sci&tech september

8/10/2019 Sci&Tech September

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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

Content

'Mandatory for scientists to give lectures in schools' 1

Free lectures in schools, colleges mandatory for scientists 1

Bacteria that may help tackle nuclear waste found 1

'India for non-discriminatory nuclear regime' 2

Health Minister says Rota Virus vaccine will prevent infant deaths 2

Artificial sweeteners may be contributing to diabetes epidemic 3

After successful monkey trials, new Ebola vaccine being tested on hum 3

Ozone: good news and bad news 4

TB a "national emergency" says Dr Harsh Vardhan Calls for email repository 4

Antibiotics in the chicken we eat 5

New drug formulations to fight respiratory illnesses, superbugs 5

What genes do we share with fruit flies, roundworms? 6

Odisha's soil leads to landmark discovery about early life evolution 6

Japanese encephalitis on the rise in Assam, spreads to almost all dis 7

US move to curb antibiotic resistance not enough to address use of dr 7

A week dedicated to space discoveries and feats 8

Surveillance likely to be key issue in 2014 Internet conference 8

Activists want rabies to be declared notifiable disease 9


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Content

First Indigenous Rotavirus Vaccine and also an Injectable Polio Vaccine Dev 9

The Ever-Mutating Enemy 10

Artificial sweeteners linked to diabetes, obesity 13

More dangerous variant of antibiotic resistant superbug detected in I 13

Cardiovascular risk factors low but mortality high in India 14

Pacific garbage patch: scientists find a way to nail ocean polluters 15

New avian influenza strain in Southeast Asia 'travelling fast', warns 15

New blood test to detect TB in kids 16

Victory is certain, yet the struggle continues 16

Mars Curiosity rover reaches its primary destination 18

NASA's Curiosity rover reaches its primary destination 18

Mars spacecraft to be ordered into orbit 18

A faster, cheaper Mars orbiter 19

SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off with communications satellite 20

NASA to make ISS an Earth-observing platform 21

NASA to turn ISS into perfect Earth-observing platform 21

European Space Agency sets November 12 date for comet landing 22

NASA, ISRO in talks to set up Joint Mars Working Group 23


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Content

GSLV-MkIII is ISRO's next 24

Mangalyaan is now in orbit of Mars 24

Loading of commands for Mars orbiter begins 25

NASA's Maven reaches Mars 25

SpaceX cargo ship blasts off carrying 3-D printer 25

Space exploration not a prerogative of the West 26

Lessons to be learnt 27

Unit 5 of RAPS becomes world's 2nd longest running reactor 27

On the debate over 'Antibiotics in the chicken we eat' 27

'U.S. monopoly over Internet must go' 29

ISRO's Mars orbiter enters Mars' Sphere of Influence 30

India's Mission to Mars: Ready to Land 30

MOM set to hunt for methane on Mars 31

Mars' orbiter's main engine test-fired successfully 31

'GSLV Mark III will make India self-reliant in space' 31

NASA's Maven explorer arrives at Mars after a year 32

Mars mission success 32

First comet landing site to be revealed 33


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Content

Strong solar flare making its way towards Earth 34

Super cyber intelligence body soon, announces IT Minister 34

India's Arctic observatory toaid climate change studies 34

A smarter way to find new drugs 35

Ozone layer showing signs of recovery: UN 36

Internet Governance Forum Meeting to Focus on Policies Enabling Access, Gro 37

Australia's first fuel cell bicycle 38

RAPS Unit-5 sets a record 38

Trailblazing Performance of 765 Days of Continuous Run Yields Second Place 39

'God particle' could destroy the universe: Hawking 40


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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com Page 1

'Mandatory for scientists to give lectures in schools' Tue, Sep 9, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, kiran, education,

For this, departments, particularly publicly-funded national institutes, will enter into

an agreement with schools and colleges. The Ministry of Human Resource Development

will collaborate with departments concerned.

"The experiment will help catch young talent," he added. The CSIR system and the

DST have about 6,000 scientists and researchers on their rolls. Dr. Singh said the

performance of scientists and researchers would be evaluated every three years.

A special promotion scheme for women scientists, KIRAN (Knowledge and Involvement

in Research Advancement through Nurturing), would allow public sector institutions

to make alternate offers to women who have had a break in their career or a change of

residence.

Free lectures in schools, colleges mandatory for scientists Mon, Sep 8, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, kiran, education,

"It will be mandatory for them to deliver 12 hours of lecture every year to Class IX and

under-graduate college students. The scientist will devise a methodology in his or her

area of expertise to make the subject interesting for students,'' he said at a press

conference.

At the same time, a special promotion scheme for women scientists, KIRAN (Knowledge

and Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing), will allow public sectorinstitutions to make alternate offers to women who have had a break in their career or

have had a change of residence.

"This is for gender parity and to bring forward women in leadership positions,'' Dr.

Singh said. "We will try to have a mobility mechanism for women scientists who have

had a change of residence to enable them to continue in their positions. The government

does not want to lose trained women scientists for such reasons.''

Bacteria that may help tackle nuclear waste found Wed, Sep 10, 2014nuclear, The Hindu, bacteria, science & tech,

The bacteria were found in a highly alkaline industrial site in the Peak district in Britain.

The extremophile - organism that thrives in physically or geochemically extreme

conditions that are detrimental to most life on the Earth - bacteria can thrive under the

alkaline conditions expected in cement-based radioactive waste, the researchers said.


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Although bacteria with waste-eating properties have been discovered in relatively

pristine soils before, this is the first time that microbes that can survive in the very harsh

conditions expected in radioactive waste disposal sites have been found.

he organisms are not only superbly adapted to live in such hostile environments but

they can use the ISA as a source of food and energy under conditions that mimic those

expected in and around intermediate level radioactive waste disposal sites.

'India for non-discriminatory nuclear regime' Sun, Sep 7, 2014nuclear, The Hindu, science & tech,

Earlier, Australia was insisting that it would not supply natural uranium to India unless

India signed the NPT. (Natural uranium is the fuel used in India's Pressurised Heavy

Water Reactors - PHWRs ).

Mr. Sinha said: "We cannot sign the NPT, [with India] having been a strong supporter

of the non-discriminatory [nuclear] regime. All our international agreements have got

a few common elements. It means that cooperation will extend to full civil nuclear

cooperation. We will be bound by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

safeguards in respect of facilities in which these equipment, material or fuel will be

used if they are coming through the international cooperation but not beyond that."

As already indicated at the time of India signing the civil nuclear agreement earlier,

the AEC Chairman said, "We are declaring certain facilities, under the Separation Plan,

to come under the IAEA international safeguards agreement." These facilities were

eligible to receive international supplies of uranium. India had already been receivingsupplies of uranium from Areva of France, Russia and Kazhakasthan. These supplies

of uranium could be used, in principle, in any of the safeguarded facilities in India, he

explained.

Health Minister says Rota Virus vaccine will prevent infant deaths Wed, Sep 3, 2014Rota Virus vaccine, The Hindu, science & tech, health,

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan called for strengthening universal immunisation

programme (UIP) to eradicate infant mortality in the country and said there should be

more research to fight disease burden.

He said the introduction of the Rotavirus vaccine in the UIP should be considered one

of the most "pro-people decisions" taken by any government in recent years because

it has the potential to drastically reduce infant mortality, particularly among the poorest

sections of society.


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"Earlier Rotavirus vaccines were expensive and beyond the reach of ordinary Indians.

We are losing 52 children per 1000 live births every year. On top of that Rotavirus

Diarrhoea snatches at least 1 lakh. This government did not lose time before introducing

the vaccine in the UIP. The plan of action on its deployment has also been put in place,"

he said.

Beginning 2015, the Rotavirus vaccine will be introduced as an additional dose along

with the first, second and third doses of DPT in the UIP. It is also proposed to establish

an expert committee to assess the progress in a few states and union territories on the

basis of the disease burden and vaccine availability.

