Science & Technology in 2018
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COVER STORY Science & Technology in 2018 – A Snapshot The year 2018 brought to the fore many scientific discoveries and innovations, from unveiling a new shape called Scutoid to the development of the world’s first micro-factory for e-waste. Here is a snapshot of some of the major scientific breakthroughs of the year 2018. 14 | Science Reporter | January 2019 temperature of the planet was found to be 600°C which makes it inhabitable. Space & Astronomy Italian Space Agency Detects Liquid Water on Mars Super-Earth Orbiting Sun’s Closest Solitary Star According to a paper published in the journal Science, Astronomers have recently discovered a new ‘Super-Earth’ researchers from the Italian Space Agency (ISA) have orbiting the sun’s nearest solitary star named as ‘Barnard’s discovered a massive underground water body beneath a layer star’ which is six light years away and the fastest moving star of Martian ice. The water body is about 20 km wide. It was in the night sky. The exoplanet is called ‘Super-Earth’ as it detected by the radar instrument MARSIS (Mars Advanced is 3.2 times as massive as the earth. It orbits the host star in Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) which uses roughly 233 days. The planet’s host star is a red dwarf, a cool, low-frequency electromagnetic waves. low-mass star, which only dimly illuminates this newly found The water present is assumed to be very salty with the world. This breakthrough discovery has been announced in a presence of calcium, magnesium and other minerals as only paper published in the journal Nature. salty water can withstand the temperature of mars. Image Credit: Sci-news.com Image source: Context map: NASA/Viking; THEMIS background: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Arizona State University; MARSIS data: ESA/NASA/JPL/ Indian Scientists at PRL Discovered ‘EPIC’ Planet ASI/Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et Scientists of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), al 2018 Ahmedabad, discovered for the first time a new planet named EPIC 211945201b (or K2-236b) revolving around a Sun-like star named EPIC 211945201 (or K2-236). This exoplanet is six times bigger than the Earth but smaller than Saturn and bigger than Neptune. EPIC revolves around the host star about 600 light years away. With this discovery, India has become one of the countries which have discovered planets around stars. Astrophysicists Find a Superbright Quasar from the Universe’s Infancy The discovery was made by the ‘PRL Advance Radial- Researchers from Carnegie Institution for Science in California velocity Abu-Sky Search’ (PARAS) spectrograph integrated spotted a 13 billion-year-old quasar which is the brightest object with a 1.2 m telescope that measures the mass of the planet ever seen in the early universe. Quasars are the supermassive at PRL’s Gurushikar Observatory at Mount Abu. The surface black holes located at the heart of galaxies consuming an Image source: NASA enormous amount of matter and emitting a huge amount of Image source: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science January 2019 | Science Reporter | 15 radiations. The newly found quasar called PSO J352.4034- sized active K dwarf in Virgo Constellation. It orbits the star 15.3373 is spewing the brightest radio emissions ever observed every fourteen hours. The dayside temperature of the planet in the early universe. reaches over 2000°C. The research has been published in Nature Astronomy. Japan Now World’s First to Land MINERVA-II1 on Asteroid Ryugu With the successful landing of MINERVA-II1 on asteroid Physics, Technology Ryugu, Japan has made history. The MINERVA-II1 comprises two rovers, Rover-1A and Rover-1B. The two tiny robotic & Engineering rovers were part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Overhaul of Scientific Units Hayabusa2 asteroid sample-return mission. Engineers deployed In the biggest overhaul of the international system of units the robots on 21 September and both rovers made the landing since 1875, countries have voted to redefine four basic units of safely. The rovers are designed to hop on the asteroid surface measurement — the ampere, the kilogram, the Kelvin and the in order to take photographs and collect data. mole. At a meeting on 16 November 2018, 60 delegates from governments around the world voted unanimously to change how these units are defined — which will come into force on 20 May 2019. Under the new International System of Units (known simply as SI), all measures will be described using fundamental constants of nature and be derived through experiments, severing the last links between the SI and physical objects or arbitrary references. Measurements must always be made against a reference, and standard references are used to ensure that units are comparable and consistent across the world — from measuring milligrams of drugs to the timing of Global Positioning Systems. For mass, this means that