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On Some Crucial S&T Issues inContemporary India:Some Thoughts - Part XIV -------------26

Science of the month------------------ 31

Science India Quiz---------------------40

Music: The energy source? ------------- 41

Indian Anxiety on Climate Changeand Economy ------------------------- 43

The cardio-tonic and cardio-protectantmedicinal plants around us ------------46

Organic solar cells –The future energy source -------------- 50

Science of PIN Code ------------------- 54

Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology –A Breakthrough in mild Technologies forPreservation of Food ------------------ 55

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A

charya PrafullaChandra Ray

A

Book For YourHome Library

A

primitive ancient wonder –Horseshoe crab

August 2010

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SCIENCEINDIA THE NATIONAL

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This year, in 2010, keeping in mind the theme of the celebrations, “Biodiversity is life;Biodiversity is our life “the while world is celebrating International Year of Biodiversity. The

biodiversity conservation efforts are getting greater importance world over. In this connection,a small creature, the Horseshoe crab needs special mention. For many, the horseshoe crab is achildhood acquaintance, first introduced by a fierce-looking shell on a sandy beach. Forecologists, the horseshoe is an important creature - a vastly adaptable generalist that pre-dates most species on the planet, with a lifecycle that is interlocked with other animals. Forthe scientist, the limuli are an intriguing puzzle, offering insights into evolution, bacterial,vision and species - interdependence.

The horseshoe crab population has dropped dramatically in recent years. In an article entitled“Jurassic Beach”, by Jennifer Uscher, in the summer 2008 issue of Nature Conservancy magazine,it states that from the late 1960s to 1996 the annual catch of horseshoe crabs has increasedfrom 10 tons to 2,500 tons. The article identifies one reason for the increased demand to haulin horseshoe crabs: an increased culinary demand in Asia for conch and American eel. Horseshoecrabs are used as bait to reel in the conch and eel.

As the horseshoe crab populations declines it puts at risk other species who feed on the horeshoecrab such as the loggerhead sea tuttle. Loggerhead sea turtles are already listed on thethreatened species list. There is an urgent need to enhance the conservation efforts to savethis wonderful creature. A special article on “A primitive ancient wonder - Horseshoe crab“appears in this issue of Science India.

Dr. P. C. Ray - A Professor of Chemistry in the University. A pioneer in the field of pharmaceuticalindustry in India who started making chemicals at home, eighty years ago, to prevent foreigncompanies making excessive profits at the cost of Indian patients.

A scientist who won international acclaim. His dwelling - a simple room on the first floor of thecollege in which he was leaching; his household - students who could not afford to stayelsewhere.

His salary - all a donation to the Department of Chemistry. The income from this donation tobe spent on the development of the Department of Chemistry at the University College ofScience and to give scholarships to needy students. And the total amount the donated in theway - two lakh rupees !!

Such was the Scientist - Professor Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray.

2010 - It is the 150th Birth Anniversary of this great son of India. Vignana Bharathi, the parentalorganization of Swadeshi Science Movement and Science India is celebrating the event inmany universities, professional institutional and schools in the country for an year from 2ndAugust 2010. A special article on Acharya P.C. Ray appears in this issue of Science India

Team Science India

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The evolution has a great debt to the

ocean, a massive body of water, were life

first originated. Horseshoe crab, the world’s

oldest and most fascinating creature also lives

in this deep blue massive water body. This

valuable creature is a marine

chelicerate arthropod with

jointed limbs. They belong

to the class merostomata

(Mouth surrounded by legs).

The great resemblance of

shell of this animal to a

horse hoof, made them to

be called as “Horse Foot

Crabs” in earlier days.

However these harmless

crabs are more closely

related to spiders, ticks, and

scorpions than to crabs, although we call them

as Horseshoe crab. During the process of

evolution a number of marine organisms,

suspected to be extinct, still flourish as living

A PRIMITIVE ANCIENTWONDER –

HORSESHOE CRABP.J. Pradeep and T.C. Srijaya

animals and Horseshoe crab is one such

incredible animal.

Fossil records of this valuable creature dates

backs to 360 million years. All these years they

remained unchanged and evolved into its present

shape with little apparent

change in their morphology

and has not shown any

significant phenotypic

change. They are commonly

referred to as ‘living fossils’

since, they have survived over

several mass extinctions. The

first fossilized Horseshoe crab

(Mesolimulus walchi,

Desmerest, 1822) was found

from the upper Jurassic layer

of famous lithographic lime

stone of Bavaria in West Germany. This ancient

species became so precious after the discovery

of a valuable property in its blood which saved

millions of human lives.

Fossil records of thisvaluable creature dates

backs to 360 millionyears. All these years theyremained unchanged andevolved into its present

shape with little apparentchange in their

morphology and has notshown any significant

phenotypic change.

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Habitat and

distribution

This alien shaped

creature has been reaching

the beaches from the deep sea

for breeding purpose. They prefer

calm seas or estuaries with sandy

muddy bottoms. They are highly

specialized animal and have the

ability to select suitable habitat

for reproduction and dispersal

during their migration itself. This

specialized character ensure these animals to

safely reach there perspective destination and

thus reduce the chance of mortality. Their

migration depends on two important physical

stimuli, tide and lunar periodicity. Physiology

of this animal is well suited to overcome all

the environmental fluctuations during their

long journey. They use their appendages

(chelicerae) similar to those used by spiders

and scorpions for grasping and crushing the

feed. Their food includes polycheate worms,

mollusks and dead fishes.

There are four species of Horseshoe crabs.

Three species of these occur in the waters

around India, Japan, Malaysia, Philipines,

Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia (Tachypleus

gigas, Tachypleus tridentatus and

Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda). In India,

Tachypleus gigas and Carcinoscorpius

rotundicauda are found confined to Orissa and

the West Bengal coasts. Along the Orissa

coast they are found near Burhabalanga

estuary and Abana. The fourth species,

Limulus polyphemus is specifically found in

the waters along the east coast of North

America.

Physical description

Horseshoe crab has a unique and primitive

body structure. The carapace or exoskeleton

of this living fossil has the morphology very

similar to that found in Jurassic deposits.

Arthropods, usually grow by periodically

moulting their exoskeletons, similarly

Horseshoe crab also does. They have an

estimated life span of 20 years and require 9

Distribution of Horshoe crab over the globe

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- 13 years to reach maturity and represents

long-lived animal category.

There are several special types of

glycoproteins present in their body that

prevents all the active depositions of fouling

organisms and protects these crabs from the

deadly infections caused by the microbes and

pathogens. Their carapace is divided into three

sections: the anterior portion is the prosoma;

the middle section is the opisthosoma; and

the “tail” is called the telson.

Compound eyes of horseshoe crabs are so

special and has all together nine eyes on the

upper surface of the body. These eyes in

shades of gray are sensitive to polarized light

and can magnify sunlight 10 times. In fact

compound eyes are very sensitive to infrared

and ultraviolet rays. However it is

advantageous for the animals to locate their

way even in dark cloudy days; even a small

clear sky is enough for them to locate the sun.

All the signals from photoreceptor cells are

received by the brain and they influence the

Biological clock. Horseshoe crab eyes have

therefore been extensively studied as a model

organ for visual processes.

Unlike true crabs, they are not having

antennae or jaws. They have six pairs of

thoracic appendages where as in true crab it’s

only five pairs. The anterior ends of the

appendages are fringed and four leaf liked

structures which helps the Horseshoe crab in

scooping the sand or mud at the time of

burrowing for building their nests. Walking of

this animal are made easy by five pairs of

appendages in the middle part which are

having small claws at its end. Usually male

crabs are smaller than females and their first

pair of appendage differs from female. There

are peculiar hook like structures or pincers in

the first pair of walking legs of male Horseshoe

crab, referred to as “boxing gloves”. The males

use this mating claw to attach and hold on to

females during mating.

Horseshoe crabs have book gills for

respiration like that of spiders, helping them

to survive outside water for a long time

provided the gills are moist. During spawning

periods they bury themselves in the sand or

in the mud to conserve water until the tide

rise again. This highly specialized book gills

help them to survive during the low tide. The

book gills are continuously moved up and

down, that helps to keep oxygenated water

flowing around them and they use this as

paddle for swimming too.

If accidentally overturned, tail of

Horseshoe crab helps them flip over. Although

telson have a dangerous looks, and many

believes that they are poisonous, the fact is

that it is not so. However, in ancient times

the tail was used as a weapon by the Chinese

and Native Indians.

Human uses of Horseshoe crab

This prehistoric creature with the armour

like body and spear-like tail is a great

beneficiary to mankind. Interestingly

scientists from almost all the fields of science

including ecology, microbiology,

biotechnology, pharmacology, immunology,

Horseshoe crab eggs

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and neurophysiology has been working at the

same time on this primitive animal. This itself

defines us how much they are valuable to the

human beings. The amazing fact is that Horse

shoe crab is having very perfect but primitive

immune system that makes them medically

quite useful to humans.

Native Americans were the first to

recognize the importance of the Horseshoe

crab. They eat the meat with delicacy. They

use several parts of this animal for varied

purposes. They use its carapace as paddles

for their canoes and tail for making arrow and

spear tips. They also found that Horseshoe

crab was rich in nitrogen, which they use as

an excellent fertilizer for the farm fields and

aquaculture ponds.

In India, tribes from north east coast of

Orissa usually ties horseshoe crabs tail in their

arms and prick their fore head using it. They

use the tail as traditional medicine for relief

from different types of joint pains and also as

a cure for arthritis. In early days appendages

of the crabs were eaten by tribes of India. For

treating rheumatic fever and pain, medicines

are prepared from the carapace of dead crab,

by boiling it along with mustard oil. Indians

use to take their food and drink by utilizing

its carapace, as a bowl. Chinese use the

carapace as hat and as spoon for serving soup.

In China, Korea and Japan the dead crabs shell

and its parts are sold as decorative pieces to

tourists. In several countries like Borneo,

Malaysia, Singapore and China many people

use the eggs of Horseshoe crab as delicacy.

Pregnant ladies from Singapore usually eat the

eggs believing that it is good for enhancing

immunity to the baby. Chinese usually blend

the meat and use it as sauce in their dishes.

From the mid of 18th centuries, several

fertilizer industry rise up using Horseshoe crab

as fertilizer and poultry food supplements

before the advent of artificial fertilizers in

America. But by the mid of the 19th centuries

all these industries were collapsed due to over

exploitation of this animal by collecting from

the wild and also growing opposition from the

public.

Horseshoe Crab Vision

In 1926 an American scientist named Prof.

H. Keffer Hartline began his research on

electrical impulses from the optic nerves of

Horseshoe crab. Following the findings from

this research, Hartline along with another

Horseshoe crab blood collection

Ornaments from Horseshoe crabs

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American scientist George Wald and a

Swedish scientist Dr. Ragnar Granit discovered

some important principles about the function

of human eyes. For their notable contribution

they were awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine

in the year 1967. The optic system of

Horseshoe crab is cross connected. When one

nerve cell of the crab is stimulated, its partner

nerve gets suppressed and this result in an

increase in contrast of the images. This

principle was taken by General Electrical

Company from USA and they developed a

video system to provide sharper images to the

television and it is presently used by all

television companies. At present almost all

radar systems follow this principle and help

them to increase its efficiency.

The Blue blood

The blood of these crabs are pretty

amazing scientifically and is generally known

as haemolymph, white in color but turns blue

when exposed to air. This phenomenon is due

to the high concentration of copper-based

oxygen carrying substance called hemocyanin,

in their blood. Omnipresence of bacteria is

always a threat although some are beneficial.

However gram negative bacteria are the

greatest threat in pharmaceutical industry.

Some bacteria which are non-pathogen can

cause disease if they enter the bloodstream,

which are usually free from contaminants.

Thus it is critically important to avoid all

possible bacterial contaminations in drugs,

vaccines, and medical devices. So the

biomedical industry and pharmaceutical

manufacturers need to make sure their

products are not only sterile but also non-

toxic.

It was in early 1950s the clotting quality

of the Horseshoe crab’s blood was discovered

by a scientist named Frederick Bang. From the

Horseshoe crab blood he isolated a chemical

that helped the blood to get clot and heAn antique from Horshoe crab

Horseshoe crab cuisine

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named it as “Limulus amoebocyte lysate” or

LAL. The discovery of LAL changed the

scenario because the quality checking of drugs

before that was rather very laborious and not

efficient (Rabbit test). Now LAL is being used

to test all drugs and other sophisticated

devices including implantable devices and

artificial kidneys and its worth, is estimated

to be around $15,000 a quart. A small draw

back in LAL test is that they cannot

distinguish the live and dead gram negative

bacterial strains. However this test has been

used to diagnose rapidly the urinary tract

infections and spinal meningitis. LAL test has

been widely used to assess the food spoilage

in food processing industries too. Even in very

minute quantities LAL is an effective detector

of harmful bacteria causing life-threatening

diseases in humans. This blue blood saved

millions of people and thus we owe a lot to

Horseshoe crabs. Many attempts have been

done to make synthetically LAL, since now

we are solicidily depending only on this blue

blood.

Other biomedical compounds from

Horseshoe crab and there uses

The plasma proteins and peptides of the

blood cells in Horseshoe crab have elevated

A breeding pair of Horseshoe crabs

Shore birds eating eggs of Horseshoe crab

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them as best-described immune system for

any long-lived invertebrate. Other than LAL

a great number of biomedical compounds and

useful reagents have been discovered from

its blood. In Japan for fungal infections they

have developed a test called G-test using the

compounds from Horseshoe crab. The

endotoxin-neutralizing protein which is the

main defense system in Horseshoe crab is

being used potentially as antibiotic and as

an alternative for endotoxin assay. Some

other proteins also have been discovered that

have anti-viral and anti-cancer activity.

Inspite of these, this hard-shelled

invertebrate have properties to treat a variety

of diseases including typhoid and meningitis,

and act as a pain killer as well as create

wound dressings for use on burn victims and

skin-graft donors.

Horseshoe crabs eggs in medical field

The embryo of the Horseshoe crab is

protected inside a fluid named peri-vetilline

fluid. This fluid contains several primitive

proteins. This fluid can increase the

proliferation of insulin producing cells in

human beings and thus can be effectively

used for producing anti-diabetic drugs. It also

contains several compounds that stimulate

the growth and helps in differentiation of

specific organs. There are also other factors

which are useful in cardiac disorders and

ischemia.

Uses of Chitin

Chitin from Horseshoes crab have a

variety of medical uses including chitin-

coated filament for suturing and chitin-

coated wound dressing for burn victims and

skin-graft donors. The advantage of using

this chitin coated materials in medical

researches is that it drastically reduced the

healing time by 35-50 percent and also

reduces pain compared to the other ordinary

treatments.

Space research

NASA scientists and their collaborators

are now exploring the possibility of using the

LAL for discovering any type of microbes from

the outer space including the soils from other

planets like Mars. This research will give

certain interesting facts like how the

bacteria’s in other planets react to the

Horseshoe crab enzymes or else whether

those bacteria’s are similar to that found in

earth.

Ecological importance

Inspite of their great contributions to

mankind, they play a vital role in balancing

the ecology of coastal communities. World’s

largest Horseshoe crab population is found

in Delaware Bay on the Atlantic coast.

Mostly Horseshoe crab lay hundreds to

thousands of eggs, in a relatively short

season of the year. Horseshoe crab eggs are

Conservation

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eaten mostly by migrating shore birds and

many species of fishes. Migrating birds rely

heavily upon these eggs during their nesting

season. For their long migratory these birds

utilizes the high energy

reserves of Horseshoe crab

eggs. Otherwise these

migrating birds would not

acquire the energy needed

to fly their long migration

routes. Many of the marine

invertebrate species, such

as barnacles, mussels,

sponges, oysters, asteriids,

snail furs, blue mussels,

scuds, ghost anemones,

oyster drill eggs, agardh’s

red seaweed, flatworms and many others

utilizes the carapace of Horseshoe crab as

shelter until it gets moulted.

