Extreme Weather Events in India

Indian Astronomy Satellite-ASTROSTAT

On September 28th Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has scripted yet another milestone by successfully launching Astrostat satellite dedicated exclusively for astronomical studies. Indian astronomers are immensely excited at the prospect of state-of art capabilities offered by this satellite. Designed for effective life span of five years, the satellite will endow Indian astronomers to study “radiation bands that carry information about the exotic neutron stars, newly born or exploding stars” and observe the dense effusion of hot gases around black holes.  Indian ground based telescopes- Giant Meter wave Radio Telescope at Pune and the Indian Astronomical Observatory at Ladakh enable scientists to detect radio waves and infrared radiations that penetrate earth’s atmosphere but don’t have scientific instruments to study astronomical phenomena occurring in the Ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma-rays. Till now they used to depend on the NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Array (NuSTAR) and ESA (European Space Agency) to study various radiation bands.

 Astrostat has five instruments on board to detect multi-wavelength radiations ranging from visible light to Ultraviolet and from low-energy through high energy X-ray radiations.  The instruments include- Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Soft X-ray imaging telescope, Large Area X-ray proportional Counters, Cadmium Zinc telluride Imagers, Scanning Sky Monitor, and charged particle monitor. The charged particle monitor (CPM) designed to detect charged particles and sensitive to protons above 1 MeV (Mega electron Volt). Astrostat is a collaborative effort of many institutes- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bangalore, Raman Research Institute Bangalore, InterUniversity Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics Pune, Bhabha Atomic Research centre Mumbai, S.N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences Kolkata, Canadian Space Agency, University of Leichester. The unique range of observatory capabilities will entail it to have a wide coverage unattained by any of the international space observatories till now.

The first Indian space observatory having payload of 1513  kg was launched into the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of 650km from the surface of the earth by ISRO’s work horse PSLV-C30 at an inclination of 6 degrees from the equator. Satellites in the low earth orbits have to pass through the dense radiation belts of South Atlantic Anamoly (SAA) region that has high fluxes of protons and electrons. Great care has to be exerted when satellite passes through these regions as the high density of the energetic particles can often cause glitches in the data and can permanently damage sensitive instruments onboard.

The idea of having a space observatory was first conceived by astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer in 1946 as the electromagnetic radiations entering earth’s atmosphere are filtered and thus obstruct the view of the celestial bodies. This objective was realized with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope named after Edwin Hubble in 1990 by NASA. Till date it is the largest and the most versatile telescope providing extremely high-resolution space images. It was uniquely designed to be serviced by astronauts and eventually it was serviced in 1993 for the first time when its main mirror was grounded inaccurately. Last servicing was done in 2009 and it is expected to last till 2030-40. Its successor James Webb Space telescope (JWST) is scheduled for launch in 2018.

India’s tryst with space observatory began in 1996 when ISRO carried out satellite-bound Indian X-Ray Astronomy Experiment in 1996.  ISRO has approved Astrostat in 2004 but its launch was inadvertently delayed. Along with the Astrostat satellite, the enhanced rocket launcher PSLV in XL configuration on its successful thirtieth launch mission piggy backed six satellites- 76kg LAPAN-A2 of Indonesia, 14kg NLS of Canada and four identical LEMUR satellites of US each weighing 28kg. In all the 320 tonne, 45m tall PSLV-C30 carried seven satellites of payload 1613kg.

The primary objectives of Astrostat are to study binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, study and estimate the magnetic fields of neutron stars, study star birth-regions and high energy processes occurring beyond our galaxy. While it is no parallel to the Hubble Space telescope it can be lauded as the Indian Hubble Space Telescope for Astrostat is not as powerful, as precise, as the illustrious NASA observatory. It is culmination of humble efforts of the ISRO and one of its kind bestowed with multi—wavelength capabilities. With this launch India has joined the scientific elite countries- the US, Russia, European Space Agency and Japan that own a space observatory.

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ISRO Makes India Proud Again: Successfully Hoists GSAT-6 satellite

ISRO has done it once again. The astounding success of the GSLV D-6 reinforced that the indigenous launch vehicle is now fully ready for commercial satellite launching programme. Till now India’s reliable work horse PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) with its meticulous delivery has been the cynosure of ISRO. GSLV has now joined the club. The 161 feet tall, GSLV-D6 weighing 416 tonnes at liftoff is the fifth developmental flight in GSLV series, has   launched the 2117 kg GSAT-6 communication satellite with remarkable precision on August 27^th from the 2^nd launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre or SrihariKota Range (SHAR). All the parameters time, relative velocity, range, altitude and acceleration profiles of the GSLV-6 were text book perfect.

India’s tryst with Geosynchronous satellite Launch vehicles (GSLV) began with its first flight in 2001. But the success of these vehicles has been extremely erratic wherein ISRO could register only three successful launches out of seven attempts. ISRO’s GSLV mission received major fillip following the magnificent performance of indigenously developed GSLV-D5 that hoisted GSAT-14 satellite on January 5^th 2014.

Initially ISRO used Russian built cryogenic engines in GSLVs. GSLVs are highly preferred launch vehicles to deliver communication satellites of INSAT (Indian National Satellite System) and GSAT (Geosynchronous satellite) series weighing more than 2 tonnes. INSAT series comprises of multipurpose geo-stationary satellites that cater to telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, search and rescue operations. GSATs aid in digital audio, data and video broadcasting. GSLV can hoist satellites weighing more than 2 tonnes into the GTO orbit (Geosychronous Transfer Orbit), which is 36,000km from the equator.

GSLV has three stages- first stage comprises of 138 tonne solid rotor motor and augmented by 4 liquid strap-ons. The second stage contains a single Vikas engine that burns for 150 sec and ignites the third stage also referred to as Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS). CUS, the heart of the GSLV launch vehicle is extremely complex as compared to the solid or the earth-storable liquid propellant rocket stages. The propellants used in cryogenic engine the liquefied oxygen that exists at -183C and the liquid Hydrogen at -253 C. These are pumped into the CUS using turbo pumps running at 40,000rpm 2 hours before the scheduled launch. The structural and thermal conditions required for operating at extremely low temperatures makes the launch extremely challenging. The liquefied propellants are very efficient, produce enormous thrust per unit mass compared to other fuels, environmentally safe and produce huge amounts of water during liftoff. The cryogenic engines require much less fuel than needed otherwise.

ISRO scientists toiled extremely hard to develop indigenous CUS as they replaced Russian Cryogenic engines which were used in rocket’s earlier experimental flights. India has so far built three indigenous CUS engines. GSLV Mk-II fitted with the first CUS engine blew up mid air in 2010 during its flight.  Mission scientists then returned to their drawing board toiled hard and nailed down all the technical glitches. The second CUS engine used in the GSLV-5 was a huge success. The meticulous delivery of GSLV-D6 now vouched credibility in developing the GSLV launch vehicles.

