Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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The United States’ space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that it has given approval to two Sun exploration heliophysics missions.
Under these missions, researchers study the Sun and relate them to the events taking place in the solar system. The missions include NASA-led Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission and Japan-led Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission (EUVST) mission.

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The Union Cabinet has recently approved a modified scheme to enhance ethanol distillation capacity in the country, to produce 1st Generation (1G) ethanol.
1G Ethanol is produced from edible seeds, molasses, sugarcane, sugar beet, sorghum among others. While 2G biofuels use non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil, agriculture residue, the 3G biofuels use industrial waste, municipal solid waste.

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The National Internet Exchange of India, NIXI is a leading not-for-profit organization. It has been working to provide improved internet services, since 2003.
Recently NIXI has announced that it would provide a free Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) in any of the 22 official Indian language. Along with every IN domain booked, the applicant Applicant will also get a free email in local language.

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The Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeitY) has recently asked WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy.
The Ministry has termed the policy as unilateral, unfair and unacceptable and asked the firm to reconsider its approach to data privacy and data security. Detailed information about the data sharing protocols was also sought.

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‘Osiris’, which is officially called HD 209458 b, is the first-ever planet the astronomers have spotted beyond the Earth’s solar system.
As per a new study published in Nature, it has been found that six chemicals are present in the atmosphere of Osiris. The composition of the chemicals confirm that the exoplanet is over 100 times farther than its current position, when it came into existence.

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The American Space Agency – NASA has recently shared an image of Mars titled ‘Blue Dunes of Red Planet’.
This picture has been released to mark the 20 years of NASA’s Odyssey mission to Mars. The picture combines shots captured between December 2002 and November 2004 by the robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars.

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Adenoviruses are a family of viruses that can cause a wide variety of illnesses in humans, including the common cold, gastrointestinal infections and pink eye. There are 88 types of adenovirus that would infect humans, and these are grouped into seven different species, A-G.
Recently, in several COVID-19 vaccines, including those produced by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, these viruses are the basis for several COVID-19 vaccines.

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The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), announced some new initiatives to raise awareness of the IPv6 protocol in India.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) had, in February last year, mandated all government organizations to transition to IPv6 by March 2020. NIXI launched an expert panel called IP Guru to support transition to IPv6 systems. NIXI is also creating an education platform for IPv6, called NIXI Academy and a NISI IP-Index.

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The Lyrids are comets, which appear to move fairly fast, streaking through our atmosphere at an average velocity of 48 kilometers per second.
This modestly bright comet was discovered in April 1861 by an amateur astronomer, A.E. Thatcher. The Earth’s orbit coincides with the comet around April 22 each year. This year also, the annual Lyrid meteor shower is t take place on April 22.

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The liver is the second largest and the most complex organ in the body, with the exception of the brain.
World liver day is observed on every 19 April, to spread awareness about liver related disorders and diseases. The theme for this year is ‘Keep your liver healthy and disease-free.’