1. A Massive underground lake has been detected for first time on Mars, discovered by European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter (launched in 2003). It is about 20 kilometres wide, located under a layer of Martian ice and is largest body of liquid water ever found on Red Planet.
- It lies almost 1.5 km beneath the icy surface and water is not drinkable. Tool that detected this is called MARSIS (________________________).
2. A group of Russian and Princeton University (___________________________) scientists revived a pair of frozen roundworms that were 32,000 and 41,700 years old and were found buried in Siberia. Around 300 prehistoric worms were defrosted and brought to 20ºC. After weeks of cultivation, two nematodes reportedly showed signs of life by starting to move and eat.
3. A rare blood group named “pp” or “P null” phenotype has been identified by doctors from Kasturba Medical College (KMC) in Mangaluru (___________________). ABO and Rh D are the most common blood group systems. Doctors confirmed that a needy patient’s cells contained rare “pp” phenotype, making it first time that P blood group null phenotype is detected in India.
4. __________________ scientists at Edith Cowan University (ECU) have developed world’s first blood test capable of detecting melanoma in its early stages, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
5. ____________________ will launch a 300-satellite array known as Hongyan constellation, with 1st launch scheduled in end of 2018. The constellation will provide worldwide communication services, allowing a mobile phone to be connected anywhere on planet, including remote deserts or middle of an ocean.
- Low-orbit satellites have stronger signals and a shorter signal delay than synchronous orbit satellites, which are 36,000 kilometers above equator.
6. ______________ government approved delinking Aadhaar number and Aadhaar-linked bank accounts for availing old age, disability and widow pensions. It will pay at old rates all pensions halted due to lack of Aadhaar
7. ___________________ Researchers created world’s first rhino embryos in a test tube to save near-extinct northern white rhinos, which has only two females alive globally. For this, team fertilised southern white rhinos’ eggs with dead northern white rhinos’ sperm.
8. ISRO conducted its first PAT (pad abort test), through Crew Escape System that provides an escape mechanism for astronauts if the launch operation is aborted. Once deployed, India will become 4th nation (after USA, Russia and China), to have human space flight programmes.
- Only Indian to ever travel to space was fighter pilot Rakesh Sharma who flew aboard Soyuz T-11, a spacecraft of the former USSR in ___________________________. India currently does not have a human space flight programme.
9. ISRO successfully conducted ground test of its high thrust version of Vikas Engine at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri (____________________).
- Vikas belongs to family of liquid fuelled rocket engines conceptualized and designed by ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in 1970s. It is workhorse liquid rocket engine powering second stage of PSLV, second stage and four strap on stages of GSLV and is part of first stage twin engine core liquid stage (L110) of GSLV Mk-III.
- Tested high thrust version of Vikas engine will improve payload capability of PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk-III launch vehicles.
10.__________________ will launch Centauri I satellite later this year, which is a 10 kg nano-satellite made by Indian IOT startup Fleet Space Technologies.
11. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras commissioned world’s first remotely operable _______________________ (LEAP) microscope, which is operatable through special terminal by researchers divided geographically. LEAP can provide a precise atom-by-atom view of materials, providing atomic-scale insights into metallic.
12. India’s first biofortified sorghum (jowar) named Parbhani Shakti containing higher iron and zinc than regular sorghum was formally launched, named Parbhani Shakti (ICSR 14001), developed by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT). It was released for cultivation by Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth (VNMKV) in __________________.
13. Mars made its closest approach to the Earth on July 31, 2018. At a distance of 57.6 million km, it was closest since 2003. In 2003, Mars was closest in nearly 60,000 years, at __________________ million km, which won’t be repeated until 2287.
14. ________________ Updates -
- Discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, where one of them is on a collision course which could create a crash large enough to be visible from Earth. This brings total number of Jovian moons to 79, most for any planet.
- Its Parker Solar Probe, mission to get closest to Sun than ever by any human-made object has got its revolutionary heat shield “Thermal Protection System or TPS” permanently attached to spacecraft.
- Parker Solar Probe will be launched in August 2018, after been in making for 60 years. Spacecraft’s orbit will carry it to within 4 million miles of Sun’s surface with the help of its heat shield, and will collect data about the inner workings of the corona.
- Heat shield’s diameter is 8 feet and weighs 72.5 KG.
- As Probe approaches Sun, temperatures on heat shield will reach around 1,371 degrees Celsius. But, spacecraft and its instruments will be maintained at a relatively comfortable temperature of nearly 29.4 degrees Celsius.
- Sun-facing side of heat shield is sprayed with a specially formulated white coating to reflect most of Sun’s energy away.
- Parker Solar Probe will travel at a speed of 69,2018 km per hour at its closest approach to Sun.
- Its _______________________________________ (TESS) become operational, after its launch in April 2018. It will look for potential exoplanets in a strip of sky running from the far south to near equator.
- TESS mission is led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
- It is designed to find potential planets orbiting stars close to Earth. It will identify such planets by spotting decreased brightness of stars after planet passes in front of it.
- It is successor to Kepler, space observatory which is responsible for detecting most of the currently known exoplanets.
- TESS will be able to observe about 85% of sky over its expected two-year mission.
- Data collected by TESS will help to study mass, size, density and orbit of large cohort of small planets, including sample of rocky worlds in habitable zones (goldilocks zone) of their host stars.
