Newfound Alien Planet Is Best Place Yet to Search for Life

By Calla Cofield, Staff Writer | April 19, 2017 04:06pm ET

A newly discovered planet around a distant star may jump to the top of the list of places where scientists should go looking for alien life.

The alien world known as LHS 1140b is rocky, like Earth. It is only 40 light-years away from our solar system (essentially, down-the-street in cosmic terms), and sits in the so-called habitable zone of its parent star, which means liquid water could potentially exist on the planet's surface. Several other planets also meet those criteria, but few of them are as prime for study as LHC 1140b according to the scientists who discovered it, because the type of star the planet orbits and the planet's orientation to Earth make it ripe for investigations into whether it’s the kind of place where life could thrive.

"This is the most exciting exoplanet I've seen in the past decade," Jason Dittmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and lead author on the paper describing the discovery, said in a statement from CfA. "We could hardly hope for a better target to perform one of the biggest quests in science — searching for evidence of life beyond Earth." [10 Exoplanets That Might Be Perfect to Support Life 

Alien atmosphere

Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the sun in the last 20 years. Many of those planets meet some of the basic requirements for hosting life as we know it — they're rocky like Earth (rather than gaseous, like Saturn or Jupiter) and they sit in the habitable zone of their parent star.

LHS 1140b meets those initial requirements. Through multiple observations, Dittmann and colleagues determined that the planet receives about 0.46 times as much light from its parent star as Earth receives from the sun. The planet is about 1.4 times the diameter of Earth and 6.6 times its mass, which makes it a so-called super-Earth and suggests it is also rocky. [How Habitable Zones for Alien Planets and Stars Work (Infographic)]

The next step scientists are taking to find out if exoplanets like LHS 1140b are habitable (or even inhabited) is to examine their atmospheres. An atmosphere could provide life-forms with a necessary ingredient for life (such as oxygen or carbon dioxide on Earth), and could also bear signs that life exists there (most of the methane on Earth, for example, is produced by biological organisms). Scientists are working on understanding what the atmosphere of an exoplanet can reveal about the likelihood that it hosts life, or could.
Dittmann said he and his colleagues think LHS 1140b is a great candidate for follow-up atmospheric studies for multiple reasons.

This alien world was initially discovered using the transit method, in which scientists look at the light from a star and try to measure subtle dips in its brightness that could be caused by a planet passing in front of (transiting) the star. In some cases, telescopes can capture the sliver of sunlight that passes through the planet's atmosphere, and that sunlight reveals information about the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere. Many other potentially habitable Earth-like planets ― such as Proxima b, the closest exoplanet to our solar system that lies only 4.2 light-years away ― do not transit their parent star as seen from Earth and therefore their atmospheres can't be studied in this way.

The team's precise measurement of LHS 1140b's density will also be important to understanding its atmosphere, Dittmann told Space.com.

"What's great about having a density ahead of an atmospheric study is that this density tells you how tightly the planet holds on to its atmosphere (the atmospheric scale height)," Dittmann told Space.com in an email. Using the transit method, scientists are trying to collect starlight shining through a planet's atmosphere; a thicker atmosphere means more light passes through it, making it easier for scientists to detect the signals from various chemical elements present in that atmosphere. A planet with higher density also has stronger gravity, which further compresses the atmosphere and reduces the size of the signals scientists can detect.
more:::http://www.livescience.com/58746-alien-planet-best-bet-search-for-life.html

Biogas: Fuel of the Future

Once considered an intermediate technology fit only for the underprivileged "Third World", biogas is now generating interest in the West as a cheap, renewable source for energy.

Prabha K. Singh

October 31, 1978 |

The inhabitants of Mukimpur village in Bulandshahr district pledge not to marry their daughters in villages which have no biogas plants.
                                                                                                                         - The Times of India

Gimmicky as it may sound, That pledge betrays a genuine anxiety, based ironically enough, on the very success of the biogas experiment. Though still in its infancy, the 50,000 plants installed under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission's (KVIC) biogas programme are already producing 99.82 million cubic metre of gas, equivalent to 62 million litre of kerosene valued at Rs 62.49 million, and 11.20 lakh tonne of high quality organic manure worth Rs 50.86 million.

Not surprisingly, a number of the farmers, suddenly catapulted into unaccustomed wealth, reacted as if their families were under seige. A typical complaint was the one made by an Uttar Pradesh villager who said: "The women in my house no longer work. They don't make dung cakes, collect firewood,... every woman is becoming a queen by herself. The added income from the farm causes jealousy and when we white-washed the house last month and installed a gas light, we found we were isolated from the entire village. The only way out now is to dig up my plant or make sure my neighbours get one."

Fortunately for the old man, his plea was answered by Jashbhai J. Patel, then technical advisor to the KVIC. "That man eventually helped us install 450 plants in the area," recalls Patel, whose pioneering work earned him international recognition as the undisputed "father of biogas technology".

Cheap Source: The case for biogas is undeniable. Once considered an intermediate technology fit only for the underprivileged "Third World", biogas is now generating interest in the West as a cheap, renewable source for energy.

Germany which built the first plants in 1947 and abandoned research after some initial failure, recently sent a four member delegation headed by Dr Gunther Hilliges, of the Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association, to aid and study the successful Indian experiment.

"Although discovered in 1870, biogas would have remained an obsolete technology in the West," Dr Hilliges told India Today, "if it wasn't for the oil price hike of 1974. Suddenly farmers all over Germany are sending us letters regarding the possible installation of plants."

