Current Affairs - December 2019 to May 2020

Month May 2020 Type Science and Technology

161 Current Affairs were found in Last Six Months for Type - Science and Technology

(Showing 147 Important Ones)

Science 1. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research along with National Physical Laboratory recently discovered a bi-luminescent security ink, to be used to counterfeit currency notes. It shows two colours when exposed to light. Ink is produced by mixing two different colours namely green and red in the ratio 3:1. This mixture was hated to 400-degree Celsius. 2. Scientists from Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) developed a pH-responsive smart bandage that can deliver medicine applied in wound at pH that is suitable for the wound. It is developed by fabricating a nanotechnology-based cotton patch that uses cheap and sustainable materials like cotton and jute. Jute has been used for first time as a precursor in synthesizing fluorescent carbon dots, and water was used as dispersion medium. Stimuli-responsive nature of fabricated hybrid cotton patch acts as an advantage as in case of growth of bacterial infections in a wound, and this induces release of drug at lower pH which is favourable under these conditions. This pH-responsive behaviour of the fabricated cotton patch lies in the unique behaviour of the jute carbon dots incorporated in the system because of the different molecular linkages formed during the carbon dot preparation. Use of cheap and sustainable material like cotton and jute to fabricate patch makes whole process biocompatible, non-toxic, low cost and sustainable. 3. 2 new bird species found during Great Backyard Bird count, in UT of Ladakh. These are Red Throated Thrush and Plumbeous Water Redstart, found for first time in Ladakh Region. 4. Scientists at Hyderabad-based DNA Finger Printing and Diagnostics Center have discovered a new mechanism that prevents cancer when an anti-cancer protein is converted. CDFD scientists have identified a rare p53 form of tongue cancer in Indians, which causes these mutant p53 cancers. Scientists identified genes of mutant p53 protein. One of these genes, called SMARCD1, is the most important. SMARCD1 converts a protein into symbolic words. It goes with other proteins and forms a multi-protein complex. Scientists have found that SMARCD-1 is seen in tongue cancer in Indians. 5. IIT BHU Researchers made significant achievements in developing nanomaterials based supercapacitors to achieve high energy density and power density of supercapacitors. High energy density of supercapacitors suggests that constant current can be withdrawn for longer duration without recharging. Hence automobiles can run longer distances without charging. Researchers developed a cost-effective process of producing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) at a moderate temperature of 100°C, with high capacitance performance. Researchers also developed a novel green approach for synthesis of Iron-based nanocatalyst, which can be used for large scale production of Cabon Nanotubes. Additionally, Group is working on optoelectronic applications of nanomaterials, for developing novel nanostructures of carbon and metal dichalcogenides semiconductors for photodetection and Surface-Enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). SERS can help detect harmful molecules present in water at ultra-low concentrations. They demonstrated detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G), an organic laser dye up to lowest limit of sub-nano-molar concentration using rGO and MoS2 nanomaterials. 6. Scientists at Agharkar Research Institute Pune come up with plant data of the Northern Western Ghats, which indicates that plateaus, in addition to forests, should be prioritized for conservation of Northern Western Ghats. They found that majority of endemic species are therophytes, which complete their life cycle in a short period during monsoon. Northern Western Ghats have plateaus and cliffs that display maximum endemic species, unlike forests. Forests of Northern Western Ghats harbour many species which are not endemic. 7. Scientists at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) developed a highly efficient superabsorbent material for liquid respiratory and other body fluid solidification and disinfection for the safe management of infected respiratory secretion, titled Chitra Acrylosorb Secretion Solidification System. AcryloSorb can absorb liquids at least 20 times more than its dry weight and also contains a decontaminant for in situ disinfection. 8. Scientists at Institute of Nano Science and Technology Mohali (INST) found a low-cost metal-free nanomaterial for visible light microbial disinfection which can be an alternative to silver and other metal-based materials - Researchers tested carbon nitride quantum dots (g-CNQDs) for visible-light-driven antibacterial activity and found it to be efficient, apart from being biocompatible with mammalian cells. It is a suggested anti bacterial alternative to metal/non-metal semiconductors and expensive silver, thus making it cost-effective 9. Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology Dehradun found a seasonal advancement in 220 surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh. ‘Surging’ glaciers are those that have shown advancement in volume and length over time. Behaviour of these glaciers, which are 40% of glaciated area of Karakoram, goes against normal trend of considerable reduction in volume and length of most glaciers in the Himalaya in recent decades. Surging of glaciers is potentially catastrophic as it can lead to destruction of villages, roads and bridges. It can also advance across a river valley and form ice-dammed lake. Scientists focused on Shispare and Muchuhar glaciers, former tributaries of once larger Hasanabad Glacier situated in Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Surge-type glaciers oscillate between brief (months to years) rapid flow and lengthy (tens to hundreds of years) slow flow or stagnation, which are called ‘active’ (or ‘surge’) and ‘quiescent’ phases, respectively. The study will help to understand diversity of glacial behaviour and help make accurate assessments of individual glacier mass balances for disaster planning and management. 10. Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) fabricated an economical and energy-efficient wafer-scale photodetector (thin slice-based) using gold – silicon interface, for security applications. It could help detect weak scattered light as an indication of unwanted activity. Photodetectors are utmost important in ay optoelectronic circuit, used in wide variety of applications. However, material cost and intricate fabrication processes involved in realizing high-performance detectors make them unaffordable for day to day applications. The current invention provides a cost-effective solution-based fabrication method for high-performance photodetector. Detector exhibits a rapid response of 40 microseconds and can detect low light intensities. It operates in self-powered mode, wich high precision. 11. SpaceX became first private rocket company to send astronauts to space, launching NASA Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. It will end reliance of NASA on Russian space rockets for sending NASA astronauts to space. As part of mission, Astronauts in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Capsule entered International Space Station (ISS). 12. A new parasitic fungus has been discovered by a University of Copenhagen (Denmark) biologist, termed as Troglomyces twitteri. It is named after Twitter as it was discovered in Twitter. The image was posted in Twitter by an entomologist 1n 2018. The Fungi belongs to the order called Laboulbeniales. These are fungi that attack millipedes and insects. They look like larvae. 13. A new trough collector equipped with enhanced energy to serve industries has been developed by IIT Madras. The Parabolic Trough Collector is a lightweight and low-cost system with high energy efficiency and can operate under the country's varied climatic conditions. It can pave way for sustainable energy solutions in agriculture and industrial process heat sectors. Trough Collector focuses sunlight on a small area where it is absorbed and then utilised for heating and subsequently into energy generation. 14. A tiny near-Earth asteroid and temporary satellite of Earth named 2020 CD3, has been discovered, as part of the Mount Lemmon Survey or Catalina Sky Survey. It is the second temporary satellite of Earth discovered, after 2006 RH120, which was discovered in 2006. 2020 CD3 may have been captured by Earth around 2016–2017, and is expected to remain in a geocentric orbit around Earth until April 2020. Also, Astronomy student from University of British Columbia, Michelle Kunimoto discovered 17 new planets, including a potentially habitable Earth-sized rocky body that may have liquid water, by combing data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Finding also includes planet named ‘KIC-7340288 b’ which is 1000 light years away from eart and is one and a half times size of Earth and is in habitable zone of its star. 15. American and British Scientists discovered remnants of a 386-million-year old world’s oldest fossil forest in a sandstone quarry in Cairo, New York, United States (US). This forest is around 2 or 3 million years older than the current world’s oldest forest at Gilboa, which is around 40 kilometres away from the Cairo site. 16. An analysis of 369 solar-like stars shows that brightness variations of our Sun are extremely weak by cosmic standards, making Sun extraordinarily monotonous. Study is led by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. For the first time, scientists compared Sun with hundreds of other stars with similar rotation periods and other fundamental properties. Study found that on average, other stars had five times more brightness variability than our sun. Sun is made up mainly of hydrogen and helium, formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. It stretches about 1.4 million kilometers across and has a surface temperature of 5,500 degrees Celsius. Records included about 400 years of observational data on sunspots, showing that sun has not been much more active than it is now. his The discovery that sun does not experience as many changes as other stars, may be good news for life on Earth. 