Why don’t we talk about the ozone layer anymore?

 

We’re quite lucky that we live on Earth.

We’re in what’s known as the Goldilocks Zone, the habitable part of the Solar System that has just the right conditions for water to form, and for life to flourish. This zone really narrow, so it’s a stroke of luck that our planet falls in it. However, it’s not the only factor playing a part in sustaining on our planet.

Without the ozone layer, planet Earth would be a very different place.

One of those is the ozone layer. It’s basically the Earth’s sun cream - it protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, the kind that causes our skin to burn.

Once upon a time, the ozone layer was a hot topic in the news - everyone was told to chuck out their hairsprays for fear of damaging the planet.

But it’s not spoken about quite so much anymore, and there’s a good reason for that - it’s something of a success story.

But how does the ozone layer work?

The Earth’s atmosphere has six layers. In the second layer, the stratosphere, you can find the ozone layer, which is made up of a gas called (wait for it) ozone.

Ozone molecules are formed of three oxygen atoms, and is what’s known as a trace gas. This means that there’s not a lot of it in our air, however the amount there is essential.

Essentially the ozone layer absorbs the Sun’s most harmful UV rays - 98% of them in fact. This is why it’s so crucial that damage to it is limited, otherwise problems such as skin cancer could be much more likely. In fact, if there was no ozone layer at all, we wouldn’t be able to live on Earth.

What would happen without it?

To answer that, we only have to look at one of our closest neighbours, Mars. As far as we’re aware, life doesn’t exist on Mars, but the red planet also exists in the Goldilocks Zone, so by all accounts it should be habitable.

No life has been found on Mars. Yet.

A large part of the reason why it’s not is due to the ozone layer, or lack of one. Without that barrier, UV rays fry pretty much every useful organic material and plant. That mean it’s hard for flora and fauna to sustain itself, and crucially no way to carry out photosynthesis which provides oxygen.

What damages the ozone layer then?

Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, which are made up of chlorine, fluorine and carbon atoms, are the biggest culprit in ozone depletion. More commonly known as CFCs, they can be found in fridges, aerosols and plastics.

When they’re released into the atmosphere and exposed to sunlight, the UV radiation causes the molecule to break down into their individual atoms. When chlorine is separated from the CFCs and reacts with ozone, it rips apart the ozone molecule, leaving the layer thinner than before.

How damaged is the ozone layer?

In 1974, two scientists from the University of California called Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland discovered the threat CFCs posed to our ozone layer. In a nutshell, they discovered that there was a limit to how much chlorine the ozone layer could absorb, and once that limit was reached, we would no longer have one.

At the time, CFCs were used in lots of things. One of the biggest offenders were the fridges in our kitchens. CFCs were used as a refrigerant as they could absorb heat from around them, keeping your food cold.

A diagram of the ozone layer ‘hole’ above Antarctica.

The danger of CFCs was reiterated in 1985 by a group of Cambridge scientists. They found what was often called a ‘hole’ in the layer over Antarctica, and that it had been caused by the chemicals. In fact the hole was more like a very thin patch, and more were found across the globe in years to come.

This was extremely worrying. One atom of chlorine could destroy more than 100,000 ozone molecules, which meant that it was disappearing faster than it could replace itself, and scientists predicted that by 2050, it would be completely gone.

What was done about it, and did it work?

Luckily the world took notice, and something called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (catchy) was signed by lots of countries around the world. This is a global agreement that stated all countries must phase out the use of CFCs in manufacturing and elsewhere, with the aim of eventually stopping their production altogether. It was signed in 1987 and came into force in 1989.

The effect it had was astounding. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that since then the US has avoided:

• 280 million cases of skin cancer
• 1.6 million deaths from skin cancer
• 45 million cases of cataracts

Not only that, but it’s prevented further changes to our climate and weather, too. The chemicals are what are known as ‘super-greenhouse gases’, and if we had carried on releasing them into the atmosphere at the rate we were, one study from Columbia University found that hurricanes and cyclones would have tripled in intensity.

So, is it fixed?

No, but it seems to be getting there. In 2018, NASA found the first direct proof that the ozone layer was recovering. Their research showed that between then and 2005, ozone depletion was reduced by 20%.

If this is kept up, scientific assessments show that the ‘holes’ could be completely repaired by about 2060.

However, some scientists say that this isn't a reason to become less vigilant in our conservation efforts. Dr Jonathan Shanklin, who was one of the first people to discover the ozone layer was thinning, recently told BBC News that the recovery cannot be taken for granted, and "we cannot be complacent".

Branson's space flight a success

Richard Branson and his crew have completed Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed space test flight. The VSS Unity landed safely on Sunday morning in New Mexico after the British billionaire, two pilots and three mission specialists were launched to an altitude of about 50,000 feet using a carrier plane. Unity then soared on its own to the boundary of space, hitting a peak altitude of more than 250,000 feet. All six passengers then experienced several minutes of weightlessness before hurtling back to Earth. The voyage was the craft’s 22nd test flight — and its first with a significant crew.

• Branson's flight is expected to "spur development of a space-tourism industry," The Wall Street Journal writes. “We’re here to make space more accessible to all,” Branson said Sunday after landing, nodding to online criticism of the venture.

• Watch LinkedIn’s stream of Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed space test flight.

 

Over 9 lakh on oxygen support in India, 1.7 lakh on ventilator

 While 1,70,841 COVID patients across the country are on a ventilator, as many as 9,02,291 patients are on oxygen support, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday

A COVID-19 patient receives treatment inside a banquet hall, converted into a 

                   COVID-19  isolation centre, in New Delhi.

                  

In his virtual address at the 25th meeting of the Group of Ministers to discuss the pandemic situation, the minister said that 1.34 per cent of COVID caseload was in ICU, 0.39 per cent of cases were on ventilators and 3.70 per cent COVID patients were on oxygen support.

He said that across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients were on ventilators and 9,02,291 patients were on oxygen support.

The meeting was attended by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare and Dr Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog were present virtually.

Paul gave a detailed report on the work of the Empowered Group-1 and highlighted the various efforts made towards ramping up hospital infrastructure for effective clinical management of hospitalized patients.

Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (Chair, EG-2) presented the current scenario of Liquid Medical Oxygen Production, Allocation and Supply.

Aramane stated that the production of Liquid Medical Oxygen has been maximized to meet the present demand of COVID patients.

The domestic production has increased to more than 9400 MT/day, the health ministry quoted him, adding that he also enumerated steps to import LMO, the status of establishment of PSA oxygen plants through the support of PM CARES fund with the support of DRDO and CSIR, enhancement of tanker availability, the functioning of the web portal and mobile application for Real-Time Tracking of LMO Tankers.

