60 Days Plan: UPSC IAS Prelims 2019 – Science & Technology and Current Affairs (Day 23)

The ideas and concepts behind nanoscience and nanotechnology started with a talk entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) on December 29, 1959, long before the term nanotechnology was used. Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the optical diffraction limit.

The information is gathered by “feeling” or “touching” the surface with a mechanical probe. Piezoelectric elements that facilitate tiny but accurate and precise movements on (electronic) command enable precise scanning.

The AFM has three major abilities: force measurement, imaging, and manipulation.

In force measurement, AFMs can be used to measure the forces between the probe and the sample as a function of their mutual separation. This can be applied to perform force spectroscopy, to measure the mechanical properties of the sample, such as the sample’s Young’s modulus, a measure of stiffness.

For imaging, the reaction of the probe to the forces that the sample imposes on it can be used to form an image of the three-dimensional shape (topography) of a sample surface at a high resolution. This is achieved by raster scanning the position of the sample with respect to the tip and recording the height of the probe that corresponds to a constant probe-sample interaction (see section topographic imaging in AFM for more details). The surface topography is commonly displayed as a pseudocolor plot.

In manipulation, the forces between tip and sample can also be used to change the properties of the sample in a controlled way. Examples of this include atomic manipulation, scanning probe lithography and local stimulation of cells.

Nano Transfection

Nanochip could heal injuries or regrow organs with one touch. A tiny device that sits on the skin and uses an electric field to reprogramme cells could be a breakthrough in the way we treat injured or ageing tissue. A novel device that reprogrammes skin cells could represent a breakthrough in repairing injured or ageing tissue.The new technique, called tissue nanotransfection, is based on a tiny device that sits on the surface of the skin of a living body.

An intense, focused electric field is then applied across the device, allowing it to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it – turning them into different types of cells.It offers an exciting development when it comes to repairing damaged tissue, offering the possibility of turning a patient’s own tissue into a “bioreactor” to produce cells to either repair nearby tissues, or for use at another site. It avoids an intermediary step where cells are turned into what are known as pluripotent stem cells, instead turning skin cells directly into functional cells of different types. It is a single step process in the body.The new approach does not rely on applying an electric field across a large area of the cell, or the use of viruses to deliver the genes.

Top-down and bottom-up methods are two types of approaches used in nanofabrication. The bottom-up approach is more advantageous than the top-down approach because the former has a better chance of producing nanostructures with less defects, more homogenous chemical composition, and better short- and long-range ordering.

A bottom up synthesis method implies that the nanostructures are synthesized onto the substrate by stacking atoms onto each other, which gives rise to crystal planes, crystal planes further stack onto each other, resulting in the synthesis of the nanostructures. A bottom-up approach can thus be viewed as an synthesis approach where the building blocks are added onto the substrate to form the nanostructures.

A top down synthesis method implies that the nanostructures are synthesized by etching out crystals planes (removing crystal planes) which are already present on the substrate. A top-down approach can thus be viewed as an approach where the building blocks are removed from the substrate to form the nanostructure.

Molecular self-assembly is the process by which molecules adopt a defined arrangement without guidance or management from an outside source. There are two types of self-assembly. These are intramolecular self-assembly and intermolecular self-assembly.

Molecular Beam Epitaxy is an evaporation process performed in an ultra-high vacuum for the deposition of compounds of extreme regularity of layer thickness and composition from well-controlled deposition rates.

The agglomeration of metallic nanoparticles can be performed using the well-known inert gas condensation process

Dip pen nanolithography (DPN) is a scanning probe lithography technique where an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is used to create patterns directly on a range of substances with a variety of inks.

DPN is the nanotechnology analog of the dip pen (also called the quill pen), where the tip of an atomic force microscope cantilever acts as a “pen,” which is coated with a chemical compound or mixture acting as an “ink,” and put in contact with a substrate, the “paper.”

