Science and Tech Weekly Brief: Important updates from April 3-9, 2021

Here all the science and technology events that took place in the previous week by going through the article listed below. Science and Tech Weekly Brief brought to you by Jagran Josh discusses all the important topics of the field which may be essential for the exams. 

Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector:

Key Facts:

1. Baikal-GVD’s (Gigaton Volume Detector) construction began in the year 2015
2. Its objective is to study the neutrinos in detail to find their source or origin
3. It is being constructed in collaboration with 9 institutions and organizations from 4 countries namely Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia.
4. It is submerged at the depths of 2,500-4,300 feet in the southern part of the lake.
5. The lake has a flat bottom and transparent waters which is why the GVD is situated there.
6. Baikal-GVD consists of a set of clusters, where each cluster can be used to independently detect high-energy neutrinos.
7. Glass spheres containing photomultiplier tubes that detect light are placed in the lake. These are made of string, glass spheres and stainless steel. The kind of light produced is called Cherenkov light. 
8. The Baikal Underwater Telescope (GVD) would detect high energy neutrinos that may have come from Earth's Core or those that could have been produced by the sun. 

What are Neutrinos?

1. These are those basic parts of the universe that are indivisible. 
2. Neutrinos are subatomic particles similar to electrons but lack an electrical charge.  
3. It has a very small mass that may be zero. These are not easy to detect. 
4. These belong to the lepton category. 

What is the Large Hadron Collider?

1. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator of the world.
2. It’s mechanism first started on 10th September 2008, and it remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex.
3. The LHC has a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with many accelerating structures.
4. These boost the energy of the particles along the way.

What happens in the accelerator?

1. Two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light and then are made to collide. 
2. These beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes. 
3. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a high power magnetic field which is maintained by superconducting electromagnets. 
4. The electromagnets are made of coils of special electric cable operating in a superconducting state, conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy. 
5. This needs cooling the magnets to ‑271.3°C which is at a temperature colder than outer space.
6. The accelerator is connected to a distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the magnets

Deepfake Technology:

1. Deepfake constitutes content that is fake in the form of media like videos and forms like pictures or audios. 
2. They are created using artificial intelligence where data is fed on a computer to find a new face. 
3. Generative Adversarial Networks or GAN is the technology that is used to create deepfake. It uses two AI algorithms from which one generates fake content and other grades the efforts teaching the system to be better. 
4. GAN comes up with new faces of humans. These are available on the website 'www.thispersondoesnotexist.com'
5. Facts can be easily obfuscated and lies can easily be spread based on manipulated content produced by Deepfake which may bring global unrest. 

Science and Tech Weekly Brief: Summary

Take a look at the important topics that need revision from the field. 

Take a look at the science and technology weekly brief of previous week here