Conservation of blood donors

Most of the humans are unaware of the

importance of this creature. The armuored

shell and spiked tail animal is gradually dying

out and is the latest to join the long list of

endangered species. The Horseshoe crab

population has been declining drastically due

to coastal development, pollution and

destruction of wetlands. Seawall and other

types of coastal development alter the

configuration of the shoreline, seriously

disrupting the reproductive activities of

Horseshoe crabs. Fishing activity is also

affecting its populations badly. Fisherman

catches a lot of this animal for supply to

primate companies for their blood extraction.

The human recreational activities like

recreational vehicles in the beaches can

crush the crabs and destroy them. Oil leakage

poses threat to the eggs and larvae. These

have led to the significant decrease in the

number of crabs visiting the beach. These

activities harm not only

the blue blood crabs but

also other organisms

depending on them.

Several organizations

have come up for

conserving Horseshoe

crabs including Ecological

Research and

Development Group,

which is now being

actively involved in the

conservation of the world’s four Horseshoe

crab species. In the universe the most well

studied invertebrate will be Horseshoe crab

as the animal is still unchanged and going

on. This deep sea life is now life donor of not

only millions of human beings, but also to

those far flying birds, becoming the most

valuable commodity in almost all aspects of

the life in an ecosystem covering, from the

aquatic, terrestrial and sky up to the outer

space. It is the duty of every human being to

protect this evolutionary forefather, to be in

this world for the benefit of ecological

balance.

Acknowledgements: All images from Google

P.J. Pradeep and T.C. SrijayaPh. D. Scholars

Institute of Tropical AquacultureUniversity of Malaysia, Terengganu

Mengabang Telipot21030 Kuala Terengganu

Terengganu, Malaysia.E Mail: legandofmortals@yahoo.com

Fossil records of thisvaluable creature dates

backs to 360 millionyears. All these years theyremained unchanged andevolved into its present

shape with little apparentchange in their

morphology and has notshown any significant

phenotypic change.

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Acharya PrafullaChandra Ray

Dr. Subodh Mahanti

“I have no sense of success on any large scale in things achieved…but have the

sense of having worked and having found happiness in doing so.” – Acharya P.C. Ray

A more remarkable career than that of P.C.

Ray could not well be chronicled”, wrote

Nature, the famous international scientific

journal, while

commenting on the

first volume of Ray’s

autobiography. Prafulla

Chandra Ray was the

founder of the Indian

School of modern

Chemistry. He was a

pioneer of chemical

industries in India.

Ray’s activities were

not confined to his

laboratory and

teaching. His activities

concerned with all

spheres of human

interest-educational reform, industrial

development, employment generation and

poverty alleviation, economic freedom and

political advancement of the country. He was

a pioneer in social reforms in the country. He

took to social service with a missionary zeal.

He was a great

critique of the

prevailing caste

system in the Hindu

society.

In his Presidential

address to the Indian

National Social

Conference in 1917 he

made a passionate

appeal for removal of

the caste system from

the Hindu society. Ray

was an ardent

advocate of the use of

the mother tongue as

medium of instruction in schools and colleges.

In recognition of his contribution towards the

advancement and enrichment of Bengali

Ray's activities were not confined to his laboratory and teaching. Hisactivities concerned with all spheres of human interest-educationalreform, industrial development, employment generation and povertyalleviation, economic freedom and political advancement of the country.

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language, he was elected the General

President of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad

(1931-34). Ray symbolized the best of Indian

tradition and philosophy.

He lived a life of extreme self-denial. He

became a symbol of plain living. Mahatma

Gandhi said: “It is difficult to believe that the

man in simple Indian dress wearing simple

manners could possibly be the great scientist

and professor.” He lived in a single room at

the University College of Science. Its furniture

consisted of an iron bedstead, a small table,

a smaller chair and an almirah with shelves

full of books, most of which were English

classics.

Ray was a voracious reader of literature,

history and biography. He could read half-a-

dozen languages. He once claimed that he

‘became a chemist almost by mistake.’

There is no better document to know

about Ray and his thoughts and

accomplishments than his autobiography

entitled Life and Experiences of a Bengali

Chemist in two volumes. Besides giving his

life-sketch, it gives glimpses of the

intellectual history of Bengal in particular and

India in general. “It is, in fact, a history of

intellectual renaissance in Bengal as part of

the larger enlightenment of India in the

nineteenth century and in the early decades

of the twentieth century.” In the preface to

his autobiography Ray wrote: “While a student

at Edinburgh I found to my regret that every

civilized country including Japan was adding

to the world’s stock of knowledge but that

unhappy India was lagging behind. I dreamt a

dream that, God willing, a time would come

when she too would contribute her quota.

Half-a-century has since then rolled by.

My dream I have now the gratification of

finding fairly materialized. A new era has

evidently dawned upon India. Her sons have

taken kindly to the zealous pursuit of different

branches of science. May the torch thus

kindled burn with greater brilliance from

generation to generation.”

Prafulla Chandra Ray was born on August

2, 1861 in a village in the district of Jessore

(subsequently of Khulna), now in Bangladesh.

About his village Ray, in his autobiography,

wrote: “My native village is Raruli, in the

district of Jessore (at present Khulna). It is

situated on the banks of the river Kapotakshi,

which follows a meandering course for forty

miles (only 16 miles as the crow flies) till it

reaches Sagardari, the birth place of our great

poet Madhusudan Datta. And higher up lies

the village of Polua-Magura known of late

years as Amritabazaar, the birth place of Sisir

Kumar Ghosh, the veteran journalist. The

village adjoining Raruli on the north is

Katipara, the residence of the Zemindars of

the Ghosh family, from which came the

mother of Madhusudan. These two villages are

often hyphened together and called Raruli-

Katipara.” It says in the Upanishads that the

Supreme One wanted to be many. The urge

for self-dispersal is at the root of this creation.

It was through this kind of creative urge that

Prafulla Chandra became many in the minds

of his pupils by diffusing and thereby

reactivating himself in many younger minds.

But this would hardly have been possible

unless he had the capacity to give himself

away fully to others. Rabindranath Tagore

(Quoted in P.C. Ray by J. Sen Gupta, National

Book Trust, 1972) As pioneer of chemical

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education, chemical research and chemical

industries in India, and more possibly as a self-

denying and dedicated worker for the uplift

and emancipation of the country, and last but

not least as a man of austere habits and

sterling character with dynamic sympathy for

the poor and down-trodden, ever alert to the

call of humanity,Prafulla Chandra Ray

occupied a unique position in India in his days.

P. Ray in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of

the National Institute of Sciences of India

(1966) Acharya Ray was one of the giants of

old, and more particularly, he was a shining

light in the field of science. His frail figure,

his ardent patriotism, his scholarship and his

simplicity impressed me greatly in my youth.

Jawaharlal Nehru. His father Harish Chandra

Ray, a scion of a local zemindar, was a man of

taste, learning and liberal views. He was an

accomplished violin player. He was proficient

in Persian and English languages and he had

also workable knowledge of Sanskrit and

Arabic. Harish Chandra was closely associated

with the cultural and intellectual leaders of

those days in Bengal. For his liberal views

Harish Chandra was branded a mlechcha

(foreign heretic) by his fellow villagers. Ray’s

mother, Bhubanmohini Devi was also an

accomplished lady of enlightened views.

The decade of 1860-69 of the nineteenth

century was very important in India’s history.

Thus, Animesh Chakraborty, a well-known

inorganic chemist, wrote : “It was the best of

times – the second half of the nineteenth

century. The decade of 1860-69 alone saw

the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, Motilal

Nehru, Swami Vivekananda, Madan Mohan

Malaviya, Asutosh Mookerjee, Lala Lajpat Rai,

Srinivasa Sastri and Mohandas Karamchand

Gandhi. And of Prafulla Chandra Ray. A season

of light and hope was descending on a

languishing India.”

Ray’s early education was in his village

school, founded by his father. However, he

made very little progress in this school as he

used to be frequently absent from the school.

In 1870 his father permanently shifted to

Kolkata (then Calcutta) mainly for proper

education of his children. Describing his first

impression of Kolkata, Ray, in his

autobiography, wrote: “In August 1870, I came

to Calcutta for the first time…I spent the

month of August in Calcutta, to my great joy,

almost every day seeing new sights. I caught

glimpses of a new world. A panorama of

gorgeous vistas was opened to me. The new

water-works had just been completed and the

town enjoyed the blessings of a liberal supply

of filtered drinking water; the orthodox Hindu

still hesitated to make use of it as being

impure; but the superior quality of water

carried its own recommendation; by slow

degrees, reason and convenience triumphed

over prejudice, and its use became almost

universal. The construction of underground

drains had just been taken in hand.”

In 1871, Ray and his elder brother

Nalinikanta, were admitted into the Hare

School, founded by David Hare, then located

in the one-story building. The school was

shifted to its present location in 1872. David

Hare was also associated with the

establishment of Hindu College. David Hare

himself was not educated. He was neither a

Government servant nor a Christian

missionary. However, he played a very

important role in spreading western education

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in Bengal. S.K. Dey in an article entitled ‘The

Hindu College and the Reforming Young

Bengal’ in Acharya Ray 70th Birthday

Commemoration Volume wrote: “The facts of

David Hare’s life are very few and can be told

very briefly. Son of a watchmaker in London,

who had married an Aberdeen lady, Hare came

out to Calcutta in 1800 at the age of 25 as a

watchmaker; and, after following that

profession for several years he made over his

concern (before 1816) to his friend, one Mr.

Grey, under whose roof he led his bachelor

life till his death on June 1, 1842 at the age of

sixty-seven. Instead of returning to his native

country, like the rest of his countrymen, with

the competence he had acquired, he adopted

for his own the country of his sojourn, and

cheerfully devoted the remainder of his life

to the one object dear to himself, namely, the

spread of Western education, for which he

spared neither personal trouble, nor money,

nor influence.”

From his autobiography we know that he

used to be ridiculed by his classmates in Hare

School. To quote Ray: “When my class-mates

came to know that I hailed from the district

of Jessore, I at once became their laughing-

stock and the butt of ridicule. I was nick-

named Bangal and various faults of omission

ascribed to the unfortunate people of East

Bengal began to be laid at my door. A Scotch

rustic or a Yorkshire lad with his peculiar

brogue and queer manners, when he suddenly

found himself in the midst of cockney

youngsters, a century ago, was I suppose

somewhat in a similar predicament. At that

time even the very germs of what is known

as the national awakening did not exist, and

a very few people cared to know that my

native district had begotten and sheltered in

its bossom two great warriors (Raja

Protapaditya and Raja Sitaram Ray), who had

raised the standard of revolt against the Great

Moghul, or his Viceroy….” In fact two other

luminaries namely Madhusudan Datta, the

great poet (regarded as Milton of Bengal) and

Dinabandhu Mitra the then greatest living

dramatist hailed from his district. It is

important to take note of Ray’s observation

because even today in India people of one

region are ignorant of historical and cultural

background of the other regions. This kind of

ignorance is a stumbling block in the way of

national integration. Ray did not stay long in

this school. A violent attack of dysentery not

only forced him to leave the school but made

him to interrupt his regular study for two

years. However, he fully utilized this time by

reading English classics and the literary and

historical writings in Bengali. During this

period Inner quadrangle of P.C. Ray’s ancestral

house he also learnt Latin and Greek. Ray was

a voracious reader. To quote him: “The

prescribed text-books never satisfied my

craving. I was a voracious devourer of books

and, when I was barely 12 years old, I

sometimes used to get up at 3 or 4 o’clock in

the morning so that I might pore over the

contents of a favourite author without

disturbance…History and biography have even

now a fascination for me. I read Chambers’

Biography right through several times. The

lives of Newton, Galileo - although at that

time I did not understand or realize the value

of their contributions - interested me much.

Sir WM. Jones, John Leyden and their linguistic

attainments deeply impressed me as also the

life of Franklin. The answer of Jones’ mother

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to his interrogations “read and you will know”

also was not lost upon me. Benjamin Franklin

has been my special favourite ever since my

boyhood…The career of this great

Pennsylvanian - how he began his life as an

ill-paid compositor and by sheer perseverance

and indomitable energy rose to be a leading

man in his country - has ever been an object-

lesson to me.”

In 1874 Ray resumed his regular study but

not in Hare School. He joined the Albert

School of Keshab Chandra Sen the founder of

Brahmo Samaj. In 1879 he passed the

Entrance Examination from Albert School. He

took admission in the First Arts (FA) Class of

the Metropolitan College (now named

Vidyasagar College), founded by Pandit

Iswarchandra Vidyasagar. One of the reasons

for taking admission in this colleges was the

low tuition fees. Because by that time Ray’s

father’s financial situation had considerably

deteriorated. In fact he had to close down his

Calcutta establishment and return to his

native village and his sons started living in

lodges. But then the financial situation was

not the only consideration. In the

Metropolitan College, Ray came under the

influence of Surendra Nath Banerjee, widely

regarded as the father of Indian nationalism.

Surendra Nath, who used to be regarded as

an ‘idol’ by the students of Bengal, taught

English literature in the Metropolitan College.

Ray, while explaining the reasons for taking

admission in this college, wrote: “I took my

admission into the Metropolitan Institution

of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, the

College Department of which had recently

been opened. This was the first bold

experiment in India of making high education

as cheap as secondary education. The fee in

the College was same as in the school, namely

three rupees. More than one reason

determined my choice of Vidyasagar’s College.

In the first place the Metropolitan Institution

was a national institution and something we

could look upon as our own; in the second

place Surendranath Bannerjee, who was

almost the god of our idolatry, was Professor

of English prose literature and Prasanta Kumar

Lahiri, a distinguished pupil of Tawney (of the

Presidency College, a learned Shakesperean

scholar) was Professor of poetry. I took care,

however, to attend lectures on Chemistry in

the First Arts Course and both Chemistry and

Physics in the Bachelor of Arts Course in the

Presidency College as an external student.

Chemistry was then a compulsory branch in

the F.A. Course. Mr. (afterwards Sir Alexander)

Pedler was a first-rate hand in experiments;

his manipulative skill was of a high order. I

began almost unconsciously to be attracted

to this branch of science.” Ray even tried to

perform some experiments himself. Thus he

wrote in his autobiography: “Not content with

merely seeing the experiments performed in

the class-room, myself and a fellow student

set up a miniature laboratory in the lodgings

of the latter and we took delight in

reproducing some of them. Once we improved

an oxyhydrogen blow-pipe out of an ordinary

thin tinned sheet of iron with the aid of a

tinker. With such crude apparatus the leakage

of oxygen into the hydrogen tube could not

be prevented and a terrible explosion took

place when the mixture was lighted.

Fortunately, we escaped unhurt. Although

Roscoe’s Elementary Lessons was the text, I

took care to have about me and go through

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as many works on Chemistry as I lay my hands

on.”

Ray’s father Harish Chandra used to

harbour an ambition to send at least one of

his sons to England for higher education. As

his economic situation deteriorated he had no

scope to realize his dreams. However, Prafulla

Chandra knew about his father’s dreams and

decided to prepare for the Gilchrist

Scholarship — a scholarship awarded by the

Edinburgh University, which was open to

students all over the world. While the

examination for the scholarship was

equivalent to the Matriculation standard of

the London University, it required knowledge

of at least four languages. It is said that

though being ridiculed by his classmates, Ray

continued with the preparation for the

examination. Ray came out successfully in the

competition. He was one of the two winners

of the Scholarship from India. The other

candidate was one Bahadurjee from Mumbai.

