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GS Paper: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

  • Moon-forming region seen around an exoplanet for the first time

     

    Scientists for the first time have spotted a Moon-forming region around an exo-planet beyond our solar system.

    What are Exoplanets?

    • More than 4,400 planets have been discovered outside our solar system, called exoplanets.
    • Most orbit other stars, but free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets, orbit the galactic center and are untethered to any star.
    • No circumplanetary discs had been found until now because all the known exoplanets resided in “mature” – fully developed – solar systems, except the two infant gas planets orbiting PDS 70.

    What is the new finding?

    • The researchers have detected a disc of swirling material accumulating around one of two newborn planets.
    • They were seen orbiting a young star called PDS 70, located a relatively close 370 light-years from Earth.
    • It is called a circumplanetary disc, and it is from these those moons are born.
    • The discovery offers a deeper understanding of the formation of planets and moons.

    Focus of the finding: Formation of disc

    • In our solar system, the impressive rings of Saturn, a planet around which more than 80 moons orbit, represent a relic of a primordial moon-forming disc.
    • The orange-colored star PDS 70, roughly the same mass as our Sun, is about 5 million years old– a blink of the eye in cosmic time.
    • The two planets are even younger. Both planets are similar (although larger) to Jupiter, a gas giant.
    • It was around one of the two planets, called PDS 70c, that a Moon-forming disc was observed.

    Observing birth of a moon: Core Accretion

    • Stars burst to life within clouds of interstellar gas and dust scattered throughout galaxies.
    • Leftover material spinning around a new star then coalesces into planets, and circumplanetary discs surrounding some planets similarly yield moons.
    • The dominant mechanism thought to underpin planet formation is called “core accretion”.
    • In this scenario, small dust grains, coated in ice, gradually grow to larger and larger sizes through successive collisions with other grains.
    • This continues until the grains have grown to a size of a planetary core, at which point the young planet has a strong enough gravitational potential to accrete gas which will form its atmosphere.
    • Some nascent planets attract a disc of material around them, with the same process that gives rise to planets around a star leading to the formation of moons around planets.
    • The disc around PDS 70c, with a diameter about equal to the distance of the Earth to the sun, possesses enough mass to produce up to three moons the size of Earth’s moon.

  • What is Monkey B virus?

    China has reported the first human death case with the Monkey B virus (BV).

    What is Monkey B virus?

    • The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca.
    • B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpes virus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans.

    Answer this question from our AWE initiative:

    There is been an increase in occurance of zoonotic human infectious diseases are zoonotic . Give reasons for this. Also suggest ways to contain and decrease the frequency of such events.(250 Words)

    How is it transmitted?

    • The infection can be transmitted via direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions of monkeys and has a fatality rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent.
    • According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Macaque monkeys commonly have this virus, and it can be found in their saliva, feces, urine, or brain or spinal cord tissue.
    • The virus may also be found in cells coming from an infected monkey in a lab. B virus can survive for hours on surfaces, particularly when moist.

    When can a human get infected with B virus?

    • Humans can get infected if they are bitten or scratched by an infected monkey.

    Symptoms

    • Symptoms typically start within one month of being exposed to B virus but could appear in as little as three to seven days.
    • The first indications of B virus infection are typically flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills, muscle ache, fatigue and headache.
    • Following this, a person may develop small blisters in the wound or area on the body that came in contact with the monkey.
    • Some other symptoms of the infection include shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and hiccups.
    • As the disease progresses, the virus spreads to and causes inflammation (swelling) of the brain and spinal cord, leading to neurologic and inflammatory symptoms.

    Is there a vaccine against B virus?

    • Currently, there are no vaccines that can protect against B virus infection.

    Who are at higher risk for infection?

    • The virus might pose a potential threat to laboratory workers, veterinarians, and others who may be exposed to monkeys or their specimens.
    • To date, only one case has been documented of an infected person spreading the B virus to another person.

