About Punnett square: 

• The Punnett Square is named after British geneticist Reginald Punnett.

How does it work?

• Along the top and side of the grid the possible genetic traits of one parent on one side and the other parent on the other side is listed.
• Then, you fill in the squares by combining the traits from each parent. Each square effectively represents a possible combination of traits that their offspring could inherit.
• It’s a simple way to visualise the probabilities of different traits showing up in the offspring.

Application:

• Punnett Squares are commonly used in biology to understand inheritance patterns, like when you learn about dominant and recessive genes in school.
• It is a useful tool that helps predict the variations and probabilities resulting from cross-breeding.
• It can also be used to understand the genetic traits in the offspring of animals, including humans.
• Researchers typically use them together with Mendelian inheritance.

Q1:What is Genetic engineering?

It refers to the direct manipulation of an organism's genome using advanced DNA technology. It involves the introduction, deletion or modification of genes within an organism's DNA to produce desirable traits.

Source: Punnett square: A genetics puzzle

What is White Rabbit (WR)?

• It is a technology developed at CERN, in collaboration with institutes and companies, to synchronize devices in the accelerators down to sub-nanoseconds and solve the challenge of establishing a common notion of time across a network.
• White Rabbit Switches provides sub-nanosecond synchronization accuracy, which formerly required dedicated hard-wired timing systems, with the flexibility and modularity of real-time Ethernet networks.
• It achieves sub-nanosecond accuracy in Ethernet based networks.
• A White Rabbit network may be used solely to provide timing and synchronization to a distributed electronic system, or to provide both timing and real-time data transfer.
• First used in 2012, the application of this fully open-source technology has quickly expanded outside the field of particle physics.
• In 2020, it was included in the worldwide industry standard known as Precision Time Protocol (PTP),governed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• A key distinctive feature of White Rabbit, is that it is open source and based on standards.
• Companies and institutes can therefore adapt it to their needs and incorporate it in their products and systems.
• White Rabbit is used in the finance sector as well as in many research infrastructures, and it is currently being evaluated for application in the future quantum internet.
• The technology could also play a key role in the future landscape of global time dissemination technologies, which currently rely heavily on satellites.

White Rabbit Collaboration

• It is a membership-based global community whose objective is to maintain a high-performance open-source technology that meets the needs of users and to facilitate its uptake by industry. 
• The WR Collaboration will provide dedicated support and training, facilitate R&D projects between entities with common interests and complementary expertise, and establish a testing ecosystem that fosters trust in products that incorporate the open-source technology.

Q1: What is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)?

The IIEEE is a professional association with its corporate office in New York City and its operations center in Piscataway, New Jersey. It was formed in 1963 from the amalgamation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. Today, it is the world's largest association of technical professionals with more than 420,000 members in over 160 countries around the world. Its objectives are the educational and technical advancement of electrical and electronic engineering, telecommunications, computer engineering and allied disciplines.

Source: CERN launches the White Rabbit Collaboration

About Contempt of Court

• Constitutional Provisions: Article 129 of the Constitution says that the Supreme Court shall be the ‘Court of Record’ and it has all the powers of such courts including the power to punish for contemptof itself. Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
• According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt.
• Civil contempt means wilful disobediencetoany judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
• On the other hand, criminal contempt means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matteror the doing of any other act whatsoever which
  • scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
  • prejudices, or interferes with, or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
  • interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
• A contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with both, provided that the accused may be discharged or the punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of the court.
• What is not contempt of court?

Fair and accurate reporting of judicial proceedings will not amount to contempt of court. Nor is any fair criticismon the merits of a judicial order after a case is heard and disposed of.

Q1: What is the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)?

The CAT had been established under Article 323-A of the Constitution to adjudicate disputes and complaints with respect to the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or other authorities under the control of the Government. In addition to the Ministries and Departments of Central Government, the Government has notified about 214 organizations under Section 14(2) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, to bring them within the jurisdiction of the CAT from time to time.

