January 2021 30/- A CSIR Publication

S&T
BREAKTHROUGHS
YEAR 2020 AT A
GLANCE
Plus
▶▶ Remembering Roddam Narasimha
and Narinder Singh Kapany
▶▶ AK Raychaudhuri – Unsung Hero of
the Cosmos
▶▶ COVID-19 Vaccine: Where Are We?
▶▶ Impact of COVID-19 on Children
▶▶ Two Decades of Human Genome
Project
▶▶ 125th Year of the Discovery of X-rays
▶▶ Puzzles, COVID Q&A & Cartoons
 Contents
Science Vol. 58 No. 1 January 2021 ISSN: 2582-6492 (Online) ISSN: 0036-8512 (Print)
CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication And Information Resources (NISCAIR)
REPORTER Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

EDITORIAL COVER STORY

Transforming India’s STI
Ecosystem............................................................................................Pg 9 S&T Breakthroughs – Year 2020 Pg 10
Hasan Jawaid Khan
at a Glance
Sonali Nagar
FEATURES
COVID-19 Vaccine:
Where Are We?.............................................................................Pg22
Jyoti Sharma & Sanjeev Kumar Varshney

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Nutritional
Security of Children..................................................................Pg 26
Jaydev Jana

Two Decades of Human Genome

Project.................................................................................................Pg 28
Biju Dharmapalan UN Ocean Science Decade:
2021-2030..........................................................................................Pg 38
Anil Pratap Singh

AK Raychaudhuri – The Unsung Hero of

the Cosmos.......................................................................................Pg 42
Maitreyo Bhattacharjee

125th Year of the Discovery of

X-rays..................................................................................................Pg 44
Nand Lal Mishra

Roddam Narasimha – Dr Narinder Singh

Great Scholar, Kapany: Forgotten Dr APJ Abdul Kalam: Father of Indian
Perfect Teacher ‘Father of Fiber- Missiles..............................................................................................Pg 48
J.P. Agrawal
...............................................Pg 32 Optics’..................................Pg 34
Sumangala Mummigatti Raktim Haldar Report
International Science Journalism
Forum
Harikrishnan Thambi Pg 50

DEPARTMENTS
PHOTO FEATURE................................52 COVID-19 Q&A....................................56 PUZZLE CORNER…............................60
NATURE’S MARVEL............................54 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE.................58 SCIENCE CARTOONS.........................63

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 7

8 | Science Reporter | January 2021
Editorial

Transforming India’s STI Ecosystem

AFTER independence, India’s S&T landscape has been driven by four national S&T policies:
Scientific Policy Resolution, 1958; Technology Policy Statement, 1983; Science & Technology
Policy 2003, and the Science Technology and Innovation Policy 2013. The first day of the

Science year 2021 saw the first glimpses of a new science, technology and innovation policy as the
Department of Science & Technology made a draft of the new policy public for comments
R E P O R T ER and suggestions.
DIRECTOR Shaped by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call for an Atmanirbhar or self-reliant
DR RANJANA AGGARWAL India, the new policy proposes key reforms and suggests new establishments to bring about
a transformation in the country’s science and technology infrastructure to make it globally
EDITOR competitive and relevant while at the same time driving indigenous capacity in key areas and
HASAN JAWAID KHAN critical technologies. The new policy proposes to bring about this transformation through
key measures that include creation of a National STI Observatory, Technology Support
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Framework, Strategic Technology Board (STB) and a Strategic Technology Development
SONALI NAGAR
MEHER WAN
Fund (STDF), among other measures.
As envisaged in the new policy, the National STI Observatory would be a centrally
coordinated repository hosting all financial schemes, programmes, grants and incentives
LAYOUT & DESIGN relating to the science & technology ecosystem in the country. It will also store all data
SARLA DUTTA
related to and generated from the STI ecosystem.
MANENDER SINGH
Among a slew of other measures to accelerate and consolidate technology development
in India, and also driven by the central philosophy of self-reliance, while the Technology
PRODUCTION Support Framework will facilitate creation of indigenous technology and indigenization
ASHWANI KUMAR BRAHMI of technology, a Strategic Technology Board (STB) will act as a link connecting different
ARUN UNIYAL
strategic departments, a Strategic Technology Development Fund (STDF) will incentivize
ANIL KUMAR
the private sector to commercialize strategic technologies for civilian purposes, and an STI
Development Bank will facilitate a corpus fund for investing in direct long-term investments
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT in select strategic areas.
DIVISION To create an environment where grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge play an
CHARU VERMA
increasingly significant role in the overall STI landscape in the country, the policy also hopes
RANBIR SINGH
to create an institutional architecture to integrate Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) and
grassroots innovations into the overall education, research and innovation system. According
January 2021 30/- A CSIR Publication

to the policy, collaborations between grassroots innovators and scientists will be facilitated
through joint research projects, fellowships and scholarships.
With access to S&T research and information to the country’s researchers becoming
difficult owing to the increasing stranglehold of publishing conglomerates, the new policy has
also proposed an open data policy that will make information generated by all publicly funded
S&T
BREAKTHROUGHS research, including its results, freely accessible to everyone. Besides, in a radical move, the policy
YEAR 2020 AT A has also proposed the ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ policy for scientific journals whereby the
GLANCE
Plus
▶ Remembering Roddam Narasimha
and Narinder Singh Kapany
government will buy bulk subscriptions of all the important scientific journals across the world,
and provide everyone in India free access to them.
▶ AK Raychaudhuri – Unsung Hero of
the Cosmos
▶ COVID-19 Vaccine: Where Are We?
▶ Impact of COVID-19 on Children

It is expected that the proposals and initiatives envisaged in the new science, technology
▶ Two Decades of Human Genome
Project
▶ 125th Year of the Discovery of X-rays
▶ Puzzles, COVID Q&A & Cartoons

and innovation policy would measure up to being game changers for the STI ecosystem in the
country fueling the country’s march to a self-reliant S&T landscape that is also globally relevant.
COVER DESIGN Hasan Jawaid Khan
MANENDER SINGH

Science Reporter is published monthly by the National Institute of Science Communication And Information Resources (NISCAIR), CSIR,
Dr K S Krishnan Marg, New Delhi-110 012. NISCAIR assumes no responsibility for statements and opinions advanced by the authors or for any claims made in the
advertisements published in Science Reporter.
For Editorial Queries: Ph.: 91-011-25848702; Email: sr@niscair.res.in; Fax: 91-011-25847062
For Sales & Subscription Related Queries: Ph.: 91-011-25841647, 25846301 Extn. 289; Email: rs@niscair.res.in
For Advertisement Related Queries: Ph.: 91-011-25843359,291; Email: sales@niscair.res.in; Website: http://www.niscair.res.in
Subscription: Inland: 1 yr: Rs 300/-; 2 yrs: Rs 570/-; 3 yrs: Rs 810/- Foreign: 1 yr (Air Mail): US $ 90 (Annual)
© National Institute of Science Communication And Information Resources (NISCAIR)

J an u ar y 202 1 | Science Reporter | 9

COVER STORY

S&T
BREAKTHROUGHS
YEAR 2020 AT A
GLANCE
The year 2020 began on a fearful note with the COVID-19 pandemic
wreaking havoc worldwide. A new deadly virus, a new and highly
contagious disease, almost 73 million infected round the world and
almost 1.6 million fatalities, the disease has so far exacted a huge toll.
The global scientific community responded as one to the challenge
looking for drugs and other treatment options, searching for vaccines,
studying the genome of the virus – everything they could to combat
the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Innumerable innovative developments sought
to mitigate the devastating effect of the disease.
The disease became the most reported disease of all times in every
form of media. Science Reporter too brought to its readers regular
coverage of the various aspects of COVID-19 in every issue since
March 2020. Besides, our team at CSIR-NISCAIR brought out regular
updates from India and abroad through a weekly COVID-19 Bulletin
(www.niscair.res.in) that was initiated in May and continued through 22
issues. Therefore, while reporting on some major S&T breakthroughs
of the year in this issue, we have not considered COVID-19 and related
news.
Even though it seemed as if the focus of the entire scientific
community round the globe had shifted towards the fight against the
deadly virus, innumerable scientific & technological breakthroughs were
notched up by the global scientific community – from unveiling a young
distant milky way look-alike to discovery of the world’s highest dwelling
mammal and many more.
Here’s a look at some of the major scientific stories to break during
the year 2020.

10 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Way. The galaxy is named SPT0418-47 and is 12 billion

SPACE SNIPPETS light-years away from our planet — a very young galaxy. The
study was published in Nature (https://doi.org/10.1038/
World's First 6G Satellite s41586-020-2572-6).
China on 6 November 2020 successfully launched "the
world's first 6G test satellite" from the Taiyuan Satellite
Launch Center in the Shanxi Province to test the technology ESPRESSO Confirms Existence of Proxima b
of Terahertz waves. The satellite was launched into the orbit Astronomers confirmed the presence of Proxima b extrasolar
along with twelve other satellites carrying technologies for planet which has been in question for several reasons. The
monitoring crop disaster and prevention of forest fires. University of Geneva researchers confirmed the existence of
the earth-sized extrasolar planet Proxima b around the closest
Robotic Exploration of Mars — Perseverance Rover star Proxima Centauri in the solar system, using measurements
NASA’s Perseverance Rover — a part of the Mars exploration from the Swiss-built ESPRESSO spectrograph. According to
programme of NASA — was launched on 30 July 2020 from the findings, Proxima b is 1.17 earth masses and located in the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station located in Florida. The habitable zone of its star and orbiting in 11.2 days. The results
exploration is intended to collect rock & soil samples of the were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
red planet. The rover is scheduled to land on 18 February
2021 on Jezero crater on Mars to explore the geologically
diverse landing site and assess ancient habitability.
Source: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

Source: Press Release, University of Geneva

ESO’s VLT Depicts Signs of Planet Birth

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope
(ESO’s VLT) observed signs of a planetary system being born
in the young AB Aurigae star system which is 520 light-years
Sustainable Process for Space Bricks for Lunar away from our planet in the constellation of Auriga (The
Habitation Charioteer). A dense disc of dust and gas lies around AB
Aurigae and this is where a prominent spiral structure was
In a significant step towards spotted where a planet might be forming. As per a release by
Source: IISc Press Release

space exploration, the Indian ESO, the observed feature could be the first direct evidence

Source: ESO, Press Release

Institute of Science (IISc), of a baby planet coming into existence.
Bengaluru, and the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO),
Bengaluru, developed a
sustainable process to make
brick-like structures on the moon
surface. The process exploits
lunar soil and uses bacteria and guar beans to consolidate the
soil into possible load-bearing structures. The process also
uses urea that can be sourced from human urine. Based on the
research two studies were published in Ceramics International
(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.07.309) and PLOS
One (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236745). 
Signs of Life on Venus
Researchers at MIT
SPT0418-47 — A Young Distant Milky (Massachusetts Institute
Way Look-alike of Technology), Cardiff
Astronomers using the University, and others
Atacama Large Millimeter/ have discovered a living
submillimeter Array (ALMA) organism associated gas
at the Max Planck Institute for namely phosphine in the
Astrophysics have unveiled an habitable region of the Venus
extremely distant galaxy atmosphere which might point
which looks like our Milky to signs of life in the clouds Source: Wikimedia commons
Source: mpg.de/15267623/likeness-of-the-
milky-way
J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 11
Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

of Venus. Scientists did not find any direct proof of living

DRDO Missile Tests creatures there; however, the presence of the phosphine
►► BrahMos Land-Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) — The army gas indicates that its source could be something alive. The
conducted the “Live Mission Tests” of the Land-attack analysis was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on 24 November Clara Sousa-Silva, a research scientist in MIT’s Department
2020 at Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The missile hit a target of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) says in
in the Bay of Bengal accurately. MIT News that, “The reason phosphine is special is, without
►► Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) System — life it is very difficult to make phosphine on rocky planets.
DRDO successfully test-fired QRSAM from ITR (Integrated Earth has been the only terrestrial planet where we have found
Test Range), Chandipur, on 13 November 2020 off the Odisha phosphine because there is life here. Until now.”
Coast. The QRSAM system is designed to provide air defence
coverage for strike columns of Indian Army and can detect
& track targets on the move and engage a target with short R5519 — Cosmic Ring of Fire
halts. Using spectroscopic data gathered by the WM Keck
Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s
►► Enhanced version of PINAKA Rocket System — The system
developed by DRDO was successfully flight tested from ITR, Hubble Space Telescope, lead researcher Dr Tiantian
Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha on 4 November 2020. In Yuan, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All
quick succession, a total of six rockets were launched and Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) with other
the tests met all targets. The developed upgraded version working colleagues captured a strange super-rare type of
of PINAKA rocket would replace the existing Pinaka Mk-I galaxy named as “R5519” and designated as a 'cosmic ring of
rockets. fire' with a hole in the middle — as it existed 11 billion years
►► Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) — Final user trial of ago. The galaxy has roughly the mass of the Milky Way,
3rd generation ATGM NAG developed by DRDO, was giving some fresh observations to the early theories about the
conducted on 22 October 2020 from Pokhran range. ATGM formation and evolution of galactic structures. According to a
was launched from NAG Missile Carrier (NAMICA) and hit
release by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics
the target accurately defeating the armour. 
in 3D (ASTRO 3D), the galaxy is 11 billion light-years from
►► BRAHMOS, Supersonic Cruise Missile — The ‘prime strike the Solar System and is three million times bigger than the
weapon’ ensuring the warship’s invincibility was jointly
diameter of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier
designed, developed and produced by India and Russia.
The missile was successfully test-fired from Indian Navy’s
87, which in 2019 became the first ever to be directly imaged.
indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai on 18 The study was published in Nature Astronomy.
October 2020. The missile hit a target accurately in the
Arabian Sea. A composite image of the ring
galaxy R5519 compiled from
►► RUDRAM: Anti Radiation Missile — The new first
generation indigenous Anti Radiation Missile was flight single-colour images taken by
tested on 9 October 2020 from SU-30 MKI  fighter aircraft the Hubble Space Telescope.
onto a radiation target located on Wheeler Island off the
Image credit: Tiantian Yuan/Hubble
coast of Odisha. The missile is a potent weapon for IAF for
Space Telescope; astro3d.org.au
Suppression of Enemy Air Defence effectively from large
stand-off ranges, as per PIB release. 
►► Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART)
Star Orbiting a Supermassive Black Hole Confirms
SMART was successfully flight tested on 5 October 2020
from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha perfectly Einstein's Theory of Relativity
meeting the mission objectives. The system is capable of For the first time, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for
conducting Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations far Extraterrestrial Physics have observed a star orbiting the
beyond torpedo range. The SMART missile technologies supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way which
were designed and developed by DRDO laboratories moves just as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of
including DRDL, RCI Hyderabad, ADRDE Agra, NSTL relativity. The orbit is in the shape of a rosette rather ellipse
Visakhapatnam.
as predicted by Newton's theory of gravity. “Einstein’s
►► ABHYAS: High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) General Relativity predicts that bound orbits of one object
ABHYAS was successfully tested on 22 September 2020
from the ITR, Balasore in Odisha. ABHYAS is designed &
developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment
(ADE), DRDO. Two demonstrator vehicles were flight tested
successfully during the trials and the vehicle can be used as
a target for evaluation of various missile systems.
►► Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV)
HSTDV was successfully flight tested from Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam Launch Complex at Wheeler Island, off the coast of
Odisha on 7 September 2020. With the flight test, DRDO
successfully demonstrated the hypersonic air-breathing
scramjet technology.

