signed a Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with its industry partner Phyto Biotech, Kolkata. The MoU was signed to
formalize technology transfer for production of unique enzyme.
This unique enzyme will also be useful during cryosurgery and preservation of organelles (specialized
sub-unit within cell that has a specific function). The cryosurgery is an application of extreme cold to
destroy diseased tissue.
Owing to its high antioxidant properties and multiple uses, the SOD enjoys high demand and price in the
global market.
3D MODEL OF MALARIA PARASITE GENOME CREATED FOR THE FIRST TIME
Scientists from University of California, Riverside created a 3D model of the human malaria parasite
genome for the first time. The 3D model was created at three different stages in the life cycle of
parasite. The creation of 3D model will help in identifying new anti-malaria drugs.
The study was published in the journal Genome Research on 16 April 2014.
WHY THE NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT OF 3D MODEL
To understand the biology of an organism or any cell type, Scientist needs to understand the following
The information encoded in the genome sequence;

How the genome sequence is compacted and physically organised in each cell or tissue;
How the changes in the 3D genome architecture can play a critical role in regulating gene
expression, chromosome morphogenesis and genome stability.
Thus, the Scientists at California University used a chromosome conformation capture method and high
throughput sequencing to analyse the organisation of the genome of p.falciparum in the natural state of
the cell. Scientists then used the maps of all physical interactions to generate a 3D model of the genome
for each stage of the parasite life cycle.
Once the scientists understand how the malaria parasite genome is organised in the nucleus and which
components control this organisation. Then it is possible to disrupt the genome architecture and the
parasite development too. Hence, genome architecture is critical in regulating gene expression and in
regulating genes that are critical for parasite virulence.
THE FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
The team found the genes that are need to be highly expressed in the malaria parasite. Those
genes are involved in translation and genes tend to cluster in the same area of the cell nucleus.
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On the other hand genes need to be tightly repressed, like genes involved in virulence are found
elsewhere in the 3D structure in a repression center. Virulence genes in the malaria parasite are
responsible for the survival of Parasite in the humans.
Team found these genes are all organised into one repression center in a distinct area in the
nucleus and seem to drive the full genome organisation of the parasite. The team successfully
mapped all physical interactions between genetic elements in the parasite nucleus.
AMBAR SRIVASTAVA
HAEMOGLOBIN
OF
IIT-DELHI
DEVELOPED
TRUEHB
HEMOMETER
TO
TEST
Ambar Srivastava of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi on 29 March 2014 developed
the TrueHb Hemometer to test haemoglobin. The device of the size of a mobile phone is the first case of
an innovation from biomedical engineering department of IIT-Delhi actually getting productized.
The device has been validated by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for its efficacy. It will
help identify and tackle anaemia effectively in India which has a very high prevalence of anaemia and
the related maternal deaths from it.
Srivastava has established a company named Wrig Nanosystems Pvt Ltd to produce and commercialise
TrueHb Hemometers.
The device was developed with funding from the Technology Development Board of the Department of
Science and Technology at IIT's Centre for Biomedical Engineering. The Centre for Biomedical
Engineerign was established in 1971 as a joint venture between IIT and AIIMS to develop healthcare
technologies.
ADVANTAGES OF TRUEHB HEMOMETER OVER OTHER DEVICES
The price of TrueHb meter is expected to be lower at 25000 rupees compared to the CBC
counter which at present is the gold standard for haemogram tests in labs. It costs around 2 - 10
lakh rupees.
It can be charged like a mobile phone and allows up to 300 tests per charge when compared to
CBC counter that require continous power supply.
In terms of size also, it is better than CBC counter which is at least twice the size of a personal
computer compared to mobile phone-size of TrueHb meter.
It is also ultraportable as it weighs under 800gm and has a sleek optoelectronics design.
It is also better than the paper-based colour cards that use a colour scale to provide a rough
estimate of haemoglobin values. Such cards give a range and not an exact value of the
haemoglobin level.
TrueHb works like a conventional glucometer and works with just a tiny drop of blood from a
pinprick on the disposable strip. It not only reads the accurate level within 45 seconds, but also
stores up to 1000 such readings.
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WHO CERTIFIED INDIA AS POLIO FREE COUNTRY

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on 27 March 2014 certified India as a Polio Free country. The
declaration came along with WHO declaring South-East Asia region comprising of 11 countries also as
polio free.
The decision of certifying all the 11 countries of South-East Asian Region including India as polio-free
was taken by an independent panel of the South-East Asia Regional Certification Commission for Polio
Eradication (SEA-RCCPE).
The achievement has also made the South-East Asian Region, fourth WHO Region for being certified as
polio-free. The WHO South East Asia Region has 11 Member States namely Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand
and Timor-Leste.
Last time in 2002, the European Region was certified as the third WHO Region to be certified as poliofree. Other regions to be certified as the WHO Polio Free Region are:
Region of the Americas certified as WHO Region in 1994

Western Pacific Region certified as WHO Region in 2000
With, this certification to the South-East Asian Region, now about 80 percent of worlds population lives
in the polio-free certified regions.
POLIO-FREE WORLD BY 2018
The certification came for the region came at time when countries are preparing to introduce Inactivate
Polio Vaccine (IPV) as a replacement of the Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV). The IPV dose would be
implemented in these countries by the end of 2015 as a part of their commitment to the Global Polio
Endgame Plan. The plan has been introduced with an aim to ensure a polio-free world by 2018. At
present, the IPV dose is provided in more than 120 countries of the world.
STEPS TAKEN BY INDIA TO FIGHT THE POLIO DISEASE
For the first time, India introduced the oral polio vaccine in 1985 under the Universal
Immunisation Programme. The programme was started in the backdrop of over 200000 cases of
polio annually (as per estimates of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics).
Indias first national polio immunization campaign to stop polio was launched in 1995 (19 years
ago) after finding that the disease is crippling about 50000 children every year.
The last case of polio in India was reported on 13 January 2011 from Howrah district of West
Bengal. Till 2009 India was a country that reported about half of global polio cases.
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ABOUT POLIOMYELITIS (POLIO)
Poliovirus is a highly infectious viral disease that is transmitted mainly from person-to-person
through the fecal-oral route and on average, depending on the serotype (poliovirus type 1, 2 or
3). A single case of paralytic polio represents 200 to 1000 silent infections surrounding the case.
Polio is a disease that can be prevented only through immunization but there is no cure for it.
Polio (poliomyelitis) is a disease that mainly affects children under age group of 5 years
One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5 percent to 10
percent, die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
Polio cases have decreased by over 99 percent since 1988, from an estimated 350000 cases
then, to 406 reported cases in 2013. The reduction is the result of the global effort to eradicate
the disease.
At present, the disease remains endemic mainly in three countries namely Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Nigeria. In 1988, 125 countries were listed under this category.
FACTS ABOUT POLIO CERTIFICATION