  • Near-Earth Asteroid Scout Mission

    Last week, NASA announced that its new spacecraft, named NEA Scout, has completed all required tests and has been safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

    For landing on Moon

    • NEA Scout is one of several payloads that will hitch a ride on Artemis I, which is expected to be launched in November.
    • Artemis I will be an uncrewed test-flight of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket.
    • Under the Artemis programme, NASA has aimed to land the first woman on the Moon in 2024 and also establish sustainable lunar exploration programs by 2030.

    What is NEA Scout?

    • Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a small spacecraft, about the size of a big shoebox. Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid.
    • It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using special solar sail propulsion.
    • This type of propulsion is especially useful for small, lightweight spacecraft that cannot carry large amounts of conventional rocket propellant.
    • NEA Scout will use stainless steel alloy booms and deploy an aluminium-coated sail measuring 925 square feet.
    • The large-area sail will generate thrust by reflecting sunlight.
    • Energetic particles of sunlight bounce off the solar sail to give it a gentle, yet constant push.

    How will it study the asteroid?

    • NEA Scout is equipped with special cameras and can take pictures ranging from 50 cm/pixels to 10 cm/pixels.
    • It can also process the image and reduce the file sizes before sending them to the earth-based Deep Space Network via its medium-gain antenna.
    • The spacecraft will take about two years to cruise to the asteroid and will be about 93 million miles away from Earth during the asteroid encounter.

    Why should we study near-Earth asteroids?

    • Despite their size, some of these small asteroids could pose a threat to Earth.
    • Understanding their properties could help us develop strategies for reducing the potential damage caused in the event of an impact.
    • Scientists will use this data to determine what is required to reduce risk, increase effectiveness, and improve the design and operations of robotic and human space exploration.

  • Why does Mercury have such a big iron core?

    Researchers have developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a Mercury’s core is influenced by its distance from the Sun’s magnetic field.

    About Mercury

    • Mercury is the first and the smallest planet in our solar system.
    • It is also the closest planet to Earth.
    • Like the other three terrestrial planets, Mercury contains a core surrounded by a mantle and a crust.
    • But unlike any other planet, Mercury’s core makes up a larger portion of the planet.
    • MESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury’s chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.
    • It was the analysis from the MESSENGER mission that tells: Mercury’s core is solid.

    Mystery over the core

    • It has long been known that Mercury’s core composition is made of liquid metal.
    • The core itself is about 3,600 km across. Surrounding that is a 600 km thick mantle.
    • And around that is the crust, which is believed to be 100-200 km thick.
    • The crust is known to have narrow ridges that extend for hundreds of kilometres.
    • This large core has long been one of the most intriguing mysteries about Mercury.

    Why does Mercury have a large core?

    • A new study reveals that the sun’s magnetism is the reason.
    • The sun’s magnetic field influences the density, mass, and iron content of Mercury’s core.
    • The four inner planets of our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are made up of different proportions of metal and rock.
    • A gradient in which the metal content in the core drops off as the planets get farther from the sun.
    • The researchers explain how this happened by showing that the sun’s magnetic field controlled the distribution of raw materials in the early forming solar system.

    What are the key propositions?

    • During the early formation of the solar system, when a swirling dust storm and gas encircled the sun, iron’s grain was drawn toward the centre by the sun’s magnetic field.
    • At the time of planet formation from clumps of that dust and gas, planets nearer to the sun consolidated more iron into their centres than those farther away.
    • Scientists also found that the density and proportion of iron in the planet’s core correlate with the strength of the magnetic field around the sun during planetary formation.
    • Existing models on planetary formation were used to determine the speed at which gas and dust were pulled into the centre of our solar system during its formation.
    • The magnetic field that the sun would have generated as it burst into being and calculated how that magnetic field would draw iron through the dust and gas cloud.

    Cooling led solidification

    • As the early solar system began to cool, dust and gas that were not drawn into the sun started to clump together.
    • The clumps closer to the sun would have been exposed to a stronger magnetic field and thus would contain more iron than those farther away from the sun.
    • As the clumps coalesced and cooled into spinning planets, gravitational forces drew the iron into their core.

