Test: Science & Technology - 2 - UPSC MCQ

Near field communication is a set of communication protocols enabling two electronic devices. This device is used in contactless payment, credit card and electronic ticket using encryption when sending sensitive information.

A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy by using hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The products of this reaction are water electricity and heat.

The Genetic engineering Approval Committee functions as a statutory body under the Enviroment Protection Act 1986 of the Ministry of Environment & Forest.

Targeted drug deliver is made possible by nano-technology. Medical nano-technology can largely contribute to genetic therapy and improvement. Diseases can be easily treated if approached at the genetic level. So instead of treating diseases based on the symptoms, nanotechnology will help medical practitioners treat the problem by looking at the root cause.

Biometrics identification is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. Biometric identifiers are the distinctive, measurable characteristics used to label individuals. Biometric identifiers are categorized as physiological versus behavioral characteristics. Physiological Biometric identifiers are fingerprint, palm veins, face recognition, DNA, palm print, hand geometry, iris recognition, retina and odour/scent. Behavioural identifiers are typing rhythm, gait and voice.

Cytoplasmic male sterility and gene silencing are new technologies specifically developed for production of transgenic plants.

Cassini–Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn. Therefore, option 1 is wrong, this eliminates option (a), (c) and (d). Now we are left with final answer B only 2 and 3. MESSENGER  is a robotic NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury. Voyager 1 (September 1977) and voyager 2 (Aug 1977) were launched to study the outer Solar System.

Photovoltaics' is a technology that generates electricity by direct conversion of light into electricity, while 'Solar Thermal' is a technology that utilizes the Sun's rays to generate heat which is further used in electricity generation process. Both Photovoltaic cells and solar thermal generate direct current (DC). India has a manufacturing base for both.

Recombinant DNA are DNA sequences, which result from bringing genetic material form different sources. The genes can be transferred between any species, that is across differetn species of plants, from animals to plants and from microorganisms to higher organisms.

Mycorrhizal associations play vital role in plant nutrition. They greatly increase the efficiency of nutrient and water uptake; enhance resistance to pathogens, and buffer plant species against several environmental stresses and drought resistance. Mycorrhizal also improve plant growth and survival in soils contaminated by heavy metals.

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a two dimentional and hexagonal lattice. It is about 100 times stronger than steel.  It conducts heat and electricity very efficiently, so it is used in semiconductor, electronics, battery energy etc.

Except 3rd, all the statements are correct.

3rd and 4th statements are correct hence the option (c) is right.

Stem cells can be used for medical therapies also can be used for screening new drugs.

Thorium fuel generates no new bomb-usable material in the waste profile; the waste consists of the radioisotope Uranium-233, or U233, which is virtually impossible to weaponize/ Thorium fuel will generate more energy per unit of mass than uranium fuel by a factor of approximately 30. Thorium is four times more abundant in nature than uranium, and is widely distributed throughout the Earth's crust. All statements in this question are correct.

A virtual private network provides a private network across a public network ensuring security by establishing an encrypted layered tunneling protocol.

Statement 3 is incorrect as the thickness of BD is 1.1 mm while that of DVD is 1.2 mm. The difference lies in capacity so statement 2 is correct. As far as statement 1 is concerned.

LED bulbs are grouped in clusters with diffuser lenses which have broadened the applications for LED use in the home.

Bluetooth networking transmits data via low-power radio waves. It communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (actually between 2.402 GHz and 2.480 GHz, to be exact). Wi-Fi -IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands.

Microbial fuel cells transform organic wastes directly into electricity through microbially catalyzed electrochemical reactions.

Bt Brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created by inserting a gene cry1Ac from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into Brinjal. This is said to give the Brinjal plant resistance against lepidopteran insects like the Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer Leucinodes orbonalis and Fruit Borer Helicoverpa armigera.

The oil zapper feeds on hydrocarbon compounds present in crude oil and oily sludge (a hazardous hydrocarbon waste generated by oil refineries) and converts them into harmless CO₂ and water. The scientific term for the above-mentioned process is bioremediation.

More than 3.8 billion people worldwide used the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) family of technologies as of May 2009. GSM is the most widely usesd wireless technology in the world. GSM has strainghtforward, cost-effective migration path to 3G through GPRS, EDGE and UMTS-HSPA, as well as beyond 3G via the HSPA Evolution (HSPA+). LTE and System Architecture Evolution (SAE) initiatives.

In order to under go LASIK procedure one should be at least 18 years old, as the vision of people younger than 18 usually continues to change.

Microwaves are electromagnetic wages with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz) and 300 GHz. A microwave oven passes (nonionizing microwage radiation (at a frequency near 2.45 GHz) through food, causing dielectric heating by absorption of energy in the water, fats and sugar contained in the food. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have many applications: setting up networks, printing, or transferring files. They also work in the given frequency range. All cordless sold in the US use the 1.9 GHz or 2.4-GHz bands.

Golden rice is genetically modified rice. It contains Beta carotene and other carotenoids. Provitamin A (Beta carotene) which upon ingestion converted to Vitamin A in the body.

The CyberKnife VSI Robotic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumours anywhere in the body including the Prostate, Lung, Brain, Spine, Liver, Pancreas and Kidney. The treatment delivering beams of high-dose radiation to tumours with extreme accuracy offers new hope to patients worldwide.

Oceansat-2 continues with the service of oceansat-1. The main objectives of oceansat-2 are to study surface winds and ocean surface strata, observation of chlorophyll concentration, monitoring of phytoplanktion blooms, study of atmospheric aerosol and suspended sediments in wath.

Bhuvan, is a software application which allows users to explore a 2D/3D representation of the surface of the Earth. ISRO launched the beta version of its web-based GIS tool, Bhuvan, on August 12, 2009. Bhuvan offers detailed imagery of Indian locations compared to other Virtual Globe Software, with spatial resolutions ranging up to 1 metre.