CORRECTION: Video of moon taken by Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) of Chandrayaan-1

I just now spoke to an ISRO scientist and was informed that the video of the moon taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) of Chandrayaan-1 is NOT a 3D version but a video from a sigle view.

I am sorry for wrongly stating in my post last evening (Nov 17, 2008) that it is a 3D view.

The Terrain Mapping Camera can image a single surface feature on the moon from three different views.  Though combining two views can help produce a 3D picture, combining all the three views can help compile a much superior 3D atlas.

One can easily identify a crater even from a single view based on the shadow effect.  So imagine the quality of a 3D picture when all the three views are combined.

3D video of moon taken by Terrain Mapping Camera of Chandrayaan-1

ISRO has a fantastic 3D video of moon posted in its website.  The 2.30 minutes video was taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC). It was taken as Chandrayaan-1 flew past the area near the South polar region of the moon. 

The video is taken from a height of 100 km from moon’s surface.  It has a spatial resolution of 5 metres.  Terrain Mapping Camera combines the data of a point taken from three different views to get a high-resolution 3D image.  The first of its kind video of the moon in the world.

 It is best seen at normal zoom and not in full-screen zoom.

UPDATE: The video is NOT a 3D version but a video from a single view.  The Terrain Mapping Camera can image a surface feature from three different views.  Combing these 3 views will help produce a superior 3D atlas of the moon.

My latest top posts are:

1) Pictures taken by the Moon Impact Probe

2) Pictures taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera from the 100-km orbit

Two pictures of moon taken from 100 km height by Chandrayaan-1’s Terrain Mapping Camera

This picture, taken by Chandrayaan-1’s Terrain Mapping Camera on Saturday, shows many large and small craters on the Moon’s polar region. The bright terrain on the lower left is the rim of the 117-km wide Moretus crater.

This is the first picture of the moon taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on Nov 15, 2008.  It was taken when Chandrayaan-1 was on moon’s polar region. The picture shows the rim of the 177- km wide Moretus crater.

One Nov 13, it took several pictures of the equatorial region of the moon.  A part of the Torricelli crater was also pictured.

The Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) also took several pictures on Nov 13  The picture shows a part of the equatorial region, including the Torricelli crater on.  

This is the picture of moon's surface taken from lunar orbit by Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on November 13, 2008. Taken over the equatorial region of the moon, the picture shows the uneven surface of the moon with numerous craters. On the lower left, part of the Torricelli crater is seen.

The Hindu has a report on another payload of Chandrayaan-1 — Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) – being switched on.  It works on the same principle of a sonar that is used to measure the height/distance of objects from the instrument.

LLRI can help scientists find the height of mountains and depth of craters and valleys very accurately. If the signal comes back to the instrument earlier than for a 100-km distance, it will mean that there is a mountain or an elevated structure.  Likewise, if the signal comes back late, it will mean that the region being studied is a crater or a valley.

This data will be combined with the data got from the Terrain Mapping Camera, and will help in understanding the topography of the moon accurately.  It will also help in understanding the internal structure of the moon and its origin.

The LLRI will be able to take 10 measurements per second. And the data will be collected throughout the day.  Unlike the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), the LLRI does not depend on light conditions to take measurements.

My latest top posts are:

1) 3D video of moon taken by Terrain Mapping Camera

2) Pictures of moon taken by Moon Impact Probe

3D image of moon taken by Terrain Mapping Camera of Chandrayaan-1

The first 3D image of the moon taken by Chandrayaan-1 will be processed  tomorrow (Nov 17, 2008).  The image captured by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) will be from the region around the moon’s equator. 

(UPDATE:  ISRO has posted the 2.30 minutes 3D video taken by Terrain Mapping Camera)  

This is the first time in the world that a 3D atlas of the moon with a very high resolution of 5 metres will be created.

In a piece that I wrote in the The Hindu,  I had explained the principle behind TMC. 

The images taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera will help create a 3D view of the moon.  This becomes possible as TMC will capture a single region from 3 different angles simultaneously although it uses only a single camera. 

The Terrain Mapping Camera captures a single point from three different angles using a single camera.

Though the time taken to complete one orbit will be 2 hours, the moon will be imaged only for 20 minutes per orbit.  This is because the moon will imaged only when it is well illuminated by sun.  This applies only to the regions lying 30 degress on either side of the zero latitude.

Again the moon can be imaged continuously  only for 60 days in 6 months.  So in a year there can be only 120 days of imaging of the moon.

The higher latitute regions, including the poles will be imaged when the lower latitudes are not imaged.