Image credit: ESO/L.Calcada; mpe.mpg.de

12 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

around another are not closed, as in Newtonian Gravity, but range of distance which could potentially allow the presence
precess forwards in the plane of motion. This famous effect, of liquid water on the surface.
first seen in the orbit of the planet Mercury around the Sun
was the first evidence in favour of General Relativity. One Rare New Super-Earth Planet
hundred years later we have now detected the same effect in The University of Canterbury (UC) astronomers have
the motion of a star orbiting the compact radio source discovered an incredibly rare new Super-Earth planet towards
Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way. This the centre of the galaxy. The research was published in The
observational breakthrough strengthens the evidence that Astronomical Journal. “Using the solar system as a point of
Sagittarius A* must be a supermassive black hole of 4 million reference, the host star is about 10% the mass of our Sun,
times the mass of the Sun,” says Reinhard Genzel, Director and the planet would have a mass somewhere between that
at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics of Earth and Neptune, and would orbit at a location between
(MPE), in a release by MPE. The result was published in Venus and Earth from the parent star. Due to the host star
Astronomy and Astrophysics. having a smaller mass than our Sun, the planet would have a
‘year’ of approximately 617 days. The new planet is among
Highest-ever Resolution Images of the Sun only a handful of extra-solar planets that have been detected
In a fascinating discovery, researchers at the University with both sizes and orbits close to that of Earth,” as per a
of Central Lancashire (UCLan) unveiled the highest-ever release by UC.
resolution images of the Sun which reveal that the outer layer
of the Sun is filled with previously unseen, incredibly fine Bunch of Interstellar Asteroids Discovered
magnetic threads filled with extremely hot, million-degree Astronomers at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil
plasma. Researchers at UCLan with collaborators from have recognised the first known permanent asteroids from
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre (MSFC) unveiled outside our solar system. According to a release by the
the high-resolution observations. This discovery will pave University, “the objects are believed to have been captured
the way for astronomers to better understand how the Sun's from other stars billions of years ago, and have been orbiting
magnetised atmosphere exists. The study was published in the our Sun in disguise ever since”. The study was published
Astrophysical Journal. in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society.
Source: www.uclan.ac.uk

NASA's TESS Discovers First Earth-sized Planet in a
Habitable Zone

Image credit: ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti; www.international.unesp.br

Newborn Baby Giant Planet — 2MASS 1155-7919 b

Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), US,
have unveiled the nearest known ‘baby-giant planet,’ 2MASS
1155-7919 b, approximately 330 light-years from our solar
system. The newborn massive planet situated in the Epsilon
Chamaeleontis Association is close to earth and orbiting
Source: nasa.gov approximately five million years old star. The finding was
published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical
For the first time, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Society.
Satellite (TESS) discovered an earth-sized planet namely TOI
700 d orbiting the host star TOI 700 which is a small, cool M
dwarf star approximately 100 light-years away in the southern
constellation Dorado. However, three planets (TOI 700 b &
TOI 700 c) were discovered orbiting the host star but TOI
700 d is the outermost in the system and the only planet in the
habitable zone. TOI 700 d is 20% larger than the earth, orbits
every 37 days and receives 86% of the energy from its star
which is similar to the energy that the sun provides to earth.
Scientists confirmed the finding by using NASA’s Spitzer
Space Telescope. The zone is habitable because it is in the
Artist’s conception [NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)]
J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 13
Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

2020 International Summits & Conferences

Highlights
ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY ►► VAIBHAV (Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik) Summit 2020
A global virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian
researchers and Academicians commenced on 2 October
500-metre Tall Coral Reef in the Great Barrier Reef – 2020 and concluded on 31 October 2020. The summit is
a confluence of Resident and Overseas Indian scientists/
First to be Discovered in over 120 Years academicians to deliberate upon science and research
Schmidt Ocean Institute announced the discovery of a massive capabilities with a problem-solving approach to address
detached coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef – the first to emerging challenges for global development.
be discovered in over 120 years. The reef was discovered ►► 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting — Via
by Australian scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s videoconference the Environment Ministers of the five BRICS
research vessel Falkor, during a 12-month exploration of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) joined the
the ocean surrounding Australia. The reef is more than 500 Meeting on 30 July 2020 under the presidency of Russia. The
m high – taller than the Empire State Building, the Sydney meet called for joint endeavours to improve the environment
and also promote the Circular Economy.
Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers.
►► Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Health
Minister's Digital Meet 2020 — The meet was held at Nirman
Bhawan on 24 July 2020 and COVID pandemic was the key
topic of discussion. “India proposes to set up a Sub-Group on
Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Traditional Medicine under the existing Institutional Meetings

of the SCO Health Ministers to fulfil the WHO Traditional
Medicine Strategy 2014-2023,” stated a PIB release.
►► 36th ASEAN Summit — The 36th ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) Summit 2020 was held on 26 June
2020 via video conferencing in Hanoi, Vietnam. The theme
of the Summit was “Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN” with
focus on the COVID-19 pandemic response, post-pandemic
recovery and further cooperation with partners.
World's Highest Dwelling Mammal ►► The 32nd Commonwealth Health Ministers’ Meeting — The
meet was held via Video Conference on 14 May 2020 with the
According to a study (10.1073/pnas.2005265117) published
theme: Delivering a Co-ordinated Commonwealth COVID-19
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Response. The meeting highlighted the timely, graded
researchers have discovered the highest dwelling mammal and pro-active measures taken by India towards COVID-19
on Earth — the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis management.
xanthopygus). The newly discovered mammal has broken the ►► 73rd World Health Assembly — The 73rd Session of the
world record of the previously documented highest-dwelling WHO’s World Health Assembly took place in Geneva,
mammal, large-eared pika (Ochotona macrotis). The new Switzerland from 18-19 May 2020. The second session of the
record-breaking mammal was observed at 6,739 metres on assembly was resumed from 9-14 November 2020. Both the
sessions were held virtually in light of COVID-19 pandemic.
the summit of Volcan Llullaillaco along the border of Chile
and Argentina. ►► International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
Governing Council Meeting 2020 — The forty-third session
of IFAD Meeting took place at Rome, Italy, on 11 and 12
World’s Oldest Fossil of Modern Bird — February 2020. The theme for the meeting was “Investing in
Wonderchicken sustainable food systems to end hunger by 2030” highlighting
Source: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/wonderchicken

An international team of the role and experience of IFAD in supporting sustainable,

palaeontologists lead by the inclusive, nutritious and efficient food systems to contribute
University of Cambridge to SDG2.
has identified the oldest ►► 107th Indian Science Congress (ISC) — 107th edition of ISC
fossil of a modern bird ever was held at University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK Campus,
Bangalore, Karnataka, from 3-7 January 2020 with the focal
Image credit: Philip Krzeminski

found, in a limestone quarry

theme “Science & Technology: Rural Development”.
near the Belgian-Dutch
►► World Future Energy Summit 2020 — The Summit was
border. The fossil was organised during 13-16 January 2020 in Abu Dhabi, the
named Asteriornis, in United Arab Emirates with the theme "Rethinking Global
reference to Asteria (Greek Consumption, Production, and Investment." The 2020
Artist’s impression of Titan goddess of falling summit includes forum programmes across five main pillars:
the Wonderchicken. energy, solar, water, waste and smart cities.
stars) and nicknamed
Wonderchicken because of ►► World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) 2020
its look having skull features common to modern chicken and The summit was held in New Delhi, during 29-31 January
duck-like birds. One millimetre beneath the rock, the skull 2020. WSDS is the annual flagship event of The Energy and
Resources Institute (TERI). This year’s theme was “Towards
nearly 66.7-million-year-old was found and designated as the
2030: Making the Decade Count”. The Summit was organised
world’s oldest fossil of a modern bird. It was reported in to address the broad themes of circular economy, water,
Nature. energy, industry transitions, and e-mobility.

14 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Henneguya Salminicola — Unique Non-oxygen

Breathing Animal BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU)  have discovered
a new non-oxygen breathing animal called Henneguya
salminocola, a parasite, a member of the jellyfish family. New Pair of Salivary Glands
Henneguya salminocola is tiny, less than a 10-celled parasite. Medical analysts at Netherlands Cancer Institute-Amsterdam,
The discovery (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909907117) Netherlands, have made an unexpected anatomical disclosure,
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of discovering what seems to be a puzzling set of salivary glands
Sciences says that “the discovery confirms that adaptation in the nasopharynx area which was missed by researchers
to an anaerobic environment is not unique to single-celled for quite a long time. Researchers named them ‘tubarial
eukaryotes, but has also evolved in a multicellular, parasitic glands’ because of their anatomical location. The glands were
animal. Hence, H. salminicola provides an opportunity for identified by doctors while they were examining prostate
understanding the evolutionary transition from an aerobic to cancer patients with an advanced type of scan called PSMA
an exclusive anaerobic metabolism”. PET/CT. This discovery is potentially good news for patients
suffering from head and neck tumours. The research was
reported in Radiotherapy & Oncology.

Image Credit: Dr Stephen Atkinson, Senior Researcher, Department of

Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon USA

Source: https://www.nki.nl/
Oldest Ever Remains of Fungi
A study (10.1126/sciadv.aax7599) published in Science
Advances reported the discovery of fungi fossils in 810 to
715 million-year-old dolomitic shale from the Mbuji-Mayi
Supergroup, Democratic Republic of Congo. The paper says
that “these fossil filaments and mycelium-like structures are
identified as remnants of fungal networks and represent the
oldest, molecularly identified remains of Fungi”. SHANEL Technology makes Human Organs
Transparent
First Fossil Egg Found in Antarctica
For the first
A diagram showing the fossil egg, time, scientists at
its parts and size relative to an Helmholtz Zentrum
adult human. The giant egg has a
softshell. This is shown in dark gray
München – German
in the drawing, with arrows pointing Research Center for
to its folds and surrounding sediment Environmental Health
shown as light gray. Credit: Legendre – have come up with
et al. 2020. a technology called
(Source: https://news.utexas.edu/) SHANEL (Small-
micelle-mediated
Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin have Human Organ
revealed that a mysterious fossil discovered by Chilean Efficient clearing
scientists in 2011 in Antarctica which appeared like a deflated and Labeling) that
football is a giant, soft-shell egg from about 68 million years Graphical abstract adapted from Cellular and
Molecular Probing of Intact Human Organs makes human organs
ago. Scientists believe that the egg is the largest soft-shell egg transparent helping
published in Cell
ever found and the second-largest egg of any known animal. in organ mapping
According to the UT news release, “the specimen is the first and serve as templates for 3D bioprinting technologies. The
fossil egg found in Antarctica and pushes the limits of how technology can be used for developing artificial organs.
big scientists thought soft-shell eggs could grow. Aside from According to the researchers, “SHANEL can develop
its astounding size, the fossil is significant because scientists into a key technology for mapping intact human organs
think it was laid by an extinct, giant marine reptile, such as a in the near future. This would dramatically accelerate our
mosasaur — a discovery that challenges the prevailing thought understanding of organs such as the brain, their development
that such creatures did not lay eggs”. The study was published and function in health and disease”. The study (DOI:https://
in Nature. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.01.030) was published in Cell.

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 15

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

In-vitro Reproductive Genome A study published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and

Researchers at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Biotechnology (https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2019.00482)
Martinsried have developed an in-vitro system to generate a reports the first-ever open-field release of genetically
genome that can regenerate parts of its own DNA and protein engineered, self-limiting insect pest. This approach can reduce
building blocks. According to a release by the Institute, “In insecticide use in crops. The diamondback moth (Plutella
the field of synthetic biology, researchers investigate so- xylostella) is a destructive pest of brassicaceous crops like
called ‘bottom-up’ processes, which means the generation cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and canola and causes huge
of life mimicking systems from inanimate building blocks. damage. However, the new genetically modified strain of
One of the most fundamental characteristics of all living diamondback moth paves the way for protection of crops
organisms is the ability to conserve and reproduce as distinct in future. The study was conducted at Cornell University
entities. However, the artificial ‘bottom-up’ approach to assessing the field behaviour of the new strain of the moth
creating a system, which can replicate itself, is a great carrying a self-limiting gene.
experimental challenge. For the first time, scientists have
succeeded in overcoming this hurdle and synthesizing such a Living Robots from Frog Cells
system.” The research (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14694-2) Scientists from the University of Vermont have repurposed
was published in Nature Communications. living frog cells and assembled them into a living robot called
“Xenobot” – it is tiny, about a millimetre wide. The tiny
Yarn from Human Skin Cells Xenobot can approach a target with a payload like medicine
A team of scientists has developed a “human textile” which which needs to be taken to a particular target inside a patient.
they say is a yarn grown from human skin cells and can stitch In a release by the University Joshua Bongard, a computer
up surgical patients and repair organs. The study published scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont
in the journal Acta Biomateriala says that, “CAM (Cell- who co-led the new research says that “these are novel living
assembled extracellular Matrix) yarns can be generated with
machines. They're neither a traditional robot nor a known
a range of physical and mechanical properties. We show
that this material can be used as a simple suture to close a species of animal. It's a new class of artefact: a living,
wound or can be assembled into fully biological, human, programmable organism”. The research was published in the
Tissue-engineered Vascular Grafts (TEVGs) that have high Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
mechanical strength and are implantable. By combining
this truly ‘bio’ material with a textile-based assembly, this
original tissue engineering approach is highly versatile and
can produce a variety of strong human textiles that can be

Image credit: Sam Kriegman, UVM

readily integrated in the body.”

Graphical abstract adapted from the paper published

(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2020.01.037) TECHNOLOGY
 

First Field Release of Genetically Engineered Moth World’s Smallest Ultrasound Detector Image credit: Helmholtz Zentrum München

Silicon chip (approx. 3 mm x 6 mm) with multiple detectors. The fine

black engravings on the surface of the chip are the photonics circuits
interconnecting the detectors (not visible with bare eyes). In the
Diamondback moth background a larger scale photonics circuit on a silicon wafer.
Image credit: Wikimedia

16 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

• World’s Largest Solar Tree: CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, developed
the world’s largest Solar Tree, installed at the CSIR-CMERI Residential Colony in Durgapur.
• Eco-friendly, Efficient and DME Fired “Aditi Urja Sanch” Unit: CSIR-NCL, Pune, developed the nation’s first pilot plant
operated with clean and cost-efficient fuel DME (Dimethyl Ether) with 20-24 kg/day capacity. The Union Minister of
Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the DME fired “Aditi Urja Sanch” unit along
with the DME-LPG blended fuel cylinders.
• Asafoetida (Heeng) for Cultivation for the First Time in India: CSIR-IHBT (Institute of Himalayan Bioresource
Technology), Palampur, has introduced Asafoetida or Heeng for cultivation in India through the NBPGR (National Bureau
of Plant Genetic Resources), New Delhi. This is the first effort in the country in the last 29 years.
• Affordable Solar Powered Battery based Sprayers to tackle Water Crisis in Agriculture: Due to inappropriate machinery
a major portion of pesticide sprays is wasted, also polluting the soil, water and air. To make spraying efficient, CSIR-
Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur has developed two variants of affordable
solar-powered battery-based sprayers – one for “marginal farmers” and other for “small farmers”.
• Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (BND®) Released at CSIR-NPL: BPCL Quality Assurance (QA) department and M/s Aashvi
Technology LLP (ATL) joined hands with CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), New Delhi, for manufacturing
and marketing of “Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya” (Certified Reference Material) to ensure correct and accurate results of
Lab Instruments under the “AtmaNirbharBharat” programme of Honourable Prime Minister of India.
• Drone-based Geophysical Survey System: CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, developed
an indigenous unique drone-based geophysical survey system for mineral exploration, mapping of basement topography
and also for aquifer mapping of different geological terrains.
• Emergency Restoration System for Power Lines: CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Chennai,
developed an indigenous technology called Emergency Restoration System (ERS). In case of Transmission Line (TL) tower
failures, permanent restoration may take several weeks, however, the lightweight modular system ERS can be used as a
temporary support structure to restore power lines immediately with minimal losses.
• Inexpensive Technology for Production of Silver Nanowires: CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, developed
the world’s most inexpensive technology for continuous large scale production of precision silver nanowires on a large
scale. With this technology, Indian industries will be able to enter into the manufacturing of this precision material.
• 3D Printed Patient-specific Medical Implants: CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh,
developed a technology for manufacturing patient-specific medical implants for several human body parts. The
technology was transferred to industry for commercial production and marketing of the product. Since implants made
with common specifications don’t fit well in different patients, CSIR-CSIO scientists attempted to solve the problem
with the help of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) followed by 3D printing of the biocompatible metals, during which the
patient’s CT-Scan/MRI data is used to design the implant with specifications compatible with patients.
• Early Diagnostic Biomarker for Diabetic Nephropathy: In a breakthrough, a research study identified urinary Asymmetric
to Symmetric dimethylarginine Ratio (ASR) as a potential biomarker for early prediction of Diabetic Nephropathy (DN).
The research was a multidisciplinary collaborative effort of scientists from the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-
NCL), Pune, and clinical researchers from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai, and National
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru. The study was published in the journal Scientific
Reports.
• India’s first Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) Prototype Car: CSIR and KPIT, Pune, conducted successful trials of India’s first
Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) prototype car. CSIR-NCL (National Chemical Laboratory), Pune, indigenously developed
low temperature PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) type Fuel Cell stack for the car which operates at 65-75 degree
centigrade. With further improvements, this is a way forward to have a cleaner world with reduced air pollution.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the flight over Washington State in May 2020. It’s a nine-seater,
Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the 40-foot-long, retrofitted Cessna fitted with a 750-horsepower
world's smallest ultrasound detector —Silicon Waveguide- electric motor. In its maiden journey, the plane was in the air
etalon Detector, or SWED which is based on miniaturised for 30 minutes without a drop of fuel.
photonic circuits on top of a silicon chip. The new detector
is 100 times smaller than an average human hair and can
visualise features that are much smaller than previously
possible. The study was published in Nature (https://doi.
org/10.1038/s41586-020-2685-y).

eCaravan — Largest-ever All-electric Plane takes

Maiden Voyage
Making aviation history, the world’s largest all-electric aircraft
eCaravan (Cessna 208B Grand Caravan) took its maiden

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 17

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

World's Fastest Internet Speed

In groundbreaking results, researchers at RMIT Monash
INDIAN S&T HIGHLIGHTS
and Swinburne universities have recorded the world's fastest
internet speeds using a single optical chip which is enough
India’s AI Supercomputer Param Siddhi Ranks 63rd
to download 1000 HD movies in a moment. “Initially, these
in Top 500
would be attractive for ultra-high-speed communications
India’s AI Supercomputer, Param Siddhi, is ranked 63rd
between data centres. However, we could imagine this
among the top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer
technology becoming sufficiently low cost and compact that it
systems in the world. Param Siddhi is a High-performance
could be deployed for commercial use by the general public
Computing Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer
in cities across the world,” according to RMIT News. The
which was established under the National Supercomputing
results were published in Nature Communications (DOI:
Mission (NSM) at C-DAC (Centre for Development of
10.1038/s41467-020-16265-x).
Advanced Computing).
Source: RMIT

Stable Qubits from Artificial Atoms

Quantum computing engineers at University of New South
Wales (UNSW), Sydney, using high school chemistry
concepts, have developed artificial atoms in silicon chips
offering improved stability for quantum computing. “What
really excites us about our latest research is that artificial
atoms with a higher number of electrons turn out to be
much more robust qubits than previously thought possible,
meaning they can be reliably used for calculations in quantum Low-cost Catalyst for Hydrogen Generation from
computers. This is significant because qubits based on just Water
one electron can be very unreliable,” says Professor Andrew Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter
Dzurak in UNSW News. The research was published in Nature Sciences (CeNS) have come up with an efficient and low-cost
Communications. approach to generate hydrogen from water using Molybdenum
dioxide (MoO2) as a catalyst. Since hydrogen is believed as
the future of clean and sustainable energy, the research shows
it can be produced from water releasing water on energy
generation without any carbon footprint. MoO2 is low-cost
and can be an efficient catalyst to minimise the energy input to
bring about water splitting with great efficiency. The research
was published in Chemistry — A European Journal.
Image credit: Picture: UNSW/Ken Leanfore