The team, which studied a number of villages in India, is planning to publish a handbook in several African, Asian and South American languages "promoting the enormous developmental advantages of these plants."

Fuel: An average family of five requires 50 cubic feet of gas per day for cooking and providing four hours of light between sunset and early morning. To feed a plant this size, however, the family needs at least five heads of cattle, each producing approximately 13 cubic feet of gas per day.

Predictably, 60 per cent of the plants belonged to rich farmers owning more than four hectares of irrigated land and of the rest, only 11 per cent were owned by farmers having less than five cattle. The poorest, landless farmers were suddenly denied access to the now precious dung cakes.

A village housewife - city comforts

"One way out of the problem," said Patel, "was to build a community plant." The Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CISR) built the first one in Kodumunju village in the Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. Constructed at a cost of Rs 85,000, the plant produces about 4,480 cubic feet of gas per day to meet the requirements of 12 to 15 families.

Other Benefits: An unexpected bonus was the dramatic improvement in health and hygiene. Says Patel: "There was a time when we could tell we were approaching the village from the characteristic, overpowering stench of festering faeces. Now that we have built community toilets to feed the plant along with other night-soil and agricultural refuse, flies and mosquitoes have almost disappeared - as have most stomach and intestinal disorders, trachoma and malaria."

Since then, several villages have put up community plants, most notably in the Kaira (Amul dairy) region of Gujarat where landless, caste shepherds own milch cattle. So successful was the venture that a businessman, M.V. Patel, has decided to operate a commercial plant. Half his dung requirements are purchased from local shepherds and the by-products - fuel and fertilizer - are sold at a substantial profit.

Of the estimated 980 million tonne of cattle dung available in the country, 30 per cent is burnt in the form of cakes, most of it in the Gangetic plain. How wasteful this method of cooking is, was revealed in an experiment which showed that only 11 per cent of the heat potential of the dung was utilized, the rest being turned to ashes. If on the other hand, the entire amount of dung was fed into gas plants, it would produce 36,260 million cubic metre of gas, enough for the fuel requirements of 87.45 families.

Saving: Further, of the 0.25 tonne of coal equivalent used as domestic fuel in India, at least 34.4 per cent consists of wood, dry leaves and agricultural wastes. The introduction of biogas would directly affect this 34 per cent of the rural population thus saving, at a conservative estimate, Rs 400 crore of valuable wood annually.

"This is one way of halting deforestation and enjoying the ecological benefits accruing from it - increased rainfall, less soil erosion and the preservation of rapidly disappearing wildlife," said Professor R. Guldager who has worked with bio-gas plants in Somalia and Ethiopia and now heads a department for development and settlement at the Technical University, Braunschweig. Indeed, so promising are the fuel possibilities that "the proper recycling of waste can produce as much energy as the nation's entire consumption of oil," said a former managing director of Indian Oil.

Added to this is the attraction of free, high quality organic manure. So rich is the humus and nitrogen content of the manure that unsuspecting farmers reaped double the yield in root crops such as potatoes, carrots and turnips. Studies undertaken by the Humus Institute revealed a number of instances where the introduction of nitrogenous manure doubled the vegetable yield per acre. "Organic manure is free from weeds, white ants, soil grubs and is the only way of improving the basic structure of the soil," said Patel, "whereas, chemical fertilizer works in a lopsided fashion."

Fertility: A study undertaken by Professor A.K.N. Reddy of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, demonstrated the tremendous economic and developmental advantages of biogas manure as against chemical fertilizers. To produce 2,30,000 tonne of nitrogen annually, a nation could either build one coal-based plant or 26,150 small, village level biogas plants.
The former would cost $140 million (Rs 136 crore) to build, half of it in foreign exchange, and would consume coal equivalent to the energy requirements of 550 villages. The latter would cost $15 million (Rs 13.5 crore) less, would require no foreign exchange, be able to use renewable energy resources and would be environmentally sounder, as it is non-polluting. Further, it could be brought to production within a matter of months, given the right organization as against the couple of years required to build a big plant.Moreover, the benefits of development, would be spread more evenly in 26,150 centres rather than being concentrated in one area. The biogas plants, for instance, would generate 130 times as much employment in the most backward areas.
Undoubtedly, biogas can become a major energy source for rural India and give much needed impetus to rural development. It remains to be seen whether the much-vaunted rural programmes of the Janata Government would exploit its full potentials.

The Sea: Hidden Wealth

The Government is to commission a research vessel to undertake off-shore mineral exploration in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean by 1981.

G.V. Joshi

October 31, 1978,

The Government is to commission a research vessel to undertake off-shore mineral exploration in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean by 1981. Negotiations have been started with a West German ship building firm for developing and fabricating this research vessel.

The vessel will be used by Geological Survey of India (GSI), but the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) will also use this vessel for their research work.

Geologists from GSI and NIO have been carrying out studies and samplings of sea bottoms in the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean by hiring small mechanized boats. They also participate in Indian Navy cruises. Studies carried out so far have shown very encouraging results.

The sea floor is scattered with a variety of minerals waiting to be explored. Geologists have located nearly 288 million tonne of very high grade calcareous sand up lo a depth of one metre below the lagoon floors of some Lakshadweep islands. Calcareous sand is an excellent raw material for the manufacture of high grade cement.

