Science to maximise demographic dividend in India

According to an estimate India has nearly 2 lacs researchers, of 14% are women. In terms of per thousand researchers, India has only 4 scholars, which is far behind even from Kenya (6) and Chile (7). America and Britain have 79 scholar per thousand people.

As compared to 2001, India published four times more research papers, yet it was still far behind from Brazil and China.

These figures are grim indication of our status in scientific endeavour related investments and expenditure.

If india is to take lead in the 21 century, which is also touted as the 'Century of india' by our leadership, the fraction of GDP that goes into science education and research needs to increase consistently over a couple of decade.

The modern research infrastructure needs to be installed in the educational and training institutions. Training of the young population of the country, starting from high school to post gratuates levels, is mandatory in order to exploit the demographic dividend that the country has today.

We lost the opportunity during industrial revolution and still facing the stigma of backwardness. We are facing the danger of lost opportunity yet again lest we did enough to utilise energy of our young population for building a scintific momentum by educating and training our youths. This needs to be done sooner than later as we are already lagging far behind as evident by the information shared above.

(Information source: Patrika)

Are we an innovation society yet?

Innovation is a buzzword these days. Everywhere I go to attend any scientific meet or even in political messages which are aired to masses, this word echo on the air waves. But, I wonder that those on whose shoulders the weight of this word is put on, are they aware of the task being imposed upon them. They in fact remain largely oblivious of its meaning and significance. The youngs of this country are even today largely untrained and thus unskilled to undertake any such task which leads to innovation. Innovation requires a scientific orientation, teaching of basic concepts how natural principles operate and how that knowledge and techniques can be applied to create or construct something worthwhile to solve some of the problems humans are facing. Unfortunately, our teaching and pedagogy methods at schools are bereft any such mechanism that may motivate or open up the layers of inquisitiveness in the minds of our youngs. At present teachings are largely based on how one can garner maximum marks and be the topper in the class and school. Mugging up of the facts has been the way most students get trained, without asking questions why, what, when, and how.
Further, schools are largely devoid of basic laboratories and equipments where the ideas can be tested and constructs or models could be developed. I have seen in most of the places, if we leave some of the private schools/centres, in most of the government schools/colleges/universities, which should be the cradle of creation, they lack basic infrastructure and skilled trainers/teachers to undertake any creative task that may lead to innovation.
In government primary schools the focus is on mid-day meal and school staff remains engaged in catering task and to feed children than teaching. Students after graduating from these schools like even basic reading and writing skills, leave alone articulations and ideation skills. Our focus is clearly misplaced. Food should be provided by the family, and education and skill training by the schools! Are we doing that? So, from the school to the colleges the very minimum requirement to create an innovation- oriented environment is severely lacking. These places must be the hub of trainings for teeming youngs of this country, who we are told make major chunk of our populace at this moment. We are indeed westing this resource by not employing their energies into right direction, and this pains a lot.
A revolutionary plan needs to be created and it's implementation at every school needs to be executed with precision and focus. This should  begin with immediately improving the school infrastructure and palcement of trained teachers and skilled school staff. In placing them qualification and training should be the only criteria/eligibility.  Once we begin teaching and training at the initial ranks in our schools and colleges, we know that an environment for innovation has been created. In this manner if we channel the energy of creativity in our youngs early we can be sure that this energy will create something meaningful and something innovative. The universities and technical institutes would then start getting these skilled, energetic and productive human power and a revolution would churn in those places leading to flood of innovation.
Are we prepared for this movement. This cannot be done alone by the government or alone by the private investment, it will require participation of all the stakeholders, the whole citizenry, indeed.
We have had enough of talks, the question is 'Are we restless enough to embark on this path to revolutionise innovation in this country?'

(Image courtesy globiztec.com)

National Science Day

To appreciate scientific inventions, develop rational approach and use science for nation building

Today we are celebrating National Science Day all over India with great in order to commemorate the invention of the Raman Effect by the Indian physicist and Nobel laureate, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on this very same day in the year 1928.

Sir Raman was awarded and honoured with the Nobel Prize in the Physics in the year 1930.

National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) in the year 1986 requested the Indian Government to designate 28^th of February to be commemorated as National Science Day in India. Since then it is being celebrated as National Science day.

To increase the awareness and appreciation of scientific and rational outlook, what can we do? Although we have nearly 75% literate population now, but does that mean that all those who are literate will have appreciation of scientific approach and rationality in life.

Day to day activities and events are affected by the principals which are scientifically proven. But do we appreciate the science behind those events and activities.

We know sun rises and sets every day but do we all really appreciate and know the science behind this event. It can be considered a divine phenomenon. Indeed, it is considered even today.

