Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 10

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AMONG the star fi sh groups, the red-knobbed starfi sh is fascina ng and also the dominant species in the marine ecosystem.

In the early part of this year, in March 2016, the red-knobbed star fi sh Protoreaster linckii was collected from catch landings at Tharuvaikulam coast, Tu corin district, Tamil Nadu. Of the 85 specimens collected, two specimens were

AMAMMMONONONONGGG ttthhhehe ssttatarr fifififi hhshsh ggroroupupss ttthhhehe rr deded-

STRANGE STAR FISHfound to be abnormally developed – they had four and six arms.

The abnormal four-armed star fi sh had a length of 130 mm and weight of 143 g, while the six-armed one had a length of 145 mm and weight of 165 g. The normal star fi sh length ranges between 120 mm to 124 mm and weight between 173 g to 175 g.

A WORLDWORLD WITH WITH THREE SUNSTHREE SUNS

THE discovery of a planet orbi ng a

triple star system has been reported in a

recent issue of Science (July 2016). The

team of researchers led by astronomers

of the University of Arizona (US)

have discovered the planet by using

sophis cated imaging equipments on

the European Southern Laboratory’s

Very Large Telescope in Chile. According to its lead author, Kevin

Wagner, the direct imaging technique

used by them is one of the most

challenging in modern astronomy. It

allows to correct the image distor on

introduced by the Earth’s atmosphere

and also blacks out most of the sunlight

so that even the faintest planet can

be seen. On the other hand, most of

the exoplanets discovered earlier have

been iden fi ed by the periodic dips in

star light as those pass between us and

their stars. Named HD 131399 Ab, the recently

reported exoplanet is only 320 light

years away from us, and present in the

constella on Centauri, which contains

our second nearest star the Proxima

Centauri and so can be considered our

astronomical neighbour. It is about four

mes as massive as the Jupiter, the

largest planet of the solar family. In its

longest orbit, which is about two mes

that of the Pluto, it takes almost 550

Earth-years to complete one revolu on

around the biggest star of the system,

called Super-sun by the astronomers,

because of its super size. The other two

smaller stars orbit one another and as a

pair orbit their stellar big brother. With three suns, the planet sees

diff erent wired combina ons of sunrises

and sunsets. As it orbits, some mes all

three stars become visible at a me and

three sunrise and sunsets occur one

a er the other. On the other hand, for

about one-fourth of its year, equivalent

to about 100 to 140 Earth years, there

is con nuous day light on its surface

because the rising of the big sun

follows the se ng of the smaller two

and vice versa. According to Dr. Wagner, the

discovery of HD131399 Ab with its

three stellar systems has widened our

knowledge about exoplanets and their

confi gura ons. It may also throw new

light on the process of forma on of

planetary systems including ours and

may even help us to explore some of

the hitherto unexplored virgin areas of

astronomy.

Contributed by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Parida,

Retired Professor of Chemistry, Orissa

University of Agriculture & Technology.

Address: Usha Nivas, 124/2445, Khandagiri

Vihar Bhubaneswar-751030 (Odisha); Email:

paridanana47@gmail.com

Science Reporter, OCTOBER 201611

SPECTRUM

The reason for this abnormality may be due to the change that occurs during larval matura on or could be caused by abnormal regenera on. Some researchers suggest that devia ons from pentamerism are not a heritable character but are a consequence of

STUDY ON CARTILAGE

AND BONE FORMATION

SHOWS PROMISING

RESULTSFor pa ents of bone-related ailments,

good news might be in the offi ng.

Research undertaken by Professor

Amitabha Bandyopadhyay at Indian

Ins tute of Technology, Kanpur studying

the mechanisms of car lage and bone

forma on in fetuses and the maintenance

of joint car lage and bone in adults

could have ground-breaking applica ons

in the treatment of osteoarthri s and

osteoporosis. In early fetuses the elements of

hand and leg skeleton are made of pure

unsegmented car lage. As the fetus

grows, this car lage element is branched

and segmented, during which the

majority of the car lage gets converted to

bone. Thus, only a thin layer of car lage

remains, capping the bones at joint sites.

When this joint car lage is affl icted in

adults, it is called osteoarthri s.

Going against the exis ng dogma,

Prof. Bandyopadhyay has shown through

his work on mice and chicken embryos,

that both permanent and transient

car lage (which later turns into the

bone) are formed from the same cell,

infl uenced by diff erent genes. He

further demonstrated in mice and chick

embryos that permanent car lage can

be turned into transient car lage under

the infl uence of the same gene that is

responsible for the forma on of bones in

an embryo. Bandyopadhyay and his team

propose that osteoarthri s is nothing

but conversion of permanent car lage

to transient car lage to bone in adults.