They were the first Gilchrist Scholars from

India. Ray’s parents were too glad to give their

consent for his going to England. And so armed

with the Scholarship Ray sailed for England

by S.S. California in the middle of 1882. Ray

was received in England by Jagadis Chandra

Bose, who had already been a student of the

Cambridge University for about couple of

years. Cambridge was expensive and it was

meant for the elite. Both Bose and Ray

became great friends for the rest of their lives.

In England he joined the University of

Edinburgh as a student in the B.Sc. class. He

was taught by Alexander Crum Brown (1838-

1922).

While a student in B.Sc. Ray decided to

take part in the essay competition announced

by the Lord Rector of the Edinburgh

University. The title of the essay to be written

was “India before and after the Mutiny”. The

essay was very critical of the British Rule in

India. In those days it required a lot of

conviction and courage to write such an essay.

It demonstrated Ray’s patriotic vigour. Ray did

not get the prize. In his autobiography he

wrote: “The prize was awarded to a rival

competitor, but my essay as well another’s

was bracketed together as proxime

accesserunt (nearest approach to the best).”

In his essay Ray wrote: “…The English

people has yet to be roused to an adequate

sense of importance of events which are now

taking place in India. Thoughts and ideas

which pervade the upper strata of society, are

now percolating through the lower; even the

masses are now beginning to be moved and

influenced. The latter element, it would no

longer do to treat as une quantite negligible.

England unfortunately now refuses to

recognize the hard and irresistible logic of

facts and does her best to strangle and

smother the nascent aspiration of a rising

nationality… Between the ideal and actual,

he (i.e. an Indian) sees a gulf intervening; he

finds it difficult to reconcile the practice of

British statesmen with their

profession…Compromises, half-measures and

halting policies have been tried elsewhere

with signal failure. Fifty years of concession

to Ireland have only served to embitter her

feelings against Great Britain. Will the lesson

which the sister island has taught us be lost

upon India?”

Ray distributed copies of his printed essay

among the University students and the

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general public. The October 28, 1886 issue of

The Scotsman remarked: “It is most

interesting little volume and we do not profess

to wonder in the least that it has earned a

considerable amount of popularity. It contains

information in reference to India which will

not be found elsewhere, and it is deserving of

the utmost notice.” Ray also sent a copy of

his Essay to John Bright, the great

parliamentarian. Bright not only

acknowledged the receipt but also stated that

he agreed with the views expressed by Ray in

his essay. A summary of Bright’s letter flashed

by Reuter is quoted below: “I regret with you

and condemn the course of Lord Dufferin in

Burma. It is a renewal of the old system of

crime and guilt, which we had hoped, had

been for ever abandoned. There is an ignorance

on the part of public in this country and great

selfishness here and in India as to our true

interests in India. The departures from

morality and true statesmanship will bring

about calamity and perhaps ruin, which our

children may witness and deplore.” It was

published in all the leading newspapers of

England under the head-line “John Bright’s

letter to an Indian Student”. The letter was

hotly debated in the political circle of England.

In 1886 Ray published his “Essay on India” in

the form of a booklet.

In 1885 Ray obtained his B.Sc. degree and

in 1887 he was awarded the D.Sc. degree of

the University of Edinburgh in recognition of

his work on “Conjugated (gepaarte) Sulphates

of the Copper-magnesium Group: A Study of

Isomorphous Mixtures and Molecular

Combinations.” He was awarded the Hope

Prize Scholarship which enabled him to stay

one more year in England. He was also elected

Vice President of the Chemical Society of the

Edinburgh University.

After spending about six years Ray

returned to India in 1888. His aim was to

pursue his researches in Chemistry and share

his knowledge with others, to be in a

Chemistry class or a laboratory. But in those

days Indian science was at its infancy. In

Chemistry there was not much career

prospects. Moreover it was extremely difficult

for an Indian to secure a berth in the

Educational Service. The situation was aptly

described by Ray himself. Ray in his

autobiography wrote: “Chemistry was

obtaining slow recognition as an important

branch of study in our colleges; but the

Presidency College was the only institution

where systematic courses of lectures

illustrated with experiments were given.

Private colleges were few in number and their

resources being limited could not afford to

open Science Departments. Students from

these colleges were, however, allowed to

attend the lectures at the Presidency College

on payment of nominal fees. The Indian

Association for the Cultivation of Science,

founded by Dr. Mahendralal Sircar in 1876,

also made arrangements for courses of lecture

in Chemistry and Physics and as these were

open to public, Dr. Sircar, I believe, made a

representation to the Government requesting

it to discontinue allowing students from

private colleges to attend lectures at the

Presidency College as otherwise the Science

Association lecture benches could be more or

less empty. This is no reflection on the Science

Association but rather on the mentality of the

average Indian youth; unless a subject is

prescribed for examination no one would care

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to have anything to do with it. The

Government also would have compelled to

adopt this course on its own initiative as

admissions where getting larger year after

year and B. Course (Ccience) growing to be

popular. In the eighties of the last century

Chemistry had made gigantic strides and it

was realized that the mere delivery of

elementary courses of lecture would not be

adequate to cope with the requirements and

that special arrangements must be made for

practical and laboratory teaching. Peddler had

on these grounds written to the Director of

Public Instruction to move the Bengal

Government for the sanction of an additional

Professor. It was at this psychological moment

that I returned from Edinburgh as an applicant

for a post.”

Whatever opportunities were available in

the educational institutions were mostly for

Britishers. The existing situation was

described by Ray in the following words:

“Indians of approved merit and sometimes

aristocratic ‘noodles’, were drafted into the

Civil Service who would draw two-thirds the

pay of the grade. The competitive examination

in England was to be thrown open only to

Britons (including ofcourse the Irish). These

regulations also permeated the Educational

Service. Jagadis Chandra Bose, who had

returned home three years before me, after a

brilliant career at Cambridge and London, and

who had to encounter untold hardships in

entering the Higher Service in the land of his

birth, was only allowed to cross its threshold

on condition that he should waive his claim

to the full pay of the grade and draw on the

two-thirds scale. It was only in rare cases that

the children of the soil were admitted to the

Higher Services, which made darkness more

visible. As a rule Indians of even approved

merit could only enter the subordinate branch

of the service. Agitation in India as also in the

British Parliament by friends of India against

the virtual exclusion of Indians could no longer

be ignored. The government of Lord Dufferin

under instructions from the Secretary of State

appointed the “Public Service Commission”

with a view to devise means for finding

extended employments for Indians. The

recommendations of the Commission were of

the nature of a compromise; whatever might

be done to satisfy he aspirations of the

Indians, every care must be taken to safeguard

the interests and privileges of the dominant

race. Two distinct services were created—one

the Imperial and the other the Provincial. The

former was meant to be reserved for Britishers

and the latter for the Indians; in the former

again the average emoluments worked out to

nearly double that of the latter.”

Under the circumstances described above

Ray could not think of a bright prospect. From

England he had brought a letter of

recommendation from his teacher Crum

Brown. He had also obtained assurance of

assistance from Sir Charles Bernard, Member,

Indian Council, in securing a position. Sir

Bernard also introduced Ray to B.H. Tawney,

the Principal of Presidency College, the

premier college of Kolkata, who was on leave

in London. Tawney, who happened to be a

relation of Sir Bernard, wrote to Sir Alfred

Croft, the Director of Public Instruction,

recommending the case of Ray. Tawney wrote:

“I am sure Dr. Ray would prove a valuable

acquisition to the Department if he could be

taken in.” After coming to Kolkata Ray met

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Alfred Croft, Tawney and Sir Alexander Pedler,

the then Professor of Chemistry in the

Presidency College. He also tried to get an

audience with the then Governor of Bengal,

Sir Stewart Bayley. Finally he was given a

temporary appointment as Assistant Professor

of Chemistry at the Presidency College on a

monthly salary of Rs. 250/- under the

Provincial Educational Service. Unlike his

friend Jagadis Chandra Bose, Ray accepted

the appointment and took up his duties at the

Presidency College in July 1889.

So for about a year that is from August

1888 to June 1889 Ray was without any

occupation. To know how he spent the time

we quote Ray: “During this period I was mostly

under the hospitable roof of Dr. and Mrs.

Jagadis Chandra Bose and I spent the time in

reading chemical literature and in botanising.

I collected and identified several specimens

of plants round about Calcutta with the aid

of Roxburgh’s Flora Indica and Hokker’s

Genera Plantarum.” Ray retired from the

Presidency College in 1916 as Professor and

Head of the Department of Chemistry.

After retiring from the Presidency College

Ray joined the University College of Science.

As early as in 1912 Asutosh Mookerjee had

invited Ray to join the University College of

Science as the first University Professor. In

his invitation letter, Mookerjee wrote: “It may

be in your recollection that on the 24th

February last, when the question of the

establishment of University Professorships

was before the Senate you expressed your

regret that no provision was made for a Chair

of Science. I assured you, on the spur of the

moment, that a Chair of Science might come

sooner than you expected. You will be pleased

to hear that my prophecy has been literary

fulfilled and that what was your ambition and

my ambition has been realized. We have

founded two Professorships, one of

Chemistry, the other of Physics. We have also

decided to establish—at once a University

Research Laboratory. All this we are able to

do by reason of the munificence of Mr. Palit,

supplemented by a grant of two and a half

lacs from our Reserve Fund. The whole

position is explained in the statement I made

before the Senate last Saturday; a copy is

enclosed herewith. I have now great pleasure

in inviting you to be the first University

Professor of Chemistry, and I feel confident

that you will accept my offer. I need hardly

add that I shall arrange matters in such a way

that you be not a loser from a pecuniary point

of view. As soon as you return, we shall, with

your assistance, prepare plans for the

proposed laboratory and begin to build as early

and as quickly as practicable. It would be an

Ray was a staunch patriot. In many ways he was connected with themovement for India's independence. Being a Government servant hecould not directly participate in politics. He subscribed whole-heartedlyto the policy of constructive work formulated by the Indian NationalCongress during the Non-cooperation Movement. He was in regularcontact with the top leaders of the Indian National Congress, whichwas spearheading the freedom struggle

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advantage, if before your return, you could

make time to see some of the best

laboratories in Great Britain or on the

Continent.” Ray received the letter in England,

where he had gone as delegate of the Calcutta

University to the Congress of the Universities

of the British Empire and also to the 250th

anniversary of the Royal Society. In response

to Asutosh Mookerjee’s letter Ray wrote to

the following effect: “I look upon the proposed

College of Science as the realization of the

dream of my life and it will not only be my

duty but a source of gratification to me to

join it and place my humble service at its

disposal.”

In 1936 Ray retired from his service in the

University College of Science but he

continued as Emeritus Professor of Chemistry

till his death.

Ray was a staunch patriot. In many ways

he was connected with the movement for

India’s independence. Being a Government

servant he could not directly participate in

politics. He subscribed whole-heartedly to the

policy of constructive work formulated by the

Indian National Congress during the Non-

cooperation Movement. He was in regular

contact with the top leaders of the Indian

National Congress, which was spearheading

the freedom struggle. It was Ray who took

initiative to bring Mahatma Gandhi for the

first time to Kolkata. Here we quote Ray on

his association with Gopal Krishna Gokhale

and Mahatma Gandhi. Ray wrote: “Sometimes

in 1901 Gopal Kirshna Gokhale came to

Calcutta to attend the session of the viceregal

council. One fine morning Dr. Nilratan Sarkar

called on me and asked me to be at once ready

to accompany him to the Howrah station to

receive the eminent statesman. Gokhale used

now and then to see me in my little retreat at

premises No. 91, Upper Circular Road in which

was also located the office and factory of the

Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works

then in its infancy. He took particular delight

in calling me a “scientific recluse.”…Gokhale

was several years junior to me in age and I

naturally in accordance with oriental ideas

used to take liberties with him.” Ray’s

patriotism reflected in his saying: “Science can

wait but Swaraj cannot.”

On his association with Mahatma Gandhi

Ray wrote: “I was thus in a manner responsible

for Mr. Gandhi’s first appearance on a Calcutta

platform…The frequent conversations which

I used to have with Mr. Gandhi made a deep

and lasting impression on me. He was earning

as a barrister several thousand rupees a month

but he was utterly regardless of worldliness

— ’I always make it a point to travel third class

in my railway journeys, so that I might be in

close personal touch with the masses—my

own countrymen—and get to know their

sorrows and sufferings.’ “Even after the lapse

Ray conducted systematic chemical analysis of a number of rare Indianminerals with the object of discovering in them some of the missingelements in Mendeleev's Periodic Table. In this process he isolatedmercurous nitrite in 1896, which brought him international recognition,as it was a compound, which as not known then.

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of thirty years, these words still ring in my

years. Truth lived is a far greater force than

truth merely spoken” Ray published about 120

research papers mostly in research journals

of international repute. Ray conducted

systematic chemical analysis of a number of

rare Indian minerals with the object of

discovering in them some of the missing

elements in Mendeleev’s Periodic Table. In this

process he isolated mercurous nitrite in 1896,

which brought him international recognition,

as it was a compound, which as not known

then. Describing this event Ray wrote in his

autobiography : “the discovery of mercurous

nitrite opened a new chapter in my life.” The

discovery of mercurous nitrite was an

accidental one. Ray wanted to prepare water

soluble mercurous nitrate as an intermediate

for the synthesis of calomel, Hg2Cl2. Ray first

published his findings in the Journal of Asiatic

Society of Bengal and which immediately

noticed by Nature, the famous international

science journal. This discovery of mercurous

nitrite led to many significant publications.

Another notable contribution made by Ray

was the synthesis of ammonium nitrite in pure

form. Before Ray’s synthesis it used to be

believed that ammonium nitrite (NH4NO2)

undergoes fast thermal decomposition

yielding nitrogen (N2) and water (H2O). Ray

presented his findings in a meeting of the

Chemical Society of London. William Ramsay

was greatly impressed by Ray’s findings.

Commenting on Ray’s scientific achievements

Professor W.E. Armstrong wrote: “In type of

Sir Prafulla Ray is perhaps more like a

Frenchman than an Englishman in his

receptive habit of mind : the nearest

comparison I can make is to contrast him with

Berthelot, not only a many-sided chemist but

also an agronomist, man of letters and

politician. Let me say frankly, Ray is not great

as a chemical specialist nor was Berthelot: he

has been occupied in too many directions, too

much kept aloof from the field of chemical

discovery and its masters, to have lost himself

in the contemplation of the maze of chemical

experience to the extent necessary to be

entirely overcome by the magic and immunity

of its problems. None the less, he is the

founder of the Indian chemical school.” Similar

sentiments, were voiced by Priyadaranjan Ray:

“one must not, however, lose sight of the

important fact that Ray’s real contribution to

the development of chemical research in India

rests not so much on his own personal

research publication as on his inspiring and

initiating a generation of young workers, who,

dedicating themselves to a scientific career

succeeded in building up what is now known

as the Indian School of Chemistry.”

The first volume of Ray’s celebrated work,

The History of Hindu Chemistry, was

published in 1902. The second volume was

published in 1908. It was Marcellin Pierre

Eugene Berthelot (1827-1907), who inspired

Ray to undertake this monumental work. In

the preface to the first edition Ray wrote:” …I

was brought into communication with M.

Berthelot some five years ago – a

circumstance which has proved to be a turning

point, if I may so say, in my career as a student

of the history of Chemistry. The illustrious

French savant, the Doyen of the chemical

world, who has done more than any other

persons to clear up the sources and trace the

progress of chemical science in the West,

expressed a strong desire to know all about

the contribution of the Hindus, even went the

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length of making a personal appeal to me to

help him with information on the subject. In

response to his sacred call I submitted to him,

in 1898, a short monograph on Indian

alchemy; it was based chiefly on Rasendra

Samgraha, a work which I have since then

found to be a minor importance and not

calculated to throw much light on the vexed

question as to the origin of the Hindu

Chemistry. M. Berthelot not only did me the

honour of reviewing it at length but very kindly

presented me with a complete set of his

monumental work, in three volumes, on the

Chemistry of the Middle Ages, dealing chiefly

with the Arabian and Syrian contributions on

the subject, the very existence of which I was

not till then aware of. On perusing the

contents of these works I was filled with the

ambition of supplementing them with one on

Hindu chemistry.” Ray’s Hindu Chemistry was

immediately recognized as a unique

contribution in annals of history of science.

