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Dream 2047, January 2012, Vol. 14 No. 4

Editorial

Editor : Er Anuj Sinha

Address for 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 for the statements and opinions

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

Dream 2047

Articles, excerpts from articles published in Dream 2047 may

be freely reproduced with due acknowledgement/credit, provided

periodicals in which they are reproduced are distributed free.

Published and Printed by Dr. Subodh Mahanti on behalf of 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 Phone: 011-26388830-32 Editor: Er Anuj Sinha

The last 100 weeks have been eventful for Vigyan Prasar and very exciting for the author. Leading a team ofcreative people is always challenging. The mentoring role has often to be compromised to directing in anorganisation that has set milestones. Nurturing each team member to be able to perform at optimum levels ofcreativity was very fulfilling. The task is delicate at the best of times and really an accomplishment at times ofstress.

When I look in a metaphorical rear view mirror at the end of my tenure, I realise that we have travelled a long way in a short time.There have been many new paths covered and many of our pennants are flying high. The weekly news programme on developments in scienceand technology on television, a national festival and competition for science films, workshops on science broadcasting, etc., are very visiblemarkers. In the pipeline over the next few weeks, VP will have more professional presence in exhibitions, an SMS service on science, a secondedition of a national science photography competition, a major platform for deliberating on scientific temper, etc.

The initiative for technology communication is off to a flying start and one is optimistic about its impact in the short and the long runif the various leads are pursued. Major institutions government and non government seem to have been looking forward to this and VPcan play a leadership role as it did for science communication during the last two decades.

Commencing with Womens Day celebration in 2010, the gender focus on science communication is taking a healthy shape. Criticalissues have been identified and strategic partners are on board in this programme. Emphasis on gender development was a weakness in the

institution and the next few years will witness important contribution to their empowerment efforts.There are dusty and barren patches on the route that we moved and I would not like to remember these very long. A multi-pronged

initiative to involve our partners who receive the products of our efforts has been slow in showing results. Feedback processes for patronsof our radio and television programmes, perceptions of members of VIPNET Clubs, aspirations of users of EduSat service, comments ofsubscribers of this magazine/newsletter, etc., need immediate attention.

The publication programme needs both direction and velocity in filling specific gaps in the material that we commission in Hindi andregional languages and in addressing requirements of neoliterates. The distribution and sales mechanism needs innovation and entrepreneurshipto allow easier access to the books, kits, CD ROMs, etc. The support to Community Radio Programmes has still to materialise. Programmesin synergy with other agencies in general and the National Council for Science and Technology Communication in particular are moving infits and starts. The time was opportune when we were constructing our chemistry outreach campaign but the follow through has not beensmooth.

Efforts to raise the functioning of the institution to international level are still to mature. Our national presence has been strengthened

with programmatic collaboration of national science and engineering academies. National level voluntary organisations and importantinstitutions like the Institute of Open Schooling and Science Centre amongst others have partnered for observing Science Day, TechnologyDay, etc.

Adapting to climate change, understanding costs of commercial energy, careers in science teaching and research-counselling and guidance,reinforcing science and math learning and many current areas of concern need the attention of science and technology communicators.Vigyan Prasar is building capacity to contribute meaningfully in this.

I leave behind a lean institution with a dedicated and hard working team ably supported by a hardly visible administrative force. Manyideas are bubbling in the cauldron that is Vigyan Prasar. I look ahead with optimism and confidence that innovative products and services willbe given to the society that will improve its capacity for evidence based decision-making.

My next assignment will be even more challenging and fulfilling. I will share myexperiences with you sometime.

Good Wishes for the New Year!

Vigyan Prasar - a Rear View Imageand a Screen Shot of the Future

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oAnuj SinhaE-mail: [email protected]

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Dream 2047,January 2012, Vol. 14 No. 4

The progress of humankind from StoneAge to Space Age has been possiblebecause of a few hundred key inventionsmade by great inventors. Today we do notknow who invented the first wheel, the firstaxe, the first pulley, and the first wedge in thedistant past. However, we have knowledgeof those later inventors, discoverers andinnovators who contributed to the industrialera of the past 350 years. Some of thembecame legends in their lifetime; someamassed huge wealth and became householdnames; some died without due recognition forthe advances they made; some were ridiculedfor their unconventional ideas; some did not

earn anything from their inventions whichlater made others wealthy; some failed to seethe potential of their own inventions; somevoluntarily decided not to make profit fromtheir inventions; some lost whatever theyearned and died in penury; and some endedtheir lives on realising that nothing morethey could achieve. It is always fascinating toknow about inventors and inventions.

Before we delve into unfathomabledepths of the history of invention and getsome glimpses from the lives and worksof some of the great inventors it is useful

to describe what we mean by invention,innovation and discovery. An inventionis the act or process of inventing, whilean innovation is the act of introducingsomething new. Innovation is far more aboutrefining and adding value than it is aboutpure invention. Invention makes or developssomething that did not exist while discoveryis to find something that has already beenthere.

The entire gamut of the history ofinvention is too vast to capture in a singlearticle. The inventive process started byour pre-historic ancestors is still continuingand will continue in future. The earliestmotivation of human beings to invent wassimply self-preservation. The first humanbeings had nothing to protect them fromthe wind, rain and other forces of nature thatmake the weather. In other words they werenaked to the elements. What is more, theyfound themselves in the midst of ferociousanimals, their natural enemies. It was notpossible for them to fight off their enemies

because human beings were not equippedwith fangs, tusks or claws. Their speed was

not enough to flee from their enemies orpursue their quarries.

Unlike apes, their nearest relative,humans could not escape into the trees. Butin spite of such extreme adverse circumstanceshuman beings have not only survived butthey have also established dominationover all other animals. This they could dobecause their intelligence level was muchhigher and they had exceptional manualdexterity. And perhaps the most importantthing was that human beings could imagine a quality which gave them foresight.

With their exceptional mental abilitieshuman beings could take stock of thingsseen or experienced in their surroundingand arrange them logically. Stretching theirimagination they could visualise the futureuse of what they learned. In the beginningthey made rudimentary weapons usingstones and wood so that they could kill theirnatural enemies from a distance. As timepassed their weapons became more and moresophisticated. They learned to make firewhich helped them to frighten off predators,gave them warmth in the chilling cold, and

made possible to cook food. They used skinsof animals for covering their nakedness. Thiswas made possible because they could skinanimals using stone splinters, and later withmetal implements.

Fire and furs helped human beings tosurvive Ice Ages when many other animalsbecame extinct. Starting from early stoneimplements human beings continued tomake tools and instruments for differentactivities like moving and lifting heavyobjects and breaking those which he couldnot lift; for growing and reaping crops; formaking shelters; for making cloth; for makingbridges; for measuring and calculating; forwriting and printing; for transmitting andrecording of pictures, words and music;for lighting; for transporting goods andpeople; for making medical facilities; forentertaining; and for exploring nature .

It is to be noted that until 17thcentury specialised craftsmen were usuallyresponsible for making practical inventions.On the other hand scientists (or natural

philosophers, as they were called in thosedays) were mainly concerned with theory.However, the search for precision tools andinstruments to meet the practical needsnecessitated collaboration between thecraftsman and the scientist, which led to thebirth of applied science or technology.

A number of interdependentinventions the most important ones

being steam engine, electric power, and thetelephoneled to the Industrial Revolution,beginning in the second half of the 18thcentury. The Industrial Revolution involvedwidespread adoption of industrial methodsand production and opened new horizonsfor inventors.

In the history of human civilisationindividual inventors have been responsiblefor most of the worlds major inventions.However, in recent years most significantinventions are the outcome of the joint effortsof multiple brains organised in research and

development teams. Giant multinationalcorporations are mainly responsible forshaping modern inventions.

The concept of research anddevelopment was pioneered by Thomas AlvaEdison who not only invented new things butalso produced commercial products meantto be used by the common masses. It wasEdison who codified the process of invention,which we call research and development(R&D), and he was able to turn the processof invention from a cottage industry intoan industrial powerhouse. New product

prototypes, as designed by Edison and hiscore team, were made in his legendary WestOrange labs (also called invention factory)where craftsmen, engineers, toolmakers,technicians and highly skilled workersworked together. Edison brought togetherpeople skilled in engineering, physics,chemistry, model-making, metallurgy andmaterials, economics, mathematics, andmarketing. This was the first attempt ofbuilding an interdisciplinary team, which

Inventions and Inventors

An unending journey

Dr. Subodh MahantiE-mail: [email protected]

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later became mainstay of modern businesspractice.

Inventors are generally not boundby conventional wisdom; otherwise theywould not dare to think differently. It isinteresting to note that many inventors madeinventions in fields remote from their own

everyday work. George Eastman, a book-keeper in bank was the inventor of Kodakcolour film. Ladislao Biro (1899-1985), aHungarian artist and a journalist inventedthe first practical ballpoint pen. King CampGillette (1855-1932), who invented a safetyrazor and disposable blade, was a travellingsalesman in bottle-caps. John Boyd Dunlop(1840-1921), a veterinary surgeon, inventedthe pneumatic tyre. Christopher Cockrell(1910-199), an American musician,developed the hovercraft. A patents expertChester Carlson (1906-1968) invented

xerography. It may be noted that althoughCarlson invented xerography in 1938, it was21 years later that the first copier appearedin the market.

