General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

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Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Radium was discovered by Marie Sklodowska Curie, a Polish chemist, and Pierre Curie, a French chemist, in 1898.

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Plasma consists of freely moving ions and electrons. It forms when energy supplied to a gas causes ionization. Plasma is present in stars, including the Sun. It conducts electricity and responds to magnetic fields. Irving Langmuir coined the term “plasma” in 1928. Plasma is different from solids, liquids, and gases due to its unique electrical properties.

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Biofortification is the breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. This can be done either through conventional selective breeding or genetic engineering. Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients added to the foods when they are being processed.

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Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious infection caused by the varicella zoster virus. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab over. It is an airborne disease which spreads easily through the coughs and sneezes of an infected person.

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Typhoid is a common worldwide bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, serovar Typhi.

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Based on the dividing capacity of the tissues, various plant tissues can be classified as growing or meristematic tissue and permanent tissue. Meristem is a type of tissue system in plants, composed of a mass of undifferentiated cells and their primary function is to take part in the growth of plants. Permanent tissues are differentiated tissues doing specific functions such as conduction, providing mechanical support or carrying out photosynthesis etc.

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Bacteria are the most abundant organisms which play important role in the decomposition of organic matter. Majority of bacteria involved in decomposition of organic matter are heterotrophs and autotrophs are least in proportion which are not directly involved in organic matter decomposition.

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Cotton is the most popular of the BT crops. In BT cotton, BT gene was isolated and transferred from a bacterium Bacillus thurigiensis to American cotton. The American cotton was subsequently crossed with Indian cotton to introduce the gene into native varieties. The BT cotton variety contains a foreign gene obtained from Bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterial gene, introduced genetically into the cotton seeds, protects the plants from bollworm (A. lepidoptora), a major pest of cotton.

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Night blindness, also called nyctalopia, is failure of the eye to adapt promptly from light to darkness that is characterized by a reduced ability to see in dim light or at night. It occurs as a symptom of numerous congenital and inherited retinal diseases or as a result of vitamin A deficiency.

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Plants, on average, capture only about 0.1 0.4 percent of the solar energy reaching Earth. However, it does not mean that the rest is a “vast untapped reservoir” awaiting man’s exploitation. All biological systems, including crops, follow the second law of thermodynamics when solar energy (a high-energy form) is converted into chemical energy. Plants utilize this chemical energy in the process of building their own tissue.