Berthelot himself wrote a 15-page review in

Journal des Savant in its issue of January 1903.

Renowned international journals like Nature

and Knowledge wrote very highly of the book.

In 1912 the Vice Chancellor of Durham

University, while conferring the Honorary

D.Sc. degree on Prafulla Chandra Ray, noted:

“…his fame chiefly rests on his monumental

History of Hindu Chemistry, a work of which

both the scientific and linguistic attainments

are equally remarkable, and of which, if on

any book, we may pronounce that it is

definitive.”

Ray started his Bengal Chemical and

Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. (or Bengal

Chemical as it is popularly known) in 1892

with a view, that it would create jobs for the

unemployed youth. To establish it, he had to

work under the most adverse circumstances.

But he worked hard. To quote him: “Every

afternoon on returning from the college (4:30

pm) I used to go through the previous day’s

orders to see that they were executed

promptly. The migration from my college

laboratory to the pharmacy laboratory was to

me a recreation and a change of occupation. I

would at once throw myself into my new ̀ job’

and work at a stretch from 4:30 pm to 7 pm

and clear the file. When work is coupled with

a keen sense of enjoyment it does not tell

upon your health; the very idea of locally

manufacturing pharmaceutical preparation,

which hitherto had to be imported, acted like

a tonic.”

Sir John Cumming in Review of the

Industrial Position and Prospects in Bengal in

1908 observed: “The Bengal Chemical and

Pharmaceutical Works Ltd., is one of the most

go-ahead young enterprises in Bengal. Dr.

Prafulla Chandra Ray, D.Sc., FCS., started it

as a small private concern in Upper Circular

In 1912 the Vice Chancellor of Durham University, while conferring theHonorary D.Sc. degree on Prafulla Chandra Ray, noted: “…his famechiefly rests on his monumental History of Hindu Chemistry, a work ofwhich both the scientific and linguistic attainments are equallyremarkable, and of which, if on any book, we may pronounce that it isdefinitive.”

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Road about 15 years ago and made drugs from

indigenous materials. About six years ago it

was made into a limited liability company,

with a capital of two lakhs. Many of the

leading chemists are share-holders. It has now

a well-thought out and well-managed factory

with about 70 workmen, at 90 Maniktala Main

Road. Babu Rajshekhar Bose, the Manager, is

an M.A. in Chemistry. The variety of

manufacturers of laboratory apparatus, which

requires skilled craftsmen in wood and metal,

has been taken up. The latest development is

in perfumes. The enterprise shows signs of

resourcefulness and business capacity, which

should be an object lesson to capitalists of

this province.”

Ray had great fascination for rural life and

he had a deep concern for the people living in

rural areas. He used to frequently visit the

houses of poor peasants and took interest in

their agricultural pursuits. He wrote:

“Although I instinctively avoided the society

of those who used to frequent my father’s

drawing room, I threw off reserve when in the

company of unsophisticated rural folk. I often

would visit them in their thatched homes. In

those days there were scarcely any grocer’s

shops in the village, Sago, arrow-root, and

sugar candy which have so largely entered into

the dietary of the sick could not be had for

love or money and I always took particular

pleasure in distributing these and laying my

mother’s stores under heavy contribution, but

she gladly used to second me in my

ministration.” Ray is remembered for his part

in the Bengal famine of 1922. A correspondent

for Mancnester Guardian wrote: “In these

circumstances, a professor of chemistry, Sir

P.C. Ray, stepped forward and called upon his

countrymen to make good the Government’s

omission. His call was answered with

enthusiasm. The public of Bengal, in one

month gave three lakhs of rupees, rich women

giving their silk and ornaments and the poor

giving their garments. Hundreds of young men

volunteered to go down and carry out the

distribution of relief to the villages, a task

which involved a considerable amount of hard

work and bodily discomfort in a malarious

country. The enthusiasms of the response to

Shri P.C. Ray’s appeal was due partly to the

Bengal’s natural desire to scare off the foreign

Government, partly to genuine sympathy for

the sufferers, but very largely to Sir P C. Ray’s

remarkable personality and position. He is a

real organizer and a real teacher. I heard a

European saying: ̀ If Mr. Gandhi had been able

to create two more Sir P.C. Ray, he would have

succeeded in getting Swaraj within this year.”

Ray wrote extensively on a variety of

subjects both in English and Bengali. He wrote

a book on Zoology titled Simple Zoology in

1893. For writing this book he not only studied

many authoritative books on Zoology but also

visited museums and zoos. It has been

reported that he even went to the extent of

dissecting a few carcasses with the help of

Nilratan Sarkar, the famous physician. Ray

wrote a series of scholarly articles on

Shakespeare in Calcutta Review during 1939-

41. Ray frequently contributed article in many

Bengali periodicals like Basumati,

Bharatbarsha, Bangabani, Banglarbani,

Prabashi, Anandabazar Patrika, Manashi etc.

Ray gave away most of his earnings in

charity. According to one estimate Ray spent

nine-tenths of his income on charity. In 1922

he made an endowment of Rs.10,000 for an

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annual prize in chemistry, named after the

great Indian alchemist Nagarjuna. He also

made an endowment of Rs.10,000 in 1936

for a research prize in Zoology and Botany

named after Asutosh Mookerjee. He

supported many poor students. At the time

of his retirement Ray donated Rs.180,000 to

the Calcutta University for the extension and

development of the Chemistry Department.

He did not accept any salary from Bengal

Chemicals, which he donated for the welfare

of the workers. Ray died on June 16, 1942 in

his living room in the University College of

Science of the Calcutta University surrounded

by his students (whom he loved most), friends

and admirers. Ray’s philosophy of life was

beautifully summed up by Professor F.G.

Donnan of the University College of Science,

London on the occasion of Ray’s 70th

birthday. Donnan wrote: “Sir P. C. Ray,

however, has been throughout his life no

narrow laboratory specialist…His ideals have

always been hard work and practical good in

service of his country. Though devoted to the

cause of pure science, he has never been

unpractical dreamer in the clouds. But he has

never asked much for himself, living always a

life of Spartan simplicity and frugality—Saint

Francis of Indian Science. I hope that future

ages will cherish his name as one band of self-

denying and devoted men who received and

handed on the flame that once burnt so

brightly in India, the search for truth and

hidden mysteries of things.”

For Further Reading

1. Life and Experiences of a Bengali Chemist (Vol. 1 &

2) by P.C. Ray, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 1996

(first published in 1932)

2. Prafulla Chandra Ray by P. Ray in Biographical

Memoirs of Fellows of the National Institute of

Sciences of India (Vol.1), New Delhi, 1966.

3. P.C. Ray by J. Sen Gupta, National Book Trust, India,

New Delhi, 1972.

4. A History of Hindu Chemistry (Vol. 1 & 2) by P.C.

Ray, Kolkata (The first volume was published in 1902

and the second volume in 1909. A new revised edition

was published by Priyadaranjan Ray in 1956)

5. Acharya Ray 70th Birthday Commemoration Volume,

Calcutta Orient Press, Kolkata, 1932.

6. Acharya Prafulla Chnadra Ray : Birth Centenary

Souvenir volume, Calcutta University, 1962.

7. Acharya Prafulla Chandra at the College of Science,

by Gurunath Mukherjee, Resonance, January 2001.

8. Chemical Research of Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray by

Sreebrata Goswami and Samaresh Bhattacharya,

Resonance, January 2001.

9. Prafulla Chandra Ray by Animesh Chakravorty,

Resonance, January 2001.

Dr. Subodh Mahanti

Vigyan PrasarC-24, Qutab Institutional Area

NEW DELHI – 110 016 E Mail: smahanti@vigyanprasar.gov.in

: "Sir P. C. Ray, however, has been throughout his life no narrow laboratoryspecialist…His ideals have always been hard work and practical goodin service of his country. Though devoted to the cause of pure science,he has never been unpractical dreamer in the clouds. But he has neverasked much for himself, living always a life of Spartan simplicity andfrugality-Saint Francis of Indian Science

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It was again anengineer-cum-administrator Sir M.Visweswarayya whohad worked out the firstever development planfor the country aselaborated in hiscelebrated book on"Planned Economy forIndia" published in1934.

ON SOMECRUCIAL S&TISSUES INCONTEMPORARYINDIA :SomeThoughts

Dr. A.D. Damodaran

PA

RT

XV

Give me the courage to change the things

I can, and the things I can’t; and the

wisdom to know the difference”. So said a

great philosopher as an abundant caution.

Another great one of the same tribe said, “The

philosophers have only interpreted the world,

the question is how to change it”. In essence,

conscious social-cum-national development

means ultimately the adoption and

implementation of a policy framework to bring

about changes within a carefully orchestrated

strategy, in turn resting on adequate

understanding of ground realities and

challenges.

Our history is also fortunately enough

replete with descriptions of the early urges of

our leaders and statesmen championing the

cause of national development based on

modern science and technology. Totally

inspired by the German scenario, the veteran

industrialist JN Tata identified steel, electric

power and what he called Industrial Science

as three pillars of modern techno-economic

development; and accordingly he established

the steel plant at Jhamshedpur, hydroelectric

power station at Kapolei near Bombay and a

dedicated trust with the then government of

India for an advanced research centre for

industrial science which eventually developed

to what is now Indian Institute of Science in

Bangalore. It was again an engineer-cum-

administrator Sir M. Visweswarayya who had

worked out the first ever development plan

for the country as elaborated in his celebrated

book on “Planned Economy for India”

published in 1934. An elder statesman, a

distinguished administrator and a highly rated

engineer by profession, Visweswarayya had

formulated his plan resting on the following

basic premises: (a) Tremendously impressed

by the results of the Fist Five Year Plan in

Soviet Union - he called it ‘the first plan’ in

the world which was ‘developed openly and

put into execution on a nation-wide basis’ and

‘embracing every phase of national life –

political, economic,

social and cultural’

(b) ‘The Indian plan

should avoid

c o m m u n i s t i c

tendencies; its

basic policy should

be to encourage

c o l l e c t i v e

effort…more or less

on the lines

followed in the

United States and

in Turkey’. He put it

explicitly thus, “It is

safe for this

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country to proceed along the lines practiced

in such capitalist countries as France and the

United States. We have yet to build up some

measure of moderate industrial prosperity, and

for the present, capitalism is best suited for

that purpose. Only the monopolies incidental

to capitalism should be minimized; and

wherever they are inevitable, a watch should

be maintained and special modifications made

by legal enactments and otherwise, in the

direction of service to the public”, (c) All the

heavy industries and all other industrial,

agricultural or other projects are to be in private

sector, with the role of the state more or less

confined to coordination as well as giving of

subsidies, and (d) He approvingly quoted Stalin

for making ‘the main link of the FYP as heavy

industry and its core, machine construction

because only heavy industry was capable of

reconstructing industry as a whole, and transport

and agriculture, and of putting them on their

feet. Unless we have industry, unless we restore

it, we cannot build up any industry, and without

it we shall perish as an independent country’.

He accepted that the approach of Stalin and

Lenin was relevant and applicable to India as

well. His ‘picture of a reconstructed India’ was

one ‘which will have been industrialized in the

sense that the USA, Canada, Japan and Soviet

Russia are today’. In working out such a strategy,

he had surveyed what he considered to be

‘important developments’ taking place in

capitalist countries including United States

where ‘a new kind of state socialism’ is being

tried on a gigantic scale under Mr Roosevelt’s

National Recovery Act, providing for higher

wages and shorter working hours to dethrone

the unrestricted individual entrepreneur and to

make the group the country’s economic and

social audit.

When Jawaharlal Nehru had taken over as

Chairman of Congress Planning Committee

in late 1930s, the said plan plus many more

ideas worked out by a Bombay group of

industrialists were already before him. Due to

other political exigencies of the time, Nehru

could not complete his task though much of

the prevailing views got incorporated

subsequently into the well known Tata-Birla

Plan. In essence, the then political leaders

headed by Jawaharlal Nehru had at the time

of independence itself in front of them a

possible development plan, quite unlike many

other newly emerging countries in the world.

It was realized that India did not possess

either capital goods or technical know-how;

it needed both these from advanced countries

abroad.

Since atomic energy was identified to be

totally under the state sector due to unique

techno-political nature, its known specialist

leaders were asked to work out a strategy best

suited for developing the sector. This was the

national political milieu under which Homi

Bhabha could formulate his “Growing Science”

model as a follow up of his pioneering efforts

in establishing the Tata Institute of

Fundamental Research with support from Sir

Dorabji Tata Trust, having been convinced and

motivated since 1944 that “when nuclear

energy has been successfully applied for

power production in say a couple of decades

from now, India will not have to look abroad

for its experts but will find them at home”.

Through this column earlier it was

highlighted that “It is within such a context

that one is tempted to attempt a revisit of

the “Growing Science” model formulated by

Homi Bhabha, the great scientist-engineer for

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India’s Atomic Energy Program and who

championed it for the nation itself. The

essence of the Growing Science model (Ref:

“Problems of Science Development”

International Council of Scientific Unions,

Bombay, January, 1966) and the strategy

worked out by Bhabha for nuclear technology

under the “growing science” approach had

the following major elements: (a) Evaluation

of the technology gap in the field between

India and advanced countries in all aspects,

including the nature of Intellectual Property

Rights related to it, (The nuclear reactor was

patented in 1945 itself by Fermi and Szilard

in an extensive US patent!), (b) Importation

of appropriate technology wherever feasible

without any pre-conditions and thereby

utilizing the opportunity to get a quick “

assisted take-off”, (c) Systematic

development of the appropriate indigenous

S&T infrastructure to assimilate the “ know-

how and know-why “ of designs, equipments

and systems, and (d) Providing adequate legal/

administrative policy umbrella support for

implementing the indigenous development

program, including support measures to

overcome issues connected with Intellectual

Property Rights. Suffice here to say that the

Indian Atomic Energy Act 1962 had

incorporated all the essential requirements for

implementing the DAE program as envisaged.

Thanks to such a farsighted strategy, DAE was

able to execute its task with great success,

in spite of many a major set-backs not unusual

in assimilating such an ‘unforgiving

technology’. This was despite the most

rigorous international non-trade barriers –

such as embargoes of large number of items

including those belonging to the so-called

‘dual use’ category from the advanced

countries – due to which its programs had to

suffer for over a decade through delay in

achieving the projected targets delay.

It is in this context that we reproduce here

the relevant extracts from Nuclear India, Nov-

Dec 2008, brought out by DAE as a tribute to

late Homi Bhabha and Jawaharlal Nehru

described therein as “The Architects of Atomic

Energy Program in India”. The early history and

the subsequent formation of the full fledged

AEC/DAE, an independent Department in any

field of science and technology for the first

time in India, has been made public recently

through a series of letters exchanged between

Nehru and Bhabha as early as between April

26, 1948 and January 9, 1962 as part of the

Bhabha Birth Centenary Celebration

documents. Salient features of the same are

given as below:

(a) It is ‘reasonable to believe that within

the next couple of decades atomic energy

would play an important part in the economy

and the industry of countries and that, if India

did not wish to fall even further behind the

industrially advanced countries of the world,

it would be necessary to take more energetic

measures to develop this branch of science

and appropriate larger sums for the purpose.

(b) An immediate objective should be the

setting up of a small atomic pile…The quickest

and most desirable way of developing atomic

energy in India would be to come to an

agreement with the governments or atomic

energy agencies of one or more countries such

as UK, France …on mutually advantageous

terms involving the exchange of raw materials

used (since India has so far not been able to

locate any large reserves of uranium

resources) in the generation of atomic energy

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and the pooling of scientific and technical

information.

