August - 2013

Bacteria can help Farmers Use less Potash

Potash is one of the major nutrients required by all crops. There is no such source in India and the entire requirement of potassic fertilizer is met by imports and distributed to farmers at subsidised price eroding both the foreign exchange reserve and revenue.

Import

During the year 2011-12 India imported about 38 lakh tonnes of potassic fertilizers for supplying to farmers. One can imagine the spending by the Government apart from the expenditure to the farmers. Usually about 50-60 kg of potassium is recommended for a hectare of rice. Crops like sugarcane, banana, potato and tapioca require more potassium. As much as 200 kg of potassium is recommended per hectare of sugarcane. To supply this quantity of potassium, farmers have to apply 330 kg of Muriate of Potash which costs Rs. 5,450. But to our advantage Indian soils are naturally rich in potassium and there is a potash mobilizing bacterium to mobilize this native potassium for plant absorption. Potassium in soil exists in different forms but the crop can absorb what is present in soil solution only.

US Scientists Created frist Cloned Human Embryo

A group of US Scientists in second week of May 2013 declared that they have succeeded in creating a cloned human embryo using the technique that helped in developing the cloned sheep in 1996. The scientists took fifteen years to create the cloned embryo. The team of scientists developed the embryo using skin samples of a woman’s egg to develop an early cloned human embryo. Aim of this research is development of a source of stem cells not a baby. These can be helpful in repair of damage created after heart attack or brains of patients of Parkinson’s disease. Somatic Cell Nuclear transfer technique was used in development of the embryo and it is the same technique that was used for developing the Ship Dolly, the first cloned animal in 1996.

Hydrogen Sensor for Greater Safety

The use of liquid sodium as a coolant in fast breeder reactors has been made safer, thanks to a sensor — electrochemical hydrogen meter — developed by scientists at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, off Chennai. The sensor has been thoroughly tested at IGCAR; it was also tested at the Phenix fast breeder reactor in France. “It was first tested in Phenix in 2009 for one year,” said T. Gnanasekaran, Raja Ramanna Fellow at the Chemistry Group, IGCAR. “Now another sensor has been installed a few days ago in one of the experimental sodium loops in Cadarache, France.” Liquid sodium metal, not water, is used for extracting heat from the extremely hot core (where nuclear fission takes place) of a breeder reactor. Aside from other properties, liquid sodium has excellent heat transfer properties compared with water. The liquid metal at about 550 degree C transfers the heat to water in the secondary circuit to generate steam; the steam eventually runs the turbine. Any large-scale mixing of sodium and steam should be prevented as it can lead to explosive events. The pressure on the sodium side is low (1 bar) as the liquid sodium is at an operating temperature of 550 degree C, well below the 883 degree C boiling point. However, at about 160 bar, the pressure on the steam side is very high. But all that separates sodium and steam is a thin (4-5 mm) ferretic steel tube through which steam flows. There is a possibility, even if remote, of tube failure. Steam, which is at a higher pressure than sodium, tends to leak into the coolant when the tube develops a leak. On reaction with sodium, hydrogen and sodium hydroxide are formed. Sodium hydroxide, which is a caustic material, further aggravates the problem. Due to its low melting point, sodium hydroxide turns into a molten material at the site of the crack causing further corrosion of the tube. “Continuous monitoring for any steam leak even at its inception is therefore extremely important,” he pointed out. Since the operating temperature of sodium is high, hydrogen and other reaction products get dissolved in it. Hence the presence of dissolved hydrogen in sodium is continuously monitored to detect the initiation of a leak. “If undetected at the micro and small leak stages, steam leaks can develop into a large leak and lead to explosive events,” Dr. Gnanasekaran pointed out.

Peptide-based Delivery Platforms to cure Cancer

Scientists at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) invented peptide-based delivery platforms for targeting tumours. This can be helpful in curing Cancer. The scientists developed this platform by using bacterial fermentation to bind DNA or small interfering RNA (siRNA) or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and delivering them into cells to target tumours.

Given that DNA, siRNA and shRNA are negatively-charged, they need carriers like recombinant proteins. The benefit of DNA or siRNA is that they help in silencing the targeted genes. For example, if the TF gene involved in new blood vessel formation is silenced, the tumour will degenerate. At CCMB, the scientists developed chimeric peptide by fusing three peptide modules to deliver DNA or shRNA for degenerating tumours. Chimeric proteins with varied functional properties can be obtained from any organism or a virus and produced in bacterial factories using standard practices of recombinant DNA method. The advantage of using chimeric proteins is that they could be changed to target different tumours. Scientists are making efforts to evolve peptide-based platform technology with other homing ligands recognising different targets.

A New Type of Wheat developed to Increase Productivity

British scientists developed a new type of wheat which could increase productivity by 30 percent. The last 15 years have registered little growth in the average wheat harvest from each acre in Britain. The Cambridge-based National Institute of Agricultural Botany combined an ancient ancestor of wheat with a modern variety to produce a new strain.

The scientists used cross-pollination and seed embryo transfer technology to transfer some of the resistance of the ancient ancestor of wheat into modern British varieties. The resulting crop turned out to be bigger and stronger than the current modern wheat varieties. Scientists will carry out more tests before it is harvested by farmers. This Scientific development ensures that the global food security demands of the next five decades can be met.

