Science & Technology Quiz

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Your host for today: Venky

WRITE TO START

8 visuals to be answered in writing

5 points per answer

Bonus of 10 for getting everything correct

1. Stamps commemorating?

2. Identify

3. Centenary of?

4. 150 years of which organization?

5. Identify the animal

6. Designed in 1963, commissioned in 1970.

What and where?

7. What was Paul Karrer instrumental in

establishing the formula for?

8. Identify

EXCHANGE SHEETS

ANSWERS FOLLOW

1. Stamps commemorating?

Answer follows…

The Great Trigonometric Survey of India

2. Identify

Answer follows…

Vikram Sarabhai

3. Centenary of?

Answer follows…

Indian Institute of Science

4. 150 years of which organization?

Answer follows…

Geological Survey of India

5. Identify the animal

Answer follows…

Mudhol Hound / Caravan Hound

6. Designed in 1963, commissioned in 1970.

What and where?

Answer follows…

Ooty Radio Telescope

7. What was Paul Karrer instrumental in

establishing the formula for?

Answer follows…

Beta-carotene (Vitamin A also fine)

8. Identify

Answer follows…

Carl Sagan

CLOCKWISE

16 questions

10 points per answer on direct or pass on

infinite bounce

First strike on buzzer for +15/-10, pounce

for +10/-10

Unlimited pounces/buzzes per team

Pounce open for 5-10 seconds

1.

Which place? Also what’s this video showing?

Answer follows…

Museo del Prado; The video shows

Google’s digitization of the works at the

Prado

2.

Monochromes dominated around 900 A.D. with attempts to include more detail. For the next 400 years the focus was on blue and white, although for many years during this period the quality was quite poor. In later years they turned to rough-pink and coral red.

What were these, aided by processes such as reduction cooling? And how do we explain the black, blue and red?

Answer follows…

Ceramics or more specifically Chinese

Ceramics.

Black was through carbonising, blue from

cobalt, and the red through clay firing.

3.

Baron Loránd Eötvös was a pioneer in the field of physics, and has the CGS unit for gravitational gradient named in his honour.

He has a close connection to certain events of October 1956. The event and its aftermath attained huge political significance. It often puts in a cameo as a member of a set of trivia related to TIME magazine.

‘Put fundas’ as they say.

Answer follows…

The university where Eötvös researched and taught for more than 30 years was renamed after him in 1950.

In October 1956, students at LorandEotvos University started a revolt that spread to workers, and became the Hungarian revolution.

4.

A: is from Greek meaning “tribe of hairy women”

B: has a species name which is Greek for “cave-dweller” and has an English name from a Bantu language of Angola

C: is thought to be a misspelling of the name of a town on the Congo river. May also be “ancestor” in a Bantu language.

Name A, B and C

Answer follows…

The African great apes

A – Gorilla

B – Chimpanzee

C – Bonobo

5.

It is an autoimmune disorder that leads to white

patches on the skin. It is not contagious, but

the patches often lead people to confuse it with

another illness. In Tamizh Nadu, ignorance also

leads to people terming it as “ven kushtam” in

reference to the latter illness.

Name both – the disorder, and the illness with

which it is confused.

Answer follows…

Leucoderma or Vitiligo

Leprosy

6.

This is a view of Porthcurno, a sleepy little town 5 km

from the western most point of the English mainland.

This resort town became famous in 1870. In the

inter-war years, the office operated as many as 14

simultaneously. The office lasted exactly a century

after the first ‘landing’ before it was closed, but the

town continues its link even today.

With what?

Larger pic follows.

Answer follows…

This was the town which received the first

submarine telegraph cable

As a major international submarine

communications cable station – Porthcurno is

where many of the undersea cables

terminate on the European side.

7.

‘A study in abstract’ perhaps as Sir Arthur

Conan Doyle might pen it? Not.

ID the artist, connect and explain the scientific

(biological) reasoning behind the

developments.

Answer follows…

All are paintings by Claude Monet. He had a

peculiar habit of painting the same subject

several times over the span of his life.

Monet developed cataract as he grew older.

As a result he was unable to see greens and

blues well and his vision slowly tended

towards the yellows and browns

8.

The name of such devices, usually in heavy

machinery, refer to the fact that the person

operating the equipment is no longer able to

because s(he) is incapacitated.

What name, and how do they work?

Larger image follows.

