NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | AUGUST 3, 2015

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SNAPSHOTS

Trawl ban favours

Indian cholera vaccine
found to be safe, efficacious benthic fauna too
K.S. SUDHI
R. PRASAD

AURORAL DISPLAYS OF
BROWN DWARFS
By observing a brown dwarf
20 light-years away,
astronomers from California
Institute of Technology found
that such so-called failed
stars host powerful auroras
near their magnetic poles
additional evidence that
brown dwarfs are more like
giant planets than small stars.

MAMMOTHS KILLED BY
ABRUPT CLIMATE
CHANGE
Research by University of
Adelaide revealed that abrupt
warming during the last ice
age (60,000-12,000 years
ago), closely resembling the
rapid human-made warming
occurring today, was key in
mass extinction of large
animals, the megafauna.

STRESSED OUT PLANTS

SEND ANIMAL-LIKE
SIGNALS
Researchers have shown that
despite not having a nervous
system, plants use signals
normally associated with
animals on encountering
stress. Their responses are
similar to animals, but
through machinery specific to
plants.

MAGNETIC FIELD
HISTORY OF IRON AGE
A team of researchers has
recovered a magnetic field
record from ancient minerals
for Iron Age southern Africa
(between 1000 and 1500
AD). The data suggest that
the region of Earth's core
beneath southern Africa may
play a special role in reversals
of Earths magnetic poles.

he safety and efficacy of

oral cholera vaccine
Shanchol
manufactured by the Hyderabad-based
Shantha
Biotechnics Private Limited, a
Sanofi company, have been
proved in a large-scale field trial
involving 94,675 people in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The efficacy of the vaccine
delivered through routine government services to poor urban
populations living in a cholera
endemic region was tested.
At the end of two years of
follow-up, people in the vaccine
group who got one dose of the
vaccine showed 37 per cent
overall protection against severely dehydrating cholera. The
level of protection increased to
53 per cent in those who got the
full regimen of two vaccine doses given at an interval of at least
14 days.
Though the protection conferred is not very high, the 53
per cent protection can help
save many lives in Bangladesh.
There are nearly 300,000 cases
and 4,500 cholera deaths every
year in Bangladesh.

CM
YK

Surprisingly, the level of protection did increase greatly

when vaccination was combined with hand washing. Only
a modest 45 per cent protection
was seen when one dose was
administered to a group (over
92,500 people) that got the vaccine and behavioural change
(hand washing). The level of
protection shot up to 58 per
cent when volunteers in this
group received two vaccine
doses.
The Dhaka trial reflects reallife conditions, while the efficacy trial [carried out in Kolkata]

was carried out in research conditions. The efficacy also varies

from country to country depending on the population immunity, said Dr. Dipika Sur,
Consultant
Translational
Health Science and Technology
Institute (THSTI), Department
of Biotechnology. She was a part
of the team from the National
Institute of Cholera and Enteric
Diseases, Kolkata, which carried out the trial in Kolkata.
Referring to the level of protection against cholera Dr. Harish Iyer, CEO of Shantha
Biotechnics, in an email to this

A quicker way to
diagnose Glaucoma

Breakthrough
in white lasers

MOHIT M. RAO

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

he annual monsoon trawl ban

is helping the bottom-dwelling benthic fauna recoup significantly, say researchers.
As the benthic fauna is the chief
food source of demersal fishery,
the recoupment could better sustain fishery resources, according
to a scientific paper published by
the researchers of the Centre for
Marine Living Resources and
Ecology, Kochi.
The researchers reached the
conclusion after assessing the
outcome of four surveys on the
bottom-dwelling fauna between
30 metre and 200 metre depth off
Cape of Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam during
the pre- and post-monsoon fishing holidays. The samples were
collected as part of a research programme to assess the faunal
standing stock and composition.
The analysis of benthic fauna
revealed that their population recorded three- to four-fold increase during the trawl ban
period, which coincides with the
monsoon season, said K.U. Abdul
Jaleel, the lead author of a research paper.
The study also revealed that
polychaete worms, which constitute a major proportion of benthic
fauna, also recorded an increase
in species number during the period. The increase in fauna was
found significantly supporting the
demersal (the species that live in
the bottom layer of water bodies)
fishery. After the successful completion of the pilot study, plans

n the harsh hinterlands of the country,

where medical facilities and most
modern technology are hard to come
by (except the ubiquitous cell phones, of
course), eye care may perhaps be available
at the click of a button (or the tap of a
screen).
Imagine an app or a piece of software
on the computer that analyses the image
of an eye, even if it is taken through a
smart phone, and then, with an accuracy
that matches medical professionals, detects the earliest symptoms of glaucoma.
A team of researchers from the Indian
Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru,
have developed a Java-based software
that, by seeing the images of the interior
surface of the eye (called the fundus), can
detect glaucoma to an accuracy of 90 per
cent.
Glaucoma is an eye disorder that leads
to the damage of the optic nerves and
irreversible blindness. However, the condition often sneaks on to the patient, with
no symptoms until it is too late to treat it.
With an estimated 12.3 per cent suffering
from glaucoma in India, it is the second
leading cause of blindness after cataract.
Professor Chandra Sekhar Seelamantula and his team from the Department of
Electrical Engineering, IISc, have coded a
tool that can identify potentially glaucomatous conditions from the fundus
image.
Low-cost cameras and addendums to
smartphones are now available that
would allow for the clicking of the fundus
image. The images are compared with
symptoms of the conditions. For instance,
one of the parameters that the software
calculates is the cup-to-disc ratio (CDR)
from images of the posterior chamber of
the eye. The optic disc is an anatomical

Glaucoma can sneak in with no symptoms

until it is too late to treat.
PHOTO: C. V. SUBRAHMANYAM

area where the optic nerves and blood

vessels enter the retina; this leads to a
bulge a cup in the middle of the disc.
While in a normal eye, the cup-to-disc
ratio is around 0.3, a larger ratio (that is,
increased size of the cup) will indicate
glaucomatous condition.
Recognising other parameters, the software can categorise the condition as mild,
moderate, or severely glaucomatous all
in accordance with accepted diagnostic
guidelines. The software tool can en
masse analyse hundreds of images. Each
image takes a few seconds to process,
says Prof. Seelamantula.
Currently, the measuring of the CDR
and analyses of the images are done
manually, which takes up numerous clinical hours in an already overburdened system. The software, however, promises to
hasten the process, allowing for effective
detection during glaucoma screening.
Plans to patent the innovation remain
in the pipeline, while the researchers are
in talks with companies for technology
transfer.

ringing together the fields of

nanotechnology, novel growth
techniques and lasers, a group from
Arizona State University has achieved
for the first time, white lasers. When
developed as technology, such lasers
could be more effective than LEDs for
lighting purposes and also in computer
screens and televisions.
In a paper published recently in
Nature Nanotechnology, Cun-Zheng
Ning and his doctoral students have
revealed how they have developed this
technology of a white laser.
In their work, Prof. Ning and others
have created a novel nanosheet which
measures one-fifth of the thickness of a
human hair across and one thousandth
of the thickness of a human hair in
height. This nanosheet has three parallel
sections each capable of lasing in any
colour in the visible range. Then these
are made to lase in three different
colours and the combined field looks
white to the eye.
The greatest challenge was to grow
the nanosheet. The difficulty arose
because in order to lase in a particular
colour, or wavelength, the
semiconductor crystal has to have a
definite value of spacing between its
atoms, known as the lattice constant,
and a value of the energy bandgap. So to
grow such a nanosheet with three
different values of the lattice constant
was a real challenge to the researchers.
White laser light has been produced
earlier using four separate coloured
lasers combined together, but this
technology could not be exploited to
provide lighting. For that a more
compact single source of all wavelengths
of light was required. That is where this
discovery comes in.

The trawl ban along the Kerala

coast between has helped the
bottom-dwelling benthic fauna to
recoup significantly.
PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

are afoot to extend it to South

Eastern Arabian Sea, between Kanyakumari and Goa, said M. Sudhakar, director of the Centre.
The fishing ban for mechanised
trawling vessels is implemented
for bringing down the fishing effort during peak spawning periods
of commercially important species and to reduce stress on the
benthic fauna. The ban period
along the Kerala coast is between
June 15 and July 31.
The macro benthic standing
stock showed considerable recoupment during the 45 day monsoon trawling ban (JuneJuly) in
the southern part of the south east
Arabian Sea shelf, particularly between 3050 m depths. A peak
recruitment window for the dominant polychaete taxa in the region was identified around the
onset and peak phases of the monsoon, the authors write.