NASA to Participate in Tabletop Exercise Simulating Asteroid Impact

2021 Planetary Defense Conference Hypothetical Asteroid Impact Tabletop Exercise 

EXERCISE ONLY – the information listed under this update summarizes details from a simulated asteroid impact exercise during the 7th International Academy of Aeronautics (IAA) Planetary Defense Conference. The fictitious asteroid, named 2021PDC, is being used solely for the purpose of this exercise. It does not exist and therefore there is no threat to Earth.

The 7th IAA Planetary Defense conference kicked off on Monday, April 26, along with the simulated “tabletop” asteroid impact exercise, led by NASA JPL’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Exercises such as these are extremely important as they bring key members in government, the international planetary defense community, and other areas of expertise such as emergency response together to work through how a global response to a future asteroid impact threat might occur. During the exercise, participants received daily updates, simulating the continued observation and collection of data over time, revealing more information about the asteroid’s size and expected impact region on Earth. A quick summary of daily exercise updates is below, and further information.

Day 1 Summary (April 26):  The exercise begins with the “discovery” of a fictitious asteroid on April 19, 2021, by the Pan-STARRS near-Earth object survey project, operated by the University of Hawaii for NASA’s Planetary Defense Program. Confirmed and named “2021PDC,” an obviously fictitious name by the Minor Planet Center, the simulated asteroid is estimated to be 35 million miles (57 million kilometers) from Earth at that time, and orbit calculations have determined it to have a 5% (1 in 20 chance) of impacting Earth on or around Oct. 20, 2021, six months from its discovery date. 

Day 2 Summary (April 27): Day two of the exercise hypothetically fast forwards to May 2, 2021, where astronomers have spent the previous week working to refine 2021PDC’s orbit and impact probability. Newly processed archival image data collected by the Pan-STARRS asteroid survey back in 2014 reveal 2021PDC could be seen in images seven years prior to discovery, during its previous close approach to Earth, and astronomers have used this data in tandem with recent observations to reduce orbit uncertainties and conclude the simulated asteroid now has a 100% certainty of hitting Earth in Europe or northern Africa. Over the next several months, the region of the fictitious asteroid’s impact is expected to shrink significantly in size as new observation data continue to refine the asteroid’s orbit. However, the size of 2021PDC – and subsequently, any effects that would result from its impact – remain highly uncertain and will not be well known until the asteroid is closer to Earth and able to be analyzed using radar. Hypothetical options for how to prevent 2021PDC impacting Earth are discussed. Space mission designers tried to envision what might be done to attempt to disrupt the asteroid before it impacts, but concluded the short amount of time before impact (less than 6 months) did not allow a credible space mission to be undertaken, given the current state of technology.

Day 3 of Exercise (April 28): Day three begins on June 30, 2021 – International Asteroid Day – which is less than four months prior to fictitious asteroid 2021PDC’s simulated impact. Using the world’s largest telescopes, astronomers around the globe have continued to track 2021PDC every night to continually refine the asteroid’s orbit and significantly narrow its expected impact region to fall within Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. The specific size of asteroid 2021PDC is still uncertain, but new space-based infrared measurements simulated by NASA’s NEOWISE satellite have helped constrain the largest possible size for 2021PDC as 1600ft (500 m), and the smallest possible size as 100 feet (35 meters). As more information is ascertained by incoming data, risk and damage assessment analyses increase in frequency to help inform emergency response and evacuation planning for regions affected by the simulated asteroid’s region of impact effects.

Day 4 of Exercise (April 29): The final day of the hypothetical asteroid impact exercise occurs on Oct.14, 2021, just six days before 2021PDC’s simulated impact. 2021PDC is an estimated 3.9 million miles (6.3 million km) from Earth, which is close enough for Goldstone Solar System Radar to detect and analyze 2021PDC and significantly refine the asteroid’s size and physical characteristics. This determined the asteroid is much smaller than previously thought, thus reducing the expected region of damage from the impact. At this point, astronomers have been able to narrow the impact region to be centered near the border of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria, and have determined the asteroid has a 99% probability of impacting within this region. Further disaster response discussions occur to help ensure affected regions are safely evacuated ahead of the simulated impact.

During the week of April 26, members of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) will participate in a “tabletop exercise” to simulate an asteroid impact scenario. The exercise depicting this fictional event is being led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), allowing NASA’s PDCO and other U.S. agencies and space science institutions, along with international space agencies and partners, to use the fictitious scenario to investigate how near-Earth object (NEO) observers, space agency officials, emergency managers, decision-makers, and citizens might respond and work together to an actual impact prediction and simulate the evolving information that becomes available in the event an asteroid impact threat is discovered. 

This image was captured by the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew as they orbited 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada. Right of center, the ring-shaped lake is a modern reservoir within the eroded remnant of an ancient 100-kilometer diameter impact crater, which is over 200 million years old. Credits: NASA, International Space Station Expedition 59

The fictitious impact scenario will occur during the 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in cooperation with the European Space Agency, and will evolve over the five days of the conference, starting Monday, April 26. At several points in the conference program, leaders of the exercise will brief participants on the latest status of the fictitious scenario and solicit feedback for the next steps based on the simulated data that is “discovered” each day. These types of exercises are specifically identified as part of the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan developed over a three-year period and published by the White House in June 2018. 

“Each time we participate in an exercise of this nature, we learn more about who the key players are in a disaster event, and who needs to know what information, and when,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer. “These exercises ultimately help the planetary defense community communicate with each other and with our governments to ensure we are all coordinated should a potential impact threat be identified in the future.”

So far, NASA has participated in seven impact scenarios—four at previous Planetary Defense Conferences (2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019) and three in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The joint NASA-FEMA exercises included representatives of several other federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense and State. 

“Hypothetical asteroid impact exercises provide opportunities for us to think about how we would respond in the event that a sizeable asteroid is found to have a significant chance of impacting our planet,” said Dr. Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS. “Details of the scenario—such as the probability of the asteroid impact, where and when the impact might occur—are released to participants in a series of steps over the days of the conference to simulate how a real situation might evolve.” 

The fictional scenario kicks off on April 26, when astronomers “discover” a potentially hazardous NEO considered a risk to Earth. Details about the imaginary asteroid’s threat to our planet will evolve over the days of the conference, and exercise participants will discuss potential preparations for asteroid reconnaissance and deflection missions and planning for mitigation of a potential impact’s effects. But it is a real parameter that the international community has decided that a 1 in 100 chance of impact is the threshold to begin response actions. 

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured a large fireball — or extremely bright and visible meteor (or meteoroid) — over the Bering Sea on Dec. 18, 2018. The fireball's explosion unleashed 49 kilotons of energy. The image shows the path the meteoroid traveled and its point of explosion (lower right).

