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EducationPlus02 THE HINDU | MONDAY |NOVEMBER 2, 2015NOI D A/D EL HI

SNAPSHOTS

GENE VARIATIONAND OBESITY

A singlevariation in thegene for brain-derived neurotropicfactor (BDNF) mayinfluence obesity inchildren and adults,says a new study.

ICE SHEETMOVING SLOWLY

In the face ofmelting due toglobal warming,the movement of aGreenland IceSheet thatterminates on landhas been slowing.

REWRITE OF MROMEMORY

Tables stored inflash memoryaboard NASA'sMarsReconnaissanceOrbiter (MRO) needto be rewritten fornext year.

A STEM CELLSURPRISE

New evidencesuggests that somehuman inducedpluripotent stemcells are the'functionalequivalent' of

embryonic ones.

STAR-BIRTH: ONESIZE FITS ALL

A massive star,25 times the massof the sun, isforming in a similarway to low-massstars, it is found,

the final piece in along-lasting puzzle.

RED EYES

Why do ones eyes become red on consumingalcohol?E.S. CHANDRASEKARAN, Chennai

Since alcohol causes dilation of blood vessels due torelease of histamine so increase in blood flow in vessels.The tiny blood vessels in sclera , the outermost layer ofour eyes, become dilated causing bloodshot as well ashot eyes. Our cornea is transparent that's why we canobserve the redness of eyes clearly.

After some time it disappears. Some people tend tohave red eyes very soon after drinking and for longerduration due to absence of enzyme ALDH2 (aldehydedehydrogenase) which is responsible for the breakingof alcohol into acetic acid and vinegar in liver.

This is genetic and very common in people of EastAsian descent also known as 'Asian flush'. Persons withthis disorder can develop crimson face, headache, nau-sea, hot eyes etc. even by consuming as little as onedrink. Besides, heavy drinking depletes body of nutri-ents required for the healthy eyes leading to a conditiontermed as alcoholic optic neuritis.JUNAID ARIF, B.Sc (Biochemistry), Aligarh Muslim University

THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS

Why do cockroaches have spiky legs?Nisha Sharma, Mysuru, Karnataka

Why do celestial objects spin around their own axis?Do all celestial objects spin?Rahul ChanouriaNew Delhi

Readers can send their questions/answers to [email protected]

QUESTION CORNER

Alittle bit of sun-

shine and a com-pound made outof rare earth ele-ments may hold

the answers to purifyingpolluted rivers criss-cross-ing the country.

Scientists from the Indi-an Institute of Science,Bengaluru have developeda novel reusable nano-composite material, withCerium being the crucialcompound in it, which candegrade microbes andchemical dyes that areamong common effluents

in rivers.Published in the Journalof Industrial and Engineer-ing Chemistry Research re-cently, the scientists lookedat ceria (CeO2) a cheap rareearth oxide with propertiesthat include a strong ab-sorption of ultraviolet light(this property also sees itbeing widely used for UV-blocking and radiationshielding agent).

It is this notion, that thecompound can speed up thedegradation of chemicaldyes and the bacterium Es-cherichia coli(which formsa large chunk of organicwaste in sewage) led the re-searchers to develop ceriananoflakes, which com-bines ceria with silver salts.In this composite, ceria ab-sorbs light across the spec-trum (and not just UVlight), while the silver salts(silver phosphate, and sil-ver bromide) form photo-

catalysis agents, wherechemical reactions are ac-celerated in the presence oflight.

The superior photocata-lytic activity of this nano-composite for the degrada-tion chemical dyes isattributed to its extendedabsorption in visible regionand enhanced stability ofthe catalyst owing to thefirm adherence of silverbromide and phosphate toceria nanoflakes, says Nee-rugatti Krishna Rao Eswar,a researcher with the Cen-tre for Nanoscience andEngineering, IISc, who isthe lead author of the pa-per.

The compound was to re-main stable even after sev-

en cycles of its usage withpolluted fluids.

The results show that thecomposite material endedup generating largeamounts of hydrogen per-oxide (a strong oxidizingagent) that degrades the

dyes and bacteria. Within60 minutes, nearly all ofmethylene blue and methylorange (both commonchemical dyes) were de-graded by the composite. Incomparison, ceria-silverphosphate compound thathad been synthesized pre-viously, researchers man-aged to degrade thechemical dyes by 80 percent in this time frame.

Similarly, for E. coli bac-terium, colony formingunits (which are responsib-le for the explosion of bac-terial population) per mlhad reduced from nearly200 million units to lessthan 100 units in 80 min-utes when exposed to vis-ible light.

IISc: cleaning rivers

using a nano-compositeMOHIT M. RAO

Researchers managed to degrade methylene blue and methyl orange chemical dyes by 80 percent in an hour. PHOTO: ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY

Thecompositecan speed upthedegradationof chemicaldyes andE. coli

F

or the first time, a study

published recently hasprovided the statistics ofdry and wetter than normalmonsoon season conditionsduring July and August overIndia for the longest period(1901-2014) based on a sin-gle criterion rainfall.

The dry condition, alsocalled known as break, oc-curs when large-scale rain-fall over the monsoontrough zone (the zone be-tween which the monsoonfluctuates north and southwards) is interrupted forseveral days. On the otherhand, the intervals betweenspells of dry monsoon con-ditions when the rainfall ishigher than normal areknown as active spells.

The study was publishedin the journal ClimateDynamics.

The study found that the

rainfall anomaly during thebreak and active spells wassuch that there was above

normal rainfall during theactive (wet) spell and scantyor below normal rainfallduring the dry spell.

During the active spell,rainfall was significantlyabove normal particularlyover the following areas monsoon trough zone,along the west coast, alongthe foothills of Himalayasand over southeast Penin-sula.

The impact of active/break monsoon conditionson the rainfall and low levelwind circulation patterns isnot limited to the Indian re-gion. It is felt over a larger

spatial scale extending upto west Pacific as well asother areas of the Asian

monsoon region.During the study period,

both the active and breakspells of short duration of3-6 days were more fre-quent than the long dura-tion (of more than 13 days).In the case of break spells itwas 63.4 per cent, while itwas 94.3 per cent in the caseof active spells.

During both the halves ofthe data period (1901-57and 1958-2014), there was

no change in the distribu-tion of the break events.However, the number of ac-tive spells showed an in-crease of about 12 per centduring the second half; theincrease was mainly in theshort duration (3-6 days)spells.

In an email to this Corre-spondent, the lead author of

the paper, Dr. D.S. Pai, whois the Head of Climate Divi-sion, India Meteorological

Department, Pune, notes:It was found that duringthe data period, both breakand active days show signif-

icant variation in rainfallbetween each decade of thestudy period (1901-2014)for the months of July andAugust. This is natural.

According to him, tillaround early 1980s therewas more number of mon-soon depression days lead-ing to long duration activespells. Post early 1980s, thiscondition reversed leadingto shorter active spells dueto a sudden decrease in themonsoon depression days.

Post early 1980s, therewas an increase in the shortduration active spells. Thiswas caused by the signifi-cant increase in periods ofless intense low pressurethan the low pressure onmonsoon depression days.An increase in periods ofless intense low pressurecompensated for the de-

crease in longer durationactive spells caused by themonsoon depression days.

More brief, above-normal monsoonrain spells since 1980K.S. RAJGOPAL

The impact of active/break monsoon conditions on the rainfalland low level wind circulation patterns is not limited to theIndian region. PHOTO: AP

Dry and wetmonsoon

seasonconditionsstudied from1901 to 2014

How many times have youwished that at the end

of the day, some magic handwould pick up the thingsscattered messily all over thechairs and tables? That mag-ic hand, or its ultrasonicequivalent, has been effec-tively designed now.

A team of researchers,Asier Marzo et al, from Uni-versities of Bristol, Sussexand Navarre and Ultrahap-tics Limited have come upwith a way to use sound topick up objects.

In a study published re-cently in Nature Communi-cations, the team hasdemonstrated using 64 mini-ature speakers how high-pitch and high-intensity ul-trasonic sound waves can beused to surround a small ob-

ject and create a force fieldwhich can then hold theobject. By manipulating theoutput of the loudspeakersthe object can then bemoved.

This is interesting becauseit differs from earlier at-tempts which required thatthe object that was to be lift-ed be surrounded by loud-speakers in all directions. Dr.

Marzo and his team achievedit using a plane array ofloudspeakers.

The invisible hand thatthey created was of threetypes tweezers, twistersand bottles. The tweezerswere similar to lifting the ob-ject with a pair of fingers,while the twisters surround-

ed the object in a vortex ofsound, and finally, the bottleswere like a cage that trappedthe object within.

In a video released by thegroup, the scientist brings ina small ball, a few millime-ters across, to a point abovethe array of loudspeakers. Hethen draws away the paper.

As if a pair of fingers is hold-ing it back, the ball is seizedand held in place as the paperis pulled away. While at themoment they are able to ma-nipulate objects of widthabout 2 mm only, the scien-tists hope to perfect the tech-nique to be able tomanipulate small, cell-sizedobjects and also much largerones.

Spellbound by sound

Particles ranging from 0.6 to 3.1 mm diameter are levitatedabove single-sided arrays. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

Scientistshave found away to usesound topick upobjects

Africa's lions are fast 'dis-appearing from vast

swathes of the continent, in-cluding from the savannahgrasslands, where they arethe indisputable flagshipspecies, finds a new scientificpaper. Threatened by habitatloss, a depleting prey base,poorly regulated sport hunt-ing and a demand for tradi-tional African and Chinesemedicines, several lion pop-ulations have either entirelydisappeared or are expectedto go within the next few dec-ades, says the paper publish-ed recently in theProceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences(PNAS).

