SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
World’s First Robot Lawyer ROSS
US-based law firm BakerHostetler in May 2016 hired the world’s first robot lawyer ROSS to assist the company and its various teams in legal research. The law firm will licence artificial lawyer ROSS for use in its Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights team.ROSS has been built by ROSS Intelligence and is built upon IBM cognitive computer Watson.With the support of Watson’s, lawyers can ask ROSS their research question. The ROSS reads through the law, gathers evidence, draws inferences and returns highly relevant, evidence-based answers. ROSS also monitors the law around the clock to notify users of new court decisions that can affect a case.
India Successfully Test-Fires Advanced Interceptor Missile
India on 15 May successfully test fired an indigenously developed Advanced Air Defence interceptor missile, Ashwin. It was launched from the complex of Abdul Kalam Island (formerly known as Wheeler Island) off Odisha coast. The advanced version of low altitude supersonic ballistic interceptor missile was fired at a ballistic missile, a modified version of Prithvi weapon system. It was test fired to validate various parameters of the interceptor in flight mode. Ashwin is capable of destroying any incoming hostile ballistic missile. Indigenously developed by DRDO, the ADD interceptor missile is a 7.5-meter long single-stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with a navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator. It weighs around 1.2 tonnes and has a diameter of less than 0.5 meter.
China Launches Yaogan-30 Remote Sensing Satellite
China has successfully launched Yaogan-30 remote sensing satellite into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) using the Long March-2D rocket. The rocket was launched on 15 May from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in Gobi desert in northwest China’s Gansu Province. It was the 227th flight of the Long March rocket series and was also the second orbital launch from the Jiuquan Satellite launch Center in 2016. The Yaogan-30 satellite was built by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). It is part of second generation of the Yaogan series inaugurated in 2008. The first Yaogan satellite was launched in 2006.
China Bug Declared World’s Longest Insect
A bug over half a metre long discovered in southern China has been declared the world’s longest insect. A stick insect measuring 62.4 centi-metres found two years ago in the southern province of Guangxi has broken the record for length amongst the world’s 807,625 known insects. The previous record-holder was a Malaysian 56.7-centimetre-long stick insect discovered in 2008 and now on display in London’s Natural History Museum. Tipped off by locals about a huge beast half a metre long but as thick as a human index finger, scientist Zhao Li had been on the hunt for the bug for six years before he finally glimpsed and captured one.
Scientists Create World’s Smallest Thermometer From DNA
Scientists have developed world’s Smallest (Nano) Thermometer using DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) structures that can fold and unfold at specifically defined temperature functions. It was developed by the scientists at the University of Montreal and the study report in this regard was published in the journal Nano Letters. The world’s smallest thermometer is 20,000 times smaller than a human hair and is fully programmable. It was developed using basic idea of the DNA molecules which unfold when heated to certain temperatures. RNA, proteins and other bio-molecules in the DNA fold and unfold. With this idea researchers engineered DNA structures that are capable of folding and unfolding at specific temperatures making it nano-scale temperature signalling device.