Important Science and Technology Current Affairs 2019! News related to S&T from January to December 2019. Questions on recent Science and Technology update is common in Government exams like State PSC, SSC, Banking, etc. Downloadable PDF is available at the end of the article.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CURRENT AFFAIRS
- Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have developed a simple paper kit that can test the freshness of milk and tell how well it has been pasteurized.
- US scientists successfully launched a telescope from Antarctica that analyses X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes.
- Indian Air Force AN-32 transport aircraft landed on the Sikkim’s first airport and one of the highest air-field of the country, Pakyong Airport.
- Lunar rover Yutu-2 or Jade Rabbit-2 of the Chang’e-4 spacecraft made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon. It follows a homegrown Chinese Global Positioning System named BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.
- IIT-Madras team created ‘space fuel’ by trapping carbon dioxide in crystalline form with the help of water molecules.
- The Chennai Traffic Police introduced a road safety robot named ROADEO, to help in traffic management and assist citizens.
- The world’s first television channel dedicated to human rights was launched in London by the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR).
- Union Culture Minister inaugurated India’s very first ‘Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre’ at the Science City in Kolkata, West Bengal.
- AntBot is the first walking robot to have navigational capabilities without GPS or mapping. It has been designed by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille University researchers at ISM.
- Chennai got its first Drainage-cleaning robot, Bandicoot
- Kerala Chief Minister inaugurated India’s first Humanoid Police Robot named KP-BOT, ranked as Sub-Inspector (SI), at the Police Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched a series of projects as a part of the Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor in Tiruchirappalli. This is considered to be the second corridor succeeding the one launched in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
- Chinese news agency Xinhua unveiled the world’s first female AI news anchor Xin Xiaomeng.
- US defense firm, Lockheed Martin, unveiled the F-21 multi-role fighter jet at Asia’s biggest air show Aero India-2019, which will be manufactured in India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s flagship program ‘Make in India’.
- Bengaluru based semiconductor company “SIGNALCHIP” unveiled India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs
- Methane Hydrate Discovered in K-G Basin off Andhra Pradesh Coast
- N. declared to be the first state to introduce TAVI(Tran catheter Aortic Valve Implantation ) in the government hospital
- Microsoft developed a storage device in partnership with the University of Washington that can translate digital information into DNA.
- Oslo, Norway to become the first city in the world to introduce Wireless Electric Car Charging Stations
- China’s Shanghai claimed to have the world’s first district with 5G coverage and a broadband gigabit network. It has conducted trial runs of the 5G network in Shanghai’s Hongkou district.
- South Korea has unveiled the world’s first nationwide 5G mobile networks. This has made South Korea to be the first providers of the super-fast wireless technology.
- Google has launched a new open platform named ‘Anthos’ to run and manage apps from anywhere. It helps the users to manage workloads running on third-party clouds like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS
- Astronomers Captured the First Image of a Black Hole which was a halo of dust and gas, tracing the outline of a colossal black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 (Messier 87) with the help of The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations. Black holes were first predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity.
- The world’s largest airplane a Strato launch’s behemoth named “Roc” has made its first test flight in California, over the Mojave Desert.
- The world’s first armed amphibious drone boat named “Marine Lizard”, which is guided by China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has been successfully tested by China.
- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have manufactured a tiny spectrometer that can be used in smartphone-sized devices to identify dangerous chemicals based on a unique “fingerprint” of emitted and absorbed light.
- The world’s first malaria vaccine RTS, S is also known as Mosquirix has launched in Malawi, one of three countries in Africa in a landmark pilot programme coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
- The armies of India and Myanmar carried out a three-week-long coordinated operation from May 16, 2019 in their respective border areas named ‘Operation Sunrise 2’.
- Japanese scientists have successfully created the first-ever artificial crater on an asteroid, which gave some clue on how the solar system evolved.
- Researchers at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, have developed an ultrasensitive quantum thermometer by using graphene quantum dots.
- A Japanese aerospace start-up Interstellar Technology Inc. has successfully launched a first privately developed rocket ‘Momo-3’ into space.
- S. Department of Energy‘s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California created a new 100% recyclable plastic named Polydiketoenamine (PDK).
- The US Space Agency announced that the National Aeronautics and Space Organization (NASA) is set for its Mission to Moon “Artemis” which is to be achieved by 2024.
- A microprocessor named ‘AJIT’ developed by IIT Bombay
- Samsung launched the world’s Highest Resolution Image Sensor
- Public service broadcaster, Doordarshan has partnered with online retail giant Amazon India to launch a Souvenir Store.
- Nepal banned the use of Chinese digital wallets Alipay and WeChat
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Chairman K. Sivan flagged off the shipment of India’s largest liquid hydrogen storage tank at the VRV Asia Pacific’s manufacturing plant at Sri City in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
- ISRO’s new commercial arm ‘New Space India Limited inaugurated in Bengaluru
- Russia launched the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ‘Ural’ at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg in order to improve its ability to tap the Arctic’s commercial potential.
- Facebook’s crypto-currency “GlobalCoin” will launch in 2020
- For the first time, China launched “Long March 11 rocket “, a rocket to space from a ship at sea
- For the first time, researchers at Ohio State University have created high-resolution maps of points around the globe where groundwater meets the oceans.
- The Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K Sivan announced that India will have its own Space station by 2030.
- Sri Lanka launched its first satellite ‘Ravana-1’ into orbit
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Astrobee Robot “Bumble” became the first Astrobee robot to fly under its own power in space.
- Dipankar Banerjee A solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics selected by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for its PUNCH(Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission.
- ISRO signed a contract with Russian company Glavkosmos to train Indian astronauts for ‘Gaganyaan’ will be launched in December 2021 including a woman astronaut.
- Glasgow University physicists have unveiled the first-ever image capturing quantum entanglement, or “Bell entanglement”, depicting two photons interacting and sharing physical states for an instant.
- BhabhaKavach called as “India’s lightest bulletproof jacket” was launched at the International Police Expo 2019 in New Delhi.
- Scientists in Bangladesh have developed a method to convert Jute fiber into low-cost Bio-Degradable cellulose sheets dubbed as Sonali.
- Scientists from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK), claim to have created the world’s thinnest gold (periodic table representation of gold is Au) which is one million times thinner than the fingernail of human.
- Huawei launches its own Operating System HarmonyOS.
- India’s first-of-its-kind clinical ecotoxicology facility was inaugurated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
- China successfully launched a new rocket for commercial use named Smart Dragon-1.
- Russia launched its first unmanned rocket carrying a life-size humanoid robot named ‘Fedor’ (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research).
- The Govt. clarifies the power produced using tidal, wave, ocean thermal energy conversion, among others as renewable energy.
- Intel launched its first artificial intelligence chip ‘Spring Hill’ or Nervana NNP – I 1000.
- Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed the biggest-ever computer chip using carbon nanotubes (CNT), instead of silicon.
- A 2000-year old historic trade settlement & a Pallava-period statue of Lord Vishnu has been unearthed during excavations carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) near the banks of Swarnamukhi river in the village of Gottiprolu in Andhra Pradesh.
- The oldest known natural pearl in the world has been discovered by Abu Dhabi archaeologists working at a Neolithic site on Marawah Island, just off the coast of Abu Dhabi.
- Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras(IITM) has developed India’s first indigenously developed standing wheelchair named “Arise”.
- China approves world’s 1st carbohydrate-based drug GV-971(sodium oligo-mannurarate) to cure Alzheimer’s disease.
- World’s biggest transport spaceship Kounotori8 launched by Japan.
- The world’s first floating nuclear reactor AkademikLomonosov was launched by Russia.
- Russia to supply critical components to India’s Gaganyaan mission.
- Indian Navy executes Operation Sankalp in the Gulf of Oman to undertake maritime security.
- The Indian Air Force mission to bomb a terrorist hideout in Pakistan’s Balakot was codenamed ‘Operation Bandar’ (Monkey).