Category: Science & Tech

A global moratorium on destructive kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) tests is gaining traction. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recently passed a resolution calling for a ban on kinetic ASAT tests.

The resolution

• Sponsored by the United States: The resolution was sponsored by the United States, as well as a number of other countries concerned about the effects of ASAT tests on the safety and sustainability of outer space.
• The majority voted in favour: 155 countries voted in favour of the resolution, nine voted against it, and nine abstained.
• Belarus, Bolivia, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria voted against the resolution.
• India, Laos, Madagascar, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo, and Zimbabwe were the nine countries that abstained.

Provisions of the resolution over the ban of ASAT

• No binding effect, but urges to avoid an arms race in space: The ASAT test-ban resolution has no binding effect on states; it simply calls on states to stop conducting ASAT tests and to develop additional practical steps and contribute to legally binding instruments to prevent an arms race in outer space.
• Other space-related resolutions were also approved: Along with the ASAT test-ban resolution, which was passed on December 7, there were several other space and nuclear-related resolutions, such as No First Use of Weapons in Outer Space (NFP).
• Support for reducing space risks: The resolution continues to support broader efforts to develop “further practical steps” to reduce space risks.

ASAT

ASATs (Anti-Satellite Weapons): According to a UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) document, ASATs (Anti-Satellite Weapons) are designed to destroy or disable space assets, whether military or civilian, offensive or defensive.

Two types: kinetic and non-kinetic.

• Kinetic ASATs require a physical strike to destroy an object. Ballistic missiles, drones, or any item launched to coincide with the passage of a target satellite are examples of kinetic ASATs. This means that any space asset, including communications satellites, could be classified as an ASAT if used to physically destroy another space object.
• ASATs that are not kinetic: A variety of nonphysical means can be used to disable or destroy a space object. Frequency jamming, blinding lasers, and cyberattacks are examples of these. These methods can also render an object useless without causing it to break up and fragment in the absence of additional forces.

Why ASAT tests are to be banned?

• Threat to peaceful use of outer space: ASAT tests pose a direct threat to the peaceful use of outer space, on which everyone in the global community relies.
• Satellite safety is jeopardised: In recent years, there has been an increase in activities that endanger satellite safety and functionality. The Russian ASAT test on November 15, 2021, which destroyed the Cosmos 1408 satellite, is an example.
• Space debris could endanger the International Space Station: The test produced approximately 1,800 pieces of tracked space debris and possibly many more pieces that are difficult to track, posing a risk to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
• Rare, high-tech, and dangerous to test: ASAT is an anti-satellite weapon that can blind or disrupt enemy satellite communications while also providing a technological foundation for intercepting ballistic missiles.

Way Forward

• Other UN initiatives, such as the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), are underway to reduce space threats through norms, rules, and principles of responsible behaviour.
• These, like the ASAT test ban, are required to move the space security agenda forward.
• States must take small preventative measures, whether legal or normative, before space becomes completely a warfighting domain.

@the-end

Given the deterioration of space security conditions, with more countries developing ASATs and other counterspace capabilities, it is time for more countries to join the current initiative to halt further ASAT tests. Unless countries make a conscious decision to work together to reverse current trends in space weaponization, continued access to outer space is not guaranteed.

Source—https://www.orfonline.org/research/why-an-asat-test-ban-is-important/

The results of an experimental cancer vaccination trial conducted by Moderna and MSD (Merck&Co.), based on the mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) platform, have been encouraging.

What is mRNA?

• A single-stranded RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecule known as messenger RNA (mRNA) is complementary to one of a gene’s DNA strands.
• The cytoplasm is where proteins are created, and the mRNA is an RNA form of the gene that exits the cell nucleus.
• An organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA during protein synthesis, scans its base sequence, and then uses the genetic code to translate each codon—a sequence of three bases—into its matching amino acid.

What are mRNA vaccines?

• A little portion of a protein typically located on the viral outer membrane is introduced as part of an mRNA vaccine’s delivery mechanism.
• People who receive an mRNA vaccine are not exposed to the virus and cannot contract the virus through the vaccine.
• The immune system identifies that the protein is foreign as part of a typical immunological response and creates specialised proteins known as antibodies.
• By identifying specific viruses or other pathogens, adhering to them, and designating the pathogens for eradication, antibodies aid in the body’s defence against infection.
• In order for the immune system to promptly react if exposed again, antibodies that have already been created stay in the body even after the body has cleansed itself of the infection.

How does the vaccine work?

• The COVID vaccine was created using the same messenger-RNA technology as the individualised cancer vaccine.
• It enables the body’s immune system to find and eliminate malignant cells, in this case melanoma, with the hope that it might also result in novel strategies for combating other malignancies.

Why is it a significant feat?

