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Measuring up to cancer
S ANANTHANARAYANAN
T
he world, in 2018, saw 17 mil-
lion cases of cancer and 9.6
million cancer deaths. Cancer
is the second largest cause of
death after respiratory diseases — every
sixth death in the world is due to can-
cer. The organisation, Cancer Research
UK, says that by 2040, we expect to have
27.5 million new cases each year.
While there is progress in control
and cure, lifetime risk of cancer and
survival of late stage patients has not
improved. The curative process some-
times leads to persistence of cancer.
As cancerous tumours contain billions
of cells, there are often some that resist
therapy, and therapy selects these for
survival. With this, and the heavy load
that cancer places on society, preven-
tion, rather than cure, is the priority.
The journal, Scientific Reports, carries
a paper by Leonardo oña and Michael
Lachmann, from Osnabrück Universi-
ty, Germany and Santa Fe Institute,
US, which examines a proposed nat-
ural mechanism that limits the growth
of cancer cells in organisms.
The background to the study is an
observation known as “Peto’s Paradox”,
which says that large animals have less
cases of cancer than, according to the-
oretical considerations, they should.
Cancer is known as a disease where
the modification or copy errors that
take place during cell division, in some
cells, causes those cells to multiply
without restraint. The different influ-
ences that keep cells from uncon-
trolled multiplication appear to
become deactivated and the results
are the tumours and imbalances that
The issues with Indian science
India now accounts for 5.31 per cent of all
publications in science and engineering across the
globe. Yet, we are nowhere near producing quality
impactful work on a consistent basis
BIJU DHARMAPALAN
E
very year 28 February is observed
as National Science Day, which
commemorates the Nobel Prize-
winning discovery known in
the annals of scientific history as the
“Raman Effect”. It’s also a revelation that
after CV Raman (in photo above right),
nobody has been able to fetch the cov-
eted prize by working in Indian con-
ditions. The beauty of his discovery is
that he worked with minimal infra-
structure — something today’s scien-
tists cannot imagine.
This year, the Union govern-
ment’s department of science and
technology has taken “Women in Sci-
ence” to be its focal theme. Even
though we have hundreds of research
institutions producing women PhD
holders, we have only a handful of sci-
entists in top administrative posi-
tions. Is there a gender prejudice
operating in science? What are the
issues that prohibit us from becoming
a top scientific country even after suc-
cessive governments have pumped
money into it?
According to recent statistics
compiled by the US National Science
Foundation, India has become the
world’s third largest publisher of sci-
ence and engineering articles.The
Nature’s largest animals may have found a way to
sidestep cell malignancy
we know as cancer.
Now, if it is random changes that
occur in some cells that can start a
cancerous growth, it is reasonable
that organisms that have more cells,
or that live longer, and hence see
more instances of cell division, should
have greater incidence of cancer.
Strangely, this is not the case. The
number of cells, in the case of a
mouse, a human or an elephant, or a
whale, differs by orders of thousands
and tens of thousands. The life span
too, can differ by a factor of tens to
hundreds. The incidence of cancer,
however, is almost the same, differ-
ing, at most, by a factor of two! It
would seem that the blue whale, a
thousand times the weight of a
human, has developed suppressants
of cancer that are a thousand times
better than those of humans.
A 2011 paper in the archive of the
National Institute of Public Health,
which the Scientific Reports paper
cites, says, “When wild mice are raised
in protected laboratory conditions, 46
per cent die of cancer. Cancer is also
responsible for about 20 per cent of
dog deaths, roughly 25 per cent of
human deaths in the United States
and 18 per cent of beluga whale
deaths. Rare cases of cancer are dis-
covered in blue whales, giving no evi-
dence of elevated cancer risk in these
species. No matter the size or lifespan
of the animal, cancer seems to
account for approximately the same
data, which was released recently,
stated that in 2008, India published
48,998 science and engineering arti-
cles.
That increased to 1,35,788 arti-
cles in 2018 at an average annual
growth rate of 10.73 per cent and the
country now accounts for 5.31 per
cent of all publications in science and
engineering across the globe. China,
which accounts for 20.67 per cent of
all global publications in scientific
articles, is at the top position, fol-
lowed by the US at 16.54 per cent.
