Rapid Fire Current Affairs | 29 Jul 2023

Scrub Typhus

The Kerala Health department has issued an alert against scrub typhus in Alappuzha, Kerala.

About: Scrub typhus, also known as bush typhus, caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi.
Spread: It is spread to people through bites of infected chiggers (larval mites).
- Humans mostly get the disease when bitten by chiggers present on the body of animals such as rats, rabbits, mice, and squirrels.
Affected Areas: Rural areas of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, and northern Australia
Treatment: Antibiotics. No vaccine available.

Hygroelectricity

A team at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous electric current from humidity in the air which is called Hygroelectricity.

Significance:

Hygroelectricity has the potential to be a renewable and sustainable energy source as it relies on the continuous availability of atmospheric moisture.
Unlike traditional power generation methods that may rely on finite resources, hygroelectricity could provide a consistent source of energy from ambient environmental conditions.

Read More: Renewable Energy

Silvopasture System

Silvopasture is an ancient and proven practice that harmoniously integrates trees, forage and livestock on the same land.

Benefits of Silvopasture system:

Trees in silvopasture act as potent natural carbon sinks, capturing five to ten times more carbon than treeless pastures, without compromising productivity.
It also regulates local climatic conditions, buffering against temperature and wind extremes, providing a favourable living environment for livestock.
Trees in silvopasture aid nutrient cycling, enhance soil stability and quality, and combat erosion through their extensive root systems. Silvopasture is a sustainable land-use practice that can improve the health and productivity of the land over the long term.

Read More: Soil Erosion, Deforestation

Herbig-Haro 46/47

NASA recently released a high-resolution image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), showing two actively forming stars known as Herbig-Haro 46/47.

These young stars are hidden within an orange-white blob surrounded by gas and dust, indicating their early stages of growth.
- They will give insights into the mass accumulation of stars over time.
Observing the orange lobes helps understand how stars ejected and consumed gas, shaping the lobes over thousands of years.

JWST:

It is a large, infrared telescope designed to observe the most distant objects in the universe. It is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
It is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).