  • What are Doppler Radars?

    The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Doppler Radar in Mumbai, which surveys weather patterns and forecasts, stopped working after heavy rainfalls.

    How does a Doppler radar work?

    • In radars, a beam of energy– called radio waves– is emitted from an antenna.
    • When this beam strikes an object in the atmosphere, the energy scatters in all directions, with some reflecting directly back to the radar.
    • The larger the object deflecting the beam, the greater is the amount of energy that the radar receives in return.
    • Observing the time required for the beam to be transmitted and returned to the radar allows weather forecasting departments to “see” raindrops in the atmosphere, and measure their distance from the radar.

    What makes a Doppler radar special?

    • It can provide information on both the position of targets as well as their movement.
    • It does this by tracking the ‘phase’ of transmitted radio wave pulses; phase meaning the shape, position, and form of those pulses.
    • As computers measure the shift in phase between the original pulse and the received echo, the movement of raindrops can be calculated.
    • Thus it is possible to tell whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar.

    Types of Doppler radar

    • In India, Doppler radars of varying frequencies — S-band, C-band and X-band — are commonly used.
    • They help track the movement of weather systems and cloud bands and gauge rainfall over its coverage area of about 500 km.
    • The radars guide meteorologists, particularly in times of extreme weather events like cyclones and associated heavy rainfall.
    • An X-band radar is used to detect thunderstorms and lightning whereas C-band guides in cyclone tracking.

    Why are they called ‘Doppler’ radars?

    • The phase shift in these radars works on the same lines as the “Doppler effect” observed in sound waves.
    • It tells that the sound pitch of an object approaching the observer is higher due to the compression of sound waves (a change in their phase).
    • As this object moves away from the observer, the sound waves stretch, resulting in lower frequency.
    • This effect explains why an approaching train’s whistle sounds louder than the whistle when the train moves away.
    • The discovery of the phenomenon is attributed to Christian Doppler, a 19th-century Austrian physicist.

  • What is UV-C technology?

    The Union Ministry for Science and Technology has informed that Ultraviolet-C or UV-C Disinfection Technology will soon be installed in Parliament for the mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2.

    UV-C air duct disinfection system

    • The UV-C air duct disinfection system was developed by CSIR-CSIO (Central Scientific Instruments Organisation).
    • The system is designed to fit into any existing air-ducts and the virucidal dosages using UV-C intensity and residence time can be optimized according to the existing space.
    • The release adds that the virus is deactivated in any aerosol particles by the calibrated levels of UV-C light. It can be used in auditoriums, malls, educational Institutions, AC buses, and railways.

    What is Ultraviolet (UV)?

    • Ultraviolet (UV) is a type of light or radiation naturally emitted by the Sun. It covers a wavelength range of 100-400 nm. The human visible light ranges from 380–700 nm.
    • UV is divided into three bands: UV-C (100-280 nm), UV-B (280-315 nm) and UV-A (315-400 nm).
    • UV-A and UV-B rays from the Sun are transmitted through our atmosphere and all UV-C is filtered by the ozone layer.
    • UV-B rays can only reach the outer layer of our skin or epidermis and can cause sunburns and are also associated with skin cancer.
    • UV-A rays can penetrate the middle layer of your skin or the dermis and can cause ageing of skin cells and indirect damage to cells’ DNA.
    • UV-C radiation from man-made sources has been known to cause skin burns and eye injuries.

    So, can UV-C kill coronavirus?

    • UV-C radiation (wavelength around 254 nm) has been used for decades to disinfect the air in hospitals, laboratories, and also in water treatment.
    • But these conventional germicidal treatments are done in unoccupied rooms as they can cause health problems.
    • It can destroy the outer protein coating of the SARS-Coronavirus.

    Is it safe for humans?