There are many inventions whichhappened accidentally. Charles Goodyear(1800-1860), an American inventor, hadbeen trying to make rubber hard enough toresist extremes of temperature and pressureso that it could be moulded. He did notsucceed even after years of trial but in theprocess reduced himself to poverty. But thenone day in 1839, accidentally he dropped a

mixture of rubber and sulphur on a hot stoveand suddenly invented the process which hewas looking for so desperately. The process isknown as vulcanisation. Goodyear patentedthe process of vulcanisation on 15 June 1844.It has been found that the Mesoamericansused stabilised rubber for making balls andother objects as early as 1600 BC. There areother examples of accidental inventions.

Many inventions have come as by-products of research. One of such majorinventions was the X-ray machine. Thediscovery of X-rays emerged

from the investigations ofWilhelm Conrad Rontgen(1845-1923), a Germanphysicist, on the externaleffects from the various type ofvacuum tube equipment whenan electric discharge is passedthrough them. The discovery ofX-rays led to the invention ofthe X-ray machine.

Right time and right place

are often important for an invention to comeinto existence. Hero of Alexandria (c.10-70AD), a Greek mathematician, inventor anda scholar, designed a model of steam-drivenreaction turbine. But a practical steamturbine must turn very fast and that wouldrequire materials that were able to resist

high stresses. There were no such materialsavailable at the time of Hero of Alexandria.In writings of Roger Bacon (c.1214-1294),an English philosopher and scientist, we findthe mention of the power-driven ship androad vehicle, the aeroplane, the helicopter andminiaturised servo mechanism. But no suchmachines could have been built at the timeBacon lived. These inventions came muchlater, after other inventions such as suitablematerials, power sources and precision toolswere available. Mere ideas and methods arenot enough for making an invention to

happen. The helicopter designmade by Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519), Italian painter,sculptor, architect, engineer, andscientist, was aerodynamicallysound, but it could not haveflown as there was no suitablepower source available.

Some inventors oftenfailed to appreciate the futurepossibilities of inventions otherthan their own. James Wattopposed the British inventor

and mining engineer Richard Trevithicks(1771-1833) high-pressure steam engine.Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) did notsee any future for the television and he toldthe same to John Logie Baird (1888-1946).Even Baird did not believe that cathode-raytube had any future, but it proved to be thecornerstone of television development.

After looking at various aspects ofinventions we shall take snapshots of someinventors.

Johann Gutenberg (c.1397-1468),German goldsmith, introduced

a complete book printingsystem with movable type. Todevelop the system Gutenbergnot only adapted the existingtechnologies but also madeground-breaking inventions ofhis own. He devised the handmould which for the first timemade possible the rapid creationof metal movable type in largequantities. Gutenberg started

producing printed books around 1450. Asingle Gutenberg-style printing press couldproduce 3,600 pages per day, compared to40 by hand-printing, and a few by hand-copying. Gutenbergs first major productionwas a 1,282-page Bible, which later cameto be known as the Gutenberg Bible. He

produced only 300 copies and today only 48copies of Gutenberg Bible are in existence.In 1999, a single page of Gutenberg Biblewas sold for 26,000 US dollars. Gutenbergsinvention ushered in a revolution in bookprinting, but Gutenberg did not earn muchfrom his invention. In fact Gutenberg wasin debt to one of his partners Johan Fust,who later took over the printing presses.Gutenberg died penniless.

James Watt(1736-1819) was a Scottishinventor and engineer, who improved thesteam engine, making it a commercial

success. At the age of 17 Wattleft his native place Greenockfor Glasgow to becomean apprentice instrumentmaker. Later he was given anopportunity to set up a smallworkshop within the GlasgowUniversity campus. Four yearsafter opening his workshop,Watt began experimenting withsteam engine. His first modeldid not work satisfactorily. Buthe continued to do experiments

and also started reading everything writtenabout it. Glasgow University had a modelof Newcomen engine, but it had been sentto London for repairs. Watt persuaded theUniversity to bring it back and repaired itin 1763. Its efficiency was very poor. Seeingthe defects in the working of the Newcomenengine, he hit upon the expedient of aseparate condenser. This idea came to himsuddenly when he was walking home from hisworkplace. Later he recalled the incident: Ihad not walked further than the Golf Housewhen the whole thing was arranged in my

mind: the waste of heat could be avoided bykeeping the boiler (i.e. the engine cylinder) atsteam heat, and condensing the steam insidea separate cylinder. This was probably thegreatest single improvement ever made tothe reciprocating steam engine, enablingits efficiency to be increased to about threetimes that of the old atmospheric engines.In 1776, the first engines developed by Wattwere installed and working in commercialenterprises. He made several improvements


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Johann Gutenberg

James Watt

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and modifications to the steamengine.

Charles Babbage (1791-1871), English mathematician,is regarded by many as theFather of computing forhis contributions to the basic

design of the computer throughhis Analytical machine, whichcould be programmed bypunched cards to performdifferent computations. Hisidea was too ambitious to berealised by mechanical devices available atthe time. The idea can now be seen to bethe essential germ of todays electroniccomputers. His other inventions includedthe cowcatcher, dynamometer, standardrailroad gauge, occulting lightsfor lighthouses, heliograph,

and ophthalmoscope. Babbageshared his eras enthusiasm forindustry.

Samuel Morse (1791-1872), US inventor, inventedthe telegraph. On one of hisreturn voyages from Englandto USA in 1832, Morseencountered Charles ThomasJackson of Boston who was well-versed with electro-magnetism.Witnessing various demonstrations withJacksons electromagnet Morse was inspired

to develop the concept of a single-wiretelegraph. He would call it electric telegraph.He was devising his telegraph code evenbefore the ship docked. It has been reportedthat while disembarking at New York, Morsetold the captain of the ship: If you shouldone day hear about a new world-wondercalled the electric telegraph, remember thediscovery was made on board your ship.He got totally absorbed with the idea andsoon developed a crude telegraph which hefurther improved. The Morse code, originallycalled the Morse alphabet, was

evolved by him for use with thetelegraph.

Henry Bessemer (1813-1898), English metallurgist andinventor, is mostly known forthe process named after him forthe manufacture of steel. YoungBessemer used to enjoy beingin his fathers foundry. He leftschool and devoted to learningthe trade from his father. Later


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he decided to make a versionof iron (steel) which is muchstronger than cast iron. Bessemerpatented his process in 1856.He first described the process ina talk titled The manufactureof iron without

fuel. to ameetingof the BritishAssociation on 24August 1856. Theprocess is no longercommercially used.

However, at the time of itsinvention it was of enormousindustrial importance because itlowered the cost of productionof steel, leading to steel being

widely substitutedfor other substances which

were inferior but cheaper.Commenting on how hesucceeded in inventing thesteel-making process Bessemercommented: I had an immenseadvantage over many othersdealing with the probleminasmuch as I had no fixed ideasderived from long establishedpractice to control and biasin my mind, and

did not suffer from the generalbelief that whatever is, is right.

Among Bessemers numerousother inventions were movabledies for embossed stamps anda screw extruder for moreefficiently extracting sugar fromsugar cane. He held at least 129patents.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel(1833-1896) was a Swedishchemist, engineer, innovator,armaments manufacturer and the inventorof dynamite. He used his enormous fortune

to institute the Nobel Prizes.

Since 1901, the prize hashonoured men and women foroutstanding achievements inphysics, chemistry, medicine,literature, and for work in peace.Nobel went with his family in1842 to St. Petersburg, where hisfather started a torpedo works.At St. Petersburg he studiedchemistry. After returning toSweden with his father after the

bankruptcy of their family business, Alfreddevoted himself to the study of explosives,and especially to the safe manufacture anduse of nitroglycerine. Nobel found thatwhen nitroglycerine was incorporated inan absorbent inert substance like kieselguhr

(diatomaceous earth) it became

safer and more convenient tohandle, and he patented thismixture in 1867 as dynamite.He also invented smokelessgunpowder and gelignite orblasting gelatin.

John Dunlop (1840-1921)was a Scottish veterinarysurgeon who ended up ininventing the first pneumatictyre. In 1887, Dunlop boughta tricycle for his son John.

