We Can Easily Sail to Arctic by the year 2020!

BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna

Panaji, Apr 16-2k9(UNI) Can any one dream of sailing easily to the North Pole, wading through the icebergs amid bone biting sub-zero temperature?

“ Yes, by the year 2020,” says Dr.Simon Boxall, a specialist on climate change attached with the University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre (UK).

This is possible owing to decrease in ice cover following drastic climate change that is melting the ice in the Arctic continent, he says.

The scientist was delivering a public lecture in collaboration with British Council on "Climate Change from the Arctic to India - Myths, facts and ways forward" at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) here today.

The significant impact of climate change would be noticed in India where a majority of the population live along the coast or in flood prone regions, he opines.

New political moves in the US, the world's greatest contributor to climate change, look set to address some of the issues related.

“However it is in India and China where the biggest advances must be made in the next twenty years if climate change is not to effect a global change,” Dr.Boxall says.

Technology in India needs to lead the way in defying convention for power supply and technology in homes, transport and industry.

It has the most to gain, both in terms of a sustainable environment and in profit from novel science and technology, he said.

Dr. Simon Boxall began his career at the University of Liverpool and has worked with the UNESCO, The European Union Research Centre, The World Bank and European Space Agency over the years.

His current research interest covers a spectrum of topics from oil spills to coastal dynamics but he had spent most of his time on studying climate change and the ocean. UNI/BM/

Experiment on Southern Ocean to Reduce Global Warming Fails

BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna

Panaji, Apr 13-2k9(UNI) An ambitious Indo-German experiment, just concluded on far-off Southern Ocean, to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide by dumping iron power, has dampened the hopes of the scientists.

The experiment, christened “LOHAFEX”, launched amid severe criticism from the environmental groups, however yielded some “surprising insights on plankton ecology” which are under study.

Loha in Hindi stands for iron and Fex for fertilization experiment. The scientists hoped that dumping of iron power in the oceans may result in oceans absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide thus reducing global warming in a big way. 

Emboldened by the initial success of similar small scale experiments on the ocean, the scientists of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) here under the umbrella of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) had undertaken the experiment through the research vessel Polarstern for about 75 days.

They, along with scientists from five other nations who joined the study, returned home after the ardous expedition, to analyse the data they obtained from the “Roaring Forties” of the Southern Ocean where they had fertilized a patch of 300 square kilometers area with four tonnes of dissolved iron powder.

They studied its “effect on the plankton and on ocean chemistry
including concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radioactively important gases continuously for 39 days. 

“The experiment has yielded new insights on how ocean ecosystems function but has dampened hopes on the potential of the Southern Ocean to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus help mitigate global warming,” The NIO source said.

As expected, iron addition stimulated growth of the planktonic algae (phytoplankton) which doubled their biomass within the first two weeks by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the water. The initial uptake depressed partial pressure of CO2 by up to 15 micro-atmosphere, says Co-Chief Scientist Dr. Wajih Naqvi of NIO who was on the voyage although.

However, contrary to expectation, further growth of the phytoplankton bloom was stopped by increasing grazing pressure of abundant,
small crustacean zooplankton (copepods), after which the planktonic ecosystem entered a recycling mode.

 As a result, further CO2 uptake declined and only a modest amount of carbon sank out of the surface layer by the end of the experiment. Hence, the transfer of CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean to compensate the deficit caused by the LOHAFEX bloom was smaller than in most previous experiments, he said.

The larger blooms stimulated by earlier experiments were due to a group of algae known as diatoms which were protected against grazers by shells made of glass (silica) and were known to sink to great depths after blooming.

Diatoms could not grow in the LOHAFEX experiment because all the silicic acid (the raw material of diatom shells) had already been extracted by previous, natural blooms. These were presumably fertilized by natural sources of iron such as melting icebergs and dust blown off Patagonia. 

Hence a major finding was that other algal groups, although stimulated by iron fertilization, were unable to make blooms equivalent to those of diatoms. Since the silicic acid content of surface waters in the sub-Antarctic zone (the region located between the Polar Front and the Subtropical Convergence that accounts for half of the total area of the Southern Ocean) is low, iron fertilization in this vast region is unlikely to result in removal of significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.

“To our surprise, the iron-fertilized patch attracted large numbers of zooplankton predators belonging to the crustacean group known as amphipods” explains Professor Dr Victor Smetacek, co-chief scientist from the AWI.

These shrimp like crustaceans are between two and three centimeters long and feed indiscriminately on other zooplankton including copepods but also organisms much larger than themselves such as salps and chaetognaths.

The dominant species (Themisto gaudichaudii) is the main food of squid and fin whales in the south-western Atlantic. This finding is of particular interest because the amphipods’ biomass in the patch approached that of the better-known krill in productive waters further to the south.

 Indeed, before decimation of the populations of great whales by the 1960s, there were many more fin whales feeding on amphipods in the northern zone of the Southern Ocean, than there were blue whales feeding on krill in the southern zone. 

However, much less is known about the biology of Themisto than of krill, although it provides the food base of the extensive squid fishery in the south-western Atlantic.

LOHAFEX thus provided unexpected insights into the ecology of this neglected key species. A second fertilization of the patch after 3 weeks had no further effect on the phytoplankton indicating that the ecosystem was already saturated with iron. 

Algal species which regularly make blooms in coastal regions including the Antarctic, were most heavily grazed and replaced by tiny algal cells, only slightly larger than bacteria, that are too small to be gathered by copepods.Up to 20 million cells per litre of these minute algae were recorded.

Interestingly, the plankton community in the unfertilized water surrounding the patch developed in the same way and had the same species diversity but was operating at a lower level of biomass.

 “The bacterial community both inside and outside the patch was very
similar and their cell numbers remained unusually low throughout”, said Dr. Bernhard Fuchs of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (Bremen). 