The continental shelf covers an area of about one million square kilometre. This is nearly one third of the total land area of India. The Government has full rights over the mineral wealth on the continental shelf. Besides oil and gas explored and exploited by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission and Oil India Ltd, the minerals found on the continental shelf and the deep sea can be classified into three groups.

Terrigenous Minerals: Recent work done by GSI and NIO has resulted in the discovery of huge deposits of ilmenite, monazite and calcareous sands along the cost of Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

While ilmenite is used in the manufacture of Titanium - an important metal used in the manufacture of supersonic aircraft - and Titanium Dioxide (Ti02) - a starting material for the manufacture of paints - monazite sands are used to recover thorium, an important radioactive metal.

Other deposits of lesser value are gravel and sand used in the building industry. Due to shortage of dredgers and the problems of obtainings suitable ships, even these cheap raw materials could not be exploited until recently. While there is an acute shortage of these two items in cities like Bombay and Calcutta, they are lying in abundance and only waiting to be exploited a few kilometres off-shore. The same material can be used for preventing erosion.

Biogenous Deposits: Biogenous deposits along the ocean floor consist of shell pieces and skeletal debris of marine organism. The deposits in Kerala's Vembanad Lake and in the Gulf of Kutch are well known, and they are being mined at present.

Similar deposits have been discovered in the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Straits, and along the coasts of some of the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Exploitable reserves of about 1,400 million tonne of coral sand have been found in the lagoons of the Lakshadweep islands. These deposits of almost pure calcium carbonate are used in a variety of industries.

Chemogenous Deposits: The most important chemogenous deposit is manganese nodules. Manganese nodules in the shape of potatoes contain manganese (19 per cent), and iron (12 per cent). They also contain nickel, cobalt and copper in recoverable quantities.

They are known to occupy very large areas of the sea floor in the deeper parts of the Indian Ocean (10 million square kilometre). The estimated reserves of manganese ore on land are about 68 million tonne, and India is annually mining nearly two million tonne.

At this rapid rate, it is likely that India will run out of manganese ore very soon. Thus the exploitation of sea floor manganese nodules is of great importance not only for the manganese, but also for nickel, copper and cobalt, which are also in short supply.

At present there is mining of monazite and ilmenite sands in addition to shells and calcareous sand from the sea floor. About one million tonne of calcareous sand was dredged from the seas off Jamnagar and 93,000 tonne of shells were dredged from the Vembanad Lake. The entire production was used for the manufacture of cement.

A titanium dioxide plant is being built at Chavera, about 15 kilometre from Quilon in Kerala. The plant will produce 22,000 tonne of Ti02 pigments annually. It will use ilmenite from the Chavera coast of Kerala. The Chavera plant should have no problems in getting raw material for the next 60-70 years from these deposits.
Non-Stop: The new vessel will pave the way for the study of marine geology and exploitation of sea floor.

Then the exploration will go on day and night, year after year, in fair weather or foul to know more about the wealth of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal, which have been washing the shores of India for millions of years.

The Desert Sun

Shyam Bhatia, India Today's West Asia correspondent, reports on a project to harness solar energy in a small Egyptian village.

Shyam Bhatia: February 15, 1978

A new solar energy project with profound implications for developing countries, including India, is being conducted in a remote Egyptian village. The project is located in Basaisa village about 95 km northeast of Cairo.

It consists in the first instance of a solar energy panel, donated by a private firm, which charges a 12 volt car battery during the day to provide television viewing for the village in the evening. The second half of the project consists of using two parabolic collectors - concave wooden dishes covered with plastic - which transmit heat to insulated water tanks.

The project is being sponsored by physicist Dr Salah Arafa, from the American University in Cairo, who says he wants to show, how low-cost solar energy units can meet the basic needs of Egypt's rural population.

His work has already attracted considerable international interest. Only last year the National Science Foundation of America invited him to apply for a grant that would allow his project to be expanded to a much wider geographical area. When the grant is approved, the 35 year old scientist hopes to extend his work to more villages in Egypt and also in the Sudan.

Dr Arafa, a solid-state physicist by training, originally formulated his plans about three years ago when he had just become interested in solar energy as a fast developing branch of science. "The professional choice I faced was whether to continue as before - part pure researcher and part teacher - or to use my abilities to meeting human needs on a practical everyday level."

Having made his decision, Dr Arafa then began searching for a suitable area in which to carry out his field work. He chose Basaisa because of its proximity to Cairo and also because it contained features common to many Egyptian villages.

Basaisa is a typical Nile delta village with its 40 families living in mud-brick houses thatched with grass roofs. There is no electricity, literacy levels are a low 10 per cent and the annual per capita income is only Rs 3,000.

The solar project in Basaisa has not led to a dramatic rise in the standard of living, but its impact on villagers' lives has none the less been considerable. Says village spokesman Mohammed Shafei, aged 40, "We used to talk a lot in the village about how different our lives would be when the Government provided us with electricity.

"Now instead of waiting for the Government, we are changing our lives by our own efforts. We think many things will be possible in the future by using the sun's rays." So enthusiastic are the villagers that they have been pressing Dr Arafa to come up with still more ideas for harnessing solar power. As a result work has already begun on constructing a solar unit to provide power for a huge communal oven in the village square.

Another idea under consideration is to use solar energy for de-salination and purification purposes. This idea, which has received wide publicity in the village, is to condense brackish and stagnant water. Condensation thus aids filtration and thus provides clean water for everyone.