The tricycle was fitted with solid rubber

tyres. John complained to his father thatthe tricycle produced too much jerk whenhe rode along the unevenly paved streets.Dunlop decided to look into the matter andin 1888 he was able to construct tyres withrubber air-tubes which could pass over theroughest surfaces smoothly. He patented hisinvention. In 1890, a Belfast firm, which latergrew into the Dunlop Rubber Company,commercially produced the tyre developed

by Dunlop. The pneumatictyre not only made cyclingpopular but also contributed to

the growth of the automobileindustry. It may be noted thatRobert William Thomson, aScottish engineer, had takenout a patent for pneumatic tyrein 1846. However, Dunlophad no knowledge of it andThomson did not develophis invention. So it was notdifficult for Dunlop Company

to establish their rights. Later they alsodeveloped and patented other improvementssuch as rims and valves.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Scottish-born US inventor, inventedthe telephone. With both his mother andwife deaf, he studied hereditary deafness inorder to better understand the affliction,leading him to a career as a teacher of thedeaf. Bell was a Professor of Physiology atBoston University in USA. Bell demonstratedhis invention to the public in 1876 at theCentennial Exposition in Philadelphia,which was organised to mark the centenary of

Charles Babbage

Samuel Morse

Henry Bessemer

Alfred Bernhard Nobel

John Dunlop

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the Americas Declaration of Independence.For the demonstration the transmitter waskept 500 feet (about 150 metres) away fromthe receiver. The Brazilian Emperor Pedro IIwho was on a state visit to America took partin the demonstration. When the Emperorheard a quotation coming over the wire, he

jumped up and shouted I hear! I hear! Afterhis retirement Bell settled in an island homein Nova Scotia. It has been reported that heonce remarked: I have become so detachedfrom the telephone that I often wonder if Ireally invented it or was it someone else Ihad read about? Bell is also credited with theinvention of the metal detector in 1881. Hisother inventions included the metal jacketthat assists in breathing, the audiometer todetect minor hearing problems, and a devicethat locates icebergs.

George Eastman (1854-1932), is

known for his invention ofthe Kodak camera. While onholiday on Mackinac Island,Michigan, in 1877 Eastmandecided to take some souvenirphotographs but he wasirritated by the elaborate andlengthy preliminaries involvedin taking photographs. Inthose days the photographicemulsion had to be made andapplied to glass photographicplates at the time of taking

photograph, which was quite cumbersome.Eastman decided to improve the procedure,to make photography simple for an amateurlike himself. In 1885 he developed a rollfilm a roll of paper coated with long-lasting emulsion. Three years later Eastmancame up with a hand-held camera, which hecalled Kodak. For marketing the product,the slogan was You press the button wedo the rest. Later Eastman replaced thepaper film with celluloid. In 1924, celluloidwas replaced by much less inflammablecellulose acetate. Eastman

became a multi-millionaire. Hewas a large-hearted businessmanand he started profit sharing,medical benefits, life insuranceand pensions for his employees.He donated over 100 millionUS dollars to various medicaland educational institutions.In 1932, Eastman committedsuicide when he realised therewas nothing more that he could

achieve.Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931),

US inventor and physicist, is one of thegreatest innovative minds of all time. Heis credited with holding 1,093 US patents,a record number for any single person,which still holds. His many inventions

included incandescent electric light bulb,phonograph, motion picture projector,automatic multiplex telegraph,carbon telephone transmitter,and alkaline storage battery.When Edison was born therewas no electric light, but by thetime he died entire cities werelit by electricity. Throughouthis life he tried to inventproducts that everyone coulduse. His inventions deeplyaffected the shaping of modern

society. As the Timemagazine wrote, Hisinventions not onlyreshaped modernity but alsopromised a future bounded onlyby creativity.

Rudolf Christian CarlDiesel (1858-1913), Germaninventor and mechanical engineer,is known for his invention of thediesel engine. It has been reportedthat while he was a student at theMunich Technical University

he came to learn that only 10percent of the heat containedin the fuel of an engine couldbe utilised. It was shocking tohim. He decided to build anengine in which such profligacywould not occur. In 1892,Diesel obtained a patent for hisuniversal economical engine. Ittook him another five years toperfect it. He sold the rights forhis engine throughout the world.

It has been reported

that a manufacturerin USA alone paid him 1million US dollars. After helost his fortune in rash propertydeals and speculations, Dieselsuffered a nervous breakdownand became highly depressedand committed suicide.

Robert HutchingsGoddard (1882-1945), USphysicist, rocket engineer and

inventor was a pioneer of controlled, liquid-fuelled rocketry. He became interested inspace when he read H.G. Wells sciencefiction classics. At the time he was 16 yearsold. He developed a fascination with flight,first with kites and then with balloons. In1919, the Smithsonian Institution published

Goddards groundbreaking work,A Method ofReaching Extreme Altitudes. The publicationdescribed Goddardsmathematical theories ofrocket flight, his researchin solid-fuel and liquid-fuelrockets, and the possibilitieshe saw of exploring the Earthand beyond. It is regarded asone of the pioneering worksof the science of rocketry, andis believed to have influencedthe work of German pioneers

Hermann Oberth and Wernervon Braun. The last sectionGoddards publication was

titled Calculation of minimum massrequired to raise one pound to an infinitealtitude. In this section Goddard speculatedthat one day it would be possible to send arocket to the Moon. In those days the ideaof space flight was considered crazy andridiculous not only by common people butalso by scientists and engineers.The New YorkTimes ridiculed Goddards proposal. It evensaid that Goddard lacked the knowledge of a

high school student. Fortynineyears later, on 17 July 1969,the day after the launch ofApollo 11, The New York Timesregretted the error.

Goddard launched thefirst liquid-fuelled rocket on16 March 1926 in Auburn,Massachusetts. The rocket,which was dubbed Nell,rose just 41 feet (about 12.5metres) during a 2.5-secondflight that ended in a cabbage

field, but it was an importantdemonstration that liquid-fuel propellantswere possible. From 1930 to 1935 helaunched rockets that attained speeds ofup to 885 km/hour. Though his work inthe field was revolutionary, he was oftenridiculed for his theories. He received littlerecognition during his own lifetime, butwould eventually come to be called one of

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George Eastman

Thomas Alva Edison

Rudolf ChristianCarl Diesel

Robert HutchingsGoddard

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Forty years after the publication of TheSussex Manifesto on science, technologyand development, colleagues at SussexUniversity in the UK have teamed up withpartners from India and around the worldto explore how science, technology andinnovation might better address todaysurgent sustainability and developmentchallenges. On behalf of the STEPS CentreAdrian Ely outlines the objectives of thisinitiative and the activities involved, and sets

out the messages put forward in the NewManifesto.

The Sussex ManifestoAt the tail end of the 1960s the UnitedNations asked for recommendations onscience and technology for developmentfrom The Sussex Group - a team led byProf Hans Singer and drawn from theInstitute of Development Studies and SPRU(then the Science Policy Research Unit), atthe University of Sussex, UK. The reportthat they produced was intended as the

introductory chapter to the UN World Planof Action on Science and Technology forDevelopment in the Second DevelopmentDecade (the 1970s). In the event, theanalysis and recommendations presentedin The Sussex Manifesto appeared radicalto the scientific and policy establishment atthe time, containing challenging budgetarytargets for all UN Member States, and atthe same time arguing that an increase inthe scale of S&T activity was inadequate onits own and was largely irrelevant withoutappropriate institutional reforms. The report

was rejected as an introductory chapter, anddiscussions within the UN earned the draftthe title of The Sussex Manifesto.

A New Manifesto fo ra different worldEventually the manifesto was publishedas an annexe to a UN advisory committeereport in 1970, and went on to raiseawareness of science and technology in UNcircles and beyond. In India, it influenced

the governments approach to science andtechnology in advance of the establishment ofthe Department of Science and Technology,whilst elsewhere it impacted on the designof development institutions such as theCanadian IDRC and was used in universitycourses in both the North and the South.Looking back at its recommendations, manyare as relevant today as ever; however, thefour intervening decades have presented theworld with a new series of challenges.

With this in mind, the Sussex-based STEPS (Social, Technology andEnvironmental Pathways to Sustainability)Centre, which draws its membership fromthe same institutions as the Sussex Group,has been working on a new manifesto inassociation with one of the authors of theoriginal, Professor Geoff Oldham. TheNew Manifesto is a product of the STEPSCentre. However, rather than focussingsolely on a single manifesto document, theSTEPS Centre recognises that centres ofscience, technology and innovation have

shifted, and that notions of developmentand sustainability mean different thingsin different places. Whilst recognisingthat innovation policies and solutions tosustainability and development challengesmust emerge from diverse contexts ratherthan being advocated from outside,the STEPS Centres New Manifestonevertheless puts forward some generalrecommendations, linked to a new politicalagenda for innovation.

A 3D Agenda for innovation

policies the NewManifestos MessageFrom early on in its conception, the STEPSManifesto project advocated an increasedfocus (in academic and political discussionsaround innovation) on what it termed the3 Ds the directions in which innovationproceeds (rather than merely the rate), thedistribution of the costs, benefits and risksassociated with these innovations and themaintenance, and enhancement of a diversity

of innovation pathways across differentsocial, technological and environmentalcontexts. The New Manifesto proposes fivebroad areas of recommendation, targetedto different dimensions and hence actors ininnovation systems. Rather than universallyapplicable solutions, these are intendedto catalyse and provoke specific concreteactions in different places and to support

ongoing activities that already embody the3D agenda.