Camera with Compound eye-like Lenses

A digital camera that has a lens that very closely mimics the compound eye of arthropods in all respects — wide-angle field of view of nearly 160 degrees, low aberration, high sharpness of vision, and infinite depth of field — has been developed by a team of scientists led by Young Min Song from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S. A paper on the invention is published today (May 2) in Nature. Compound eyes of arthropods are by default hemispherical and have multiple lenses; hence any camera lens that intends to mimic them should have the same shape and multiple lenses. Digital cameras available today have a planar sensor with a single lens. The biggest challenge the scientists faced was in developing such a hemispherical sensor that has multiple microlenses.

They took advantage of the recent developments in stretchable electronics to achieve this. Elastic microlenses that could be blown into a dome-shaped structure are formed from a moulded piece of rubber. An array of 16 by 16 microlenses is found in a small square area of nearly 15 mm by 15 mm. According to the authors, of the 256 microlenses present, only 180 form the “working components of the camera.” Each convex microlens is connected to the base layer by means of a supporting post. This makes a microlens to appear like a dome on top of a pillar. A perforated black matrix covers the interspaces between the microlenses to prevent any stray light from entering the imaging system.

A black flexible silicon base layer has photodetectors that are arranged in such a manner that they match the microlenses. The two layers — one containing the lenses and the other containing the photodetectors — are then bonded in such a manner that the photodiodes are at the “focal position” of the lenses. The bonding is done at the points where the lenses overlie the photodetectors. Since both layers are made of stretchable material and are bonded at the correct points, they can be elastically changed from a flat shape, in which they are fabricated, to a dome-shaped structure when it becomes a part of the camera. The dome-shaped structure of the lens mimics a compound eye. The authors stress that changing the shape from planar to hemisphere neither changes the optical alignment nor the optical and electrical.

The Tibetan Plateau and the Indian Monsoon

The Plateau heating correlated with monsoon rainfall but only in early and late season. To what extent does the Tibetan plateau influence the south-west monsoon? Some 130 years ago, Sir H.F. Blanford, Chief Reporter of the newly-established India Meteorological Department (IMD), noticed that more Himalayan snow cover during the preceding winter presaged a poor monsoon. On that basis, IMD began issuing the first monsoon forecasts from 1882. But monsoon prediction was not so easily done and remains a difficult problem to this day.

Years later, the established view came to be that the Himalayas acted on the monsoon in two ways. The Tibetan plateau, heated up during summer and thereby established an atmospheric circulation that was conducive for the monsoon.

The vast mountain range also acted as a tall barrier, preventing cold, dry air in the northern latitudes from entering the subcontinent and subduing the warm, moisture-laden winds from the oceans that drive the monsoon.

In a paper published in the journal Nature in 2010, William Boos and Zhiming Kuang of Harvard University in the U.S argued that the Himalayas’ role as a barrier was the crucial factor for the monsoon.

Using a general circulation model that simulated what happened in the atmosphere, they found that even if the Tibetan plateau did not exist, the monsoon would be unaffected provided the Himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges were there to prevent intrusion of northern air. That belt of low pressure sucked in moisture from the oceans, thus initiating the monsoon. The heating of the Tibetan plateau correlated well with rainfall over India from May 20 to June 15 when the monsoon was setting in. But then the correlation disappeared only to reappear again for rainfall between September 1 and October 15 when the monsoon was tailing off. “We don’t have a very good answer yet” about how the Tibetan plateau could be influencing the late stage of the monsoon, he said.

In an earlier paper, he and Dr. Molnar had noted that swings in the temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean’s surface waters near the international dateline, known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), also strongly influenced rainfall over central India and its west coast during the early and late phases of the monsoon. With the Tibetan heating and ENSO acting independently of each other, the two factors taken together could have predictive value for rainfall in the monsoon’s early and late phases.

August - 2013

IISC designed a New Concept of Vaccine Delivery System

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) designed and successfully tested a new concept of needleless vaccine delivery system in the laboratory. IISc has become the only organization in the world that has developed such a device. The new device was the result of collaboration among the laboratory for hypersonic and shock wave, the department of aerospace engineering, and the microbiology and cell biology department of the Indian Institute of Science.

Typhoid vaccine was successfully delivered into mice in laboratory using the new technique. The device utilizes the instantaneous mechanical impulse produced by micro-blast waves to achieve delivery of vaccines into mice.

A negligible amount of chemical energy is used to generate the micro-blast wave inside a small disposable plastic tube. Since the depth of penetration of drug below the skin is not much, animals do not feel the pain during vaccine delivery. The trials on animals have proved that by using this device a lesser quantity of vaccines is sufficient to provide resistance to animals against in comparison to conventional methods. The new system is safe, economical and painless.

Making more out of Pedal Power

Nine out of every 20 households in India still use bicycles (Census 2011). This offers a great potential to tap vast amount of energy from these cycles. Atom, a lightweight bicycle generator, can power your mobile, lights or any electronic device via USB. It comes with a detachable rechargeable battery pack, meaning the stored energy can be used whenever and wherever you need it. “The Atom is designed to charge phones at 2.5 W at 14.5 km per hour, initiating the charging at 5 kmph with 0.75 W. The rate of power generation is dependent on speed, but we’ve designed the Atom to be fully functioning at moderate speeds. At this speed, devices charge at the same rate as if they were plugged into a computer, and conforms to USB 2.0 standards,” said Aaron Latzke, CTO of Siva Cycle and the brain behind the design of this device. That charge rate equates to 1 per cent for every 2 minutes on the cycle for a 1440 mAh battery, the likes of which powers an iPhone 5. For batteries with lesser capacity, it would therefore charge faster.

