A WORLD WITH UNS PECTRUM THREE S S

THE discovery of a planet orbi ng a triple system has been reported in a away from us, and present in the to about 100 to 140 Earth years, there recent issue of Science (July 2016). The constella on Centauri, which contains is con nuous day light on its surface team of researchers led by astronomers our second nearest star the Proxima because the rising of the big sun ng of the smaller two of the University of Arizona (US) Centauri and so can be considered our follows the se have discovered the planet by using astronomical neighbour. It is about four and vice versa. cated imaging equipments on sophis mes as massive as the , the According to Dr. Wagner, the the European Southern Laboratory’s largest planet of the solar family. In its discovery of HD131399 Ab with its mes in Chile. longest , which is about two three stellar systems has widened our According to its lead author, Kevin that of the Pluto, it takes almost 550 knowledge about and their Wagner, the direct imaging technique on confi gura ons. It may also throw new Earth-years to complete one revolu on of used by them is one of the most around the biggest star of the system, light on the process of forma challenging in modern astronomy. It planetary systems including ours and on called Super-sun by the astronomers, allows to correct the image distor because of its super size. The other two may even help us to explore some of introduced by the Earth’s atmosphere smaller orbit one another and as a the hitherto unexplored virgin areas of and also blacks out most of the sunlight pair orbit their stellar big brother. astronomy. so that even the faintest planet can With three suns, the planet sees Dr. Ramesh Chandra Parida, be seen. On the other hand, most of diff erent wired combina ons of sunrises Contributed by Retired Professor of Chemistry, Orissa the exoplanets discovered earlier have and sunsets. As it , some mes all been iden fi ed by the periodic dips in me and University of Agriculture & Technology. three stars become visible at a Address: Usha Nivas, 124/2445, Khandagiri star light as those pass between us and three sunrise and sunsets occur one their stars. Vihar Bhubaneswar-751030 (Odisha); Email: a er the other. On the other hand, for [email protected] Named HD 131399 Ab, the recently about one-fourth of its , equivalent reported is only 320 light STRANGE STAR FISH AMONGAMMONG thethhe starsttar fi shh groups,groups tthehhe rred-edd- 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 fi sh In the early part of this year, in 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 fi sh length ranges Tu corin district, Tamil Nadu. Of the 85 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

that both permanent and transient Osteoporosis is a result of failure to For pa ents of bone-related ailments, car lage (which later turns into the maintain bone mass in adults and post- good news might be in the offi ng. menopausal women are par cularly bone) are formed from the same cell, on. Un l very Research undertaken by Professor infl uenced by diff erent genes. He suscep ble to this condi Amitabha Bandyopadhyay at Indian further demonstrated in mice and chick recently, its treatment was exclusively ng deteriora on of Ins tute of Technology, Kanpur studying embryos that permanent car lage can focused on preven lage and bone the mechanisms of car be turned into transient car lage under bones post diagnosis but it is only in the forma on in fetuses and the maintenance the infl uence of the same gene that is last few years that drugs helping in bone of joint car lage and bone in adults on of bones in regenera on have been used as treatments, ons responsible for the forma could have ground-breaking applica though there are adverse eff ects related to s and an embryo. in the treatment of osteoarthri Bandyopadhyay and his team them as well. osteoporosis. propose that osteoarthri s is nothing Bandyopadhyay’s group, in In early fetuses the elements of lage collabora on with scien sts of the CSIR- but conversion of permanent car tute (Lucknow), hand and leg skeleton are made of pure to transient car lage to bone in adults. Central Drug Research Ins lage. As the fetus unsegmented car He is now trying to study whether the is trying to understand the mechanism lage element is branched ng drug, grows, this car gene that promotes forma on of bones of ac on of this bone regenera de, which is currently obscure. and segmented, during which the in fetuses can lead to development Teripara majority of the car lage gets converted to s in adults. If true, he They have developed special patented cell of osteoarthri ng bone. Thus, only a thin layer of car lage lines which they plan to use for tes hopes to fi nd means to block this gene on remains, capping the bones at joint sites. which will be a huge leap forward in drugs with possible bone regenera lage is affl icted in er next When this joint car an -osteoarthri s drug development ac vity, paving way for be s. on bone regenera ng adults, it is called osteoarthri research. genera ng dogma, Going against the exis His research also shows a way drugs for treatment of Prof. Bandyopadhyay has shown through forward in osteoporosis treatments. osteoporosis. his work on mice and chicken embryos,