• The chance of developing cancer or dying from it was reduced by 44% as a result of the cancer vaccination.
• It is unique to each patient because it is a tailored cancer vaccine.
• It is therefore anticipated that manufacturing it will be exceedingly expensive.
• However, this has been hailed by oncologists all around the world as a promising new development in the treatment of cancer.

• By using DNA fingerprinting, Delhi Police was able to identify the victim of a horrible murder and mutilation.
• Alec Jeffreys in the UK invented DNA fingerprinting in 1984 as a result of his discovery that no two people could have the same DNA sequence.
• Within three years of the discovery, the UK obtained the first DNA-based conviction in the history of the world in a rape and murder case.

How is DNA fingerprinting done?

• With the exception of identical twins, every person has a distinct DNA.
• A crime laboratory can create a profile to be used in identifying a suspect by studying specific DNA sequences (referred to as loci).
• Numerous materials, including blood, saliva, bone, teeth, and hair, can be used to extract DNA.
• Even a tiny amount of biological fluid or tissue can provide valuable information because DNA is present in the majority of human cells.
• Samples can even be taken from worn-out clothing, used linen, used combs, and other commonly used items.

Application in criminal investigation

DNA evidence is used to solve crimes in two ways:

• If a suspect is identified, it is possible to determine whether they were present at the crime site or whether they committed the crime by comparing their DNA sample to biological evidence discovered there.
• Biological evidence from the crime site can be studied and matched to offender profiles in existing DNA databases to help identify a suspect if one is not already known.
• Beyond its accuracy, DNA fingerprinting also offers detectives new techniques to sort through evidence from crime scenes.
• For instance, sophisticated DNA fingerprinting may produce distinct prints of different people even from a sample mixture discovered at the crime scene; this is helpful during gang rape investigations as it allows for the identification of each culprit separately.

DNA fingerprinting in India

• Lalji Singh, who had been on a Commonwealth Fellowship to the UK from 1974 to 1987, created DNA fingerprinting for criminal investigations in Hyderabad by 1988.
• Lalji Singh, who died in 2017, is regarded as “the father of DNA fingerprinting in India” in modern times.
• The Kerala Police employed DNA fingerprinting for the first time in a case in 1989.
• By the beginning of the 1990s, technology was being utilised to prove paternity, connect criminals, and identify victims in sensational crimes.
• When semen samples from suspects were compared to vaginal swab samples in rape cases starting in the 2000s, the technology became standard practise.

Challenges with DNA fingerprinting in India

• It is crucial to prevent the DNA of the investigators from interacting with that of the suspects or victims.
• Therefore, for the evidence to pass a court test, it is essential to collect samples from a crime scene using sterile tools and to store samples properly.
• Although India has laws and regulations in this area, its police forces nevertheless lag behind their international counterparts.
• State police personnel are not appropriately trained or equipped, despite the fact that central agencies like the CBI have the knowledge to ensure that crime scenes are protected and proper procedure is followed.

Problems with such technology

• The issue goes beyond just police awareness.
• In the nation itself, there are no facilities for DNA fingerprinting.
• Only a few locations – Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chandigarh — offer DNA fingerprinting services.
• Only the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in Hyderabad uses advanced technologies.

• The government notified the Lok Sabha that the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has developed a draught National Cyber Security Strategy that takes a comprehensive approach to resolving the problem of national cyberspace security.

The National Cyber Security Strategy

• The report, which was conceptualised by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), focuses on 21 areas to ensure that India has a safe, secure, trusted, resilient, and thriving cyberspace.

The report’s primary areas of concentration are:

• Large-scale digitalization of public services: Institutional capacity for core device inspection, evaluation, certification, and rating needs to be developed, with a focus on security from the beginning of all digitalization activities.
• Supply chain security: The supply chains for integrated circuits (ICT) and electronics products should be closely monitored and mapped. Scaling up product certification and testing is necessary, and the nation’s semiconductor design capabilities must be used internationally.
• Protection of the critical information infrastructure: Enterprise security should be integrated with SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) security. Additionally, a vulnerability repository should be kept up.
• Digital payments: Threat research and intelligence sharing should be done along with mapping and modelling of the deployed devices and platforms, transacting entities, payment flows, interfaces, and data exchange.
• State-level cybersecurity: It is necessary to create cybersecurity rules and regulations for security operations, architecture, and governance.