Population models suggestthat lions have a 67 per centchance of being halved in twodecades in West and Centraland a 37 per cent chance ofhalving in East Africa in thesame time frame. Their pop-ulations are declining every-where, except in foursouthern countries Bot-swana, Namibia, South Afri-ca, and Zimbabwe whichmay soon supersede theiconic savannah landscapesin East Africa as the mostsuccessful sites for lionconservation.

The reintroduction of li-ons in fenced and intensivelymanaged reserves has beenthe key to their growth in

southern Africa, says thepaper.

While the animal is cur-rently graded as vulnerableon the World ConservationUnion (IUCN) Red List, itwill be considered endan-gered if numbers declinedby 50 per cent over three liongenerations, it adds. Theirdisappearance signals a ma-jor trophic downgrading ofAfrican ecosystems with thelion no longer playing a piv-otal role as apex predator-, says the paper. Lions mayno longer be a flagship spe-cies of the once vast naturalecosystems across the rest ofthe continent.

Their survival is also in-extricably linked to prey-base, and herbivore numbersdeclined by 52 per cent in

East Africa and 85 per cent inWest Central Africa between1970 and 2005. Unless polit-ical and funding commit-ments are scaled up toaddress mounting levels ofthreat, lions may disappearfrom most of Africa, the au-thors warn.

For the study researcherslooked at data of 47 lion pop-ulations. They estimated thepopulation using individualidentifications, radio teleme-try, photo databases, tran-sects, spoor counts, anddensity estimates. They thenprojected the rate of growthor decline of each populationbased on several parameters.

The authors recommendthat lions should be listed asregionally endangered inCentral and East Africa.

Vanishing African lions

Lions will be considered endangered if numbers declined by 50per cent over three lion generations. PHOTO: AFP

DIVYA GANDHI

Unscientific manage-ment of domestic

waste could lead to thespread of rabies to wild ani-mals, as was seen in a vil-lage in Kerala.

The issue attains signif-icance as the debate overthe management of domes-tic refuses and stray dogpopulation has reached theapex court of the countryand pro and anti-dog cull-ing activists are vehement-ly driving home theirarguments.

Recently, two research-ers from the Kerala ForestResearch Institute codifiedand published reports on 21cases of rabid mongoose at-tacking people in Edakkad,Kannur District, Kerala.

The reported incidentstook place in 2010 and wasconsidered as the first re-

port from India on a mas-sive attack of rabidmongooses on humans in avillage, said the paper pub-lished by E.A. Jayson andSuresh K. Govind of theWildlife Department of theInstitute. The paper waspublished in the Journal ofthe Bombay Natural Histo-ry Society.

The Indian grey mon-goose (Herpestes edward-si), which is distributedalmost throughout India,

feeds on small mammals,birds, reptiles, fruits, eggs,and invertebrates. Theylive in burrows and breedthroughout the year.

Mongoose species areknown to be vectors of therabies virus. Though the oc-currence of mongoosetransmitted rabies hasbeen reported from variouscountries, the occurrenceof dog rabies has masked itsimportance, notes thepaper.

Although the Indian greymongoose is listed as a ra-bies virus vector in India,the golden jackal is knownto be the principal wild spe-cies which transmits the vi-rus. In a survey of incidenceof rabies among wild ani-mals, 92 cases of mongooserabies were confirmed fromwildlife parks and zoos inIndia, the paper points out.

An evaluation of the sit-uation in Kannur proved

that the animal populationproliferated as refuses frompoultry farms weredumped on unattendedholdings along the seacoast. The easy availabilityof food would lead to theproliferation of the animalpopulation, unusual situa-tion of the animals attack-ing humans too couldemerge, said Dr. Jayson.

The increase in the num-bers of mongoose and sub-sequent death of theanimals were noticed bythe villages in Kannur. Onpost-mortem examinationof the animals, rabiessymptoms were confirmed,he said.

As the attention on ra-bies control focuses onstreet dogs, there is need towatch out for possiblethreat of wild populationsgetting infected and attack-ing human beings, hewarned.

Mongoose too can spread rabies21 cases ofrabidmongooseattackingpeoplereported inEdakkad,Kerala

K.S. SUDHI


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EducationPlus02 THE HINDU | MONDAY |NOVEMBER 9, 2015- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

N O IDA /DELH I

SNAPSHOTS

EYE DROPS CLEARCATARACTS

A chemical thatcould potentially beused in eye drops toreverse cataracts, alaeding cause ofblindness, has beenidentified by ateam of scientists.

DISEASE-SPREADIN WILD BEES

An entomologisthas come to theconclusion thatmanaged bees arespreading diseasesto wild bees, afteranalysing studydone in this area.

HOW BIRD WINGSTAKE SHAPE

New researchhas found that theshape of bird wingsis influenced moreby how closelyrelated species areto one another thanby flight style.

DIET STUDY OFPRIMATES

New data aboutchimps' diet hasbeen gained basedon teeth remains vegetable remainspreserved in thedental calculus orplaque of chimps.

NEW LIGHT ONHEARING LOSS

The function ofpejvakin, amolecule that playsa key role inhearing, has beenfound. Its absence

causes noise-basedhearing loss.

RADIATION PROTECTION

How do astronauts protect themselves from radiationin outer space?J. MICHAEL NIRANJAN

Madurai, Tamil Nadu

According to the US National Space Administration (NASA),an astronaut's radiation exposure depends on the structure ofthe spacecraft, the materials used to construct the vehicle, thealtitude and inclination of the spacecraft, the status of outerzone electron belts, the interplanetary proton flux,geomagnetic field conditions, solar cycle position, and ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) start time and duration among otherfactors. The Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) of NASA

measures radiation levels inside and outside the spacecraft. Itestimates radiation doses to astronauts after assessing inputssuch as radiation coming from outer space, radiation trappedin the magnetic field of the Earth after integrating them withinformation on the altitude and inclination of the spacecraftand location and timing of EVAs. SRAG evaluates radiologicalsafety aspects of radioisotopes and radiation-producingequipment carried on the spacecraft Each crewmember carriesa passive radiation dosimeter. SRAG may ask the astronauts toremain in the shielded areas of th e spacecraft and may demandeither the cancellation or r evised scheduling of EVAs. SRAGensures that the exposures received by th e astronauts remainbelow established safety limits and are As Low As ReasonablyAchievable (ALARA). More details are available at: http://srag.jsc.nasa.gov/spaceradiation/how/how.cfmK.S. ParthasarathyFormer Secretary, AERB

THIS WEEKS QUESTIONSWhy does our body temperature rise when we getfever?D. Janani, Chennai

What is dark energy?Rakesh Pandey

When we light a lamp it always burns in the upwarddirection. Why?Indu C.,Thrissur

QUESTION CORNER

For the wildlife enthu-siast, the bright col-ours, rings, spots andstripes on the wing ofthe butterfly repre-

sent the pinnacle of naturesbeauty. However, how does apredator a bird or a largerinsect view the wing col-ouration and the rings? Doesit tilt the balance in favour ofthe butterfly in this millen-nia-old battle of survival inthe evolutionary war that isdescribed by biologist Ri-chard Dawkins as the Great-est Show on Earth?

A study by scientists fromthe National Centre for Bi-ological Sciences (NCBS),Bengaluru and the NationalUniversity of Singapore(NUS) investigate how wellbutterfly mimics resembletheir models, and finds thecomplexities that drive theevolution of mimicry.

Researchers studied over200 specimens from the lushWestern Ghats forests of un-palatable butterflies thatserve as models to palatablebutterflies. For instance, theDanaus chrysippus (plain ti-ger or African monarch but-terfly) protects itself frompredators by injecting unpal-atable alkaloids from plantsduring the larval stage. Thisprotection from predators al-lows it to fly leisurely with-out threat of the predator. It

isnt surprising then that thepalatable Danaid Eggfly(Hypolimnas misippus) hasevolutionarily learnt to mim-ic the look of the plain tiger inan effort to fool predators in-to avoiding eating it.

The predators point ofview was obtained throughthe visual modelling of theavian colour vision (whichdiffers from the colours andpatterns perceived by hu-mans).

The study, published in thelatest edition of the journalEvolution, quantitativelyshows that female butterflieswere better mimics thantheir male counterparts.Krushnamegh Kunte fromNCBS explains: Female but-terflies carry heavy loads of

eggs, which impairs their es-cape flight when they are at-tacked by birds and otherpredators. Because of thisrisk of predation, female but-terflies are under intensenatural selection to be verygood mimics.

For male butterflies, thequest for sexual advantage colours that attract mates

seems to have affected itsability to mimic, and in manyspecies the males look com-pletely different from fe-males. Do their offspring which inherit genes of mim-icry as well as colours of sex-ual advantage see theiroffspring struggle to mimic?

Surprisingly, no. The studyfinds that evolutionary needstrump any genetic dilution.Another surprising resultthrown up is that the lowersurface of the wing showsbetter mimicry than the up-per surface which is seen in abutterflys flight path. This,says Mr. Kunte, could be be-cause the butterfly is morevulnerable at rest (when itsfolded wings displays thelower surface) than at flight.

Decoding the colours

on a butterfly

Butterflies are under intense natural selection to be very good mimics.

PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

MOHIT M. RAO

The lowersurface ofthe wingshows bettermimicry thanthe upper

Anew small molecule

synthesised by scien-tists at the Hydera-

bad-based Indian Instituteof Chemical Technologyhas shown to effectivelycontrol growth of cancer-ous cells by preventing themis-expression of a specif-ic micro RNA involved intumour formation.

