Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Science and Technology) – August 6, 2020

Until six years ago, such materials did not exist but today, researchers believe that they hold the key to‘post-silicon’ electronics.

• VdW materials are made of piles of ultra-thin layers that are held together by weak van der Waals bonds, which arise when atoms are in close proximity.
• The success of graphene — a well known vdW material — stimulated scientists to look for other 2D crystals, where layers can be changed, added or removed in order to introduce new physical properties such as magnetism.
• Controlling magnetism, as is typical of such materials, could replace the current hard drive assemblies in computers and even become the key to quantum computing.

The Quadrantids, which peak during early-January each year, are considered to be one of the best annual meteor showers.

• Most meteor showers have a two day peak, which makes catching sight of these other meteors much more possible.
• The Quadrantids peak, on the other hand, is much shorter—only a few hours. (The reason the peak is so short is due to the shower’s thin stream of particles and the fact that the Earth crosses the stream at a perpendicular angle.)
• During its peak, 60 to as many as 200 Quadrantid meteors can be seen per hour under perfect conditions.
• Quadrantids are also known for their bright fireball meteors. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.
• This is due to the fact that fireballs originate from larger particles of material. Fireballs are also brighter, with magnitudes brighter than -3.

The SPINK1-positive prostate cancer subtype derives its name from the excess amount of SPINK1 oncogene found in the cancer cells.

• Excess production of SPINK1 gene responsible for tumour and metastasis is not restricted to prostate cancer alone but also seen in colorectal, lung, pancreatic, breast and ovarian cancers.
• The molecular mechanism and pathobiology of SPINK1-positive prostate cancer subtype, the second most recurrent and aggressive in nature that affects about 15% of patients has been finally unravelled.
• The insights gained in this study might therefore help in the treatment and disease management of several SPINK1-positive malignancies.
• In addition to excess amount of the SPINK1 oncogene, the researchers found that most cancer cells belonging to this subtype also have more than normal amount of a particular protein called EZH2.
• Also, the levels of two micro RNAs (miRNA-338-5p and miRNA-421) produced in SPINK1-positive cancer cells were much less.

Massachusetts startup Alaka’i has designed a flying car – Skai – that the company touts as the “first air mobility vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells”.

• The hydrogen fuel cells give the five-passenger Skai a maximum range of 400 miles (640 km) with a flight time of up to four hours.
• Like a drone, the Skai takes off and lands vertically. It’s one of many similar electric flying crafts in production, including prototypes from Boeing and Airbus that made successful test flights this year, according to Vertical Flight Society, an industry group.
• Most are powered by batteries, which can add a lot of weight. The Skai instead uses very light hydrogen fuel cells to run its rotors, giving it a range of 644 km and the capacity to carry 454 kilograms in people or freight, the company says.

The credibility of the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), Lucknow, has come under a cloud after at least 130 papers published by the institute over the years have been listed on a website that monitors image manipulation and duplication.

• The authors and teams of these papers – published between 2004 and 2018 – vary.
• However, Yogeshwer Shukla, the IITR’s chief scientist of food, drug and chemical toxicology, is the common name in 49 of the articles that have been flagged by Pubpeer, the monitoring website.

Billed as “one of the most exciting artists of our time”, Ai-Da differs from generations of past masters in one inescapable way: she is a robot.

• Ai-Da is the brainchild of Aidan Meller, who claims she is the world’s first ultra-realistic humanoid artist, able to draw creatively thanks to in-built artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
• The 46-year-old art dealer recently unveiled Ai-Da — dressed in a brown wig and period-style painter’s blouse — in Oxford, ahead of an exhibition of her first works opening next week in the English University City.

Once an indispensable part of daily life in Japan, ultra-thin washi paper was used for everything from writing and painting to lampshades, umbrellas, and sliding doors, but demand has plunged as lifestyles have become more westernized.

• Despite its 1,300-year history and UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, washi paper is struggling to attract consumers and the market value has dropped by more than 50% in the past two decades.
• The world’s thinnest paper has helped save historical documents at major museums and libraries — including the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum and Washington’s Library of Congress — from decay.
• The traditional hand-made paper is manufactured from plants called kozo, or mulberry, which has fibres that are much longer than materials used for paper in the west such as wood and cotton.

A novel electronic tattoo made from stretchy, lightweight material could make heart health monitoring easier and more accurate than existing electrocardiograph machines.

• This is the latest advance in the team’s electronic tattoo technology, a graphene-based wearable device that can be placed on the skin to measure a variety of body responses, from electrical to biomechanical signals.
• The latest e-tattoo developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin in the U.S. is so light and stretchable that it can be placed over the heart for extended periods with little or no discomfort.
• It also measures cardiac health in two ways, taking electrocardiograph and seismo-cardiograph readings simultaneously.
• The electrocardiogram (ECG) method records the rates of electrical activity produced each time the heart beats.
• Seismocardiography (SCG) is a measurement technique using chest vibrations associated with heartbeats.
• Powered remotely by a smartphone, the e-tattoo is the first ultrathin and stretchable technology to measure both ECG and SCG.
• e-tattoo is made of a piezoelectric polymer called polyvinylidene fluoride, capable of generating its own electric charge in response to mechanical stress.
• The device also includes 3D digital image correlation technology that is used to map chest vibrations in order to identify the best location on the chest to place the e-tattoo.

Scientists around the world have been trying for decades to recreate the unfathomable power of the sun here on Earth, and a team in China has managed to best our local star. Not for very long, though.

• The team operating the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) managed to heat the reactor’s internal plasma to 100 million degrees Celsius (212 million Fahrenheit).
• That’s six times hotter than the sun, but it doesn’t have any net power generation. In stars, hydrogen fuses into helium, and eventually into heavier elements.
• The fusion process releases large amounts of energy, and the byproducts of fusion aren’t radioactive.
• The only nuclear power we’ve managed to utilize on Earth is fission, which requires dangerous radioactive materials and comes with the risk of a reactor meltdown.

Mission Shakti which was launched recently was done in a low orbit of less than 300 kilometres and at a particular angle to ensure that minimal debris was disbursed above into space to avoid damage to other satellites or the International Space Station (ISS).