Artificial sweeteners may be contributing to diabetes epidemic Thu, Sep 18, 2014Down to Earth, diabetes, science & tech, health,

The world is facing a diabetes epidemic. A study reveals that the artificial sweetenersthat people use to control diabetes could be exacerbating the epidemic. The researchers

found that the chemicals change the composition and function of the microbes in the

gut and hasten glucose intolerance and metabolic disorder. Even people who do not

consume these sweeteners directly are exposed to the chemicals such as saccharin,

aspartame, sucralose and Acesulfame K as they are part of processed foods.

They then conducted a controlled experiment and asked a group of volunteers who did

not generally eat or drink artificially sweetened foods to consume them for a week and

then undergo tests of their glucose levels as well as their gut microbiota compositions.

Some of these volunteers developed glucose intolerance after just one week of artificial

sweetener consumption. The chemical affected two different populations of human gut

bacteria - one that induced glucose intolerance when exposed to the sweeteners, the

second that had no effect either way. The researchers believe that certain bacteria in

the guts of those who developed glucose intolerance reacted to the chemical sweeteners

by secreting substances that then provoked an inflammatory response similar to sugar

overdose, promoting changes in the body's ability to utilize sugar.

After successful monkey trials, new Ebola vaccine being tested on hum Tue, Sep 9, 2014Down to Earth, Ebola vaccine, science & tech,

The vaccine uses a chimp adenovirus, closely related to a human version that causes

upper respiratory tract infections, into which scientists spliced an Ebola gene. The drug

is reportedly similar to the one currently being developed by pharmaceutical giant

GlaxoSmithKline, but offers much longer protection.

Ebola, the deadly virus that struck West Africa in a fresh outbreak, in February this

year, has claimed nearly 2,000 lives in four countries. About 3,700 cases of the disease


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have been detected till now.

Ozone: good news and bad news Fri, Sep 12, 2014

ozone, Down to Earth, science & tech,

Hole in the ozone layer is healing, but ground level ozone is destroying crops that could

feed a third of India's poor

First, the news about good ozone: the hole in the ozone layer is finally starting to heal,

UNEP/WMO reported [2] . This layer is about 20-30 km up in the air, protects life from

sun's harmful ultraviolet light by absorbing the radiation which otherwise would

potentially damage exposed life forms near the surface.

Now, the news about the bad ozone--this time it comes from India. According a new

study published in Geophysical Research Letters [3] , the ground level ozone pollution

damaged 6 million tonnes of crops in India. This ground-level ozone is formed in the

air by nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emitted from vehicles and other sources like

cook stoves reacting in the presence of sunlight.

This ozone is close to ground, so as a strong oxidant it is notorious for damaging lungs

and vegetation. This ground-level ozone is the main component of smog. Even at

relatively low levels, ozone can cause health effects. People with lung disease, children,

older adults, and people who are active outdoors may be particularly sensitive to ozone.

But in the case of plants, ground-level ozone causes havoc. It is known that ground-level

ozone causes more damage to plants than all other air pollutants combined. Ozone'smovement in air is also out of the ordinary. Ozone concentrations in rural areas can be

higher than in urban areas.

The study found that the high concentrations of ozone damaged millions of tonnes of

the India's major crops such as wheat, rice, soybean and cotton crops. This caused

losses of more than a billion dollars and destroyed enough food to feed tens of millions

of people living below the poverty line.

satellite-based studies show ozone has increased over the country in the last two decades.

TB a "national emergency" says Dr Harsh Vardhan Calls for email repository Sat, Sep 6, 2014tuberculosis, PIB, science & tech, health,

Building up an email repository would especially help in the national fight against TB,

a notifiable disease. It would facilitate instant transmission of news to all health

authorities, public health and healthcare providers, public health laboratories and

healthcare professionals.


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The Minister said India accounts for 99,000 of the global burden of 390,000 multi-drug

resistant (MDR) TB cases annually - 25 percent of the total burden. The mortality

associated with this form of TB is higher than drug-susceptible TB. Now, an even bigger

challenge has emerged called "Extensively drug-resistant TB" (XDR-TB).

Antibiotics in the chicken we eat Thu, Sep 4, 2014antibiotics, poultry, The Hindu, science & tech, health,

But there is a danger here. Just as with chemicals in the mango, or oxytocin in milk (a

hormone that supposedly increases milk output in cows and buffalos), we now have a

health hazard looming large in commercially produced chicken. The hazard here is the

use of antibiotics in the feed given to the chicken for faster growth and to prevent any

infection during hatching. Famous hatcheries such as Venky's, Vetline India and Skylark

Hatcheries regularly use antibiotics in order to reduce feed conversion ratios.

Why are these dangerous? Repeated and prolonged exposure will lead to the emergence

of resistant strains of bacteria. And these resistant strains will be passed on to the humans

who consume them. Even the un-mutated bacteria in the meat can directly unleash an

assault on the microbes in our guts. And note too that the antibiotics used in poultry

are the same as the ones used for humans.

Some of these are: (i) Ban the use of antibiotics for growth promotion, (2) Do not allow

the use of antibiotics in feed and improve the regulations of the Bureau of Industrial

security (BIS) accordingly, (3) Do not allow the use of antibiotics critical for humans

in animals, (4) Train veterinarians on the judicious use of antibiotics, (5) Set pollutionstandards and install pollution control systems to limit transfer of resistant bacteria and

antibiotics from poultry farms to the environments, (6) Encourage development,

production and use of alternative antibiotic-free growth promoters such as herbal

supplements and better farm management practices, and (7) Develop an integrated

surveillance system to monitor antibiotic-resistant trends in humans, animals and the

food chain.

New drug formulations to fight respiratory illnesses, superbugs Thu, Sep 18, 2014

Down to Earth, superbugs, science & tech, antibiotic,

The drugs are much more effective than presently available drugs because of which

patients can be prescribed smaller doses; used interchangeably, these drugs can prevent

the bacteria from developing a resistance

A team of researchers from Singapore has developed four new drug formulations to

fight pulmonary disease-causing bacteria, and antibiotic resistant superbugs,


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Superbugs [8] is the name given to strains of microbes that have developed a resistance

to the drugs previously used to treat them, due to the misuse or overuse of the drugs.

The rapid emergence [9] of the resistant bacteria poses a major threat to human health,

possibly rendering even the most easily treatable diseases untreatable by existing

medicine.

What genes do we share with fruit flies, roundworms? Mon, Sep 1, 2014Down to Earth, genes, science & tech, fruit flies,

Though the genomes of species such as the fruit fly and roundworms are much smaller

than that of humans, there are several common genes and biological pathways. Scientists

have been studying them to find out how the information coded in the genome makes

an organism what it is. "The results add billions of entries to a publicly available archive

of functional genomic data," says the news release.

They also found a similar pattern of gene expression at an early stage of embryonic

development in all three organisms. The comparison of transcriptomes involved 575

experiments that gave more than 67 billion sequence reads. The results were published

online in Nature in an article titled " Comparative analysis of the transcriptome across

distant species" [2] .

Odisha's soil leads to landmark discovery about early life evolution Fri, Sep 5, 2014Odisha, Down to Earth, science & tech, evolution,

India have discovered that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth some 3

billion years ago--a full 60 million years earlier than previously thought. These life

forms were responsible for adding oxygen (O2) to our atmosphere.

The geologists found evidence for chemical weathering of rocks leading to soil formation

that occurred in the presence of O2. "Using the naturally occurring uranium-lead isotope

decay system, which is used for age determinations on geological time-scales, the

authors deduced that these events took place at least 3.02 billion years ago," The pattern

of chemical weathering preserved in the ancient soils (or paleosols) is compatible with

elevated atmospheric O2 levels at that time. Such substantial levels of oxygen could

only have been produced by organisms converting light energy and carbon dioxide to

O2 and water.

This particular example is the oldest known example of oxidative weathering from a

terrestrial environment, occurring about 600 million years before the Great Oxidation

Event that laid the foundations for the evolution of complex life


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Japanese encephalitis on the rise in Assam, spreads to almost all dis Mon, Sep 29, 2014Down to Earth, japanese encephalitis, science & tech,

JE is characterised by inflammation of the brain and high fever and is a type of AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome (AES). While Japanese encephalitis is transmitted by Culex

mosquitoes, AES is a disease of uncertain etiology and includes Japanese encephalitis.