17. An earth size exoplanet Kepler-1649c has been found by researchers, while looking through old observations from Kepler Telescope. The planet orbits in its star’s habitable zone, which supports liquid water. Of all exoplanets found by Kepler, this one is most similar to Earth’s temperature and size. It is 1.06 times larger from Earth. It receives from its host star the 75 % of light that Earth receives from sun, making its temparature similar to earth. A year on Kepler-1649c is equivalent to only 19.5 days on Earth, as it orbits its red dwarf star very closely. 18. As per C3S (Copernicus Climate Change Service) and CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) - The 1 Million Square Kilometer Hole in Ozone layer Over North Pole, has healed itself. It was formed due to unusual climatic conditions and was discovered recently. It has reportedly healed due to Polar Vortex, a winter phenomenon. Polar Vortex is cyclonic circular winds that blow in stratosphere from west to east. Polar Vortex extends from tropopause through stratosphere and into mesosphere. When vorticity is high, values of ozone is minimum and temperature is at its highest cold. Thus, the hole has closed as the vorticity has decreased. 19. Asteroid 1998 OR2 (Asteroid 52768) safely passed by Earth, at distance of 62 Lakh kilometres. It had diameter of approx 1.2 Miles (2 KM) and travelled at approx 20000 miles per hour. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, had categorized asteroid 1998 OR2 as ‘a potentially hazardous object’, because it flies past Earth’s earth at regular intervals. 20. Astronomers at University of California (US) discovered an Ultramassive monster galaxy dubbed as XMM-2599. This galaxy existed around 12 billion years ago, just 1.8 billion years after formation of universe. 21. Astronomers at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) found a rare new Super-Earth planet towards the centre of the galaxy. Its host star is about 10% mass of our Sun. Planet would have a 'year' of approximately 617 days. Discovery was made using a technique called gravitational microlensing. Microlensing is a rare effect, with one in a million stars in the galaxy are affected at a given time. Planet named OGLE-2018-BLG-0677 was discovered in 2018 observation during the microlensing event by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment(OGLE). 22. Astronomers developed a model that can predict which of many types of clouds, from smoggy methane haze to sapphire, can be expected on hot Planets of different temperatures (Jupiter like Exoplanets), which can be up to thousands of degrees kelvin. This will help astronomers in studying gases in atmospheres of distant worlds as clouds interfere in getting measurement of atmospheric composition. It will also be helpful in understanding atmospheres of cooler giant planets and their moons, such as Saturn and Jupiter’s moon Titan. Most common type of cloud that can be expected over a large range of temperatures must consist of solid or liquid droplets of Oxygen and Silicon, like melted quartz or molten sand. Skies on cooler hot Jupiters that (950 kelvin) are dominated by a hydrocarbon haze, essentially smog. 23. Astronomers discovered biggest explosion seen in universe since Big Bang in Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, 390 million light-years from Earth by using X-Ray and radio telescopes. The Explosion is 5 times bigger than any explosion known so far. Explosive force caused a huge gap in plasma containing hot gases in galaxy cluster, located around Black Hole. 24. Astronomers discovered that closest known brown dwarf, Luhman 16A (6.5 light years awsy), shows signs of cloud bands similar to those seen on Jupiter and Saturn. This is the first time scientists have used the technique of polarimetry to determine the properties of atmospheric clouds outside of the solar system or exoclouds. Brown dwarfs are objects heavier than planets but lighter than stars and typically have 13 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Luhman 16A is part of a binary system containing a second brown dwarf, Luhman 16B. Both brown dwarfs weigh about 30 times as much as Jupiter. Researchers used an instrument on Very Large Telescope in Chile to study polarised light from the Luhman 16 system. NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will study systems like Luhman 16 to look for signs of brightness variations in infrared light that are indicative of cloud features. NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will be equipped with a coronagraph instrument that can conduct polarimetry and may be able to detect giant exoplanets in reflected light and eventual signs of clouds in their atmospheres. 25. Astronomers found farthest galaxy group identified as “EGS77“. This Trio of galaxies dates to when universe was only 680 million years old, or less than 5% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. EGS77 is farthest group of galaxies to have ever been sighted, discovered as part of the Cosmic Deep And Wide Narrowband (Cosmic DAWN) survey. The team was led by an Indian-origin Goa-born scientist, Vithal Tilvi. 26. Astronomers from Cornell University (US) developed a practical model- an environmental colour ‘decoder’- to get the climate clues of potentially habitable exoplanets in faraway galaxies. As per research, Light reflected on the surface of planets plays a crucial role not only on overall planet but also on detectable spectra of Earth-like planets. For example, a rocky, black, basalt planet will absorb light well and will be very hot but if there is an addition of sand and clouds, the planet will cool. 27. Brazilian Astronomers discovered 19 new asteroids between Jupiter and the Neptune, believed to hae joined solar system 4.5 billion years ago. These asteroids once belonged to another star and are now orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune. They are now a part of “Centaurs” orbiting the sun. 28. CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) has developed a new low-cost technology to produce Geranium saplings, under Aroma Mission. Geranium acts as an anti-inflammatory and anti-septic agent, with several medicinal values. With new technology, saplings can easily be obtained as they are being cultivated in open farms. Geranium plant is originally from South Africa and is predominantly used in manufacturing essential oils. 29. CSIR - Central Scientific Instruments Organisation Chandigarh (CSIO) developed an innovative technology for effective disinfection and sanitization to fight with corona pandemic, transferring this technology to Nagpur-based Rite Water Solutions. Electrostatic Disinfection Machine is developed based on electrostatic principle. It produces uniform and fine spray droplets of disinfectants in size range of 10-20 micrometre to kill microorganisms and viruses. 30. CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (Bhopal) Researchers developed porous carbon materials which can replace lead grid in lead-acid batteries. It can also be useful for heat sinks in power electronics, electromagnetic interference shielding in aerospace, hydrogen storage and electrode for lead-acid batteries and water purification systems. Present grid-scale energy-storage sector is dominated by lithium-ion batteries. However, there are some serious concerns regarding Li-ion batteries, such as safety risk, limited resource supply, high cost, and lack of recycling infrastructure. Therefore, lead-acid batteries are among best options. However, electrodes in lead-acid batteries suffer from problem of heavyweight, corrosion, poor thermal stability, and diffusion of electrolytes in one dimension. AMPRI Researchers have developed lightweight carbon foam with a density of less than 0.3g/cc, high porosity of over 85%, good mechanical strength. 31. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) established stable cultures of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) from patients’ samples. It enables CCMB to work towards vaccine development and testing of potential drugs to fight COVID-19. Novel coronavirus enters human cell by binding with the ACE-2 receptor on the cell surface. Not all cells have ACE-2 receptors. Human epithelial cells in the respiratory tract copiously express ACE-2 receptors, causing respiratory disease in the infected patient. However, epithelial cells ca not be grown in lab. Researchers use Vero cells (kidney epithelial cell lines from green African monkey), which express ACE-2 proteins. Culturing a large amount of virus and inactivating it can be used as inactivated virus vaccine. 32. Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) has developed a compact solid-state sensor to detect heavy metal ions in water, which can help onsite detection in remote areas. Heavy metal ions such as lead, mercury and cadmium pose severe potential threats to living beings as they can easily be accumulated in body and cannot be detoxified easily. Researchers have developed a compact solid-state sensor to detect heavy metal ions, down to 0.4 parts per billion (ppb) for efficient onsite detection. If water containing heavy metal ions are added to composite film, emission of the film quenches within seconds. 33. China launched a new communication technology experiment satellite Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing -5 (TJSW-5) by its Long March-3B carrier rocket. Satellite will be used in communication, radio, television and data transmission, as well as high throughput technology test. 34. Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that red panda species are two separate species. Earlier, both Himalayan and Chinese red Pandas were considered as red panda species. Yalu Zangbu river marks geographical boundary between the two species. Red Pandas are called “Living Fossils” as they are the only living member of the Ailuridae mammalian family. Yalu Zangbu river is upper stream of Brahmaputra river. It is longest river in Tibet. 35. Chinese Researchers identified molecular oxygen in a galaxy outside our Milky Way, by analyzing light waves that reached Earth from Markarian 231, a galaxy around 581 million light years away. 36. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) approved use of medicine Sepsivac for testing on COVID-19 Patients, developed through its New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) program. CSIR has been supporting Cadila Pharmaceuticals since 2007, for developing a drug to save lives of critically ill patients suffering from Gram-negative sepsis. The drug has been shown to reduce the mortality of critically ill patients by more than half. Similarity of symptoms under Gram-negative sepsis and COVID-19 has enforced CSIR to take this step. 37. DRDO's Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), in collaboration with IIT Delhi has developed a female-specific Full Body Protector named Prabala, to safeguard Female troops deployed in riot control actions. 