Despite this commendable
achievement, we couldn’t deliver
when it came to producing high
impact publications. Putting forth
more number of papers is not suffi-
cient; we should produce quality pub-
lications that have high relevance to
society. Our work has failed to find
place in the breakthrough discoveries
cited by the world’s top scientific jour-
nals and magazines.
Why is it so? One reason is that
there is no relation between publica-
tion and productivity in our country.
The people who do productive
research, like the ones who are work-
ing in private research and develop-
ment companies, never publish their
work. They either go for patenting or
keep the discovery an internal secret.
percentage of deaths.”
Seeking the reason behind this
lower incidence of cancer as an organ-
ism grows larger, and hence a resolu-
tion of Peto’s Paradox, could then lead
to a way to contain cancer. The paper
in Scientific Reports points out that
preventing cancer has been a chal-
lenge ever since life evolved beyond
the state of consisting of a single cell. It
is primarily critical, the paper says, in
animals, where cells are able to move
to different parts of the body. That the
possibility of cancer was a serious
issue to sustain species is apparent
from the brace of processes that has
evolved — the immune system, which,
in principle, can detect and cut short
signs of malignancy, the shortening of
the extremities of DNA to limit cell
division, and genes that suppress
tumours as well as the structure of
cells need to undergo several genetic
changes before they can become
malignant.
Another approach to how cancer
cells multiply is via the processes that
are at play in cell growth. Cells grow
with the help of signals, in the form of
chemicals, which they send to other
cells and receive from other cells.
These are the signals, for instance, that
set up the channel of blood supply
that cells need when they proliferate,
and signals which retard or accelerate
nutrition, or cell division.
The Scientific Reports paper
examines the economics of growth
On the other hand, the matrices
we get from peer publications are
usually not translated into products.
The authors publish it for the sake of
their academic development like PhD
programmes or for getting promo-
tions and salary increments. In India,
researchers often have no account-
ability for the public money they are
using compared to Western countries
where the situation is the opposite.
The authorities in India evaluate
whether their funds have been suc-
cessfully utilised and whether utilisa-
tion and expenditure certificates are
submitted after the completion of
work.
Even after 70 years of Indepen-
dence, we are still obsessed by West-
ern products in research, be it in life
science, chemical science or physical
science. In almost all national
research laboratories, scientists pre-
fer to work with imported equip-
ments. Nobody prefers to work with
“Made in India” equipments citing
quality issues. It’s really a shame for
Indian science if we fail to develop
our own quality instruments. In the
emerging fields of genomic and pro-
teomics research, almost all the
equipments are imported.
Another major area of concern is
that we often get carried away by the
thoughts of Western scientists and
CMYK
factors, a kind of signalling molecule
whose role is to trigger cell growth.
“Growth factors can cause a prolifera-
tion not only in the cell that produced
it but also in other cells in the vicinity,”
the paper says. In multicellular organ-
isms, growth is actively regulated by
cells acting together, using molecular
signals to control cell division, the
paper says. In the case of cancer, it is
these signaling pathways that are
altered, or taken over by cancerous
cells. And the authors of the paper
develop a mathematical model, where
the relative benefits and the cost to a
cell that generates a signal are com-
pared, to estimate the chances that a
mutant cell may be end up becoming
cancerous.
The normal cell has evolved to
send out signals that would cause pro-
liferation of other cells, altruistically,
even if the signal were sent at a high
cost to itself, the paper says. The can-
cer cell, on the other hand, adapts to
use the signals competitively, that
would result in an advantage to itself.
Hence, for the organism to resist can-
cer, the signalling mechanism used
should affect the source cell and other
cells, but at little cost to the source cell.
The mathematical model takes a
case of a cell mutation that results in
the increase in a resource-consuming
export of a growth-inducing molecule.
There would hence be a rise in the
possibility of cell division, and of the
death of the source cell. The model
just follow the trends of Western sci-
ence. We don’t understand our soci-
etal problems and are not interested
in working on them, fearing a back-
lash from the international scientific
community. Scientists like Raman, JC
Bose or GN Ramachandran just fol-
lowed their curiosity and solved the
problems they identified. Their stud-
ies were unique during their period.