"A moderate temperature, ideal for breeding of Culex mosquito, was earlier seen between

May and end of July. Now the temperature remains warmer after that as well, which

is ideal for the breeding of the mosquito till around September,"

US move to curb antibiotic resistance not enough to address use of dr Tue, Sep 23, 2014antibiotics, Down to Earth, science & tech,

In the past few weeks, first the EU and then the US have adopted measures to address

growing concern over antibiotic resistance. The measures adopted in the US, among

others, advocate implementation of voluntary guidelines set by the FDA to curb use of

antibiotics in food-producing animals; the initiatives by the EU will further strengthen

its mandatory regulations on animal feed.

This is the first time that the issue of antibiotic resistance has received this much attention

in the US. Five goals set in the strategy are: to slow the development and spread of

resistant infections; to strengthen surveillance efforts; to develop rapid and innovative

measures for identification of resistant bacteria; to accelerate research aimed at developing

new antibacterials, therapeutics and vaccines; and improve international collaboration

and capacity. PCAST also sets specific objectives to be met by 2020. These include

implementing antibiotic stewardship and eliminating the use of medically important

antibiotics for growth promotion in animals.

he executive order talks about the role of the US government in addressing the serious

threat to public health and economy emanating from growing antibiotic resistance. It

is estimated that 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths are caused by antibiotic resistant

bacteria in the US each year. A task force is to be formed that will submit a national

action plan to the president by mid-February 2015 and provide him with annual updates

on government's actions. The action plan would focus on how the goals can be met.Also, a Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria shall

provide advice, information, and recommendations to the US government on programs

and policies intended to combat antibiotic resistance.

The national strategy on combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria suggests implementing

the guidelines for industry set in 2013 by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

These involve phasing-out medically important antibiotics for growth promotion and


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asking drug companies to remove "growth promotion" from their product labels. The

guidelines have been criticised for being voluntary and allowing antibiotics to be used

for disease prevention. A recent investigation by Reuters, a news agency, also points

to the ineffectiveness of the overall measures taken by FDA so far. The investigation

revealed routine administration of low doses of antibiotics to chickens via feed by someof the largest poultry producers in the US.

The importance of mandatory regulations over the voluntary measures in the context

of Netherlands has also been advocated in the US media by those who have expressed

dissatisfaction with the voluntary US measures. Netherlands, after having realized the

ineffectiveness of voluntary restrictions, introduced a mandatory reduction and reduced

animal antibiotic use by about 50 per cent during 2009-2013.

A week dedicated to space discoveries and feats Sat, Sep 27, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, space,

Mangalyaan reaches Mars' orbit, scientists discover smallest known exoplanet to contain

water, Curiosity finds a "ball" on the Red Planet

Mangalyaan has been safely placed in the orbit of Mars and is busy looking for signs

of methane on the Red Plant and carrying other operations it has been programmed to.

Surveillance likely to be key issue in 2014 Internet conference Tue, Sep 2, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, internet,

Discussions relating to global mass surveillance and privacy of Internet users are likely

to dominate the ninth annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), underway

in Istanbul, Turkey, till September 5, reports The Hindu.

"The Global Information Society Watch report shows how most people and governments

have completely missed the point of mass surveillance: it is ubiquitous, widespread

and involves everyone, whether or not you are a 'threat to the state', or engaged in

criminal activities," The Hindu quotes Elvira Tiguru, spokesperson for Association for

Progressive Communications, a global network of civil society organisations.

"American technological and military concerns heavily influence Internet governancepolicy. China and Russia are capable of challenging this dominance. But, despite being

a strong commercial power, China has not deployed Internet technology across the

world," he says.

The conference in Istanbul will bring together government officials, policymakers,

mediapersons, industry and civil society representatives and academia to discuss and


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deliberate on issues like surveillance, censorship and network neutrality. "The revelations

by Snowden have proved beyond doubt that user data held by Internet companies today

are subject to pervasive surveillance," Pouzin says.

According to a Forbes report, open access has been a recurring theme at IGF, where

participants have time and again agreed that the Internet should be open to all ideas

and not censored by governments.

Activists want rabies to be declared notifiable disease Sat, Sep 13, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, health, rabies,

Animal welfare activists on Saturday asked the government to declare rabies, one of

the most dreadful disease, as a notifiable disease both for humans and animals.

It is the tenth biggest cause of infectious disease and the most effected areas are Africa,

Asia and South America.

The control of stray dog population by neutering and immunization by mass vaccination

of stray animals with annual boosters holds the promise of controlling and eventually

eradicating the disease from the country.

Mission Rabies, another global welfare organisation that is working in Goa hopes to

eliminate rabies from the world by 2030. Mission Rabies experts Iilona Otter and Kate

Shervil said that under a massive programme undertaken in September 2013 in India,

60,000 dogs were vaccinated.

First Indigenous Rotavirus Vaccine and also an Injectable Polio Vaccine Dev Wed, Sep 3, 2014rotavirus, PIB, science & tech, health,

it is a matter of pride for the country that the first indigenous Rotavirus Vaccine from

an Indian strain 116E and also an injectable polio vaccine developed with the support

of Department of Biotechnology

Rotavirus infection normally affects children with symptoms like fever, vomiting,

abdominal pain and profuse watery diarhoea sometimes leading to severe dehydration

and death resulting in great agony to parents and therefore, the new vaccine will serveas a major breakthrough in the field of prevention and control of infections particularly

in tropical regions like the Indian sub-continent,


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The Ever-Mutating Enemy Sat, Sep 6, 2014EPW, science & tech, Tuberculosis, health,

A new candidate anti-TB drug proposed to be tried by the Open Source Drug Discoveryinitiative with the Council of Scientifi c and Industrial Research offers a ray of hope.

Tuberculosis (TB) spreads through the air and respects no border, the World Health

Organisation's (WHO) Stop TB department has warned. Reports from around the world

reinforce the warning.

The mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that usually attack the lungs can also attack

the kidneys, spine and brain. The deadly airborne disease is making a comeback with

added vigour and putting a huge burden on already strained healthcare systems, according

to reports from different regions around the globe. Also, it is no longer a disease that

afflicts only the poor with the economically well off also falling prey to it increasingly.

A person is said to have drug-resistant TB when the bacteria that he/she is infected with

do not respond to and are resistant to at least one of the main TB drugs. But the resistance

can be of different degrees and extent. A section of medical professionals argue that

terminology like "multi-drug-resistant (MDR)" TB and "extensively drug-resistant"

(XDR) TB can cause patients to be labelled and further stigmatised by their disease.

However WHO and other organisations consider it necessary to spell out the two distinct

types of TB. Another type variously referred to as totally drug-resistant (TDR) TB or

extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB has also now been reported.

MDR-TB is defined as resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin, with or without resistanceto the other first-line drugs. XDR-TB is defined as resistance to at least isoniazid and

rifampicin, any of the three second-line injectables (amikacin, capreomycin, and

kanamycin), and to any one drug of the fluoroquinolone class.

Both MDR and XDR-TB do not respond to the standard six-month treatment with these

first-line drugs, and need treatment for up to two years or more and require other drugs

that are less potent, more toxic and much more expensive. Only a few thousand patients

with MDR and XDR-TB are treated worldwide each year.

The resistance to drugs can be developed in two ways; during treatment, the bacteria

may acquire resistance or a person may be directly infected with a resistant strain. Ifthe drugs are not taken as prescribed, the bacteria get a chance to become resistant by

mutation or by picking up resistance genes from other organisms. Resistance can also

be acquired due to factors apart from the patient's failure to adhere to proper course of

treatment. These include prescription of wrong drugs, or the use of substandard drugs

for treatment. This is indeed a serious problem in developing countries, like India.


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The patient's non-compliance with the treatment schedule has many causes such as

poverty, gender discrimination, homelessness and side effects of the anti-TB drugs

themselves since they affect individuals in different settings, differently. Experts point

out that the functioning of a person's immune system depends greatly on his/her

nutritional status. A poor nutritional level adversely affects drug absorption which maylead to poor or no-response to the treatment. Side effects of the drugs and the time span

of treatment increase further in the case of MDR-TB and with that the patient's

non-compliance rate also increases.

