14 APRIL 2014

Ø  The decommissioned submarine INS Vagli  arrives at Mamallapuram. The Vela-class diesel-electric submarine was decommissioned in December 2010 after it served the Navy for 36 years. It will be converted into Museum. Visakhapatnam is the first city in the country to have a similar facility, where INS Kurusura has been converted into a submarine museum. However, the Tamil Nadu government hopes to make INS Vagli a different exhibit that showcases the naval history of the State. Mamallapuram itself is an ancient port city. The submarine will be converted into a museum by removing certain items and providing air-conditioning, ventilation and lighting before installing models of warship and others items in the vessel.

Ø  In another fortnight, India will be conducting one of the most complex interceptor missile tests. For the first time a state-of-the-art interceptor missile at supersonic speed will seek to engage and destroy an incoming target missile at a very high altitude of 120-140 km over the Bay of Bengal. Entirely new interceptor and target missiles have been developed by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the upcoming engagement, to be conducted in exo-atmosphere (altitude above 40-50 km) on April 27 or 28. The test was originally planned to be conducted in November, 2013 but had been delayed since then.

Ø  Astronauts will now turn into cosmic gardeners and grow lettuce in space as United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is all set to send the largest ever plant growth chamber to the International Space Station (ISS). It will launch the Vegetable Production System aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Red, blue, and green light emitting diodes (LEDs) will help sustain the vegetables, and the plant chamber itself can grow to 11.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep.

Ø  Scientists have, for the first time, injected living cockroaches with tiny DNA computers that travel in the body to dispense drugs. The DNA nanobots (robots created to the scale of nanometre) travel around the insect’s body and interact with each other, as well as the insect’s cells. When they uncurl, they can dispense drugs carried in their folds.