Fossil-Sorting Robots Will Help Researchers Study Oceans, Climate

• According to a research, Forabot: Automated Planktic Foraminifera Isolation and Imaging, published in the open-access journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, North Carolina State University have developed and demonstrated a robot named Forabot which capable of sorting, manipulating and identifying microscopic marine fossils.
• Forabot has an accuracy rate of 79 per cent for identifying forams, which is better than most trained humans.
• Forabot is capable of identifying six different types of foram and processing 27 forams per hour.
• The robot’s AI uses images to identify the type of foram and sorts it accordingly.

Foraminifera:

• Foraminifera, also called forams, are very simple micro-organisms that secrete a tiny shell, a little longer than a millimetre.
• The organisms have existed in our oceans for more than 100 million years.
• When forams die, they leave behind their shells.
• Examining their shells give scientists insights into the characteristics of the oceans from a time when the forams were alive.
• Different types of foram species thrive in different ocean environments and chemical measurements can tell scientists everything from the ocean’s chemistry to its temperature when the shell was being formed.

India Internet Governance Forum 2022 to be held from Dec 9-11

• The India Internet Government Forum is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).
• The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder platform bringing representatives together from various groups, all at par to discuss public policy issues related to the Internet.
• The event''s goal is to discuss the roadmap to digitization and to reaffirm India''s place on the global stage by emphasising its role and importance in international policy development on internet governance.
• Theme of IIGF 2022: ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat’.
• India Internet Governance Forum(IIGF) has been constituted in conformance to IGF-Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda of the UN-based Internet Governance forum (IGF).

Come February, 150 years of Kolkata tram to be celebrated by users

• It seeks to educate the younger generation about climate change, air pollution and sustainable development.
• It will also call upon the West Bengal government to preserve the historic mode of transport.
• It is a moving tram carnival that was started back in 1996 jointly by enthusiasts from Melbourne and Kolkata.
• At the time, Kolkata, the only Indian city where the tram still runs, was home to about two dozen routes. Today, the number of routes that remain operational has shrunk to just two.
• The theme of the 2023 Tramjatra will be Heritage, Clean Air and Green Mobility.

House panel flags ‘casual approach’ of government over setting up disability centres

• It is an initiative by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India, to facilitate comprehensive services to Persons with Disabilities in the rural areas.
• It is a joint venture of Central and State Governments wherein Central Government will establish, initiate, implement the centre for three years involving funding for man power contingencies as well as required equipments and coordination.
• State Government will provide provision for rent free, well connected building, basic infrastructure, furniture, monitoring and coordination of activities through District Management Team (DMT) Chaired by the District Collector and also identification of implementing agency.
• These centres are run jointly by District Management Team headed by DM/Collector and a reputed NGO (Usually Indian Red Cross Society).
• To upscale their services, a MODEL DDRC has been conceptualised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons With Disability in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India.
• Nine such model DDRCs, namely- Badaun, Pilibhit, Barielly, Balaghat, Golaghat, Ahmedabad, Amravati , Kullu and Rampur have been upgraded to MODEL DDRC level in the first phase.

Indian, Chinese soldiers injured in clash near Arunachal border

• India shares 3488 Km of border with China that runs along the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The border is not fully and officially demarcated.
• The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.
• LAC is currently the de-facto border between the two countries, and the process of clarifying and confirming the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is in progress.
• The Line of Actual Control (LAC), is divided into three sectors: western, middle and eastern.

Areas under LAC:

• The LAC traverses three areas —
  • Western (Ladakh, Kashmir),
  • middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and
  • eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).
• As LAC is not fully and officially demarcated, it has led to differing perceptions regarding the alignment, with China making territorial claims in at following areas.
• The countries disagree on the exact location of the LAC in various areas, so much so that India claims that the LAC is 3,488 km long while the Chinese believe it to be around 2,000 km long.
• The two armies try and dominate by patrolling the areas up to their respective perceptions of the LAC, often bringing them into conflict.

GOSH delivers world-first treatment for Leukaemia

• Bases are the language of life.
• Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in one person’s DNA spell out the instruction manual for his/her body.
• Base Editing treatment is a modification of chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy.
• But instead of using the CRISPR gene editing technique to modify the patient’s immune cells, the clinicians used the more precise base editing technique to alter donor immune cells.
• With advances in genetic technology, scientists have been able to zoom into a precise part of the genetic code to alter the molecular structure of just one base, effectively changing its genetic instructions.
• Those edited cells are given to the patient to “rapidly find and destroy T-cells in the body, including leukemic T-cells.
• Base editing is an even more precise gene editing technique than CRISPR and has fewer risks of unwanted effects on the chromosomes and thus less risk of side effects.

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL):

• T-ALL affects the stem cells in the bone marrow that produce a particular kind of white blood cells (WBC) called T lymphocytes (T cells).
• These cells provide a person immunity by killing cells carrying infections, activating other immune cells, and regulating the immune response.
• At least 20% of these WBC are atypical– as they accumulate in the bone marrow, they crowd out “good” WBCs and hence weaken the immune system.
• These unhealthy cells can also accumulate in other parts of the body like the liver, spleen and lymph nodes.
• While found in both children and adults, T-ALL’s incidence decreases with age.
• Treatment:
  • Typical treatment for T-ALL is similar to that of any leukaemia– chemotherapy and stem cell/bone marrow transplant.