15. _________________ (NBWL) added 4 species (Northern River Terrapin, Clouded Leopard, Arabian Sea Humpback Whale and Red Panda) into Centre’s Recovery Programme for Critically Endangered Species.
- Norther River Terrapin - Species of riverine turtle found in rivers that flow in Eastern India.
- Clouded Leopard - Found in Himalayan foothills. It is threatened due to habitat loss, poaching for its skin and is also as a live pet trade.
- Arabian Sea Humpback Whale - Migrates from Oman coast through Arabian sea, along Indian coasts till Sri Lankan coast.
- Red Panda - Closely associated with montane forests with dense bamboo-thicket. It is found in Sikkim, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh.
16. Researchers discovered seven new wasp species belonging to the genus Clistopyga from ____________ Nations of Peru, Venezuela and Colombia. Most notable among is Clistopyga crassicaudata, named after its distinctly thickened ovipositor, a tube-like organ present in many insects that helps in laying eggs and also in injecting venom.
17. Researchers from National Autonomous University of __________________ developed a hybrid chayote fruit from two wild species, which can battle cancer. Raw extract of this fruit is as effective as Cytarabine, a medication used to treat some types of cancer.
- Also, Mycological Laboratory of Goa university announced discovery of a new pigment from local wild mushrooms that may help fight cancer. The pigment has been declared as world’s first sulphur-rich edible melanin.
18. Scientists approved three new ages on geologic time scale of Holocene Epoch - Meghalayan Age, Middle Holocene Northgrippian Age and Early Holocene Greenlandian Age.
- These new ages of Holocene Epoch are represented by wealth of sediments that accumulated worldwide on sea floor, on lake bottoms, as glacial ice, and as calcite layers in stalactites and stalagmites.
- Meghalayan Age -
- Named after cave in Indian state of Meghalaya. It helped to define climatic events _____________________ years ago, marking beginning of phase that continues till today. Meghalayan Age was part of longer period known as Epoch, which reflects everything that has happened over past 11,700 years.
- It began with mega global drought that devastated ancient agricultural civilisations from Egypt to China. Droughts over 200-year period resulted in human migrations in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Greece, Indus valley and Yangtze river valley.
- Middle Holocene Northgrippian Age and Early Holocene Greenlandian Age -
- These 2 ages are defined with beginnings at climatic events that happened about 8,300 years and 11,700 years ago, respectively.
- Lower boundary of Greenlandian and Northgripppian stages are defined at specific levels in Greenland ice cores.
19. Scientists from _____________ National University discovered world's oldest colours. 1.1 billion-year-old bright pink pigments, extracted from rocks deep beneath the Sahara desert in Africa, have finally been traced.
20. Scientists from Julich Research Centre (___________________) have developed a computer named “SpiNNaker” that mimics human brain’s neural networks, and would overcome speed and power consumption problems of conventional supercomputers. It would help to advance our knowledge of neural processing in brain, to include learning and disorders like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.
21. Scientists from _______________________ performed world’s first-ever 3-D, colour X-ray on human, with potential to improve medical diagnostics. The new device is based on the traditional black-and-white X-ray but incorporates particle-tracking technology called Medipix developed by European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
22. Scientists have developed world’s fastest rotor, which will help in studying quantum mechanics. It can spin at more than __________________ billion revolutions per minute, making it world’s fastest man-made object. Spinning dumbbell functions as rotor, and vibrating dumbbell functions like instrument for measuring tiny forces and torques, known as a torsion balance.
23. Scientists identified new shape called __________________ while studying epithelial cells.
- It has five sides on one end and six on the other and a triangular surface on one of its longer edges. and It is completely new to geometry and resembles beetle’s scutellum (shield-like structure) from top-down view.
- It will help to explain how cells arrange themselves in tightly packed three-dimensional (3D) structures that serve as protective barriers in body. It will contribute to tissue engineering specifically development of artificial organs.
24. Search engine Google at its Cloud Next 2018 conference held in San Francisco (__________________) unveiled two new Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips aimed at helping customers develop and deploy intelligent connected devices at scale. They are Edge TPU and Cloud IoT Edge.
- Edge TPU - A purpose-built application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed to run AI at the edge. It will bring brain to devices at extremely low cost and high power efficiency without compromising performance.
- Cloud IoT Edge - A software stack that extends Google Cloud’s powerful AI capability to gateways and connected devices.
- During the same conference, Google partnered with Accenture to help enterprises build Cloud solutions customised to their specific industries and needs through Accenture Google Cloud Business Group (ABG). It aims to help companies to build next generation business processes with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based approaches to develop new value across enterprise.
25. _____________________ State Animal Nilgiri tahr (a wild goat species) is Reporedtly endangered as climate change may cause it to loose 60% of its habitat by 2030s, with just 2500 left in wild. It is endemic to Western Ghats from Nilgiris to Kanyakumari.
26. U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO’s nodal satellites division has signed separate contracts with three vendors to outsource Spacecraft Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) activities. Vendors are Alpha Design Technologies, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Tata Advanced Systems.
- It aims to promote participation of Indian industry from spacecraft subsystems to spacecraft assembly, integration and testing. Under this, 27 spacecrafts will be made by July __________________.
