UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

  A new study has uncoded the mysteries of how the venom of Pope’s pit viper, a snake species native to northern and northeastern parts of India, works. The study can help establish the foundation for venom toxicity, pharmaceutical advancements, and enhanced antivenom compositions. The "Big Four" venomous snakes—Russell's Viper, Saw-Scaled Viper, Spectacled Cobra, and Common Krait—have undergone considerable research, but venom composition of Pope's Pit Viper ( Trimeresurus popeiorum ), an arboreal, nocturnal serpent indigenous to the dense forests of Northeast India, remains unexamined. Fig: Pope's Pit Viper Prof. Ashis K. Mukherjee, Director of the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) spearheaded a recent investigation along with Prof. B.G. Nair, Dr. M. Vanuopadath, Dr. Bhargab Kalita, and Dr. Aparup Patra from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, as well as Dr. H.T. Lalremsanga...

  Self-amplifying mRNA (saRNA) vaccines, which are   mRNA vaccines with the added capability of replicating themselves , are being developed as a promising approach for rapid vaccine development and potentially lower doses, with the CDC and other organizations like CEPI actively involved in their development and research.   Here's a more detailed explanation: What are saRNA vaccines? Self-amplifying mRNA vaccines leverage the inherent ability of mRNA to replicate within cells, meaning that once the mRNA is introduced, it not only instructs the cell to produce the antigen but also replicates itself, leading to a higher production of the antigen and potentially requiring lower doses of the vaccine.   Benefits of saRNA vaccines: Rapid development:   saRNA vaccines can be developed quickly, as they can be synthesized using a cell-free system, and the modular design allows for rapid adaptation to new threats.   Lower doses:   The self-replicative nature of ...

  The  Fourth edition of Exercise Tiger Triumph,  the bilateral Tri-Service India-US Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise, is scheduled on the Eastern Seaboard from  01 to 13 Apr 25 . The exercise is aimed at developing interoperability for conducting HADR operations and for the formulation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to establish a Combined Coordination Center (CCC) that would enable rapid and smooth coordination between Indian and US Joint Task Forces (JTF) during exercises and crisis / contingencies. The Indian side would be represented by  Indian Naval Ships   Jalashwa ,  Gharial, Mumbai  and  Shakti  with integral helicopters and landing crafts embarked,  Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft P8I, Army Troops  from  91 Inf Brigade  and  12 Mech Infantry Battalion ,  Air Force C-130  Aircraft and  MI-17  Helicopters, along with the  Rapid Action Medica...

Relevance: The Hindu Horseshoe crabs are arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only surviving xiphosurans. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or even crustaceans; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids like spiders, ticks, and scorpions. The body of a horseshoe crab is divided into three main parts: the cephalothorax, abdomen, and telson. The largest of these, the cephalothorax, houses most of the animal's eyes, limbs, and internal organs. It is also where the animal gets its name, as its shape somewhat resembles that of a horseshoe. Horseshoe crabs have been described as "living fossils", having changed little since they first appeared in the Triassic. Only four species of horseshoe crab are extant today. Most are marine, though the mangrove horseshoe crab is often found in brackish water. Additionally, certain extinct species transitioned to living in freshwater. Horseshoe crabs primarily live at the water's bottom but they can swim i...

The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. It separates the biogeographic realms of Asia and 'Wallacea', a transitional zone between Asia and Australia formerly also called the Malay Archipelago and the Indo-Australian Archipelago (Present day Indonesia). To the west of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic species; to the east, a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origins is present. Wallace noticed this clear division in both land mammals and birds during his travels through the East Indies in the 19th century. The line runs through Indonesia, such as Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi (Celebes), and through the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, where the distance is strikingly small, only about 35 kilometers (22 mi), but enough for a contrast in species present on each island. The complex biogeography of t...

  NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH mission, is a constellation of four small satellites in low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the Sun’s corona to better understand how the mass and energy there becomes the solar wind that fills the solar system. The PUNCH mission will use four suitcase-sized satellites to observe the Sun and its environment. Working together, the four PUNCH satellites will create a combined field of view and map the region where the Sun’s corona (or outer atmosphere) transitions to the solar wind (the constant outflow of material from the Sun). The PUNCH mission will answer questions about: How the Sun’s atmosphere transitions to the solar wind. How structures in the solar wind are created. How these processes affect the solar system. Space Weather Impacts The solar wind and energetic solar events like flares and coronal mass ejections can create space weather effects throughout the solar system. These phenomen...

  The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is a planned two-year mission that will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 450 million galaxies, as well as, more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way. SPHEREx will survey hundreds of millions of galaxies near and far, some so distant their light has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth. In the Milky Way, the mission will search for water and organic molecules - essentials for life, as we know it - in stellar nurseries, regions where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming. Every six months, SPHEREx will survey the entire sky using technologies adapted from Earth satellites and interplanetary spacecraft. The mission will create ...

