dream 2047 august 2010 issue english

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Gerty Theresa Cori andCarl Ferdinand Cori

Who showed how energy is producedand distributed in human body

(1896-1957)(1896-1984)

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R.N. 70269/98ISSN : 0972-169X

Postal Registration No.: DL-SW-1/4082/09-11Date of posting: 26-27 of advance month

August 2010 Vol. 12 No. 11 Rs. 5.00

Coffee

The WonderElixir

Inside

Editorial : Coach or Player

Gerty Theresa Cori and CarlFerdinand Cori.....

Interview with Lalita Balakrishnan

Coffee: The Wonder Elixir

Depression: The Way Out

Recent Developments in Scienceand Technology

Sky Map

VP News



Dream 2047 , August 2010, Vol. 12 No. 11

Editorial

E-mail: [email protected]

Editor : Er Anuj Sinha

Address or Vigyan Prasar, C-24,

correspondence : Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi-110 016

Tel : 011-26967532; Fax : 0120-2404437

e-mail : [email protected]

website : http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in

Vigyan Prasar is not responsible or the statements and opinions

expressed by the authors in their articles/write-ups published in

“Dream 2047”

Articles, excerpts rom articles published in “Dream 2047” may

be reely reproduced with due acknowledgement/credit, provided

periodicals in which they are reproduced are distributed ree.

Published and Printed by Dr. Subodh Mahanti on behal o Vigyan Prasar, C-24, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 016 and Printed at Aravali

Printers & Publishers Pvt. Ltd., W-30, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110 020 Editor: Er Anuj Sinha

o Anuj Sinha

Football is the ballet o the masses. Legionso ans all over the world are testimony

to this as the current edition o the World

Cup tournament progresses in South Arica.Football remains the most popular sportin the world since one can play it withminimum knowledge o essential dos anddon’ts and even i all the rules o the gameare not known. I my grandchild will see arotund ball he will instinctively kick it.

For many, however, ootball is muchmore than kicking a ball and chasingit. It is a game that has honour, respect,courage, strategy, discipline, team work andcelebration. Being part o a team involvescontributing to the eort, sharing joys and

sorrows, pushing or glory o the team overindividual achievement and developinghigh level o camaraderie. The game is ametaphor or lie – a struggle with rewardsand recognition or good perormancesand immediate rebuke or indierentcontribution.

The media has been electried the pastew weeks bringing dierent perspectives o the activities in South Arica. Preparationsby the hosts, inspections by organisers, visito supporters and arrival o the teams havebeen played out in detail. In the tournament,

star players have been able to protect theirreputations when they have displayedtheir skills. Coaches have been praisedand criticised or their team’s perormancein dierent rounds. Incisive reports haveappeared analysing the strategies adopted ingames against dierent teams. This editionhas thrown up unexpected heroes amongplayers and coaches. Soccer and soccer mania will serve as a metaphor or thoughts on therest o this page.

Our society has many inrmities andadopting rational choices is the path to rapid

Coach or Playerdevelopment. Reaching essential knowledgeand skills to the community engages many science communicators. Leaders and their

teams engage in specic tasks with objectivesthat will empower the people. VigyanPrasar is a national resource or attractiveand eective material in the orm o books,kits, posters, CD ROMs and web-basedresources. These are developed with inputso eld workers and researchers. Pilot testinghelps to improve both the content and itspresentation. Selected material is translatedinto other languages.

To develop eective resource material,contributors need domain knowledge andcommunication skills. This oten calls or

collaboration and cooperation by expertsrom dierent specialisations but with goodunderstanding o the requirements o theinitiative. (All material is uploaded on ourportal rom where it can be downloadedat no cost. Others place orders at selectedtemporary and permanent outlets or theseat prices that barely cover our costs.)

Over the years we nd that those withactual experience o interacting with thecommunity make valuable communicators.The rich learning they bring to the materialdevelopment assignment is refected in

obvious as well as subtle ways. Understandingthe needs o the eld worker they modulatethe presentation to make the book, poster,script, CD ROM, etc., most useul.

Science communicators and resourcepersons in and those working with VigyanPrasar are akin to soccer coaches. The best oneshave been outstanding players themselves.Heads o NGOs, team leaders and eld workers are quick to appreciate such supportand use the material repeatedly or trainingand extension. Else these are conned to therare o shelves to gather dust.

A coach has many attributes besidesdeep knowledge o the sport. S/he has touse psychological tools to get the best romthe team and motivate each player to deliverup to his/her ull potential. An unsatiatedhunger or success is necessary in each teammember and the coach. In spectator sportseven the ans have a very important role.

Field communicators (the players)have to make longer commitments knowing

that the community will progress gradually rom the current state o acceptance as ateto a stage o improved awareness, move toa positive and receptive attitude and thenexpress a change in behaviour. Belies,traditions, customs, social and economicdisadvantages are inhibitory actors thatneed to be considered or an interventionto be eective. There are no accepted rulesor a hal time. Spectators are oten hostile i their interests appear threatened. (In soccer,a game close to a religion or many, thecoach can shout rom the sidelines and guide

during hal time.) The change in the society must come and within a oreseeable time.

There is little by way o honour,respect, courage, strategy, discipline, team work or celebration. There is, however,a great need. Can the challenge o beingpitted against such odds attract you andother talented communicators to volunteeras resource persons (coaches) in a campaignor stimulating scientic temper amongstneo-literates?

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Gerty Theressa Cori (nee Radnitz)and Carl Ferdinand Cori discovered

the process in which energy is producedand transmitted in the human body. They demonstrated how glycogen (animal starch)breaks down (or generating energy) and issynthesised (to be stored as source o energy).The pathway in which energy is moved in

the body—rom muscle, to the liver andback to the muscle is known as Cori cycle.They also discovered an importantcompound which is known asCori ester.

Gerty Cori and her husbandCarl Cori were awarded the1947 Nobel Prize in Medicine orPhysiology. They shared the Prize with the Argentine physiologistBernardo Alberto Houssay (1887-1971). It may be noted that Gerty Cori was the rst American woman

to win a Nobel Prize in science. She was the third woman to receive aNobel Prize in science the earliertwo recipients were Marie Curieand Irene Joliot Curie.

Gerty Cori was born on15 August 1896 in Prague in a Jewish amily to Martha and Otto Radnitz.In those days Prague was a part o Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was the oldest o three daughters. Her ather Otto Radnitz

was manager o a sugar actory. Beoreentering a Lyceum (a high school) or girlsGerty Cori was taught at home by privatetutors. In those days in Europe educationalopportunities available in girls’ school werelimited compare to those available in boys’schools. The school which Gerty joinedmostly taught culture and social etiquette.

She wanted to pursue higher studied inuniversity but her school education did not

provide background in Latin, mathematics,and science or entering a university. Heruncle, who was a proessor o paediatrics,encouraged her to pursue higher education.

She studied two years or preparing hersel or the university entrance examination. Shecould qualiy the examination and nally entered the Carl Ferdinand University in1914 and where she met her uture husbandand research collaborator Carl FerdinandCori.

Carl Ferdinand Cori was born inPrague on 5 December 1896. He spent his

childhood in Trieste where his ather, Carl I.Cori was Director o the Marine BiologicalStation. He completed his school educationin a gymnasium in Trieste in 1914. His atherintroduced him to zoology. In his childhoodhe spent time exploring caves and colletinginsects. He also took active part in outdoorsports like tennis, swimming, and hiking.Like Gerty he also joined Carl FerdinandUniversity in Prague in 1914. During First World War Carl Cori served in the Austrian Army Sanitary Corps but returned to themedical school ater the war.

In 1920, Gerty and Carl got married.Beore marriage Gerty converted to

Catholicism. Carl Cori workedor a year at the University o Vienna and or one year at theUniversity o Graz. In post-First World War Europe there wasood scarcity. Gerty was givendietary supplements but she didnot accept them because shethought patients were in greaterneed than her. She developed aneye disease called xerophthalmia

caused by vitamin deciency.There was also rising hatredagainst Jewish people. The Corisdecided to emigrate to USA. CarlCori moved to the New York

State Institute or the Study o Malignant Diseases (later renamed

as the Roswell Park Cancer Institute) in1922 when he got a aculty position there.Gerty Cori, who had been working at theCarolinen Children’s Hospital, Vienna

“They (the Coris) ormed a close team until her (Gerty Cori’s) death (their researchcollaboration had began as students and their contributions are practically inseparable),moving to the USA in 1922 and sharing a Nobel Prize in 1947, the only other husbandand wie pairs to do being the Curies in 1903 and the Joliot-Curies in 1935. Gerty Coribecame the rst woman medical graduate to receive a Nobel Prize.”

The Cambridge Dictionary o Scientists, Cambridge University, Press, 2002.

“Although the actual pathway o glycolysis is much more detailed and took several yearsto elucidate, the value o the Coris’ work is undeniable. Above all they pointed the way tothe crucial role o phosphates in the provision o cellular energy, the details o which weresoon to be worked out by Fritz Lipmann.”