Answer follows…

Dead Man’s Handle – the handle must

be kept pressed down by the hand to

continue contact, so that if the operator is

incapacitated, contact is broken and the

machine stops

9.

Some of these trees and others in the region

are reputed to be thousands of years old.

This fact is difficult to verify.

What species, and why is it an arduous task

to check the age?

Larger pic follows.

Answer follows…

Baobab wood does not produce annual

growth rings

10.

The advantages of basing them upon an aspect

ratio of √2 were noted in 1786 by the German

scientist Georg Lichtenberg. Nobel prize-winning

chemist Wilhelm Ostwald also proposed a

method in the early 1900s, a rectangle which,

when folded in half across its length, retains the

same proportion, and forms the next smallest

size. It became a standard in 1922.

What?

Answer follows…

Paper sizes A0, A1, …

11.

Why is Kumbakonam ‘degree’ Coffee called

thus?

Answer follows…

The co-operative societies test the purity of

milk using a lactometer, which has

markings like the degrees on a thermometer.

Only freshly churned cow’s milk that is not

diluted with water will stand below the red

line marked as ‘M’ for milk. Any dilution, and

the reading shoots up.

12.

Connect and explain.

Answer follows…

The connection is Formula 1

Anti-slip wellies, whose soles are based on the

treads on F1 tyres.

Knee supports from hydraulic dampeners

Baby Pod inspired by the driver’s cockpit

The man in the picture is Ron Dennis (the

McLaren team chairman)

13.

Identify this animal. What is its very

auspicious species name?

Answer follows…

Stegodon ganesha

14.

In Feb 2013, why did this tweet and this

Instagram photo by Jean H Lee, an

Associated Press reporter create history?

Answer follows…

First ever tweet and Instagram photo from

North Korea, after they recently launched a

high-speed 3G network, which only

foreigners can access

15.

What is referred to in this poem? The poet, Ruth Padel is a descendant of which famous name in science?

None if it’s true. White Wildernessfaked the scene with illegal petsbought from Eskimo children

flown in from Hudson Bay, put to run

on a snow-covered turntable.

Tight camera anglesturn them to a massrace over tundra

then _____’s film crew throw them

off a cliff. Over they go

you can see them still

falling in celluloid aspic…..

Answer follows…

The Disney wildlife program that perpetrated

the myth that lemmings commit mass

suicide

Ruth Padel is a descendent of Charles

Darwin

16.

John Bardeen

Marie Curie

Frederick Sanger

______________

What connects?

Who is missing from this exhaustive list?

(pic given)

Why is his achievement special?

Answer follows…

• Linus Pauling

• All are double Nobel Prize winners

• Pauling is the only one to win two unshared

prizes

VISUAL CONNECT

10 visuals

Points mentioned on each slide (there are

negatives!)

An exact answer (2 words) will fetch you

the points shown; a close enough answer

explaining the concept will get you half the

points

Unlimited attempts per team

+25/ -12.5

+25/ -12.5

+20/ -10

+20/ -10

+15/ -7.5

+15/ -7.5

+12/ -6

+10/ - 5

+8/ - 4

+5/ -2.5

+3/ 0

(1 attempt)

LAST GUESSES?

ANSWERS FOLLOW

LISBETH SALANDER

LEXIE GREY

ROBERT LANGDON

CHARLES XAVIER

DOOGIE HOWSER BANE

WILL HUNTING

SHELDON COOPERSPENCER REID

ADRIAN MONK

(FICTIONAL CHARACTERS WITH)

EIDETIC MEMORY

ANTI-CLOCKWISE

16 questions

10 points per answer on direct or pass on

Infinite Bounce

First strike on buzzer for +15/-10, pounce

for +10/-10

Unlimited buzzes/pounces per team

Pounce, open for 5-10 seconds

1.

DFTD (____ Facial Tumour Disease) is a rare form

of aggressive non-viral transmissible parasitic

cancer, that possibly originates in Schwann cells.

First encountered in 1996, it is said to be responsible

for the near extinction of a rare species and spreads

by biting.

Recent research reports suggest a cure is in sight,

possibly saving the largest carnivorous marsupial in

the world since 1936.

Fill in the blank OR name the affected species.

Answer follows…

Tasmanian Devil

2.