Raman even published papers on
mridangam, the Indian musical
drum, in the prestigious journal
Nature.
The previous generation of sci-
entists had a strong foundation in the
fundamentals and philosophy of sci-
ence. These days, young scientists
specialise only in one area, and don’t
wish to take up challenges in a new
domain of research, fearing repercus-
sions on the professional front. So
they just continue the work their
teachers or supervisors taught them
for their PhD. It’s like drilling a part of
the wood that somebody else has
already drilled!
Moreover, an unnecessary politi-
cal colour in science is damaging its
credibility. In order to appease the
leaders in power, scientific adminis-
trators often play with the priority
areas of research. Funds are diverted
to areas or institutions based on the
interest of the ruling party. Fixing pri-
oritised areas will ultimately affect the
people who are really interested in
doing good science. In recent times
most Indian scientists have become
as irrational as religious leaders. This
is spoiling the scientific temper and
affecting the quality of Indian science.
Also, the hierarchical structure
followed in many research institu-
tions is impeding the development of
youngsters. Even today in many sci-
entific institutions, you can see that
juniors are not allowed to sit in front
of senior professors or engage in free
interactions. Only if you appease your
senior or head of the department can
you grow in such institutions. Those
who do not like that culture do not
get appreciation or promotions; and
ultimately they curse science. Many
promising youngsters who do not
wish to stay in such environments
have left public sector research insti-
tutions and joined private organisa-
tions; few have even taken assign-
ments abroad.
KOLKATA, WEDNESDAY 04 MARCH 2020
was thus a collection of cells, where
one cell would be selected to repro-
duce, depending on its fitness, and
another cell would be selected, at ran-
dom, to die. The objective was to study
how the value of receiving a signal and
the cost of producing it, as well as the
range of a signal, and the distance
within which the cell that dies may be
replaced by a new cell, were related.
The way cancerous and normal
cell populations progress, leading to
the “extinction” or the “fixation” of
cancerous cells, is then modelled. As
it is seen that the cost and range of
signals affect the emergence of
cancer, evolutionary control of these
factors would act as a regulator of
the emergence of cancer. As the
evolutionary objectives of the
cancerous and the normal cells are
opposed, and the cancerous cell
needs to reach its objective within its
lifetime, normal cells can have native
methods that make it difficult for
the cancerous aspirant. Keeping
cancer wholly out of the reach of
mutant cells, however, would come at
a high cost. The strategy is hence
different in different cells, like blood
cells, which are mobile, or tissue cells
that stay put.
The study develops a framework
in which there is a balance of
preventing and permitting cancer. If
we drew on the cancer-preventing
methods of the blue whale to help
humans, it would come at a cost —
but the cost may be balanced by the
risks of the cancer-promoting
environment that we
The writer can be
live in.
contacted at
response@simplescience.in
Gender prejudice is rampant in
our scientific and academic circles as
a few research areas are prohibited for
women by the male scientific elite. We
have been following this tradition
since the time of Raman. Very few
institutions care about the basic bio-
logical needs of women researchers.
Our successive governments
have not shown much confidence in
the private sector. Most of the money
for research is provided to govern-
ment institutions and very few private
institutions get their projects sanc-
tioned. In states like Kerala, the gov-
ernment hardly supports scientific
activities in private institutions. A look
into the web page of the Kerala State
Council for Science and Technology
will reveal this. Even for organising
the National Science Day, they have
clearly mentioned that only govern-
ment institutions need to apply. Does
it mean that students studying in pri-
vate colleges need not celebrate
National Science Day?
There are a few public-funded
research institutions where students
from private colleges are not allowed
to do their MSc dissertation work. Is it
right to bar students from private col-
leges, which are sanctioned by the
government itself after taking hefty
fees, from entering national laborato-
ries? Are we purportedly keeping our
next generation away from science?