A Dictionary o Scientists, Oxord University Press, 1999

Gerty Theresa Cori and

Carl Ferdinand Cori Who showed how energy is produced

and distributed in human body Subodh Mahanti


Gerty Theresa Cori (right) and Carl Ferdinand Cori (let)

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joined her husband in USA ater six monthso his arrival. She managed to get a job as Assistant Pathologist in the same institute.They never returned to their homeland.They nally became naturalised citizens o the United States in 1928.

Gerty had to ace gender discriminationthroughout her career. The post given to her

was much inerior, given her capabilities andtraining. She had the same qualicationsas her husband. However, in spite o thediscrimination She continued her research work with total dedication which resulted inabout 150 research papers. She maintained astrong commitment to intellectual integrity.She was kind and passionate but at the sametime she was tough.

Initially Gerty Cori studied the eectso X-rays on the skin and organs. But soonboth Gerty and Carl developed a commoninterest in carbohydrate metabolism and

started their lie-long collaboration on thesubject. They published joint papers but therst author o each paper was decided on who did most o the work or a given paper.Their rst joint paper resulted rom theirimmunological study o the complemento human serum. They also publishedpapers as single authors. Carl Cori in hisspeech at Nobel Prize award ceremony inStockholm said: “Our collaboration began30 years ago when we were still medicalstudents at the University o Prague and hascontinued ever since. Our eorts have been

largely complementary, and one withoutthe other would not have gone as ar as incombination.” Their research collaboration was so intimate that it was rather dicult totell which Cori did what.

In 1931, Carl Cori became a proessoro the Pharmacology Department o the Washing University School o Medicine andlater became Proessor o Biochemistry. ButGerty Cori was oered a position as a researchassistant in spite o the act that she had the

same qualications as herhusband. She was given aproessorship in 1947, thesame year she shared theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The Coris started

their work on carbohydratemetabolism at the New York State Institute orthe Study o MalignantDiseases in Bualo and

they continued their work in this area at the Washington University. Beore describingtheir work we shall talk about carbohydratesand their physiological importance.

A carbohydrate is an organiccompound containing only three elementsnamely carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Theterm “carbohydrate” reers to a group o

compounds like sugars, starch, celluloseand other related compounds. The namecarbohydrate arose rom the belie that thisclass o naturally occurring substances couldbe represented as hydrate o carbon C

x(H

2O)

y ,

or example D-glucose C6H

12O

6[C

6(H

2O)

6],

and sucrose C12

H22

O11

[C12

(H2O)

11. But

later new compounds were discovered whichbelonged to the class o carbohydrate by virtue o their properties but they did nothave the required hydrogen-to-oxygen ratioto represent them as hydrate o carbon.However, the name has been retained

more or its convenience sake rather thano exact denition. The carbohydrates arebroadly classied into three main groups—monosaccharides, oligosaccharides andpolysaccharides. The simplest carbohydrates

are the sugars, they are monosaccharides.

However, sugars have the ability to jointogether to make polymer chains o greatlength, which are called polysaccharides.Glycogen, starch, and cellulose are exampleso polysaccharides. Carbohydrates perormmany vital roles in living organisms, both asstructural elements and in the maintenanceo unctional activity.

Carbohydrates are an important sourceo energy in our bodies. Humans, like otheranimals, store carbohydrates in their bodiesin the orm o glycogen. As early as 1850 theFrench physiologist Claude Bernard (1813-

1878) had shown that glucose was convertedinto glycogen, a more complex orm o carbohydrate. The glycogen remains storedin the liver and muscle and is convertedback into glucose to meet the energy supply required by the body. However, theundamental problem was to elucidate thesteps involved in the process. The Corisdecided to solve this problem.

They undertook a series o studiesor determining the rates o absorptiono sugars rom the small intestine andmeasuring the amounts o products o

carbohydrate metabolism namely glycogenand lactogen. Based on their studies they came to a conclusion that there should bean intermediate between muscle glycogenand liver glycogen. Their conclusion wasbased on the act that muscle glycogen didnot increase blood glucose but liver glycogendid. Based on their studies they proposedmetabolic a cycle o carbohydrates in 1929.The cycle discovered by the Coris was latercalled the Cori cycle.

History of Science

The Cori cycle

Bernardo Alberto Houssay

Claude Bernard

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The Coris developed an interest on

the eects o hormones on carbohydratemetabolism. Beore the Coris entered theeld the Canadian physician Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941) and theCanadian physiologist Charles Herbert Best(1899-1978) had shown that the hormoneinsulin played a denite role in controllingblood sugar levels. In diabetic patients, i nottreated, blood sugar level increased becausethe patient could not produce enoughinsulin. However, it was observed by Bantingand Best that blood sugar level could bebrought to normal level by injecting insulin.

The Coris while studying the eect o insulindemonstrated that injection o insulinincreased the rate o conversion o glucose tomuscle glycogen but reduced the conversionto liver glycogen. They also studied theeect o epinephrine, a hormone also calledadrenalin. But in case o epinephrine they ound the eect was opposite. There was anincrease in the conversion o muscle glycogento lactate accompanied by the ormationo hexose monophospate, which was lateridentied by them as glucose-1-phosphate in1936.They ound that epinephrine not only

increased the heart rate and blood pressurebut also increased the availability o glucoseor extra energy. The molecule glucose-1-phosphate, which is a glucose molecule with one phosphate group attached to therst carbon atom, is also known as the Coriester.

The Coris discovered the broadsteps involved in glycolysis, an essentialbiochemical process. Their work revealedor the rst time the essential role played by

sugar phosphates in the process o glycolysis.It may be noted that the actual pathway o glycolysis is much more complex thanoriginally shown by the Coris. The nerdetails o the glycolysis pathway were workedout by the German-born US biochemistFritz Albert Lipmann (1899-1986).

In 1939, the Coris puried anenzyme to synthesise glycogen in vitro. This was an example o the rst biochemicalsynthesis o a large molecule in laboratory condition. Towards the end o his careerCarl Cori assumed more administrativeresponsibilities and during which periodGerty Cori shited her research ocus toglycogen storage disorders.

In 2004, the Coris were designatedas American Chemical Society NationalHistorical Chemical Landmark in recognitiono their work on carbohydrate metabolism.

The Coris were members o the AmericanSociety o Biological Chemists, the National Academy o Sciences, the American ChemicalSociety and the American PhilosophicalSociety. Carl Cori was a member o theRoyal Society o London and the American Association or the Advancement o Science.They received joint awards—the NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine (1947), theMidwest Award o the American ChemicalSociety (1946), and the Squibb Award inEndocrinology (1947). They also receivedindividual awards. Gerty Cori received the

Garvan Medal (1948), the St. Louis Award(1948), the Sugar Research Prize (1950),and the Borden Award (1951). In 1952,the US President Harry S. Truman namedGerty Cori to the National Science Board

History of Science

o the National Science Foundation. She

was also one o the twelve women honouredat Hobart and William Smith Colleges inGeneva, N.Y., in 1949. Carl Cori receivedthe Willard Gibbs Medal (1948) and theSugar Research Award (1957, 1951). CarlCori presided over the Fourth InternationalCongress o Biochemistry held at Vienna in1958.

Gerty Cori died on 26 October 1957ater ghting over 10 years a rare disease o the bone marrow called myelobrosis, whichaects bone marrow. Carl Cori died on 10October 1984.

References1. McCutcheon, Scott and Bobbi McCutcheon,

Pioneers in Science: Chemistry, New Delhi:Viva Books.

2. Harwood, Richard, Chemistry (CambridgeLow-Price Edition), Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1999.

3. A Dictionary o Scientists, Oxord: OxordUniversity Press, 1999.

4. The Cambridge Dictionary o Scientists(2nd Edition), Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2004.

5. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, New

York: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd.,1997.6. Available sources on the Internet.

(The article is a popular presentation o the importantpoints o the lives and works o Gerty Theresa Coriand Carl Ferdinand Cori. The idea is to persuade theyounger generation to know about the Coris. Theauthor has given the sources consulted or writingthis article. However, the sources on the Internet arenumerous and so they have not been individually listed.The author is grateul to all those, whose works havecontributed to writing this article.)

Frederick Grant Banting

Charles Herbert Best

Fritz Albert Lipmann

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The All India Women's Conerence

(AIWC), one o the oldest voluntary organisations in the country, wasounded in 1927 by Margaret Cousins,an Irish Lady, who had made India herhome. AIWC's original concern was women's education but gradually it took up various social and economic issuesconcerning women, such as purdah,child marriage, tracking and women’sproperty rights. AIWC aims to work or a society based on the principles o social justice, integrity, equal rights andopportunities or all. Apart rom this, it

strives to create awareness among womenabout their undamental rights and helpthem utilise these rights. It also manages anumber o projects on women and children,both in rural and urban areas and runs shortstay homes, old ages homes, counsellingcentres, hostels or working women, schoolsor tribal children and training centres orvisually challenged .

Ms. Lalitha Balakrishnan, ormerVice-President and Chairperson o the RuralEnergy Department o AIWC, is a very wellknown name in social journalism and social

service. With more than 35 years’ experiencein these areas Ms. Balakrishnan is a pioneer inthe environmental eld and has spearheadedthe country's RETs programme which hasbeen judged to be the best by the Government o India andother international agencies. Sheis India's National Coordinatoror the International Forumor Sustainable Energy and wasDirector on the Board o India'sRenewable Energy Development Agency.

