Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Science & Technology) – July 30, 2020

Many plant-based products, especially legumes such as chickpeas, beans, soybeans, contain FODMAP compounds that are poorly digestible and cause unpleasant intestinal symptoms, but now researchers have succeeded in breaking down FODMAPs with enzymes and producing new, stomach-friendly plant-based food products.

• FODMAPs are short-chain carbohydrate molecules that are poorly absorbed in the human small intestine.
• These non-absorbed compounds move along to the large intestine, where intestinal microbes feed on them.
• This results in the production of gases that causes symptoms especially for those suffering from intestinal disorders.
• The research team focused on two key FODMAP compounds: galactan and fructan.
• Galactan is abundant in, for example, legumes, while fructan is found in many cereals, among other things.

A traditional drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for treating vitiligo or leucoderma is now available for commercial sale in India.

• The herbal drug, called Lukoskin, was developed by scientists of the Defence Bio-Energy Research (DIBER) centre at Haldwani in Uttarakhand.
• Developer conferred ‘Science Award’ for ‘Lukoskin’ that treats the skin condition.
• Ahead of the International Vitiligo Day, an herbal drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) offers a new hope to those suffering from leucoderma, a condition in which white patches develop on the skin.

Project 15B is a class of stealth guided missile destroyers.

• Warships built under Project 15Bravo, with a length of 163 metres and 17.4 metres at the beam and a displacement of 7.300 tonnes, are propelled by four gas turbines to achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots.
• Ships under this project can carry and operate two multiple role helicopters.
• Enhanced stealth features have been achieved through the shaping of hull and use of radar transparent deck fittings which make these ships difficult to detect.

NIRBHAY, the long-range, sub-sonic, cruise missile was successfully tested today with a sharper ‘terrain hugging capability’.

• The NIRBHAY missile has a range of 700 km to 1,000 km.
• After its launch in typical missile style, it can be controlled in aircraft mode.
• Travelling at sub-sonic speeds of different Mach (speed of sound), the hit capacity is enhanced by control and by homing in on targets at different altitudes.

Converting the global-warming compound carbon dioxide into a useful fuel has been engaging the attention of scientists for some time.

• Scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) have discovered an easier and cheaper way of converting CO2 into methane. Scientists have generally used metal nanoparticles as catalysts for this process.
• But TIFR employed ‘defected silica’ — silicon dioxide with a few oxygen atoms knocked off — instead of the costlier metal nanoparticles.
• ‘Defected silca’ has ‘holes’, where the oxygen atoms used to be. These holes get filled by hydrogen atoms to form silicon hydride. For this, hydrogen molecules, that exist in nature in pairs (hence H2) are ripped apart.
• Each hydrogen atom, then, is desperate to join hands with something; alongside, defected silica is agonising for something to fill the gap where earlier oxygen atoms used to be.
• A happy marriage results. But this marriage is short-lived because carbon dioxide dives in to break the marriage.
• The carbon in CO2 and the hydrogen in silicon hydride desert their spouses and join hands to become methane.
• The leftovers, silicon and oxygen, re-marry to form silicon dioxide — the original catalyst.

GISAT-1 or Geo Imaging Satellite-1 is India’s first earth imaging satellite in a geostationary orbit.

• A satellite in geostationary orbit (about 36,000 km above earth) has an orbital period equal to earth’s rotational period.
• Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F10) will launch GISAT-1. This will be the fourteenth flight of the GSLV.
• After the launch, GISAT-1 will reach the final geostationary orbit of around 36,000 km using its onboard propulsion system.
• The earth observing satellite that weighs around 2,275 kg has a lifespan of 7 years. It carries a multi- and hyper-spectral imager along with the 700 mm Ritchey-Chretien telescope for earth observation and data collection. Also it has a high resolution camera.

Objectives of GISAT-1

• Facilitates near real time observation of the Indian sub continent, under cloud free condition, at frequent intervals.
• Helps quick monitoring of natural disasters.
• Keep a constant watch on borders.
• Monitor any changes in the geographical condition of the country.
• Helps to obtain spectral signatures of agriculture, forestry, mineralogy, disaster warning, cloud properties, snow, glaciers and oceanography.

Mobile phones can get infected through a type of cyber attack called Juice Jacking. A USB port is not simply a power socket, you can also use it to transfer and sync your data.

• A hacker can tamper with a USB charging port at a public charging station to steal passwords and export data.
• The main way to avoid juice jacking is to stay away from public charging stations or portable wall chargers.
• Carry a personal charger or a power bank or use USB condoms which are adaptors that allow the power transfer but don’t connect the data transfer pins.
• Switch off your phone or lock your phone and then plug it into the charging port. But this technique only works on few mobile models

Scientists have mapped the complete genome of two basmati rice varieties, including one that is drought-tolerant and resistant to bacterial disease.

• The researchers focused on two basmati rice varieties: Basmati 334 from Pakistan, known to be drought tolerant and resistant to rice-killing bacterial blight, and Dom Sufid from Iran, aromatic long-grain rice that is one of the most expensive on the market.
• Most genetic material in basmati comes from japonica —a rice group found in East Asia — followed by the rice group aus found in Bangladesh.

Introducing its 2020 refrigerator line-up, Samsung unveiled its Curd Maestro refrigerator, which is the worlds first that prepares curd.

• Samsung says Curd Maestro enables curd preparation in five to six hours — five hours for soft curd, six hours for thick curd.
• One needs to boil and cool the milk and mix the curd culture manually while Curd Maestro does the most crucial part of the job — fermentation.
• It will not only ferment the curd but will store it too.
• According to the company, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) has tested and recommended the process of curd making in Samsung’s Curd Maestro.
• Samsung says Curd Maestro makes curd with the same consistency each time and eliminates all the hassle of curd-making in different weather conditions.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) confirmed that a malware had indeed infected its system at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), a day after KKNPP officials had categorically asserted that the systems at the plant could not be accessed by anyone outside the network as they were all isolated.

• The cyberintrusion came to light on Monday after the website VirusTotal uploaded a data dump that seemed to point to a data breach in the KKNPP system.
• The dump pointed to a ‘dtrack’ malware, which can be used as a remote administrator tool, having infected systems at the KKNPP.