(c) Absolute secrecy will have to be

observed and ensured with respect to any

secret information given to us by a foreign

atomic energy agency. This requires that the

development of atomic energy should be

entrusted to a very small and high-powered

body... with executive power and answerable

directly to the Prime Minister without any

intervening link. For brevity, this body may be

referred to as the Atomic Energy Commission.

The present Board of Research on Atomic

Energy cannot be entrusted with this work

since it is an advisory body which reports to

the Governing Body of the Council of

Scientific and Industrial Research, composed

of 28 members including officials, scientists

and industrialists. Secret matters cannot be

dealt with under such bodies.

(d) The same reason requires that Atomic

Energy Commission have its own secretariat

independent of the secretariat of any other

Ministry or Department of the government,

including the envisaged Department of

Scientific and Industrial Research.

(e) A sum of Rs 50 lakhs will be required

…to build a small pile while an additional equal

amount for purchase of raw materials like

uranium, heavy water, etc., the total sum

being apportioned within four years.

(f) Vide his letter dated July 11,1954,

Bhabha submits details of his Work Plan itself

to the Prime Minister. This includes setting

up of an AEET as the premier R&D Centre at

Trombay, systematic survey for atomic

minerals especially uranium, beneficiation of

the low grade ores to workable concentrates

and then going all the way to production of

nuclear pure Uranium metal, plants for heavy

water, setting up of power reactors through

import, plutonium extraction plant, setting up

of production plants for other nuclear

materials like zirconium, titanium, beryllium,

etc and, last but not the least “to train and

develop the necessary scientific and technical

staff”.

And so on. It is now part of history that on

August 3, 1954, a separate Department of

Atomic Energy was created in the direct

charge of the Prime Minister. In order to

ensure complete autonomy for the

Department in matters of staff, construction,

supplies, and finance, the Department was

vested with powers (i) to make its own

appointments without reference to the Union

Public Service Commission, (ii) to carry out

all civil engineering work through its own

Division without reference to CPWD and (iii)

to make its own purchases of materials,

equipments and supplies without reference

to the DGSD. Atomic Energy Commission

itself was enlarged and reconstituted in 1958

as the true apex body, with Chairman, AEC

concurrently also Secretary, Department of

Atomic Energy. Thanks to the great far sight,

administrative prowess and the willingness to

change structures to meet the new

requirements, the Nehru-Bhabha duo

implemented for the first time a new model

for S&T governance.

All the same time, it must be remembered

that Prime Mister Nehru was equally clear as

to who held the upper hand on policy matters!

In a letter dated July 29, 1956, Nehru

amplified clarified the matter as follows: “I

have not seen your note about the

composition of the Indian delegation to the

International Conference to consider the draft

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statute of the International Atomic Energy

Agency. I shall await that. Meanwhile, the

question that arises is as to how far this

Conference will consider political questions

or purely technical and scientific ones. I find

that some of the other major countries are

sending non-technical people as leaders of

their delegations. It would probably be

advisable for you and your scientific

colleagues not to get mixed up too much with

the political aspects”. It was well known that

India under Nehru was championing for a

democratic structure for IAEA reporting to the

US General Council whereas the Big Powers

saw to it that IAEA would report only to the

Security Council instead! No wonder that over

the decades IAEA had transformed itself more

as a nuclear policing body rather than as its

originally cherished aim of serving as a

technological platform for spreading the

Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy!

Under the Nehru-Bhabha leadership, the

AEC/DAE structure was ready for a fast take-

off by mid-1950s itself. The short and long

term strategies were worked out, so also the

detailed break-up into concrete elements.

Based on a generous offer from the United

Kingdom to provide the required enriched

uranium fuel elements, DAE commissioned its

first swimming pool research reactor Purnima

at Trombay in August 4,1954. This was

followed by the 40MWt CIRUS reactor with

Canadian assistance by July 10,1960 and so

on for advanced studies and research. The

Trombay Research Establishment became the

research centre for all nuclear research

activities, including the first ever S&T HRD

effort through the Training School from

1957itself.So also the facilities for producing

uranium metal, reactor fuels, reprocessing,

and so on in quick succession based on

indigenous efforts complemented through

friendly foreign supports wherever possible

under terms ‘favorable to our country’. By the

mid-1960s, permission were obtained to go

for setting up a 400MWe atomic power

station based on US technology at Tarapur and

another one of equal capacity at Rajasthan

based on Canadian technology.

To summarize very briefly, the DAE

strategy was based on the brilliant twin

strategy of selective foreign support and

intense efforts on building concurrently the

indigenous capability.

Dr. A.D. DamodaranFormer Director

Regional Research LaboratoryIndustrial Estate P.O.

PappanamcodeThiruvananthapuram – 695 017

E Mail: alathurdamodaran@yahoo.co.in

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SCIENCE OF THE MONTH

JUNE 2010N.S. Arun Kumar

June1: A large number of star-forming areas

in our Milky Way galaxy, previously unknown

to astronomers, have been discovered. These

newfound regions are providing astronomers

with important information about the galaxy’s

structure and are yielding new clues about the

process of galaxy evolution. In a separate

study, the discovery of enormous hydrogen

clouds in portions of the Milky Way will also

help astronomers better understand the

process of galactic evolution.

June 2: The World Science Festival begins at

New York City. Renowned physicist Stephen

W. Hawking will be honored in the function.

The event will last upto June 6. In conjunction

with the opening ceremony, the Kavli

Foundation announced the winners of this

year’s Kavli Prizes, which honor researchers

in fields that didn’t exist as organized

disciplines when the Nobel Prizes started:

Astrophysics, Neuroscience, and

Nanoscience. The prizes are handed out every

other year, and were first awarded in 2008.

June 3: China’s newly installed Nebulae

supercomputer at National Supercomputing

Centre in Shenzhen (NSCS) in Shenzhen, has

become the world’s second fastest, just

behind Jaguar, the world’s fastest located at

National Centre for Computational Sciences

in United States. Jaguar is used by the US

department of energy for calculation and

simulation in areas like climate modelling,

renewable energy, materials science, fusion ,

and combustion.

June 4: Climate scientists have expressed

surprise at findings that many low-lying

Pacific islands are growing, not sinking. The

findings, published in the journal Global and

Planetary Change, were gathered by

comparing changes to 27 Pacific islands over

the last 20 to 60 years using historical aerial

photos and satellite images. Auckland

University’s Associate Professor Paul Kench,

a member of the team of scientists, says the

results challenge the view that Pacific islands

are sinking due to rising sea levels associated

with climate change.

June 5: India’s first home made swine flu

vaccine was launched by Health Minister

Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday. It will hit the

markets on today. Named Vaxiflu-S, it has

been manufactured by pharmaceutical major

Cadila Healthcare and is an egg-based, single

dosed vaccine. It’s priced at Rs 350.Over the

next few months, another three drug

companies will come out with their own

versions of the vaccine. It’s a vaccine that

promises to change the way India will tackle

swine flu.

June 6: Astronomers claim to have found

hints of life on Saturn’s moon Titan which is

much too cold to support even liquid water

on its surface. According to the ‘New

Scientist’, the two potential signatures of life

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on Titan were found by Cassini spacecraft, but

scientists have pointed out that non-

biological chemical reactions could also be

behind the observations. Cassini

measurements also suggest hydrogen is

disappearing near Titan’s surface, according

to a study by Darrell Strobel of Johns Hopkins

University in Baltimore.

June 7: Scientists taking a genome-wide view

of ancestry have traced the genetic roots of

seven Jewish groups. Each of the Jewish

groups (Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Italian, Turkish,

Greek and Ashkenazi) has its own genetic

signature but is more closely related to the

other Jewish groups than to non-Jewish

groups, the researchers found. The research

was lead by New York University School of

Medicine. The study is published in the online

issue of American Journal of Human Genetics.

June 8: An UFO was seen moving through the

sky just before Saturday’s sunrise by people

across eastern Australia. The people who have

seen the flying object described it as a

“lollipop-type swirl”. It hovered for a while

before gradually moving in an eastern

direction until it was out of sight. Those who

saw it said photos do not reflect how large it

actually was. However scientists say that a

bright spiraling light spotted in the sky was

probably a satellite, space junk or a rocket

(Photo above).

June 9: Impressed by the global popularity of

saffron produced in Jammu and Kashmir,

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a

national mission to promote research and

production of the valuable spice will be set

up in the state. Saffron from the Jammu is

famous world over for its use in enhancing

the taste of food and for its medicinal

properties. He was speaking at the

convocation of Sher-i-Kashmir University of

Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

June 10: The Trappist telescope (TRAnsiting

Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope),

the new robotic telescope designed to study

planets around other stars has taken its first

image. Although based in Chile, the Trappist

telescope is operated by the European

Southern Observatory (ESO) organisation,

which oversees the La Silla facility and the

Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is also in

Chile. As well as detecting and characterizing

so-called exoplanets, Trappist will also study

comets orbiting our Sun.

June 11: The user trials of laser-guided bombs

developed by the Aeronautical Development

Establishment (ADE) were conducted on

Wednesday by Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft

over the Pokhran range in Rajasthan. The ADE

is a unit of the Defence Research and

Development Organization (DRDO). A DRDO

press release said the flight tests had

demonstrated the accuracy, reliability and

performance of these precision air-launched

bombs.

June 12: A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000

years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in

Egypt, has been found in a cave in Armenia.

The 5,500 year old shoe, the oldest leather

shoe in the world, was discovered by a team

of international archaeologists and their

findings will publish on June 9th in the online

scientific journal PLoS ONE. The oldest known

footwear in the world, to the present time,

are sandals made of plant material, that were

found in a cave in the Arnold Research Cave

in Missouri in the US.

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June 13: A Swiss solar innovator has been

awarded the Millennium Technology prize for

his research into the way that plants turn light

into energy. Professor Michael Gratzel of the

Lausanne Federal Technology Institute

received the £660,000 prize in Helsinki.

Michael Gratzel said India stands to benefit

significantly from a new technology on solar

power as it is cheap, green and efficient. Solar

cells can also provide energy for water

purification. Solar panel is now already capable

of charging your mobile phone, he said.

June 14: A vast mountain range that rivals

the Alps in majesty buried underneath the ice

of Antarctica - is revealed by scientists. They

are buried beneath solid ice more than a mile

(1.6 kilometers) thick, deep within

Antarctica’s eastern interior. The existence of

this mountain range, called the Gamburtsev

Mountains, shocked the Russian scientists

who first discovered it more than 50 years ago.

At the International Polar Year conference in

Oslo, Norway, scientists unveiled new radar

images of the area.

June 15: A capsule thought to contain the first

samples grabbed from the surface of an

asteroid has returned to Earth. The Japanese

Hayabusa container hit the top of the

atmosphere just after 1350 GMT, producing a

bright fireball over southern Australia. The

Hayabusa mission was launched to asteroid

Itokawa in 2003, spending three months at

the space rock in 2005. The main spacecraft,

along with the sample-storage capsule,

should have come back to Earth in 2007, but

a succession of technical problems delayed

their return by three years.

June 16: An international meeting has given

the green light to the formation of a global

“science policy” panel on biodiversity and

ecosystem services, viz., Intergovernmental

Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and

Ecosystem Services (IPBES). More than 230

delegates from 85 nations backed the

proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan,

South Korea. The international panel is

expected to be formally endorsed in 2011.

It is expected that the IPBES will be modelled

on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC).

June 17: Australian researchers calculate that

Southern Ocean sperm whales release about

50 tonnes of iron every year. This stimulates

the growth of tiny marine plants -

phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during

photosynthesis. The process results in the

absorption of about 40,000 tonnes of carbon

- more than twice as much as the whales

release by breathing, the study says. The

researchers note in the Royal Society journal

Proceedings B that the process also provides

more food for the whales, estimated to

number about 12,000.

June 18: The world’s oldest known example

of a fig wasp has been identified from the Isle

of Wight. Dating back 34 million years, the

fossil wasp looks almost identical to the

modern species, suggesting the specialized

insect has remained virtually unchanged for

at least that long. Steve Compton, a fig wasp

expert at the University of Leeds in England

says that molecular evidence shows that fig

wasps and fig trees have been evolving

together for over 60 million years. The

research will be published this week in Biology

Letters.

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June 19

June 20

June 21

June 22

June 21

June 22

June 23

June 24

June 25

June 26

June 27

June 28

June 29

June 30

N.S. Arun KumarCPIi/64, Crescent Apartments

ChelambraMalappuram district – 673 634

E Mail: yeyenyes@gmail.comwww.aknscienceblogspot.com

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A Book For Your Home LibraryProf. V.P.N. Nampoori

With this issue of Science India we introduce a new feature, introducing ascience book, most suitable to add to your home library - Editor

The Strangest Man – The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac,Quantum Genius

By Graham Farmelo, Published by Faber and Faber(Available in Modern Book Centre , Trivandrum, Kerala)

Students and those who love science

should read history of science since it

describes the methodology of the

development and evolution of ideas and

concepts giving birth to theories and birth of

new knowledge leading to the development

of technologies and thereby creating even a

paradigm shift in the lifestyle of the society.

Think of the way cellphones and internets

have transformed the whole world into a

global village. These luxuries of modern life is

due to the works of a handful of men who

struggled a lot during their life in the quest

of knowing the truth or the reality of nature.

In this context, autobiographies and

biographies of scientists are valuable tools in

understanding the science and its

development. Life and works of gifted

individuals are important as the 19th century

philosopher John Stuart Mill puts it (1896) “

The amount of eccentricity in a society has

generally been proportional to the amount of

genius, mental vigour, and moral courage

which it contained. That so few now dare to

be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the

time.”

The Strangest Man is the life story of a

genius in the same legion of Newton and

Einstein. Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, Erwin

Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg were the

trio who developed the Physics of atoms and

molecules called quantum mechanics during

1920s. Dirac was instrumental in tying knots

between quantum mechanics

(theory describing the behaviour of atoms

and molecules) and theory of relativity (theory

describing the universe and its behaviour)

which gave birth to relativistic quantum

mechanics, which helped in understanding

the universe through the behaviour of

elementary particles like electron, proton and

field particles like photons. Purely with the

help of his insight and mathematical vigour

) " The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally beenproportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral

courage which it contained. That so few now dare to beeccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

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Dirac predicted the existence of antiparticles

like positrons (antielectrons) and antiprotons.

This is an unparalleled example in which

beauty of mathematics guided in unveiling the

secret of nature. Positron is now with us in

everyday life through the medical imaging

technology called Positron Emission

Tomography (PET). Dirac shared Nobel Prize

in 1933 with Schrodinger and Heisenberg.

Dirac is the youngest Nobel Prize winner at

the age of 31.

Farmelo’s book “The Strangest Man”

uncovers the unknown side of Dirac not only

as a scientist but as a human being also. On

reading this book one has an experience of

being a cotravellor of quantum mechanics

during its developmental stage. This book is

also a valuable record for social scientists

studying how family shapes the future of

children. Samuel Butler says (1903) “A good

deal of unkindness and selfishness on the part

of parents towards children is not generally

followed by ill consequences to the parents.

They may cast a gloom over their children’s

lives for many years”. This book is of interest

to medical doctors ho will get introduced to

a genius probably suffered with a disorder

called autism. The life and work of Dirac are

always influenced by his painful family

experiences at home during his childhood.

Dirac never liked to remember his father . He

once said to an interviewer “In my life I owe

nothing to my father…”

The book in 31 chapters spread over five

hundred pages descibes Dirac the man and

Dirac the Scientist with an unusual gift of the

author in providing the readers with gists of

scientific theories like antiparticles, string

theory, atomic and nuclear phenomena with

contemporary political scene in the

watermark backdrop. This may influence the

interested readers to go for specialized studies

in the fields. Life of Dirac also reflects on the

life and works of his contemporaries which

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are brought to the readers’ attention without

breaking the continuity in the story telling

mode followed in the book. One will never like

to put the book down till the last sentence is

read – an unusual honor to a book of

biography dealing with Physics and a man of

Physics.