Er Anuj Sinha, Director,Vigyan Prasar and Consultant,Department o Science &Technology, Govt. o Indiainteracted with Mrs. Balakrishnanon the issues o gender equity,development and communicationrelated issues, improvedtechnologies or rural India, andactivities o AIWC. Here areexcerpts o the interaction.

Dream 2047: You have been associated with women’s development or many decades. How did you get involved in thiseld? On the personal ront, how has youramily supported your passion or social work? Has it been a positive story or one o resistance and grumbling acceptance?

Lalita Balakrishnan: I have beenbrought up in a very learned amily. My ather was a close riend o Dr. S. Radhakrishnan,the ormer President o India. They were both

teaching in the same college. Actually Mrs.Radhakrishnan gave me my name Lalita.My mother was a Gandhian and also a greatollower o Paramacharya o Kanchi Mutt. When I was just 9 years old, my mother

used to take me along to collect money,

medicines, jewels and all or victims o Navakali disaster. Though so ar away inKumbakonam, Navakali was very ar butstill it made deep impact on me becauselocal people used to donate liberally andevery month my mother would send thecollection to Sucheta Kriplani. So that ishow I started. Fortunately my husbandand even my in-laws were all supportive;otherwise probably I could not have risento this stage. My husband was the leaderor setting up Bharat Heavy ElectricalsLtd., (BHEL) and initiated the R&D

Centre in Hyderabad. It was his baby andI used to go with him to all the divisions/

centres in Bhopal, Hyderabad, Haridwar,etc. I have observed the inrastructure orgenerating electricity. My husband hadto visit various research laboratories inthe country . He created a platorm orrenewable energy sources and that is where Igot the rst exposure.

Dream 2047: How rewarding has beenyour association with the All India Women’sConerence?

L.B.: Actually I was connected with

them right rom the beginning o 1957. We lived in Delhi, Hyderabad, BhopalHaridwar and in all these cities I established AIWC oces. I have been a Secretary

General, Vice-President in theorganisation, and since 1984I have been heading the ruralenergy department when Mrs.Sarojini Varadhappan was thePresident. The erstwhile MNES,Commission on AdditionalSources o Energy wanted to takeup programmes o renewable

energy and oered support o IIT Delhi and other institutions.Our organisation was identiedas a nodal agency or propagatingthese types o technologies. The journey has been pioneering andthereore very rewarding.

Dream 2047: You have worked extensively wtechnology generators andextension workers. Has AIWC

Lalita Balakrishnan A pioneer who has spearheaded India’s woodstove (chulah) programme

Mrs. Lalita Balakrishnan (let) and Er Anuj Sinha withsolar lantern and solar panel, developed by AIWC

Mrs Balakrishnan during interaction

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been considered reliable and credible by thepeers?

L.B.: Yes, but we have a long track record. We started with the improvedchulha and then moved to biogas. Lakhso improved chulhas have been installed allover the country through our branches and

also through other NGOs. We were initially apprehensive about working with the otherNGOs. Then we introduced solar thermaldevices. National level organisations likeSolar Energy Society, Bio Energy Society,and World Energy Council have been closely involved with AIWC and we are one o therst organisations to support World RenewalEnergy Network based in England.

Dream 2047: Which is your mostcoveted moment o recognition or your work?

L.B.: One day I got a

phone call in the evening andI thought it was a nuisance callbecause I could not make out what someone on the other end was saying. I asked my son tolisten in. I had been selectedor the UNEP Global 500 Rollo Honor Award or my work in the improved chulha. So it was a pleasant surprise and theinvestiture unction in Istanbulhad 120 media people andrepresentatives o all concerned

world bodies. It was really something which I can neverorget.

Recently Solar Energy Society o India gave me Lietime Achievement Award 2008 and that alsocame us as a surprise. I don’t remember theexact date but I was given a responsibility in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) as one o the directors.In one term I learnt many things becauseI could go on tours and I could see policy papers. The Ministry o Power deputed me

to a meeting at Bali. It was an experienceto be a part o the government delegation.There is so much to learn and so little time.

Dream 2047: What are the keys o asuccessul social intervention? Please sharesome experiences as a development workerthat will motivate the young generation.

L.B.: First we have to approach theelders and meet the women when they havetime. Sensitisation and a series o trainingprogrammes o improved chulha and other

technologies are required and women thendon’t orget at all. Even today in Trichi, onelady is selling idlis rom her stall that we built14 or 15 years ago. We have been workingin dierent parts o the country including Andaman and Nicobar, and LakshadweepIslands. I have seen a success story in a very

poor area o Orissa. On a visit recently agentleman requested us come to his house.In his jhuggi, we ound just a poor amily with couple o things and ew clothes. Buthe was proud that his daughter-in-law hada certicate o having participated in atraining programme. This was ramed andit decorated one wall in the jhuggi. A biggerimpact on me was to see the clean kitcheno that jhuggi with a unctioning improvedchulha. That is one thing I really remember.

Young people will have similar experiencesi they stay involved with their projects andmake extensive eld visits.

Dream 2047: Is the new generationcoming into the eld o extension interestedin social work-like issues o empowerment? What type o people are they? Are they really committed?

L.B.: Actually quite a ew youngstersare open or careers in social work. At thesame time, because o the high cost o livingthey want decent compensation. NGOsthereore can’t attract good talent. Even with the limited salaries that we are oering we nd some o them are really dedicatedand prepared to sacrice traditional jobsand shit to social work. We have to changeour mind-set and give such people morerecognition. At the same time they are

attracted by multinational companies andget such abulous salaries. We can’t matchthat. That is the problem.

Dream 2047: The poor o courseare vulnerable to everything disasters,displacement or some new technology. Isthere a ray o hope, do you see a uture or

them?L.B.: The poor are the ones who areaected rst. They do not have any basicamenities, not even drinking water. The gapbetween the rich and the poor is also growing.One thing I have ound among the poor isthat they want to send their children to goodschools. They have realised that education isreally important. This is very promising.

Dream 2047: You have conceived,developed, implemented and monitored

several interventions which areempowering the community.

Please share one such successulintervention and one ailure. What are the lessons that we canlearn? Failure analyses are very important.

L.B.: One successulthing that I was responsible oris a 20-bed hospital or treatingthe victims o drug abuse andalcoholics. This has been runningor eight years. We trained people,social and sel-help groups, whoare looking ater it now. Now

they are also running counsellingcentres. The other day I met aperson at the airport. He said

“Ma’am don’t you remember me,I took treatment in your centre,

I am doing very well now, I have also won achampionship”. This was the thing we wantto hear.

A ailure – let me see! At the insistenceo the government, we started working withthe NGOs on biogas technology extension.Some o them cheated us, the governmentand the people. That really broke my

heart. We had to return some money tothe government because o NGO’s wrongaction. Many NGOs are very good but someo them are rauds.

Dream 2047: Do ex-servicemen show a progressive attitude when they settle downater retiring rom the orce?

L.B.: You will be happy to know thatin a cluster o villages in West Bengal, many

continued on page 31

Interview

Mrs. Lalita Balakrishnan is demonstrating AIWC's solar units

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Monday morning. You wake up groggy and heavy headed. You are probably

irritable. A cup o warm aromatic coeegets you started on your daily chores. Asyou start your work in the oce you arepepped up. As time passes, the tensions, thedeadlines and the avoidable conficts slowly build up and you get that amiliar naggingheadache. Time or a cup o coee again?Finally the day is over and you return homedrained. Another cup o coee to help youunwind. Got to deal with some unnished

work late at night? Coee could again keepyou company. It is an elixir that helps youkeep up with the daily numbing routine o modern lie.

While coee acionados vouch or its worth, there are people who sound a wordo caution too. Too much o a good thingcould be bad. But good or bad,coee has become a part o liein most countries o the world,so much so that it has spawned asubculture o sorts. But how didthis ubiquitous drink come into

being? What is its heritage andits history? How does it reach thecup rom the shrub? Read on tond out more.

In the northern parts o India, where tea is more avoured, coeeis mostly consumed in its instantorm, especially during winters.But in the southern parts o India,especially in Tamil Nadu and SouthKarnataka, coee making anddrinking is a daily sacred ritual. Formost people in these parts, waking

up in the mornings to the melodiousstrains music, settling down on the lawns in anarm chair with a newspaper, and a piping hotcup o decoction coee is the only way to starta day.

The decoction is the essence o coee, which goes in to inuse lie into the cup.The preparation o the decoction itsel is aritualistic art using the unique contraptiono a coee lter, and roasted and groundcoee.

There are a number o dieringstories as to the origin o coee and how it was discovered. One story is that o anexiled Arab Sheik who saved himsel romstarvation by making a soup rom the berrieso the coee shrub. The most commonis, however, that o Kaldi the goatherd orshepherd, who, in around 600-800 AD, wastending to his animals on the mountainsideone night in Eastern Arica, most likely modern day Ethiopia, when he noticed thatthey were acting strangely. On investigating

this he realised that they had been eating thecherry-red berries o a nearby shrub. As aresult o this they remained awake, jumpingand leaping around the whole night – eventhe older goats. Curious, the goat herderpicked some o the cherries and tasted themhimsel. He ound that they invigorated him

and made him more wide-awake. A monk rom a nearby monastery called Chadely who was passing by heard about this romKaldi and went to investigate. It was thecoee shrub. The monk, wishing to try theeects o these berries, crushed a ew into apowder and poured boiling water over themto make a drink. This was the rst cup o coee – it was not until much later, however,that coee was rst roasted.

The drinking o coee spread to Arabia most likely by Arab traders and by the end o the 9th Century a drink knownas qahwa (literally meaning “that whichprevents sleep”) was being made by boilingthe beans. Also it was not until much later,say between AD1000 and 1200, probably in Arabia that it was discovered, probably by complete accident, that by roasting the beansa delicious drink could be made. By the endo the 13th century, however, Muslims were

drinking coee religiously. Wherever Islam went coee went too: rom India to North Arica and the Eastern MediterraneanCoee was rst cultivated in the Yemenarea o Arica between 1250 and 1600 whenextensive planting occurred.

The rst coee shop that is knownto have opened was in Constantinople (later

Istanbul) in 1475 ater coee wasintroduced to Turkey two yearsearly by the Ottoman Turks. This was an important event in thepopularisation o coee. Coee

soon became a part o social lieas coee shops multiplied rapidly and within a ew years there were hundreds o them in thecity. People visited these coeehouses to talk, listen to music, watch dancing, play chess andother games, listen to the tales o wandering storytellers, or listento other learned conversationsand, o course, to drink coee!The popularity spread throughEurope to such an extent that,

during the 17th and 18th centuries,there were more coee shops in Londonthan there are today. These old coee shops were nothing like the trendy shops that wehave today. A true coeehouse was crowded,smelly, noisy, eisty, smoky, celebrated andcondemned. It was the Dutch, however, who, with a coee plant smuggled out o the Arab port o Mocha, became the rst totransport and cultivate coee commercially in 1690. They ounded the East India coee

Coffee The Wonder Elixir

N. Ramdas Iyer


Coee beans

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trade by taking the coee tree to Sri Lankaand their East Indian colony, Java, and asa result, Amsterdam became a trading centreor coee. They also carried a ew saplings to

their colonies in South Americas and set upplantations there. A popular legend attributes India’s

coee industry to a Muslim pilgrim namedBaba Budan, who smuggled seven coeeseeds out o Mecca in 1670. British colonialrulers developed coee into a commercialcrop that remained valuable until 1870 whenCoee Lea Rust devastated virtually all thecountry’s plantings. In 1920, cultivation o the species arabica was reintroduced andnow accounts or about 50% o India’s totalcrop. India is the second biggest producer

in Asia and is responsible or 25% o Asiancoee production.

The word coee is derived rom theCoea, which is the genus under which italls in the scheme o botanical classication.This genus alls under the general amily o Rubiaceae. Within this genus there are threemain types o coee – Arabicaor Arabian coee is scientically classied as Coea arabica,robusta or Congo coee asCoea canephora, and Liberiancoee as Coea liberica or

Coea excelsoides. Coee isthe seed o a cherry rom thistree which grows rom sea levelto approximately 1,850 metresin a narrow sub-tropical beltbetween the Tropic o Cancerand the Tropic o Capricornaround the world. When ready to be harvested, the ruit on thecoee tree turns a dark cherry colour - this is usually about 8

to 9 months ater fowering has taken place.The time o harvest obviously varies butusually there is only one harvest per year.

There are about 25 major species within Coea, but the typical coee drinkeris likely to be amiliar with just two, arabicaand robusta. The arabica plant is an evergreen,

typically large bush with dark green, ovalshaped leaves that can reach a height o 4 to6 metres when ully grown. Ater planting,arabica trees mature in three to our years, when they produce their rst crop. Thearabica plant can continue to produce ruitsor about 50 years although the ruit yielddecreases signicantly ater about 30.

Coea canephora provides the robustabeans. Robusta, which can grow up to 10metres in height as a shrub or tree, has ashallow root system. The ruits are roundand take nearly a year to mature. The seeds

are rounder and smaller than arabica beans.Robusta coee was discovered in the Congoin 1898 and has become widespread sincethen – representing about 1/4 o the world’scoee production. Robusta tends to be ahardier, more disease-resistant bean thanarabica which is less expensive to maintainand produces a higher yield. Consequently robustas are used or the less expensivecanned and instant coees.

Coee contains a complex mixture o chemical components, some o which arenot aected by roasting. Other compounds,

particularly those related to the aroma,are produced by partial destruction o thegreen bean during roasting. Chemicalsextracted by hot water are classied as non-volatile taste components and volatile aromacomponents. Important non-volatiles arecaeine, trigonelline, chlorogenic acids,

amino acids, carbohydrates, and minerals.Important volatiles are organic acids,aldehydes, ketones, esters, amines, andthiols (sulphur compounds also known asmercaptans). The principal physiologicaleects o coee are produced by caeine, analkaloid that acts as a mild stimulant.

The coee beans can be prepared orroasting in one o two ways. The oldest,simplest, and cheapest, is the dry method.This produces so-called ‘Natural’ coeesand is adopted mostly in Brazil and Western Arica. Firstly, the harvested cherries are

usually sorted and cleaned to separate theunripe, overripe and damaged cherries andto remove dirt, soil, twigs and leaves. Theharvested cherries are then spread out, inthe sun, on large concrete or brick patios oron matting raised to waist height on trestles.

The drying operation is the most importantstage o the process, since it aects the nalquality o the green coee.

The other method o preparation is the wet method. It produces so-called ‘Washed’or ‘Mild’ coees and is adopted in Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Kenya and

Tanzania. This involves morecapital outlay and more carethan the dry method. It does,however, help to preserve theintrinsic qualities o the beanbetter, producing a green coee,

which is homogeneous and hasew deective beans. Hence, thecoee produced by this methodis usually regarded as being o better quality and commandshigher prices.

India’s coee growsbetween 900 and 1,850 metresabove sea level, usually on terracesin the mountainous regions.Coees produced in India haveRipening coee berries

Caeine molecule

Coffee

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Coffee

more in common with Indonesian coeesthan with coees rom Arica or the ArabianPeninsula. Good Indian coees are grownin the states o Karnataka (approximately 80% o Indian coee is grown here), Kerala,and Tamilnadu. In good years, these coeescan contain acidity typical o Guatemalan

coee, and the ull body o a good Javanesecoee. In addition, these coees incorporatethe unique spicy favours o nutmeg, clove,cardamom and pepper. India also producesmonsoon coees, in which green beanshave been exposed to the monsoon winds,blowing through open warehouses in India’srainy season. This process reduces acidity andenhances sweetness, making them similar toIndonesian aged coees.

The tasting o coee is a rigorousand disciplined process. The taster wouldbe looking or criteria such as acidity, body,

aroma and favour. Acidity is a desirablecharacteristic in coee. It is the sensation o dryness that the coee produces under theedges o your tongue and on the back o yourpalate. Body is the eeling that the coee hasin your mouth. It is the viscosity, heaviness,thickness or richness that is perceived onthe tongue. Coees with a heavier body willmaintain more o their favour when diluted with milk. Aroma and favour contribute tothe overall perception o the coee in yourmouth.

The twentieth century has seen a

number o important developments in coee

including the development o both instantand decaeinated coees. Decaeinatedcoee was invented in 1903 when aGerman coee importer, Ludwig Roselius,turned a batch o ruined coee beans overto researchers. Although not the rst toremove caeine, they perected the processo removing caeine rom the beans withoutdestroying any favour. Decaeinated coee was introduced into the US in 1923.

The soluble coee was invented by

a Japanese-American chemist called Satori

Kato who lived in Chicago. However, therst mass produced instant coee was theinvention o George Constant Washington,an English chemist living in Guatemala. While waiting or his wie one day to join himin the garden or coee, he noticed on thespout o the silver coee pot, a ne powder,

which seemed to be the condensation o thecoee vapours. This intrigued him and ledto his discovery o soluble coee. In 1906he started experiments and put his product,Red E Coee, on the market in 1909. In1938, Nestlé, ater being asked by Brazil tohelp nd a solution to their coee surpluses,invented reeze-dried coee. Nescae was developed and rst introduced intoSwitzerland. Instant coee really took o ater 1956 when commercial television wasintroduced. The commercial breaks were tooshort a time in which to brew a cup o tea,

but time enough or an instant coee. Theentrepreneurs o the coee world like Nestléand General Foods realised this was their bigchance and advertised their instant coeeduring the breaks.

That then is the story o the wonderbean in all its glory which revives and litsthe moods. Even i you are not a regularcoee drinker, the next time you visit anUdupi restaurant, do not orget to order acup o this unique drink and as you savourit, do not orget to ruminate on the its long journey rom the goatherd Kaldi to the table

in the Udupi hotel.

A South Indian traditional coee lter

houses o the amily o servicemen hadbiogas unit used or cooking in the kitchen.That means they had toilets, good kitchen with improved chulhas.. We ound thatmany o them are very keenly interestedon these things. The years they work in theorces help building their character.