Source: CAT contempt of court orders appealable only before Supreme Court: Allahabad High Court

About Khula

• 'Khula' is a practice within Islamic law that empowers Muslim women to unilaterally seek separation from their husbands.
• It is expressly mentioned in the Quran.
• This is designed to safeguard women's rights and operate within the parameters of Islamic law.
• The process involves the wife initiating the divorce by formally requesting it from the court, providing a valid reason such as incompatibility, abuse, or neglect.
• In the 'Khula' process, there is also the possibility of the womanreturning the 'Mehr' or reaching a financial settlement with her husband as part of the agreement for ending the marriage.
• Following a 'Khula' divorce, the husband assumesresponsibility for the education and financial support of the children.

What is Talaq?

• 'Talaq' occurs when the husband initiates the divorce.
• According to Muslim law, once a man pronounces 'Talaq,' the marriage is immediately terminated.
• But unlike Khula, wherein a Muslim woman needs to formally give a reason for the divorce, in Talaq, a Muslim man can divorce his wife with or without any cause, and there is no specific procedure for it.

After taking a 'Talaq', a Muslim man has to repay his former wifeher dowry and property, if any, owned by her.

Q1: What is Triple Talaq?

It is a form of divorce that was practiced in Islam, whereby a Muslim man could divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq three times. The man need not cite any reason for the divorce and the wife need not be present at the time of pronouncement of talaq.

Source: Supreme Court to examine whether Muslim women have right to unilateral divorce through Khula

About OptiDrop Platform

• It is an innovative microfluidic chip-based platform that simplifies and reduces the cost of studying single cells.
• It employs a novel approach that enables precise and cost-effective analysis of single cells encapsulated in droplets.
• The platform’s unique features include live data visualisation, a smaller data footprint, and a ‘closed’ system design that prevents external contamination.
• This research was supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Council (BIRAC), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Applications:

• This cutting-edge technology has potential applications in diagnostics, therapeutics, agriculture, and animal health.
• It helps in studying the impact on individual cells during a drug screen, environment control (water contamination counter), detection and sorting of CAR-T cells in immuno-oncotherapeutics, selection of CRISPR-modifiedsingle cells and selection of high-efficiency clones in single-cell genomics

What is C-CAMP?

• It is an initiative supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India is a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in the life sciences since 2009.

It is mandated to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. It has created and fostered an entrepreneur-friendly culture in and around the Academic/Research environment through its involvement in Seed Funding Schemes for Startups.

Q1: What is a Microfluidic chip?

It is referred to as lab-on-a-chip devices, which are miniature platforms that manipulate and analyze small volumes of fluids. These chips integrate various functions, such as mixing, pumping, and sensing, onto a compact substrate, enabling precise control over minute amounts of liquids.

Source: Bengaluru’s C-CAMP develops platform for studying single cells cost-effectively

About Mother of Dragons' Comet

• It is officially known as Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
• It is a ‘Halley-type’ comet with an orbital period of roughly 71 years and a nucleus approximately 30 km wide.
• Composition: Itis composed of ice, dust, and rocky material. When it approaches the Sun, heat causes the ice inside the comet to turn from solid to gas.
• It is classified as a Jupiter-family comet, meaning its orbit is influenced by Jupiter's gravitational pull.
• It typically reaches perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around the orbit of Mars and can become visible to observers on Earth during its close approach.
• Its closest approach to Earth will occur in June 2024.

Key facts about Comets

• Comets are ancient cosmic icebergs. They are roughly 4.6 billion years old and formed at the same time as the Sun, Earth and the other planets.
• They are made of dust and ice, which partly goes from solid to gas when the comet is warmed by the Sun.

Related Topics:

• Comet Nishimura
• Green Comet
• What is an Asteroid?

Q1:What is Halley's Comet?

It is also known as 1P/Halley, is the most well known comet in the Solar System. As a periodic (or short-term comet) it has an orbital period that is less than 200 years, and has therefore been observed more than once by people here on Earth over the centuries.

Source: Mother of Dragons comet visible in the skies. All you need to know