 

Pictures of moon taken by the Moon Impact Probe of Chandrayaan-1

Another picture of the moon taken by the Moon Impact Probe on Nov 14, 2008.

These are the two pictures taken by the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on its way to the moon before crashlanding on the moon’s surface

close-up photograph of the Moon’s surface taken by the video camera of the Moon Impact Probe on Friday (November 14, 2008) as the MIP approached the Shackleton crater after separating from Chandrayaan-1.

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Moon’s pictures taken by the moon impact probe (MIP)

Today’s The Hindu has two pictures of the moon after  the moon impact probe (MIP) was separated from Chandrayaan-1and was travelling towards the Shackleton crater on  the moon. The ISRO has also posted these two images.

Chandrayaan-1’s moon impact probe moonstruck

When the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) bid goodbye to Chandrayaan-1 at 8.06 pm (IST) and said Hello to moon at 8.31 pm today (IST), India arrived.  One small impact on the moon, a giant leap for India.

The moon impact probe crashlanded on the moon at 8.31 pm.  Ejection was perfect at 8.06 pm.  Travelling for 25 minutes at a speed of 1.6 km per minute, the MIP crashed on the moon’s south pole.

It was the Shakelton crater in the south pole that ISRO wanted the MIP to crash and it did just that.   On the dot with expreme precision.  

This is the second instance when ISRO proved with Chandrayaan-1 that it could do things at such high precision, never before accomplished by other countries.  The first was when the lunar transfer happened within 10 km of the targeted orbit.  Other countries were hundreds of kilometres off the mark.  And many of USSR’s and US’ spacecrafts had flown past the moon without being captured by it.

The Indian flag may not flutter.  Well, flags cannot flutter on the moon as it has extremely thin atmosphere and no breeze.  And it is a different matter that the US flag was seen fluttering in the background after it was planted by Neil Armstrong!  The Indian flag was painted on the MIP.  It had sanskrit sloga written on it, as well.

And while other countries have all targeted the equator, Chandrayaan-1 took the MIP to the south pole.  And the reason is obvious. If others could not find water ice at the equator, it only makes sense to look at other places.  And the poles have a better chance of having it.

And if there is no water ice, then the presence of life is remote, almost impossible.  That is the reason why all space missions to Mars have been looking for water.

It has already sent data to Chandrayaan-1.  Chandrayaan-1 will send the data tomorrow morning when it comes in direct sight of the antenna in Bangalore.

It should have collected data of the extremely thin atmosphere and taken photos of the moon till it crashlanded.  

The camera used is an ordinary industrial one that is commercially available.  The Space Applications Centre at Ahmedabad did not make one as the commerically available  one was good enough. The main requirement was that it should be robust and be able to function under such demanding conditions.

Rocket science is the pinnacle of science.  And if timings and distances, among others are critical, then ISRO has passed the litmus test. 

First it was the fast breeder nuclear technology that helped prove that it has matered the technology.  And now it space science.

ISRO changes orbit manoeuvring strategy. Chandrayaan-1 will reach 100km orbit tomorrow

There will not be three more orbit manoeuvrings but just two more. 

Chandrayaan-1, which was fired to its first lunar orbit yesterday, will be again fired tonight.  But instead of reducing the orbit from 7,500 km to 250 km aposelene, it will be reduced to a circular orbit of 200 km.  The next firing, which will happen tomorrow afternoon, will see the spacecraft reach the targeted 100 km circular orbit.

So the moon impact probe will hit the moon tomorrow afternoon.  And images of the moon using the terrain mapping camera to help compose a 3D atlas will start functioning from tomorrow.

Chandrayaan-1 successfully enters lunar orbit

The most difficult part of manoeuvring Chandrayaan-1 to the lunar orbit has been successful. This was done around 5.30 pm today (Nov 8). 

This is difficult part of the entire manoeuvring process as the Chandrayaan-1’s velocity has to be first reduced by reverse firing when it reaches about 500 km from the moon.  If the velocity reduction does not happen at the right time at the right place then it will be lost for ever as it would neither be in an elliptical orbit around the earth nor a hyperbolic orbit around the moon, as the report in today’s  The Hindu states.

Once it is captured by the moon, the orbit become a polar elliptical one around the moon.

The next few operations will be to reduce the orbital height in four stages.  This is not very difficult.

Chandrayaan-1 will be fired to its initial lunar orbit tomorrow

About 6 pm tomorrow, Chandrayaan-1 would have reached about 500 km from the moon and  it would have be fired to take the spacecraft to its initial orbit around the moon.

The initial orbit will have 7,500 km apolune (farthest point from the moon) and 500 km perilune.  The perilune will be the point where the firing takes place.  The moon’s gravity will take over fully the very moment this firing happens at 500 km.