Dream 2047: In addressing therequirements o rural communities what is

the role that media is perorming?L.B.: Many homes have a television or

they have setup a TV in a central place wherethey go and see programmes. TV and radiohave an infuential role to communicateabout cleaning o the environment, healthand environment. So probably you shouldsensitise all leaders who communicate withmasses through any media and give themrelevant knowledge or their programmes tomake a big impact.

Dream 2047: You have begun in theoreront o the solar lantern project. How isit being received by the people?

L.B.: We initiated our solar lanternproject some years back and today it is beingappreciated by women as they think it’s very important or them. They are willing to buy and pay in instalments. We have put upcharging stations and the women bring theirlanterns to get them charged there and in theevening rent it out to petty vendors (thela walas) etc. Gramin Shakti, is doing well ora long time. They are even recharging cellphones and other domestic gadgets. We havetrained about 100 women on how to servicethe lanterns, to change bulbs, batteries,etc., and thus giving income generatingopportunities to more women.

Dream 2047: What is the role o science communicators in these conditions?

L.B.: An eective science communicatorcan disseminate both new and traditionaltechnologies at grass-root level, which isvery much required today. Rural India haslots o traditional technologies and there isa need to communicate those technologiesusing a proper strategy. This also includesgiving respect to the people in rural areas,taking time to make them understand, and

once they understand they are willing tolearn.

Eective science communication isrequired now. Actually many innovations inscience and technology remain the lab anddon’t reach the land. Science communicatorsshould work in local languages and coverall kinds o media. In the southern statesmany armers listen to the radio and they apply their knowledge to supplement theirincome.

(continued from page 34) Lalita Balakrishnan: A pioneer who has spearheaded India’s woodstove ...

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While some simple, common sense, age-old measures can help alleviate the milderorm o depression, people with more severetype o depression require medical comort.Eective treatment is possible with the helpo medication and psychological counselling,but it usually takes at least six weeks o medication beore the benets begin to show.

Prevention

I you nd yoursel aficted with a toucho depression, you may consider taking theollowing measures, which may help lityour sagging spirit:

Share your feelingsBe it a positive achievement or a setback—share it with people whom you love. In nocase should you mull over negative thoughtsor diculties all by yoursel. Discuss itout with your spouse, amily member or atrusted riend. They can oer you support,guidance and perspective.

Spend time with other people A sound social support group is the besttonic or the mind. Humans need to be with others, to belong, and to win approval.Spending time with others can shore up yourlow spirits.

Think positiveThe ancient Hindu philosophy as well asmodern thinking asserts that all our thoughtsbecome reality. I we think negative thoughts, we are led to helplessness and hopelessness

and ultimately we become victims o depression. On the other hand, i we arepositive and optimistic in our approach, weprotect our minds and bodies rom harm,and help ourselves to live a longer, healthier,and happier lie.

Give time to activitiesof your interest Engage in activities that have interested youin the past, particularly activities that you

have enjoyed. Spend time on music, reading, watching movies, theatre, art exhibitions,picnics, visiting museums, rowing, playingcards, chess, carom or anything that you like.

Take regular exerciseRegular moderate exercise, like 20 minuteso brisk walk, workout or sport may lendmuch to lit your mood. It relieves you o stress and strain, and leaves you resh, alert

and rejuvenated.

Get adequate rest Rest and sleep are the biggest balm or thebody and the mind. Overwork, too muchstress and anxiety do not help anybody.

Set realistic goalsDon’t undertake too much at one time. I you have large tasks ahead, break them intosmaller ones. Set goals you can accomplish.

Help others to help yourself Look out or any opportunity to be o helpto someone less ortunate. The benets areimmense. Your good deed or the day ullsan inner human urge. Every religion andhumanitarian philosophy teaches you that,and the goodness bounces back with moreo the same. Researchers have ound that ittones up the mind, the immune system, andphysical health.

Medical TreatmentNever trust in the popular theory whichclaims that people with a strong will canshake o or will away their depression. I it were that simple, the incidence o depression would be much lower. I you suspect that youhave a depressive illness or eel that a amily member or riend is similarly aected, seek help. See a mental health physician. Without

proper treatment the illness usually runs along course.

Eective treatment is possible withthe help o antidepressant medications,psychotherapy, or a combination o both.Unless the illness is severe and carries the risk o sel-injury, suicide, or violence to others,or the support system o the person is weak,the treatment can be done at home. Few people require hospitalisation.

Medication

Antidepressant medicationsMedications that can lit up the mood arethe mainstay o the treatment. About 70 to80 per cent o people with acute depressionrespond to them, but it generally takes at leasttwo to three weeks beore these medicationsbecome eective. They primarily work by restoring serotonin, norepinephrine, andother neurotransmitters in the brain tonormal levels.

Antidepressant medications arenot addictive, but they may produceunwanted side eects, which dier with

each medication. They must be takenon a regular basis or several months andsometimes longer to avoid relapse. People who discontinue treatment midway orimmediately ater their symptoms improveusually run into depression again.

The commonly used antidepressantmedicines all into our major classes:tricyclics, tetracyclics, monoamine oxidaseinhibitors (MAO inhibitors), and selectiveserotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

DepressionThe Way Out

Dr Yatish Agarwale-mail: [email protected]

“The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.”

—Eric Hoer in The Passionate State o Mind

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Tricyclic antidepressantsNamed or their three-ring chemicalstructure, the tricyclic antidepressantsinclude imipramine, nortriptyline, doxepin,amitriptyline, trimipramine, dothiepin andclomipramine. The side eects o tricyclicantidepressants may include drowsiness,palpitation, dizziness upon standing,blurred vision, constipation, dry mouth,and conusion.

Tetracyclic antidepressantsTetracyclic antidepressants have a our-ringchemical structure, and include mianserinand mirtazapine. Their possible adverse eectsmay range rom weakness, fu-like symptoms,back pain, increased appetite, weightgain, constipation and dry mouth.There may also be abnormal dreams,abnormal thinking, tremors, andconusion.

MAO inhibitorsMAO inhibitors, which include

moclobemide, have now largely been discarded in avour o saeralternatives. MAO inhibitors leadto many o the same side eects astricyclics, and also carry the risk o a serious interaction with tyramine,a substance ound in wine, beer,some cheeses, ripe bananas and many ermented oods. The interactioncan produce dangerous increase inblood pressure. People who take

MAO inhibitors must thereore partake o atyramine-ree diet.

Selective serotonin reuptakeinhibitors (SSRIs)SSRIs include fuoxetine, sertraline,paroxetine, and venfaxine. These drugs

generally produce ewer and milderside eects than the other types o antidepressants, although they may causeanxiety, insomnia, drowsiness, headaches,and sexual dysunction.

LithiumLithium carbonate, a natural mineral salt,has been used in the treatment o bipolardisorder since 1949. The treatment is startedater admitting the person i the person isunwell. It may also be prescribed duringperiods o relatively normal mood to delay or

even prevent subsequent mood swings. Sideeects o lithium include nausea, stomachupset, vertigo, and requent urination.Regular estimation o plasma lithium isnecessary to check adverse eects such asimpairment o thyroid unction.

Other medicationsEven though lithium still remains thestandard medication or bipolar disorder,a variety o other medications includingcarbamazepine, valproic acid, and verapamilhave also been ound useul.

Duration of treatment Antidepressant medications must be takenregularly or some time beore they show any benet. Some early positive changesmay appear in a space o two weeks o

commencement o treatment, however, thebest benet may require up to six weeksor more o regular treatment. A patientand his amily may eel rather discouragedby this slow start, however, it is importantthat the amily members should exercisepatience and provide their ullest supportand encouragement to the depressed.

The treatment with antidepressantsmust continue or at least a period o sixmonths. Generally, it has to be continued

or a much longer period lasting up to twoyears or longer. Antidepressant medicationsshould never be stopped abruptly; thedose has to be gradually tapered beore themedication is stopped.

PsychotherapyPsychotherapy can be an eectivetreatment or a mild to moderatedepression. There are many kinds o psychotherapy. While some ormso psychotherapy try to help peopleresolve their internal, unconscious

conficts, other orms teach people skillsto correct their abnormal behaviour.Studies have shown that psychotherapy scores over antidepressants in at leasttwo ways—it is ree o physiologicalside eects, and leaves a lastingeect with a lower relapse rate thani the treatment relies solely uponantidepressant medication. However,psychotherapy usually takes longerto produce benets and studies have

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ound that a combination o psychotherapy with medication works best.

Interpersonal therapy Interpersonal therapy is a short-termpsychotherapy, normally consisting o 12 to16 weekly sessions. It has been developed to

treat people with unipolar depressive illnesson an out patient basis. The therapist helps aperson resolve problems in relationships withothers that may have caused the depression.The subsequent improvement in socialrelationships and support helps alleviate thedepression.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy The cognitive theory assumes that depressionstems rom negative, oten irrational thinkingabout onesel and one’s uture. In this type o therapy, a person learns to understand and

eventually eliminate those habits o negativethinking. The goal o cognitive therapy is to alleviate depression and prevent itsrecurrence by developing more positive andfexible ways o thinking.

Psychoanalytically oriented therapy The psychoanalytic therapy aims at eectinga change in the personality structure orcharacter, and not just at alleviating thesymptoms. This therapy ocuses upon animprovement in the person’s interpersonal

trust, intimacy with others, development o coping mechanisms, the capacity to grieve,and the ability to experience a wide range o emotions.