The fourty-first World Health Assembly in 1988 adopted a resolution for the worldwide eradication of
polio. The polio-free certification for any nation requires that it has not registered case of wild polio for
continuous three years in presence of high quality surveillance. This process for certification was
established in 1995 during the first meet of the Global Certification Commission (GCC).
AN ARTIFICIAL HEART THAT BEATS IN ANIMALS DEVELOPED
An artificial heart that beats in animals was developed by the scientists at Harvard Medical School led
by Ali Khademhosseini. The development could help in repairing damaged hearts enabling millions of
people around the world live longer, healthier lives.
Scientist presented the development at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American
Chemical Society (ACS) held on 19 March 2014. ACS is the largest scientific society of world.
HOW THE ARTIFICIAL HEART WAS DEVELOPED
Scientists in order to develop the artificial heart similar to natural heart developed a new family of
hydrogel using a stretchy human protein called tropoelastin.
The hydrogel are natural protein which are soft and contain a lot of water like human tissues. Also
hydrogel can be tuned to attain chemical, biological, mechanical and electrical properties which are
essential for regeneration of any human tissue. However, existent hydrogel did not have the needed
elasticity as the natural human heart have.
In order to overcome this, scientists uses a stretchy human protein called tropoelastin to give the newly
developed hydrogel the much needed resilience and strength that is important in keeping intact the
elasticity of the natural heart.
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Upon the newly developed hydrogel, scientists then developed the artificial cells. To make sure the cells
form the right structure scientists used 3-D printing and micro engineering techniques to create patterns
in the gels. These patterns coax the cells to grow the way the researchers want them to.
These newly developed hydrogel is micro patterned and elastic and can be further used as cardiac
patches. This elastic natural hydrogel can be used for the regeneration of other tissues such as blood
vessels, skeletal muscle, heart valves and vascularized skin.
Currently, the best treatment option for patients with major heart damage is an organ transplant.
NEW MOLECULE HSP90 WITH POTENTIAL TO KILL MALARIA PARASITE DISCOVERED
A new molecule Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) with potential to kill malaria parasite was discovered in
the second week of March 2014. The new discovery could help in effective treatment of malaria. The
discovery was made by the researchers from the University of Geneva led by Didier Picard.
PROCESS
Team goal was to determine if there was a difference between the human form and the parasitic form
of HSP90 and can be used for curative purposes.
Team used sophisticated computerized model tools to characterize the various tridimensional
conformations of the parasites HSP90. They found another pocket capable of binding inhibitory
substances, completely absent in its human alter ego.
Team used supercomputer to perform the screening of virtual library which contains more than a million
chemical compounds and selected the five candidates which fit in the pocket of binding inhibitory
substances. Virtual screening uses computer-based methods to discover new ligands (ions) on the basis
of biological structures.
The simulations were conducted to analyse the dynamics of interaction between the HSP90 and the
candidate. This led to the discovery of inhibitors which interact specifically with the Plasmodium
falciparum chaperone.
Later the molecules were tested in vitro in different systems. The biologists demonstrated in particular
the toxicity of those inhibitors on Plasmodium falciparum cultures, in sufficient doses to kill the parasites
without affecting the infected red blood cells.
ABOUT HSP90
The Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) plays a central role for several factors involved in the life cycle,
survival and resistance of the pathogen. HSP90 acts as a chaperone which helps other proteins during
both normal and stressful periods.
During high fever HSP90 protects parasitic proteins in the plasmodium. HSP90 also participates in the
maturation of the pathogen in human red blood cells.
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ABOUT MALARIA
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite and transmitted by a mosquito. The two parasite species
Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax cause malaria in humans.
The parasite multiplies inside red blood cells and liver cells and causes, fever, chills, anemia, vomiting
and convulsions. The disease can lead to kidney failure, permanent neurological damage, coma and
death.
The most severe form of malaria is caused by infection with Plasmodium falciparum and eradication of
this parasite is even more difficult as it becomes resistant to treatments.
NEW CLASS OF ANTIBIOTICS OXADIAZOLES DISCOVERED
Scientists discovered a new class of antibiotics called oxadiazoles on 9 March 2014. Oxadiazoles can
treat antibiotic resistant infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.
A group of researchers at the University of Notre Dame discovered the new class. The team was led by
Mayland Chang and Shahriar Mobashery.
MRSA is a bacterium that developed resistance to penicillin and certain other groups of antibiotics.
Scientists had screened 1.2 million compounds. They had found that the oxadiazole inhibits a penicillinbinding protein, PBP2a, and the biosynthesis of the cell wall that enables MRSA to resist other drugs.
The oxadiazoles are also effective when taken orally. This is an important feature as there is only one
marketed antibiotic for MRSA that can be taken orally.
MRSA has become a global public-health problem since the 1960s because of its resistance to
antibiotics. Only three drugs currently are effective treatments, and resistance to each of those drugs
already exists. The researchers have been seeking a solution to MRSA for years.
RESEARCHERS AT CAPRISA DISCOVERED POTENT ANTIBODIES TO NEUTRALIZE HIV
Researchers at Center for the AIDS Program of Research (CAPRISA) discovered potent antibodies which
can neutralize and kill multiple strains of HIV. The study was published in the scientific journal, Nature
on 3 March 2014.
Researchers studied how a South African womans body referred to as CAPRISA 256 (abbreviated to
CAP256) responded to her HIV infection by making potent antibodies. These potent antibodies are also
called as neutralizing antibodies because of their ability to kill multiple strains of antibodies.
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How the potent antibodies were developed