Micro RNAs or miRNAsplay an important role incancer biology. They arenon-coding RNAs and areinvolved in gene regulationand many developmentalprocesses. Several thou-sand miRNAs that control30-40 per cent of all geneshave been identified in hu-man and other organisms.Researchers worldwide aretargeting miRNAs to findbetter therapeutics forcancer.

In studies carried out incollaboration with theCentre for Cellular andMolecular Biology, Hyde-rabad the scientists identi-fied dual functions of thenewly synthesised mole-cule, triazole.

It was found that uncon-trolled cell growth wasdrastically reduced whenthe molecule was insertedinto cancerous cell lines.The molecule also acted asHDAC protein inhibitor inhuman tumour cells andDrosophila larvae during

in vivo experiments.HDAC inhibitors areknown to promote theprocess of programmedcell death in which un-wanted cells that pose athreat to the organism aredestroyed.

Interestingly, the re-searchers discovered thatthe novel molecule specifi-cally acted as a negativeregulator for bantam miR-NA. The mis-expression ofbantam miRNA is respon-sible for diseases of cellproliferation that inhibitprogrammed cell death.

With the in vivo studiesconducted using Drosophi-la model (the nature ofapoptosis is similar to hu-mans), the researchersnow propose to carry outexperiments in rat modelsand eventually conductclinical studies.

If it goes through effec-tively in pre-clinical andclinical studies, there is adefinite chance to add anew molecule for cancertherapeutics and for re-ducing tumours, said Dr.Manika Pal Bhadra, Headof the Centre for ChemicalBiology at IICT and one ofthe authors of the study.She underlined the factthat the molecule was play-ing a dual role in not onlycontrolling cancerous cellgrowth but was also induc-ing apoptosis.

Dr. Utpal Bhadra of theCentre for Cellular andMolecular Biology said:This work is important aswe used Drosophila forscreening of molecules andvalidation of a molecule forcancer therapy. The studywas published recently inScientific Reports.

Novel molecule for

cancer therapy

Dr. Manika Pal Bhadra, one of the study authors, says that

the team proposes to conduct experiments on rat models.

PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Y. MALLIKARJUN

After successfully cam-paigning for the ban onmulti-dose vials of

painkiller drug diclofenac inveterinary use, conservation-ists have stepped up pressurefor withdrawing two moredrugs, which they say, are fa-tal for Asian vultures.

It was recently that the au-thorities slapped a ban on the30 ml multi-dose vials of thedrug, which was largely re-sponsible for the decline ofthe vultures, which used tofeed on bovine carcasses. Thebird conservationists pointedout that twenty years agothere were tens of millions ofvultures in the Indian sub-continent. They provided avaluable ecosystem serviceby disposing of millions oftonnes of waste carrion fromdead cattle each year. Now

they, and the services theyprovided, are nearly all gone,according a publication ofSaving Asias Vultures fromExtinction (SAVE), a consor-tium of eleven organisations.

The three species of Gypsvultures endemic to Southand Southeast Asia, orientalwhite-backed vulture (Gypsbengalensis), long-billed vul-ture (G. indicus) and slender-

billed vulture (G. tenuiros-tris), are the worst affectedand are threatened with glob-al extinction after rapid pop-ulation declines, which beganin the mid-1990s.

They are listed by IUCN asCritically Endangered, thehighest level of endanger-ment short of extinction inthe wild. The oriental white-backed vulture population in

India in 2007 was estimatedat one-thousandth of its levelin the early 1990s, the docu-ment said.

In south India, the vulturepopulations have been re-ported from Muthumalai andSathyamangalam regions ofTamil Nadu, Wayanad ofKerala and Bandipur and Na-garhole of Karnataka, wherealso the bird numbers are fastdwindling, pointed out C.Sashikumar, a leadingornithologist.

Besides other conservation

programmes, steps for ban-ning the veterinary use of Ke-toprofen and Aceclofenachave to be achieved.

The veterinary use of Ke-toprofen has already beenbanned in three districts ofTamil Nadu, he said. It hasbeen pointed out that the vet-erinary use of diclofenac wasthe major cause of the declineof vulture population. Whenvultures which feed on car-cass of animals treated withthe drug, severe kidneydamage and extensive viscer-al gout were observed.

The conservation consorti-um has also suggested mon-itoring the ban on veterinarydiclofenac, surveys on pop-ulations of vultures to assessits population trends, testingof vulture-safe veterinarydrugs and creation of VultureSafe Zones. Conservationbreeding is another focuspoint of the campaign.

For saving Asian vulture from fatal drugs

Vultures disposed of millions of tonnes of waste carrion from

dead cattle each year. PHOTO: K. V. UTHAMAN

K.S. SUDHI Conservationbreeding isanotherfocus pointof thecampaign

As our Institute at Hyderabadstarted constructing a newbuilding, we found a huge

boulder on the site. Such bouldersand rocks are common place in Hyd-erabad (and indeed in the Deccanregion) and many builders have sim-ply blasted them away to make roomfor buildings. As Hyderabad ex-panded during the last four decades,much of the landscape has been re-

markably changed from a series ofboulders to high-rise buildings.

This irreversible change in thelandscape has bothered many, andthe conservation group Save theRocks at Hyderabad has canvassedagainst such thoughtless blasting ofthese natural gifts and for conserv-ing them as much as possible. Thesehave borne some fruit as some ar-chitects have come out with inge-nious plans to build houses andcomplexes around the boulders, ormaking the boulders as part of theplan. We too decided to do so andmade the boulder part of the groundfloor of the new building, where itushers visitors.

This is yet another example of thedebate between ecology and envi-ronment on one hand and devel-opment and economic demands onthe other, but with a different focus.Boulders of Deccan are not green,they play no role in agriculture, wa-ter or the livelihood of the people in

any significant way. While we un-derstand the role of other ecosys-

tems such as mangroves, forests oranimal sanctuaries, of what use arethese stones and rocks?

The answer comes once we real-ize how these rocks and boulderscame about in the first place. Thework of geologists over the last cou-ple of centuries has unveiled thescenario of the area, which show usthat these rocks, boulders and steps(of the kind we see in the rocks inMahabaleshwar or Ajanta area) arethe result of the churning of theearth that went on as early as 65

million years ago. Those were thepre-human days when giant dino-saurs roamed the Indian landscapein Punjab, Rajasthan and Deccan.The remains of one such dinosaurthat roamed in the Adilabad areahave been put together and exhib-ited at the Birla Science Museum(which itself stands on such boul-ders) in Hyderabad. Looking at theactual bones of the dinosaurs lyingthere, one wonders what causedtheir extermination from the Ju-rassic Park of India of 65 millionyears ago.

Geo-chronologists study suchevents and estimate their time peri-ods. We have such experts at theNational Geophysical Research In-stitute at Hyderabad, Physical Re-search Laboratory at Ahmedabadand IIT Bombay. One such, Profes-sor Kanchan Pande of IIT Bombay,has been working on the geo-chro-nology of the Deccan, and has re-cently co-authored a paper in the

journal Science, which gives us aninsight to the scenario. It was over

66 million years ago that a giant as-teroid from space came and bargedon earth. The impact was so hugethat it led to catastrophic changeson earth. Giant series of earth-quakes erupted and massive fireswere ignited, wiping out most lifeforms, plant and animals on landand sea. Dark clouds of poisonousdust blocked sunlight, vitiating theatmosphere and climate. This cata-strophic event changed the entirelandscape and natural history of ourearth.

The collaborative work of Profes-sor Paul Renne of UC Berkeley, andProfessor Pande on Indian geochro-nology shows that the effect of suchan asteroid impact was not just asingle bang, but a series of earth-quakes churning out the Indian landmass, particularly in the Westernand Central regions of India, an areaalmost the size of U. P. and M. P. put

together. The impact was not just aone-off event but a series of contin-

uing re-adjustment of the layers ofearth, which continues even today.The volcanoes that resulted and thelava that began flowing still contin-ue. This is what led to the steps orstaircase-like arrangement of thelandscape in the Mumbai-PuneGhats region. These regular forma-tions as called the Deccan Traps(borrowing from the Swedish wordtrapp for staircase). For some stun-ning views of the Deccan Trap, go toGoogle and ask for images. Cynicsmay ask: what use is this barren

land? For the people who live in thearea, this is an irrelevant, indeedirreverent question. And for under-standing the details of our own his-tory, this is a natural gift. Save theRocks Hyderabad fights a heroicbattle and we wish them well andsupport.

Turning to the boulder in ourbuilding, we asked the world expertson geo-chronology based in Hydera-bad, Drs. Kunchitapadam Gopalanand Kaigala Venkata Subba Rao.They tell us that this boulder is ac-tually older than 65 million, perhapsclose to 1 billion years old! In re-spect, we surrounded it with fourwalls and the artist Surya Prakashcovered the walls with murals- as anode to this priceless gift that MotherEarth has bestowed on us.

Poets retell the past and foretellthe future. Saint Kabir wrote: Theclay told the potter: you are churn-ing me today. There will come a daywhen I will be churning you.

D. [email protected]

Why save the rocks of the Deccan Plateau? SPEAKING OF SCIENCE

Asteroid impact led to the

formation of the Deccan Traps.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Turning conventionalwisdom on its head, ateam of Canadian

scientists has discovered acompletely new view of howhuman blood is made.

According to them, thewhole classic textbook viewwe thought we knew aboutblood formation doesntactually even exist.

