Category Science & Technology

Surat schoolgirls Radhika Lakhani (14) and Vaidehi Vekariya (15) discovered the asteroid, which they named HLV2514. The asteroid is currently close to the orbit of Mars – but in 1 million years, it will change its orbit and move closer to Earth.

The girls were participating in a project by Space India and International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group. Students across India were taught how to spot celestial bodies using software which analyzes images collected by NASA’s PAN Star telescope positioned at the University of Hawaii.

Paul Chodas of the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said that it’s unusual for human eyes to discover asteroids. Algorithms typically do the hard work of spotting an unexpected object moving across the frame.

Asteroids and comets pose a potential threat to Earth. In 2013, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower exploded over central Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured from its shockwave.

Vekariya said, “This was a dream. I want to become an astronaut”, while Lakhani added: “I don’t even have a TV at home so that I can concentrate on my studies.”

Picture Credit : Google

Megalogomphus superbus Fraser, endemic to the Western Ghats, has been photographed for the first time in nine decades by naturalists Ravindran Kamatchi and S. Gopala Krishnan during a birding outing near Coimbatore.

When they posted the photo grass-green, yellow and reddish-brown colour dragonfly with bottle-green eyes on the WhatsApp group ‘Odonates of the Western Ghats’, they learnt that it was a rare discovery. Scottish botanist Fraser F.C. had described it as the most beautiful species in the book, Fauna of British India.

“Fraser spotted it in 1931 an 1934 at the Boluvampatti forest range near Siruvani, Walayar (Kerala-Tamil Nadu border) and Kallar near Mettupalayam. The dragonfly belongs to gomphidae family which has six dragonflies – two in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, one in Sri Lanka and three others in the North East,” says Kalesh Sivadasan of Travancore Natural History Society. “As aerial predators, they play a crucial role in pest control. It is an aquatic water species that thrives in fresh water, and feeds on mosquitoes and insects that are harmful to humans.”

Picture Credit : Google

With schools remaining shut due to the pandemic, they were left with no choice but to take classes online. Schools across India ensured students did not have to miss a year or lag behind in terms of syllabus by asking them to attend classes online.

While this was a bold move. It brought to the fore India’s unpreparedness for online learning. Most school teachers are not trained to take classes online. Teaching online is a different ball game compared to a physical class. It requires a different, more interactive and practical approach than the theoretical approaches followed in a physical class.

Meanwhile, children too are not prepared for an online class as their attention span is short. Long hours in front of the screen can drain them out apart from affecting their eyesight. The connection with the teacher is also lost as all the other students are logged in simultaneously.

But the biggest problem faced by schools and students alike is the lack of infrastructure and the digital divide. Many parents don’t even own a smartphone that their children can use for classes. Moreover, many households, especially those in rural India, do not even have internet connectivity. This has led to several students missing out on classes, on their parents having to sell whatever they can to afford a smartphone with an internet connection.

What’s the update?

On September 19, 2020, the Delhi High Court directed private as well as government schools to provide gadgets and an internet package to poor students for online classes. The court noted that not doing so amounts to “discrimination” and creates a “digital apartheid.”

It further stated that separated such students from the class can create a sense of inferiority which may affect their hearts and minds.

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With the government and the World Health Organization advising people to maintain six feet distance and wear mask to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, hospitals and businesses took to robots to tend to people’s needs.

From robots patrolling the road and making announcements, to serving as a nurse, and connecting people with their loved one. These machines have stood with our country in the fight against the virus.

Zafi, an interactive robot was developed at COVID-19 isolation wards at Stanley Medical College and Hospital in Chennai. The robot was designed and developed by the SASTRA University and Propeller Technologies, Trichy to help doctors and nurses maintain social distance while caring for their patients.

Zafi Clean and Zafi Sterlise designed to help maintenance workers of COVID-19 wards in government hospitals.

This coronavirus-themed ground robot is used to spray disinfectant at residential areas in Chennai.

Robots check body temperature and collect basic information about people at a private hospital in Bengaluru.

A robot nurse developed to combat COVID-19 and care for patients by Coimbatore-based startup Dotworld Technologies.

ROBO-COP, a robot used by the Chennai police to make announcements about COVID-19 and importance of staying indoors.

Mitra, a robot used by COVID patients to communicate with their relatives, is seen inside an elevator of the Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital in Noida.

Cobots are here

While many are worried about robots replacing humans in the workplace, there has been an increase in the use of cobots in workplaces. Cobots or collaborative robots are robots that work alongside humans than replace them. They are said to improve productivity, helping humans focus on essential tasks. Take Amazon for example – the company has been using robots to do the heavy lifting while humans can direct them.

Cobots are being used by some companies in a pandemic scenario to mitigate the spread of the virus.

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Launched on September 27, 2003, the lunar probe named SMART-1 was the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first mission to the moon. Apart from investigating the moon and studying its surface composition, the spacecraft was used to demonstrate techniques pertaining to navigation and mission control. A.S. Ganesh takes a look at the mission and its success

We might have over 200 natural satellites in the solar system, but our own moon is rather special to us. And it has to be, for it is the only one our Earth has. Naturally then, it has been studied extensively – probably only next to the Earth itself among celestial bodies.

While the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th Century probably saw the most funds being spent in a single window towards moon missions, it wasn’t the be all and end all. There have been several missions since then, and there will be many more as well, that will have our moon as its target. Its position – both in terms of importance and in terms of space – make it an ideal destination for testing out new technologies as well.

Missions of all scales

The ESA prides itself in having a science programme that encompasses missions of all scales and sizes. The SMART – short for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology – programme was envisioned to cater to small relatively low-cast missions. One such mission that looked to test solar-electric propulsion and other deep space technologies was launched on September 27, 2003. Its destination, as you might have rightly guessed, was the moon.

With a French-built Hall effect thruster derived from a Russian ion propulsion system, SMART-1 was European in almost every sense, even before it became the first European spacecraft to enter orbit around the moon. The thruster, which used a xenon propellant, generated just enough thrust – comparable to the weight of a postcard. Solar arrays powered the engine which generated the power needed for the ion engines.

Slowly expanding orbit

Following its launch, it was put in a geostationary transfer orbit. From here, SMART-1 used its electric propulsion system for a hugely efficient mission profile. Spinning slowly, the spacecraft moved onto higher and higher elliptical orbits. With mission controllers in Darmstadt, Germany forcing calculated, repeated burns of the ion engine, the spacecraft’s spiral orbit expanded step by step.

When SMART-1 was around 2,00,000 km out from Earth, the influence of the moon’s gravity started increasing. By November 2004, the spacecraft had reached a point where the moon’s gravitational force was dominant.

Closer views, better data

The ion engines were still fired gradually, even after SMART-1 attained a polar orbit around the moon. This allowed the spacecraft to now decrease the orbit and hence achieve significantly better and closer views of the lunar surface.

During its time orbiting the moon, SMART-1 improved on data returned from various previous missions to the moon. It studied lunar topography, learnt more about the moon’s surface texture and also mapped the minerals’ surface distribution.

Mission extended

Even though the mission was designed to end in August 2005, it was extended further with new plans for a lunar impact in 2006. Having exhausted the propellant, the spacecraft’s ion engine was fired one last time in September 2005, after which it was in a natural orbit based on the gravitational effects of the moon, Earth and sun, with occasional altitude control. SMART-1’s ion engine had fired for over 4,900 hours, a record at that time for an engine of this type.

As per the revised plan, the spacecraft crashed onto the moon’s surface on September 3, 2006. Earth-based telescopes observed the impact, which produced a dust cloud. The near three-year existence of SMART-1 not only confirmed technical competence, but also provided valuable scientific insights about our moon.

Picture Credit : Google

Do you know what the meaning of pre-term birth is? A human child birth that occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy is referred to this way. While a full-term pregnancy normally lasts 40 weeks, not all children are born that way. Premature babies – babies born pre-term – often need longer and more intense nursery care. While this is the norm now with Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), it wasn’t always the case. We have Martin Couney, a pioneer of early neonatal technology, to thank for that.

A little history before we take a look at what Couney did. By the end of the 19th Century, it was pretty clear to doctors that babies born pre-term needed extra care and often had complications. Incubators had been built and the first one to care for an infant was operational in 1888. On September 7 that year, Edith Eleanor McLean became one of the first babies to be placed in an incubator in a hospital in New York. These incubators, however, were seen more as medical curiosities and not much was done in terms of adoption.

First encounter

In that same year, French physician Pierre Budin, who had been wondering why more hospitals weren’t investing in incubators, began experimenting with the technology. Facing financial difficulties in terms of funding, Budin decided to display his incubators at the Berlin’s World Fair in 1896.

It was at this fair that Couney, Budin’s protege, was drawn towards what was to become a lifetime’s obsession. Budin’s display included premature babies acquired on loan from a hospital and Couney immediately realised that it would work. He was certain that the public would pay to see babies in incubators and that he would in turn be able to save the babies’ lives.

Couney travelled with his ideas to the U.S. and put it into practice. He picked the right place to serve as America was severely lagging behind European nations, which had France at the forefront, in neonatal care. He married Annabelle Segner, one of his nurses, in 1903 and his commitment to the cause was furthered when they had a pre-term daughter in 1907. Hildegarde, who was six week premature and weighed just 1.36 kg at birth, later joined her father’s business after training as a nurse.

Couney’s magic at Coney

If we had visited Coney Islands during the turn of the 20th Century, we would have been spoilt for choice. We could have tried out a roller-coaster, witnessed the re-enactment of the Boer War or simply waded in the water while eating an ice cream. Yet, one of the most popular permanent exhibits was Couney’s facility.

With signs so large they could be seen from the other end of the island, Couney’s facility played host to a life-and-death exercise. People, however, were willing to witness this freak show as they paid the 25-cent entrance fee to see the display of premature babies placed in incubators. A guard rail prevented over-enthusiastic visitors from getting too close.

The entrance fee allowed Couney to cover all his costs as he went about his task admirably. At a time when hospitals across the country were turning away from their responsibility of caring for premature babies, Couney welcomed them with open arms.

The incubator doctor

He not only hired the best doctors and nurses to take care of the babies, but he also accepted babies from all backgrounds. He never once saw their colour or class, nor did he ever accept payments from parents. Distressed, desperate parents were soon flocking to “the incubator doctor”, who then worked his magic.

Despite the fact that Couney wasn’t a trained medical practitioner, his methods started gaining traction. His facility in Coney Islands ran from 1903-1943 and he was able to replicate his success in other facilities he established as well.

Even though doctors were sceptical about Couney’s ways and even tried to discredit him, there was no denying that it was working. While there is no way to authenticate the numbers, there is reason to believe that Couney took in around 8,000 babies during the course of his career and was able to save about 6,500 of them. By the 1940s, neonatal care started becoming mainstream.

Incubators have come a long way since the time Couney had to showcase babies in them in carnivals. NICUs are now state-of-the-art in many hospitals, providing exclusive care for babies. Incubators these days protect preterm babies from infections, excessive noise or light. They also provide automatic adjustments based on the baby’s temperature and photo-therapy using special lights to treat neonatal jaundice, which is becoming increasingly common. And it all started with one man who believed he could make a difference.

Picture Credit : Google