This implies that most of the nutrient recycling (including iron) was carried out by the zooplankton. This is a articularly surprising finding because the microbial food web based on bacteria is believed to be the base of all recycling planktonic ecosystems.

Concentrations of gases other than CO2 produced by the plankton, some of which are potent greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane and others, such as halogenated hydrocarbons which contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion, either did not change or increased negligibly in the bloom. 

By the end of the experiment, chlorophyll concentrations were in decline and the patch will by now have merged with its surroundings leaving behind no trace other than swarms of well-fed amphipods that will probably disperse to feed in less productive waters.
 

These preliminary findings will be supported by additional measurements to be accomplished in the home labs on the many frozen and preserved samples collected during the cruise. The data will be refined and interrelationships between the organisms quantified in the coming months. 

These will be intensely discussed and prepared for joint publication in scientific journals at workshops to be held in Goa by the end of the year. Participants of LOHAFEX are,however, extremely satisfied with the results.

 “It was a strenuous cruise, full of anxiety and hope as we chased our patch around the collapsing eddy. On one occasion we expected it to be sucked out and dispersed by the strong currents surrounding it, but the
patch was stayed as if by a miraculous hand at the exit and hovered there for two weeks until we had to leave”, said Victor Smetacek. 

Strong winds were almost the rule, and the vessel had to leave the area to avoid big storms twice, although shorter storms with wind speeds of over 120 km per hour were weathered on site. Nevertheless, despite the hard work under difficult circumstances, LOHAFEX has been an exciting experience laced with the spirit of adventure and haunted by uncertainty quite unlike other scientific cruises.

“Despite coming from seven different countries and having diverse scientific backgrounds, scientists on LOHAFEX worked for a common cause and lived like a big family. 

The experiment thus provides an excellent example of international collaboration in interdisciplinary ocean sciences”, said Wajih Naqvi.” 

“The officers and crew of the Polarstern did a fantastic job in providing
technical support under testing conditions without which the expedition could not have achieved its objectives”, he added.//EOM//

Marine Bacteria May Be Future Source of Batteries

BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji,April-7-2k9 (UNI) Marine bacteria may be the future source of portable and rechargeable batteries.

They could be used in mobile phones, calculators,microsensors or even body implants like the pace makers for heart patients.

Termed as Microbial Fuel Cells, the Bacterial Batteries,if introduced in even the water treatment plants, could produce electricity by consuming the organic waste.

"This provides us a very clean, efficient and emission free source of generating electricity," if the experiment at the biotechnology department of a local college is to be believed.

The department's student Ms.Natalie D'Silva of the Dhempe College of Arts and Science, run under the Dempo Charities Trust, at Miramar,had today proved she could produce a voltage of 0.47 volts through a circuit of two poles kept in a test tube using the marine bacteria as the source and different organic waste as the media.

These values are much higher than those reported in scientific journals so far. The electricity thus generated could be stored in rechargeable cells or capacitors and utilised whenever needed, thus providing a potential energe source.

Yet to be identified, the bacteria was isolated from three types of marine sponges found in the sea waters of Betul in South Goa. A prototype experiment was carried out in Austraila.

Experiments are at the initial stage and it is to be found whether the voltage and the current output could be enhanced using different media.The project baged a special prize at the state level S&T exhibition recently.

"But the Goan experiment has potential to emerge as a source for cheaper and portable rechargeable source of energy with many applications in modern life," claims Ms.Natalie and her guide Mrs.Arina Frank, the department lecturer.

The objective of the project is to develop MFCs or bacterial cells in which chenical energy is converted into electric energy by bacteria, with non-renewable sources depleting besides causing environmental damage.

Most of us hear of the phenomena of "bioluminiscence" in marine oranisms that illuminate the objects around in the oceans. On similar lines, certain bacteria have the potential to generate
electricity as they work like fuel cells.

This happens when the microbes feed on biomass for respiration releasing electrons and protons.The electrons are transferred to the cathode compartment through an external electric circuit and the protons to the anode through the membrane.

"The biotechnology deparment of the college encourages students to take up research projects to enhance their knowledge, skills and confidcence tobecome future scientists as envisoned by former president APJ Abdul Kalam," claims the college principal Dr.Deshpande.

Some of the projects had been funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Biotechnology,tand the subjects ranged from enzymology, solid wasgte management, plant and animal cell culture and immunology, he added. //EOM//

Indo-German scientists team to sprinkle iron in Antarctic

By Y. Bala Murali Krishna

Panaji, Jan 12-2K9 (UNI) Can sprinkling of dissolved iron in the oceans help absorb the deadly green house gas of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
  Possibly yes, say scientists.
  Amid protests by global environmental groups, an  India-Germany scientific research team has now set sail for the Southern Ocean in a bid to test the efficacy of sprinkling of iron in the Antarctic in absorbing atmospheric carbon to reduce green house gas effect at low cost.

Code-named "LOHAFEX", the joint experiment tests the effects of iron fertilisation on ecology and carbon uptake potential of the Southern Ocean.   A team of 48 scientists, 30 of them from India, had already left for Cape Town in South Africa by the German research vessel "Polarstern" on January 7 without any publicity blitz.

  LOHAFEX is an international collaborative research project jointly conducted by Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for  Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Goa-based National
Institute of Oceanography (NIO), together with scientists from nine other institutions in India, Europe and Chile.

NIO sources told UNI here today that Victor Smetacek(AWI)  and Dr. Wajih Naqvi (NIO) are Co-Chief Scientists of the  project for which heads of the parent organisations-Helmholtz

Association, Germany and the Council of Scientific and  Industrial Research (CSIR), India had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of the German Chancellor 
Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on October 30, 2007.

