Test: Current Affairs October- 2020 - UPSC MCQ

Scientists are exploring the use of nanobots for many healthcare uses, not only for fighting cancer but also to unblock blood vessels in hard to reach areas, taking biopsies or measuring the level of certain chemicals in otherwise inaccessible areas of the body. A nanobot is a device typically ranging from 0.1-10 micrometres (a micrometre is one-millionth of a metre), roughly the size of a red blood cell or smaller. This is too small to add a traditional robotic element like a motor, computer chip or camera.

Phage therapy or viral phage therapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections. Bacteriophages, known as phages, are a form of viruses. Phages attach to bacterial cells and inject a viral genome into the cell. The viral genome effectively replaces the bacterial genome, halting the bacterial infection.

torrefaction that can convert rice stubble into 'bio-coal'.

The technology involves heating straw, grass, sawmill residue and wood biomass to 250 degrees Celsius - 350 degrees Celsius. This changes the elements of the biomass into 'coal-like' pellets. These pellets can be used for combustion along with coal for industrial applications like steel and cement production.

There is not enough robust scientific evidence to prove that CBD oil can safely and effectively treat cancer.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act) outlaws the recreational use of cannabis.

CBD oil manufactured under a licence issued by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 can be legally used. However, the use of cannabis as a medicine is not much prevalent in India.

Symptoms of the disease include fever, sweats, malaise, anorexia, headache and muscle pain. While some signs and symptoms can last for long periods of time, others may never go away. These include recurrent fevers, arthritis, swelling of the testicles and scrotum area, swelling of the heart, neurologic symptoms, chronic fatigue, depression and swelling of the liver or spleen.

Human to human transmission of the virus is rare.

African Swine Fever (AFS): Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, an outbreak of ASF killed thousands of pigs in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. ASF is a severe viral disease that affects wild and domestic pigs, typically resulting in an acute haemorrhagic fever. The disease has a case fatality rate (CFR) of almost 100 per cent. Its transmission routes include direct contact with an infected or wild pig (alive or dead), indirect contact through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste, feed or garbage, or through biological vectors such as ticks.

Various CPS applications can be found in almost all human life areas, such as manufacturing systems, smart grids, robotics, transportation systems, medical devices, military, home area networks and smart buildings, etc.

Hospitals in Tamil Nadu are using Machine Learning algorithms to detect diabetic retinopathy and address the challenge of shortage of eye doctors. For the COVID-19 response, an AI-enabled Chatbot was used by MyGov for ensuring communications.

AI-based applications have helped biopharmaceutical companies to significantly shorten the preclinical drug identification and design process from several years to a few days or months.

AI-based solutions on water management, crop insurance and pest control are also being developed. Technologies like image recognition, drones, and automated intelligent monitoring of irrigation systems can help farmers kill weeds more effectively, harvest better crops and ensure higher yields.

ICRISAT has developed an AI-power sowing app, which utilises weather models and data on local crop yield and rainfall to more accurately predict and advise local farmers on when they should plant their seeds.

An AI-based flood forecasting model implemented in Bihar is now being expanded to cover India's whole.

Since its launch on July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, taking its place in the fleet of "Great Observatories."

The researchers have also shown that this type of gene editing can correct sickle cell anaemia, a genetic blood disorder.

The MoU will enable ZSI to participate at the global-level programmes like Bioscan and Planetary Biodiversity Mission.

ZSI is a subordinate organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. (ANI).

DNA barcoding, a methodology for rapidly and accurately identifying species by sequencing a short segment of standardised gene regions and comparing individual sequences to a reference database.

DNA barcoding is increasingly used to obtain taxonomic information about unidentified organisms.

Anti-radiation missiles are designed to detect, track and neutralise the adversary's radar, communication assets and other radio frequency sources, which are generally part of their air defence systems.

Rudram is an air-to-surface missile, designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Once the Rudram missile locks on the target, it can strike accurately even if the radiation source switches off in between. The missile has an operational range of more than 100 km (up to 200 km depending upon the launch conditions).

Significantly, Bennu hasn't undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years ago, and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system. It is also relatively close to the Earth.

Because of Bennu's age, it is likely to contain material containing molecules present when life first formed on Earth.

The scientific interest in asteroids is due largely to their status as the remnant debris from the inner solar system formation process. Because some of these objects can collide with the Earth, asteroids are also important for having significantly modified the Earth's biosphere in the past. They will continue to do so in the future. Also, asteroids offer a source of volatiles and an extraordinarily rich supply of minerals that can be exploited to explore and colonise our solar system in the twenty-first century.

Scientists study asteroids to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun since asteroids were formed simultaneously as other objects in the solar system. Another reason for tracking them is

to look for asteroids that might be potentially hazardous.

Nanotechnology Applications in:

• Medicine: Researchers are developing customised nanoparticles the size of molecules that can deliver drugs directly to diseased cells in your body.

• Electronics: increase the capabilities of electronics devices while we reduce their weight and power consumption.

• Food: Nanotechnology is impacting several aspects of food science, from how food is grown to how it is packaged. Companies are developing nanomaterials that will make a difference not only in the taste of food but also in food safety and the health benefits

• Fuel cells: Nanotechnology is being used to reduce the cost of catalysts used in fuel cells

• Better Air Quality: Nanotechnology can improve catalysts' performance to transform vapours escaping from cars or industrial plants into harmless gasses.

• Better Water Quality: Nanotechnology is being used to develop solutions to different problems in water quality.

It has a sensitivity of 96 per cent and specificity of 98 per cent, which means that the test can detect positive and negative cases both up to 96 or 98 per cent of the time.

The test uses indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technology. The world's first diagnostic test uses specially adapted Cas9 protein to detect the virus successfully.