The speed of Chandrayaan-1 will be reduced further by reverse firing (Chnadrayaan-1 will be reversed 180 degrees while orbiting and then fired.  This will help reduce the speed of the spacecraft).

Once the reverse firing happens, the perilune will be reduced to 125 km while the apolune will remain the same at 7,500 km.  This will the first lunar orbit.

The second lunar orbit will have a perilune of 125 km and 250 km apolune.  The third orbit will have a perilune of 100 km and apolune of 250 km.  The final circular orbit will be 100 km from the moon.

The password of GM brinjal biosafety data on GEAC website cracked

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is soon going to get a rude shock. It thought it was too clever by putting out the password protected  1000-odd pages of biosafety data on GM brinjal (that is  field tested in about dozen sites across India) that cannot be printed on its website.

 An NGO mailed me today saying that they have cracked the password and would be putting the data in a server that can be easily accessed AND printed by the public. 

And that brings to an end the GEAC’s failed attempts to fool everybody. Posting the data was done in an attempt to be seen as obeying the Supreme Court’s order.  But at the same time it did it by making sure that environmentalists could not study the biosafety data. Studying the 1000-odd pages would take time even if it is available in a printed format.  But imagine studying it on a computer screen.  Since the data cannot be printed, analysing it by looking at the data on the monitor will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. 

What a waste of time and efforts.   Did the GEAC really think that no one can crack a password once it is posted on the internet? 

Here is a short brief for those who have not followed the saga of getting the GEAC to post the data on its website: 

 Aruna Rodrigues filed a PIL with the Supreme Court in 2005 to make the GEAC to post the biosafety data of all GM crops that are undergoing field trials.  But the regulator (oops!!) did all it could do to make sure it did not have to do that.  At one stage it even mislead the Supreme Court by stating that the data was indeed posted on its website, when it was only the summary that was available.  

It had right from the begining said that the data was confidential.  To be specific, it said it was Confidential Business Information (BIS).  Of course, every information that Monsanto ever provides to the regulator comes under this category.  So nothing unusual about it.  Only that the GEAC found this excuse to delay posting the data.

And can you believe it that the same GEAC in its 85th meeting on May 28 this year said that there was NOTHING confidential about the data.  

The minutes note:

7.6       Posting of Biosafety data on GEAC website.

 

1.0        The Committee noted that M/s Mahyco has recently submitted the entire biosafety data in electronic form to the GEAC wherein the applicant has classified the information into Confidential Business Information (CBI) and non CBI information.  The Committee was of the view that none of the information classified under the CBI merits consideration under this category.  The Committee requested the Member Secretary, GEAC to post the entire data on the GEAC website. 

This change in mind and attitude was due to the Court ordering it to make the data available soon.

 But it was last month when it finally posted the data on its website. 

Already reports are coming in that the data contains no biosafety tests results. It may be too early to come to a conclusion. One has to be patient and wait for more people to study the data. 

But knowing the way Monsanto conducts its business, one can be pretty sure that the coming days are going to be really interesting.

Edit in The Hindu on how the GEAC was forced to post the GM brinjal biosafety data on its website

My Edit in today’sThe Hindu tells how the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, which approves companies to conduct field trials of GM crops, was forced to post the biosafety data on its website.

It is still known if the data posted includes results of tests that the expert committee wanted Mahyco to do.

Now it remains to be seen how the GEAC reacts to this editorial.  My first  Edit in The Hindu on GM crops and two articles written in the Science and Technology pages of The Hindu on June 26 (Many skeletons tumble out of the GEAC cupboard which looked at the various shortcomings of the GEAC, and  the other on the reasons for the sheep death) and the third one on July 3 on how GM field trials gave no scope for proper field assessment shocked the GEAC. 

And it reacted in the most unprofessional manner. Since the articles and the Edit were based on facts and data provided by GEAC to Dr. P.M. Bhargava, the Supreme Court nominee to the GEAC, and letters sent to Mahyco/DBT/GEAC by Prof. Bose, Memeber of the West Bengal Agriculture Commission, they could not find fault with them. The very fact that they did not send a rejoinder or a clarification is proof enough.

But the minutes of the 87th meeting of the GEAC held on July 9  recorded the most unexpected thing. It made a special mention of the reports in The Hindu.  It noted: the Ministry has received several objections against the reports and distorted Bt brinjal pictures published by ‘The HINDU’ against the Bt crops  based on Dr. Bhargava’s comments.   