LOHA in Hindi stands for Iron and FEX stands for  fertilisation experiment that is to be conducted in the  Southwest Atlantic sector of the southern ocean. It takes at least 20 days to reach the area where after the selection of a suitable site, the scientists will dump six tonnes of 

dissolved iron in a patch of 300 sq. km. The cruise will end at Punta Arenas, Chile on March 17.
  The iron fertilisation experiment, the scientists expect, will "lead to rapid growth of the minute, unicellular algae(phytoplankton) that not only provide the food sustaining all oceanic life but also play a vital role in regulating concentrations of the greenhouse gas CO2 in the atmosphere,"sources said.

   Scientists claim five earlier experiments carried out in the southern ocean, including two conducted from RV Polarstern, induced phytoplankton blooms of similar size and composition to natural blooms fertilised by iron in settling dust and from melting ice bergs.

  However, in contrast to the land-remote regions previously fertilised, LOHAFEX will be located in a more productive  region of the southern ocean inhabited by coastal species ofphytoplankton. These grow faster and are more palatable to the zooplankton, including the shrimp-like krill, than their spiny open-ocean counterparts.

  Krill is the main food of Antarctic penguins, seals and whales but their stocks have declined by over 80 per cent  during the past decades, so their response to the  iron-fertilized bloom (if they are present in the experimental area) will indicate whether the alarming decline is due to declining productivity of the region, for which there is evidence.

  Because it will last much longer, the LOHAFEX patch will  also be twice the size of previous experiments to counteract the effects of dilution due to spreading over the 45 days ofthe experiment. Previous experiments showed that effects on the environment were benign and short-lived, scientists stated.

  Dismissing media reports against the experiment and  protests by environmentalists, the scientists said the LOHAFEX experiment does not violate any existing international law.

  "It is being erroneously reported that there exists a moratorium on Ocean Iron Fertilisation (OIF) experiments placed by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD recommendation was aimed at preventing large-scale  commercial OIF activities, making an exception for scientific experiments," the scientists maintained.

  That such experiments were to be restricted to coastal waters was perhaps an aberration, which has since been amended.  The resolution adopted by the parties to the London Conventionand Protocol of the International Maritime Organization(IMO)during a meeting held at London in October 2008 does, in fact, call for further research on OIF, the scientists clarified.

  "It clearly states that legitimate scientific experiments should go on, without restricting such experiments to coastal waters. The IMO resolution, although not legally binding, prescribes that proposals for such experiments be evaluated on a case-to-case basis taking into account possible environmental impact," the scientists said.

The LOHAFEX experiment is a small-scale experiment that will not cause any damage to the environment. As an example, the  level to which the surface-water iron concentrations will be enhanced during this experiment is an order of magnitude lower than natural iron levels in coastal marine environments, they  claimed.

  "In fact, this concentration is so low that most analytical laboratories in the world cannot measure it. In addition, the  scale of the experiment will be of the same order as that ofprevious OIF experiments," the scientists noted.

  They alleged that the groups opposing LOHAFEX were not only unaware of the legal status, but were also not knowledgeable enough about marine environments. Thus, they were indulging indisruptive activities merely to draw media attention to themselves, the scientists added.

  Environmental campaigners said LOHAFEX should not have been  granted permission under international rules and that the 300 sq. km. experiment is neither small-scale, nor confined to coastal waters.
  "We are taken aback by this flagrant disregard of international law," Mariam Mayet, director of the African  Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg said. 
  "Of all countries, Germany, which brokered the moratorium, has jumped the gun on the ocean fertilisation issue again," she added. //EOM//

Pollution: CB has Ambitious Monitoring Plans in Goa

 By Y Bala Murali Krishna

Panaji, Jan 11-2k9 (UNI) The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB)  has plans to install automatic display boards indicating the levels of pollutants in ambient air at different places.   It has also planned to prepare ''status reports'' on various waste management aspects, including solid waste, sewage, biomedical, plastic, e-waste, batteries and hazardous industrial wastes, allwith funds from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). 

  Talking to UNI here today, GSPCB chairman L U Joshi said the board was also trying to develop a software package for total computerisation of its activities like consent management, which fetches considerable revenue to the board.

  The board with Rs 2.71 crore fixed deposits base and earning of Rs 1.15 crore as consent fee from different industries in 2003 has now achieved a whooping Rs 21 crore FD base and an annual consent fee of Rs 2.5 crores under his stewardship.

  He also claimed to have provided sixth pay commission recommended wages to all its employees alongwith a highly computerised work environment at its Patto office headquarters in the heart of the capital city.

  Meanwhile, the board had prepared the State Environment Atlas, the Zoning Atlas and Sitting Guidelines for Industries under a project funded by the CPCB for Spatial Planning.

  ''The documents were forwarded to the state government for consideration and implementation after getting approval from the CPCB. The recommendations made in the reports were considererd in the Draft Regional Plan 2021 for Goa,'' he said.

  The board was also trying to dfisplay information of all  industries in the state on its website.  It had also sought the assistance of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for procuring a mass spectrometre, Liquid Scintillation Counter and HPLC equippment for measuring various types of pollutants in Goa.

  At present, it was engaged in collecting and analysing water samples from 29 locations from rivers and other water bodies in Goa for passing on to the CPCB apart from analysing ambient air quality at the most polluting Mormugao Port, besides Vasco-da-Gama and  Panaji.
  Meanwhile, efforts were on to acquire a common site by the state government for disposal of hazardous waste and bio-medical waste at  Darbandora.

  Presently, the hazzardous waste was beiong treated and disposed at Maharashtra's Taloja facility. Goa generates about 10,000 tonnes of hazardous waste.   Interestingly, Bombay High Court at Goa, hearing a case suo moto on waste management as a public issue recently directed the GSPCB to present status reports on disposal of various wastes including municipal,biomedical and hazardous.

  The board headquarters is now fully equipped with sophisticated instuments to analyse toxic and trace metals, ambient air and water quality in its analytical laboratory set up in collaboration with the CPCB and MOEF.