The potent antibodies were made by the researchers by first identifying the antibodies present in the
blood of the CAP256 and then duplicating these antibodies by cloning it in the lab. The cloned antibodies
were then used to elucidate the pathway followed by the immune system to make these potent
antibodies.
Findings of the Research
In their earlier research in 2013, researchers at CAPRISA discovered that a shift in the position of one
sugar molecule on the surface of the HIV virus led to the development of broadly neutralising antibodies
against HIV.
However, in the research conducted on CAP256, the researchers were also able to isolate a broadly
neutralizing antibody and trace its origins to understand exactly how it rose. This could lead to new HIV
vaccine strategies that are able to stimulate the rare precursors of these protective antibodies.
The study conducted on CAP256 also showed that broadly neutralising antibodies have some unusual
features. These antibodies generally have long arms which enabled them to reach through the sugar
coat that protects HIV. Moreover these antibodies had long arms right at the outset requiring less time
and fewer changes to become effective in killing HIV.
All HIV infected people respond to HIV by making antibodies. In most patients, these antibodies are not
able to kill a wide range of HIV which is described as a lack of neutralization breadth. However, in a few
infected people, they naturally make antibodies that neutralize many different kinds of HIV, with their
broadly neutralizing antibodies.
South African Department of Health (SADH) has more interest in this development than anyone else in
the world since South Africa has the largest burden (30 percent) HIV infection globally.
About the CAPRISA consortium
The Research team was led by Professor Lynn Morris of National Institute for Communicable Diseases
(NICD). The CAPRISA consortium included scientists from the National Institute for Communicable
Diseases in Johannesburg, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Cape Town, Vaccine
Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US and Columbia University
in New York.
Funding for the research
The research was primarily funded by the US National Institutes of Healths Vaccine Research Center and
the South African Department of Science and Technology. The South African researchers also have
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fellowships from the Wellcome Trust, the Fogarty International Center, the National Research
Foundation and the Poliomyelitis Research Foundation.
INDIAN- AMERICAN SCIENTIST SANGEETA BHATIA DEVELOPED A CHEAP PAPER TEST TO
DIAGNOSE CANCER
An Indian-American scientist Sangeeta Bhatia developed a cheap, simple, paper test that can detect
cancer on 24 February 2014. Sangeeta Bhatia is professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The research ended the need for expensive tests such as mammograms and colonoscopy. The diagnostic
is based on urine sample. It could reveal within minutes whether a person has cancer or not.
The paper test relies on nanoparticles that interact with tumor proteins called proteases, each of which
can trigger release of hundreds of biomarkers that are then easily detectable in a patient's urine.
The concept of a synthetic biomarker technology to amplify signals from tumor proteins would be hard
to detect on their own. These proteins, known as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), help cancer cells
escape their original locations by cutting through proteins of the extracellular matrix, which normally
holds cells in place.
The MIT nanoparticles are coated with peptides (short protein fragments) targeted by different MMPs.
These particles congregate at tumor sites, where MMPs cleave hundreds of peptides, which accumulate
in the kidneys and are excreted in the urine.
In the original version of the technology, these peptides were detected using an instrument called a
mass spectrometer, which analyzes the molecular makeup of a sample.
To create the test strips, the researchers first coated nitrocellulose paper with antibodies that can
capture the peptides. Once the peptides are captured, they flow along the strip and are exposed to
several invisible test lines made of other antibodies specific to different tags attached to the peptides.
If one of these lines becomes visible, it means the target peptide is present in the sample. The
technology can also easily be modified to detect multiple types of peptides released by different types
or stages of disease.
NRI DR. HEMANT THATTE DEVELOPED SOMAH SOLUTION TO PRESERVE ORGANS
NRI Dr. Hemant Thatte developed a 21-chemical solution named SOMAH Solution on 20 February 2014.
The solution could preserve a donated organ for up to a week before a transplant. SOMAH Solution in
Sanskrit means elixir of immortality.
In studies conducted on pigs, the solution has been found to be effective in preserving tissues for up to a
week. The study on pigs showed that the hearts stored in SOMAH solution for 24 hours can be
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resuscitated without medicines as against other solutions that allow for only four hours. That is, with the
help of SOMAH, the process of deterioration can be slowed down. So, it can be used for long distance
transportation.
The biggest advantage of SOMAH is that it can be used at room temperatures. If an organ can be
maintained in the same energy status it was used to before being retrieved, the organ is in a better state
when transplanted. It can get into rhythm sooner.
At present, hearts and lungs need to be transplanted within 4-6 hours of being recovered from a braindead donor, the liver within eight hours and kidneys within a little more than 24 hours. Moreover, the
available organs cannot be transported long-distance for transplant and have to be made available
locally.
Dr. Hemant Thatte is a senior cardiovascular surgeon at Harvard University who was born in Dadar and
raised in Pune. Dr Thatte has worked in Harvard for more than two decades. Over a decade ago, he
synthesized a solution called GALA that could preserve blood vessels used as bypass channels during
heart surgeries. GALA is in use across the US and France.
NEW LAYER OF CORNEA DISCOVERED BY INDIAN DOCTOR HARMINDER DUA
A new layer in the human cornea was discovered by the Indian doctor Harminder Dua at The University