Now did it think that readers are fools that they cannot understand that the articles were not based on facts.  As the article on sheep death mentions,  Dr. Bhargava came to the conclusion that cause of sheep death was not thoroughly investiagted was based on the data provided by the GEAC itself.  And the lack of proper assessment of field trials in West Bengal was based on mails sent to GEAC/DBT by Prof. Bose.  The articles clearly bring out the sources.

So what was GEAC’s real objective? Was it to put it on record that the reports were wrong and it was not to be faulted or was it to intimidate The Hindu or me.

One thing is sure.  It has not succeeded in intimidating the newspaper or me. Today’s Edit is a proof.  And GEAC should be prepared to see more such damaging reports.   

There is big lesson for all of us.  While research on GM technology should be allowed to continue, field trials should be allowed to happen only when all systems are in place to ensure that all tests are done by a third party who is competent enough.

The public should wake up to the seriousness of the issue. And very soon.

Biosafety data of GM brinjal is now available in a printable format

The biosafety data of GM brinjal is now available in a printable format at the WordPress.com site. 

“The documents are free of all restrictions on printing and copying,” noted the mail sent to me today.  In my first post on Friday (Sept 12), I did mention that the password of the biosafety data (of GM brinjal) posted on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) website has been cracked and the person was looking at a site to upload this material to make public access easily possible.

The person has apparently chosen wordpress.com blog to make public access possible.

Will the ban on smoking in public places go up in smoke?

Chewing tobacco sold by a shopkeeper in Chennai

In all likelihood, the nationwide ban on smoking  will never and can never be enforced in India.  We saw this Kerala.  It was the first State to do so a few years ago. After the initial signs of being serious in enforcing it, the State never succeeded.

Did we not see this in the case of banning the sale of chewing tobacco?  All that they could do was to threaten many shopkeepers and burn/destroy the packets for a few days. Today we can see them displayed prominently in every roadside shop.

Legislation is one thing and enforcing them is another.  And we are extremely poor at enforcement.  

And the Union Health Ministery is planning to increase the fine from Rs.200 to Rs1,000.  So will the huge penality deter people from smoking?  It will not.  But it can surely make the policemen richer and smokers harassed.

Phenol, Cadmium, lead in cigarette smoke

Did you know that cigarette smoke contains phenol? According to the U.S. Centre for Diesease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigaratte smoke contains phenol.  But the only good news is that the phenol is quickly eliminated from the human body and does not accumulate in any body tissue.   

But that is not the case with cadmium.  According to CDC, long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium can lead to its accumulatioin in the kidneys, leading to possible kidney diseases.  

Then comes lead.  Lead is present in the tobacco leaves and the amount of lead present depends on the soil where tobacco is grown and also the fertilizer used.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the lead can accumulate in the lungs and cause a major problem, including death.

But if you fear the danger of a nuclear plant releasing radioacitive material in the event of an accident,  then remember that cigaratte smoke releases Polonium-210.  And this radioactive element is known to be main culprit for causing lung cancer.

Nobel Prize Medicine: Robert Gallo who claimed to have discovered HIV causes AIDS snubbed by the Nobel Prize committee

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine announced today gave the American fraudster Dr. Robert Gallo the snub that was long overdue.  By making only a passing mention of his work in the discovery of the HIV (virus) that causes AIDS, while awarding the Prize to Prof. Francoise Barre Sinoussi and Prof. Luc Montagnier, the Nobel Prize committee has shamed Dr. Gallo.

The Prize has kindled the memories of the controversies as to who really discovered the virus.  That the aggressive American had brains but no wisdom became soon apparent when the world got to know that he published his results after Prof. Luc published his and yet tried in vain to claim credit for the discovery.

A Congress investigation determined in 1992 that Dr. Gallo had not discovered HIV. The virus that he claimed to have found had actually been taken from a sample sent to him by Prof. Luc.

The Prize now is the last way of confirming who actually discovered the virus.

And it took the Presidents of France and America to intervene and end the controversy. And despite the US Federal Office of Research Integrity accusing him of committing a scientific misconduct, he stands to earn nearly $1 lakh every year as royalties on blood tests.

What a shame.

But it should be mentioned that he made some seminal contributions.  So why did the committee not including him?  Was it because he was involved in scientific misconduct that turned out to be one of the biggest scientific controveries or was it simply because only three scientists can be ever awarded the prize under one category.  So by including him, the committee would have to overlook the German Harald zur Hausen’s discovery that HPV virus causes cervical cancer.  If not this year the German would have won it next year or so. So that cannot be the reason.  One can one guess that the committee did it intentionally.  And Gallo had told the Associated Press reporter that he was disapponinted.