Image credit: dst.gov.in

18 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Dhruva — Universal Navigation Receiver Front-end Light-weight Alloy to Replace Steel, Aluminium in
IIT-Bombay has designed a receiver chip called “Dhruva,” Cars
which is a navigation receiver RF front-end Integrated Circuit In view of the need to bring down the carbon footprint, the
(IC, chip) primarily targeted for Standard Positioning Service Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), along with the
(SPS) in civilian applications provided by NAVIC (Navigation University of North Texas and US Army Research Laboratory,
with Indian Constellation) and GPS (Global Positioning has developed a magnesium alloy with significantly improved
System). There is a huge distance between the satellites and properties, that can replace steel and aluminium in automotive
the earth because of which the signals received are very and aerospace components. The use of this lightweight alloy
weak compared to the ambient noise. However, Dhruva chip in vehicle bodies may lead to less consumption of fuel as light
is capable of clearing the interfering signals, separating the vehicles consume less fuel to run thereby increasing energy
weak desired navigation signals. efficiency. The newly designed alloy is strong, exceptionally
ductile and its super-plasticity is accomplished at higher strain-
rates that minimise manufacturing time, effort, and expenses.
Source: https://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/

Efficient, Low-Cost Electro-catalyst from Fish Gills

Image credit: dst.gov.in

New Simulation Code to Earth’s Magnetosphere
Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) researchers have
developed a generalised one-dimensional fluid simulation
code that can study a wide spectrum of coherent electric The Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST),
field structures in the near-earth plasma environment Mohali has developed an efficient, low-cost electro-catalyst
or earth’s magnetosphere. The study (https://doi. from fish gills. The electrocatalyst can develop eco-friendly
org/10.1063/1.5113743) of complicated and nonlinear wave energy conversion devices which are better than commercial
events in the magnetosphere will help advance the information Platinum-on-carbon (Pt/C) catalyst and could be used as
on plasma waves, instabilities and coherent impacts related cutting-edge nonprecious carbon-based electrocatalysts for
with wave-molecule interactions that are valuable in arranging energy transformation and storage applications. The study
future space missions. It can likewise prompt correctly was reported in Inorganic Chemistry, ACS (https://pubs.acs.
controlled research tests for the ever-growing energy needs org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c00446).
of humans.
A Natural Product-based Alzheimer Inhibitor
Energy Efficient Photodetector for Security Researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced
Applications Scientific Research (JNCASR) have developed a natural
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research product based Alzheimer inhibitor by modifying the structure
(JNCASR) has fabricated an economical and energy-efficient of Berberine into Ber-D which is natural, cheap and similar
wafer-scale photodetector (thin slice-based) using gold-silicon to curcumin, available commercially too. Ber-D is soluble
interface, for security applications. The photodetector could (aqueous) & antioxidant and researchers found it to be a
help recognise frail dispersed light as a sign of undesirable multifunctional inhibitor of multifaceted amyloid toxicity
action. The research published in the journal Applied of Alzheimer’s disease. The research was published in the
Electronic Materials of American Chemical Society gives a journal iSceince.
simple and cost-effective solution-based fabrication technique
for high-performance photodetector that displays a rapid NanoBlitz 3D to Map Nanomechanical Properties
response of 40 microseconds and can recognise low light International Advanced Research Centre for Powder
intensities. Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), in association
with Nanomechanics Inc., Oak Ridge, USA, developed an
advanced tool called “NanoBlitz 3D” to map nano-mechanical
properties of materials like multi-phase alloys, composites,
and multi-layered coatings. An important aspect of the process
is its high-throughput, with only a couple long stretches of
testing needed for producing more than 10,000 data points
which can then be processed utilising Machine Learning (ML)
algorithm.
Image credit: dst.gov.in

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 19

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

PSLV Launches EOS-01

The 51st flight of India’s

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV-C49) successfully launched
EOS-01 on 7 November 2020
from the First Launch Pad of
Satish Dhawan Space Centre
(SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, along
with nine international customer
satellites. EOS-01 is an earth
Image credit: dst.gov.in observation satellite intended for
applications in agriculture, forestry
Bacteria to Replace Fertilizers & Fungicides in Tea and disaster management support.
Plants
Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology PSLV-C50 launches CMS-01
(IASST), Guwahati, has unveiled a bacteria called Endophytic PSLV-C50 successfully
actinobacteria to make tea plants chemical-free. The launched India’s
application of Endophytic actinobacteria can reduce chemical communication satellite CMS-

Image credit: Kanak Saha (IUCAA)

use in tea plantation. The work was published in the peer- 01 on 17 December 2020
reviewed scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology. from the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR,
Golden Birdwing — India’s Largest Butterfly Sriharikota.
India’s largest butterfly, the Golden Birdwing (Troides
aeacus), endemic to south India has been discovered after 88
years replacing the unknown specimen which was recorded by
a British army officer Brigadier Evans in 1932. The female
specie with a wingspan of 194 mm was recorded from Didihat AstroSat Discovers one of the Earliest Galaxies
in Uttarakhand.
In a breakthrough,
AstroSat, India’s
Image credit: Wikimedia commons

multi-wavelength
satellite with five
unique X-ray
and ultraviolet
telescopes
working in
tandem has
detected extreme-
UV light from a
Image credit: Kanak Saha (IUCAA) galaxy, namely
AUDFs01, which
INDIA’S SPACE is 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. An international
team of astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-
ACCOMPLISHMENTS University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA),
Pune, made the discovery and reported in Nature Astronomy.
Says Dr Saha, “AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique
feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is
Telecommunication Satellite GSAT-30 much less than the ones on Hubble Space Telescope.” Dr
GSAT-30 was successfully launched on 17 January 2020 Somak Raychaudhury, Director of IUCAA, said, “This is a
into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Kourou very important clue to how the dark ages of the Universe
launch base, French Guiana by Ariane-5 VA-251. “GSAT- ended and there was light in the Universe. We need to know
30 has a unique configuration of providing flexible frequency when this started, but it has been very hard to find the earliest
segments and flexible coverage. The satellite will provide sources of light. I am very proud that my colleagues have
communication services to the Indian mainland and islands made such an important discovery.”
through Ku-band and wide coverage covering Gulf countries,
a large number of Asian countries and Australia through
C-band,” ISRO Chairman, Dr K. Sivan said in an official Compiled by Ms Sonali Nagar, Assistant Editor, Science
statement. Reporter

20 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

FEATURE ARTICLE

the Director-General of the WHO, the

President of France, the President of the
European Commission, and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to speed up the
pandemic response.

COVAX: COVAX is one of the four

pillars of the ACT Accelerator i.e.
Jyoti Sharma & Sanjeev Kumar Varshney diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and
health system strengthening. Coordinated
by the GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, CEPI
and the WHO, COVAX is a platform
to support the research, development,
and manufacturing of a wide range

W
ITH the entire world Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) of COVID-19 vaccine candidates and
struggling with the Severe Accelerator: The WHO is playing an negotiate their pricing. COVAX will
Acute Respiratory Syndrome important role to accelerate development, ensure the equal distribution of vaccine
Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), all hopes production, and equitable access to to those nations who would otherwise be
are now on researchers, industries, policy COVID-19 tests, treatments, and unable to afford these vaccines, as well
makers, and regulatory bodies worldwide vaccines with close collaboration with as several higher-income self-financing
working to find a vaccine. scientists, business, and global health countries that have no bilateral deals with
According to the World Health organizations [the Bill & Melinda Gates manufacturers. The first round of 2 million
Organisation (WHO), there are around Foundation,  Coalition for Epidemic safe and effective vaccine doses will be
200 candidate vaccines in different Preparedness Innovation (CEPI),  the available to high risk and vulnerable
development phases. While Russia has Foundation for Innovative New people, as well as frontline workers by
already announced authorisation for the Diagnostics (FIND),  Global Alliance the end of 2021. At present, 78  higher-
production of Sputnik vaccine, a few other for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI)- income countries and economies have now
fast-tracked vaccines could come to the the Vaccine Alliance, The  Global confirmed their interest in participating in
market anywhere from the end of 2020 to Fund,  Unitaid,  Wellcome Trust, the COVAX Facility, with more possibly
the middle of  2021. For administering and the  World Bank]. The  ACT to follow where 9 vaccines are already in
this vaccine to citizens across the world, Accelerator was launched at the end of the development phase and the other 9 are
the candidate vaccines have to go through April 2020, at an event co-hosted by under evaluation.
a rigorous cycle of pre-clinical and
clinical trials. Earlier data showed that
there is roughly a 7 per cent and 20 per Types of COVID-19 Vaccines Being Developed
cent chance of succeeding for those at

Source: https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/
the pre-clinical and clinical trial stages, Inactivated or weakened Inactivated or weakened virus so it does not
virus vaccines cause disease, but still generates an immune
respectively. The vaccines are also being response
tested at different temperatures as per
different climatic zones. Protein-based vaccines Use harmless fragments of proteins or protein
shells that mimic the COVID-19 virus to safely
Role of the World Health Organisation generate an immune response
(WHO)
Apart from tracking the pandemic, Viral vector vaccines Use a virus that has been genetically
engineered so that it cannot cause disease
publishing updates, advising on critical but produces coronavirus proteins to safely
interventions, distributing medical generate an immune response
supplies to those in need, WHO has
launched platforms to accelerate the RNA and DNA vaccines A cutting-edge approach that uses genetically ijmm.2020.4596
development, production, and equal engineered RNA or DNA to generate a protein
access to diagnostic tools, therapeutics, that itself safely prompts an immune response
and vaccines.

Phase 1
Phase 3
20-50 participants Phase 2
Pre Clinical Trial safety, side effects, 1000-3000 participants
(Testing on animals) appropriate 100-300 participants help ensure it is safe FDA Approval
dosage, method of test effectiveness and effective for
administration and and further evalaute broader use
composition of the safety compare to other
vaccine treatments

Development phases (Clinical Trials) of Vaccines

22 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

At present, India’s Bharat Biotech vaccine available to large sections of

International Limited, SII, Zydus Cadila, the developing world. The Oxford-
Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, AstraZeneca vaccine and a home-grown
Mynvax, and Biological E are among one being developed by Bharat Biotech
the domestic pharma firms that have are at top priority.
already joined the global efforts to find
a preventive measure against COVID-19. Major Vaccine Players
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and
Pune-based SII are among the top runners China
and presently undergoing final-stage The National Medical Products
Phase III clinical trials. Administration (NMPA) of China
While SII is partnering with approved an inactivated COVID-19
AstraZeneca and Oxford University and vaccine ‘CoronaVac’ candidate developed
US-based biotech firm Codagenix, Bharat by Sinovac Life Sciences (Sinovac LS)
Biotech is developing the indigenous under the emergency use programme,
inactivated vaccine based on the SARS- launched in July 2020. The company
CoV 2 virus in collaboration with the used a lab-grown inactivated virus to
Indian Council of Medical Research make the vaccine. The initial published
(ICMR) and the National Institute of results indicate that the vaccine is inducing
Virology (NIV), Pune. Bharat Biotech is immune response within four weeks of
conducting phase three trials of its vaccine immunization by giving two doses of the
candidate in the country by enrolling up to vaccine at a 14-day interval.
WHO is also setting up “Solidarity” 26,000 participants. It will be the largest The Brazilian Health Ministry had
clinical trials that will efficiently evaluate ever efficacy trial in India. a deal to buy 46 million ‘CoronaVac’
potential COVID-19 vaccines at sites It is stated on the website of SII vaccine doses to be administered starting
across the globe. that the final-stage clinical trials are in in January 2020 after getting approval by
process for COVISHIELD, developed the national health regulator Anvisa. The
Vaccine Safety at the SII Pune laboratory with a master preliminary results of phase 3 clinical
Like all vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines seed from Oxford University/Astra trials conducted by Brazil’s leading
need to go through all clinical trials to Zeneca in more than 15 cities in India, biomedical research centres proved to
test their specificity, safety, efficacy, expected to be over by January/February be safe after its two doses were applied
possible side effects, and effective 2021. Further results of phase 2/3 trials to 9,000 volunteers. The ‘CoronaVac’ is
doses. After the successful completion would help ICMR and SII to take the still undergoing phase 3 clinical trials in
of all phases of the clinical trials, a decision on its advanced manufacturing. Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey.
series of independent regulatory reviews SII has already manufactured 40 million China’s state-owned vaccine maker
and approvals in the country where the doses of the vaccine, under the at-risk China National Pharmaceutical Group
vaccine is manufactured and administered manufacturing and stockpiling license (Sinopharm) said it had already inoculated
will also take place. Further, WHO from the Drug Controller General of with its experimental COVID-19 vaccine
may consider it for the procurement to India (DCGI). Under an agreement with a million people including 70 per cent
low- and middle-income countries by Novavax, USA, SII is also ready to employees of Sinopharm, construction
assessing the quality, safety, and efficacy formulate the COVOMAX vaccine from workers, diplomats, and international
of the vaccines. This process is called the bulk vaccine and Matrix-M adjuvant, students. The company claimed that there
prequalification and involves a review of received from Novavax. Apart from the are no side effects till now as the vaccine
all the safety evidence by the GAVI to development, $200 million (€171 million) is prepared by using an inactivated virus
respond promptly, efficiently, and with investment is already in place in SII to that triggers an immune response without
scientific rigour to vaccine safety issues ramp up production to produce 10 million replicating in human cells.
of potential global importance. doses per month to supply the vaccine to Currently, China’s vaccines are
low-income nations through GAVI. looking forward to penetrating the
India’s COVID-19 Vaccines Some prominent vaccine candidates international market and are going to be
India is a hub of vaccine manufacturing being tested in India are ZyCoV-D vaccine tested in the African countries, Brazil,
and is significantly contributing to (DNA COVID-19) being developed by Bahrain, Egypt, Pakistan, and the United
fulfilling more than 50% of the global Zydus Cadila; Sputnik V vaccine, the Arab Emirates. China’s President Xi
demand. The Serum Institute of India Russian vaccine to be marketed by Dr. Jinping also made an offer of extending
(SII) Private Limited is the world’s largest Reddy’s; Panacea Biotec, setting up a cooperation to India on COVID-19
manufacturer of vaccines by volume, joint venture firm in Ireland with US- vaccines during the 12th session of the
producing 1.5 billion vaccine doses based Refana Inc; Indian Immunologicals BRICS.
annually for countries in the developing with Australia’s Griffith University;
world. According to the SII website, it and indigenously developed vaccine Russia
holds 65 per cent shares of vaccines in using MIT platform by Biological E. The Russian ‘Sputnik’ vaccine is named
the world that include polio, diphtheria, India with its huge production after the Soviet-era satellite. The vaccine
tetanus, pertussis, Hib, Hepatitis B, capacity for manufacturing the vaccine is developed by the Gamaleya Research
measles, and rubella. will play a critical role in making the Institute in coordination with the Russian

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 23

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Top 10 COVID Vaccine candidates

S. Nos. Candidate Mechanism Sponsor Trial Phase Institution

1. BNT162 mRNA based Pfizer and BioNTech Phase 3 Multiple study sites
vaccine in Europe and North
America
2. mRNA-1273 mRNA based Moderna Phase 3 Kaiser Permanente;
vaccine Washington Health, USA
3. Ad5-nCoV Recombinant CanSino Biologics Phase 3 Tongji Hospital; Wuhan,
Vaccine China
(adenovirus type 5
vector)
4. AZD1222 Replication- The University of Phase 3 The University of
deficient viral Oxford; AstraZeneca; IQVIA; Oxford, the Jenner
vector vaccine Serum Institute of India Institute
(adenovirus from
chimpanzees)
5. CoronaVac Inactivated vaccine Sinovac Phase 3
(formalin with alum
adjuvant)
6. Covaxin Inactivated vaccine Bharat Biotech Phase 3 National Institute of
Virology, India
7. JNJ-78436735 Non-replicating Johnson & Johnson Phase 3 Johnson & Johnson
(formerly Ad26. viral vector
COV2.S)
8. No name Inactivated Vaccine Wuhan Institute of Biological Phase 3 Henan Provincial Center
announced Products; China National for Disease Control and
Pharmaceutical Group Prevention
(Sinopharm)
9. NVX-CoV2373 Nanoparticle Novavax Phase 3 Novavax
Vaccine
10. Sputnik V Non-replicating Gamaleya Research Institute, Phase 3 Various
viral vector Acellena Contract Drug
Research and Development,
Russia

pharmaceutical companies of India, has

given the nod to produce more than 100
million doses of the jab. Dr Reddy’s is
already involved in phase 3 clinical trials
as per a previous agreement.