Credits: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL-Caltech, MISR Team

The Planetary Defense Conference and its exercise serve as precursors to the launch of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which is the first-ever actual demonstration of an asteroid deflection technology, and the first test mission of the agency’s Planetary Defense program. DART is scheduled to launch later this year and will impact the asteroid Dimorphos in Fall 2022 to change its orbit in space, which could be a key technique for mitigating a potentially hazardous asteroid that is on a collision path with Earth should one be discovered in the future. Through an international observation campaign, follow-up observations of Dimorphos using ground-based telescopes will monitor the orbit of Dimorphos and measure the change in the time it takes the asteroid to orbit its larger companion, Didymos, due to DART’s impact. 

“DART will be the first test for planetary defense, and the data returned after it impacts Dimorphos will help scientists better understand one way we might mitigate a potentially hazardous NEO discovered in the future,” said Andrea Riley, program executive for DART at NASA Headquarters. “While the asteroid DART impacts pose no threat to Earth, it is in a perfect location for us to perform this test of the technology before it may actually be needed.”

Starting April 26, this page will be updated during the week with quick snapshots that capture the results from each step of the exercise. More information on the exercise, including a “fact sheet” of updated findings, will be available on the exercise page on the 2021 PDC Hypothetical Asteroid Impact Scenario page.

“PM Modi’s Overconfidence Behind Disastrous Response”: How Global Media Reported India’s Covid Crisis

 

“Future historians will judge Mr. Modi harshly if he continues with the exceptionalist views that have led to a disastrous public health outcome,” Guardian said.

As India scrambles to contain the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, the healthcare system of the country has been overwhelmed to its limit. There has been a steep rise in the daily cases of infections across India for the last few weeks, with the country now reporting over 3 lakh cases a day for the fifth straight day. India has broken all the earlier records of daily cases across the world.

Thousands of Covid-19 patients in India have been struggling to find hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, and potentially life-saving medication amidst an acute shortage of medical resources in the country.

As the government tries to keep up with the massive second wave of infections, here’s how the international media has reported India’s health crisis.

The Australian

The World News page of The Australian was doing rounds on social media on Saturday, as the newspaper pinpointed the blame on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the title: ‘Modi leads India out of lockdown…and into a viral apocalypse’.

In its aggressive criticism of India’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the newspaper said: “Arrogance, hyper-nationalism and bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis of epic proportions, critics say, as India’s crowd-loving PM basks while citizens literally suffocate.”

The Washington Post

Calling India’s new wave of Covid-19 “as avoidable as it is tragic”, The Washington Post stated that the sudden wave was caused by India relaxing restrictions too soon. “Tens of thousands of spectators were allowed to fill stadiums for cricket matches; movie theaters were opened; and the government permitted enormous religious gatherings such as the Kumbh Mela, a festival in which millions of Hindus gathered to bathe in the river Ganges,” the newspaper said. “India is not a faraway problem. In pandemic time and distance, every place is nearby.”

The Guardian

Shredding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the current condition, The Guardian in its editorial wrote, “The Indian prime minister’s overconfidence lies behind the country’s disastrous Covid-19 response.” Guardian is of the view that “the Indian prime minister suffers from overconfidence in his own instincts and pooh-poohs expert advice” and “the buck stops with him”.

“He should acknowledge and make amends for mistakes that have caused enormous suffering. He needs to engage with experts on how to uphold restrictions; ensure government delivery matches promises; and drop the sectarian ideology that divides when unity is required. Future historians will judge Mr Modi harshly if he continues with the exceptionalist views that have led to a disastrous public health outcome,” Guardian said.

The New York Times

According to an article published in the New York Times, the crisis was deepened by missteps and complacency. “Complacency and government missteps have helped turned India from a seeming success story into one of the world’s worst-hit places, experts say. And epidemiologists warn that continuing failure in India would have global implications,” the article said. India’s vaccination rollout was “late and riddled with setbacks”, it further added.

“What India needs now, epidemiologists and experts say, is concerted and consistent leadership to contain infections and buy time to make vaccinations more widely available and faster,” the NYT article stated. 

BBC

“Cases have surged during India’s second wave, driven by a number of factors. Health protocols have been lax, with mask mandates sporadically enforced,” a  BBC report stated. The reputed news organisation also attributed the sudden rise in cases to millions attending the Kumbh Mela held in Haridwar of Uttarakhand. 

“India’s healthcare system is buckling as a record surge in Covid-19 cases puts pressure on hospital beds and drains oxygen supplies. Families are left pleading for their relatives who are desperately ill, with some patients left untreated for hours,” the report read.

Muons: 'Strong' evidence found for a new force of nature.

 

The findings come from the US Muon g-2 experiment.

From sticking a magnet on a fridge door to throwing a ball into a basketball hoop, the forces of physics are at play in every moment of our lives.

All of the forces we experience every day can be reduced to just four categories: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force.

Now, physicists say they have found possible signs of a fifth fundamental force of nature.

The findings come from research carried out at a laboratory near Chicago.

The four fundamental forces govern how all the objects and particles in the universe interact with each other.

For example, gravity makes objects fall to the ground, and heavy objects behave as if they are glued to the floor.

The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said the result "provides strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or new force".

But the results from the Muon g-2 experiment don't add up to a conclusive discovery yet.

There is currently a one in a 40,000 chance that the result could be a statistical fluke - equating to a statistical level of confidence described as 4.1 sigma.

A level of 5 sigma, or a one in 3.5 million chance of the observation being a coincidence, is needed to claim a discovery.

Prof Mark Lancaster, who is the UK lead for the experiment, told BBC News: "We have found the interaction of muons are not in agreement with the Standard Model [the current widely-accepted theory to explain how the building blocks of the Universe behave]."

The University of Manchester researcher added: "Clearly, this is very exciting because it potentially points to a future with new laws of physics, new particles and a new force which we have not seen to date."

The finding is the latest in a string of promising results from particle physics experiments in the US, Japan, and most recently from the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border.

The experiment, based at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, searches for signs of new phenomena in physics by studying the behavior of sub-atomic particles called muons.

There are building blocks of our world that are even smaller than the atom. Some of these sub-atomic particles are made up of even smaller constituents, while others can't be broken down into anything else (fundamental particles).

The muon is one of these fundamental particles; it's similar to the electron, but more than 200 times heavier.

The Muon g-2 experiment involves sending the particles around a 14-meter ring and then applying a magnetic field. Under the current laws of physics, encoded in the Standard Model, this should make the muons wobble at a certain rate.

Instead, the scientists found that muons wobbled at a faster rate than expected. This might be caused by a force of nature that's completely new to science.

