James Mathew

India has splendidly made its way to the moon, and I am one among the 1.4 billion Indians celebrating this giant leap made by India on an unexplored challenging territory on the moon. Amidst this ecstasy, the entrepreneur in me celebrates the fact that Chandrayaan’s journey to the moon started from an intentional crash in 2008. And ISRO had previously faced failures that the world watched minute by minute. Yet today, India sashayed its way into the league of superpowers by flying the Indian tricolor high on the moon’s surface. Till today it was only the United States, Russia and China who had made their way to the moon.

To me, India’s scientific expedition to the moon is a journey that has unraveled some of the most humane, humble, and empowering moments in the history of mankind. Let me share some of my favorites here:

1. In 2008, a small Indian probe crashed into the moon only to make the biggest discovery ever, there were signs of water. Could it ever be imagined that the seed of thought about India’s mission to the moon was born from an intentional crash? Remember, the starting point of every peak of success is always a thought.
2. On July 22nd 2019, Chandrayaan – 2 was sent to space but crashed on the Moon’s surface on September 7 due to a partial failure. This failure led to the witnessing of a humane moment when ace scientist and ISRO Chief K Sivan was emotional and found consolation on the shoulders of India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. A humble realisation that the best of us cannot escape the clutches of failure and in moments of failure, those in power can change the game, by simply showing up with empathy, grace and faith in a person’s capabilities and intentions.
3. Nearly 15 years after the intentional crash and almost four years after Chandrayaan 2 was lost , ISRO successfully guided ‘Vikram’ through a tricky dance of gravity and speed to a soft landing on the south polar region of the moon. Sometimes we may get our facts right and processes in place, yet be exposed to risk. The only solution is to face the fight and push one’s boundaries over and above the failures.
4. Think about it. Being a scientist in ISRO requires academic genius, and the team that took on the Chandrayaan-3 project included some of the sharpest minds in India – yet the crowd gathered in ISRO’s Mission Operation Complex waited with bated breath. It was only when the lander was merely 812 metres away from the moon, that the scientists at ISRO erupted in applause for the first time and showed hints of unbridled joy knowing their mission had finally made it to the moon.

Not just any part of the moon — Chandrayaan-3 landed on unexplored territory of the moon peppered with thousands of craters and hundreds of obstacles rising out of the ground—one of the most challenging to land on when it comes to interplanetary locations.

A magical mission to the moon indeed! India has done us so proud and how.

The author is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at UHY James Chartered Accountants, Dubai, UAE; ARISE UAE Board Member, Independent Non-Executive Director of GCC Healthcare Group; former Chairman, ICAI-Dubai Chapter; and former Secretary- General of IBPC Dubai.

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The five crew members on the missing submersible that was headed to the Titanic died from a “catastrophic implosion” of their vessel. The US Coast Guard came to that conclusion after examining debris found underwater by a remote-controlled vehicle. The debris was found 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic.

“We immediately notified the families,” Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a briefing in Boston on Thursday. “On behalf of the US Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences.” The saga of the missing craft known as the Titan sparked global fascination as an international fleet of ships and aircraft desperately scoured an area of the North Atlantic twice the size of Connecticut. Rescuers raced around the clock, concerned that the Titan’s estimated 96-hour oxygen supply was dwindling after it lost contact with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince on June 18.

The US Coast Guard earlier in the week said unidentified sounds were detected during the search, but those noises weren’t linked to the missing craft. On board the Titan were Hamish Harding, 58, of the UK, founder of investment firm Action Group and an avid adventurer; French maritime expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77; Stockton Rush, 61, chief executive officer of Everett, Washington-based OceanGate Inc., which ran the expedition; and Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19, a father and son in one of Pakistan’s most prominent families.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate Expeditions, operator of the mission, said in a statement. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

The Titan, a 6.7-meter-long craft made of carbon fiber and titanium, was designed to carry a pilot and four crew to a maximum depth of 4,000 meters (13,120 feet). According to OceanGate’s website, an onboard system was able to track the health of the crew and provide “early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.”

But no messages were received after a mothership on the surface lost all communications with the Titan on June 18, about 1 hour and 45 minutes after it began diving toward the Titanic, which sank in 1912 on its first trans-Atlantic voyage. OceanGate says it offers 10-day expeditions to the Titanic site, providing “qualified explorers” the opportunity to join as mission specialists.

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The British acknowledgement of deaths comes as several European countries have paused the use of the AstraZeneca jab over a potential link to blood clots.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement that “Out of the 30 reports up to and including 24 March, sadly 7 have died.”

The reports of thrombosis, submitted by medics or members of the public via a government website, came after 18.1 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the country.

Most of the cases (22) were a rare clotting condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Eight cases saw people suffer other types of thrombosis combined with low levels of blood platelets, which help blood clot.

There were no reports of blood clots from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the UK regulator said, adding that “our thorough review into these reports is ongoing”.

But MHRA chief executive Dr June Raine stressed that the benefits far outweighed any risks. “The public should continue to get their vaccine when invited to do so,” she said.

Both the MHRA and European Medicines Agency (EMA) say no causal link has yet been established between the blood clotting case and the AstraZeneca vaccine.

But growing concerns have prompted a number of countries to pause rollout of the vaccine or limit it to older people due to the relatively young age of those who suffered blood clots.

Netherlands on Friday halted vaccinations with the AstraZeneca jab for people under the age of 60 after five new cases among younger women, one of whom died.

Germany has suspended the use of the vaccine for those under 60 after 31 cases of blood clots, most of them among younger and middle-aged women.