Citrus Greening a Deadly Fruit Disease

Citrus greening disease is an important disease of citrus which greatly affects the production of the fruits in several parts of India. Characteristic symptoms include yellowing of leaf veins and adjacent tissues, followed by premature defoliation, dieback of twigs, decay of feeder rootlets and lateral roots. Infected fruits are small, lopsided with bitter taste. Such fruits may fall prematurely; while those that remain on the tree do not colour properly, remaining green on the shaded side.

Management

Routinely scout citrus for signs of greening so that infected trees can be removed. Scouting should be done at least four times a year, or more in areas known to have infected trees. October through March is the best time for scouting, but symptoms can be present at other times of the year. For effective management remove infected trees.

This is the only way to ensure that they won’t remain a source of infection for other trees. Pruning symptomatic limbs is often ineffective since other parts of the tree may be infected, but do not show symptoms. Before removing, the tree should be sprayed with a foliar insecticide to kill any psyllids in order to keep them from moving on once the tree is removed. Focus Integrated Pest Management (IPM) efforts on using disease-free nursery trees, reducing infection sources (inoculum) by frequent surveys and diseased tree removal, and suppressing Asian citrus psyllid through area-wide management

Foliar spray

Spray foliar insecticide prior to tree removal. Increase frequency of scouting in areas where infected trees have been removed. The complex of natural enemies attacking ACP around the world usually includes various species of ladybeetles, syrphid flies, lacewings, spiders.

Use soil-applied systemic insecticides on young trees. Foliar sprays of fenpropathrin (Danitol 2.4 EC), chlorpyrifos (Lorsban 4EC), petroleum oil (2 per cent rate).

World’s First Gun Made From 3D Printer Technology

The first gun of the world made out of 3D printer technology was fired successfully in US. Defense Distributed created this firearm and the form also planned to make these blueprints available online. Defense Distributed spent a year for creation of this firearm, which was fired successfully on 4 May 2013 at firing range south of Austin, Texas.

The anti-gun campaigners criticised this project, while the law enforcement of Europe is monitoring the developments of this project.

Victoria Baines of cybercrime centre of Europol explained that the criminals at present were likely to pursue the established routes for obtaining these firemans, but with the passage of time, the 3D printer technology would become more user-friendly as well as cost-effective, thereby posing risks. Cody Wilson, 25, a student of the University of Texas is the head of Defense Distributed. 3D printing has successfully been called the future of manufacturing.

Working of the 3D Printer Technology

The 3D printer technology works by building layer upon layer of the material, which is basically plastic. This is done in order to build the complex and solid objects. This technology is cheaper and instead of buying the goods from markets, the consumers will be able to download its designs. Then these can be printed out at the home itself.

However, like all technologies, there are advantages as well as disadvantages. The first gun of the world made out of 3D printer technology cost 8000 US dollar from eBay. The gun was assembled from different printed components which were made out of ABS plastic. The firing pin was made out of metal.

Cody Wilson was fiven the manufacturing as well as seller’s license from US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in order to make this gun. US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) official Donna Sellers explained that the gun was legal in US as long as it wasn’t a National Firearms Act weapon. 3D printing technology was used in the past by certain criminal organisations for creation of card readers – skimmers, which are inserted in the bank machines. Law enforcement agencies across the world have professionals for monitoring cybercrimes.

New Less Expensive Technique of Creating 3D Images

Scientists at University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy discovered a new less expensive technique of creating 3D images. They created a system which makes use of the detectors that have single pixel for sensing the light instead of various pixels used in imaging sensors found in digital cameras.

The detectors have the capability of judging the frequencies beyond visible light, which in turn would help in various new applications for 3D imaging in geography and medicine. The scientists explained that the single pixel detectors will cost just a few pounds in comparison to present systems which amount to thousands of pounds. The scientists believe that the ability of this system to sense the wavelengths beyond digital cameras’ capabilities, as well as its low cost would result in making it a valuable tool for various industries.

Possible applications include use in medical industry for finding tumours. Prof Miles Padgett, the lead researcher of the team at University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy explained that single pixel detectors in four locations can be used for detecting the light from data projector, which elucidates objects with the sequence of black-and-white patterns. 3D images were created with the combination of images from four detectors while making use of a technique known as shape from shade. The 3D computational imaging, also known as ghost imaging produces the detailed images of the objects in merely a few seconds. Conventional 3D imaging systems make use of multiple digital camera sensors for producing 3D image from 2D information. However, there is a need of careful calibration for making sure that multi-megapixel images align properly. The digital camera sensors have restricted sensitivity beyond spectrum of light, where single pixel detector can be used for capturing information beyond visible reaching wavelengths from the X-ray to TeraHertz.

August - 2013

First Global Model developed to analyse the Routes of Marine Species

Scientists developed the first global model that analyses the routes taken by marine invasive species. They examined the movements of cargo ships across the world to detect the hot spots where these aquatic aliens could thrive. Marine species wreak havoc in new locations causing the extinction of natives.

A well-documented boom has been observed in global shipping over the last 20 years and this has resulted into growing numbers of species moving via ballast tanks. The ports such as San Francisco and Chesapeake Bay have informed about several exotic new species arriving every year. Economic data indicates that marine invaders can have effects that last for decades. Therefore, scientists came out with a model that can curb these marine species. They procured detailed logs from nearly three million voyages that happened in 2007 and 2008.

