Earthquake in Turkey, New approach to Quantum computing, New treaty for Pandemics and other Science events of the Week

 

Let us start with the story about “War of Currents” between Serbian origin Scientist and Inventor, Nikola Tesla and American Businessman and Inventor Thomas Edison. Tesla was the proponent of Alternating current, which he believed to be the wave of future whereas Edison betted on Direct Current. The rivalry saw two inventors pitted against each other with each side promoting respective technologies as superior choice. Edison launched full-fledged campaign against A.C and even demonstrated publicly how dangerous it was. At the end, Tesla came victorious and A.C became the dominant type of current electricity transmission.

 

Tesla also proved to be prolific inventor with above 300 patents to his name. His work laid foundation of Radio, X-rays etc with bizarre experimentations ‘including’ on Wireless power transmission, Death ray, Ball lightening, Electromagnetic levitation etc.

I hope you like the trivia at the start of these weekly article on current science affairs/events, where I try to delve into the exciting current science events and research that happened in the past week or so, trying to explore the latest technologies and breakthroughs/events that was achieved in science.

Whether you are a student, a professional, or simply a science enthusiast, this article will provide you an engaging and informative insights and update you about the fascinating research that happened in the field of science in past week/s.

In today's blog, you will read about:

· The devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria;

· The new approaches to quantum computing;

· A new treaty that will ensure equality in next pandemic;

· How did Neanderthals hunt mammoths;

· The extreme use of antibiotics in animals and poultry;

· Histones found in bacteria for the first time;

Earthquake in Turkey, New approach to Quantum computing, New treaty for Pandemics and other Science events of the Week; Mufawad

"Read about science events of Feb 2023 Week 1 by clicking here"

Turkey-Syria stuck with Earthquake

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake stuck Turkey and Syria in the early hours on 6 February at 4.17 local time with epicenter 18 km below the city of Nurdagi in Gaziantep province. The quake was followed by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock as well as more than 200 aftershocks including largest one with 7.5M, almost 9 hours later with epicenter at Kahramanmaras province.

These earthquakes abraded the structures and sent rescuers digging through concrete debris to find survivors. At least 25000 people are said to have lost their lives (on 12 Feb), with lakhs more injured.

There are two fault lines under the Anatolian plate in Turkey i.e., North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault. The Syrian Arab tectonic plate is believed to be moving up north, bumping with Eurasian plate, while shifting Turkey out towards the west at 2 centimetres per year, which is said to have caused this Earthquake.

P.C: NASA

 

On the other hand, the damage caused by Feb 6 earthquake in already war-torn Syria is not clear. Although there are reports of buildings collapsing in Aleppo, Idlib and other cities and villages. The winter with cold freezing temperatures is only adding to the woes of survivors and rescuers.

Researchers at Middle East Technical University, Ankara led by Arzu Arsalan Kelam had already warned of severe damage in city of Gaziantep in case of earthquake of magnitude 6.5 or above occurs, reason being poor construction and unscientific planning. (As I read in Nature).

Turkey has been prone to earthquakes in past as well. Most notable ones include, 115 A.D Antioch earthquake killing 260000 people, 526 A.D Antioch earthquake killing 245000 people, 1268 Cilicia earthquake killing 60000 people, 1509 Constantinople earthquake killing 10000 people, 1688 Symrna earthquake killing 17000 people, 1840 Agri earthquake killing 11000 people, 1859 Erzurum earthquake killing 15000 people, 1881 Cesme earthquake killing 8000 people, 1939 Erzincan Earthquake killing 32700 people, 1999, 7.4 magnitude Izmit earthquake killing about 18000 people.

The new approach to Quantum Computing

To engineer a commercially available Quantum computer has been marred by the practicability of such technology. However, the top-notch IT giants are trying to devise new models for the same.

The quantum computers work in form of “Qubits” which is equivalent to “Bits” of Classical computing. Normally a sub-atomic particle, either electron, photon or an ion with Spin or charge act as qubits in the quantum computer. The researchers have tried to load more and more of these qubits into the computer, primarily by using two approaches; A. Using qubits as currents and B. Using excited states of individual ions.

By utilising features like quantum superposition, in which an item may exist in two simultaneous states, these quantum computers promise to tackle problems that are beyond of the grasp of classical machines. However, such quantum states are notoriously fragile as the information they carry tends to degrade as a calculation progresses. Qubits need to be protected from the outside environment in order to retain the states for as long as feasible. However, they also need to work in tandem with environment to accomplish computations. That is why, to engineer Quantum computer is so challenging.

