Science and Tech Weekly Brief: All important updates from February 21-26, 2021

Listed below are all the important events that have happened over the past week in the field of Science and Technology. Know about World's first solar tent, Carbon Watch App, FASTag, toolkit case and other major updates from the Science and Tech here

Tulika Tandon Updated: Mar 2, 2022 17:07 IST

Science and Tech Weekly Brief

Science and Technology finds something new every week. This subject is essential from UPSC, SSC and other competitive exams point of view also. Take a look below at the summarized version of all the important Science and Tech news brought to you by Jagran Josh.

World’s first Solar Tent: Explained

Due to Chinese Infiltration and Indian army's regular watch in below zero degree areas, the world's first solar tent was gifted to the Indian army by Sonam Wangchuk.

Features of the tent:

It could seat 10 Jawans at a time.
The tent would be portable and is heated by solar energy
The front end of the tent is called the Greenhouse section. This section uses solar energy to be heated
The rear end has a sleeping chamber in which the soldiers can sleep and it remains warm during nights despite the cold waves
There is also a solar lounge on the front where the soldiers can find sitting arrangements for the daytime
It is covered by a windcheater to avoid winds from entering the tent and making it lose heat.

Working of the Solar Tent

The sun rays enter from the South of the tent to heat the walls built in the front chamber. This wall is made of polycarbonate and this traps the sun rays in the chamber.
The sleeping chamber is surrounded by an insulator too so that the heat does not leave the tent.
The north of the tent is the sleeping chamber. It is surrounded by insulator bags like those in sleeping bags.
The tent is made round shaped from the top so as to avoid the loss of heat due to surface area.

The Solar tent would be a benefit as it would save burning of 3 lakh tonnes of kerosine by the Indian Army to stay warm in the chilling and freezing conditions of Himalayas.

What is a Toolkit?

A toolkit is a set of adaptable guidelines or suggestions to do something.
The contents differ depending on each toolkit’s aim.
It includes basic features like guidelines to follow when investigating IPR violations, applicable laws, and definitions of terms such as counterfeit and piracy.
Various toolkits have been around for years, but now due to the accessibility of social media, they have come into the spotlight.
In other words, a toolkit is like a document key to digital-era protests. It can be considered equivalent to pamphlets and fliers that are used by the protestors on the streets.

What is a FASTag and how does it work?

FASTag is an electronic toll collection chip that is being used for national highways toll collection in India now-a-days.
It has been made mandatory for all the vehicles on National Highways specially and the Government wishes to make highways cashfree in the coming months.
FASTag is a sticker that is to be pasted on the windscreen of the car. The tag communicates with scanners at toll plazas.
It uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
Whenever the car on which a FASTag is pasted, crosses the toll plaza, the amount to be paid as toll tax for the journey gets automatically deducted from the bank account of the user.
On deduction of the amount, the owner gets an SMS alert. The alert is like money getting debited from accounts or wallets.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through its subsidiary Indian Highway Management Company Limited (IHMCL) sells and operates FASTag.

What is Carbon Watch?

Carbon Watch is a mobile application used to assess the carbon footprint generated by any individual.

In case someone downloads the App, he /she may have to fill in the details in four parts:

Water
Energy
Waste Generation
Transport

The users would have to enter the data like the consumption of water on their behalf, the energy consumed every month in their houses, the monthly bills, the waste generated by their family and the mode of transport used by them.

Science and Tech Weekly Brief: Summarized topics

Here are a few important topics that need a brush up in your memory lane.

Topic	Explanation/ Definition
Stethoscope	It is an acoustic medical device used for listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body. It is the most commonly used medical device.
Carbon Footprint	A carbon footprint is the measure if the impact created by people's activities on the amount of CO2 generated by buring of fossil fuels. It is expressed in terms of weight of carbon dioxide in tonnes.
RFID	RFID is an acronym for radio-frequency identification. It is a technology where digital data is encoded in RFID tags or smart labels and is captured by a reader via radio waves.
Digital Intelligence Unit	The government is planning to set up a nodal agency called Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) to work with law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, and telecom service providers for investigating fraudulent activities involving telecom resources.