DPN enables direct deposition of nanoscale materials onto a substrate in a flexible manner. Recent advances have demonstrated massively parallel patterning using two-dimensional arrays of 55,000 tips. Applications of this technology currently range through chemistry, materials science, and the life sciences, and include such work as ultra high density biological nanoarrays, and additive photomask repair.

Size distribution, specific surface feature and quantum size effects are the principal factor which causes the properties of nanomaterials to differ significantly from other materials.

Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm), or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material.

The idea behind Nanocomposite is to use building blocks with dimensions in nanometre range to design and create new materials with unprecedented flexibility and improvement in their physical properties.

In the broadest sense this definition can include porous media, colloids, gels and copolymers, but is more usually taken to mean the solid combination of a bulk matrix and nano-dimensional phase(s) differing in properties due to dissimilarities in structure and chemistry. The mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, electrochemical, catalytic properties of the nanocomposite will differ markedly from that of the component materials.

Nanocomposites are found in nature, for example in the structure of the abalone shell and bone. The use of nanoparticle-rich materials long predates the understanding of the physical and chemical nature of these materials.

In mechanical terms, nanocomposites differ from conventional composite materials due to the exceptionally high surface to volume ratio of the reinforcing phase and/or its exceptionally high aspect ratio. The reinforcing material can be made up of particles (e.g. minerals), sheets (e.g. exfoliated clay stacks) or fibres (e.g. carbon nanotubes or electrospun fibres). The area of the interface between the matrix and reinforcement phase(s) is typically an order of magnitude greater than for conventional composite materials. The matrix material properties are significantly affected in the vicinity of the reinforcement.

This large amount of reinforcement surface area means that a relatively small amount of nanoscale reinforcement can have an observable effect on the macroscale properties of the composite. For example, adding carbon nanotubes improves the electrical and thermal conductivity.

Grey goo (also spelled gray goo) is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all biomass on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario that has been called ecophagy (“eating the environment”, more literally “eating the habitation”). The original idea assumed machines were designed to have this capability, while popularizations have assumed that machines might somehow gain this capability by accident.

Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally described by mathematician John von Neumann, and are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines or clanking replicators.

Note: A grey goo scenario was shown in a Hollywood movie – G I Joe

Solar paint, also known as photovoltaic paint. It’s a paint that you can apply to any surface that will capture energy from the sun and transform it into electricity. The paint would essentially be your average paint, but with billions of pieces of light sensitive material suspended in it, material that would transform the typical paint into superpowered energy-capturing paint.

The main issue with solar paint is that it’s not quite efficient enough to be commercially viable. Solar paint ranges anywhere from 3-8% Efficiency is essentially the percentage of the power of the sun’s rays that the technology can capture. If a particular type of solar paint has a 5% efficiency, that means it’s capturing only 5% of the total available sun energy. For comparison sake, traditional silicon solar panels operate at around 18% efficiency. Most experts agree that a solar technology has to surpass 10% efficiency to be viable.

Solar paint is certainly less expensive than solar panels, in terms of both production and installation, but the low efficiency means that it’s not quite ready to be taken to market.

The most common type of photovoltaic paint is a paint utilizing colloidal quantum dots. These are semiconductor crystals that are already used in solar panels as well as LEDs and computers. The University of Toronto created an iteration of solar paint wherein they sprayed these dots atom by atom onto a backing. This backing could then be rolled up, sent to the place where it’s to be installed, and then applied like a wallpaper. It’s not quite the image that you think of when you hear “solar paint”, I know that I personally think of a Behr paint bucket filled with futuristic glow-in-the-dark goo paint, but the application is the same – it can cover a surface and provide solar energy. The only issue with the dots technology is that the efficiency is still sitting around 8% and therefore not yet commercially viable.

Note: Fullerenes are allotropes of Carbon. (Not Isotopes)

Fullerenes are also called Buckyballs due to their shape.