More familiar to us in a blood transporting

context, this term is used in geology to

describe a sheet of crystallized minerals

within a rock created by hydrothermal

circulation of the mineral's constituents. The

result of crystals growing normal to the walls

of a cavity, it is used in the context of

discovery of metals.

What term?

Answer follows…

Vein

3.

In 1900, inspired by a wine spill on a

restaurant's table cloth, Jacques

Brandenberger decided to create a material

that could repel liquids.

He began experimenting with spraying

waterproof coating on viscose, added

glycerin and perfected the product after 10

years.

What resulted?

Answer follows…

Cellophane (from the words cellulose and diaphane)

4.

In 1802, he began using Johan Akerblad's demotic

alphabet to study the Egyptian hieroglyphic

alphabet and attempted to decipher the Rosetta

Stone. In 1818, some of these conclusions

appeared in the "Egypt" section he wrote in the

Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

Which British polymath, whose contributions

extend to the fields of energy, physiology,

music, solid mechanics and optics?

Answer follows…

Thomas Young

5.

The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American

ballistic missile and a direct descendant of the German

V-2 rocket. It was nicknamed the “Army’s workhorse” and

was primarily built to counter concerns of the Soviets’

growing military might during the Cold War years.

In 1957, the US army tried to allay fears among citizens

by installing this missile at an iconic public location. As a

testament to this legacy, the government has to this day

ensured that a certain feature of this location is not

repaired so citizens can feel pride.

What location and what feature?

Answer follows…

Grand Central Terminal

The ceiling of the terminal has a hole so the

rocket could be lifted in an emergency, and

has not been repaired to this day

6.

Up until the 1840s, morphine was the preferred oral

drug for pain suppression and as a general

depressant. Two things upset its dominance:

The first was an 1849 invention by Scottish

physician Alexander Wood that helped other

drugs be used, and with much more powerful

results.

The second was an accidental synthesis of an

acetylated form of morphine that was more potent

and was promoted by Bayer.

Name both developments.

Answer follows…

Wood invented the Hypodermic syringe – that led to direct ingestion of drugs into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive processes

Heroin was derived from Morphine

7.

The British addiction for tea was near universal in the

18th century, to the point that much of British bullion

reserves were being utilized in paying the Chinese

for meeting the demand.

The British East India company came up with two

solutions to this problem, one of which was

establishing rival tea plantations in British India by

smuggling C. sinensis seeds.

The second solution, also involving India was much

more sinister and led to a triangular form of trade.

What?

Answer follows…

British established poppy plantations in

Bengal to cultivate opium.

The tea purchased from China was

redeemed against opium exported from

Bengal, thus fuelling the opium addiction in

China.

8.

Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto regarded pigs

as so important for human survival that when he

ventured into Florida in 1539 with 600+ men and 200+

horses, he also took 200 pigs.

During his 3 year progress through many of the Southern

states, many of these pigs escaped, seeding local

populations of wild boar.

The resulting progeny still abound in the US and are also

immortalized in the names of sporting teams such as the

University of Arkansas.

What are they called? Pics on next slide

Answer follows…

Razorbacks

9.

Please bear in mind that these are lesser known

suspects in an otherwise well known connection.

What connects? (non-exhaustive list)

Answer follows…

Same genus and species name

American Bison – Bison bison

Common Green Iguana – Iguana iguana

Spotted Hyena – Crocuta crocuta

White Stork – Ciconia ciconia

Eurasian Badger – Meles meles

10.

Edred Corner, a British botanist who spent much of

his life in South East Asian tropics proposed a

theory that shed light on Charles Darwin’s

speculations about angiosperms (flowering plants).

In this theory, he talks about cycads, trees that

mastered the trick of pollination using insects by

packaging their fruits to be red and odorous to

attract the right visitors who would carry the seeds

far and wide.

What did Corner, fittingly call his theory?

Answer follows…

Durian Theory

11.

In 2006, early concepts of this were based on the

Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller. A trustee named

Eben Upton assembled a group of teachers,

academics and computer enthusiasts to devise a

computer to inspire children.

Inspired by the Acorn’s BBC Micro of 1981, its logo is

unmistakable. Name the device

Answer follows…

Raspberry Pi

12.

British research chemist William Henry Perkin tried

to synthesize quinine to treat malaria. However, he

came up with the synthetic dye aniline purple.

His accidental discovery resulted in the first mass

produced artificial dye, which he named _____ ,

also the name of his autobiography.

