1. No Touch BreastScan (NTBS)
  2. CheMin
  3. Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS)
  4. Gale Crater
  5. Volcanic Activity in New Zealand
  6. Step-Throat and Salt water gargaling
  7. Why no Choke needed in CFL?

No Touch BreastScan (NTBS)

  • Imaging device, based on thermography, to detect brast cancer.
  • Increased metabolism in cancer cells leads to increase in temperature.
  • The NTBS device looks for temperature hot spots at the surface of breast and detects breast cancer.
  • However, US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has found no evidence to support the claim that thermography is a replacement for mammography.

CheMin

  • Name of device in NASA’s Curiosity rover.
  • Full name=Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument
  • It is used for soil analysis on Mars.
  • CheMin uses X-ray diffraction, the standard practice for geologists on Earth using much larger laboratory instruments.
  • This method provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method previously used on Mars.
  • CheMin found that minerals on the Red Planet are similar to those found in  volcanic soils in Hawaii.

Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS)

  • Name of device on Curiosity Rover.
  • The presence of methane is an important sign to indicate that life may have existed in the planet’s past.
  • TLS analysed a small sample of Martian air to come to the conclusion, had actually detected a few parts per billion of methane.
  • However, recognising that the reading was too low to be significant, it sounded a “No”.

Gale Crater

  • Located on Mars planet.
  • Curiosity rover found signs that water may have flowed in the past through Gale Crater.

Volcanic Activity in New Zealand

  • New Zealand lies on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire,’ where the Earth’s tectonic plates collide, making it a hotspot for volcanic and earthquake activity.
  • In the late 1800s, Mount Ruapehu, Mount Tarawera of New Zeland had erupted, caused destruction of life and property.
  • Recently Mt. Tongariro erupted in New Zealand. This Volcanic mountain was used as a backdrop in famous Hollywood movie “Lord of the Rings”

Step-Throat and Salt water gargaling

  • Why do we feel relief when we gargle with salt in hot water when suffering from throat pain?
  • Soreness of throat is generally due to the infection of the bacterium called Streptococcus .
  • So it is called strep throat.
  • A strep throat is usually inflamed due to bacteria making widespread damage on our soft tissues or mucosa.
  • These inflammations (known as edemas) are usually filled with water.
  • When we gargle with warm salt water that is saltier than our body fluids (hypertonic solution), through osmosis the salt draws out the edema fluid.
  • Moreover gargling with salt water does not actually help to heal the strep throat like a medicine would, but it does provide temporary relief.
  • If we do not experience relief as a result of the salt water gargling and if the pain persists we must consult a doctor to get proper antibiotic treatment.

Why no Choke needed in CFL?

Why is a choke required in a tube light and not in a CFL?

  • Both tubelights and CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) are low pressure mercury vapour discharge lamps.
  • When electrical discharge could strike the column of the tube, lot of invisible UV radiation having is generated.
  • This UV radiation when strikes the white coating inside the tube made of fluorescent material- phosphors gets converted to visible light through the process of fluorescence. Thus we see the white light.
  • For a conventional a tubelight, a choke is required, to initiate the electrical discharge process.
  • But CFLs, being smaller in dimensions offering much lower electrical resistance do not require such bulky chokes.
  • Instead the discharge in CFLs is initiated by much compact electronic circuits integrated into the CFL holder.

Mock Questions

Q1. We feel relief when we gargle with salt in hot water when suffering from throat pain, because

  1. Hot Salt water kills the bacteria responsible for throat pain
  2. Hot Salt water works as muscle relaxant
  3. Hot salt water salt draws out the edema fluid from the throat.
  4. None of Above

Q2. Find correct statement

  1. Tubelight is a low pressure mercury vapour discharge lamp
  2. CFL is a high pressure mercury vapor discharge lamp.
  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both
  4. None

Q3. Which of the following is/are incorrect regarding devices of Curiosity rover?

  1. Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) analysed the soil of Mars
  2. CheMin analysed the presence of methane in the atmospere of Mars
  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both
  4. None

Ref

These terms are from The Hindu S&T, Nov-2012. For previous collections, visit www.Mrunal.org/snt