Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Sep 19, 2016

ANSWER: Both a and c

Explanation:
Paralympic athletes winning medals at the Rio Paralympic Games can literally hear the sound of victory.
Paralympians can hear their medals with the assistance of steel balls fitted inside the medals.

• During the Rio Games, athletes biting their medals at the presentation ceremony was a common sight
• But at the Rio Paralympics Games, athletes are holding up medals to their ears- here’s why
• International Paralympic Committee made the gold, silver and bronze medals fitted with steel balls on the inside to make a sound when shaken
• This ensures that visually impaired athletes can hear their medals
• Bronze medal has 16 balls and makes the lowest sound
• Silver medal has 20 balls, while gold medals have 28 balls making the loudest noise
• The medals also have the words “2016 Rio Paralympic Games” written on them in Braille

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
China became only the third country in the world to win more than 100 gold medals at a single edition of the Paralympic Games.

• China ended the games with 105 gold, 81 silver and 51 bronze medals
• United States and Britain are the only other nations to in a century of gold medals in a single Paralympics
• Both US and UK won their century tally of medals at the 1984 NY games where US claimed 136 victories and Britain 107
• 5 of China's track and field gold medals on 17th Sept - the penultimate day of competition - were achieved with world record performances.
• The records were set by Zheng Jin, Mi Na, Zhou Hongzhuan, Zhou Xia
• In the men's 4x400m relay T53/54, China's Cui Yanfeng, Liu Yang, Li Huzhao and Liu Chengming clocked 3 minutes 3.12 seconds to eclipse their own previous world record of 3:04.77.
• Wu Guoshan recorded his longest throw of the year to win the men's shot put F57.
• China’s Zhang Bian and Gu Gai beat Serbia's Borislava Peric-Rankovic and Nada Matic in TT
• Zhang Li secured her third gold medal here by winning the 100m freestyle S5 final.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
A team of researchers have discovered 3D lung organoids or lab grown lung like tissue to study lung diseases like COPD and Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

• The 3D dimensional drug has been created by coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and allowing them to self-assemble into the shape of air sacs found in human lungs.
• "While we haven't built a fully functional lung, we have been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung,” say the researchers
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disease caused by scarring of the lungs making them thick and stiff and resulting in breathlessness
• When scientists take cells from people with this disorder and grow them on flat culture, the cells actually appear healthy!
• Inside each well of the organoid, the lung cells grew around the beads, which linked them and formed an evenly distributed three-dimensional pattern.
• To show that these tiny organoids mimicked the structure of actual lungs, the researchers compared the lab-grown tissues with real sections of human lung.
• Moreover, when the researchers added certain molecular factors to the 3D cultures, the lungs developed scars similar to those seen in the lungs of people who have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis - something that could not be accomplished using 2D cultures of these cells.

ANSWER: Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences

Explanation:
Marking a distinction for Indian cinema, the scripts of Adil Hussain starrer Sunrise and Parched have been archived at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• The academy was established in 1928 and now located in Beverly hills
• The library is open to the public and is used year-round by students, scholars, historians and industry professionals.
• It is a non circulating reference and research collection devote to development of motion picture as art form and industry
• Partho Sen Gupta directed Sunrise, a story of Inspector Joshi searching for daughter Aruna kidnapped at age 6
• Parched is produced by Ajay Devgan and directed by Leena Yadav.
• It raises awareness on issues like forced marriages, rape and mental cruelty against women.

ANSWER: Ophiuchus

Explanation:
According to reports, NASA updated the horoscope database and for the first time in 2000 years, a new Zodiac sign has been recognised.