• Buckyballs may be used to trap free radicals generated during an allergic reaction and block the inflammation that results from an allergic reaction.
• The antioxidant properties of buckyballs may be able to fight the deterioration of motor function due to multiple sclerosis.
• Combining buckyballs, nanotubes, and polymers to produce inexpensive solar cells that can be formed by simply painting a surface.
• Buckyballs may be used to store hydrogen, possibly as a fuel tank for fuel cell powered cars.
• Buckyballs may be able to reduce the growth of bacteria in pipes and membranes in water systems.
• Researchers are attempting to modify buckyballs to fit the section of the HIV molecule that binds to proteins, possibly inhibiting the spread of the virus.
• Making bullet proof vests with inorganic (tungsten disulfide) buckyballs.

National Policy on Electronics (NPE) – 2019

Cabinet has approved a National Policy on Electronics (NPE) for the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector of India. Vision of the NPE 2019 is to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by creating an enabling environment for the industry.

Following are the important objectives of the policy as elaborated in the draft report.

• Promotion of domestic manufacturing in the entire value-chain of ESDM for economic development to achieve a turnover of US $ 400 Billion by 2025. This shall include targeted production of 1.0 Billion mobile handsets by 2025, valued at US $ 190 billion (approx. Rs.13 lakh crore), including 600 Million mobile handsets valued at US $ 110 billion (approx. Rs.7 lakh crore) for export.
• Improve ease-of-doing-business for the ESDM Industry.
• Encourage Industry-led R&D and Innovation in all sub-sectors of Electronics.
• Support a comprehensive Start-up ecosystem in emerging technology areas such as 5G, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc., and their applications in areas such as Defence, Agriculture, Health, Smart Cities and Automation, with special focus on solving real-life problems.
• Provide support for significantly enhancing availability of skilled manpower in the ESDM sector.
• Provide support for export led growth, including significantly enhancing economies of scale in electronics manufacturing.
• Develop core competencies in all the sub-sectors of Electronics, including Electronic components and Semiconductors, Telecommunication equipment, Medical electronics, Defence Electronics, Automotive electronics, Industrial Electronics, Strategic Electronics, etc., and Fabless Chip Design.
• Become a global leader in the Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) segment by promoting progressively higher value addition in manufacturing of electronic products.
• Facilitate cost effective loans for setting up and expansion of electronics manufacturing units.

Ranchi man Ranjit Srivastava,38, has developed Indian version of ‘Sophia,’ a social humanoid robot developed by a Hong Kong based company, named Rashmi which can speak Hindi, Bhojpuri and Marathi along with English.

AcYut – meaning “The Imperishable” in Sanskrit, is the series of humanoids developed at the Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, BITS Pilani.

AcYut is India’s first indigenously designed autonomous humanoid and has been supported by various sponsors, including the Govt. Of India(DEITY) and BITSAA.

AcYut has represented India at various international platforms including RoboCup, RoboGames, CMU, Stanford etc. AcYut is also consistently India’s only entry to the highly advanced Humanoid Teen Sized Soccer Leagues at Robocup where robots play soccer autonomously.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) recently launched a chatbot to help its users answer various queries . The AI chatbot– Ask Disha- is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and it is aimed at facilitating accessibility by answering users’ queries pertaining to various services offered by IRCTC.

The first-of-its-kind initiative by IRCTC is live and it is already available on the bottom right corner of IRCTC’s revamped website and it will soon be available on IRCTC’s Android app. Besides this, the AI chatbot will be voice enabled and it will support several regional languages in the near future.

The “Robat” is a fully autonomous, four-wheeled terrestrial robot with bat-like qualities that uses echolocation, also called bio sonar, to move through novel environments while mapping them based only on sound. It was developed at Tel Aviv University (TAU).

Bats use echolocation to map novel environments, navigating them by emitting sound then extracting information from the echoes reflected by objects in their surroundings. Many theories have been proposed to explain how bats harness sonar in order to navigate, but few attempts have been made to build a robot that mimics a bat’s abilities.