The first area proposes that the settingof agendas for science, technology andinnovation be informed by an explicitlypolitical consideration of innovationdirection, distribution and diversity, withinstitutional architectures that enableinclusive, democratic debate. Withincountries and at the international level, werecommend that governments establish andsupport networked fora that allow diversestakeholders and the public to scrutinise

investments in science, technology andinnovation and to influence their futuredirections.

The second area urges that thefunding of science, technology andinnovation whether from public, privateor philanthropic sources be geared muchmore strongly to the challenges of povertyalleviation, social justice and environmentalsustainability. We recommend incentivesand institutional mechanisms that advancethese objectives among funding agencies andthe private sector.

Our third area argues that capacitybuilding for science, technology andinnovation must move beyond a focuson elite science and link more directly todiverse social and environmental needs.We therefore urge an extension of capacity-building towards what we term bridgingprofessionals who are able to link technicalexpertise with particular social, ecologicaland economic contexts.

Our fourth area focuses on organising

Innovation, Sustainability, Development A New Manifesto

(A special feature to mark the UN

International Year of Forestry - 2011) Adrian ElyE-mail: [email protected]

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for 3D innovation. We recommend strategicinvestments in organisations, networks andmovements to link public, private and civilsociety innovation actors. This will helppolicy and investment to extend its focusfrom basic science, to emphasise otheraspects of the innovation system, including

engineering, design, science services, andsocial entrepreneurship.Finally, we argue that increased

accountability and full transparency mustbe at the centre of democratised innovationsystems. We recommend new indicators,metrics, and reporting procedures areapplied, adopting the priorities of povertyalleviation, social justice, and environmentalsustainability as the basis for evaluatinginnovation policies.

More than a Manifesto

The New Manifestos agenda of openingup and encouraging debates about science,technology and innovation played animportant part of the wider project. Over thepast three years, we have experimented witha number of approaches that try to highlightdiverse viewpoints from around the globe, andthe wider project, therefore, consists of muchmore than a manifesto. The New Manifestoproject website http://anewmanifesto.orghosts multimedia material from a numberof the projects activities. To initiate theproject the STEPS Centre ran a dedicated

seminar series at Sussex, and in parallelcommissioned a series of background paperseither providing historical analyses engagingwith contemporary discussions aroundinnovation, sustainability and development

or putting forward recommendations inspecific domains of food and agriculture,health, water and energy.

In order to chart the history ofchanging ideas in the field of science andtechnology for development, the STEPSCentre also used open-source softwaredeveloped at MIT to create a wiki-timeline

http://anewmanifesto.org/section/timelineto which colleagues both from within andoutside the STEPS Centre were invitedto contribute accounts of documents andevents that they felt played an important rolein shifting thinking in this area.

Drawing on some of these inputs, adraft manifesto was circulated and formed thebasis of discussion at the STEPS Symposiumin September 2009. An amended draft wasthen circulated to convenors of a series of

international roundtables. A total of 20roundtables were held, most hosted bypartner organisations and not all involving arepresentative of the STEPS Centre.

In India, the Regional Office forCentral and South Asia of TWAS TheAcademy of Sciences for the Developing

World hosted a roundtable as part ofits gathering Energy, Climate andDevelopment: A Meeting of ConcernedYoung Scientists. Individual youngscientists were also given the opportunity tooutline their personal viewpoints to camera.Videos from these appear on the STEPSCentres YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/STEPSCentre#grid/user/132347B3102AE630.

Another event where Indianacademics and civil society representativesprovide constructive criticism to the draft

was held in Delhi. The video and photosof this event are linked out from the STEPSCentres site at http://anewmanifesto.org/multimedia/video-delhi-roundtable/.

Finally, Marathmoli (an Indian womensempowerment group based in Maharashtra)hosted village-level roundtables in two of theareas where they work more informationat http://anewmanifesto.org/round-table-events/marathmoli-roundtables-reports/.

The discussions at these roundtablesproduced reports, video and audio materials(including individual vox pops) and also,

in some cases, manifestos (for example,Marathmolis manifesto on Science andTechnology and Indian Women). Many ofthese appear in a multimedia manifesto thataims to bring the various perspectives anddebates to life http://www.anewmanifesto.org/manifesto_2010/.

Other Manifestos on Science,Technology and InnovationAlongside the New Manifesto project, anumber of other institutions ran independentprocesses to draw up their own manifestos

on science, technology and innovation.The first SET-DEV project (Science,Ethics and Technological Responsibility inDeveloping Countries) supported two othermanifestos. The first was put together by theAfrican Technology Policy Studies (ATPS)Network, which draws together researchers,policy makers, civil society and private sectoractors from across the continent. Originallyenvisaged as a manifesto for Kenya, theexercise has now expanded across Africa,

drawing on inputs from the networks 23national chapters.

The second SET-DEV manifesto wasproduced by the Indian Knowledge in CivilSociety network, and takes its inspirationfrom Gandhis Hind Swaraj (self-rule)manifesto of 1909. Entitled Knowledge

Swaraj: An Indian Manifesto on Science andTechnology, it focuses on the diversity ofIndian knowledge and argues that a swarajof science and technology will yield justice,sustainability and plurality.

Moving forwardIt is clear that a vigorous new politics ofinnovation is needed to bring about thechanges advocated in the New Manifesto at local, national, and global levels. Withnetworks of partners, the STEPS Centreis taking forward the messages from its

manifesto in an effort to catalyse this newpolitics and to effect long-term changeat multiple levels. At the same time, theSTEPS Centre recognises the importance ofdiverse contributions including those of theother manifestos outlined above.

Adrian Ely was honoured to be invitedto give a presentation on the New Manifestoat Vigyan Prasar, Noida on 1 June 2011. Inaddition, the STEPS Centre co-organisedan international seminar on innovation,sustainability and development at theNational Institute of Science, Technology

and Development Studies (NISTADS) on28-30 June 2011 (videos available at http://anewmanifesto.org/indian-subcontinent/delhi-june-2011-seminar-on-innovation-sustainability-and-development/). Throughmaking the case described above for theapplication of science and technology tosustainability and development goals, theSTEPS Centre looks forward to workingwith its partners in India and elsewhere tofurthering the Manifestos goals and aims aims which are very much in line withthose of this publication and of many of its

readers.[Further details on Innovation,

Sustainability, Development: A NewManifesto are available at http://anewmanifesto.org. For copies of the NewManifesto (multimedia version), furtherinformation on the project or the STEPSCentre, please contact Harriet Dudley [email protected] in the first instance.]

International Year of Forests 2011

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of communication likecartoons?

US: It is always agood idea to have moreinteraction among peoplefrom diverse fields sinceit helps in spreading

knowledge about theirrespective areas. From acartoonists perspective, it iseven more important sinceour work involves observingpeople as well as imbibing fresh ideas thatcan be conveyed through our cartoons. Forinstance, at my recent Cartoon Chemistryexhibition that the National Science Centreso kindly organised, I got a chance tointeract with many scientists that gaveme insights into things I didnt knowabout. This enabled me to put more

thought into my cartoons.NK:How was the interaction withstudents and teachers in this exhibition?

US: It was a very fruitful andinteresting interaction. I learnt manythings while talking to students andteachers and I think they also enjoyedmy cartoons.

NK: What is required for one tobecome a science cartoonist?

US:A keen sense of observation isvery important and so is the ability to getacross the message in a humorous way.

NK:How does a cartoonist get ideas,especially for science cartoons?

US: One should keep eyes andears open. You never know when a straythought, a headline in a newspaper, or even aconversation can trigger an idea. For sciencecartoons, it is importantto be aware of important,contemporary issues inscience, for which constantreading is recommended.

NK: What is moreimportant to you in a science

cartoon style or idea?US: Both, actually.

Style defines a cartoonist andthe forcefulness of the ideamakes his cartoon work.

NK: How muchrevision/editing do you doin you work?

US: Once the basicidea is in place, there is notmuch editing thereafter. The

cartoon just takes shapewithin minutes.

NK: What kinds ofpreparations (workshops,etc.) are required topromote science cartoon inschools and colleges? Are

you involved in workshopson science cartoon withschools or colleges?

US: I regularlyconduct workshops in

schools and colleges. These are interactiveworkshops where both students and theirteachers take part. I teach them how to drawcartoons in an easy manner with the help ofcomputers.

NK: Concept cartoons for science

subjects have been introduced in schools tohelp students to think through the scientificideas associated with a question. How canstudents feel more confident to put forwardtheir own ideas across by making conceptcartoons?

US: The key ispractice. They should notget disheartened if they donot get the drawings rightin the first place, but keep atit. Also, they should thinkthrough their concept and

keep on refining it, till theyget a perfect idea which willappeal to all.

NK: Lets talk aboutyour process do youwrite a script or make upthe drawing as you go forscience cartoons?

US: I prefer to drawthe cartoon with the conceptin place. In this way, there is

greater clarity.NK:What tools do you use?US: I use the computer to make

my cartoons. All my cartoons are digitallydrawn.