Behaviour therapy Several behaviour therapies have beendeveloped or the treatment o depression.The goal is to bring about a change inbehaviour so that the patient does not relapsedue to a aulty behaviour pattern.

Electro-convulsive therapy

Electro-convulsive therapy is eective in bothmajor depression and bipolar disorder. It isound to be particularly useul in people whosuer rom severe depression and are suicidal,and also in those who ail to respond toantidepressant medication and psychotherapy.In this type o therapy, a low-voltage electriccurrent is passed through the brain or a ew milliseconds to produce a controlled seizure.Usually six to ten treatments are needed,spread over a ew weeks.

NOMINATION FORM FOR TRAINING PROGRAMMEON INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICS

Vigyan Prasar is organizing six regional Training programmes in East, West, South,North, North-East, and Central India during August to October 2010. The objective o this training programme is to illustrate and demonstrate a series o novel activities thatmay help enhance interest in physics amongst students and teachers. Activities aim atconceptual understanding o Physical phenomena rather than verication o experimentsdescribed in a text book. The experiments were jointly developed by Department o Physics, Indian Institute o Technology, Kanpur and Vigyan Prasar.

I you are a physics teacher/science communicator and willing to attend this workshop, kindly send us inormation as per the details below.

INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS WORKSHOP 2010

1. NAME : .................................... ...................................... .............

2. DATE OF BIRTH : ..................................... ...................................... .............

3. SEX : .................................... ...................................... .............

4. PROFESSION : ..................................... ...................................... .............

5. ADDRESS (O) : ..................................... ...................................... .............

.........................................................................................

PIN...................................................................................

(R) : ..................................... ...................................... .............

PIN...................................................................................

6. PHONE : ..................................... ...................................... .............

7. E-MAIL : ..................................... ...................................... .............

8. Have you developed any low cost or otherwise Innovative experiments/teachingaid in physics? I yes, brie description with photograph. Use additional page, i required.

9. Have you attended any workshop based on innovative experiments in Physics? I yes, speciy date, organizer and your contribution, i any?

10. I you are a working teacher, kindly give your School address, with phone/axnumber and your nomination should be endorsed by School Principal)

(Signature)

(The workshops will be organized in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Shillong & Bhopal. Ater the selection, each nominee will be inormed by Vigyan Prasar individually about the exact dates/venue etc.)

Send nomination to : Desk, Innovative Experiments Workshop 2010Vigyan PrasarA-50, Institutional Area, Sector-62Noida – 201307 (U.P.)

(You can also ll nomination orm online. Visit www.vigyanprasar.gov.in or online submission.

Photograph

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Recent Developments inScience and TechnologyTesting blood group

with paper stripsBlood typing is one o the most basic medicaltests, but currently it takes time, requiresdelicate analysis, and costs a lot. But it may soon be possible to nd out the blood groupin a ew minutes, using nothing morethan a ew strips o paper thanks tothe research o a team o Australianresearchers rom Monas University inVictoria.

People have one o our mainblood types, based on antigens onthe red blood cells: A, B, AB, and O.

Knowledge o blood type is essential orblood transusion because transusiono blood o the wrong group cantrigger a atal reaction. This is because when blood o two dierent groupsare mixed they agglutinate or clumptogether, which can stop blood fow by clogging the blood vessels. Thisreaction is triggered by antibodiespresent in the blood, which attack blood cells with a dierent antigen.The Australian researchers have usedthis property o blood in an ingenious

way to design a novel test or bloodgroups (Analytical Chemistry, 15 May 2010).

Individuals with blood group A have type A antigens on the surace o redblood cells and anti-Bantibodies in plasma.Individuals with bloodgroup B have type Bantigens on the suraceo red blood cells andanti-A antibodies inplasma. People with AB

blood group have type A and type B antigens onthe surace o red bloodcells and no antibodiesto A or B antigens inplasma. People withO blood group haveneither type A or type Bantigens on the suraceo red blood cells buthave anti-A and anti-B

antibodies in plasma. So blood o group A

will clump i mixed with anti-A antibodies;blood o group B will clump i mixed withanti-B antibodies, and so on.

The principle o working o the new test is quite simple. Absorbent paper strips

are rst coated with the antibodies or thedierent blood group antigens; separate

strips are used or dierent antibodies. When a drop o blood compatible with a particular antibody is placedon a paper coated with that antibody it is easily absorbed and ‘fows’ alongthe strip. But i the drop o bloodis placed on a strip coated with anincompatible antibody it immediately

agglutinates and becomes thicker anddoes not fow along the paper strip.So, by looking at the way a drop o blood behaves when placed on paperstrips coated with known antibodiesthe blood group can be determinedeasily.

The Australian research teamused a modied ink-jet printer in which the ink is replaced by solutionso antibodies to create the bioactivepaper. The test involves putting adrop o blood onto a thin strip o

paper that has been specially printed with antibodies; as the blood seepsinto dierent parts o the paper, the

blood type is revealed. The researchers say the test, which requires only a drop o blood

and costs only a ew rupees, could improvemedical treatments inthe developing world.

Lungs grownin the labPeople whose lungs are

ailing because o diseasessuch as emphysemaor cystic brosis acea grim outlook. Only 10% to 20% o patients who undergo lutransplants survive or10 years or less. Thereis hope or such patientsgoing by the success o anew study. For the rst

Biman Basue-mail: [email protected]

Schematic representation o the wicking o blood on paper treated with a specic and a nonspecic antibody (anti-

A). (a) AB+ blood interacts with antibody-A on paper and

creates a separate layer o RBC and plasma; (b) B+ blood wicks on paper without any distinctive separation.

Lung “skeleton.” The underlying air passages (let) and blood vessels (right)remain ater lungs are decellularised. [Credit: Petersen et al., Science]

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time, a team o researchers led by ThomasPetersen o Yale University, USA, has created

a unctioning lung by growing cells on theskeleton o a donor lung. The engineeredorgan was transplanted in a live rat, whereit exchanged carbon dioxide with oxygen inthe blood – just as a normal lung would – orover two hours (Science 24 June 2010 | doi:10.1126/science.1189345). The study isthe rst proo that old lung scaolds can beused as a scaold on which new lung tissuecan grow. Although preliminary, the resultsmight eventually lead to replacement lungsor human patients.

When lung tissue (the alveoli) are

destroyed due to disease they do notregenerate, so the only way to replace adamaged lung is by transplant. But notenough lungs are available or transplant andthe procedure is also complex. Even atersuccessul transplantation, a large percentageo the transplanted organ is rejected.Scientists have now ound a method o growing lungs by combining a donor lungseeded with a patient’s own lung cells, whichcould reduce the chance o rejection.

What the researchers did was toremove all the cellular matter rom the lungs

taken rom dead rats using a techniquecalled decellularisation that involves usinga detergent. This let a scaold consistingo the brous material normally presentbetween cells on which new cells canbe grown. The researchers started withdecellularised adult rat lungs, which had theorgan’s branching airways and blood vesselnetwork intact, and injected a mixture o lung cells taken rom newborn rats into thescaold. The entire thing was incubated in

a bioreactor – a machine that mechanically ventilated the lung or a week. By theend o the week, the cells had multiplied,dierentiated, and covered the scaolding,thereby creating a new lung. The rebuilt lung was then implanted in a rat and hooked upto airways and key blood vessels. According

to the researchers, the study has shown thatit is possible to engineer a lung that canperorm the single most important unction– exchange o gases.

The present success is signicant, butaccording to the researchers there are someadvances in stem cell biology and lung cellbiology that still need to occur beore humanlungs could be grown using repopulatedscaolds and it may take up to 20 years orthat to happen.

Substitute pancreas

for diabeticsDiabetes mellitus, oten simply reerred to asdiabetes – is a condition in which a personhas high blood sugar, either because thepancreas does not produce enough insulin,or because cells do not respond to the insulinthat is produced. Type 1 diabetes results romthe ailure o the pancreas to produce insulin,and presently requires the person to takeinsulin injections on a regular basis, whichcan be quite painul. Recently scientistshave succeeded in implanting stem cellsinto pancreas and make it produce insulin.

A report on using implants containingspecially wrapped insulin-producing cellsderived rom embryonic stem cells to regulateblood sugar in mice or several months waspresented at the International Society orStem Cell Research conerence held in SanFrancisco, USA rom 16 to 19 June 2010. A San Diego-based rm named ViaCyte, whichis developing the implant as a treatment ortype 1diabetes, is now beginning the saety testing required or approval rom the U.S.Food and Drug Administration beorehuman testing can start (online edition o

Technology Review, 28 June 2010).In type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune

system attacks the insulin-producing betacells o the pancreas, which as a result isunable to produce insulin. This orcespatients to rely on injections o the hormoneto regulate blood sugar. In the past, pancreaticcells taken rom cadavers and implantedin patients have been used to treat type 1diabetes, as a result o which the patients were reed rom the daily insulin injections.

But cadaver cells are not easily available andare not o uniorm quality, which made thistechnique impractical or regular therapy.Scientists have been trying to nd suitablealternatives, including the use o embryonicstem cells, or the last two decades.

