8th Oct Daily current affairs for UPSC Civil Service Exam

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• Three Americans won the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their discoveries about the biological clock.
• They have isolated a gene that controls the body’s normal daily circadian rhythm.
• Biological clocks produce circadian rhythms and regulate their timing.
• Circadian rhythm regulates the periods of tiredness and wakefulness during the 24-hour cycle in synchronizes with earth’s rotation.
• It adapts the workings of the body to different phases of the day.
• It influences sleep, behavior, hormone levels, body temperature and metabolism.
• The body responds primarily to light and darkness and is found in all living things viz plants, animals (including microbes) and human beings.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

• It was awarded for the development of technique called “cryo-electron microscopy” which helps in determining the structure of biomolecules in solution.
• It takes accurate and detailed pictures of living things at atomic scales.
• The high-resolution, 3D images can help in cancer drug research and better understanding of the Zika virus.

Nobel Prize in Physics

• It was awarded for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.
• Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time released by violent events such as mergers of black holes,
• The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is the scientific project that made gravitational wave detection possible.
• There are two LIGO detectors in USA (Louisiana and Washington), one in Italy (Virgo) and one planned in India (INDIGO) and in Japan (KAGRA).

Nobel Peace Prize

• It was awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
• It was given for its efforts to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.
• ICAN is a Geneva-based coalition of non-governmental organisations from over 100 countries around the globe.
• It began in Australia and was officially launched in Vienna in 2007.
• It has been the leading civil society actor in the effort to achieve a prohibition of nuclear weapons under international law.

Embryo Transfer Technology

• Government has undertaken a Mass Embryo Transfer programme in Indigenous Breeds under National Mission on Bovine Productivity.
• Embryo transfer refers to a step in the process of assisted reproduction in which embryos are placed into the uterus of a female with the intent to establish a pregnancy.
• It is implemented with the objective of conservation and development of indigenous breeds under Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
• Under this programme, embryos of higher genetic merit indigenous bovines are being transferred in to surrogate cows.
• Embryos of Indigenous breeds such as Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Ongole, Deoni and Vechur have been proposed to be transferred under this programme.

Source: PIB, The Hindu.