NK: Do you read a lot of sciencebooks to get ideas for science cartoons or is

making science cartoon you passion?US: I usually read newspapers

and magazines and try to keep myselfabreast of new scientific and technologicaldevelopments.

NK: What are your suggestions toestablish cartoons vis--vis science cartoonsas a professional art form which can beplaced in Indian and international market?

US:I think cartoons are a bit under-rated in our country and not consideredan art form, even though they appealto people cutting across age and class

barriers. A lot more needs to be done toelevate cartooning further. With sciencecartoons, hopefully more students willtake to this medium and help raise itsprofile.

NK:If our readers want to connectwith you how can they?

US: They can email me [email protected] or visitmy Facebook page at facebook.com/udayshankar and http://cartoonofudayshankar.blogspot.com/

NK: Can you give some advice to

students and young generation who areinterested in science cartooning?

US: Think through the concept youwant to portray, decide how you want tomake it interesting and funny and then goahead and do it. Dont be disheartened ifyou dont get it right the first time. You willimprove if you keep at it. Remember, thebiggest joy for a cartoonist is to see someonesmile on seeing his creation.

Coordinator of Science Cartoon exhibition Mr DineshMalik, Education Officer, National Science Center (left)

INTERVIEW

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Prevention and long-term control is the key to preventing asthmaattacks. Treatment usually involves learning to recognise yourtriggers and taking steps to avoid them, and tracking your breathingto make sure your daily asthma medications are keeping symptomsunder control. In case of an asthma flare-up, you may need to use aquick-relief inhaler.

Lifestyle and home remediesAlthough many people with asthma rely on medications to prevent

and relieve symptoms, you can do several things on your own tomaintain your health and lessen the possibility of asthma attacks.

Stay away fromasthma triggersTaking steps to reduce your exposureto things that trigger asthmasymptoms is a key part of asthmacontrol. Here are some things thatmay help:

Decontaminate your dcorMinimise dust that may worsen

nighttime symptoms by replacingcertain items in your bedroom.Encase pillows, mattresses and bedsin dust-proof covers.

Remove carpeting and installhardwood or linoleum flooring.

Use washable curtains and blinds.Keep your home cleanClean your home regularly. If youre likely to stir up dust, wear

a mask or have someone else do the cleaning.

Keep the pollens outIf you are allergic to airborne pollens and moulds, use air-conditioning

at home, at work and in your car. Keep doors and windows closedto limit exposure to airborne pollens and moulds. Air conditioningreduces the amount of airborne pollen from trees, grasses and weedsthat find its way indoor. It also lowers indoor humidity and reducesyour exposure to dust mites.

Keep the indoor air cleanMake sure that you change or clean filters in your air conditionerand air coolers frequently.

If you use a humidifier, change the water daily.Maintain optimal humidity

If you live in a damp climate, talk to your doctor about usinga dehumidifier.

Protect yourself from coldIf your asthma is worsened by cold, dry air, wearing a facemask canhelp.

Eliminate pet danderIf you are allergic to dander, remove pets with fur such as dogs and

cats and those with feathers such as pigeons and parrots from yourhome and avoid contact with other peoples pets. Avoid buying

clothing, furniture or rugs made fromanimal hair.

If you cannot do withoutpets, at least have them regularlybathed or groomed. This would helpreduce the amount of dander in yoursurroundings.

Keep away from smokeAvoid all types of smoke, even smokefrom a fireplace or burning leaves.

Smoke irritates the eyes, nose andbronchial tubes. If you have asthma,you should not smoke and peopleshould never smoke in your presence.

Avoid certain pi llsRead labels carefully. If sensitive to aspirin, avoid other medicationstermed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (ibuprofen, naproxenand piroxicam).

Keep a check on heartburnKeep a good control over heartburn and gastro oesophageal refluxdisease (GERD). It is possible that the acid reflux that causes

heartburn may damage lung airways and worsen asthma symptoms.If you have frequent or constant heartburn, talk to your

doctor about treatment options. You may need treatment for GERDbefore your asthma symptoms improve. Proton pump inhibitors likePantoprozole 40 mg taken once daily at least half an hour before youeat can easily check gastro oesophageal reflux disease.

Stay healthyTaking care of yourself and treating other conditions linked toasthma will help keep your symptoms under control. A few thingsyou can do include:

Winning Wayswith Asthma

Dr Yatish Agarwale-mail: [email protected]

The preservation of health is a duty.Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

Herbert Spencer

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Be activeYears ago if you had asthma, doctors told you not to exercise. Nowthey believe well-planned regular workouts are beneficial, especiallyif you have mild to moderate disease. If you are fit, your heart andlungs dont have to work as hard to expel air. However, rememberthat vigorous exercise can trigger an asthmatic attack, and be sure todiscuss the exercise programme with your doctor before you begin.

Adhere to some basic guidelines when you do physical work-outs:

Medicate frst

Use your inhaled short-acting beta agonist 15 to 60 minutes beforeexercise.

Start slowlyFive to 10 minutes of warm-up exercises may relax your chest musclesand widen your airways to ease breathing. Work up to your desiredpace gradually.

Choose the type of exercise wisely

Non-stop long-distance activities such as running and cold-weatheractivities such as skiing most often cause wheezing.

Exercise that requires short bursts of energy, such as walking,golf and leisure bicycling, may be better tolerated. Having asthmadoesnt mean you have to be less active.

Know when not to exerciseAvoid exercise when you have a viral infection, when the pollencount is more than 100 or in very cold or extremely hot and humidconditions.

Avoid exposure to coldKeep in mind that exercising in cold weather may trigger asthma

symptoms. If you do exercise in cold temperatures, wear a facemaskto warm the air you breathe.

Maintain a healthy weightBeing overweight can worsen asthma symptoms, and it puts you athigher risk of other health problems.

Eat f ruits and vegetablesEating plenty of fruits and vegetables mayincrease lung function and reduce asthmasymptoms. These foods are rich in protectivenutrientsantioxidantsthat boost theimmune system.

Educate yourself about asthmaThe more you know, the easier it is tocontrol.

Rev up your breathing apparatusYou could rev up your breathing apparatus with yogic pranayama ordeep and relaxed breathing exercises.

At first, practice lying on your back while wearing clothingthat is loose around your waist and abdomen. Once you have learnedthis position, practice while sitting and then while standing.

Lie on your back on a bed. Place your feet slightly apart. Rest one hand comfortably on

your abdomen near your navel. Place the other hand on yourchest.

Inhale through your nose. Exhale through your mouth. Concentrate on your breathing for a few minutes and become

aware of which hand is rising and falling with each breath.

Gently exhale most of the air in your lungs. Inhale while slowly counting to four. As you inhale gently,

slightly extend your abdomen, causing it to rise about one inch(2.5 cm). You should be able to feel the movement with yourhand. Do not pull your shoulders up or move your chest.

As you breathe in, imagine the warm air flowing into all partsof your body.

Pause for a second after inhaling. Slowly exhale to a count of four. While you are exhaling, your

abdomen will slowly fall. As air flows out, imagine that tension also is flowing out. Pause for 1 second after exhaling. If it is difficult to inhale and exhale to a count of four, shorten

the count slightly and later work up to four. If you feel light-headed, slow your breathing or breathe less deeply. Repeatthe slow inhaling, pausing, slow exhaling and pausing 5 to 10times. Exhale. Inhale slowly: 1, 2, 3, 4. Pause. Exhale slowly:1, 2, 3, 4. Pause. Inhale: 1, 2, 3, 4. Pause. Exhale: 1, 2, 3, 4.Pause. Continue on your own.

If its difficult to make your breathing regular, take a slightlydeeper breath, hold it for a second or two and then let it outslowly through pursed lips for about 10 seconds. Repeat thisonce or twice and return to the routine procedure.

Pills and MedicationsThe right medications for you depend on a number of things,

including your age, your symptoms, your asthma triggers and whatseems to work best to keep your asthma under control.

Preventive, long-term control medications reduce theinflammation in your airways that leads to symptoms. Quick-relief inhalers (bronchodilators) quickly open swollen airways that

are limiting breathing. For some people,medications to treat specific allergies arealso needed.

Take all the medications yourdoctor has prescribed, even if you are notexperiencing any symptoms. However, donot also go overboard. Remember, takingmore than the prescribed amount of

medications can be dangerous.These medications can be taken

using an inhaler, or they may come inliquid, capsule or tablet form.

Long-term control medicationsThese medications act as preventers. They

reduce the inflammation in your airways and also help diminishthe production of mucus. The result is a reduction of the spasms inyour breathing passages. Take the daily dose of these medications asprescribed to prevent asthma attacks from occurring. In most cases,

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these medications need to be takenevery day. Types of long-term controlmedications include:

Inhaled corticosteroidsThese medications include fluticasone,budesonide, mometasone, flunisolide,

beclomethasone, and others. They arethe most commonly prescribed typeof long-term asthma medication. Youmay need to use these medications forseveral days to weeks before they reachtheir maximum benefit. Unlike oralcorticosteroids, these corticosteroidmedications have a relatively low riskof side effects and are generally safe forlong-term use.