Through a series ofexperiments, we have beenable to finally resolve howdifferent kinds of blood cellsform quickly from the stemcell the most potent bloodcell in the system and notfurther downstream as hasbeen traditionally thought,

explained stem cell scientistDr John Dick.

The research also topplesthe textbook view that theblood development system isstable once formed.

Our findings show that theblood system is two-tiered andchanges between early humandevelopment and adulthood,says Dick, director of thecancer stem cell programme atthe Ontario Institute forCancer Research. Forredefining the architecture ofblood development, theresearch team mapped thelineage potential of nearly3,000 single cells from 33different cell populations ofstem and progenitor cellsobtained from human bloodsamples taken at various lifestages and ages.

For people with blooddisorders and diseases, thepotential clinical utility of the

findings is significant,unlocking a distinct route topersonalising therapy.

The findings were publishedonline in the journal Science. IANS

New light on humanblood formation

Readers can send their questions/answers [email protected]


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NOI DA/DEL HI

SNAPSHOTS

TIMING IS KEYFOR BIOENERGY

Researchers callfor a rapid shift torenewable energy,particularly bio-energy, to avoidclimate change,ahead of ClimateTalks in Paris.

BIRDS PREFERLOVE TO FOOD

Wild birds willsacrifice access tofood in order tostay close to theirpartner over thewinter, accordingto a new study atOxford.

CARBON DECLINEIN U.S. FORESTS

Currently, thecarbon sequesteredin US forestspartially offsets thenation's emissions,but that couldchange over thenext 25 years.

JAWS ANDCLIMATE CHANGE

The huntingability and growthof sharks will beimpacted byincreased CO2levels and warmeroceans by the endof the century.

LESS SNOW,LESS WATER

Snow-dependentdrainage basinsacross the northernhemisphere run therisk of declining

supplies in thecoming century.

FLAME DIRECTION

When we light a lamp, it always burns in the upward direction,why?INDU. C THRISSUR, KERALA

A flame is a burning gas drawing fuel through a wick or from a fuel pipe (asin case of gas stove). The burning gas is at a very high temperature, makingit much lighter in density as compared to the surrounding air at roomtemperature. As we know a lighter substance always moves against thegravity when dipped in a medium of heavier density, so is the case in aflame. As the hot gas is pulled in the upward direction, the vacuum causedis filled up by surrounding gases comprising oxygen, nitrogen etc. Theoxygen accelerates the burning of fuel and the flame is sustained till thefuel exhausts. Another interesting observation about the flame is that theshape of the flame is narrow at the top as it goes up and up. This is becauseas the gases are pushed up, their velocity increases. As the velocityincreases, the diameter reduces as at every section vertically, same amountof gases are passing. In a media with no gravity, such as in the space, it isdifficult to predict which way the flame would turn and it all depends onthe difference in density of gases around the flame. With no gases around,the flame would normally be spherical in shape.S.P.S. JAINGreater Noida

THIS WEEKS QUESTION

Why does it rain heavily all of a sudden, while at times it takes a while for itto become heavy?

Vasudev, Chennai

QUESTION CORNER

If in August 2011 the discovery ofan underground river in Brazil ata depth of 4 km and stretching forabout 6,000 km made news (TheHindu, August 31, 2011), scientists

have now discovered evidence of a largeriver system that once existed in West-ern Sahara.

Based on remote sensing data, theexistence of a 520 km-long vast ancientriver network has been established un-der the parched sands of the Mauritaniacoast. The river is shallowly buried atpresent under wind-borne sediments,says a paper published a few days ago inthe journal Nature Communications.

Water may last have flowed through thechannels some 5,000 years ago.

Recently, a submarine channel sys-tem the Cape Timiris Canyon wasdiscovered on the Western Sahara mar-gin off the Mauritania coast. Generally,large-scale submarine channels occuroff major river mouths. Hence, the CapeTimiris Canyon must have been linkedto a major river system some time in therecent past.

Earlier studies have argued for thepresence of a large river system in

Western Sahara. Now, combined withgeomorphological and sedimentary da-ta already available, the French teamsuggests that a major river system wasindeed reactivated during some of thehumid periods of the last 245,000years, and this river system could havecontributed sediments to the Tropical

Atlantic margins during that time.The authors utilised the data provid-

ed by the Japanese PALSAR radar thatuses L-band frequency to discover theancient river system. The L-band radarhas the potential to see through evenmetres of loose sand material and canidentify geomorphological features thatare now buried under wind-borne sedi-ments. However, the radar could notpeer through thick sand dunes.

But whatever has been reconstructedperfectly matches with an earlier digitalprojection model of a large river system.

In fact, a fifth of the drainage networkreconstructed matches perfectly withthe digital projection model.

Satellite images reveal that thecourse of the ancient river is perfectlyaligned with ancient valleys identifiedin the Arguin Basin and proximal trib-utaries of the Cape Timiris Canyon sys-tem.

The river would have got its waterfrom heavy rainfall in the Western Sah-aran region during the early Holocene

African humid periods. At that time,equatorial lakes reached their highestlevel and the present-day Saharan des-ert was the location of extensive vegeta-tion, animal life and humansettlements, the authors write. The

presence of sediments transported byriver were deposited in the Arguin Ba-sin during the mid-Holocene (between11,000 and 6,500 years ago) suggestingthat the Tamanrasett River was activeduring that period.

According to the authors, the pres-ence of the river system during the re-cent humid periods provides themissing link between the developmentof lakes over Algeria, and Mauritania,fluvial evidence in Algeria and the river-ine signals recorded in the Arguin Ba-sin. The present study supports thehypothesis that there was a major dropin wind-borne sediments to the North-eastern Tropical Atlantic WesternOcean during the time the river net-work was active.

This finding provides yet anotherevidence of the extent of the Saharanwetting during AHPs [African humidperiods] and should thus provide valua-ble constraints for numerical simula-tions of West African climatethroughout the late Quaternary, theywrite.

Western Sahara once

had a large river network

Evidence of a 520-km long vast ancient river network under the parched sands of

the Mauritania coast has been established. PHOTO: AFP

R. PRASAD

Water may lasthave flowedthrough thechannels some5,000 years ago.

From the very first stepsthat an infant takes, to

the expensive surgeriesneeded to ensure lowerlimbs function away, walk-ing remains an integral partof mankind. In fact, the bipe-dalism, developed throughevolution, is among the cru-cial differentiators from ourprimate cousins.

But this simple activity,oft taken for granted, is quitecomplex in reality; and re-searchers from the Bengalu-ru-based Indian Institute ofScience (IISc) have shownthat the uniquely clumsystyle can be envisioned as asequence of controlledfalls that can be optmised todevelop better robots.

Published recently in theJournal of Bioinspirationand Biomimetics, the study

was aimed at identifying theconstraints of walking andso, identifying the best pos-sible walking position for ro-bots that involves minimalenergy consumption. Thework, says the study, can beused eventually to developbi-pedal robots or even hu-man exoskeletons.

Human walking followsthe inverted pendulummodel. One leg is the stanceor weight bearing leg, whilethe other swings forward.The swinging leg has little

effect on the dynamics of thesystem that is pivoted at thehips. A little push is all that isneeded to move the swingingleg forward, and after that, ituses gravity to move for-ward. The swinging leg thenbecomes the stance leg, andthe alternative motion con-tinues.

And thus walking be-comes a sequence of con-trolled falls, says LalitPatnaik from the Depart-ment of Electronics System

Engineering, IISc who co-authored the study.

The researchers haveidentified five physical con-straints for instance, mid-stance velocity (how fast towalk), step angle (how largethe steps are) and pushingcapacity (muscles in humansor motors in robots) to cal-culate the optimum con-

straints for a robot to ensurebi-pedal walking while usingminimal power.

In future, we aim to re-fine our models to more ac-curately capture the effectsof the heel striking theground, and the energyspent to lift and place legs offinite mass, says Mr. Pat-naik. The mechanical under-standing of all the musclesthat goes into walking caneventually be translated tomotor functions of the ro-bots, he says.

Robots learning to walk

Scientists are identifying the best possible walking position

for robots that involves minimal energy consumption.

PHOTO: REUTERS

MOHIT M. RAO

Walking canbe envisionedas asequence ofcontrolledfalls

On November 12, it was ayear since Philae made

its historic landing on theComet 67P/Churyumov-Ge-rasimenko. Rosetta arrived atthe Comet 67P on August 6and Philae was delivered tothe surface on November 12.

Rosetta did an initial surveybefore selecting theAgilkia re-gion as the landing site. How-

ever, the Agilkia region did notturn out to be a perfect site asit had a very hard surface. Thehard surface caused the Philaeto bounce on landing.

A year after Philae landed atthe Agilkia region, scientistshave found why Philaebounced. Ice screws, har-poons and a small thrusterwere to be used to secure Phi-lae after it landed on thecomet surface. The ice screwswere designed keeping inmind a relatively soft materi-al, but the Agilkia region turn-ed out to be very hard and sothe screws failed to penetrate

the surface, notes a EuropeanSpace Agency release.

The harpoons, capable ofworking in both softer andharder material, were sup-posed to fire on contact andlock Philae to the surface. Butthat did not happen.

The problem was eitherwith the four bridge wirestaking current to ignite the ex-plosive that triggers the har-poons, or the explosive itself.The thruster on top of the lan-

der was meant to push it downto counteract the recoil fromthe harpoon. But attempts toarm the thruster the night be-fore had failed.

Besides helping in lockingPhilae to the surface on mak-ing contact, the harpoonswere to serve another impor-tant function they containsensors that can measure thetemperature below the sur-face. So the agency might at-tempt to retry firing the

harpoons if contact with Phi-lae is restored.

