UPSC Prelims 2007 Q131: Science & Technology – Science & Technology History

UPSC Prelims 2007, General Studies Paper I · Science & Technology

Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched?

Answer: (c) Nicholas Stern : Construction Technology

Explanation

Scientists and their work — find the wrong pair

Pair	Fact	Matched?
William Dickson — Motion picture film	W.K.L. Dickson built the Kinetograph/Kinetoscope at Edison's lab	✔
Charles Babbage — Programmable computer	Designed the Analytical Engine — "father of the computer"	✔
Nicholas Stern — Construction technology	Lord Stern is an economist — wrote the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (2006)	✘
Brian Greene — String theory	Physicist; author of The Elegant Universe	✔

The Stern Review said the cost of acting on climate change (~1% of GDP) is far smaller than the cost of not acting (5-20% of GDP).

Answer: (c) Nicholas Stern : Construction Technology.

(a) Incorrect. Dickson is correctly linked to motion pictures.
(b) Incorrect. Babbage is correctly linked to the programmable computer.
(c) CORRECT. Nicholas Stern is a climate economist (Stern Review 2006), not a construction technologist.
(d) Incorrect. Brian Greene is correctly linked to string theory.

Nicholas Stern = Stern Review (2006) on the economics of climate change. Babbage = Analytical Engine. Greene = string theory.

Nicholas Stern is known for the 2006 Stern Review on climate economics.

Not knowing W.K.L. Dickson — he is less famous than Edison.
Missing the 2006 Stern Review — very topical in 2007.
Thinking Babbage built a working computer — he designed it; it was never completed in his lifetime.

Current-affairs link: a 2007 paper will test 2006 news — Stern Review was the big climate report that year.