QUESTION CORNER

hat is the reason for not using sea and desert sand for
construction?
C.K. Anbazhagan, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu
Sand can be classified into three types based on grain sizes, as coarse,
medium and fine. The determination of these fractions is important
since they affect the engineering characteristics and performance of
sands as pavement layers in terms of plasticity, strength and bearing
capacity. The shape of sand particles affects its density and stability
and overall engineering behaviour. Smooth rounded particles would
offer less resistance to rearrangement than angular or elongated
particles with rough surfaces
Sea and desert sands seldom satisfy the requirements of traditional
specifications for use as a construction material, especially in their
untreated state. Desert sand grains are finer and smoother so their
surface chemistry would not be able to offer sufficient number of
multidirectional chemical linkages. If their grain size is too small, the
slurry slip and the concrete would have poor strength. Desert sands
possess an open structure, and there is little interlock between sand
grains. If this sand is kept dry, these bonding bridges provide
considerable bearing strength. But if the sand becomes wet, the
bridges soften and when overloaded, the bridges break and collapse.
Sea sand also tends to very fine and rounded. In sea water, chloride is
present which will cause corrosion of steel and iron which ultimately
leads to reducing carrying capacity of steel and iron, so that the
structure built using this may not be sustainable.. Sea sand does not
have high compressive strength, high tensile strength etc so it cannot
be used in construction activities. In addition to this, the salt in sea
sand tends to absorb moisture from atmosphere, bringing dampness.
Dr. SAINUDEEN PATTAZHY, Kollam, Kerala.
This weeks questions
When a table fan is switched on, why does the breeze move only
in the forward direction?
Chanchal P.V., Thrissur, Kerala
Readers can send questions/answers on science and technology for the
Question Corner along
with their names and addresses to the following email ID:
questioncorner@thehindu.co.in or to The Editor, The Hindu (Science and
Technology), 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

Touch-screen phone versus push-button mobile

SPEAKING OF
SCIENCE

D. BALASUBRAMANIAN

BRIAN ACTIVATION BY
TALENT, TRAINING
A music-training study has
found evidence to distinguish
the parts of the brain that
account for individual talent
from the parts that are
activated through training.
Brain activity in certain areas
changed after learning,
indicating effect of training.

The vaccine was found to confer protection even in a highly

mobile, high-risk urban population. PHOTO: NYT

Correspondent, said: Oral

cholera vaccine was given as
part of routine healthcare during the trial to reflect real-life
situations. The trial confirms
that routine vaccination programme with Shanchol in cholera endemic areas could
significantly reduce the burden
of disease and greatly contribute to cholera control.
Of particular significance is
that the vaccine was found to
confer protection even in a
highly mobile, high-risk urban
population. No significant difference in protection by age was
seen, although the level of protection conferred by the vaccine
was lower in children younger
than five years. The vaccine can
be given to children aged one
year and above.
Much like Bangladesh, India
has very high cholera incidence.
According to a June 2015 study
published in the journal PLOS
Neglected Tropical Diseases,
the Indian population at risk of
cholera is as high as 411,700,175.
The estimated annual number
of cases is 675,188 and the estimated annual number of deaths
is 20,256. India is one of the
eight countries with over
100,000 cases annually.

hose were the days of stenographers and typists, and

manual typewriters at every
office. And there used to be competitions for speed-typing. Our
stenographer at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, the
late Mr. Ramarao, was a champion, typing away at break-neck
speed. Well, those days are gone.
Most of us today are our own typists, touching away text message
and emails at our PCs or tablets,
or gripping the Smartphone with
the right palm and using the right
thumb with great rapidity. Not
everyone has a touch-screen
phone. Many still use the oldfashioned ones, where you have
to push buttons for each letter or
number. The way the two grip the
phones and enter the characters
is quite different. How then do
their touch-sensitive (tactile) areas of the brain differ from those
of the touch-screen-wallas? Just
as what we see is captured and

processed in the brain by the visual cortex, the region called the
somatosensory cortex receives
and responds to tactile signals.
This question of the difference
between those who use touchscreen devices and those who are
still classical has attracted the
attention Dr. Arko Ghosh and colleagues at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. They note that
touch-screen phone screens demand repetitive finger movements. But whether and how the
somatosensory cortex conforms
to this is not known. To this end,
they analysed how the cortical
processing of signals coming from
fingertips in touch-screen phone
users differs from ones from
those using traditional old-fashioned phones.
How the brain registers and reacts was monitored by placing a
tight-fitting skullcap with over 62
surface electrodes distributed
over the entire scalp. This helped
detect the electrical signals
evoked by touch on the thumb,
index and middle fingers of the
right hand. (Note that the phone
is grabbed by the entire palm,
with the first three fingers clutch-

person used his or her phone. The

more they used the thumb, the
greater this signal.
But does practice make perfect,
like what is seen in, say, musicians? Apparently not. The
thumb signal measurements fluctuated. The greatest response was
seen when the telephone was
most recently used; it was not a
linear or cumulative build-up as
with musicians, but depended on
recent use. Musicians start an
early age, and go through disciplined practice. For touch-screen
phone users, if appears more like
a temporary reallocation of neuronal resources.

PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

ing it, while the thumb touches

the various letters and numbers.)
Thirty-seven right-handed volunteers were analysed, of whom
26 had touch screen phones and
11 had old technology mobile
phones.
Several results came out. One
was that the touch-screen phone
users spent far more than with
their phones than did the nonusers. And they relied mostly on
their thumbs to interact with the
screen. Yet, the electrical poten-

tials recorded on the somatosensory cortex associated with the

first three fingertips were higher
than those in non-users.
Is this because of a more intense use of the hand or due to
greater skill to touch than to
push the buttons in the old technology by mobile phones? To
check this, the researchers looked
into the time used by the batteries of the phones and found that
the cortical signals were directly
proportional to how much each

THE PRICE YOU PAY

Alas, the downside for Ramarao was recurrent pain in his right
forearm and wrist. Doctors call
this the Carpal Tunnel syndrome,
a muscular fatigue and consistent
pain resulting from an excessive
use of the wrist and fingers. He
had to be rested often and given
painkillers and physiotherapy.
His speed came at a cost.
The modern day avatar of this
is seen in youngsters. Researches
at the University of Waterloo,

Canada, studied 140 university

students and found 84 per cent of
them had pain in at least one part
of the body related to the time
spent on browsing the Internet;
and with the touch-screen phone
users, the pain was most common
in the thumb. And Hazel Parry, in
her article The curse of iPhone
in China Daily of Hong Kong,
points out that many constant users who arch down their necks to
read their touch-screen phone
screens suffer from bad posture,
and pain in the wrist and neck
(called Tech-neck) and Blackberry Thumb. The worst is to use
smart phones while travelling in
subways and local trains. This affects your balance and eyesight as
well; Parry compares Tech-neck
with Tennis Elbow or Washerwomens Sprain.
Ghosh and colleagues propose
in their above paper (published in
Current Biology, on January 5,
2015) that cortical sensory processing in the contemporary brain
is continuously shaped by the use
of personal digital technology.
Well, not only sensory processing
but sensory pain as well.
dbala@lvpei.org
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2015

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SNAPSHOTS

Hyderabad scientists synthesise

novel low-calorie fats
Y. MALLIKARJUN

STUDY CALCULATES THE

SPEED OF ICE FORMATION
Researchers have now
directly calculated the rate at
which water crystallizes into
ice in a realistic computer
model of water molecules.
Understanding ice formation
adds to our knowledge of how
cold temperatures affect both
living and non-living systems.

REPROGRAMMING HUMAN
SKIN CELLS INTO NEURONS
Two labs in China have
independently succeeded in
transforming skin cells into
neurons using only a cocktail
of chemicals, with one group
using human cells and the
other using cells from mice.

R. PRASAD

ealth-conscious individuals
need no longer worry about
the high calorific value of
the vegetable oils they
consume.
Scientists at the Indian Institute
of Chemical Technology (IICT),
Hyderabad, have developed novel
low-calorie fats based on edible oils
like sunflower that provide 5.2 K
cals/g as against 9 K cals/g by the
vegetable oils; they have shown
promising health benefits in studies
conducted in rats and rabbits.
The nutritionally improved synthesised fats are trans-free and have
the potential to be used as frying oil
and replace bakery fats, according to
Dr. R.B.N. Prasad, Head of Centre
for Lipid Research, IICT. The fats
have shown to lower serum, liver
cholesterol and triglycerides in rats
and reduce fat accumulation in arteries in rabbits.
Studies have also indicated similarities in thermo-physical properties of bakery fats and the newly
synthesised fats.
He said the utility of the novel
low-calorie fats was demonstrated
in confectionary products prepared
in collaboration with the Central
Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru. Its safety was also validated in collaborative studies with
National Institute of Nutrition. Basically, we have proved the concept
and the technology is ready for commercialisation,,he added.
Explaining the process of how the
low-calorie fats were developed, Dr.
Prasad said that basically ethyl behenic acid was incorporated into refined sunflower and soybean oils
after about 25 per cent of fatty acids

Spread of drug-resistant
malaria parasites looms large

Compared with the commercial available vegetable oils, the novel oil lowers
cholesterol, provide essential fatty acids and the calorie intake would be 40 per
cent less for the same quantity consumed. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar
was removed in each of them.
Referring to beneficial effects on
health, he said the low calorie fat was
non-toxic and reduced serum and
liver lipids, particularly cholesterol,
LDL cholesterol and triglycerides
while maintaining essential fatty
acids. When given to rabbits, it prevented lipid accumulation in arteries. Unlike bakery biscuits, the
low-calorie-based biscuits do not
contain trans fatty acids, while ensuring no significant difference in
the quality and sensory parameters
when compared to conventional
bakery biscuits.
Dr. Prasad said that the per capita
consumption of vegetable oil was 14

kilos per year, which would translate

into 1.1 kilos/month (35 grams a
day). With the commercially available vegetable oils giving 9 k cals/g,
the total calories intake would be 315
k cals/g as against only around 180 k
cals/g from the same quantity of low
calorie fats. He said that another major advantage with the synthesised
low calorie fats was that they contain
essential fatty acids which was not
the case with the commercially
available low-calorie fats. Overall,
they lower cholesterol, provide essential fatty acids and the calorie
intake would be 40 per cent less for
the same quantity of commercial
vegetable oils.