He is now trying to study whether the

gene that promotes forma on of bones

in fetuses can lead to development

of osteoarthri s in adults. If true, he

hopes to fi nd means to block this gene

which will be a huge leap forward in

an -osteoarthri s drug development

research.His research also shows a way

forward in osteoporosis treatments.

Osteoporosis is a result of failure to

maintain bone mass in adults and post-

menopausal women are par cularly

suscep ble to this condi on. Un l very

recently, its treatment was exclusively

focused on preven ng deteriora on of

bones post diagnosis but it is only in the

last few years that drugs helping in bone

regenera on have been used as treatments,

though there are adverse eff ects related to

them as well. Bandyopadhyay’s group, in

collabora on with scien sts of the CSIR-

Central Drug Research Ins tute (Lucknow),

is trying to understand the mechanism

of ac on of this bone regenera ng drug,

Teripara de, which is currently obscure.

They have developed special patented cell

lines which they plan to use for tes ng

drugs with possible bone regenera on

ac vity, paving way for be er next

genera on bone regenera ng

drugs for treatment of osteoporosis.

environmental perturba ons on the metamorphosis of larvae and/or abnormal

regenera on of arms (ML Maheswaran, R Narendran, M Yosuva, B Gunalan (2015). Occurrence of Abnormal Starfi sh from Olaikuda in Rameswaram Islands, South East Coast of India, Interna onal Journal of Fisheries and Aqua c Studies, 3(1): 415-418

Contributed by Dr. G. Chelladurai, Department of Zoology, Kamaraj College, Tuticorin-628003, Tamil Nadu; Email: gcd.zoology@gmail.com

The normal star fi sh length ranges between 120 mm to 124 mm and weight between 173 g to 175 g.

Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 12

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120TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF JC BARDHAN

THE country reme-mbers Prof. J. C. Bardhan on his 120th birth anniversary. Prof. Bardhan, a great synthe c organic chemist, was well-known for his

pioneering research in phenanthrene deriva ves and terpenoid chemistry. Bardhan is familiar to organic chemistry students for his ‘Bardhan Sengupta synthesis’ of phenanthrene.

Prof. Jogendra Chandra Bardhan, who ini ated the journey of modern organic chemistry in India, was born on 15 October 1896 at Vikrampur, Dacca (now in Bangladesh). A er his early educa on in Jalpaiguri, he moved to Presidency College and then Calcu a University for higher studies. A er a D.Sc. in 1924, he moved to Imperial College, London with the ‘Palit Travelling Fellowship’ of Calcu a University to work with Prof. Jocelyn Field Thorpe. He got his D.Sc. in 1928 for his outstanding contribu on in the synthesis of γ-ketonic acids closely allied to Balbiano’s acid.

A thick co on twine thread was used in earlier

days to fl y kites. This thread was o en for fi ed

with a paste made of glue, glass powder and fl our

(manja) making it sharp enough to snap other kites.

This thread has now been replaced by readymade

fi ghter threads namely Bareilly, Panda and Chinese

thread. These threads have a coa ng of fi ne glass

powder, gum, colour and abrasives but diff er in quality, power, strength and cost. Chinese thread is a plas c (nylon) thread coated with

colour and glass pieces and considered the most eff ec ve and also cheaper. It has the highest strength, quality and is resistant to water.

It can be used for fl ying any type of kite and even while raining.

Bareilly thread was introduced as readymade manja thread. The manja thread is a threat to humans, birds and animals. In view of

this Chile has prohibited the use of manja threads for fl ying kites except for use in compe ons by professional fl yers in safe grounds.

This year the Independence Day was celebrated peacefully. But in two separate incidents two kids lost their lives as their throats

were slit by the manja. Such threads pose great threat to society and should be taken up as a challenge by the scien fi c community to

come up with eco-friendly and harmless kite-fl ying threads.

Contributed by Dr. Sumathi S., Deputy Director, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium, 5th Floor, NCUI Auditorium Building, Siri Institutional Area,

Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016; Email: sumathi.vashist@gmail.com

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FLYING KITES – FLYING SWORDS?

Illustr

ation

by M

anind

er S

ingh

On his return to India Prof. Bardhan was appointed as a ‘P.C. Ray Fellow’ at Calcu a University in the year 1930. In 1955 he went to Utrecht, Holland and worked with 1939 Nobel Laureate Prof. Leopold Ruzicka in the fi eld of terpenoid synthesis. Bardhan worked with Suresh Chandra Sengupta to work out a new route to phenanthrene synthesis, which became popularly known as the ‘Bardhan Sengupta synthesis’.

