VOLUME 47
NUMBER 7 JULY 2010
COVER STORY
|
|
|
Measuring Rainfall K.V.
BALASUBRAMANIAN
|
8 |
|
FEATURE
ARTICLES “Connect to Decode” A New Paradigm of Doing Science |
19 |
Harnessing Hidden Hunger
SHARMISTHA BARTHAKUR
|
32
|
Malicious Malaria
P. CHEENA CHAWLA
|
40
|
|
Defence Weaponry against
Mosquitoes NATASHA DAS
|
47
|
|
Kiwifruit: Miracle Berry S. LAL, N. AHMED, S.R. SINGH, D.B. SINGH,
J.I. MIR & R. KUMAR
|
52
|
INTERVIEW
“India is a
very promising country with an emerging economy”: HE Mr. Koji Omi |
26 |
SHORT FEATURE
Curbing
A Menace
|
45
|
FICTION
TIME
THIEF
Shripad Dharkar
|
36
|
DEPARTMENTS
|
|
REACTIONS
|
6
|
EDITORIAL
|
7
|
SPECTRUM
|
16
|
TEST
YOUR KNOWLEDGE
|
24
|
|
39 |
|
|
50 |
|
LIVING FOSSILS
|
55 |
NATURAL HAZARDS
|
56 |
|
58 |
|
|
60 |
|
|
62 |
Measuring Rainfall
K.V.
BALASUBRAMANIAN
Measuring
rainfall forms a very important input for the economic planning of the country.
But there is a whole lot of scientific work and periodic maintenance that goes
into making this activity a reality.
When the first showers of
the monsoon give respite from the sweltering heat, the first thing you do is
smell the earthy flavour wafting through to your nose. You might also want to
catch a few drops on your palm or perhaps get drenched in the pouring rain. But
why would someone want to measure the rainfall? Is it important?
Well, the oceans hold 97% of
the earth’s water (which is saline), while 2% is available
frozen in ice caps. Deep ground
water accounts for 0.31%. The remaining
0.69% of water is only available for the humanity. The main source of this small amount of water
is precipitation in the form of rain or snow. So, measurement of this
precipitation (rainfall/snowfall) becomes absolutely necessary since it forms a
very important input for the economic planning of a country.
“Connect to Decode”
A New Paradigm of Doing Science
SUKANYA
DATTA
C2D demonstrates the power of
people to connect through the Internet, particular young people, and accomplish
complex research tasks. This exercise has provided a large number of clues
towards obtaining a comprehensive view of the microbes as a whole, producing
several testable hypotheses that can now be verified in the laboratory.
Almost
at the dawn of its creation in 2008, the Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD)
http://www.osdd.net programme, which is a CSIR-led Team India consortium with
global partnership, had identified Mycobacterium
tuberculosis (Mtb) as
its first target. The reason is not far to seek. With a history going back to
prehistoric times, TB has stalked the Earth for millennia, claiming Pharaohs of
ancient Egypt as well as Poets of contemporary times. However, despite all our
grand advances in science we have failed to wipe it off the face of the globe.
Fortuitously
for us, however, the IT-revolution in the early days of the twenty-first
century has powered Genomics research such that looking at genomes has become
easier. Rational drug discovery hinges on knowing the best target to
attack, the best pathway to exploit and to do so while wasting a minimum of
resources, including time. Knowing the genome is now the
first step to knowing how to control a pathogen.
“India
is a very promising country with an emerging economy”: HE Mr. Koji Omi
Mr. KOJI OMI is a key figure in the field of science and technology in
Japan. He has served in various capacities in the ministry of International
Trade and Industry. He has been a member of the House of Representatives for
eight terms and a Cabinet Minister with different portfolios. He promoted the
founding of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, an international
and interdisciplinary graduate university. He also founded the Science and
Technology in Society (STS) forum with the aim of building a worldwide network
among scientists, policymakers and business people.
Mr.
Koji Omi visited India during March 2010 and met political and economic
leaders, academicians and left with high hopes of cooperation between the two
countries. Er.
ANUJ SINHA, Consultant, Department of Science
& Technology, Govt. of India and Director, Vigyan Prasar interacted with
Mr. Koji Omi, during his visit to India.
The
Case of the Aging Nukes
M.S.S.