Despite the unplannedbouncing, Philae completed80 per cent of its planned firstscience sequence before fall-ing into hibernation when theprimary battery got exhaust-ed, the release claims. Thesecondary batteries could notbe charged as there was notenough sunlight in Philaes fi-nal location at Abydos. In theabsence of fully powered sec-ondary batteries, science mea-surements will not continue.Plan was to reactivate Philaeonce the batteries get charged

as the comet moved nearer tothe Sun, heading towards clos-est approach in August. Butonly eight intermittent con-tacts were made betweenJune 13 and July 9.

Only intermittent contactswere made as the increasingsunlight led to increased ac-tivity on the comet. Rosettawas forced to retreat to sever-al hundred kilometres forsafety, well out of range withPhilae. Over the past few

weeks, with the comets activ-ity now subsiding, Rosetta hasstarted to approach again.This week it reached 200 km,the limit for making good con-tact with Philae, and on No-

vember 12 it dips to within 170km, the release notes.

The comet is now headingout beyond the orbit of Marsand the temperatures are dip-ping. Beyond January-endPhilae cannot work as thetemperature will dip below 51 degree C. The plan is to endthe mission with a controlledimpact of Rosetta on the sur-face in September 2016.

Philae: one year on comet 67P

Philae has completed 80 % ofits planned first science

sequence. PHOTO: REUTERS

R. PRASAD

A

spider feeding on a bat

may sound strange andtaken straight out of sciencefiction. But researchers havereported such an event fromKerala.

It was a giant wood spider(Nephila pilipes) thatstunned the researchers ofthe Kerala Agricultural Uni-

versity, Thrissur, throughits surprising feeding habits.The spider was caught feed-ing on a Vespertilionidbaton the University campus.

The Giant golden silk orbweavers of genus Nephilafeed primarily on small in-sects like jewel beetles.However, they have beenobserved to go for largecatches like cicadas, moths,grasshoppers, [and even]bats, fish, frog, lizards,snakes and rats, accordingto a report published in arecent issue of the journal

Current Science.Of the 52 reported events

of a spider eating a bat, onlytwo were reported from In-dia, including one fromChinnar Wildlife Sanctuaryin Kerala. The first report ofbat being caught in a spiderweb was noted in 1842.

The insectivorous batsoccupy a relatively safe posi-tion in the food web, usuallybeing predated upon only byowls, hawks and snakes. On-ly a few people who studybats (chiropterologists) andarachnologists (who studyspiders) have ever reported

a bat being predated upon bya spider in the field.

The bat species that waspreyed upon was identifiedas one belonging to a Pipis-trellus species of Vesperti-lionidae family. The head ofthe bat could not be reco-

vered for cranial and dentalcharacter examination asthe spider had already eatenthe bats head. Hence, thespecies-level identificationof the bat could not be con-firmed, it was reported.

The spiders that dom-inate bat-predation belong

to the Mygalomorph family,Theraphosidae, and the ara-naeomorph families Neph-ilidae, Araneidae andSparassidae. Most of thebats captured by spiders be-long to the families Vesper-tilionidae andEmballonuridae.

In all the two cases of spi-ders feeding on bats report-ed from India, the preybelonged to the Pipistrellusspecies, indicating that thelarge spiders were probablya potential predator of thesmall-sized bats of the fam-ily Vespertilionidae, observ-ed the authors.

The spider web was on atree at height of about 2metres from the ground.The presence of human be-ings near its web, it ap-peared, might have deterredthe spider from completingits feed, the authors note.

Now, spider eats a bat

Giant golden silk orb weavers of genus Nephila feed on

small insects too. Photo: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

K.S. SUDHI

Only 2 casesof spidereating a batreportedfrom India

Unfortunately, this year toothe meeting of the Commis-

sion for Conservation of Antarc-tic Marine Living Resources(CCAMLR) ended without reac-hing an agreement on the estab-lishment of the Marine Protected

Areas (MPAs).The goal of CCAMLR, now

numbering 25 members (24 na-tions and the European Union), isto preserve marine life and envi-ronmental integrity in and near

Antarctica. It meets every year inlate October to deliberate on theestablishment of MPAs in the

Antarctic Ocean.The marine protected areas are

those where certain activities arelimited or prohibited to meetspecific conservation, habitatprotection, or fisheries manage-ment objectives.

At stake are two key proposals

an MPA in the Ross Sea pro-posed by U.S. and New Zealandand the other, in the ocean sur-

rounding East Antarctica conti-nent proposed by Australia,France and the EU.

The creation of an MPA to pro-tect 946,998 square km of East

Antarctic waters would allow ex-ploratory and research activitieswithin the MPA if they are con-sistent with its objective pro-tection of biodiversity.

The Southern Ocean is home tomore than 10,000 unique speciesincluding most of the worlds

penguins, whales, seabirds, colos-

sal squid and the remarkable Ant-arctic toothfish the main targetof fishing companies in the re-gion.

The Southern Ocean is a cru-cial area for scientific research,both for studying how intact ma-rine ecosystems function and fordetermining the impacts of globalclimate change.

The Ross Sea and East Antarc-tica proposals were put on thetable in 2011, and 2012 respec-tively. They have both beenstalled since October 2012, due toblocking actions by several coun-tries, most notably Russia. A rayof hope in this years meeting isthat China has joined with the USand New Zealand to support theRoss Sea proposal.

On the final day of this yearsCCAMLR meeting, New Zealandand the U.S. introduced the re-

vised version of the Ross SeaMPA proposal. This new version

of the proposal now includes a k-rill research zone on the westernboundary of the MPA.

When the revised proposal was

introduced, Russia stated thatthey had continued concernswith the proposals which relateto research and monitoring, howto review the effectiveness of theMPA and how long the MPAwould be in effect as well as con-cerns about some of the specificsrelated to the Krill ResearchZone.

Dae Levine, CommunicationsDirector of Antarctic Ocean Alli-ance, noted in an email to thisCorrespondent: From our per-spective, its difficult to know ex-actly what is driving Russiasreluctance to support these pro-posals. Russia has identifiedwhat seems to be an evolving setof concerns which limit theirability to support the proposals.

We cant speculate on why this ishappening, but its clear thatmany modifications have beenmade to both the East AnatarcticOcean and Ross Sea proposals

when countries came ready to ne-gotiate with clearly defined con-cerns.

Antarctica sanctuaries talks fail

Russia seems reluctant tosupport the two proposals.

PHOTO: REUTERS

K.S. RAJGOPAL

Readers may send their questions/answers to [email protected]


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N O IDA /DELH I

SNAPSHOTS

WHEN DID ANDES

FORM?

The Andes havebeen a mountainchain for muchlonger thanpreviously thought.It has gone upslowly over at leastthe last 30 millionyears and are theresult of gradual

thickening of thecrust.

CORALS AND

CLIMATE CHANGE

New researchhas found that fathelps coral surviveheat stress over theshort term and

over the long term.Some corals resistrepeated bouts ofheat stress calledbleaching due tothe presence of fat.

NEW EBOLA

VACCINE IS SAFE

A clinical trial ofa new Ebolavaccine found it iswell tolerated andstimulates strongimmune responsesin adults in Maliand the U.S. Largertrials of the vaccinehas already begun.

DARK ENERGY

What is dark energy?RAKESH PANDEY

Dark energy is some kind of energy which is said to exist butscientists know very little details of it. About 14 to 15 billionyears ago, when the Big Bang happened, the universe came intoexistence. The matter formed from huge energy started ex-panding due to outward force of the Big bang. From the theory

of gravity postulated by Einstein, the particles having massshould attract each other and the expansion of the Universeshould stop at one point of time.

However from the observations made by the a stronomers, itappeared that the rate of expansion has increased after about 7billion years. This shows that some other force is acting againstthe gravity which is forcing the expansion of universe insteadof contraction. Scientists gave name to this unknown force asthe dark energy.

It is interesting to know that what we see as the matter in theuniverse in the form of stars, planets, clouds of dust, only formsabout 5 per cent of the universe mass, rest being dark energy(about 68 per cent) and dark matter (about. 27 per cent).

S P S JAINFormer Member, Engineering, Indian Railways, Greater Noida

THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS

Is there any effect of neutrinos when they pass throughour body?

BHANU JAMWAL, Jandial, Jammu & Kashmir

Why is it very difficult to burn a heap of fresh greenleaves but once the leaves dry up they burn easily?

SHARATH CHANDRA

What are gravitational waves?CHAITANYA VUDDANTI, Hyderabad

QUESTION CORNER

Thanks to the Zero TBCities project, if allgoes well, Chennaimay drastically re-duce TB mortality,

shrink the number of newcases annually and impactTB prevalence in the city in amatter of 3-5 years.

Chennai has been chosenas one of two cities in theworld where the Zero TB Ci-ties project will try to createan island of elimination;Lima in Peru is the othercity. The project will be for-mally launched in Chennaiin a few months time.

The project will be imple-mented by the MunicipalCorporation of Chennai withthe Chennai-based REACHand the National Institute

for Research in Tuberculosis(NIRT) assisting it.Our U.S.-based team

partnered with the ClintonHealth Access Initiative(CHAI) India, to do exten-sive scoping missions acrossmajor Indian cities startingin 2014. Over the course ofseveral visits, Chennai cameout as the strongest site toexplore a Zero TB City ap-proach in India, Tom Ni-cholson associate in researchat the Duke Center for In-ternational Development(DCID), Durham, and who isheading the new project saidin an email to The Hindu.