38. For the first time, NASA scientists measured wind speed on a brown dwarf (located 32 light-years from Earth), an object larger than Jupiter, but not quite massive enough to become a star. It uses findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Researchers detected winds moving around planet at 1,425 mph (2,293 kph). Comparing to Neptune's atmosphere which features fastest winds in our solar system, at 1,200 mph (about 2,000 kph). 39. For the first time, gravitational wave observatories at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) scientific collaboration detected a merger of two unequal-mass black holes. The event, dubbed GW190412, was detected nearly a year ago. One of black holes was 30 times mass of Sun and other which had 8 times mass of sun. Merger took place approx 2.5 billion light years away. 40. Fossil of a leafy branch discovered from early Eocene in Patagonia in 1941 which was till now considered to be oldest bamboo of world, has now been shown to be a conifer (Chusquea Oxyphylla). It has been revealed thorugh a research at Pennsylvania State University (US). 41. Gene Editing Tool CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) used for first time to treat blindness, at Oregon University (USA). CRISPR-Cas is used to edit genes in an organism. It is an enzyme. Cas is CRISPR Associated protein. CRISPR based tool allows to target genomic location. After identifying the target, it adds, removes or alters that particular DNA sequence. 42. Habitable-Zone Planet Finder (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph on 10-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas (US), validated its 1st exoplanet called G 9-40b. It was discovered earlier by Nasa's Kepler Mission. It is about twice size of Earth orbiting a nearby low mass bright M-dwarf star with orbital period of 6 Earth-days. 43. Harvard University Researchers discovered a titanic wave of star-forming gases in Our galaxy Milky Way. scientists reported that this massive structure has been hiding out in Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arm closest to Earth. It’s an 50 quadrillion miles long and it’s home to tens of thousands of baby stars, with potential for countless more stellar births. The sun is just 500 light years away from the wave at its closest point. The structure dubbed Radcliffe Wave contains stellar nurseries once thought to belong in a ring-shaped band around the sun. The wave contains gases equivalent to 3 million times the mass of the sun. 44. Hyderabad based International Advanced Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) has developed a technology to improve fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines, by reducing friction in the engines. This has been achieved through Laser surface micro-texturing. In this technology, the friction is controlled by controlling the size, density and shape of the micro-surface texture features. Such a texture is created by using a pulsating laser beam. 45. ICAR’s Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) developed cell culture Classical Swine Fever vaccine. It will help save considerable number of rabbits that are killed to produce Lapinised CSF (Classical Swine Fever), the current vaccine. The new vaccine invented gives immunity for 2 years as compared to the previous vaccines that provided immunity for 3 to 6 months. 46. IIT Madras Researchers developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drone that can counter Rogue Drones (Spy Drones), helping law enforcement agencies secure airspace over critical civilian and military installations from surveillance by rogue drones. 47. IIT Madras and University of North Texas and United States Army lab, have developed a magnesium alloy to replace steel and aluminium in the automobile industry to reduce carbon footprint and increase fuel efficiency. 48. IIT Mandi developed a high-speed magnetic Random Access Memory (RAM), which is faster, energy-efficient and stores more data in a smaller volume as compared to existing data storage technologies. In Spin-Transfer Torque-Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM), data is represented as a spin of electrons, utilizing spinning electrons to transmit and process information. It is Unlike normal electronic devices that are driven by electron charges. This cutting-edge technology promises better storage capabilities than conventional electric charge-based RAM. 49. ISRO Launched India’s latest communication satellite GSAT-30, from Spaceport in French Guiana, onboard launch vehicle Ariane 5 VA- 251, from Kourou Launch Base (French Guiana). It carried India’s GSAT-30 and EUTELSAT KONNECT for Eutelsat. With a lift-off mass of 3357 kg, GSAT-30 will provide continuity to operational services on some of the in-orbit satellites. GSAT-30 derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will replace INSAT-4A in orbit. Mission life of GSAT-30 is 15 years. 50. ISRO signed pact with Indian Institute of Astrophysics to establish an optical telescope under “Project NETRA”. Project NETRA was launched by ISRO in September 2019, to set up observational facilities that will help in making early warnings to satellites about debris and hazards in their orbit. Aim is to make facilities powerful enough to track even smallest particle of 10 cm diameter up to a range of 3400 km. This will help India detect threats to Indian satellites from debris. ISRO has also set up its 4th Regional Academic Centre for Space (RAC-S) at National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NIT-K) at Surathkal. RAC-S encourages institutions to take part in advanced research technologies related to space technology. Othr ISRO RAC-S are in Jaipur, Guwahati and Kurukshetra. 51. ISRO will establish a 2nd launch port in Thoothukodi district in Tamil Nadu, to be used exclusively to launch small satellite launch vehicles. 52. ISRO will to send a half-humanoid robot called Vyom Mitra as an experimental mission to Gaganyaan. The robot is to fly in two unmanned mission that are planned in December 2020 and in June 2021. Under Gaganyaan, ISRO's largely autonomous 3.7-tonne capsule will orbit Earth at 400 km altitude for up to seven days with a two or three-person crew on board. Rs 10000 crore project is expected to be launched in 2022, year of 75th anniversary of India's Independence. Russia will train Potential Gaganyaan astronauts. Also, France will train Indian flight surgeons to enable them to monitor the health of astronauts selected for Gaganyaan Mission. 53. In India, Approx 23 million tonnes of leftover rice residues are annually burnt by farmers to get rid of straw and prepare their fields for sowing wheat, which is next crop, resulting in air pollution. To overcome this, Scientists at Pune based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) mapped 2 alternative dwarfing genes Rht14 and Rht18 on chromosome 6A in durum wheat, and DNA-based markers were developed for better selection of these genes in wheat breeding lines. Wheat lines with these alternative dwarfing genes, apart from reducing crop residue burning, can allow deeper sowing of wheat seeds to avail advantage of residual moisture in the soil under dry environments. Presently available semi-dwarf wheat varieties, carry conventional Rht1 dwarfing alleles and produce optimum yields under high- fertility irrigated conditions. However, they are not well adapted for deeper sowing conditions in dry environments. 54. In order to meet demand of growing Demand of rice, its production needs to increase by about 50% of current productivity. In this direction, Under a Joint study by National Institute of Plant Genome Research, National Rice Research Institute and University of Delhi, Researchers identified a region in genome of rice, which seems to have potential for improving productivity. Scientists sequenced genomes of four Indian genotypes (LGR, PB 1121, Sonasal & Bindli), and found that Indian rice germplasms had much more genomic diversity than that estimated so far. They studied DNA from 3000 rice accessions from across world, identifying a long (~6 Mb) genomic region, which had an unusually suppressed nucleotide diversity region across centromere of chromosome 5. They named it as `low diversity region’. This region played important role during domestication of rice varieties, as it was present in most cultivated rice genotypes and absent in wild varieties. Most of modern cultivated rice varieties belong to japonica and indica genotypes. They had this region prominently. The study assumes importance as in addition to genome-wide exploration, it has highlighted an important and a long domestication- related genomic region, which was found to be evolutionarily crafted to carry multiple agronomic traits associations. 55. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received patent for its method of manufacturing highland lunar soil simulant or moon soil which was prepared to create an artificial moon surface as a part of 2019’s Moon landing mission Chandrayaan-2 so that Vikram lander and Pragyaan rover could be tested. This soil simulant represents the regolith (loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits atop a layer of bedrock) of lunar highland region. It is made in bulk from anorthosite rocks, a sample similar to regolith identified and picked out from Sittampundi Anorthosite Complex, almost 67 km from Salem, in Tamil Nadu. 56. Indian Space Research Organization's proposed astronaut hub will be established at Challakere, in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. It is expected to start functioning in 3 years. ISRO has prepared a proposal of Rs 2700 crore for the development of this center. 57. Indian aerospace firm Ananth Technologies signed deals to build six foreign-owned satellites in India, as first time a private firm is making satellites for global customers using India’s low-cost base. Foreign satellites will be weighing 50 - 250 kg. 58. India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C48 launched RISAT-2BR1 along with nine commercial satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota RISAT-2BR1 is a radar imaging earth observation satellite weighing about 628 kg. The satellite will provide services in the field of Agriculture, Forestry and Disaster Management. The mission life of RISAT-2BR1 is 5 years. The nine customer satellites of Israel, Italy, Japan and USA were precisely injected into their designated orbits. It Included Duchifat- 3 satellite made by an Israeli student. It is a remote sensing satellite through which students from all schools across country will be able to experiment and carry through Earth observation. This is 50th mission of PSLV and also 75th vehicle mission from Sriharikota. 59. Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology Guwahati (IASST) developed an electrochemical sensing platform for detecting carcinogenic or mutagenic compound N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDEA) sometimes found in food items like cured meat, bacon, some cheese, and low-fat milk. It was achieved by developing a modified electrode by immobilizing carbon nanomaterials (carbon dots) in DNA. Electrochemical biosensor platform was developed using ability of NDMA and NDEA, to alter the DNA. Electrode was developed by depositing carbon dots (carbon nanoparticles) and then immobilizing bacterial DNA on them. 60. International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced names of newly discovered stars and planets, where name "Sharjah" was chosen for a star with "Barjeel" being name of one of its planets, As a tribute to contributions of Emirate of Sharjah to the global scientific community. 61. International Astronomical Union (IAU) named a white yellow star in Sextans Constellation as “Bhibha” and its planet as “Santamasa”, honoring Indian Woman Scientist Bhibha Choudhury who discovered subatomic particle pi-meson. Bhibha is an ageing star that is 6.2 billion years old and Santamsa is its only planet. In particle physics, pi meson or pion is a subatomic particle. They are unstable and existing with positive, negative and neutral charges. It means that they are present in proton, neutron and electron of an atom. 62. JNCASR (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research) developed injectable silk-fibroin based injectable SF hydrogel (iSFH) to deliver sustained insulin to diabetic patients, developed using biocompatible additives. It will ease insulin delivery in diabetic patients. The gel was first tested in rats and was successful. Researchers found that subcutaneous injection of insulin with fibroid based hydrogel formed an active depot under skin. This helped to leach out insulin, restore physiological glucose for a longer period of time. Microstructures provide mechanical strength (to support injectability), and porous morphology of iSFH allowed the encapsulation of human recombinant insulin in its active form in diabetic rats. Diabetes results from inadequate production of insulin due to loss of beta cells or insulin resistance within the body, which imbalances the glucose homeostasis is leading to an abrupt increase of blood glucose level. Last resort of treatment involves repeated subcutaneous insulin injections to maintain the physiological glucose homeostasis. 63. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) has developed a one-step curable anti-microbial coating which, when coated on different surfaces such as textile, plastic and so on could kill a range of virus types including COVID 19. Corona virus, like influenza, is also an enveloped virus. Therefore it is anticipated that the coating may inactivate SARS-CoV-2 upon contact and can help prevent contamination if coated on various surfaces. 64. Kerala Innovator D Vasini Bai developed ten varieties of Anthurium, a flower with high market value, by cross-pollination. Anthurium is a vast group of beautiful blooming plants available in a wide range of colors, having high demands due to its use as indoor decorative plants and natural air purifiers. National Innovation Foundation facilitated mass multiplication and large scale production of four highly demanded varieties through tissue culture technique at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) Bangalore. 65. LIGO (Laser Inferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detected gravitational waves due to collision of two neutron stars, as 2nd time the gravitational waves are being detected. Mass of the neutron stars detected is expected to be 3.3 - 3.7 times that of sun. Scientists believe that the neutron stars were formed separately and drifted together to form a star pair. Currently LIGO operates 3 gravitational wave detectors at Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford. They are located 3,000 km apart in the shape of ‘L’. LIGO India is to come up in Maharashtra. It will aim at locating gravitational waves and their new sources. Gravitational waves are caused by exploding stars, black holes, merging neutron stars. LIGO helps to detect these waves and analyze information that they carry. 66. Many galaxies far more active than Milky Way have enormous twin jets of radio waves extending far into space. Normally these go in opposite directions, coming from a massive black hole at centre of galaxy. However, a few are more complicated and appear to have four jets forming an 'X' on sky. Several possible explanations have been proposed to understand this phenomenon. New MeerKAT Telescope (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) observations of one such galaxy, PKS 2014-55, favors the phenomenon - Material falling back into the galaxy being deflected into different directions forming the other two arms of the ‘X.’ Radio band images described as a ‘double boomerang’, sent by telescope, showed 2 powerful jets of radio waves of blue colour, that can be seen extending up to 2.5 million light-years into space (the distance between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy). Significantly, due to the pressure of tenuous intergalactic gas, both of them are ‘turned back’. 67. NASA 's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) discovered an Earth-sized world within the habitable range of its star, which could allow presence of liquid water. Planet is named "TOI 700 d", which is 100 light-years away from earth. Star TOI 700 is small, about 40 per cent of our Sun's size and only about half as hot. TESS discovered three planets in orbit, named TOI 700 b, c and d. Only "d" is in the so-called habitable zone, not too far from and not too close to the star, called Goldilocks zone. It is about 20 % larger than Earth and orbits its star in 37 days. TESS also discovered an exoplanet orbiting 2 stars instead of one, identified by a high school intern Wolf Cukier. Planet's size alone is 6.9 times larger than Earth, making it unlikely to be livable. Named TOI 1338 b, it is the only planet in TOI 1338 system, which is 1300 light-years away in constellation Pictor. 68. NASA announced Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SUNRISE) mission, to study about how sun creates Giant Solar Particle Storms. Mission is to deploy 6 CubeSats in Geosynchronous-orbit. Cubesats will use radio telescope to capture radio images of low- frequency emission that are emitted from sun. 69. NASA announced to launch its flight of astronauts on May 27, under Demo-2 Mission. It is first flight of NASA in 9 years. Mission is to use SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket. Mission of NASA sending astronauts to International Space Station has been named “Commercial Crew Programme”. 70. NASA issued plans for its project Artemis, which aims at placing first woman and next man on moon by 2024. The project aims to build a base camp on moon’s south pole, aiming to make a month long stay on moon. 71. NASA launched Solar Orbiter spacecraft, in association with European Space Agency (ESA). It is expected to send back first photos of Sun's poles. It could help scientists pinpoint origins of space weather and track eruptions on sun in near-real time. Orbiter will join NASA spacecraft called Parker Solar Probe and an in-progress telescope on Earth that recently captured most detailed photos ever taken of sun's surface. Probe will use gravitational influence of the Earth and Venus to position itself at 26 million miles from sun. It is 95% of distance between sun and earth. Probe will help scientists to observe solar winds. 72. NASA renamed its next-generation space telescope Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), after NASAs' first chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, set for launch in 2025. She paved the way for space telescopes focused on broader universe. She is considered as mother of Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched 30 years ago. Roman Space Telescope is expected to help NASA better understand space and help unravel long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as force behind the universe’s expansion and also boost its search for distant planets beyond our solar system. 73. NASA researchers found high energy particles erupting from ice in Antarctic region. Researchers believe that these particles are proof to parallel universe. ANTIA is high-energy cosmic neutrino that detect radio pulses that are being emitted by Antarctic ice sheet. The neutrinos in the ice produce radio pulses due to Askaryan effect. ANTIA succeeded in detecting 'fountain' of high-energy particles in 2006 and 2014 but the researchers initially thought them as background noise or glitches. Neutrinos are only particle that reach earth unattenuated. Askaryan Effect is the phenomenon where a particle travelling at a velocity faster than light in a dense electric medium, produces shower of secondary charged particles. 74. NASA scientists mapped global wind circulation patterns in upper atmosphere of Mars. Circulation patterns were mapped 120 to 300 kilometers above Mars’s surface showing “ripple effects”. Study noted that average circulation patterns from season to season were very stable on Mars. But, shorter-term variability of winds in upper atmosphere was greater than anticipated. 75. NASA selected Space Firms SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics, to build new lunar landing systems that will carry astronauts to moon by 2024. 3 companies will share amount of $967 million from NASA. 76. NASA stated that Asteroid ‘1998 OR 2’ will safely flyby earth, about 64 lakh km away from earth. This asteroid was first seen by NASA in 1998. It will pass by the Earth on April 29, 2020. As per NASA, 4 other asteroids heading towards Earth - 2020 FV4, 2020 FP, 2012 XA133 and 2020 FV3. One among the four asteroids is a 1,280-foot wide asteroid. 77. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spotted Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander on Moon, with debris belonging to Vikram visible. Indian engineer Shanmuga Subramanian gave evidence related to wreck, to NASA. Debris of Vikram Lander is outlined with green dots in picture, while blue dots show difference in moon's surface after crash. The letter 'S' shows the debris of the lander identified by scientist Shanmuga Subramanian.

