Science and Technology News Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The personality was Elon Musk.

In January 2021 Elon Musk announced that he would give USD 100 million as a prize for the best carbon capture technology. It became the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, run by the XPRIZE Foundation, to reward methods that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere or oceans and store it permanently.

Bill Gates funds climate technology through Breakthrough Energy, which makes him the likeliest trap, but the USD 100 million carbon capture prize was Musk's. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Ma made no such announcement.

Answer: D

The doctors were from the United States of America.

In January 2022 surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a heart from a genetically modified pig into a living patient, David Bennett, the first such operation in the world. He lived for about two months after the surgery.

India, the United Kingdom and Switzerland were not where this first transplant took place.

Answer: B

Vanadium was found in Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2021 the Geological Survey of India reported promising concentrations of vanadium in the Depo and Tamang areas of Papum Pare district, Arunachal Pradesh. It was described as the first significant find of the metal in India, which until then relied on recovering it as a by-product.

Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland were not the sites of this discovery.

Answer: A

The key's answer is France.

ISRO and the French space agency CNES signed an agreement on cooperation in human spaceflight for the Gaganyaan mission. Under it France offered support such as training for India's flight physicians and mission control staff and the supply of space medicine and other equipment.

The United Kingdom and Japan are not partners in such an agreement. Of the four options, France is the country whose space agency signed a Gaganyaan cooperation agreement with ISRO.

Answer: B

It was inaugurated on 18th September, 2018.

The Space Technology Incubation Centre at NIT Agartala was the first of six such centres ISRO planned with academic institutions, to support start-ups and research on space technology. ISRO Chairman K. Sivan opened it on 18 September 2018, joining online from Bengaluru, with Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb present in Agartala.

The 16th, 20th and 21st of September are near misses; the centre was opened on the 18th.

Answer: B

The telescope was Kepler.

In 2019 researchers re-analysing data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, gathered during its extended K2 mission, found 18 previously overlooked Earth-sized exoplanets. They used a new search method sensitive to smaller planets that earlier analyses had missed.

Hubble and Spitzer are also NASA space telescopes, and Herschel was a European infrared observatory, but the discovery came from Kepler's data.

Answer: C

The robot was Bumble.

NASA's Astrobee system has three free-flying cube-shaped robots, named Bumble, Honey and Queen, built to help astronauts on the International Space Station. In June 2019 Bumble became the first of them to fly under its own power in space, using small electric fans for propulsion.

'The Terminator' and 'Slug Bot' are not Astrobee robots, and Leonardo is not one of the three either.

Answer: D

The robot was sent by Russia.

In August 2019 Russia launched the humanoid robot Fedor (Skybot F-850) on an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, where it was tested on tasks such as handling tools. It was Russia's first humanoid robot in space.

Japan had earlier sent the small talking robot Kirobo, not a life-sized one in 2019, and neither China nor the USA sent the August 2019 robot.

Answer: B

Zigzag technology is used for reducing air pollution from the brick kiln industry.

In a zigzag kiln the bricks are stacked so that hot air travels through them in a zigzag path rather than a straight line. The longer, more turbulent path gives more complete combustion, so the kiln uses less coal and gives off much less smoke and particulate matter than a traditional fixed-chimney kiln. Indian regulators have pushed brick kilns, a major source of winter pollution around Delhi, to convert to it.

It has nothing to do with traffic management, bitcoin transfers or groundwater conservation.

Answer: B

The 'My Circle' app was launched by Bharti Airtel.

Airtel launched My Circle in 2018 with the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) as a free women's safety app. In an emergency the user can send an SOS alert with her location to chosen emergency contacts.

Reliance (Jio), BSNL and Vodafone are competing operators; none of them launched this app.