Emperor Penguin

Context:

• First emperor penguin known to reach Australia found on tourist beach

About Emperor Penguin:

• It is the largest member of the penguin order.
• It is the world’s deepest-diving bird.
• It is closely resembles the king penguin, a species of smaller stature that lives on several outlying Antarctic islands.
• Adept divers that can remain underwater for nearly 22 minutes, emperor penguins capture krill, fish, and squid that congregate under or near the edges of ice shelves.
• In addition, their endurance is such that some individuals have reached the South Shetland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, the South Sandwich Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, and New Zealand.
• The species is prey for killer whales, leopard seals, and giant fulmars.
• It is considered a near threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• With the breakup of large areas of sea ice, such as the loss of 60 percent of the Larsen Ice Shelf between 1995 and 2002 and the partial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in 2008, emperor penguin habitat has declined, resulting in the production of fewer young and higher rates of chick mortality.

Nanocoating material

Context:

• Nano material coating developed can increase efficiency of fertilisers by slowing down their release

More info:

• A mechanically stable, biodegradable, hydrophobic nanocoating material can enhance the nutrient use efficiency of chemical fertilizers by tuning them for slow release, thereby limiting their interaction with the rhizosphere soil, water and microbes.
• This coating made of nanoclay-reinforced binary carbohydrates can reduce the recommended fertiliser dose and maintaining enhanced crop production.
• Scientists from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institution of Department of Science and Technology, coated muriate of potash (KCl), which serves 80% of potassium fertilizer needs, with binary carbohydrates, namely, chitosan and lignin using anionic clay as a reinforcement agent that favours stable coordination bonds.
• The scientists used drum rotor method to coat the fertilizer in a uniform manner and improve the use efficiency.
• The nanomaterial used for the uniform coating were nature derived low-cost material like the nano-clay, chitosan and starch and so on.
• Tuning the hydrophobicity of nano coating material, switched the release kinetics of the chemical fertilizers as per crop requirement.
• Additionally, the biodegradability and life cycle assessment of the developed product ensured the sustainability over conventional chemical fertilizers.
• Further, the mechanical performance of the coated fertilizer guarantees its industrial application during transportation and supply chain.
• The 3D nanostructure of nature inspired polymers offers a potential platform for various applications with the advantage of its biocompatibility and biodegradability.
• The properties of natural waste polymer like irreversible denaturation, self-assembled amyloid fibril formation and thermos-responsiveness were exploited for assembling of hydrophobic nanomaterial for the slow release of the chemical fertilizers.
• Further, the customized rotary drum system with sand air gun enabled the uniform coating of chemical fertilizers with an excellent mechanical performance.

Why Nanocoating?

• Since the last 50 years as a part of the green revolution, frequent chemical fertilizer input practices have been used to maintain soil nutrient such that higher plant productivity can be achieved.
• The frequent and excessive application, pose risk on global sustainable development.
• Researchers are constantly on the lookout for ways to use fertilisers more efficiently.

Conclusion:

• The slow-release fertilizer can be the potential alternative over the conventional fertilizer to enhance the nutrient use efficiency.
• The reduced recommended dose with increased yield of rice and wheat facilitates more output from lesser input.
• Overall, the socio-economic condition of the farmer and the economy of the country will improve as compared to conventional fertilizer applications.

UPSC Mains PYQ (2016):

• Why is nanotechnology one of the key technologies of the 21st century? Describe the salient features of Indian Government’s Mission on Nanoscience and Technology and the scope of its application in the development process of the country.

Dicliptera polymorpha

Context:

• Scientists discover a new fire-resilient, dual-blooming species of Dicliptera in the Northern Western Ghats of India

News:

• A new fire resilient dual blooming species experiences a burst of flowering triggered by the grassland fires and has an inflorescence structure that is rare in Indian species has been discovered in the Western Ghats which is known to harbour many yet-to-be-discovered species.

About Dicliptera polymorpha:

• A recent discovery has added a new species to the genus Dicliptera, which they have named Dicliptera polymorpha.
• Dicliptera polymorpha is a distinctive species, notable for its fire-resilient, pyrophytic habit and its unusual dual-blooming pattern.
• In addition to its typical post-monsoon flowering, the species exhibits a second, vigorous burst of flowering triggered by the grassland fires commonly set by locals in the region.
• This species is taxonomically unique, with inflorescence units (cymules) that develop into spicate inflorescences.
• It is the only known Indian species with this spicate inflorescence structure, with its closest allied being found in Africa.
• The species was named Dicliptera polymorpha to reflect its diverse morphological traits.
• Dicliptera polymorpha thrives on slopes in open grasslands of the northern Western Ghats, an area exposed to extreme climatic conditions such as summer droughts and frequent human-induced fires.
• Despite these harsh conditions, the species has adapted to survive and bloom twice a year.
• The first flowering phase occurs from post-monsoon (early November) to March or April, while the second flowering phase in May and June is triggered by fires.
• During this second phase, the woody rootstocks produce dwarf flowering shoots, leading to a more abundant but shorter flowering period.
• The discovery of Dicliptera polymorpha holds important conservation implications.
• The species’ unique adaptation to fire and its limited habitat range in the Western Ghats highlight the need for careful management of grassland ecosystems.
• Frequent human-induced fires, while part of the species’ life cycle, must be balanced to prevent habitat degradation that could threaten its survival. Protecting the grasslands from overuse and ensuring that fire management practices support biodiversity are crucial steps in conserving this newly discovered species.
• This discovery underscores the importance of preserving the Western Ghats’ delicate ecosystems, which harbour many yet-to-be-discovered species with unique adaptations.