Image - 78. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, beamed back its first observations from edge of the sun’s scorching atmosphere. Launched in August 2018, It has already flown closer to the sun than any spacecraft before. Some observations Include - Solar Winds - Previously, scientists observed that sun’s wind has two main components - fast one that travels around 700km per second (and comes from giant coronal holes in sun’s polar region) and a slow wind travelling below 500km per second, whose origin is unknown. Parker probe traced slow wind back to small coronal holes dappled around sun’s equator – solar structures that were previously not known. Coronal holes are cooler, less dense regions, through which magnetic fields stream out into space, acting as channels for the charged particles to flow along. Why Sun's Corona is very hot and as compared to sun's Surface - Particles in solar wind appeared to be released in explosive jets, rather than being radiated out in a steady stream. This rapid release of energy from the sun’s interior into its atmosphere explains why sun's atmosphere is so staggeringly hot compared to its surface. New observations were made when Parker was about 15m miles (24m km) from sun, but it will eventually fly to about 6 KM (3.83 Miles) of its surface - more than seven times closer than previous closest mission, Helios 2 in 1976. 79. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) named its Mars rover Perseverance, scheduled in July 2020. Alexander Mather , a seventh-grade student, had recommended this name. NASA’s Mars Rover ‘Perseverance’ will look for signs of past microbial life on Mars. It weighs about 2300 pounds (approx 1043 kg). 80. National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) Lucknow has developed a pest-resistant variety of cotton, due for field trials during April - October 2020, in Faridkot Center of Punjab Agriculture University (Ludhiana). This is expected to protect against whiteflies that are one of top devastator pests in world and vectors for some 200-plant viruses. 81. National Innovation foundation developed an indigenous herbal medicine called Wormivet, as an alternative to chemical methods that are currently being used to treat worms. Wormivet is used to treat endoparasite worms in livestock. 82. New astronomical transient that is faster, brighter, and heavier at radio wavelengths than its predecessors has been identified by astrophysicists. After a bright burst was captured in 2016, in a tiny galaxy 500 million lightyears away, Researchers determined that anomaly is third fast blue optical transient (FBOT) ever captured in X-ray and radio wavelengths. FBOTs are highly luminous cosmic explosions. The most famous FBOT is AT2018COW (“The Cow”)- a rare event that appeared to be birth of a neutron star or black hole. Newly identified FBOT, called CSS161010 in short has vastly overshadowed the previously discovered FBOT “The Cow” with the heaviness and sheer speed of its material outflows. It produced some kind of fastest outflows in nature launching particles and gas at more than 55% speed of the light. CSS161010 launched 1 to 10 percent mass of sun, at more than half the speed of light which shows that this is a new class of transient. 83. New fish species discovered in Meghalaya's West Khasi Hills district, named Schistura syngkai. It was discovered at Twahdidoh stream, a tributary of Wahblei river. It has golden-brown bodies with blackish lateral stripes and slightly emarginate tail fins. 84. New fresh water fish called Punitus Sanctus found in Velankanni, Tamil Nadu. Punitus is a species of fish that are commonly found in drains of western and eastern ghats and also in Eastern Himalayas. 85. New species of green pit viper discovered in Arunachal Pradesh, named Salazar’s pit viper after Salazar Slytherin, a fictional character in J.K Rowling’s book series “Harry Potter”. 86. Newly discovered species of treehopper in US, has been named Kaikaia Gaga after American singer Lady Gaga. Earlier, A deep-sea crustacean was named from American heavy metal band Metallica and is now known as Macrostylis metallicola. Synalpheus pinkfloydi shrimp was named after the English rock band Pink Floyd. 87. On Apr 24, 2020, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed 30 Years. Named After Noted astronomer Edwin Hubble, Hubble Space Observatory is run in partnership with European Space Agency. It has played crucial role in several discoveries, including evidence of existence of black holes in centre of galaxy. On its 30th anniversary, Hubble captured a Cosmic Reef, a group of stars that has an appearance of a coral reef undersea. Some Notable Observations by Hubble Space Telescope - Age and Expansion of Universe - It has measured distances to Cepheid variable stars more accurately than ever before, constraining value of Hubble constant, the measure of the rate at which the universe is expanding, which is also related to its age. Universe estimated age is now about 13.7 billion years. Before Hubble Telescope, it was predicted between 10- 20billion years. Hubble data helped discover farthest known galaxy so far - GN-z11, 32 Billion Light Years Away. Images provided by HST have been especially well-suited to establishing prevalence of black holes in center of galaxies. In March 2019, observations from Hubble were used to determine that Milky Way Galaxy weighs approximately 1.5 trillion solar units and has a radius of 129,000 light years. It is more than double of earlier estimated Radius of Milky way. 88. Paleontologists of Canada linked human hands to fins of fish, as First such event time in study of Human Evolution, by examining a fossil of “Elpistostege”. Elpistostege represents pivotal stage of transition of fish into land vertebrates, supported by front fins of fish called pectoral fins. Paleontologists believe that during its era, Elpistostege was the top predator in brackish estuary ecosystem. Elpistostege lived during Devonian period, that spanned 60 million years and is around 419 million years ago. It is named after place Devon (England), where rocks of this era were first found. 89. Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative diseasem with no cure so far. It is believed that an aggregation of a protein called alpha synuclein (ASyn) plays a crucial role in its pathology. Researchers are studying mechanism of how protein forms the aggregates, and how the aggregation results in the death of neuronal cells observed in Parkinson’s disease. It could help find a cure for the same. Aggregation of ASyn is not easy to understand. End point of the aggregation is the formation of small slender fibres or `fibrils’, in which the protein has a structure type, what is called a cross beta fold. Scientists have solved 3D structures of fibrils and have learnt how to develop drugs to target them. However, these drugs do not work. These failures have made the scientists to think that perhaps they need to understand not only the fibrilsbut also the variety of intermediates that form early in the aggregation process. Scientists from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology Kolkata teamed up to find a solution to this issue, finding Z-scan method useful. It could help in monitoring both the early and late stages of aggregation of ASyn nicely. Thus, this method can be really useful for both pharmaceutical and clinical research. 90. Researchers at Agharkar Research Institute Pune developed a sensitive and low-cost sensor to rapidly detect bacteria, which can detect as low as ten bacterial cells from a sample size of one milliliter in under 30 minutes. Called ‘bug sniffer,’ this biosensor uses synthetic peptides, magnetic nanoparticles, and quantum dots to detect the presence of bacteria, providing a cost- and time-effective way of screening water and foodborne pathogens. 91. Researchers at IIT Guwahati explored new ways to prevent accumulation of neurotoxic molecules in brain, that are associated with short- term memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Team has reported interesting methods such as application of low-voltage electric field, and the use of ‘trojan peptides’ to arrest aggregation of neurotoxic molecules in brain. India has 3rd highest number of Alzheimer’s patients in world, after China and US. There is no therapeutic approach yet that can treat the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s. 92. Researchers at Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) discovered several Lithium-rich giant stars, indicating that Lithium is being produced in stars and accounts for its abundance in interstellar medium. They also associated such Lithium enhancement with central Helium-burning stars, also known as red clump giants, opening up new vistas in evolution of red giant stars. Present measurement of Lithium in interstellar medium and very young stars is about 4 times more than primordial value. Thus, identifying sources of Lithium enrichment in our Galaxy has been a great interest to researchers to validate Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as well as a stellar mixing process. 93. Researchers at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) in collaboration with Nanomechanics Inc (USA) have jointly developed an advanced tool for mapping nano-mechanical properties of materials like multi-phase alloys, composites, and multi-layered coatings, called NanoBlitz 3D. It has high-throughput and enables performance of a large array, typically consisting of 1000s high-speed nano-indentation tests, wherein each indentation tests takes less than one second to measure hardness and elastic modulus of a given material. 94. Researchers at Nainital-based Arayabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) found that SN 2010kd, a super- luminous supernova (Stars Collision) stands out with amount of mass as well as Nickel ejected during explosion, which is much more than normal core-collapse supernova. Scientists said that larger ejected mass of Super-luminous supernovae SN 2010kd, located 1.5 Giga light-years away, indicates that related star evolution might be different from other possible progenitors of normal core-collapse supernovae. Also, It exploded with a larger velocity but decayed slower than other similar supernovae. It was discovered by Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE-IIIb) telescope as a part of ROTSE supernova verification project in USA. in November 2010. 