nopheles mosquitoes that take

multiple blood meals from different people who are infected
with malaria or take multiple parasite strains from a person during a
single blood meal can have grave
consequences they can end up
accumulating more malaria infections. Also, mosquitoes that have already been infected with one
malaria parasite strain become
more likely to get infected with a
new strain.
The presence of more than one
strain in a mosquito at any given
point has some undesired outcomes. For instance, the interactions between strains inside the
mosquito are such that the very
presence of an existing infection
enhances the replication of malaria parasites. The survival of mosquitoes is not impacted despite the
presence of more strains and enhanced replication leading to larger
population of parasites.
Besides accumulating mixed
strains when feeding on different
people, the mosquitoes with such
mixed strains will, in turn, increase
the rates of mixed infections in humans. The insects can also take multiple parasite strains from a person
during a single blood meal. After all,
mixed strain infections in a person
are the norm in places of high malaria transmission. Different parasite strains found in the same blood
meal can freely recombine in the
gut of the mosquito.
These have great implications
for the evolution of parasite virulence and the spread of drug-resistant strains, writes Laura C. Pollitt,
the first author of a paper published
recently in the journal PLOS Patho-

Mosquitoes
taking multiple
blood meals may
be significant in
Malaria
transmission.
gens. Dr. Pollitt is from the Centre
for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, U.K.
Seen in context, mosquitoes taking multiple blood meals from different people or multiple parasite
strains from a person during a single
blood meal may end up disproportionately contributing to malaria
transmission.
Female Anopheles mosquitoes
were kept in cages and allowed to
feed on mice infected with two different Plasmodium strains at predetermined times.
The experiment allowed the researchers to evaluate how the presence of a strain affected the
parasites that were brought in later
via another blood meal. They also
examined the survival of the mosquitoes when both the strains were
present at the same time.

Spinning protogalaxy linked to cosmic web filament seen

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

GENERATING
MAGNETISM IN NONMAGNETIC METALS
Scientists have demonstrated
how to generate magnetism
in metals that aren't naturally
magnetic, such as carbon and
copper. This could end our
reliance on some rare and
toxic elements currently used.
Future technologies, such as
quantum computers could
benefit by this research.

sing the Cosmic Web Imager, designed and built by

Caltech at the Palomar observatory near San Diego, researchers have discovered a
galaxy-in-the-making, situated
about 10 billion light years
away. A light year is the distance that would be travelled by
light in a year.
It is approximately 63, 241
times the distance from the
earth to the sun. What is interesting is that by observing
this protogalaxy, as it is
called, the researchers have
found observational support
for what is known as the coldflow model of galaxy formation.
The results will be published in
the August 13 print issue of the

QUESTION CORNER
Why does onion lose its colour (become translucent) when
fried in oil?

Vagadheeswari, Chennai
Onion (Allium cepa) is a monocot belonging to Alliaceae
family. It is richly endowed with nutrients such as sulphur,
selenium, fibre, polysaccharides and antioxidants. It comes
in various colours ranging from white to pale yellow, orange,
pink and dark purple. The colour of the onion is due to the
presence of anthocyanins and anthoxanthins which belong
to the class of Flavonoids. Anthocyanins impart orange,
yellow or purple colouration while anthoxanthins impart
pale yellow or white colour. These pigments are present in
the cell sap and are water soluble.
These pigments change their colour with the pH of the
medium. Cooking vegetables and fruits brings about many
changes in their texture, colouration and flavour Frying the
materials using oil makes them undergo certain chemical
changes such as caramelisation (conversion of sugars to
carbon, water), Maillard reaction (reaction of aminoacids
and reducing sugars bringing about suitable flavour) that
result in the browning of the food material and also
imparting characteristic flavour due to the release of certain
chemicals such as diacetyl.
On frying in oil, onions initially lose moisture and their size
is reduced. As the pigments anthoxanthins and
anthocyanins are temperature-sensitive, pigment loss will
occur on frying onions in oil. This results in translucent
onions. Pigment loss is more pronounced when onions are
kept in water for long time or boiled in water as the
pigments are water soluble. Frying makes the onions tender
and glossy due to the absorption of oil.
T. BHAVANI, PhD, Bengaluru
THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS
Why does the print disappear when an ATM receipt is exposed to
sunlight?
Sharwan Kumar
Why is it that sperms are not considered foreign (antigens) by the
immune system of women?
V. Kalpana, Madurai
Does the speed of a ceiling fan have an effect on its consumption of
electricity?
Ray Chand
Readers can send questions/answers on science and technology for the Question
Corner along with their names and addresses to the email ID
questioncorner@thehindu.co.in or to The Editor, The Hindu (Science and
Technology), 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

CM
YK

journal Nature and are now

available online.
The protogalactic disc that
the team has found measures
about 400,000 light years
across which is nearly four
times the spread of our own
Milky Way galaxy. It houses
two quasars, of which the one
closer to us (UM287), illuminates the cosmic web filament
which is feeding gas into the
spinning protogalaxy.
This filament is an important
feature, first spoken of by Sebastiano Cantalupo, who is now
at ETH Zurich, in 2014, also in
Nature. Following on this
comes the work done by Christopher Martin of Caltech and
his group, along with Dr Cantalupo. Using the Cosmic Web
Imager, the group collected images around the quasar UM287

Here, the filament of the cosmic web is highlighted with parallel

curved lines. The protogalaxy is outlined with an ellipse. The
brightest spot is quasar UM287. The other bright spot is a second
quasar in the system. The image combines a visible light image with
data from the Cosmic Web Imager. Photo: Chris Martin/PCWI/Caltech.
at hundreds of different wavelengths simultaneously, revealing details of the systems
composition, mass distribution

and velocity. Among other

things the data delineated the
directions in which the gas
from the filament was moving

Why the 7.8 magnitude Nepal

quake was less devastating

with respect to the centre of the

system.
The researchers deduce that
the gas from the cosmic web
filament was flowing into the
prototype disc, where it is
pulled along by the dark matter
and rotating gas present.
This finding builds up the
case for the so-called cold-flow
model of galaxy formation. This
model contests the older view
that when the dark matter haloes surrounding protogalaxies
collapse, they pull the gas present there along with them
causing the gas to get heated to
extremely high temperatures.
When this cools down, it becomes the source of cool gas
which will condense to form
stars and so on. However, exceptions to this model were discovered with the sighting of

Communicating in
natures language
MOHIT M. RAO

R. PRASAD

espite the April 25, 2015 Nepal earthquake being 7.8 magnitude, shallow focus, most of
the vulnerable, regular, four-storey
buildings escaped damage while
many taller structures were severely affected. The death toll was
only around 9,000. In contrast, the
stronger quake of 1934 (8.1 to 8.4
magnitude) caused terrible damage
to regular dwellings. According to
the paper published on August 6 in
Science, 20 per cent of regular
buildings were destroyed by the
1934 quake compared with less
than 1 per cent by the 2015 event.
A combination of long-period
waves, quick depletion of high-frequency waves, presence of half a
kilometre of soft sediments in the
basin underneath Kathmandu and
well-built buildings may have prevented many smaller structures
from getting destroyed.
As a rule, high-frequency waves
with short periods of vibration of
less than one second tend to affect
low-story buildings, while low-frequency waves are more damaging
for taller buildings. In this case, the
soft sediments amplified the lowfrequency, long-period waves of 5
seconds thus shaking the taller
buildings even more. The whole basin in which Kathmandu is located
resonated at 4-5 seconds period,
producing protracted duration of
violent shaking. Also, a gentle,
slow onset to the earthquakes
rupture limited shaking at frequencies likely to damage regular dwell-

Photo: AP
ings. It took nearly two seconds for
the slip rate to reach its maximum
value of one meter per second. As a
norm, the more abrupt the onset of
slip, the more energetic would the
high-frequency seismic waves be.
The slow onset ended up limiting
the types of waves that would have
shaken shorter buildings.
One thing all the researchers
agree on is that this earthquake was
not The Big One, notes a news
item in Science. One big surprise
was that the quake did not rupture
all the way to the surface. The rupture propagated eastwards beneath
the city for a distance of about 140
km at about 3.3 km per second rate
of propagation.

VULNERABLE REGION
The region of Kathmandu east of
the April 25, 2015 Nepal earthquake epicentre is less likely to
rupture again in the near future
with a large (over 7.8) magnitude
notes a paper published on the
same day in the journal Nature Ge-

oscience. As the April 30, 2015 article in The Hindu had pointed out,
the region west of the April event is
where the next major quake would
strike. The earthquake which propagated eastwards may have transferred stresses into western and
shallower parts of the crust, which
may help to facilitate future rupture of these regions.
The 800-km long stretch of the
Main Himalayan Thrust fault west
of the April Nepal event is a well
identified seismic gap with no recorded large-scale quake for over
500 years. The last major quake
that occurred in this area was in
1505 and had a magnitude of 8.5.
This area of the Main Himalayan
Thrust is seismically locked and
the deficit of slip could exceed 10
metres. The April 2015 event, like
the 1833 quake, had failed to rupture the locked portions of the
Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) lying west of Kathmandu probably
because of some persistent barrier
of mechanical or structural origin.

some galaxies which were seen

to have produced stars at a very
high rate only two billion years
after the Big Bang. This was too
rapid a process for the older
model to hold.
The cold-flow model provided a solution to this puzzle. It
puts forth the idea that gas at
relatively cooler temperatures
is provided through the filaments of the cosmic web,
which streams in directly into
the protogalaxies. This can condense quickly to form stars.
Thus galaxies can form at the
intersections of the cosmic
web. In a note on the discovery
posted at the Caltech website,
Dr Martin has said that his
team has already identified two
addition discs that seem to be
receiving matter from cosmic
web filaments.