No one yet knows what this potential new force does, other than influence muon particles.

Theoretical physicists believe that it might also be associated with an as-yet-undiscovered sub-atomic particle. There is more than one concept for what this hypothetical particle might be. One is called a leptoquark, another is the Z' boson (Z-prime boson).

Last month, physicists working at the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider described results that could point to a new particle and force.

Dr. Mitesh Patel, from Imperial College London, who was involved with that project, said: "The race is really on now to try and get one of these experiments to really get the proof that this really is something new. That will take more data and more measurements and hopefully show evidence that these effects are real."

Prof Allanach has given the possible fifth force various names in his theoretical models. Among them are the "flavor force", the "third family hyper force" and - most prosaic of all - "B minus L2".

In addition to the more familiar forces of gravity and electromagnetism (which is responsible for electricity and magnetism), the strong and weak forces govern the behavior of sub-atomic particles.

A fifth fundamental force might help explain some of the big puzzles about the Universe that have exercised scientists in recent decades.

For example, the observation that the expansion of the Universe was speeding up was attributed to a mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy. But some researchers have previously suggested it could be evidence of a fifth force.

Elon Musk's brain-chip company, Neuralink, released a video of a monkey playing video games with its mind.

 

The billionaire Elon Musk owns Neuralink, a company dedicated to making neural-interface technology.

Elon Musk finally got to show off his monkey.

Neuralink, a company founded by Musk that is developing artificial-intelligence-powered microchips to go in people's brains, released a video Thursday appearing to show a macaque using the tech to play video games, including "Pong."

Musk has boasted about Neuralink's tests on primates before, but this is the first time the company has put one on display. During a presentation in 2019, Musk said the company had enabled a monkey to "control a computer with its brain."

In August 2020 the company did a live demonstration of the technology in a pig named Gertrude.

Neuralink says the monkey, named Pager, had a chip implanted in his brain six weeks ago. In the video, he was given a joystick that was hooked up to a video game in which he moves a cursor to a colored square. When he successfully moves the cursor, he's given some banana smoothie through a tube.

While Pager uses the joystick, the Neuralink chip records his brain activity and sends it back to a computer for analysis of what his brain does when he moves his hand. The joystick is then unplugged from the machine, but the monkey continues to control the game, with brain signals being relayed by the Neuralink chips.

Theoretically, the same tech could be used to give people control of synthetic limbs via a Neuralink brain implant. In a tweet Thursday, Musk said the first Neuralink product would let people with paralysis control a smartphone.

Andrew Jackson, a neuroscience expert who is a professor at Newcastle University, told Insider that getting primates to control video games via neural interfaces was not new — comparable demonstrations were done in 2002 — but said it was a good test of the tech.

"If you invent a new telescope, it makes sense to first point it where you know what you will see," he said. "So they are following a very sensible route to validate their device. I am sure this device will contribute to new scientific discoveries in future (especially if they make it widely available to scientists), as well as improving the usability of existing neural interface technologies for people with paralysis."

Jackson added that the engineering of the device, being implanted wirelessly in Pager's skull, was a significant advance.

"What is definitely new and innovative is that there are no cables coming through the skin, and the brain signals are all being sent wirelessly," Jackson said. "This to me is the advance here, and is important both for improving the safety of human applications (wires through the skin are a potential route for infection) and also as a way of improving the welfare of animals used in neuroscience studies. The Neuralink team has definitely made progress in this regard."

Rylie Green, a bioengineering researcher at Imperial College London, also praised Pager's apparent welfare. "The best thing I can see from that video is that the macaque is freely moving," she said. "There's also no visible package connected to it. I would say that is definitely progress — not super innovative but a nice positive step forward."

Land of body parts : The Buddhists and the Hindus share the idea of the land becoming sacred.

The Buddhists and the Hindus share the idea of the land becoming sacred when it is connected with the body of a holy being. 

Illustration

The Buddhists and the Hindus share the idea of the land becoming sacred when it is connected with the body of a holy being. Let us first hear the Buddhist story.

We are told that when Buddha died, his body was cremated, and after the cremation, his ashes were supposed to go to his birth tribe: the Shakya tribe. However, seven kings of the Gangetic plains attacked the city of Kushinagara, where the cremation took place, demanding a share of the relics. They surrounded the city and threatened a great war until finally a sage known as Drauna divided Buddha’s relics into about eight caskets and distributed them among the kings, who took it to their respective kingdoms and placed it in sacred mounds. This is how stupas originated. Stupas basically contain the relic of the Buddha, either a piece of a bone or teeth or hair or ash.

We are told that at the time of Ashoka, who lived about 200 years after Buddha, he rediscovered these relics and divided them into 84,000 parts and took them to different parts of the world, across the subcontinent and even Southeast Asia. Thus, even today, in different parts of the world, we find Buddha’s relics being located. At the time of Buddhaghosa, who lived around a thousand years after the Buddha, we hear the idea that a monastery or a vihar becomes powerful depending on which or how many relics it possesses. Across Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, China, Japan, Afghanistan, and now even America, we hear stories of the different Buddha relics. The legend has even emerged that many years into the future, the relics will come together and Buddha’s body will reconstitute itself in Bodh Gaya to mark the arrival of the next Buddha, Maitreya.

A similar story is found in Hinduism, but the story was composed much later, one can say roughly 1,000 years after the Buddha story. We are told that Shiva’s wife, Sati, committed suicide in the funeral pyre after her father, Daksha Prajapati, insulted her husband. She could not tolerate the tension between her orthodox father and her heterodox, ascetic-like husband and burnt herself, as she could not reconcile the two ways of thinking. What followed was Shiva’s rage. He beheaded Daksha Prajapati and when his rage subsided, he resurrected Daksh Prajapati and then picked up the charred remains of his beloved wife and wandered the earth, crying.

The sages realized that Shiva’s mourning would destroy the world. In order to restore harmony to the world, they requested Vishnu to cut Sati’s body into tiny pieces, hoping that with Sati’s dead body gone, Shiva’s sanity would return. Accordingly, the body was cut into tiny pieces in different parts, which fell in different parts of India, giving rise to the Shakti pithas, whose numbers vary depending on the text we read: from 51 to 64. So, you have, for example, in Jwalamukhi, in Punjab, her tongue; in Kamakhya, in Assam, her womb; her toe, fingers, navel, breasts, similarly, are in different parts of India.

These are, of course, matters of faith, but one sees the similarity between Buddha’s relics and the different body parts of Shakti, making the land sacred and granting holiness to the land. Were they influenced by each other? That is a matter of speculation.

source: https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/Devdutt-Pattanaik-Land-of-body-parts-19963190

Huge asteroid 2001 FO32 passed near to Earth

The largest asteroid to pass by Earth this year has made its closest approach, posing no threat of a cataclysmic collision but giving astronomers a rare chance to study a rock formed during the beginning of our solar system.