USA
Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is a
collaboration of several US federal
government departments including
the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Agriculture, Energy, The Pfizer vaccine must be kept cooler than
and Veterans Affairs and the private the lowest temperature in Antarctica
Final-stage clinical trials for COVISHIELD, sector to accelerate the development,
developed at the SII Pune laboratory, are manufacturing, and distribution of a dozen leading biopharmaceutical
expected to be over by January-February 2021 COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, companies, the HHS Office of the
defence ministry by using two vectors and diagnostics. Within OWS, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness
(two serotypes of human adenovirus, National Institutes of Health and the and Response, the Centers for Disease
each carrying an S-antigen of the new Foundation for the NIH (FNIH) have Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food
coronavirus) on a platform used earlier developed an Accelerating COVID-19 and Drug Administration (FDA) and the
for the development of the Ebola vaccine. Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines European Medicines Agency to develop
Hetero, one of the leading generic (ACTIV) partnership with more than an international strategy for a coordinated

24 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Vaccines ready to use
Company Doses How Storage Approval Expected Cost
Effective (Approx.)

America’s Pfizer Inc and *2 90 per cent -700C United States $20 per dose
Germany’s BioNTech SE Food and Drug
Administration
(FDA) with regard
to emergency use
authorisation (EUA)
Moderna *2 94.5 per  2-80C for 30 United States Between $25
cent days Food and Drug and $37 per
Administration dose
 12 hours (FDA) with regards
at room
to emergency use
temperature
authorisation (EUA)
 -200C up to 6
months
*The University of *2 Strong Regular Fridge $3 per dose
Oxford; AstraZeneca; IQVIA; immune temperature
Serum Institute of India response (2-80C)
(Covishield)

The Gamaleya National *2 92 per cent Regular Fridge Ministry of Health $10 per dose
Center and the Russian Direct temperature of the Russian
Investment Fund (RDIF)  (2-80C) Federation

(Sputnik V)

*30-40 crore doses to be available by first quarter of 2021. SII plans to manufacture 10 cr vaccines/month

research response to the COVID-19 vaccine and natural protection after However, experts showed their concern
pandemic.  All partners are responsible recovering from the COVID-19 infection. using data solely from emergency use
to provide and share expertise, research Four vaccines have been found effective programme.
data, infrastructure, funds, facilitate the and useful to date (Table 2). After development and
entry of the most promising vaccine The Oxford University vaccine is manufacturing, the other logistics like
candidate into the advanced stage of based on a harmless, weakened version ‘cold chain’ stores, supply of auto-
clinical trials. of a common cold virus, or adenovirus, disabled syringes and medical glass
OWS has selected three vaccine which causes infections in chimpanzees. vials, and trained health professionals
candidates to fund the Phase 3 trials: It does not replicate in humans. While to administer these jabs will also be a
Moderna’s mRNA-1273; the University those from Pfizer and Moderna, based challenge.
of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s AZD1222, on novel  messenger RNA technology, On vaccine distribution plans, the
and Pfizer and BioNTech’ BNT162. require freezing for longer-term storage Indian government has the strategy in
HHS  announced  $456 million funds for and transport. The Pfizer vaccine must be place and specifics are being worked out
Johnson & Johnson’s (Janssen) candidate kept cooler than the lowest temperature in association with state governments.
vaccine. Janssen’s large-scale Phase in Antarctica. This vaccine can be moved The Digital India platform will be
3 clinical trial began on 22 September to a refrigerator, but only for five days. used to list the beneficiaries, send out
2020, making them the fourth OWS The storage temperature of these two details with reference to the time and
candidate to enter Phase 3 clinical trials vaccines may become a nightmare even location of vaccination, and issue digital
in the United States. for advanced countries with vast cold certifications based on QR codes. The
US firm Pfizer Inc. and German storage infrastructure.  Pfizer must find a entire health workforce including retired
biotechnology firm BioNTech SE also fix for the problem of cold storage. medical practitioners, medical and
developed a vaccine using a unique Apart from ‘Sputnik V’, Russia paramedical students may all be roped
combination of messenger RNA is also preparing its second and third into the mass vaccination programme
(mRNA) format and target antigen. vaccine against the coronavirus infection. against COVID-19.
The manufacture claims that the initial Meanwhile, the Chinese President has
results of the phase 3 trials show 90 said that China is willing to strengthen
per cent efficacy against COVID-19 cooperation with other countries in the Dr Jyoti Sharma is Senior Scientist and
infections. research and development, production, Dr Sanjeev Kumar Varshney is Head
It is too early to comment on the and distribution of vaccines and ready & Advisor, International Cooperation
efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. to step up global coronavirus vaccine Division (ICD), Department of Science
There is a long way to go to compare the cooperation with five home-grown and Technology, Ministry of Science and
immunogenic effects developed against candidates undergoing Phase 3 trials. Technology, Govt of India

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 25

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

IMPACT OF
COVID-19
PANDEMIC ON
NUTRITIONAL
SECURITY OF

Credit: Ritesh arya / Pexels

CHILDREN
Jaydev Jana

T
HE COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the The unprecedented global economic crisis triggered by
economy and jobs around the world. Hundreds of the COVID-19 pandemic poses grave risks to the nutritional
millions of jobs have been lost. Those toiling in the status and survival of young children in low-income and
informal economy – often without rights at work and social middle-income countries (LMICs). The unexpected increase
protection – seem to have suffered around 60 percent decline in malnutrition of children under five, including wasting
in earnings in the first month of the crisis alone. (low weight-for-height), owing to steep decline in household
Women have been especially hard hit – working in many incomes, changes in availability and affordability of nutritious
of the most critically affected sectors, while also carrying foods, and sudden halt in all public health, social protection
the greatest burden of increasing levels of unpaid care work. services and nutrition interventions, mainly mid-day meal or
Many small and medium-sized enterprises – the engine of hot cooked meals at anganwadi centres, other supplementary
the global economy - are fighting a losing battle to survive. nutrition programmes under ICDS are matters of serious
The most vulnerable are at risk of becoming ever more concern.
vulnerable, and poor countries and communities risk falling Wasting, the vital anthropogenic measure of child
even further behind. malnutrition, is characterised by a rapid deterioration in
The link between nutrition and economics has been nutritional status over a short period of time in children under
analysed by economists since a long time. The notion that five. Wasting is sometimes referred to as ‘acute malnutrition’
poverty causes malnutrition dates back at least to Adam Smith because it is believed that episodes of wasting have a short
and income is still the main explanatory variable in most duration, in contrast to stunting, which is regarded as chronic
contemporary attempts to explain poor nutrition. malnutrition. It can be caused by an extremely low energy

26 | Science Reporter | January 2021

intake (e.g. caused by pandemic or famine) or nutrient losses increased by additional 4.4 million, 3.2 million, 5.1 million
due to infection. and 2.1 million children respectively. More precisely, as
Wasted children are at higher risk of dying. One in ten many as 15 million additional children would be pushed into
deaths among children younger than five years in LMICs is malnutrition if children in the poorest 20% population lose
attributable to severe wasting because wasting malnutrition 5% of their body weight.
impacts on a child’s immune system putting them at increased Now, what will be the impact on our future generation (in
risk of mortality from infectious diseases. Of the one million utero) and born during pandemic period? Before attempting
deaths of children under five in India in 2017, around seventy an answer to the query let us look back into fallouts of past
thousand were attributed to malnutrition. As per Global pandemics or similar crises. Scientists and researchers have
Hunger Index 2020, India is home to the world’s most wasted found that children born during the 1918 pandemic (or in
children under five. In India (in 2017) 39 percent of children utero) grew up less educated and were poor as well. Similarly,
under five were stunted, 16 percent wasted and 33 percent expectant mothers during the 2008 economic recession gave
were underweight. birth to underweight infants, particularly those from poor
While stunting and wasting indicate chronic and acute households. In 1918, El Nino caused devastating floods in
malnutrition respectively, underweight is a composite Ecuador. Children born during that period were underweight
indicator and includes both acute and chronic malnutrition. and stunting continued for five to seven years.
Growth stunting in childhood is a risk factor for increased The impact and estimate so far stated here are likely
mortality, poor cognitive and motor development and other to be conservative, as the duration of the pandemic crisis
impairments in function. The economic, food and health is unknown, and its full impacts on food, health, education
systems disruptions resulting from COVID-19 pandemic are and social-protection systems are also yet to be realized. The
expected to continue to exacerbate all forms of malnutrition. impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the generation born
The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates during the pandemic period, including children who are under
that because of the pandemic an additional 140 million people five years of age, is very much important as these children
will be thrown into living in extreme poverty (income less will account for around 46 percent of India’s workforce by
than US$ 1.90 per day) in 2020 globally. According to the 2040.
World Food Programme, the number of people in LMICs Preliminary indicators suggest that the pandemic
facing acute food insecurity will nearly double to 265 million generation of the century would not be any different from
by the end of 2020. The disruption of health services during those who survived the past ones. However, the World Bank
lockdowns will further compromise maternal and child health has prepared an Index known as Human Capital Index (HCl)
and mortality, and with the deepening of the economic and which measures how much capital each country loses through
food services crisis, other forms of malnutrition, including lack of education and health. Alternatively, it measures ‘the
child stunting, micronutrient malnutrition, and maternal human capital that a child born today can expect to attain
malnutrition are expected to increase. by her 18th birthday.’ This includes the health and education
The so-called Barker Hypothesis posits that maternal entitlements of new born now and how it would impact his/
dietary imbalances at critical periods of development of the her future productivity. The latest Human Capital Index (HCl)
womb can trigger an adaptive redistribution of fetal resources released by the World Bank says that the pandemic generation
(including growth retardation). Such adaptations affect would be one of the worst victims. The adult generation of
fetal structure and metabolism in ways that predispose the 2040 would be a stunted one; they would be left behind in
individual to later cardiovascular and endocrine diseases. terms of human capital. Moreover, there would be higher
The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of child mortality and also stunting among them who manage
2015-16 reveals that every second child in India is already to survive.
malnourished. It means that roughly 77 million children According to HCl estimates, child mortality will increase
– the combined population of Jharkhand, Telangana and by 45% in 118 LMICs. Analysis shows that a 10% increase
Kerala – are undernourished. Using this data, researchers in GDP per capita reduces infant mortality by 4.5%. But
have ascertained the additional children population that will most countries are going to experience high GDP loss due to
become malnourished in three distinct weight-loss scenarios: the current pandemic. The new index brings out the fact that
(1) If children lose as little as 0.5% of their body weight, even though the pandemic is a temporary shock, it will leave
prevalence of underweight, severe underweight, wasting and behind crippling impacts on the new generation children.
severe wasting status will be increased by additional 0.4 Task before us is to assess the status of nutrition on a war
million, 0.3 million, 0.4 million and 0.2 million children footing and to take all steps to contain the malnutrition of the
respectively; (2) In case, children lose 2.5% of their body pandemic generation.
weight, prevalence of underweight, severe underweight,
wasting and severe wasting status will be increased by
additional 2.2 million, 1.4 million, 2.4 million and 0.9 million Mr Jaydev Jana, IAS (Retd.) is Ex-Director, Inspection and Quality
children respectively; (3) In the scenario of 5% weight loss, Control, Food & Supplies Department, Govt. of West Bengal.
India will experience a staggering increase of underweight, Address: 6, Motilal Gupta Road, Kolkata- 700008.
severe underweight, wasting and severe wasting status will be Email: jaydev.jana@gmail.com

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 27

 FEATURE ARTICLE

TWO DECADES OF
HUMAN GENOME
PROJECT Biju Dharmapalan

“It is essentially immoral not to get it [the human genome

sequence] done as fast as possible.” – James D. Watson (1990)

G
ENOME and genomics knowing the human genome sequence of the Human Genome Project, calling
have become topics of hot would facilitate an understanding of for a 15-year project with funding of
discussion today, thanks to the cancer. about $200 million a year. The genome
Covid-19 pandemic. In the rush to find project received a significant boost in
a cure for the deadly virus scientists late 1988 when Nobel laureate James
the world over have been engaging in Watson stepped forward to lead a new
genomics and proteomics research and National Institutes of Health (NIH)
COVID-19 genome sequencing has component of the effort, which had
been frequently in the news. become a joint NIH-DOE project.
The Human Genome Project is Researchers from the National Institute
a golden landmark in the history of of Health in the United States quickly
science. Two decades ago nobody joined the group and James Watson was
would have thought of sequencing designated to head the Human Genome
and reading what is written in the Research Institute, which became the
own genome. Today sequencing is National Human Genome Research
available even on online platforms. It Institute (NHGRI) in 1989.
costs under $600 and takes less than a
week for an individual to have his or
her genome sequenced.
The Human Genome Project Renato Dulbecco
(HGP) changed the face of Biological
Sciences. Had there been no human The first serious discussion of the
genome project, several molecular possibility of sequencing the human
techniques that we use today would genome was convened in 1985 by
not have evolved and its absence Robert Sinsheimer, then chancellor of
would have been greatly felt during the University of California at Santa
the current pandemic in the face of Cruz. Many thought the idea was crazy
our inability to sequence the SARS- or, at best, premature. But in 1986,
CoV-2 genome and look for cures and Charles DeLisi of the U.S. Department James Watson
solutions. of Energy (DOE) decided to begin
The idea of the HGP was first funding research into genome mapping Watson’s enthusiasm for the effort
publicly advocated by the Nobel and sequencing. was captured in his comment: “Only
laureate Renato Dulbecco through In 1988, a special committee of once would I have the opportunity to
his public lectures in 1984 and 1985 the U.S. National Research Council let my scientific life encompass the path
and through an article published in of the U.S. National Academy of from the double helix to the 3 billion
Science in 1986, in which he argued that Sciences recommended the initiation steps of the human genome.”

28 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Later, several countries joined the
effort, particularly the United Kingdom,
France, Japan, Canada, Germany and
China and it became an international
public consortium coordinated by the
Human Genome Organization (HuGO).
The International Human Genome
Sequencing Consortium included many
scientific institutes from around the
world. In 1993, Francis Collins took up
the reins of the human genome project.

Human Genome Project timeline (www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Human_Genome_Project_timeline)

out the fragments individually. Venter

counted on a strong bioinformatics team
to undertake the task of overlapping the
randomly sequenced fragment.
The decoding of the genome was
a race for scientific fame – between
the HGP, government-funded by
the US, and Venter with his private
Francis Collins
company Celera Genomics.  The
government researchers lagged
Until 1995, the project focused Venter and Collins on the cover of
somewhat behind Celera Genomics in
on the creation of maps of the Time magazine, 3 July 2000
their work. By April 2000, they had
genome. However, at the same time,
been able to decode only 54% of the
Craig Venter surprised the scientific
human genome. In the end, however,
community with the publication of
the result was a tie. The rivals jointly
an article containing the complete
announced the completion of their
sequencing of Haemophilus influenzae
draft sequences in June 2000 at a gala
Rd. bacteria genome, the first living
televised press conference attended by
organism to be sequenced. With this
US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime
publication, Venter revealed a quicker
Minister Tony Blair. The leaders said
and cheaper way of large-scale DNA An early DNA synthesiser
the information from the working draft
sequencing. His method was named
would be freely available for all. The
whole‐genome shotgun and involved
sequence was simultaneously published
sequencing random DNA fragments
in two major science journals, Nature
digested by restriction enzymes. In this
and Science
method, the individual DNA fragments
The White House press statement
are generated randomly. This is similar
articulated the hope, felt by many, that
to shooting at the long chain with a
this landmark achievement would “lead
shotgun and then looking at and reading
to a new era of molecular medicine, an
era that will bring new ways to prevent, An early PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine
(Photo credit: https://www.theguardian.com/science/
diagnose, treat and cure disease”. gallery/2010/jun/23/human-genome-project)

On 15 February 2001, the human genome draft produced by the

public consortium was published in Nature; on February 16th
of the same year, Science published the draft from the private
company Celera Genomics Corporation
Craig Venter who invented the shotgun US President Bill Clinton and British Prime
sequencing method Minister Tony Blair announcing the completion
J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 29
of the first draft of the human genome by the
Human Genome Project and Celera
 It had taken 13 years and over £2 groups experienced periods of genetic
billion to laboriously read every letter isolation from each other for thousands
of the human genetic code. It took such of years. The work provided a platform
a long time because the DNA sequence for Indian researchers to explore the
of humans is very long – 3 billion letters possibility of international collaboration
– and because the sequencing machines in genomics research.
available at the time were slow and
laborious. Now a human genome can
be sequenced in a few days for less than
£1000.  It’s the leap in the speed and
Dr Vinod Scaria
cost of technology that has opened up
the potential of genomics and brought it
within reach of mainstream healthcare.