MURTHY
AFTER the nuclear
weapon tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, no other country has conducted such
tests except North Korea in recent years. Most of the nuclear weapon countries
have declared “no first use” moratorium. They deploy nuclear weapons only as a
deterrent. Under such circumstances, the reliability of the weapon has to be
more than 100 per cent to ensure the desired deterrence and also provide
national security. However, there is a problem. Some of these warheads are more
than 30 years old. Like all engineered systems, nuclear weapons also age and
this puts a question mark on their reliability.
No
system is engineered to sit inactive for years or decades and still be able to
spring into action in just a few moments notice. It cannot happen with a car, a
TV or even a bicycle. However, that is what is expected of a nuclear weapon.
The challenge is to develop a safe and effective
malaria vaccine but till then save yourselves from a
mosquito bite and take timely treatment if malaria is detected.
Come summer and then rains,
the terror unleashed by mosquitoes gets into full gear. The aftermath of a
scratchy, painful bite of a mosquito could be traumatic, if the biting insect
harbors the highly infective forms of a deadly bug called Plasmodium —
the malarial parasite. So much so, if left untreated, there may occur severe life-threatening complications that often kill
the victim.
This happens in most
tropical regions of the world particularly Asia, Africa, Central and South
America, where malaria is rampant and people are brutally exposed to the compromised
health conditions. On a worldwide scale more than 250 million cases of malaria occur every year, out of which about a million
victims die mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Curbing
A Menace
BISWA RANJAN MAHARANA & MANJIT PANIGRAHI
SINCE time immemorial
millions and millions of people have been dying due to the menacing activity of
a moving bombshell that transmits some of the world’s worst life threatening
and devastating diseases. This living jeopardy had once become the nightmare of
one of the greatest scientists, Sir Ronald Ross (Nobel prize winner for
Physiology in the year 1902). It is none other than the deadly mosquito.
Mosquitoes
transmit many parasitic and viral diseases like Malaria, Chikungunya, Dengue,
Filariasis, Westnile fever etc that are on the rise in many tropical and
subtropical countries. Over the past few decades efforts have been made to
develop mosquito control strategies by targeting the larval or the adult stages
and use of biological agents and genetic engineering techniques against the
disease-transmitting mosquitoes.
Defence Weaponry against Mosquitoes
NATASHA DAS
What’s your
defence against mosquitoes? Mosquito repellent mats, creams, sprays, and
nets... Has it ever crossed your mind that the nation’s Defence Research and
Development Organization, or the DRDO as we know it, is also working towards
defending you from mosquitoes?
DRDO has made significant contributions to India’s strategic defence
system over the last five decades. It often awes us with its contributions to
the development of missiles such as Agni, Prithvi, Akash and Nag or the
majestic battle tank Arjun. But the organization’s efforts are not limited to
the development of arms and armament systems. Some spinoff benefits of DRDO’s
efforts have found immense use for the society at large. One such line of
research has helped provide defence against mosquitoes...one of man’s
deadliest enemies.
Kiwifruit: Miracle Berry
REFRESHING, delicate flavour with
pleasing aroma, and high nutritive value are the
hallmarks of the ripe kiwi fruit. The kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) or Chinese gooseberry is also popularly known
as ‘China Miracle Fruit’ and ‘The Horticultural Wonder of New Zealand’. It is a large, woody, deciduous vine
native to the Yangtze Valley of China and was introduced into India in the
1960s.
Approximately 84% of the
world production is contributed by China, Italy, New Zealand, and Chile. In
India, the area under this fruit is negligible. The average experimental farm
productivity of kiwifruit in our country is about 25 tonnes/ha as compared to
New Zealand’s 28.63 tonn/ha.
There
was a hoarse cry from the man as he slumped helplessly on a chair. It seemed as if he had lost all his
energy. Inspector Rane was looking at
him with unbelieving eyes. Slowly and
slowly the man was changing. His
beautiful hair was falling about him, balding him. The hair on his nape was graying. His eyes, going inside their sockets were
getting smaller and smaller. Wrinkles on
his forehead, cheeks shrunk. His
well-built body receded – his clothes hanging loose. He looked like a man more than fifty.
“Why,
you look old! What happened to you all
of a sudden!” cried his wife.
Inspector
Rane was looking at him astounded, as if he were seeing a horror film. Humans attain old age slowly over many years
in a dignified way, but getting old all of a sudden – in a matter of minutes –
and that too old by twenty years in such an unbelievably short time was a most
unlikely happening. But it was all happening before him!