The asteroid was two million kilometres (1.25 million miles) away at its nearest, according to NASA—more than five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon but still close enough to be classified as a "potentially hazardous asteroid".

NASA tracks and catalogues such objects that could potentially slam into Earth and unleash enormous destruction, like the massive asteroid hit that wiped out 75 percent of life on the planet 66 million years ago.

Asteroid 2001 FO32, discovered 20 years ago, was too far to be that dangerous even as it reached its nearest point to Earth at around 1400 GMT Sunday, according to the Paris Observatory. NASA said it was travelling at about 124,000 kph (77,000 mph).

 

"Oh yes, friends! Do you see this dot of light? This dot of light is the asteroid," exclaimed astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Italy-based Virtual Telescope Project, which had trained its lenses on the rock soon after its nearest approach.

"How happy I am, how proud I am, how I excited I am... to bring this to you live," said Masi as he displayed a grainy image of a pale dot during a YouTube broadcast.

Astronomers were hoping to get a better understanding of the composition of the estimated 900-metre (3,000-ft) diameter rock as it zoomed by.

"When sunlight hits an asteroid's surface, minerals in the rock absorb some wavelengths while reflecting others," NASA said.

"By studying the spectrum of light reflecting off the surface, astronomers can measure the chemical 'fingerprints of the minerals on the surface of the asteroid."

Because of its elongated orbit, NASA said it "picks up speed like a skateboarder rolling down a halfpipe, and then slows after being flung back out into deep space and swinging back toward the Sun".

The Boudh Vihar found in excavation in Sirpur, Chhattisgarh.

 

The Boudh Vihar, found during excavations, is magnificent and it's the biggest temple complex of the 6th and 7th centuries to be covered so far. For the first time, stone carvings depicting sexual activity among animals have been found-a rarest form of carvings in Indian Archaeology. 

Such carvings are not even seen in Khajurao and Ellora. An important centre for Buddhist studies The region was an important centre for Buddhism from the 6th to 10 century where, archaeologists say, more than 10,000 students used to pursue Buddhist studies. 

The buildings were double-storied. Statues, with features of people from South East Asia, were among the archaeological artefacts found at Sirpur indicating that even students from these parts of the world used to visit the region. Being an important Buddhist centre, Chinese scholar and traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Sirpur in the 7th century and has mentioned the region in his travelogues.

10th century Buddha Vihar discovered in Jharkhand’s Hazaribag

As per the evidence found in Hazaribagh, it appeared that the Buddhist structures were built during the Pala period, said an archaeologist with the ASI. 

The discovery will help understand the impact of Buddhism in Jharkhand. (HT Photo)

A 10th-century structure resembling a small ‘Buddha Vihar’ (Buddhist shrine-cum-monastery) has been discovered during an excavation, being carried out by Archeological Survey of India (ASI), in foothills of Juljul hill at Sadar block of Hazaribagh district, around 110-km from capital Ranchi, ASI officials said on Tuesday.

The ASI identified three mounds in the foothills having links to Buddhism last year. The excavation of the first mound last year led to the discovery of a complete shrine with a central and two subsidiary shrines, just two metres below the surface. However, the excavation work was suspended after two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic triggered lockdowns and some other reasons.

In the second round of excavation, beginning the last week of January this year, the second mound, around 40-meters away from the first mound or central shrine, was excavated and a small Buddha Vihar like structure was discovered.

“We started excavation in the second mound of the area in January last week, where a huge structural mound, similar to a small Buddha Vihar, was found with three cells (rooms). In the west corner of the structure, we found five sculptures of Gautam Buddha in seated position and one sculpture of Tara, which indicates that it might also be a centre of Vajrayana,” said Dr Neeraj Mishra, an assistant archaeologist at ASI.

Spread over a 50-metre long and 50-metre wide area, three cells and hoards of artefacts including statues of Gautam Budha and Tara, the female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism who appears as a female Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism, were discovered.

“As per the evidence found here, it appeared that the structures had been built during the Pala period. During the excavation, we found an inscription on a stone slab. The paleographic dating of the inscription suggests that it was of 10th century AD, meaning the Pala period,” said Dr Mishra.

It might have been a big religious centre then, as it is located on the side of the old Grand Trunk road, connecting Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh to Bihar, home to historic Bodh Gaya where Buddha attained salvation, he added.

He recalled that a shrine and two subsidiary shrines, spread over 30 metres long and 50 metres wide area, were discovered last year. “It was a single storey temple. An entry gate and stairs were also found there.”

Historians and archaeologists find the discovery of great importance, which will help understand the history and influence of the dynasty in Jharkhand.

Historian Dr DN Ojha, dean, social sciences department at Ranchi University, said ancient history talks about the arrival of Buddhist monks in this area and the extension of Buddhism’s reach here.

"However, there was also a debate on this. The recent discovery in Hazaribag would work as big evidence to support the theory of extension of Buddhism and arrival of monks here," he added.

With GSAT-7A, ISRO launches "Angry Bird" for IAF

 

India successfully launched its latest advanced satellite that will give a big boost to the strategic communication and networking capabilities of the Indian Air Force(IAF).

Dubbed as "Angry Bird", the satellite is expected to enable the force to interlink different ground radar stations, ground airbase and Airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft.

GSAT-7A will also boost drone operations as it will help the force upgrade from existing ground control stations to satellite-control of military UAVs.

The launch has come at an opportune time as India is in the process of acquiring US armed Predator-B or Sea Guardian drones, which are high-altitude and long endurance satellite-controlled UAVs that can fire at enemy targets from long distances.

The launch of the dedicated IAF satellite comes at a time when the defence ministry has cleared a plan to set up a special "Defence Space Agency" - an integrated tri-services unit that will use all space assets for the benefit of the armed forces.

Gsat-7A will be the second communication satellite dedicated to the military. Earlier, Isro had launched Gsat-7 or Rukmini in September 2013 for the Navy. Rukmini has not only helped the naval force monitor the Indian Ocean Region but also provided real-time inputs to warships, submarines and maritime planes.

With the launch of communication satellite GSAT-7A, ISRO has not only provided the IAF with its own 'eye' in the sky but has achieved a milestone by launching three satellites in just 35 days.

The two other satellites launched in over a month were communication satellite Gsat-29 (Nov 14) and hyperspectral imaging satellite HysiS (Nov 29). If the desi heaviest communication satellite Gsat-11 launched from the European spaceport is also counted, then the number of satellites launched in just 35 days comes to four, a big achievement for the Indian space agency.