Genomics in India
Even though India was not a part of the
Human Genome Project, the post-HGP (From left) Dr K. Thangaraj, Dr Veena Parnaik
era saw India taking a giant leap in the (then acting Director) and Dr Lalji Singh of
field. CSIR institutes like Centre for CCMB, Hyderabad, during a press meet to
discuss the results of the Nature paper
Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-
CCMB), Hyderabad and Institute of In 2009, a team of young
Genomics & Integrative Biology (CSIR- researchers from CSIR-IGIB, led
IGIB), New Delhi did exemplary work by Dr Sridhar Sivasubbu and his
in the field. During 2009, scientists PhD student Vinod Scaria, created a
Dr Sridhar Sivasubbu
from CCMB led by Dr K. Thangaraj landmark in sequencing the genome
and Dr Lalji Singh along with of an Indian. They mapped the Human Genomics research in India
Dr David Reich of the Broad Institute Genome Sequence of a 52-year-old flourished from then onwards. Indian
in Cambridge, Massachusetts provided male, paving the way for predictive scientists became part of the Genome
a genetic map of the Indian population. healthcare and the possibility of Asia 100K Project, launched in 2016,
They analyzed more than 500,000 identifying why certain people do not with the aim to sequence the genomes
genetic markers across the genomes of respond to certain medications, and of 100,000 Asian individuals to
132 individuals from 25 diverse groups, what diseases a particular gene carrier address the underrepresentation of non-
representing 13 states, all six language or a population is likely to develop. European populations in most published
families, traditionally “upper” and The team generated data using next genomics studies. The first pilot phase
“lower” castes, and tribal groups in generation sequencing technology that of the project was completed recently,
order to shed light on genetic variability enables massively parallel sequencing with the publication of 1739 genome
across the Indian subcontinent. of millions of genomic fragments of 76 sequences from samples spread
The findings of the study base pairs, which are then mapped back across 64 Asian countries. Eight Indian
published in the September 24th to the reference human genome. This institutions were involved in the study
issue of Nature provided clues that humongous exercise was made possible viz., National Institute of Biomedical
could help reconstruct the historical with the CSIR Supercomputing facility Genetics (NIBMG), Kalyani; SciGenom
origins of modern populations. The at IGIB.
new research revealed that nearly all
Indians carry genomic contributions
from two distinct ancestral populations.
Following this ancient mixture, many

The First Indian Genome was announced on 8 December 2009 by

30 | Science Reporter | January 2021 Shri Prithviraj Chavan, then Minister of State (Independent Charge)
of Science and Technology
Research Foundation (SGRF),
Chennai; MedGenome Labs,
Bangalore; Indian Statistical Institute
(ISI), Kolkata; SRM Institute of
Science & Technology (SRMIST),
Chennai; NarayanaNethralaya
Foundation, Bangalore; Madras
Diabetes Research Foundation
(MDRF), Chennai; and Dr Mohan’s
Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai.

Biology (IGIB), Delhi; CSIR-Institute

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister for of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh;
Science and Technology, Government of India CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute
with the IndiGenome Card, October 25, 2019 (CDRI), Lucknow; National Institute
and the IniGen app
of Virology, Pune, and Gujarat
initiative will be based on the Next Biotechnology Research Centre,
Generation Sequencing platform  – Gandhinagar.
The Government of India initiated the latest and best in sequencing The DBT also announced the
two major genome sequencing technologies to sequence the genome launch of 1000 Genome Sequencing
projects under the aegis of the of thousands of Indians, so that there of SARS-CoV-2 by DBT Autonomous
Council of Scientific and Industrial is adequate representation in terms of Institutions consortia to understand
Research (CSIR) and Department geographical coverage, caste, tribal viral and host genomics of the
of Biotechnology (DBT). The CSIR and linguistic groups. Its aim is to COVID-19 outbreak, the evolving
through its IndiGen project completed ultimately build a grid of the Indian molecular phylogeny of the virus and
whole sequencing of 1008 Indian “reference genome”, to understand the emerging mutations in the viral
individuals representing diverse ethnic fully the type and nature of diseases and RNA as well as identify the host
groups in the country. This genomic traits that comprise the diverse Indian genetic variations which correlate with
data will act as baseline information population. The Rs 238-crore project transmission, susceptibility and disease
for developing various applications in with the Indian Institute of Science’s severity. The findings of this study
predictive and preventive medicine. Centre for Brain Research serving as its will assist the development of efficient
The project was implemented by CSIR nodal centre has collaboration between diagnostic assays, vaccines and drug
Institutes – Institute of Genomics and 20 Indian research institutions. candidates and help formulate policies
Integrative Biology (IGIB), New During the last two decades, for containment of the outbreak.
Delhi and Hyderabad-based Centre India has emerged as a global player What we reap today in genomics
for Cellular and Molecular Biology. in genomic research. The interest research are the fruits borne by the
The scientists have also developed generated in human genome research Human Genome Project that was
an IndiGenome card and mobile has also helped sequencing efforts in conceived during the 90s. Many genetic
application so that these data can be plants and microbes. Apart from public diseases have found cure because of
retrieved by clinicians during prognosis institutions many private institutions this. The day is not very far when we
of a disease. The IndiGen project also started working in the field of would be able to diagnose our disease
identified many rare genetic diseases genomics, mostly as outsourcing by ourselves using a genome card in
from various ethnic groups from the centres. AI-based clinics, where the computer
country. This is the first step towards In the wake of the COVID-19 will tell you what disease you have and
delivering precision medicine for the pandemic outbreak, Indian scientists what medicine you have to take.
Indian population. launched efforts to sequence the viral
The Department of Biotechnology genome. Some of the major institutes Mr Biju Dharmapalan is Assistant
also announced an ambitious project that sequenced the viral genome include Professor, School of Biosciences, Mar
Athanasios College for Advanced Studies
Genome India: Cataloguing the Genetic CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Tiruvalla (MACFAST), Kerala-689101.
Variation in Indians, in 2017, which Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad; CSIR- E-mail:biju@macfast.org/
started in 2020. The GenomeIndia Institute of Genomics and Integrative biju_dharmapalan@yahoo.co.uk

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 31

 SHORT FEATURE

Roddam Narasimha
Great Scholar, Perfect Teacher
Sumangala Mummigatti

Prof. Roddam Narasimha receiving the Padma Vibhushan

I
T was sometime in winter of 2015, a bright morning. After the formal exchange of wishes, he soon meant
I had planned to meet Prof. Roddam Narasimha at his business and said “I am very happy and delighted that you
residence in Bengaluru. The meet was scheduled for an are writing a book about my father. He was a great scholar. I
interview with him for a book I was writing on the life and am more than happy to speak about him.” As he continued to
achievements of his father, Prof. Roddam Laxmi Narasimha, speak, I was happy about his openness, because my experience
a professor of Physics and a renowned science communicator. on a few earlier occasions had made me feel he spoke less and
I was seated for a while in his living room before Prof. to get to know the information required for the book about his
Narasimha arrived. As I glanced around the hall, I saw books father sounded easy now.
all around, on the teapoy, sofa, chairs, side table, and of His face brightened up and his eyes shone as he spoke
course in the bookshelves. I was curiously having a look at about his father and narrated his childhood memories and
them, as Prof. Narasimha emerged out of his room with a experiences with his father. His wife, Dr Neelima, a medical
smile on his face. doctor by profession, also joined the conversation, sharing her

32 | Science Reporter | January 2021

memories of her father-in-law, enriching the purpose of the
meet. They were happy to share references and photographs
and said that they were looking forward to the book to come
out soon, as I took leave of them.
The book was soon published and Prof. Roddam was
happy about it. He graced the occasion of the book release.
A few days later he sent me a mail stating that he and his
relatives were very happy about the book. It was a pleasant
surprise for me. I had not expected such a gesture from him.
I did meet him on a couple of occasions after that, but
those three hours of conversation at his residence with him
and his wife will always be cherished by me. A distinguished
scientist, sharing his association and experiences with his
father as plainly as a child, still lingers in my memory.
Padma Vibhushan Prof. Roddam Narasimha, a
multifaceted scholar associated with the country’s defence,
space, and nuclear programmes was a down-to-earth person
and a man of simplicity. Basically, he was an Aerospace
Engineer and Fluid Dynamicist. He obtained his Doctoral degree under the guidance of
Prof. Hans W. Lipmann in 1961. Prof. Narasimha joined the
He taught Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, worked on understanding
of Science, Bengaluru from 1962 to 1999. He was the
the structure of shock waves and he says that it was on one of
Director of CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories from 1984
NASA’s earliest computers that he worked.
to 1993. He chaired the Engineering Mechanics division at
the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Studies Narasimha came back to India in 1982 and joined IISc’s
(JNCASR) Bengaluru, from 1984 to 1993. He was also the Aerospace Engineering Department. Here, he worked on
Director of National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), turbulent flows and relaminarization – the switching of fluid
Bengaluru. flows from turbulent (chaotic) to a laminar (streamlined)
form. In 1982, he founded the Centre for Atmospheric and
Prof. Roddam was also a visiting professor at the
Oceanic Sciences and headed it.
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Cambridge
University along with many other Universities and held a Prof. Roddam was working on clouds for the last 15
visiting position at NASA Langley. He was also a Fellow of years. He was creating cumulus clouds in his lab and studied
the Royal Society. them. He worked on the relation between solar activity and
monsoon clouds, formation of the rain-bearing clouds and
Prof. Narasimha was born on 20 July 1933 in Bengaluru.
flooding clouds, etc. As Director at NAL, SARAS the light
His father, Roddam Laxmi Narasimha, popularly known
combat aircraft was dedicated to the country. He was working
as RLN, was a professor of Physics at the Central College
on reducing the travel costs of passenger flights so that even a
Bengaluru, and a prominent science communicator in
common man could travel by air.
Kannada. His mother Leelavathi was a great inspiration to
the children. Although his prime interests and contributions were in
the field of Aerospace and Fluid dynamics, he also had a
Narasimha was the eldest son. Narasimha completed his
fascination for Indian History. He studied the Missiles and
Engineering from Vishvesvaraya College of Engineering in
Rockets used by Tipu Sultan. He had studied ancient Indian
1953. He got his Masters from the Indian Institute of Science,
History and could speak authoritatively on the Indic Science.
Bengaluru in 1955. He was a student of Prof. Satish Dhawan
He was known as a perfect teacher. He was actively involved
who advised Narasimha to pursue Doctoral studies at Caltech.
in various Aerospace missions and was regularly invited to
This coincided with Russia launching its Sputnik and had a
review meetings at ISRO.
profound influence on his work as a Fluid Dynamicist in the
US during the cold war period. The Nation lost a great visionary, scientist and philosopher
on 14 December 2020. But Prof. Roddam Narasimha will be
Prof. Roddam says, “It was seen as a turning point and
remembered for his works and contributions and continue to
a national challenge to the United States. Therefore, they
inspire the young scientists of the country.
very quickly organized themselves to start a space
programme.”
In the beginning, Narasimha worked on Jet engines at Ms Sumangala S. Mummigatti is a Programme Executive, All India
Caltech but the excitement around the space race made him Radio, Rajbhavan Road, Bengaluru-560001.
shift his work to Gas Dynamics. Email: s.mummigatti@gmail.com

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 33

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

Obituary

Dr Narinder Singh Kapany

Forgotten ‘Father of Fiber-Optics’

Raktim Haldar

A
FTER the demise of eminent Indian radio-astronomer High-speed broadband internet has gradually
Prof. Govind Swarup, the scientific community revolutionized the world during the last few decades. Different
worldwide now mourns another great loss, types of Optical Fibers (OFs) such as single-mode OFs, multi-
Dr Narinder Singh Kapany. Dr Kapany left for his heavenly mode OFs, Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs), etc., find myriads
abode on 4 December 2020. Who was Dr Kapany? Why is of applications ranging from optical-communication to medical
he called the ‘Father of Fiber-Optics’? Here, we share the diagnostics (Fig. 1). The massive amount of data searched on
inspiring story of Dr Kapany and how the Nobel committee Google each second has to make an intercontinental journey
overlooked his ground-breaking contributions in developing underneath the oceans through the robust optical fiber cables
the fiber optical technologies, i.e., the backbone of today’s from data-hub to the users from different countries all over
internet. the world (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Applications of optical-fibers in a nutshell. Source: Internet

34 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Fig. 2. Different types of optical-fiber cables are laid underneath the oceans, creating the backbone of the communication network.
Various OFs: (a) single-mode, (b) PCF, (c) multi-clad, (d) capillary OFs. Source: PhD. Thesis (IIT-KGP), R. Haldar.

Internet technologies are ubiquitous. Online-educational In fact, a stream of light can be guided and directed in
platforms (e.g., Webex, Zoom), social media (Facebook, the desired way due to total internal reflection (TIR), which
Twitter, etc.), and entertainment (Netflix) have become the is a direct consequence of the optical density contrast between
fundamental means of survival during this pandemic. The the transparent medium (higher refractive index, e.g., glass)
worldwide web is playing a pivotal role in sustaining the and its background (lower refractive index, air). It took
global economy. However, most of us are still in oblivion almost a century to discover the advantages of this simple
about an Indian scientist, Dr Narinder Singh Kapany’s phenomenon till Dr Kapany successfully demonstrated that
pioneering contributions in fiber-optics, without which high- an image could be transmitted over a short distance using
speed internet could never be possible. a bundle of closely packed optical fibers (fibrescope/fiber-
scope). The experiment was a part of his doctoral study at
So, what is fiber-optics? Unlike optical fibers, why can’t the Imperial College London, then under the affiliation with
we use normal copper-cables to transmit data with a high data- the University of London, where he eventually received his
rate (>Gbit/s)? Copper-wires are lossy at high-frequencies PhD in 1955. This research was published in Nature in 1954
(GHz) owing to the ‘skin effect.’ However, in the modern [Fig. 4 (a)].
era of 5G communications, high-speed data transfer over the
Dr Kapany’s discovery along with the development of
long-range is essential. Optical fibers provide a promising
optical cladding in 1953 by Dutch scientist Bram Heel paved
solution in this regard!
the way towards a very robust transmission of optical signals
If we neglect the effect of space-time curvature inflicted through a bunch of optical fibers and led to the discovery of
by a mass as per Einstein’s relativity, light always travels in endoscopy. His path-breaking experiments laid the foundation
a straight line faster (~3×108 m/s, vacuum) than anything for high-speed internet and opened several new avenues of
else in the known Universe. However, in 1854, John Tyndall research. Prof. Kapany coined the term ‘Fiber Optics’ in his
demonstrated that a light signal can be bent to follow the path famous article published in Scientific American in the year
of water leaking from a water-tank, as shown in Fig. 3 (a). 1960 and is rightfully called the ‘Father of Fiber-Optics.’

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 35

 Fig. 3. (a) Light following the path of water-stream leaking from a water-tank,
(b) Light can be bent through optical fiber using the principle of TIR,
(c) TIR is used to guide optical signal through different types of optical fibers.
Source: https://www.sciencesource.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber

Fig. 4. Dr Kapany's seminal work on the transmission of images through a bunch of fibers published in Nature (1954),
(b) Dr Kapany coined the term' fiber optics' in his famous article, which was published in 1960.
Source: Nature, Scientific American, Book by S. Kanavi, 'Sand to Silicon: The Amazing Story of Digital Technology,' Tata McGraw Hill, 2004

36 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Nobel Prize (Physics) 2009 Controversy
Narinder Singh Kapany’s journey to the Imperial College London began from a mundane city of
Punjab (Moga), India. Prior to his doctorate, he did his bachelor’s from Agra University. His story
is quite similar to Prof. Jagadish Chandra Bose. Although Prof. Bose first demonstrated wireless
millimeter-wave transmission, Prof. Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize (1909). Unfortunately,
history repeats itself after 100 years!

Controversies surfaced with the press release issued by The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences on the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009. The Prize had been awarded only to Charles K. Kao
for his achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.
Nonetheless, the Nobel committee denied acknowledging the contributions of Prof. Kapany,
which are regarded as the watershed of optical fiber technologies.

In 1996, Charles Kao had proposed the idea of using glass fibers for long-distance
communication. He discovered novel techniques for reducing the fiber-losses, which primarily
occur due to the glass’s impurities. Prof. Kao demonstrated that high-quality signals can be
transmitted through optical-fibers over long distances without distortion and deserves his
share of the Nobel Prize. He is also known as the ‘Father of Fiber Optic Communications.’

However, the fact remains that Kapany first demonstrated during his doctoral work that
light can be transmitted through bent glass fibers, long before Kao’s discovery. Surprisingly
the contribution of Dr Kapany has not even been noted by the Academy. Kapany was already
widely considered the ‘Father of Fibre-Optics’ and featured in a 1999 Fortune magazine article
as the ‘Unsung Heroes of the 20th Century’.

Career: Academia & Entrepreneurship

Dr Kapany served in several prestigious academic positions. He was the Regents Professor at
the University of California, Berkeley. He supervised the research activities as the Director of the
Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development at the University of California, Santa
Cruz, for seven years. He was a visiting scholar in the Physics department and the Consulting
Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, Stanford University.

Apart from his pedagogical activities, Kapany played a crucial role in technology transfer
and turned his research into a thriving business with a vision to solve the ever-inflating data-
crunch of the insatiable modern world. He established ‘Optics Technology Inc.’ in Silicon Valley
in 1960 and later founded other companies such as Kaptron Inc. (1973) and K2 Optronics (2000).
He was one of the most outstanding Indian entrepreneurs having at least 100 patents to his
credit.
Dr Kapany’s innovations have greatly influenced life in the twentieth century; nevertheless,
he remained one of the deprived and unsung heroes till his last breath.