  It was also in the process of introducing more mobile laboratoties to determine pollutants in the state. //EOM//

Rain Water Harvesting to be Compulsory in Goa

 
BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji,Aug 3-2k8(UNI) Goa,perched on the wastren ghats receiving abundant rainfal every year but often experiencing shortage of water,is keen to make rainwater harvesting compulsory soon.

Visited by tourists numbering more than its own 14 lakh population, this international tourist destination feels choaked at most of the favourite tourist hotspots where ground water is contaminated, causing concern to the authorities.

To circumvent this situation, the government is also seriously examining a proposal to offer incentives to individual households, residential and commercial complexes besides hotels and industries to encourage them undertake scientific techniques of rainwater  harvesting.

Similar schemes have been in vogue in neighbouring states like Kerala and water starved Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh where rain water harvesting,along with cloud seeding techniques gathered momentum to save precious life saving liquid resource.

The proposal of the Goa water resources department is yet to get the cabinet nod. It is likely to come up for discussion and approval very soon, informed sources told UNI.

Goa,spread over an area of only 3,702 square kms, receives an average 300 CMs rainfall every year during June to September and most of it drains into the sea,bemoan scientists.

Hydrologists estimate basinwise average rainwater runoff at a total of 8570 million cubic metres every year and maintain that this entire water resource should not be mistaken as available for 
harnessing.

There are nine river basins in Goa with Zuari having the highest length of 145 km. Many of these rivers are tidal prone upto a distance of 20 to 40 kms and the utilisable part of the yield should be identified basinwise.  

Macro level surveys indicate that the ground water is availalble to the tune of 267 million cubic metres(MCM) and its utilisation to the tune of 27 per cent which is considered safe, though authorities noticed some stressed areas in the coast and industrial belts.

In the post monsoon period, the effluent river flows start dwindling and very few rivers or rivulets remain perinnial, obviating the developmental water resources scenario calling for a blend of storage and run of the river schemes for optimal surface water  utilisation.

As against an estimated 1465 MCM water available, Goa has a storate capacity of only 690 MCM. Ever increasing demand for more wager and global warming threat calls for increased storage capacity which could best be met by rainwater harvesting and water recycling
techniques, authorities argue.

They maintain that even if a small percentage of rainwager falling on the rooftop is saved, it will go a long way in reducing the load on drinking water supply which is on rapid rise particularly in
urban areas.

It is estimated that the consumptive use of water is only about 15 o 20 per cent against 135 litres per capita per day water required for different needs including bathing,cooking,washing, flushing and gardening.Use of rainwater can suffice many of the needs of non-consumptive uses.

The authorities had proposed to make rainwater harvesting compulsory on residential complexes including apartments on a plot of area of 2000 square metres(SM) and above, commercial complexes on plot area of 100 SM and above and industrial units with 10,00 SM and above.

They had also favoured subsidies by way of incdentives on reimbursable basis 50 per cent of cost of Rs.50,000 whichever is less for individual households and 50 per cent of the cost or Rs.2.5 lakhs whichever is less for residential complexes/apartments/commercial complexes.

In case of industries, they proposed to offer 50 per cent of the cost or Rs.5 kakhs which ever is less as incentive for adopting approved rainwater harvesting mechanisms.

In addition, the government proposes to offer 10 per cent rebvate in license fee chargeable to the beneficiaries.

It also plans to institute an award annually carrying citastion and cash prize for ghe best rainwater harvesting practices.  The authorities had also come out with a mechanism for
implementation of the incentive reimbursement schemes by appointing canal officers as supervisors.

Once approved, the authorities had to bring about suitable amendments to related laws and regulations for implementation of the scheme besides making a budgetary provision for the incentives.

"All this will go a long way in not only reducing the load on treated piped water supply,but creating an awareness and saving inwater utiloisation in the long run," the authorities opined.

/ eom/

Mimic nature to develop anti-corrosive nano-materials

 

BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna

Panaji, Mar 1-2k9 (UNI) Mimic the mother Nature that gives clues to develop sticky and non-sticky nano-materials with vital strategic applications like mitigating corrosion claiming Rs 50,000 crore annual loss to the Indian industry, says a nano-technology expert.

  'Nature has plenty of examples like the shark having anti-sticky skin, the gecko (lizard) and the frog with sticky foot/pods. Even the Lotus leaf on the surface of which water does not stick, provides us clues to develop materials with stain resistant, self-cleansing surface texture properties,' avers Prof Asutosh Sharma, department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-Kanpur.

  The research could be enhanced using the nano-technology tools through the novel approach to develop anti-stick and anti-skid coatings/paints for potential marine applications to save precious foreign exchange, Prof Sharma told UNI.

  He was here recently in connection with the just concluded four-day International symposium on 'Surface Protective Coatings and Paint Exhibition' organised by the Indian Chapter of the Society for Surface Protective Coatings.

  Prof Asutosh, also a member of the National Nano Science and Technology Mission, had urged the researchers to take the benefits of the Nano Mission for developing micro/nano-coatings to benefit the industry.

  He called for interaction between the academia and the industry for enhancing research on developing anti-corrosion nano-materials using the Nano Mission which offers Rs 50 lakhs soft loans for the  researchers.

  One can use electric field methods to develop nano-surfaces and textures in fabricating the materials with critical applications.   ''Think ahead of the world. No reverse engineering in this  research,' he said. 

   The anti-corrosion market is worth Rs 15,000 crore even as the expenditure on the account was on rise every year with applications on the hydrocarbon sector, particularly offshore structures, power, aerospace and infrastructure sectors. India had been importing anti-corrosion material to the tune of 25 million USD to mitigate the menace.

  The Centre has initiated the Nano Mission with a corpus of Rs  1,000 crores for five years with the Department of Science and Technology being the nodal agency for implementing its projects.

  Capacity-building in this upcoming area of research will be of utmost importance for the Nano Mission so that India emerges as a global knowledge-hub in this field also. 