Isro will usher in next year with lots of space activities as a series of satellites are lined up for launches in the first half of the year. In January itself, three launches are scheduled.

Isro will launch a PSLV mission carrying EMISAT and then its communication satellite Gsat-31 will be launched from French Guiana that will replace INSAT 4CR, whose end of life is expected soon. India's most highly ambitious moon mission 'Chandrayaan-2' is also scheduled to be launched in January, though its launch window is from January 3 to February 13. Isro also plans to launch remote sensing satellite Risat-2B around the same time.

ISRO’s GISAT-1 launch will help India keep an eye on borders real-time

 

It would help in quick monitoring of natural disasters, episodic and any short-term events.

India plans to launch on March 28 an earth observation satellite that will provide it near real-time images of its borders and also enable quick monitoring of natural disasters.

GISAT-1 is slated to be lofted into space by GSLV-F10 rocket from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, about 100 km north of Chennai.

"We are looking to launch this Geo imaging satellite on March 28, subject to weather conditions", an official of the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told PTI on Sunday.

The rocket will place the spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit. It will be subsequently positioned in geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above earth's equator, using its onboard propulsion system.

The launch of GISAT-1 onboard GSLV-F10 rocket was originally planned for March 5 last year but postponed a day before the blast-off due to technical reasons.

Experts said positioning the state-of-the-art agile earth observation satellite in geostationary orbit has key advantages.

"It's going to be a game-changer in some sense for India", a Department of Space official said.

"With onboard high resolution cameras, the satellite will allow the country to monitor the Indian land mass and the oceans, particularly its borders continuously".

Listing the objectives of the mission, ISRO has earlier said the satellite would provide near real-time imaging of the large area region of interest at frequent intervals.

It would help in quick monitoring of natural disasters, episodic and any short-term events.

The third objective is to obtain spectral signatures of agriculture, forestry, mineralogy, disaster warning, cloud properties, snow and glacier and oceanography.

GISAT-1 will facilitate near real-time observation of the Indian sub-continent, under cloud-free condition, at frequent intervals, ISRO said.

The planned launch of GISAT-1, weighing about 2,268 kg, comes close on the heels of the successful February 28 PSLV- C51 mission that orbited Brazil's earth observation satellite Amazonia-1 and 18 co-passengers, including five built by students.

Secretary in the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman K Sivan told PTI last week that the technical issues that led to postponement of GISAT-1 mission have been resolved and the further delay in the launch was due to Covid-19-induced lockdown which affected normal work.

According to sources, GISAT-1 will be followed by the maiden flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, ISRO's compact launcher, likely in April.

SSLV has been designed to meet "launch on demand" requirements in a cost-effective manner for small satellites in a dedicated and ride-share mode.

It is a three-stage all solid vehicle with a capability to launch up to 500 kg satellite mass into 500 km low earth orbit (LEO) and 300 kg into Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

By comparison, PSLV -- the workhorse launch vehicle of ISRO -- can take up to 1,750 kg payload into SSO of 600 km altitude.

With lower per kg launch cost, the mini launcher will have multiple satellite mounting options for nano, micro and small satellites.

Sivan had earlier termed the SSLV an innovative vehicle which can be assembled in just 72 hours.

"Instead of 60 days (for building a PSLV), it (SSLV) will be assembled in three days; instead of 600 people (needed to build a PSLV), it (SSLV) will be done by six people", he had said.

Whatever we have today in Brahminism is a twisted history of Buddha’s work

To investigate the Buddhist past is to supplant both Hindu (Brahminic) and Islamic history, for they contributed to the erasure of Buddhist richness from the land.

The pre-Islamic story of India received a similar fate at the hands of Brahminic rulers who devised strategies to ignore and eventually destroy the memory of Buddha’s kingdom.

During a recent excavation in Bihar, ‘Krimila’, a religious and administrative centre, was unearthed. A comprehensive report by this newspaper tells the story of the history of the region and its influence on the world through its Buddhist records.

The 2020 Ayodhya verdict brought binary reactions. Incidentally, the supporters of both the Hindu and Muslim narrative looked straight past another version of history — the tolerant Buddhist past. To investigate the Buddhist past is to supplant both Hindu (Brahminic) and Islamic history, for they contributed to the erasure of Buddhist richness from the land.

Buddha’s messenger Ashoka had done a great service to his Dhamma. It was perhaps the only faith in the subcontinent to grant respect to variant beliefs, unlike the invaders who had razed precious intellectual sites to destroy idolatry. The invaders made no difference between Brahminic or Buddhist sites. For them, monotheism was the only message.

As a result, among others, Nalanda University received a mortal blow from Turkish leader Bakhtiyar Khalji who served Qutb al-Din Aibak, referred to as ‘jahansoz’, which roughly translates to ‘world burner’. The Sultan razed the generous past of the Buddhist cosmology. Bakhtiyar is said to have asked his men to enquire if Nalanda carried a copy of the Holy Quran. Reportedly upon finding that it did not, he ordered the destruction of the Great Monastery.

Thus, a centre of high learning and scientific scholarship was turned into ashes in 1193-34. It is reported that the three-storey university and its nearby areas burnt for several months, ejecting dark smoke. Bakhtiyar was also instrumental in the burning down of Somapura, Jagaddala, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri monasteries.

However, in the 14th Century, Firoz Shah preserved Hindu pillars for their sheer magnanimity and beauty. These pillars, known as Lath, were Ashoka’s pillars and were venerated by Hindus.

Pre-Islamic story of India received a similar fate at the hands of Brahminic rulers who devised strategies to ignore and eventually destroy the memory of Buddha’s kingdom. That is why it is no accident that Samrat Ashoka’s legacy remains not fully known. The great king was actually the unifier of India who ruled for 40 years. His messages carried forward Buddha’s Dhamma. It had laws and regulations meant to protect and redirect resources for what we today call the Welfare State.

The ‘welfarism for all’ was subverted by Brahmin general Pushyamitra who founded the Shunga dynasty through his anti-Buddhist regicide. It laid the foundation for destruction of Buddhist shrines, monasteries, icons and history.

Brahmin colonisation of Buddhism was continued by Adi Shankaracharya in the 9th century. He made Hinduism accessible to all and not only to the esoteric and non-quotidians. Babasaheb Ambedkar also pointed out this limitation of ascetic Buddhism, which divorced itself from Buddha’s gospel of serving society beyond personal practices.

One of the best ways to identify how history is twisted and reproduced to serve the purpose of dominant savarna castes is to go to the base of the architectural structures of sacred sites. The most famous temples in India, Pakistan, and Nepal originally used to be Buddhist places of learning and worship.