Ignorance of the disease and social stigma lead to the victims' reluctance to approach

government facilities. Even when there is good response to drugs, patients tend to

discontinue treatment as soon as they experience an improvement. Similarly proper

rest and abstaining from hard physical work is also very important in combating the

disease. But if the patient is the sole breadwinner of the family or has to do the household

tasks without help it may not be easy to adhere to these requirements.

t is mandatory for a private institution where a new TB patient is detected to inform

the government about the each case and the kind of treatment provided to these patients.

TDR-TB is resistant to all the first- and second-line TB drugs. It is sometimes referred

to as XXDR-TB, and is very difficult, although not always totally impossible to treat.

Within a year of the first reports of XDR-TB, isolated cases were reported in Europe

that had resistance to all first-line anti-TB drugs (FLD) and second-line anti-TB drugs

(SLD) that were tested.

TB kills two Indians every three minutes and takes a daily toll of about 1,000. Nearly

40% of India's population is infected with the TB pathogen; the vast majority of whomhave latent rather than active TB. The estimated number of people in India who are

living with active TB (prevalence) for 2011 is 3.1 million, among which 73,000 are

MDR-TB patients. About 60% of the 3.1 lakh MDR-TB cases around the globe were

from only three countries - India, China and Russia.

Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) is the WHO recommendedTB control

strategy and is incorporated in theRNTCP of the central government. It remains at the

heart of the Stop TB Strategy and tries to address the issue of acquiring resistance during

the course of treatment and includes case detection by sputum smear microscopy,

uninterrupted supply of high-quality anti-TB drugs and standardised treatment schedule

with directly observed treatment for at least the first two months.

The failure of standard TB treatment using first-line drugs primarily is because of the

increasing prevalence of diabetes. In the state the detection rate stands at 68% while

the cure rate is 84% which is lower than the RNTCP standards. Diabetes and poly drug

resistance are identified as the main reasons for the failed TB treatment. A WHO survey

also indicates improper therapy and improper follow-up of standardTB treatment as


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reasons for the problem of drug resistance.

A skin test can detect whether a person has TB even before the full-blown disease

appear. But it is not very accurate and can produce false positive as well as false negative

results. Besides latent TB infection may not require medical treatment. Many private

practitioners employ the blood serum test for detectingTB. An eight-member committee

set up by the The manufacture, sale and import of diagnostic kits for determining

pulmonary or extra-pulmonary TB through blood tests have been banned from June

2012 due to the unreliable and inconclusive nature of the tests. However, lack of

awareness and the vested interests of pharma giants manufacturing the kits are inducing

the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tests despite a blanket ban on them.

Control of Drug-Resistant TB

The cost of treating the average MDR-TB patient can be 50 to 200 times higher than

the cost of treating a drug susceptible TB patient.

WHO has pointed out that there is a need to directly confront MDR-TB and XDR-TB

whereas emphasis in the past was on strengthening the TB control programmes assuming

that thereby MDR- and XDR-TB would be brought down. At local, national and global

levels

Open Source Drug Discovery

The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative, led by the Council of Scientific

and Industrial Research (CSIR), is an initiative for affordable healthcare. It is concentrating

on neglected tropical diseases.TB is OSDD's first target for drug discovery. The

consortium connects a large number of institutions in public and private sectors, to

promote innovation in TB drug discovery. The OSDD in collaboration with GATB is

initiating clinical trials of new drugs and combinations for the treatment of MDR-TB

patients in India.

A new candidate drug againstTB is all set to be tried on drug-resistant TB patients in

India. Scientists are moving ahead with the plan to start a phase-IIB clinical trial of the

molecule -Pa824 - following encouraging phase-I trials that assessed the drug's safety.

This will be the first clinical trial (with nearly 300 MDR-TB patients at Delhi) of a TB

drug in India by a public-funded organisation after approval from the Drug Controller

General of India. The moleculePa824 was synthesised in India decades ago. Followinga succession of ownership changes, it was finally licensed to CSIR for further development

and clinical trial by the international non-governmental organisation, the TB Alliance.

So far eight phase-I trials were conducted in the US and South Africa in the last five

years. It was found to be safe except in higher doses. Two phase-II trials were conducted

in Brazil and South Africa which showed encouraging results. The trial in India is to

have three sections, each comprising 60-100 patients.


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The OSDD funds appropriate scientific projects that are involved in TB research and

helps in drug discovery for TB. All projects are subject to open review by the community.

Anyone who has a quest to contribute in some way can join the community. Scientists,

researchers, faculty members, students from institutions across the nation and abroad,

people working in other areas and housewives with some science background and

genuine interest are part of the community. They contribute to different aspects of the

whole drug discovery process. All the knowledge created will be open to the mankind

and the community will hold the patents acquired. Anyone will be free to manufacture

and distribute the drugs developed under open general licence. We can hope this model

succeeds in discovering, developing and making new drugs available to patients, thus

finding new cures forTB and other neglected diseases.

Artificial sweeteners linked to diabetes, obesity Thu, Sep 18, 2014diabetes, science & tech, health, Businessline,

Scientists have found that after exposure to artificial sweeteners our gut bacteria may

be triggering harmful metabolic changes that can lead to diabetes and obesity.

artificial sweeteners, even though they do not contain sugar, nonetheless have a direct

effect on the body's ability to utilise glucose.

Glucose intolerance -- generally thought to occur when the body cannot cope with large

amounts of sugar in the diet -- is the first step on the path to metabolic syndrome and

adult--onset diabetes.

The findings showed that many -- but not all -- of the volunteers had begun to develop

glucose intolerance after just one week of artificial sweetener consumption.

Researchers believe that certain bacteria in the guts of those who developed glucose

intolerance reacted to the chemical sweeteners by secreting substances that then provoked

an inflammatory response similar to sugar overdose, promoting changes in the body's

ability to utilise sugar.

More dangerous variant of antibiotic resistant superbug detected in I Thu, Sep 4, 2014antibiotics, Down to Earth, science & tech, health,

A team of scientists from Aligarh Muslim University have detected NDM-4 in bacteria

in sewage samples obtained from Aligarh Hospital

A research team at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has, reportedly, detected

New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-4 (NDM-4) in bacteria generally found in sewage.

Metallo-beta-lactamases are a category of enzymes which turn bacteria into superbugs.


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They are known to prevent the action of several antibiotics, rendering them ineffective.

NDM-4 was found in Escherichia coli (E. coli), a bacteria which commonly causes

gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections. This is the first time that NDM-4 has been

reported in India.

Earlier, a variant of metallo-beta-lactamases, NDM-1, was found in Enterobacteriaceae

in Swedenfrom an Indian patient hospitalized previously in New Delhi in 2008 ( see

'Superbug: India gets bugged'. [2]

When contacted, Khan confirmed NDM-4 is more dangerous than NDM-1. Bacteria

carrying NDM-4 is resistant to carbapenems, cephalosporins and aminoglycoside classes

of antibiotics as per the study. Khan said overuse of antibiotics in humans leads to the

development of resistant strains of bacteria and that antibiotic resistance is spreading

rapidly in India. "The significance of this study lies in the emergence of NDM-4 in

India, but not the number of positives that were detected. People will now be aware of

the start of the spread of NDM-4 in the country," said Khan.

Besides a bacterium having the potential to become resistant to multiple drugs, the

genes coding for resistance can transfer from one bacterium to another and even between

bacteria of different types. For example, NDM-1 gene is now found in different bacteria

such as Klebsiella pneumonia, E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae, meaning antibiotics are

likely to be ineffective in a wide-range of illnesses caused by these bacteria. It is possible

that NDM-4 is also present in bacteria other than E. coli in India and is already contributing

to failing treatments against several diseases. Increasing reservoirs of resistant bacteria

in the environment amplify the possibility of emergence and spread of resistance in

different bacteria against multiple antibiotics.

Cardiovascular risk factors low but mortality high in India Thu, Sep 4, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, Cardiovascular risk factors, health,

People living in low-income countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe

have the lowest risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) compared with those

living in high-income countries like Canada, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

Yet, the rate of deaths from CVD is highest in the low-income countries, not in the

high-income countries. The risk factors and the rate of deaths are intermediate in 10

middle-income countries.

However, the incidence of nonmajor cardiovascular events was highest in the high-income

countries. The risk factors for cardiovascular problems include smoking, high cholesterol,

high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, stress, insufficient intake of vegetables and fruits

and sedentary lifestyle.

There are two main reasons why the high risk factors for CVD did nottranslate into


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higher death rates in high-income countries. First, there was better control of risk factors

and "frequent use" of proven drugs to reduce the risk of deaths. Second, people living

in the high-income countries had greater chances of undergoing interventions like

bypass surgery/angioplasty to prevent death.

What is surprising is that while the mortality rate was nearly the same in rural and the

urban areas in the high-income countries, the low-income countries too showed the

same trend.

"Everyone thought the prevalence of risk factors has come down in the high-income

countries as there are fewer deaths. But this study shows the risk factors have not come

down but are tackled better,"

"As the risk factors increase in India, the mortality goesup. So the cardiovascular crisis

is waiting to worsen unless we improve the healthcare system,"

Pacific garbage patch: scientists find a way to nail ocean polluters Wed, Sep 3, 2014Down to Earth, ocean pollution, science & tech,

he garbage patch is a collection of marine debris, mainly consisting of plastic litter, a

major hazard for marine animals that feed on them. The garbage patch is a result of

garbage discarded in the sea which accumulates at one place due to the formation of

oceanic gyers--a large system of rotating oceanic currents, formed by wind movements.

The researchers have identified the five major ocean garbage patches. They also divided

the entire ocean into seven regions whose waters mix very little. They then used amathematical method that is usually used to partition interconnected systems like the

Internet, computer chips and human society to understand the movement of garbage.

"The take-home message from our work is that we have redefined the borders of the

ocean basins according to how the water moves," said van Sebille. The geography of

the new basins could yield insights into ocean ecology in addition to helping track

ocean debris. The researchers say their modelling technique could also be used to

exaplain how much Canadian and American waters mix in the Great Lakes or how an

oil spill might spread in the Gulf of Mexico.

New avian influenza strain in Southeast Asia 'travelling fast', warns Mon, Sep 22, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, avian influenza,

In less than six months after first reported in China, the H5N6 virus has been detected

in poultries in Lao and Vietnam

"Influenza viruses are constantly mixing and recombining to form new threats,


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"It's been detected in multiple places in poultry, yet we only have one human infection

reported. This suggests that the virus does not easily jump from animals to humans. Of

course, we still need to remain vigilant, because prevalence in poultry and therefore

human exposure could increase during the winter."

FAO and WHO have recommend poultry consumers to follow appropriate hygiene,

food preparation and food safety guidelines. These include: washing hands often,

cleaning utensils and surfaces used during food preparation, and eating only well-cooked

poultry meat products. People should also avoid handling sick birds or those that have

died of illness.

New blood test to detect TB in kids Mon, Sep 1, 2014tuberculosis, science & tech, Businessline,

The newly developed test (TAM-TB assay) is the first reliable immunodiagnostic assay

to detect active tuberculosis in children, researchers said.

The test features excellent specificity, a similar sensitivity as culture tests in combination

with speed of a blood test, they said.

Tuberculosis in children is a serious public health problem especially in low-resource

countries. About one million children per year develop tuberculosis worldwide.

Unfortunately, the diagnosis of paediatric TB poses a major challenge. TB symptoms

in children are often non-specific and similar to those of common paediatric illnesses,

including pneumonia and malnutrition. Further, obtaining adequate respiratory specimens

for direct mycobacterial confirmation is problematic.

Consequently, there is an urgent need for a more precise, rapid and affordable diagnostic

test for childhood tuberculosis. The new TAM-TB assay is a sputum-independent blood

test.

Sputum and blood samples were obtained from children with tuberculosis symptoms

to compare the performance of the new assay with culture tests.

Victory is certain, yet the struggle continues Wed, Sep 24, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, Mars, ISRO, space,

But before the engine can be fired, the MOM has to do a somersault in space. Currently

the LAM's nozzle is pointing away from the direction of the motion. If the engines are

fired in this orientation, the spacecraft will gain velocity, however, the purpose is to

decrease it. Hence exactly at 6:56 IST the spacecraft will commence its attitude correction


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to make the nozzle points against the direction of the motion. This tricky manoeuvre

which will be achieved by firing the small thruster and using the wheels in the MOM

will take about 21 minutes.

Secondly, when the spacecraft is at an altitude of about 1,847 km from the surface of

the Mars the LAM and eight thrusters have to fire in unison. From a velocity of 5.127

km per second relative to Mars, the velocity has to be reduced to 4.316 km per second.

Only then the spacecraft will be captured by the gravity of Mars, resulting in a closed

elliptical path. For this, ISRO has estimated that the burn duration has to be around

1,454 seconds (about 24 minutes). However, the fuel flow or actual burn rate may vary

and, hence, the accelerometers in the spacecraft will monitor the acceleration achieved

every 520 milliseconds and once the acceleration achieved is 1,098.7 metre per second,

the engines will be shut down.

As the spacecraft nears Mars and due to the negative thrust, it will descend towards the

surface at first and bounce back. The timing of the burn should be such that the mid-pointof the burn should occur when the altitude of the spacecraft is at its lowest.

Even if the spacecraft was not in radio shadow, given that the distance of the MOM

will be around 200 million km, ISRO engineers will not be able to command the

spacecraft as you control remote car. The two way time delay will be about 24 minutes.

Hence, taking into consideration various contingencies, commands have been loaded

into the spacecraft and all manoeuvres will have to take place automatically.

After the burn is complete, once again spacecraft should roll-over to the position wherein

the nozzle once again points against the direction of the motion. However, this reverse

maneuver will take only 10 minutes.

MOM was launched using ISRO's workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle

(PSLV), designed for putting satellites into low Earth orbit. Therefore, unlike MAVEN,

which was launched by NASA directly towards Mars, Indian MOM had to take help

from Earth's gravity through a novel space manoeuvre called 'gravity assist' to free

itself from the clutches of Earth's gravity. MOM went around Earth seven times before

it was hurled at Mars. This implied the route to Mars was circuitous and long.

As PSLV was less powerful it could launch only a 1.3 tonne spacecraft. The bulk of

the spacecraft load is fuel, and hence the actual payload, that is the scientific instruments

that could be accommodated, was just 15 kg. ISRO used miniaturized components andcomposite materials to pack the limited payload with five instruments that included a

colour camera to obtain high resolution pictures, instrument to detect presence of

methane in upper atmosphere and an instrument to measure ratio of deuterium to

hydrogen. Indeed the scientific goals of MOM are modest compared to MAVEN (Mars

Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), which has eight instruments and would be the

first spacecraft to examine questions such as how the solar wind has stripped away the


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Martian atmosphere.

Mars Curiosity rover reaches its primary destination Sun, Sep 14, 2014

The Hindu, science & tech, Mars, space, Mars Curiosity rover,

After more than two years of touching down on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover has

finally reached the foothills of Mount Sharp, the primary destination it was designed

to explore.

Mount Sharp is a Mount-Rainier-size mountain at the centre of the vast Gale Crater

and the rover mission's long-term prime destination.

Compared to neighbouring crater-floor terrain, the rock of the Murray formation is

softer and does not preserve impact scars, as well. As viewed from orbit, it is not as

well-layered as other units at the base of Mount Sharp.

Curiosity reached its current location after its route was modified earlier this year in

response to excessive wheel wear.

In late 2013, the team realised a region of Martian terrain littered with sharp, embedded

rocks was poking holes in four of the rover's six wheels.

After landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity fulfilled in its first year of

operations its major science goal of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental

conditions favourable for microbial life.

NASA's Curiosity rover reaches its primary destination Sun, Sep 14, 2014nasa, mars, science & tech, space, Businessline, Curiosity,

After more than two years of touching down on Mars, NASA's Curiosity rover has

finally reached the foothills of Mount Sharp, the primary destination it was designed

to explore.

After landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity fulfilled in its first year of

operations its major science goal of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental

conditions favourable for microbial life.