  For this, research on fundamental aspects of nanoscience and training of large number of manpower will receive prime attention. Equally importantly, the Nano Mission will strive for development of products and processes for national development, especially in areas of national relevance like safe drinking water, materials development, sensors development, drug delivery and the like.

  The mission will forge linkages between educational and research institutions and industry to promote Public Private Partnerships.  The Nano Mission was so structured that it could achieve synergy between the national research efforts of various agencies in Nano Science and Technology and launch new programmes in a concerted fashion. International collaborative research efforts will also be
made wherever required. 

  The Nano Mission is the result of considerable promotional efforts already put in by the Government of India to promote nanotechnology research. Over 100 research projects have been funded so far. Several centres of excellence on nanoscience and nanotechnology have also been established. 

  A number of post-doctoral fellowships have been awarded and national and international conferences organized. The Government has spent approximately Rs 200 crore over the past five years to promote R&D in this area. These scientists, facilities and centres will form part of the network of the Nano Mission.//EOM//

Ocean Drilling to Study Age of Himalayas

  
BY: Dr.Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji, Mar 2-2k9(UNI) An Indo-British joint scientific study has established that mighty Himalayas that have a bearing on Indian economy through onset of monsoons, started growing 15.4 to 13.9 millions years ago, but not 8 million years as is popularly believed.

To validate the finding further, Scientists of the prestigious National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) here may join the UK team of researchers in deep-sea drilling of the Central Indian Ocean to unlock the secrets of the birth and growth of Himalayas and the strengthening of the India-Asian monsoons.

Disclosing this to UNI here today, a member of the joint study team Dr.K.S.Krishna of the NIO said the deep sea drilling programme, to begin in February 2011 and completed within two months, will be launched under the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP) based in the USA and Japan under a consortium for which India has become an associate member recently.

The consortium had cleared the proposal submitted by noted marine geologist Prof. Petre Clift of the University of Aberdeen, UK with the multi-national scientific research focusing on “Mission Monsoon: Climate-Tectonic Interaction in Cenozoic Asia”.

The findings of the Indo-UK study were published in the latest issue of the Geological Society of America journal Geology, on the tectonics-related deformation of the lithosphere below the central Indian Ocean.

India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the United Kingdom’s Royal Society and Natural Environment research Council (NERC) funded the joint research project, Dr.Krishna said.

The study found that the Earth’s strong outer shell – the ‘lithosphere’ – within the central Indian Ocean began to deform and fracture 15.4–13.9 million years ago, much earlier than previously thought, impacting our understanding of the birth of the Himalayas and the strengthening of the Indian-Asian monsoon. 

Other members of the Indo-UK study group, apart from Dr.Krishna, were his British colleagues Prof. Jon Bull of the University of Southampton, and Prof. Roger Scrutton of Edinburgh University. 

They analysed seismic profiles of 293 faults (vertical cracks in the ocean floor) in the accumulated sediments of the Bengal Fan. This is the world’s largest submarine fan, a delta-shaped accumulation of land-derived sediments covering the floor of the Bay of Bengal.
 
They demonstrate that deformation of the lithosphere within the central Indian Ocean started around 15.4–13.9 million years ago, much earlier than most previous estimates.

This implies considerable Himalayan uplift before 8.0 million years ago, which is when many geologists believe that the strong seasonal winds of the India-Asia monsoon first started. 
 
“However,” says Dr. Krishna, “the realisation that the onset of lithospheric deformation within the central Indian Ocean occurred much earlier fits in well with more recent evidence that the strengthening of the monsoon was linked to the early geological uplift of the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau up to 15-20 million years ago.”

The proposed intensive deep-sea drilling within the Bengal Fan would provide better age estimates for the onset of deformation of the lithosphere in the central Indian Ocean and concretise the recent findings. 

There are more weighty geological questions related to the geodynamics of the Indian Plate yet to be understood. Principal among them being the issue of how exactly did the ocean floor buckle and crack in space and time, and what will be the future course of this compress ional activity in the central Indian Ocean. 

The scientists would like to gather new evidences for understanding of why and how the central Indian Ocean region has now become site where mountains are rising up from the ocean floor and cracks are propagating within the crust.

They would also like to find whether the present process could be a pre-cursor to the formation of a subduction zone in the central Indian Ocean.  

India and Asia collided around 50 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics – the large-scale movements of the lithosphere, which continue to this day.
 
“Compression of the lithosphere has caused large-scale buckling and cracking. The ocean floor has been systematically transformed into folds 100-300 kilometres long and 2,000-3,000 metres high, and there are also regularly spaced faults or cracks that are evident from seismic surveys and ocean drilling, ” says Dr.Krishna. 
 The onset of this deformation marks the start of major geological uplift of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, some 4,000 km further to the north, due to stresses within the wider India-Asia area. 

Some earlier studies indicated that it began around 8.0–7.5 million years ago, while others have indicated that it started before 8.0 million years ago, and perhaps much earlier. UNI/BM/
 
  

