Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment:

100 years — Amundsen's dash to immortality

• This day (December 14) 100 years ago, Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the geographical South Pole — the southernmost tip of the Earth.
• The British team led by Robert Scott managed to arrive at the South Pole only on January 17, 1912, 33 days after Amundsen had hoisted the Norwegian flag.
• “There has been nothing to eat for the past three days. Now, I am not even able to write. End is not far. For God's sake, take care of our families.” This was Scott's diary entry on March 29, 2012. Their bodies were discovered eight months later.
• The reason why Amundsen reached the Pole earlier than Scott is not difficult to figure out. Their goal was the same, but their priorities were vastly different.
• Amundsen was focussed, planned meticulously, and was fully geared for the challenge. Unlike Scott, the Norwegian had a team that had no scientists. Instead there were two expert dog-handlers
• Scott took more ponies than dogs, Amundsen had special dogs to pull the sledges.
• The Norwegians used hermetically sealed cans to store fuel. The British team used washers, which failed in extreme cold.
• Unaware to themselves, the fresh seal and penguin meat that they ate helped keep vitamin C deficiency at bay.
  

Blaming China and U.S., Canada says quitting Kyoto

• Canada this week set a dangerous precedent that could unravel global progress towards mitigating climate change, when it said that it had decided to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol.
• The Kyoto Protocol does not cover the world's two largest emitters, the United States and China, and therefore cannot work
• Protocol originally covered countries generating less than 30 per cent of global emissions and now it covered less than only 13 per cent and that number was only shrinking.
• The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997, is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, aimed at fighting global warming by stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
• Canada's withdrawal comes at a time when it has increasingly gained the reputation of a climate “renegade” that has encouraged the rampant use of polluting energy platforms.
• For example, oil sands production, one of the most polluting forms of oil extraction, is at the heart of Canada's discussion with the U.S. regarding the now-infamous Keystone Pipeline.
• Clearly, the impact of the global recession is also an unspoken factor in Canada's calculus.

For now, the Higgs Boson exists only in theory

• Physicists said on Tuesday they had narrowed the search for the elusive sub-atomic Higgs Boson particle that would confirm the way science describes the Universe.
• Higgs Boson,” also known as the God Particle
• European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• The Higgs Boson is the missing link is the so-called Standard Model of physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of all matter fit together.
• Such a discovery would rank in importance with major breakthroughs of the last century

Pentavalent vaccine to be introduced today

• Dismissing reports of the deaths of children after administration of pentavalent vaccine in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Pakistan as unrelated, the Centre will introduce this vaccine as part of the routine immunisation programme in Kerala
• The vaccine that will prevent children from five life-threatening diseases will be introduced in Tamil Nadu on December 17.
• The vaccine will protect children from Diphtheria, Pertussis, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae Hib disease which is an addition to the routine immunisation programme in the country.
• At present, there are 170 countries using the pentavalent vaccine of the 193 World Health Organisation member states.
• Goa has been administering the vaccine from the State budget since 2008, initially introduced in selected blocks covered the entire State in 2011.
• Introduction of Hib vaccination as a combination vaccine carries the added advantage of reducing the number of injections given to a child from nine (three each for DPT, Hepatitis B and Hib) to three.
• It is estimated that 40 per cent of all under-five mortality in India is attributed to pneumonia, meningitis and diarrhoeas.
• Based on the recommendations of WHO and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), the pentavalent vaccine will be introduced in these two States with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation GAVI and will be provided free vaccine for three years following which the Centre will take over the programme.

Sukhoi-30 crashes, pilots eject safely

• A Sukhoi-30 (Su-30)-MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed just after landing while on a routine mission
• Both pilots managed to eject safely seconds before the crash, after which the aircraft caught fire.
• An enquiry has been ordered into the incident. The search for the black box is now on. The reason for the crash is still unknown
• The pilots reportedly lost contact with the base after a technical problem.
• This is the third crash of the Russian origin Su-30 fighter planes since they were inducted into the IAF in 1997.Two Su-30s crashed in 2009.

YETI brings together over 300 young ecologists on a single platform

• Young Ecologists Talk and Interact (YETI), the largest student-organised academic conference on ecology and conservation, brought together over 300 students and researchers on a single platform at IIT-Guwahati here on Tuesday for three-day-long deliberations on latest biodiversity and conservation issues.
• This year's YETI is being organised in the northeast for the first time primarily to focus upon the unique yet understudied rich biodiversity of the region

Juveniles used to transport endangered marine species

• Forest officials encountered a disturbing trend of employing boys in their teens to transport smuggled consignments of sea cucumber, an endangered marine species.
• After registering cases, the boys have been sent to juvenile homes.
• All the cases were detected in Rameswaram and the marine species were collected from the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve
• Sea cucumbers are marine life found in Coral reef colonies. In Southeast Asian countries they are delicacies. There is a great demand for marine organisms due to which they are poached from the coral reef areas and illegally exported.
• A senior Wildlife officer said various factors led to the employing of juveniles into the smuggling trade. Juveniles would not raise suspicion of officials. Also, it would be easier to handle them. Due to lack of alternative employment sources, the youth get lured into the trade
• There is a great mis-match between the sources available for the Department in terms of man power, speed boats, combat training in a marine environment and the challenges faced by them in protecting the marine eco-system.
• Motivating the anti-poaching watchers by regularising their employment, providing adequate training to the field staff such as Range Officers, Foresters, Guards and watchers and better enforcement of legal provisions against smugglers would only help in bringing down the cases of smuggling of marine wealth

Nod for export of endosulfan formulation

• The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, allowed export of unused stock of formulation of endosulfan insecticide while retaining the complete ban on its production, sale and use in the country.
• The court had, on May 13, imposed a complete ban on production, sale, and use of the pesticide holding that human life was more important than anything else, and it did not want even a single child to suffer.

Record for most institutional deliveries

• The Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh has recorded 94.17 per cent of all deliveries having taken place in State-run hospitals and other health institutions.
• The rate of overall institutional deliveries in the entire State has gone up to 70.09 per cent and is likely to go up to 75 percent by March 31, 2012.
• the government has started a mobile tracking scheme for pregnant mothers to ensure hundred per cent institutional deliveries and to check female foeticide in rural areas.
• More than 90 per cent of institutional deliveries are being done in government hospitals unlike in other developed States
• The ambulance service with its 108 modern medical vans was started last year on the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee