Science And technology Flashcards
JALDOST airboat
- It is an airboat that operates on water.
- It is designed to remove excess aquatic weed and floating waste from water bodies.
- It has a closed airtight pontoon type hull to make it inherently unsinkable.
- According to NAL, it has a hybrid propulsion system, comprising air propulsion and paddle wheel propulsion.
How does the JALDOST airboat work?
The ability to travel through weed makes JALDOST an ideal platform to collect them and bring them to the shore.
A steel mesh belt conveyor system fixed in the front collects the waste. The collected waste falls on the horizontal deck conveyor.
After reaching the shore, the collected waste is unloaded by a rear conveyor system to trucks or tractors.
4. NAL has developed two versions of the airboat —JALDOST Mark-1and an upgraded version JALDOST Mark-2.
Artemis 2 Mission
It isNASA’sprogramto return astronauts to the Moon,preparing the way for human missions to Mars.
Itaim to “land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon”, explore the lunar surface.
The Artemis programincludes the construction of the Lunar Gateway space stationin orbit around the Moon.
ArtemisI: Anuncrewed test flightof the Orion spacecraft, launched on theSpace Launch System (SLS) rocketonNovember 16, 2022.
During Artemis II, fourastronauts will fly aroundthe moonbefore returning toEarth.
It willuse the hugeSpace Launch System(SLS) mega-rocket andOrion spacecraftto launch the crew on the lunar flyby mission.
It will include three astronauts from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency.
The astronauts and mission controllers willcollect data on Orion and the crew’s performanceto assess how ready theArtemis programis to send people to the moon’s surface.
Side Channel Attacks (SCAs
These are a method of hacking a cryptographic algorithm based on the analysis of auxiliary systems used in the encryption method.
These can be performed using a collection of signals emitted by devices, including electromagnetic waves, power consumption, mobile sensors as well as sound from keyboards and printers to target devices.
Once collected, these signals are used to interpret signals that can be then used to compromise the security of a device.
Gene-edited Mustard
Recently, Indian scientists developed the first ever Gene edited low-pungent mustard that is pest and disease-resistant.
About Gene-edited Mustard:
India’s most significant domestically-grown oilseed is rapeseed-mustard.
Issues with Mustard seeds
Mustard seeds have high levels of glucosinolates, a group of sulphur and nitrogen-containing compounds contributing to the characteristic pungency of their oil and meal.
Rapeseed meal is unpalatable to poultry and pigs, while having to be mixed with fodder grass and water for giving to cattle and buffaloes.
Besides reducing their feed intake, high glucosinolates are also known to cause goiter (swelling of neck) and internal organ abnormalities in livestock.
The dry seeds from the normal mustard (Brassica juncea) cultivated in India contain 120-130 parts per million (ppm or mg/kg) of glucosinolates. This is as against the sub-30 ppm levels in canola seeds.
A Gene Editing breakthrough
The Glucosinolates are synthesised in the leaves and pod walls of mustard plants.
Their translocation and accumulation in the seeds happens through the action of glucosinolate transporter or GTR genes.
There are 12 such genes under two distinct classes of GTR1 and GTR2 with six copies each.
Researchers edited 10 out of the 12 GTR genes in ‘Varuna’, a high-yielding Indian mustard variety.
For this, they used CRISPR/Cas9 – a gene-editing tool deploying an enzyme, which acts as a “molecular scissors” to cut the DNA at precise targeted locations of the gene, and then letting the natural DNA repair process to take over.
By doing this, their encoded proteins, responsible for transport of the glucosinolates to the seeds, were rendered non-functional.
By lowering the glucosinolate content to the same dry seed weight concentration, the scientists have bred mustard lines whose oil and meal match the standard of canola-quality rapeseed (Brassica napus) in terms of pungency.
The new GTR genes-edited mustard lines are transgene-free or non-genetically modified (GM).
They contain no foreign genes like those of theBacillus thuringiensisbacteria in cotton or Bar-Barnase-Barstar (isolated from other soil bacteria) in the GM hybrid mustard (DMH-11).