The Robat is equipped with an ultrasonic speaker that produces frequency-modulated chirps at a rate typically used by bats, as well as two ultrasonic microphones that serve as the robot’s ears. The time delay of the echo tells Robat how far away objects are.

An automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle (AGV) is a portable robot that follows along marked lines or wires on the floor, or uses radio waves, vision cameras, magnets, or lasers for navigation. They are most often used in industrial applications to transport heavy materials around a large industrial building, such as a factory or warehouse. Application of the automatic guided vehicle broadened during the late 20th century.

Serial manipulators are the most common industrial robots and they are designed as a series of links connected by motor-actuated joints that extend from a base to an end-effector. Often they have an anthropomorphic arm structure described as having a “shoulder”, an “elbow”, and a “wrist”.

Serial robots usually have six joints, because it requires at least six degrees of freedom to place a manipulated object in an arbitrary position and orientation in the workspace of the robot.

A popular application for serial robots in today’s industry is the pick-and-place assembly robot, called a SCARA robot, which has four degrees of freedom.

A robot generally consists of 5 basic components:

1. Controller

   Every robot is connected to a computer controller, which regulates the components of the arm and keeps them working together. The controller also allows the robot to be networked to other systems, so that it may work together with other machines, processes, or robots. Almost all robots are pre-programmed using “teaching” devices or offline software programs. In the future, controllers with artificial intelligence (AI) could allow robots to think on their own, even program themselves. This could make robots more self-reliant and independent.

2. Arm

   The arm is the part of the robot that positions the end-effector and sensors to do their pre-programmed business. Many are built to resemble human arms, and have shoulders, elbows, wrists, even fingers. Each joint is said to give the robot 1 degree of freedom. A simple robot arm with 3 degrees of freedom could move in 3 ways: up and down, left and right, forward and backward. Most working robots today have 6 degrees of freedom to allow them to reach any possible point in space within its work envelope. The human arm has 7.

3. Drive

   The links (the sections between the joints) are moved into their desired position by the drive. Typically, a drive is powered by pneumatic or hydraulic pressure, or electricity.

4. End-Effector

   The end-effector could be thought of as the “hand” on the end of the robotic arm. There are many possible end-effectors including a gripper, a vacuum pump, tweezers, scalpel, blowtorch, welder, spray gun, or just about anything that helps it do its job. Some robots can change end-effectors, and be reprogrammed for a different set of tasks.

5. Sensor

   The sensor sends information, in the form of electronic signals back to the controller. Sensors also give the robot controller information about its surroundings and lets it know the exact position of the arm, or the state of the world around it. One of the more exciting areas of sensor development is occurring in the field of computer vision and object recognition. Robot sensors can detect infrared radiation to “see” in the dark.

An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a “mover”. An actuator requires a control signal and a source of energy.

A group of scientists including one from Indian origin with AI have come up with a software called ‘SurfNet’.

The features listed below:

• This analyses 2D shapes and converts them to 3D models
• This software can only be used to convert but can also be used to merge two shapes in one
• After complete development, it can also make notable changes in the field of 3D searches
• This can enable robots to navigate the real world
• It can be used in self-driven cars and robotics
• The virtual world can also be improved with this software as it will guide it to convert standard 2D images to 3D content

Toluene occurs naturally at low levels in crude oil and is a byproduct in the production of gasoline by a catalytic reformer or ethylene cracker; It is also a byproduct of the production of coke from coal.

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO). The mission will perform a comprehensive study of Mercury, including characterization of its magnetic field, magnetosphere, and both interior and surface structure.

The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) was established self-regulatory body in 1998 under the aegis of Housing And Urban Affairs.

Aimed at enhancing consumer confidence in various housing & real estate projects, NAREDCO with the help of leading rating agencies promotes rating of developers and their projects on various parameters including title of property, financial resources, track record of timely completion of project, quality control, pricing mechanism, deliverance etc.