Nevertheless, during the past two years, single neutral atom “qubits” that are maintained in place by laser light-powered 'tweezers' have unexpectedly gained momentum. These neutral atom qubits are said to have the potential to take a lead against earlier two versions.

P.C: IBM

 

In the quantum race for this technology, Google made first quantum computation in 2019 on 53 qubit machine, the IBM, where  Kashmir’s first quantum Physicist Dr Rukshan ul Haq works, is also expected to unveil 1000 qubit quantum chip “Condor” this year.

Dr Rukshan ul Haq writes in Kashmir Life (3 June 2022), “Though quantum computing is still in its infancy, the race is already there. With a 127-Qubit quantum computer, IBM apparently has the world’s most powerful quantum computing system. Google AI Quantum has a 53-qubits, quantum computation facility and now Chinese scientists claim their Jiuzhang 2 can compute calculations at least 100 trillion times faster than Google Sycamore. The race is on”.

In fact, in November 2022, IBM announced a new chip, the 433-qubit Osprey, a follow-up to the 127-qubit Eagle, which Dr Rukshan talked about in article.

Besides increasing the quantity on qubits onto the device, focus of these IT giants is also on the quality of the machines. Some of these company's superconducting components have made records for the technology by maintaining their quantum states for more than 300 microseconds. Another significant achievement is that 99.9% of two-qubit operations are now error-free.

Once the number of superconducting qubits on a machine exceeds 1,000, scaling becomes impossible since each qubit must be separately linked to external circuits for control. The IBM, according to MIT tech revive, will focus on connecting several chips into one machine rather than adding more qubits to a single chip, which is more difficult. The chips are at the core of enormous devices that are enclosed in cryogenic systems that maintain the chips at temperatures near to “absolute zero”.

The 1000 qubit barrier of IBM might soon be broken by earlier mentioned method of using "neutral atom" as qubit. It uses “Optical tweezers”, which are highly concentrated laser beams, to trap neutral atoms and encodes qubits in the electronic states or nuclear spins of the atoms.

The splitting of a single laser beam into numerous beams, for instance, by passing it via a liquid crystal screen, allows scientists to build multiple qubits. This can result in arrays of hundreds of tweezers, each of which can grab an individual atom. The distance between the atoms and their neighbours is generally a few micrometres, where they can stay in a quantum state for many seconds or more. One of the atoms is stimulated by a different laser, which causes the outer electron to circle the nucleus considerably farther than it would normally, causing the atoms to interact. The atom's electrostatic connections with a neighbour are strengthened as a result.

Using tweezers, researchers have built arrays of more than 200 neutral atoms, and they are rapidly combining new and existing techniques to turn these into fully working quantum computers. This tweezer-based qubits are soon supposed to achieve 99% error-free state and has surprised Quantum computing community.

Last but not least, it is pertinent to mention that Microsoft is also working on Quantum computing albeit with different approach. Their focus is on the technique that exploits ‘topological states’ to make qubits robust to degradation, which according to “Nature” is just like a knotted string that can be twisted and pulled but not untied.

A new treaty for equality during future pandemics

Recently, World Health Organization (WHO) published a draft for the first-ever legally binding agreement to ensure that vaccines and drugs are shared more equally in the world in order to prevent the wide disparities in future that were seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The treaty, according to researchers, is an ambitious attempt to address the glaring injustices that emerged during the COVID 19 pandemic, as only 31% of people in low-income countries have gotten one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccination, compared to 73% of those in developed nations, who have received at least one dose.

The zero draft of the document, which will now be discussed by WHO member states in a series of meetings, which will start by the end of this month (Feb).

P.C: Istock

 

This treaty is also important given the fact that researchers are cautiously monitoring increasing outbreak of H5N1 influenza in birds that has migrated to a variety of mammalian species. Besides that, pathogens with potential to cause pandemics are continually reported getting transferred from animals to people.

The key focus areas of the Zero draft include equity, global network of supply, proper distribution, affordable access in low-income countries, rapid knowledge/ data sharing etc. The zero draft also appeals for temporary waivers on IP rights in case of a pandemic to expedite the production and supply. It is important to mention here that in 2020, India proposed temporary waiver on IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, which was backed by more than 60 other countries. but unfortunately, the World Trade Organization quashed it by 2022. Infact, the New treaty as well falls short of requiring states to share IP rights as part of such an agreement.

The draft also demands that any novel virus with pandemic potential must be supplied to a laboratory in the WHO network within hours of its discovery, and signatories must also submit genetic sequences to public repositories. The States shall provide 20% of the medications, diagnostics, and vaccines they generate to the WHO, half as contributions and half at reasonable prices.

