QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 19 April 2018

Solution: d.

MIT researchers have created a wearable device called AlterEgo that can recognize nonverbal prompts, essentially “reading your mind.” The system is made up of a device that loops around a user’s ear, follows their jawline, and attaches underneath their mouth, and a computer system. The wearable device has electrodes that pick up neuromuscular signals in your jaw and face that are triggered by internal verbalizations (aka saying words in your head) but can’t be seen by the human eye. These signals are then given to a machine learning system that analyzes the data, associating specific signals with words.

The system can communicate with the user via a pair of “bone-conducting headphones” by transmitting vibrations from the face to the ear. The headphones are meant to effectively convey information to the user without interrupting their conversation or hearing.

To create the device, the researchers had to figure out the locations on the face that had the most reliable neuromuscular signals. To do so, they asked subjects “to subvocalize the same series of words four times,” and used 16 electrodes at different facial locations to detect the signals. They then generated a code to analyze the data, which found that seven particular places on the face were able to recognize the nonverbal words. The resulting wearable device uses sensors in those locations, though the researchers are working on a device that can do the same with only four sensors along the jaw.

TH;

TheVerge;

Solution: d.

A type of plankton described as part of “the beating heart” of the oceans has been named after the BBC’s Blue Planet series. Sir David Attenborough narrates this critically acclaimed series that dives deep into the marine environment of Planet Earth.

• The tiny plant-like organism is regarded as a key element of the marine ecosystem.
• A single-celled algae, the plankton is found throughout the world’s oceans.
• It will now be officially known as Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, the latter translating from Latin as ‘blue planet’.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43796939;

Solution: a.

On Wednesday, April 18, NASA is expected to launch TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which will monitor more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits.

TESS scientists expect the mission will catalog thousands of planet candidates and vastly increase the current number of known exoplanets. Of these, approximately 300 are expected to be Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized exoplanets, which are worlds no larger than twice the size of Earth. TESS will find the most promising exoplanets orbiting our nearest and brightest stars, giving future researchers a rich set of new targets for more comprehensive follow-up studies.

Th1; Th2;

—

Solution: b.

Scientists have improved a naturally occurring enzyme which can digest some of our most commonly polluting plastics. PET, the strong plastic commonly used in bottles, takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment. The modified enzyme, (the enzyme’s known as PETase), can start breaking down the same material in just a few days.

This could revolutionise the recycling process, allowing plastics to be re-used more effectively.

Originally discovered in Japan, the enzyme is produced by a bacterium which “eats” PET. Ideonella sakaiensis uses the plastic as its major energy source. Researchers reported in 2016 that they had found the strain living in sediments at a bottle recycling site in the port city of Sakai.

“[PET] has only been around in vast quantities over the last 50 years, so it’s actually not a very long timescale for a bacteria to have evolved to eat something so man-made,” commented Prof John McGeehan, who was involved in the current study.

Polyesters, the group of plastics that PET (also called polyethylene terephthalate) belongs to, do occur in nature. “They protect plant leaves,” explained the University of Portsmouth researcher. “Bacteria have been evolving for millions of years to eat that.”

BBC; TH;

—

Solution: b.

The selection of the Chairperson and the members of Lokpal shall be through a Selection Committee consisting of the PM, Speaker, LoP, the CJI or a sitting SC Judge nominated by the CJI and an eminent jurist to be nominated by the President on the basis of recommendations of the first four members of the Selection Committee.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lokpal-process-to-appoint-eminent-jurist-underway-centre-tells-sc/article23569688.ece;

Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth (5^th Edition);

—