enturies of research and billions of dollars of investment

have effectively brought humanity under the dominance of 1
and 0. Concurrently, millennia of
evolution have seen a different language develop in the natural world:
one of singular value and purpose.
While the language of digital communication radio, television, internet, wireless has defined
Hello as the cumbersome
01001000 01000101 01001100
01001100 01001111, a the biochemical world will represent it by
a single molecule.
An international group of scientists, including Shannon Olsson
from the Bengaluru-based National
Centre for Biological Sciences
(NCBS), have sought to define these
singular values based on Natures
language.
A single molecule or small mixtures of molecules can inform a
bacteria where to find sugar, a plant
when it is being attacked, or even an
elephant when it is mating timeimmense amount of information
is given through a few values, says
Shannon Olsson from NCBS, an author of the study published Bioinspiration
and
Biomimetics
recently. The team developed prototypes using the pheromones of a
moth. A female moth releases minute packets of pheromones over
several meters to attract a male for
mating. We chose this system because it is a preeminent example of
chemical communication, says

Effectiveness
of the
chemoemitter
was seen in
male moths.
Prof. Olsson.
Electronic components then
mimicked the four stages of biochemical communication: production, transmission, detection and
processing of the chemical signal. A
tiny micro-reactor produces a cocktail of chemicals (which have the
same characteristics of a pheromone) and an emitter (a siliconglass evaporator) mimics the glands
of a female moth to let out the
chemicals in a regulated manner.
The effectiveness of the chemoemitter (chemicals, emitter) was
demonstrated in the changes in behaviour of male moths, which behaved as they would on scenting
virgin females.
A chemoreceiver was developed
to decode the chemical signals. The
microsensor uses an insect olfactory receptor found in a fruit fly (Drosophila). A pheromone molecule
triggers a signal, which is deciphered using software.
The potential is limitless. There
is vast potential: from environmental monitoring to intracellular therapy to nanoscale communication.
The system can monitor drug release inside the body or tell you
when mangoes smell ripe for picking in an orchard, says Ms. Olsson.
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | AUGUST 17, 2015

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SNAPSHOTS

Pluto may be geologically active

Only geological activity can explain how Pluto's escaping
atmosphere remains flush with nitrogen
R. PRASAD

SLEEP POSTURE
AFFECTS BRAIN
WASTE REMOVAL

Sleeping in the side

position may more
effectively remove brain
waste and prove to be
an important practice to
help reduce the chances
of developing
neurological diseases.

OCTOPUS
GENOME
SURPRISES

The genome of an
octopus has 2.7 billion
base pairs and more
than 33,000 proteincoding genes. It is also
five to six times larger
than other invertebrate
genomes.

ontrary to the grand

old theory that Pluto
is an inert mass made
up of rock and ice water, data returned by
NASAs New Horizons mission
hint that Pluto may well be geologically active.
Geological activity on Pluto
has been proposed to explain
how its atmosphere remains
ush with nitrogen despite the
gas escaping in huge quantities. Based on initial data returned by New Horizons, it
became clear that the surface
of Pluto was not riddled with
impact craters, and the dwarf
planet had many smoothened
surfaces. These indicated geological activity on its surface.
Nitrogen gas dominates Plutos atmosphere despite hundreds of tons of atmospheric
nitrogen escaping into space
every 60 minutes; the Suns ultraviolet light heats Plutos atmosphere
causing
the
nitrogen gas to escape. Besides
being found in the atmosphere, nitrogen is also present in the form of ice that
moves around the dwarf planets surface in seasonal cycles.
So where doaes the planet
get its nitrogen from? In a paper published recently in the
journal The Astrophysical
Journal Letters, Kelsi N. Singer the rst author from Southwest Research Institute,
Colorado, U.S. considered several likely sources. For instance, they found that comets
could not have delivered

The synergy of drugs was poorly understood until recently.

PHOTO: M. SRINATH

WHY COMBINATION OF DRUGS

WORKS AGAINST HEPATITIS C
MOHIT M. RAO

This image shows Pluto made by combining several images from two cameras on the New Horizons
spacecraft. The spacecraft was 450,000 kilometers away from Pluto. PHOTO: AP
enough nitrogen mass to resupply the nitrogen escaping
from Plutos atmosphere. The
nitrogen mass delivered by
comets will be three-to-four
orders of magnitude less than
what is lost from the atmosphere, the researchers
found. Similarly, craters made
by comets crashing on to Pluto
could not have excavated sufficient amount of nitrogen present in the near-surface
reservoirs to compensate for
the loss. Since surface ice is not
uniformly distributed over the
surface of Pluto, nitrogen must
be present to a large depth. To

release this nitrogen, large craters must have impacted Pluto

to create very big craters and
such craters would have been
in large numbers. The researchers concluded that excavation from catering falls
short by an order of magnitude or more.
Also, sublimation of nitrogen through carter oors and
walls cannot account for the
loss of atmospheric nitrogen.
This leaves only two other
options either the amount of
nitrogen escaping from the atmosphere was less in the past
or Pluto is geologically active

and hence able to resupply or

compensate for the loss from
the atmosphere.
We suggest that either atmospheric escape rates have
been overestimated or cryovolcanism or another tectonic
or geodynamic means of nitrogen resupply may be necessary
to resupply Plutos atmosphere against escape and the
build-up of an involatile lag deposit, they write. There is no
way of determining the geological activity in Pluto. One has
to wait for the images from
New Horizons to conrm the
presence of geological activity.

wo drugs, acting in synergy

with each other, may perhaps
be the answer to treat the
virulent hepatitis C disease.
Though the severe liver disease
affects more than 20 crore people
worldwide with nearly 400,000
deaths recorded annually there is
currently no vaccine for the
disease. Treatment comprises
multiple drugs, with little
understanding into the dosage
required for the combinations.
However, a recent study by
researchers of the Indian Institute
of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
suggests a breakthrough: by
modelling the complementary
actions of drugs that can eventually
effectively target the hepatitis C
virus (HCV) pathways.
Narendra Dixit and his team from
the Department of Chemical
Engineering, IISc who have been
researching into the virus for over a
decade looked into the reasons
for the synergy between HCV entry
inhibitors (EIs) and antiviral drugs
used for treating the various stages
of the disease. This synergy was
poorly understood as the entry
inhibitors work in tandem with a
number of drugs and pathways,

making it difficult to pinpoint

exactly how it works.
In the study published in CPT
Pharmacometrics and Systems
Pharmacology, Prof. Dixits team
constructed mathematical and
computational models to
hypothesise that the working-intandem was due to the interactions
of the drugs and the cells and not
between the drugs as previously
thought. In a cell population, the
entry inhibitors inhibit the entry of
HCV into cells with low receptors;
while, in cells with high receptor
levels, the antiviral drugs act. By
day 3 postinfection, 90 per cent
inhibition was achieved, notes the
study.In effect, treatment of HCV
can be done not by looking at the
drugs, but by looking at the target
cells. While designing drug
combinations, target heterogeneity
(varieties in the cell) would be an
important factor to account for. It
doesnt matter what you target, it
looks like the drugs will act in
synergy if their target levels vary
from cell to cell, says Prof. Dixit.
"This view will change the
combinations and dosages in which
drugs are administered; and the
study could be extended for
bacterial, viral or even cancerrelated pathologies, " he says.

India may own new research vessels in a few years

K. S. SUDHI

HOW ANTS
IDENTIFY OTHER
MEMBERS

Researchers have
found that ants use
their powerful sense of
smell to sense the
chemicals present on
the cuticle of
individuals to identify
the different members
of their society.

nding the long wait, the efforts for obtaining three new
ocean research vessels for
the country have taken a denite
shape. A Letter of Intent was issued to a consortium for consultancy, design and procurement
of the vessels this week.
India would be looking for one
Fishery Oceanographic Research Vessel and two Oceanographic Research Vessels,
which can carry the researchers
up to the Southern Ocean. The
three vessels together would cost
around Rs. 1,000 crore.The news

QUESTION CORNER
Why does the print disappear when an ATM
receipt is exposed to sunlight?

TM receipts (recently even bus tickets are

issued with the same kind of print-outs)
are made by a simple printing method
called thermal printing. It is based on the
principle of thermochromism, a process of
change in colour with heating.
Thermal printing essentially works by creating
impressions using print-heads over a special
kind of paper roll (found in ATMs, vending
machines) coated with organic dyes, waxes. The
paper used is a special thermal paper that is
impregnated with mixture of a dye and a
suitable matrix such as a uoran leuco dye and
an octadecylphosphonic acid. When the printhead made of regular array of minuscule
heating elements receives the signal for
printing, it raises the temperature to the
melting point of the organic coating to cause
print impression on the paper roll through the
process of thermochromism. Usually blackcolour print-outs are obtained, but it is also
possible to generate red print-outs by
controlling the temperature of print heads.
It is common to see these print-outs fade over
time even when stored at normal room
temperature. More so when heated or brought
near a candle ame and when exposed to heat
of sunlight. Continuous exposure to sunlight
generates a lot of heat, much above the melting
point of these coatings, to cause irreversible
damage to chemical composition of the coating
eventually leading to fading or disappearance of
the printed matter.
R. JAGANNATHAN,
CECRI, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
This weeks question
Are satellites sent outside the Milky Way to
take pictures of it? If not, then how do we get
pictures of the Milky Way?
Carolin Sunny, Class VI, Aleppey, Kerala