95. Researchers at Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) Guwahati have developed a solution to reduce use of chemicals in tea plantations. Researchers have found significant plant-growth-promoting and antifungal activities of endophyticactino bacteria associated with Tea plant and related genera, Eurya to find potent plant growth-promoting strains. Application of endophytic Actinobacteria could reduce chemical inputs in Tea plantation. 96. Researchers at Institute of Nano Science and Technology Mohali found a unique route to fabricate precisely controlled nanostructures of desired geometry and location on 2D materials, through a rapid one-step low power laser writing process. Approaches used so far to achieve controllability over hotspots distribution, limits their potential to be used for large area substrates. To overcome this, INST developed a hybrid Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform of Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructure decorated with gold nanoparticles, where direct laser writing is used to engineer artificial edges on surface of MoS2. This created localized hotspots with remarkable precision and control. SERS is a technique for molecular detection and characterization that relies on enhanced Raman scattering of molecules that are adsorbed on SERS-active surfaces, such as nanostructured gold or silver. 97. Researchers confirmed existence of Proxima b, an Earth-like planet that's orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, Proxima Centauri. Proxima b is 1.17 times the mass of Earth, smaller than older estimate of 1.3 times. It orbits its star in just 11.2 days. Proxima b was first discovered in 2016 using HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) planet-hunting spectrograph at European Southern Observatory in Chile. Now, ESPRESSO spectrograph on Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile has provided detailed confirmation. It is apporx 4.24 Light years away from earth, making it the nearest exoplanet. 98. Researchers discovered a new species of tree frog from West Bengal, named Brown Blotched Bengal Tree Frog (Polypedates bengalensis). It belongs to the genus Polypedates- a genus of tree frog found throughout South and Southeast Asia. 99. Researchers from IIT Guwahati have developed materials that can produce energy from water to decentralizing energy generation for every household, using Nanoscale phenomenon called Electrokinetic streaming potential. 100. Researchers from IIT Hyderabad claimed finding found a molecule called “AIM-4”that can help in the treatment of rare neurodegenerative disease called “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis” (ALS) known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”. ALS is a neurodegenerative disorder that severely affects voluntary movement of muscles. 101. Researchers from National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) Pune found a way to speed up Process of generating RBCs outside the body (in vitro) from haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). They found that adding a very low concentrationof a small protein molecule called `transforming growth factor β1’ (TGF-β1), along with a hormone called erythropoietin (EPO), can cut down process time by three days (18 days from 21 earlier). Issue is that blood banks often face a severe shortage of whole blood as well as components of blood like red blood cells. Generating RBCs outside the body (in vitro) from haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is en expensive and lenghty process (21 days). The new finding can help speed it up. 102. Researchers from Raman Research Institute (under Department of Science & Technology) have devised a new test for fairness of quantum coin or ‘qubit’ (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) using entanglement theory. This is a significant contribution to quantum state discrimination, an essential aspect of quantum information science which is expected to influence quantum sensing. The new test uses entanglement to test the fairness of the quantum coin. Entanglement is a special type of correlation that exists in quantum world with no classical counterpart. 103. Researchers from Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Science and Technology (Thiruvanthapuram) developed an innovative intracranial flow diverter stent for treatment of aneurysms of blood vessels of brain. Intracranial aneurysm is a localized ballooning, bulging or dilation of arteries in the brain caused by progressive weakening of the inner muscles of the wall of blood vessels. Chitra flow diverter is designed to have better grip on walls of arteries of complex shapes in order to reduce risk of migration of device. It is also a low cost solution as compared to existing ones. 104. Researchers from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) brought out 35000 year history of river erosion and identified hotspots of erosion and wide valleys that act a buffer zones, after studying rivers in Ladakh Himalaya. Study showed how rivers in drier Ladakh Himalaya operated in longer time scales and how they responded to varying climate. Ladakh Himalaya forms a high altitude desert between Greater Himalayan ranges and Karakoram Ranges. Indus and its tributaries are major rivers flowing through the terrain. Research suggested that wide valley of Padam, with an area of 48 square km, in upper Zanskar, has stored a vast amount of sediments in these landforms, making Padam valley a hotspot of sediment buffering in Zanskar. This Study will help understand river-borne erosion and sedimentation, which are main drivers that make large riverine plains, terraces, and deltas that eventually become cradle to evolving civilizations. 105. Researchers from Indian Institute of Geomagnetism Mumbai developed a new Artificial Neural Networks based global Ionospheric Model (ANNIM), to predict ionospheric electron density with larger data coverage - a crucial need for communication and navigation. ANNs replicate processes in human brain to solve problems such as pattern recognition, classification, clustering, generalization, linear and nonlinear data fitting, and time series prediction. Ionospheric variability is greatly influenced by both solar originated processes and neutral atmosphere origin, making it difficult to model. Accurate prediction of electron density is still a challenging task. The model developed by IIG researchers may be utilized as a reference model in ionospheric predictions and has potential applications in calculating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning errors. 106. Researchers from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) Mohali made computer based designs of nano-materials with superhigh piezoelectricity which can be building blocks of futuristic nano-electronics for applications like ultrathin, next-generation nano- transistors. Piezoelectricity is generation of electricity in certain materials upon application of pressure. Applications include lighters, pressure gauge, sensors and so on. Piezoelectricity in 2D materials was first confirmed in monolayer in 2014. However, most of 2D materials reported till date mainly show in-plane piezoelectricity. Therefore, out-of-plane piezoelectricity is very much desired and sought after. INST Mohali research has demonstrated induction of superhigh out-of-plane piezoelectricity via stacking one monolayer over the other in 2D nanostructure, based on 2 dimensional van der Waals heterostructure (vdWH) comprising of 2D monolayers. This is a significant step towards meeting growing demand for superfast ultrathin nanodevices and nanotransistors. 107. Russia will launch its first Arktika-M satellite to monitor Arctic climate and environment, later in 2020. 2nd Arktika-M satellite will be launched in 2023. Arktika-M is a remote-sensing and emergency communications satellite. It will help collect meteorological data from polar regions of Earth. Data will help improve weather forecasts and enable scientists to better study climate change. 108. SPHERE instrument of Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured birth of new planet in the AB Aurigae star system, as first time in human history the birth of a star is being witnessed. The image depicts orange mass of gas. The mass showing the cosmic matter of the universe at gravitational tipping point is exactly the sign for a star system to be born. 109. Scientists at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune isolated 45 different strains of methanotrophic bacteria which have been found to be capable of reducing methane emissions from rice plants, crearting first indigenous methanotroph culture. Methanotrophs metabolise and convert methane into carbon-di-oxide, effectively reducing emission of methane, which is second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) and 26 times more potent as compared to CO2. Team found decrease in methane emissions in inoculated plants with a positive or neutral effect on growth of rice. This could lead to the development of microbial inoculants for methane mitigation in rice. 110. Scientists at Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) developed generalized one dimensional fluid simulation code capable of studying a wide spectrum of coherent electric field structures in near-earth plasma environment / magnetosphere, which can help in planning future space missions. Team developed a generalized 1D fluid code which modelled coherent electric field structures in space plasmas. Results obtained were found well in agreement with spacecraft observations of coherent electric field structures. Almost 99% of matter in universe is in form of plasma. Earth’s magnetosphere, too, contains this plasma processes that can hamper working of satellites. Apart from well being of these expensive satellites, academic understanding of this region is quite essential to comprehend cosmos. Sun is major source of plasma deposition in space around Earth. 111. Scientists at Institute of Nano Science and Technology Mohali developed an efficient, low-cost electro-catalyst from fish gills that can help develop environmentally friendly energy conversion devices. This bio-inspired carbon nanostructure can help overcome bottleneck in realization of several renewable energy conversion and storage technologies such as fuel cell, biofuel cell, and metal−air battery. Present strategy enriches a route to synthesize low-cost, highly efficient bioinspired electrocatalyst that is better than commercial Platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst and could be utilized as next-generation nonprecious carbon-based electrocatalyst for energy conversion and storage applications. 112. Scientists at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) have developed a process for size- selective deposition of nanocomposite coatings which can reduce friction in Several aerospace, defence, automobile, space devices need to reduce friction, wear, and tear to enhance the life of components. Coatings developed by ARCI group reduced friction more and could withstand corrosion due to salt spray better than many similar wear-resistant coatings available in the market. 113. Scientists at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences Thiruvananthapuram developed new generation Iron-Manganese based alloys for biodegradable metal implants for use in humans. Biodegradable materials (Fe, Mg, Zn, and polymer), which can participate in healing and then degrade gradually by maintaining mechanical integrity without leaving any implant residues in human body, are better alternatives to currently used metallic implants which remain permanently in human body and can cause long-term side effects. Iron-Manganese based alloy Fe-Mn (having Mn composition of more than 29% by weight) is a promising biodegradable metallic implant which exhibits single austenitic phase (non-magnetic form of iron) with MRI compatibility. Fe-Mn alloy produced at ARCI exhibited 99% density with impressive mechanical properties, comparable to presently used permanent Titanium (Ti) and stainless-steel metallic implants. 114. Scientists at International Advanced Research for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI) Hyderabad developed Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), in power range of 1 to 20 kiloWatt (kW). PEMFC have better operational capability at low-temperatures with applications in decentralised power generation systems. ARCI will now set up a PEMFC system up to 10 kW capacity at Tamil Nadu State Emergency Operation Centre (TN SEOC) to operate disaster management systems. 115. Scientists at Kolkata based Botanical Survey of India (BSI) discovered 3 new plant species namely- Eugenia sphaerocarpa, Goniothalamus sericeus and Memecylon nervosum at the Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu (TN). Eugenia sphaenrocarpa is Found primarily in the Kakkayam area of the Malabar wildlife sanctuary in Kerala at an altitude of 800 m, it belongs to the Myrtaceae or Rose apple family. Goniothalamus sericeus was Discovered in Kanyakumari wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu (TN) at an altitude of 1400m, this species belongs to the Annonaceae family of custard apple. Memecylon nervosum is Found at an altitude between 700-900m at the Kanyakumari wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu (TN), this species belongs to the Melastomataceae (Kayamboo or Kaasavu in local parlance) family. 116. Scientists at National Centre for Cell Science Pune discoverd a novel archael species named Natrialba swarupiae, in Rajasthan' s Sambhar Lake (India’s largest inland salt lake). It is named after Dr. Renu Swarup (Secretary in Department of Biotechnology). Archae are microorganisms which are similar to bacteria in size and simplicity of structure but radically different in molecular organization. 117. Scientists at S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences Kolkata (SNBNCBS) developed a safe nanomedicine that can treat several diseases by altering oxidative stress in body, as a hope in India’s fight against COVID-19. Animal trial for Reduction & Oxidation processes (Redox) healing of several diseases is completed, and now institute is looking human Trials. Medicine combines nanoparticles extracted from manganese salt with citrus extract, like from lemon. A crucial combination of manganese and citrate employing tricks of nanotechnology produces the nanomedicine. 118. Scientists at University of Cambridge (UK) discovered fossil of world’s oldest known modern bird skull dating to about 66.8m – 66.7m years ago, naming it ‘Wonderchicken‘, which is thought to be a common ancestor of modern chickens and ducks. It was a small-bodied, ground-dwelling bird which fed along land near the seashore, with scientific name Asteriornis maastrichtensis. 119. Scientists discovered oldest material on earth, as a 7 billion years old grains inside meteorite that crashed in a fireball in 1969 into town of Murchison in Victoria State (Australia). Dust analyzed in research came from before solar system’s formation known as ‘presolar grains’, measuring 2 to 30 micrometers in size. Presolar grains are solid matter coming from dying stars with stardust flung into interstellar space ready to be used again to form new stars. Scientists previously had found a presolar grain in Murchison meteorite was about 5.5 billion years old, oldest known solid material on earth. 120. Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune have developed a biofortified durum wheat variety MACS 4028, which shows high protein content of about 14.7%, better nutritional quality having zinc 40.3 ppm, and iron content of 40.3ppm and 46.1ppm respectively, good milling quality and overall acceptability. MACS 4028 variety is also included by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) programme for United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to alleviate malnutrition in a sustainable way and can boost the Vision 2022 “Kuposhan Mukt Bharat”, the National Nutrition Strategy. 121. Scientists from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER), jointly discovered three new fish species under genus ‘Dawkinsia’ namely Dawkinsia apsara, Dawkinsia austellus, Dawkinsia crassa 1st species Dawkinsia apsara, found in Karnataka’s Sita and Sowparnika rivers, has been christened after the beautiful celestial nymphs in Hindu mythology. 2nd species Dawkinsia austellus, found from Muvattupuzha river in Kerala, has been named referring to Latin word for ‘South’ and refers to distribution range of species in Southern Kerala. 3rd species Dawkinsia crassa, found in Netravati river of Coastal Karnataka, has been named after the Latin word for ‘round/thick’ referring to the rounded appearance of the fish. 122. Scientists from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) developed a starch-based ‘hemostat’ material that concentrates the natural clotting factors in blood by physically absorbing excess fluid. The biodegradable microparticles that combine to form a gel on a wound offer significant improvements over existing alternatives. Hemostat materials absorb excel fluid by concentrating the natural clotting factors in the blood that are critical for stopping the blood flow. 123. Scientists from International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) Hyderabad have developed a cost-effective solar receiver tube technology for industrial process heat applications. It efficiently absorbs solar radiation and converts it into heat for targeted applications, specially in industries. It exhibits high corrosion resistance suitable for Indian weather. 124. Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) modified structure of Berberine, a natural and cheap product similar to curcumin, available commercially, into Ber-D to use as a Alzheimer’s inhibitor. Researchers selected isoquinoline natural product berberine found in India and China and used in traditional medicine and other applications. As berberine is poorly soluble and toxic to cells. So, Researchers modified berberine to Ber-D, which is a soluble (aqueous), antioxidant. They found it to be a multifunctional inhibitor of multifaceted amyloid toxicity of Alzheimer’s disease. 125. Scientists from Pune based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) developed a microreactor that can produce large quantities of uniform size of nanoparticles, serving a major requirement in biomedical technology. Device could synthesize metal, semiconductor, and polymer nanoparticles by continuous flow active microreactor. Nanoparticles possess unique size-dependent properties, which make them useful in biomedical technology but difference in their sizes reduces their efficiency. Maintaining a uniform size of the nanoparticles is a challenge faced by biomedical industry. New approach in resolving monodispersity paradox could be of immense value to researchers working in nanotechnology. 126. Scientists from Pune’s Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) have developed a hybrid variety of grapes named ARI-516, which is resistant to fungal diseases, high yielding and has excellent juice quality. It is also suitable for preparation of juice, raisin, jam and red wine. India ranks 12th in terms of grape production. Maharashtra leads in the production of grapes in India with a share of 81.22 %. 127. Scientists from Raman Research Institute along with IISER Pune and Paris Diderot University (France), have found out that spectrin, which are flexible rod-shaped molecules present in axons, act as ‘shock absorbers’ to protect axons from stretch-induced damage. Axons are long tubular extensions of nerve cells that transmit electrical signals across long distances and can be up to a meter long in case of humans. At such lengths, they are subjected to large stretch deformations during limb or other bodily movements. Axons undergo significant deformations even during normal activities like jumping. Probing into what strategies axons adopt to protect themselves from damage during deformations, scientists showed that neuronal cells may have evolved a clever strategy using an etched optical fiber attached to a piezo drive as a force-sensing cantilever to stretch live axons and to measure resultant tension. Brain undergoes significant deformations (up to 5% of strain) even under normal activities such as jumping. In contact sports, brain concussion occurs and is a leading cause of injuries. 128. Scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology (US) discovered nearest-known ‘baby giant planet’ which is named as “2MASS 1155- 7919”. It lies only about 330 light years from our solar system. 