Dirac’s father Charles Dirac migrated from

Geneva to Bristol in UK and was a language

(French) teacher in a local school. In Bristol,

he married Florance Holten and settled in

Bristol for the rest of his life. An ardent lover

of French, Dirac ordered his children (eldest

son Felix, Paul and the daughter Betty) to peak

at home in native French. Weak in language,

Paul opted for not to speak at home and this

led to his trait of character of man of few

words. In conversation it is said that Paul Dirac

spoke one word per minute leading to a unit

of spoken word namely the Dirac unit. Charls

Dirac ill-treated his wife making her suffer to

that extent to get divorced. But for the sake

of the children she gathered her will power

and entangled with a marriage full of misery

and unhappiness. Paul once said that father

used mother just as a door mat. Against his

wish to study medicine, father ordered his

eldest son Felix to study engineering. He did

not have a successful career and committed

suicide at the age of about 30. The tragic

death of his brother further deepened the

agony of Paul. By his father’s interest Paul

also took an engineering degree but migrated

to take up Mathematics and Physics for his

future studies against the wish of his father.

Paul felt much comfort when he joined St

John’s College, Cambridge for his graduation.

Rarely Dirac visited home finding excuses of

all sorts like seminars and assignment works.

Throughout his educational career Paul

Dirac was the number one and at some rare

occasions number two. He was well ahead of

his classmates in Mathematics. His teachers

realized the gifted intelligence of Dirac and

tutored him privately on advanced topics in

Mathematics and Physics. Subjects like

Reimanian geometry and projective geometry

came to Dirac’s help in future when he was

unable to get a clue on some problem in

Physics . For Dirac Mathematics was the

language of Physics.

Unemotional, unattached and non-

sociable Paul Dirac has just one dimensional

track of investigating nature’s secret with the

help of mathematics . Dirac used to say that

God is a mathematician of the highest order.

Mathematical precision reflected in Dirac’s

character as well even in replying to his

fiancee’s letter. Following is an example of a

reply Dirac made to Manci’s letters.

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It is a wonder how their married life was

unbroken for over 50 years till the demise of

Dirac at the age of 84. Manci may be familiar

with Physicists’ curious ways and character

since she herself was the sister of the famous

Physicist Eugene Wigner, who also won Nobel

Prize in Physics. In fact Manci was Dirac’s

complimentary character to build a stable

family.

In 1955, Dirac was in India as a guest of

Homi Bhabha. He gave a public lecture on

quantum mechanics during Indian Science

Congress in Baroda on 5th January . He also

paid a visit to Nehru, the then Prime Minister.

To his question to Dirac about any

recommendation for the betterment of India,

Dirac replied, “A common language, preferably

English. Peace with Pakistan. The metric

system”.

Dirac descrbed Niels Bohr as ‘the Newton

of the Atom and is the deepest thinker that I

ever met’ For Bohr Dirac was ‘probably the

most remarkable scientific mind which has

appeared for a very long time’ and ‘a complete

logical genius’. Bohr further comments ‘ of all

people visited Copenhagen, Dirac was the

strangest man.’

The book is salted and peppered with many

of the Dirac stories emerging due to his verbal

economy, Mathematical precision and other

worldliness. Following are some of the

samples to taste.

In Cambridge Dirac responded to a

comment “It’s bit rainy, isn’t it? “ Dirac walked

to the window and leaned to outside and

came back to answer,”It is not raining now.”

Letter No Questions Answer

1 What makes me (Manci) so sad? You have not enough interests.2 Whom else could I love? You should not expect me to answer this question.

You would say I was cruel if I tried.

3 You know that I would like to see youvery much? Yes, but I cannot help it

4 Do you know how I feel like? Not very well. You change so quickly.

5 Were there any feelings for me? Yes, some.

During a seminar Dirac concluded his talk

asking whether there are any questions. One

professor in the front row said “Professor

Dirac, I do not understand the equation you

wrote on the top right hand corner” Noting

that Dirac is not responding, the chairman

requested Dirac for the answer. Dirac said “it

is not a question, it is only a statement.”

While visiting Niels Bohr in Copenhagen,

Bohr requested Dirac to help him completing

the manuscript of a paper. Dirac agreed. Bohr

will start a sentence and without completing

it he will alter it with different starting point

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of the sentence,.

Dirac said, Professor

Bohr, I was taught in

the school that never

start a sentence

without knowing how

to end it.”

Following is an encounter with Richard

Fynman.

Fynman : I am Fynman.

Dirac : I am Dirac (silence)

Fynman : It must have been wonderful to

be the discoverer of the equation.

Dirac : It was long time ago ( pause)

Dirac : What are you working on?

Fynman : Mesons

Dirac : Are you trying to find an equation

for them?

Fynman : It is very hard

Dirac : (concluding) one must try.

In Copenhagen Bohr took Dirac for an

exhibition of modern paintings. Seeing an

immpressenist painting of a boat with minimal

strike of lines, Dirac commented it as an

unfinished boat. On another picture he

remarked ‘I like that picture because the

degree of inaccuracy is same all over.’

Another interview with a journalist.

Q. Professor I notice you have few letters

in front of your name. Do they stand for

anything in particular?

A. No.

Q. You mean I can write my own ticket?

A. Yes.

Q. Will it be all right if if I say that P A M

stands for Poincare Aloysius Mussolini?

A. Yes.

Q. Fine. Now doctor will you give me a few

lines on your investigations?

A. No

Q. Good. Will it be alright if I put it

“Professor Dirac solves all problems in

Mathematical Physics, but is unable to

figure out Babe Rith’s batting average?

A. Yes.

The Strangest Man is a book which will be

loved by even those who have no knowledge

of quantum mechanics or Physics. To those

who know quantum mechanics, this book is

a treat to know the man in close-up whose

book “Principles of Quantum Mechanics”

published in 1930 is still regarded as the bible

of QM which entered into 4th edition in 1967

and reprinted several times. Freeman Dyson

sums up what made Dirac’s book so great:

“The great papers by other quantum pioneers

were more ragged, less perfectly formed than

Dirac’s. His great discoveries were like

exquisitely carved marble statues falling out

of the sky. One after the another. He seemed

to be able to conjure laws of nature from pure

thought – it was this purity that made him

unique. Dirac’s book is one of these statues

presenting quantum mechanics as a work of

art, finished and polished.. This book was a

constant companion of Einstein. For clearing

his doubts Einstein used to ask “Where is my

Dirac?”

To conclude, The Strangest Man is a

wonderful addition to our home library.

Prof. V.P.N. NampooriInternational School of Photonics

Cochin University of Science and TechnologyCOCHIN - 682 022

E Mail: nampoori@gmail.com

August 2010

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SCIENCE INDIA QUIZSend the correct answers to Science India office or toarsmenon@gmail.com latest by 20th August, 2010. A science bookas prize awaits you. If there are more than one correct entries, thewinner will be selected by draw of lots

- Editor

SCIENCE INDIA QUIZ NO. 10(General Clue: All answers begin with the letter ‘D”)

1. In an electric watch, the component corresponding to pendulum of apendulum clock is a -------

2. A plant cell has the potential to develop into an entire plant. This propertyof the plant cell is known as -------

3. The frequency of a tuning fork can be determined by a -------

4. The solvent used for dry cleaning of clothes

5. The blood which leaves the liver and moves to the heart has a higherconcentration of -------

6. Maximum rate of photosynthesis occurs in ------- light

7. Bird which can fly backwards

8. Chemical name of Phenol

9. The theory of 'Jumping genes' was propounded by -------

10. Karyotaxonomy is the modern branch of classification which is basedon ------

Answers to Quiz No. 7

1. Piezo-electric, 2. Copper, Zinc and Iodine, 3. Adrenal gland, 4.Carotenoids, 5. Ohm, 6. Tin, 7. Adrenaline, 8. Green, 9. Oology, 10. Tin

The winner is Kum. Rekha Chandran, Cotton Hill Girls high School,Thiruvananthapuram. CONGRATULATIONS !!!

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MUSIC:The Energy Source?T. V. Sairam

“Above all, do not analyze music, love it!”– Francis Poulenc

Energy depletion leads to fatigue, which

gradually leads to diseases or even death,

if it is not restored through nutrition. While

food and fodder nourishes the body, music

nourishes the mind. Music nourishes through

a regular pattern which when synchronized

with the irregular pattern of our mind gets

nourished and rejuvenated. In order to find

greater energy in our lives, we need to affirm

expansive and positive attitudes looking

beyond our selfish interests and attitudes.

Yogic practices like Pranayama or breath-

control, coupled with the absorption (not plain

hearing or listening) of musical pattern attune

us with the state of reality (super-conscious

state), the Great Whole to which we are all

parts and parcels. It has been found in all

traditions – including yoga and shamanism-

that in order to have more energy, one has to

affirm one’s oneness with its source.

It is also to be realized that energy is not

like the money we hoard. While the hoarded

money in the form of bank deposits may yield

dividends, in the case of energy, it is the

energy which we distribute makes us ‘alive

and kicking’! To love somebody you need more

energy than what you need when you hate. It

is easy to hate anyone on any grounds, but it

is difficult to love and be compassionate.

Therefore, one needs more energy to

recuperate. There is a mistaken notion that

all energies come from eating. It is not true.

Yoga recognizes immense transformation of

energy through kriyas Even yoga aims at

deriving energy from the very source that has

made our existence possible.

Faith and energy go hand in hand. Music

helps us in building faith in us, by re-orienting

our thinking processes from self-oriented to

universe-oriented, which gives us greater

confidence and conviction in ourselves. We

turn out to be people who can transmit lots

of positive energy (happiness) to every one

around us, despite of colour, creed, caste and

what not.

If one has deep faith in what one is doing

(like, for example, creating music), energy is

always highest. The greater one’s faith, the

greater is his will-power. The greater the will-

power, the greater is the energy-flow in him.

As music is the non-verbal affirmation (it can

be made verbal too by lacing it up with

affirming words!), by listening to music

frequently and intermittently, we end up

developing a habit of affirmations. In using

affirmations, we concentrate on positive

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qualities, which not only keep us healthy and

cheerful but also equally make others who

come across in our fold positive and cheerful.

All these need building up of our inner “power

installations”. Music can play the role of an

engineer – excavating our incongruities,

erecting faith, drilling away the negativities

and cementing the bonds of love and

fraternity, which ensure sustained flow of

energy – not only for us but also to all who

are our fellow-travellers.

Trance and ‘Musical Silence’

Silence which is interspersed in music can

be equated with our trance experience. Nada

yoga considers such a stage as anahata or the

“unstruck-sound” stage. It is a state of

consciousness, generally involving reduced

awareness of surroundings and external

events. Because trance is as natural as

sleeping and waking there is no danger in it.

We can not get “lost” or “stuck” while in

trance.

The Pro-trance Sounds

Sounds which help us reaching this

relaxing state of trance are in the nature of

love and compassion. Simple tones emanating

from the ripples of sounds called harmonics

in low decibels can enhance relaxation.

Basically they should be soothing tones or

proto-ragas, which do not invite our minds to

participate in the process of listening. For,

once mind enters, the relaxation would be

gone! It will even start questioning the quality

and origin of the loving tones in its own kinky

way! Therefore, in selecting relaxing tones or

proto-ragas, we should ensure that our mind

is s not incited. Rather mind should be curbed

by repeating monotones so that it is made

not to question anything and accept

everything as they come! The Pro-trance

sounds are necessarily to be simple but

mysterious – as the sounds emanating from

the Tibetan singing bowls or ek taras. The

ancient Indians have found that primitive

instruments such as conch-shells, damaru

etc. can produce similar effects in sweeping

our consiousness from alert-levels to relaxed

levels.

The Anti-Trance Sounds

Not-so-gentle bleeps, clips, and blips than

you can shake a stick at – in short, a noisy

concoction of sounds of changing decibels

with irregular beats can disturb the trance. In

the legendary stories of Ramayana,

Kumbhakarna who was known to his deep

sleep used to be woken up with relentless

drum programming and weirdo synth tones.

Our experience with the workshops

conducted at Lebenshilfe, an organization

devoted to 457 mentally retarded children at

Visakhapatnam (India) reveals that such

sound emanations help the severely retarded

children – at least temporarily- to wake up

from their deep slumber or inactivity.

For further reading:

Sairam, T.V. (2005) - ‘Transformation of the Sound” TheEternal Solutions December issue. 112.

Sairam, T.V. (2005) - “Raga Therapy- A New Horizon inthe Treatment of the Mentally Challenged” MyDoctor June issue. 31.

Sairam, T.V. (2005) - “Proto-ragas: A Boon for theMentallly-Challenged People” Ayurveda and All

August Issue. 35.

T.V. Sairam…..…..…..

E Mail: tvsairam@gmail.com

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The substantial variations in the earth’s

climate both globally and regionally and

its range from years to millennia may be called

as climatic change. Numerous types of

evidences including instrumental and historic

records and palaeo-climatic data are used to

infer past climates. Climatic change results

in fluctuations and changes in climate both

spatially and temporally due to changes in

solar radiation, atmospheric circulation,

sunspots, human activity etc.

During the last century, numerous theories

relating to climatic change have been

advanced. Sunspot cycle and quality of solar

radiation have often been cited as possible

causes of climatic change. The second theory

of climatic change is the astronomical theory

which denotes angle of ecliptic changes in the

earth’s orbit. The third point of view is volcanic

activity over the past years. The rise in

temperature is due to changes in the Sun’s

energy out put and changes in the earth’s

magnetic field have strong influence on

climatic change. Scientists have agreed that

climate change has a profound impact on the

planet from melting ice sheets and withering

rainforest to flash floods and droughts.

This article is an attempt to high-light

some of the major issues that India faces

today because of climatic change.

Scarcity of fresh water: Surface fresh-

water is a small fraction of global water. The

freshwater supply is unevenly distributed.

Climate change results to a frightening

scenario of global drying and rising salt

pollution. Growing demand for fresh water

due to drying rivers and streams and saline

intrusion creats the possibilities of permanent

global food deficit. In India the average use

of water for irrigation becames very high after

“Green revolution”. New varieties of rice,

wheat and maize produces tremendous yield,

but requires plenty of water. In India about

250 trillion litres of water are extracted for

irrigation every year, of which only about 150

trillion litres are replaced by the rain.

According to Climatologists , “wet parts

of the globe are likely to become wetter and

the dry parts drier”. Because of the same

reason soil could become drier. The “drought

index”, developed by climatologists regarding

rainfall and evaporation pointed out that the

land becomes drier. When the irrigation

Climatic change results in fluctuations andchanges in climate both spatially and temporally

due to changes in solar radiation, atmosphericcirculation, sunspots, human activity etc.

IndianAnxiety on

ClimateChange and

EconomyDr. T. S. Lancelet and Dr. J. Omana

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system run dry or become contaminated, the

possibility arises of a permanent food deficit.

In his book , “When the rivers run dry”, Fred

Pearse, an environmental consultant, wrote

that the water we survive with today is a

result of borrowing from the future. With

high population, the shortage of drinking

water becomes acute in India.

Studies at the Indian Institute of

Sciences, Bangalore showed that excessive

rain had increased over vast areas of central

India in the latter half of the 20th century.

The excessive rainfall adversely affected the

production of rice, pulses, bajra, jowar and

fodder for livestock in different states. A

heavy shortage in food production has

Change in Indian monsoon pattern:

Studies show that monsoon pattern has

changed in the past few years in India and

this trend is likely to continue in the coming

years. Low lying areas are water-logged after

heavy rain. Monsoon flooding and related

disasters are very common in every year

particularly in Kerala. The uneven distribution

of rain, due to drastic change in monsoon

pattern, has to be viewed seriously.

reflected in the sharply rising prices of food

items, particularly pulses.