Dr Raktim Haldar is Postdoctoral Associate, Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies, Leibniz University Hannover,
Germany; Email: raktim.halder@gmail.com

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 37

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

feature aRTicle

UN Ocean Science Decade

2021-2030
Anil Pratap Singh

Image credit: https://en.unesco.org/ocean-decade

“The Ocean is regarded as a sort of bargain basement. People Undersea Discovery and Adventure” published in 1954, is highly
don’t realise that water in the liquid state is very rare in the germane today for the reason that United Nations General
universe. It is our basic duty if we don’t want to commit Assembly (UNGA) in its 72nd session decided and proclaimed
suicide, to preserve it”- once said by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the “United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable
the author of the book, ‘The Silent World: A Story of Development” for the decade beginning January 2021.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

38 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Decade aims at strengthening international 50 to 85 per cent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.
cooperation to develop scientific research and innovative Using carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their food during
technologies so that it could connect ocean science with photosynthesis, the phytoplankton generate oxygen, as a
that of the needs of the society. The Intergovernmental byproduct. The Ocean also captures around 90 per cent of
Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations the heat generated from emissions and safeguards the planet
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) against the brunt of climate change.
has led the preparation of the Ocean Decade Implementation
Plan through a highly participatory and comprehensive Worrying Trends
process. Marine pollution, acidification, climate change, etc. are causing
IOC framed the cross-cutting role of ocean science in degradation of oceans leading to species loss and threatening
Sustainable Development Goal-14 (SDG-14) i.e. Life Below food security and overall human welfare. According to the
Water. Goal 14 ‘stresses the need to conserve and sustainably International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and
use the world’s oceans, seas and marine resources’ which International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO),
is an integral aspect of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable the recent scientific findings on ocean health are tormenting –
Development. they point towards the collapse of marine ecosystems; ocean
hypoxia i.e. low levels of oxygen in the water; ocean dead
The Crucial Oceans zones due to pollution runoffs and climate change, causing
The Oceans nurture incredible biodiversity i.e. around 80% major die-offs of marine species, and overfishing in the
of all life forms reside here. It is also an imperative source of areas beyond national control. Illegal fishing accounts for
sustenance and livelihood because it produces food, minerals about 20 per cent of the world’s catch, costing up to $23.5
and energy for life. The livelihood and lives of more than billion a year. Besides, an estimated 8 million tons of plastic
3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity. waste enters the ocean annually from land-based sources.
Oceans not only absorb large amounts (around 25%) of According to the First World Ocean Assessment, our
anthropogenic carbon dioxide but also produce more than civilisation is running out of time to avoid the detrimental
50 per cent of the essential oxygen. According to scientists, cycle of decline in ocean health that will have dramatic
minute ocean flora i.e. phytoplankton, mostly exist near the repercussions on the ability of the ocean to keep providing the
surface of the water and drift with its currents, contributing support we need.

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 39

Amplifying Dead Zones of the Ocean Photosynthetic organisms present in the ocean use
‘Ocean dead zones’ are on the increase and scientists estimate carbon dioxide in their metabolic processes. It is worthwhile
approximately 80 per cent of global marine pollution originates to mention that the physical ability of oceans to hold more
from land-based sources, for instance, agricultural runoff, dissolved carbon dioxide is in cooler water but in recent
untreated sewage and plastics which lower the oxygen levels, past, the oceans have been dangerously trapping more heat.
unsuitable for the survival of marine life. The occurrence of However, the overall trend of carbon uptakes of any particular
flame-retardant chemicals in polar seas, run off of excessively location is largely influenced by the ocean and its currents,
used fertilizers as linked to algal blooms, millions of tons of latitude and cyclic weather patterns e.g. El Nino.
plastics, etc. kill millions of sea birds, mammals and other Dr Kim Currie of National Institute of Water and
marine species every year. Atmosphere (NIWA), New Zealand, says that one of the big
There are about 400 such dead zones around the world impacts of the changing carbon chemistry in the ocean is the
as per estimates of the National Geographic. Some of the impact on organisms that form calcium carbonate shells, such
identified ocean dead zones are located in the Gulf of Mexico, as mussels and oysters. This has economic consequences for
the Chesapeake Bay, Oregon Coast of the US, Toto Harbor the aquaculture industry, social and cultural impacts for local
(Hong Kong) and Port Hacking (Australia). communities and environmental consequences through the
changing of ecosystems.
Disturbances in Carbon Cycle & Ocean
Acidification Degradation Due to Oil Spills
Scientists warn that the current rate of combustion of fossil On many occasions, during transportation, oil spills have
fuels may cross the threshold of climate danger in the next 15 released tens of millions of gallons of oil (petroleum/refined
years. This increased amount of CO2 is absorbed by oceans, products) ruining coastlines, polluting fisheries, killing or
altering the ocean chemistry. Carbon dioxide dissolves in injuring wildlife, and also resulting in revenue losses. Some
water to form carbonic acid and causes ‘ocean acidification’ of the major oil spills have been during the Gulf war when
and by dropping pH of ocean water makes it hostile for many hundreds of oil-wells of Kuwait were ignited and burned for
inhabiting marine species. several months. Recently, the cargo ship, ‘MV Wakashio’

Image credit: Pixnio

40 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Key Priorities
Certain key priority areas are being focused on during the ocean science decade, for instance:
• Efforts to develop a comprehensive digital atlas of the ocean
• Comprehensive ocean observing system for all major basins
• Understanding of ocean ecosystems and their functioning towards management and
adaptation
• Creation of a pool of ocean data and information
• Efforts for generating an integrated multi-hazard system including tsunami warning system
• Ocean in earth-system observation, research and prediction, supported by social and human
sciences and economic valuation
• Capacity development and accelerated technology transfer, training and education and
overall ocean literacy.

ran ashore on a coral reef on the southeast tip of Mauritius development of national ocean policies, development of
in the Indian Ocean on 6 August 2020 spilling around 4,000 national R&D strategies, regional and national capacity
tons of fuel of which nearly half spilled on to a larger stretch building planning, and advancement of early warning systems.
of the coastline – an internationally recognised biodiversity
hotspot. As per the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Ocean Awakening
this hotspot is a habitat for 17,000 species including 800 In September 2018, 14 serving world leaders took an initiative
varieties of fish, 17 kinds of marine mammals and two species to establish the High-Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean
of turtles. Moreover, coral reefs, sea-grasses and mangroves Economy for providing impetus towards a sustainable ocean
add richness in biological diversity. economy. Such Ocean engagements are enhancing across the
Marine biologist Professor Richard Steiner says, “The continents but, as of now, USA, Australia, Germany, France,
toxic hydrocarbons released from spilled oil will bleach the and the Republic of Korea have come up with larger budgets
coral reefs and they will eventually die.” It is hoped that the dedicated to ocean science.
Decade would also provide an innovative solution to such India is emphasising for multi-sectoral efforts and States
grave problems. are now more conscious towards effective implementation of
treaties like ‘United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea
Marine Species on the Brink of Extinction on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological
Climate change and pollution due to land-based activities Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction,’ etc. This
such as atmospheric emissions and waste discharge as well as kind of ocean awakening could now be seen around the globe.
overexploitation have led huge numbers of species to the brink The Ocean Decade is everyone’s Decade. It anticipates
of extinction. Due to non-sustainable use of ocean resources broad approach to engagement with multiple entry points
in the recent past, approximately one-third of the commercial for multiple interests viz. scientists, research institutions and
fish stocks have been depleted and certain species of the universities, UN entities and intergovernmental organisations
largest flying sea-birds like albatross (wingspan typically (IGOs), regional organisations including regional Sea
ranging from 2.5 metre to 3.5 metre) and sea-turtles are under conventions, national and sub-national governments, early
threat and listed in the Red List of endangered species by the career ocean professionals, local and indigenous knowledge
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). holders, local coastal communities, business and private
To address such crucial issues, the Convention on sector stakeholders, technology and innovation hubs,
Biological Diversity (CBD) is engaged in formulating a professional societies, philanthropic foundations and science
worldwide biodiversity structure after 2020. The Convention funding agencies, NGOs and civil societies, aquarium, zoo
on Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) is also and museum operators, children, youth, school students and
mounting various regulations pertaining to marine species. educators and the general public, etc.
The Decade is significantly focusing on Small Island Collective and collaborative efforts would definitely
Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries endow the ocean with the riches and the resources we need
(LDCs) to build their capacities for sustainable development for the future.
of the ocean. The United Nations is foreseeing that the
Decade will support coastal zone management and adaptation,
marine spatial planning/blue economy, the establishment Dr Anil Pratap Singh, General Secretary & Founder Director, Global
of marine protected areas, fisheries management, ocean- Science Academy (GSA), Satyawanpury, Block Road, District: Basti
related nationally determined contributions to United Nations (Uttar Pradesh). Email: globalaps@rediffmail.com; www.gsaindia.
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), org

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 41

 SHORT feature

The Unsung Hero of the Cosmos

AKR
Maitreyo Bhattacharjee

C
OME October every year and the entire scientific
community across the globe sets its eyes firmly
on Sweden, where the Nobel Prize winners are
announced, honouring glorious men and women, who through
their extraordinary intellect come up with path-breaking
works in the different fields of science.
This pandemic-stricken year was no exception. The 2020
honours in Physics was conferred upon Sir Roger Penrose,
one of the greatest scientific minds of the last century, and
jointly to Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel. The first
half recognised the theoretical contribution in the field of
Cosmology, while its counterpart honoured the practical
application, namely the discovery of a supermassive object at
the centre of our Galaxy. Blackhole – the eternal enigma!
The work for which Prof. Penrose has been recently Courtesy: nasa.gov
awarded the prestigious prize, dates back to the earlier days
of his career and involves his celebrated collaboration with Singularity Theorems” aimed at answering the question —
the late English Physicist Stephen Hawking. For a long when does gravitation produce singularity? To understand the
time, black holes, one of the most enigmatic objects of strong impact of their work, we should at first focus on some
the Universe, have been the cornerstone of theoretical and preliminary background details.
practical research. In the landmark 1965 paper of Penrose Singularities are strange phenomena that arise in
and Hawking, the duo published their research results, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. These are regions
which are now popularly known as the “Hawking-Penrose where the mass and gravitational field associated with a
celestial object fails to attain any finite value, it becomes
infinite or undefined. Singularities are of various kinds and
numerous theories of physics have singularities of one kind
or the other.
Prior to their work, it was largely believed that
singularities arise from some particular contrived situations
and whether they were formed every time there was an event
horizon, was not yet known. The result, which the two proved
in their paper, using sheer reasoning and deep mathematical
theories, was that singularities resulted every single time there
was an event horizon. In other words, their breakthrough
guaranteed the existence of singularities whenever a huge
amount of matter was clumped together, regardless of any
kind of symmetry. No doubt Stephen Hawking would have
indeed shared the Prize with Penrose, had he been alive today.
Many would not know perhaps that one of the most
vital ingredients to this master theorem is something called
the “Raychaudhuri Equation” (or sometimes called Landau-
The famous pair of Hawking-Penrose Raychaudhuri equation, in honour of the Russian Physicist
Courtesy: IAI TV, The Arc of Like - Roger Penrose Lev Landau, who had derived it independently).

42 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 For an instant, let us take our minds from
the streets of Cambridge in the UK to Barisal
in Bangladesh. In 1923, the town of Barisal
witnessed the birth of Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri,
one of the greatest Indian Theoretical Physicists
of all times. A son of a mathematics teacher,
Raychaudhuri had a humble beginning. At the
age of 10, he was enrolled in one of the local
schools in Bangladesh. Later he came to Calcutta
and completed his undergraduate studies from
the erstwhile Presidency College. It was in 1944
that he started his research work, after obtaining AK Raychaudhuri
his Post Graduate Degree from the University of Courtesy: Telegraph India
Calcutta.
In 1945, he joined the prestigious Indian Association for
the Cultivation of Science (IACS) as a Research Scholar. By
this time, he had already started sending various papers and
articles to reputed International journals. In the year 1952,
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (1923-2005)
Raychaudhuri joined IACS as a Research Officer. It was here, Courtesy: vidanewspaper.com
in 1953, that the historical event took place.
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, the 27-year-old Scientific • He made some advances in the Brans-Dicke theory that
Assistant in the X-ray Crystallography Department of allowed a variable gravitational constant.
IACS, was successful in rigorously deriving the eponymous • He also had a paper with Naresh Dadhich, where he
equation, which is now regarded as one of the most prominent proved that a singularity-free spherically symmetric
and important discoveries made in the field of General model of the universe was attainable.
Relativity and Theoretical Cosmology, in the post-Einstein As a teacher, AKR attained legendary status. He inspired
period. The mathematics involved was quite advanced and both his colleagues as well as his students, who are themselves
the equation involved characteristics like expansion, rotation established scientists now. His extremely original approach
and shear. and dedication towards any problem of Cosmology and the
Even though he continued to face innumerable challenges willingness to set up his own research agenda, irrespective
and obstacles in the Institute, he managed to get his work of what could have fetched him many honours was a quality
published in the form of an article in 1955. It literally envied by many but achieved by few.
surprised the global General Relativity community and caught Besides having an illustrious scientific career,
the attention of renowned Physicists like Pascual Jordan and Raychaudhuri was a family man. With his spouse Nomita, he
John Archibald Wheeler. In the following years, his work had four children, including his daughter Parongama, who is
achieved stupendous success and international recognition, currently an established physicist, like his nephew Amitava
with Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose themselves Raychaudhuri.
admitting in numerous instances that Raychaudhuri’s work So, what magical quality was there in that young, carefree
was the crucial starting point to their theorems. Theoretical 10-year-old boy, who had come all the way from Barisal to
Physicists and Cosmologists started comparing the equation Calcutta? In a documentary film made just before his death
with Schrodinger’s equation or that of Dirac’s. It will surely in 2005, he revealed that right from his school days, he had
give the reader an idea about how monumental his work was. a passion for solving various types of complex mathematical
Raychaudhuri continued to receive international fame problems. He might have been inspired by his own father,
and recognition. His works, often in the form of papers began who was a math teacher. An extremely low profile and humble
to appear frequently in numerous journals of International person by nature, AKR never indulged in any kind of luxury
repute. Unfortunately, the country did not (and still does not) or pleasure. All his life, he treasured his work, his duties and
have much to offer him. Discouragement and lack of interest his students, who were very close to him. Even after scaling
towards his work deeply hurt AKR. His academic freedom such great heights, he lacked even an iota of pride in him.
was curbed repeatedly on many occasions. In 1961, he There is a story that needs to be mentioned here. Once,
joined his alma mater Presidency University as a faculty and a young Indian Physicist requested the British Physicist Paul
remained there till the time of his superannuation. Earlier, he Dirac to make him his Graduate student, so that he could get
also had a brief stint in Ashutosh College. Besides discovering the opportunity to work under him. Dirac’s reply was, “No
the eponymous equation, Raychaudhuri had several other need to come so far. Contact Raychaudhuri.”
significant contributions to physics: AKR deserved way more recognition in his own country.
• Back in the early days of his career, he had clarified the Maitreyo Bhattacharjee is an 18-year-old Math and Science enthusiast
physical nature of the classical Schwarzschild solution from Kolkata, West Bengal. Currently a first-year student at the
to a famous cosmological problem. The name of his IACS, Kolkata, he has an avid interest in various mathematical and
paper was – “Arbitrary Concentrations of Matter and the scientific topics and has written several articles and essays on them.
Schwarzschild Singularity”. Email: maitreyomaths@gmail.com

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 43

feature Article

125 Year of the th

Discovery of X-rays
Nand Lal Mishra

A photograph of WC Roentgen

44 | Science Reporter | January 2021

X
-RAYS not only aid in medical diagnosis, they also To differentiate the new rays from other rays, Roentgen
provide useful information in several other areas. named these rays X-rays. He said that the X-rays travelled
X-rays were invented 125 years ago on 8 November in straight lines, were not reflected or refracted, and that
1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for which he was awarded the intensity of X-rays varied inversely with the distance
the first Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1901. Later, from their source. Later, the Vienna newspaper Die Presse
several Nobel prizes were awarded for outstanding research published the discovery as a news item on its first page – this
in scientific areas related to X-rays. was the first public announcement of the discovery of X-rays.

The discovery of X-rays came about as an accident. On 7 January 1896, the Frankfurt Zeitung and the
Roentgen was studying the passage of electricity through a London morning newspaper The Standard published about
partially evacuated glass cathode tube covered with cardboard the possible applications of X-rays (both medical and non-
in a dark room. On that Friday (8 November 1895), when all medical) – diagnosis of diseases, fractures in bones, detection
the assistants in his lab left for home leaving Roentgen alone, of bullets inside the body, etc. The experiments of Roentgen
he applied a few thousand volt potential difference between about the discovery and properties of X-rays were repeated by
the cathode and anode separated by a few centimetres in the several scientists and were found to be correct.
partially evacuated tube and expected lot of charged particles
(electrons or cathode rays) to be produced and attracted After these publications, Roentgen was invited by the
towards the anode in the form of cathode rays. However, he Würzburg Physical Medical Society to deliver a talk on the
saw that a flickering glow of light was coming from a nearby “Discovery of X-rays” in front of a small group of scientists.
paper screen covered with Barium platinocyanide kept on a He demonstrated the production and application of the
nearby bench even when the room was dark and the cathode X-rays and recorded a radiograph of the hand of the famous
tube was covered with cardboard. Barium platinocyanide is a anatomist, Professor Albert von Kölliker, who was present
fluorescent material and glows when light falls on it. in the meeting. Von Kölliker was very much impressed and
proposed Roentgen Rays as the new name of the X-rays.
Roentgen was surprised to see this phenomenon. He Although this was accepted by all in the meeting, Roentgen
repeated the experiment several times with the same result. humbly declined.
He concluded that some new kind of invisible rays were
coming from inside the cathode tube. He concluded that he Awards and recognitions followed. The University of
was probably dealing with some new unknown phenomenon Wurzburg which did not give him the position of a lecturer
involving a particular type of rays which can pass through to Roentgen about 18 years back now invited him for the post
the cardboard. He put his hand several times in between the of Professor of Physics and Director of the new Physical
cathode ray tube and the fluorescent screen and could see the Institute of the University of Würzburg.
shadow of bones of his own hand. Roentgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in
To document these observations he used a photographic the year 1901. He donated the prize money to the University
plate to get an image of the bones after developing the film. of Wurzburg for further support to scientific research. He was
He was sure he had discovered a new kind of ray. He kept his also offered the Royal Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown
discovery a secret for the next seven days, virtually locking carrying the status of nobility. However, Roentgen refused it
himself inside his laboratory and repeating his experiments to as he believed that scientific discoveries are for the cause of
validate his observations. Once he was sure, one evening he humanity and one should not exploit them for personal gains.
called his wife to the laboratory and asked her to put her hand The discovery of X-rays proved a boon for humanity.
on a cassette of the X-ray film placed in between the vacuum Today, it is being used in several areas of medical science
tube and film. After a short exposure he developed the film (e.g. for imaging broken/fractured bones, for finding out the
and could see the photograph of the bones and their wedding presence infectious diseases and tumours), in environmental
ring on the finger of his wife. This photograph is believed to science (e.g. finding out the elemental concentration of
be first ever radiograph of the world.
different pollutants in water, air and soil using different
Roentgen was now anxious to publish his discovery in modes of X-ray Fluorescence), in agriculture (e.g. chemical
a journal fast. He submitted the paper “On a New Kind of composition of fertilizers, trace elements in agricultural
Rays” to a German magazine of the Annals of the Würzburg products, variation in elemental concentration of essential
Physical Medical Society “Sitzungs berichte der Physikalisch elements in fruit and fruit products, etc). Total Reflection
–Medizinischen Gesellschaft zu Würzburg” in the form of a X-ray fluorescence finds application in forensic science
short manuscript. It was published in the 1895 volume of e.g. analysis of gunshots. X-ray diffraction has proved very
the Journal. However, Roentgen distributed the prints of useful in protein crystallography to find out the structure of
this article even before it was published to several renowned proteins, for developments and quality control of industrial
scientists. The news of the new kind of rays spread in the materials and to study the formation of different compounds
scientific community like wildfire. and development of new materials.