Hytholamus the Mechanism Responsible for Ageing

The US team of scientists found the mechanism in the hypothalamus- which is located deep inside the brain- and showed that it is responsible for the ageing process. Scientists carried out a series of experiments to find that they could extend the lives of mice by a fifth, without the problems such as animals suffering from muscle weakness, bone loss or memory problems associated with old age. Scientists discovered that a chemical called NF-kB became more active in the hypothalamus of mice as they reached old age. When they blocked NF-kB, mice lived up to 1100 days, compared with 600 to 1000 days in normal condition. But all the mice died within 900 days, when NF-kB was given to them in abundance. Further experiment showed that NF-kB reduced levels of a hormone called GnRH, which plays a key role in fertility and the development of sperm and eggs.

When the mice were given daily dose of GnRH, it resulted into fresh neurons growing in their brains.

Tiny Movie at Molecular Level

Scientists have taken the idea of a film short down to new levels. Molecular levels. IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever, a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline. Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometres. There are 25 million nanometres in an inch but hugely magnified, the movie (http-//bit.ly/17ZmHIt ) is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects. The movie is titled “A Boy and His Atom.” Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM’s principal scientist for the project, said Tuesday this is the first time anything so small has been manoeuvred to tell a story. “This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world,” Heinrich said. “The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions.”

Scientists Solved the Mystery behind Bengal White Tigers

Scientists from Peking University, Beijing in May 2013 discovered that a change in single amino acid (A477V) in one pigmentation relate gene (SLC45A2) is the cause of white fur or sepia brown stripes in some tigers.
The scientists studied 16 captive white tigers from three different parents to come up with the conclusion. As per the scientists, two types of melanin namely pheomelanin and eumelanin are used for identifying the color of fur, eye and stripes of the tiger. In case of the white tigers, pheomelanin that produces red and yellow color is affected. As per the research, the point mutation in the amino acid blocks a particular channel partially; as a result of this blockage yellow pigment forming process is affected. Same type of mutation in pigmentation-related gene (SLC45A2) causes light skin colour in modern Europeans as well as mouse, chicken and horse too.
As per the study, human often force the tigers to inbreed for increasing the number of white tigers in zoos. This type of forced inbreeding may create some health side effects in the tigers as it has been a reason of health ailments in humans. In tigers this forced inbreeding has resulted in human-induced inbreeding has resulted in premature death, stillbirth and deformities. White tigers are a part of the genetic diversity of the tigers, which is caused due to mutation and are worth conserving. The findings of the research was published in Thursday in the Current Biology journal. The study was conducted under the leadership of Shu Jin Lau of Peking University.

Robo-Fly

US Scientists at the Harvard University created a robot of the size of fly which can perform fast manoeuvres of omnipresent insects. The robot called Robo-Fly is built from the carbon fibre which weighs just a fraction of the gram and also has super-fast electronic muscles that are used to power the wings. The developers of the robot described that the tiny robots like these could be used in various rescue operations. For example, such a kind of the robot could be used for navigating through the tiny spaces in buildings which have collapsed.

Dr Kevin Ma of Harvard University as well as his team which was led by Dr Robert Wood described their creation as the world’s smallest flying robot. The fly-like agility that this robot encompasses, allows it to evade the fastest human efforts to swat them. This ability came because of precise wing movements. The robot has the ability to perform immediate evasive manoeuvres as well as hover, by constant adjustment of the effect of lift and thrust which acts on the body at extremely high speed. Like any real fly, the flexible and thin wings of the robot can beat around 120 times per second.

This high speed of the wings can be achieved with the help of a special substance known as piezoelectric material. This material contracts each time with the application of the voltage to it. The scientists switched on and off the voltage very rapidly and this helped them in making the material behave like tiny muscles which make the fly’s wings beat very fast. The scientists explained that the primary goal of this research was not to build the useful robot, but understand the flight working of the insects. However, now, with the development of the robot, there could be various uses of the machine. These robots could also be used for the monitoring of the environment by being dispersed into habitat for sensing trace chemicals or certain other factors. Dr Ma also explained that these robots were able to behave like the real insects and could also help in pollination of crops. At present, the model of robo-fly is small, off-board power source. However, in the next step, it would be created as the completely wireless flying robot.

Mars Rover Studied about Rock Esperance Weathered by Water

Mars Rover, Opportunity of NASA in the third week of May 2013 completed examining the fractured rocks on Mars, the red planet those were altered by water. The rover was searching for the evidences of the wet ancient environment that possibly favoured the life of the planet. Now the Opportunity has been driven towards a new study area after finishing 20 months on the dubbed Cape York location. The scientists from NASA gave several weeks to study and get the measurement of the fractured rock named Esperance, which was important for them from many aspects. Esperance was spotted by the team of NASA, while exploring a portion of Cape York, where the Compact Reconnaissance Spectrometer for Mars on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected the clay mineral. After studying the area, the rover team found an outcrop called Whitewater Lake that has a small amount of clay altered due to its exposure to clay.

August - 2013

IBM Released World’s Smallest Stop Motion Film Called a Boy and His Atom

The IBM scientists on 1 May 2013 released the smallest movie of the world called A Boy and His Atom. The movie tracks movement of the atoms which are magnified 100 million times. The movie, A Boy and His Atom, is a story of the character called Atom who in turn befriends the single atom and then follows him on journey of bouncing and dancing which helps in explaining the science behind the data storage. A scientist at IBM Research, Andreas Heinrich explained that positioning, shaping and capturing the atoms in order to create the original motion picture on atomic level was completely first-of-its-kind and precise science. The movie is actually a fun-filled way of sharing the atomic-scale world.