Starlovers watch the Geminids meteor shower, one of the brightest displays in night sky

• Geminids comes from the constellation Gemini, from whose location in the sky the meteor shower appears to originate.
• The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night.
• The constellation is not the source of the meteors.
• If their peak coincides with the new moon, and if the weather is clear, the Geminids can produce approximately 100-150 meteors per hour for viewing.
• This year however, the moon is bright, and so only 30-40 meteors per hour will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
• The Geminids are unique because unlike most meteor showers, they originate not from a comet, but from an asteroid, the 3200 Phaethon.

3200 Phaethon:

• The 3200 Phaethon was discovered on October 11, 1983.
• It is named after the Greek mythology character Phaethon, son of the Sun God Helios.
• It takes 1.4 years to complete one round of the Sun.
• As the 3200 Phaethon moves close to the Sun while orbiting it, the rocks on its surface heat up and break off.
• When the Earth passes through the trail of this debris, the Geminids are caused.

What causes meteor showers?

• Meteors are usually fragments of comets.
• As they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, they burn up, creating a spectacular “shower”.
• Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from asteroids.
• When these objects come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them.
• Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.

Auto companies to face stiff fines over emissions

• Car companies in India will have to cough up stiff penalties from April, 2023 with Parliament approving Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2022 that stipulates heavy fines on a company’s annual domestic sales numbers for violation of mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) score.
• Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency/Economy regulations are in force in many advanced as well as developing nations, including India.
• They aim at lowering fuel consumption (or improving fuel efficiency) of vehicles by lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thus serving the twin purposes of reducing dependence on oil for fuel and controlling pollution.
• Corporate Average refers to sales-volume weighted average for every auto manufacturer.
• The norms are applicable for petrol, diesel, LPG and CNG passenger vehicles.
• CAFE regulations in India came into force from April 1, 2017.
• Under this, average corporate CO2 emission must be less than 130 gm per km till 2022 and below 113 gm per km thereafter.

CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) and BS6:

• CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) regulations are similar norms to BS6 but with a different approach towards reducing the carbon footprint in the exhaust gasses of the vehicle.
• CAFE majorly focuses on COx emissions. BS6, on the other hand, focuses on overall emissions which include NOx (Nitrogen Oxides), SOx (Sulphur Oxides).
• The CAFE regulations aim to reduce the overall COx (Carbon Oxides) from the exhaust of the vehicle.
• The reduced carbon footprint leads to increased fuel economy.

Understanding the fusion energy breakthrough announced by the U.S.

• Scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, US have achieved a major breakthrough in recreating higher energy in a nuclear fusion experiment than is applied in doing the fusion.
• Scientists have been able to generate higher energy in a fusion experiment than the energy applied for causing the fusion reaction.
• Nuclear fusion is described as the "holy grail" of energy production, as it is almost limitless, requires no fossil fuels, and leaves behind no hazardous waste.
• It is the process that powers the Sun and other stars.
• Nuclear fusion mimics the natural reactions occurring within the Sun, and has been a goal of scientists around the world since the 1950s.
• It works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together - this "fusion" releases a lot of energy.
  • For example, the fusion of two nuclei of a heavier isotope of hydrogen, called tritium, produces at least four times as much energy as the fission of a uranium atom which is the normal process of generating electricity in a nuclear reactor.
• And importantly, the process produces no greenhouse gas emissions and therefore does not contribute to climate change.
• But one of the challenges is that forcing and keeping the elements together in fusion requires very high temperatures and pressures.
• Until now, no experiment has managed to produce more energy than the amount put in to make it work.

Experiment:

• The experiment which cost $3.5 billion, forced a minuscule amount of hydrogen into a peppercorn-sized capsule.
• For forcing the hydrogen into the capsule, scientists used a powerful 192-beam laser that could generate 100 million degree Celsius of heat.
  • It is also called ‘inertial fusion’.
  • At some other places, including the international collaborative project in southern France called ITER in which India is a partner; very strong magnetic fields are used for the same purpose.
• The laser beam was hotter than the Sun’s centre and helped to compress the hydrogen fuel to more than 100 billion times that of Earth’s atmosphere.
• Under the pressure of these forces, the capsule started imploding on itself and leading to the fusion of hydrogen atoms and the release of energy.

Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion:

• Nuclear fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart.
• Fission is the technology currently used in nuclear power stations, but the process also produces a lot of waste that continues to give out radiation for a long time.
• It can be dangerous and must be stored safely.

India can be a global leader in electrolyzer, green hydrogen, says G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

• Hydrogen electrolysers are devices that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• When electricity input to the electrolyser is obtained from renewable sources like wind and solar, then the hydrogen produced is called green hydrogen.
• Typically, electrolysers consume 50-55 kilowatt-hours or units of electricity to produce one kilogram of hydrogen.
• Electrolysers produce hydrogen at about 50-90 degree Celsius and at a pressure of 30-50 bar.
• Electrolysers are commercially available at a size of a few kilowatts (kW) to megawatts (MW).

Electrolyser technologies

• There are various electrolyser technologies available currently.
• Alkaline electrolysers and polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysers are commercially available technologies.
• Alkaline electrolysers use liquid alkaline electrolyte solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide while PEM electrolysers are based on solid polymer membrane.
• In addition to these, there are other proprietary technologies like electrochemical, thermally-activated chemical (E-TAC) and anion exchange membrane (AEM) that claim to be more efficient than existing technology options.