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SR 53(10) 10-13.Pdf A WORLD WITH PECTRUM THREE SUNS S THE discovery of a planet orbi ng a triple star system has been reported in a recent issue of Science (July 2016). The years away from us, and present in the to about 100 to 140 Earth years, there team of researchers led by astronomers constella on Centauri, which contains is con nuous day light on its surface of the University of Arizona (US) our second nearest star the Proxima because the rising of the big sun have discovered the planet by using Centauri and so can be considered our follows the se ng of the smaller two sophis cated imaging equipments on astronomical neighbour. It is about four and vice versa. the European Southern Laboratory’s mes as massive as the Jupiter, the According to Dr. Wagner, the Very Large Telescope in Chile. largest planet of the solar family. In its discovery of HD131399 Ab with its According to its lead author, Kevin longest orbit, which is about two mes three stellar systems has widened our Wagner, the direct imaging technique that of the Pluto, it takes almost 550 knowledge about exoplanets and their used by them is one of the most Earth-years to complete one revolu on confi gura ons. It may also throw new challenging in modern astronomy. It around the biggest star of the system, light on the process of forma on of allows to correct the image distor on called Super-sun by the astronomers, planetary systems including ours and introduced by the Earth’s atmosphere because of its super size. The other two may even help us to explore some of and also blacks out most of the sunlight smaller stars orbit one another and as a the hitherto unexplored virgin areas of so that even the faintest planet can pair orbit their stellar big brother. astronomy. be seen. On the other hand, most of With three suns, the planet sees the exoplanets discovered earlier have diff erent wired combina ons of sunrises Contributed by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Parida, been iden fi ed by the periodic dips in and sunsets. As it orbits, some mes all Retired Professor of Chemistry, Orissa star light as those pass between us and three stars become visible at a me and University of Agriculture & Technology. their stars. three sunrise and sunsets occur one Address: Usha Nivas, 124/2445, Khandagiri Named HD 131399 Ab, the recently a er the other. On the other hand, for Vihar Bhubaneswar-751030 (Odisha); Email: reported exoplanet is only 320 light about one-fourth of its year, equivalent [email protected] STRANGE STAR FISH AMONGAMMONG tthehhe star sttar fi shh groups,groups thethhe red-redd- found to be abnormally developed – they knobbed starfi sh is fascina ng and also had four and six arms. the dominant species in the marine ecosystem. The abnormal four-armed star In the early part of this year, in fi sh had a length of 130 mm and weight of March 2016, the red-knobbed star fi sh 143 g, while the six-armed one had a Protoreaster linckii was collected from length of 145 mm and weight of 165 catch landings at Tharuvaikulam coast, g. The normal star Tu corin district, Tamil Nadu. Of the 85 fi sh length ranges between 120 mm to 124 mm and weight specimens collected, two specimens were between 173 g to 175 g. Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 10 SPECTRUM STUDY ON CARTILAGE AND BONE FORMATION SHOWS PROMISING RESULTS For pa ents of bone-related ailments, that both permanent and transient Osteoporosis is a result of failure to good news might be in the offi ng. car lage (which later turns into the maintain bone mass in adults and post- Research undertaken by Professor bone) are formed from the same cell, menopausal women are par cularly Amitabha Bandyopadhyay at Indian infl uenced by diff erent genes. He suscep ble to this condi on. Un l very Ins tute of Technology, Kanpur studying further demonstrated in mice and chick recently, its treatment was exclusively the mechanisms of car lage and bone embryos that permanent car lage can focused on preven ng deteriora on of forma on in fetuses and the maintenance be turned into transient car lage under bones post diagnosis but it is only in the of joint car lage and bone in adults the infl uence of the same gene that is last few years that drugs helping in bone could have ground-breaking applica ons responsible for the forma on of bones in regenera on have been used as treatments, in the treatment of osteoarthri s and an embryo. though there are adverse eff ects related to osteoporosis. Bandyopadhyay and his team them as well. In early fetuses the elements of propose that osteoarthri s is nothing Bandyopadhyay’s group, in hand and leg skeleton are made of pure but conversion of permanent car lage collabora on with scien sts of the CSIR- unsegmented car lage. As the fetus to transient car lage to bone in adults. Central Drug Research Ins tute (Lucknow), grows, this car lage element is branched He is now trying to study whether the is trying to understand the mechanism and segmented, during which the gene that promotes forma on of bones of ac on of this bone regenera ng drug, majority of the car lage gets converted to in fetuses can lead to development Teripara de, which is currently obscure. bone. Thus, only a thin layer of car lage of osteoarthri s in adults. If true, he They have developed special patented cell remains, capping the bones at joint sites. hopes to fi nd means to block this gene lines which they plan to use for tes ng When this joint car lage is affl icted in which will be a huge leap forward in drugs with possible bone regenera on adults, it is called osteoarthri s. an -osteoarthri s drug development ac vity, paving way for be er next Going against the exis ng dogma, research. genera on bone regenera ng Prof. Bandyopadhyay has shown through His research also shows a way drugs for treatment of his work on mice and chicken embryos, forward in osteoporosis treatments. osteoporosis. The normal star fi sh length ranges between regenera on of arms (ML Maheswaran, R Narendran, 120 mm to 124 mm and M Yosuva, B Gunalan (2015). weight between 173 g to Occurrence of Abnormal 175 g. Starfi sh from Olaikuda in Rameswaram Islands, The reason for this South East Coast of India, abnormality may be due to the InternaƟ onal Journal of change that occurs during larval Fisheries and AquaƟ c matura on or could be caused Studies, 3(1): 415-418 by abnormal regenera on. Some researchers suggest that devia ons from pentamerism are not a heritable Contributed by Dr. G. Chelladurai, Department environmental perturba character but are a consequence of ons on the of Zoology, Kamaraj College, Tuticorin-628003, metamorphosis of larvae and/or abnormal Tamil Nadu; Email: [email protected] 11 Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 FLYING KITES – PECTRUM FLYING SWORDS? S A tthickhickk ccoo onon twinettwiine threadthhreadd waswas usedused ini earlierearllier days to fl y kites. This thread was o en for fi ed with a paste made of glue, glass powder and fl our (manja) making it sharp enough to snap other kites. This thread has now been replaced by readymade fi ghter threads namely Bareilly, Panda and Chinese Illustration by Maninder Singh thread. These threads have a coa ng of fi ne glass powder, gum, colour and abrasives but diff er in quality, power, strength and cost. Chinese thread is a plas c (nylon) thread coated with colour and glass pieces and considered the most eff ec ve and also cheaper. It has the highest strength, quality and is resistant to water. It can be used for fl ying any type of kite and even while raining. Bareilly thread was introduced as readymade manja thread. The manja thread is a threat to humans, birds and animals. In view of this Chile has prohibited the use of manja threads for fl ying kites except for use in compe ons by professional fl yers in safe grounds. This year the Independence Day was celebrated peacefully. But in two separate incidents two kids lost their lives as their throats were slit by the manja. Such threads pose great threat to society and should be taken up as a challenge by the scien fi c community to come up with eco-friendly and harmless kite-fl ying threads. Contributed by Dr. Sumathi S., Deputy Director, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium, 5th Floor, NCUI Auditorium Building, Siri Institutional Area, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016; Email: [email protected] 120TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF JC BARDHAN THET country reme- On his return to India Prof. Bardhan mbers Prof. J. C. was appointed as a ‘P.C. Ray Fellow’ at them. On the other hand, from his salary he used to maintain a research assistant Bardhan on his 120th Calcu a University in the year 1930. In birth anniversary. 1955 he went to Utrecht, Holland and (some mes even two), a laboratory PProf. Bardhan, a worked with 1939 Nobel Laureate Prof. assistant and a laboratory bearer. As regards great synthe class lectures, Bardhan was most popular. c Leopold Ruzicka in the fi eld of terpenoid oorganic chemist, was synthesis. Bardhan worked with Suresh He used to come well-prepared and put well-known for his Chandra Sengupta to work out a new route everything in detail on the blackboard. pioneering research in phenanthrene to phenanthrene synthesis, which became He used to teach most complex items like deriva ves and terpenoid chemistry.
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