GSAT-6 is India’s 25^th geo stationary communication satellite and twelfth in GSAT series and caters to strategic purposes. It is an advanced communication satellite and provides S-band communication services in the country.  After reaching the GTO the satellite’s propulsion system will take over and positions it at the orbital destination of 83 degrees East Longitude. Of the 2117 kg, satellite’s dry mass is 985 kg. It is endowed with two advanced features-it has one of the largest S-band Unfurable antenna of 6 meter diameter. This antenna will utilise five spot beams over Indian main land and with frequency reuse scheme it will increase frequency spectrum utilisation efficiency. Another advanced feature is the 70 V bus. The satellite whose life expectancy is 9 years is the second military satellite developed at a cost of 265 crores.

India’s journey towards the cryogenic motor development has been jittery. India has initiated GSLV project in 1990 and signed a contract with Russia for supply of 7 cryogenic engines of 7.5 tons thrust along with the transfer of cryogenic technology. But in 1993, the US severely objected Russia selling cryogenic technology to India as this would be a violation under the Missile technology Control regime (MTCR). MTCR is an informal agreement and voluntary partnership between 34 members. The regime was formed by the G-7 industrial nations-US, UK, France, Canada, Italy, Germany and Japan with an objective of limiting the proliferation of the missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology capable of carrying 500kg payload to an altitude of 300km. It has 34 members which includes Russia.  As per MTCR guidelines, members established a “no undercut” policy means if a member denies sale of technology to another country, then the policy has to be strictly adhered by all other members. Thus now 117 nations enforce restrictions on exports to control the proliferation of UAV’s.  

Hence ISRO has been single-handedly working for developing this technology jealously shielded by all nations. More over the technology was denied as business interests of Europe, Russia and the US would be severely threatened by the arrival of India in this heavy vehicle-launch business. With nations imposing severe clamp down on transfer of technology Indian scientists with their gritty resolve developed cryogenic technology. This will now reduce our reliability on foreign launchers like European Space Agency’s (ESA) Ariane (which charges $20,000 to deploy a kilogram of payload to GTO) for launching communication satellites.

Currently, the Indian work horse PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) has proven its launch capability by launching 76 (31 Indian and 45 foreign) satellites so far. PSLV are capable of carrying remote sensing satellites which are lighter and place them in polar orbits. These satellites weigh from few hundred kilograms to about a tonne. Polar orbits are the orbits in which satellites don’t move in tandem with the rotation of the earth and hence they are not suitable for communication. The cost efficiency and the reliability of PSLVs have been established in the segment of the smaller satellites. India already boasts of 30 to 35% cheaper launches than other countries. Whereas Communication satellites are heavier, weighing 2 to 5 tonnes need big boosters in the GSLV series of vehicles to hoist these satellites into the  geosynchronous orbits 36,000km above the equator, where the satellite moves in tandem to earth’s rotation and hence service of satellite is available to the user all the time.

The launch vehicle along with its satellite today carried the spirits of ISRO scientists, who want to break the jinx of launching the heavy vehicle. India now established its credentials in the launching the heavier communication satellites where the scope for real business of global satellite launching lies. India has now joined the elite club of nations that include United States, Russia, France, Japan and China to clinch its rightful share in the ever emerging market of $300 billion dollars satellite launch services.

In 1993 when developed countries of the world have declared technology apartheid against India, Indian scientists have silently vowed to develop the cryogenic technology. In this incredible journey of developing the cryogenic engines, India has used all six of the seven Russian cryogenic engines and one indigenously developed engine. ISRO began its tryst with GSLV (Geo Synchronous Launch Vehicle) containing the cryogenic engines in 2001. But unfortunately ISRO could register just three successful launches. Now after undergoing the gruelling exercise of developing the technology India can proudly flaunt its mastery in the cutting edge technology. Cryogenic technology has been denied to India as the western world thought India to be a potential threat to their business interests in the emerging market of the global satellite launching.

The heightened fears of the West costed Indian Space programme dearly due to the numerous obstacles and delays caused by vested interests. The sabotage in the form of the dubious spying case framed against two exceptionally brilliant scientists- in-charge Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasi Kumar of the cryogenic programme in ISRO has delayed our programme by 19 years. Apart from successfully ripping them off the distinguished scientific career, the case has led to their unceremonious exit from the organisation. Besides being labelled as spies the severe torment and humiliation suffered by them is inexplicable. Thus the west tactfully delayed India’s Cryotechnology mission development for the lack of talented personnel who could spear head the project.  

The sabotage theory holds ground as the book “Russia in Space- A failed frontier” written by the British space writer Brian Harvey mentions about the plans of the imperilled nations and role of CIA in blocking India from perfecting the cryo technology. Nations feared that India’s progress might be detrimental to their prospects in the business of the space technology and nuclear energy. Hence these scandals were witch crafted to derail and delay the Indian technological missions which could otherwise lead the nation into a sphere of self-reliance.

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Genome Sequencing of Octopus Unravels Intelligence Traits

Among invertebrates Octopus are acclaimed to be most intelligent animals and have largest nervous system. Octopus, a Mollusc falls under category of modern cephalopod. Other important soft shelled smart animals that belong to the class Cephalopods are Cuttle fish, Squid and Nautilus.

While it is known that vertebrates with their distinct nervous system are far more intelligent scientists are keen about investigating the system that renders these invertebrates with superior cognitive skills. Caroline Albertin and her colleagues of University of Chicago in an effort to understand the basis for intelligence in Cephalopods have mapped the genome of Octopus. The report published in the Nature journal is collaborative effort of the University of Chicago, University of California Berkeley, University of Heidelberg, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. The scientists have carried out gene expression studies of 12 different tissues as well. They have identified two genetic families whose presence is more pronounced than the simpler Molluscs. These are the C2H2 Zinc-finger transcription proteins and the protocadherin proteins that regulate neuronal development.

Octopus has uniquely shelled eight tentacles that serve as prehensile arms, suckers, cameras and has effective colouring system to camouflage. It has unusually large genome almost as large as the human genome and has 33,000 protein coding genes compared to 25,000 of human beings.

Sophisticated Cephalopods have nearly half a billion neuronal cells as against 200 million in rat. These contribute to the extraordinary observational learning, complex problem solving, task-dependent conditional discrimination. Octopus has twice the number of Protocadherins genes than mammals. Protocadherin proteins are responsible for synaptic specificity, short-range interactions needed for circuit formation. These contribute to neuronal complexity of Octopus and accounts of its unusually large sized brain. Even the anatomy of various important organs is also peculiar. The tentacles have independent computing capacity and hence even if they are separated from main body they can execute cognitive tasks.

