In the year 2012, INSA initiated a program called “INSA-100 Lectures” to enable INSA Fellows to visit remote instiutions, schools, colleges and Universities and deliver popular lectures that will not only deal with contemporary developments in the field but also inspire the students and teachers who are deprived of exposure to higher institutions of learning. Frontier Lectures In Biology By INSA Fellows Editor S. K. Saidapur FNA Table of Contents Section 1: General Biology ........................................................................................................................... 4 Biology: Its Past, Present & Future ........................................................................................................... 5 S. K. Saidapur ......................................................................................................................................... Discoveries leading to Innovations For Mankind ...................................................................................... 8 V P.Kamboj ............................................................................................................................................ Growth in Childhood and Adolescence .................................................................................................. 19 K. N. Agarwal ........................................................................................................................................ Nature of Science and Biology Education ............................................................................................... 34 Kambadur Muralidhar ........................................................................................................................... Careers in Science: shaping human lives ................................................................................................ 48 Narinder K Mehra .................................................................................................................................. Excitement and Joy of doing Science as Career ...................................................................................... 56 T.J.Pandian ............................................................................................................................................ Communications in Living Organisms-Paradigms and Puzzles................................................................. 60 Kambadur Muralidhar ........................................................................................................................... Section II: Endocrinology and Reproduction............................................................................................... 78 Reproductive Strategies in Vertebrates .................................................................................................. 79 Bhagyashri A. Shanbhag ........................................................................................................................ Current Status of Fertility Control Methods ........................................................................................... 85 A. Jagannadha Rao ................................................................................................................................ Evolution of Viviparity in Vertebrates .................................................................................................... 92 Bhagyashri A. Shanbhag ........................................................................................................................ Possible significance of expression of hormones and their receptors in cancer tissues ........................... 95 A. Jagannadha Rao ................................................................................................................................ Section III: Genetics and Evolution ........................................................................................................... 101 Packing and Visualization of DNA ......................................................................................................... 102 Alok Bhattacharya ................................................................................................................................. An Introduction to Epigenetics ............................................................................................................. 106 H. A. Ranganath..................................................................................................................................... Transgenic animals: need of the country.............................................................................................. 111 Subeer Majumdar .................................................................................................................................. 1 Power of Evolution .............................................................................................................................. 116 S. K. Saidapur ......................................................................................................................................... Section IV: Plant Sciences ........................................................................................................................ 120 Floristic diversity in India: Inventorization, Conservation and Bioprospection ...................................... 121 Dr. R.R. Rao ........................................................................................................................................... Role of Plant taxonomy and Ethno- botany in advancing Research on Medicinal plants in India ........... 141 Dr. R.R. Rao ........................................................................................................................................... Section V: Diet, Nutrition, Health and Disease ......................................................................................... 152 Diet, Nutrition and Health: Challenges and Opportunities .................................................................... 153 Mahtab S. Bamji .................................................................................................................................... Emergence and Reemergence of Infectious Diseases: How and why? .................................................. 162 Amit Ghosh ............................................................................................................................................ Parasites are more clever than man ..................................................................................................... 173 Hemanta K. Majumder ........................................................................................................................... Targeted Drug Delivery: Magic Bullet Approach ................................................................................... 178 Dr. Pijush K. Das ..................................................................................................................................... Evolution and Human Health ............................................................................................................... 184 S. K. Saidapur ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Foreword In the year 2012, INSA initiated a program called “INSA-100 Lectures” to enable INSA Fellows to visit remote instiutions, schools, colleges and Universities and deliver popular lectures that will not only deal with contemporary developments in the field but also inspire the students and teachers who are deprived of exposure to higher institutions of learning. The INSA generously met the travel of its fellows and also provided honorarium. All those who delivered lectures under the said scheme were also requested to submit summary or full length articles along with a video CD to INSA. The lectures are held in different areas of science by various fellows since then. In one of the Officers’ meeting of INSA an idea was generated to compile such lectures in the form of an e-book and make it available free on the INSA website to serve as supplementary reading material for students and teachers all ove the country. The President of INSA, Prof. R. Gadagkar desired that l compile the lectures held in the field of biology. I gladly agreed to do so. Then I wrote to all the speakers seeking their writeup, expanded summary or full length article in a popular format vis-a-vis the actual lecture delivered and indicate a few papers/books for additional reading in the form of “Suggested Reading”. I finally received 22 articles of lectures delivered during the financial year 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 which are compiled here. I wish others also responded by submitting their articles. However, if the writeups are received in future they could be compiled in the subsequent volumes in this series. These articles are very useful to biology students/teachers as well as to nonspecialist readers outside the realms of biological sciences. They are intended to generate interest in the subject and also provide basic information. I am thankful to INSA for giving me an opportunity of compiling and editing this e-book. I have greatly enjoyed reading the articles presented in this book. I am sure you too will enjoy reading them. May 25, 2015 Dharwad S. K. Saidapur FNA 3 Section 1: General Biology 4 Biology: Its Past, Present & Future S. K. Saidapur