New species of Dragonfly in Goa

Researchers in the Month of May 2013 discovered a new species of dragonfly from a wildlife sanctuary in Goa. The new species was spotted at Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife sanctuary at Collem in south Goa by researchers Parag Rangnekar and Rohan Naik in collaboration with Dr K A Subramanian, the scientist with Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. The species is scientifically named as (Idionyx Gomantakensis), and is restricted to evergreen forest. As per the researchers, most of the species of this genus are known from South India, while Goa has two. It is important here to note that, the research was conducted under the banner of Mineral Foundation of Goa and supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Goa. The government wild be conducting focused surveys could result in discovery of more species from the state.

Some Points to Remember about Dragonfly

• Dragonflies and Damselflies belong to the Order Odonata.

• This group of insects is dependent on water for completion of their life-cycle and hence the quality of water defines the species composition.

• The group was an excellent indicator of the health of a water body and can be effectively used in bio-monitoring.

Bilateral Mastectomy is not a Foolproof Method

The link between harbouring deleterious mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and the risk to breast cancer and ovarian cancer, is not absolute. This means if 100 ladies have the same deleterious mutation, only 50-80 of them would develop breast cancers during their life time and 30-50 would develop ovarian cancers. This indicates that 20-50 of these women may not develop the breast cancer during their life time. This is proof that other factors modulate the risk of developing the breast cancer — these could be genes, the environment and lifestyle related. At this point in time, we do not know all the risk factors. It is true that we still do not know a lot about cancer. However, as in any science we are learning and the newer technologies are helping to this end. About 10 per cent of breast cancer cases are hereditary in nature. Of the 10 per cent, BRCA1 and BRCA2 would account for 20-30 per cent. Hence there are other genes which could be involved but not at the same level of penetration as these two genes. These intermediate risk genes are now being included to widen the scope of detection. We also need to know which other genes increase or decrease the risk of BRCA-associated breast cancers. Newer technologies with properly designed studies can help provide these answers.

There are several options with regard to preventative measures for reducing the risk in those carrying the deleterious mutation. First, bilateral mastectomy (removal of both breasts) helps but is not a foolproof method. Normal breast tissue extends over a wide region and potential for some tissue being left behind is possible. Second, removal of both the fallopian tubes and ovaries (bilateral salphingo-oopherectomy) can be done in women who have completed their family and are menstruating. This removes the risk of cancers arising in the ovaries (and fallopian tubes). In addition, by removing the ovaries, the major source of oestrogens that can induce the malignant change in the breast is eliminated. Studies have shown that this approach can reduce the risk of development of breast cancer by nearly 50 per cent. Third, drugs can be used to reduce the breast cancer risk.

Tamoxifen has been used in the past but has major side effects including the development of uterine cancer and clotting in blood vessels. Trials have been undertaken to evaluate drugs that can reduce the risk. Finally, lifestyle modifications can cut the risk. A healthy balanced diet consisting of plenty of fruits and vegetables, reducing dietary fat content, avoiding red meat, avoiding junk food, minimising fried food, regular exercise (minimum 45 minutes of brisk walk every day), practising yoga especially pranayams and cutting body mass index (BMI) to less than 25 would help. Mrs. Angelina Jolie opted for bilateral mastectomy; it was her decision. Individuals who have seen their loved ones suffer and die due to cancer are more likely to choose this option. It is essential to understand our limitations, and at the same time not belittle the scientific advances which have saved lives. Predictive gene testing refers to testing a woman who has not developed breast cancer but whose first- or second-degree relatives have cancer and have been found to carry a deleterious mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Predictive testing should never be done if we do not have a strategy to reduce the risk of development of cancer. Fortunately, preventative strategies and early detection approaches are available in the case of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. These tests are indeed expensive. But without being patronising, I would like to mention that Cancer Institute, Chennai provides these tests free of cost to eligible patients.

World’s Smallest Droplets

Scientists from Switzerland created the smallest drops of liquid ever made in the lab. Scientists carried out a series of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider located at the European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. Evidence of the tiny droplets was obtained following the collision of protons with lead ions at velocities approaching the speed of light.

These short-lived droplets are the size of three to five protons-that is about one-100000th the size of a hydrogen atom or one-100000000th the size of a virus according to scientific calculation. These small droplets flow in a same manner as quark-gluon plasma does. It can be defined as a state of matter that is a mixture of the sub-atomic particles that constitutes protons and neutrons and only found at extreme temperatures and densities. Scientists proposed that the whole universe once consisted of this strongly interacting elixir for fractions of a second after the Big Bang when conditions were dramatically hotter and denser than today’s conditions.

First Smart RFID-Enabled Paper

The scientists at the North Dakota State University developed a process called Laser Enabled Advanced Packaging (Leap) which can help embed the radio frequency identification (RFID) chips on the paper. This process is cheaper and faster as well as it offers a range of applications than the present method. This technique is useful for preventing fraudulent practices. It also gives a new meaning to paper trail. In this process, lasers are used to transfer as well as assemble the chips on the paper. The paper would thus be called a smart paper, which in turn can be used for various purposes such as smart labels, banknotes, tickets and legal documents.