The villagers' current enthusiasm is a far cry from two years ago when Dr Arafa's arrival was treated with suspicion. In order to overcome any hostility Dr Arafa decided to introduce the concept of solar research only after he made friends with all the local families.

For two years he ran weekly classes in English and carpentry which led to regular contacts with all the families. Then six months ago he brought a simple lense with him to the village and used it to light his friends' cigarettes. "Their reaction was stunning," he recalls. "They thought at first that I was using magic. Later they realized this was all part of what I had talked about on previous occasions."

Within a few weeks the villagers had agreed to accept a solar panel that would power the battery cells for a single television set in the evenings. They also agreed to provide the labour for digging two insulated water tanks. Even the parabolic collectors were built and paid for by the villagers themselves.

Dr Arafa hopes to persuade the Government to earmark funds for other solar projects in the country. "What I hope the Government will realize is that basic energy needs can be met by other than huge and expensive capital-intensive programmes, for example those involving the construction of nuclear power plants.

"Moreover," he adds, "the social spinoffs of grass-roots energy projects are considerable. For example, the villagers, because of their own direct involvement, will not steal vital equipment and sell it in the cities."

The next step for Dr Arafa is to choose six nearby villages where other solar units can be constructed. But this time he will not need audience approval before he begins work. The steady stream of visitors to Basaisa - 5,000 at the last count - since the completion of the first two solar units indicates that surrounding villages at least are likely to give him a free hand.

Meanwhile he is taking time off to write to scientist friends in other countries to acquaint himself with the latest efforts in solar research elsewhere. In this connection he is especially interested in hearing from relevant experts in India because, so he says, development problems in India and Egypt are very similar.
Another point is that the excellence of Indian scientific research is appreciated all over the world, and Dr Arafa wants to see what the latest experiments in India are all about. "Can you put me in touch with solar scientists from India,"he asks?"Who knows, our joint efforts today might lead to something really big in the future?"

The Battle of the Bug

India loses about Rs. 5,000 crores worth of agricultural products every year due to ravages of insects and pests. The loss is about 18 per cent of our total food production, while India's food deficit even during the worst years is around 10 per cent.

India loses about Rs. 5,000 crores worth of agricultural products every year due to ravages of insects and pests. The loss is about 18 per cent of our total food production, while India's food deficit even during the worst years is around 10 per cent. According to WHO estimates, every two acres a farmer cultivates, he grows one to feed insects and pests.

Because of the impending catastrophe, there is keen awareness in research circles now to develop new control methods and improve upon those that are already existing.

Biological control, that is the regulation of plant and animal numbers with the help of natural enemies, is the most potent and widespread pest-control method.

 A number of viruses have been tested for their potential to kill pests. The unit of Invertebrate Virology at Oxford University and Centre for Overseas Pest Research have begun a joint project on a virus which attacks a universal and devastating pest, the army worm moth. Oxford University is also working on viruses which could be useful in controlling pests in sugarcane and pineapple crops. The Unit has identified a virus which attacks the pine saw-fly with 80 per cent success.

The Small Scale Industry Laboratory at Poona has prepared a wettable powder after blending spores and B.thuringiensis toxins. About 150 species of leaf-eating caterpillars of lepidopteron insects infesting cotton, wheat, sugarcane and groundnut crops, are affected by the spray of the powder and die a violent death. Scientists at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre are busy isolating certain viruses and bacteria with high specificity and selectivity to the pest attacking economically important crops like cotton, castor and groundnut.

The successful field trials for the biological control of Lantana weed with the help of a bug, Teleonemia scrupulous, recently won great applause in academic circles. The-Indian Council of Agricultural Research made a cash award of Rs. 15,000 on the single-handed work of C. Lohumi, a primary school teacher of Nainital. The bug saps Lantana leaves and ultimately destroys the entire bush.

Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC), one of the research units under the Indian Council of Medical Research, is now engaged in mass-rearing of a bug that saps blood from mosquito larvae and kills them. VRC scientists have also identified a fungus in paddy fields that also kills the larvae of malaria mosquito. Attempts are being made to grow the fungus on a large scale so that it can help in malaria eradication.

The traditional and the well known predator of the malaria mosquito is a lavivorous fish Gambusia affinis. The eight cm. long fish has a voracious appetite for mosquito larvae. Two-year long experiments conducted with Gambusia showed spectacular results. Immediately after the fish were released in about 3,800 wells and other stagnant waters of Hyderabad city the larvae count dropped and after six months only 18 pupae were found in the water. Another fish, Poecilia reticulata which is commonly known as guppy is also adapted for mosquito control in polluted waters of India, Burma and Thailand.

Chrysanthemum, a popular flowering plant of winter, is used to extract insecticidal pyrethrum. The dried powder of this flower has been used to kill insects since ancient times. It is harmless to mammals and useful against flies, wasps, mosquito and cattle lice. However, pyrethroids break down in sunlight making them impractical for agricultural use. But the new British product NRDC-143 is stable in sunlight for upto five days.

Nicotine extracted from tobacco is also quite effective against insects and pests. Nicotine is usually sold in the form of 40 per cent solution of nicotine sulphate. The stink of the garlic oil can also put an end to house-hold insects, plant pests and mosquitoes. Field trials for mosquito control with garlic oil have been successfully conducted in the Bombay suburbs of Andheri and Chembur by scientists working at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre.

Sex attractants or pheromones are the glamour tools in pest management programmes. These subsequent affect the mating behavior of insects. Traps with sex ???attractants are used to attract insects which are subsequently destroyed. When sprayed into the air, the attractants draw large amounts of males throwing them into complete confusion and making it almost impossible to identify a female and male. The next generation of insects is thus greatly reduced.

