BITS Apogee 2013 Sci Tech Quiz finals

presents
Science & Technology Quiz
Welcome to the Finals

Researched and hosted by

Nexus Consulting
Bangalore
@funwithfundas www.facebook.com/consultnexus

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

4. 150 years of which organization?

6. Designed in 1963, commissioned in 1970.
What and where?

7. What was Paul Karrer instrumental in
establishing the formula for?

EXCHANGE SHEETS
ANSWERS FOLLOW

 The Great Trigonometric Survey of India

 Indian Institute of Science

 Geological Survey of India

 Mudhol Hound / Caravan Hound

 Beta-carotene (Vitamin A also fine)

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?

 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?

 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.

The university where
Eötvös researched
and taught for more
than 30 years was
renamed after him in
1950.
In October 1956,
students at Lorand
Eotvos 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

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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?

11.

Why is Kumbakonam ‘degree’ Coffee called
thus?

 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.

 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?

14.
In Feb 2013, why did this tweet and this
Instagram photo by Jean H Lee, an
Associated Press reporter create history?

 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 Wilderness
faked the scene with illegal pets
bought from Eskimo children
flown in from Hudson Bay, put to run
on a snow-covered turntable.
Tight camera angles
turn them to a mass
race over tundra
then _____’s film crew throw them
off a cliff. Over they go
you can see them still
falling in celluloid aspic
…..

 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?

• 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

SPENCER REID BANE SHELDON COOPER
DOOGIE HOWSER

LISBETH SALANDER CHARLES XAVIER
LEXIE GREY

ADRIAN MONK WILL HUNTING
ROBERT LANGDON

(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.

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?

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?

 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?

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?

 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.

 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?

 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

9.
Please bear in mind that these are lesser known
suspects in an otherwise well known connection.
What connects? (non-exhaustive list)

 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?

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

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

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?

 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?

 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?

 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?

 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?

• 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

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?

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?

5. Identify this member of the dog family
that is an integral part of Japanese folklore
(see next slide for a few examples)

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

• Sagudana / Sabudana, the name for
Tapioca

7. Identify this industry body logo from the
mobile world

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?

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

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?

BITS Apogee 2013 Sci Tech Quiz finals

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