These findings would be presented at Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference on RFID in Orlando, Florida. There are already some RFID-enabled papers in the market but chip are thicker, which leads to either bumpy surface or bulky paper. This means that such a paper would not be printed.

The chips are at first, thinned by the plasma etcher. The technology is yet to be patented. It makes use of the laser beam’s energy in order to transfer the ultra-thin chips precisely. Antennas are embedded by making use of the same method. Prof Val Marinov, the Head of the project explained that this process was twice faster than the present method of manufacturing. It is also cheaper because of less material used. Therefore, there is an extensive potential for this technology. Prof Val Marinov also explained that the European bank and Bank of Japan had hinted towards their intention for development of this technology, but they did not go for it. Therefore, the technology developed by the US scientists is the first one which demonstrates the functional RFID tag embedded in paper. The team that developed the technology is now looking for the commercial partners of this technology.

August - 2013

What is RFID?

RFID is expanded as Radio-frequency identification. RFID is primarily the wireless non-contact application of the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields for transferring data. It is used for automatic identification as well as tracking the tags which are attached to the objects. The tags are encompassed with electronically stored information. Some of these tags are powered as well as read at the short ranges through the electromagnetic induction or magnetic fields. Other tags make use of the local power source like battery, but they collect the energy from interrogating EM field.

New Keyboard Called KALQ to Beat QWERTY

Researchers at St Andrews, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany and Montana Tech in the US created a keyboard layout, said to be great for the touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets. The new keyboard, researchers claimed, can make thumb-typing faster and easier. Dr Per Ola Kristensson of the St Andrews University explained that the typical QWERTY keyboard trapped its users in suboptimal text entry interfaces. New design of the keyboard is called KALQ, in order of its keys on one line. The creators of this keyboard made use of the computational optimisation techniques in order to identify the best performance.

The virtual keyboard was created in alliance. This keyboard would be accessible to the users free of cost for the Android-based devices.

The research team explained that two-thumb typing becomes very different ergonomically in comparison to the typing on physical QWERTY keyboards. QWERTY keyboards in turn were developed in late 19th century by the typewriters. The researchers claimed that any normal user making use of the QWERTY keyboard on any touchscreen device could type just 20 words per minute, which is way too low than the normal physical keyboards available with the computers.

Researchers explained that a process by which optimization of a keyboard for two thumbs could be done, was by minimizing the long typing sequences which involved the use of single thumb only.
It was additionally imperative that the letter keys which were used frequently should be placed alongside in order to reduce the typing time. Optimal layout involved reducing the moving time of thumbs as well as enabling the typing on alternating sides of touchscreen device.

In the new keyboard, all vowels were placed in area which was assigned to right thumb, while the left thumb had more keys. With error-correction algorithm, the users who were trained could reach 37 words in a minute. KALQ provided better performance to users. The new keyword work of the researchers will now be presented at CHI 2013 conference (the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) in Paris on 1 May 2013.

Using Gold Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery

Using bio-resources, scientists from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, have synthesised eco-friendly gold nanoparticles which could be used as carriers for delivering anti-cancer drugs and also for diagnosing the disease. Developed from leaf extracts, the biocompatible nanoparticles have shown promising results and inhibited cancer cells proliferation in lung and breast cancer cell lines. In the first instance, they have used leaves of Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba ), a herbal plant. While gold nanoparticles could be developed by chemical methods, the inherent problem in that approach was of toxicity. “But here we are using a green chemistry approach. It is environmental-friendly because the solvent we are using is water. It is a simple, clean, efficient and low-cost method,” said Dr. Chittaranjan Patra, Scientist, Ramanujan Fellow, IICT. Explaining the importance of using gold, he said it has been used from time immemorial.

“We have a long history of using gold as a medicinal agent in Ayurveda. More than 1,000 years ago it was used as a nanoparticle ( swarnabhasma ). At that time, there were no sophisticated instruments and that is why people did not know that it was a gold nanoparticle,” he observed. He said the gold nanoparticle was bio-compatible, easy to synthesise and multiple cancer drugs could be loaded. It could reduce the toxicity of the anti-cancer drug, increase its efficacy and ensure better retention of the drug in the blood system. “When conjugated with gold nanoparticle, the anti-cancer drug could stay for more time in the tumour and enhance the therapeutic efficacy,” he added.

Carbon Aerogel

Zhejiang University in China in May 2013 announced that the team of scientists produced an ultra-light substance known as carbon aerogel, which has the density of 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeters.
The scientists claimed that this was the lightest material ever produced by anyone. The carbon aerogel is made of granite as well as the carbon nanotubes which can absorb around 900 times its own body weight. The lead scientist, Professor Gao Chao explained that carbon aerogel was structure-wise, just like carbon sponge. When the aerogel with the size of a mug was put on Setaria, then even the grass would not bend. Professor Gao Chao also explained that the carbon aerogel can provide effective solutions to major problems like cleaning oil spills as well as pollution control.

What are Aerogels?

Aerogels are primarily produced by extraction of liquid component of the gel through supercritical drying. This enables liquid to slowly dry off without having an impact on solid matrix. This means that the solid matrix in gel does not collapse from the capillary action, which would take place with conventional evaporation. First aerogels were manufactured from the silica gels. Samuel Stephens Kistler in 1931 produced aerogels based on tin dioxide, chromia and alumina. First carbon aerogels were developed in late 1980s.