This colonisation of Buddhist heritage is evident in the inaccessibility to the sanctum sanctorum of temples. Dr K Jamnadas evocatively argued for a Buddhist story of Tirumala Balaji shrine. The enormous amount of gold and other ornaments hide the face and body of Balaji, he said. Why would a stone sculpture of god need any decoration when statues are usually covered in clothes, like that of the Buddha?

This was partly the reason why invaders attacked temples, for their wealth and capital. Jyotirao Phule exemplifies this contradiction in The Farmer’s Whipcord showing how Brahmins enjoy the loot of the ignorant farmer.

Whatever we have today in Brahminism is a twisted history of Buddha’s work. Even the sacred location Bodh Gaya has been morphed. Ashoka recorded the name of the place as ‘Sambodhi’.

Revisiting Buddha’s past is to pay a tribute to our ancestors who were tied to the Dhamma.

This article first appeared in the print edition on February 7, 2021, under the title “Revisiting India’s Buddhist past”. Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly ‘Dalitality’ column

Top 9 Crowdfunding Sites In India For Small(Retail) Investor

 

Crowdfunding sites in India are helping innovators launch ideas, social entrepreneurs bring social change and startups raise funds. Most startups, small enterprises, and individuals avoid complex methods of raising funds. Raising money through bank loans, venture capital, and angel investors involve complicated procedures.

Moreover, before raising money, startups have to take into account the different funding stages to decide the mode of raising funds. Crowdfunding is a far easy and less complex model. And for retail investor crowdfunding is another way of investing their money directly into company rather than from stock brokers or stock broker website. Big investor can buy huge chunk of share from big company directly without broker need, but small investor(retail) can not do this. Then small investor can invest only in small company. For such small investor who want to invest directly into company crowdfunding is best way.

Here are 9 crowdfunding sites in India small(retail) investor can use:

1. Kickstarter

Kickstarter is one of the first crowdfunding sites in India. The platform is most known for creative projects. Films, books, research, and innovation are some of the kinds of campaigns that are often seen on this platform.

From edible cutlery to a photographic series on Indian deities, to wearable health tech for social impact, Kickstarter supports myriad initiatives. The campaigners are also expected to offer different rewards for different categories of funds to the donors.

Some of the successful campaigns on Kickstarter: The Sweet Requiem campaign – a film that narrates the story of a Tibetan woman living in India and her traumatic escape from Tibet – saw 296 backers with a pledge of $ 33,889.

Another project, Edible Cutlery: The Future of Eco-Friendly Utensils had more than 9000 backers who pledged $ 278,874.

Focus areas: creativity and merchandising

Purpose/mission: to bring creative projects to life

2. Wishberry

For those looking to fund creative projects, Wishberry is the platform to go to. The website is strictly for creative projects only. Art, comics, publishing, theatre, music and dance, the platform supports all projects, creative.

It also helps campaigners with consulting and marketing services. Like Kickstarter, Wishberry is also a rewards-based platform. Funders and donors receive rewards from the projects that they fund.

Focus area: creative projects

Purpose/mission: to bring creative and innovative ideas to life and build a community of patrons for creative ideas in India.

3. Indiegogo

Indiegogo is more than a crowdfunding site. It is funding and a marketplace platform. Here, raising funds is the first step. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, campaigners can take their idea to the next level to continue raising funds.

Next, the campaigners can sell their products directly to the Indiegogo network of consumers. The platform focuses on actual physical products, as compared to other platforms that fund initiatives and ideas.

Focus area: product innovation, bring innovative ideas to life

Purpose/mission: to be a launchpad for entrepreneurial ideas

4. FuelADream

A rewards-based crowdfunding platform, FuelADream gives campaigners the choice of AON (All Or Nothing) and KWYG (Keep What You Get). It is a platform that believes in “quality more than quantity”, as stated on its website.

A number of crowdfunding platforms face the issue of authenticity and genuineness of the campaigns posted on the platform. FuelADream keeps the number of projects less, in order to tackle this issue. A section called ‘Crowd Favourite’ lists the most-liked and most-funded campaigns.

Focus area: creative ideas, causes, charities, events, and community-led activities

Purpose/mission: to change the traditional methods and simplify raising fund

5. Fundable

One of the few crowdfunding sites in India that completely focuses on small businesses and enterprises, Fundable features campaigns across business sectors in India. The platform features campaigns across business sectors.

From raising funds for affordable clinical diagnoses to intellectual travel experiences within India, entrepreneurs and businesses across sectors have used the platform. Among other sectors are banking, travel, food, and beverage, and fitness. A section ‘New and Noteworthy’ ensures that people who want to support can browse through the newest and most engaging campaigns.

Focus area: small businesses

Purpose/mission: to help get businesses funded

6. Ketto

With a wide range of focus, Ketto is among the well-known crowdfunding sites in India. The platform features campaigns for health care, education, personal campaigns, animal welfare, sports, children and women empowerment. To make it easier for donors, Ketto has sections such as ‘Urgently Fund Required’ and campaigns that can provide ‘Tax Benefit’ to donors.

Some of the successfully funded campaigns on the platform include those for the Kerala Floods and a project titled, ‘Two Wheels of Hope’, which provided cycles for schoolgirls, among other campaigns.

Focus area: creative, entrepreneurial, NGOs, personal causes, education

Purpose/mission: bring social change, raise awareness, raise funds

7. Catapooolt

From startups, films, music, and technology, Catapooolt is a platform for funding personal projects or enterprises and businesses. It is more than a crowdfunding platform as it offers options for campaigners to partner within their network of investors, incubators, accelerators, mentors, and for marketing, distribution and sales and community endorsements. This makes the platform, as it claims, a comprehensive ecosystem for crowdfunding.

Focus area: individual projects, startups, enterprises

Purpose/mission: provide an ecosystem for crowdfunding

8. Milaap – crowdfunding for personal and social causes

Most preferred for raising funds for personal and social causes, Milaap is a platform for individuals, NGOs and social entrepreneurs to raise funds for causes. The platform offers micro-loans to people in rural and underserved regions in the country to support projects related to education, water, sanitation, health, and energy.

Focus area: low-income borrowers, small funds for social causes and enterprises

Purpose/mission: to offer micro-loans to rural India

9. Crowdera

Perhaps lesser known in comparison to other names among the crowdfunding sites in India, Crowdera is a completely free global crowdfunding platform that launched in India in 2016. Being free, the platform does not charge any commission from those who start campaigns and raise funds.

It is privately funded by the founders. Moreover, this crowdfunding site allows a wide bracket of campaign fund targets ranging from a minimum goal of Rs 500 and a maximum goal of Rs 99,999,999.