every measurement must be traceable back to the kilogram in France. The idea to base all units in relation to constants of nature — being unchanging and belonging to no one country — has Image source: space.com been around since the late nineteenth century. But it has taken almost 150 years for scientists to measure the values with K2-229b: Newly Discovered Earth-sized Planet enough accuracy to do so. A team of researchers from Aix-Marseille University in France using Kepler Telescope and researchers at the University World’s First 3D Printed Human Corneas of Warwick’s Astronomy and Astrophysics using Doppler Scientists from Newcastle University, UK, have developed Spectroscopy Technology (Wobble Method) have discovered the world’s first 3D printed human cornea to ensure unlimited an Earth-sized planet named “K2-229b”. supply of corneas solving the problem of shortage of available The planet is almost 20% larger than Earth but has a cornea to transplant. This initiative may help many blinds mass which is over two and a half times greater. The planet to gain their sight again. The research has been published is located very close to the host star which is itself a medium in Experimental Eye Research. Image Credit: Newcastle University Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech 16 | Science Reporter | January 2019 Lab-Grown Lungs Transplanted into Pigs Indian Scientist Develops World’s First Micro Factory for For the first time, researchers from the University of Texas E-Waste Medical Branch have successfully transplanted lab-grown The world’s first micro-factory that can convert components lungs into a pig. They published a paper ‘Production and from e-waste (electronic waste) such as discarded smartphones, transplantation of bioengineered lung into a large-animal model’ laptops, watches, etc. into valuable materials for re-use has in the journal Science Translational Medicine. been launched at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), The bioengineered lungs were grown in a bioreactor for Sydney by Veena Sahajwalla (IIT trained Australian scientist) 30 days prior to transplantation. The breakthrough paves the of Indian origin. The e-waste micro-factory utilised green way for growing lungs to transplant into human patients in manufacturing technology for converting consumer waste the near future. like glass, plastic, timber, etc. into commercial materials and The team used cells from a single lung surgically removed products. from four pigs. After a month, the four pigs received a As the name suggests, the micro-factory is one of a series bioengineered second lung created from the pig’s own cells of small machines and devices that uses patented technology and a lung scaffold extracted from an unrelated animal. The to transform waste product into new and valuable products. tissue appeared to adapt to its new environment and did not Image Credit: Quentin Jones show signs of any of the complications of growing into a new body, like forming blood clots. All the pigs that received one of the lab-grown lungs remained healthy and had normal oxygen levels throughout the duration of the experiment. Metalenses — Revolutionising Optics A team of researchers at Havard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed for the first time a single lens named as Metalens that can focus the entire visible spectrum of light including the white light on the same spot and with high resolution. Metalenses have flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light. Metalenses are capable of replacing the bulky, curved lenses that are normally used in optical devices. The research has been published in Nature Nanotechnology. Gabrielle Upton, NSW Minister for the Environment and Professor Veena Sahajwalla at the launch of the world’s first e-waste micro-factory First Ever Photochromic Contact Lenses US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved the usage of Acuvue Oasys Contact Lens with Translational Intelligence Technology which is the world’s first contact lens that automatically turns dark when exposed to sunlight. Lenses are soft enough for daily use to correct vision of people with non-diseased eyes who are nearsighted (myopia) or farsighted (hyperopia). People with a certain degree of astigmatism, which is an Image Credit: Newcastle University abnormal curvature of the eye, can also use it. These contact lenses contain a photochromic additive that slightly darkens in bright sunlight and automatically returns to the regular tint when exposed to the normal or dark lighting condition. World’s Fastest Rotor This flat metalens is the first single lens that Scientists from Purdue University have developed the world’s can focus the entire fastest spinning rotor which helps in studying quantum visible spectrum of light mechanics. The rotor can spin at more than 60 billion including white light in revolutions per minute, making it the world’s fastest man-made the same spot and in object. It is more than 1,00,000 times faster than a high-speed high resolution.