Thallium

Recently two women in Mahagaon village of Maharashtra have killed 5 family members by lacing their food with Thallium.

• Thallium is soft, silvery-white, 0dourless, tasteless and low-melting element that can be used as a murder weapon.
• It was discovered by William Crookes in 1861.
• Atomic number – 81, Group – 13, Period – 6, Block – p.
• Thallium sulphate is a rodent killer.
• The use of thallium is limited as it is a toxic element.
• Thallium is used by the electronics industry in photoelectric cells.
• It has no known biological role.
• It is found in several ores. One of these is pyrites, which is used to produce sulphuric acid and is mainly obtained as a by-product of copper, zinc and lead refining.
• Thallium is also present in manganese nodules found on the ocean floor.

Kasanka Colony

World’s biggest bat colony gathers in Kasanka Colony Zambia every year in the month of October and this year, Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to count the bat population.

• Kasanka Colony is the largest bat colony in the world and the migration is the planet’s largest mammal migration.
• Kasanka Colony is located in the Kasanka national park of Zambia, Africa.
• The bats (Eidolon helvum) arrive at Kasanka every year around October. The numbers swell rapidly until they peak in November.
• Large colonies indicate a healthier, more food-rich landscape, and are also key to maintaining the collective behaviour of migration.
• The Kasanka colony of straw coloured fruit bats is the largest (by weight) in the world by at least an order of magnitude.
• The African straw-coloured fruit bat is the only long-distance migrant fruit bat in the African continent.
• The average estimate for the Kasanka colony for 5 days in November 2019 was 857,233 bats.
• This year the authorities have decided to film the bat emergence in a standard way, count the bats in each video.
• The key was collecting data from all sides of the colony so that the authorities can surround the bat forest with 9 GoPro cameras, aimed straight upwards and then extrapolate a total number.

Avian Flu

Scientists have recently detected the presence of avian flu for the 1st time in the Antarctic region, raising concerns for remote populations of penguins and seals.

• Avian influenza is a highly contagious viral disease that affects both domestic and wild birds.
• Migratory wild birds, especially waterfowls, are the natural host and reservoir of avian influenza viruses.
• The subtypes of the avian influenza includes H5N1, H5N3, H5N8 and few others whose genetic characteristics rapidly evolve.
• The strains of avian influenza viruses are generally be classified into 2 categories:
  1. Low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) that causes little or no clinical signs.
  2. High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) that can cause severe clinical signs and possible high mortality rates.
• The ongoing outbreak of HPAI H5N1 was first reported in 2022.
• The outbreaks were reported in the Northern Hemisphere’s wildlife, especially seabirds.
• In 2022 and 2023, HPAI H5N1 spread rapidly in South America.
• In 2023 the virus spread along the Pacific coast of South America, affecting populations in Peru and Chile.
• It also caused significant outbreaks in marine mammals, leading to the deaths of 20,000 South American sea lions.
• Recently HPAI was detected in brown skua (a predatory seabird) populations on Bird Island, South Georgia, making it the first known case in the Antarctic region.

Plate tectonics

Recent research suggests that Venus, Earth’s sister planet may have been home to microbial life billions of years ago due to plate tectonic activities.

• Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements.
• It was proposed by the Alfred Wegener.
• The concept of plate tectonics was formulated in the 1960s.
• Plate tectonics gave rise to oceans, continents and mountains, along with playing a critical role in nourishing life on Earth.
• According to the theory, Earth has a rigid outer layer, known as the lithosphere.
• The lithosphere is typically about 100 km thick and overlies a plastic (moldable, partially molten) layer called the asthenosphere.
• Due to the convection of the asthenosphere and lithosphere, the plates move relative to each other at different rates, from 2 to 15 centimetres per year.
• This interaction of tectonic plates is responsible for many different geological formations such as
  • Himalaya mountain range in Asia,
  • East African Rift and
  • San Andreas Fault in California, United States.
• The theory of plate tectonics is based on a broad synthesis of geologic and geophysical data.
• Plate tectonics may have been instrumental in creating its carbon dioxide- and nitrogen-rich atmosphere on Venus.
• Due to the presence of Earth-like tectonic plates on ancient Venus, it could have been home to microbial life billions of years ago.

Lignite

The provisional statistics was released by Union Ministry of Coal which indicate that Tamil Nadu was the largest producer of lignite in 2022-2023.

• Lignite deposits in India are primarily located in the tertiary sediments in the Southern & Western parts of the peninsular shield, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Pudhucherry, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir.
• Lignite is also available in minor quantities in Odisha, Kerala & West Bengal.
• The overall production of lignite declined 5.27% in 2022-23 from 2021-22 per the provisional statistics released by Union Ministry of Coal.
• Tamil Nadu was the largest producer of lignite in 2022-23.
• Tamil Nadu accounted for 49.97% of the production, followed by Gujarat at 27.37% and Rajasthan at 22.67%.
• In terms of export of lignite, Tamil Nadu had the highest share of 51.61%, followed by Gujarat at 26.27% and Rajasthan at 22.12%.
• Tamil Nadu accounts for about 82% of India’s lignite reserves.
• Tamil Nadu has lignite reserves of 33,309.53 million tonnes. At present, only a small percentage of the total lignite reserves have been exploited.