Reduction in food production: Climate

change affected summer monsoon rainfall

which resulted in failure of harvesting process

of paddy in time in South India. According to

agriculture scientists the warmer winters have

led to 16 fold fall in the decadal wheat

production after 1995.

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Retreat of many important rivers: As

a result of global warming, the polar ice caps

have shrunk and glaciers that feed many

important rivers have retreated. The major

Himalayan rivers in India may retreat in

future due to global warming. Retreat of

streams and rivers cause wipeout of hundreds

of freshwater species. Besides drinking

water the process of power generation,

irrigation facilities etc. also will face a

dangerous situation.

Sinking of coastal low lands: Average

global surface temperature have risen by

about 0.7 degree Celsius since 20th century.

IPCC has taken the view that average global

temperature could rise by a further 1. 4

degree to 5.8 degree by the end of this

century. Melting of ice in the poles affects

sea level rise and sinking of lowlands. Most

of the islands and coastal belts are under

the threats of sinking. In India, more than

35% of population are living in coastal belts,

which lies less than 10 M above sea level.

This leads to a type of forced migration from

the coasts.

Increasing natural hazards: During

monsoon, the number of depressions and low

pressure areas formed in the Bay of Bengal

and Arabian sea results in the intense rainfall

at different regions. Due to flood, cyclones,

land slides and drought, lose a lot of people

their life and properties. It will make a

huge economic insecurity to the society as

well as the nation.

Climatic changes are generating the

most intense cyclones in various seas.

According to oceanographers, there has been

a five-fold increase in the most intense

cyclones in the Arabian sea since 1995.

Cyclones with a wind speed of more than 100

km per hour are designated as most intense

cyclones.

Health impacts: The World Health

Organization estimated that about 150,000

additional deaths took place in 2003 owing

to the health impact of climatic change.

Changing climate may affect populations

resulting in weather diseases.

Coastal ecosystem especially estuarine

beaches and marshes are likely to be

eliminated due to rising sea level. So we must

have proper planning to meet freshwater

scarcity. There must be new protected areas

for species survival due to climate change and

promulgation of eco-tourism in selected

potential areas. Government must urgently

regulate the misuse of water and power. New

researches like identifying genetic material

which will survive in the enhancing

temperature are to be taken up urgently.

There must also be proper awareness

campaigns on the negative aspects of climate

change.

References

David H. Miller (1981) - Climate and Life. Academicpress, New York

Flohn Hermann (1969) - Climate and Weather, McGraw Hill Publishing House

Griffith (1976) - Climate and Environment, OxfordUniversity Press

Gribbin, J. (1978)- Climate change, Cambridge

University Press

Dr. T. S. Lancelet Department of Geography

OmanaDepartment of History

Sree Sankaracharya University Kalady, Kerala

E Mail: omanarussel@yahoo.com

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Herbal medicines

The plant kingdom is an abundant and rich

source of many remedies for prevention

and cure of various human health ailments as

well as maintenance of health and normal

physiological activity. Our ancestors had

gathered knowledge over the years on

medicinal value of various plants and there

are great references also such as Charaka

samhita. Most of the ingredients used in

Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy

medicines are totally based on plant extracts.

The very effective drugs like Reserpine,

Digoxin, Morphine, Quinine etc. are plant

products. There are plant constituents whose

physiological impact makes them useful as

laxatives, expectorants, and anti-catarrhal,

anti-microbial, anti-diabetics, anti-cancer

agents etc. A mixture of such constituents

can be used as tonic or adaptogen and

immunomodulator. Traditional knowledge

acquired over the years gives documental

information on the various plants or their parts

used for treatment of various diseases. These

days the researchers are concentrating on

identification, isolation, purification and

characterization of plant bioactive

components and establish their utility as drug

as well as the pharmacological validation of

herbal extracts used for treatment of various

diseases, taking patents.

The cardio-tonic and cardio-protectant medicinal plants around us

Dr. K. Beena Anto

The range of plants would vary from area

to area depending on the local ecosystem.

Nowadays phytomedicines are increasing

world wide. This artic elaborate is an attempt

to study the medicinal plants growing wild in

our surroundings including the common

garden/vegetables and identify them to

categorize as cardio-tonic types. There are a

large number of medicinal herbal plants

around us which are very useful as cardio-

tonic and protect health without any side

effects.

Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases such as

hypertensive, coronary and rheumatic heart

diseases have become the major cause of

death in these days even in juveniles.

Hypertensive heart diseases include

arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis and

hypertension.

Arteriosclerosis is the hardening of arteries

and arterioles due to thickening of the fibrous

tissue and consequent loss of elasticity and

causes hypertension or high blood pressure.

Atherosclerosis is the narrowing of the arteries

and arterioles due to deposition of fats,

including cholesterol, on their linings leading

to high blood pressure due to the passage of

same quantity of blood through the narrow

tubes. Due to irregularity in the deposition of

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fats on the inner linings of arteries, there is a

chance of clot formation or thrombosis also.

Nervous tension and emotional stress also

cause contraction of the arteries, increasing

blood pressure. The persistent high blood

pressure is called hypertension and the heart

works harder to pump the required amount

of blood to various organs through narrowed

arteries. High blood pressure damages the

arteries in the kidneys,

causing a serious disease

called chronic nephritis. It

may rupture arteries in the

eye causing blindness, or in

the brain causing

temporary or permanent

paralysis called stroke.

Coronary heart

diseases include angina

pectoris and heart attack.

Angina pectoris means

pain in the chest. Due to

arteriosclerosis, required expansion in the

arteries can not be possible leading to

insufficient blood flow and oxygen deficiency

in the heart muscles which induce severe pain.

This is not a fatal condition.

Heart attack is characterized by severe

pain in the heart, breathlessness, restlessness,

nausea and vomiting. Formation of a clot or

thrombus in a narrowed coronary artery stops

the blood circulation. The muscle cells

without any blood circulation may die due to

the lack of oxygen and glucose and this

condition is called heart attack or coronary

thrombosis or myocardial infarction and this

may be fatal.

Rheumatic heart diseases are very

common in India under 20 years of age, due

to the repeated attacks of rheumatic fever in

childhood caused by Streptococcus bacteria.

Continuous bacterial infection may reach the

heart and the bacterial toxins affect the

auriculo-ventricular valves. Damage to the

heart valves is detectable by a modified heart

sound called murmur and such a heart is said

to be the rheumatic.

Smoking increases

blood pressure.

Adrenaline released under

the influence of nicotine,

a poisonous alkaloid in

tobacco causes tension

which constricts the

arteries result in angina

pectoris.

The common causes of

heart diseases are

a r t e r i o s c l e r o s i s ,

atherosclerosis, rheumatic

fever, hypertension, overweight, increased

serum cholesterol, infection of respiratory

tract, sedentary habit, heavy smoking,

malfunctioning of thyroid gland, overwork and

congenital defects in the heart etc.

The medicinal plants were collected from

their natural habitats of the locality

(Irinjalakuda municipality of Thrissur district).

Plants were identified to their respective

systematic groups. The habit, habitat, the

morphology of the plants etc. were recorded

along with the family, genera and species. The

details of useful parts and therapeutical uses

were noted with the help of literature

collected using authentic sources and as

noted the following in Table.

Smoking increasesblood pressure.

Adrenaline releasedunder the influence

of nicotine, apoisonous alkaloid in

tobacco causestension which

constricts the arteriesresulting in angina

pectoris.

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Slno. Common name Botanical name Family Morphology ofuseful parts

1 Sweet flag/Vayambu Acorus calamus Araceae Rhizome(herb)

2 Koovalam (tree) Aegle marmelos Rutaceae Leaves, Roots, Fruits

3 Garlic (herb) Allium sativum Liliaceae Bulb

4 Onion (herb) Allium cepa Liliaceae Bulb

5 Kiriyatha (herb) Andrographis paniculata Acanthaceae Whole plant

6 Irumpanpuli Averrhoa carambola Oxalidaceae Leaves, Fruits(Small tree)

7 Arya veppu (tree) Azadiarcta indica Meliaceae Barks, Leaves,Flowers, Seeds

8 Beet root (herb) Beta vulgaris Chenopodiaceae Tap root, Leaves,Seeds

9 Thazuthama/ Boerhaavia diffusa Nyctaginaceae Whole plantPunarnava(prostrate-herb)

10 Thuvara/Pigeon pea Cajanus cajan Fabaceae Leaves, Seeds(herb)

11 Erukku/madar (shrub) Calotropis gigantea Asclepiadaceae Whole plant

12 Chillies (herb) Capsicum annum Solanaceae Fruits

13 Uzhinja (herb) Cardiospermum Sapindaceae Roots, Leaves, Seedshalicacabum

14 Nithya kalyani/ Catharanthus roseus Apocynaceae Whole plantperiwinkle (herb)

15 Kudavan Centella asiatica Apiaceae Whole plant(prostrate herb)

16 Foxglove (herb) Digitalis purpurea Scrophulariaceae Leaves

17 Chemparathy (shrub) Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Malvaceae Roots, Leaves, Flowers

18 Adalodakam (shrub) Justicia beddomei / Acanthaceae Whole plantAdathoda vasica

19 Pavakka/bitter gourd Momordica charantia Cucurbitaceae Whole plant(tendril twiner)

20 Curry veppu Murraya koenigii Rutaceae Root, Bark, Leaves(Small tree)

21 Nut Meg (Small tree) Myristica fragrans Myrtaceae Seeds

22 Lotus/thamara Nelumbo nucifera Nymphaeaceae Flowers, Seeds(aquatic herb)

23 Pepper (Climber) Piper nigrum Piperacae Fruits

24 Guava (tree) Psidium guajava Myrtaceae Roots, Leaves, Fruits

25 Avanakku (shrub) Ricinus communis Euphorbiaceae Roots, Leaves, Seeds

26 Arjun (tree) Terminalia arjuna Combretaceae Dried stem, Bark

27 Harithaki/Kadukka Terminalia chebula Combretaceae Seeds(tree)

28 Fenugreek - Uluva Trigonella Fabaceae Seeds(herb) foenum-graecum

29 Karinotchi (small tree) Vitex negundo Verbenaceae Whole plant

30 Ginger (herb) Zingiber officinale Zingiberaceae Rhizome

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The Table 1 provides a list of plant extracts

mainly the aerial, leaf, bark, wood, seed, fruit,

rhizome, bulb or tuber that protect and care

heart. The chart showed a wide range of

families which have cardiotonic effects in our

surroundings. Cardiovascular diseases are

associated with elevated serum lipids. The

lipid-lowering properties of many plant parts

or products were noted and studied in detail.

For example Allicin extracted from garlic

showed a significant decrease in total serum

lipids, phospholipids and cholesterol in the

animals fed Allicin compared with control

animals.

Use of cardiotonic and cardio protective

medicinal herbs is rising among the health

caring people these days. Reactive oxygen

metabolites (ROMs), which include superoxide

anion (O2),

hydrogen peroxide (H2O

2) and

hydroxylradicals (.OH) have been implicated

in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular

diseases. Many of herbal medicines have

antioxidant properties and are very effective

and have beneficial effects against cardiac

injuries.

Conclusions

Quest for medicinal properties of plants

dates back to immemorial time. Plants have

shown great promise in the treatment of

cardiovascular diseases. Biochemical and

pharmacological studies on cardio tonic

effects of various medicinal plants showed

that about hundreds of plant species have so

far been identified to have effective activity.

The prime importance of manufacturing

phytomedicines, is the correct identification

of medicinal herbs to achieve the intended

purpose of efficacy in curing. This is a small

attempt to study the therapeutical uses of

medicinal plants growing in our surroundings,

the real boon given to us.

REFERENCES

The useful Plants of India (1986) - CSIRPublications and information Directorate, NewDelhi.

The Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia of India (1989) -Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dept.of Health, Govt. Of India. Part I, Vol. I.

The Indian medicinal Plants (1996) - Vol. 1-5Vaidyaratnam P.S. Varrier’s Arya vaidya Sala,Kottakkal. Orient Longman Ltd.

Wealth of India, Raw Materials (1986) - CSIRPublications and Information Directorate, NewDelhi

Farooq, S. (2005)- 555 medicinal plants: Field andLaboratory manual, Identification with itsphytochemical and in vitro studies data.Pharmaceutical Products Press, New York.

Miller, L.G., and W.J. Murray. (1998) - HerbalMedicinals. A Clinician’s Guide.

Sivarajan, V.V. and Balachandran, I. (1994)Ayurvedic Drugs and their plant sources. Oxfordand IBH Publishing co.Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.

w w w . l i f e e x t e n s i o n v i t a m i n s . c o m /

cadico10thhfg,html.

Dr. K. Beena AntoDept. of Botany

St. Joseph’s CollegeIrinjalakuda

Thrissur Dt., Kerala.E Mail:…………..

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Solar photovoltaic field is getting high

priority nowadays due to heavy pressure

on conventional fuels, simplicity, direct

conversion of electricity, etc. The term

“photovoltaic” comes from the Greek “phôs”

meaning “light”, and “voltaic”, meaning

“electric”, from the name of the Italian

physicist Volta, after whom a unit of electro-

motive force, the volt, is named. The term

“photo-voltaic” has been in use in English

since 1849. The French physicist Antoine-

César Becquerel in 1839 discovered the

photovoltaic effect while experimenting with

a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution.

About 50 years later, Charles Fritts

constructed the first true solar cells using

junctions formed by coating the

semiconductor selenium with an ultrathin,

nearly transparent layer of gold. Fritts’s

devices were very inefficient, transforming

less than 1 percent of the absorbed light into

electrical energy. There are currently many

Organic solar cells –Organic solar cells –Organic solar cells –Organic solar cells –Organic solar cells –The future energy sourceThe future energy sourceThe future energy sourceThe future energy sourceThe future energy source

Siji Mathew and Dr. K.R. Haridas

Schematic representation of organic solar cell

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research groups active in the field of

photovoltaics in universities and research

institutions around the world. This research

can be divided into three areas: making current

technology solar cells cheaper and more

efficient to effectively compete with other

energy sources, developing new technologies

based on new solar cell architectural designs

and developing new materials to serve as light

absorbers, charge carriers etc.

Theory

Conventional solar cell: Modern solar cells

are basically just P-N junction photodiodes

with a very large light-sensitive area. The

photovoltaic effect, which causes the cell to

convert light directly into electrical energy,

occurs in the three energy-conversion layers.

The first of these three layers necessary for

energy conversion in a solar cell is the top

junction layer (made of N-type

semiconductor). The next layer in the

structure is the core of the device; this is the

absorber layer (the P-N junction). The last of

the energy-conversion layers is the back

junction layer (made of P-type

semiconductor).

Organic solar cell: Photons in sunlight hit

the solar panel and are absorbed by

semiconducting materials. Electrons

(negatively charged) are knocked loose from

their atoms, allowing them to flow through

the material to produce electricity. Due to the

special composition of solar cells, the

electrons are only allowed to move in a single

direction. Complementary positive charges,

called holes, are also created which flow in

the direction opposite to the electrons. An

array of solar cells converts solar energy into

a usable amount of direct current (DC)

electricity.

Organic photovoltaic materials

A common characteristic of both the small

molecules and polymers used in photovoltaic

is that they all have large conjugated systems.

A conjugated system is formed where carbon

atoms covalently bond with alternating single

and double bonds. The electrons in the pz

orbitals of carbon atoms in this conjugated

system delocalize and form a delocalized ð

bonding orbital with a ð* antibonding orbital.