    • The device is specifically developed to disinfect non-living things.
    • UV-C radiation used in this device could be harmful to the skin and eyes of living beings.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.What is the role of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the water purification systems?

    1. It inactivates/kills the harmful microorganisms in water.
    2. It removes all the undesirable odours from the water.
    3. It quickens the sedimentation of solid particles, removes turbidity and improves the clarity of water.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2010)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • What is Suborbital Flight?

     

    Virgin Group founder Richard Branson became the first billionaire to fly to the edge of space and back, riding aboard his own Virgin Galactic spacecraft in a suborbital flight.

    What is Suborbital Flight?

    • When an object travels at a horizontal speed of about 28,000 km/hr or more, it goes into orbit once it is above the atmosphere.
    • Satellites need to reach that threshold speed in order to orbit Earth.
    • Such a satellite would be accelerating towards the Earth due to gravity, but its horizontal movement is fast enough to offset the downward motion so that it moves along a circular path.
    • Any object travelling slower than 28,000 km/hr must eventually return to Earth.
    • These are suborbital flights, because they will not be travelling fast enough to orbit Earth once they reach there.
    • Such a trip allows space travellers to experience a few minutes of “weightlessness”.

    Analogical example

    • For an analogy, consider a cricket ball thrown into the air.
    • Given that no human hand can give it a speed of 28,000 km/hr (about 8 m/sec), the ball will fly in an arc until its entire kinetic energy is swapped with potential energy.
    • At that instant, it will lose its vertical motion momentarily, before returning to Earth under the influence of gravity.
    • A suborbital flight is like this cricket ball, but travelling fast enough to reach the “edge of space”, and yet without enough horizontal velocity to go into orbit.
    • If an object travels as fast as 40,000 km/hr, it will achieve escape velocity, and never return to Earth.

    Why the buzz?

    • With Branson and Jeff Bezos kicking off private space flight, several companies are looking for customers wanting to go on suborbital or even orbital journeys.
    • At Branson’s Virgin Galactic, around 600 people have already paid deposits for tickets that are priced up to $250,000 (Rs 1.86 crore).
    • However, Bezos’s Blue Origin, which uses the reusable New Shepard rocket, is yet to announce commercialization plans, according to the BBC.
    • There is also excitement among scientists who want to use suborbital flights for microgravity research.
    • Such flights would be far less expensive than carrying experiments and people to the International Space Station.
    • Suborbital flights could also be an alternative to parabolic flights in airplanes that space agencies currently use to simulate zero gravity.

    Safety concerns

    • The Branson flight comes seven years after his company’s first rocket, called Enterprise, crashed during a test flight, killing one of the pilots on board.
    • The other survived after parachuting out.
    • The current rocket is also not certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which is prohibited to do so by law until 2023.
    • This is because the US government does not want to burden companies like Virgin Atlantic with regulations during their “learning” period, when they can innovate by trying out different designs and procedures.
    • Passengers who go on such trips need to sign “informed consent” forms, similar to the ones before going for skydiving or bungee jumping.

  • Possibility of life on Saturn’s Moon

    NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected an unusually high concentration of methane, along with carbon dioxide and dihydrogen, in the moons of Saturn by flying through their plumes.

    What is the new observation?

    • The spacecraft has found that Titan has methane in its atmosphere and Enceladus has a liquid ocean with erupting plumes of gas and water.

    Are there methane-producing organisms on Earth?

    • Most of the methane on Earth has a biological origin.
    • Microorganisms called methanogens are capable of generating methane as a metabolic byproduct.
    • They do not require oxygen to live and are widely distributed in nature.
    • They are found in swamps, dead organic matter, and even in the human gut.
    • They are known to survive in high temperatures and simulation studies have shown that they can live in Martian conditions.
    • Methanogens have been widely studied to understand if they can be a contributor to global warming.

    Could there be methanogens on Enceladus?

    • We cannot conclude that life exists in the Enceladus ocean.
    • It is the probability that Enceladus’ hydrothermal vents could be habitable to Earth-like microorganisms.
    • There can be life hypotheses.