C2H2 transcripts are found in the nervous tissue and embryonic tissues and have crucial role in cell fate determination, transposon silencing and early development. Elevated transposon expression accounts for elevated memory and learning. Interestingly, nearly half of the octopus genome is made of transposons which are mobile. They translocate to new locations causing enhancement or decrease of gene expression. Octopus has 18,000 Zinc-finger transcription genes second to 20,000 genes of Elephants. These transcription factor genes adjust the expression of other genes and in Octopus these regulates the genes in suckers and in receptors of skin. Suckers have large number of genes that code for the neuronal transmitter acetyl choline. Octopus has proteins reflectins coded by six genes on skin. These proteins help in altering the brightness of the light in several ways and in effectively disguising itself. Unlike higher vertebrates where large number of gene duplications contributes to large genomes Octopus genes have evolved genuinely in response to natural selection.

Unlike vertebrates, neurons in Octopus are not concentrated in brain and spinal cord. But these travel to localised organs of the body like tentacles/arms. They appear as protuberances and take up specialised function depending upon their location. While brain can completely take over the control of entire body, Octopus has a decentralised nervous system that allows the arms to function autonomously. Hence they are less dependent on the long range signal transmissions even. Precisely, this mechanism allows octopus to act quickly and instinctively. Neurobiologists and Roboticists marvel this very unique kind of intelligence characteristic of Octopus. 

 

 

 

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New Horizons Explores The Frigid World of Pluto

NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft designed to flyby Pluto having travelled five billion kilometres  for the past nine and half years is going to have its closely approach with the dwarf planet by 7:50 am, Eastern Day Light Time on July 14^th 2015. Astronomers and science enthusiasts’ world over are passionately waiting for this epic moment that will last for few minutes. The probe will whiz past the planet’s surface at a velocity of 53,000 kmph during which it will capture thousands of images, collect scientific data of Pluto’s atmosphere, its surface and environment. Pluto has been the least explored planet in the solar system and no dedicated mission was ever commissioned for its study. New Horizons mission was instituted to study Pluto and explore the vast swarm of frosty bodies lying beyond Neptune and the bodies faintly moving in the frigid Kuiper belt region.

The probe has travelled so far that it will take 4.5 hrs for the radio signal sent from earth to reach the space craft. Hence it will remain radio silent for the entire period of its closet encounter with Pluto and Charon as the limited computing ability of the probe will be utilised in collecting the necessary data. Close-up image and scientific data will be sent to earth over a period of next 26 months and first high resolution pictures of Pluto are expected to be transmitted by July 15^th. The chances of this event becoming successfully are very high as the chances of collision of debris with probe is 1 in 10,000. This mission is of great relevance as it would shed light on less know details of the planet, its composition, moons and atmosphere but also it would help us in understanding the evolution of solar system including the Earth.

History of Pluto

The year 2015 marks the 85^th anniversary of discovery of the dwarf planet Pluto.

In 1930 a 24 year old farmer-turned-astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto. The existence of a planet X in close proximity to Neptune was suspected by the founder of Lowell Observatory, Percival Lowell on the basis of perturbations experienced by the orbit of Neptune. The discovery of the planet was announced on March 13^th that coincided with the birthday of Percival Lowell and with the discovery of the planet Uranus a century and half earlier.  Soon suggestions were invited for naming of the new planet. The planet was christened as Pluto after the Roman God of underworld as per suggestions of 11 year old Venetia Burney of Oxford, UK.  As a mark of respect, the dust counter built by students aboard NASA’s New Horizons Space craft is named as Venetia.

In 1978 James Christy and Robert Harrington of the US Naval Observatory at Flagstaff discovered Charon, the largest moon of Pluto. Charon in Roman Mythology refers to the ferryman who brings souls of dead men to the lair of Pluto. The moon which was visible as a bulge regularly appeared and disappeared in the images as Pluto. Pluto and Charon seemed to orbit their mutual centre of gravity and also because of the bigger size of Charon, these two bodies were referred to as Binary Planets.

In 1988 astronomers aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory made crucial observations about the atmosphere of Pluto. They indicated that Pluto’s surface is covered by ice made of Methane, Nitrogen and Carbon monoxide. These ices sublimate to form the thin atmosphere of Pluto.

In 2005 Hal Weaver and his colleagues at John Hopkins Institute revealed the presence of two moons of Pluto, Nix and Hydra. Other moons Kereberos and Styx were discovered in 2010 and 2011. Styx is faintest of all moons.

On January 19^th 2006 the New Horizons space craft, the first probe to Pluto lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Florida

In August 2006, International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto to the status of dwarf planet as it failed to qualify the new definition of a planet. It dictates that a planet must orbit around the sun, it should be large enough for its gravity to shape it into a sphere and its must have cleared its orbit of other similar-sized bodies. Pluto was relatively small compared to the objects in its surrounding. It was just another object in Kuiper belt and hence now the solar system is reduced from the earlier number of nine to eight planets.

Following the reclassification of Pluto a section of scientific community terribly opposed the new definition of the planet. Later in 2008, all the trans-Neptunian dwarf bodies were classified under the category of Plutoids. Also a new system of classification came into existence under the category of dwarf planets which includes five planets in solar system: Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris (Pluto destroyer).

Solar System is demarcated into three categories of planets- the inner rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) the outer gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and the ice dwarfs located on outer fringes of the Solar system or the Kuiper belt region. These include Pluto and Charon.

US Missions to Planets

The US has sent a space probe to each and every planet so far and with this New Horizon mission its aims to complete the initial reconnaissance of the solar system. In 1960 NASA has envisioned a plan of sending probes to all the five planets. Missions were designed to take the advantage of the celestial phenomenon of rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (occurs once in every 175 years) and assisted flybys. However due to highly constrained budget of NASA, the grand mission has been reduced to missions Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. These missions have successfully completed the flybys of the four gas giants. By 1989, Pluto was the only bonafide planet left unexplored. However when Pluto was derecognised as a planet in 2006, it meant that all planets were explored.

New Horizons Mission

Several programs like the Pluto fast flyby, Pluto Kuiper Express were designed to study and understand the key characteristics of Pluto’s atmosphere. But these were abandoned due to budgetary constraints. By 2001 New Horizons Mission was selected by the NASA’s New Frontier Program. Over the next five years South West Research Institute (SRI) and John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory built the spacecraft. Unlike the spacecrafts designed for the inner solar system, this space craft had limited electronic activity. Since it is destined to travel to the outer boundaries of the space the interior paint and exterior blanket were designed to maximise heat retention in the outer space. As it moved into realms farther from the Sun, the probe wasn’t equipped with solar arrays. Instead it had built in Radio Isotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) to provide power that can last through the launch and Pluto-Charon encounter. Spacecraft carried the Plutonium-238 Oxide pellets as fuel enclosed in the Iridium and Graphite shell. Hence the US Department of Energy carried out several pre-launch tests to make sure that the launch wouldn’t cause accidental contamination of the Earth’s atmosphere. Altogether there are seven scientific instruments on board

Launch and Flybys

The New Horizons was scheduled for a launch on January 11^th 2006 to allow for the gravity of Jupiter to assist a flyby.  It soon missed the target and was the launch was postponed to January 17^th but was stalled due to high winds. Second attempt on the next day was halted due to low clouds. Finally the probe, hoisted by the Atlas V 551 variant lifted off majestically from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on January 19^th.  During its course of flight it had an incidental encounter with the asteroid 132524 APL in June 2006 from a distance of 63, 297 miles followed by a Jovian (Jupiter and its moons) encounter in 2007 and finally with Pluto in 2015.