Steps the report suggest

• The report offers the following suggestions for putting cybersecurity into practise in the focus areas mentioned above:
• Financial provisions It has been suggested that a minimum of 0.25% of the annual budget, which can be increased up to 1%, be set aside for cyber security.
• Allocation by ministry: 15-20% of the IT/technology budget for individual ministries and agencies should be set aside for cybersecurity.
• Creating a Fund of Funds: The report also recommends creating a Fund of Funds for cybersecurity in order to give states access to central funds for the development of their national capacities in this area.
• Research and development, talent development, and technological development are recommended in the report. It also recommends funding investments in deep-tech cyber security innovation and the modernization and digitization of ICTs.
• National certification framework: In order to give international professional certifications in security, a national framework should be developed in cooperation with organisations like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and ISEA (Information Security Education and Awareness).
• The DSCI also advises the establishment of “cyber security services” with personnel drawn from the Indian Engineering Services.
• Crisis management: The DSCI advises conducting cybersecurity drills that involve real-life events and their effects in order to adequately prepare for handling crises. Simulation exercises for cross-border scenarios must be conducted on an international level in industries that are crucial.
• Cyber insurance: Because this area of study is still in its infancy, it requires actuarial science in order to address cybersecurity risks in technological and business contexts and to estimate threat exposures.
• Cyberdiplomacy: India’s international relations are greatly influenced by cyberdiplomacy. The government should promote India’s reputation as a trustworthy participant in cyber security and appoint “cyber envoys” to important nations and regions in order to advance better diplomacy.
• Cybercrime investigation: It also recommends developing a five-year roadmap that accounts for potential technological change, creating special courts to handle cybercrimes, and boosting the number of centres that offer expert opinions on digital evidence under Section 79A of the IT Act.
• Advanced forensic training: In addition, the DSCI advises agencies to undergo advanced forensic training to stay current in the era of AI/ML, blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, and automation.
• Cooperation between agencies: To find information about service providers abroad, law enforcement and other agencies should work together with their colleagues abroad.

Way ahead

• India has to deal with the necessity and significance of both cyber offences and defence.
• India’s main response strategies—possibly its only ones—appear to be defensive as of right now.
• As a response, India must likewise invest in more aggressive cyber tools.

In its decades-long quest to capture fusion, the energy that propels the sun and stars, the US declared a “significant scientific breakthrough.”

Fusion

• By exerting sufficient pressure on neighbouring hydrogen atoms that they smash together to form helium, fusion generates vast quantities of heat and energy.
• This phenomenon happens in other stars, such as the Sun.
• On Earth, fusion requires the production and maintenance of a plasma.
• Plasmas are gases that are so heated that atomic nuclei’s electrons are released.

How is it carried out?

Fusion in a lab is possible if three conditions are met:

• Three conditions must be met for collisions to occur: an extremely high temperature (on the order of 150,000,000° Celsius), a sufficient plasma particle density, and an adequate confinement period (to hold the plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume).
• A gas transforms into a plasma, which is frequently referred to as the fourth state of matter, when electrons are separated from nuclei at very high temperatures.
• Fusion plasmas offer the conditions necessary for the fusion of light elements to produce energy.

Fusion Energy

• Because the mass of the resulting single nucleus is smaller than the combined mass of the two initial nuclei, the process produces energy.
• Remaining mass is converted to energy.
• US achievements
• The US experiment makes use of an inertial confinement fusion technique.
• It involved firing the largest laser in the world at a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma.

Why is it recognised as energy of the future?

• Carbon-free: Because fusion processes may generate virtually endless amounts of carbon-free energy, they have the potential to eventually replace fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources.
• Efficient: Fusion has proven to be extremely difficult to control since it happens at such high temperatures and pressures. Net energy gain has thus far proven to be a difficult goal to achieve.
• Clean: Unlike other nuclear processes, it doesn’t generate radioactive waste.

Fusion, still a very distant reality

• Despite how noteworthy the accomplishment is, it does little to further the objective of using fusion processes to generate electricity.
• According to all projections, it will still be two to three decades before the fusion process is used to generate electricity on a commercial scale.
• Even more time may pass before the technology utilised in the US experiment is implemented.

India’s progress: ITER project

• One of the most ambitious energy projects being undertaken in the world today is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
• In 1985, the concept for a global fusion experiment was originally proposed.
• The largest tokamak in the world, a magnetic fusion device created to demonstrate the viability of fusion, is being constructed in southern France by 35 nations*.

China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States are the other six members who jointly fund and administer ITER.

With the aid of the base editing technology, a young cancer patient with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) has been able to beat her supposedly incurable disease.

Editing the Base

• The language of life is bases. Our genetic code is composed of four different types of bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
• The billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instructions for our body, just as letters in the alphabet make out words with meaning.
• Base editing enables researchers to focus on a specific location in the genetic code, change the molecular makeup of just one base, transform it into another, and modify the genetic instructions.
• This device was used by the large group of medical professionals and researchers to create a brand-new type of T-cell that could find and eliminate cancerous T-cells.