A number of other countries including France have imposed a similar age restrictions, while Denmark and Norway have suspended all use of the vaccine.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which like the World Health Organization previously declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, is expected to announce updated advice on the issue on April 7.

It said Wednesday that there had been 62 cases worldwide of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, 44 of them in the European Economic Area, which includes the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

This figure did not include all Germany’s cases, however.

More than 9.2 million AstraZeneca jabs have been administered in the region.

The EMA said it believes the vaccine is safe and that experts have found no specific risk factors such as age, gender or medical history.

Paul Hunter, a medical microbiologist at Britain’s University of East Anglia, told AFP that he had initially thought the link between vaccination and blood clots was likely to be a “random association”.

As evidence mounts of clusters in separate countries, “the weight of evidence is now looking towards Oxford-AstraZeneca actually being the cause of these adverse events”, he said.

Nevertheless, the risk for the unvaccinated of dying from Covid is “substantially greater,” he said.

A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca told AFP that patient safety is its “highest priority”.

UK, EU and World Health Organization regulatory bodies have concluded that the benefits “significantly outweigh the risks across all adult age groups”, she said.

AstraZeneca said last month following US efficiency trials that its vaccine is 76 percent effective at preventing the disease. It also said data for the EU and the UK showed no increased risk of blood clots.

The UK has administered more than 31 million first vaccine doses, using both the Oxford-AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs. People cannot choose which one they get.

The UK in June 2020 ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and supported its development. It also ordered 30 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the same year.

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The United States released a statement with 13 of its allies — Britain, Japan and Australia among them — saying the inquiry had lacked the data and samples it needed.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had earlier made a similar criticism, saying the team he dispatched to Wuhan had found it difficult to get raw data.

Neither Tedros nor the US-led statement mentioned China directly, but the country’s foreign ministry hit back at the perceived criticism from the WHO chief, saying that Beijing had demonstrated “its openness, transparency and responsible attitude.”

“To politicise this issue will only severely hinder global cooperation in study of origins, jeopardize anti-pandemic cooperation, and cost more lives,” the ministry said in a statement.

The European Union called the report a “helpful first step” but highlighted “the need for further work,” urging “relevant authorities” to help.

Mike Pompeo, the former top US diplomat under Donald Trump, blasted it as a “sham” and part of a “disinformation campaign,” accusing the WHO of being in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump had promoted a theory that the virus could have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, which the WHO-backed experts dismissed in their report. But Tedros stressed that “all hypotheses are open, from what I read from the report… and warrant complete and further studies.”

The pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide since it first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, with several countries now battling new waves of infection.

Italy said on Tuesday it would impose a five-day quarantine on travellers arriving from other EU countries, while Germany will beef up checks along land borders to ensure people arriving have negative Covid-19 tests.

Large numbers of lockdown-weary Germans have nevertheless booked holidays to Spanish tourist island Mallorca.

“I really needed a break, it’s hard to work at home without seeing anyone,” said 53-year-old Birgit Leeck on one of the island’s golden beaches.

Germany said on Tuesday it would only deploy AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for general use for those aged over 60.

The World Health Organization and the EU’s health watchdog have both deemed the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, but several countries have restricted its use over blood clotting fears.

In France, hospitals were under pressure after partial regional shutdowns failed to keep the number of people in intensive care below the country’s second-wave peak.

World leaders on Tuesday called for a new international treaty to better fight future outbreaks and for countries to be ready if — or when — another hits.

“Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion,” they urged.

More than 20 countries — including Germany, France, South Korea and South Africa — signed up to the plea.

Tedros urged the world to not waste any time in preparing for the next contagion, saying: “The time to act is now. The world cannot afford to wait until the pandemic is over to start planning for the next one.”

The expert report on the origins of Covid-19 concluded that the virus probably came from bats and jumped to humans from another animal.

The experts judged it “extremely unlikely” that the virus was grown in a lab, and were also unimpressed by Beijing’s theory that the virus did not originate in China at all but was imported in frozen food.

The pandemic has also rolled back years of progress towards gender equality, according to a World Economic Forum study.

Research showed that Covid-19 has had a disproportionate impact on women, who have lost jobs at a higher rate than men, and had to take on much more of the childcare burden when schools closed.

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The UAE’s Group 42 and China’s CNBG (Sinopharm) are initiating a joint project for COVID-19 vaccine production in the UAE. This was announced at the launch ceremony of the new project, “Life Sciences and Vaccine Manufacturing in the UAE”, in Abu Dhabi during the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Attending the ceremony was H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State.
Marking the launch, Sheikh Abdullah said: “The UAE and China today inaugurated a new chapter in their historic and distinguished relations under the title “Strategic Partnership for Humanity”…. We are continuing the efforts that we initiated at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. A partnership that sets an example to be emulated for collaboration between friendly nations in times of crises.”
The launch ceremony started with a short video on the UAE-China cooperation during the COVID-19 crisis.
Addressing the ceremony Liu Jingzhen, Chairman of Sinopharm, said:”By taking this step, the UAE has paved the way for the registration and commercial production of Sinopharm’s vaccine in an embodiment of the significant efforts made by the two friendly nations to recover from the crisis.”
Peng Xiao, CEO of G42, said the new project will “revolutionise the life sciences industry in the region over the coming years.” “G42 and CNBG have made significant achievements since 2020 thanks to their common vision and values,” he added.
Launching the project, Sheikh Abdullah and the Chinese Foreign Minister carried a prototype of the new vaccine and took a commemorative photo. This was followed by a live streaming from the vaccine production site in the UAE.
The strategic partnership between the two nations and the latest developments in the region in addition to an array of international and regional issues of interest were discussed during the meeting.

