Science and Technology Notes PDF for UPSC Civil Services Exam

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

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THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions) and self-correction. Particular applications of AI include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision.  AI can be categorized as either weak or strong. Weak AI, also known as narrow AI, is an AI system that is designed and trained for a particular task. Virtual personal assistants, such as Apple's Siri, are a form of weak AI. Strong AI, also known as artificial general intelligence, is an AI system with generalized human cognitive abilities. When presented with an unfamiliar task, a strong AI system is able to find a solution without human intervention.  Because hardware, software and staffing costs for AI can be expensive, many vendors are including AI components in their standard offerings, as well as access to Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) platforms. AI as a Service allows individuals and companies to experiment with AI for various business purposes and sample multiple platforms before making a commitment. Popular AI cloud offerings include Amazon AI services, IBM Watson Assistant, Microsoft Cognitive Services and Google AI services.  Artificial intelligence, defined as intelligence exhibited by machines, has many applications in today's society. More specifically, it is Weak AI, the form of AI where programs are developed to perform specific tasks, that is being utilized for a wide range of activities including medical diagnosis, electronic trading platforms, robot control, and remote sensing. AI has been used to develop and advance numerous fields and industries, including finance, healthcare, education, transportation, and more.

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in following fields:  AI for Agriculture  Handwriting recognition  Aviation  Speech recognition  Computer science  Face recognition  Deepfake  Artificial creativity  Education  Computer vision, virtual reality, and image processing  Finance  Photo and video manipulation  Algorithmic trading  Diagnosis (artificial intelligence)  Market analysis and data mining  Game theory and strategic planning  Personal finance  Game artificial intelligence and computer game bot  Portfolio management  Natural language processing, translation and chatterbots  Underwriting  Nonlinear control and robotics  History  Artificial life  Government  Automated reasoning  Heavy industry  Automation, Self Driving Vehicles  Hospitals and medicine  Bio-inspired computing  Human resources and recruiting  Concept mining  Job search  Data mining  Marketing  Knowledge representation  Media and e-commerce  Semantic Web  Military  Email spam filtering  Music  Robotics  News, publishing and writing  Behavior-based robotics  Online and telephone customer service  Cognitive  Power electronics  Cybernetics  Sensors  Developmental robotics (Epigenetic)  Telecommunications maintenance  Evolutionary robotics  Toys and games  Hybrid intelligent system  Transportation  Intelligent agent List of applications in Other Areas:  Intelligent control  Optical character recognition  Litigation

Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem of connected physical objects that are accessible through the internet. The ‘thing’ in IoT could be a person with a heart monitor or an automobile with built-in-sensors, i.e. objects that have been assigned an IP address and have the ability to collect and transfer data over a network without manual assistance or intervention. The embedded technology in the objects helps them to interact with internal states or the external environment, which in turn affects the decisions taken.

The term "Internet of things" was coined by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble, later MIT's Auto-ID Center, in 1999, though he prefers the phrase "Internet for things". At that point, he viewed Radio-frequency identification (RFID) as essential to the Internet of things,[14] which would allow computers to manage all individual things.

The Internet of things (IoT) is the extension of Internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, Internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware (such as sensors), these devices can communicate and interact with others over the Internet, and they can be remotely monitored and controlled.

In the consumer market, IoT technology is most synonymous with products pertaining to the concept of the "smart home", covering devices and appliances (such as lighting fixtures, thermostats, home security systems and cameras, and other home appliances) that support one or more common ecosystems, and can be controlled via devices associated with that ecosystem, such as smartphones and smart speakers.

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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Applications of “IOT” Smart Cities  Smart Parking: Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city.  Structural health: Monitoring of vibrations and material conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments.  Noise Urban Maps: Sound monitoring in bar areas and centric zones in real time.  Smartphone Detection: Detect iPhone and Android devices and in general any device which works with WiFi or Bluetooth interfaces.  Eletromagnetic Field Levels: Measurement of the energy radiated by cell stations and and WiFi routers.  Traffic Congestion: Monitoring of vehicles and pedestrian levels to optimize driving and walking routes.  Smart Lighting: Intelligent and weather adaptive lighting in street lights.  Waste Management: Detection of rubbish levels in containers to optimize the trash collection routes.  Smart Roads: Intelligent Highways with warning messages and diversions according to climate conditions and unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.