Leukotriene modifers

These oral medications include montelukast, zafirlukast and zileuton.

They help prevent asthma symptoms for up to 24 hours. In rarecases, these medications have been linked to psychological reactionssuch as agitation, aggression, hallucinations, depression and suicidalthinking. Seek medical advice right away for any unusual reaction.

Long-acting beta agonists (LABAs)These inhaled medications include salmeterol and formoterol.LABAs open the airways and reduce inflammation. However, theyvebeen linked to severe asthma attacks. LABAs should be taken onlyin combination with an inhaled corticosteroid.

Combination medicationsCombination inhalers such as fluticasone and salmeterol and

budesonide and formoterol also work well. These medicationscontain a LABA along with a corticosteroid. Like other LABAmedications, these medications may increase your risk of having asevere asthma attack.

TheophyllineTheophylline is a daily bronchodilator pill that helps keep theairways open. It relaxes the muscles around the airways to makebreathing easier.

Quick-relief medicationsThese medications act as relievers. They are taken once you areexperiencing an asthma attack. Relievers help open narrow airways

to allow you to breathe more easily during an attack. Quick-reliefmedications are used as needed for rapid, short-term symptomrelief during an asthma attack or before exercise if your doctorrecommends it. Types of quick-relief medications include:

Short-acting beta agonistsThese inhaled, quick-relief bronchodilators can rapidly easesymptoms during an asthma attack. They include albuterol,levalbuterol and pirbuterol. These medications act within minutes,and effects last several hours.

IpratropiumYour doctor might prescribe this inhaledmedication for immediate relief of yoursymptoms. Like other bronchodilators,ipratropium relaxes the airways, makingit easier to breathe. Ipratropium ismostly used for emphysema and

chronic bronchitis, but it is sometimesused to treat asthma attacks.

Oral and in travenouscorticosteroidsThese medications relieve airwayinflammation caused by severe asthma.Examples include prednisolone andmethylprednisolone. They can cause

serious side effects when used long term, so they are used only on ashort-term basis to treat severe asthma symptoms.

Treatment for allergy-induced asthma

If your asthma is triggered or worsened by allergies, you may benefitfrom allergy treatment. Allergy treatments include:

Al lergy shots (immunotherapy)Immunotherapy injections are generally given once a week for a fewmonths, then once a month for a period of three to five years. Overtime, they gradually reduce your immune system reaction to specificallergens. However, only a few patients benefit from them.

OmalizumabThis medication is specifically for people who have allergies andsevere asthma. It acts by altering the immune system. Omalizumab isdelivered by injection every two to four weeks.

Al lergy medicationsThese include oral and nasal spray antihistamines and decongestantsas well as corticosteroid, cromolyn and ipratropium nasal sprays.

Dont rely on quick-relief medicationsLong-term asthma control medications such as inhaledcorticosteroids are the cornerstone of asthma treatment. Thesemedications keep asthma under control on a day-to-day basis andmake it less likely youll have an asthma attack.

If you do have an asthma flare-up, a quick-relief inhaler canease your symptoms right away. But if your long-term controlmedications are working properly, you shouldnt need to use your

quick-relief inhaler very often. Keep a record of how many puffs youuse each week. If you need to use your quick-relief inhaler more oftenthan your doctor recommends, see your doctor. You probably need toadjust your long-term control medication.

Risks associated wi th misuseof bronchodi lator inhalersInhaling a bronchodilator helps you breathe well immediately duringan attack. But the drug doesnt correct inflammation. The maximaldaily use of a bronchodilator is two puffs every four to six hours. Ifyou use one more frequently to control symptoms, you need a more

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effective medication.Fast relief may make it difficult to recognise worsening

symptoms. Once the medication wears off, asthma returns withmore severe wheezing. You are then tempted to take another doseof the medication, delaying adequate treatment with preventermedications.

Overuse of bronchodilators also risks toxic drug levels that

may lead to an irregular heartbeat, especially if you have a heartcondition. Over-the-counter inhalers also can relieve symptomsquicklybut temporarily. Relying on inhalers can mask a worseningattack and delay treatment with preventer medications.

Gauge severity for better controlTreatment based on asthma control can help you manage yourasthma. Asthma treatment should be flexible and based on changesin symptoms, which should be assessed thoroughly each time yousee your doctor. Then, treatment can be adjusted accordingly. Forexample, if your asthma is well controlled, your doctor may prescribeless medicine. If your asthma is not well controlled or getting worse,your doctor may increase your medication and recommend more

frequent visits.

Asthma action planWork with your doctor to create an asthma action plan that outlinesin writing when to take certain medications, or when to increaseor decrease the dose of your medications based on your symptoms.Your asthma action plan should also list your triggers and the stepsyou need to take to avoid them. Your asthma plan may also involvetracking your asthma symptoms or using a peak flow meter on aregular basis.

Self-monitoring with peak ow meterYou may consider using a peak flow meter, a tube that measures how

well you are breathing. The flow meter acts like a gauge for yourlungs, giving you a number that helps evaluate lung function. A lowreading means your air passages are narrow and is an early warningthat you may experience an asthma attack. Using a peak flow meter

on a regular basis can be a useful aid to monitor how well you arecontrolling your asthma.

Coping and supportAsthma can be challenging and stressful. You may sometimes becomefrustrated, angry or depressed because you need to cut back on yourusual activities to avoid environmental triggers. You may also feel

hampered or embarrassed by the symptoms of the disease and bycomplicated management routines. Children in particular may bereluctant to use an inhaler in front of their peers.

But asthma doesnt have to be a limiting condition. The bestway to overcome anxiety and a feeling of helplessness is to understandyour condition and take control of your treatment. Here are somesuggestions that may help:

Pace yourselfTake breaks between tasks and avoid activities that make yoursymptoms worse.

Make a daily to-do l ist

This may help you avoid feeling overwhelmed. Reward yourself foraccomplishing simple goals.

Talk to others with your conditionChat rooms and message boards on the Internet or support groups inyour area can connect you with people facing similar challenges andlet you know youre not alone.

If your chi ld has asthma, be encouragingFocus attention on the things your child can do, not on the things heor she cant. Involve teachers, school nurses, and friends and relativesin helping your child manage asthma.

PreventionWorking together, you and your doctor can design a step-by-stepplan for living with your condition and preventing asthma attacks.

Follow your asthma action planWith your doctor and health care team, write a detailed plan fortaking medications and managing an asthma attack. Then be sure tofollow your plan. Asthma is an ongoing condition that needs regularmonitoring and treatment. Taking control of your treatment canmake you feel more in control of your life in general.

Identify and avoid asthma triggersA number of outdoor allergens and irritants ranging from pollen

and mould to cold air and air pollution can trigger asthma attacks.Find out what causes or worsens your asthma, and take steps to avoidthose triggers.

Monitor your breathingYou may learn to recognise warning signs of an impending attack,such as slight coughing, wheezing or shortness of breath. However,since your lung function may decrease before you notice any signsor symptoms, regularly measure and record your peak airflow with ahome peak flow meter.

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Identify and treat attacks earlyIf you act quickly, you are less likely to havea severe attack. You also wont need as muchmedication to control your symptoms. Whenyour peak flow measurements decrease andalert you to an impending attack, take yourmedication as instructed and immediately

stop any activity that may have triggeredthe attack. If your symptoms dont improve,get medical help as directed in your actionplan.

Take your medicationas prescribedJust because your asthma seems to beimproving, dont change anything withoutfirst talking to your doctor. It is a good ideato bring your medications with you to eachdoctor visit, so your doctor can double-checkthat youre using your medications correctly

and taking the right dose.

Pay attention to increasingquick-relief inhaler useIf you find yourself relying on your quick-relief inhaler such as albuterol, your asthmaisnt under control. See your doctor aboutadjusting your treatment.

Vigyan Prasar (VP), a national institution under the Department of Science &Technology, Government of India for science and technology communication amongstseveral activities brings out a monthly bilingual popular science magazine Dream 2047.Please visit our web (www.vigyanprasar.gov.in) to peruse resent issues. Present circulationof this magazine is 50000. Scientific institutes, science clubs, newspapers & magazines

and individuals interested in S & T communication subscribe to this magazine. VP invitesapplications from interested and experienced individuals to edit Dream 2047 (Hindi,English). The job requirement is given below:

(i) Editing of English version of the magazine.

(ii) Editing of Hindi version of the magazine.

(iii) Online editing

VP is also seeking applications from interested and experienced individuals totranslate popular scientific write-ups from English to Hindi and Hindi to English.

Token honorarium as per norms is paid on completion of each assignment.

Interested individuals are requested to send their detailed bio-data along with therecent passport size photograph to the following address:

Requirement of Editors-Translators for Dream 2047

Registrar, Vigyan PrasarA-50, Institutional Area , Sector-62. NOIDA (201309)Phone: 91-120-240 4430,35 Fax: 91-120-2404437e-mail : [email protected] : http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in

the pioneers of modern rocketryfor his lifes work.