A variation of this method developed from the pioneering work of Dr. E. F. Knipling is to sterilize millions of male insects by gamma radiation and release them into the air. In a generation or two, the insect population is greatly reduced. A great success of the sterilization method has been the campaign against screwworm affecting cattle and sheep, by the release of a large number of male adult flies sterilized by gamma radiation. Since 1939, DDT is being used against insects carrying malaria, typhus and yellow fever. Since then a number of other chemical pesticides have, been synthesized and the market is now flooded with new pesticidal chemicals and their formulations.

Pesticides are quick in action. Swarms of insects can be sprayed and killed in flight, protecting entire crops. Whole cities can be sprayed to control insect-borne diseases. Due to these factors the demand has increased at a rate of 20-25 per cent per year. But it is now well-known that indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides has been chiefly responsible for the deterioration of the environment and caused irrepairable damage to the soil, fish, wildlife and man. Beneficial species are destroyed while new varieties of harmful species have thrived with even greater resistance. About 50 mosquito species are reported to have developed resistance after continuous spray of insecticides.

But in the context of the global shortage of food and the recurrence of diseases, the war against insects and pests has to be intensified. The farmers and public health authorities need to adopt an integrated approach to pest management, utilizing a variety of control technologies in an economically and ecologically sound fashion. An integrated approach must include the use of chemicals that interfere specifically with the biochemical systems of the pest but do not harm the environment; the use of biological control agents and natural products; breeding of pest-resistant crops and the introduction of genetically modified pests into natural populations; adjusting planting time and use of a combination of seeds, each resistant to different pests; and finally improved formulations and application methods of pesticidal chemicals.

A Gift of Life

Ritesh, the eldest in a family of three children, had a serious defect in his heart which troubled his breathing. Many heart specialists in India had examined him but could not cure him.

Delhi's Palam Airport saw an unusual reunion on Tuesday, February 3, as the arrival of an Air India flight from Bombay was announced. A small group of men and women, their faces flushed with expectancy, stood silently watching the plane land.

The plane's most important passenger was three-year old Ritesh Arora, popularly known as the "pink baby." As soon as Ritesh carried by his father emerged from the customs he was showered with hugs and kisses from loving relatives. The happiness and excitement proved too much for his mother who burst into tears as she lifted her baby in her arms. A crowd of reporters gathered to witness the touching reunion and the next day the story was splashed on the front page of all the morning dailies.

Relatives and friends crammed into the Arora's small house where little Ritesh was the centre of attention. They had reason to rejoice. Ritesh, the eldest in a family of three children, had a serious defect in his heart which troubled his breathing. Many heart specialists in India had examined him but could not cure him. When father and son left for the U.S. eight months ago, many of the family were not sure that they would ever see the little boy again. Heart specialists in India had lost hope. Due to the major circulation defect in his heart Ritesh was not given more than a few months to live. Indian doctors offered one remote chance-a major operation in the USA just might save the boy.

Mr. Arora immediately sent off a letter to his sister and her husband informing them of the urgency of the case. After consulting doctors there, they wrote back telling Mr. Arora to bring Ritesh to America. Prospects suddenly looked brighter. But on arriving there Mr. Arora learned that even amongst U.S. doctors there were differences of opinion. Some said that an operation was useless since the boy's lungs were severely damaged from birth. Others considered it a high-risk operation but said that without it Ritesh would not live longer than four months.

The decision was made. The operation was to be performed and Dr. McGoon of the famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota had agreed to perform it, though he placed the chances of survival at 50 per cent.

Then arose the major problem of finance. Medical expenses amounted to almost $ 10,000 (Rs. 85,000) and Mr. Arora, an English teacher at the Government Boys' Higher Secondary School in Shahdara, did not have that kind of money. Having anticipated this problem earlier, Mr. Arora had suggested that Ritesh be adopted by his sister and her husband which would entitle him to have the operation free of charge in the U.S. 

However, once he got there he learned that the proceedings for the operation would take almost a year. Time was running out. The operation had to be performed immediately. Just when he seemed at a total loss, a brilliant suggestion by his brother-in-law saved the situation.

He suggested a letter explaining Ritesh's case-history be sent to the New Jersey Daily News. Within two days the story of the little boy doomed to death for lack of funds was on newspaper's front page. This was immediately taken up by the New York Times and several television channels. Mr. Arora said, "I got so much publicity in the press that I felt more important than President Ford."

The response was astounding-much more than Mr. Arora had dared hope even in his wildest dreams. Within seven days the donations had amounted to $7,000 and by the time he left USA the amount had more than doubled, reaching over $ 15,000. The highest donation was approximately $1,000. Curiously, Mr. Arora never met any of the donors though sometimes he did manage to speak to many of them on the telephone. Touched by the extreme-generosity of the American people he said, "I have no words to express what the American people did for my child. Ritesh is breathing today only because of their generosity."

As soon as the problem of money was solved, speedy arrangements for the five- hour open heart operation were made by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The operation which was performed on January 20, was the first of a two-stage procedure to repair the child's heart. A very tense but confident Mr. Arora waited for the final verdict. He was confident that the operation would be successful, for by a strange coincidence everything regarding the operation had happened on a Tuesday: the day of their arrival in America, the tests and the operation itself all fell on a Tuesday, a day on which Mr. Arora always fasts because of his staunch belief in the diety, Hanuman. Little Ritesh too had helped give him confidence. One night a few days before the operation he woke his father up in the middle of, the night and said, "Daddy don't worry. I know I have to be cut up from here to here (pointing to his heart) but I am going to be alright.' He had in fact gone into the operation theatre without seeming too scared, and had been very friendly with all the doctors and nurses.