Accomplishments

These encounters acted as trial runs for the scientists at ground station to use some instruments on board for making crucial observations and test space craft’s ability to perform automated manoeuvres during planetary flyby operations. Spacecraft was fitted with state-of-art instruments that delivered good quality of data about the atmospheric conditions, structures and composition of Jupiter clouds. It discovered debris from recent collisions within Jupiter rings and searched for new rings and moons of Jupiter as well.

The probe was so meticulously designed that the gravity assisted sling shot manoeuvre during the Jupiter flyby has accelerated probe velocity to 53,000kmph relative to Sun. This shortened the probe’s journey to Pluto by three years. Following close encounter with Jupiter the mission command has decided to send the probe into a phase of hibernation which lasted from February 2007 to December 2014. The probe was intermittently awakened by the flight control team to keep systems operational. It crossed the Orbital Boundary of Saturn in March 2008 and Uranus in March 2011.

In July 2014 during its non-hibernation phase the probe successfully imaged Pluto and Charon separated by a distance of 2.4 AU (average orbital distance of Earth from Sun) as two distinct bodies. In December 2014, the probe was finally awakened by the NASA team and official operations began in January 2015. By February 2015, it captured the first images of Hydra and Nix and by end of April the probe could capture images of Kerberos and Styx. In mid May the probe delivered high resolution images of entire Plutonian system and started making observations of Kuiper belt objects too. The probe encountered a minor technical glitch on July 4^th following which it entered into safe mode. Soon it was rectified and it officially entered flyby mode by July 8^th.  The close approach flyby mode is destined for July 14^th when the New Horizons will pass by Pluto from a distance of 12,500 kilometers  and 28,800 kilometers from Charon. Since probes close approach to Charon is more than twice the distance of Pluto the images of Charon will be twice as coarser than those of Pluto.

Post Pluto Flyby

After the completion of the Pluto’s flyby operation, the probe instead of entering into the orbit of dwarf planet will enter into the deeper recesses of space into the Kuiper belt objects. It was planned that the probe will identify the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO). In this process if the probe travels beyond orbital boundary of 55AU, communication system will become weak, power supply too will run out and chances of assisted flybys would become bleak. Scientists have identified three KBO in range of 43 and 44 AU for plausible flybys but the final decision will be taken in August 2015.

Post flybys of KBO the probe is expected to join Voyager probes on the outer realms of Solar System. Based on the Plutonium decay, the probe is expected to be active till 2026. If it is healthy and robust like the Voyagers by the time it reached Heliosphere, it can meet Heliopause in 2047 and join Voyagers 1 and 2 floating in the interstellar space.

The mission is a glorious tribute to the scientific temper and inquisitiveness of the human mind. It reflects the deep seated urge of the humankind to explore, understand and study the intricacies of the celestial World and the invincible space.
 

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Changing Dietary Habits: Inclement Effects on Global Climate

Changing global climate has been posing severe challenges for healthy living. An international research report published in the Lancet journal recently warns about the looming “threat of the changing climate that can wipe out the health progress over the past 50 years”.
 

The report broaches on the direct and indirect effects of climate changes on the health. Direct effects refers to increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like heat waves, floods, drought and storms whose impact is enormous on health. The worst ever death toll recorded in India and Pakistan due to the severe heat wave this year fall under this category. Indirect impacts of climate changes include the changes in the infection patterns, effects of emissions, uncertainty regarding availability of food leading to malnutrition. Health effects also include those related to involuntary migration of people forcing them to leave the affected regions in search of better living conditions. This reduces social stability would indirectly affect the health.
 

The compendium, a collaborative effort of number of European and Chinese Climate Scientists, Environmental Scientists, Social Scientists, Medical and Health scholars, Energy policy experts, engineers and others have cautioned that major gains accrued in human health might be frittered away by the changes in climate. It elucidates the role of emissions in stunting positive health benefits and advised countries to cut down fossil fuel consumption to lower the incidence of respiratory diseases. This is congruent to the alarming levels of pollution in the capital city of Delhi where children are becoming more susceptible to life-threatening respiratory diseases. It also advised nations to reduce the consumption of red meat which is not environmentally friendly and strictly recommended a change in dietary habits. Another major threat to global health in recent years has been the increased incidence of conflict.
 

It also proposed to initiate a new independent global action plan “Countdown to 2030: Climate Change and Health Action.” The objectives of the plan will be carried out by an organisation that monitors the link between health status and affect of climate change and to UN every two years. Lancet Commission report further emphasises the need for strong international consensus to create a global economy wherein carbon emissions are reduced. This in turn would improve the health status. The report has a great bearing on the talks in climate change on global health with regard to UN Climate Change Conference, COP 21 to be held in Paris from 30^th November to 11^th December 2015.

Research indicates that change in the dietary habits has a great impact on the climate change. Though the statement is little intriguing, scientific study and resource utilisation pattern clearly suggested that plant based diet is more healthy and environmental friendly than meat diet. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports also expounded that changing dietary habits in the past few decades have contributed to current environmental degradation and resource stress.

In recent times due to rise in income levels people are increasingly turning towards high energy food sources like animal sources especially meat. While it took a century for Europe to reach a stage where every meal has meat a similar change could be witnessed in majority of Asian countries within a generation. People are now switching to meat based meal. Obtaining proteins from meat is far more resource intensive than from plants as they use more cropland, water and energy. Their transportation to slaughter houses and processing of the meat are high energy intensive processes. Hence consumption of meat depletes more natural resources and consequently puts great pressure on food production systems, damages ecosystem and triggers climate change. Meat production is 10 times more water intensive than plant- calories. It is estimated that 15,415 litres of water is need to produce a kilogram of beef. In other words nearly 30 plant calories are needed to produce one calorie of meat.

Due to sharp increase in the global population there is a growing demand for food grains. Currently 36% of the calories produced by World crops are utilised as animal feed and only 12% of calories contribute to human diet. The population of the livestock is 14 billion as compared to human population of 7.2 billion and their environmental foot print is much higher. Livestock accounts for 14.5% of the Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions. Live stock production consumes three times more water resources than agriculture accounting for 71% of World water consumption. Livestock production occupies about 30% of Earth’s land surface. Moreover, extensive rearing of livestock over a period of time resulted in the biodiversity loss and extinction of other wild animals.

Incidence of various diseases like diabetes, heart attacks, strokes etc increased with regular consumption of meat. Obesity has become a chronic problem in all meat eating nations. On an average while the consumption of meat in India is 3.2 kilograms it is 125.4 kilograms in US, the second largest meat consuming nation after Luxembourg. Worryingly the demand for meat is projected to increase by 50 % by 2025 with Asian countries accounting for a large part of it.