Focus areas: social, individual causes and enterprises

Purpose/mission: to build a ‘Giving Economy’

Samsung introduces 76-inch MicroLED TV, TikTok app and a shelf for The Frame

 The announcements on Tuesday augment the company's 2021 TV lineup.

Samsung's My Shelf is an accessory designed for The Frame art-centric TVs.

Samsung is the biggest TV-maker in the world and it had a very successful 2020 as people stayed home and invested heavily in home entertainment. Its follow-up for 2021 is a TV lineup heavy with "lifestyle"-centric screens, expensive image quality innovations and, yes, a shelf. 

The company's Unbox and Discover virtual event on Tuesday covered home entertainment products already announced at CES -- including the Neo QLED TVs, a slimmer version of The Frame art TV, a solar-powered remote, a game status screen, an AI-based personal trainer and new soundbars -- but Samsung made a few new announcements, too. Here's a roundup of the TV news Samsung unveiled Tuesday:

• A new size of MicroLED TV, 76 inches, will debut in the future. It's the smallest size yet, undercutting the 88-, 99- and 110-inch dimensions already announced. MicroLED is Samsung's highest-end, most expensive television, promising superior image quality with prices aimed squarely at millionaires. The company didn't announce pricing yet, but says that will happen closer to April, when its 110-inch MicroLED goes on sale in the US. To give you a preview, that TV sells for the equivalent of $156,000 in Korea.

• A new TikTok app for all of its smart TVs. The dedicated app is already available in the UK and coming to the US soon. On most TVs, TikTok's vertical (portrait mode) video will be displayed with fill-in bars to either side, but The Sero, which can rotate between landscape and portrait modes using a built-in motor, can display it without bars. The same goes for 32- and 43-inch versions of The Frame, which can be set up in portrait mode, too.

• A new AirPlay integration for The Sero that enables iPhones to automatically rotate it between portrait mode and landscape when you flip your phone. The feature was already available for Android phones.

• A new accessory for The Frame, Samsung's TV designed to mimic wall art, called My Shelf. It's a custom, well, shelf, designed specifically for the TV, with customizable panels to fit the wall space. It's available in beige, white, brown and black and works with the 55-, 65- and 75-inch sizes. The company also revealed that internal storage on The Frame 2021 will be 6GB, "allowing for storage of ~1,200 ultra hi-res images." Earlier versions had 500MB.

• A new "full sun" 75-inch version of The Terrace outdoor TV, coming this summer. Details weren't available by press time, but it's safe to assume it will be brighter and/or employ improved antiglare screen material.

• The availability of AMD FreeSync Premium Pro on Q70A and higher TVs as well as The Frame. This gaming extra, compatible with both PCs and next-generation consoles, adds high dynamic range performance metrics to variable refresh rate. Samsung says current games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War support it.

• The company refreshed its Odyssey G9 gaming monitor from last June, changing the backlight to Mini-LED. That should greatly increase its control over local contrast to deliver better detail in highlights and shadows.

• Samsung's Smart Monitor, a work-and-play model which it announced in November, is now available. Its smarts include built-in connectivity so you can work or attend school from the cloud without the need for a separate PC, as well as TV features so you can seamlessly move into the entertainment portion of your day.

Most of Samsung's 2021 TVs, including its Neo QLED and The Frame models, are available for preorder now. 

Isro launches PSLV-C51 carrying Amazonia-1 and 18 other satellites | Details you need to know

 

NSIL (NewSpace India Limited) is a Central Public Sector Enterprise of Government of India and commercial arm of ISRO handle this operation. Here is all you need to know about project.

MISSION DESCRIPTION

• India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C51 (PSLV-C51), launch Amazonia-1 as primary satellite and 18 co-passenger satellites from First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota.

• PSLV-C51 used 'DL' variant of PSLV equipped with two solid strap-on boosters.

• PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 mission is the first Dedicated PSLV commercial mission for NewSpace India Limited, NSIL undertake this mission under a commerical arrangement with Spaceflight Inc. USA.

PSLV-C51 MISSION SPECIFICATIONS

• Primary Satellite          -  Amazonia-1
• Co-passenger               -  18 Satellites
• Orbit      -  Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit
• Launch Pad              -  First Launch Pad

DETAILS  OF PSLV-C51

Source:ISRO

    

ABOUT AMAZONIA-1

AMAZONIA-1

DETAILS OF CO-PASSENGER SATELLITES

Indian Satellites

ISRO'S SPACE SHUTTLE-LIKE REUSABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE

 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is finally following in the footsteps of NASA and SpaceX by developing a space program for Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) which it has been testing since 2016.

The RLV program aims to cut down on launch costs by, well, reusing the spacecraft. ISRO's current project appears to be using a hybrid design that sits somewhere between NASA's now-shuttered Space Shuttle program and SpaceX's reusable rockets.

India's RLV includes a Space Shuttle-like craft that could feature an air-breathing ramjet engine. This craft will take a payload to space and then glide back to Earth, landing like a normal aircraft, much like the Space Shuttle. The rocket that will take this shuttle to orbit will return to Earth much like Musk's Falcon 9 rockets. It will return under its own power and make a landing on a floating platform out at sea.

So far, the RLV shuttle has been tested over water.

An artist illustration of the RLV-TD concept. Image: ISRO

The scientists at ISRO will be tracking the flight and landing of the RLV at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) at Challakere in Chitradurga district, Karnataka.

The ATR has 2.2 km runway and the RLV will be dropped from a helicopter at an altitude of 3 km. According to a report in the Deccan Chronicle, an onboard computer will help the RLV glide for some distance before touching down on the runway like an aircraft.

The launch vehicle is critical to unleashing ISRO’s dreams of human space flight, Gaganyaan. It will also help to further cut the cost of launches.

The first demonstration of the rocket's concept was tested on 23 May 2016, when ISRO carried out its 'Hypersonic Flight Experiment' of a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO), fully-reusable rocket.

An illustration showing the different stages in the RLV technology demonstration, from launch to landing of both stages.

Four aspects of the vehicle are to be tested:

• hypersonic flight, tested in the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX)
• autonomous landing, to be tested in the landing experiment (LEX)
• powered cruise flight
• hypersonic flight with air-breathing propulsion, to be tested in the scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX)

ISRO plans to recover and reuse two stages of the rocket. To recover the first stage, ISRO will use a similar principle to SpaceX's Falcon 9 boosters, whereby the rocket is programmed to land on a pad in the sea after launch. For the second stage of the rocket, ISRO plans to test an advanced version of the RLV, tested in 2016.The rocket will be controlled by ISRO engineers after launch to land on an airstrip, after which it will be used again for a second launch.