Along with the highly illumina ng research achievements, Prof. Bardhan had excellent teaching capability. R.N. Chakravarty, a student of Prof. Bardhan, writes, “Dr. Bardhan, while I was working in his laboratory, was having only Rs. 250 a year as research grant from the university. In those days nothing was available from the Govt. However, he was connected with Lister An sep cs & Dressings Co. (1928) Ltd. (known as LADCO) in advisory capacity and they provided him with a substan al amount as research grant. As the amount thus received was deposited in my personal bank account, it is easy for anybody to understand that he never touched, for his personal purpose, even a farthing from

them. On the other hand, from his salary he used to maintain a research assistant (some mes even two), a laboratory assistant and a laboratory bearer. As regards class lectures, Bardhan was most popular. He used to come well-prepared and put everything in detail on the blackboard. He used to teach most complex items like sesquiterpenes, steroids, chlorophyll, etc. and of course, syntheses of alicyclic rings including the very large carbon rings using the atomic models. Even a er the class he was ready to explain those to anyone in his laboratory.”

Prof. Bardhan was awarded the Mouat medal by the Calcu a University, he was a member of Scien fi c and Technical Terminological Commission, Ministry of Educa on, Government of India and elected as fellow by the Na onal Ins tute of Sciences of India (presently Indian Na onal Science Academy) in 1942.

This stalwart of Indian science passed away on 23 December 1964.

Contributed by Dr. Rajarshi Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan-713 104; Email: rajarshi_chem@yahoo.co.in

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Science Reporter, OCTOBER 201613

SPECTRUM

THE chameleon has an extremely long

tongue, nearly three-fourth the length of

its body. It can launch its tongue out, up to

two body lengths away to catch its prey. It

fl icks its tongue and can snap its prey in

1/25th of a second. This is faster than the

fl ickering of our eyes. The tongue is capable of gripping

anything larger than its own body size.

Its s ckiness is due to the presence of

mucus, the viscosity of which is roughly

400 mes more than human saliva. The

tongue latches itself on to its vic m with

suc on. The muscle beneath the p of its

tongue forms a fl at pad at rest, but turns

into a conical depression when in fl ight,

ac ng like a suc on cup. The way the chameleon feeds has

also been the subject of scien fi c a en on

for centuries. According to Christopher

a second. For each measurement, a cricket

hung off a small dangling mesh to tempt

the chameleon. This way he could measure

the distance the tongue went, the elapsed

me and the speed and the accelera on at

any given me. He concluded that smaller

sized chameleon’s tongue reached faster

than larger sized ones.

Contributed by Dr. K. Venkataraman, A-T-2 Porkudam Apartments, Bypass Road,

Madurai-16

LONGEST AND FASTEST TONGUE ALIVE

Anderson of the Brown University, USA,

the secret of the chameleon’s success is

the special elas c ssue in their tongues

which they keep folded like an accordion.

Just as the release of the bow string can

propel an arrow forward with deadly speed

and accuracy, the chameleon releases its

tongue muscles, which allow its tongue to

spring forward and snare its prey.

Christopher Anderson gathered

twenty species of widely varying sizes of

chameleon and perched them one by one in

front of a camera that shoots 3000 frames

THE eff ect of gut microbiome, or the reservoir of variety of microbes, on human health has been extensively explored since recent past.

Several studies have thrown light on the role of colonic microorganisms in human health. Researchers have found that they off er a symbio c environment by deriving energy from residual diet and secre ng metabolites which in turn are implicated in various human metabolic pathways. Altera on of microbial profi les results in the transforma on of host-microbiome homeostasis which could lead to the development of diseases like diabetes, colon cancer, psoriasis, obesity, IBD, cardiovascular diseases, etc.

There are ample researches showing how microbes are crucial in sustaining our healthy status. One example is obesity. To know how gut microbes related with obesity, an experiment was conducted by Backhed et al. in mice. The result showed that the changes trigger a surprising metabolic mechanism by promo ng the absorp on of monosaccharides from the gut lumen, which results in the induc on of hepa c lipogenesis (Backhed et al., 2004).

The gut microbiota also appears to aff ect the central nervous system. A study done in mice showed that the gut microbiota aff ects the behavioral and physiological abnormali es which correlate with neurodevelopmental disorders (Na Fei and Liping Zhao, 2013). Study has also demonstrated that the leakiness of the intes ne was found to be important in Parkinson’s disease development in which also gut microbiota has a major eff ect (Bailey et al. 2011).

According to a study published in the 6 November, 2014 issue of Cell journal, genes of a person can aff ect the composi on of the types of microbes that reside in the human gut which is independent of the person’s environment. The study includes more than 1,000 fecal samples from 416 sets of twins.

So, who is superior? Does the gene regulate gut microbes or gut microbes regulate the gene? Hopefully, further researches will solve the mystery of who rules inside us: our own genome or our second genome (our microbiome)?

Contributed by Priyanka Sarkar, PhD student under Dr. M.R. Khan, Molecular and Microbial Biotechnology Lab, Life Science Division, Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Boragaon West, Guwahati-35; Email: priyanka.sarkar14@gmail.com

THE ff f

GUT MICROBES VS GENES: A CONUNDRUM