Higher demand for meat will be catastrophic for environment. To meet the increasing demand meat suppliers would resort to feeding the livestock with food grains rather than grass. This in turn would put great pressure on the food grains, natural resources and environment. Livestock are injected with hormones to trigger growth and as a prophylactic measure fed with antibiotics to curtail spread of diseases. In fact most of the deadly diseases of recent origin infecting humans are mostly Zoonotic (originated from animals). The disposal of livestock wastes largely results in contamination of water and oil with antibiotic residues and other high metal elements.

While the burden of changing to animal based diet on environment and health is extensively studied and documented, the message has failed to reach the intended subjects. With the World glaring at the imminent natural resources crunch, increasing global temperatures, burgeoning population and increasing demand for food grains and ever increasing health complications- it is high time that people change their dietary habits.

It is advisable to rely more on plant based diets for their calorific needs to reduce pressure on natural resources and environment. To this end, government and civil society should take the responsibility of spreading this message of promoting healthier plant based diet.

Interestingly, a recent research indicated that if crops are not diverted towards animal feeds and for bio fuel production an extra four billion people can be fed. Meat consumption actually releases more GHG’s than the cars annually. According to FAO report, beef production on average needs 28 times more land, 11 times more water than all other livestock categories and produces five times more GHG and six times more reactive nitrogen. While it is difficult for people to become vegetarian completely, they can choose other meat alternatives like chicken or sea food which is less resource- intensive.

 

Thus adopting a healthy plant based diet with minimal meat consumption would not only help in conservation of resources and minimising global warming but also helps in stemming the incidence of various life style diseases. If emission of green house gases can be minimised extreme climate changes can be averted and global health too can be conserved. Switch to a balanced diet to save our planet.

 

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New Revelations About Pluto

Few interesting results about the dwarf planet Pluto are published in Nature six weeks ahead of NASA’s New Horizons first fly-by. New Horizons Mission will zoom past Pluto on July 14^th within 12,500 km of planet’s surface. It is expected to unravel more details about Pluto. Besides the popular Earth- Moon binary planet system in our Solar System, another pair that falls in same category is the Pluto-Charon system. With a mass of 11% of the Pluto, Charon its brighter moon, orbits the binary planet system centre of mass at a distance of 17,500 km every 6.4days The images of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed presence of four circumbinary satellites whose masses roughly 0.001% of Pluto. These are the inner most and least massive of moons Styx, others are Nix, Kerberos and Hydra. These three bodies are so closely packed that it hardly leaves room for any stable satellite to exist between their orbits. The new finding essentially sheds light on satellites and planet formation and how they remain stable in their orbits for billions of years.

The Plutoid system helps us to understand how every object has gravitational sphere of influence that prevents other objects from orbiting nearby. Hence larger the size of object greater will be its sphere of influence. When the sphere of influences of neighbouring objects overlap, it is impossible to place any object on the stable orbits between them. So smaller objects like interplanetary dust might orbit in their intervening spaces but larger objects cannot.

Till now scientists had a different hypothesis regarding the formation of satellites or planets around a star. It was thought that a satellite or planet start as a small seed in a disk or a ring surrounding the star (or planet) at the centre. These seeds start growing by agglomeration of other small solid objects in its path. Eventually these growing bodies would experience the gravitational pull of other adjacent objects. Continued growth would result in overpacking whereby sphere of influence of many objects would overlap. As the gravitational forces increases, the orbital motions become chaotic prompting the merger of nearby objects. This hypothesis is strikingly different from the Pluto-Charon system wherein it is conceived that proto-Pluto and proto-Charon might have collided to form a binary planet surrounded by expanding ring of debris. Pre-moons might have survived the collision and new moons might have grown from small particles in the debris. The four moons that have resulted from this process are found to have an orbital periods in the ratio of (3:4:5:6) to that of Charon.

Astronomers Showalter and Hamilton have worked out the orbital period, orientation and the ellipticity of each orbit. Styx, Nix and Hydra are locked together as what is referred as three-body resonance system a phenomenon wherein timings of their orbits are linked coordinating and stabilizing their movements (preventing them from crashing into each other). Perhaps, this is the reason why a dwarf planet like Pluto has so many moons. A similar three-body resonance system is found among Jupiter’s moons- Lo, Europa and Ganymede. Nix and Hydra have bright surfaces similar to Charon and reflects 40% of light that hits it Kerberos is as dark as coal. Thus this raises questions about formation of the heterogenous satellite system. Binary planets constitute two bodies of similar planetary mass orbiting their common barycentre. The mutual motions of this binary create an asymmetric gravitational field inducing wobbles in the orbits of the outer most moons. Nix and Hydra rotate chaotically, meaning they don’t keep the same side facing Charon-Pluto driven by the Pluto-Charon binary system. Implying that there might be days when sunrises in the east and sets in the north for the satellites of Pluto.

 

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Modi @ 365: State of Scientific Affairs

 

Thanks to the aspirational leadership of Prime Minister Modi foreign policy is ahead of curve but lack of visionary leadership in scientific affairs failed to make impressive gains. The enthusiasm and vitality needed to kick start STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine) was missing. Modi, who clinched power on the vociferous commitment towards change and development, instilled a ray of hope in the scientific community too. During his first Prime Ministerial address from the ramparts of the Red fort on the eve of Independence Day with the grand announcement of ‘Make in India’ scientists believed that indigenous science and technology would be bolstered and believed that acche din would ensue. To accomplish the task of good governance and transparency too digitisation has to be stepped up. For the ease of doing business to become a reality, advanced the technical know-how has to be augured. Thus these propellers are expected to generate a needed momentum to usher the potential Indian science into a new realm of scientific exuberance.

At ground level the new regime was welcomed by the burden of discrepancies, discontinuities in implementation of various schemes and pending appointment of heads to various elite national institutions of the UPA II.  In a bid to revamp the appointment process and bring in transparency, the new government scrapped the old appointment process. Earlier appointment of heads was made by a search committee of eminent scientists who would talk to probable candidates informally or would walk in without prior notice into their work places and approve candidature.  According to the new system advertisement of the vacant posts, screening and short listing of applications, holding of interview have become mandatory to make an official appointment. This move was welcomed by a group of scientists who believed that it created an equal opportunity for the rapidly growing scientific faculty overriding the rider of familiarity and high-connections. However top-notch scientists rebuked the decision as they have to invest extra valuable man-hours to screen numerous applications before making a crucial appointment.

Consequently Modi government is mired in the quagmire of appointing heads for several elite national research institutions. Of the 38 institutions, currently only 25 have full term heads and others are managed by temporary or acting heads. Since January 2014, CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) the backbone for scientific and technological research institute is without a head. With stalling of several key appointments, the national innovation system will bear the brunt.