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As the lights dim in homes and cities, Earth Hour will bring people together to put a virtual spotlight on our planet and the role people can play in global efforts for nature.

With mounting evidence establishing a close link between nature’s destruction and rising incidences of infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19, Earth Hour will be an unmissable opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of nature, in a year when leaders will take key decisions on nature, climate change and sustainable development.

“Whether it is a decline in pollinators, fewer fish in the ocean and rivers, disappearing forests or the wider loss of biodiversity, the evidence is mounting that nature is in free fall. And this is because of the way we live our lives and run our economies. Protecting nature is our moral responsibility but losing it also increases our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerates climate change, and threatens our food security,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International.

“We must stop taking nature for granted, respect its intrinsic value, and – importantly – value the crucial services it provides to our health, wellbeing and economy. We need to unite and take urgent action now to set nature on the path to recovery and secure a nature-positive world, while supporting climate action. By acting for nature, we can all create a healthier, fairer and more sustainable world.”

Renowned public figures, celebrities, youth organisations and businesses from across the globe will be supporting Earth Hour to draw attention to the nature and climate crises. Pledging his support for Earth Hour, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized in a video message that now is the time to be bold and ambitious, and show the world we are determined to protect the one home we all share. In recognition of the critical role young people will play in creating a more sustainable world, many global youth groups including Fridays For Future, AIESEC, United Nations Global Youth Biodiversity Network, Global Scouts, YMCA, and Global Youth Action Team will be participating in Earth Hour calling for a safer, healthier future for all.

Businesses and governments worldwide have a key role to play in building a healthy, sustainable future – and planet – for all. This Earth Hour, Business for Nature, a global coalition that brings together business and conservation organizations, will be calling on governments to urgently adopt policies for reversing nature loss by the end of the decade.

Eva Zabey, Executive Director, Business for Nature, said: “COVID-19 has given us a stark warning of the risks, vulnerabilities and inequalities of our interconnected systems – and what’s at stake for everyone if we cannot mobilize action. Leading companies recognize they need to act now to both cut greenhouse gas emissions and reverse nature loss by 2030. Earth Hour is taking place during a critical year, when world leaders are due to agree an ambitious global agreement on nature. Let us use this symbolic moment to think about how we work together – across society, business and government – to change our course towards a nature-positive, net-zero and equitable future.”

Many iconic landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Skytree, Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, the Colosseum in Rome, Rova of Antananarivo in Madagascar, UAP Old Mutual Tower in Nairobi, Sydney Opera House, Niagara Falls, Taipei 101 and Gardens by the Bay in Singapore will be switching off their lights in a symbolic gesture of support on the night of Earth Hour.

This year is set to be another important moment for the Earth Hour movement, with more than 140 countries and territories coming together to highlight and invite action on the environmental issues most relevant to them.

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The drugmaker, which developed the first authorised coronavirus vaccine in the US with Germany’s BioNTech SA, said the antiviral candidate showed potent activity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in lab studies.

Pfizer’s candidate, named PF-07321332, is a protease inhibitor that prevents the virus from replicating in cells.

Protease inhibitors have been effective at treating other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C virus, both on their own and in combination with other antivirals, the company said.

Pfizer believes this class of molecules may provide well-tolerated treatments against COVID-19, as currently marketed therapeutics that work on the same lines have not reported safety concerns.

The company is also studying an intravenously administered antiviral candidate in an early-stage trial in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

“Together, the two (oral and intravenous candidates) have the potential to create an end-to-end treatment paradigm that complements vaccination in cases where disease still occurs,” Pfizer’s Chief Medical Officer Mikael Dolsten said in a statement.

Pfizer’s candidate is behind two other oral antiviral therapies, which are in mid-stage trials – the first being developed by rival Merck & Co with Ridgeback Bio, and a second from Roche Holding and Atea Pharmaceuticals.

Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir is currently the only US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of COVID-19.

The FDA has granted an emergency authorisation to intravenous therapies from Eli Lilly – bamlanivimab alone and in combination with etesevimab, and a combination therapy from Regeneron.

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The measurement suggests that the radius of the Martian core is 1,810 to 1,860 kilometres, roughly half that of Earth’s. That’s larger than some previous estimates, meaning the core is less dense than had been predicted. The finding suggests the core must contain lighter elements, such as oxygen, in addition to the iron and sulfur that constitute much of its make-up. InSight scientists reported their measurements in several presentations this week at the virtual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, based out of Houston, Texas, reported Nature.

Rocky planets such as Earth and Mars are divided into the fundamental layers of crust, mantle and core. Knowing the size of each of those layers is crucial to understanding how the planet formed and evolved. InSight’s measurements will help scientists to determine how Mars’s dense, metal-rich core separated from the overlying rocky mantle as the planet cooled. The core is probably still molten from Mars’s fiery birth, some 4.5 billion years ago.

The only other rocky planetary bodies for which scientists have measured the core are Earth and the Moon. Adding Mars will allow researchers to compare and contrast how the Solar System’s planets evolved. Similar to Earth, Mars once had a strong magnetic field generated by liquid sloshing its core, but that magnetic field dropped dramatically over time, causing Mars’s atmosphere to escape into space and the surface to become cold, barren and much less hospitable to life than Earth’s.

