The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.– Michelangelo
ORANGE COLOUR: Important for Prelims.
RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !
BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.
PINK COLOUR: Reports/Themes/Summits.
Page Contents:
7th Oct Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020
Today's Must Read Articles :Kamchatka beach
HEADLINES:
‘Eco disaster’ unfolding on Kamchatka beach
WHY IN NEWS:
Straight from DownToEarth
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Oil spill
ISSUE:
ECOLOGICAL DISASTER UNFOLDED
The largest town in Kamchatka reported of burning eyes, throat ache, headache, fever and a fear of losing eyesight on emerging from the water.
- Then, sea animals begin to die in large numbers, their bodies littering the beach.
- These included octopuses, seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish.
- Another theory being speculated is that ships carrying oil in the vicinity had leaked it into the sea water.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The river displayed a yellow colour.
- There is a training camp of the Russian military upstream.
SOURCES:DownToEarth | 7th Oct Current Affairs News Analysis
Microplastics : Threat to marine environment
HEADLINES:
Microplastics again: Report flags threat to marine environment along Kanyakumari coast
WHY IN NEWS:
Microplastics are among major pollutants of the marine environment along the Kanyakumari coast.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Conservation of Biodiversity
ISSUE:
MICROPLASTICS AT KANYAKUMARI
STUDIED BY
- The Department of Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University.
- The study covered eight different sampling stations along a 71 kilometre coastline comprising both urbanised beaches and undisturbed coastal areas along the Indian Ocean.
- It yielded baseline data that helped understand occurrence and distribution of microplastics in near-shore sediments.
- Such tiny particles — less than 5 millimetres — are transported and evaluate their interaction with the region’s marine ecosystem.
- Primary and secondary microplastics are found in coastal environments all over the world.
- They are much more hazardous than larget plastic particles as they get into all levels of marine food webs.
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
- Researchers found an overall higher abundance of microplastics at urbanised beaches due to significant human influence.
- While tourist beaches had high levels, remote beaches and fishing ports also had large volumes of such debris, affecting the marine food web.
- Harbour beaches with 99 particles (28.5 per cent) and coastal stretches along the undisturbed areas with 15 particles (4.3 per cent).
- These items also likely to contain fibres from clothing and other synthetic textiles .
- Scientists tracked microplastics samples from different beach sediments, the average of which is found to be up to 43 particles per 50 g dry sediments.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- New research would help to identify mechanisms that influence their transport and deposition in the coastal sediments as well as evaluate the possible interaction between microplastic particles and marine ecosystems.
- The authors urged policymakers and consumers to take proactive actions focusing on measures that can stop the plastics from intruding and polluting the ocean.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 7th Oct Current Affairs News Analysis
LEDs emitting high-quality white light
HEADLINES:
Scientists at CeNS find new insights into LEDs emitting high-quality white light
WHY IN NEWS:
Scientists in their search for methods to produce high-quality white light have unearthed crucial reaction insights that can help design white LEDs.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Science and Technology
ISSUE:
RESEARCHERS
Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) is an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
HIGH-QUALITY WHITE LIGHT : LED
- It is a very odd behaviour of the nanocrystals prevented them from keeping that promise.
- The capability of white light emission rests in the fact that the emission from these crystals can be easily tuned over the entire visible spectrum by varying their halide compositions.
- However, they failed to emit white light due to an interparticle mixing between the nanocrystals that resulted in a single emission.
- So, once the crystals give a single emission, they miss the chance of creation of white light.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The findings from the present work were recently published in the journal ‘Nanoscale’.
- The understanding of this reaction kinetics will help in developing strategies to prevent interparticle mixing,
- and the team is pursuing research to create LED that produce good quality white light.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 7th Oct Current Affairs News Analysis
Afghans fear return of Taliban
HEADLINES:
As peace talks continue, Afghans fear return of Taliban
WHY IN NEWS:
With U.S. planning to withdraw, people worry Taliban has changed little since darkest days of its regime
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 2 : IR
ISSUE:
AFGHAN PEACE TALKS
- The invasion that followed those October 7, 2001 strikes quickly toppled the militants, who had harboured the Al-Qaeda, the group behind the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in America just weeks earlier.
- 19 years since the collapse of their brutal Islamist regime, the Taliban is pushing for a return to power.
- Having signed a landmark troop withdrawal deal with Washington in February and currently holding peace talks with the Afghan government.
- Fearful that the Taliban has changed little since the darkest days of its regime — when it killed women accused of adultery, attacked minority religious groups and barred girls from going to school .
- Kabul’s streets are following amputations for petty crimes under the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Sharia law.
IASbhai WINDUP:
ENDURING IMPROVEMENTS
- The 2001 invasion heralded some enduring improvements for young Afghans — particularly girls — and ushered in a Constitution guaranteeing certain freedoms, including the right to education.
- But so far in peace talks in Doha, which started last month, the Taliban has said little about issues such as women’s rights or freedom of expression.
- The hardline group and Washington shows the militants have not changed.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 7th Oct Current Affairs News Analysis
DISCOVER MORE : Important Daily Current Affairs for UPSC PRELIMS 2020
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