[1].Key science developments to look forward to in 2015 The year 2015 is likely to see some key science developments Number 1: Development of an effective and efficacious Ebola Vaccine In the early part of 2015, a few vaccine trials are set to begin and the results are expected by June. Human clinical trials have already begun in Liberia to test the effectiveness of convalescent plasma

therapy (CPT). Similar trials are expected to begin soon in two other places — Guinea and Sierra

Leone. These three African countries have faced the brunt of the virus.

Number 2: Reaching Pluto In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will reach Pluto. It was launched in 2006. By mid-May, New Horizons will be able to provide better views of the Pluto system. These views will be far better than the ones that the Hubble Space telescope can provide. In March 2015, NASA’s Dawn probe will arrive at the protoplanet Ceres. Ceres is the “most massive body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.” The interest in exploring Ceres is because water ice is believed to be present beneath the crust. Number 3: Ancient Human’s Genome: After the 2013 publication of the mitochondrial genome of the 400,000-year-old Sima de Los Huesos human, in 2015 palaeontologists are hopeful of sequencing the complete genome of the ancient human. The specimen was found in a deep cave in northern Spain. The results could help to clarify the evolutionary relationship between humans, Neanderthals and another ancient group called Denisovans, and to identify episodes of inbreeding between distantly related hominins. Number 4: Large Hadron Collider (LHC) The Large Hadron Collider will reboot in March; it was shutdown two years ago. Once rebooted, LHC will be able to smash particles at 13 trillion electronvolts — almost double the currently achieved one.

[2].Bombay Blood: how the rare blood type was discovered Common blood types are: A, B, AB- Universal receivers and O- Universal Donors A blood type known as hh or Bombay Blood type a rare blood type was discovered in Bombay in 1952 and hence christened as Bombay Blood. People, who carry this rare blood type, about 1 in 10, 000 Indians, can accept blood only from another Bombay Blood type individual, and not from anyone who is O, A, B or AB type. Biology behind this exceptional Blood type: To understand this, let us first look at what each blood group type contains. Blood contains red blood cells (and other cells that are not relevant for us here), floating in a fluid called plasma. Red blood cells carry on their surface a set of markers with which the plasma interacts. This compatibility or cross-talk between the cell and the plasma is what makes each blood type special. The markers on the cell are determined by a master type called H, out of which are generated types A, B, AB and AO. When blood transfusion occurs, the compatibility between the donor blood cell type and the plasma of the recipient becomes vital, else the blood may coagulate or clump up, causing serious danger. Thus people with A type blood can accept blood from A type or O type and not from AB or B type donors. And they can donate, in turn, to those with A or AB types. Those with B type can receive from B or O types, and can donate to those with B or AB types. Those with AB type blood can receive

The Hindu (S&T)

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from any one and donate to other AB. Finally those with O type blood can receive only from O, but can donate their blood to A, B, O or AB- universal donors. In contrast, the Bombay doctors found that the hh type (Bombay type people) can accept only from other hh type, and also can receive only from the hh types. This makes the Bombay Blood types a very special and rare category of people. How did this happen? It is largely because of extensive inbreeding within the same lineage or close-community marriages, often consanguineous, such that the ‘blood type’ or the gene pool is greatly restricted. Such intra-community marriages have happened in small isolated communities such as the gypsies, Russian Jewish or Parsi communities. It is thus likely that the Bombay Blood types have common ancestral origins.

[3].Coastal zones: focus of multi-disciplinary studies: The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), at Anna University is developing a huge database to map coastal resources, including offshore wind resources to identify things like sites for offshore wind energy. The scientists are also identifying particularly sensitive coastal ecosystems such as Chilika Lake in Orissa. Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change sanctioned Rs.180 crore to Anna University for setting up the NCSCM and related research into land ocean interactions in the coastal zone (LOICZ). This is part of the Rs.1,055 crore granted to various projects involving coastal zones in

India clubbed under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) initiative. What is Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ)? LOICZ operates as an international research project and global expert network exploring the drivers and social-environmental impacts of global environmental change in coastal zones. LOICZ is a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the

International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). LOICZ aims to provide science that contributes towards understanding the Earth system in order to inform, educate and contribute to the sustainability of the world’s coastal zone. Therefore LOICZ seeks to inform the scientific community, policymakers, managers and stakeholders on the relevance of global environmental change in the coastal zone. More at: http://www.loicz.org/

Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) or Integrated coastal management (ICM) is a process for the management of the coast using an integrated approach, regarding all aspects of the coastal zone, including geographical and political boundaries, in an attempt to achieve sustainability.

This concept was born in 1992 during the Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro. More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_coastal_zone_management Why are coastal zones important? They are places of enormous ecological, cultural, social and economic significance sustaining about 50 per cent of the world’s population. About 46-48 per cent of global economic activity is generated in the coastal zone.

