Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon- September 28

• Measles, Chicken pox and TB are airborne diseases.
• Typhoid fever is contracted by drinking or eating the bacteria in contaminated food or water.

Statement 1 and 2 s Correct:

• The ‘three-parent’ technique also known as Mitochondrial donation (Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy) allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy babies.
• MRT or Mitochondrial donation is a medical technique in which defective mitochondria carried by a woman is replaced with the healthy mitochondria of a donor.
• Through invitro fertilization technique (IVF), the egg is then fertilised with the partner’s sperm. Thus the embryo remains free from anysuch defects.
• The two most common techniques in mitochondrial donation are maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer.
• Thus this medicaltechnique prevents the transmission of mitochondrial (genetic) disease from one generation to the next. MRT proposes to give parents chance of having a child that is over 99% genetically matched to them and most importantly free of the mitochondrial disease.

Statement 3 is Incorrect:

Countries like India, USA etc. still have a ban on this technique.

NavikaSagarParikrama is a project wherein a team of women officers of the Indian Navy would circumnavigate the globe on an Indian-built sail boat INSV Tarini. This is the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The project is scheduled to commence in early Sep 17. INSV Tarini is the sister vessel of INSV Mhadei. The project is considered essential towards promoting Ocean Sailing activities in the Navy while depicting Government of India’s thrust for ‘NariShakti’.

The first Indian Solo circumnavigation was undertaken by Capt DilipDonde, SC (Retd) from 19 Aug 09 to 19 May 10 onboard the Indian built vessel, INSV Mhadei. The first Indian non-stop solo circumnavigation was undertaken by Cdr  AbhilashTomy, KC from 01 Nov 12 to 31 Mar 13.

• NASA’s Cassini spacecraft after studying Saturn, its rings and moons for more than 12 years, has entered in the final year of its epic voyage. It will make the closest-ever observations of the planet. It is the first to enter successfully in its orbit.
• Tiangong2- space lab to develop expertise for a future space station and conduct science experiments
• Sunway TaihuLight- World’s fastest Supercomputer developed by China
• Orion (“o-rie-un”) is a new NASA spacecraft. NASA plans for Orion to take astronauts to an asteroid or even Mars
• Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA.

• Biogas is an energy product derived from organic material such as animal dung, that is decomposed in the absence of oxygen making a mixture that is mainly made up of methane (gas). The gas can be used directly for cooking and lighting or for generating electricity.
• Bio-gas is an excellent fuel as it contains up to 75% methane.
• It burns without smoke, leaves no residue like ash in wood, charcoal and coal burning.
• Its heating capacity is high and generates gases like methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulphide during heating.
• India is rich in biomass and has a potential of 16,881 MW (agro-residues and plantations), 5000 MW (bagasse cogeneration) and 2700 MW (energy recovery from waste.

• Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) is developed by India and Israel. The missile is similar to the Barak-8 missile used by the Navy’s new destroyers.
• The missile is designed to defend any type of airborne threat including aircraft and helicopters.
• It can intercept supersonic aircraft and even missiles.
• The MR-SAM has strike ranges from 50 to 70 km.
• Once inducted into Indian Armed forces, it will provide the users capability to neutralise any aerial threats. The system also includes a multi-functional surveillance and threat alert radar for tracking, detection and guidance of the missile.

• Cloud seeding is a form of weather modification, a way of changing the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds. The most common chemicals used for cloud seeding include silver iodide, potassium iodide and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide).
• Liquid propane, which expands into a gas, has also been used.