Additionally, the parties must not only agree to devote no less than 5% of their yearly health budget to pandemic preparation and response but also attribute certain percentage of their GDP to help sustain developing and low income countries in future pandemics.

However, the treaty might fall short in its attempts to compel nations to share limited resources due to absence of legal tools to penalize those nations that don’t comply.

How did Neanderthals hunt Mammoths and other Elephants

Researchers found what they called “first clear cut” evidence of Elephant hunting by earlier Human cousins around 125000 years ago as reported in a paper published in “Science Advances.” 3000 bones, tusks and teeth from about 70 straight tusked elephants, hunted 125000 years ago, by Neanderthals were found in a lake basin in Germany.

The Straight tusked elephants, Palaeoloxodon antiquus are considered to be largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene age with adult males weighed as much as 14 tons and adult females about half of that. It was much larger than the woolly mammoth and roughly twice as big as today’s African elephant.

Pic generated by Mufawad using DallE

 

The peculiar cut marks suggested that Neanderthals would use flint tools to slice off the meat. Besides that, the site provided further evidence of Neanderthals acting as Cooperative hunters who knew how to preserve meat for longer times. The neanderthal hunter are supposed to have immobilized these giant elephants by digging pits or driving them into mud traps, killing them and storing food over a large period by drying, freezing or roasting as traces of charcoal fires have also been found at the site.

Since 1800’s it was suggested that these archaic humans lived in groups not more than 25, but the findings point out that they might have been settling in much larger groups for collective-subsistence events. The researchers estimated that a group larger than 25, working in tandem would have required three to five days to skin and carve up a single 11-ton elephant which provided 4,000 calories per portion.

The findings also suggest that Neanderthals are known to have used sophisticated close range hunting technique to capture their prey and provided further evidence that they were skilled toolmakers with a complex language who built shelters, used fire to shape environment, traded jewellery and lived in large social groups.

The best-known Neanderthals are known to have lived between about 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, after which all physical evidence of them vanishes.

The extreme use of Antibiotics in Animal and Poultry farming

The rampant use of antibiotics has reached dangerous levels and is expected to grow by 8% till 2030 according to recent analysis. It has led to antimicrobial resistance in animals and fowls. Most antibiotics are being misused to speed up animal growth and stop diseases in ‘already sordid’ conditions. This all has also led to rise in drug resistant human infections.

Researchers are finding it difficult to figure out the quantity of antibiotics used in particular countries as many submit the data to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), which releases the data in consolidated form at continent level. Besides that, 40% of countries do not release the data at all.

Pic generated by Mufawad using DallE

 

However, epidemiologists at ETH Zurich estimated antibiotic usage, using data collected from individual governments, farm surveys as well as on antibiotic sales in 42 countries.

The results were shocking as use of antibiotics in Asian countries was 50% higher and in Africa 40 % higher than reported in WOAH. The report found that by 2030, the world will use around 107,500 tonnes of antibiotics in livestock in a year. Antibiotic use was found to be highest in Asia, and in particular in China followed by Brazil and USA. It was also reported that by 2030, the use will rise faster in Africa owing to increasing population and demand for meat products. In countries, Pakistan will see highest hike in use of antibiotics in this decade.

Although in November 2022, a conference was held at Muscat, Oman on Antimicrobial resistance where major agriculture producers including India pledged to reduce use of antibiotics up by 30% to 50% by 2030.

Histones found in Prokaryotes for the first time.

While studying Chromosome packaging and gene expression in bacteria, A startling discovery was made which suggested that some species of bacteria may be possessing proteins that weren’t thought to exist in bacteria at all i.e. Histones.

The histones like proteins were found in two bacterial species in form of a casing around their DNA. Normally in higher organisms i.e., Eukaryotes, the DNA is wound around these histone proteins and help to support chromosome structure and gene regulation.

P.C: Shutterstock

 

These bacterial histones were found to be remarkably consistent in their structure and function with lack of any diversity. Normally in Eukaryotes, there are four types of histones, named: H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. Octamers of two of each type of histone form nucleosomes and Additional H1 proteins are associated with each nucleosome as links to maintain the overall chromatin structure.

The researchers at Imperial college, London studied the histone proteins from two species namely Leptospira interrogans and Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. When they isolated the histone protein and analysed its structure, they were surprised to find that it ‘did’ behave completely differently from eukaryote histones.

These bacterial histones came together in pairs to surrounded the DNA strand and act as a shield around it. As a part of study the researchers also found 2% of the bacterial genomes filled with histone-like proteins.