Smart Environment  Forest Fire Detection: Monitoring of combustion gases and preemptive fire conditions to define alert zones.  Air Pollution: Control of CO2 emissions of factories, pollution emitted by cars and toxic gases generated in farms.  Snow Level Monitoring: Snow level measurement to know in real time the quality of ski tracks and allow security corps avalanche prevention.  Landslide and Avalanche Prevention: Monitoring of soil moisture, vibrations and earth density to detect dangerous patterns in land conditions.  Earthquake Early Detection: Distributed control in specific places of tremors.

Smart Water  Potable water monitoring: Monitor the quality of tap water in cities.  Chemical leakage detection in rivers: Detect leakages and wastes of factories in rivers.  Swimming pool remote measurement: Control remotely the swimming pool conditions.  Pollution levels in the sea: Control realtime leakages and wastes in the sea.  Water Leakages: Detection of liquid presence outside tanks and pressure variations along pipes.  River Floods: Monitoring of water level variations in rivers, dams and reservoirs.

Smart Metering  Smart Grid: Energy consumption monitoring and management.  Tank level: Monitoring of water, oil and gas levels in storage tanks and cisterns.  Photovoltaic Installations: Monitoring and optimization of performance in solar energy plants.  Water Flow: Measurement of water pressure in water transportation systems.  Silos Stock Calculation: Measurement of emptiness level and weight of the goods.

Security & Emergencies  Perimeter Access Control: Access control to restricted areas and detection of people in non-authorized areas.  Liquid Presence: Liquid detection in data centers, warehouses and sensitive building grounds to prevent break downs and corrosion.  Radiation Levels: Distributed measurement of radiation levels in nuclear power stations surroundings to generate leakage alerts.  Explosive and Hazardous Gases: Detection of gas levels and leakages in industrial environments, surroundings of chemical factories and inside mines.

Retail  Supply Chain Control: Monitoring of storage conditions along the supply chain and product tracking for traceability purposes.  NFC Payment: Payment processing based in location or activity duration for public transport, gyms, theme parks, etc.  Intelligent Shopping Applications: Getting advices in the point of sale according to customer habits, preferences, presence of allergic components for them or expiring dates.  Smart Product Management: Control of rotation of products in shelves and warehouses to automate restocking processes.

Logistics  Quality of Shipment Conditions: Monitoring of vibrations, strokes, container openings or cold chain maintenance for insurance purposes.  Item Location: Search of individual items in big surfaces like warehouses or harbours.  Storage Incompatibility Detection: Warning emission on containers storing inflammable goods closed to others containing explosive material.  Fleet Tracking: Control of routes followed for delicate goods like medical drugs, jewels or dangerous merchandises.

Industrial Control  M2M Applications: Machine auto-diagnosis and assets control.  Indoor Air Quality: Monitoring of toxic gas and oxygen levels inside chemical plants to ensure workers and goods safety.  Temperature Monitoring: Control of temperature inside industrial and medical fridges with sensitive merchandise.  Ozone Presence: Monitoring of ozone levels during the drying meat process in food factories.  Indoor Location: Asset indoor location by using active (ZigBee) and passive tags (RFID/NFC).  Vehicle Auto-diagnosis: Information collection from CanBus to send real time alarms to emergencies or provide advice to drivers.

Smart Agriculture  Wine Quality Enhancing: Monitoring soil moisture and trunk diameter in vineyards to control the amount of sugar in grapes and grapevine health.  Green Houses: Control micro-climate conditions to maximize the production of fruits and vegetables and its quality.  Golf Courses: Selective irrigation in dry zones to reduce the water resources required in the green.  Meteorological Station Network: Study of weather conditions in fields to forecast ice formation, rain, drought, snow or wind changes.  Compost: Control of humidity and temperature levels in alfalfa, hay, straw, etc. to prevent fungus and other microbial contaminants.

Smart Animal Farming  Hydroponics: Control the exact conditions of plants grown in water to get the highest efficiency crops.