    What other processes could have produced the methane?

    • Methane could be formed by the chemical breakdown of organic matter present in Enceladus’ core.
    • Hydrothermal processes could help the formation of carbon dioxide and methane.
    • On Earth, hydrothermal vents on seafloors are known to release methane, but this happens at a very slow rate.
    • This hypothesis is plausible but only if Enceladus was formed through the accretion of organic-rich material from comets.
    • The results suggest that methane production from hydrothermal vents is not sufficient to explain the high methane concentration detected by Cassini in the plumes.
    • An additional amount of methane produced via biological methanogenesis could match Cassini’s observations.

  • Discrete Auroras on Mars

    The UAE’s Hope spacecraft, which is orbiting Mars since February this year, has captured images of glowing atmospheric lights in the Red Planet’s night sky, known as discrete auroras.

    What causes an Aurora on Earth?

    • Auroras are caused when charged particles ejected from the Sun’s surface — called the solar wind — enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
    • These particles are harmful, and our planet is protected by the geomagnetic field, which preserves life by shielding us from the solar wind.
    • However, at the north and south poles, some of these solar wind particles are able to continuously stream down, and interact with different gases in the atmosphere to cause a display of light in the night sky.
    • This display, known as an aurora, is seen from the Earth’s high latitude regions (called the auroral oval), and is active all year round.

    Where are they observed on Earth?

    • In the northern part of our globe, the polar lights are called aurora borealis or Northern Lights and are seen from the US (Alaska), Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
    • In the south, they are called aurora australis or southern lights and are visible from high latitudes in Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia.

    So, how are Martian auroras different?

    • Unlike auroras on Earth, which are seen only near the north and south poles, discrete auroras on Mars are seen all around the planet at night time.
    • Unlike Earth, which has a strong magnetic field, the Martian magnetic field has largely died out.
    • This is because the molten iron at the interior of the planet– which produces magnetism– has cooled.
    • However, the Martian crust, which hardened billions of years ago when the magnetic field still existed, retains some magnetism.
    • So, in contrast with Earth, which acts like one single bar magnet, magnetism on Mars is unevenly distributed, with fields strewn across the planet and differing in direction and strength.
    • These disjointed fields channel the solar wind to different parts of the Martian atmosphere, creating “discrete” auroras over the entire surface of the planet as charged particles interact with atoms and molecules in the sky– as they do on Earth.

    Why is it important to study them?

    • Studying Martian auroras is important for scientists, for it can offer clues as to why the Red Planet lost its magnetic field and thick atmosphere– among the essential requirements for sustaining life.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Which region of Mars has a densely packed river deposit indicating this planet had water 3.5 billion years ago?

    (a) Aeolis Dorsa

    (b) Tharsis

    (c) Olympus Mons

    (d) Hellas

    Back2Basics:

    Hope Orbiter

    • The Hope Probe, the Arab world’s first mission to Mars, took off from Earth in July last year, and has been orbiting the Red Planet since February.
    • The primary objective of the mission is to study Martian weather dynamics.
    • By correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions, the probe will look into how weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen into space.
    • By measuring how much hydrogen and oxygen is spilling into space, scientists will be able to look into why Mars lost so much of its early atmosphere and liquid water.
    • It is expected to create the first complete portrait of the planet’s atmosphere.
    • With the information gathered during the mission, scientists will have a better understanding of the climate dynamics of different layers of Mars’ atmosphere.

    Mars

    • Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury.
    • In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the “Red Planet”.
    • The latter refers to the effect of the iron oxide prevalent on Mars’s surface, which gives it a reddish appearance distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye.
    • Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, with surface features reminiscent of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth.
    • The days and seasons are comparable to those of Earth, because the rotational period, as well as the tilt of the rotational axis relative to the ecliptic plane, is similar.
    • Mars is the site of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System.

  • What is the Human Genome Project?

    Since the release of the draft human genome sequence in 2001, sections were left unsequenced, and some sequence information was incorrect. Now, two decades later, we have a much more complete version.

    What is the human genome sequence?

    • The human genome sequence is contained in our DNA and is made up of long chains of “base pairs” that form our 23 chromosomes.
    • Along our chromosomes are the base pair sequences that form our 30,000 genes.
    • All humans share a great degree of similarity in their genome sequences – the same genes are ordered in the same manner across the same chromosomes.
    • Each of us is unique (except for identical twins) in terms of the exact base pair sequence that makes up our genes and thus our DNA/chromosomes.
    • It is this similarity that, in a genetic sense, defines us as “human” and the specific variation that defines us as individuals.

    The Human Genome Project

    • As early as the 1980s, momentum was gathering behind activities that supported, and would eventually define, the Human Genome Project.
    • Conversations had turned into workshops that likened characterization of the human genome to characterization of the human anatomy that had centuries earlier revolutionized the practice of medicine.
    • In 1990, with continued support from the US and widespread international collaboration and cooperation, the $3 billion dollar Human Genome Project was launched.
    • The project aimed to determine the sequence of the human genome within 15 years.
    • By 2000 (well ahead of schedule) a working draft of the human genome was announced.
    • This was followed by regular updates and refinements and today we all have access to a human “reference genome sequence”.

    Why did it take 20 years?

    • Much of the newly sequenced material is the “heterochromatic” part of the genome.
    • This is more “tightly packed” than the euchromatic genome and contains many highly repetitive sequences that are very challenging to read accurately.
    • These regions were once thought not to contain any important genetic information but they are now known to contain genes that are involved in fundamentally important processes such as the formation of organs during embryonic development.
    • Among the 200 million newly sequenced base pairs are an estimated 115 genes predicted to be involved in producing proteins.

    Two key factors made the completion of the human genome possible:

    1. Choosing a very special cell type
    • The new sequence was created using human cells derived from a very rare type of tissue called a complete hydatidiform mole, which occurs when a fertilized egg loses all the genetic material contributed to it by the mother.
    • Most cells contain two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent and each parent’s chromosome contributing a different DNA sequence.
    • A cell from a complete hydatidiform mole has two copies of the father’s chromosomes only, and the genetic sequence of each pair of chromosomes is identical.
    • This makes the full genome sequence much easier to piece together.
    1. Advances in sequencing technology
    • A new method called “shotgun sequencing”, involved breaking the genome into very small fragments of about 200 base pairs, cloning them inside bacteria, deciphering their sequences, and then piecing them back together like a giant jigsaw.
    • This was the main reason the original draft covered only the euchromatic regions of the genome — only these regions could be reliably sequenced using this method.
    • The latest sequence was deduced using two complementary new DNA-sequencing technologies.

    Is the genome now completely sequenced?

    • Well, no. An obvious omission is the Y chromosome, because the complete hydatidiform mole cells used to compile this sequence contained two identical copies of the X chromosome.
    • However, this work is underway and the researchers anticipate their method can also accurately sequence the Y chromosome, despite it having highly repetitive sequences.
    • Even though sequencing the (almost) complete genome of a human cell is an extremely impressive landmark, it is just one of several crucial steps towards fully understanding humans’ genetic diversity.

    What’s next?

    • The next job will be to study the genomes of diverse populations (the complete hydatidiform mole cells were European).
    • Once the new technology has matured it will be better positioned to make a more significant impact on our understanding of human history, biology and health.
    • Both care and technological development are needed to ensure this research is conducted with a full understanding of the diversity of the human genome to prevent health disparities.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.With reference to the recent developments in science, which one of the following statements is not correct?

    (a) Functional chromosomes can be created by joining segments of DNA taken from cells of different species.

    (b) Pieces of artificial functional DNA can be created in laboratories.

    (c) A piece of DNA taken out from an animal cell can be made to replicate outside a living cell in a laboratory.

    (d) Cells taken out from plants and animals can be made to undergo cell division in laboratory petri dishes.