The delocalized ð orbital is the highest

occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), and the

ð* orbital is the lowest unoccupied molecular

orbital (LUMO). The separation between

HOMO and LUMO is considered as the band

gap of organic electronic materials. The band

gap is typically in the range of 1-4 eV. When

these materials absorb a photon, an excited

state is created and confined to a molecule

or a region of a polymer chain. The excited

state can be regarded as an electron hole pair

bound together by electrostatic and lattice

interaction. In photovoltaic cells, excitons

may break up into electrons and holes by the

electric fields. Then the charge carriers may

transport by hopping from molecule to

molecule or from chain to chain after traveling

along the backbone in case of polymers. For

photovoltaic, the difference in electronic and

optical properties between small molecules

and polymers are not big. Some polymers and

small molecule used in organic solar cell are

given below.

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Applications

There is an extensive range of applications

where solar cells are already viewed as the

best option for electricity supply. These

applications are usually stand-alone and

exploit the following advantages of

photovoltaic electricity: There are no fuel

costs or fuel supply problems, the equipment

can usually operate unattended, solar cells are

very reliable and require little maintenance.

At the other end of the scale are grid-

connected systems which are now being

seriously considered to supplement the

conventional power generation in many

industrialised countries. Although they have

yet to become viable on economic grounds,

the participation of PV in large-scale power

generation is viewed with increasing

prominence as a means of halting the adverse

environmental effects of conventional energy

sources. Various other application of organic

solar cell are rural electrification, lighting,

ocean navigation aids, telecommunication

systems, remote monitoring and control,

cathodic protection, electric power generation

in space, PV power stations, quantum dots,

green plug, hand power, electronic paper etc.

Disadvantages associated with organic

photovoltaic cells are their low quantum

efficiency (~3%) compared to inorganic

photovoltaic devices. Real challenge in these

materials is to increase the absorption

efficiency which is a problem because of the

large band gap of organic materials. Other

important factors are charge transport and

mobility, which are affected by the presence

of impurities. Also the exciton diffusion

length, charge separation and charge

collection need to be taken into account.

Moreover stability of the device against

oxidation and reduction, recrystallization and

temperature variations also needs to be

considered.

Milestones

1839 - Photovoltaic effect (H. Becquerel)

1876 - Application in Selenium (selenium

produced electricity when exposed to

light)

1951 - Silicon solar cells

1958 - Design of PV for space applications

1970 - Commercial Si cells

1980 - Applications in devices, etc.

1989 - Electrochemical cells

Structure of the compounds commonly used for Organic Solar cellsA B

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1996 - Solid state devices (Organic solar cells)

2000 - Gel solar cells

2005 - Electronic paper

2007 - ‘Green’ solar cells

2008 - Nanomaterial solar cells

2009 - Tandem solar cells

References

1. Shirota, Y. (200) - Organic materials for electronic

and optoelectronic devices’, J. Material Chemistry,

10: 1.

2. Haridas, K.R., Ostrauskaite, J., Thelakkat, M., Heim,

M., Bilke, R. and. Haarer, D. (2001) - Synthesis of

Figure3: Photographs of devices made using from Organic solar cells A) electronic paper, B) in space,C) navigation, D) PV- power station.

A B

C D

low melting hole conductor systems based on

triarylamines and application in dye sensitized solar

cells’, Synthetic Metals, 121: 1573.

3. Jager, C., Bilke, R., Heim, M., Haarer, D., Karickal, H.

and Thelakkat, M. (2001) - Hybrid solar cells with

novel hole transporting poly(triphenyldiamine)s’,

Synthetic Metals, 121: 1543 .

Siji Mathew and Dr. K.R. HaridasSchool of Chemical Sciences

Kannur University, Payyanur campusEdat – 670 327, Kerala

E Mail: sijiscs@rediffmail.com

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Most countries use a postal code

system to deliver mails. In India, the

Postal Index Number Scheme called PIN

code was introduced on August 15, 1972.

PIN code is a system of numerical

identification of a delivery post office.

PIN is a six-digit code allotted to all delivery

post offices in the country. Al l head post

offices and sub post offices which deliver

mails are scientifically allotted their own

six-digit numbers. Therefore PIN code

should appear in all the documents

connected with the transmission of mail.

How does PIN help in timely delivery of

mail? The PIN code digits from left to right

progressively pinpoint and locate the

geographical location of the post office. The

first digit represents a region in the country

and the second, a sub-region. The third digit

read with the first two digits indicates a

sorting district. In short, the first three

digits of a PIN code of the post office will

clearly speak in which state and sorting

district the post office is located. The last

three digits pinpoint the post office of

delivery within the district. Thus the six

digits, all taken together, identify an

individual post office as a delivery unit.

In a country with diverse language and

Science of PIN CodeK.K. Devis

scripts, the introduction of a digit code has

eased the problems of sorting mails.

Further, there are several post offices in the

country having the same name. The

addition of the PIN code after the address

enables the sorting personnel and

Automatic Mail Processing Centre (AMPCs)

functioning in Mumbai and Chennai to

identify the destination correctly, thereby

eliminating chances of missending and

consequent delay to the article. When you

add the PIN code it will reduce delay in

transmission and will ensure correct

delivery.

All should, therefore, make it a habit to add

PIN in their address. All letterheads, letter

pads, rubber stamps, receipts etc. should

bear the PIN code of the delivery post

office. When you set your signature in E

mail, please add the PIN code also. This

one-time exercise of adding your PIN of the

delivery pot office will have a telling effect

in timely delivery of your mail. For details

log on o www.indiapost.gov.in

K.K. DevisAssistant Superintandent (HQ)

Office of the SuperintendentRMS EK Division

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Pulsed Electric Field(PEF) technology –

A Breakthrough in mildTechnologies for

Preservation of FoodR. Yathavamoorthi, Dr. A. Surendraraj, Dr. K.H. Sabeena Farvin and N. Dhivya

India is the third largest producer of food in

the world covering a wide range of

agricultural produce. Hand in hand the

responsibility of distributing this produce

without much wastage is another vital task

of importance as most of them are highly

perishable. Processing these produces

enhances the shelf life, adds value and creates

employment by way of cleaning, sorting,

preserving, packing and distribution. Further,

growth of food processing is inevitable with

rising incomes, favourable demographic

transition and changing consumer pattern.

However, existing techniques of food

processing faces the challenges of meeting

the present day consumer requirements of

wholesome and healthy and more natural

processed food products. As a result, search

is on for food preservation technique which

causes minimal damage to the nutritional

wellness of foods. Non- thermal techniques

are emerging in this promising area and pulsed

electric field technology for preserving liquid

food products is a breakthrough showing

promising results.

Pulsed electric field (PEF) processing

It is a method for preserving foods by

means of brief pulses of a strong electric field

causing microbial inactivation and minimal or

no detrimental effects on food quality

attributes. PEF can be used for processing

liquid and semi liquid foods and holds

potential as a type of low temperature

alternative pasteurization process for

sterilizing food products. PEF processing offers

It is a method for preservingfoods by means of brief pulses

of a strong electric field causingmicrobial inactivation andminimal or no detrimental

effects on food qualityattributes. PEF can be used for

processing liquid and semiliquid foods and holds potential

as a type of low temperaturealternative pasteurization

process for sterilizing foodproducts.

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high quality fresh-like liquid foods with

excellent flavor, nutritional value, and shelf-

life. Since it preserves foods without using

heat, foods treated this way retain their fresh

aroma, taste, and appearance

History of PEF

Usage of electric field for food preservation

dates back to 1920s with the ‘ElectroPure’

process for milk production. Milk is heated to

70oC by passing it through carbon electrodes

using non pulsed 220 V AC there by thermally

inactivating Mycobacterium tuberculosis and

Escherichia coli. There were around 50 plants

using the ElectroPure system in the USA until

the 1950s. Another process called

Electrohydraulic process has evolved during

1950s which was believed to inactivate

microorganisms by forming highly reactive

free radicals when a shock wave generated

by an electric arc. There were very few takers

as the food got damaged by shock waves and

erosion of electrode which further

contaminated the food.

The concept of PEF was first proposed in

the 1960s. Scientific research followed in the

1980s, showing that microbial inactivation by

PEF was real and predictable. PEF is reported

to achieve more than 5 log reductions of

foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7,

Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes in

apple cider, orange juice, and dairy milk.

Technological development in the 1990s

moved this process from the laboratory to

readiness for industrial production

evaluations. The first commercial products in

the US, consisting of all natural PEF-

pasteurized fruit juices and mixes, were

successfully introduced 2005 in the Pacific

Northwest.

PEF processing system

An integrated PEF system consists of a

fluid handling unit, high voltage pulse

generator, PEF treatment chambers and

packaging machine. The fluid handling unit

delivers stable, uniform flow with sterilize-

in-place (SIP) and clean-in-place (CIP)

functions. The pulse generator supplies high

voltage pulses into foods flowing through PEF

treatment chambers. A PEF treatment

chamber consists of at least two electrodes

and insulation that forms a volume, i.e., PEF

treatment zone, where the foods receive

pulses. The electrodes are made of inert

materials, such as titanium. Treated foods are

packaged continuously.

Diversified Technologies Inc., Bedford, MA,

builds commercial PEF systems of processing

volumes ranging from 500 to 5,000 liters per

hour, with The Ohio State University supplyingPEF processing system

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the PEF treatment chambers. PEF is an energy

efficient process compared to thermal

pasteurization. The PEF processing would add

only Rs.1.50 to 3.50/L to final food costs.

Working of PEF system

PEF processing involves treating foods

placed between electrodes by high voltage

pulses in the order of 20–80 kV for a short

duration (usually 10 nano second to 20 micro

second). The applied high voltage results in

an electric field that causes microbial

inactivation. The electric field may be applied

in the form of exponentially decaying, square

wave, bipolar, or oscillatory pulses and at

ambient, sub-ambient, or slightly above-

ambient temperature. After the treatment,

the food is packaged aseptically and stored

under refrigeration. The pulses are so short

and frequent that all of the liquid in a pipe

can be treated as it flows through the

treatment chamber. By using multiple

treatment chambers to apply pulses to a

stream of fluid, kill ratios of 5-9 log is

achieved, similar to pasteurization without

any adverse impact on the taste or nutritional

value of the food .

Principle of preservation

PEF treatment has lethal effects on

various vegetative bacteria, mold, and yeast.

Efficacy of spore inactivation by PEF in

combination with heat or other hurdles is a

subject of current research. A series of short,

high-voltage pulses breaks the cell

membranes of vegetative microorganisms in

liquid media by expanding existing pores

(electroporation) or creating new ones

(electrical breakdown). Pore formation is

reversible or irreversible depending on factors

such as the electric field intensity, the pulse

duration, and number of pulses. The

membranes of PEF-treated cells become

permeable to small molecules; permeation

causes swelling and eventual rupture of the

cell membrane.

PEF processing involvestreating foods placed betweenelectrodes by high voltagepulses in the order of 20-80 kVfor a short duration (usually 10nano second to 20 microsecond). The applied highvoltage results in an electricfield that causes microbialinactivation.

Working of PEF system

Electroporation: In this, when a

microorganism is subjected to a high voltage

electric field, the lipid bilayer and proteins of

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the cell membrane of the microorganisms are

temporarily destabilized. Changes in the

conformation of lipid molecules are induced,

existing pores are expanded and structurally

stable hydrophobic pores which can conduct

current are formed. This leads to localised

heating that changes the lipid bilayer from a

rigid gel to a liquid crystalline form. Once the

semi permeable nature of the membrane is

impaired, swelling and eventual rupture of the

cell is induced.

Electrical Breakdown: The bacterial cell

membrane can be considered to be a capacitor

that is filled with a dielectric material. The

normal resisting potential difference across

the membrane (the transmembrane potential)

is around 10 mV. If an external electric field is

applied, this increases the potential difference

across the cell membrane leading to the

reduction in the membrane thickness. When

the potential difference across the cell

reaches a critical level (normally considered

to be around 1 V), pores are formed in the

membrane. Permanent damage of membranes

and ultimately microbial inactivation is

achieved when the electric field at the

membrane is in the range of 5–15 kV/cm.

Potential Applications of PEF

In general, the shelf-life of PEF-treated

and thermally pasteurized foods is

comparable. PEF pasteurization kills

microorganisms and inactivates some

enzymes and, unless the product is acidic, it

requires refrigerated storage. For heat-

sensitive liquid foods where thermal

pasteurization is not an option (due to flavor,

texture, or color changes), PEF treatment

would be advantageous.

Application of PEF technology has been

successfully demonstrated for the

pasteurization of foods such as juices, milk,

yogurt, soups, tomato juice, salad dressing

and liquid eggs. Application of PEF processing

is restricted to food products with no air

bubbles and with low electrical conductivity.

The maximum particle size in the liquid must

be smaller than the gap of the treatment

region in the chamber in order to ensure proper

treatment. PEF is a continuous processing

method, which is not suitable for solid food

products that are not pumpable.

Part of the potential utility of PEF is that

the properties of the electric field can be

modified to have differing effects on cells. The

PEF process holds promise as a more efficient

way of getting useful products out of cell

membranes. PEF is particularly well suited to

processing fruit and vegetable juices because

the enlargement of the cell pores makes juice

The PEF process holds promiseas a more efficient way of

getting useful products out ofcell membranes. PEF is

particularly well suited toprocessing fruit and vegetable

juices because the enlargementof the cell pores makes juice

extraction easier. PEF may beuseful in extracting sugar from

sugar beets and oils from oilbearing plants. PEF may have a

use in the developing field ofextraction of oil and other

products from microorganismssuch as algae. PEF also finds

application in reducing the solidvolume (sludge) of wastewater.

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extraction easier. PEF may be useful in

extracting sugar from sugar beets and oils

from oil bearing plants. PEF may have a use in

the developing field of extraction of oil and

other products from microorganisms such as

algae. PEF also finds application in reducing

the solid volume (sludge) of wastewater.

Limitations

PEF has limited effects on spores and only

appears to affect a few enzymes. Surviving

enzymes can lead to quality problems such

as sedimentation, discolouration and off-

odour in some products. The survival of spores

and enzymes means that products should be

refrigerated after passing through PEF

processing in order to slow the action of the

enzymes and keep pathogens from growing.

Another important process consideration is

prevention of post process contamination, so

filling should be an aseptic or clean room

environment and containers must be cleaned

and possibly sterilized.

The initial cost of installing the equipment

is higher than for thermal pasteurization,

although energy savings with PEF may

compensate for this up-front cost over time.

Assessments of this cost tradeoff are

complicated as it varies with the conductivity

of the food materials used. Fruit juices have

lower electrical conductivity than vegetable

juices, for example, and salted foods have

higher conductivity than unsalted foods.

Issues with PEF include the potential for

electrical arcs and a temperature increase on

the order of 30 degrees Celsius (54°F). In liquid

PEF processing gas bubbles tend to allow for

electric arcing between the electrodes which

will burn the substance being processed and

potentially generate unwanted materials,

such as carcinogens, in the processed

material. One solution to gas bubble formation

is to pressurize the liquid. In static PEF for

non-liquids there is a greater limitation on the

maximum voltage possible without electric

arcing through the air. This necessitates

transferring the solid to an oil filled chamber

before a high voltage PEF is applied.

R. YathavamoorthiCentral Institute of Fisheries Technology

Matsyapuri P.O., Cochin -682 029E Mail: ……………………

Dr. A. Surendraraj, N.Dhivya Institute of Food and Dairy Technology

TANUVAS, Alamathi P.O. Red Hills (via), Chennai – 600 052

Dr. K.H. Sabeena FarvinSection of Aquatic Lipids and Oxidation

National Institute of Aquatic Resources Technical University of Denmark

B. 221, Søltofts Plads Lyngby, Denmark.

Research at Washington State Universitydemonstrated that PEF could extend the shelf lifeof fresh apple juice and apple juice fromconcentrate to over 56 days and 32 daysrespectively when stored at 22-25 oC .

More recently, the shelf life of skimmed milktreated with PEF was reported to be 2 weeks at 4oC using a process of 40 kV/cm, 30 pulses and a2-µs treatment time.