Quantum Biology Mimicked in Lab

For the first time scientists have engineered a series of molecules that show quantum effects similar to that observed in the light-harvesting complexes. Greg Engel’s groups in University of Chicago have been able to both understand as well as mimic the efficient mechanism of light transfer happening in plants. Aside from other benefits, this would lead to the production of artificial energy-transfer devices which could use the mechanism efficiently.

Photosynthetic antennae are arrays of proteins and chlorophyll which transfer absorbed light energy to the reaction centres where light energy is converted to chemical energy. This enhances the efficiency of light transfer compared to the process when light is absorbed directly by the reaction centres themselves. The secret of the efficiency of the transfer process lies in quantum electronic coherence that stretches over some femto seconds (a femto second is a millionth of a billionth of a second). When there is coherence, energy from the incoming photon can simultaneously explore every possible cholorophyll route from the protein’s surface to the reaction centre at its core and then settle for the shortest route. Compare this with the time and energy wasted if the photon had to sequentially try out every path before reaching the reaction centre. Thus the efficiency of the process is increased manifold.

The researchers have engineered a series of molecules that show quantum effects similar to that observed in the light-harvesting complexes. Biological light-harvesting systems are so complex that they obscure the design principles involved. However, the model systems engineered by the group are simpler yet manage to capture the physics involved, according to the report published on April 18 in Science Express. The main actor in this is a dye-like material called fluorescein. The researchers modified fluorescein and linked parts of these together rigidly to form a series of compounds. The resulting molecules were able to mimic the behaviour of light-harvesting centres in plants that use photosynthesis, especially the coherences which persists for over tens of femto seconds.

August - 2013

Bio-inspired Peptides for Gene Delivery

Seeking to overcome the problem of suitable delivery mechanism for gene therapy, scientists at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have designed peptide-based delivery platforms for tumour targeting which holds the potential for cancer treatment. The scientists have developed recombinant peptides through bacterial fermentation to bind DNA or small interfering RNA (siRNA) or short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and deliver them into cells to target tumours. Since DNA, siRNA and shRNA are negatively-charged, they require carriers like recombinant proteins, said Dr. Vijaya Gopal, senior principal scientist, who along with her colleagues designed novel peptide-based carriers to ferry biological macromolecules into cancer cells.

Lack of suitable delivery platforms is impeding progress in gene therapy, she says. While stressing that the main concerns in gene therapy are toxicity and safety, she points out that peptide and lipid-based polymers are two main types of non-viral carriers. Although the suppression of tumours in animal studies has been successful, further investigations are essential to validate the efficacy in preclinical situation, she adds.

Focus Areas

One of the focus areas in the future will be to design peptide-based modules to target brain tumours by crossing the blood-brain barrier. According to CCMB Director, Dr. Ch. Mohan Rao, complete understanding of the physiochemical properties of nanoparticles as delivery systems, including peptides, is essential to improve clinical usefulness. Targeted drug delivery would be less toxic as it attacks only the diseased cells and spares the normal cells, he says. Drugs may be packaged into small particles made from biodegradable synthetic polymers or designed peptides. Scientists at CCMB are attempting to study and develop such systems. “In addition to delivering RNAi and DNA, we are also investigating such systems for cancer treatment and conditional-release systems for ophthalmic applications,” he notes. The future of medicine is likely to depend on targeted and controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules which will make the drug more effective with minimal or no side effects, he says.

LEDs Disrupt Sleep

In the frenetic, coffee-fuelled lives of today, too many people are not getting enough sleep. Modern light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used in energy-efficient lighting as well as television and computer screens, laptops, tablets and various handheld devices, are adding to the problem, according to an article appearing today (May 23) in Nature. Lack of sleep takes its toll. “The cumulative effects of sleep loss and sleep disorders have been associated with a wide range of deleterious health consequences including an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke,” noted a 2006 report from the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

The electric light has had a powerful impact on the body’s clock, known as the circadian rhythm. “And light affects our circadian rhythms more powerfully than any drug,” remarked Charles A. Czeisler in his perspective article in Nature’s Outlook feature on sleep. He is a sleep specialist with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Boston in the U.S. Apart from rods and cones needed for vision, the eye’s retina also contains ‘intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells’ (ipRGCs). These light-sensitive cells help synchronise the body’s circadian rhythm to the natural day and night cycle.

When artificial light strikes those cells, the body gets misled and responds by promoting wakefulness and inhibiting sleep. Consequently, “many people are still checking e-mail, doing homework or watching TV at midnight, with hardly a clue that it is the middle of the solar night,” observed Dr. Czeisler.

“Technology has effectively decoupled us from the natural 24-hour day to which our bodies evolved, driving us to go to bed later. And we use caffeine in the morning to rise as early as we ever did, putting the squeeze on sleep.” White light emitted by LEDs was typically rich in blue light.

This mattered because ipRGCs were most sensitive to blue and blue-green light. So night-time exposure to LEDs was typically more disruptive to circadian rhythms and sleep than the old incandescent light bulbs. Since solid-state light fixtures could carry multicoloured LEDs, it would be relatively easy to control their light intensity and colour composition. “The adverse effects of night-time light on sleep and circadian rhythms can be reduced by replacing blue-enriched light with red- or orange-enriched white light after sunset,” he suggested. In addition, “it is critical to establish a regular bedtime and wake time,” said Dr. Czeisler in an email. The interval between those two times must allow a person to catch enough sleep. An average adult needed eight hours of sleep.

