Current Affairs - Science

A survey by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Orbital Debris Program Office reported that more than 40 pieces of debris created by India's anti-satellite test. The debris created by the test conducted by ISRO on 27 March is still moving around in space even as the majority of the debris has disintegrated. The survey also said that 101 big pieces have been tracked and 49 continue to be in the orbit as of July 15.

The researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, Assam invented two distinct and special membranes that can separate oil and water, even under harsh conditions. This development is expected to be used in applications of oil spill management. The work is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering journal. The membranes are super-water repellent in air and super oil-repellent in water. The research was led byUttam Manna, Assistant prof. at Department of Chemistry, IIT Guwahati along with his research team Avijit Das, Dibyangana Parbat and Arpita Shome.

The Karnataka government has amended the Karnataka Poisons (Possession and Sale) Rules 2015 and notified Nictoine as "Class A poison". The step has been taken to strengthen enforcement of the ban on production and sale of electronic cigarettes. The notification has also ordered the suspension of all kinds of promotion of e-cigarettes, including online promotion. This will curb the illegal sale, smuggling of nicotine cartridges and e-cigarettes. Class A poison are "Highly toxic chemicals", which even in very small quantities as gas or vapour in the air are dangerous to life (such as cyanogen, hydrocyanic acid, nitrogen peroxide, and phosgene).

The USFDA approved a new drug called Pretomanid. It is only the third new anti-TB drug approved for use by USFDA in over 40 years. Pretomanid is part of the same class of drugs as delamanid - one of the other two TB drugs approved in the last half century, developed by pharmaceutical corporation Otsuka. The drug is used over a six-month period in concert with two other TB mediciations.

Total Solar Eclipse in July 2019 will be visible in the South Pacific Ocean and across parts of South America (parts of Chile and Argentina).