Simon Stähler, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, reported the core findings in a pre-recorded 18 March presentation for the virtual conference. Stähler declined an interview request from Nature, saying the team intends to submit the work for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

The work builds on earlier findings from InSight that detected layers in the Martian crust. “Now we start to have that deep structure down to the core,” said geophysicist Philippe Lognonné in another pre-recorded talk. Lognonné, based at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics in France, heads InSight’s seismometer team.

The spacecraft, which cost nearly US$1 billion, landed on Mars in 2018 and is the first mission to study the red planet’s interior. The stationary lander sits near the Martian equator and listens for ‘marsquakes’, the Mars equivalent of earthquakes. So far, InSight has detected around 500 quakes, meaning the planet is less seismically active than Earth but more so than the Moon. Most marsquakes are very small, Lognonné said, but nearly 50 of them have been between magnitude 2 and 4 — strong enough to provide information on the planet’s interior, the report said.

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Zaara Biotech, which focuses on research in energy and food crisis using micro-algae, got the funding for its research and development, production, distribution and marketing under TCN International Commerce to reach the global arena.

Mr. Najeeb Bin Haneef, Founder and CEO of Zaara Biotech and Dr Mohamed Shafi Abdulla, Chairman and Managing Director, TCN International Commerce L.L.C, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard in Sharjah on Saturday.

Dr. George Ninan, Principal Scientist, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)-CIFT (Central Institute of Fisheries Technology), Kochi; Mr. Tapan Rayaguru, CEO, KSUM; and Dr Nixon Kuruvila, Principal, Sahrdaya College of Engineering and Technology, Thrissur, among others, were present on the occasion.

Zaara Biotech was founded by Mr. Haneef when he was a biotechnology engineering student of Sahrdaya College of Engineering and Technology in 2016.

The biotech startup, which was incubated in Sahrdaya Technology Business Incubator (Sahrdaya TBI), has collaboration with ICAR-CIFT and it has helped the company to become India’s first algal-seaweed food product designer.

The team of Zaara had set up a ‘Mushroom Hub’ during their first year at the campus before foraying into their entrepreneurial venture. By designing photobioreactors using micro-algae, the biotech startup has taken great leaps in bringing India to the forefront of bioengineering. Their work has got them laurels from India and abroad.

TCN International Commerce has its presence in multiple sectors, such as IT, business process management, trading, healthcare, education, FMCG, construction and engineering, defence, critical service providers, aviation, and oil and gas.

KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.

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“Everything is going great so far,” said Kenneth Farley, a geochemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the mission’s project scientist. He and others described Perseverance’s progress on 16 March at a virtual meeting of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

As planned, the rover’s main science experiments will have to wait a few more months, while engineers continue to test its scientific instruments and prepare for the first helicopter flight on another world. Eventually, Perseverance will deploy an arsenal of tools, including a drill bit, a close-up camera and multiple chemical sensors to hunt for signs of past life within Martian rocks.

In the meantime, team scientists are plotting how the rover might travel from its landing site — named after the science fiction writer Octavia Butler — to the 40-metre-high cliffs of the ancient river delta that drew Perseverance to Jezero in the first place. The delta, deposited billions of years ago by a river flowing on Mars, would have been an ideal landscape for ancient microbial life, if it existed. But a treacherous dune field lies between Perseverance and the delta, which the rover cannot cross. Researchers are discussing whether to drive clockwise or counterclockwise around the dune field; the latter would be a shorter trip, while the former would pass next to a greater variety of interesting rocks.

But none of this is likely to happen until June at the earliest. First, Perseverance must drive to a suitable spot to test Ingenuity, its helicopter. The spot will probably be a rock-strewn area not too far from the rover’s current location. There, the rover will lower Ingenuity from its belly, drive off a safe distance and shoot a video as the helicopter takes to the Martian skies. “We’re looking forward to those historic, aviation-first movies,” said Jim Bell, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe who leads one of the rover’s camera teams. The helicopter test comes first because Ingenuity will fly with the rover as it drives, helping Perseverance navigate its way across the landscape.

Until that first flight test, expected in the coming weeks, team scientists have been exploring the rocks around the landing site. Immediately surrounding the rover are lighter-coloured rocks peeking out from dark soil. Perseverance has used a laser-based instrument to determine that several of these rocks, including two that team scientists named Máaz and Yeegho, are chemically similar to basaltic rocks on Earth, which form from molten rock. The instrument zaps rocks with a laser to vaporize small portions and study their chemical makeup. Through this analysis, the scientists see that Yeegho shows signs of having water locked up in its minerals, said Roger Wiens, a geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico who is head of the laser instrument team. These discoveries fit with what scientists had expected from Jezero — that it might have volcanic rocks on the crater floor, which could have interacted with water over time.

Many of the rocks around the landing site appear to have been sculpted by strong winds, including a dark, odd-shaped object that scientists have dubbed the ‘harbour seal’, for its similarity to a seal perching on a rock. The winds seem to have scoured the rocks primarily from the northwest, a direction that matches the major wind patterns calculated by global circulation models for Mars, said Bell.

Another dark-coloured rock looks as if it has been weathered not by wind but by water, said Farley. That suggests it could have been tumbled around in running water — perhaps in the ancient river flowing into Jezero, or in its lake. “This is quite promising for our study,” he said.

Perseverance scientists have been giving informal names to rocks, craters and other objects around the landing site in the Navajo or Diné language. Following a tradition from earlier Mars landings, the scientists are choosing themes for names based on geologic maps of Jezero, which are divided into sections named after national parks on Earth. Perseverance happened to land in the section named after Canyon de Chelly National Monument, which is in Arizona on Navajo tribal lands. Aaron Yazzie, an engineer on the rover team, is a member of the Navajo Nation and has led the effort to coordinate the names. Máaz, for instance, means Mars, while Yeehgo is an alternative spelling of the word for ‘diligent’.

After the helicopter test, and before Perseverance sets off for the delta, the rover will probably drill its first rock sample into the dark, fractured rock that makes up much of the Jezero Crater floor. Scientists have not yet determined whether this rock is volcanic, but if it is, it could help determine the age of the crater floor because molten rock traps radioactive elements that decay at a predictable rate and can be used as a clock to date when the material was originally molten.

During its mission, Perseverance will collect approximately 30 tubes full of Martian rock and soil, laying them down on the Martian surface so a future mission can retrieve them and fly them back to Earth for scientists to analyse, no earlier than 2031. It will be the first-ever sample return from Mars.

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Vaccines are typically less effective in the real-world than in clinical trials. But in data from Israel and the United Kingdom, both of whom have managed to vaccinate a large slice of their population, vaccine effectiveness appears to be matching that seen in clinical trials.

There are also positive signs the vaccines will significantly cut viral transmission, although it is too early to draw firm conclusions.

In Britain, Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine appears to be 88 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic infection in those aged over 80.

Israeli scientists are reporting a 92 per cent effectiveness rate overall – similar rates to those seen in clinical trials that initially stunned scientists.
Israel and Britain are among world leaders in vaccinating their populations. Israel has managed to give one dose to least 56 per cent of its population, while in Britain about 30 per cent of people have received at least one jab.

Both countries faced surging epidemics only a month ago, but daily cases have now been substantially curtailed.

The US has also made strong headway, reducing its daily caseload from a peak of 314,172 on January 8 to 66,481 on March 4. About 16 per cent of the US’s population had received a dose of vaccine.

Science and health explained and analysed with a rigorous focus on the evidence. Examine is a weekly newsletter by science reporter Liam Mannix. Sign up to receive it every Tuesday.

However, these countries’ success was likely linked to more lockdowns and perhaps the end of winter, rather than the effects of vaccination, said James Wood, associate professor at the School of Population Health at the University of NSW.

Britain went into a national lockdown at the start of January, while Israel’s national lockdown started at the end of December. Israel’s progress appears to be plateauing, however, even as restrictions are eased.

Vaccine efficacy describes how well a vaccine works in a clinical trial. But a vaccine’s effectiveness – how well it works in the real world – is a different matter.

Vaccine trials enrol select groups of patients. Pfizer’s phase 3 trial, for example, excluded patients with uncontrolled chronic medical conditions.

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Would you believe that NASA’s life-on-Mars mission valued at USD 3 billion is being controlled by an Indian-origin doctor from his one-bedroom apartment in London?

Professor Sanjeev Gupta, a scientist with NASA is controlling the Mars rover ‘Perseverance’ from his flat in south London. Professor Gupta was supposed to be at mission control in California but the Covid-19 pandemic restricted him to his flat above a hairdresser in Lewisham.

“I should be at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, in a series of offices each one about three times bigger than this lounge, full of hundreds of scientists and engineers with their heads buried in laptops surrounded by large screens,” Professor Sanjeev Gupta told the Daily Mail.

When he found out that he would not be able to work out of mission control in California, Professor Sanjeev Gupta decided to rent a one-bedroom flat in Lewisham.

I did not want to disturb the sleep of my wife and children, he told the UK publication.

Professor Gupta has turned his rented apartment into a mini control centre with at least five computers and two other screens for video conferences with fellow scientists at NASA.

One of NASA’s leading scientists working on the Perseverance Mars rover, Professor Gupta is a geology expert at London’s Imperial College.

Accompanied by a team of nearly 400 scientists, Professor Sanjeev Gupta is directing the Perseverance rover to drill for samples on Mars. These samples will be transported back to Earth by 2027.

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PSLV-C51 rocket, which is the 53rd mission of PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), launched the Amazonia-1 of Brazil as primary satellite and 18 co-passenger payloads from the first launch pad of the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100 kms from Chennai. These co-passenger satellites include Satish Dhawan Sat (SD SAT) from Chennai-based Space Kidz India (SKI).

Here is all you need to know about this mission:

• A picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been engraved on the top panel of this spacecraft. “This is to show solidarity and gratitude for his (PM’s) Aatmanirbhar initiative and space privatisation”, said SKI.
• The ‘Bagavad Gita’ is also being sent with the spacecraft after being placed in a SD (secured digital) card.
• PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 is the first dedicated commercial mission of ISRO’s commercial arm New Space India Limited (NSIL).
• NSIL has undertaken the mission under a commercial arrangement with Seattle, US-based satellite rideshare and mission management provider, Spaceflight Inc.
• The 637-kg Amazonia-1 will be the first Brazilian satellite to be launched from India.
• Amazonia-1 is the optical earth observation satellite of National Institute for Space Research (INPE)
• Amazonia-1 satellite would further strengthen the existing structure by providing remote sensing data to users for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analysis of diversified agriculture across the Brazilian territory.
• The 18 co-passenger satellites are: four from ISRO’s Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (three UNITYsats from consortium of three Indian academic institutes and the SD SAT from SKI) and 14 from NSIL. SKI will also be sending 25,000 names on board SD SAT.

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So far, Isro has developed five generation of launch vehicles — SLV-3, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV and GSLV-MkIII.

It started working on developing a new launch vehicle of mini rockets – Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) – to meet needs of the emerging global small satellite launch service market.

