[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 30 April 2022 – Science & Technology and IR – INSIGHTSIAS

Solution: a)

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is used primarily as a cooling agent. Its advantages include lower temperature than that of water ice and not leaving any residue (other than incidental frost from moisture in the atmosphere). It is useful for preserving frozen foods where mechanical cooling is unavailable.

This extreme cold makes the solid dangerous to handle without protection due to burns caused by freezing (frostbite). While generally not very toxic, the outgassing from it can cause hypercapnia (abnormally elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood) due to build-up in confined locations.

Dry ice can be used to arrest and prevent insect activity in closed containers of grains and grain products, as it displaces oxygen, but does not alter the taste or quality of foods. For the same reason, it can prevent or retard food oils and fats from becoming rancid.

When dry ice is placed in water, sublimation is accelerated, and low-sinking, dense clouds of smoke-like fog are created. This is used in fog machines, at theatres, haunted house attractions, and nightclubs for dramatic effects.

One of the largest mechanical uses of dry ice is blast cleaning.

Solution: d)

Monoclonal antibody therapies:

They are artificially created antibodies that aim to aid the body’s natural immune system.

They target a specific antigen — a protein from the pathogen that induces immune response.

How are they created?

• Monoclonal antibodies can be created in the lab by exposing white blood cells to a particular antigen.
• To increase the quantity of antibodies produced, a single white blood cell is cloned, which in turn is used to create identical copies of the antibodies.
• In the case of Covid-19, scientists usually work with the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which facilitates the entry of the virus into the host cell.

In a healthy body, the immune system is able to create antibodies. However, for people whose immune systems are unable to make sufficient amounts of these antibodies, monoclonal antibodies are used.

Monoclonal antibodies are now relatively common. They are used in treating Ebola, HIV, psoriasis etc.

Solution: a)

A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time. It is like a large laboratory in space, and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.

For over 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.

The ISS is a pathbreaking collaborative effort between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

Solution: b)

Karman line is the internationally recognized boundary of space which lies around 100 kilometres above mean sea level. For comparison, the International Space Station orbits around 330-410 kilometres above mean sea level.

Solution: c)

AstroSat is India’s first multi-wavelength space telescope, which has five telescopes seeing through different wavelengths simultaneously — visible, near UV, far UV, soft X-ray and hard X-ray.

AstroSat was launched on 28 September 2015 by ISRO into a near-Earth equatorial orbit.

It is a multi-institute collaborative project, involving IUCAA, ISRO, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru), and Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), among others.