of Nottingham in 2014. It plays a vital role in the structure of the tissue that controls the flow of fluid
from the eye.
The research was published in a paper in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
The new finding could shed new light on glaucoma. The new layer named as Duas Layer is just 15
microns thick but incredibly tough. Comprised of thin plates of collagen, it sits at the back of the cornea
between the corneal stroma and Descemet's membrane.
It makes an important contribution to the sieve-like meshwork, the trabecular meshwork (TM), in the
periphery of the cornea.
The TM is a wedge-shaped band of tissue that extends along the circumference of the angle of the
anterior chamber of the eye.
It is made of beams of collagen wrapped in a basement membrane to which trabecular cells and
endothelial cells attach. The beams branch out randomly to form a 'meshwork'.
Scientists had previously believed the cornea to be comprised of five layers - from front to back the
corneal epithelium, Bowman's layer, the corneal stroma, Descemet's membrane and the corneal
endothelium.
Pressure within the eye is maintained by the balance of aqueous fluid production by eye tissue called
the ciliary body and drainage principally through the TM to the canal of Schlemm, a circular channel in
the angle of the eye.
Defective drainage through the TM is an important cause of glaucoma, a condition that leads to raised
pressure in the eye that can permanently affect sight. Around 1 to 2% of the world's population yearly
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has chronic glaucoma and globally around 45 million people have open angle glaucoma which can
permanently damage the optic nerve - 10% of whom are blind.
It is hoped the discovery will offer new clues on why the drainage system malfunctions in the eyes of
some people, leading to high pressure.
Glaucoma is a devastating disease caused by defective drainage of fluid from the eye. Glaucoma is the
second largest leading cause of blindness of world.
UNION GOVERNMENT LAUNCHED HIV SALVAGE THERAPY
Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched third-line drug therapy for people living with
HIV/AIDS on 12 February 2014. The third-line therapy also called salvage or rescue therapy is prescribed
for people who have limited drug options left.
The announcement for the salvage therapy was made by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at
the launch of at the launch of the National AIDS Control Programme Phase IV (2012-2017).
The highly expensive therapy will be provided free. The third-line therapy would enhance longevity and
improve the quality of life of patients.
The Union Health Ministry also extended free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to more of them by revising
the eligibility norm.
For receiving free ART, the minimum CD4-count limit had been reduced from 500 to 350. The count is a
measure of the viral load.
ANTI RETROVIRAL THERAPY
Anti Retroviral therapy (ART) consists of the combination of at least three antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to
maximally suppress the HIV virus and stop the progression of HIV disease.
Huge reductions have been seen in rates of death and suffering when use is made of a potent ARV
regimen, particularly in early stages of the disease.
Furthermore, expanded access to ART can also reduce the HIV transmission at population level, impact
orphanhood and preserve families.
UNION GOVERNMENT BANNED COSMETIC COMPANIES FROM TESTING ON ANIMALS
Union Government banned cosmetic companies from testing on animals. The notification prohibiting
testing of cosmetics on animals was issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 27
January 2014.
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The rules prohibiting testing of cosmetics on animals will become effective within 45 days of it being
made public. The ban implies that no cosmetic which has been tested on animals in the country will be
allowed to be sold.
With this India became the first country in South Asia to ban the testing of cosmetics and its ingredients
on animals.
To give effect to the notification, the amendment was made in the Drug and Cosmetics Act, 1945. The
amendment provides that any cosmetic product which carries out animal testing will face action as per
provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Animal Cruelty Act.
The Union Ministry of Health decided to amend the rules after issues were raised by certain
organizations and Members of Parliament, and to follow standards in line with the European Union (EU).
EU in 2013 implemented the final phase of the EU law which made the testing of cosmetics on animals
completely illegal.
However, the ban will not prevent companies from importing and selling animal-tested cosmetics in the
country. Companies are still free to outsource their animal testing to other countries and then import
newly animal-tested cosmetics and ingredients back into India.
To prevent this, India must also ban the import and sale of cosmetic products and ingredients that have
been newly animal-tested anywhere in the world.
Israel and the 27 countries that make up the European Union have implemented both testing and sales
bans to bring an end to cosmetics animal suffering in their respective jurisdictions.
SMART CONTACT LENS UNVEILED BY GOOGLE TO MEASURE GLUCOSE LEVELS IN TEARS
Google X Lab unveiled a smart contact lens that can help diabetics to measure their glucose level in tears
on 17 January 2014. The smart contact lens has been developed in collaboration with the US Food and
Drug Administration (USFDA) by Brian Otis and Babak Parviz.
The contact lens uses a tiny wireless chip and a minituarized glucose sensor. Besides it uses an antenna,
thinner than a human hair, to measure tear glucose with better accuracy. The lens also uses tiny LED
lights to warn users when their glucose levels cross certain thresholds.
The company is currently testing prototypes of contact lens that can take about one reading per second.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes affects 347 million people worldwide. In
2004 alone, 3.4 million people died as a result of high fasting blood sugar.
The International Diabetes Federation data shows that one in ten people across the world's population
are forecast to have diabetes by 2035.
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UNION GOVERNMENT ALLOWED IMPORTS OF FROZEN HUMAN EMBRYOS TO BOOST