Breakthrough scientific discover-
ies will occur only if researchers
understand the needs of society. Even
though our Prime Minister always
insists that scientists interact with the
public, it hardly happens. Today’s sci-
entists hardly interact with their
immediate community. There are
many agricultural scientists who
always work inside air conditioned
rooms and prescribe remedies to our
farmers from there.
Good science can only survive in
a society where the principal investi-
gator is provided total freedom, with-
out any unnecessary administrative
obstacles or interference from peer
groups. Our policy makers should
seriously think about such issues and
take measures to make Indian science
the most productive in the world.
The writer is assistant professor and head,
School of Biosciences, Mar Athanasios College
for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla, Kerala
16
PLUS POINTS
Another Earth
A planet twice the size of Earth may be
habitable, say scientists, opening up
new possibilities in the search for alien
life.
The exoplanet K2-18b might have
liquid water underneath the hydrogen-
rich atmosphere on its surface.
Researchers looked at the mass, radius
and atmospheric data of the distant exo-
planet and used models to find the
water.
K2-18b is 124 light years away, rela-
tively close by in terms of exoplanets. It
is also quite similar to Earth: with a
radius 2.6 times as big as our planet’s
and a mass 8.6 times as big. The research
suggests that life could flourish on
worlds bigger than Earth but smaller
than Neptune, just like K2-18b.
The exoplanet is also already some-
what famous. It was discovered in 2017,
prompting frenzied speculation about
what conditions might be like there. It
was the subject of even more excitement
towards the end of last year, when it
became the first other planet discovered
to have water vapour in its atmosphere.
The latest study gives a look at what
conditions could be like underneath
that atmosphere. And it suggests life
could be supported in just the way sci-
entists had hoped.
Nikku Madhusudhan from Cam-
bridge’s Institute of Astronomy, who led
the study, said, “Water vapour has been
detected in the atmospheres of a num-
ber of exoplanets but, even if the planet
is in the habitable zone, that doesn’t
necessarily mean there are habitable
conditions on the surface.
“To establish the prospects for hab-
itability, it is important to obtain a uni-
fied understanding of the interior and
atmospheric conditions on the planet --
in particular, whether liquid water can
exist beneath the atmosphere.”
Because of the size of K2-18b, some
suggest it would be more like a smaller
version of Neptune than a larger version
of Earth. It is thought a mini-Neptune
would have a significant hydrogen enve-
lope surrounding a layer of high-pres-
sure water, with an inner core of rock
and iron.
The independent
Phosphate
sensors
New research is supporting the devel-
opment of sensors to detect phosphate
in soil, to help farmers increase their
crop yield and reduce fertiliser use.
Phosphate is a key nutrient for
crops and often used in fertilisers. How-
ever, currently it is difficult for farmers to
map the phosphate content in soils as
this involves sending samples to a lab.
Researchers from the Institute for
Sustainable Food at the University of
Sheffield in the UK are now developing
sensors, which will be able to map and
monitor phosphates in soils on-site and
provide real-time data to users. The pro-
ject aims to help researchers and farm-
ers understand soils whilst increasing
crop yields and minimising the use of
phosphate fertilisers.
With a growing world population,
climate change and increasing competi-
tion for land resources, there is an
urgent need to be able to analyse and
monitor soils. Phosphate is a finite and
non-renewable resource and there have
been calls for a global effort to utilise
phosphate fertilisers as efficiently as
possible. Mapping and monitoring the
soil using these sensors will advance
understanding of how soil composition
changes over time and help target use
of phosphate fertilisers to soil where it is
most needed (precision farming).
Professor Duncan Cameron, direc-
tor of the Institute for Sustainable Food
at the University of Sheffield, said,
“Phosphorus fertiliser is critical for mod-
ern agriculture and is central to feeding
our planet’s growing population, but
phosphorus is an element in short sup-
ply and at current rates of usage, could
run out in less than a century. Our
research will help farmers to use phos-
phorus more efficiently and in so doing,
secure the food supply for many genera-
tions to come.”
Soil ecosystems supply most of the
antibiotics used to fight human diseases,
control the movement of water and
chemical substances between the Earth
and atmosphere, and act as source and
storage media for gases important to life,
such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
methane.