Sir Robert AlexanderWatson-Watt (1892-1973),Scottish physicist, is consideredas the inventor of radar. Radardevelopment was first startedelsewhere, but Watson-Wattcreated the first workable radarsystem, turning the theory intoone of the most important war-winning weapons. Watson-Wattsacademic career was disrupted

by the First World War. During the warhe worked as a meteorologist at the RoyalAircraft Establishment, Farnborough. Helearnt that engineers of the local Post Officedetected interference in radio reception asaircraft flew close to their receivers. Watson-Watt thought that this kind of interferencecould be used to detect the approach ofenemy aircraft. In 1935, he prepared animportant paper, The detection of aircraftby radio methods and submitted it to the

Government for consideration.It may be noted that principlesbehind radar are relativelysimple. Radio waves arereflected strongly off largeobjects like aircraft. However,it was very difficult to pick upthe very weak reflected signals.Watson-Watt was able to getover this problem and build aworkable radar.

One of the greatestinventions of the 20thcentury

was conceived in a muddy hay field on afarm in Rigby, Idaho, USA. The inventionwas television and the inventor was PhiloTaylor Farnsworth (1906-1971). Manynames are associated with the inventionof television Nipkow, Baird, Zworykinand a dozen others. But it was Farnsworthwho made many contributions that werecrucial to the early development of all-electronic television. He is perhaps bestknown for inventing the first all-electronic

image pickup device or video camera tube.Farnsworth invented many other things andheld 300 US and foreign patents. The Timemagazine named Farnsworth as one of thegreatest scientists of the 20thcentury.

It may be said that since the firstprimitive human beings started using stonetools, the progress of humankind has beenmarked by milestones of invention anddiscovery. There is no limit to the inventivepower of the human mind and so thejourney of invention and inventors willcontinue till the last days of human beings

on Earth. The Earth can sustain humanbeings for a very long period provided we donot exhaust its resources mindlessly. It is alsotrue that the Earth cannot remain habitablefor human beings forever. Does it mean thenthat the existence of human beings is totallydependent on the habitability of the Earth?At present it seems so. But then who knowsthat by their inventive power human beingswould not leave mother Earth to settleelsewhere in the seemingly infinite universe.

Sir Robert AlexanderWatson-Watt

Continued from page 35 (Inventions and Inventors An unending journey)

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Recent developmentsin science and technologyThree new elements addedto the Periodic Table

Three new elements, including onenamed after famous astronomer NicolausCopernicus, have been added to thePeriodic Table. The General Assembly of theInternational Union of Pure and Applied

Physics (IUPAP) approved the namesdarmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg) andcopernicium (Cn) for the new elementsnumbered 110, 111, and 112, respectively.The General Assembly, which consists of 60members from different countries, approvedthe new names at its meeting held at theInstitute of Physics (IOP) in London inNovember. Although the names of the newelements have only just been approved forinclusion in the Period Table, the elementswere discovered a long time ago.

All man-made elements heavier thanuranium decay radioactively, and generallyspeaking, the heavier the element, thefaster the decay. The three recently namedelements belong to the same category. Butlatest analytical techniques make it possiblefor scientists to study even a few atoms of ashort-lived chemical element.

The first atom of the chemical elementwith atomic number 110 was detected atthe Institute for Heavy Ion Research in

Darmstadt, Germany in November 1994.The isotope of element 110 that was

discovered had an atomic mass numberof 269, which means its nucleus had 159neutrons. The new element was producedby bombarding a target of lead isotope (Pb-208) with a beam of nickel (Ni-62) nuclei.

Chemically, the element 110 belongs tothe same group as nickel, palladium, andplatinum, but unlike these lighter atoms,element 110 decays after a small fraction of athousandth of a second into lighter elementsby emitting alpha-particles which are thenuclei of helium atoms.

The creation of element with atomicnumber 111, with a nucleus containing 111protons and 161 neutrons, was announcedin December 1994. It was also created in thesame lab in Germany by bombarding a target

of bismuth with a beam of nickel atoms.Only three atoms of a new element wereproduced and studied, although the atomssurvived for less than two-thousandths of asecond.

Usually it is difficult to investigatethe chemical and physical properties of anelement during the ephemeral existence ofonly three atoms, but because of the numberof protons in its nucleus, Element 111 wasknown to belong to the same column of the

Periodic Table as copper, silver and gold, soit is presumably a metal. The element wasnot named at that time.

The element 112 was discovered in2009 by an international team of scientists,again in the same lab in Darmstadt,Germany. Element 112, which contains 112protons and 165 neutrons in the nucleus,was created by bombardment of zinc (at.

no. 30) ions onto a lead (at. no. 82) target.As the element is extremely short-lived anddecays after a split second, its existence couldonly be proved with the help of extremelyfast and sensitive analysis methods. Twenty-one scientists from Germany, Finland,Russia and Slovakia were involved in theexperiments that led to the discovery ofthe new element. As only a few atomsof copernicium have ever been made, itsreactivity with other elements is unknown.However, its behaviour can be expected tobe similar to that of mercury (immediately

above copernicium in the periodic table) andcadmium (two places above).

Soon after its discovery, the discoverersof element 112 had named the new elementcopernicium after the 16th century Polishastronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. But atthat time it was not an accepted name, asit needed approval by IUPAP, which it hasdone now. So now the Periodic Table is leftwith only five elements with atomic numbers113 to 117, which have been discovered butnot yet named.

The mystery of Moonsionosphere solvedThe Moon is one of the most exploredcelestial objects and the only one which hasbeen visited by humans. It is well knownthat the Moon has no atmosphere. Also ithas been known for many years that theMoon has an ionosphere. But how there canbe an ionosphere without an atmosphere wasa big puzzle for lunar researchers. A paperpublished in a recent issue of Planetary and

Biman Basue-mail: [email protected]

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New elements in the Periodic Table

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Space Science(October 2011 | doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.05.011) provides a possibleanswer.

Ionosphere is a layer of ionised gasthat exists high above Earths atmosphere.It is created by ionisation of gas atoms inupper atmosphere by ultraviolet rays fromthe Sun. On Earth, the ionosphere plays avital role in long-distance communicationsand navigation. For instance, it reflects radiowaves, allowing shortwave radio operators tobounce transmissions over the horizon for

long-range communications.The first evidence for an ionosphere

around the Moon came in the 1970s fromthe Soviet probes Luna-19 and 22, whichwent in orbit around the Moon. Circling theMoon at close range, two spacecraft senseda layer of charged material extending a fewtens of kilometres above the lunar surface.The density of charged particles above thesunlit lunar surface was quite large as manyas 1,000 electrons per cubic centimetre which was a thousand times more than anytheory could explain. Radio astronomers

also found hints of the lunar ionospherethrough radio occultation measurements,when distant radio sources passed behindthe Moons limb. So there was doubt that theMoon indeed had an ionosphere. But therehad to be a mechanism of its formation onan airless Moon.

But, as was discovered later, theMoon is not quite as airless as most peoplethink, because small amounts of gas createdby radioactive decay seep out of the lunar

interior and meteoroids andthe solar wind also blast atomsoff the Moons surface. Theresulting shroud of gas soformed is, however, too thinto be called an atmosphere.The density of the lunar gas

shroud is about a hundredmillion billion times less thanthat of air on Earth, which isnot dense enough to support anionosphere as dense as the onesthe Luna probes found. In therecent paper, Tim Stubbs of theGoddard Space Flight Centerand his team propose moondustto be the answer.

The Moon has beenknown to be an extremely dustyplace, naturally surrounded

by a swarm of dust grains.When these floating grains catch the lightof the rising or setting Sun, they create aglow along the horizon, which were seen byApollo-15 astronauts. Stubbs and colleaguesrealised that floating dust could provide theanswer; ultraviolet rays from the Sun hit thegrains and probably ionise them. Accordingto their calculations, this process producesenough charge (positive grains surroundedby negative electrons) to create the observedionosphere.

But, as was discovered later, the Moon

is not quite as airless as most people think,because small amounts of gas created byradioactive decay seep out of the lunar interiorand meteoroids and the solar wind also blastatoms off the Moons surface. The resultingshroud of gas so formed is, however, too thinto be called an atmosphere. The densityof the lunar gas shroud is about a hundredmillion billion times less than that of airon Earth, which is not denseenough to support an ionosphereas dense as the ones the Lunaprobes found. According to the

researchers, an ionosphere madeof dust instead of gas is new toplanetary science.

The Moon has beenknown to be an extremely dustyplace, naturally surrounded bya swarm of dust grains. Whenthese floating grains catch thelight of the rising or settingSun, they create a glow alongthe horizon, which were seen by

Apollo-15 astronauts. Stubbs and colleaguesrealised that floating dust could provide theanswer; ultraviolet rays from the Sun hit thegrains and probably ionise them and that thisprocess could dominate the formation andevolution of the lunar ionosphere. Accordingto their calculations, this process produces

enough charge (positive grains surroundedby negative electrons) to create the observedionosphere. According to the researchers, anionosphere made of dust instead of gas isnew to planetary science.