INFERTILITY TREATMENT
Union Government allowed the import of frozen human embryos for artificial reproduction on 15
January 2014. The decision allowed foreign couples to bring in frozen human embryos and rent a
surrogate womb in India for the baby to be born.
The relaxed rules will also apply to other infertility related treatment such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
On the one hand, the decision will give boost to the infertility treatment and on the other it will open a
huge segment of the medical tourism market.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will give a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to ensure the
quality control of imports. There is no restriction on implantation of imported frozen embryo in a
surrogate either but the conditions for granting of NOC are stringent.
The documents required for an NOC include a certification of registration of the ART clinic. The ART
Clinic will recommend the transfer of embryos or gametes and clinic in India with name and address of
its in-charge where the treatment will happen.
The foreign clinic has to certify the woman that she cannot conceive or that such conception may lead
to undesirable medical implications. There should be certification that at least one of the gametes was
from the infertile couple.
The ART clinic has to certify that foreign clinic details of the couple like from which country, name and
address of the couple. The foreigns counterpart has to certify that the embryo was generated in their
clinic and there was no sex selection. The couple has to furnish identification documents and proof of
marriage.
INDIGENOUS GLUCOSE MONITORING DEVICE LAUNCHED BY UNION GOVERNMENT
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched two indigenous Glucose Monitoring Device,
Suchek and QuickcheQ, on 13 January 2014. The launching of two kinds of glucometers and testing
strips will make mass screening and detection feasible.
Suchek is designed and developed by Nanobios Lab, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.
Suchek is very useful for health camps as it has a mobile application, which helps save, trend and analyse
blood glucose levels at an individual level.
QuickcheQ is designed and developed by the Birla Institute of Technology, Hyderabad with funding from
the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR).
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These will be manufactured by Biosense Technologies and will be available in the open market in the
next six months.
Among the non-communicable diseases, diabetes is rapidly rising all over the world. Globally, it is
estimated that 382 million people living with diabetes. India alone is reported to have more than 65
million cases of diabetes, the second largest number after China.
Under the national programme on prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases
and stroke, more than 53 million people have been screened for diabetes and more than 50 million for
hypertension.
ABOUT DIABETES
Diabetes, diabetes mellitus, describes a group of metabolic diseases in which the person has high blood
glucose (blood sugar), either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body's cells do
not respond properly to insulin, or both.
Patients with high blood sugar will typically experience polyuria (frequent urination), they will become
increasingly polydipsia(frequent thirst) and polyphagia( frequent hunger).
THREE TYPES OF DIABETES
TYPE 1 DIABETES
The body does not produce insulin. People usually develop type 1 diabetes before their 40th year, often
in early adulthood or teenage years.
Patients with type 1 diabetes will need to take insulin injections for the rest of their life. They must also
ensure proper blood-glucose levels by carrying out regular blood tests and following a special diet.
Approximately 10% of all diabetes cases are type 1.
TYPE 2 DIABETES
The body does not produce enough insulin for proper function, or the cells in the body do not react to
insulin (insulin resistance).
Some people may be able to control their type 2 diabetes symptoms by losing weight, following a
healthy diet, doing plenty of exercise, and monitoring their blood glucose levels.
Approximately 90% of all cases of diabetes worldwide are of this type.
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GESTATIONAL DIABETES
This type affects females during pregnancy. Some women have very high levels of glucose in their blood,
and their bodies are unable to produce enough insulin to transport all of the glucose into their cells,
resulting in progressively rising levels of glucose.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CERT-IN DETECTED SMARTPHONE VIRUS DENDROID
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on 26 March 2014 detected a Smartphone
Virus called Dendroid. It directed the users of Android smartphone to be beware of Dendroid as it can
compromise the data stored on the users phone.
Virus once activated could change the command and control server of a user's personal Android phone
and intercept private SMSes coming in or going out.
Dendroid is the virus of the deadly Trojan family. It is being used to create trojanised applications that
infect Android-based smartphones. Dendroid is a HTTP RAT having a sophisticated PHP administration
panel and an application APK binder package.
To tackle the virus dendroid CERT-In has issued some guidelines for the users. These are:
Do not download and install applications from untrusted sources, install applications
downloaded from reputed application market only.
Check for the permissions required by an application before installing. Run a full system scan on
device with mobile security solution or mobile antivirus solution
Users are advised to use device encryption or encrypting external SD card feature available with
most of the Android OS.
Users are also advised to keep an eye on data usage (application-wise usage also) and unusual
increase in mobile bills and keep an eye on device battery usage (application-wise usage also).
Avoid using unsecured and unknown Wi-Fi networks. There may be rogue Wi-Fi access points at
public places used for distributing malicious applications and make a practice of taking regular
backup of Android device.
ABOUT CERT-IN
The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of
the Indian Internet domain.ol health scheme of the government, and all point of care use, including for
use at home.
HEARTBLEED: A NEW SECURITY THREAT
Heartbleed is a new security threat which adversely impacts the online safety of internet users
worldwide. This threat can result into compromising of confidential information. This problem is limited
to OpenSSL, a variant of SSL/TLS, but OpenSSL software is used by a large no. of websites.
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This threat is believed to be a result of a programming error in OpenSSL software by Robin Seggelmann
a German Software developer. About two years ago, he submitted new features of OpenSSL while
working on its update. In one of the features, he forgot to validate a variable containing length and so
did his coworkers. This essentially means that an opening is created in SSL/TLS, an encryption
technology marked by the small, closed padlock and https: on Web browsers to show that traffic is
secure. Another worry of the security experts is that this error had been unnoticed since past two years.
IMPACT
This error makes it possible to snoop on Internet traffic even if the padlock is closed.
Secured keys which are used for deciphering the confidential data can be accessed without the
knowledge of owners.
This can result into of compromising of emails, commerce applications and instant messages
and other encrypted information.
Anonymous persons can snoop information from computer server and steal information.
REMEDIAL MEASURES
Though a new fixed version of OpenSSL has been released but now the individual website administrators
are required to use this version and make required changes. On an individual level, one needs to change
passwords, but the websites which are being used needs to implement the newer fixed version.
5 TOOLS WHICH CAN HELP IN SECURING ONLINE DATA
Tor Browser: It encrypts total network traffic of your computer and help in browsing online
anonymously.
B1 Archiver: It helps in archiving and making the data password protected. Thus, it facilitates in
sending confidential information in a routine manner.
OpenPuff: This tool uses steganography to merge your data in a multimedia files. The receiver
needs to use file password (shared by the sender) to read the file.
CryptoCat: This tool is helpful in securing online chatting.
TrueCrypt: This tool helps in creating hidden volumes and encrypting hard drives.
Instagram, Tumblr, Google, Yahoo, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Amazon web services and GoDaddy were some of
the major service providers.
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SOUTH CENTRAL RAILWAY LAUNCHED HYLITES

