• The researchers have been working on carbon (Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene) nanomaterials based supercapacitors to achieve high energy density and power density of supercapacitors.
• High energy density of supercapacitors suggests that constant current can be withdrawn for a longer duration without recharging. Hence automobiles can run longer distances without charging.
• Thus, researchers have developed a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) at a moderate temperature of 100°C with high capacitance performance. It is cost-effective and suitable for commercial purposes.
• The focus on energy devices paves the way for the development of cost-effective and efficient devices, which can be used for energy storage application.

International Space Station (ISS)
• ISS is a habitable artificial satellite – the single largest man-made structure in low earth orbit. Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998.
• It circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day.
• The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada) but its ownership and use has been established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
• It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.
• Continuous presence at ISS has resulted in the longest continuous human presence in the low earth orbit.
• It is expected to operate until 2030.

National Supercomputing Mission
• It was announced in 2015, with an aim to connect national academic and R&D institutions with a grid of more than 70 high-performance computing facilities at an estimated cost of ₹4,500 crores over the period of seven years.
• It supports the government’s vision of ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The mission will be implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (Ministry of Science and Technology) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
• It is also an effort to improve the number of supercomputers owned by India.
• These supercomputers will also be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the
National Knowledge Network (NKN). The NKN connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high-speed network.
Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Under NSM, the long-term plan is to build a strong base of 20,000 skilled persons over the next five years
who will be equipped to handle the complexities of supercomputers.

Progress of NSM:
• NSM’s first supercomputer named Param Shivay has been installed in IIT-BHU, Varanasi, in 2019.
– It has 837 TeraFlop High-Performance Computing (HPC) capacity. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• The second supercomputer with a capacity of 1.66 PetaFlop has been installed at IIT-Kharagpur.
• The third system, Param Brahma, has been installed at IISER-Pune, which has a capacity of 797 TeraFlop.

Nano Mission
• The Government of India launched the Nano Mission in 2007 as an “umbrella capacity-building programme”.
• It is being implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• The objectives of the mission are:
– Basic research promotion.
– Infrastructure development.
– Nano applications and technology development.
– Human Resource development.
– International collaborations
• As a result of the efforts led by the Nano Mission, today, India is amongst the top five nations in the world in terms of scientific publications in nanoscience and technology (moving from 4th to the 3rd position).
• The Nano Mission has established national dialogues to promote R&D in the development of standards for nanotechnology and for laying down a National Regulatory Framework Road-Map for Nanotechnology (NRFR-Nanotech).

• The Bharat Air Fibre services are being introduced by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as a part of the Digital India initiative by the Government of India. It is being scaled pan-India.
• Aim: To provide BSNL fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) wireless connectivity up to a range of 20 km from the BSNL points of presence.
• The connectivity speed is 100 Mbps and BSNL is offering various broadband plans in wireline and wireless segments.

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs):
• NEOs are comets and asteroids pushed by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.
• These objects are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• NEOs occasionally approach close to the Earth as they orbit the Sun and have a fixed path trajectory. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.
• NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Study (CNEOS) determines the times and distances of these objects, when their approach to the Earth is close, through the Asteroid Watch Widget.

Tamar Valley
• Tamar valley is located in the south of England and is a rich archaeological landscape with many sites belonging to the Iron Age and Roman era. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The area is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its special cultural or physical significance.
• The list of World Heritage Sites is maintained by the international ‘World Heritage Programme’, administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

LiDAR
• Description:
– LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges and variable distances.
– These light pulses, combined with other data recorded by the airborne system, generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.
– A LiDAR instrument principally consists of a laser, a scanner and a specialized GPS receiver.
– Airplanes and helicopters are the most commonly used platforms for acquiring LiDAR data over broad areas.
• Applications:
– LiDAR is used for agriculture, hydrology and water management systems.
– Geology-related applications.
– It is also used in archaeology.

Hope Mission:
• It is the first interplanetary mission for the Arab World.
• The ‘Hope Orbiter’ will be lifted on an H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker
in Japan. It will be launched from Tanegashima Island in Japan.
• The UAE does not have its own rocket industry.
• Once launched, it is expected to arrive in orbit around Mars in February 2021 (the year of 50th anniversary of UAE’s founding).
• It costs about USD 200 million and will carry three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera.

Previous UAE Space Missions:
• The UAE has built and launched three earthobserving satellites in collaboration with a South Korean manufacturer.
• In 2019, the UAE bought a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and sent its first astronaut for an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.

Other Two Missions:
• NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, with instruments to search for chemical signs of past life, is scheduled to launch on 30th July 2020.
• China is also launching an ambitious mission to Mars, Tianwen-1.

Mass Spectrometry (MS):
• It is an analytical technique used for determining the elemental composition of samples, quantifying the mass of particles and molecules, and elucidating their chemical structure.
• MS is based on ionization and fragmentation of sample molecules in the gaseous phase. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The instruments used in this technique are called mass spectrometers and mass spectrographs, and they operate on the principle that moving ions may be deflected by electric and magnetic fields.
• Clinical laboratories use the MS technology for disease screening, diagnosis of disease and metabolic disorders, monitoring of drug therapy, identifying drug toxicity and poisoning, and discovering new biomarkers. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
– Biomarker is short for biological marker, and is used as an indication that a biological process in the body has happened or is ongoing.