Strange life found indeepest oceanThe Mariana Trench in the Pacific Oceanis the deepest point on Earth, situated justeast of the Mariana Islands near Japan. Itis 11,641 metres deep. At the bottom ofthe trench, the water column above exerts

a pressure over one thousand times thestandard atmospheric pressure at sea levelthat would make any form of life almostimpossible to exist. Yet life does exist there.Recently scientists have found giant amoebasliving in the depths of the Mariana Trench;the creatures are called xenophyophores. LisaLevin, a deep-sea biologist and director ofthe Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversityand Conservation described the creatures asfascinating giants that are highly adapted toextreme conditions but at the same time arevery fragile and poorly studied.

According to Scripps scientists,xenophyophores are among the largestindividual cells in existence, often growinglarger than 10 cm in size. Recent studiesindicate that by trapping particles from thewater, xenophyophores can concentrate highlevels of lead, uranium and mercury and arethus likely highly resistant to large dosesof heavy metals. They also are well suited

New Horizons

Dust grains floating above the lunar surfaceare ionised by solar UV radiation.

Xenophyophores were recently photographed 10.6-km deep in Pacific Ocean. (Credit: NOAA)

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New Horizons

to a life of darkness, low temperature andhigh pressure in the deep sea. Accordingto the researchers, the xenophyophores are

just the tip of the iceberg when it comes toconsiderations of the nature and diversity oflife at extreme depths.

The discovery was made during aJuly 2011 voyage to the Mariana Trench,by researchers of Scripps Institution ofOceanography/University of California, SanDiego and National Geographic engineers.To reach the bottom of the ocean requiredspecially designed equipment that couldwithstand the extreme pressure at oceanbottom. The instruments used to spotthe mysterious animals were Dropcams

developed and used by NationalGeographic Society Remote Imagingengineers Eric Berkenpas and GrahamWilhelm, who participated in the Julyvoyage.

The Dropcams are versatileautonomous underwater camerascontaining an HD camera and lightinginside of a glass bubble. By wrappinghigh-resolution cameras in a thick-walledglass sphere, scientists were able to dropcameras capable of withstanding theextreme pressure found at that extreme

depth. At a depth of more than 11kilometres, the water above exerts more thana ton per square centimetre of pressure.

The Dropcams were created byNational Geographic engineers to allowscientists and filmmakers to capture high-quality footage from any depth in the ocean.The devices were baited and used camera-traps to capture imagery of approachingmarine life. Scripps researchers hope to oneday capture and return novel living animals

to the laboratory for studyin high pressure aquariumsthat replicate the trenchenvironment.

Human bloodprotein from rice

Human serum albumin (HSA)is the most abundant proteinin human blood plasma. It isproduced in the liver. Albuminconstitutes about half of theblood serum protein. Serumalbumin is widely used in clinicaland cell culture applicationssuch as the treatment ofblood loss, serious burns, and

abdominal fluid retention caused by cirrhosisof the liver. In addition, HSA is also used as avehicle for vaccine and drug delivery, and as

a cell culture supplement in the productionof vaccines and pharmaceuticals.Conventional production of HSA

from human blood is limited by theavailability of blood donation and the highrisk of viral transmission from donors. Nowscientists have genetically engineered rice toproduce a safe and pure form of the much-needed human plasma protein, accordingto a report published in Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences (31 October2011 | doi: 10.1073/pnas.1109736108).The work was carried out by an internationalteam of researchers led by Daichang Yang ofWuhan University, China. Use of the rice-derived protein in place of its blood-derivedcounterpart will not only ease demand butalso eliminate the risk of spreading diseasessuch as hepatitis and HIV through infectedblood products.

n

To eliminate the potential risk ofviral contamination, regulatory agencieshave encouraged pharmaceutical companiesto use non-animal-derived sources forpharmaceutical production. Thus, thedevelopment of a low-cost method for theproduction of recombinant HSA (rHSA)

was considered essential as a safer andpotentially unlimited alternative to plasma-derived HSA (pHSA).

Although this was not the first toattempt at genetically engineering HSAproduction in other species, none of theearlier attempts, which included transgenicpotatoes and tobacco, provided sufficientyield to be cost-effective. Plant seeds,especially cereal crop seeds, are promisingvehicles for producing recombinant proteinsbecause they can achieve high accumulationof recombinant protein, display high levels

of protein stability, stored for long periods oftime, and are well controlled on a productionscale.

So, to increase the yield, Yang andhis colleagues turned to rice (Oryza sativa).Specifically, they targeted the part of rice weeat, the endosperm inside the seed, which isthe main nutrient storage organ, and thus anexcellent site for the accumulation and long-term stable storage of recombinant proteins.

By driving expression of the HSA gene inthe rice endosperm, the team managed toobtain 2.74 grams of pure HSA protein

per kilogram of rice seed, more than 25times the 0.1 grams of HSA collectedfrom one kilogram of tobacco leaves.

In addition to obtaining a highyield, the rice-derived HSA shared thesame molecular weight, crystal structure,molecular binding sites, and otherbiochemical characteristics as that ofblood-derived HSA. The rice-derivedHSA also displayed an equivalentimmune response to that of plasmaHSA. In other words, animals injectedwith either rice HSA or plasma HSA

developed similar immune reactions.Despite these similarities, however,

before rice HSA can be used in humans itwill need to go through extensive clinicaltrials. Furthermore, to generate sufficientquantities of HSA to meet global demand,which at present is estimated at around 500tons a year, production will need to be scaledup to open-field farming, which will dependon public response to GM rice cultivation.

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Dropcams before being lowered into the sea.

Scientists have genetically engineered rice toproduce a safe and pure form of the much-

needed human plasma protein

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Celebration of Science Fortnight (IYC 2011)on the theme Chemistry in Daily Life

Vigyan Prasar, jointly withNavyug School, Lodhi Road,New Delhi and Indian Associationfor Physics Teachers (IAPT),organised a two-day sensitisationprogramme for science teachersduring 8-9 November 2011 atNavyug School, Lodhi Road,New Delhi. About 50 scienceteachers from different NDMCSchools, MCD Schools, NCTDelhi Schools, Central Schoolsand teachers from Private/PublicSchools were invited to attend the workshop.The objective of the programme was to

sensitise teachers towards the appreciationof chemistry in day-to-day life, includingawareness on latest development in the fieldof chemistry. The programme included thefollowing: (i) discussion on the IYC 2011and lectures on different facets of chemistry;(ii) demonstration of innovative teaching

materials; (iii) presentation by teachers; (iv)discussion on global experiment Water: Achemical solution; and (v) Chemistry Quizfor the students of NDMC schools.

The celebration of science fortnightwas inaugurated by Prof. Ved Ratan of IAPTand Prof. Ravi Bhattacharya from Delhi

University. Director,Navyug School EducationalSociety (NSES), Shri SherSingh, Principal, NavyugSchool, and Shri KapilTripathi, Scientist, VigyanPrasar were present at theinaugural session.

In his inauguralremarks Prof. Bhattacharyatalked about science in

everyday life and emphasised on the methodof science. Prof. Ved Ratan presented

an introduction of science fortnight andDirector NSES, New Delhi delivered thekeynote address.

The first session of the programmestarted with a lecture on Effective teachingof science by Dr. Anil Vashisht, DEO,Government of National Capital Territoryof Delhi. He highlighted several innovativeexperiments done by scientists in the past andfocussed on the issues related to appropriatemethods for teaching chemistry. After this,there was a lecture on Global experiment onchemistry by Shri Kapil Tripathi, Scientist

D, Vigyan Prasar. These global experimentsare being conducted throughout the worldby students. In his talk, he discussed aboutthe methods of doing the experiment andalso about the future plans of Vigyan Prasarrelated to this activity.

In the second session, a demonstrationon Food adulteration kit by Dr. BM Sharma of Society of Pollution andEnvironmental Conservation Scientists(SPECS), Dehradun (Uttarakhand). Hedemonstrated several experiments/methodsto find out the adulteration commonly seen

in our day-to-day food stuffs. It wasfollowed by another demonstration

on Chemistry behind miracleswhich was done by Shri Rajpalof Indian Resource DevelopmentAssociation, Kurukshetra, Haryana.Both the demonstrations were highlyappreciated by the participantsand useful interaction/debate wasgenerated after the session.

The second days programmestarted with a talk by Dr. SubodhMahanti, Scientist F, Vigyan Prasar.

He expressed his views on the importanceof International Year for Chemistry and its

activities. He also motivated students bytelling interesting facts related to famousscientists of past. After this, there was alecture on Innovation in chemistry by Prof.R S Sindhu, Head Chemistry, Departmentof Education in Science and Mathematics,NCERT, New Delhi, he spoke about todays

advancements in the field of innovations inchemistry and also presented a future scenarioof this field. After this, there was an invitedtalk by Prof. L S Kothari, on Innovation inlear

dream 2047 january 2012

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