The South Central Railway (SCR) launched Hyderabad Live Train Enquiry System (HYLITES) on 10
February 2014. It is the first of its kind in India developed by South Central Railway on out-sourcing
basis.
ABOUT HYLITES
HYLITES is a GPS (Global Positioning System) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) based
smart phone application that operates on android platform
HYLITES will display real time information of the live status information like arrival, departure,
platform numbers etc from Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kachiguda stations
It also gives information about all running MMTS (Multi-Modal Transport System) and local
trains
TALKING CARS UNVEILED: USA MAY SOON MADE IT MANDATORY BY 2017

USA may soon allow the talking cars to be mandatory by 2017. The announcement was made on 4
February 2014 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the US.
Talking cars is the communication technology which enables cars to send out location, speed and
direction data 10 times a second.
The new vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology cars will be able to communicate with each
other. This will help towards preventing tens of thousands of crashes every year.
Approval follows a test project that begun in 2012 in which vehicles equipped with wireless devices
were used to warn drivers about specific hazards such as an impending collision at a blind intersection,
or a vehicle stopped ahead.
Cars will also be able to communicate with infrastructure like stop signs and traffic lights, and with
motorcyclists, bicyclists and even pedestrians with specially equipped smart phones. That data will
enable the cars to warn drivers to slow down, brake, turn on their windshield wipers or not to change
lanes.
The technology can help avert rear-end, lane change, and intersection crashes. But the systems do not
include automatic braking or steering.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and safety advocates have pushed to make cars
safer so passengers would be more likely to survive crashes.
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Automakers seem largely on board with the technology, which would add about $100 to $300 to the
cost of a car.
The full transition from current vehicle fleet to a connected fleet will take at least 10 years.
UNION MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAUNCHED
NATIONAL CLOUD
Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology launched the National Cloud under
MeghRaj Initiative on 4 February 2014. The National Cloud is being implemented by National
Information Centre (NIC).
The National Cloud will help the departments to procure ICT services on demand in the OPEX model
rather than investing upfront on the CAPEX.
The Cloud Services available are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software
as a Service (SaaS) and Storage as a Service (STaaS).
The features of the National Cloud includes self service portal, multiple Cloud solutions, secured VPN
access and multi location Cloud.
ABOUT MEGHRAJ
Government of India embarked upon an ambitious initiative GI cloud named MeghRaj to utilize and
harness the benefits of Cloud Computing.
The focus of GI cloud is to accelerate delivery of e-services while optimizing ICT spending of the
Government. It will ensure optimum utilization of the infrastructure and speed up the development and
deployment of e Gov applications.
The architectural vision of GI Cloud encompasses a set of discrete cloud computing environments spread
across multiple locations, built on existing or new (augmented) infrastructure, following a set of
common protocols, guidelines and standards issued by the Government of India.
GI Cloud Strategic Direction Paper and GI Cloud Adoption and Implementation Roadmap are two policy
reports prepared by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).
ABOUT CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than having
local servers or personal devices to handle applications.
In cloud computing, users access software applications remotely through the Internet or other network
via a cloud application service provider.
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DEXTER, PRIVATE INFORMATION STEALING VIRUS, DETECTED IN ONLINE BANKING

TRANSACTIONS
Dexter, a private information stealing virus, was detected by Computer Emergency Response Team
India (CERT-In) in online banking transaction space on 19 January 2014. The virus is particularly more
threatening for the users of credit card while making payments at the shopping counters.
When the credit card is swiped at the point of sale (POS), the virus Dexter steals the confidential data
like card holders name, account number, expiration date, CVV code and other discretionary
information. This leak of the information could lead to financial loss and phishing attacks on the card.
Earlier in December 2013, RBI made it mandatory for debit card holders to punch in their PIN every time
when they make a purchase. The order was passed following the spread of virus of Trojan Family which
was detected at the Point of Sale (POS).
INDIAS SUPERCOMPUTER, PARAM YUVA-II RANKED 1 IN INDIA
PARAM Yuva-II Indias supercomputer rated 1st in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and 44th in the
world among the most power efficient computer systems as per the Green500 List.
It was announced at the Super computer Conference (SC 2013) in Denver, Colorado, US.
PARAM Yuva-II was developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
C-DAC is the second organization worldwide to have carried out the Level 3 measurement of Power
versus Performance for the Green500 List
PARAM Yuva II uses hybrid technology, processor, co-processor and hardware accelerators.
PARAM uses hybrid technology to provide the peak compute power of 520.4 Teraflop/s using 210
kilowatt power.
The interconnect network comprises of homegrown PARAMNet-III and Infiniband FDR System Area
Network.
This system is designed to solve large and complex computational problems.
The system has 200 Terabytes of high performance storage, and requisite system software and utilities
for parallel applications development.
ABOUT SUPERCOMPUTERS
A Super computer is the fastest type of computers that is typically used for scientific and
engineering applications which handles very large databases or does a great amount of
computation or both.
In general Supercomputers consume a lot of electrical power and produce much heat.
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To reduce heat, it requires elaborate cooling facilities, which increases the Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer.
Green500 ranks computer systems in the world according to compute performance per watt
and providing a world ranking based on energy efficiency.
Energy consumed by supercomputers is measured at various Levels L1, L2, and L3.
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MISCELLANEOUS
EARTH'S LARGEST WATER RESERVOIR LOCATED INSIDE EARTHS MANTLE
Earths largest water reservoir might be located deep inside the Earths mantle. This was revealed by a
study published in the journal Science on 13 June 2014.
The study was conducted by the Northwestern geophysicist Steve Jacobsen and University of New
Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt.
The study is the first to provide direct evidence that there may be water in the area of the mantle
known as the transition zone the layer between lower mantle and upper mantle.
The findings will aid scientists in understanding how the earth formed, what its current composition and
inner workings are and how much water is trapped in mantle rock.
ABOUT THE DISCOVERY
In the study, geophysicists found that deep pockets of subterranean magma indicating presence of
water were located about 643 km beneath North America. The water is not in a liquid, ice or vapour
form. The fourth form of water is trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals in the mantle
rock.
The discovery found the evidence that melting may occur about 643 km deep in the Earth. H2O, that is,
water were stored in mantle rocks where the mineral ringwoodite is present.
The discovery suggest water from the Earths surface can be driven to such great depths by plate
tectonics which eventually caused partial melting of the rocks found deep in the mantle.
Scientists have long speculated that water is trapped in a rocky layer of the Earths mantle located
between the lower mantle and upper mantle, at depths between 400 km and 660 km.
As per the analysis of researchers, if just one per cent of the weight of mantle rock located in the
transition zone is H2O, it would be equivalent to nearly three times the amount of water in our oceans.
MYCOPTER PROJECT TO BE UNVEILED IN BRAUNSCHWEIG, GERMANY IN NOVEMBER 2014
myCopter Project will be unveiled in Braunschweig in Germany on 20 November 2014. This was
announced by myCopter coordinator Prof. Dr. Heinrich Blthoff.
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myCopter Project conceived in 2007 aims to design Personal Aerial Vehicles and an effective, efficient
and user-friendly Personal Aerial Transportation System.
The initial project is almost complete, and the next phase of MyCopter will end on myCopter Project
Day.
For the project, six research institutions of Europe have collaborated to study the feasibility of
developing small commuter helicopters. The European Union had granted 4.7 million US dollar for the
project.
INSTITUTES INVOLVED IN MYCOPTER PROJECT
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, Germany: Studying driver feedback
technologies that are already showing up in cars.
University of Liverpool, United Kingdom: Working towards making flying as accessible as driving and
developing an efficient paradigm to train the average person.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland: Working on ways to automate the
operation of the helicopters by conducting testing on drones.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne: Studying how to avoid collisions. Among other
things, they are looking at how birds fly in dense flocks.
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis in Karlsruhe, Germany: Involved in
surveying Europeans about what they might think about flying cars, to see how they would be accepted.
German Aerospace Center in Braunschweig: Researchers will come together and try out the
technologies developed at the various institutions in a real test helicopter.
ABOUT MYCOPTER PROJECT
It was proposed in response to a 2007 European Union report called Out of the Box: Ideas About the
Future of Air Transport. The report solicited ideas from researchers on radical changes to Europe's
existing transportation system, including ideas for a personal air vehicle.
The project was the brainchild of Heinrich H. Blthoff, director of perception, cognition and action at the
Max Planck Institute, Germany.
The myCopter project aims to make specific advances in three major research areas:
User-centred Human Machine Interface and Training

