UNESCO Geo Park

• UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development.
• At present, there are 147 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 41 countries
• UNESCO Global Geoparks is given this designation for a period of four years after which the functioning and quality of each UNESCO Global Geoparks are thoroughly re-examined during a revalidation process.
• In 2018 Lonar Lake in Maharashtra and St. Mary’s Island and Malpe beach in coastal Karnataka are listed for UNESCO Global Geopark Network status.

SOFIA

• Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an aircraft with reflecting telescope, flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet.
• SOFIA is put above Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes.
• The observatory’s mobility allows researchers to observe from almost anywhere in the world and enables studies of transient events that often take place over oceans where there are no telescopes.

Hydroponics

• Plants grow through a process called photosynthesis, in which they use sunlight and a chemical inside their leaves called chlorophyll to convert carbon dioxide (a gas in the air) and water into glucose (a type of sugar) and oxygen.
• Thus technically plants don’t need soil to grow, this is the basic principle behind hydroponics.
• Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture, which uses mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent instead of soil.
• The nutrients used in hydroponic systems can come from an array of different sources, these can include byproduct from fish waste, duck manure, or purchased chemical fertilizers.

Mosquirix

• Mosquirix is the world’s first vaccine against a parasitic disease, Malaria.
• Malaria is caused by the infectious Plasmodium female Anopheles mosquitoes deposit parasite sporozoites into the skin of a human host.
• Each year there are 430,000 malaria-related deaths worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Mosquirix vaccine has been recommended by WHO for pilot introduction in selected areas of 3 African countries- Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
• African Nation, Malawi will be undertaking large scale pilot tests for this world’s most advanced experimental malaria vaccine in a bid to prevent the disease.

Garia Festival

• Garia Puja is an important festival for the Tripuri tribal community of the state.
• The Garia dance is very popular among the Tripuris and the Reangs during the festival.
• Symbolic of the worship of deities as well as of the socio-economic activities of the households, these dances represent hunting, fishing, food-gathering and various other activities.

Arab League

• Arab league is a regional organization of Arab countries in and around North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Arabia.
• The Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria are the founding members of the league.
• Since 2011, Syria’s participation has been suspended after the Syrian Civil War.

Shigellosis Vaccine

• Shigellosis is an infectious disease caused by a group of bacteria called Shigella.
• Most who are infected with Shigella develop diarrhoea, fever, and stomach cramps starting a day or two after they are exposed to the bacteria.
• India has indigenously developed the first-ever vaccine for treatment for Shigellosis.
• It is a dead vaccine, that is, it a dead germ of the bacteria causing disease would be introduced in the body so that the immune system develops immunity against it.
• The disease, at present, is largely treated through antibiotics, but considering the fact that antibiotic resistance has become a major concern, the vaccine was the need of the hour.

Dark Matter

• Around 68 per cent is filled with is dark energy which remains unknown and undetected.
• The rate of expansion of the Universe cannot be explained with the existence of ordinary matter alone.
• Only by taking dark matter and dark energy into account can this rate be explained.
• Dark matter could be made up of yet unfound particles known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP).
• Such particles will display rare radioactive reactions such as neutrino-less double beta decay, one example of which is a neutrino-less double electron capture.
• The recent observation of a neutrino double electron capture is the first step towards the neutrino-less version of the reaction.