The very objective of theproject is that other cities inIndia and elsewhere take theinitiative in a similar wayand tackle their own TB epi-demics urgently. When the

municipal authorities in Li-ma or Chennai stand up andidentify TB as a priority pub-lic health menace that needsto be tackled, other locationsmay follow suit, and buildtheir own locally appropriateplans to more toward ulti-mate elimination of TB. If wecan help, we will of coursefind a way to do so, Mr. Ni-cholson said.

The goal is to help com-munities move to zerodeaths from tuberculosis in

their own way, and createislands of elimination,which will hopefully reversethe overall tuberculosis epi-demic, Pamela Das, Execu-tive Editor and RichardHorton, Editor-in-Chief,note in an Editorial in TheLancet.

The flicker of hope shinesbrightly amidst the gloomyand grim tuberculosis scena-rio in the country 220,000avoidable TB deaths in 2014in people who were HIV neg-ative and 2.2 million new TBcases, accounting for 23 percent of the global total. Thecountry today faces theworld's greatest TB crisis de-spite halving TB prevalenceand the mortality rate in thelast 25 years.

Business as usual can nolonger be an option in the

fight against tuberculosis asthe global decline in thenumber of new TB cases ev-

ery year has been extremelyslow in the last 25 years. Atthis rate, it will take anothertwo centuries to eliminatethe disease, The Lancetnotes.

The Zero TB Cities projectthat began in 2014 andlaunched in active form lastmonth has earnestly em-braced the Zero TB Declara-tion in 2012 that calls for anew global attitude in thefight against TB.

In India, there is evi-dence that transmission ofTB is much higher in cities,and cities are often thesource of infection for ruralcommunities. So, getting tozero in cities will eliminateimportant reservoirs of TB,Dr. Suvanand Sahu, DeputyExecutive Director of StopTB Partnership, Geneva said

in an email to The Hindu.Making a marked depar-

ture from the current highly

ineffectual methods used totackle the disease, the pro-ject envisages a comprehen-sive tuberculosiselimination strategy at thecommunity level by using allthe currently available arse-nals. The island of elimina-tion strategy does not callfor any breakthroughs butonly requires a change ofmindset and better use ofmethods and tools that al-ready exist.

To cut the transmissioncycle and reduce mortality,the project intends to fightthe TB war in Chennai byactively searching for peoplewith TB disease, providingpreventive therapy to peopleinfected with TB and belong-ing to high-risk groups, con-trolling TB transmission byroutinely using efficient

tools for early and accuratediagnosis and providing ap-propriate therapy immedi-

ately, and finally by makingsure the right supportiveprogrammes are in place tokeep patients on therapy.

Fortunately, the RevisedNational Tuberculosis Con-trol Programme (RNTCP)guidelines are very forwardlooking and already advocatemost of the strategies to beadopted by the Zero TB Ci-ties project.

Though how soon the ini-tial objective will be reachedwill depend on how quicklyand how well the programmeis rolled out, Chennai al-ready enjoys a head start. To-gether with otherstakeholders NGOs, pri-vate practitioners, pharma-cies, deans of medicalcolleges and NIRT theCorporation has already ini-tiated some measures that

will form the key focus ofthe project.

For instance, the gaps infighting the disease have al-ready been identified by theChennai Corporation, andruling out TB in HIV positiveadults using an advancedtool (GeneXpert) has beengoing on since June this year.Actively tracing and testingpeople living in the samehousehold as a recently diag-nosed TB patient and there-fore at high risk ofcontracting the disease is al-ready being done. FromStop TB we are already sup-porting a TB REACH projectin Chennai which amongother things is focussing onhow to implement contactinvestigation better, saidDr. Sahu.

The city is planning to gobeyond household contacts

to look for hotspots of trans-mission in slums and povertypockets, and to implementactive case finding in suchsettings, said Dr. Sahu.

Seamless integration be-tween public and private sec-tors for TB care will be lesschallenging in Chennai asthe Corporation and REACHalready work closely with theprivate sector to make casenotification more effectiveand to address the issue ofavailability of TB medicinesto people approaching pri-vate practitioners. In a smallway, REACH already has apublic-care representativeembedded in private hospi-tals to facilitate medicineavailability to poor patients.

We see Zero TB as along term goal, a catch-allway of saying we are moving

in an accelerated fashion to-ward the pre-eliminationphase, which is seen inwealthy health systemswhere TB exists but is nolonger an urgent publichealth problem, Mr. Nichol-son said. Realistically weexpect that any city can ex-pect to reach pre-elimina-tion phase with thecomprehensive approach.Only after the infrastructureis in place to search, treatand prevent will moving to-ward the more ambitiousgoals of zero deaths, zerotransmission, and ultimatelyzero patients be even con-ceptually possible.

Despite the disease beingairborne and presence of alarge population infectedwith TB bacteria (latent TB)acting as a reservoir, Mr. Ni-cholson is confident that TB

can be and has been con-trolled in thousands of set-tings in the past.

While referring to theproblems posed by migra-tion of people into the cityfrom high-burden settingsMr. Nicholson said: The Ze-ro TB Cities approach needsto be part of a larger move-ment and cannot fully suc-ceed in isolation in India interms of getting to the finalzeros in Chennai.

The Project is a collabora-tive effort between Har-vards Department of GlobalHealth and Social Medicine,Duke Universitys SanfordSchool of Public Policy andDuke Center for Interna-tional Development. Stop TBPartnership provides the op-erational and strategiccollaboration.

Chennais new strategy to eliminate TB

The project intends to fight the TB war in Chennai by actively searching for people with TB

disease. PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

R. PRASAD The 'island ofelimination'strategy doesnot call foranybreakthrough

Drink juice of Mother Ma-ry's Pie Melon (Dosa-

kaya in Telugu; Dosaka inTamil) and counter the life-style diseases like diabetes,obesity and cardiovasculardisorders.

With sugar-laden diet andbeverages posing a major riskfactor for lifestyle diseasessuch as diabetes, obesity andcardio-vascular disorders, agroup of scientists from Indi-an Institute of ChemicalTechnology, Hyderabad hasstudied the effect of Dosa-kaya (DK) (Cucumis melo

var. chito) juice on sucrose-

induced glucose intoleranceand oxidative stress. Whileglucose intolerance leads tomore than normal levels ofglucose in the blood stream(also called pre-diabetesstate), oxidative stress iscaused by free radicals andassociated with many diseas-es, including diabetes, car-

diovascular disorders andcancer.

Dosakaya fruit is widelyused in different culinaryitems in South India. It dis-plays multiple anti-oxidantactivities which help in pre-venting damage to tissuescaused by free radicals.

During the study, the sci-entists orally administeredprepared sugar solution torats for a month. When theanimals were given Dosakayajuice, it was found that theglucose intolerance inducingcapacity of sucrose was sig-nificantly reduced. In addi-

tion, Dosakaya juice boostedthe indigenous anti-oxidantdefence system of the bodyby multiple mechanisms.

The results of the researchwork were published inPharmacognosyMagazineinthe October-December, 2015issue.

Lead author of the studyand senior principal scientist

at IICT, Dr. Ashok Kumar Ti-wari, said our literature aswell as international litera-ture over the years hasshown that people who ad-here to traditional dietarypractices are least prone todevelop modern-day lifestylediseases. Since the past 50years, people around the

world have been increasinglyconsuming processed calo-rie-rich and energy-densefoods and beverages.

He said the study looked atfinding a traditional dietarymethod which would be ben-eficial in terms of health.

Another unique findingwas that Dosakaya juice re-duced sucrose feeding in-duced hyperlipidemia(excessive amounts of fatsand fatty substances inblood), a major risk factor forheart diseases. It was alsofound that it reduced trigly-ceride levels in blood. Weare the first group to work onDosakaya. Our highlight is itstherapeutic effects against

diabetes and cardio-vascularrisk factors, he added.

Dr. Tiwari cautionedagainst consuming juicewhen the fruit tastes bitter asit could be toxic. He said dia-betics should consult theirphysicians before consumingas its cumulative effect mightlead to hypoglycaemia.

Drinking pie melon juice may counter diabetes

Dosakaya juice also reduced sucrose feeding inducedhyperlipidemia (excessive amounts of fats and fatty

substances in blood) say Dr. Ashok Tiwari (sitting). PHOTO:

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Y. MALLIKARJUN Juice shouldnot beconsumed ifthe fruittastes bitter

Agenetic catalogue of theaquatic germplasm of

the Ramsar sites of Keralausing molecular tools willsoon be created.

The Kochi-based Penin-sular and Marine Fish Ge-netic Resources Centre (theregional centre of the Na-tional Bureau of Fish Ge-netic Resources, Lucknow)has embarked on a projectto prepare the document ofthe shell and fin fish varie-

ties of the fish diversities ofthe Ramsar sites of Ashta-mudi estuary, Sasthamkot-

ta Lake and Vembanad-KolWetland in Kerala.

Under the project sup-ported by the Kerala StateCouncil for Science Tech-nology and Environment,DNA barcodes for the fishvarieties would be pre-pared. The project attainssignificance in the wake ofthe decline of the extent ofwetlands due to anthropo-genic activities and the re-sultant loss or theextinction of countless spe-cies of plants and animals,

explained the Scientist-in-charge of the Centre.

The Bureau has already

generated species-specificDNA barcodes of nearly 500marine and freshwater spe-cies. The current projectenvisages generating DNAbarcodes of the fish andshellfish species, which willserve as specific markers tofacilitate accuracy in docu-menting the valuable fishresources of the study area.Approximately 250 speciesof fin fishes and shell fishesare reported so far from

these wetlands in Kerala,said the project document.

The Ramsar Conventionhas listed 2,122 wetlands ofinternational importancespreading over 20.53 crorehectare across the world. InIndia, there are 26 Ramsarsites which cover 6.89 lakhhectare. The wetlands of In-dia are considered as themost threatened of all eco-systems in India due to hab-itat degradation, salinity,excessive inundation, waterpollution, excessive devel-opment like road building,the document pointed out.

The rain-fed Sastham-kotta Lake, the largest freshwater lake of Kerala, isspread out in the adjacentvillages of Sasthamkotta,Mynagappally and WestKallada of Kunnathur Ta-luk of Kollam District. Ear-

lier researchers haverecorded the presence of 26fish species from the lake.

Vembanad Lake holdsrich fish diversity with ap-proximately 142 fin andshellfish species recordedso far. The Ashtamudi Estu-ary, which is fed by the Kal-lada River, is a tropicalbrackish water habitat inthe Kollam District. It sup-ports 92 fish species includ-ing prawns, crabs and otherbivalves, of which 28 are ofcommercial importance,the research document

said.According to the project

document, the genetic cata-loguing of the species of thewetlands was not carriedthough the resources wereassessed. Taxonomic ambi-guity existed in severalgroups of fishes and therewas the possibility of manyof them misidentified.

The Project InvestigatorDivya P.R. says the studywould help in developingspecies-specific molecularsignature through DNAbar-coding of the fish diver-sity of the Ramsar sites ofKerala. The DNA-based ap-proaches could resolve thetaxonomic ambiguities andmay even lead to the pos-sible identification of newspecies hoped thescientists.

A handbook on the fish

species diversity of the re-gion has also been planned,they said.

Genetic cataloguing ofaquatic germplasm

K.S. SUDHI

DNA barcodes for the fish varieties would be prepared under

the project. PHOTO: H. VIBHU

Adegradable polymer, with a tinge of a new-agecarbon nanomaterial, can perhaps one day beused to mend broken bones.

A recent study by scientists at the IndianInstitute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru suggests that3D scaffolds of graphene composites can be usedfor bone tissue regeneration as they mimic theenvironment of the bone.

The researchers from the department ofMaterials Engineering went about strengtheningPolycaprolactone (PCL) a biodegradablepolymer by adding graphene, a two-dimensionalhexagonal lattice of carbon atoms.

Though PCL is biodegradable, it is consideredtoo soft to be used as a bone template. However,graphene has a strength that is more than 200times that of steel.

The addition of graphene dioxide was found tohave increased the strength of PCL by 22 per centand its capacity to resist deformation by 44 percent enough tosustain bone growth,while also beingbiodegradable.

The purpose of thescaffold is to provideonly a temporaryhome for theregenerating cells. Thescaffold shoulddegrade slowly overtime allowing forhealthy tissue toeventually replace the

scaffold, says SachinKumar, the lead author of the study published inthe Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.

The researchers viewed the response ofosteoblast cells (bone precursors) to grapheme-based polymer that was made as a 2-D structure (aplane surface) and a 3D structure with protrudingnanoparticles.

In 2-D scaffolds, the osteoblast cells spread atleast 15 per cent more on the composite, and werespread across the sheet in a random pattern, than ifone were to use a regular PCL. However, in 3Dscaffolds, the cells have a compact arrangementsimilar to what is seen inside bone tissue. Also,bone mineralization (process needed forstrengthening the bone) was found to be higher in3-D scaffolds as compared with 2-D substrates.

And in these observations, lie the opportunityfor research into nanocomposites for medicalsciences.

While the study demonstrates the suitability ofusing the composite for bone regeneration, theresearchers believe either of the two structurescould be used depending on the type of bone tissuedamage. According to Dr. Kumar, while 3-Dscaffolds are better for bone tissue engineering,

2-D scaffolds may find use in bone tissue repair.

REGENERATINGBONESTHROUGHNANOPARTICLES

MOHIT M. RAO

Arrangementof cells in 3Dscaffolds issimilar towhat is seeninside bonetissue

Readers may send their questions/answers [email protected]


5/5

EducationPlus02 THE HINDU | MONDAY |NOVEMBER30, 2015- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOI DA/DEL HI

SNAPSHOTS

ANTS' SEXDETERMINATION

25 per cent ofthe progenyproduced byinbreeding in antsis sterile. Scientistsdiscovered that thisis due to thepresence of twoseparate sexdeterminationregions in ants.

CLIMATE CHANGESPEEDS UP

Greenhouse gasemissions thatarise naturally arealso affected byincreasedtemperatures,concludes a new

study, whichconfirms this bymeasuring naturalmethane emissions.

CARBON BURIALIN REMOTE LAKES

The rate ofcarbon burial inremote lakes hasdoubled over thelast 100 years, asremote ecosystemstoo are feeling theeffects of climatechange.

BURNING LEAVES

Why is it difficult to burn a heap of fresh green leavesbut once the leaves dry up they burn easily?

SHARATH CHANDRA

Almost all plants have leaves. All kinds of plant leaves havecertain common vascular, cellular and other anatomical fea-tures. Like an animal cell, a typical plant cell also containsabout 70 per cent of water in it by purpose. Materially beingmostly organic in content, after water is excluded, plant leavesare essentially organic fuel. Fuels react with oxygen in airreleasing a lot of heat that usually results in fire. Combustionof a fuel would not occur unless activated, usually, by heating

to certain elevated temperatures. This condition is called Ar-rhenius Principle. Further, the extent of a chemical reaction(here, combustion) is more favoured forward if the quantity ofits reactants (the fuel and oxygen) outweighs the quantity ofthe products and vice versa. This principle is called Le Chate-liers Principle. Both Arrhenius and Le Chateliers Principlesshould operate in favour of combustion, if a fuel has to be seton fire and the fire to sustain.

A heap of fresh green leaves holdsa lot of intrinsic water stilland any attempt to burn it would be defeated because thepresence of intrinsic water in green leaves would, on one handrestrict the process of combustion (Le Chatelier-unfavour-able), and whatever little heat generated, on the other hand, isquickly swallowed by the water content for its evaporation andthus leaving no scope for the temperature rise beyond 100degree C (Arrhenius-unfavourable). No fire can sustain at thislow temperature. Once the leaves are dried there is not enoughwater content to remove the heat generated during combus-tion. Hence, the leaves burn readily.

PROF. A. RAMACHANDRAIAH, NIT, Warangal, Telangana

THIS WEEKS QUESTION

Why do we some people experience a tightening of thejaws and hence difficulty in properly talking whenweeping or frightened?

Aatika Singh, New Delhi

Readers may send their que stions/answers to [email protected]

QUESTION CORNER

Corticosteroids can besold in India only onproduction of a regis-tered medical practi-tioners prescription

as they are included in sched-ule H of the Drugs and Cos-metics Rules 1945. However,a footnote in the Rules ex-empts eye ointments andtopical preparations like skinointments, creams and lo-tions from the list.

Thus, topical preparationscontaining steroids, includ-ing strong corticosteroids,prescribed by dermatologistsand others can essentially besold as over-the-counter(OTC) drugs.

Even ofloxacin, which is aschedule H1 drug, is freelyused in topical preparations,said Dr. Abir Saraswat, der-matologist based in Lucknowand a member of the Indian

Association of Dermatolo-gists, Venereologists andLeprologists.

The schedule H1 categorywas introduced with an ex-press intent of preventingany misuse of 46 third andfourth generation drugs anddelaying drug resistancefrom emerging. Since March1, 2014, the schedule H1 drugscould be sold by chemists on-ly on production of a validprescription. The chemisthas to maintain a separate

register that has details of pa-tients and prescribing doc-tors. The register has to beretained for at least threeyears.

Worse, steroid cocktails,which are in fixed dose com-binations, are mixed with

various antifungal and anti-bacterials, thus making the

drugs extremely dangerousand irrational. Use of irratio-nal topical steroid combina-tions can lead to drugresistance.

Dermatologists are seeingincreasingly widespread fun-gal diseases where the use ofirrational combination drugshas been implicated. The fun-gal diseases do not respond toconventional drugs for con-

ventional duration and dose,said Dr. Shyam B Verma, der-matologist based in Vadoda-ra, Gujarat.

Indian doctors are wit-nessing a pandemic of ad-

verse effects induced bytopical corticosteroids, Dr.

Verma writes in a news piece

published a few days ago inThe BMJ.

Topical steroids can causesubstantial and permanentdamage, especially to thinskin such as on the face andgroin, even if used for a shortperiod of 15 days. Side effectsinclude pigmentation andatrophy of the skin. Misuseof steroid combinations cancause bacterial or fungal re-sistance, which can make in-fections difficult to diagnoseand treat, Dr. Verma writes.

According to a 2011 study,nearly 15 per cent of dermat-ological patients were foundusing topical corticosteroids.Of the 15 per cent, over 90 percent had adverse effects.

Alas, topical steroids sold

as over-the-counter drugs

Steroid cocktails mixed with antifungal and anti-bacterials make the drugs extremely dangerous,irrational and may lead to emergence of drug resistance. PHOTO: MOHAMMED YOUSUF

R. PRASAD

Ofloxacin, aschedule H1drug, isfreely used intopicalpreparations

As numbers go, 1729, theHardy-Ramanujan

number, is not new to mathenthusiasts. But now, thisnumber has triggered a ma-

jor discovery on Ramanu-jan and the theory of whatare known as ellipticalcurves.