Mars spacecraft to be ordered into orbit Fri, Sep 12, 2014mars, The Hindu, science & tech, isro, space,

We are doing a re-start of the 440 Newton engine for four seconds at 2 p.m. on September

22. We are doing that re-start to confirm [that the engine will erupt into life on September


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24]," he said.

The Mars spacecraft and its five scientific instruments are in good health. On September

11, the spacecraft was just about 35 lakh km away from Mars while it had already

covered more than 64 crore km in its epic voyage.

A faster, cheaper Mars orbiter Thu, Sep 25, 2014The Hindu, mars orbiter, science & tech, isro, space,

No other country that has attempted a mission to Mars has succeeded in reaching the

planet on debut. So, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) can claim that it

has done a shade better than accomplished space powers such as the United States and

Russia in reaching Mars.

India's Mangalyaan has cost the country Rs.450 crore or about $70 million; it is without

doubt the cheapest inter-planetary mission ever to be undertaken since Martian exploration

began. On September 22, a mission by NASA called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile

Evolution (MAVEN), made at a cost of over $670 million, reached Mars. This Indian

marathon took 300 days to cover a distance of over 670 million kilometres -- a sprint

really in a record time of 10 months.

Many have questioned why India should be sending a robotic mission to Mars when

there is so much poverty, malnutrition, death, disaster and diseases among its 1.2 billon

population. Some have even called this mission as being a part of India's "delusional

dream" of becoming a superpower in the 21st century.

India's Mars Orbiter mission has paved the way for cheaper and faster inter-planetary

probes. During his upcoming U.S. visit, Mr. Modi and U.S. President Barack Obama

are likely to sign a new agreement for the making of the joint Indo-U.S. Radar Satellite

Mission. China and India recently signed an agreement on "peaceful uses of outer

space." So, many are now wanting to partner in ISRO's success.

The mission, within minutes of reaching Mars, has already taken its first images of the

Martian surface. The Mars colour camera, which is essentially an Indian eye to track

Mars, will bring back the first tangible truths to Indian taxpayers that their money has

been well spent.

If the 20th century witnessed a "space race" between the U.S. and the USSR, the 21st

century is seeing an Asian space race. In most aspects of space technology, China is

way ahead of India. It has larger rockets, bigger satellites and several rocket ports. It

even launched its first astronaut in space way back in 2003 and has a space laboratory

in the making.

In 2008, when India undertook its first mission to moon Chandrayaan-1, China raced


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ahead and orbited its Chang'e-1 satellite ahead of India. But in this Martian marathon,

India has reached the finish line ahead of China. This now puts India in the pole position

as far as Asian Martian exploration goes. In 2012, the first Chinese probe to Mars

Yinghuo-1 failed. It was riding atop a Russian satellite called Phobos-Grunt. But the

Chinese probe failed to even leave earth. Earlier in 1998, a Japanese probe to Mars ranout of fuel.

Coming up in the next few weeks is the test firing of India's monster rocket, the

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III, a rocket capable of carrying heavy

payloads into space. This flight will carry a dummy crew module, which is part of a

programme for the development of critical technologies that ISRO seeks to develop as

part of its human space flight programme.

As ISRO says, the first astronaut could well be a woman. In a few weeks, an Indian

navigation satellite will be also launched into space. By 2017, ISRO wants to undertake

India's second mission to moon Chandrayaan-2 which will have an Indian lander anda rover. Subsequently, it also wants to launch dedicated missions to study the Sun and

the planetary bodies in the solar system.

It is an eye-opener that a country which can undertake a mission to Mars is unable to

provide electricity to 400 million citizens. What is worse is that 600 million Indians

still don't have access to toilets. It is hoped that Mr. Modi would have learnt a lesson

or two from the Indian space agency on how to undertake cost-effective projects with

no time or cost overruns. If only Mr. Modi internalises this big learning can his dream

of having "Swachh Bharat" by 2019 become a reality.

SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off with communications satellite Sun, Sep 7, 2014science & tech, falcon, space, spaceX, Businessline,

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Sept 7:

A Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral

Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday to put a commercial communications satellite

into orbit.

Tucked inside the rocket's nosecone was the second of two satellites owned by Hong

Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd, or AsiaSat.

The first satellite, AsiaSat 8, was successfully delivered into an orbit some 22,200 miles

(35,700 km) above Earth on Aug. 5.

"With the two satellites coming out of the factory approximately the same time we were

able to book back-to-back missions," said AsiaSat chief executive William Wade. The

two launches cost AsiaSat about $110 million, Wade said.


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Privately owned SpaceX, as the company is known, planned to launch the second

satellite, AsiaSat 6, two weeks ago, but delayed the flight to recheck the rocket's systems

following an unrelated accident that claimed the company's prototype Falcon 9R reusable

lander during a test flight on August 22.

The satellite launched on Sunday is outfitted with 28 high-power C-band transponders

for video distribution and broadband network services in China and Southeast Asia.

Half of the transponders are reserved for Thaicom PLC , which owns the orbital slot

AsiaSat 6 will use, Wade said.

The new satellite, which is designed to last 15 years, is the sixth member of AsiaSat's

current orbital network, half of which were launched by Russian Proton rockets.

NASA to make ISS an Earth-observing platform Tue, Sep 9, 2014nasa, The Hindu, ISS, science & tech, space,

In a bid to monitor Earth better, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) is adding a number of Earth-observing instruments to the International Space

Station (ISS) that will increase the leverage of the space station's unique vantage point

in space.

Scheduled to be launched this month, the first NASA Earth-observing instrument called

ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds for climate research as well as weather

predictions and hurricane monitoring.

The second instrument scheduled for a December launch is the Cloud Aerosol Transport

System (CATS), a laser instrument that will measure clouds and the location and

distribution of airborne particles such as mineral dust and smoke in the atmosphere,

the U.S. space agency said in a statement.

ISS-RapidScat and CATS follow the February launch of the Global Precipitation

Measurement Core Observatory, a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration

Agency, and the July launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.

NASA to turn ISS into perfect Earth-observing platform Tue, Sep 9, 2014nasa, ISS, science & tech, space, Businessline,

In a move to monitor our planet better, NASA is adding a number of Earth-observing

instruments to the International Space Station (ISS) that will increase the leverage of

the orbital laboratory's unique vantage point in space.


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ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds for climate research, weather predictions and

hurricane monitoring from the space station, NASA said.

The second instrument is the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS), a laser instrument

that will measure clouds and the location and distribution of airborne particles such as

pollution, mineral dust, smoke, and other particulates in the atmosphere.

CATS will follow ISS-RapidScat on the fifth SpaceX space station resupply flight,

planned for December.

The space station-based instruments join a fleet of 17 NASA Earth-observing missions

currently providing data on the dynamic and complex Earth system.

ISS-RapidScat and CATS follow the February launch of the Global Precipitation

Measurement Core Observatory, a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration

Agency.

European Space Agency sets November 12 date for comet landing Sat, Sep 27, 2014Rosetta, science & tech, space, Businessline,

Europe's Rosetta spacecraft will attempt on November 12 to land a robot lab on a comet

hurtling through deep space in a first for humankind,

Ten days after unveiling the preferred landing spot on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,

the European Space Agency (ESA) has now set a firm date for the high-stakes operation

more than 450 million km (280 miles) from Earth.

If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will release Philae at 0835 GMT on November

12 at a distance of 22.5 km from the comet's centre, to land seven hours later.

A delay of 28 minutes and 20 seconds in the one-way signal from Rosetta means that

confirmation of landing will arrive on Earth at about 1600 GMT.

Rosetta is equipped with 11 cameras and sensors that have already yielded astonishing

images of the comet.

But experts are hoping for even bigger discoveries from the 10 instruments aboard

Philae.

They would like to learn more about comets, icy bodies that were born along with the

Solar System some 4.6 billion years ago, and are credited by at least one theory of

bringing life to Earth.

Comet 67P is on a 6.5-year Sun orbit.


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Rosetta caught up with it after a six-billion-km trek that required four flybys of Earth

and Mars, using the planets' gravity as a slingshot to build up speed.

At their closest approach on August 13, 2015, the comet and Rosetta will be 185 million

km from the Sun.

NASA, ISRO in talks to set up Joint Mars Working Group Thu, Sep 11, 2014nasa, mars, science & tech, ISRO, space, Businessline,

America's premier space agency NASA and its Indian counterpart ISRO are talking

about setting up a Joint Mars Working Group, a top US space official has said ahead

of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US.

NASA is in discussions with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) regarding

potential scientific collaboration with their Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), due to enter

Mars' orbit about two days after MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution

(MAVEN) orbiter, which will arrive at Mars later this month," said James Green

Director, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA.

Testifying before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space Committee on

Science, Space and Technology, he said while primarily a technology-demonstration

mission, MOM includes five science instruments to study the Martian atmosphere,

mineralogy and surface features.

Both the missions of NASA and ISRO will arrive at the Red Planet just in time to join

the fleet of Mars--based spacecraft that could witness the effects of comet Siding Spring,Green told lawmakers.

MAVEN, he said, will explore the Mars' upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions

with the sun and solar wind.

Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatiles from the

Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving an insight into the history

of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability, he added.

"In the coming decade, China is preparing a series of robotic lunar missions, Russia is

preparing lunar, Venus and Mars missions, India has plans to go to the Moon and Mars,

Japan is planning a second asteroid sample-return mission, and the Europeans are headed

to Mercury, Mars, the asteroids and Jupiter," Bell said.


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GSLV-MkIII is ISRO's next Fri, Sep 26, 2014GSLV, The Hindu, science & tech, ISRO, space,

Team ISRO has, meanwhile, got down to brass tacks and expects to get one of its biggestprojects off the mark this calendar year -- GSLV-Mark III.

Success of this heavy-lift, four-tonne satellite launcher is imperative to make India

capable of launching its future communication satellites from its soil.

The first flight of the new vehicle is being considered for October-end if good weather

holds, he said. The stages of the vehicle are being put together at Sriharikota.

The date of its launch depends on an earlier flight of the PSLV-C26, which will put

into orbit the third regional navigation spacecraft, the IRNSS-1C. If the PSLV is flown

in the week starting October 9 as planned, GSLV-MkIII can follow on the second launch

pad a fortnight after it, Dr. Radhakrishnan said. The C-26 vehicle is also getting assembled

at Sriharikota.

MkIII will test the recovery of a dummy crew module from sea. The module is the core

of a future Human Space Project, in which a couple of astronauts will fly close to Earth

for a few days.

Mangalyaan is now in orbit of Mars Wed, Sep 24, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, Mars, space,

ISRO spacecraft joins three other orbiters of European Space Agency and NASA;

The Mangalyan is now in the orbit of the planet Mars. All manoeuvres went smoothly.

India is now the fourth country to have achieved this. India managed to achieve this

successfully in the first g About two-thirds of the missions have failed.

On November 5, the rocket PSLV-C25 successfully carried the orbiter to Earth's orbit

and released it. The orbiter continued to move in the Earth's orbit for the next 25 days,

gaining velocity with each of the five revolutions. In December, it was released into

the space. Its 300 day space journey began. ISRO touched base with the orbiter again

on September 22 to ensure that the engines could be fired to insert it in the planet'sorbit.

Now that the orbiter is in the planet's orbit, the five instruments on board will become

crucial. Signals sent from the orbiter to Earth would take around 20 minutes to reach

but would bring in valuable information about the planet. Most awaited is the information

on the levels of methane in the planet's atmosphere. This is the first time that methane

in the atmosphere of the planet will be measured by a satellite. The orbiter would be


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monitored for the next six to 10 months and at least one terabyte of data is likely to be

received from Mangalyaan.

Loading of commands for Mars orbiter begins Sun, Sep 14, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, Mars orbiter, ISRO, space,

the primary objective" of India's Mars Orbiter Mission was to put the spacecraft into

a Martian orbit, its scientific objective was empirical observation of the planet. The

ISRO-built orbiter carries five instruments to detect methane on Mars, to study its

geological activity, to study the Martian atmosphere and so on.

ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle put the spacecraft into an initial orbit on November

5, 2013.

NASA's Maven reaches Mars Mon, Sep 22, 2014Down to Earth, science & tech, Mars, MAVEN spacecraft, space,

It is believed that Mars was covered with a layer of air which kept it warm and wet.

But gradually the atmosphere lost the protective layer of air and is now dry and cold.

It is hoped that the existing atmosphere would give a clue about what happened.

MAVEN was launched aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle on November 18, 2013--13

days after India launched its Mars orbiter. The spacecraft travelled a total of 442 million

miles in the past 10 months to reach the Mars orbit. Maven managed to reach earlier

as it was shot off into the space directly unlike India's orbiter which circled around theEarth for 25 days to gain appropriate velocity. The Indian spacecraft is expected to be

injected into the planet's orbit on September 24. ISRO's orbiter, too, would be studying

the planet's atmosphere.

SpaceX cargo ship blasts off carrying 3-D printer Sun, Sep 21, 2014nasa, The Hindu, science & tech, space, 3d printing, spacex,

A SpaceX cargo ship rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday,

carrying the first 3-D printer for astronauts in orbit.

In all, the unmanned Dragon capsule is delivering more than 5,000 pounds (2,300

kilograms) of space station supplies for NASA. Dragon is expected reach the space

station on Tuesday. It is the fifth station shipment for the California-based company

SpaceX, one of two new commercial winners in the race to start launching Americans

again from home soil.


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The space station-bound 3-D printer is sturdier than earthly models to withstand the

stresses of launch, and meets NASA's strict safety standards. The space agency envisions

astronauts one day cranking out spare parts as needed. For now, it's a technology

demonstrator, with a bigger and better model to follow next year.

A $30 million device for measuring ocean winds is also flying up on Dragon, along

with 20 mice and 30 fruit flies for biological research and metal samples for a golf club

manufacturer looking to improve its products.

Just this past week, SpaceX led by billionaire Elon Musk won an even bigger and more

prestigious contract to transport U.S. astronauts to the orbiting outpost, along with

Boeing. Dragon rides could begin as early as 2016 or 2017.

NASA's ability to launch its own crews ended with the shuttle program in 2011. Russia

has been providing rides on its Soyuz spacecraft for a hefty price.

Another American astronaut is scheduled to blast off from Kazakhstan aboard a RussianSoyuz later this week, along with two Russians, one of them a woman, a rarity for

Russia. They will join the one American, one Russian and one German already in orbit.

Space exploration not a prerogative of the West Fri, Sep 26, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, space,

India's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation, is a late entrant to the

space race, and the success of Mangalyaan makes the country an Asian leader in space

exploration, if not yet a global one.

The Economist not a known advocate of the poor or of government spending on social

welfare, demanded to know -- not only of India but of Sri Lanka, Belarus, Bolivia and

Nigeria, all "minnows" with fledgling space aspirations: "How can poor countries afford

space programmes?" Cut aid to such over-reaching parvenus, some in Britain have

suggested.

But inquiry and exploration are not the prerogative of advanced capitalist western

nations -- with the rest of the world eternally condemned to be a footnote in the history

of science, even as its historical contributions to knowledge are forgotten.

Serious questions remain about whether science and technology -- and not just in poorer

countries -- can have a greater good in mind when the bottom line is profit. The space

race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was not an affordable luxury undertaken

for the sake of knowledge, but intrinsically tied to the military-industrial complex.

Yet India is fortunate in having a long and diverse history of campaigning science

movements that have sought to draw both on indigenous knowledge traditions and


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direct modern scientific research towards progress in health, literacy, environment,

nutrition and sanitation.

Lessons to be learnt Wed, Sep 10, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, ebola,

As on September 5, at least 3,967 cases and 2,105 deaths were reported from the four

countries. The number of cases and deaths has spiked over the last fortnight. There was

a sudden spurt of deaths, numbering 400, during the period from August 28 to September

3, and the month of August alone accounted for over 40 per cent of all Ebola cases

found since December 2013. There is every reason to believe that the count of the

number of infected cases belies the ground reality. What is particularly poignant is that

the community's confidence in health workers continues to remain low, and people

are largely unwilling to seek medical attention. WHO estimates that it may take six to

nine months to contain the outbreak, which is estimated to have infected up to 20,000people.