Read More – http://www.naredco.in/aboutus.asp?links=ab1

Panduvaraguddum

News: 18 dolmenoid cists (burial places) surrounded by slab circles on a big granite hill locally called ‘Panduvaraguddum’ were found in Anantpur, A.P.

Highlights

• This megalithic site was recorded about two decades ago
• The site has innumerable traces of megalithic habitational settlements as well as burials.
• One of the huge dolmenoid cist is surrounded by three slab circles and the outer two circles are flat topped and small in size resembling the pattern of Iralabanda-megalithic site in Chittoor
• The third inner circle consists a unique anthropomorphic statue with a semi- circular head without any sensory organs with a sharp protruding edge on both sides resembling a shoulder.
• On the back of this statue two half anthropomorphic statues are found resembling fore limbs.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/study-throws-light-on-megalithic-site/article25162047.ece

Model Concession Agreement (MCA)

• It forms the core of public private partnership (PPP) projects in India. The MCA spells out the policy and regulatory framework for implementation of a PPP project.
• It addresses a gamut of critical issues pertaining to a PPP framework like mitigation and unbundling of risks; allocation of risks and returns; symmetry of obligations between the principal parties; precision and predictability of costs & obligations; reduction of transaction costs and termination. The MCA allocates risk to parties best suited to manage them.
• The Model Concession Agreements for various sectors like National Highways, State Highways, Urban Rail Transit System and Ports are available.

The Biligirirangana Hills, commonly called BR Hills, is a hill range situated in south-eastern Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu (Erode District) in South India. The area is called Biligiriranganatha Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary or simply BRT Wildlife Sanctuary.

• It is a protected reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
• Being at the confluence of the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, the sanctuary is home to eco-systems that are unique to both the mountain ranges.
• The site was declared a tiger reserve in January 2011 by the Karnataka government, a few months after approval from India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority

Jindhagada is the highest mountain in the Eastern Ghats situated in Araku, district Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The famous temple Malai Mahadeshwara Hills Temple is situauted in Chamarajanagar District in the Karnataka state on the Eastern Ghat.

According to a study published in 2018, the forest cover of the Eastern Ghats has shrunk drastically since 1920 and several plant species endemic to this region face the threat of extinction.

Eastern Ghats spread across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lost almost 16% of its forest area over a span of 100 years. The forest cover was 43.4% in 1920, now it reduced to 27.5% in 2015

For more refer to this link:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/eastern-ghats-face-loss-of-forest-cover-endemic-plants/article25144684.ece

An investment promotion agency (is not-for-profit Company) in which the government has 49% equity, the rest is equally divided among three industry bodies — CII, FICCI and NASSCOM — thereby technically making it a private entity. While the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) has a 43.5% stake in the agency, 5.5% has been transferred to 11 states (0.5% each) 

Invest India wins UN award for excellence in promoting investments in sustainable development

• The awards, organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), honour investment promotion agencies (IPAs) and their governments for their achievements, but also showcase best practices in attracting investment into Sustainable Development Goals-related projects that can inspire investment promotion practitioners in developing and developed countries.
• Invest India received the award for excellence in servicing and supporting a major global wind turbines company in the establishment of a blade manufacturing plant in India while committing to train local staff and produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy, according to an official statement.

https://img.etimg.com/photo/61165152/untitled-4.jpg

Read the options carefully and use common sense to arrive at correct answer.

The Solicitor General of India is subordinate to the Attorney General of India. He is the second law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is himself assisted by four Additional Solicitors General for India. Currently solicitor general of India is Tushar Mehta

• The main role of the Solicitor General is to appear in courts on behalf of the Government of India.
• The posts of the Solicitor General and the Additional Solicitors General are merely statutory, while Attorney General for India is a Constitutional post.

Amaravati is the de facto capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The planned city is located on the southern banks of the Krishna River in Guntur district, within the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region

The word “Amaravati” derives from the historical Amaravathi Temple town, the ancient capital of the Satavahana dynasty.