Lagrange Point 1
• Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two body system (like the Sun and the Earth) produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion.
• The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from Earth, or about 1/100th of the way to the Sun.
• L1 refers to Lagrangian/Lagrange Point 1, one of 5 points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system. Hence, statement 1 is incorrect.
• These can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
• A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The L1 point is home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO), an international collaboration project of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Hence, statement 3 is correct.

Integrated Air Defence Weapon System
• The Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) is called the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile
System (NASAMS-II).
• It is an upgraded version of the NASAMS developed by the US firm Raytheon in partnership with Kongsberg
Defence & Aerospace of Norway.
• The IADWS system provides integrated air missile defence and is currently deployed around Washington, DC.
• It includes launchers, targeting and guidance systems, advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM)
and Stinger missiles, 3D Sentinel radars, fire-distribution centres and command-and-control units.

Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile
• Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day and night operations. Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct.
• Manufactured by Raytheon, more than 30 countries are using the AMRAAM. Hence, statement 3 is incorrect.

TOI 700 d
• The planet was found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which was launched in 2018. TESS is an all-sky survey for transiting exoplanets (planets around the solar system). With TOI 700 d, TESS has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star’s habitable zone.
• The star, TOI 700, is an “M dwarf star” located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. It is roughly 40% of the Sun’s mass and size, and has about half its surface temperature.

M-dwarf Star
• M dwarf or M-type star, also called Red Dwarf Star are the most numerous type of star in the universe and the smallest type of hydrogen-burning star. Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct.
• These have masses from about 0.08 to 0.6 times that of the Sun. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.
• In the Milky Way Galaxy, about three-fourths of the stars are red dwarfs.

• Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy from the reactants directly into
electricity and heat. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The device consists of an electrolyte layer in contact with a porous anode and cathode on either side.
• In a standard fuel cell, gaseous fuels are fed continuously to the anode (negative electrode), while an oxidant (oxygen from the air) is fed continuously to the cathode (positive electrode). Electrochemical reactions take place at the electrodes to produce an electric current. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.

White Dwarfs
• Stars like our sun fuse hydrogen in their cores into helium through nuclear fusion reactions. White dwarfs are stars that have burned up all of the hydrogen they once used as nuclear fuel. Such stars have very high density. Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct.
• Fusion in a star’s core produces heat and outward pressure (they bloat up as enormous red giants), but this pressure is kept in balance by the inward push of gravity generated by a star’s mass.
• When the hydrogen, used as fuel, vanishes and fusion slows, gravity causes the star to collapse in on itself into white dwarfs.

Black Dwarf:
• Eventually—over tens or even hundreds of billions of years—a white dwarf cools until it becomes a black dwarf, which emits no energy. Because the universe’s oldest stars are only 10 billion to 20 billion years old there are no known black dwarfs. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• It must be noted that not all white dwarfs cool and transform into black dwarfs. Those white dwarfs which have enough mass reach a level called the Chandrasekhar Limit. At this point the pressure at its center becomes so great that the star will detonate in a thermonuclear supernova.

Bio-coal
• Bio-coal, also commonly referred to as synthetic coal, is created through the torrefaction of biomass. Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct.
• The bio-coal has similar characteristics to traditional fossil-based coal, and thus viable option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• The exhibition showcases India’s participation in the world’s major Mega Science projects, where several
developed countries are participating collectively.
• The Mega Science Projects in which India is participating are:
– Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN),
– Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR),
– India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO),
– International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER),
– Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO),
– Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and
– Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Sol
• Sol is a colloid (aggregate of very fine particles dispersed in a continuous medium) in which the particles are solid and the dispersion medium is fluid.
• If the dispersion medium is water, the colloid may be called a hydrosol and if air, an aerosol.
• They do not settle or separate over time
• They display the Tyndall effect.
€ Tyndall effect is a phenomenon of scattering of a beam of light by a medium containing small suspended particles – e.g., smoke or dust in a room, which makes visible a light beam entering a window.
€ This effect is exhibited by all colloidal solutions and some very fine suspensions. Therefore, it can be used to verify if a given solution is a colloid.

Cancer Incidence in India
• According to the study, as India continues to age, cancer cases will double every 20 years.
• Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, will bear the biggest cancer burden in the next 10-20 years.
• According to Epidemiological Transition Level concept (ETL), number of patients with cancer started to increase as the life expectancy of Indians started to increase.
• The States with high ETL have a better development index and higher cancer rates.
€ ETL is highest in Kerala and is lowest in Uttar Pradesh.
• Government should consider Bhore committee and Mudaliar committee report recommendations for cancer that include creation of a multidisciplinary cancer treatment unit in all medical colleges and setting up of a stand-alone cancer speciality hospital.

X-Rays
• X-rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. X-radiation is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Rontgen who discovered these in 1895. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

Soft and Hard X-rays
• X-rays are usually described by their maximum energy, which is determined by the voltage between the electrodes.
• X-rays with high photon energies (above 5–10 keV) are called hard X-rays. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
€ Due to their penetrating ability hard X-rays are widely used to image the inside of visually opaque objects. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• Those with lower energy (and longer wavelength) are called soft X-rays.