The coast contains unique and sensitive eco systems of great natural and economic value and is home to numerous endangered species. What is Future Earth-Coasts initiative? The Future Earth-Coasts vision is to support transformation to a sustainable and resilient future for society and nature on the coast, by facilitating innovative, integrated and impactful science. Future Ear t h - Coast s is a new global initiative t hat seeks t o enable the scientific community to build Knowledge through collaborative processes to better understand and address the profound and urgent changes occurring in vulnerable coastal zones.

[4]. Gendered approach to sterilization: Official statistics suggest that governments both at state and centre promote female sterilization disproportionately. Of the total sterilisations performed in 2012-13, as many as 97.4 per cent were tubectomy procedures. On October 20 this year, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare decided to enhance compensation for sterilisations for 11 States under the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child Health plus Adolescent (RMNCH+A) programme launched to meet the millennium development goals. It also added a new component of Post Partum Sterilisation (PPS) — done soon after delivery or within 7 days — to the package for which an extra amount of Rs.3000 would be given, of which the woman would get Rs 2200. These States are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,

Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Haryana and Gujarat. How health ministry defends this hike and claims that money does not acts as an incentive? It says that is wrong to describe the money as an incentive. It is just a compensation for the loss of wage which was hiked in the wake of high cost of living, increasing cost of transportation (from village to the nearest health facility) and prevailing high wage compensation for the days requiring recuperation. In Post Partum IUCD insertions consent of rural women is not taken. Statistics showing gendered approach to sterilization (For informative purpose only. No need to rote learn all these statistics. Pick one and try to remember it so that it can be used in your answers) An analysis done by the Population Council of

India, Family Planning Association of India, Parivar Sewa Sansthan, and Common Health in a report on ‘Robbed of Choice and Dignity: Indian Women Dead after Mass Sterilisation’ suggests that,

In 2013-14, India spent 85 per cent of its family planning expenditure on sterilisation.

In 2013-14, India spent Rs.396.97 crore on female sterilisation with the procedure being performed on over 39 lakh women. A chunk of this money — Rs.324.49 crore — was spent on incentives and compensation, and Rs.14.42 crore on the camps themselves.

The amount spent as compensation was two-and-half times the untied grants given to Primary Health Centres for infrastructure strengthening.

Less than 1.5 per cent of the annual expenditure on family planning went towards spacing methods and the remaining 1.5 per cent was spent on equipment, transport, IEC activities and staff expenses

Focus on sterilization: A fact finding report on the sterilization tragedy in Chhattisgarh indicates that Sterilisation, particularly tubectomy, has been vigorously promoted and pushed by the state through centrally- decided targets and on a mass scale through a camp approach, largely disregarding other currently available methods such as condoms, oral pills, IUDs. Sterilisation constitutes 75 per cent of India’s total contraceptive use, which is the highest anywhere in the world.

[5]. NASA instrument to gauge soil moisture Scheduled for launch on Jan. 29 NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) instrument will measure the moisture lodged in Earth’s soils with an unprecedented accuracy and resolution.

Main parts of SMAP:

A radar

a radiometer

The largest rotating mesh antenna ever deployed in space. Functions of each part: SMAP’s radar uses the mesh antenna to transmit microwaves toward Earth and receive the signals that bounce back, called backscatter. The microwaves penetrate a few inches or more into the soil before they rebound. Changes in the electrical properties of the returning

microwaves indicate changes in soil moisture, and also tell whether or not the soil is frozen. SMAP’s radiometer detects differences in Earth’s natural emissions of microwaves that are caused by water in soil.

[6].What is the difference between GSLV and PSLV? Both PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are the satellite-launch vehicles (rockets) developed by ISRO. PSLV is designed mainly to deliver the “earth-observation” or “remote-sensing” satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of 600-900 Km altitude. The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from pole-to-pole (at about 98 deg orbital-plane inclination). An orbit is called sun-synchronous when the angle between the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout the orbit.

Due to their sun-synchronism nature, these orbits are also referred to as “Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” which enables the on-board camera to take images of the earth under the same sun-illumination conditions during each of the repeated visits, the satellite makes over the same area on ground thus making the satellite useful for earth resources monitoring. Apart from launching the remote sensing satellites to Sun-synchronous polar orbits, the PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower lift-off mass of up to about 1400 Kg to the elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid rocket motors and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines. It also uses strap-on motors to augment the thrust provided by the first stage, and depending on the number of these strap-on boosters, the PSLV is classified into its various versions like core-alone version (PSLV-CA), PSLV-G or PSLV-XL variants. The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The satellite in GTO is further raised to its final destination, viz., Geo-synchronous Earth orbit (GEO) of about 36000 Km altitude (and zero deg inclination on equatorial plane) by firing its in-built on-board engines. Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for the communication applications. Two versions of the GSLV are being developed by ISRO. The first version, GSLV Mk-II, has the capability to launch satellites of lift-off mass of up to 2,500 kg to the GTO and satellites of up to 5,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO. GSLV MK-II is a three-staged vehicle with first stage using solid rocket motor, second stage using Liquid fuel and the third stage, called Cryogenic Upper Stage, using cryogenic engine.