UPSC Essentials : Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 11)

Each day, we will cover one new subject. Attempt today’s subject quiz on Environment, Geography, Science and Technologyto check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the Economy Quiz.

QUESTION 1

With reference to the early pronuclear transfer, consider the following statements:

1. It involves transplanting the nuclear DNA from a fertilised egg into a donated egg.

2. The three-person IVF procedure is known to help eliminate mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.

Which of the above statement(s) is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

QUESTION 2

With reference to the tigers in India, consider the following statements:

1. The number of tigers in India has increased by around 6.5 per cent from 2018 to 2022.

2. In the fifth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation 2022, the highest number of tigers was recorded in Western Ghats Landscape.

3. The year 2023 marked 50 years of project tiger.

How many of the above statements are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

QUESTION 3

With reference to the FLOPs in computing, consider the following statements:

1. It is a commonly used metric to measure computational performance.

2. Floating-point operations are a certain kind of mathematical calculation using real numbers with fractional parts.

3. A petaflop is equal to 1015 FLOPs.

How many of the above statements are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

QUESTION 4

With reference to the aurora, consider the following statements:

1. They are caused due to moon.

2. They are known as Aurora borealis at the south pole and Aurora australis at the north pole.

3. It has been recently witnessed from Hanle in Ladakh.

How many of the above statements are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

QUESTION 5

With reference to crypto mining, consider the following statements:

1. It is a centralised process of validating transactions on a blockchain network.

2. In India, regulatory uncertainty and security concerns have made mining an extremely secretive business.

Which of the above statement(s) is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWERS TO MCQs

1. (c)

FYI:

— A baby in the United Kingdom (UK) has been born using three people’s DNA, While 99 per cent of the DNA comes from their two parents, around 0.1 per cent is from a third person — a donor woman.

— The unique fertility technique is touted to help prevent children from being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases.

— The technique, called early pronuclear transfer, involves transplanting the nuclear DNA from a fertilised egg into a donated egg containing healthy mitochondria on the day of fertilisation. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Notably, mitochondrial diseases are incurable and can be fatal within days or even hours of birth, if diagnosed in a newborn (although they can develop at any age).

— This three-person IVF procedure is known to help eliminate mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— Three-person babies are created using an advanced method of IVF that combines the use of the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm, and a donor egg. The three-person baby requires a third party’s mitochondria.

— It is also called Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT).

— Mitochondrial diseases can affect almost any part of the body, including the cells of the brain, nerves, muscles, kidneys, heart, liver, eyes, ears or pancreas.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

2. (b)

FYI:

— The number of tigers in India has increased by 6.74 per cent from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022, according to the figures of the 5th cycle of India’s Tiger Census. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Project Tiger was launched by the Central government on April 1, 1973, in a bid to promote the conservation of the tiger. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA). It will focus on the protection and conservation of seven major big cats of the world, including tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, puma, jaguar and cheetah, with a membership of the range of countries harbouring these species.

— The fifth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation (2022) covered forested habitats in 20 states of India. The number of tigers in descending order is as follows:

Central Indian Highlands & Eastern Ghats Landscape: 1,161 (Hence, statement 2 is not correct.)

Western Ghats Landscape: 824

Shivalik Hills & Gangetic Plains Landscape: 804

North Eastern Hills & Brahmaputra Plains Landscape: 194

Sunderbans Landscape: 100

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Other Source: (ntca.gov.in)

3. (c)

FYI:

— India will unveil its new 18 petaFLOP supercomputer for weather forecasting institutes which is expected to improve weather forecasts at the block level, help weather scientists give higher resolution ranges of the forecast, predict cyclones with more accuracy and better lead time (the difference between a phenomenon being forecast and actually occurring), and provide ocean state forecasts, including marine water quality forecasts.

— FLOPs, or Floating-Point Operations per Second, is a commonly used metric to measure the computational performance – processing power and efficiency – especially in the field of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Floating-point operations are a certain kind of mathematical calculation using real numbers with fractional parts. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— Modern computing systems, such as CPUs (Central Processing Units) and GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), are designed to perform multiple operations simultaneously, using parallel processing techniques.

— Due to the immense computing power of today’s computers, the FLOPs metric is most often represented in terms of billions (giga), trillions (tera), or even quadrillions (peta) of operations per second (GFLOPs, TFLOPs, PFLOPs, respectively).

— A petaflop is thus equal to a thousand TFLOPs or 1015 FLOPs. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

4. (a)

FYI:

— The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) shared a time-lapse of the sky on April 22/23 night. Astonishingly, it was an aurora witnessed from Hanle in Ladakh. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— If you’re ever near the North or South Pole, there are beautiful light shows in the sky. These lights are called auroras.

— If you’re near the North Pole, it is called an aurora borealis or northern lights. If you’re near the South Pole, it is called an aurora australis or the southern lights. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— Even though auroras are best seen at night, they are actually caused by the Sun. The Sun sends us more than heat and light; it sends lots of other energy and small particles our way. The protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— There is a constant streaming solar wind and there are also solar storms. During one kind of solar storm called a coronal mass ejection, the Sun burps out a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds.

— When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earth’s atmosphere.

— The particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red lights. Nitrogen glows blue and purple.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

Other Source: (spaceplace.nasa.gov)

5. (b)

FYI:

— Crypto mining is a decentralised process of validating transactions on a blockchain network. For verifying each transaction, miners receive a reward which is where the profits come from. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— In India, regulatory uncertainty and security concerns have made mining an extremely secretive business. Several crypto miners that operate on a large scale in India either have imported crypto mining hardware illegally or are stealing electricity to run their rigs, which is why they want to be out of the public eye. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— For example, say Ram sends Rs 100 worth of Bitcoin to Shyam. If Shyam denies receiving it, miners rescue Ram by validating the transaction on the blockchain-distributed database. Every transaction has to be verified by crypto miners, therefore miners can also be termed validators.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

New initiative for UPSC Mains

UPSC CSE Mains 2023 season has begun. Are you ready for it? UPSC Essentials brings to you its new initiative for the practice of Mains answer writing. Mains Answer Writing will cover essential topics of static and dynamic parts of the UPSC Civil Services syllabus covered under various GS papers. This answer-writing practice is designed to help you as a value addition to your UPSC CSE Mains. Try it out!

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 1)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 2)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 3)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 1)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 2)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 3)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 2)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 3)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 4)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 4 (Week 2)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 4 (Week 3)

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Note: Catch the UPSC Weekly Quiz every Saturday evening and brush up on your current affairs knowledge.