Automation
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Socio-technological assessment
PALAEONTOLOGISTS DISCOVERED THE FOSSIL OF WORLDS LARGEST DINOSAUR IN

PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA
Palaeontologists on 16 May 2014 discovered the fossil of the world largest dinosaur fossils. It was found
near a desert in La Flecha, situated 125-km west of Trelew in Patagonia, Argentina.
The fossil of the dinosaur was excavated by the palaeontologists from Argentinas Museum of
Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, headed by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.
The fossils of the worlds largest dinosaur measured 40 metres in length, 30 metres in height and
weighed 77 tonnes. The fossil remains included bones from the dinosaur neck and back, along with
pieces of the tail and legs.
This plant-eating dinosaur belonged to species of Titanosaurs from the family of Sauropod dinosaurs
that were characterized by their enormous stature and long necks and tails. It lived around 95 million
years ago during the Cretaceous Period.
The discovered fossils of Titanosaurs were larger than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus, also
found in Patagonia, Argentina in 1987.
ABOUT DINOSAURS
Dinosaurs first appeared about 228 million years ago during the Triassic period, achieved stunning
dimensions during the ensuing Jurassic Period and then disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous Period
about 65 million years ago.
A sparrow-sized bird called Qiliania, which lived about 120 million years ago in China, was the smallest
dinosaur, weighing a mere 15 grams.
NEW ELEMENT 117 NAMED UNUNSEPTIUM SET TO JOIN THE PERIODIC TABLE
New Element 117 which is temporarily called Ununseptium with 117 protons set to join periodic table.
It is the second-heaviest element ever created by humans after ununoctium, or element 118. Elements
beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as super-heavy elements.
The latest instance of the discovery of this element was made by a team at the GSI Helmholtz Center for
Heavy Ion Research in Germany. The report was published in Physical Review Letters.
Ununseptium will get an official name soon and will be considered a Group VII element. It was to be put
into the same family as fluorine, bromine and chlorine.
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Ununseptium was produced by accelerating ions of calcium (which has 20 protons) into a target of
berkelium (which has 97).
The ununseptium was observed to have a half-life of 50 milliseconds, or one twentieth of a second. It
will gradually decay into lighter elements, emitting alpha particles (helium nuclei in the process. And the
lighter elements formed have a greater half-life than ununseptium.
The newly created element's half-life was too short for it to be chemically studied, but after examining
the alpha particles, researchers concluded that the original element indeed had an atomic number 117.
The element was discovered back in 2010 by a group of American and Russian physicists with the Joint
Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR).
Element 117 will join the periodic table once the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
(IUPAC) confirmed its existence. After the confirmation, the body will name the new element and it will
be added to the periodic table.
SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED NEW MINERAL PUTNISITE
Scientists discovered a new mineral Putnisite in Western Australia on 22 April 2014. The mineral was
named after the Australian mineralogists Andrew and Christine Putnis.
The mineral was discovered during prospecting by a mining company in Western Australia. It was
handed on to Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for initial research
and then to Elliott for more detailed analysis.
New mineral is unique in structure and composition among the 4000 known mineral species of world.
The mineral is of very unusual combination as it combines the elements strontium, calcium, chromium,
sulphur, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
The mineral Putnisite was found in a surface outcrop at Lake Cowan, north of Norseman in Western
Australia. The new mineral occurs as tiny crystals, no more than 0.5 mm in diameter and is found on a
volcanic rock.
It appears as dark pink spots on dark green and white rock which, under the microscope, appears as
square, cube-like crystals.
INDIAN-AMERICAN ENGINEER ABRAHAM PANNIKOTTU ANNOUNCED TO DEVELOP ZERO
PRESSURE TYRES FOR US MILITARY
An Indian-American engineer Abraham Pannikottu on 7 March 2014 announced to develop Zero
Pressure tyres for the US military. The Zero Pressure tyres will continue to run even after being
shredded by roadside bombs or gunfire.
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The new AEG Zero Pressure tyres will withstand a minimum of 50 mph speeds for 300 miles once it's
punctured.
The Zero Pressure tyres worked better at carrying heavier loads and can quickly move soldiers out of
dangerous way.
Although the US military vehicle tyres are now equipped with run-flat inserts but the defence
department wanted to upgrade to a zero pressure tyres.
Abraham Pannikottu is working with his team at Akron, Ohio-based American Engineering Group (AEG).
US department of defence has facilitated the team with a grant of USD 1 million to develop Zero
Pressure tyres.
The AEG prototype is developing a technology which could cater with the overheating and has the tyres
flexibility. However, this technology eventually could be used on all- terrain vehicles, as well as mining
and construction vehicles.
In 2006, Pentagon honored Pannikottu & his group for designing airless tyres for the Stryker armored
vehicle. This award was for exceptional performance that exemplifies the goal of bringing innovative
technologies to the soldier.
The company has patents pending for the Zero Pressure tyres technology.
Abraham has a mechanical engineering degree from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology
(Surat, Gujarat). He later completed graduate studies in polymer science at the University of Akron. He
has written several research articles on engineering applications of rubber.
INDIAN ORIGIN BOY SHUBHAM BANERJEE DEVELOPED LOW COST BRAILLE PRINTER
A 12 year old boy of Indian Origin Shubham Banerjee developed a low cost Braille Printer on 23 February
2014.
By using a 350 dollar LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set, he had developed a Braille Printer to help blinds.
The invention was named as Braigo, a mash-up of Braille and LEGO. Users can type in letters, and the
Braigos needle will hammer out the translated message in raised dots on paper.
LEGO Mindstorms EV3 is a remarkably powerful and functional robotics kit people of any age can use to
build some impressive and complicated projects.
ABOUT BRAILLE PRINTER
Braille printers receive data from computer devices and emboss that information in Braille onto paper
through the use of solenoids that control embossing pins.
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Braille printers typically print on heavyweight paper and use up more pages for the same amount of
information than pages printed on a regular printer.
They are also slower and noisier. Inter-point printers are Braille printers that emboss Braille on both
sides of a page. The price of a Braille printer is directly related to the volume of Braille it produces.
RESEARCHERS AT CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DEVELOPED FIRE-RESISTANT PAPER
Researchers with Shanghai institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science developed a new type of
paper that is resistant to fire on 14 February 2014. The research was published in Chemistry - A
European Journal.
The paper will not catch fire even at 1000 degrees Celsius temperature. This new paper is formed from
calcium phosphate compound.
The novel kind of inorganic paper is flexible and incombustible, but still feels like ordinary paper. It can
be torn, folded, and destroyed by strong acid.
It can be used for important documents to preserve for long periods of time.
101ST INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS CONCLUDED
The 101st Annual Session of Indian Science Congress (ISC) was held at the University of Jammu, Jammu
& Kashmir from 3 February 2014 to 7 February 2014. The event was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan
Singh, Prime Minister of India.
The President of the 101st ISC was Prof. R C Sobti.
The theme of the 101st ISC was Innovations in Science and Technology for Inclusive Development. This is
pursuance of the policy Science healing and innovative unveiled by Honble Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh on 3 January 2013 at Kolkata.
During this session, an attempt was made to showcase the recent developments in the field of Science &
Technology in the country and abroad.
As many as 12000- 15000 delegates including Noble Laureates, Senior Scientists, Teachers, Young
Scholars and Students had participated and present their research findings.
BACKGROUND
The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) owes its origin to the foresight and initiative of two
British Chemists, namely, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon.
The Association was formed with the following objectives:
To advance and promote the cause of science in India
To hold an annual congress at a suitable place in India
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To publish such proceedings, journals, transactions and other publications as may be considered
desirable
To secure and manage funds and endowments for the promotion of Science including the rights
of disposing of or selling all or any portion of the properties of the Association.
To do and perform any or all other acts, matters and things as are conductive to, or incidental
to, or necessary for, the above objects.
The first meeting of the Congress was held in January 1914 at the premises of the Asiatic Society,
Calcutta, with the Honourable Justice Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta
University, as President.
The Silver Jubilee Session of the Science Congress was held at Calcutta in 1938 under the Presidentship
of Lord Rutherford of Nelson but due to his sudden death, Sir James Jeans took the chair. It was at this
Jubilee Session that the participation of foreign scientists in session of the Indian Science Congress was
first initiated.
The Science Congress celebrated its Golden Jubilee in October 1963 at Delhi with Prof.D.S. Kothari as
General President.
The Diamond Jubilee Session of the Science Congress was held at Chandigarh in January 1973 under the
Presidentship of Dr S Bhagavantam.
The Indian Science Congress Association celebrated its Seventy Fifth year of its inception, popularly
called otherwise, Platinum Jubilee, in 1988, with Prof C N R Rao as General President.
The 100th edition of the Indian Science Congress was held in Kolkota in January 2013 under the
Presidentship of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India. The theme of the 100th ISC was Science
for shaping the future of India.
FIRST PAPERLESS PUBLIC LIBRARY OF WORLD BIBLIOTECH OPENED IN USA
First Paperless public Library of the World BiblioTech was opened in the USA State of Texas on 4
February 2014. The traditional libraries have been replaced with high-tech gadgets that cater to both
adults and children.
Registered residents of the Texas will be able to access over tens of thousands of titles from e-readers
for free.
According to its website, the 1.5 million dollar BiblioTech currently has 600 e-readers, 200 pre-loaded
enhanced e-readers for children, and 48 computer stations, 10 laptops and 40 tablets to use on-site.
Paperless technology will also help to manage funds. The team members arent tied up re-shelving, filing
and categorising.
They spend most of their time providing one-on-one instruction with visitors, teaching people how to
use devices and how to source materials. Its a more interactive library experience.
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Replacement costs have also been factored in to the project. Thefts can be easily prevented as devices
cannot access the internet once they leave the library.
Traditional libraries require much larger load-tolerances in construction due to the weight of materials,
so are more costly to build. Book collections also require environmental controls that are costly to
maintain.
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NIT Odisha developed technology to turn Plastic into fuel ...................................................................................19