Lightning rods

How do lightning rods prevent lightning strikes from reaching people?

Introduction:

• Climate change is making lightning strikes around the world more common and deadlier.
• Every year, around 24,000 people around the world are killed by such strikes; in India, lightning strikes killed 2,887 people in 2022.
• There have been petitions to declare this phenomenon a natural disaster in India so that its survivors can access institutional mechanisms for protection and rehabilitation.
• Against this backdrop, lightning rods are important for their ability to keep lightning away from people.

Lightning:

• Lightning is an electrical discharge between charged particles in a cloud and the ground.
• Objects can be classified as electrical conductors or insulators, but this depends on the electrical energy acting on the object.
• For example, the air around us is an electrical insulator: it doesn’t transport electric charges.
• But if it is subjected to a high voltage of around 3 million V/m, its insulating properties break down and it can transport a current.
• Lightning strikes are possible because electrical charges can build up in a cloud beyond the ability of air to keep resisting their movement.

 Lightning rod:

• While a lightning strike occurs between a cloud and an object on or near the ground, it takes the path of least resistance, which means it moves towards the closest object with the highest electric potential.
• The reason lightning strikes the rod has to do with its shape.
• Lightning rods are pointy and pointed things create stronger electric fields near them.
• The electric field is the force that acts on molecules of air, so it becomes strongest near the lightning rod.
• This force ionises the air near the rod first and provides a route for the current to flow.
• Think of a lightning strike as the extended hand of someone who wants to be pulled out of a pool.
• If there are many hands offering to help, the lightning’s hand will reach for the strongest one.
• A lightning rod is an electrical conductor that takes advantage of this fact with one addition: engineers install it on building-tops in a way that it’s the first hand the lightning encounters on its way down.
• This is also why it’s risky to stand under trees in an otherwise open field, like a farm.

Current in a lightning rod:

• Heat energy always flows from a warmer object to a cooler object.
• Liquid water flows from a place with a higher gravitational potential to a lower one.
• Similarly, an electric current flows from a place with higher electric potential to a place with lower electric potential.
• Fortunately, we have an abundant source of lower electric potential: the earth.
• The lightning rod is connected to a wire that drops through the length of the building into the ground, where it dissipates its electric charges into its surroundings.
• The idea here is that electrifying the earth will need virtually infinite amount of charges, so it’s treated as a bucket that will never fill up.
• However, some parts of the bucket may still be better at receiving the charges than others.
• If a strike induces a large current in a grid-connected electrical system, engineers connect the wire to a line that allows only high currents, thus diverting them away from devices that can handle only low currents.
• Such setups are called lightning arresters.

Can lightning evade a lightning rod?

• A lightning strike may evade a lightning rod if the rod is installed at the wrong height or angle or too close to another structure, isn’t properly grounded, if there are multiple thunderstorms in an area, if it has a flawed design, or if it has become misshapen and/or corroded due to lack of maintenance.
• It can also fail if an electrical discharge ascends from the ground to meet a descending strike, risking bypassing the rod, or if a strike is more attracted to the side of a tall building than to the top.
• Over the years, engineers have devised new incentives for lightning to prefer a lightning rod over other structures nearby.
• Among others, they make sure a lightning rod is available for lightning to strike within the minimum distance the strike travels in each step it takes towards the ground.

Dangers of a lightning rod:

• The lightning rod and the components connected to it are designed to carry a lightning strike into the ground.
• This means catching the strike and safely transporting it.
• If the wire bends in a U shape at any point, the two arms of the U should be far apart to prevent the current from arcing across and shorting the conductor.
• The charges should also not be able to arc through any other objects nearby.
• Engineers also bury the grounding wire in a part of the crust with higher electrical conductivity so that the wire dissipates charges faster.
• In the 1960s, a U.S. engineer developed a system later called a concrete encased electrode: it has the properties of a good grounding material, including better electrical conductivity than soil.
• The International Electrotechnical Commission publishes standards that specify the design limits and points of failure engineers can consider when installing lightning rods, and the priorities that planners and policymakers should adopt – informed by technical considerations – when estimating risk and liability.

AUSTRAHIND

News:

• INDIA- AUSTRALIA JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE AUSTRAHIND COMMENCES IN MAHARASHTRA

More info:

• Exercise AUSTRAHIND is an annual event conducted alternatively in India and Australia.
• Aim of Exercise AUSTRAHIND is to promote military cooperation between India and Australia through enhancement of interoperability in conduct of joint sub conventional operations in semi-urban environment in semi-desert terrain under Chapter VII of the UN mandate.
• The exercise will focus on high degree of physical fitness, joint planning and joint tactical drills.
• The exercise will be conducted in two phases – combat conditioning and tactical training phase and validation phase.
• Drills/ aspects to be rehearsed during the exercise will include response to a terrorist action of capturing a defined territory; establishment of a Joint Operations Centre; conduct of joint counter terrorism operations like Raid and Search and Destroy Missions; securing of a helipad; employment of drones and counter drone measures and Special Heli Borne Operations, among others.
• Exercise AUSTRAHIND will enable the two sides to share their best practices in tactics, techniques and procedures of conducting tactical operations.
• The exercise will also facilitate developing bonhomie and camaraderie between soldiers of both the sides.