Current Affair 1:

Bonn framework on chemicals and waste

 

The Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) concluded recently in Bonn, Germany, with the adoption of a comprehensive global framework that sets concrete targets and guidelines for key sectors across the entire lifecycle of chemicals.

Based around 28 targets, the framework outlines a roadmap for countries and stakeholders to collaboratively address the lifecycle of chemicals, including products and waste.

The newly adopted framework calls for the prevention of the illegal trade and trafficking of chemicals and waste, the implementation of national legal frameworks, and the phase out by 2035 of highly hazardous pesticides in agriculture.

A UNEP-administered Global Framework on Chemicals Fund will be set up, time-limited, that may include multilateral, bilateral and private sector sources.CA4. Damselfly species named after climate impact on insects.

In addition to the Global Framework on Chemicals, ICCM5 participants adopted the Bonn Declaration, in which they committed to “prevent exposure to harmful chemicals, and phase out the most harmful ones, where appropriate, and enhance the safe management of such chemicals where they are needed”.

Current Affair 2:

Nobel Prize in Physics 2023

 

News:

The 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by three scientists—Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier—for their “experimental methods that generate attosecond (An attosecond if a billionth of a billionth of a second) pulses for the study of electron dynamics in matter.”

The laureates have been awarded the Prize for experiments that have allowed scientists to produce ultra-short pulses of light, with which they can finally ‘see’ directly into the super-fast world of electrons.

Why electrons weren’t ‘seen’ before

Electrons are the negatively charged particles of an atom. They zoom around the denser nucleus. Before being able to study them directly, scientists understood their properties through averages.

It’s like taking a picture of a race car. The longer the aperture of the camera is open, the blurrier the picture gets. But if the exposure time is small, only a small amount of light reaches the camera’s sensors, yielding a sharper image. The shorter the exposure time, the sharper the image.

Similarly, the rapid movement of electrons would seem to blur together in the eyes of a camera that couldn’t lower its exposure time to the order of attoseconds.

How fast is electron dynamics?

The movement of an atom in a molecule can be studied with the very shortest pulses produced by a laser. These movements and changes in the atoms occur on the order of femtoseconds—a millionth of a billionth of a second. But electrons are lighter and interact faster, in the attosecond realm. An attosecond if a billionth of a billionth of a second.

How is an attosecond pulse created?

Physicists found that the overtones emitted were in the form of ultraviolet light. As multiple overtones were created in the gas, they began to interact with each other. When the peak of one overtone merges with the peak of another, they produce an overtone of greater intensity, through constructive interference. But when the peak of an overtone merges with the trough of another, they cancel each other out, in destructive interference.

By fine-tuning the setup used to produce the overtones, scientists realised that it should be possible to create intense pulses of light each a few attoseconds long (due to constructive interference), with destructive interference ensuring that they didn’t last for longer.

What are the applications of attosecond physics?

Attosecond pulses allow scientists to capture ‘images’ of activities that happen in incredibly short time spans. As a result, scientists can use such pulses to explore short-lived atomic and molecular processes implicated in fields like materials science, electronics, and catalysis.

For medical diagnostics, attosecond pulses can be used to check for the presence of certain molecules based on their fleeting signatures. These pulses could also be used to develop faster electronic devices, and better telecommunications, imaging, and spectroscopy.

Current Affair 3:

World Road Congresses

 

News:

The first World Road Congress held in Paris in 1908.

It is organized at every four years in a member country a World Road Congress with the aim to share techniques and experiences worldwide in the field of road infrastructures and road transport.

Stockholm Declaration:

It was adopted at 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.

Building on the Moscow Declaration of 2009 and the Brasilia Declaration of 2015, Stockholm Declaration.

Current Affair 4:

Newly discovered species

 

1. Damselfly:

Damselfly species found in Western Ghats named after climate impact on insects

News:

A new damselfly species has been discovered in Kerala’s southern Western Ghats.

Researchers from MIT-World Peace University in Pune named the insect ‘Armageddon reedtail’ or protosticta armageddonia, to draw attention to the global decline of insect populations due to rampant habitat loss and climate change.

The term ‘ecological armageddon’ is used to describe the devastating decline of insect populations around the world. This phenomenon, also called insect apocalypse, affects entire ecosystems because insects pollinate, cycle nutrients and provide food for other animals.

2. Badis limaakumi:

News:

Scientists have recently discovered a new fish species from the Milak river, Nagaland. The newly discovered species Badis limaakumi has been named after Limaakum, assistant professor and head of the zoology department at Fazl Ali College, Nagaland.

 

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