Did we till recently not believed that sun revolved around earth and that is why day and nights occurred, but that is now changed. We now relate it with earth’s rotation. Copernicus heliocentric proposition in 1500s described that planets revolved around sun and earth roatetd at its axis. His famous book “On the revolution of planets:”changed how we view our Universe but it took lot of time to accept that fact. Europe at that time was marred with debates and unacceptance of newer fact anti to church beliefs. The period was labelled as “great debate”  Geocentrism was hard to be given up as earth was considered to be centre of universe and heaven was supposed to be up and above. But we now know and appreciate that science has given us a better understanding how our world came to be and how does it operates today!

But, Here in our country, even today Millions of our elderly worship sun god at the emergence in the wee hours of morning. People have been doing it routinely and worshiping rising sun. Sun rays have been found to have healing effect. In case of Vitamin deficiency, sun rays have been found to promote Vit D Synthesis. If we are late we miss a very natural source of Vit D, for which we do not need to eat anything costly say fruits, vegetable etc.

Take another example of jaundice in new born babies, there could be many reasons why jaundice occurs, but in new born it mostly due to partly developed liver, especially in preemies, that they are not able to degrade the bilirubin pigment from dead RBC and thus it deposits in the skin under fat layer… gives yellowish hue to skin and eye. In western world such new born are treated with what is called phototherapy, process of using light to eliminate bilirubin in the blood.

Advancements in technology have led to a new phototherapy system, Bili blanket, provides the highest level of therapeutic light available to treat your baby. The biliblanket can be used 24 hours a day to provide continuous treatment if prescribed by your doctor. Blood may be drawn and tested during treatment to check bilirubin levels and determine when normal levels are reached.

But neither we have that technique nor we can afford it here in India… so what’s the alternative?

This form of light is also found in sunlight. The strength of light from the bili blanket is about the same, as you would get in the shade on a sunny day. The sun light waves change bilirubin into harmless substances and cures the jaundice in new born.

Should we not appreciate it that science has given us understanding that how rays of morning sun helps us in many ways! …. So get up in the morning and get going…

The sun is science: do we agree and appreciate?

Sun is astrophysics (astrology), sun is geography, sun is chemistry, sun is physics (Gravitational force among stars), and you saw how sun affects biology, for Sun sustains life on earth.

We should appreciate the knowledge our forefathers have generated and gathered over the millennia and use that knowledge to create and upgrade more new information for the betterment of humanity and development of our nation. For no invention, howsoever ingenious, is delinked to what has come before. We, in fact are standing on the shoulders of giants who have given so much insight into these events.

Creating a domain of new knowledge helps develop the nation by helping improve people’s life, how we do our work, increase efficiency.  Say for example we used to learn as children, if one former plough the land in 2 days, how many farmer will plough the same land in 1 day? Now as you know this question has become redundant in many countries, it’s being done by tractors, machines are being used for farming, of course people run those machines but one man can easily run a tractor or other machines used in farming. Other people may do more important other things, or just enjoy life by following their passion, actually thanks to science they can afford to explore those things.

See, actually the development of tools has helped us human to become human. We have branched off from the evolutionary trunk that had chimpanzees as our nearest cousins. You can see many roaming around this campus.

We have today many inventions to count as one of the great, WWW, camera, planes, pacemakers, antibiotics and many other, we may recall many indeed, thank to science! But do you recall the invention of the wheel, which is called one of the greatest invention ever by humans. You now know what role that wheel has played for humanity! Then many other tools, techniques and weapons for hunting and gathering food items. Imagine if our ancestors did not make those early tools, which helped them increase food gathering efficiency so that they could get some free time to paint on the walls, make beautiful drawings, increase the living by making abodes. You today know the importance of those paintings, drawings, abodes, tools in helping us understand how our ancestors lived.  You see how tools have helped us become human that we are today and see our evolutionary cousins, they still are running to collect the food for whole day.  We should and we must appreciate how science has helped us to become the best creation of the evolutionary forces or say nature.

Do you think evolution has stopped?

Look around. You will hear quite often that kids these days are borne with digital gadgets in their hands. Some years from now you will read that some gene has been discovered which dispose some kinds to be more proficient in handing the digital devices! It could impact the hand and eye articulation, how fast you transfer your thoughts into action on a device. We already have examples. The Mark Zuckerberg says coding is although a learned behaviour, some kids have it in them from birth.

So, science is shaping our future. My worry is that are we, as a country and as people, moving with the same pace as the rest of the world is moving. Are we still trapped with our past, is that good or bad? How we decide? Should we not discuss more of these thing in our discourse than other things which not only divides us on various grounds but also pushes us back in time. You see scientifically and technologically, we are far behind than many of the other developed countries. I reason and vision that if we need to alleviate our people from destitution, from diseases, from backwardness, and many other anomalies, we should begin to adopt the scientific temper in our day to day lives, we should appreciate what we have received from the great scientists people like that of Sir, CV Raman, Dr Khurana (deciphererd the genetic code),  Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (born 1952), who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath (2009), "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome; Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar "For his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars…and so on… whether they won Nobel or not, their contribution has changed how we think today about those things they discovered then.