Readers can send questions/answers on science and

technology for the Question Corner, along with their
names and addresses, to the email ID
questioncorner@thehindu.co.in or to The Editor, The
Hindu (Science and Technology), 859-860, Anna Salai,
Chennai 600002
CM
YK

of replacement for Sagar Sampada generated a mixed reaction

from the scientic community as
many scientists remembered
with nostalgia their days onboard the vessel.
Beaming with pride, those managing the vessel say that more
than 100 PhDs have been
awarded by various universities
for works carried out onboard
the vessel.Almost 70 per cent of
the research publications from
India in the eld of shery
oceanography are through the
works carried out onboard
FORV Sagar Sampada, said one
official.
The vessel, commissioned in

The new
Fisheries
Oceanographic
Research
Vessel will
have state-ofthe-art
research labs.
1984, has already put in 31 years
of service. Sampada, owned by
Ministry of Earth Sciences and
managed by Centre for Marine
Living Resources and Ecology,

Kochi, has so far completed 343

scientic cruises including the
one to the Southern Ocean for
Indias rst Krill expedition.
Besides the various marine research organisations, a host of
other scientic institutions including space research organisation too have made use of the
vessel for scientic purposes.
Recently, the vessel was upgraded with scientic equipment
and machinery for ensuring its
seaworthiness for three more
years. It would serve the Indian
scientic expeditions till the replacement vessel comes calling.
The reduced speed and capacity of the existing vessels and

new challenges in ocean research have mandated the acquirement of the new vessel.
Several research programmes on
the marine living resources in
the Southern Ocean and in the
Indian Ocean as part of the
Ocean Bio-geographic Information System and the Census of
Marine Life are also progressing.
Survey of the Central Indian
Ocean and Western Arabian Sea
too demands a new vessel, scientists felt.
The new Fisheries Oceanographic Research Vessel will
have state-of-the-art research
labs and facilities on board. It
will be a deep sea stern trawler

Kalam and his quest for what else can it do?

SPEAKING OF

He was
constantly
worried about
how technology
can help the
disadvantaged.

SCIENCE
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN

he late Dr. Amul Pakir Jainulabdin Abdul Kalam has been described as a career scientist
turned reluctant politician. Indeed
so, since even as a President we knew
him as one who, besides his Presidential duties, engaged with the public at large for development of the
nation and development of the mind.
For example, he asked what else can
technological developments do, and
came out with a detailed plan on
what he called the provision of urban
amenities in rural areas or PURA. If
PURA were to be extended across
the country, many of us would rather
live and work in such PURA villages
than in clustered, polluted, so-called
smart cities. He worked for not
just the present but for the future;
hence had interaction with about a
million children, the builders of
tomorrow.
At the core, he was a patriot, one
who cared for the nation and its people. He constantly worried about
how technology can help the common man, the disabled, and the disadvantaged. Even as he was involved
in applying technology to produce
tools and devices for national defense, he asked what else can they
do for the community at large. His
interest and contributions in the
health sector are exemplied
through a few examples. When he
realized that a coronary stent (a
small extendable tube inserted in order to help smooth blood ow in
heart patients) cost over Rs.60,000,
he decided to make a prototype, using the safe, biocompatible and longlasting stent from the alloys used in
missile technology. Working with

An engineering college student at Srujana explaining his eye-related innovation

to Dr. Kalam. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Dr. Somaraju, this Kalam-Raju stent
proved to be a low cost, safe and
effective stent; it is now used in several hundred patients with success.
Similarly, noting that the calipers
that polio-affected individuals use
for locomotion are not only heavy
but also expensive, he devised (along
with Dr. Narendra Nath of Hyderabad) a far lighter one, made of a composite material used to make the
nose cone of the Agni missile.
What is not so well known was his
interest in biological and clinical sciences. Watching cancer-afflicted
soldiers in army hospitals, he noticed that the family members who
were giving care to the patients were
not only worried but also prone to
infection, illness and other physiological conditions. He wondered and
asked some of us about this possible
mind- body connection and wheth-

er we can conduct any biochemical

analysis towards this. My colleague
Dr. Ashok Khar and I (at that time at
CCMB in Hyderabad) agreed to work
on this problem along with Dr. Kalam. He involved the army hospitals
to provide blood samples of the caregivers of cancer patients.
We analyzed the immunological
status of these people by assaying the
levels of immunoglobulins, chosen
molecules known to alter the levels
of antibodies, and other related molecules. We analyzed over 80 samples, compared them with normal
controls, and found small differences between the two sets of people.
While this was in accord with Dr.
Kalams suspicion about the how the
worried mind can affect the physiology of the caregiver, we denitely
need many more samples, in order to
validate the results in a statistically

acceptable manner. I hear that this

project is still on at some defense
hospitals and labs of the DRDO, so as
to validate the prescience of Dr.
Kalam.
Dr. Kalams interest in eye health
is well known. His interactions with
Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai,
Sankara Nethralaya at Chennai and
our own L.V. Prasad Eye Institute
(LVPEI) at Hyderabad are well
known. He once put together a novel
type of laser unit meant for ophthalmic use and my colleague Dr. T.P.
Das tested it out. Dr. Kalam inaugurated the LVPEI Institute campus at
Bhubaneswar, and also our Innovation Centre, named Srujana (creativity) at Hyderabad. The photograph
shows him interacting with one of
the many student innovators at
Srujana.
The other passion of Dr. Kalam
was music and poetry. He believed
that music is the soul of a mans
personality and practiced music. Dr.
E. Bhagirath Rao (then of DRDO
writes about how Dr. Kalam pestered him to help learn the great
Thyagarajas Pancharatna Kriti:
Endaro Mahanu Bhavulu). Dr. Kalam not only learnt it, but soon after
he was sworn in as President, he
played it on the Veena (the words
mean Great souls are indeed many,
and my salutations to them all, so
characteristic of his humility and admiration of scholars, and his predecessors as Presidents).
dbala@lvpei.org

with capability for up to 1500 m

bottom trawling and long lining
facility. It should be able to
cruise at a speed of 15 Nautical
miles and spend at least 45 days
at a go with 60 persons onboard
and sail as far as up to the southern oceans. Labs for meteorology,
acoustic,
chemical,
hydrographic and oceanographic
studies along with plankton, isotope, microbiology, biotechnology and sh labs on board have
been suggested. However, it
would take at least three more
years to see the new vessel taking
over the mandate from the grand
old lady, according to those in
the know of things.

BLACK HOLE
DETECTED

stronomers using NASAs

Chandra X-ray Observatory
have identied the smallest
super-massive black hole ever
detected in the centre of a galaxy.
This oxymoronic object could
provide clues to how larger black
holes formed along with their
host galaxies 13 billion years or
more in the past.
Astronomers estimate this super
massive black hole is about
50,000 times the mass of the sun.
We can use observations of the
lightest super massive black holes
to better understand how black
holes of different sizes grow,
Vivienne Baldassare from
University of MIchigan, Ann
Arbor, noted in a paper which
appeared in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters.
The tiny heavyweight black hole
is in the centre of a dwarf disk
galaxy called RGG 118, located
about 340 million light years
from Earth. Researchers found
the outward push of radiation
pressure of this hot gas is about
one per cent of the black holes
inward pull of gravity, matching
the properties of other supermassive black holes.
The black hole in RGG 118 is
nearly 100 times less massive
than the super-massive black hole
which was found in the centre of
the Milky Way.
Astronomers are trying to
understand the formation of
billion-solar-mass black holes
from less than a billion years after
the Big Bang, but many are
undetectable with current
technology. The black hole in
RGG 118 gives astronomers an
opportunity to study a nearby
small super-massive black hole.
IANS
ND-X

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02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | AUGUST 24, 2015

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SNAPSHOTS

Gene responsible for obesity

in Indians identified
R. PRASAD

KEEPING SURFACES DRY

UNDERWATER FOR MONTHS

Imagine staying dry

underwater for months.

Engineers have identified the
ideal 'roughness' needed in a
surface's texture to keep it
dry for a long time when
submerged in water.

HUMMINGBIRD TONGUE IS
REALLY A TINY PUMP

It was believed that

hummingbirds pick up floral
nectar in the same way fluid
rises in a capillary tube. Now,
researchers say that the
tongue itself acts as a tiny
pump.

or the first time, Indian researchers

have been able to isolate a gene
associated with obesity which is
specific to the Indian population.
This is important, as identifying
the genetic determinants of body mass
index (BMI) will go a long way in better
understanding the biological basis of overweight and obesity.
The aim of a study undertaken by research team led by Dr. Kumarasamy Thangaraj of the Hyderabad-based Centre for
Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)
was to find a novel locus in Indian population. To do that, they excluded the
genes that have already been associated
with obesity in other populations. A total
of 204 non-smoking subjects free of
chronic diseases and belonging to different BMI categories underweight, normal and overweight and obese were
chosen for the study. The subjects were
20-30 years old.
Nearly one million SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) markers distributed
throughout the genome were analysed.
We found one SNP marker (which is
within a gene) of THSD7A was significantly associated with obesity. This gene has
not been associated with obesity in the
Indian population, said Dr. Thangaraj.
The aim of the study was to find a novel
locus in the Indian population. The results
were published recently in the International Journal of Obesity.
To reconfirm its role, a replication study
involving 655 people belonging to different BMI categories underweight, normal, overweight and obese was
undertaken. We found highly significant

Principal Scientist Lakshmi Rao Kandukuri working with human chromosome

suspensions. PHOTO: MOHAMMED YOUSUF

CCMB: chromosome defect

responsible for miscarriage found
Y. MALLIKARJUN

association between the marker and obesity in the replication study, he said.
THSD7A is a neural N-glycoprotein,
which promotes angiogenesis. Angiogenesis, in turn, modulates obesity, adipose
metabolism and insulin sensitivity. And
now, the authors have been able to find a
correlation and this information can be
used for drug target, early diagnosis of
obesity and treatment. Explaining how the
gene is linked to obesity, Dr. Thangaraj
said: The gene is present in everyone. But
when there is a mutation to the gene, there
is a likelihood that the person carrying the
mutated gene will end up being obese.
However, the gene mutation is not
found in all obese people. Similarly, the
gene mutation was also found in very

small number of underweight people.

That is because obesity is a multigenic
condition, he explained. Despite being a
multigenic condition, people carrying the
mutation can always take measures to
keep obesity at bay, he said. There is a
possibility that the SNP marker of
THSD7A may be associated with obesity in
other South Asian population.
The genetic affinity Indians have with
other South Asian population has already
been well documented in a 2009 study. In
the 2009 study, a particular gene mutation
in Indians was found to increase the risk of
heart failure in people with cardiomyopathy. And this mutation was found to be a
risk factor implicated in South Asian people with cardiomyopathy too.

IS I BECOMING OBSOLETE?
SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

TOXIC CHEMICALS
THROUGH BREASTFEEDING

Industrial chemicals
(perfluorinated alkylate
substances) linked with
cancer and interference with
immune function appears to
build up in infants by 20-30
per cent for each month
they're breastfed,

'QUANTUM DOT'
TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP
LIGHT THE FUTURE

Advances in
manufacturing technology for
'quantum dots' may soon lead
to a new generation of LED
lighting that produces a more
user-friendly white light,
while using less toxic
materials and low-cost
manufacturing processes that
take advantage of simple
microwave heating.

METABOLIC MASTER SWITCH

FOR OBESITY FOUND
Scientists have now revealed
the mechanism underlying the
genomic region most strongly
associated with obesity. The
findings uncover a genetic
circuit that controls whether
our bodies burn or store fat.
This may offer a new
approach for treatments.
CM
YK

o. The title is not a grammatical

mistake! New research by Bordenstein et al, microbiologists at the
Vanderbilt University, which is published in the open access journal PLOS Biology, hint that the individual organism
that we see is just the tip of the iceberg,
with the legion of microbes within the
body and their respective genomes making up the total microbiome being significant in virtually all important
outcomes, including the origin of new
species. Therefore thinking of plants or
animals as individuals may be an
oversimplification.
A series of studies have shown that the
way an individual organism develops,
the disease it catches, the way it behaves

and even perhaps its social interactions

are dependant on the millions of microbes that inhabit its body.
Keeping this idea in mind, the authors
of the paper, Host biology in the light of
the Microbiome: Ten principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes list out a set of
principles for the study of organisms.
Holobionts here are the collective entities including the organism with its
microbiome, and the term hologenome refers to the collective genomes.
In a press note issued by the university,
Dr Bordenstein noted, One of the basic
expectations from this conceptual
framework is that animal and plant experiments that do not account for what
is happening at the microbiological level
will be incomplete, and, in some cases,
will be misleading as well.

QUESTION CORNER
Why is it that sperms are not considered
foreign (antigens) by the immune system of
women?
V. Kalpana, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Sperms are foreign to both the man who produces
them and the woman who receives them. In
healthy men, sperms do not come in contact with
blood. The blood-testis barrier formed by the
Sertoli cells in the testes keeps the sperm away
from the blood stream.
Breach of this barrier, as in the case of infections
or injury, may lead to the formation of anti-sperm
antibodies in men. Besides, semen also contains
immune-suppressive agents secreted by seminal
vesicles (accessory structure).
Like in the case of men, the sperms do not come in
contact with blood once deposited in the vagina.
Hence, no immune response against the sperms is
caused in the woman. In normal women, sperms
are deposited in the vagina and they gain access to
the cervix and uterus within minutes. The acidic
environment in the vagina kills the remaining
sperms.
Some women do develop antibodies to sperm. In
25 per cent of infertile women and even in some
fertile/pregnant women anti-sperm antibodies are
demonstrable. Why some women develop antisperm antibodies, and others do not, is difficult to
explain.
The possible explanations are: (1) The breach of
the blood tissue barrier in the women as occurs in
vaginal injuries and possible exposure of the
women to sperms in sufficient quantities and (2)
Each woman's immune response is individualistic
and varies from person to person.
Though the precise role of anti-sperm antibodies
in causation of infertility is not clear, there is no
evidence to indicate that anti sperm antibodies
are the cause.
Dr. N. Pandian, Chief Consultant in Andrology
and Reproductive Medicine, Chettinad Hospital
and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

THIS WEEKS QUESTIONS

Whenever we hear a sound we are able to guess
the direction from which the sound arises. How do
we do that?
SUKINESH S.M
Why does our mouth smell foul after a long
night's sleep?
AMOL CHAURASIA, Lucknow
Q:What is the life span of human sperm?
ARUNKUMAR, Hubli.
Readers can send questions/answers on science and technology for
the Question Corner, along with their names and addresses, to the
email ID questioncorner@thehindu.co.in or to The Editor, The Hindu
(Science and Technology), 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002

How does one develop a science of

such a complex entity? The authors put
forth ten principles for their study. The
first principle is that these two concepts,
holobionts and hologenomes, are the
fundamental units of biological organisation. Secondly, they say that as the
entity evolves as a whole, mutations of
the hologenome are as important as mutations of the genome in the organisms
evolution, and forces such as natural selection must act on the hologenome itself. They clarify that while the rules of
evolution are still the same, the units on
which these rules act will have to be
redefined using concepts such as the hologenome and holobiont. Dr Bordstein
further added that this powerful holistic
approach is likely to impact the practice
of personalised medicine as well.

novel chromosome defect responsible for loss of foetal

heart beat and leading to miscarriage was recently detected by
scientists at the Hyderabad-based
Centre for Cellular and Molecular
Biology (CCMB).
The novel chromosome defect
showing loss of crucial region on
chromosome 22, which is associated with absence of heart beat,
was detected by the team led by Dr.
Lakshmi Rao Kandukuri, group
scientist from CCMB in collaboration with Dr. Padmavathi Buddavarapu from Basant Sahney
Hospital in Hyderabad. The results
of the work were published in Genetic Syndromes and Gene
Therapy.
It was found that the defective
bi-satellited chromosome 22 was
contributed by the male partner or
originated in the oligoasthenospermic (infertile) male partner
leading to miscarriage due to errors at the stage of meiotic segregation and division. (Satellites are
regions containing essential genes
that act as foundation for nucleolar
structure. The additional chromosome 22 has two satellite regions.)
The normal chromosomal complement comprises 46 chromosomes
22 pairs of different autosomes
and a pair of sex chromosomes. Of
this 22 pairs of autosomes, five
pairs are acrocentric chromosomes with each chromosome having one satellite region.
But in this particular case, it was
found that in addition to the normal complement, there was one bisatellited additional chromosome
22. Besides, there was also a deletion in 22q region, specifically Di
George locus, which is crucial for

heart development. Apart from the

latest finding, Dr. Lakshmi Rao and
her colleagues over the past several
years have identified novel chromosome defects and mutations associated
with
recurrent
miscarriages, ovarian failure, male
infertility, endometriosis and
polycystic ovary syndrome in the
Indian population. Their research
focusing on disorders relating to
human reproductive genetics was
carried out in collaboration with
medical practitioners.
Emphasising the importance of
screening for chromosomal abnormalities in couples facing infertility problem as also frequent
pregnancy loss by women, Dr.
Lakshmi Rao said that normally
15-20 per cent of all pregnancies
result in miscarriages. While a
range of causes like infections, advanced maternal and paternal age,
auto-immune disorders, uterine
anomalies and even environmental toxins have been associated
with miscarriages, the most predominant cause has been attributed to chromosomal abnormalities
which account for 70 per cent of
the miscarriages.
She said earlier studies conducted by her lab showed that six per
cent of male infertility was linked
to chromosomal abnormalities,
while in the case of ovarian failure
it was 14 per cent. Sex chromosomes were involved in the abnormalities most of the time.
Mostly, the abnormalities are
caused by chromosomal re-arrangement which eventually leads
to the gametes having an imbalanced set of chromosome material.
Dr. Rao said routine chromosome analysis of infertile couples
was essential before planning for
assisted reproductive technologies
(ARTs).

APP FOR CARDIOVASCULAR MANAGEMENT SHOWS PROMISE

R. PRASAD

esearchers have found a way

to improve the quality of
primary care and clinical
outcomes cost-effectively by
using a smart phone application
for cardiovascular management
program (SimCard). A trial was
conducted in India and China.
The study, which is the first
dual-country trial of its kind
worldwide, was delivered by
community health workers and is

ideal in resource-constrained
settings.
The trial carried out in 20 villages
in Haryana, and 27 villages in
Tibet used a mobile app that
focussed on two lifestyle
modifications (smoking cessation
and salt reduction) and use of two
medications (blood pressure
lowering agents and aspirin).
The trial increased the adherence
to anti-hypertensive medications
by 25.5 per cent in the
intervention group. However, the
uptake of aspirin medication was

more in China (24.5 per cent)

than in India (9.8 per cent.
Similarly, a significant net
reduction of over 4 mm Hg in
systolic blood pressure was seen
in China; there was no significant
reduction in the case of India.
Over 16 per cent increase in the
proportion of high-risk patients
receiving monthly follow-up was
seen in both countries. However,
no changes in lifestyle were seen
in the 2086 individuals with high
CVD risks over 40 years old
with a self-reported history of

CVD and a measured systolic

blood pressure over 160 mm Hg.
The results were published
recently in the journal
Circulation.
The study was carried out by the
Public Health Foundation of
India (PHFI), Delhi in
collaboration with the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) in India and The George
Institute for Global Health at
Peking University Health Science
Center in collaboration with
Tibet University in China.

Taxonomists reclassify Indian bird species

K.S. SUDHI

he majestic Asian Paradise

Flycatcher found in many
parts of the country is becoming more Indian these days.
The bird, which is present in
South Asian countries Afghanistan to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
will henceforth be known as Indian Paradise Flycatcher, following a new taxonomic assessment.
Though the common name of
the species has been modified, it
will retain its scientific name
Terpsiphone paradisi and remain
the parent species.
Bird taxonomists have separated the subspecies found in the
Nicobars.
The new subspecies has been
rechristened as Blyths Paradise
Flycatcher and assigned a new scientific name Terpsiphone affinis
nicobarica.
Besides the Indian Paradise
Flycatcher, a few more bird species found in India and other parts
of the world have been renamed
this month as part of an annual
exercise.
The renaming of birds and associated changes are inevitable as
new techniques and better understanding of taxonomy cause a re-

Grey-headed swamphens, (below) Indian Paradise Flycatcher.

VEDHAN, K. RAVIKUMAR.

arrangement even in a
relatively well-studied group of
creatures like birds, according to
eBird India, a online platform of
ornithologists and birders.
Each year, the bird taxonomists
release the updated list in August
and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has taken up the responsibility
of
maintaining
the
ever-changing list of species, subspecies, English names, and approximate distributions, it has
been pointed out.
Molecular taxonomy is the tool
for identifying species. If two individuals of a species show genetic
differences or exhibit genetic distances in its DNA analysis, such

PHOTOS: M.

individuals can be considered as

belonging to two different species.
This is the case with the Purple
Swamphen and other species
which have been reclassified. The
erstwhile Purple Swamphen has
been split into six species in the
process,
explained
an
ornithologist.
The Purple Swamphen found in
India has been reclassified as
Grey-headed Swamphen and it
will carry the scientific name Porhyrio poliocephalus. The literal
meaning of poliocephalus is greyheaded. Interestingly, the Purple
Swamphen was renamed so a few
years ago. Originally, it was called
Purple Moorhen.
Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) has now got a new species.
The buzzard, found in the Himalayas, will from now be known as
Buteo buteo burmanicus.
Taxonomists have split the
Scaly Thrush into four species.
Two of the new species are found
in India, the Nilgiri Thrush
(Zoothera neilgherriensis) of the
Western Ghats and the Scaly
Thrush (Zoothera dauma) of central, northern and north-eastern
India. A close neighbour is the Sri
Lanka Thrush (Zoothera imbricata), which is endemic to Sri Lanka, according to the website.
ND-X

NOIDA/DELHI

02 EducationPlus

THE HINDU | MONDAY | AUGUST 31, 2015

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SNAPSHOTS

Medicinal properties of tulsi unravelled

Domesticated tulsi subtypes contain very high
concentration of medicinally important metabolites
R. PRASAD

PLASTIC PARTICLES
IN COSMETIC
PRODUCTS

Everyday cosmetics,

cleaning products
contain huge quantities
of tiny plastic particles
which are released to
the environment and
could be harmful to
marine life, study says.

EARTH'S MINERALOGY
UNIQUE

New research says

the Earth has more than
1,500 undiscovered
minerals. The exact
mineral diversity of
Earth is unique and not
duplicated in the
cosmos.

or the rst time, a draft genome covering 374 million

bases (61 per cent coverage) of the tulsi herb has
been sequenced and the
main enzymes responsible for the
synthesis of secondary metabolites which have medicinal properties have been unravelled by a
team of nearly 30 scientists at the
Bengaluru-based National Centre
for Biological Sciences (NCBS)
and the Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Platforms, Bengaluru.
Tulsi is well known for its myriad medicinal properties antibacterial, antifungal, antipyretic,
antioxidant,
antiseptic
and
anticancer.
Of the nearly 40 secondary metabolites that have medicinal value, the genes and enzymes The concentration of eugenol (anti-infective) and ursolic acid
responsible for the production of (anticancer) was more in Rama than Krishna subtype.
14 metabolites have been mapped PHOTO: V. RAJU
on the genome. Not much informedicinally important metabomation on the pathway is available
lites. Between the two domestifor the remaining metabolites. Of
cated subtypes, the Rama
the 14 metabolites that have been
subtype contains high abunmapped, eight have anti-cancer
dance of medicinally important
properties and the remaining six
metabolites. The concentration
have antifungal, antioxidant, antiof eugenol (anti-infective) and
inammatory, antiseptic, and carursolic acid (anticancer) in both
dio protective properties. The releaf and stem was more in Rama
sults were published recently in
than Krishna subtype, said Atul
the journal BMC Plant Biology.
We know tulsi contains many corresponding authors told this Upadhyay the rst author of the
paper from NCBS.
anticancer and other medicinally Correspondent by email.
Ayurveda mostly uses Rama
important properties. Now, using
Domesticated
subtypes
and Krishna tulsi, said Nitish
a genome tool we have established
Of the ve tulsi subtypes in- Sathyanarayana of NCBS and a
the genes responsible for the production of the anticancer com- vestigated, only the two domes- co-author of the paper.
Of the various parts of the
pounds,
Ramanathan ticated subtypes Rama (green
Sowdhamini from the Biochemis- leaves) and Krishna (purple leav- plant, the leaves were found to
try and Bioinformatics Depart- es) have been found to contain have the highest concentration of
ment, NCBS and one of the very high concentration of these the metabolites; roots and stems

Leaves were
found to have
the highest
concentration
of metabolites.

contain only minimal amount.

While the synthesis of the metabolites appears to begin in the
young leaves, the mature leaves
retain the medically relevant metabolites, said Prof. Sowdhamini.
The reason why the metabolites
are most abundant in leaves could
be that they are the source of energy production and they are most
vulnerable to consumption by animals and exposure to pathogens.

Commercial exploitation
Many of the compounds found
in the tulsi plant are being evaluated for their anti-cancer properties
in various clinical trials. But there
is a critical limitation the nal
product is isolated from the tulsi
leaves. And the production of
these compounds in this plant
does not match large-scale commercial exploitation.
So the study opens up a horizon
for commercial exploitation of the
medicinally important compounds. Since the genes that have
anti-cancer properties are now
known, we can engineer yeast with
enzymes from tulsi to make medicinally important molecules
that are normally made in tulsi,
said S. Ramaswamy, a co-author
and Professor and Dean of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and
Regenerative Medicine(InStem),
Bengaluru.The cost of production
and the time taken to produce
these compounds will come down
signicantly once commercial exploitation is achieved.
But can commercial production
of essential metabolites be undertaken based on the latest work?
Absolutely. The wet-lab experiments carried out to follow and
validate the presence of few important enzymes in tulsi would be
very useful to take it forward in the
commercial angle, said Prof.
Sowdhamini.

Neutrinos from beyond the Milky Way Promise of a better antituberculosis therapy
SHUBASHREE DESIKAN

irming up on earlier results

using data that they collected between 2010 and 2012,
scientists at the IceCube neutrino observatory revealed that
they had indeed detected extragalactic neutrinos.
The IceCube observatory is
made up of instrumentation
lodged within a cubic kilometre
of ice in the Antarctic and is designed to detect neutrinos of
even very high energies which
can exceed those produced in accelerators such as the LHC by a
factor of more than a million.
The research was reported recently in the journal Physical
Review Letters.
The present results reaffirm
the conclusions drawn from
analysis published last year, and
they are derived from a different
technique. The present study
traces out the muons released
due to rare neutrino collisions
and which, in turn, leave a trail
of light that mirror the trajectory of the neutrino.
The neutrinos sampled have
energy which matches that of
neutrinos detected when sampling the sky of the South Pole.
According to Albrecht Karle, a
senior author of the study, there
is very strong evidence that a
sizeable fraction of the neutrinos detected are extragalactic.
He added, in an email to this
correspondent: All this in itself
may not need to be seen as rm
proof. For example, it has been
suggested that such events could

MOHIT M. RAO

Antibiotic-resistant
bacteria finding their way
to natural waters
K.S. SUDHI

ntibiotic-resistant bacteria
have proliferated in some of
the natural water bodies of
Kuttanad and have found way to
the tiger prawns which grow
there, according to a scientic
analysis.
The presence of the drug-resistant bacteria was found to be comparatively higher in natural
waters than in prawns grown in a
farmed environment, indicating
that antibiotic residues are reaching the natural systems of the
region. A team of scientists from
Kerala reached this conclusion after isolating nearly 1,000 strains
of bacteria from both the natural
and farmed environments of the
prawns.
The group of researchers comprising K.M. Mujeeb Rahiman, A.
A. Mohamed Hatha of the Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, School
of Marine Sciences of the Cochin
University of Science and Technology, and A Deborah Gnana Selvam and A. P Thomas of the
School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, have come out with
their conclusions in a scientic
paper titled, Relative prevalence
of antibiotic resistance among
heterotrophic bacteria from natural and culture environments of
freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium Rosenbergii.