But naturally, Mr. Arora did have pangs of acute apprehension. None of the doctors had seemed a hundred per cent sure of success. The operation was a very crucial one. It involved inserting a partition within the heart chamber to regulate the flow of unoxygenated blood to the lungs and oxygenated blood to the body. To prevent excess blood from flowing into the lungs, the pulmonary artery was constricted with a band.

Right from the time Mr. Arora and Ritesh left for Minnesota they were accompanied by reporters and television crews. The journey there, the preparation for the operation, and the final success of the operation were all shown on television and reports appeared in all the newspapers. Mr. Arora said, "We were surrounded by wel1 wishers and blessings right up to the time we left America."

It is barely a month since the operation but already Ritesh is showing definite signs of improvement. His breathing is more regular and the blueness around his lip and nails has completely disappeared. But he is still too weak on his feet to be allowed to stand. When Mr. Arora had asked a doctor in America whether it would be just a matter of months before Ritesh would be walking, the doctor had replied, "It is not a question of months. In a few weeks Ritesh will be running around like normal children.'

However Ritesh will have to undergo the second part of the operation in about five to ten years in which two arteries in his heart will have to be transposed. If that operation too cannot be performed in India, Mr. Arora will take Ritesh to the U.S. again for the operation. He does not anticipate too many difficulties because there is already some money in Ritesh's account in America which has been reserved to pay for the second operation.

But now back in India, Ritesh and his family can look forward to a new life.

Medicine: Magnetic Controversy

The possible hazardous side effects of magnetotherapy which is similar to any microwave irradiation do not, however, deter the faithful followers. For them this is no fake science or miracle cure, but an ancient system of medicine, rediscovered.

The magnetic treatment of various human diseases, said to have been mentioned in the Atharva Veda, but forgotten for centuries till it was recently revived by homoeopaths in the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan, has sparked off a controversy in New Delhi.

Homoepath Dr. H. L. Bansal who runs a free magnetotherapy clinic says magnets act on the iron in the blood, thus benefiting the human metabolism. The pervading influence of the magnetic field on the circulation, the nerves and the muscles cures diseases ranging from apendicitis and asthma to sprains and sleeplessness. But a Delhi University zoologist, Dr. K. S. Balasubramaniam cautions that magnetic treatment harms brain cells, affects the functioning of the vital pituitary gland and causes sterility. His research on the effect of an electromagnetic field on the brains of rats and birds revealed that a magnetic field of 10 gauss caused sperm cells in the testes to decay within two weeks of exposure. The end result was that no sperm cells were formed.

The decay, he says, was caused by the magnetic effect on the higher centres of the brain which control the master gland, the pituitary. He found this by estimating the brain hormones bio-chemically, and feels, that other hormones too were likely to be similarly affected.

The possible hazardous side effects of magnetotherapy which is similar to any microwave irradiation do not, however, deter the faithful followers. For them this is no fake science or miracle cure, but an ancient system of medicine, rediscovered.

The Bansal clinic has a range of magnets in different shapes and sizes and of varying strengths which are measured by the weights of iron they attract. The most commonly used magnet, shaped like a small solid ball sliced in half, lifts a 10-kg. iron weight.

A patient with a skin infection like eczema on his legs is made to sit for about 10 minutes with a foot on each half of a pair of magnets, thus becoming part of the magnetic field. Initially he might feel a slight nausea but usually overt side effects are minimal. About 24 hours is the gap between each application to maintain a steady rhythm. Magnetotherapy is said to be unaffected by any allopathic, ayurvedic or homoeopathic medicines that may be taken concurrently.

Special magnetized health bands and magnetized water are also recommended. The total magnetic treatment is believed to ionize the blood, regulate the autonomic system, produce heat which reduces swellings and pains, and control the secretion of hormones. For the merely old or tired, magnetotherapy promises renewed youth, lustre and vigour.

But the scientific mind of Dr. Balasubramaniam questions: just how does all this happen. Magnetic treatment would ionize the blood and make it flow more freely, but tampering with the iron content of the blood could produce structural changes which would affect the hormones that reached the circulatory system.

Controlling certain growths such as tumours or reducing swellings, he feels, is possible, but this seemed to be working against the biological system and its possible harmful side effects had not been investigated. He also queries how magnetized water works to produce the beneficial effects that therapists claim.

Basic to magnetotherapy is the supposed differential action of the north and south poles. Dr. Bansal says the north pole kills germs and stops the activities of bacteria. Hence it is applied to boils, skin rashes, eczema, glands etc. The south pole generates heat and provides energy. It gives strength and warmth and removes pain and swelling. For localized treatment only one magnet, as the case indicates, is used, Dr. Bansal says. Dr. Balasubramaniam, however, feels that the differential action of the north and south poles is not scientifically substantiated.

Dr. Bansal in turn takes up his zoologist questioner by quoting foreign experiments in biomagnetism which he claims have proved conclusively that no harmful effects have been observed in animals and men exposed to intense magnetic fields for a duration of 15 minutes. The rats and birds in Dr. Balsubramaniam's experiments must have been exposed to an overdose, he says.