Nuclear Science & Technology .......................................................... 21

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Atmospheric Science and Ocean Development ................................. 44

Health & Medical Science ................................................................. 49

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WHO certified India as Polio Free country .............................................................................................................54

Information Technology ................................................................... 66

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BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOINFORMATICS

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IMPORTANCE OF THE HAND-GUIDED CLONING TECHNIQUE

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Researchers identified coding of one of yeasts 16 pair of chromosomes.

They then created an artificial version of this altered chromosome.

The artificial chromosome was inserted inside a yeast cell.

It was able to reproduce like normal cells.

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Tulasi is scientifically called Ocimum tenuiflorum or Ocimum sanctum.

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It is 120 cm tall and weighs 28 kilograms

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

It is autonomous, underwater, highly modular vehicle.

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

INDIA'S THREE-STAGE NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

WHAT IS GRAVITATIONAL LENSING?

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Space Segment (Constellation of Satellites & SignalInSpace)

PLAN OF POSITIONING OF SEVEN SATELLITES OF IRSS

Three satellites will be placed in the Geostationary Equatorial orbit

OTHER FEATURES OF IRNSS

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

SENTINEL-1 SERVICES INCLUDE APPLICATIONS LIKE

Monitoring sea ice zones and the Arctic environment

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

HR 5171 A, THE LARGEST EVER YELLOW HYPERGIANT STAR DISCOVERED

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

NASA DISCOVERED POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROID 2013 YP139

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014

Science & Technology Current Affairs eBook 2014