129. Scientists from S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences Kolkata (SNBNCBS) developed a novel protocol to find out whether a pair of electrons is in an entangled state so that they can be safely used as resources for facilitating quantum information processing tasks. Quantum entanglement makes phenomena such as quantum teleportation and super-dense coding possible. It occurs when particles interact in a way such that quantum state particles cannot be described independently of state of others. However, entanglement is fragile and is easily lost during transit of photons. Hence, it is extremely important to know whether a pair of hotons is entangled, in order to use them as resource. Devices measuring entanglement may be hacked by eavesdroppers. Device-independent self-testing (DIST) is a method that can be used in order to overcome such a possibility. This enables verification of entanglement in an unknown quantum state of two photons without having direct access to state, based on quantum uncertainty principle. Idea has been implemented experimentally in collaboration with Beijing Computational Science Research Centre. In Experimental optical set-up, entangled pairs of photons are created by laser light on Beta barium borate (BBO) crystals, used as laser crystal. Bob is used as trusted party and Alice as untrusted, to verify that pair of photons they share is entangled. 130. Scientists from University of Geneva (Switzerland) detected liquid iron rain on highly heated exoplanet WASP-76b, which revolves around its star ‘WASP-76’ so closely that temperature reaches 1000 ° C. Observations made by Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (Espresso), fitted to Very Large Telescope (VLT) based at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile’s the Atacama Desert. 131. Scientists from University of Oxford in England (UK) shown that a starfish-like species called “red brittle star (Ophiocoma wendtii)” living in coral reefs of Caribbean Sea, can see even though it does not have eyes (ability to exhibit extraocular vision). It has become only the 2nd creature, after a sea urchin species, known to have this ability. In both species, extraocular vision is said to be facilitated by photoreceptor cells found on their bodies. While this creature is deep red during the day, it changes its colour to beige at night. 132. Scientists in Netherlands' Naturalis Biodiversity Center discovered a new species of land snail and named it Craspedotropis gretathunbergae, in honour of young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Species belongs to group of so-called caenogastropods, a group of snails found on ground that are dried, extreme temperatures and deforestation have an impact. 133. Scientists of University of Vermont and Tufts University (US) created world’s first living and self-healing robots Xenobots, using stem cells from frogs. It is named after the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Xenobots are new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism, which don’t look like traditional robots. These are marchines which are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches), small enough to travel inside human bodies. 134. Scientists witnessed biggest star explosion (called supernovas) observed till now, called SN2016aps. This supernova was up to 100 times larger than our sun and happened in a galaxy far away (3.6 billion light years from Earth). The stars had been part of a binary system, two stars pulled toward each other through gravity. The joined star exploded in a supernova, in Feb 2016. 135. Space authorities reported that sun has gone into ‘Solar Minimum’ state and is about to enter the deepest period of sunshine recession. It has almost been 100 days of 2020 when sun has shown zero sunspots. Sun goes through regular cycles of high & low activity. This affects frequency of space weather events, but it doesn't have a major effect on Earth's climate. It causes Earth’s atmosphere to shrink slightly which reduces drag on satellites. During Solar Minimum, sun’s magnetic field weakens and it provides less shielding from cosmic rays. This cycle usually lasts on average of 11 years. 136. Study at US' Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggested new paths to catch signals of dark matter particles whose energy is absorbed by the nuclei. Several experiments have been searching for dark matter particles by knocking into atomic nuclei, known as scattering. It produces tiny flashlights and other forms of signals in these interactions. Still, Dark matter has been able to defy every form of detector that has been designed to find it. It has been clearly known that dark matter makes up 85 % of total mass of the universe, but what it is made of, is still unknown. The absorption process can give an affected atom a kick which will cause it to eject a lighter and an energized particle such as an electron. The study mainly focuses on those cases where a neutrino or an electron has been ejected as the dark particle strikes an atom’s nucleus. Study proposes that some existing experiments can be broadened to also look for these absorption-related types of telltale dark matter signals. Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), are among well-motivated candidates to look for Dark Matter. Researchers are considering other places where dark matter particles might be hiding. For example, sterile neutrinos. It can also be bought in the family of particles known as fermions, which includes protons, neutrinos, and electrons. 137. Swiss Scientists discovered a six-planet system, orbiting the star HD 158259 in Draco constellation. It has a super-Earth & 5 mini-Neptunes. Discovery was done by SOPHIE spectrograph at Haute-Provence Observatory in South of France and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) exoplanet-hunting space telescope. The solar system is 88 light-years away from Earth. Every planet in HD 158259 star has same orbital resonance from its later planet, which is 3:2. Orbital Resonance is a term used to understand how orbits of the two planets are connected. Best example of this is Pluto and Neptune in our solar system. These two bodies have 2:3 orbital resonance, that means for every 2 laps of Pluto around the Sun, Neptune makes three. 138. Three new species of tiny frogs discovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Subansiri district by scientists of Zoological Survey of India. New species have been named as 'Liurana himalayana', 'Liurana indica' and 'Liurana minuta'. 139. To provide communication support for Astronauts under Gaganyaan mission, ISRO will launch a new satellite constellation named ‘Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS)’, similar to American Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, European Data Relay and Luch Satellite Data Relay Network of Russia. ISRO will send 2 IDRSS satellites in Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit(GEO), first in 2020 and 2nd in 2021. It will track Indian satellittes in low earth orbits. India’s first manned space mission, Ganganyaan in 2022 will be the first beneficiary of the IDRSS satellites. 140. UK-Based BAE Systems' PHASA-35 solar-electric aircraft successfully completed its maiden flight, plugging gap between aircraft and satellite technology. Designed to operate unmanned in stratosphere, above weather and conventional air traffic, PHASA-35 offers a persistent alternative to satellites combined with flexibility of an aircraft. As a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) vehicle, PHASA-35 is powered by Sun during day and by batteries overnight. It can maintain flight for up to a year operating in stratosphere (upper regions of Earth’s atmosphere). 141. US Scientists discovered a carnivorous (meat eating) swimming dinosaur named “Spinosaurus aegyptiacus”, at Kem Kem region of Moroccan Sahara in North Africa. Lived about 95 million years ago (Cretaceous period), spinosaurus was even longer than an adult Tyrannosaurus rex (T-rex). 142. US Space Firm SpaceX successfully launched a new batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, as 84th Falcon 9 flight. Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by SpaceX, to provide satellite Internet access. Constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers. 143. USGS (United States Geological Survey) Astrogeology Science Center, NASA and Lunar Planetary Institute released first ever digital, unified, global, geological map of moon named Unified Geologic Map of the Moon, with shaded topography from NASA’s LOLA mission (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter). It will serve as a blueprint for future human missions and a source of research and analysis for the educators and the general public interested in lunar geology. 144. University of Calgary (Canada) researchers discovered 79-million-year-old dinosaur fossils at Alberta (Canada), belonging to a new species of Tyrannosaur named as Thanatotheristes degrootorum Tyrannosaurs were one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs. 145. University of California Scientists discovered world’s deepest land canyon beneath Denman Glacier in East Antarctica, described as most accurate portrait yet of contours of land beneath Antarctica’s ice shelf. Researchers found deepest point on continental Earth. The Antarctica topography map projct is dubbed BedMachine. Lowest exposed point on land is located at Dead Sea shore which is 413 meters (about 1,355ft) below sea level. But lowest point on land goes even deeper, as revealed by new BedMachine data. At about 3500 meters ( about 11500 feet) below sea-level, world's deepest canyon on land was found beneath Denman Glacier in East Antarctica. 146. World’s largest species of cave fish measuring over 40cm found inside a remote cave in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills. The fish, related to the Golden Mahseer but has no eyes and is white due to lack of melanin pigmentation, was found in in February 2019. The findings were published recently. So far, 250 known species of fish are found under earth’s surface. As they live in a nutrient-limited environment most of thes e species are small—195 of them have a mean length of 8.5cm. 147. World’s oldest mushroom has been discovered in Democratic Republic of Congo and dates back to around 810 million years ago. Preserved in rock, the fossil fungi were found near the city of Mbuji-Mayi, smashing previous age record by 350 million years. Top

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