Category: Tech

Kerala has become the first state in the country to have its own internet service provider, Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON).

Speaking at the inauguration of the KFON project on June 5, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state is the first in India to declare the internet as a right of the citizens.

A public sector initiative, KFON will initially provide internet access to 100 houses in each assembly constituency of Kerala. It aims to end the digital divide by ensuring internet access for all. It has installed IT infrastructure to set up 40 lakh internet connections across the state.

Consumers can access internet services at a speed from 20 mbps onwards based on their requirements. At present, KFON has been installed at 26,492 government offices, of which 17,354 offices have live internet access. Internet connectivity will be made available to all government offices by the end of June. At present, it has more than 1,000 household subscribers; installation of cables for over 7,000 connections has been completed.

With the completion of the initial phase of the project by August 2023, KFON will be expanded to commercial connections. In the first year, 2.5 lakh commercial connections will be provided. The commercial business will facilitate the profitability of the project.

Scientists at Nasa are testing a new technology that can predict a tsunami with the help of disturbances they create in the Earth’s atmosphere.

According to Nasa, the new technology called Guardian (GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network) is a hazard-monitoring technology.  It uses data from GPS and other satellites to detect real-time positional accuracy down to a few inches, said the scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of Nasa.

The technology is also being tested by Nasa’s team of researchers in the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean. It is an area where about 78 percent of more than 750 confirmed tsunamis occurred between 1900 and 2015.

Tsunamis are powerful ocean waves caused by underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or landslides. The new system is under development to boost early warning systems by sifting the signals for clues that a tsunami has arisen somewhere on Earth. On the occurrence of a tsunami, the system monitors the displaced air and the charged particles that collide with the ionosphere.

A wide area of water surface may rise and sink almost concurrently during a tsunami, displacing a considerable amount of air above it, say the researchers. As it moves outward, the displaced air crashes into the atmosphere, sending low-frequency sound and gravitational waves in all directions. The ensuing collision of charged particles and pressure waves might distort the signals from navigational satellites nearby, and so can be used as a lifesaving alarm bell.

The James Webb Space Telescope of NASA has captured a picture showing over 45,000 galaxies in a single frame. The image was captured as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program.

The world’s most powerful observatory scanned a patch of sky and came across a star factory packed with galaxies. The image shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, previously observed by the Hubble telescope as well.

The JADES program will devote about 32 days of telescope time to uncover and characterise faint, far-off galaxies as astronomers try to understand the formation of first stars and galaxies. The team investigated galaxies that existed 500 to 850 million years after the Big Bang when the region was filled with a gaseous fog that made it opaque to energetic light. This fog cleared about a billion years later, making the universe transparent.

Astronomers used Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument to look for signatures of star formation in that early period of the universe. The team also discovered that these early galaxies experienced periods of rapid star formation together with quiet periods where fewer stars formed.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have identified factors influencing the probability of extreme rain events and developed a tool that can improve the forecasting of such events.

Extreme rain events, principally those that lead to flash floods in the south and east of Israel in spring and fall are specifically difficult to forecast even a short while in advance. In April 2018, a flash flood had killed 10 students from an army preparatory program while they hiked in Nahal Tzafit, a riverbed in the Judean Desert close to the Dead Sea.

The new research – led by Dr Assaf Hochman and doctoral student Tair Plotnik at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University – determined the factors that impact scientists’ ability to predict extreme rain events that are linked to an “active” Red Sea Trough. The team used an extensive database belonging to the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts to examine all extreme rain events since 1979 and classify them into hard-to-forecast and easy-to-forecast categories. It found that one of the factors preventing optimal forecasting is the simultaneous entry into Israel of air masses from the south and from the north, because of their considerably varying characteristics.

Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have learned to fry food in space. In a new study, they have found that frying works even in the microgravity experienced in space.

Experimenting with frying food in space for a while, the ESA scientists recently conducted a study in microgravity conditions at a height of 2,000 feet to test if potatoes can be fried in space where there is no gravity to create buoyancy. During the experiment, they found that vapour bubbles still formed on the potatoes’ surface, allowing the hot oil to fry them.

The scientists have clarified that without buoyancy, the bubbles would not be drawn upward and hold on to the surface of the potato. As a result, the potato would be undercooked and “undesirable” and a film of steam would form around it.

Once the technology is completely developed, astronauts may eat like people on Earth do, including fried foods. Besides nutrition and comfort, studying the process of frying in space could also lead to advancements in various fields, from traditional boiling to producing hydrogen from solar energy in microgravity, believe the researchers.

The research is documented in a paper published in the journal Food Research International.

Oncologists from the University of Oxford tested the Galleri blood test, which can detect 50 types of cancer. A product of US firm Grail, the test was tested in an NHS trial on more than 5,000 people. The experimental blood test will now be introduced to more people next year, said the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

In the NHS trial, the test could correctly reveal two out of every three cancers among 5,000 people who had visited their doctors with suspected symptoms in England or Wales. It could also identify the original site of cancer in 85 percent of the positive cases. The test remains a work in progress, as it is not accurate enough to rule out cancer.