T-Cell

• White blood cells known as T cells are thymus cells.
• They originate from stem cells in the bone marrow and are a component of the immune system.
• They may aid in the fight against cancer and protect the body from infection.
• Also known as a thymocyte and a T lymphocyte.

How base editing benefited this teen with cancer?

• Starting with donor-provided, healthy T-cells, doctors began about altering them.
• The T-cell targeting mechanism was disabled in the first base edit to prevent patient body attacks.
• The second eliminated CD7, a chemical label present on all T-cells.
• The third edit was an invisibility cloak that stopped chemotherapy drugs from killing the cells.
• The last step of genetic modification commanded the T-cells to search for anything in the patient’s body that had the CD7 marking, including the malignant ones, and destroy them all.
• Because of this, the marking must be taken out of the therapy; else, it will self-destruct.
• With the second bone marrow transplant, the patient’s immune system, including T cells, will be rebuilt if the therapy is successful.

• The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) successfully completed the first blow-down test to officially open the new trisonic wind tunnel.
• Large tubes with air moving within are called wind tunnels.
• The tunnels are used to mimic an object in flight’s movements.
• Wind tunnels are used by researchers to better understand how an aircraft will fly.
• Space agencies test scale models of aircraft and spacecraft in wind tunnels. Some wind tunnels are large enough to accommodate whole automobile models.
• In a wind tunnel, air is moved around an item to simulate actual flight.

Working of Wind Tunnels

• Powerful fans are typically used to move air through the tube.
• The testing object is secured inside the tube so that it cannot move.
• A miniature replica of a car might be the item. It might only be a component of a car.
• It might be a large spaceship or aircraft. Even a commonplace thing like a tennis ball qualifies.
• You may put smoke or dye in the air and watch it move. To demonstrate how the air is moving, threads might be affixed to the object.
• The force of the air on the object is frequently measured using specialised instruments.

Trisonic Wind Tunnel at VSCC

• The phrase “trisonic” describes the tunnel’s ability to conduct tests at three different speeds: subsonic, transonic, and supersonic (supersonic).
• Its components include air storage tanks, an airflow’smoothening’ chamber, and nozzles for releasing air into the test portion.
• It is roughly 160 metres long and 5.4 metres wide at its widest point.
• A “blow down test” simulates flight circumstances by releasing stored gases and blowing them through the test section of the tunnel.
• According to the space agency, the tunnel can simulate flight circumstances at speeds ranging from 0.8 times the speed of sound (68 metres per second) to 4 times the speed of sound (1,360 metres per second).
• Commissioned in 2017, this tunnel can simulate flow speeds up to Mach 12.

In order to create the SpaceTech Innovation Network, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Social Alpha, a multistage innovation curation and venture development platform, have signed a memorandum of understanding (SpIN).

SpaceTech Innovation Network (SpIN)

• SpIN is the first platform specifically designed in India for innovation, curation, and business development in the developing space entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• The main objective of SpIN will be to support space technology entrepreneurs in three different innovation areas: geospatial technologies and downstream applications; enabling technologies for space & mobility; and aerospace materials, sensors, and avionics.

Key initiative

• For the purpose of creating solutions in the fields of mapping, surveying, urbanisation, and land and sea transportation, SpIN has announced its inaugural innovation challenge.
• According to the current regulations, the chosen start-ups and innovators will have access to the infrastructure and resources of both Social Alpha and ISRO.
• They will receive active guidance in crucial areas, such as access to testing and validation facilities, product design, and intellectual property management.

• NSEIT earned the Best Tech Initiative of the Year award at the Dun & Bradstreet Business Excellence Awards 2022 thanks to the Manthan platform.
• The Manthan platform earned NSEIT the Dun & Bradstreet Business Award for Best Tech Initiative of the Year.

Objective

• Fostering cooperation between business and the ecosystem of scientific research and development. Office of Principal Scientific Adviser is leading the initiative.
• It gives many stakeholders the ability to work together to co-create solutions that are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and our national scientific missions ss Excellence Awards 2022.

4 pillars

• Pillar 1: Creation of opportunities, which calls for early-stage innovation, innovation that is market-ready, implementation projects, COE, fellowships, etc.
• Pillar 2: Putting up ideas for joint ventures, R&D, etc.
• Pillars 3 and 4 provide a space for collaboration by using virtual meeting rooms: Pillar 3: Innovation Exhibition, showcasing innovations through a virtual expo; and Pillar 4: Conference/Meeting Facility.

NSEIT Limited

• It is a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India and a worldwide technology enterprise dedicated to providing excellence in a challenging digital environment, especially in the banking, insurance, and capital market ecosystem.
• The following are the main service pillars: application modernization, business transformation, data analytics, infrastructure & cloud services, cybersecurity, educational technology, and online test-taking assistance.