CURRENT AFFAIRS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2012

CURRENT AFFAIRS 2012 SCIENCE AND TECH

JANUARY

• The prestigious 99th Indian Science Congress was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at KIIT University Bhuwaneswar, Odisa. Noted scientist Geetha Bali, vice chancellor of Karnataka State Women's University, will preside over the event, being held on the theme of 'Science and Technology for Inclusive Innovation - Role of Women'. KIIT University and National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) are jointly hosting the event, which will also feature the Children’s Science Congress and Women Science Congress. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam will inaugurate the Children’s Science Congress, while Nirupama Rao, India’s ambassador to United States of America, will inaugurate the Women’s Science Congress. Prime Minister announced that 2010-20 decade would be declared as‘Decade of Innovation”. 
• President Pratibha Patil visited the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on 2 January 2012 and inaugurated the new Mission Control Centre. The new centre has been developed with state-of-the-art facilities to meet the requirements for the launch of the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III and future missions of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).The President on this occasion also presented ISRO awards for the year 2008 and 2009.The lifetime achievement award for contribution to the Indian space programme was conferred on former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan.

FEBRAUARY

• Researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian centre for Astrophysics discovered that the planet GJ1214b was largely covered in water. They used Hubble Space Telescope to discover the water on planet. GJ1214b was discovered in 2009 by the ground-based MEarth Project. GJ1214b was described as a super-Earth. 
• India's indigenously developed micro-light pilot-less target aircraft(PTA) Lakshya-1was successfully test flown from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore on 8 February 2012. Lakshya , a sub-sonic, re-usable aerial target system is remote controlled from the ground and designed to impart training to both air borne and air defence pilots. The PTA has been developed by India’s Aeronautic Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore to perform discreet aerial reconnaissance of battle field and target acquisition. 
• A new study claimed that the theory proposed by Charles Darwin on life's origin was correct. Darwin proposed that the life originated on land in a pond and not in the oceans. The study held by the researchers at the Osnabruck university in Germany found that the first primitive cells might have originated in pools of condensed vapour. This was caused by underground hot water.The scientists discovered that the oceans did not contain the best balance of ingredients to support life.
• DRDO on 10 February 2012 conducted a successful test launch of the interceptor missile. DRDO’s Air Defence Missile AAD-05 successfully hit the ballistic missile and destroyed it at a height of 15 kms off the Coast of Orissa near the Wheelers Island. 
• Astronomers found the fourth habitable planet outside our solar system called GJ667C. The planet is 22 light years from Earth. The newly found planet is rocky in nature. It orbits its star every 28.15 days.