NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finds most distant known Galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0.

• They used JWST for observations as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program.
• JADES-GS-z14-0 was first seen using JWST’s NIRCam, a powerful camera that captures near-infrared light.
• NIRSpec: Confirmed extreme distance (high redshift).
• MIRI: Provided more details and confirmed vast distance.

Galaxy:

• It is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound by gravity.

Variety and Size:

• Star Count: Average galaxy contains about 100 million stars.
• Size Range: From dwarf galaxies with less than a thousand stars to supergiant galaxies with up to one hundred trillion stars.
• Dark Matter: Most of a galaxy’s mass is dark matter; stars and nebulae make up only a small percentage.
• Central Features-  Supermassive Black Holes: Commonly found at the centers of galaxies.

Classification:

Galaxies are categorized by shape:

1. Elliptical
2. Spiral (e.g., Milky Way)
3. Irregular

Why is the galaxy so bright in the center?

• The center of the galaxy is known as the Galactic Bulge
• It is the brightest due to the presence of more stars.
• In addition to the above, Stars within the galactic bulge orbit the centre in various planes.

Galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0:

• It is the most distant known galaxy from Earth.
• Formation: JADES-GS-z14-0 was formed approximately 290 million years after the Big Bang.
• Previously, the earliest-known galaxy was dated to 320 million years post-Big Bang.

Characteristics of Galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0

• Unique Properties: The galaxy contains young stars and significant ionized gas emission.
• Size: Measures about 1,700 light-years across.
• A light year is 9.5 trillion kilometers.
• Mass: Equivalent to 500 million stars the size of the Sun.

Findings of Galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0:

• Strong ionized gas emissions: Researchers found evidence of strong ionized gas emissions (including hydrogen and oxygen) within the galaxy.
• The presence of oxygen suggests that multiple generations of massive stars had already lived their lives before observing the galaxy.

The US recently conducted an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test from the Californian Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Minuteman III:

• The LGM-30G Minuteman III is a solid-fueled, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the United States Air Force (USAF) first deployed in the 1960s.
• It is the sole land-based component of the U.S. nuclear triad.
• It was designed and manufactured by the Boeing Corporation.
• Originally, it was only supposed to be kept in service for about ten years, but instead, it has been modernized as its replacement, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), is due to become available for use in 2029.
• It was the first U.S. missile fitted with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs).
• The United States currently has an estimated 440 Minuteman III missiles in its arsenal.

Features:

• It is a three-stage, solid-fuel missile.
• The missile is 18.2 m long with a diameter of 1.85 m and a launch weight of 34,467 kg.
• It has a maximum range of 13,000 km and is capable of carrying a payload of three reentry vehicles.
• It now carries a single nuclear warhead pursuant to arms control agreements between the United States and Russia.
• It has a fast launch time, nearly 100 percent testing reliability, and backup airborne launch controllers to preserve retaliatory capabilities.

Recent research has discovered a novel protein, referred to as "Neo," which plays a critical role in bacterial defence mechanisms against viral infections, particularly bacteriophages.

Neo:

• Discovery of ''Neo'': It was reported by researchers led by Stephen Tang and Samuel Sternberg in a 2023 preprint paper on bio Rxiv while working on Klebsiella pneumoniae.
• Mechanism: Bacteria defend themselves from viral infection (against bacteriophages) using diverse immune systems, many of which sense and target foreign nucleic acids. Defense-associated reverse transcriptase (DRT) systems are one of them.
• In the DRT-2 system, the bacteria undergo de novo gene synthesis via rolling-circle reverse transcription (RT) of a non-coding RNA (ncRNA).
• In uninfected bacterial cells, the ncRNA and RT enzyme lead to the synthesis of a repetitive single-stranded cDNA.
• The presence of phage triggers the second-strand cDNA synthesis, leading to the production of long double-stranded DNA.
• This double-strand cDNA generates messenger RNAs that encode a stop codon-less, never-ending open-reading frame (neo) whose translation (neo protein) causes potent growth arrest (cell dormancy) of bacteria. It protects the larger bacterial population from the spread of phage.

Significance in Biotechnology and Medicine:

• It represents a potential biotechnological tool for controlling viral infections.
• Retroelements in the human genome and bacterial reverse transcriptases have a common evolutionary history as well as share functional mechanisms.
• Bacterial reverse transcriptases, believed to be the precursors of their eukaryotic counterparts, exhibit analogous mechanisms.

Reverse transcriptase:

• The ability of cells to create DNA copies from RNA is called reverse transcription. It is performed by the enzyme called reverse transcriptase.
• Reverse transcriptase, discovered by Howard Temin and David Baltimore in 1970, has revolutionised research methods in molecular biology and is crucial in studying and managing RNA viruses like HIV.
• Reverse transcriptase is used in molecular biology to clone genes, perform PCR, and analyse genomes.
• It is also used in diagnostics to detect and quantify viral loads, such as in the case of SARS-2. It also has helped track the virus’s spread, paving the way for surveillance, better public healthcare, and vaccine development.

Recently, CSIR concluded the first phase of its longitudinal health monitoring project, Phenome India, and organised a special event, Phenome India Unboxing 1.0.

''Phenome India'' Project:

• Phenome India-CSIR Health Cohort Knowledgebase (PI-CheCK) is an initiative by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), launched on 7th December 2023.
• Objective: The project aims to develop India-specific risk prediction models for cardio-metabolic diseases including diabetes, liver diseases, and cardiac diseases.
• This is the first-ever pan-India longitudinal health monitoring study focused on cardio-metabolic diseases.
• Participants: Nearly 10,000 participants including CSIR employees, pensioners, and their spouses from across 17 states and 24 cities have contributed to the study.
• The collected data includes clinical questionnaires, lifestyle and dietary habits, anthropometric measurements, imaging/scanning data, and extensive biochemical and molecular data.
• Importance: The study is crucial for understanding the risk and incidence of cardio-metabolic disorders in the Indian population which may differ from those in Western populations due to ethnic diversity and varied lifestyle patterns.
• Precision medicine initiative: Through this project, CSIR is promoting Predictive, Personalised, Participatory, and Preventive (P4) healthcare, tailored specifically to the Indian phenotypic and genetic profiles.

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR):

• Established: In September 1942.
• Headquarters: Located in New Delhi.
• Funding: CSIR is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• Autonomous body: It operates as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act, of 1860.

Objectives:

• CSIR is primarily focused on scientific research and development in various fields such as aerospace, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, and medical sciences.

Organisational structure:

• President: The Prime Minister of India (Ex-officio)
• Vice President: The Union Minister of Science and Technology (Ex-officio)

Governing body:

• Head: The Director-General leads the governing body.
• Other Ex-officio member: The finance secretary (expenditures).
• Term duration: Other members serve terms of three years.

CSIR Advisory Board:

• A 15-member body comprising prominent experts from various scientific and technological fields.
• The board’s role is to provide science and technology insights to the governing body.
• Member terms also span three years.