Goa to Make Rainwater Harvesting Compulsory

BY: Dr.Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji,Aug 3-2k8(UNI) Goa,perched on the wastren ghats receivingabundant rainfal every year but often experiencing shortage ofwater,is keen to make rainwater harvesting compulsory soon.
Visited by tourists numbering more than its own 14 lakh population,this international tourist destination feels choaked at most of thefavourite tourist hotspots where ground water is contaminated,causing concern to the authorities.
To circumvent this situation, the government is also seriouslyexamining a proposal to offer incentives to individual households,residential and commercial complexes besides hotels and industriesto encourage them undertake scientific techniques of rainwater harvesting.
Similar schemes have been in vogue in neighbouring states likeKerala and water starved Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh where rainwater harvesting,along with cloud seeding techniques gatheredmomentum to save precious life saving liquid resource.
The proposal of the Goa water resources department is yet to get thecabinet nod. It is likely to come up for discussion and approvalvery soon, informed sources told UNI.
Goa,spread over an area of only 3,702 square kms, receives anaverage 300 CMs rainfall every year during June to September andmost of it drains into the sea,bemoan scientists.
Hydrologists estimate basinwise average rainwater runoff at a totalof 8570 million cubic metres every year and maintain that thisentire water resource should not be mistaken as available for harnessing.
There are nine river basins in Goa with Zuari having the highestlength of 145 km. Many of these rivers are tidal prone upto adistance of 20 to 40 kms and the utilisable part of the yield shouldbe identified basinwise.
Macro level surveys indicate that the ground water is availalble to the tune of 267 million cubic metres(MCM) and its utilisation to thetune of 27 per cent which is considered safe, though authoritiesnoticed some stressed areas in the coast and industrial belts.
In the post monsoon period, the effluent river flows start dwindlingand very few rivers or rivulets remain perinnial, obviating thedevelopmental water resources scenario calling for a blend ofstorage and run of the river schemes for optimal surface water utilisation.
As against an estimated 1465 MCM water available, Goa has a storatecapacity of only 690 MCM. Ever increasing demand for more wager andglobal warming threat calls for increased storage capacity whichcould best be met by rainwater harvesting and water recyclingtechniques, authorities argue.
They maintain that even if a small percentage of rainwager fallingon the rooftop is saved, it will go a long way in reducing the loadon drinking water supply which is on rapid rise particularly inurban areas.
It is estimated that the consumptive use of water is only about 15 o20 per cent against 135 litres per capita per day water required fordifferent needs including bathing,cooking,washing, flushing andgardening.Use of rainwater can suffice many of the needs ofnon-consumptive uses.
The authorities had proposed to make rainwater harvesting compulsoryon residential complexes including apartments on a plot of area of2000 square metres(SM) and above, commercial complexes on plot areaof 100 SM and above and industrial units with 10,00 SM and above.
They had also favoured subsidies by way of incdentives onreimbursable basis 50 per cent of cost of Rs.50,000 whichever isless for individual households and 50 per cent of the cost or Rs.2.5lakhs whichever is less for residential complexes/apartments/commercial complexes.
In case of industries, they proposed to offer 50 per cent of thecost or Rs.5 kakhs which ever is less as incentive for adoptingapproved rainwater harvesting mechanisms.
In addition, the government proposes to offer 10 per cent rebvate inlicense fee chargeable to the beneficiaries.
It also plans to institute an award annually carrying citastion andcash prize for ghe best rainwater harvesting practices.
The authorities had also come out with a mechanism forimplementation of the incentive reimbursement schemes by appointingcanal officers as supervisors.
Once approved, the authorities had to bring about suitableamendments to related laws and regulations for implementation of thescheme besides making a budgetary provision for the incentives.
"All this will go a long way in not only reducing the load ontreated piped water supply,but creating an awareness and savinginwater utiloisation in the long run," the authorities opined.//EOM//

Seahorses bred in Captivity at NIO-Goa

Dr.Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji,Sept 1-2k8(UNI) The scientists of the premier National Instituteof Oceanography(NIO) here have succeded in breeding the Indianseahorse species under captivity for the first time in the country.

The team of researchers led by R.A.Sreepada are confident ofstandardizing the hatchery and mass culture technology that couldhelp conserve and reproduce the species(Hippocampus Kuda), popularlyknown as yellow or spotted seahorse.
The demand for the seahorse species has been rising particularly inthe use of traditional medicine as "aphrodisics and rejuvenators",and as show pieces in the marine aquaria.
The technology, if perfected, would go a long way in supplementingthe revenue of the fisherfolk and self-help groups depending on thetrade, scientists said.
Uneer the project funded by the Department of Biotechnology,government of India, the NIO biologists collected the seahorsespecies from the wild, grew them to maturity,and allowed them tomate and spawn under laboratory conditions through manipulation offeed and environmental conditions.
Their joy knew no bounds on August 29 last when two male seahorsesdelivered 320 new born juveniles which were being taken care in theaquaculture laboratory, known as fraternity home.
Interestingly, the seahorses comprise of a remarkable andfascinating group of marine fish with unusual body shape andbiology, with the males incubating the fertilised eggs in a broodpouch they carry.
Next 15 days are very criticalfor their survival since they shiftfrom pelagic to the settlement phase, the scientists said.
It might be recalled that NIO is one of the renowned ocean researchlaboratories in the world under the umbrella of the Council forScientific and Industrial Research(CSIR).
Horseshoe Crab's Gene Secrets under Scanner:

Significantly, the NIO scientists had also been credited withartificially breeding yet another marine species of horseshoe crabwhich had been facing extinction following indiscriminate drawal ofits blue blood by the pharmaceutical industry.
Known as the "living fossil", the horseshoe crab's blood serum hadbeen used to detect instantly the impurities of even the minutestlevel including the viruses and bacteria in the blood andpharmaceutical storehouses and even spacecrafts.
The scientists had also succeeded in cloning the seahorse in thelaboratory condition and had been trying to perfect the technologyin shortening the process.
The marine creature, which did not undergo an iota of change in itsbody structure for millions of years, was expected to yield clues toits youtufulness and longivity,with appalling applications on human beings.
The scientisrs, through a collaborative research project, were alsotrying to unravel the secrets of regeneration of its gill within sixmonths of its removal from the body by trying to identify the generesponsible for the factor.
If succeeded, the NIO will have the credit of developing atechnology for natural regeneration of affected/mutated human organsinstead of depending on the artificial cloning technology usingfrontier genetic engineering.//EOM//

Travelling Exhibition: Science Behind Networks Explained

Month-long unique Travelling Science Exhibition on "Network" underway
Panaji, Sept 26 (UNI) A unique month-long travelling scienceexhibition explaining the importance of "networks" in every day lifegot underway at the Goa Science Centre(GSC) today attracting scoresof school children to have a first hand interactive experience with computer touch screens and display panels.

