Today's Headlines - 21 July 2023
The ‘good viruses’ fight bacteria
GS Paper - 3 (Health and Diseases)
Scientists now talk of a virome — all the different types of viruses we host in our bodies which contribute to health, much like the bacterial microbiome. This virome is huge. You have 380 trillion virus particles living (or existing) in or on your body right now — 10 times more than the number of bacteria. These viruses lurk in our lungs and blood, live on our skin and linger inside the microbes in our guts. They’re not all bad, however: There are viruses that kill cancer cells and help break down tumors, others that train our immune system and help them fight pathogens, and even some that control gene expression in pregnancy.
Bacteriophages: Anti-bacterial guard dogs
The vast majority of viruses inside us are bacteriophages — viruses that kill bacteria in our microbiomes.
Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are harmless to human cells as they do not recognize them as their bacterial prey.
They work by hunting down bacteria and attaching themselves to the surface of a bacterial cell, before injecting viral DNA material into the cell.
The viral DNA then replicates inside the bacteria, sometimes by borrowing the DNA replication hardware of the bacteria.
Once enough new viruses have been created inside the bacterial cell, the cell then bursts to release the new viral particles.
All this takes just 30 minutes, meaning one virus can become many in a couple of hours.
Phage therapy
The ability of phages to take down bacteria had scientists pondering whether they could be used to treat bacterial infections in the early 20th century, but when antibiotics like penicillin came along, that research faded away.
But antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are now on the rise, with experts saying antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest medical challenges facing global communities.
As a result, scientists are racing to find new forms of antibiotic agents, putting phages back on the menu as agents to fight bacterial infections.
The advantages of phages lie in their effectiveness against every multi-resistant pathogen.
Phages are extremely precise in their elimination of bacterial strains — so much so that you don’t disturb the gut microbiome, as is the case with antibiotics.
In theory, then, phages could be a huge boon in our fight against antibacterial resistance.
#upsc #news #goodviruses #fight #bacteria #health #diseases #scientists #microbiome #virome #particles #antibacterial #DNA #phage #therapy #antibotic #infections #pathogen
The ‘good viruses’ fight bacteria
GS Paper - 3 (Health and Diseases)
Scientists now talk of a virome — all the different types of viruses we host in our bodies which contribute to health, much like the bacterial microbiome. This virome is huge. You have 380 trillion virus particles living (or existing) in or on your body right now — 10 times more than the number of bacteria. These viruses lurk in our lungs and blood, live on our skin and linger inside the microbes in our guts. They’re not all bad, however: There are viruses that kill cancer cells and help break down tumors, others that train our immune system and help them fight pathogens, and even some that control gene expression in pregnancy.
Bacteriophages: Anti-bacterial guard dogs
The vast majority of viruses inside us are bacteriophages — viruses that kill bacteria in our microbiomes.
Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are harmless to human cells as they do not recognize them as their bacterial prey.
They work by hunting down bacteria and attaching themselves to the surface of a bacterial cell, before injecting viral DNA material into the cell.
The viral DNA then replicates inside the bacteria, sometimes by borrowing the DNA replication hardware of the bacteria.
Once enough new viruses have been created inside the bacterial cell, the cell then bursts to release the new viral particles.
All this takes just 30 minutes, meaning one virus can become many in a couple of hours.
Phage therapy
The ability of phages to take down bacteria had scientists pondering whether they could be used to treat bacterial infections in the early 20th century, but when antibiotics like penicillin came along, that research faded away.
But antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are now on the rise, with experts saying antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest medical challenges facing global communities.
As a result, scientists are racing to find new forms of antibiotic agents, putting phages back on the menu as agents to fight bacterial infections.
The advantages of phages lie in their effectiveness against every multi-resistant pathogen.
Phages are extremely precise in their elimination of bacterial strains — so much so that you don’t disturb the gut microbiome, as is the case with antibiotics.
In theory, then, phages could be a huge boon in our fight against antibacterial resistance.
#upsc #news #goodviruses #fight #bacteria #health #diseases #scientists #microbiome #virome #particles #antibacterial #DNA #phage #therapy #antibotic #infections #pathogen
Today's Headlines - 21 August 2023
Russia’s Luna-25 crashes
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)
Russia’s Moon mission ended in failure after its spacecraft Luna-25 spun out of control and crashed into the moon, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on 20 August 2023.