Selection pressure
It was found during the analysis
that the occurrence of multiple
drug resistance were higher
among the bacteria associated
with the samples from the natural
environment of M. rosenbergii,
pointing to more favourable selection pressure for the drug-resistant mutants in the natural
environment, the paper noted.
M. rosenbergii is a widely cultivated fresh water prawn in Kerala because of its inherent
resistance to many bacterial dis-

This image shows one of the highest-energy neutrino events of

this study superimposed on a view of the IceCube Lab (ICL) at the
South Pole. PHOTO: ICE CUBE COLLABORATION.
originate from a dark matter halo in our galaxy. If such dark
matter consists of certain particles, such as WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) it
may decay into energetic neutrinos. Such a dark matter distribution would be relatively
isotropic, too. However it seems
far fetched and not very well motivated at this time.
Very high energy neutrinos
are created deep inside violent
astrophysical events far away in
the universe. Since the neutrinos hardly react with matter on
the way to the earth, they hold
pristine information of the
sources where they were born.
Such neutrinos may in the future be used to develop the sci-

ence of neutrino astronomy. In

addition, studying them may reveal how nature creates powerful accelerators in the cosmos.
The observations were made
by pointing the IceCube Observatory, composed of thousands of
detectors placed beneath the
Antarctic ice at the South Pole,
towards the Northern Hemisphere.
Neutrinos coming in from
that direction and ltered by the
thickness of the Earth were detected. In the two years from
May 2010 to May 2012, nearly
35,000 events were recorded of
which only about 20 were due to
neutrinos of such high energies
as to come from astrophysical
sources.

nderstanding stress and methods to relieve stress in microbes could eventually lead to
effective drugs against mycobacteria
a family of bacteria that cause a
range of infections and diseases including tuberculosis.
Just as humans destress through
music, food or holidays, the singlecell bacteria too destresses when it
recognises factors that cause it
stress.
Among the key proteins in action
during times of stress is Rel protein, which was studied in detail by
Dipankar Chatterji and his group
from the Molecular Biophysics Unit
at the Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), Bengaluru.
In a paper published recently in
the Federation of European Biochemical Societies Journal, the team
unravels the working of the Rel protein in Mycobacterium smegmatis
a cousin of the harmful tuberculosiscausing strain.
Currently, when faced with an atmosphere of antibiotics, pathogens
such as mycobacteria produce alarmones like guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) and guanosine
pentaphosphate (pppGpp). These
compounds slow down the growth
rate of the bacteria in the same
manner that the human body slows
down all but its essential processes
during cold or heat and allows the
bacteria to adapt to unfavourable
conditions.

eases, good price realisation and

preference among the consumers.
The extensive backwater systems
in Kerala also offer good natural
habitat for M. rosenbergii. However these natural water bodies
are highly contaminated and harbour a wide range of microbial
pathogens,
the
scientists
observed.
The samples were collected
from the natural water systems of
Kumarakam and Arookutty region of Vembanad estuary and the
farmed samples a prawn farm in
Ramankary village of Alappuzha
district.
Antibiotic residues and multidrug-resistant bacteria are of increasing concern in seafood
industry. There is also intense international focus to monitor the
residues and drug resistant bacteria in seafood.
There has been a consensus to
source seafood from organically
raised farms in order to demote
antibiotics usage in culture operations. Hence, a study was taken
up to compare the antibiotic resistance among bacteria associated with various samples from the
natural and culture environment
of Macrobrachium rosenbergii,
reasoned the researchers.
Samples from natural environment included water, sediment,
eggs, larvae, post larvae, feed
items and gut samples of the
prawns and those from culture environment were water, sediment,
eggs, feed pellets and gut samples
of the species grown in culture
pond.
The bacterial isolates from the
water samples of natural and culture environment were found resistant
to
ampicillin,
erythromycin and penicillin,
while more than 50 per cent of
strains from sediment samples
were resistant to erythromycin,
nalidixic acid and penicillin. Bacterial isolates from commercial
feed had relatively high degree of
antibiotic resistance, the paper
noted.

QUESTION CORNER
produce these VSCs, which
causes the bad odour.
The way you sleep can also affect the intensity and
frequency
of
morning
Bad breath in the morning breath. Snoring or breathing
through the mouth at
is mostly attributed to a
night can increase the
lack of saliva. During
likelihood of bad
the day, your mouth
breath.
Most
produces a signimouth breathers
cant amount of sasleep with their
liva, but while you
mouth open, caussleep, saliva proing their mouth to
duction goes down.
get drier and therefore
Saliva is critical for
letting bad-breath-causing
sweeping away the food
particles that would other- bacteria ourish. Basically,
wise linger and collect bac- any time you reduce saliva in
the mouth, you reduce the
teria.
A decrease in saliva pro- mouths ability to ght the
duction increases the likeli- bacteria that causes the bad
hood of dry mouth. This breath.
allows bacteria to grow and Dolly Rohira,Bengaluru
produce volatile sulphur
compounds (VSCs), which is THIS WEEKS QUESTION
what smells bad. Bacteria
munch on compounds, pro- What will happen if Earth
teins, amino acids, and left- stops its rotation?
over foods that are stuck in V. Rajasekar, Sivakasi,
your mouth and teeth to Tamil Nadu

Why does the mouth smell

foul after a long night's
sleep?
Amol Chaurasia, Lucknow

Having worked on the protein

for over 15 years, Dr. Chatterji has
identied a novel site in the Rel
protein that binds to its product
pppGpp. When the alarmone levels
produced by the bacteria reach a
threshold, pppGpp binds itself to
Rel enzyme and shuts down the
production of fresh alarmones.
The identication of the binding
site has tremendous value for
anti-tuberculosis therapy, says Dr.
Chatterji. By synthesising the exact residues in the enzyme that is
used by pppGpp to bring alarmone
synthesis to a halt, the stress
response of the bacteria can be
effectively halted.
In 2012, a drug against Rel was
introduced, but it works only at
very high concentrations. We
think there is a tremendous opportunity to improve these drugs,
he says.

Readers can send questions/answers on science and technology for the Question
Corner, along with their names and addresses, to the email ID questioncorner@thehindu.co.in or to The Editor, The Hindu (Science and Technology), 859-860, Anna
Salai, Chennai 600002.

Let the fair and lovely cohabit with the dark and handsome in our farmlands
D. BALASUBRAMANIAN

This point was brought out in

greater perspective in two recent
omenclature is a subtle art professional contexts. One was in a
which can raise or lower sta- seminar organised in honour of Dr.
tus. It is practised to perfec- M. S. Swaminathan who turned 90
tion in government and in PR rms. years young on August 7, on the
A joint secretary, despite the ad- theme Science, technology and
jective, is lower in rank than a sec- public policy for achieving the zero
retary in the government. While hunger challenge; in other words,
the whole of India has but one Vice how to aim for a hunger-free world.
President, a PR rm may have a What an audacious goal! The other
dozen.
is a report by Dr Ruth DeFries of
Such naming has come to agri- Columbia University and colculture as well. Why are dalia (bro- leagues, in the July 17 issue of Scititled:
Metrics
for
ken wheat) and millets (ragi, jowar, ence,
barley, bajra, varagu, sorghum) land-scarce agriculture- subtitled
called coarse grains while wheat nutrient content must be integratand rice are ne grains? Should ed into planning.
Swaminathan has been the archiparticle size matter so much? Is
this like a colour prejudice? Are ne tect of the Green Revolution,
grains fair and lovely and millets, which let India raise its food-grain
the darker cousins, the runners up production vefold in sixty years,
and not eaten by city folk? This feeding a population that has risen
preference is foolish. Gram for fourfold. (DeFries and others point
gram, coarse grains offer more nu- out likewise that intensication of
food-grain production has intrition than wheat or rice.

CM
YK

SPEAKING OF SCIENCE
produce and consume more rice
and wheat, have we nourished our
bodies (and brains) with all the requirements for growth and health?
Hidden hunger refers to the decit
in essential nutrients that are needed, besides the calories that the
starch in food offers. These are
minute amounts of some specic
vitamins, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium
and others, which are termed as
micronutrients. It is here that
coarse grains win over wheat and
rice. (Gandhiji seems to have
known this, since he wanted us to
eat not polished, but hand-poundA farmer looking at the Kuthiraivaali (barnyard millet) grown in his farm
ed rice, which keeps the carp, with
in Watrap region of Virudhunagar district. PHOTO: G. MOORTHY
its set of micronutrients). Fine
creased the worlds cereal supply green Revolution and also the grains have far less amounts of iron
by almost 3.2- fold, outpacing the need to address what he terms as and zinc than maize, oats or millets.
2.3-fold increase in population hidden hunger.
The iron content of millet is four
growth). Over the years, he has emHunger, we understand, but times that of rice, the zinc in oats is
phasised the need for an Ever- what is hidden hunger? Even if we fourfold that in wheat; and maize

(or corn) has the highest nutritional yield among the grains. The rural
poor live largely on millets but sadly, not enough of them.
So, in the next stage of agricultural revolution, how do we plan such
that the entire world is fed whole
food and not just calorie-rich
grains? Green Revolution has been
criticised (post facto) because of its
environmental consequences: excess fertilizers damaging water
quality, toxicity of pesticides used,
decrease in biodiversity and so
forth.
Attempts are already on to make
it more acceptable. Cultivation of
nutrient-rich coarse grains is expected to be environmentally less
demanding (less water and fertilizers) and more eco-friendly.
What we need is thus a change in
the mindset, and a newer strategy

of mixed agriculture. Rather than

measure agricultural production by
tonnes per hectare of land (as done
now), DeFries et al. propose a new
metric termed nutritional yield,
which refers to the number of
adults who would be able to obtain
100 per cent of their recommended
daily dietary need for one year from
a food item produced per year from
one hectare.
This new metric can be used to
formulate policies for a mix of
crops that balance yields with nutritional needs. This would address
the problem of hidden hunger and
produce healthier, better nourished people of tomorrow.
Put another way, let Fair and
Lovely cohabit with Dark and
Handsome, so that the disturbing
number of 165 millions of malnourished children across the world (23
million in India alone) can be drastically cut within the next decade.
dbala@lvpei.org
ND-X