Developed by the National Centre of Science Museums, New Delhi,the exhibition was inaugurated by Goa University Vice-ChancellorDr.D.N.Deobagkar in presence of Doordarshan Kendra station directorC.S.Barve and the GSC project coordinator V.N.Joshi.

Networking behind people, professionals and friends, computers,cell phones, satellite dishes, societies, and even food chains andecosystems besides animal world - all have been explained throughvarious life size display panels and computer touch screens. The panel with networking in games, with football game in progress, attracted many students as Goa is known for its footballgame for ages.

Networking systems in human brain, molecules and biochemicreactions and even food chain in the nature had been explainedthrough thematic panels. Networks formed by flying birds, spider webs and schoolingfishes, leave alone water supply systems had been explained throughmulti-media presentations.

Data Processing and communication networks, computer networks,natural cycles, neural networks and natural cycles, hub and spokeand trunk networks, what not, every networks had been explained indetail to attract the people.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice chancellor said the GoaUniversity had planned to organise collaborative programmes with theGSC to popularise science and its importance in the society in everywalk of life.UNI/BM/

Himalayas Contributing to Global Cooling,Absorbing Carbon Dioxide

Himalayan basin rivers fast weathering, depleting carbon dioxide:scientist

BY: Y.Bala Murali krishna

Panaji,Sept 26(UNI) Faster chemical weathering of Himalayan rockshave been contributing to global cooling in the region, with itsriver basins rapidly absorbing emissions of the noxious green housegas of carbon dioxide,says a study.

"That earth has been cooling since the last 55 millions of years iswell estalished by scientists. But the contribution of the young andgrowing mountains of Himalayas to the cooling is much more than theglobal average," claims nuclear oceanography expert Prof.S.Krishnaswami.

He was part of the group that had been studying various potentialgeochenical aspects of Indian rivers for the last 15 years under theaegis of the prestigious Physical Research Laboratories, Ahmedabad,one of the 38 laboratories under the Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research(CSIR) umbrella.

Recepient of top science awards including fellowship of the AmericanGeophysical Union and now senior scientist of the Indian NationalScience Academy(INSA),Prof.Krishnaswami was in the capital here todeliver the CSIR foundation Day lecture on "Erosion in River Basins of India: Causes and Consequences" at the National Institute of Oceanography(NIO).

Interacting with this UNI orrespondent on its sidelines, he said the group was yet to undertake the study of the South Indian riverbasins even as it had finished the research on Ganga-Brahmaputraunder the Himalayan region besides the Indus and Krishna rivers.

The rapid chemical breakdown of the rocks in the Himalayan regionhas been contributing to the equally rapid control of carbon dioxideemissions into the atmosphere,, thus resulting in lowering of thetemperature,he said.

The extent of the decrease in temperature and the quantum of thecarbon dioxide drawn-down was yet to be studied on other river basins.

Ocean, he said, occupies 95.96 per cent of the earth followed by2.97 per cent by ice caps and glaciers, 1.05 per cent by groundwater, 0.009 per cent buy lakes and 0.0001 per cent by the rivers water.

In this connection, he had quoted a saying from Srimad Bhagwatam which reads ,"O King!,the rivers are the veins of the gigantic body,the trees are the hairs of His body, and the omnipotent air is His breath. The passing ages are His movements and His activities are the three modes of material nature."UNI/BM/

Indian Scientists Set Foot on Arctic First Time

BY: Dr. Y Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji, Aug 3-2k7 (UNI) For the first time, India is setting its foot on the Arctic, the icy continent in the extreme north of the globe, inits quest for unlocking the secrets of life and the environment around.

S&T Minister Kapil Sibal flagged off the expedition in New Delhi on Saturday. A five-member team of inter-disciplinary scientists, led by the director of the prestigious National Centre for Antarctic and OceanScience (NCAOR) Dr Rasik Ravindra at Vasco-da-Gama in Goa, headed for Norway from New Delhi.

Informed sources told UNI today the scientists will reach the research base--Nyalesund, situated 1200 km from North Pole and 79 degrees north of the equator among a group of islands called Svalbard.

They will reach the place from Oslo via London and camp there for about a month to undertake experiments on climate changes,earth sciences and microbiology.

The Expedition is being undertaken in collaboration with Norway under the ''Svalbard Treaty'' signed in the 1920's.

It mightbe recalled that the union ministry of Earth Sciences had given the green signal to scientists to undertake the Arctic Expedition last year as NCAOR celebrated its silver jubilee of the Indian Expedition to the Antarctica which it launched in 1981.

It had also decided to explore the Southern Ocean even as several countries continued their expeditions for many years both in theArctic and the Southern Ocean, revealing startling information onbi-polar sciences.

Negotiations with the Centre were still underway on its expedition to the Southern Ocean, which will be undertaken after acquiring what was termed as ''ice-class vessel'' of our own instead of depending on Russia and other countries for such expeditions in the icy continent.

The debut Arctic Expedition by Indian scientists was expected to enrich the treasure of knowledge on polar sciences, which provide a key to secrets of the origin of the earth and the life around, scientists said.

The other scientists of the expedition team, apart from DrRavindra included Dr S Shivaji, deputy director, Centre forCellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, Dr Dhruva Sen Singhof the university of Lucknow, Dr S M Singh of NCAOR and Dr C GDeshpande, IITM, Pune.

Meanwhile, buoyed by the Larsemann Bay site clearance for locatingthe third Antarctic Research Base Station, 600 km east of thepresent site Maitri in Antarctica, the NCAOR scientists had now beenengaged in ''baseline data'' collection.

It might be recalled thatIndia had hosted for the first time the high-level Antarctic TreatyConsultative Meeting (ATCM) in New Delhi last April. It had given clearance to the proposed site for building the thirdresearch station in Antarctica, which could come up in two years once the work begins.