Fill in the blank

Pic on next slide

Answer follows…

Mauve

13.

In 1892, his curiosity was piqued by Lord Rayleigh’s

observation that the density of nitrogen extracted from

the air was always greater than nitrogen released from

various chemical compounds. He set about looking for

an unknown gas in air of greater density, which he found

and named _____.

While investigating this newly discovered gas, he

discovered another gas, which had earlier brought the

town of Guntur to the news in 1868. This second

discovery led him to suggest the existence of a new

group of elements in the periodic table.

Who? And which two gases did he discover?

Answer follows…

William Ramsay

Argon, Helium

14.

Simon Newcomb, a Canadian-American mathematician

became superintendent of the US National Almanac. His

previous interests motivated him to to place planetary and

satellite motions on a completely uniform system, thereby

raising solar system studies and the theory of gravitation

to a new level. He largely accomplished this goal with the

adoption of his new system of astronomical constants at

the end of the century.

However, he is largely credited for being the first to come

up with something that took its name from the Greek

words for “diary” or “journal”.

What?

Answer follows…

Ephemeris/Ephemerides – a table of

values that gives the positions of

astronomical objects at a given time

15.

It is the term given to electrical discharge, usually

appearing in spherical shape that, unlike its regular

counterpart, tends to linger awhile.

Its exact origin remains a mystery and a scientist

wrote “I never saw fire balls but as compensation for

my disappointment, I succeeded later in determining

the mode of their formation and producing them

artificially. ”

Eventually, he used a generating apparatus

these about 1½ inches in diameter and played

wowed onlookers.

What phenomenon and which scientist?

Answer follows…

Ball Lightning

Nikola Tesla

16.

In 2001, when the Baltimore Ravens and the New

York Giants faced off for SuperBowl XXXV in Tampa,

a new video technology that had nothing to do with

instant replay or game technology made its debut.

The technology created huge controversy with one

magazine calling it “Snooper Bowl” while another

magazine published an article saying “Don’t Tampa

with My Privacy”.

What was the purpose of the technology that

drew such extreme opinions?

Answer follows…

Facial Recognition – that matched faces in

the crowd with a database of

criminals/troublemakers to apprehend them

in advance

GET BUZZED

10 questions

Answers will start with one of the letters –

BITS APOGEE (not in order)

On the buzzer +10/-10

If team buzzing misses it, others can try in

writing for +5/-5

1. Logo of which institute recognised as a govt.

institute in1959, and started in Presidency

College, Kolkata?

Answer follows…

• Indian Statistical Institute

2. Identify this extinct type of large wild cattle

that inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa

and survived in Poland till 1627

Answer follows…

• Auroch

3. Which bird that takes its name from the

French word that means both "silver heron"

and "brush," referring to the long filamentous

feathers that seem to cascade down its back

during the breeding season, is categorised as

Great, Intermediate, Cattle, Little, Eastern

Reef, Snowy and Reddish among others?

Answer follows…

• Egret

4. In 2006, which was the first (and only one till

now) of the Millennium Prize problems to be

conclusively solved by the person in the picture

below?

Answer follows…

• Poincare Conjecture

5. Identify this member of the dog family

that is an integral part of Japanese folklore (see next slide for a few examples)

Answer follows…

• Tanuki / Racoon Dog

6. This is a tree found in

the tropical SE Asian

forests, called Metroxylon

sagu. The sap from this is

often used in preparation

of dishes along with

another starch extracted

from the root of plants

native to South America,

thereby giving the latter its

name in Hindi/Urdu.

Give both names

Answer follows…

• Sagudana / Sabudana, the name for Tapioca

7. Identify this industry body logo from the

mobile world

Answer follows…

• Open Handset Alliance

8. Since 1995, this research firm has used a technique called hype cycle to characterize the over-enthusiasm or hype and subsequent disappointment that typically happens with the introduction of new technologies. These also show how and when technologies move beyond the hype, offer practical benefits and become widely accepted.

Which research firm?

Answer follows…

• Gartner

9. Which two familiar terms from the world of medicine come from the conjunction of Greek words for “upon people” and “within people”?

Answer follows…

• Epidemic and Endemic

10. The endangered animal shown is found in parts of northern or central India and takes its name from the local words for “12-tined or horned”, although a mature stag can have anywhere between 10-14 antlers. What animal?

Answer follows…

• Barasingha

Final Scores and Winners!