What happened to Luna-25?
Luna-25 was supposed to land on the Moon on 21 August 2023, days ahead of India’s Chandrayaan-3. Its intended landing site was close to Chandrayaan-3’s, near the lunar south pole.
The crash was confirmed a day after Roscosmos reported an “abnormal situation” which its specialists were analysing.
The space agency had said on 19 August 2023 that it had lost contact with the aircraft as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit.
On 19 August 2023, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 spacecraft, an impulse was provided for the formation of its pre-landing elliptical orbit.
Communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted. The measures taken on 19 and 20 August 2023 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results. According to the results of the preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface, Roscosmos said.
The space agency also said, A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon [mission].
What was the Luna-25 mission?
Although launched on 10 August 2023, almost a month after Chandrayaan-3’s launch on 14 July, Luna-25 rode on a powerful rocket to reach the lunar orbit in just six days.
It was supposed to land on the lunar South Pole before Chandrayaan-3, and its success would have made Russia the first country to do so. Luna-25’s mission life was for one year, and its lift-off mass was 1,750 kg.
It did not carry a rover, but had eight payloads mainly to study the soil composition, dust particles in the polar exosphere, and most importantly detect surface water on the moon.
Significance
The failure of Luna-25 underlines how tricky soft-landings on the Moon are, and echoes India’s heartbreak of 2019.
Since 1976, there has been just one country, China, which has been successful in getting its spacecraft to soft land on the moon.
It has done that twice, with Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4. All other attempts in the last ten years, by India, Israel, Japan and now Russia, have remained unsuccessful.
If Chandrayaan-3 is able to land successfully, India would become just the fourth country in the world, after the United States, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China, to have landed a spacecraft on moon, and the first-ever to land close to the lunar south pole.
#upsc #news #headline #Russia #luna #crashes #space #technology #moonmission #failure #spacecraft #india #chandrayaan #aircraft #southpole #flight #situation #interdepartmental #comission #reasons #orbit #firstcountry #soilcomposition #particles #polar #exosphere #israel #japan #softland #world #india #states #soviet #china #southpole #rocket #collision #agency
Russia’s Luna-25 crashes
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)
Russia’s Moon mission ended in failure after its spacecraft Luna-25 spun out of control and crashed into the moon, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on 20 August 2023.
What happened to Luna-25?
Luna-25 was supposed to land on the Moon on 21 August 2023, days ahead of India’s Chandrayaan-3. Its intended landing site was close to Chandrayaan-3’s, near the lunar south pole.
The crash was confirmed a day after Roscosmos reported an “abnormal situation” which its specialists were analysing.
The space agency had said on 19 August 2023 that it had lost contact with the aircraft as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit.
On 19 August 2023, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 spacecraft, an impulse was provided for the formation of its pre-landing elliptical orbit.
Communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted. The measures taken on 19 and 20 August 2023 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results. According to the results of the preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface, Roscosmos said.
The space agency also said, A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon [mission].
What was the Luna-25 mission?
Although launched on 10 August 2023, almost a month after Chandrayaan-3’s launch on 14 July, Luna-25 rode on a powerful rocket to reach the lunar orbit in just six days.
It was supposed to land on the lunar South Pole before Chandrayaan-3, and its success would have made Russia the first country to do so. Luna-25’s mission life was for one year, and its lift-off mass was 1,750 kg.
It did not carry a rover, but had eight payloads mainly to study the soil composition, dust particles in the polar exosphere, and most importantly detect surface water on the moon.
Significance
The failure of Luna-25 underlines how tricky soft-landings on the Moon are, and echoes India’s heartbreak of 2019.
Since 1976, there has been just one country, China, which has been successful in getting its spacecraft to soft land on the moon.
It has done that twice, with Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4. All other attempts in the last ten years, by India, Israel, Japan and now Russia, have remained unsuccessful.
If Chandrayaan-3 is able to land successfully, India would become just the fourth country in the world, after the United States, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China, to have landed a spacecraft on moon, and the first-ever to land close to the lunar south pole.
#upsc #news #headline #Russia #luna #crashes #space #technology #moonmission #failure #spacecraft #india #chandrayaan #aircraft #southpole #flight #situation #interdepartmental #comission #reasons #orbit #firstcountry #soilcomposition #particles #polar #exosphere #israel #japan #softland #world #india #states #soviet #china #southpole #rocket #collision #agency