Ater years o research, the San Diego-

based rm was able to develop a recipe which can transorm embryonic stem cellsinto immature pancreatic cells which couldbe implanted into pancreas. The recipe is acombination o three small molecules andve proteins, which attempts to replicate theconditions around the developing embryo inthe womb.

In order to prevent ormation o clumps o cancerous tissue called teratomasater transplantation o the cells, theresearchers encased the stem cells in tea-baglike membrane. Encapsulation also allows

the cells to be removed, i needed. Theinner layer o the membrane has pores smallenough to prevent the cells rom leaking out,

New Horizons

A rat lung, grown rom the scaold o an old lung seeded with healthy cells, is mechanically

ventilated in a bioreactor. At the end o aweek, the lung was transplanted into a rat,and was able to exchange gases, as a normal lung would, or two hours. [Credit: Thomas

Petersen and Laura Niklason, Yale University]

Insulin-producing cells (shown here marked in blue), derived rom stem cells and encapsulated in a special membrane,

might one day regulate blood sugar intype 1 diabetics. [Credit: ViaCyte]

26




but the outer layer has pores large enoughto encourage blood vessels to grow alongthe membrane. This is necessary because theimplanted cells need access to blood in orderto sense and respond to changes in bloodsugar, as well as to deliver the oxygen thecells need to survive.

Although in the study, specially wrapped insulin-producing cells derivedrom embryonic stem cells could regulateblood sugar in mice or several months, which has been described as “astonishingprogress,” the researchers eel a lot o researchis still necessary beore the technique can beused on humans.

The secret of butterywing colour Most butterfies show bright colours. Butunlike fowers, which get their colours rom

pigments, the rich, shimmering colourso some butterfy wings are produced notby pigments, but by a special geometric

ormation o cells. This is the nding o ateam o researchers led by VinodkumarSaranthan o Yale University, New Haven,USA (Proceedings o the National Academy

o Sciences, 14 June2010, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0909616107). Theresearchers used an X-ray scattering techniqueto determine the three-dimensional internalstructure o scales in the wings o ve butterfy species. They oundthe wings contain tiny

structures called gyroids that diract sunlightlike a crystal.

There has been a lot o interest in thecolour o butterfy wings and it was knownthat they are not due to any pigment. Butuntil now all the work was done using two-dimensional electron microscope images,

and not much progress could be made.The gyroid is one o our knownstructures that can be “sel-assembled”at the nanoscale and resembles a an or apinwheel. It is made o chitin, the toughstarchy material that orms the outer suraceo insects and crustaceans, usually depositedon the outer membranes o cells. Theresearchers ound that, essentially, the outermembranes o the butterfy wing scale cellsgrow and old into the interior o the cells.The membranes then orm a double gyroid;that is, two, mirror-image networks shaped

by the outer and inner cell membranes.Chitin is then deposited in the outer gyroidto create a single solid crystal. The cell

then dies, leaving behind thecrystal nanostructures on thebutterfy wing, which allowsall wavelengths o light to passthrough except or one, which isrefected. The size o the gyroidstructure is what determinesthe colour. I the structure isshrunk it would become bluer,i it is expanded, it would turn

red. So by changing the size o gyroids the colour can be nely tuned. Moreover, the gyroidsare able to create a colour thatstays true over time and doesnot ade like a pigment colour would.

Because o this ability,single gyroids are attractive or use inoptics and even in solar energy technology.Photonic engineers are using gyroid shapes

to try to create moreecient solar cells and, by

mimicking nature, may be able to produce moreecient optical devicesas well. According toSaranathan, “Butterfieshave been doing it ormillions o years. We canuse this material in thebutterfies as a templateto manuacture thesesingle gyroids.”

New Horizons

The colour o butterfy wings are not due to pigments but are produced by diraction o light by certain crystalline substances.

The vivid green colour o the scales o the Papilionid butterfy are produced by optically-ecient single gyroid photonic

crystals. [Credit: Yale University]

Letters to the Editor

Publish English and Hindi versions separately

Dream 2047 is a very good monthly newsletter containing good scientic

inormation useul to our students. Thebiography o scientists covered in each issueis certainly an inspiration to many.

I have small suggestion. It would bebetter to publish the English and Hindiversions separately, as many students may not read both the versions. It may also save alot o expenditure.

Prof.V.Sundara Raja ,Solar Energy Laboratory

Dept o Physics, S.V. University,Tirupati-517502

*****

Mendeleev’s paperThe article in Dream 2047-June onMendeleev in Dream 2047 (June 2010) was excellent. It has a lot o very interestingdetails. I hope students will read it and beinspired by Mendeleev's lie. I heard a talk by Pro Edgar Heilbronner in Switzerlandin 1980. The title o his talk was “Sciencethru stamps" in which he mentionedtalked about Ramanujan, and Mendeleev among many others. He mentioned thatMendeleev’s paper was rejected by the Journal o American Chemical Society’s

prestigious journal. The reason given by the reerees was that the paper contains nochemistry and has only tables o elements!

I thought you might be interested toknow this. However, as Pro Heilbronneris no more, it is not possible to know thesource.

Venkatesan

*****

Informative article on Mendeleev

The article Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev creator o the periodic table o elementspublished in Dream 2047 (June 2010) wasa highly scientic and inormative article orstudents, aculties, researchers and personsinterested in science to know the backgroundo periodic classication o elements. I amimmensely beneted with the inormationprovided in the article. I congratulate theauthor Dr.Subodh Mahanti or this article.

Dr.Sarat Chandra DasDepartment o Chemistry

Salipur College, SalipurDt. Cuttack, Orissa-754202

n

25




The sky map is prepared or viewers in Nagpur (21.090 N, 79.090 E). It includes constellations and bright stars. For viewers south o Nagpur, constellationso the southern sky will appear higher up in the sky , and those o the northern sky will appear nearer the northen horizon. Similarly, or viewer north o Nagpur, constellations o northern sky will appear higher up in the sky, and those o the southern sky will appear nearer the southern horizon. The mapcan be used at 10 PM on 1 August, at 9 PM on 15 August and at 8 PM on 30 August.

Tips to use sky map:

(1) Choose a place away romcity lights/street lights.

(2) Hold the sky-mapoverhead with North inthe direction o Polaris.

(3) Use a pencil torch orreading the sky map.

(4) Try to identiy constellationas shown in the map oneby one.

Visibility of Planets! (IST)

Rising Setting In the ZodiacMercury 07:47 19:55 Leo

Venus 09:13 21:06 Leo-Virgo

Mars 09:21 21:16 Virgo

Jupiter 20:50 08:56 Pisces

Saturn 08:50 20:56 Virgo

Uranus 20:40 08:45 Pisces

Neptune 18:53 06:28 Aquarius-Capricornus

!Time shown is subject to vary (± 1 hr) rom place toplace.*Not naked eye object

Sky Event

Date IST Event

01 Venus: 44.9° E

07 10:29 Mercury Elongation: 27.4° E

09 00:15 Venus-Saturn: 2.8° N

11 03:26 Moon Perigee: 357900 km

19 13:45 Venus-Mars: 1.9° N

20 11:29 Venus Elongation: 46° E

20 18:07 Neptune Opposition

25 15:21 Moon Apogee: 406400 km

Arvind C. Ranade

E-mail : [email protected]

Sky Map for August 2010

South

W e s t E

a s t

NorthMoon-Last Quarter New Moon

Moon-First Quarter Full Moon

16 August 24 August

10 August03 August

24




Your OpinionDream 2047 has been inviting your opinion on a specic topic every month. The reader sending the best comments will receive a popularscience book published by VP. Selected comments received will also be published in Dream 2047. The comments should be limited to400 words.

This month’s topic:“Can battery operated vehicles provide a viable alternative to petrol ordiesel driven vehicles in view of the rising cost of fuel?”

Response should contain ull name; postal address with pincode and email ID, i any; and should be accompanied by a recent passportsize photograph. Response may be sent by email ([email protected]) or by post to the address given below. I sent by post,“Response: Dream 2047 August 2010” should be clearly written on the envolope.

Vigyan Prasar A-50, Institutional Area, Sector-62, Noida 201 307 (U.P.)Phone: 91-120-240 4430/35 Fax: 91-120-240 4437Email: [email protected] Website: www.vigyanprasar.gov.in

Ms. Bhawana HuidromC/o. H. N. SINGHType – III/25, IITM Colony Dr. Homi Bhabha Road,NCL Post, PashanPUNE – 411008 (INDIA)Email: [email protected]

The use o compact fuorescent light (CFL) in

homes has skyrocketed during the past ew years though it was developedas an alternative to incandescent bulbs in mid 1980’s. The amount o mercury used in a CFL is very small; maximum mercury content or CFLsis not more than 5 mg up to 25W and 6 mg or higher wattages. But thegrowing market penetration o energy-ecient lighting products, however,has generated increased concern over their disposal ater their useul lieTill date, scientists have not been able to identiy an energy-ecient eco-riendly material to substitute or the mercury which is linked with very high health risks. At the same time, an ordinary oral mercury thermometerused in our day to day lie contains 500 mg to 1000 mg o mercury whichis 100 to 200 times more than a CFL. But nobody talks about its mercury contentCFLs last six to twelve times longer than traditional incandescentlamps, which means ewer resources are consumed by their use andewer lamps need to be disposed o at end o lie. Thus the CFLs benetconsumers and help the environment healthy by reducing the pollutions

including the airborne mercury emitted into the air rom coal-burningpower plants. For this purpose, the proper awareness o the consumersis necessary, along with an optimal solution to the problem o disposingCFLs at end o its lie by the local NGO’s as well as the government.