The test found that 75 percent of the subjects testing positive on the blood test were found to have cancer, and 2.5 percent of those testing negative were found to have cancer. More than 350 of those in the study – the biggest of its kind in patients with suspected cancer symptoms – were subsequently diagnosed with cancer, using traditional methods such as scans and biopsies.

The Galleri test works by looking for chemical changes in fragments of genetic code. i.e., cell-free DNA (cfDNA) that leaks from tumours into the bloodstream. Some cancer tumours are known to shed DNA into the blood much before a person begins to experience symptoms. The test does not detect all cancers, and so has not replaced NHS screening programmes for breast, cervical, bowel, and other cancers.

Transmission tower manufacturer KEC International has got two orders for Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), also known as the Kavach System, worth Rs 600 crore, said MD and CEO Vimal Kejriwal in an interview on June 6.

The KEC orders come after the recent tragic three-train collision in Balasore, Odisha, which has brought attention to the implementation of TCAS systems. The accident claimed 288 lives and injured around 1,000. It was reported that the route did not have Kavach.

Kavach is currently installed on a limited percentage of trains, estimated to be around 5-7 percent of the entire fleet. With about 20,000 trains in operation, the potential market size for train collision avoidance systems in India is considerable.

Kavach was developed by Railway Ministry’s Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), in collaboration with Medha Servo Drives, HBL Power Systems, and Kernex Microsystems. It was brought under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative in the 2022 Union Budget. KEC International has entered into a strategic partnership with Kernex Microsystems to augment expertise and increase reach. The tie-up aims to use the combined strengths of both the companies to provide cutting-edge Kavach systems.

KAVACH not only aids Loco Pilot to avoid Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) and over-speeding, but also helps in running trains during inclement weather such as dense fog, enhancing safety and efficiency of train operations.

Under a new partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), telcos in Singapore will soon revamp existing fibre networks to fend off attacks by quantum computers in the future.

Quantum computers, or the next generation of computers, use the properties of light to solve problems too complex for traditional computers. Observers believe this will lead to new breakthroughs in medicine, materials and better artificial intelligence. However, the systems can also be used to crack passwords and encryption technology in seconds, creating risks for hospitals, banks and organisations providing essential services to people.

The new nationwide network will ensure that prime institutions are prepared for such threats within the next decade by building a quantum-resistant network. The network, which will also be the region’s first such system, will do this through quantum key distribution, a new type of digital encryption, which exchanges secret keys to access data between intended users. These keys cannot be cracked as any attempt to intercept it will disrupt transmission, introducing errors. The telcos’ networks will be interoperable, allowing users to communicate seamlessly, said IMDA.

Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Heng Swee Keat announced the launch of the network during the Asia Tech x Singapore conference on June 6. When ready, Singapore’s quantum-safe networks will be integrated with other cities worldwide, ensuring data shared across borders is safe, said IMDA, which signed an agreement with South Korea on the same day to collaborate in this field.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled an intermediate range ballistic missile on June 6 that is capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds of up to 15 times the speed of sound, said a state television report. The range of the Fattah missile is 1,400 kilometres.

President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi hailed the new missile’s hypersonic capability, saying it would boost the country’s “power of deterrence” and “bring peace and stability to the countries of the region.”

The official IRNA news agency published photographs of the ceremony in a closed area. Several top military commanders were present at the launch, including Guards chief General Hossein Salami.

Like slower ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads. Unlike conventional ballistic missiles, hypersonic ones fly on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, enabling them to reach their targets more quickly and with less chance of being intercepted by modern air defences.

Last year, when the programme was announced, Guards aerospace chief General Amirali Hajizadeh said the system was developed to counter air defence shields. He added he believed it would take decades before a system capable of intercepting it is developed.

The Indian Navy is participating in a commemorative event to mark 130 years of the beginning of the struggle against apartheid at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station near Durban. INS Trishul, a frontline warship of the Indian Navy, is in Durban till June 9, to commemorate the anniversary of the June 7, 1893 incident and 30 years of re-establishment of diplomatic relations between India and South Africa.

The event at Pietermaritzburg Railway includes paying floral tributes at the plinth of Mahatma Gandhi and a performance by the Indian Navy band. The ship will also participate in other professional and social engagements during the visit.

Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Durban, South Africa, in 1893 to serve as legal counsel to a merchant. On June 7, 1893, on his way to Pretoria in the Transvaal, he arrived at Pietermaritzburg station. Gandhiji, who was seated in the first-class compartment after buying a ticket, was evicted from the compartment at the will of a European, who said coolies and non-whites were not permitted in first-class compartments. The incident is believed to be the trigger that led to Mahatma’s fight against racial oppression and the birth of Satyagraha.