Children needed more sleep. A typical high school student would need more than nine hours in bed. “Children become hyperactive rather than sleepy when they don’t get enough sleep, and have difficulty focusing attention, so sleep deficiency may be mistaken for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an increasingly common condition now diagnosed in 19 per cent of U.S. boys of high-school age,” he pointed out in the article.

Focus on Plant Proteins to Feed Billions

Growing food sustainably to feed a growing global population will require improving the way staple crops take in and transport substances, says a group of a dozen scientists from six countries. As it was, some two billion people in the world were suffering dietary deficiencies that had an enormous impact on their health, noted Julian Schroeder of the University of California at San Diego in the U.S. and his colleagues in a Perspective article appearing today (May 2) in Nature .

During the next four decades, an expected additional two billion humans would require nutritious food. “Global demand for food is predicted to increase by 40 per cent by 2030. Innovative solutions are required to increase production on the land currently used for agriculture, because we are already close to the sustainable limit of 15 per cent of the Earth’s surface that can be exploited for crop production.” Utilising the biology of a class of plant proteins known as ‘membrane transporters’ could be a “key contributor to the goal of global food security,” they said. These proteins, embedded within membranes of cells, could improve the efficiency with which plants took up and used water and nutrients. The transporters were also central to mechanisms for drought tolerance in plants as well as their ability to grow in other adverse conditions, such as in saline or acidic soils.

Salt Tolerance

The ‘HKT’ family of transporters, for instance, moves sodium and potassium, and plays an essential part in salt tolerance. In the course of fundamental research using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana , Prof. Schroeder’s lab discovered the genes for these proteins and their mechanism for improving salt resistance.

Recently, agricultural scientists in Australia, led by co-author Rana Munns, used marker-assisted breeding to move members of this gene family from a wild, salt-tolerant wheat species to a commercial variety, boosting the latter’s yield by 25 per cent in field trials. “Aluminium tolerance genes are also very promising for enhancing yields in acidic soils,” said Prof. Schroeder in an email. Such soils, with low crop yields, were widely distributed in sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world where developing nations are located. Many millions of people in the world suffered from iron and zinc deficiencies “because their plant-based diets are not a sufficiently rich source of these essential elements,” the scientists observed in their paper.

Boosting Iron Content

To fortify rice with more iron, scientists had turned on key transporter genes in the plant’s seeds. These genes are usually expressed in the root so that the plant could take in nutrients from the soil. The result was a greenhouse-grown rice with three- to four-fold higher levels of iron in polished grain. In a similar fashion, zinc content of cereal grains could be increased, according to Dale Sanders, director of the John Innes Centre in the U.K. and another co-author. His team had demonstrated this with barley. “We are also in the early stages of research to increase iron and zinc content in wheat,” he added in an email.

Fertiliser Reduction

Targeting appropriate membrane transporters could increase the efficiency with which plants took up phosphorus and nitrogen. The amount of phosphate and nitrate fertilisers used for cultivation could then be substantially reduced. “This is an important goal for sustainable high-yielding agriculture,” remarked Prof. Schroeder in his email. However, more basic research was needed into the fundamental mechanisms operating in plants.

Raw Horse Gram Good for Diabetics

With dietary practices increasingly linked to lifestyle diseases, here is some news to cheer about for diabetics. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have found that unprocessed raw horse gram seeds not only possess anti-hyperglycemic properties but also have qualities which reduce insulin resistance. The scientists made a comparative analysis between horse gram seeds and their sprouts and found that the seeds would have greater beneficial effects on the health of hyperglycemic individuals. Dr. Ashok Kumar Tiwari, Principal Scientist and lead author of the study said increased consumption of highly processed foods was contributing to spiked levels of blood glucose and lipid levels. He said South Asians consume more carbohydrates, and the introduction of polished white rice has contributed to increased levels of blood sugar among them. Quoting an earlier study carried out at IICT, he said it was noticed that brown rice or pounded rice was less glycemic than polished rice. He said that persistent hyperglycemia induces oxidative stress which in turn generates free radicals. These free radicals damage bio-molecules leading to imbalance in physiological functions and development of diabetic complications. Describing horse gram (Ulavalu in Telugu, Kulthi in Hindi, Kollu in Tamil) as a poor man’s pulse crop in South India, he said it was an anti-oxidant rich food grain. Traditionally different preparations were made with the pulse to suit the requirements of different seasons. For instance, it was given in the winter for generating body heat/warmth and energy.

The authors of the study, which was published recently in Nutrafoods, said: traditional medicinal texts describe its use for asthma, bronchitis, leucoderma, urinary discharge, kidney stones and heart disease. Dr.Tiwari said the study found that raw horse gram seed was rich in polyphenols, flavonoids and proteins, the major anti-oxidants present in fruits and other food materials.

Anti-oxidants help in controlling oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals. He said the study found that raw horse gram seed has the ability to reduce post-prandial hyperglycemia by slowing down carbohydrate digestion and reduce insulin resistance by inhibiting protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1 beta enzyme. He said that of late a belief has gained ground that eating sprouts of horse gram would be beneficial for health.

However, the study found that during sprouting its anti-diabetic medicinal property gets reduced. He said the majority of anti-oxidant properties were confined to the seed coat and its removal would not do any good. “Any preparation made of whole grain is better than sprouts or horse gram pulses”, he added.