Blue Ghost Mission 1 (TO 19D) is a lunar lander designed to deliver ten payloads to the lunar surface. It launched on 15 January 2025. The objectives of the mission are to investigate heat flow from the lunar interior, plume-surface interactions, crustal electric and magnetic fields. It will also take X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphere. On February 13, Blue Ghost went into orbit around the Moon, and on March 2, at 08:45 UT it landed in Mare Crisium near Mons Latreille, targeted at 18.56 N, 61.81 E. Since  launching  from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 15, Blue Ghost traveled more than 2.8 million miles, downlinked more than 27 GB of data, and supported several science operations. This included signal tracking from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) at a record-breaking distance of 246,000 miles with the  Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment  payload – showing NASA can use the same positioning systems on Earth when at the Moon. Science cond...

  On Feb. 6, NASA’s NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor) passed its critical design review. It was e xpected to launch no earlier than late 2027. Mission's aim is to  discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit.   These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs. Mission will carry out five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 feet).   NASA , JPL

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so that they focus the light like a giant lens. This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing.  Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object — such as a galaxy cluster — warps space and time causing light to bend, distort, and magnify as it passes around the massive object.  Sometimes,  light could become so warped that it appears multiple times (like a mirror image), or in the shape of a circle called an Einstein ring. The first Einstein ring was discovered in 1987. Scientists have openion that  invisible form of matter called dark matter  is responsble for bending of light into ring.. So, Einstein Rings could be indirect way to study dark matter.  Scientists can also learn about the background galaxy itself using Einstein Rings. It was first descibed by  Einstein in his general theory of relativity. British astronomers Arthur Stanley Eddingto...

In Guillain-Barré syndrome, the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. The syndrome can affect the nerves that control muscle movement as well as those that transmit pain, temperature and touch sensations. This can result in muscle weakness, loss of sensation in the legs and/or arms, and problems swallowing or breathing. It is a rare condition, and while it is more common in adults and in males, people of all ages can be affected. Symptoms typically last a few weeks, with most individuals recovering without long-term, severe neurological complications. The first symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome include weakness or tingling sensations. They usually start in the legs and can spread to the arms and face. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is rare. The cause of it is not fully understood, but most cases follow an infection with a virus or bacteria. This leads the immune system to attack the body itself.  Diagnosis is based on symptoms and findings on neurolog...

  Shaped like a megaphone, the upcoming mission will map the entire sky in infrared light to answer big questions about the universe. Expected to launch no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 27, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory will provide astronomers with a big-picture view of the cosmos like none before. Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx will map the entire celestial sky in 102 infrared colors, illuminating the origins of our universe, galaxies within it, and life’s key ingredients in our own galaxy. Here are six things to know about the mission. 1. The SPHEREx space telescope will shed light on a cosmic phenomenon called inflation. In the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the big bang, the universe increased in size by a trillion-trillionfold. Called inflation, this nearly instantaneous event took place almost 14 billion years ago...

CROPS stands for Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies which is an unmanned experimental module designed to develop ISRO’s capabilities for growing and sustaining plants in space. CROPS first mission (CROPS – 1) is designed to demonstrate germination of a seed and growth of plant up to two leaves stage in space. It is an airtight container of diameter 300mm and height 450mm simulating earth like environment in space except gravity. CROPS – 1 was flown in PSLV C60 mission in POEM 4 payload to demonstrate germination of a seed and sustenance up to two leaves stage in space for 5 to 7 days. Cowpea (Scientific name: Vigna Unguiculata) was chosen based on ground trials on a variety of seeds due to its shorter germination time.  On the fourth day, seeds sprouting out from the enclosed tissue strips was observed. On the fifth day, two leaves were visible on spouted seeds indicating successful accomplishment of the objectives. ISRO News

  SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstrator mission for the demonstration of in-space docking using two small spacecraft launched by PSLV. This technology is essential for India's space ambitions such as Indian on Moon, sample return from the Moon, the building and operation of Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), etc. In-space docking technology is essential when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve common mission objectives. Through this mission, India is marching towards becoming the fourth country in the world to have space docking technology. Objectives: The primary objective of the SpaDeX mission is to develop and demonstrate the technology needed for rendezvous, docking, and undocking of two small spacecraft (SDX01, which is the Chaser, and SDX02, the Target, nominally) in a low-Earth circular orbit. Secondary objectives include: Demonstration of the transfer of electric power between the docked spacecraft, which is essential for future application...

The Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope, or KM3NeT, is a European research infrastructure located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. It hosts the next-generation neutrino telescope with water Cherenkov detectors. When completed, KM3NeT will have a total instrumented volume of several cubic kilometres distributed over three locations in the Mediterranean: KM3NeT-Fr (offshore Toulon, France), KM3NeT-It (offshore Portopalo di Capo Passero, Sicily, Italy) and KM3NeT-Gr (offshore Pylos, Peloponnese, Greece). The KM3NeT project continues the work done for the neutrino telescope ANTARES operated offshore the coast of France between 2008 and 2022. Using KM3NeT, scientists search for neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources like supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae or colliding stars. The telescope is a powerful tool in the search for dark matter in the universe. Arrays of thousands of optical sensor modules detect the faint Cherenkov light in the deep sea from charged parti...