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 45

 X-ray image of the hand of wife of Roentgen

Humble to the core, despite being bestowed several He died on 10 February 1923 at the age of 78 years due
awards, Roentgen declined to attend award functions and to cancer of the bowel.
deliver talks. While delivering his first speech as the Rector
at the University of Wurzburg, Roentgen quoted one of his
predecessors, Athanasius Kircher (born 1602): “Nature often
Dr Nand Lal Mishra is Former Head, X-ray Spectroscopy Section,
reveals astounding marvels in even the most unremarkable
Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and
things, but they can be recognised only by those who, with Former Professor, Chemical Sciences, Homi Bhabha National
sagacity and a mind created for research, ask counsel from Institute. Address: 402-Krishna Residency, Plot 13 Sector
experience, the teacher of all things.” So apt for Roentgen 20, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, Raigad, Maharashtra-402210;
himself. Email: nlmisra@yahoo.com

46 | Science Reporter | January 2021

APJ ABDUL KALAM
FATHER OF INDIAN MISSILES
J.P. Agrawal

The 89th Birth Anniversary

of one of India’s greatest
scientists and
among the most loved
Presidents was celebrated
on 15 October 2020.
Here are some
remembrances of the
great personality.

W
HEN ISRO launched India’s first successful Space After about a year, Dr Kalam conceived and proposed
Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3), Dr APJ Abdul Kalam the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme
was the Project Director. Soon the Govt. of India (IGMDP), which was immediately sanctioned by the Govt.
appointed him the Director of Defence Research Development of India. This programme consisted of development of five
Laboratory (DRDL). This was the beginning of the Golden missiles – PRITHVI, Surface-to-Surface Missile (SSM);
Era in the life of Dr Kalam. Except Padma Bhushan, Dr AKASH, Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM);
Kalam subsequently went on to win several national honours NAG, Third-generation Anti-tank Missile (ATM); AGNI,
and awards and later went on to become the Director-General Intermediate & Ballistic Missiles and TRISHUL, Quick
of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). Reaction Surface-to Air Missile (SAM).

48 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Dr Kalam was designated as the Programme Director. He was full of compassion and concerned about the
To further augment missile research in India and to keep welfare of his subordinates. He was more concerned about
pace with advanced countries, once again at the initiative and other’s convenience rather than his own. I have never come
recommendations of Dr Kalam, the Govt. of India established across a Chief Executive like him during my 33 years of
laboratories and testing laboratories for missile development service with the Ministry of Defence. He was an exceptional
– Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Research Centre human being.
Imarat (RCI), and Integrated Test Range (ITR).
Sometime in 1998-99, the then Director of HEMRL, Pune
The credit for the success of the Indian Missile had liver cirrhosis and was admitted to AIIMS, Delhi on the
Programme goes to Dr Kalam and his unique leadership style. recommendations of Dr Kalam and after about a week advised
For the first time Dr Kalam introduced a well structured three- to go to U.K. for liver transplantation, which would incur an
tier monitoring system in DRDO that reviewed the progress expenditure of around 90 lakhs. Dr Kalam immediately spoke
of all projects under IGMDP and at the same time provided to the Director of Personnel (DOP), DRDO instructing him
solutions to the bottlenecks coming in the way of progress. to make a ‘Statement of Case’ for sanction of this amount
by the Government of India. Looking at the urgency, he
No Anger, No Ego personally took the file first to the Defence Minister, then
to the Finance Secretary, Finance Minister and finally to the
Dr Kalam was the Director & Director General of DRDO
Prime Minister for sanction of funds. All this was arranged
for more than a decade. I attended several meetings under
within a week’s time and the Director went to the UK. The
his chairmanship but never saw even a trace of anger on his
liver transplantation was successful and after returning back
face even if a scientist failed to make a good presentation or
to Pune after four months, he served the DRDO for another
could not answer his questions. He would simply ask them to
five years till his retirement.
answer ‘next time’. On rare instances, he would just comment
‘you are a funny guy’ which would convey a strong message. The bold initiatives and painstaking R&D under the
Despite being the Chief Executive of DRDO, he was the last dynamic and able leadership of Dr Kalam laid the foundations
person to take tea/lunch/dinner after the meetings and used to for a strong R&D base in India for the development of various
utilize this time by interacting with young scientists. He was missiles & associated systems. It is for this work that Dr Kalam
an epitome of humility and simplicity. is regarded as the “Father of Indian Missiles” or “Missile
Man of India”. In recognition of his contributions and making
Honesty India ‘Self Reliant’ in this strategic area, the Govt. of India
bestowed ‘Bharat Ratna’ on him, India’s Highest Civilian
Dr Kalam’s honesty with respect to financial as well as
Award. This was for the first time in India that a scientist
technical matters was beyond doubt and as a result, he created
was conferred with such an honour. He was also awarded the
a positive aura for DRDO among the Delhi bureaucracy. Its
‘Padma Vibhushan’ and ‘Veer Savarkar Award’.
natural consequence was the prompt clearance of DRDO files
and projects without any delay. It was generally observed that After my retirement, I developed interest in spirituality
once Dr Kalam cleared or approved any file or proposal, it and read a number of books which suggest that science &
would be accepted by other ministries/departments without spirituality are two sides of the same coin. Dr Kalam was an
any query. accomplished scientist of international repute and his life is
a testament in support of his spiritual nature. He was a true
Positive Attitude & Compassionate Outlook Muslim but also used to read ‘Gita’ and advised scientists to
go through the ‘Mahabharata’.
He used to motivate scientists and keep their morale high
by quoting “Never treat failure as failure but as a challenge India was extremely fortunate to have an accomplished
which is the stepping stone for success.” scientist like late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam who conceived,
structured, guided & masterminded India’s successful missile
Often, decisions are taken at higher levels but Dr Kalam’s
programme and whose only mission in life was to make India
approach was unique. He used to arrange brainstorming
a capable, strong, self-reliant superpower.
sessions and take views of all concerned scientists/officers
before taking a final decision. As a result, everyone used to
treat it as their own decision and would try their best to make
Dr J.P. Agrawal is Former Director of Materials, DRDO
the project successful within the stipulated time. In other
Headquarters, New Delhi. His major research areas are “Inhibition
words, he used to convey to all scientists/officers that they of Rocket/Missile Propellants” and “Thermally Stable, High
were part of the decision-making thus imparting in them a Performance & Insensitive Explosives”. He was awarded a “High
‘sense of responsibility/accountability’. Level Indo-French Research Fellowship” for conducting research
During my first one-to-one meeting with Dr Kalam, I at the University of St. Etienne, and also awarded a “Marie Curie
Research Fellowship” by the European Commission, Belgium to
realised that he was an apt listener. Inspirational speakers and
conduct research at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University,
authors often term ‘Patient Listening’ as a ‘Golden Apple’ U.K. In recognition of his research achievements, Dr Agrawal was
and term this as one of the most important attributes of Star appointed as a Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of
Speakers. Of course, Dr Kalam was a Star Speaker on all Chemistry, London in 1996. He is also a recipient of several honours
occasions and all platforms. & awards including the prestigious DRDO Technology Award.

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 49

report

Three-day
International
Science
Journalism
Forum
Harikrishnan Thambi

T
HESE pandemic times are at the very least strange, Science Communication and Journalism find themselves
if not actively mindboggling or downright tragic. The in quite the quandary. COVID-19’s global impact has made
world has lost much, and continues to do so, but like the public need for scientific education and information more
with everything, there are resilient silver linings – mostly with mainstream and pertinent than ever, while also allowing social
vital functions like education and communication finding less- media and vested interests to promote and parade even more
than-ideal, but optimal, online avenues of continuing Business misinformation with motivations somewhere on the spectrum
as Unusual. from well-intentioned ignorance to malevolent profiteering.

50 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Simultaneously, the tiny-but-not-insignificant virus has MENA) spoke about tools and data sources for environmental
restricted both the reach of science itself – limiting what journalists, and in another talk, shared Google Trends of
scientists can realistically attempt or achieve as well as the what people are searching for when they look up science;
movement and in-person access to sources, scientists and and Bothina Osama explained how to nurture healthy editor-
science that form the backbone of serious reporting, science freelancer relationships.
or otherwise. Several other topics discussed and expounded upon,
In the face of such obstacles, science communicators have including: pedagogy and community activities for academics
had to find other ways of retaining, or even upgrading their and science communicators to become science ambassadors
workflow, and the Science Journalism Forum held between in their own communities; paradigms of social science
the 24th and 26th of August, 2020, was one such noteworthy communication; boosting science journalism with cross-border
endeavour. reporting across continents; importance of epidemiology
The Science Journalism Forum was a virtual event, brought concepts for the uninitiated science journalist.
to fruition with the efforts of Bothina Osama, Middle East & Dr A.P. Jayaraman (Chairman, National Centre for
North Africa (MENA) regional coordinator of SciDevNet, Science Communicators, India) narrated the fascinating case
and Saad Lotfey, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science Arabia, study of the impact of a long history of science communication
and supported by the Council for the Advancement of Science in the Indian state of Kerala, as well as science literacy
Writing (CASW), National Association of Science Writers and education, on the singular Kerala model of COVID-19
(NASW), the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT containment. Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan (Principal
(KSJ@MIT), and EurekAlert! by the American Association Scientific Adviser to the Government of India) was interviewed
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). by Pallava Bagla (Science Photo Journalist) on the challenges
The Forum hosted 140+ speakers from every inhabitable faced in communicating science in India, the world’s largest
continent, science and science media associations, research and most culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse
and scientific education institutions, emerging technologies, democracy. TV Venkateswaran (Scientist, Vigyan Prasar,
as well as over 900 active participants from across the world. India) described the effort in improving the visibility of local
The attendees were treated to a total of 76 talks, panel science in India with ‘India Science Wire’.
discussions and presentations, between 30 and 75 minutes in Other topics discussed included the impediments to
length–in Spanish (15 sessions), Portuguese (4) and Arabic reporting on science in conflict zones; constraints faced by
(20), and the remaining sessions in English, thus ensuring the scientists in developing nations; communicating to new
trans-lingual relevance of science and science communication generations; disinformation and fake news; need for more
was itself communicated well to all audiences. diversity in the science journalism vocation; gender and race
Local issues and achievements pertaining to science representation in the scientific workforce and improving the
communication were also deliberated, with numerous talks visibility of women scientists and science communicators.
and panel discussions centred on nurturing and strengthening The themes of the Forum covered multiple aspects of
areas of the Global South – Latin America, the MENA, the the science communicator’s life, including perhaps even the
African continent, and South Asia – as well as significant life cycle of a science journalist – running the gamut from
representation from science communicators in the developed the basics, tools, technologies, case studies and best practices
world, with speakers chiming in from Europe, Oceania and for students and aspiring journalists, to consultations on
North America. challenges and new realities for experienced journalists in a
It was a great bounty of insights for young or student post-truth, mid-COVID, way-past-digital world that is at once
journalists. Deborah Blum (Program Director, Knight more connected and more confounded.
Science Journalism, MIT), in a candid and engaging talk, It also encompassed the regional, civilizational
stressed on the evolution of the profession and tips to keep and cultural concerns and challenges faced by science
all practitioners in step with the changes that modern science communication, science popularisation and science education;
journalism continues to entail. Olga Dobrovidova (Senior the efforts, tools, initiatives and projects being spearheaded
Copywriter, Skoltech), Andrada Fiscutean (Science and by science communicators across the globe; funding,
technology journalist) and Mićo Tatalović (News Editor, financing and business models for science journalism and
Research Fortnight), expounded upon guidelines to launch science communication ventures; encouragement for more
a career in science journalism and the fundamentals of collaborations, mentorship and support for Global South
navigating every real-life step of the process, from locating stories and journalists, as well as cross-border journalism;
potential stories to pitching them to editors. Samir Mahmoud and interviews with scientists, science journalists and science
(Deputy Chief Editor, Al Ahram institution) conducted a communication entrepreneurs.
session on the basics of journalism; Hazem Badr (Assistant
Editor-in-Chief, Al-Akhbar Daily) gave a rundown of the
skills needed to prepare and write a scientific press interview; Mr Harikrishnan Thambi is Social Ambassador and Science Reporter,
Samya Ayish (Google News Initiative Teaching Fellow in the Indian Development Foundation & STEAM Academy

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 51

PHOTO FEATURE

Nasal Salt Secretion of

Oriental Pratincole
Samrat Sarkar

I
went to Monglajodi, Orissa in the winter drinking water or eating any other thing becomes scarce in nature. In the cases of
season. There I was taking snapshots of during that period nor taking a bath so that Sparrow, Munia or domesticated chickens
a large flock of Oriental Pratincoles in it would have ingested water. So, what was who feed mainly on cereals it has been
the golden light of a fine clear morning and the liquid being discharged from its mouth? found that up to 70% of salt and 10 to 20 %
unawarely went very close to the flock. The There is a biochemical process called of water is absorbed from the urine that
Pratincoles were sitting on a dry earthen Osmoregulation, which synchronizes enters the cloaca. Sometimes birds find it
hillock in the middle of the water body. I different biological processes by which a difficult to maintain the required balance
chose a particular Pratincole as my target living organism balances the amount of salt of salt in their bodies.
from the beginning. It was not because I and water in its body in different weather The kidneys of birds like gulls,
saw some unusual behaviour in the bird, conditions. The osmoregulatory organs terns, auks, penguins, albatrosses, petrels,
but because it was favourably close to my in birds are chiefly four: kidney, cloaca, cormorants, pelicans, gannets, herons and
camera. It was sitting there without much lower intestine and the salt gland. ducks living near the seas or rivers are not
movement for quite a long time. In birds, the urine coming out of strong. The amount of salt absorbed from
As I came closer it once shook its head their kidneys does not readily leave their the kidneys of these birds is not sufficient to
vigorously but did not fly away. Perhaps bodies. The urine first
it was trying its threat display, what the comes to a chamber named
Pratincoles usually do when opponents cloaca through the ureter.
Salt Gland
pose a threat. I immediately backtracked This cloaca is situated just
with my boat and left the place. And that behind the anus of the bird
was when I lost my chance of capturing a and is also the end of the Kidney
snapshot of the flight of a Pratincole for digestive system and the
that day. reproductive system. The
But as I came home and started urine coming to the cloaca
reviewing the pictures I noticed a peculiar from the kidney undergoes
thing. As the bird was shaking its head, some sort of refinement.
which I mistook for its threat display, a In this process, some
sort of white liquid oozed out of its mouth. common salt along with Small
The frame of the snapshot froze in that water is absorbed from intestine
very moment! t h e u ri n e . T h e w a t e r Hindgut
I was quite surprised to see this not absorbed from the
weird behaviour of the bird. It was sitting urine is utilised in other
there on a dry earthen hillock for at least physiological processes
Source: Internet
ten minutes, if not more. I did not see it mainly when water

52 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 maintain the balance of salt and water. For
this, they take help from an extra pair of
glands in their bodies – the “salt glands”.
These glands are situated just above
the orbits of the eyes. Many birds living
around the seashore are often compelled
to drink saline water from the sea. Also,
many marine organisms such as crabs,
squids, etc. on which those birds feed
contain excess salt. The salt glands absorb
this excess salt. The excess water in the
body, if not disposed off properly, will
require more water to dilute it to maintain
the salt-water balance.
The birds then will have to drink
more freshwater. In case the birds do not
find freshwater from the surroundings that
water will have to be supplied from their
body tissues only, and as a result, the body
tissues will wither. The birds then will
A) Buccal Cavity suffer from dehydration. That is why it is
Brain so vital to dispose off excess salt.
The salt glands function like the
Beak
kidneys to a great extent. In the salt glands,
there are many blood capillaries from
which highly concentrated salt water is
Spinal Cord Trachea absorbed and which oozes out through the
nostrils. This is what the birds get rid of
Esophagus
by shaking their heads.
What the Pratincole did here was
Lung
exactly that. The concentration of salt in
Kidney Heart the liquid thus oozed out is certainly higher
than that of the liquid which enters the
Gizzard Crop
cloaca from the kidneys.
Ureter Stomach Technau in 1936 studied 83 different
species of birds and found that the amount
Deodenum Liver
of salt secretion among the birds of the
same genus varied as a result of the change
Bile Duct of place of their habitats. Schildmacher
described in 1932, that in the Berlin zoo
Pancreas
Ileum the salt glands of ducks of the same species
Rectum
become larger when they live close to
Cloaca saline water bodies than those of ducks
Cecum
that live in freshwater.
Active salt glands are also found in
B) birds such as Roadrunner or Savannah
Hawk living in desert areas. Their nasal
Nostril salt
secretion takes place due to their habit of
gland eating high protein food such as insects
and vertebrate animals. Desert birds such
Ducts as Sand partridges or ostriches also have
active salt glands that help them to balance
Nasal gland the amount of salt and water in their bodies
at high temperatures.
This is the reason for the salt secretion
by the Oriental Pratincole I came across at
Monglajodi.