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 Offspring Care: Control of growing conditions of the offspring in animal farms to ensure its survival and health.  Animal Tracking: Location and identification of animals grazing in open pastures or location in big stables.  Toxic Gas Levels: Study of ventilation and air quality in farms and detection of harmful gases from excrements.

Domotic & Home Automation  Energy and Water Use: Energy and water supply consumption monitoring to obtain advice on how to save cost and resources.  Remote Control Appliances: Switching on and off remotely appliances to avoid accidents and save energy.  Intrusion Detection Systems: Detection of windows and doors openings and violations to prevent intruders.  Art and Goods Preservation: Monitoring of conditions inside museums and art warehouses. eHealth  Fall Detection: Assistance for elderly or disabled people living independent.  Medical Fridges: Control of conditions inside freezers storing vaccines, medicines and organic elements.  Sportsmen Care: Vital signs monitoring in high performance centers and fields.  Patients Surveillance: Monitoring of conditions of patients inside hospitals and in old people's home.  Ultraviolet Radiation: Measurement of UV sun rays to warn people not to be exposed in certain hours.

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NEW WTTx CPe TECHNOLOGY

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Wireless to the x (WTTx), a wireless home broadband technology also known as fixed wireless access, has been rapidly developing in the mobile market over the past few years. In 2017, the number of new WTTx users increased by nearly 40% globally. That was nearly as many new WTTx users as the new fiber to the home (FTTH) users for that year (excluding China).

This growth outpaced cable broadband. WTTx is expected to be the first commercial 5G use case in the industry.

At the Mobile World Congress 2018 (MWC 2018), Huawei released a series of new WTTx terminal solutions. These advanced solutions will allow operators to improve coverage and data rates and provide a diverse range of services.

Many countries lack adequate LTE coverage in suburban and rural areas. Weak LTE coverage has become the greatest obstacle to deliver superior user experience, especially in indoor scenarios. Operators in more and more countries, especially in North America and Europe, have begun to deploy outdoor customer-premises equipment (CPE) on a large scale to provide more reliable, fiber-like, high-speed broadband services. At a given location with given network conditions, the user-perceived throughput of an outdoor CPE is more than twice as that of a mobile phone. Huawei's experience working in many countries, including Canada, Ireland, and Italy, shows that outdoor CPEs on commercial networks can cover a radius of over 15 km even if working on a frequency band of 3.5 GHz. Huawei's latest CPE, the B2368 is flexible and easy to install, minimizing the need for onsite installation by professionals, which is time-consuming and expensive. This outdoor CPE has an innovative, integrated design, with both directional and omnidirectional antennas. It is the industry's first outdoor CPE that does not need to be aligned with the base station, which reduces the total installation time by more than 25%. In many cases, users can install this CPE by themselves, significantly lowering the cost of service provisioning and OPEX for operators. The B2368 is a Cat 12 CPE featuring industry-leading radio performance and support for concurrency of 4x4 MIMO and 2CC CA. It can achieve a peak downlink rate of 600 Mbit/s.

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E – WASTE  

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Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) is one of three sets of use cases defined for 5G. As an extension to existing 4G broadband services, they will be the first commercial 5G services to launch but they will go far beyond just enabling faster download speeds.

Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) is one of three primary 5G New Radio (NR) use cases defined by the 3GPP as part of its SMARTER (Study on New Services and Markets Technology Enablers) project.

The objective behind SMARTER was to develop high level use cases and identify what features and functionality 5G would need to deliver to enable them. It began in 2015 and resulted in over 70 use cases, initially grouped into five categories which has since been trimmed to three. They are characterised by the performance attributes the particular use cases will require, although there is some overlap. The three sets of use cases are as follows:  Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB): data-driven use cases requiring high data rates across a wide coverage area.  Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC): strict requirements on latency and reliability for mission critical communications, such as remote surgery, autonomous vehicles or the Tactile Internet.  Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC): need to support a very large number of devices in a small area, which may only send data sporadically, such as Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. eMBB is a natural evolution to existing 4G networks that will provide faster data rates and therefore a better user experience than current mobile broadband services. However, it will go beyond merely faster downloads to provide an increasingly seamless user experience that will eclipse the quality of service we currently enjoy from fixed broadband technologies.

