Science and Tech Weekly Brief: Important updates from March 13-19, 2021

Science and Technology holds a lot of importance in various competitive exams like UPSC Civil Services, SSC CGL, CHSL and various other Government sector exams. Know all details in brief about vaccination, sounding rockets, API and much more below. 

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient

It is an active part of a drug that is responsible for producing the intended effects to be provided by the drug. 

In the medicine one can find two ingredients:

1. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient(API)
2. Chemically Active Excipients (CE)

The API market is heavily dominated by China because of the cost and technology advantages. India however failed to address those challenges.

Vaccination: Process and benefits

1. The National Vaccination Day is also known as the National Immunisation Day observed on 16 March. According to the Union Health Ministry's provisional report, more than 2.99 crore people have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in India so far. 
2. The vaccine is a chemical/drug that uses natural defenses of the body to build resistance to specific infections. It makes the immune system stronger. 
3. It helps the immune system of the body to create antibodies just as it does when it is exposed to a disease.
4. It is a safe and effective way to protect people against harmful diseases, before they come in contact with them.
5. Vaccine is made of only killed or weakened forms of germs such as viruses or bacterias so that they cannot cause the disease or risk the individual of various complications. 

Administration of vaccine:

1. Oral drops
2. Injectables

Steps followed by vaccine to protect the immune system:

1. Vaccine notices the invading germ like the virus or bacteria. 
2. Produces antibodies- These are proteins produced naturally by the immune system to fight disease. 
3. Remember the disease and how to fight it- Any person exposed to a germ in the future then the immune system will quickly destroy it before becoming unwell.

So, a vaccine is safe way to produce an immune response in the body without causing illness. 

What are Sounding Rockets:

1. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently launched a sounding rocket called  RH-560. It has been launched to study attitudinal variations in the neutral winds and plasma dynamics.
2. The sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used to study upper atmospheric regions and for space research. 
3. They serve as easily affordable platforms that test prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites. 
4. Sounding rockets generally stay between 40 km and 160 kilometres in the atmosphere. 
5. ISRO began with the launch of indigenously built sounding rockets from 1965.
6. In 1975, all sounding rocket activities were cluttered under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme. 

What is Genome Mapping?

Genome: The entire set of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses) of an organism is called genome

Genome Mapping: A genome map highlights the key 'landmarks' in an organism's genome. It identifies and records the location of genes and the distances between genes on a chromosome.

Genome mapping is of two types:

Linkage Mapping: This kind of mapping observes the arrangement of genes and genetic markers along the chromosomes calculated by the frequency at which they are inherited together.

Physical Mapping: This type represents chromosomes and provides physical distances between chromosomal landmarks mainly measured in nucleotide bases.

Science and Tech Weekly Brief: In Short

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