What is radiocarbon dating?

• The technique called radiocarbon dating brought the first verifiable way to do this to many fields of science, transforming them – and our world – to a significant degree.
• Radiocarbon dating is a method by which the age of an object can be determined. Radiocarbon dating refers to a method that does this using radiocarbon, a name for the isotope carbon-14.

How does Carbon-14 form?

• It is created in the earth’s atmosphere when cosmic rays– energetic streams of charged particles coming from sources in outer space – slam into the atoms of the gases and release neutrons.
• When these neutrons interact with the nitrogen-14 isotope, they can produce carbon-14.
• Since cosmic rays are ceaselessly passing through the earth’s atmosphere, carbon-14 is created constantly there.
• It readily combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide.
• This compound then enters the bodies of plants (via photosynthesis), animals (when they consume plants), and other biomass through the carbon cycle.
• It is in the form of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds, would have to be able to diffuse into the earth’s various ecosystems such that the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere was comparable to the concentration of carbon-14 in the planet’s other biospheres.

How does radiocarbon dating work?

• When an organic entity – like the human body – is ‘alive’, it constantly exchanges carbon with its surroundings by breathing, consuming food, defecating, shedding skin, etc.
• Through these activities, carbon-14 is both lost from the body as well as replenished, so its concentration in the body is nearly constant and in equilibrium with its surroundings.
• When this individual dies, the body no longer performs these activities and the concentration of carbon-14 in the body begins to dwindle through radioactive decay.
• The more time passes, the more the amount of carbon-14 lost, and the less there will remain. This decay rate can be predicted from theory.
• Radiocarbon dating dates an object by measuring the amount of carbon-14 left, which scientists and/or computers can use to calculate how long ago the body expired.
• The modern radiocarbon dating setup is more sophisticated and one of the most sensitive dating setups uses accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which can work with organic samples as little as 50 mg.

SC’s translation projects raced ahead in 2023.

• The Supreme Court of India’s monumental project of translating all of its 36,000 judgments into Scheduled Languages achieved unprecedented speed in 2023, with the E-SCR portal starting with just 2,238 translated judgements as of January and ending the year with over 31,000 rulings translated.
• e-SCR portal is an initiative to provide the digital version of the apex court''s judgements in the manner as they are reported in the official law report.
• The Supreme Court has developed a search engine with the help of the National Informatics Centre.
• It is comprising elastic search technique in the database of e-SCR and the search facility in e-SCR provides for free text search, search within search, case type and case year search, judge search, year and volume search and bench strength search options.
• It will provide free access to its about 34,000 judgements to lawyers, law students and the common public.
• These verdicts will be available on the apex court website, its mobile app and on the judgment portal of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).

Key facts about National Judicial Data Grid

• It is a national repository of data relating to cases instituted, pending, and disposed of by the courts across the length and breadth of the country.
• It has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) in close coordination with the in-house software development team of the Computer Cell, Registry with an interactive interface and analytics dashboard.
• The entire database shall be periodically updated on the NJDG portal.
• Through this one may access case related information, statistics such as institution, pendency and disposal of cases, case-types, year-wise break-up of the Supreme Court of India.

ISRO successfully launches PSLV-C58 XPoSat mission.

• XPoSat mission is the first dedicated scientific satellite from ISRO to carry out research in space-polarisation measurements of X-ray emission from celestial sources.
• It carries two payloads which are POLIX and XSPECT.
• POLIX: It is an X-ray Polarimeter for astronomical observations in the energy band of 8-30 keV.
• The payload is being developed by Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore in collaboration with U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC).
• It is expected to observe about 40 bright astronomical sources of different categories during the planned lifetime of XPoSat mission of about 5 years.
• This is the first payload in the medium X-ray energy band dedicated for polarimetry measurements.
• XSPECT: It is an X-ray SPECtroscopy and Timing payload onboard XPoSat, which can provide fast timing and good spectroscopic resolution in soft X-rays.
• It can provide long-term monitoring of spectral state changes in continuum emission, changes in their line flux and profile, simultaneous long term temporal monitoring of soft X-ray emission in the X-ray energy range 0.8-15 keV.
• It would observe several types of sources viz X-ray pulsars, blackhole binaries, low-magnetic field neutron star (NS) in LMXBs, AGNs and Magnetars.
• The launch put India in an elite category as it has become the second (after NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) launched in 2021) nation to send an observatory to study astronomical sources such as black holes, neutron stars among others.

Joint Military Exercise Desert Cyclone between India and UAE begins in Rajasthan.

• Exercise ‘Desert Cyclone’ is the inaugural edition of joint military exercise "Desert Cyclone 2024" between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• The exercise aims to enhance interoperability by learning & sharing best practices in Urban Operations.
• This exercise is marking a significant milestone in the strategic partnership.

Key facts about India and UAE relations

• India and the UAE established diplomatic relations in 1972 and UAE opened its Embassy in Delhi in 1972 whereas, India opened its Embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1973.
• The first-ever India-UAE Joint Air Forces exercise took place in September 2008 at the Al-Dhafra base in Abu Dhabi.
• India has also been a regular participant at the biennial International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi.
• Earlier this year, two ships of the Indian Navy, INS Visakhapatnam, and INS Trikand participated in bilateral exercise ‘Zayed Talwar’ with the UAE to enhance interoperability and synergy between the two navies.

Meghamalai Hills present a new winged beauty.

• The pristine hills of the Meghamalai in Tamil Nadu have thrown up a new species of ‘silverline’ butterflies.
• Cigaritis meghamalaiensis is the new species of butterfly.
• It has become the first butterfly species to be described from the Western Ghats in 33 years.
• The researchers had first come across the distinct species belonging to the Cigaritis genus in the high elevations of Periyar in Idukki in 2018.
• Further explorations have revealed the species to be confined to the Meghamalais and the adjoining Periyar Tiger Reserve.
• There are seven species of Cigaritisin the Western Ghats, viz., C. vulcanus, C. schistacea, C. ictis, C. elima elima, C. lohita lazularia, C. lilacinus, and C. abnormis. Of these, all except C. lilacinus have been reported from the southern Western Ghats.

Key facts about Periyar Tiger Reserve

• It is located in the Western Ghats of Kerala.
• It gets its name from the River Periyar, which has its origin deep inside the reserve.
• Two main rivers, Pamba and Periyar, drain the reserve.
• It is home to many tribal communities, including the Mannans and the Palians.
• Vegetation: It consists of tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous.
• Flora: Teak, mangoes, rosewood, jamun, jacarandas, terminalias, tamarind, royal ponciana, bamboos etc.
• Fauna: Includes Elephants, Wild Pigs, Sambar, Gaur, Mouse Deer, Dole or Barking Deer, Indian Wild Dog and Tiger etc.