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The questions they ask are the beginning of scientific inquiry. Given below are some questions that children in India have asked Professor Yash Pal and Dr Rahul Pal as reported in their book, Discovered Questions (NCERT, 2006).
(i) What is DNA fingerprinting? What are its uses?
(ii) How do honeybees identify their own honeycombs?
(iii) Why does rain fall in drops?
Can you answer these questions? You will find Professor Yash Pal’s and Dr Rahul Pal’s answers (as given in Discovered Questions) on page 75.
Answer:
1. DNA is the blueprint for life. DNA fingerprinting is a useful forensic method that helps to identify parentage, since a son or a daughter would always exhibit a pattern identifiable as coming from both parents. It is possible to identify genes from a tiny drop of blood or a single strand of hair. It is also widely used in criminal investigation to prove the innocence or guilt of a murder suspect at the crime scene.
2. Honeybees are extremely sophisticated insects that are well aware of their location, position and navigation. They have warning chemicals that leave trails for fellow honeybees to locate their honeycomb. Bees also have pictorial memory of some sort, a direction-finding mechanism and a way of reckoning distance due to which they are in a better position to find their own honeycombs.
3. Rain is formed from the condensation of vapour when the air is cooled below the dew point. Some vapour in a cloud cannot condense simultaneously and it turns into a large pool of water. Most raindrops start as tiny ice crystals that slowly accumulate more moisture on the way at lower altitudes and the crystals melt into water droplets and fall on Earth as rain.