The scientists, however, continued to collect various data onbiology, geology, lake sediments and geographical mapping at theLarsemann Bay.

To begin with, the Arctic team will work at Ny-Alesund in collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Research Institute, for a period ranging from two weeks to four weeks during August and September.

It will initiate projects on Arctic microbes as work horses of biotechnology, measurement of atmospheric aerosols and ions in theArctic region, and Earth Science studies at Svalbard.

In the second phase, beginning February 2008, the Indian scientists will start work on four projects - Snowpack production of carbon monoxide and its diurnal variability, Sea ice microbial communities project, Carbon-cycling in the near-shore environments of Kongsfjorden and
Understanding the link between the Arctic and tropical Indian Ocean climatic variations.

At present, eight countries-- Norway, Germany, France, Britain,Italy, the Republic of Korea and China-- have their research stations for Arctic research at Ny-Alesund. UNI/BM/

Parliamentary Panel Pulls UP S&T Ministry for Dalays

New Delhi, May 2-2k7 (UNI) A Parliamentary panel has pulled up the Science and Technology Ministry for dilly-dallying in implementing the programmes relating to Ocean Science, dubbing the delays as ''serious instances of bad planning and management''.

''Same old excuses have been given for disproportionate variationsin the utilisation of allocated funds under various programmes,''says the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environmentand Forests, in its 173rd Report.

The Ministry informed the Committee that during 2006-07, onlyRs 85.54 crore could be spent on Indian Meteorological Departmentagainst the Budgetary provision of Rs 105 crore due to delays inprocurement of DCWDS, automatic message switching system (AMSS) andtelecom facilities at field stations.

For tsunami and storm surge warning system, Rs 56 crore werespent against the allocated Rs 95 crore. The savings, the Ministrysaid, was due to delay in finalisation of hardware and softwarerequired for the programme.

Similarly, Rs 47 crore were used on the National Institute ofOcean Technology against Rs 87 crore. The variation was due to delayin commissioning the operation of barge-based desalination plant andin obtaining clearances for acquisition of land towards developmentof sea front facilities.

Advising the Ministry to avoid such administrative delays, theCommittee says it should strategically plan all its activities andaspire for timely implementations of all major projects. The panel has also pointed to the stagnation and lack of avenuesin scientific fields, and has advocated a comprehensive programmethat will have a positive impact on the scientific fraternity.

It has appreciated the research work carried out in Antarctica,and asked the Ministry to undertake every possible institutional andlogistic activity to establish the third permanent Indian Base inthe Larsemann Ranges. It has also recommended that the two new schemes-- Expedition toArctic and Ice-class Research Vessel-- proposed in the XIth FiveYear Plan, should be pursued in a well-planned manner.//EOM//

Bhatnagar Awardee's Cancer Research Dubious:Evidence

By Yashovardhan Joshi
New Delhi, May 6-2k7 (UNI) The controversial Kundu papers on cancer research, which were cleared by a government committee, have now been found to be dubious by a body of eminent scientists.

The Society for Scientific Values (SSV), a watchdog of ethics andvalues in Indian Science, has found clinching evidence that the 2004Bhatnagar awardee Gopal Chandra Kundu and his coworkers are primafacie quilty of misconduct for falsification and fabrication of datain their research papers.

Through its independent investigation, the results of which havecome out this week, the SSV has found that Dr Kundu and hiscoworkers from the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Punefraudulently reused the same data within Paper 1 and Paper II once,and from Paper I and Paper II five times.

''Our own consultations with independent experts, including adigital image analyst, indicate that the similarities between thefigures are too substantial to be dismissed as superficial,'' SSVPresident K L Chopra, a former director of IIT, Karagpur, told UNI today.

The prestigious American Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC),which published the two research papers-- on interaction of proteinsin a particular cancer-- also found the reuse of data from one paperto another, and withdrew Paper II from its publication in Februarythis year.

The two independent parallel investigations by the JBC and theSSV have, thus, come to the same conclusion about misconduct by theauthors of the two papers, bringing into question the reliability ofthe government inquiry committee, headed by Prof G Padmanabhan,which exonerated Dr Kundu and his coworkers of all the charges.

''In the light of these findings, Dr Kundu must take most of theblame for the misconduct as head of the group, and the authoritiesconcerned should seriously reconsider their position in this caseand take exemplary action against all the authors,'' Dr Chopra said.

''Any disproportionate punishment of the students/post-doctorswhile shielding the senior scientists will open up new issues of injustice,'' he added. In fact, an internal inquiry conducted by NCCS, on the e-mailcomplaints of its two students in May June last year, had found Dr Kundu and his coworkers guilty and sought withdrawal of the JBCpapers.

Dr Kundu confessed in writing about the problems in thepapers and agreed to their withdrawal. It was only after he retracted his confession and accused thecommittee of extracting a confession from him under duress that thePadmanabhan inquiry committee was appointed.

The SSV came to know of the two inquiries after Prof Sonan PModak, a former member of the Governing Council of NCCS, made asigned complaint to it. ''The SSV then made several requests for the official record ofthe internal inquiry, but the requests were never answered,'' DrChopra said.

It was during his e-mail interaction with the Society that DrKundu accepted that he had confessed in writing but said theconfession was made under duress. ''We regret the lack of response of the Secretary, Department ofBiotechnology to our queries for six months, and the failure of theNCCS Director to provide information to us regarding the findings ofthe first committee appointed by him, even though he readily sentthe report of the second committee,'' the SSV President said.

''It is extremely important for the NCCS and the Department ofBiotechnology to repair the damage done to the reputation of Indianscience and prove their commitment to research integrity andscientific values through exemplary action,'' he said. The Society also requested the scientific community to develop arigorous, analytical and quantitative scientific method fordetection of image manipulation beyond any doubt and make it widely available.//eom//