Unlike the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in February 2003 and

H1N1 influenza that was declared a pandemic in June 2009, the Ebola virus disease

spreads only through direct contact with the body fluids of a diseased person. Its spread

could thus be checked easily, but the weak public health systems in the four countries

lack the infrastructure to handle the crisis.

Unit 5 of RAPS becomes world's 2nd longest running reactor Sat, Sep 6, 2014raps5, science & tech, Businessline,

India's nuclear power programme today reached a new milestone after Unit 5 of the

Rajasthan Atomic Power Station become the second longest running reactor in the

world by being in operation for 765 days continuously.

The Unit 5 of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS), a 220 MW Pressurised

Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), in Rawatbhata has been in uninterrupted operation

since August 2, 2012 and it has been operating at full power with a capacity factor of

105 per cent.

On the debate over 'Antibiotics in the chicken we eat' Wed, Sep 17, 2014poultry, The Hindu, science & tech, Antibiotics,

The very first is about the use of calcium carbide to hasten the ripening of fruits,

particularly mangoes. Calcium carbide, upon reaction with water, generates the gas

acetylene which, along with the gas ethylene (produced through biotic reactions in the


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fruit), acts as a fruit- ripening hormone, thus hastening the process of ripening. The

large scale mango marketer plucks the unripe mangoes from trees, stores them in bins

containing calcium carbide which generates acetylene upon spraying with water. While

acetylene and ethylene are not toxic, calcium carbide is suspected to be, It is reported

to cause skin rash, dermatitis and inhaling it can cause pulmonary edema (a medicalemergency). And commercial calcium carbide contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus

compounds as impurities, both of which are health hazards for animals and humans.

use of oxytocin in dairy farms. This "love hormone" as it is dubbed, is a small peptide

molecule whose main effect is to help in the delivery of babies. Naturally released in

the body of the mother-to-be, this hormone, among other things, induces labour by

increasing the contractions of the muscles of the womb, controls post-partum haemorrhage

and stimulates milk release. But it is to be administered by the doctor only in cases of

emergency, since it does have side effects. Thankfully however, being a peptide molecule,

oxytocin does not last long in the body when injected, but gets hydrolysed into amino

acids

, the general belief is that is causes more milk production.

But what oxytocin does to the cow is to increase muscle contraction in the udders and

make milk ejection faster. Many greedy dairymen also try and keep cows permanently

lactating so as to keep the milk flow on a continuous commercial basis

some people have taken oxytocin use from the animal to the plant kingdom. This is

with the belief that the animal hormone may have growth stimulating effect in plants.

Coming finally to the use of the antibiotics in the poultry industry, several readerswondered whether these molecules are not destroyed by the high temperatures involved

during cooking, and thus making it safe enough to eat the chicken.

Yes, this would be true for most of the molecules, and also for many of the bacteria

present in the chicken itself. But recall that the inside of the chicken is a warm, hospitable

reactor, or the genetic playground for microbes, where not only growth of the normal

but also of mutant strains occurs. Some of these mutants can be heat-resistant while

others are multi drug resistant strains.

Even if you burn off most of these in cooking, what about those in the inedible parts

of the chicken which are disposed off into the environment?

Some are burnt off in incinerators, but those left in the soil and water bodies will affect

the life forms there. And more often than not we encounter such germs infecting animals

and moving from there to humans. Salmonella, and the more dangerous H1N1 and HIV

are three such zoonotic invaders. Given this backdrop, is the appeal for banning the use

of antibiotics in poultry farms an overreach?


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'U.S. monopoly over Internet must go' Tue, Sep 2, 2014surveillance, The Hindu, science & tech, internet,

Unfortunately, the Brazil Netmundial convened in April, 2014, with the InternetCorporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), following objections raised

by [Brazilian] President Dilma Rousseff to the National Security Agency (NSA) spying

on her government, only handed us a non-binding agreement on surveillance and

privacy-related concerns.

Today, China and Russia are capable of challenging U.S. dominance. Despite being a

strong commercial power, China has not deployed Internet technology across the world.

The Chinese have good infrastructure but they use U.S. Domain Naming System, which

is a basic component of the functioning of the Internet. One good thing is because they

use the Chinese language for domain registration, it limits access to outsiders in some

way.

India too is a big country. It helps that it is not an authoritarian country and has many

languages. It should make the most of its regional languages, but with regard to technology

itself, India has to tread more carefully in developing independent capabilities in this

area.

As far as European countries are concerned, they are mostly allies of the U.S. and may

not have a strong inclination to develop independent capabilities in this area. Africa

again has potential; it can establish its own independent Internet network which will

be patronised by its burgeoning middle classes.

The ICANN Domain Naming System (DNS) is operated by VeriSign, a U.S. government

contractor. Thus, traffic is monitored by the NSA, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI) can seize user sites or domains anywhere in the world if they are hosted by U.S.

companies or subsidiaries.

The U.S. government is adamant on controlling the ICANN DNS. Thus, copies (mirrors)

should be made available in other countries out of reach from the FBI.

Fragmentation of the Internet is not such a bad thing as it is often made out to be. The

bone of contention here is the DNS monopoly.

In this context, a usual scarecrow brandished by the U.S. government is fragmentation,

or Balkanisation, of the Internet. All monopolies resort to similar arguments whenever

their turf is threatened by a looming competition. Furthermore, the proprietary naming

and unstable service definitions specific to the likes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook,

Google, Twitter, and more, have already divided the Internet in as many closed and

incompatible internets of captive users.


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Unfortunately, the phrase "Internet governance" is too abstract for most people and

governments to be interested in. The most crucial question is what kind of society do

you want to live in? Should governments allow citizens to end up as guinea pigs for

global Internet corporations? The revelations by NSA contractor Edward Snowden

have proved beyond doubt that user data held by Internet companies today are subject

to pervasive surveillance. Conducting these intrusive activities by controlling the core

infrastructure of the Internet without obtaining the consent of citizen users is a big

concern and should be debated in public. Therefore, debates about Internet governance

are no longer alien; they involve all of us who are part of the network.

ISRO's Mars orbiter enters Mars' Sphere of Influence Mon, Sep 22, 2014The Hindu, science & tech, Mars, ISRO,

Cruising towards its historic rendezvous with the Red Planet, India's Mars OrbiterMission (MOM) on Monday entered Mars' gravitational Sphere of Influence ahead of

its scheduled Orbit Insertion on September 24.

Now that the spacecraft has entered the Mars' influence, its velocity has to be controlled

so that it does not escape the Mars' influence, an official said, adding, the spacecraft

is scheduled to enter the Mars Orbit Insertion at 7.30 AM IST on September 24.

The MOM, India's first interplanetary mission, was launched by India's workhorse

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh last year.

India's Mission to Mars: Ready to Land Sat, Sep 20, 2014mars, IDSA, science & tech, isro, space,

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its maiden mission to Mars

- the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) - on November 5, 2013. This mission is expected

to reach the 'Red Planet' on September 24, 2014 after a ten month long space journey.

What does the possible success with the Mars mission mean for India? What if ISRO's

mission fails? Would it be considered as a major blow to India's space programme?

In fact, judging by the progress made by the MOM it could be comfortably claimed

that ISRO has already achieved around 30 to 40% of the success: first by flawlesslylaunching the MOM on Nov 5, 2013 and subsequently taking this spacecraft out of the

sphere of influence of the earth. Here the primary gravitational influence of earth which

is experienced by spacecraft diminishes and slowly the satellite starts under the influences

of other planets. For the last ten months, the MOM is following a correct trajectory

towards its travel to Mars. Ultimately, what remains is to succeed with correct Mars

orbital insertion on September 24 and subsequently taking scientific observations to


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high levels of space research.

ISRO's space programme agenda has seen some great successes particularly in the last

few decades. The successful Moon mission in 2008 is a landmark achievement. Surely

the Mars mission would mean an additional feather in ISRO's cap and would boost

India's global standing in space and technology. It may be noted that no Asian state

has yet achieved the distinction

sci&tech september

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