• About 3000 years ago, the Babylonians supposedly divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts according to the 12 month calendar based on phases of the moon where each month got a slice of Zodiac to itself.
• However, the groundbreaking blog post reveals that “even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac.”
• The 13th constellation in question here, is known as Ophiuchus.
• Unable to accommodate the extra constellation into their lunar calendar, the Babylonians left it out.
• The post explains, “When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction.”
• “The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the Sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the Sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days. To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12.”
• Sun also aligns with the benched Ophiuchus for about 18 days each year.
• So, for all those born in between November 29 and December 17, this is a new sign
• TIME magazine reported in 2011 says, Ophiuchus is a “snake-holder”. Ancient illustrations “portray some sort of heavily muscled person holding on with difficulty to a veritable anaconda in the sky.”
• The sign shares “traits with Imhotep, a 27th century BCE Egyptian doctor, and biblical Joseph.”
• Ophiuchus is also considered a healer or a doctor and symbolises the hunt for higher education and enlightenment. Well, these could be the basic traits of people under the new sign.

ANSWER: Baramulla

Explanation:
Terrorists attacked an army camp at 12 Brigade HQ in Uri along with their arms and ammunition.

• 17 jawans died in the attack in Baramulla district of Kashmir
• Sources said a mission map annotated in Pashto revealed terrorists wanted to kill unarmed troops and storm the medical aid unit and brigade admin block and blow themselves up in the officer’s mess
• Map deciphered by military experts indicated that the terrorists were drawn from the banned terror group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) that recently started working under Jaish command and calls itself "Guardians of the Prophet".
• The SSP cadre directly operates under Jaish-e-Mohammad+ chief Masood Azhar,
• Azhar has publicly likened JeM's goals to that of the SSP, a Sunni Muslim terror group affiliated to Pakistani Deoband.
• Taliban draws its inspiration from the Pakistani Deoband.
• Terrorists lobbed 17 grenades in 3 minutes causing 13 soldiers to die instantly and 32 soldiers to be critically injured
• Fidayeen militants stormed the army camp near Uri at LoC around 4 am
• This attack was one of worst strikes on an army base in Kashmir since militant attacks began in 1989.
• The demonstrations began after Indian army killed Burhan Wani a terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen
• A doctor at Srinagar's SMHS hospital said 756 people have been hit in the eyes by pellets over the past 72 days.
• The terror attack and its aftermath is set to leave the Valley in violence and bloodshed.

ANSWER: Chelsea

Explanation:
Powerful explosion on West 23rd Street in Chelsea Neighbourhood of Manhattan injured 29 people on 17th Sept.

• Investigators later found a suspicious device a few blocks ahead
• The police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, said it occurred in front of 131 West 23rd Street.
• Officials said they believed the explosion had been caused by a homemade bomb that had been placed under a Dumpster.
• The authorities said a suspicious device was found on West 27th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue almost three hours after the explosion.
• Government officials said initially that they did not believe there was a link between the blasts in New Jersey and New York.
• But later on Sunday senior law enforcement officials said investigators were focusing more on the possibility that the two were connected. Still, the connection was not confirmed.
• Police did not believe the blast in Chelsea was related to a mysterious explosion in Central Park in July, when a teenager from Virginia lost part of his leg.
• An improvised device exploded in a garbage can on 17th Sept in Seaside Park, N.J., near the course of a charity race to benefit members of the United States Marine Corps. The device went off at about 9:30 a.m., around the time the race was scheduled to have started. There were no injuries.

ANSWER: Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer

Explanation:
For the first time, astronomers have documented the process through which radiation is expelled from black holes- holding the key to how galaxies are formed using the WISE telescope.

• The NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope studied how supermassive black holes – concentrations of mass the size of hundreds of thousands or even millions of suns, with gravity so powerful even light cannot escape – exist in the centres of most galaxies.
• When an object is absorbed by a black hole, not all of the contents are consumed – instead it emits a vast “belch” of intense radiation,
• This is a blinding bright whip of energy known as a tidal disruption flare, which wipes out everything in its path.
• Using images from the WISE telescope, launched in 2009, which can measure the infrared emissions of cosmic dust, the US scientists have found at least three black holes surrounded by the radiation-charged cosmic dust
• Chinese have found another one.
• “This is the first time we have clearly seen the infrared light echoes from multiple tidal disruption events,” say researchers
• Belches create new stars and form the shape of the galaxy
• Scientists say this is how mechanics of process operated while the universe was first formed 14 billion years ago