France to slap penalties on plastic next year

• France plans to introduce a penalty system that would increase the costs of consumer goods with packaging made of non-recycled plastic, as part of a pledge to use only recycled plastic nationwide by 2025.
• Products with recycled plastic packaging could cost up to 10% less, while those containing non-recycled plastic up to 10% more.

NASA launches probe to ‘touch’ Sun

• NASA on Aug 12 launched a $1.5 billion spacecraft toward the Sun on a historic mission to protect the earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms viz Parker Solar Probe
• The mission will give scientists a better understanding of solar wind and geomagnetic storms
• The unmanned spacecraft’s mission is to get closer than any human-made object ever to the centre of our solar system, plunging into the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, during a seven-year mission.
• The probe is guarded by an ultra-powerful heat shield that can endure unprecedented levels of heat, and radiation.
• The sunlight is expected to heat the shield to around 1,371 degrees Celsius. Yet the inside of the spacecraft should stay at just 29 degree Celsius.
• The probe is set to make 24 passes through the corona collecting data.
• NASA has billed the mission as the first spacecraft to “touch the Sun”.

The spacecraft is the only NASA probe in history to be named after a living person — 91-year-old solar physicist Eugene Parker, who first described the solar wind in 1958.

ISRO set to launch its TV channel-Space agency to promote scientific temper in country

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will have an year-long Vikram Sarabhai centenary celebration starting in August 2019 to honour the visionary scientist and legendary founding father.
• Sarabhai, the architect of the Indian space programme, the first ISRO chief and renowned cosmic ray scientist, was born on August 12, 1919.
• ISRO’s tributes to Sarabhai start with naming the first Indian moon landing spacecraft of the Chandrayaan-2 mission ‘Vikram’. The mission is planned for early 2019.
• In a few months’ time, it plans to roll out a dedicated ISRO TV channel, showcasing space applications, developments and science issues, targeting young viewers and people in remote areas in their language.

Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR­IGIB)-Hepcidin hormone

• Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR­IGIB) have successfully discovered a pathway that regulates hepcidin hormone production.
• The hepcidin hormone, released by the liver, is a central regulator of iron in the body.
• Dysregulation of the hormone leads to anaemia on one hand and excess iron accumulation in organs such as liver and heart leading to multi­organ failure.
• Hemochromatosis is a rare
• Hereditary disease that is characterised by iron accumulation or overload in various tissues.