So let’s resolve that we see reason and rationality and develop scientific outlook towards things in our own life and in the life of our nation and contribute to it as much as possible.

Potential Causes of Cancers and Steps for Prevention

Cancer is a diverse group of more than hundred diseases occurring in different parts of body and due to different reasons. Accordingly, their aetiology varies but one thing is common in all cancers and that is they start from a few abnormal cells that have lost the control on their growth.

Our body is made of trillions of cells which have been formed from a single cell called zygote. Usually the cells grow, divide, form the tissue to perform specific function and die in very controlled manner, and that is how a child grows up into an adult. In adults the cells divide only for maintenance and to replace the dead cells and for healing the injuries.

Image Curtsy: medications.li

The growth and division of the cells are regulated by the DNA, deoxynucleic acid, which makes our genes, situated in cell nucleus. If some undesired changes occur in the DNA, called mutation, which is not repairable by the cells, it may lead to uncontrolled division of cells forming a lump of unorganised tissue called cancer. In case of blood cancer, however, the cells do not form lump of tissues. Cancers of different tissues behave differently and respond to different medications.

After reading my last blog one of the reader suggested to cover the causes of cancers so that people can get aware and avoid the cancer by making certain life style changes.

Image curtsy: tginnovations.wordpress.com

According to American Cancer Society, a number of factors may be responsible for cancer including familial inheritance of defective genes, use of tobacco which contain many compounds that can cause DNA damage, the diet, physical inactivity, hormonal unbalance, increased body weight, and alcohol abuse, all can make the body organs prone to develop certain cancers. Further, environmental factors such as excessive sun, ultra-violet, radiation and chemical and pollutants exposure can also lead to cancer development.

One cannot do much in case of inheritance of a defective gene, but if such genes run in the family, the person can go for screening of such genes early and try to avoid the occurrence of cancer by staying away from the stimulus that may activate those genes. Alternatively, the affected organs can be regularly screened for any benign growth, and if needed may be removed surgically. Recently, Hollywood actor Anjelina Jolie’s double mastectomy was widely covered by Global media, which has been helpful in increasing the awareness about familial cancers.

In the present day scenario, westernised life style has been blamed for developing many cancers. The energy rich diet, along with little or no physical activity, obesity and tobacco and alcohol abuse has been scientifically shown to cause cancers. These factors induce a condition in the body which affects the body cells and make them vulnerable for DNA damage. In many people these changes may result in cancer development. The affected person would not know immediately because the cancer grows slowly. By the time symptoms appear and it may be diagnosed cancer may be uncontrollable and untreatable resulting in fatality.

Image Curtsy: healthyfoodhouse.com

One can avoid the life style-related cancers by consuming balanced diet, avoiding energy rich and overcooked or fried meal, stopping tobacco and alcohol abuse and by exercising regularly to stay fit and regulate the body weight.

The pollutants, pesticides and herbicides, fertilizers and other toxic chemical may also act as carcinogen. These days most of the food items are being grown using these chemicals, our cities are excessively polluted and our homes are full of toxic chemicals. These chemicals are scientifically proven to cause severe and irreversible DNA damage which can result into cancer development.

The organic farming using no fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides can be helpful in avoiding the dangers of these chemicals on our health. Governments are implicating policies to decrease the pollution in residential and work area including offices and parks in which citizens should actively and consciously make effort to minimise the pollution. These step may, slowly and certainly, become helpful in prevention of many deadly cancers in due course.

Bacteria do not Outnumber Human Cells in Body

Not Outnumbered by Bacteria

Image curtsy: pinterest.com

It’s often said that the bacteria inside us outnumber our own cells by 10 to one, but another new study claims that is wide off the mark. Ron Sender and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, estimate that we have roughly equal numbers of human and bacterial cells – each about 30 trillion. (Biorxiv,http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/036103)The 10:1 ratio comes from a paper written by T. D. Luckey in 1972. Luckey worked out that we each have about 1014 bacteria in our bodies, but this was a back-of-the-envelope calculation and he probably never intended for his estimate to be so widely quoted decades later.Using newer evidence, Sender and his colleagues estimate that there are 3.9 x 1013 bacteria in a human body and 3 x 1013 human cells, 84 per cent of them red blood cells. The two populations are so finely balanced that a visit to the toilet may tip the balance in favour of human cells – we shed about a third of the bacteria in our colon each time we defecate.Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28766-your-guts-trick-for-controlling-the-bacteria-that-live-in-it/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot