Knowledge Quiz

AnswersA1. Vikram SarabhaiA2. Glacier, Melting of glaciersA3. Jai HindA4. FlamingoA5. GolfA6. Wonder Woman

Q1 Born in a Gujarati industrial family, this Indian personality’s regular interactions with freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi influenced him to use science for the benefit of humanity. When he wanted to pursue his higher studies at Cambridge, Rabindranath Tagore wrote the following letter of recommendation:

‘He is a young man with a keen interest in science and I am sure, a course of study at Cambridge will be of immense value to him.’ Name this Indian scientist, whose 100th birth anniversary was this year and was commemorated by a Google doodle on August 12.

Q2 Last month, around 100 people walked up a mountain to attend the funeral of Okjokull in Iceland. Global warming is cited as the reason for its disappearance. If a similar pattern continues, then Iceland would lose more than 11% of its surface area. A plaque titled – A letter to the future – with the following message was installed:

‘Ok is the first Icelandic ____ to lose its status as a ____. In the next 200 years, all our ____ are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.’

What was Okjokull or what are we talking about?

Q3 Abid Hasan Zafrani was Subhash Chandra Bose’s personal secretary and interpreter who eventually became a Major in Bose’s Indian National Army (INA). Zafrani observed that despite their patriotic cause, the soldiers often remained within religious groups and addressed each other with religious greetings like ‘Ram Ram Ji’ or ‘Salam Waleikum’. In order to change this, he came up with a new greeting that would appeal to everyone.

What was the greeting?

Q4 Birds of this species are born with grey feathers. However, they change colour over time due to beta carotene, a natural dye, that they obtain from their diet of brine shrimp and blue-green algae. The level of beta carotene levels in their food varies in different parts of the world. Hence, their colour varies between bright red and orange to pale pink. Interestingly, their diet also depends on the type of beak they have.

Which bird is this, that inspired the saying “you are what you eat”?

Q5 Alan Shepard was an American astronaut and naval aviator. He was the first American to travel into space. In 1971, he was named the commander of the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. While on the moon, he wanted to do something special. As he was fond of a particular sport, he carried the props used for the game with him to the moon, thus, making him the only person to play this sport on another surface apart from the earth. He used the craters of the moon to play this sport.

Name this sport.

Q6 ‘The Secret History of ___________’ written by Jim Lepore, chronicles the history and development of a famous pop culture character, who Lepore argues was instrumental in the women’s rights movement. The character was created by William Moulton Marston, a Harvard student, who was influenced by the then on-going Suffragette movement for women’s rights in the college campus and the city. Ironically it received flak for being an inappropriate representation and was dropped from being the honorary UN ambassador for empowerment of women in 2016.

Name the fictional character.