Nostril with salt

secretions
Written and photographed by Mr Samrat
Location of nasal glands in a marine bird Sarkar. Address: Vill. Majdia, P.O. Madanpur,
Source: (A&B): Internet Distt Nadia, West Bengal– 741245

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 53

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com
Nature’s MARVeLS

Discovery of
Three New Species and
a Subspecies of

Tiger Moth
Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate
K.P. Dinesh & A. Shabnam

54 | Science Reporter | January 2021

Produced with a Trial Version of PDF Annotator - www.PDFAnnotator.com

S
cientists of the Zoological other taxonomic reasons, there was one with shallow genetic divergence as
Survey of India (ZSI), Western difficulty in the identification of these subspecies.
Regional Centre (WRC), Pune, moths. Initially, it was thought that by Moths are relatives of butterflies but
Dr Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate, assessing the morphological and genitalia have not received much attention perhaps
Dr K.P. Dinesh and Ms A. Shabnam characters different species could be because they are nocturnal. Moths are
have discovered three new species and recognised. considered indicators of habitat and
a subspecies of moth new to science. To understand the morphological environment as they are habitat-specific,
The discovery has been published in an species identification the current samples additionally, they are pests of important
international journal Journal of Insect were subjected to mt (mitochondrial) agricultural, horticultural, plantation,
Biodiversity from New Zealand. COI DNA Barcode studies. The results medicinal and forestry plants and act
The discoveries and scientific of the DNA Barcode studies revealed that as pollinators of night-blooming plants.
publications were based on the field some of the morphologically different They are an important food resource for
explorations made between the year looking individuals within the species secondary consumers like spiders, mites,
2016 to 2019 by the scientists of the were the same, providing clear evidence ants, wasps, birds, reptiles, amphibians,
ZSI, WRC, Pune, where the Olepa moth of the occurrence of ‘morphotypes’ bats, etc.
collections were made from landscapes within the species. Why is the present discovery
of the Western Ghats and a few from the important? The species of Olepa moth
Technically the new species
Satpura ranges. are economically important as the larvae
descriptions and comparisons are based
The three new species are Olepa on the morphological characters, male of moths feed on economically important
ghatmatha, Olepa suryamal, and Olepa genitalia, aedeagus, position and number crops like cotton, castor, sunflower,
zedesi (honouring the location of moth of cornuti and the VIII abdominal sesame, maize, ivy gourd, brinjal, sweet
collection and the organisation) and the tergite. In the distribution pattern of potato, banana, etc. Due to climate
new subspecies Olepa suryamal rekhae. Olepa suryamal, its subspecies, Olepa change, this minor pest is becoming a
The taxonomists have also discovered suryamal rekhae and one morphotype major pest. For a minor pest then there
‘morphotypes’ within the new species of the subspecies were found to be is no need to apply any control measures
reported here – the first-of-its-kind sympatric and the other morphotype was as nature has its own balance. So, before
discovery in moth studies in India. The allopatric. The sympatric occurrence implementing any control measures in
morphological differences occurring in of two or more species in case of the the field proper knowledge of the species
the same species are called morphotypes. highly diverse order Lepidoptera (about (name and identity) is important.
The Olepa moths (common name) 150,000 species in the world) is very
are considered to be cryptic species, well documented.
wherein identification of the species The species Olepa zedesi was
just based on morphological characters allopatric with both the morphotypes
and colour was quite tricky. Before being from adjacent districts thus
this study, a total of 11 species were warranting a thorough sampling to Dr Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate
recorded across the world and now with justify the pattern of allopatry. The (aparna_ent@yahoo.co.in); Dr K.P.
the addition of the three new species Dinesh (kpdinesh.zsi@gmail.com) and Ms
reported morphotypes shared the
the total stands at 14 species including A. Shabnam (shabnamansari9113@gmail.
same adult morphological and genital com) are with the Zoological Survey of India,
2 subspecies. characters with some variations. The Western Regional Centre, Vidya Nagar,
Since a long time due to the species showing high genetic divergence Sector-29, P.C.N.T. (PO), Ravet Road,
morphological character crypticity and were categorised as species and the Akurdi, Pune, Maharashtra-411044

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 55

 ?
COVID-19 Q&A
Can people catch COVID-19 from faecal matter?

Several studies have reported finding RNA from SARS-

CoV-2 in faecal samples from COVID-19 patients. Some of
those patients also had diarrhoea, suggesting the virus had
infected their intestinal tracts; the RNA could also come
from swallowing saliva or respiratory tract fluids containing
the virus. Such faecal samples inspired wastewater testing
currently being used to watch for incipient COVID-19
outbreaks in cities around the world and at some U.S.
or by ingesting the virus after touching a contaminated
surface.
A key point often glossed over, scientists say, is the
limited evidence that viral RNA in stool comes from live,
infectious viruses — not just leftover material from “dead”
or destroyed viruses. Only a few labs have reported culturing
the live virus from COVID-19 patient stool samples, which
is challenging to do. One team has suggested that intestinal
universities. fluid neutralizes the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease
Some studies have also found abundant coronavirus Control and Prevention says, “it is unclear” whether virus
RNA in hospital bathrooms, and one modelling study in faeces can cause COVID-19 and concludes the risk of
suggested that flushing a toilet can spew viral particles spreading the virus this way is “low”. To date, there are
far above the seat. A person could therefore be exposed to no documented cases clearly indicating infection via faecal
SARS-CoV-2 by breathing aerosolized faecal matter, matter. But researchers say the risk should not be ignored.

During COVID-19 which symptom appears first?

According to a study
(10.3389/fpubh.2020.00473)
published in the journal
Frontiers in Public Health,
scientists have found what
appears to be the likely
order in which COVID-19
symptoms first appear which
could help patients as well as
doctors to identify the COVID
patients more quickly. The
study suggests that the initial
symptoms of COVID-19
include fever, cough and
muscle pain, followed by
nausea and/or vomiting and
diarrhoea.
“The order of the
symptoms matters. Knowing
that each illness progresses
differently means that
doctors can identify sooner
whether someone likely has
COVID-19, or another illness,
which can help them make
better treatment decisions,”
Larsen the study’s lead
author and a USC (University
of Southern California)
Dornsife professor, told
USC News.

56 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 Why are immune passports not being issued to those in whom antibodies to
SARS-CoV-2 have been found?
It is not guaranteed. Scientists have
identified patients who had developed
antibodies (maybe less in number) but
died due to COVID-19. It depends on
the overall response of the immune
system to the viral attack which is
different in different individuals.
Sometimes the immune system itself
harms the organs in the process of
fighting with COVID-19. Cytokine
storms produced by the immune system
can damage the lungs severely even
though the antibodies are developed
in a COVID-19 patient. (Preprint at
medRxiv http://doi.org/d27t) This is the
reason the World Health Organization
was hesitating in using immunity
passports for international travel.
Immunity passports are issued based on

?
antibody detection in blood samples.

Why people with weak immunity get viral infections easily?

Exposure to germs (virus, bacteria, etc.) and the state of have to face the second layer of defence – the White Blood
immunity or fight-back system of our body are two major Cells (WBC). The third layer of defence system is comprised
components that define our health. People with weakened of specific WBCs which are known as B cells and T cells. B
immunity are likely to get infectious diseases than healthy cells identify intruder germs while T cells mark the infected
persons. The immune system of our body acts as a triple body cells and destroy them. In this way, the further spread
layer. The skin and mucus glands are the first layers of our of the infection is checked. If our immunity or defence system
body’s defence system which functions as a strong wall. Often is weak, then germs keep on reproducing and the affected
the bacteria and viruses enter from the nose, mouth or wounds person becomes sick from the infection.
due to our hygiene-related derelictions. Here these germs

Why are antibiotics not effective in treating COVID-19?

When we have a bacterial or viral
infection, usually three types of cure
agents are used – antibiotics, antivirals
and vaccines. All these three agents
identify the germs and kick them out
from the human body. Antibiotics can
prevent us from bacterial disease but do
not work against viruses. COVID-19
is a viral disease, therefore antibiotics
don’t work. This medicine should not be
used for novel coronavirus prevention or
treatment. But if the doctors diagnose a
bacterial co-infection in the COVID-19
patient, then as per the discretion of the
doctor, antibiotics may be given.

Image credit: Pxfuel

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 57

 Test Your Knowledge

All about tea

Siraj Datta, Saptadipa Banerjee & Sreyasi Bera

1. Tea, the second most-consumed drink in the world Can you sequentially arrange them?
after water, is of different types – green tea, white i. ABCED ii. ABDCE
tea, black tea, Oolong and Pu’erh. However, all iii. ABCDE iv. AECDB
these forms come from a single tea plant. What is
the scientific name of the tea plant? 9. The most crucial part that defines the categories
i. Camellia sinensis of tea is oxidizing. Oxidation occurs when the
ii. Sorghum vulgare enzymes in the tea leaf interact with oxygen after
iii. Plasoes mungo the cell walls are broken apart. Which kind of tea
iv. Daucas carota undergoes the least amount of oxidation?
i. Black tea ii. Oolong
2. Different varieties of teas require different iii. White tea iv. Green tea
environmental factors that help in their growth
and cultivation. The most suitable soil type for the 10. An unusual tea is made with the larger-leafed
cultivation of tea is assamica variety of Camellia sinensis and is the only
i. Silty ii. Loamy tea that is actually fermented and not oxidised. It
iii. Peaty iv. Chalky is also the oldest form of tea. Which one among
these it is?
3. The best climatic condition needed for the growth i. Pu’erh ii. Ginko biloba
of tea is iii. Genmaicha iv. Tienchi ginseng
i. Warm summers and heavy rainfall
ii. Harsh winters and little to no rainfall 11. Can you tell the name of the tea category that is
iii Dry climate oxidised completely?
iv. Highland climate i. Black tea ii. Oolong
iii. Matcha tea iv. Yerba Mate
4. The largest tea producing state in India is
i. West Bengal ii. Karnataka 12. There is a certain kind of tea that is essentially
iii. Uttar Pradesh iv. Assam unprocessed. Can you tell which one?
i. Oolong tea ii. Green tea
5. Tea is grown in three primary areas of India: iii. White tea iv. Black tea
Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri. One of the notable
differences between Darjeeling tea and others is its 13. Certain beverages are often confused with tea and
characteristic flavour. What is this flavour called? are basically flowers, fruits or herbs steeped into
i. Frost tea ii. Muscatel boiling water. They are known as “non-tea”. Do
iii. Sparkling wines iv. Yixing clay you know what these “non-tea” beverages are
named by tea experts?
6. The Nilgiris, or the blue mountains, lying in the i. Oolong ii. Matcha
southwestern tip of India produce a rare type of tea iii. Tisanes iv. Iced tea
where the leaves are harvested in the winter. What
is the name of this rare tea? 14. The sweetness or brothiness of finished tea is
i. Assamica ii. Yerba mate known as Umami. What do you think gives the tea
iii. Frost tea iv. Fruit teas its umami?
i. Amino acids ii. Enzymes
7. Champagne is a French sparkling wine that is iii. Pigments iii. Methylxanthines
consumed on special occasions. Which tea is called
‘The Champagne of teas’?
i. Assam tea ii. Darjeeling tea
Answers
iii. Nilgiri tea iv. None of these
1. (i) 2. (ii) 3. (i) 4. (iv) 5. (ii) 6. (iii) 7. (ii) 8. (iv)
8. The styles of tea are produced by altering the shape 9. (iii) 10. (i) 11. (i) 12. (iii) 13. (iii) 14. (i)
and chemistry of the leaf through processing. Tea
processing has five basic steps:
A. Plucking Contributed by Prof. Siraj Datta (dattasiraj@gmail.com), Professor
B. Firing (Drying) and Head in the Department Biotechnology, Haldia Institute
C. Rolling (to shape the leaves and wring out the juices) of Technology, Haldia; Saptadipa Banerjee (saptadiparock@
D. Oxidizing gmail.com), Junior Research Fellow (JRF) and Sreyasi Bera
E. Withering (allowing the leaves to wilt and soften) (sreyasibera97@gmail.com), Student

58 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 The egg quiz
Ranjan Kumar Mohanta

1. Which country is the third-largest producer of eggs 11. Eggs are a poor source of which of the following
in the world? minerals?
a. India b. Japan a. Calcium b. Phosphorus
c. USA d. China c. Zinc d. Copper

2. Which state contributes the largest number of eggs 12. Do eggs promote healthy immune system?
to our country? a. True b. False
a. Andhra Pradesh b. Tamil Nadu
c. Telangana d. West Bengal 13. Which components of eggs maintain and promote
eye health?
3. Which scientist, popularly known as the ‘Bird-flu a. Protoporphyrin
man of India’ for his contribution in control and b. Calcium and Phosphorus
prevention of bird-flu in our country, passed away c. Vitamin C and Vitamin D
recently? d. Lutein and zeaxanthin
a. Dr C.M. Singh b. Dr Harekrishna Pradhan
c. Dr B.V. Rao d. Anuradha Desai 14. Backyard poultry contributed about 18.41
billion eggs in 2018-19 amounting to about what
4. For determination of the biological value of percentage of Indian egg production?
different protein sources, which is used as the Gold a. 10 b. 15
Standard or the best protein reference? c. 18 d. 5
a. Egg albumen b. Whole egg
c. Soybean d. Whey protein 15. What is the colour of eggs laid by Kadaknath
hens, the breed famous for the black colour meat,
5. Which part of the egg contains proteins in an egg? plumage and skin?
a. Egg yolk a. Black b. White
b. Eggshell c. Brown d. None of these
c. Transparent liquid portion
d. None of these 16. What is the usual weight of a standard poultry egg?
a. 30-40 grams b. 40-50 grams
6. An egg tray used in marketing usually can contain c. 50-60 grams d. 60-70 grams
how many eggs?
a. 20 b. 25 17. How many pores does a standard eggshell contain
c. 30 d. 32 for exchange of air and protected by cuticle?
a. 1000 b. 2000
7. A standard egg contains how much of protein? c. 3000 d. 7000
a. 3-4 grams b. 4-5 grams
c. 6-7 grams d. 8-9 grams 18. For protection against which organism, a raw egg
is not advised to be eaten as such?
8. According to the World Health Organisation, how a. Salmonella
many eggs should be consumed per person per b. Coxiella burnetii
year? c. Escherichia coli O157:H7
a. 100 b. 120 d. Listeria spp.
c. 150 d. 200

9. How much carbohydrate is found in a standard

egg?
a. 2 grams b. 3 grams Answers
c. 4 grams d. None of these 1. (a) 2. (a) 3. (b) 4. (b) 5. (c) 6. (c) 7. (c)
8. (c) 9. (d) 10. (a) 11. (b) 12. (a) 13. (d) 14. (c)
10. Which side of the egg contains air sac with storage 15. (c) 16. (a) 17. (d) 18. (a)
of air, as a source of oxygen, for the embryo to
breathe?
a. Wide rounded part
b. Narrow pointed part Contributed by Dr Ranjan Kumar Mohanta, SMS (Animal Science),
c. Both sides KVK, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha.
d. None of these E-mail: mohanta.ranjan@gmail.com

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 59

 Puzzle Corner

THE NUMBER OF READERS

After analyzing the readership survey about the content of a magazine, it was found that 65%
of the readers enjoyed crossword, 40% of the readers liked “unscramble the scrambled terms”
and 5% liked none. What is the percentage of readers who enjoyed both?

Unscramble
AENZLFUNI

GENEUD

SURIVAROT

VOSCASR

ssword
Cro
40% None

65%
? 5% Answer

UNSCRAMBLE THE SCRAMBLED DEADLY VIRUSES

ARMURBG AENZLFUNI

ALOEB GENEUD

SIEBAR SURIVAROT

XOLPAMSL VOSCASR

SIRUVHANAT

60 | Science Reporter | January 2021

 MATCH THE NOBEL WINNERS WITH THEIR RESEARCH FIELDS

Supermassive compact object

Roger Penrose
at the centre of our galaxy

Reinhard Genzel Andrea Ghez Genome editing

Emmanuelle Charpentier General theory of relativity

Harvey J. Alter Hepatitis C virus

SPOT THE COVID RELATED DRUGS UNDER TRIAL

Solutions in
the next issue

J an u ar y 2021 | Science Reporter | 61

 SCIENCE CARTOON COMPETITION
Online Drawing Competition 2020

“ART CARO NA”

Theme — “Coronavirus: An Invisible Enemy”

Besides the winners, following are the entries found worth publishing from Group I
(Class V-VIII) on the topic “Social Distancing & Hygiene to Prevent COVID-19”.

Aditri Kanaujiya
manoj9891883027@gmail.com

Aditya Jindal
arujindal22@gmail.com

January 2021 | Science Reporter | 63

 Akash Yadav
mail.com
subhashchandra16981@g

Anguru Punit
Aditya Pramanik durga_recura@rediffma
m
debarshi249@gmail.co il.com

64 | Science Reporter | January 2021