Meanwhile the intentions of government were severely doubted and the veracity of their commitment was blissfully lost in the cacophony of dubious arguments about ancient Indian scientific and technological prowess made during the Indian Science Congress. Scientists opined that hankering to the ancient glory is a futile exercise if we fail to attain excellence in the contemporary sciences. While the appointment of the renowned physician Dr. Harshvardhan as the Minister of Science and Technology was highly applauded, his subsequent removal for political reasons was regarded as clumsy step. The much awaited budgetary allocations made on the National Science Day, couldn’t cheer scientific community as no big-ticket initiatives or big-bang reforms were announced. With no perceptible increase in fund allocation to research and development, acche din seem to still elude Indian scientists.  Despite profusely thanking scientists for their relentless pursuits on the astounding success of Mangalyaan mission the allocation to Department of Space pegged at Rs 6000 crores wasn’t increased in the budget. Although India is located in an earthquake region the finances for Department of Earth sciences was reduced by 7%. High level of protein malnutrition is prevalent in India but central nodal agricultural research agency, Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) is tipped to experience a fund shortage of 24 crores.

Modi government flagged off several new scientific initiatives. A fund of Rs 50 Crore was allocated to a collaborative effort between the US and ISRO, for constructing and launching of a high-end satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission (NISAR) by 2012. It aims to observe earth and monitoring climate change. To boost up three-stage nuclear programme, budget allocation for Department of Atomic Energy was increased by 12.6%. Interestingly allocation to Ministry of water resources was slashed by 50%. As a friendly gesture towards the SAARC nations Modi announced earlier that ISRO would develop a geostationary SAARC satellite positioned over the subcontinent. Accordingly Rs 2 crore is allotted to ISRO towards construction of the satellite.

To propel the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives a National Super Computing Facility was launched. It connects the national academic and R&D institutions with a grid over 70 high-performance computing facilities. With regards to supercomputing while China is number 1 with 500 supercomputers India is ranked 74 and has 9 such computers. The high performance computing will give a major fillip to financial services, weather forecasting, earth quake forecasting, space craft, vehicle and ship designing, oil exploration missions.

Elevation and appointment of visionary scientific leaders like Dr. Vijaya Raghavan to Department of Biotechnology and Dr. Ashutosh Sharma to Department of Science and Technology instilled new hope and scientific vigour by cutting down bureaucratic red-tape. In a major move Dr. Sharma mandated that time taken from submission of a project proposal to its analysis and scrutiny and receipt of funds be completed in four months. With trimming of funds allotted to DBT, Dr. Raghavan intends to partner with state governments under the grand “cooperative federalism” and make use of the limited resources at his dispensation.

Extension of the retirement for senior scientists used to be a norm in India. This system prevented the promotion of younger generation into higher echelons. The unceremonious sacking of former Defence and Research Organisation (DRDO) head Avinash Chander who was an extension of contract by the Defence Minister didn’t go well with senior scientists. Similarly four other senior scientists too were denied of extensions after retirement. With denial of extensions after retirement Modi government has reversed the trend of UPA where in 11 senior scientists are on extension from 2012 in premier institutions and thus new blood is infused into system.

To bride the energy deficit, Modi made strong pitch for renewable sources of energy and set an ambitious target of generating 100 gigawatts of of solar power by 2020. Currently India generates 23 gigawatts of power becoming the fourth largest producer of wind power, equalling Spain. To effectuate “gigawatt obsession” giant solar plants are to be constructed in huge stretches of land. But obtaining land from areas with dense population and infrastructure is meted with stiff opposition. Building giant solar parks in remote areas and connecting them to existing electrical grid system is cumbersome. Analysts in renewable energy field worried that specialised focus on solar power units might shadow the past successes of the wind power.

If initiatives of Digital India and Make in India have to truly succeed indigenous manufacturing sector has to be robust, economical and should be infused with advanced technology. Finally the dream of creating more jobs in the defence and manufacturing sector can be achieved by strengthening Indian Science. The grandiose plans of vibrant India are pointless until unless Indian science is fostered.

 

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Attributes of Indian Science

In a piquant message to the researchers and aspiring students Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked them to “Dream, imagine and explore”. During the inauguration of 102th Annual Science Conference Modi refrained from making eloquent promise of enhanced funding but apprised scientists of crucial challenges- water, energy and health care. Almost 80% of India’s imports include energy supplies. Therefore NDA government at the helm of affairs was keen on making India self-reliant in terms of energy. It had set an ambitious goal of developing 100 gigawatts solar energy by 2020. Accordingly, it has been aggressively pushing forward the projects to jump start from the existing capacity of 3.7 gigawatt solar-capacity which is 1.4% of India’s total electricity generation. Some analysts were apprehensive about the feasibility of such ambitious approach.

Systemic Problems of Indian Science

Indian science is abetted by problems like poor-quality education, interference of bureaucracy and inadequate funding. These stifling conditions prompted numerous budding scientists to leave the country for greener pastures. Consequentially India has been conspicuously losing its intellectual treasure trove. Successive governments vouched to increase funding to research and development to 2% of GDP (gross domestic product). Unfortunately even the latest budget allocation too remained at a staggering low of less than 0.9% of GDP. Unceremoniously government officials’ quips back scientists demand saying that India on an average spends around $150,000 per scientist per year which is comparable to other countries. Unable to stem the systemic problems plaguing the system and vie with its peer nations- whose financial allocation hovers around 2% of GDP, India lags behind in BRIC group. Two decades ago the proportion of GDP allocated to research and development (GERD) in India was more than China but now it is half of China. Despite its huge population India has the lowest number of engineers and scientists in the world. In terms of absolute numbers India has four full-time researchers per 10,000 people and China has 18 researchers, in developed countries the number is 80. Another major stumbling block in Indian Universities is over-bureaucratization and entrenched red-tape leading to inordinate delays in obtaining equipment and material for research. The collaboration between universities and industry is abysmally low and consequently the most prosperous business model of Laboratory (research)-industry- Market (innovation) is failing to find its foot hold in India. Further the burden of funding the research has to borne by government as the investment of private companies in R&D is barely significant.

Deteriorating Standards of Education

While some scientists are hopeful of a bright future for Indian science others expressed great resentment over the sub-standard education. Appallingly, India is the only BRICS nation whose Universities failed to make it to the top 200 institutions of the World. There are over 700 Universities in India which include the elite institutions funded by the central government, 300 state universities and 200 private institutions. The National Scientific research Institutes and elite institutions are doing World-class research and publishing in high impact journals providing major fillip to India’s reputation. These institutes account for a major leap in India’s research output. But the State Universities which are cash-starved account for majority of the science undergraduates. Unfortunately these institutes suffer from shortage of quality faculty, libraries and equipped laboratories. While there is a sharp rise in the number of students pursuing higher education, institutions neither have the infrastructure nor financial support to harness the aspirations of the students.

Beacons of Hope

The two major areas of crowning glory for Indian Science are the meticulously designed space missions and the incredibly low-priced vaccines. The silver lining for Indian science in the recent past has been the resounding success of the ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organisation) space programmes. Established in 1969, bracing failures during early days of inception ISRO has transformed into an epitome for exceptional alacrity, precision and deftness. The organisation acclaimed international repute with its exceptionally economical MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) or Mangalyaan. With space scientists mastering the construction of formidable cryogenic engines needed to lift-off satellites of over 4 tonnes, India is poised to emerge as a super power in space research. Rejuvenated by its successful debut of the Mars Mission, with strengthened resolve ISRO scientists are now gearing for launch of ASTROSTAT satellite, Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2017, and Aditya Mission 2018. Chandrayaan-2, a follow-up of Chandrayaan-1 of 2008 has an ambitious agenda of studying of the composition of Moon and intends to send a lander, six wheeled rover and an orbiter to moon. Aditya Mission will study Sun’s corona.

Another precious feather in India’s cap is the booming Biotech industry. The entrepreneurial Indian scientists with their ingenuity achieved ground-breaking success in the field of vaccine production.  Affordable healthcare is an elixir of all ails for a hugely a populated country like India. The quintessential resources for a robust health care system are vaccines. The task of manufacturing indigenous vaccines at nominal prices was accomplished by enterprising young Indian scientists.. Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) reached this milestone by developing Revac B+ hepatitis vaccines for USD 3 a dose (currently available for 30 cents). Subsequently, several Indian biotech companies contributed enormously towards reducing the burden of public health care in India and other third world countries by developing affordable, quality vaccines against infectious diseases. India is now fondly hailed as the “Pharmacy of the developing World,” by global charity doctors without borders. Now India has attained marginal success in producing generic drugs through reverse engineering. In 2014 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued notices to some Indian companies that failed to meet the quality standards and drug efficiency. But now these are being slowly sorted out. Indian science especially the department of biotechnology is upbeat about Indian companies due to significant rise in number of small and medium sized biotech units.  

Though Indian research is not completely bogged down by the institutional deficiencies but the quality of research is not on par with advanced countries. Interestingly, in terms of output indicators like the number of research papers published per the amount of money spent in dollars, India is one of the top performers in the World. Propitiously the proportion of Indian students graduating in US   and returning back has increased considerably offering a great hope for brighter prospects for research in India. Scientific publications have quadrupled from 2000 to 2013. Indian Science with all its inherent deficiencies and exemplary accomplishments is poised to reach new horizons is in dire need of visionary leaders to embark on a new journey.

 

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Complex Archaea: Missing link in evolution of Eukaryotes

From early 18^th century to a larger part of 20^th century biologists accepted Darwin’s theory of natural selection which postulated that life on earth evolved from a single cell or pre-cell. The concept described as concept of tree of life believed that diverse species descended from common ancestors. In 1962 an interesting paper submitted by Roger Stainer and C. B. Van Niel categorised living organisms into prokaryotes and Eukaryotes based on cellular organisation.  Later in 1977 Carl Woese and George E Fox experimentally disproved the universally held hypotheses of tree of life. They reported of a third kingdom Archaea bacteria defined as a new urkingdom (domain) distinct from the bacteria and eukaryotes. He redrew the phylogenetic tree with three domains- Bacteria, Archaea and Eucarya. This new hypothesis drew severe criticism from reputed scientists who refused to accept the speculation about an era of rapid evolution where considerable horizontal transfer of genes has occurred.  Often termed as extremophiles, Archaea are anaerobic and can thrive in extreme weather conditions. Now most biologists believe that they are very ancient and could exist in conditions not conducive for normal life. It is predicted that organisms similiar to Archaea could exist in other planets. Eukaryotes and Archaea were considered sister groups for their similarities in genes and metabolic pathways.

In 1996 Woese with his team of scientists published the full genome or blue print of an organism in the domain Archaea and concluded that they are more closely related to Eukaryotes than bacteria. The signature sequence of ribosomal RNA genes found in all organisms was used as a basis to assess the variations or similarities. These studies helped to confirm that Archaea constitute a separate group as it contained hundreds of genes which had no counterparts in either bacteria or eukarya. But the ribosomal proteins of Archaea were similar to those of Eukarya.

Earliest Eukaryotes came into existence 2 billion years ago. The origin of Eukaryotic cell remained a contentious puzzle for biologists for long. While cytologically bacteria and archaea are relatively simple, eukaryotic cell is complex and highly specialised it is hence hard to reconcile the popular hypothesis of prokaryote to eukaryote transition.  One of the prevalent hypotheses about the origin of complex cell is that earliest eukaryotes arose when an archaeon engulfed a bacterium and continued to exist in a symbiotic relationship with it. The engulfed bacterium eventually developed into mitochondria, the power house of cell.  Mitochondria are present in all eukaryotes and its gene sequences are clearly related to Alphaproteobacteria. During the early genomic era, analysis of eukaryotic genome indicated that it was chimaeric in nature containing both bacterial and archaeal genes besides associated eukaryotic genes. While some of the genes could be traced back to alphaproteobacteria the lineage of eukaryotic host remained obscure.

 A scientific article published in Nature by Thijis Ettema of Uppsala University uncovered the mystery of origin of eukaryotic cell. Dr. Ettema and team collected samples from the sea bed of Svalbard, few kilometres from an underwater volcano, Loki’s Castle for a microbial diversity study. A Phylogenetic analyses of Deep Sea Archaeal Group (DSAG) of the Loki Castle region named as Lokiarchaeota is believed to be the missing link between the single-celled organisms to complex living beings. Lokiarchaeota belong to the deeply-branching clade of the archaeal TACK superphylum, sans mitochondria and contains proteins not found in any other archaea but present in Eukaryotes.

Using deep metagenomics technique, 92% of composite gene sequence of Lokiarcheota is assembled. Around 175 predicted microbial proteins were found to be similar to eukaryotes proteins involved in phagocytosis, cell shape formation and membrane remodelling. Archaeal genome contained five actin homologs that are more similar to eukaryote actins than to archaeal actin-like proteins. Nearly 70 homologs of Ras-family small GTPases accounting for 2% of predicted proteins are found in archaea. Gene sequences for ESCRT proteins and proteins involved in intracellular vesicle trafficking mechanisms are also found.  The sheer size of similarities of proteins between Lokiarchaeota and Eukaryotes suggest that these might have been the primitive ancestors of Eukaryotes. They could have paved way for the development of eukaryotes. With proteins needed for phagocytosis they could have started engulfing single celled organisms (one them could have been the alphaproteobacteria). Harboured with basic machinery of cytoskeleton, it might have moved around like amoeba engulfing prey. These set of exciting revelations indicate that probably Lokiarcheaota might have been the missing link between the prokaryotes and Eukaryotes.

A. Spang et al., “Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes,” Nature, doi:10.1038/nature14447, 2015.

Trajectory of Science in Arab Spring Countries

The spark of the Arab spring ignited four years back in the Middle East and North Africa besides creating indefinite chaos and uncertainty buried the penchant for good science. Unleashing of the pent up frustration triggered a wave of uprising resulting in toppling of regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya and Yemen. The new governments in these regions are now volatile and the situation of the scientists have taken a different trajectory altogether. Current Issue of Nature chronicled the profiles of scientists in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria to fathom the damage caused by the demonstrations and revolts held under the banner of Arab Spring.

Of all these nations Tunisia is back on its heels as its bold civil society have fought tooth and nail to restore complete democracy. The nation had long tradition of extending great support to education and research. It was one of the best performers in terms of scientific output than any other Arab nations other than Saudi Arabia before the revolution. Government mandated 1% of GDP towards education and research. But the repressive regimes stifled the academic freedom as all the appointments in the university were controlled by the government. Scientific institutions were not autonomous and their policies and strategies were strictly scrutinised by the government. Hence research related to sensitive issues especially in social sciences suffered a death blow. The bureaucrats used to block the linkages between the universities and industries. But the situation began to change after the democratic government was reinstated. Parliament passed a bill which guaranteed free speech, freedom of expression, religious freedom and equality between sexes. With the new reforms the scientific society is quite optimistic about the future of the country. It will still take some time for the new changes to permeate into the system and yield perceptible results in higher education and scientific innovations. The recent incident of assassinations of foreign tourists in Bardo National Museum in Tunis by radical extremists has raised few doubts about complete restoration of peace and stability in the country. But Scientists are very pragmatic as political influence and nepotism has almost reduced. Tunisia perhaps is the only country which has stabilised itself after four years of the revolution.

Egypt:  With the toppling of authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 Egyptian scientists working abroad saw a ray of hope and returned to their native land. The new government promised to double funding for science in 2012 but due to lack of objective vision nearly 80% of the funds were left unused. Following a coup democratically elected leader Mohammed Morsi was replaced by Abdel Fattah Sisi in 2013. All the gains made in 2012 followed by the uprisings of students and researchers were reversed by the new regime. The government started taking final call on the appointments but thankfully new constitution passed in 2014 allotted 1% of GDP for scientific research. Researchers believe that majority of it would be spend in the form of salaries and other allowances leaving little scope for building new infrastructure. Due to severe restrictions on the movement of the scientific material across the borders the procurement of needed supplies and chemicals for laboratories has become an arduous and time-consuming process. Most scientists complain that this has been major deterrent for carrying out productive research. Above all researchers in Egypt feel that the mindset of people must changes to have greater scientific output.

Syria: While the situation in Tunisia and Egypt has relatively stabilised the hopes of revival of Syria are steadily deteriorating. What has started as a restive movement against lack of freedom of expression turned into a civil war with joining of more factions leaving a little hope of restoration of peace. During the past four years some amount of education and research activities were carried out by a committed bunch of scientists and researchers who refused to budge from their responsibilities and felt obligated towards the future generation of the country. Life in Syria started becoming more difficult. With lack of security, access to water or fuel and skyrocketing of prices scores of the scientists have moved out of Syria. Since the regime has passed a resolution drafting all men to army, people are left with options of either taking up arms or fled Syria (in other words either to kill or get killed). The International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) struggled to function till 2012 and as international researchers started leaving Syria even the centre moved to Lebanon. Researchers who are working in Syria say that working conditions have become extremely difficult and subsequently the quality of research was affected. In some places students and faculty have to tread through danger zones to attend Universities. With ISIS taking control over eastern Syria, schools and Universities in those regions were closed and people are forced to flee.

The Arab Spring indeed sparked a massive revolution but unfortunately some countries are doused by the very fire of renaissance while some of them are trying to get back to normalcy.

 

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Threatening Proportions of Myopia

“World has become myopic,” is a colloquial trite. But believe it or not, the situation is really alarming. A recently published article in Nature reported that East Asian countries are afflicted by threatening proportions of myopia or short-sightedness, the inability to see objects at longer distances. In China up to 90% of the teenagers are myopic and figures even disturbing for Seoul where it is 96.5%. While immediate course corrections like glasses, contact lenses and surgery can offer relief but a worst case of short sight can increase risk of cataract, retinal detachment, glaucoma and even blindness.

Myopic condition is the fall of out of the slightly elongated eyeball which causes the lens to focus light away from the object leading to formation of image in front of retina instead of direct image formation on the retina. This condition occurs most commonly in school going kids and adolescents. It is reported that nearly one-fifth of the college going kids in East Asia have an extreme form of myopia and half of them are at the risk of developing irreversible vision loss.  The burgeoning threat of myopia has propelled scientists across the world to address this issue.

Myopia was believed to be the domain of book-worms who were considered to be more prone to this defect. Famous German astronomer Johannes Kepler attributed his short-sightedness to book work. For long even ophthalmologists too believed in the same dogma. By 1960 scientists believed that it is genetically transferred as it is common in genetically identical twins than non-identical twins. Genome analysis showed that 100 regions are responsible for myopia. Increasing cases of myopia among school children in East Asian countries has been linked to enhanced educational performance where in students spend long hours before books. Researchers too have drawn an association between academic performance and the number of hours of study. On average while a Chinese teenager spends 15 hours a week on homework against 5 hrs in UK and 6 hrs in USA. Moreover with teenagers becoming addicted to televisions and hooked onto smart phones eternally, the incidence has peaked.

Documented research reports began to throw light on the deleterious effects of sustained close work capable of affecting the growth of eye ball. Scientists at the Ohio State University, College of Optometry Columbus showed that bright light is protective to eye. The research hypothesis showed that bright light stimulates release of dopamine neurotransmitter in the retina blocking the elongation of eye. Diurnal cycle of eye is strongly controlled by bright light wherein retinal dopamine turns on the cone-based vision during the day and rod-based vision at night in response to the dim light. For people working in the dim light or indoors this cycle is messed up resulting in elongation of the retina.

Research conducted by the Australian National University estimated that children need to spend a minimum of three hours of day under the light intensity of 10,000 lux to be guarded against myopia (an over-cast day provides 10,000 lux against 500 lux of class room). Consequently three hours of outdoor activity has become a norm in Australia. Now schools in China and Taiwan are making way for 3 hrs of outdoor time in the school schedule.  Preliminary findings in those schools are promising. Schools which have relatively inflexible routine are contemplating to conduct classes in rooms fitted with glass to compensate for the outdoor time. An unpublished research also indicated that as the amount of time spent increased the incidence began to lessen. Thus, three hours of outdoor time not only improves the physical well being of the children but protects them against myopia.

In the meanwhile researchers are working on special glasses and contact lenses that can alter the eye growth by focusing light from distant objects at different angles rather than just at the centre as the regular glasses do. To curtail myopic progression regular use of eye drops with a neurotransmitter-blocking drug atropine at night is also recommended. A hand book of Ophthalmic Science and practice authored by Henry Edward Juler in 1904 mentioned that myopic is stationary; change of air- or possibly a sea voyage was prescribed. It ‘as been more than hundred years it took a swarm of brilliant brains with years of dedicated research and sophisticated inventory to confirm the intuitive thinking of yesteryears. 

 

 

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