*****

Debapriya Pal, Std-IX Netaji Vidyapith,KailashaharState-Tripura, District-North

Instead o saving the nature, CFLs are actually harming it. Unless properly disposed o, CFLs should be thought o as toxic technology, when mercury contamination, radio requency radiation, and ultraviolet radiation are

actored in. From cradle to grave, CFLs pose a danger to people’s healthand well being, as well as adding even more toxicity to the environment. Inact, CFLs do not reduce a person’s carbon ootprint and may even increaseit in some situations. To make matters even worse, CFLs emit harmullevels o electromagnetic radiation.

More than 98% o used CFLs end up in landlls each year. That is 675million or the year 2007 according to the National Geographic Society.Each CFL contains about 5 milligrams o elemental mercury as well as other

poisonous gases. When mercury enters water sources, biological processeschange the chemical orm to methyl mercury which is the organic, moretoxic orm ound in sh. Methyl mercury bio-accumulates through theood chain and once in the body can aect developing oetuses, childrenand adult nervous systems.

*****

Pooja S.N (IInd P.U.C.)C/o Suryanarayana S.R.Sampekatte, Madhikai(p)Hosanagar, Karnataka – 577 452CFL stands or Compact Fluorescent lamp and it has been used as energy ecient light source or oces, actories, schools, etc. These CFL contain avery small amount o mercury o about 5 mg but this small amount is ecientto pollute the environment.

Mercury has been considered as a hazardous martial and it is deadly aneurotoxin. When CFL breaks or is discarded, mercury is released into the air.Every product containing mercury should be handled with care. Exposure tomercury, can aect our brain, kidneys, liver and spinal cord and it has its impacton memory, attention, language and other problems. Even 1g o mercury isenough to contaminate a lake and make its sh unt or eating. Compoundslike methyl mercury are the deadliest poison known to lie, which travelsglobally and deposited in ood chain. Mercury passes the placental and blood-brain barrier, passing on rom mother to child and can cause overall reductionin IQ o exposed populations. So in order to prevent mercury pollution it would be better to switch over to other, mercury-ree lamps like LED’s.

*****

Winners o “Your Opinion” contest or May 2010Topic: “Will increased use o CFL increase the risk

o mercury pollution o the environment?”

Your Opinion

23




VP News

V igyan Prasar, organised a workshop on“Linking Science to Society” on 27 June

2010, as a part o 2nd Indian youth ScienceCongress (IYSC 2010). This year IYSC

was organized jointly by M.S.SwaminathanResearch Foundation (MSSRF) and SRMUniversity at SRM University, Chennaiduring 26-28 June 2010.

The Workshop started with thekeynote address by Er Anuj Sihna,Director, Vigyan Prasar and Chairmano the session. He said, application o science and development o technology has demonstrated its eectiveness in severalspheres and has resulted in better quality o lie. India, he said, has the daunting task o eeding 16 per cent o the world’s population

using less than 2 percent o the world’s land.He urged scientists to work on increasingagricultural productivity and optimisingthe resources including water, energy, seeds,etc. Construction technology needsattention to meet aspirations o amilies living in rural and semi-urban areas. Improvements in designshould address issues o ventilationand lighting in addition to shelterrom the elements. Control o communicable and preventabledisease remains a challenge

or public health specialists.Malnutrition compounds problemso the poor resulting in low birth- weight babies, stunted growth,poor immunity, etc. Socially disadvantaged sections o thesociety have additional constraintsand require concerted eorts to jointhe mainstream. Development o problem-solving skills and intuitive

Workshop on Linking Science to Society: A Reportthinking are largely missing in secondary and tertiary education. This is likely toerode the value o the dividend due to a

young population. So these problems needto be addressed so that the youth keep theproblems in their mind beore selecting thearea o research.

Vigyan Prasar had invited expertsrom diverse elds including sciencecommunication, technology communication,agriculture, health, development o socially challenged, and supporting innovation orthis workshop. Around 300 participantsincluding researchers, scientists and collegestudents attended the workshop.

The rst speaker, Dr Arul Alam, Associate Proessor, Science and Technology Communication, Department o MediaScience, Anna University, Chennaipresented his views on “How do media

grapple climate change?” He discussed how media covers science issues and make thenews sensational. He mainly ocussed therole and responsibilities o the journalists/

communicators or improving thereporting on scientic issues.

The second speaker Ms ArpitaChakraborty rom Kolkata, who hasa long experience o working withprisoners’ children, discussed herviews on “Development o socially challenged children”. In her talk sheemphasised how the application o

science and technology can helpin boosting the condence o theprisoners’ children or linking them inmainstream. She also urged the youthto do something or the developmento socially neglected children.

Dr A.D. Karve o AppropriateRural Technology Institute, Punespoke on “Agriculture withoutertiliser”. He suggested that by

A view o participants in the workshop “Linking Science to Society” Visitors at VP exhibition stall

Er Anuj Sinha, Director, VP

delivering the keynote address

Some o the speakers rom(L-R) Ms Arpita Chakraborty,Shri Joseph

Thomas, Er Anuj Sinha, Dr. A.D.Karve, Shri Sentamil Selven

22



D 2047 A 2010 V l 12 N 11

2nd Indian Youth Science Congress (IYSC2010)The 2nd Indian youth Science

Congress (IYSC2010) was organised jointly by M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation(MSSRF) and SRM University Chennai at

SRM University Chennai during 26-28 June2010. The Congress started on 26 June 2010 with the inaugural session. Distinguishedguests rom very diversiy elds like Pro.M.S.Swaminathan, Chairman, MSSRF, Dr T.R Pachamuthu, Chancellor, SRM University,Dr. V.S Hegde, Scientic secretary, ISRO, Dr.K.K, Dwivedi, Head NSCTC, DST, Er AnujSihna, Director, Vigyan Prasar, Dr.K.J.Ramesh,Ministry o Earth Science, Dr. George Johan, Advisor, DBT, Dr. Swapan Datta DDG,ICAR,Dr William Dar DG,ICRISAT Hyderabad, Dr.Lalji Singh CSIR, Bhatnager ellow and ormer

Director, CCMB, Hyderabad, Dr. S.R. Rao, Director DBT, Dr Ajay Parida, Executive Director, MSSRF chennai, Dr.M.Parani, SRMUniversity were present on the dais and all invited speakers address the young youth during this session.

Ater the inaugural, plenary sessions were started. Inthese sessions several lectures like i) Excitements in deenceresearch; ii) Early warning and disaster support initiative; iii)Innovation in science and entrepreneurship; iv) Serving smallholder dry armer; v) New generation o Indian agriculture;vii) Biodiversity is our lie; vii) Mystery o our origins;viii) Modied organisms; ix) Relevance o the Darwinismin a warming planet; x) Taking science to the welare o the community; and xi) Indian science technology andinnovations eco-system were delivered by eminent scientistso India. These lectures were very inormative and presented a

roadmap o uture o Indian science and technology. Ater this several young scientists, researches presented theirpapers through oral and poster sessions on dierent subjectslike Agriculture, Medical science, Biotechnology, InormationTechnology, Space and Communication, Nano-technology,Biodiversity conservation, Traditional knowledge system, etc.

A total o 600 young youth participated in three-day congress and successully provided the orum to discuss, share experiences and expertise on how to tap and utilize science, technology andinnovative or Indian’s development.

applying an organic carbon source to thesoil at regular intervals, one can increase the

availability o mineral nutrients to plants, without applying chemical ertilisers.

Next speaker was Dr Ajay Parida,Executive Director, MSSRF, Chennai. Hespoke on “Challenges in Agriculture” andpresented a road map o uture research inthis area. He urged youth to come in thiseld and with innovations link applicationso science and technology to society ormaking nation sel-sucient in the area o ood.

Shri Sentamil Selven, ScienceCommunicator, Tamilnadu Science Forum,

Madurai presented data on variouscommunicable diseases in India and said thatseveral agencies are working but networkingbetween them is very poor. He also said thatbetter policy is required or spreading theawareness on health.

Last speaker o the workshop wasMr. Joseph Thomas, IITM Research Park,Chennai. He spoke about the movement thathelps enrich rural lives through innovation.Through his movement he has linked around

3,60,000 rural people. He spoke aboutthe dierent technologies on high-energy

biomass cocking stoves, e-jeevika a rural jobportal, weather station, wonder grass andinnovator to entrepreneur.

Vigyan Prasar had also set up anexhibition on theme “Linking science tosociety” along with a book stall during the workshop. This was coordinated by ShriKapil Tripathi, Scientist, Vigyan Prasarand assisted by Shri Chandrapal. Duringthe workshop copies o Dream-2047 weredistributed among the participants.

Inaugural session o 2nd IYSC, 2010

VP News

A view o SRM University, Chennai

dream 2047 august 2010 issue english

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