Dr. Balasubramaniam himself admits that the intensity which might harm a small animal need not adversely affect a human being whose brain size is proportionately larger. The same result is also not obtained if the magnet is applied to the organ directly and not to the brain. The brain it seems was particularly vulnerable but the primary cells of the organ were not affected, so the damage could be tempor

Researchers Find World's First Warm-Blooded Fish

The silvery fish, roughly the size of a large automobile tire, is known from oceans around the world and dwells hundreds of feet beneath the surface in chilly, dimly lit waters.

• Researchers have discovered a first fully warm-blooded fish that circulates heated blood throughout its body much like mammals and birds.
• The silvery fish, roughly the size of a large automobile tire, is known from oceans around the world and dwells hundreds of feet beneath the surface in chilly, dimly lit waters.
• The warm-blooded opah or moonfish swims by rapidly flapping its large, red pectoral fins like wings through the water, giving it a competitive advantage in the cold ocean depths, reported the team from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries (NOAA Fisheries).
• "That warm-blooded advantage turns the opah into a high-performance predator that swims faster, reacts more quickly and sees more sharply," said fisheries biologist Nicholas Wegner, lead author of the paper.
• "It turns out to be a very active predator that chases down agile prey like squid and can migrate long distances," he added.
• While looking at opah, Wegner recognised an unusual design: Blood vessels that carry warm blood into the fish's gills wind around those carrying cold blood back to the body core after absorbing oxygen from water.
• The design is known in engineering as "counter-current heat exchange."
• Resembling a car radiator, it's a natural adaptation that conserves heat.
• The unique location of the heat exchange within the gills allows nearly the fish's entire body to maintain an elevated temperature even in the chilly depths.
• "There has never been anything like this seen in a fish's gills before," Wegner said.
• This is a cool innovation by these animals that gives them a competitive edge.
• "The concept of counter-current heat exchange was invented in fish long before we thought of it," the authors said.
• Discoveries like this will help scientists understand the role species play in the marine ecosystem.

Science topics

   Natural sciences:

• Astronomy:  

  1. Astrometry
  2. Cosmology 
  3. Extragalactic astronomy
  4. Galactic astronomy  
  5. Planetary science  
  6. Stellar astronomy   
   
• Biology:
  1. Anatomy
  2. Astrobiology  
  3. Biochemistry  
  4. Bioengineering
  5. Bioethics 
  6. Biogeography 
  7. Bioinformatics 
  8. Biophysics 
  9. Biopsychology 
  10. Biotechnology 
  11. Botany 
  12. Cell biology 
  13. Cryobiology 
  14. Developmental biology 
  15. Ecology 
  16. Ethnobiology 
  17. Evolutionary biology 
  18. Forestry 
  19. Genetics 
  20. Gerontology 
  21. Immunology 
  22. Limnology 
  23. Marine biology 
  24. Mathematical and theoretical biology 
  25. Metabolism 
  26. Microbiology 
  27. Molecular biology  
  28. Neuroscience 
  29. Paleontology 
  30. Parasitology 
  31. Pharmacology 
  32. Physiology 
  33. Radiobiology 
  34. Soil biology 
  35. Biostatistics 
  36. Theoretical biology 
  37. Toxicology 
  38. Zoology.

• Chemistry:

  1. Acid–base chemistry  
  2. Analytical chemistry 
  3. Astrochemistry 
  4. Biochemistry 
  5. Colloidal chemistry 
  6. Crystallography 
  7. Chemical engineering 
  8. Environmental chemistry 
  9. Food science 
  10. Geochemistry 
  11. Green chemistry 
  12. Inorganic chemistry 
  13. Materials science 
  14. Medicinal chemistry 
  15. Metallurgy 
  16. Molecular physics 
  17. Nuclear chemistry 
  18. Organic chemistry 
  19. Organometallic chemistry 
  20. Photochemistry 
  21. Physical chemistry 
  22. Radiochemistry 
  23. Solid-state chemistry 
  24. Stereochemistry 
  25. Supramolecular chemistry 
  26. Surface chemistry 
  27. Theoretical chemistry

• Earth sciences:   

  1. Atmospheric sciences 
  2. Ecology 
  3. Environmental science 
  4. Geodesy 
  5. Geography 
  6. Geology 
  7. Geomorphology 
  8. Geophysics 
  9. Glaciology 
  10. Hydrology 
  11. Limnology 
  12. Oceanography 
  13. Paleoclimatology 
  14. Palynology 
  15. Physical geography 
  16. Soil science 
  17. Space science 
  18. Volcanology 

• Physics: 

  1. Applied and interdisciplinary physics
  2. Atomic 
  3. Computational physics 
  4. Condensed matter physics 
  5. Experimental physics 
  6. Mechanics 
  7. Particle physics 
  8. Plasma physics 
  9. Quantum mechanics 
  10. Solid mechanics 
  11. Theoretical physics 
  12. Thermodynamics

  Social sciences:

  1. Anthropology  
  2. Archaeology 
  3. Communication 
  4. Economics 
  5. Ethnology 
  6. Geography 
  7. Linguistics 
  8. Political science
  9. Semiotics 
  10. Sociology 

  Behavioural sciences: 

  1. Ethology 
  2. Psychology 
  3. Social psychology 
  4. Sociobiology

  Applied sciences:  