The normal star fi sh regenera on of arms (ML Maheswaran, R Narendran, length ranges between M Yosuva, B Gunalan (2015). 120 mm to 124 mm and Occurrence of Abnormal weight between 173 g to Starfi sh from Olaikuda 175 g. in Rameswaram Islands, South East Coast of India, The reason for this InternaƟ onal Journal of abnormality may be due to the Fisheries and AquaƟ c change that occurs during larval Studies, 3(1): 415-418 matura on or could be caused by abnormal regenera on. Some researchers suggest that devia ons Contributed by Dr. G. Chelladurai, Department of Zoology, Kamaraj College, Tuticorin-628003, from pentamerism are not a heritable environmental perturba ons on the Tamil Nadu; Email: [email protected] character but are a consequence of metamorphosis of larvae and/or abnormal 11 Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 FLYING KITES – WORDS? PECTRUM FLYING S iine thhreadd was used iin earllier S A thickthickk coco oonn ttwtwine thread was used in earlier en for fi ed days to fl y kites. This thread was o fl our with a paste made of glue, glass powder and

(manja) making it sharp enough to snap other kites. Singh Maninder by Illustration This thread has now been replaced by readymade fi ghter threads namely Bareilly, Panda and Chinese thread. fi ne glass These threads have a coa ng of c (nylon) thread coated with ff er in quality, power, strength and cost. Chinese thread is a plas powder, gum, colour and abrasives but di ff ec ve and also cheaper. It has the highest strength, quality and is resistant to water. colour and glass pieces and considered the most e fl ying any type of kite and even while raining. It can be used for thread. The manja thread is a threat to humans, birds and animals. In view of Bareilly thread was introduced as readymade manja ons by professional fl yers in safe grounds. manja threads for fl ying kites except for use in compe ats this Chile has prohibited the use of This year the Independence Day was celebrated peacefully. But in two separate incidents two kids lost their lives fi c as community their thro to were slit by the manja. Such threads pose great threat to society and should be taken up as a challenge by the scien fl ying threads. come up with eco-friendly and harmless kite- l Area, Contributed by Dr. Sumathi S., Deputy Director, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium, 5th Floor, NCUI Auditorium Building, Siri Institutiona Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016; Email: [email protected]

120TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF JC BARDHAN THET country reme- On his return to India Prof. Bardhan them. On the other hand, from his salary mbers Prof. J. C. was appointed as a ‘P.C. Ray Fellow’ at he used to maintain a research assistant Bardhan on his 120th Calcu a University in the year 1930. In (some mes even two), a laboratory birth anniversary. 1955 he went to Utrecht, Holland and assistant and a laboratory bearer. As regards Prof.P Bardhan, a worked with 1939 Nobel Laureate Prof. class lectures, Bardhan was most popular. great synthe c Leopold Ruzicka in the fi eld of terpenoid He used to come well-prepared and put organico chemist, was synthesis. Bardhan worked with Suresh everything in detail on the blackboard. well-known for his Chandra Sengupta to work out a new route He used to teach most complex items like pioneering research in phenanthrene to phenanthrene synthesis, which became sesquiterpenes, steroids, chlorophyll, etc. deriva ves and terpenoid chemistry. popularly known as the ‘Bardhan Sengupta and of course, syntheses of alicyclic rings Bardhan is familiar to organic chemistry synthesis’. including the very large carbon rings using students for his ‘Bardhan Sengupta Along with the highly illumina ng the atomic models. Even a er the class he synthesis’ of phenanthrene. research achievements, Prof. Bardhan was ready to explain those to anyone in his Prof. Jogendra Chandra Bardhan, had excellent teaching capability. R.N. laboratory.” who ini ated the journey of modern Chakravarty, a student of Prof. Bardhan, Prof. Bardhan was awarded the organic chemistry in India, was born on 15 writes, “Dr. Bardhan, while I was working Mouat medal by the Calcu a University, he October 1896 at Vikrampur, Dacca (now in his laboratory, was having only Rs. 250 a was a member of Scien fi c and Technical in Bangladesh). A er his early educa on year as research grant from the university. Terminological Commission, Ministry in Jalpaiguri, he moved to Presidency In those days nothing was available from of Educa on, Government of India and College and then Calcu a University for the Govt. However, he was connected with elected as fellow by the Na onal Ins tute higher studies. A er a D.Sc. in 1924, he Lister An sep cs & Dressings Co. (1928) of Sciences of India (presently Indian moved to Imperial College, London with Ltd. (known as LADCO) in advisory capacity Na onal Science Academy) in 1942. the ‘Palit Travelling Fellowship’ of Calcu a and they provided him with a substan al This stalwart of Indian science passed University to work with Prof. Jocelyn amount as research grant. As the amount away on 23 December 1964. Field Thorpe. He got his D.Sc. in 1928 thus received was deposited in my personal Contributed by Dr. Rajarshi Ghosh, Assistant for his outstanding contribu on in the bank account, it is easy for anybody to Professor, Department of Chemistry, The synthesis of γ-ketonic acids closely allied understand that he never touched, for his University of Burdwan, Burdwan-713 104; Email: to Balbiano’s acid. personal purpose, even a farthing from [email protected] Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016 12 SPECTRUM LONGEST AND FASTEST TONGUE ALIVE THE chameleon has an extremely long tongue, nearly three-fourth the length of its body. It can launch its tongue out, up to two body lengths away to catch its prey. It fl icks its tongue and can snap its prey in 1/25th of a second. This is faster than the fl ickering of our eyes. Anderson of the Brown University, USA, The tongue is capable of gripping a second. For each measurement, a cricket the secret of the chameleon’s success is a small dangling mesh to tempt anything larger than its own body size. hung off the special elas c ssue in their tongues Its s ckiness is due to the presence of the chameleon. This way he could measure which they keep folded like an accordion. mucus, the viscosity of which is roughly the distance the tongue went, the elapsed Just as the release of the bow string can on at 400 mes more than human saliva. The me and the speed and the accelera propel an arrow forward with deadly speed me. He concluded that smaller tongue latches itself on to its vic m with any given and accuracy, the chameleon releases its suc on. The muscle beneath the p of its sized chameleon’s tongue reached faster tongue muscles, which allow its tongue to tongue forms a fl at pad at rest, but turns than larger sized ones. fl ight, spring forward and snare its prey. into a conical depression when in Christopher Anderson gathered ac ng like a suc on cup. Contributed by Dr. K. Venkataraman, twenty species of widely varying sizes of A-T-2 Porkudam Apartments, Bypass Road, The way the chameleon feeds has on chameleon and perched them one by one in Madurai-16 also been the subject of scien fi c a en front of a camera that shoots 3000 frames for centuries. According to Christopher : GUT MICROBES VS GENES A CONUNDRUM THETHE eff ect off gut microbiome, or the reservoir of variety of microbes, on human health has been extensively explored since recent past. Several studies have thrown light on the role of colonic microorganisms in human health. Researchers have found that they off er a symbio c environment by deriving energy from residual diet and secre ng metabolites which in turn are implicated in various human metabolic pathways. Altera on of microbial profi les results in the transforma on of host-microbiome homeostasis which could lead to the development of diseases like diabetes, colon cancer, psoriasis, obesity, IBD, cardiovascular diseases, etc. There are ample researches showing how microbes are crucial in sustaining our healthy status. One example is obesity. To know how gut microbes related with obesity, an experiment was conducted by Backhed et al. in mice. The result showed that the changes trigger a surprising metabolic mechanism by promo ng the absorp on of monosaccharides from the gut lumen, which results in the induc on of hepa c lipogenesis (Backhed et al., 2004). The gut microbiota also appears to aff ect the central nervous system. A study done in mice showed that the gut microbiota aff ects the behavioral and physiological abnormali es which correlate with neurodevelopmental disorders (Na Fei and Liping Zhao, 2013). Study has also demonstrated that the leakiness of the intes ne was found to be important in Parkinson’s disease development in which also gut microbiota has a major eff ect (Bailey et al. 2011). According to a study published in the 6 November, 2014 issue of Cell journal, genes of a person can aff ect the composi on of the types of microbes that reside in the human gut which is independent of the person’s environment. The study includes more than 1,000 fecal samples from 416 sets of twins. So, who is superior? Does the gene regulate gut microbes or gut microbes regulate the gene? Hopefully, further researches will solve the mystery of who rules inside us: our own genome or our second genome (our microbiome)?

Contributed by Priyanka Sarkar, PhD student under Dr. M.R. Khan, Molecular and Microbial Biotechnology Lab, Life Science Division, Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Boragaon West, Guwahati-35; Email: [email protected] 13 Science Reporter, OCTOBER 2016