In a report, news agency PTI said several sources in Isro have said that SSLV-D1 is targeted to be launched towards the end of March or early April. However, there is no official confirmation on the date so far.

“We are flying an earth observation satellite (EOS-02) on board the first development flight of SSLV,” Isro Chairman and Secretary in the Department of Space, K Sivan was quoted as saying by PTI.

Reports suggest that SSLV has been designed to meet “launch on-demand” requirements in a cost-effective manner for small satellites in a dedicated and rideshare mode.

SSLV is a three-stage all solid vehicle and has the capability to launch up to 500 kg satellite mass into 500 km low earth orbit (LEO) and 300 kg to Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

“By comparison, PSLV — the workhorse of ISRO — can take up to 1,750 kg payload into SSO of 600 km altitude,” PTI reported quoting Isro sources.

Apart from the capability to launch upto 500kg of satellite mass, the SSLV will have the option of multiple satellite mounting options for nano, micro and small satellites.

In the past, Isro chief Sivan had said SSLV would be an innovative vehicle that can be assembled in just 72 hours.

“Instead of 60 days (for building a PSLV), it (SSLV) will be assembled in three days; instead of 600 people (needed to build a PSLV), it (SSLV) will be done by six people”, he had told PTI

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Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot (21-metre) parachute. He also included the GPS coordinates for the mission’s headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Clark, a crossword hobbyist, came up with the idea two years ago. Engineers wanted an unusual pattern in the nylon fabric to know how the parachute was oriented during descent. Turning it into a secret message was “super fun”, he said Tuesday.

"These videos and these images are the stuff of our dreams."@NASAJPL Entry, Descent, and Landing lead Al Chen reflects on the ground-breaking nature of the videos @NASAPersevere captured during her #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/cyQN0zcWKv

— NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2021

Only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday’s landing, according to Clark. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference on Monday.

You might have seen photos from Mars, but have you seen high-speed video?

🤩 We captured our @NASAPersevere rover’s final minutes of descent and landing in a way never seen before. Take a look: https://t.co/CQQtlWAzNF pic.twitter.com/uR3dtocwLF

— NASA (@NASA) February 23, 2021

It took just a few hours for space fans to figure it out, Clark said. Next time, he noted, “I’ll have to be a little bit more creative.”

“Dare Mighty Things” – a line from President Theodore Roosevelt – is a mantra at JPL and adorns many of the centre’s walls. The trick was “trying to come up with a way of encoding it but not making it too obvious,” Clark said.

As for the GPS coordinates, the spot is 10 feet (3 metres) from the entrance to JPL’s visitor centre.

Another added touch not widely known until touchdown: Perseverance bears a plaque depicting all five of Nasa’s Mara rovers in increasing size over the years – similar to the family car decals seen on Earth.

Deputy project manager Matt Wallace promises more so-called hidden Easter eggs. They should be visible once Perseverance’s 7-foot (2-metre) arm is deployed in a few days and starts photographing under the vehicle, and again when the rover is driving in a couple weeks.

“Definitely, definitely should keep a good lookout,” he urged.

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Akira Endo, an infectious-diseases modeller at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, noticed the telltale signs of superspreading before such events became a staple of COVID-19 news coverage. One clue came from early investigations of cases in which a single person infected up to ten others. Another curious fact was that outside Wuhan, China, home to the first big outbreak, infected individuals weren’t immediately causing exponential local outbreaks, says Endo, who was one of the earliest to quantify the phenomenon.

This uneven, sputtering form of transmission, in which some individuals infect many people but most infect only a few, if any, is shared by the coronavirus’s cousins — SARS-CoV, which caused the deadly epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and MERS-CoV, the source of Middle East respiratory syndrome. A similar mode of transmission occurs with the pathogens that cause Ebola, smallpox and tuberculosis.

As the pandemic enters its second year — a time marked by news of fast-spreading variant of the virus — researchers are now more convinced than ever of the importance of superspreading in how the COVID-19 pandemic has played out, and how it will do so in the future. They have found that superspreading events are one of the main ways in which SARS-CoV-2 has gained a foothold in communities around the world, so far infecting more than 100 million people and killing more than 2.4 million. Without effective control measures, superspreading events might even become larger and more frequent as more-transmissible variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil push out other strains of the virus.

Why many countries failed at COVID contact-tracing — but some got it right

With a year’s worth of data, researchers have amassed ample evidence of some chief ingredients of superspreading events: prolonged indoor gatherings with poor ventilation. Activities such as singing and aerobic exercise, which produce many of the tiny infectious droplets that can be inhaled by other, are also common components.
But key questions remain. “We have some ideas of what factors are involved, but we still don’t know what is the main driver of the superspreading,” says Endo. Foremost are uncertainties about how much individual differences in people’s behaviour and biology matter — or can be controlled — and how best to target high-risk settings while keeping the cogs of society turning. Understanding the underlying factors that drive superspreading is crucial, says Lucy Li, an infectious-diseases modeller at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, California.

Experts say that we already know enough about the main factors of superspreading to use this phenomenon to our advantage. They are calling on policymakers to harness this knowledge to target control measures that will slow — or even stamp out — the pandemic. One of the most basic steps is closing crowded, indoor hotspots to prevent superspreading events. Researchers also recommend following Japan’s lead, by using backwards contact tracing to uncover superspreading events.

Explosive transmission

On average, each person who contracts SARS-CoV-2 will pass it on to between two and three others. But that tidy population-level estimate — known as the basic reproduction number — hides immense variation at the individual level. In reality, most infections arise from just a handful of people (see ‘Infection connections’). Endo’s early analysis estimated that around 10% of cases in countries outside China accounted for 80% of secondary infections up to the end of February2.

Estimates from places such as Israel, India, Hong Kong and other parts of China back up this observation. And although this pattern occurs in other infectious diseases, it is especially pronounced in COVID-19. Influenza, by contrast, has less individual variation, says Endo, and tends to spread more evenly.

The upshot of superspreading is that a few infections can rapidly blossom into a raging outbreak, says Li, who has studied the phenomenon in locations across the United States, Europe and China. “If you have a chain of superspreaders, then the cases could explode in a really short period of time,” she says.

New variants of SARS-CoV-2 that first attracted attention in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil could make superspreading worse, says Li. On the basis of a reported 50% higher transmission rate in a variant called B.1.1.73, “there will likely be an increase in both the frequency and size of superspreading events”, she says.

A team led by Bronwyn MacInnis, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, traced the impact of superspreading events using viral genome sequences. One superspreading event — a two-day international business conference held in Boston in late February 2020 — seeded more than 90 cases in attendees and their close contacts4. But the true impact was much greater, says MacInnis. She estimates that roughly 20,000 infections in Boston and its surrounding areas could be traced back to the conference.

Are there superspreaders?

Although a few people account for the lion’s share of transmission, researchers are still teasing out whether some people have biological factors that cause them to pass the virus to many others. For instance, some individuals naturally speak louder or expel more air when they exhale. So they would naturally emit more aerosols — the tiny virus-laden particles that travel through the air, says Christian Kähler, a physicist who studies aerosol production and dynamics at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich, Germany. Also, children and women tend to emit less than men owing to their smaller lung capacities, says Kähler.

But he and other researchers are sceptical about biological differences beyond that. “The belief in the super-emitter, that’s too simple,” he says.

Kähler thinks that a person’s behaviour — whether they fail to keep a safe distance from others during conversations, say, or refuse to wear a mask — is much more likely to heighten transmission risk than is the amount of aerosol they emit. Actions such as singing and shouting also boost that amount, he says. Estimates suggest that speaking loudly can increase the number of particles emitted by up to 50 times compared with normal speaking5, and singing can produce up to 99 times more, according to a study that has not been peer reviewed.

Individual variation in immune responses could affect how much virus a person produces, says virologist Dominic Dwyer at NSW Health Pathology, the state’s public pathology service, in Sydney, Australia. Differences in how young children’s immune systems respond to infection are thought to be why they catch and pass on the coronavirus less frequently than adults do. It’s possible that a spectrum of immune responses exists in adults, too, says Dwyer. At the far end of the spectrum, “if somebody is immune-suppressed, then generally they’re more likely to shed more virus for longer”, he says.

A study of aerosol emissions from nearly 200 healthy people, published this month, lends weight to the idea that biological differences could affect transmission of the virus. The measurements showed that 20% of the study participants accounted for 80% of the aerosol particles emitted, and that people who were older or overweight produced more aerosols than others.

But researchers using mathematical modelling to chart outbreaks say they don’t need to invoke biological differences to explain superspreading events. In a study9 that is yet to be peer reviewed, physicist Mara Prentiss at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her colleagues calculated how many viral particles were emitted by a single infected person at each of five superspreading events, the report said.

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In December, researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET) started conducting fusion experiments with tritium — a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The facility is a one-tenth-volume mock-up of the US$22-billion ITER project and has the same doughnut-shaped ‘tokomak’ design— the world’s most developed approach to fusion energy. It is the first time since 1997 that researchers have done experiments in a tokamak with any significant amount of tritium.

In June, JET will begin fusing even quantities of tritium and deuterium, another isotope of hydrogen. It is this fuel mix that ITER will use in its attempt to create more power from a fusion reaction than is put in — something that has never before been demonstrated. The reactor should heat and confine a plasma of deuterium and tritium such that the fusion of the isotopes into helium produces enough heat to sustain further fusion reactions.

“It’s very exciting now to, at last, get to the point where we can put into practice what we’ve been preparing all these years,” says Joelle Mailloux, who co-leads the scientific programme at JET. “We’re ready for it.”

Trial run

JET’s experiments will help scientists to predict how the plasma in the ITER tokamak will behave and to craft the mega-experiment’s operating settings. “It’s the closest we can get to achieving ITER conditions in present-day machines,” says Tim Luce, chief scientist at ITER, near Cadarache in France. The experiments are the culmination of around two decade’s work, says Luce. ITER will begin operations with low-power hydrogen reactions in 2025. But from 2035, it will run on a 50:50 mix of deuterium and tritium.

Both ITER and JET, based at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) near Oxford, use extreme magnetic fields to confine plasma into a ring and heat it until fusion occurs. The temperatures in JET can reach 100 million degrees, many times hotter than the Sun’s core.

The world’s last tokamak fusion experiments with tritium also took place at JET. The goal then was to hit peak power, and the facility succeeded in achieving a record ratio of power out to power in (known as a Q value) of 0.67. That record still stands today; 1 would be break-even. But this year, the aim is to sustain a similar level of fusion power for 5 seconds or more, to eke out as much data from the experiments as possible and to understand the behaviour of longer-lasting plasmas, the report said.

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A microphone did not work during the rover’s descent to the surface but it was able to capture audio once it landed on Mars.

“What you hear there 10 seconds in is an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the camera and microphone system on Perseverance.

The high-definition video clip, lasting three minutes and 25 seconds, shows the heat shield protecting the rover dropping away and the deployment of a massive red-and-white parachute.

It then shows the rover’s touchdown in Mars’ Jezero Crater in a cloud of dust.

“This is the first time we’ve ever been able to capture an event like the landing on Mars,” said Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“These are really amazing videos,” Watkins said. “We bingewatched them all weekend.”

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said the video of Perseverance’s descent is “the closest you can get to landing on Mars without putting on a pressure suit.”
Jessica Samuels, Perseverance’s surface mission manager, said the rover was operating as expected so far.
“I am happy to report that Perseverance is healthy and is continuing with activities as we have been planning them,” Samuels said.

She said the team was preparing for a flight by the rover’s small helicopter.

“The team is still evaluating,” she said. “We have not locked in a site yet.”

Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on the surface of Mars on Thursday.

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Chandrayaan-3 was earlier slated to be launched this year, 2021. However, the Covid-19 lockdown affected several projects of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) including Chandrayaan-3.

Isro chief K Sivan said Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched in 2022 and it will not have an orbiter unlike it’s predecessor, Chandrayaan-2.

“We are working on it. It is the same configuration like Chandrayaan-2 but it will not have an orbiter. The orbiter launched during Chandrayaan-2 will be used for Chandrayaan-3. With that we are working on a system and mostly the launch will be next year in 2022,” Sivan was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Earlier, Sivan had said that Isro was planning for landing at the same location as the Chandrayaan-2, the lander of which crash-landed on the moon surface just moments before it was supposed to soft-land.

Chandrayaan-2, aimed at landing a rover on unchartered Lunar South Pole, was launched on July 22, 2019 on board the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle.

However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7, 2019, crashing India’s dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.

Chandrayaan-3 is critical for ISRO as it will demonstrate India’s capabilities to make landing for further interplanetary missions.

It will be followed by another unmanned mission and the third leg is the main module, Sivan said.

K Sivan said ISRO is targeting December to launch the first unmanned mission under the Gaganyaan project.

Gaganyaan envisages to send three Indians to space by 2022. The four test pilots selected for the mission are currently undergoing training in Russia.

When asked about the launch of the third module of Gaganyaan — the manned mission — Sivan said, “A lot of technology needs to be demonstrated. We will decide on the time (of the manned mission) after checking whether all the technology is perfect.”

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The high-resolution still was extracted from a video taken by the descent stage of the spacecraft that had transported the rover from Earth. At that moment, the descent stage was using its six-engined jetpack to slow to a speed of about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) per hour as part of the “skycrane maneuver,” the final phase of landing.

“You can see the dust kicked up by the rover’s engines,” said Adam Steltzner, Perseverance’s chief engineer, who estimated the shot was taken about two meters (six feet) or so above the ground.

The three straight lines are mechanical bridles holding the rover underneath the descent stage, while the curly cable was used to transmit the data from the cameras to Perseverance. When the rover touched down, it cut the 21 foot-long (6.4 meter-long) cables, allowing the descent stage to fly away for its own safe landing.

The Best is Yet to Come.

This high-res image shot by @NASAPersevere while landing on Mars is part of a video taken by several cameras on board that is still being relayed to Earth and processed. https://t.co/uu8DlvlU2u #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/wVTbn81JvF

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) February 20, 2021

Another new image, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captures Perseverance as it was parachuting down through the atmosphere at hundreds of miles an hour.

Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter I carry, is working as expected. I’m currently charging it, but once I set it down, it’ll rely solely on its solar panels. If it survives the brutally cold Martian nights, the team will attempt flight. https://t.co/8pksN06ZwP #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/80kEoww0QU

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 20, 2021

Perseverance has also been able to upload its first high-resolution, color photo showing the flat region it landed on in the Jezero Crater, where a river and deep lake existed billions of years ago. A second color image shows one of the rover’s six wheels, with several honeycombed rocks thought to be more than 3.6 billion years old lying next to it.

“One of the questions we’ll ask first is whether these rocks represent a volcanic or sedimentary origin,” said Nasa deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan. Volcanic rocks in particular can be dated with very high precision once the samples are brought back to Earth on a future return mission — an exciting development from a planetary science perspective.
As the first images came in, “it was exhilarating, the team went wild,” said mission operations system manager Pauline Hwang.

I love rocks. Look at these right next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? Can’t wait to find out.#CountdownToMarshttps://t.co/7w3rbvbyoL pic.twitter.com/H3q1M0YJAd

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 19, 2021

“The science team immediately started looking at all those rocks and zooming in and going, ‘What is that!’ — it couldn’t have been better.”

The first two images were released on Thursday shortly after the rover landed, but they were lower resolution and in black-and-white because of the limited data rate available.

Nasa hopes to have more high-resolution photos and videos in the coming days, but doesn’t know yet if it has successfully recorded sound on Mars for the first time using microphones. That might be known later this weekend or early next week, said Steltzner.

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Nearly seven months after its takeoff to Mars, Nasa’s Perseverance rove made a historic landing on the red planet, becoming the fifth Nasa rover ever to touch down on Mars after Sojourner — twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity, the US space agency said.

“Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars,” flight controller Swati Mohan announced.

Behold! @NASAPersevere's first image after completing her #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/pBFNk62zfi

— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021

What’s next? “Perseverance will spend the coming years scouring for signs of ancient microbial life in a historic mission that will bring back samples from Mars to Earth and prepare the way for future human visitors”, Nasa said.

Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dkM9jE9I6X

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021

Meanwhile, Nasa scientists describe Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 US missions to Mars dating back to a 1965 Mariner fly-by.

The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week.

All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, traveling some 300 million miles in nearly seven months.

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