The anecdote goes thatonce when Hardy visited Ra-manujan who was sick, Har-dy remarked: I had riddenin taxicab number 1729, andit seems to me a rather dullnumber. I hope it was not anunfavourable omen. To thisRamanujan had replied, No,it is a very interesting num-ber. It is the smallest num-

ber expressible as the sum oftwo cubes in two differentways.

Yes, 1729 = 93 + 103 andalso 1729 = 123 +13

This story is often narrat-ed to explain Ramanujansfamiliarity with numbers butnot more than that. Recentdiscoveries have brought tolight that it was far from co-incidence that Ramanujanknew the properties of 1729.There are now indicationsthat he had, in fact, beenlooking at more generalstructures of which thisnumber was but an example.

Mathematicians Ken Onoand Andrew Granville wereleafing through Ramanujansmanuscripts at the Wren Li-brary in Cambridge Univer-sity, two years ago, whenthey came across the equa-tion 93 + 10 3 = 12 3 +13, scrib-bled in a corner. Recognisingthe representations of thenumber 1729, they wereamused at first; then they

looked again and found thatthere was another equationon the same page that indi-cated Ramanujan had beenworking, even then, on a fa-mous seventeenth centuryproblem known as FermatsLast Theorem (proved by

Andrew Wiles in 1994).I thought I knew all of the

papers there, but to my sur-prise, we found one pagewith near misses to the Fer-mat equation, writes DrOno, who is also a Ramanu-

jan scholar, in an email tothis correspondent. Having asneaking suspicion that Ra-manujan had a secret meth-od that gave him his amazingformulas, Dr Ono returnedto Emory University andstarted working on theseleads with his PhD studentSarah Trebat Leder.

Together we workedbackwards through Rama-

nujans notes, and we figuredout his secret[Ramanujan]arrived at the formulae onthis page by producing amuch more general identity.One which I recognised as aK3 surface (a concept thatmathematician Andrew

Wiles used for solving Fer-mats last theorem), an ob-

ject that mathematicians didnot discover until the1960s, notes Dr Ono.

Ramanujan died in 1920,long before mathematiciansdiscovered the K3 surfaces,but from research done byOno and Trebat Leder, ittranspires that he knew ofthese functions long before.Dr Ono continues, Ramanu-

jan produced so many mys-terious formulas, which can

be misunderstood at firstglance. We have come tolearn that Ramanujan wasperhaps the greatest antici-pator of mathematics. Hisbizarre methods and formu-las have repeatedly offeredhints of the future in mathe-matics. In this case, we haveadded to Ramanujans leg-end.

Commenting on their ownwork on this, he says, He[Ramanujan] anticipated thetheory of K3 surfaces beforeanyone had the merestglimpse. These surfaces arenow at the forefront of re-search in mathematics andphysics. In addition to add-ing to Ramanujans legacy,Sarah and I were able to ap-ply his formulas to a problemin number theory (findinglarge rank elliptic curves),and his formulas immediate-ly set the record on the prob-lem. We hardly had any workto do. Ramanujans formulawas a gift to us.

Ramanujans gift: solutions

to elliptic curves

Ramanujan arrived at theformulae by producing amuch more general identity.

1729 is thesum of twocubes in twodifferent

ways

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

After reading the last co-lumn (Why Save the

Rocks of the Deccan Plat-eau, The Hindu, Nov 9,2015), one reader asked:What is the purpose behindsaving them? Are there anyreasons other than aesthet-ic? This is a valid question

that needs to be answered.After all, thes e rock s are notlike tigers or lions which wewant to save and not get ex-tinct; they maintain an over-all balance in the animal and

vegetatio n population byfeeding on other animals andherbivores, thus maintain-ing a dynamic equilibrium.But rocks and boulders areinanimate and sit there asstones. Why not use them forbuilding, what role do theyhave in the scheme ofthings? If for aesthetics, letus preserve some and use therest- so goes the argument.

The answer comes fromhistory, namely the verybirth, growth and evolutionof our Mother Earth itscontinents, climate and whatwe can learn from that.These rocks and boulders areremnants and reminders of

the early history of our plan-et itself. Studying them en-riches our knowledge of how

our earth come to be, howshe has adjusted over time tointernal and external forces,and supports not just us hu-mans, but millions of otherlife forms. It also tells us howand when millions of otherlife forms come to be, howthey were lost and how the

surviving ones have kept therelay, continuity and evolu-tion of new forms of life.

It is now generally accept-ed, based on theoretical andobservational basis, that theearth itself was born about4.54 billion years ago. Itcame through the accretionor accumulation of the gase-ous nebula of our Sun. Overtime, it out-gassed itselfthrough volcanic eruptionsand began cooling and mak-ing a compact mass of itself,roughly a coconut- shapedglobe (about 6300 km radi-us). Even today, its core is ahellishly hot (6,000 degrees

C) fluid, while its body is a setof layers of crust, each coolerand cooler. Today the sur-face of the earth, the bio-sphere where we humanslive (less than 100 km strip),has the highest temperatureof 70 degrees C (the Lut Des-ert of Iran) and the lowest-89 degrees C (Vostok Sta-tion in the Antarctic). Thegranite boulders and theDeccan Basalt thus remindus of the grandeur of MotherEarth and the place we hu-mans occupy, among the 1.4million other life forms thatshe supports currently, andan even larger number thatshe did millennia (and bil-

lennia) ago.Indeed, there is evidence

now that within its very first

billion years of its birth,earth supported life forms.This became evident as sci-entists could identify thecarbon form (using which alllife in earth thrives) calledgraphite. As the earth begancooling, three layers beganforming- the core of about3400 km radius, the mantleabout 2,900 km radius aboveit, and the crust which is but6-35 km thick on the surfacewhere we live. The upperpart of the mantle plus thecrust are together called thelithosphere, which has sev-eral plates called tectonics(from the Latin tectonicmeaning building block).

The lithospheres surface iscovered by 7-8 major platesand several minor ones.

These plates float on thesoft plastic mantle belowthe crust. Earthquakes, vol-canoes and the building ofmountains occur acrossthese plate boundaries whenthese plates collide.

In the beginning, the earthwas just one globular mass.

As the mantle and crustformed and the plates begancolliding, continents were

formed. Such re-adjust-ments of the land masses is aslow process and is thoughtto occur even now. (We re-cently heard how the plateunder Reunion Island is hit-ting against the Asian plate,thus making the Himalayasgrow in height inch by inchover time). And the signa-ture rock of the continent,indeed the planet earth it-self, is granite. And it isunique to Mother Earth. Theother rocky planets Venus,Mercury and Mars are cov-ered not with granite butwith basalt. (I dont know ifwe should boast about thiswhen astronauts on futureMangalyans meet Martians(if any). But we of the Deccancan certainly pride ourselvesthat we see them, walk onthem and appreciate theirshapes and sizes everyday).

Unlike the older, blackergranite is the other rock, bas-alt (from the ancient Greek

basanos or touchstone or theEgyptian bauhun, or slate),which has several hues to it.Mostly formed by the cool-ing of volcanic lava nearerthe surface, basalt is farmore common, and is foundall across the earth both landand on ocean bottoms. Bas-alt thus reveals the history of

volcanic eruptions and lavaflows.

These then are not justhistory written in stone.They are, as Prof. Renne ofCalifornia, Prof. KanchanPande of Maharashtra andDrs. K. Gopalan and K.V.Subba Rao of Deccan remindus, signposts of the ongoingsaga of Mother Earth re-ad-

justing herse lf. They thus of-fer a perspective of not justhuman life but that of theearth itself. As the historianProf. Romila Thapar pointsout: To comprehend thepresent and move towardsthe future requires an un-derstanding of the past- anunderstanding that is sensi-tive, analytical and open toenquiry. Hence, let us pre-serve as much of the Rocksof Deccan as we can, for thefuture generations. Theymay study these and camewith even more exciting

findings.D. [email protected]

Why save the rocks of Deccan a historical reason

Deccan Basalt reminds us of the grandeur of Mother Earth andthe place we humans occupy. PHOTO: REUTERS

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE

Venus,Mercury andMars arecovered withbasalt

Scientists have finallysolved the riddle of where

the most ancient dissolved or-ganic carbon in our deepoceans, which is not in highenough quantity, ends up aftermillennia in solution in sea-water. The carbon is being de-stroyed by the hightemperatures and pressuresprevalent in ocean-bottom hy-drothermal vents, suggests anew study published recentlyin Nature Geoscience.

This finding comes fromfield observations at various

vent sites around the worldand laboratory experimentswhich reproduced the envi-ronment (temperature, pres-sure) found in the deep sea

vents. The low concentrationsof the organic carbon in ventenvironments suggests thatthe carbon, which is present in

the form of organic com-pounds, is lost from solutioneither through mineralisationor deposition during circula-tion through the vents wherethe fluid temperatures reach212-401 degree C.

There are two types of dis-solved organic carbon (DOC) hydrophobic and hydrophil-ic. Hydrophobic DOC does notreact with the seawater inwhich it is dissolved and is eas-ily extracted in its solid formwhile the hydrophilic DOC isnon-extractable.

In laboratory experiments,where samples were heated to380 degrees C for four days,the results were similar indi-cating that thermal degrada-tion alone can account foralmost all loss of solid-phaseextractable DOC in naturalhydrothermal systems and itsmaximum lifetime is limitedto about 40 million years the time it takes for the entire

global oceans water to flowthrough hydrothermal vents.

Almost all extractable dis-solved organic carbon (SPE-DOC) is destroyed, that meansthat SPE-DOC cannot be olderthan the hydrothermal time-scale, Dr. Jeff Hawkes, thelead author from Uppsala Uni-

versity, Sweden said in anemail to this Correspondent.However, he points out thatthere ar

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