Essential 2021 Science and Technology Quiz

This is Sophia, a humanoid robot intended for multiple uses, including medical assistance. The company behind her, Hanson Robotics, said four of its models, including Sophia, would start rolling ‘in the thousands’ in the first half of 2021.

Apple introduced AirTags, a coin-like personal location device, on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. They can be placed on personal possessions and then tracked with the Find My app (formerly Find My iPhone) on iPhones, iPads, or Macs.

Do AirTags beep?

Like some other similar products, AirTags also emit noise to make them easier to find. Apple users can also lift their phone cameras and see their AirTags' locations accurately in real physical space on the screen.

Australian office supply store chain Officeworks has pulled Apple's newly launched AirTags from sale amid child safety concerns surrounding its button battery. Button batteries pose a significant hazard to small children and can cause severe injury or death if swallowed. Incidents involving button batteries severely injure an average of one child per month in Australia.

According to Apple, ProMotion is a technology that supports an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz, enhancing scrolling and responsiveness while preserving battery life. The new iPhone 13 Pro models feature the ProMotion technology.

What’s new on the iPhone 13 models?

Apple has revealed the iPhone 13 models on Sept. 14, 2021. The new smartphones have a smaller notch in the display and a different camera system. The iPhone 13 Pro designs use a 5-core GPU to better process graphics than the non-Pro versions.

When will the new iPhones be available?

The new models have been available since Friday, Sept. 24, 2021.

Crew-1 commander Michael Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi were the astronauts on the first operational flight of SpaceX's space taxi SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience.

News Fact

Crew Dragon safely returned to Earth, settling to a gentle splashdown south of Panama City, Florida, on Sunday, May 2, 2021, at 2:56 a.m., wrapping up a mission spanning 2,688 orbits over 168 days since launch last November.

When did the last pre-dawn splashdown happen?

The SpaceX Crew Dragon return was the first nighttime splashdown for a crewed U.S. spacecraft since the Apollo 8 returned to Earth in 1968, nearly 45 years before the SpaceX Dragon Crew return.

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, billionaire Richard Branson became the first person to blast off in his own spaceship, V.S.S. Unity, beating Jeff Bezos, the richest person on the planet, by nine days.

Billionaires in Space Fun Fact:

Bezos. Screenshot: Blue Origin on YouTube

The London-born founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways assigned himself to the flight after Bezos announced plans to ride his own rocket into space from Texas on July 20.  Bezos sent his congratulations, adding: “Can’t wait to join the club!”

The Virgin Galactic July 2021 space-tourism flight was a 15 minutes ride up and down — enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness.

The Ingenuity helicopter, which landed on Mars with Perseverance on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, is the first helicopter ever sent to another planet. 

Utopia Planitia (loosely, the plain of paradise) is the largest recognized impact basin on Mars, with an estimated diameter of 3300 km - The Martian region where the Viking 2 lander touched down and began exploring on September 3, 1976.

What’s new?

The Chinese Zhurong rover touched down on Utopia Planitia on 14 May 2021 as a part of the Tianwen-1 mission. The lander will deploy the rover on 22 May 2021. Its height is about 1.85 m (6.1 ft), and it has a mass of about 240 kg (530 lb). After the planned rover deployment, the orbiter would serve as a telecommunications relay for the rover while conducting its orbital observations of Mars.

Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter and the largest of the Solar System's moons. It’s the ninth-largest object in the Solar System and is the largest without a substantial atmosphere. That’s larger than planet Mercury.

Ganymede news fact:

On Monday, June  7, 2021,  NASA's space probe Juno performed its second flyby Jupiter’s Ganymede, at a close distance of 1,038 kilometers (645 mi), making it the nearest to Jupiter's most giant moon in 20 years.

Speaking during an appearance on "The Late Late Show with James Corden," former President Barack Obama said:  "When I came into office, I asked, is there a lab somewhere where we're keeping the alien specimens and spaceship?. They did a little bit of research, and the answer is no.”

Are there aliens, according to Obama?

“What is true, and I'm actually being serious here,” said the former US President in the interview, “is there's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern." Obama added that the US investigates these sightings, but there is "nothing to report" at the moment. Watch the interview.

With the release of Windows 10 back in 2015, Microsoft was clear that this would be "the last version of Windows." Microsoft announced Windows 11 on Thursday, June 24, 2021. The new operating system started rolling out on Oct. 5, 2021. 

Windows 11 includes a new start-up sound, a new logo, and a new "Widgets" feature that appears to be a revised version of the Widgets first introduced by Microsoft with Windows Vista.

Prof. Sarah Gilbert led the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Image: mattel.com

She is now a part of the medical Barbie collection, along with five other women working in laboratories around the world: US healthcare workers Amy O’Sullivan and Dr. Audrey Cruz, a Canadian doctor and campaigner Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, Brazilian biomedical researcher Dr. Jaqueline Goes de Jesus and Dr. Kirby White, an Australian medic who co-created a reusable gown for frontline staff.

The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) gave full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is the first to move beyond emergency use status in the United States.

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine new fact

The vaccine will now be marketed as Comirnaty. It is also available under emergency use authorization for individuals 12-15 years old and the third dose in specific immunocompromised individuals.

Sinovac is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Sinovac News Fact

On Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021, Brazil's federal health regulator Anvisa suspended the use of over 12 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine that Sinovac Biotech produced in an unauthorized plant. During Brazil's vaccine rollout earlier this year, the vast majority of administered vaccines were from Sinovac.

Graphene is made of a single layer of carbon atoms and is considered a nanomaterial. It is used in some face masks to add antiviral and antibacterial abilities supposedly.

News Fact

Health Canada asked distributors to recall masks sold with graphene or bio-graphene in them over potential inhalation risks. The products affected are listed as “face masks labeled as containing graphene or biomass graphene.”

Do I need to see a doctor?

Health Canada recommends consulting health care if you have health concerns - such as new or unexplained shortness of breath, discomfort, or difficulty breathing, after using graphene face masks.

Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices). Officially, it's intended for use against criminals and terrorists and made available to only military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies from countries with good human-rights records.

Pegasus 2021 Fact

French media outlet Forbidden Stories has obtained a list of 50,000 cellphone numbers allegedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance, including allegations French President Emmanuel Macron's number was on the list and may have been targeted. Journalists were able to identify more than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries on the list, including 189 journalists, more than 600 politicians and government officials, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, and several heads of state, according to The Washington Post. NSO told BBC News the list is bogus. "Our customers have an average of 100 targets a year. Since the beginning of the company, we didn't have 50,000 targets total," said a company spokesman.

Nifty is the name of the Indian stock market index (Nifty 50). It’s also a Japanese internet service provider but perhaps best known worldwide as the prenatal DNA test of women and fetuses made in China. The test is sold in at least 52 countries. It screens for Down’s syndrome and more than 80 other genetic conditions.

Nifty DNA Tests News Fact

Health regulators in five countries are examining the Nifty DNA prenatal test after a Reuters report that the test’s manufacturer collects genetic data in collaboration with the Chinese military. On Sept. 7, 2021, Regulators in Germany, Slovenia, Australia, Estonia, and Canada called for transparency in manufacturer BGI’s use of women’s genetic data. The European Data Protection Supervisor is monitoring the situation.

Dogecoin is not acceptable on PayPal’s Checkout with Crypto, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash are.

Paypal’s Checkout with Crypto UK News Fact

PayPal announced Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, that it will extend its Checkout with Crypto service to allow users in the UK to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies through the payment platform. The company launched a similar service in the US on Mar. 30, 2021.

You’re looking at the first and only steel 3D-printed pedestrian bridge over a canal in the heart of Amsterdam’s red-light district. The 12-meter (40-foot) bridge was created using a 3D printing technique that combines robotics with welding. Dutch Queen Maxima teamed up with a small robot Thursday, July 17, 2021, to unveil the 3D-printed bridge.

Amsterdam’s 3D-Printed Bridge News Facts

The 6-ton structure will be loaded with sensors that researchers at Imperial College London will use to monitor the bridge in real-time and measure how it reacts to being used by pedestrians. It will remain in place for two years while the bridge that previously crossed the canal is renovated.