  1. Acoustics 
  2. Agriculture 
  3. Applied mathematics 
  4. Architecture 
  5. Computer science 
  6. Education 
  7. Engineering 
  8. Ergonomics
  9. Forensics 
  10. Industrial processes  
  11. Information science 
  12. Library science 
  13. Measurement 
  14. Metrology 
  15. Military science 
  16. Optics 
  17. Sports science

• Health sciences:  

  1. Bioengineering 
  2. Dentistry 
  3. Epidemiology 
  4. Healthcare 
  5. Medicine 
  6. Nursing 
  7. Pharmacy 
  8. Social work 
  9. Veterinary medicine

  Others:

  • History of Science 
  • Mathematics 
  • Philosophy of science 
  • Scientific method 
  • Statistics 
  • Technology

Department of Science and Technology (India)

 

• International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI)
• Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC)
• Vigyan Prasar - Established in 1989, Vigyan Prasar (VP) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology whose objectives are to take up large-scale science popularisation tasks/activities, to promote and propagate scientific and rational outlook, to act as a resource-cum-facility centre for S&T communication. It publishes a magazine Dream 2047.
• Indian Board of Science Education (IBSE BOARD)
• National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)
• National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF)
• National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO), Calcutta
• Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun
• Survey of India, Dehradun
• India Meteorological Department (IMD)

Detecting Life in the Ultra-dry Atacama Desert

Chile's Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert on Earth -- and a ready analog for Mars' rugged, arid terrain. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Few places are as hostile to life as Chile's Atacama Desert. It's the driest non-polar desert on Earth, and only the hardiest microbes survive there. Its rocky landscape has lain undisturbed for eons, exposed to extreme temperatures and radiation from the sun.

If you can find life here, you might be able to find it in an even harsher environment -- like the surface of Mars. That's why a team of researchers from NASA and several universities visited the Atacama in February. They spent 10 days testing devices that could one day be used to search for signs of life on other worlds. That group included a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working on a portable chemistry lab called the Chemical Laptop.

With just a small water sample, the Laptop can check for amino acids, the organic molecules that are widespread in our solar system and considered the building blocks of all life as we know it. Liquid-based analysis techniques have been shown to be orders of magnitude more sensitive than gas-based methods for the same kinds of samples. But when you scoop up a sample from Mars, the amino acids you're looking for will be trapped inside of or chemically bonded to minerals.

To break down those bonds, JPL has designed another piece of technology, a subcritical water extractor that would act as the "front end" for the Laptop. This extractor uses water to release the amino acids from a soil sample, leaving them ready to be analyzed by the Chemical Laptop.

"These two pieces of technology work together so that we can search for biosignatures in solid samples on rocky or icy worlds," said Peter Willis of JPL, the project's principal investigator. "The Atacama served as a proving ground to see how this technology would work on an arid planet like Mars."

To find life, just add water

Willis' team revisited an Atacama site he first went to in 2005. At that time, the extractor he used was manually operated; in February, the team used an automated extractor designed by Florian Kehl, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL.

The extractor ingests soil and regolith samples and mixes them with water. Then, it subjects the samples to high pressure and temperature to get the organics out. 

"At high temperatures, water has the ability to dissolve the organic compounds from the soil," Kehl said. "Think of a tea bag: in cold water, not much happens. But when you add hot water, the tea releases an entire bouquet of molecules that gives the water a particular flavor, color and smell." 

To remove the amino acids from those minerals, the water has to get much hotter than your ordinary cup of tea: Kehl said the extractor is currently able to reach temperatures as high as 392 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).

Liquid samples would be more readily available on ocean worlds like Jupiter's moon Europa, Kehl said. There, the extractor might still be necessary, as amino acids could be bonded to minerals mixed into the ice. They also may be present as part of larger molecules, which the extractor could break into smaller building blocks before analyzing them with the Chemical Laptop. Once the extractor has prepared its samples, the Laptop can do its work.

NASA's own tricorder

The Chemical Laptop checks liquid samples for a set of 17 amino acids -- what the team refers to as "the Signature 17." By looking at the types, amounts and geometries of these amino acids in a sample, it's possible to infer the presence of life.

"All these molecules 'like' being in water," said Fernanda Mora of JPL, the Chemical Laptop's lead scientist. "They dissolve in water and they don't evaporate easily, so they're much easier to detect in water."

The Laptop mixes liquid samples with a fluorescent dye, which attaches to amino acids and makes it possible to detect them when illuminated by a laser. 

Then, the sample is injected onto a separation microchip. A voltage is applied between the two ends of the channel, causing the amino acids to move at different speeds towards the end, where the laser is shining. 

Amino acids can be identified by how quickly they move through the channel. As the molecules pass through the laser, they emit light that is used to quantify how much of each amino acid is present. 

"The idea is to automate and miniaturize all the steps you would do manually in a chemistry lab on Earth," Mora said. "That way, we can do the same analyses on another world simply by sending commands with a computer." 

The near-term goal is to integrate the extractor and Chemical Laptop into a single, automated device. It would be tested during future field campaigns to the Atacama Desert with a team of researchers led by Brian Glass of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

"These are some of the hardest samples to analyze you can get on the planet," Mora said of the team's work in the Atacama. She added that in the future, the team wants to test this technology in icy environments like Antarctica. Those could serve as analogs to Europa and other ocean worlds, where liquid samples would be more readily plentiful.

Updated at 5 p.m. PDT on April 20, 2017, to correct headline and first paragraph to indicate that the Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, but not the driest.

News Media Contact

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov