Marine Heatwaves
Context:
The marine heatwaves (MHWs) were linked to the death of more than 30,000 fish off the Western coast of Australia in January,2025.
More on the news:
- The MHWs began in September 2024 and are still ongoing in the region.
- A marine heat wave is an extreme weather event. It occurs when the surface temperature of a particular region of the sea rises to 3 or 4 degrees Celsius above the average temperature for at least five days. They can last for weeks, months or even years.
- Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are events characterized by prolonged anomalously warm ocean surface or subsurface temperatures, that further cause substantial ecological and economic consequences—have increased worldwide in recent decades.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)
Context:
Recently, an Indore girl had a sudden cardiac arrest while dancing on stage.
What is Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)?
- Itis a genetic disease that causes the heart muscle to thicken.
- The heart’s main pumping chamber, called the left ventricle, might stiffen up too. This makes it hard for the heart to relax. So, one gets irregular heartbeats, which disrupt the heart’s electrical system, shutting it down.
Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP)
Context:
The government is planning to revive the Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) organised a brainstorming session on “Conceptual Framework of Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP) Measurement” on February 10.
About Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP):
- The GDKP is a proposed metric to supplement Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by capturing the contribution of knowledge-driven sectors, intellectual assets, and innovation to the economy.
- Unlike GDP, which primarily measures economic output through production and consumption, GDKP aims to assess the impact of knowledge on economic and social development.
Einstein Ring
Context:
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope discovered a rare Einstein ring around an elliptical galaxy called NGC 6505, located 590 million light-years away.
What is an Einstein ring?
An Einstein ring is a ring of light around a form of dark matter, galaxy or cluster of galaxies. It is essentially an example of gravitational lensing.
- Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon which occurs when a massive celestial body (for ex galaxy or cluster of galaxies) creates a gravitational field which distorts and amplifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight.
These rings help scientists investigate dark matter, which has never been detected but is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe.
High-Energy Cosmic Neutrino
Context:
Recently, Scientists have detected a High-energy cosmic neutrino using an under construction observatory deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily, Italy.
About High Energy Cosmic Neutrino:.
High-energy cosmic neutrinos arise from particle collisions occurring in violent events such as a black hole absorbing infalling matter or bursts of gamma rays during the explosive deaths of stars.
- They also can be produced by interactions between high-energy cosmic rays and the universe’s background radiation.
Bombay Blood Group
Context:
A 30-year-old woman with the incredibly rare ‘Bombay’ (hh) blood group recently underwent a successful kidney transplant in India.
More on the news:
- The Bombay blood group, also known as hh or Oh blood group, is an extremely rare blood type first identified in Mumbai in 1952 by Y.M. Bhende.
- The main distinction between the Bombay blood group and the common ABO blood groups lies in the presence or absence of the H antigen.
- In Bombay blood group individuals, the gene responsible for producing the H antigen is either mutated or absent, preventing the formation of both A and B antigens.
Foetus in foetu
Context:
In January 2025, doctors at the Buldhana District Women’s Hospital in Maharashtra detected a rare case of “foetus in foetu” in a pregnant woman.
What is Foetus in foetu?‘
- Foetus in foetu’ is a foetus-like mass developed within the body of the other foetus in a monozygotic twin pregnancy.
- Basically, one twin is very underdeveloped and enwrapped inside the body of the other twin, so much so that the pregnancy is considered a singleton pregnancy.