Ultimately it will enable 360o video streaming, truly immersive VR and AR applications and much more.

Within eMBB use cases there are three distinct attributes 5G will need to deliver:  Higher capacity – broadband access must be available in densely populated areas, both indoors and outdoors, like city centres, office buildings or public venues like stadiums or conference centres.  Enhanced connectivity – broadband access must be available everywhere to provide a consistent user experience.  Higher user mobility – will enable mobile broadband services in moving vehicles including cars, buses, trains and planes.

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ENHANCED MOBILE BROADBAND (EMBB)

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Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, or broken electrical or electronic devices. Some electronic scrap components, such as CRTs, contain contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and brominated flame retardants This is produced because the resurgent growth of the economy is dependent on electronic hardware for household, industrial and office automation. However, the electronic hardware is generating electronic waste that has immense potential to cause enormous harm to human health and environment. Therefore a commitment to eco-responsibility is the sine qua non for the society, economy and the environment.

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NANO-MEDICINE

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Nano-medicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nano-medicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials, to nano-electronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology.

Nano-medicine seeks to deliver a valuable set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future. Current problems for Nano-medicine involve understanding issues related to toxicity & environmental impact of these materials.

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GREEN COMPUTING

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Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. Field of green computing is defined as the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems- such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems- efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment.

The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.

Green Computing lays out 4 paths to which the issue of environmental affects of computing should be addressed: Green use, green disposal, green design, and green manufacturing.

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Graphene, the world's slenderest material, could help shape the next generation of computers that would make their existing counterparts seem like stone-age relics. Thanks to graphene, research institutes worldwide are already looking at ways to build better touch-screens, ultrafast transistors and photo-detectors.

Graphene permits flow of electrons at much higher speeds than they do in silicon, the substance that existing computer chips rely on. The material's amazing flexibility would help scientists design smartphones and computers that could be folded into any shape or design. Graphene is also 200 times tougher than steel.

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, whose discoverers shared the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for work on the material. They prepared extremely high-quality graphene devices by suspending the sheets of the material in a vacuum to avoid scattering electrons, engaging them to interact much more intensely.

NEW LASER TECHNOLOGY

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Ultraviolet semiconductor diode lasers are widely used in data processing, information storage and biology. Their applications have been limited, however, by size, cost and power. The current generation of ultraviolet lasers is based on a material called gallium nitride, but Jianlin Liu, a professor of electrical engineering, and his colleagues have made a breakthrough in zinc oxide Nanowires waveguide lasers, which can offer smaller sizes, lower costs, higher powers and shorter wavelengths.

Until now, zinc oxide Nanowires couldn't be used in real world light emission applications because of the lack of p-type, or positive type, material needed by all semiconductors. Liu solved that problem by doping the zinc oxide Nanowires with antimony, a metalloid element, to create the p-type material.

The p-type zinc oxide nanowires were connected with n-type, or negative type, zinc oxide material to form a device called p-n junction diode. Powered by a battery, highly directional laser light emits only from the ends of the nanowires.

The discovery could have a wide-range of impacts. For information storage, the zinc oxide nanowire lasers could be used to read and process much denser data on storage media such as DVDs because the ultraviolet has shorter wavelength than other lights, such as red. For example, a DVD that would store two hours of music could store four or six hours using the new type of laser.

For biology and medical therapeutics, the ultra-small laser light beam from a nanowire laser can penetrate a living cell, or excite or change its function from a bad cell to a good cell. The light could also be used to purify drinking water.

For photonics, the ultraviolet light could provide superfast data processing and transmission. Reliable small ultraviolet semiconductor diode lasers may help develop ultraviolet wireless communication technology, which is potentially better than state-of-the-art infrared communication technologies used in various electronic information systems.

While Liu and the students in his laboratory have demonstrated the p-type doping of zinc oxide and electrically powered nanowire waveguide lasing in the ultraviolet range, he said more work still needs to be done with the stability and reliability of the p-type material.

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GRAPHENE 

GAGAN – MAKING GPS MORE ACCURATE  

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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs); also known as Bucky-tubes, are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair), while they can be up to 18 centimeters in length.

Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled and multi-walled nanotubes.

Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical bucky-balls. The ends of a nanotube might be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure.

These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science, as well as potential uses in architectural fields. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient thermal conductors.

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These days, anyone who wants to find out exactly where they are can turn to their mobile phones. Phones that pick up signals from orbiting U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are now commonplace. The phone uses that information to work out the location and display it on a map.

In a similar fashion, the GPS signals can be used to assist aircraft during take off and land as well as in flying shorter ro utes to their destination. But, as there can be hundreds of passengers in a single aircraft, the use of GPS for such purposes in civil

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CARBON NANOTUBES

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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs); also known as Bucky-tubes, are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair), while they can be up to 18 centimeters in length. Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled and multi-walled nanotubes.

Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical bucky-balls. The ends of a nanotube might be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science, as well as potential uses in architectural fields. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient thermal conductors.

APPLICATIONS  Clothes: waterproof tear-resistant textiles  Combat jackets: scientists are working on combat jackets that use carbon nanotubes as ultra-strong fibers and to monitor the condition of the wearer.  Concrete: In concrete, they increase the tensile strength & halt crack propagation.  Sports equipment: Stronger and lighter equipments can be made.  Bridges: Carbon nanotubes may be able to replace steel in suspension bridges.  Ultrahigh-speed flywheels: The high strength/ weight ratio enables very high speeds to be achieved.  Fire protection: covering material with a thin layer of bucky-paper significantly improves its fire resistance due to the efficient reflection of heat by the dense, compact layer of carbon nanotubes or carbon fibers.  Bucky-paper: a thin sheet made from nanotubes that are 250 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter.  Chemical nano-wires: Carbon nanotubes additionally can also be used to produce nano-wires of other chemicals, such as gold or zinc oxide.  Light bulb filament: alternative to tungsten filaments in incandescent lamps.  Solar cells: carbon nanotube diode has a photovoltaic effect. Nanotubes can act as a transparent conductive film to allow light to pass and generate photocurrent.  Superconductor: Nanotubes have superconducting properties at low temperatures.  Air pollution filter: Future applications of nanotube membranes include filtering carbon dioxide from power plant emissions.  Biotech container: Nanotubes can be opened and filled with materials such as biological molecules, raising the possibility of applications in biotechnology.  Water filter: nanotube membranes have been developed for use in filtration. It can purportedly reduce desalination costs by 75%. The tubes are so thin that small particles (like water molecules) can pass through them, while larger particles (such as the chloride ions in salt) are blocked.  Thermal radiation: For the thermal emission in the space such as space satellites.  Stealth: Absorbance is high in wide ranges from FUV to FIR.

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TELEROBOTICS  

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aviation demands higher accuracy in determining position than a mobile phone user would need as well as greater reliability in doing so.

One important way to meet the demands of civil aviation has been through what is known as a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS). Satellites in geostationary orbit, where they match the earth's rotation and therefore remain over the same place on the globe, are used to supplement the GPS signals.

The first such SBAS was the U.S. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) that became operational in 2003. The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) began working in October 2009 but was officially declared available for aviation use only in March this year. The Japanese have a system known by the acronym MSAS. India is establishing its own system, the 'GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation' (GAGAN), a joint effort by the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Airports Authority of India.

The ground segment for GAGAN, which has been put up by the U.S. company Raytheon, has 15 reference stations scattered across the country. Two mission control centers, along with associated uplink stations, have been set up at Kundalahalli in Bangalore. One more control centre and uplink station are to come up at Delhi.

The space component for it will become available after the GAGAN payload on the GSAT-8 communication satellite, which was launched recently, is switched on. This payload was also on the GSAT-4 satellite that was lost when the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) failed during launch in April 2010. Two more satellites carrying the same payload are to be launched in the coming years.

The reference stations pick up signals from the orbiting GPS satellites. These measurements are immediately passed on to the mission control centers that then work out the necessary corrections that must be made. Messages carrying those corrections are sent via the uplink stations to the satellites in geostationary orbit that have the GAGAN payload. Those satellites then broadcast the messages. SBAS receivers are able to use those messages and apply the requisite corrections to the GPS signals that they receive, thereby establishing their position with considerable accuracy.

Telerobotics is the area of robotics concerned with the control of robots from a distance, chiefly using wireless connections (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the Deep Space Network, and similar), "tethered" connections, or the Internet. It is a combination of two major subfields, tele-operation and tele-presence.

Tele-operation means "doing work at a distance", although "work" may mean almost anything. The term "distance" is also vague: it can refer to a physical distance, where the operator is separated from the robot by a large distance, but it can also refer to a change in scale, where for example in robotic surgery a surgeon may use micro-manipulator technology to conduct surgery on a microscopic level.

Tele-presence means "feeling like you are somewhere else". The current view of tele-presence remains somewhat vague.

Some people have a very technical interpretation of this, where they insist that you must have head-mounted displays in order to have tele-presence. Other people have a task-specific meaning, where "presence" requires feeling that you are emotionally and socially connected with the remote world.

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Telerobotics is a very important and quickly expanding field in the face of faster processors, new algorithms, and higher expectations. There are many important telerobotics applications in use today, ranging from space exploration, to biomedical applications, to hazardous area exploration.

TELEMEDICINE

NANO-MEDICINE

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GREEN COMPUTING

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Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. Field of green computing is defined as the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems- such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems- efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment.

The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.

Research continues into key areas such as making the use of computers as energy-efficient as possible, and designing algorithms and systems for efficiency-related computer technologies.

Green Computing lays out 4 paths to which the issue of environmental affects of computing should be addressed: Green use, green disposal, green design, and green manufacturing.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a survey of over 90 government and industry initiatives on "Green ICTs", i.e. information and communication technologies, the environment and climate change.

The report concludes that initiatives tend to concentrate on the greening ICTs themselves rather than on their actual implementation to tackle global warming and environmental degradation.

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Nano-medicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nano-medicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials, to nano-electronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology. Nano-medicine seeks to deliver a valuable set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future. Current problems for Nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials.

Drug delivery: it revolves around developing nanoscale particles to improve drug bio-availability. Bio-availability refers to the presence of drug molecules where they are needed in the body and where they will do the most good. Drug delivery focuses on maximizing bioavailability both at specific places in the body and over a period of time.

Protein and peptide delivery: Protein & peptides exert multiple biological actions in human body and show great promise for treatment of various diseases & disorders. These macro-molecules are called bio-pharmaceuticals. Targeted and controlled delivery of these bio-pharmaceuticals using nano-particles can help in improving the healthcare system to a great extent.

Cancer: The small size of nano-particles endows them with properties that can be very useful in oncology, particularly in imaging. Nano-particles like Quantum dots, when used in conjunction with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), can produce exceptional images of tumor sites.

Surgery: nano-shells could solve the difficulties and blood leaks caused when the surgeon tries to re-stitch the arteries cut during a kidney or heart transplant.

Nano-particle targeting: nano-particles are promising tools for the advancement of drug delivery, medical imaging, and as diagnostic sensors. However, the bio-distribution of these nano-particles is mostly unknown due to the difficulty in targeting specific organs in the body, for which the research is going on.

Neuro-electronic interfaces: Neuro-electronic interfacing is a visionary goal dealing with the construction of nano-devices that will permit computers to be joined and linked to the nervous system. This idea requires the building of a molecular structure that will permit control and detection of nerve impulses by an external computer. The computers will be able to interpret, register, and respond to signals the body gives off when it feels sensations.

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COMPUTER MODELING  

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Telemedicine is a method, by which patients can be examined, investigated, monitored and treated, with the patient and the doctor located in different places. Telemedicine generally refers to the use of communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care. Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.

Specialties that use telemedicine often use a "tele-" prefix; for example, telemedicine as applied by radiologists is called Teleradiology. Similarly telemedicine as applied by cardiologists is termed as tele-cardiology, etc. Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as complex as using satellite technology and videoconferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation between medical specialists in two different countries.

The first interactive Telemedicine system, operating over standard telephone lines, for remotely diagnosing and treating patients requiring cardiac resuscitation (defibrillation) was developed and marketed by MedPhone Corporation in 1989 under the leadership of its president and founder, S.Eric Wachtel. The first Ayurvedic telemedicine center was established in India in the year 2007 by Partap Chauhan, a well-known Indian Ayurvedic doctor.

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Computer Modeling is constructing & manipulating abstract mathematical or graphical data of economic, engineering, manufacturing, social & natural phenomenon, simulated with the help of a computer system. Most of the developments in mathematical simulations are in the automotive & aerospace industries.

However, the use of these techniques in other industries is becoming more widespread with the advent of commercial softwares which can be run on a PC.

COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY 

Computational biology is an interdisciplinary field that applies the techniques of computer science, applied mathematics and statistics to address biological problems. The main focus lies in the development of computational and statistical data analysis

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[BestCurrentAffairs.com's Book for IAS Prelims 2022] methods and in developing mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques. By these means, it addresses scientific research topics with their theoretical and experimental questions without a laboratory.

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING

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An optical computer also called a photonic computer is a device that uses the photons of visible light or infrared (IR) beams, rather than electrons in the electric current, to perform digital computations. An electric current creates heat in computer systems. As the processing speed increases, so does the amount of electricity required; this extra heat is extremely damaging to the hardware. Light, however, creates insignificant amounts of heat, regardless of how much is used. Thus, the development of more powerful processing systems becomes possible. By applying some of the advantages of visible and IR networks at the device & component scale, a computer might someday be developed that can perform operations significantly faster than a conventional electronic computer.

Further, the electric currents must be guided around each other, and this makes three-dimensional wiring necessary. Coherent light beams, unlike metal conductors, pass through each other without interfering. Several laser beams can be shone so their paths intersect, but there is no interference among the beams, even when they are confined essentially to two dimensions.

Thus, an optical computer, besides being much faster than an electronic one, might also be smaller.

Most research projects focus on replacing current computer components with optical equivalents, resulting in an optical digital computer system processing binary data. This approach appears to offer the best short-term prospects for commercial optical computing, since optical components could be integrated into traditional computers to produce an optical/ electronic hybrid.

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Optical communication is any form of telecommunication that uses light as the transmission medium. An optical communication system consists of a transmitter, which encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel, which carries the signal to its destination, and a receiver, which reproduces the message from the received optical signal.

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OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION

Optical fiber is the most common type of channel for optical communications; however, other types of optical waveguides are used within computers or communications gear, and have even formed the channel of very short distance (e.g. chip-to-chip, intra-chip) links in laboratory trials. The transmitters in optical fiber links are generally light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes. Infrared light, rather than visible light is used more commonly, because optical fibers transmit infrared wavelengths with less attenuation and dispersion. The signal encoding is typically simple intensity modulation, although historically optical phase and frequency modulation have been demonstrated in the lab. The need for periodic signal regeneration was largely superseded by the introduction of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which extended link distances at significantly lower cost.

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OPTICAL COMPUTING

Technically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are smoke, oceanic haze, air pollution, smog etc. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can.

Concentrated aerosols from substances such as silica, asbestos, and diesel particulate matter are sometimes found in the workplace and have been shown to result in a number of diseases including silicosis and black lung. Respirators can protect workers from harmful aerosol exposure.

SMART MATERIALS  

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Distributed computing refers to the means by which a single computer program runs in more than one computer at the same time. In particular, the different elements and objects of a program are being run or processed using different computer processors. Distributed computing is similar to parallel computing and grid computing.

Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal.

The segment of the Internet most people are most familiar with, the World Wide Web, is also the most recognizable use of distributed computing in the public arena. Many different computers make everything one does while browsing the Internet possible, with each computer assigned a special role within the system.

Another type of distributed computing is known as Grid computing. It consists of many computers operating together remotely and often simply using the idle processor power of normal computers. The highest visible example of it is the At Home project of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). SETI uses the processing power of over 5 million home computers to utilize computational power far in excess of even the greatest supercomputers.

Distributed computing is not used to lighten the load of an individual computer's processor. It is in fact done to be able to process or run complex and resource-draining programs with greater speed and efficiency.

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Smart materials are materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields. There are a number of types of smart material, some of which are already common.

Some examples are as following:  Piezoelectric materials are materials that produce a voltage when stress is applied. Since this effect also applies in the reverse manner, a voltage across the sample will produce stress within the sample. Suitably designed structures made from these materials can therefore be made that bend, expand or contract when a voltage is applied.  Shape memory alloys and shape memory polymers are materials in which large deformation can be induced and recovered through temperature changes or stress changes.

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Magnetostrictive materials exhibit change in shape under the influence of magnetic field and also exhibit change in their magnetization under the influence of mechanical stress.

PHOTO-VOLTAICS

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The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons & protons with energies usually between 10 and 100 eV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time.

These particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high kinetic energy and the high temperature of the corona.

The solar wind creates the heliosphere, a vast bubble in the interstellar medium that surrounds the solar system. Other phenomena include geomagnetic storms that can knock out power grids on Earth, the aurorae (northern and southern lights), and the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the Sun.

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Cyber Warfare is a term used to describe the use of the Internet to wage war in the virtual world, often with real effects in the physical world. Although generally cyber warfare refers to attacks from one sovereign state on another in cyberspace, it may also be used to describe attacks between corporations, from terrorist organizations, or simply attacks by individuals called hackers, who are perceived as being warlike in their intent. In recent years, cyber warfare has become an issue of much concern among the major nations on the planet, and virtually every national military now has a branch dedicated to both conducting & defending against it.

As the world becomes more networked, more crucial systems become susceptible to attacks in cyberspace. Although certain military systems remain accessible only by being present at a terminal on site, the vast majority of critical systems that control modern nations are now tied into the Internet in some way or another. While these systems are defended by high levels of security, they are nonetheless breakable, and cyber warfare concerns itself with finding weaknesses and exploiting them.

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Computer hacking is the practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in computer hacking activities are often called hackers. A hacker is someone who gains unauthorized access to a computer system. Government and huge companies use hackers to maintain their security systems.

Not all hackers are humans. There are computerized hackers too. The hackers are usually classified as: Crackers (or Black Hat Hackers): those who will enter your computer just for the fun of it, or to prove their technical skills, which are usually mid to high level.

Blue Hat Hackers: A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms that are used to bug test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be closed.

Gray Hat Hackers: A gray hat hacker is a hacker of ambiguous ethics and/or borderline legality, often frankly admitted.

White Hat Hacker: sometimes referred to as 'ethical hacker', is someone who breaks security but who does so for altruistic or at least non-malicious reasons. White hats generally have a clearly defined code of ethics, and will often attempt to work with a manufacturer or owner to improve discovered security weaknesses. The term is also used to describe hackers who work to deliberately design and code more secure systems.

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Photovoltaics (PV) is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels comprising a number of cells containing a photovoltaic material.

Materials presently used for photovoltaics include mono-crystalline silicon, poly-crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide/ sulfide. Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacture of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years.

In buildings: Photovoltaic arrays are often associated with buildings: either integrated into them, mounted on them or mounted nearby on the ground.

In transport: PV has traditionally been used for electric power in space, but is being used increasingly to provide auxiliary power in boats and cars. A self-contained solar vehicle would have limited power and low utility, but a solar-charged vehicle would allow use of solar power for transportation.

Standalone devices: solar powered remote fixed devices have seen increasing use recently in locations where significant connection cost makes grid power prohibitively expensive. Such applications include water pumps, parking meters, emergency telephones, temporary traffic signs, and remote guard posts & signals.

Rural electrification: Developing countries where many villages are often more than 5 kilometers away from grid power have begun using Photovoltaics. In remote locations in India a rural lighting program has been providing solar powered LED lighting to replace kerosene lamps.

Solar Power satellites: Design studies of large solar power collection satellites have been conducted for decades.

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A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows certain data on certain products. Barcodes are represented data in the lines of different widths and spacings of parallel lines referred to as linear or 1- dimensional barcodes.

They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed 2-dimensional matrix codes. Barcodes can be read by optical scanners called barcode readers, or scanned from an image by special software.

Their use is widespread, and the technology behind barcodes is constantly improving. Some modern applications of barcodes include:

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