Awarding the Nobel Prize has always been seen as one of the ways of shaming a country or its policies.  Remember Dali Lama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? That was to shame China. But it was almost always the Peace prize that was used for this purpose. But this is the first time that America has been on the receiving end, and that too in the Medicine category.

Mosquito net is the best way to keep malaria at bay

The roadside vendor shows the effective way to keep mosquitos away.

 

What a shame that millions are afflicted by malaria when all that is required is the use of a mosquito net to keep the bloody insects at bay.  Nobody has taught or had to teach this roadside vendor this elementary message.

Mosquito mats and other creams have been found to be harmful in the long term.  And a recent study found that the mosquito repellants are no longer effective.  

WHO has been spending millions of dollars for providing inseticide impregnated nets mainly in Africa.  And it has been shown that when used properly and every day, it can drastically cut the number of malaria cases.

Search for AIDS vaccine continues even as Luc Montagnier wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine

 

 

Dr. V.D. Ramanathan, Senior Deputy Director at TRC, Chennai and the Principal Investigator of the Phase I AIDS vaccine trial conducted at TRC

The search for AIDS vaccine contiunes 25 years after the discovery of HIV by Luc Montagnier.   Though he has been awarded the prestigious prize that any scientists can ever aspire for, the search for a vaccine continues.  Many trials are still in the very early stages, while some have gone on to human clinical trial stage.

The Phase I trial of an AIDS vaccine tested at the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC), Chennai using the MVA vector has been found to be safe.  The immune response has been only modest.  Phase  I trial is done to see how safe the vaccine is and to see how well  the volunteers who have received the vaccine produce an immune response. 

The immune response is a measure of how well the body recognises the virus and for how long.

All volunteers who received the high dose showed good response.  But this did not last long.  So NACO and IAVI (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) have planned to conduct a Phase I AIDS trial using a prime-boost strategy.  It will be done at TRC, Chennai and at NARI, Pune.

The trial will start next year.

You can hear the audio podcast of Dr. D.V. Ramanathan, the Principal Investigator of the Phase I AIDS vaccine trial that I uploaded in the boomp3.com site.  Or you can see the  video podcast in Youtube.

Rainwater harvesting from roads

Structure to harvest rainwater falling on the road at Besant Nagar, Chennai

 

The Chennai Corporation has taken the initiative to put in place the structures to harvest rain falling on certain roads.  One can see these structures in certain roads in Besant Nagar, Chennai.  The Southwest monsoon that brings the most rain to Chennai is due to arrive by mid-October. 

By this initiative, the Corporation has gone one step further in rainwater harvesting.  The last government of AIADMK made it compulsory for every household and apartment in Tamil Nadu to put in place rainwater harvesting structures. It costs a couple of thousand rupees but the benefits are enormous. The way the aquifer was recharged after the rule came to force is now well known.  With most of the apartments and houses paved with concrete, there is no way for the aquifer to be recharged. And with many of the lakes and temple tanks being converted for other purposes, such recharge of the aquifer became very essential.

Many cities have taken a cue from Tamil Nadu and are implementing rainwater harvesting.

Come monsoon, one can see Chennai roads being flooded.  Roads with more than ankle deep water are not uncommon.  If the Corporation can only ensure that such structures are in place in most of the roads, it can not only take care of the flooding problem, but can help recharge the groundwater.

Only that it must make sure that the water is not dirty or sewage-mixed water.  Because many roads in Chennai have sewage overflowing during monsoon!

HIV/AIDS: Robert Gallo “disappointed” for not being awared the Nobel Prize for Medicine

The American scientist Robert Gallo of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore has told the Science journal that he is “disappointed” for not being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

He was engaged in a bitter battle and dispute with the French scientist Luc Montagnier over the HIV discovery issue.  It was unequivocally proved that it was Luc and not Gallo who had discovered HIV. 

Apart from being “disappointed, Gallo had told the journal that “The only thing I worry about is that it may give people the notion that I might have done something wrong.”

Of course he did a great wrong and he knows it well and hence his fear.  How else can one explain that he tried to claim the credit after studying the virus sent to him by Luc. 

One thing is for sure:  this year’s Nobel Prize will be remembered more for Gallo being ignored than for the discovery of HIV and HPV (that causes cervical cancer) that has saved millions of people.

Fraud of Catherine Verfaillie, a stem-cell researcher, unearthed

It is another Hwang Woo Suk, the infamous stem-cell reseracher of South Korea whose research was found to be a fraud, in the field of stem cell research.  The New Scientist magazine questioned a stem cell research paper published in the Nature journal last year.  Now it has been conclusively proved to be a case of falsifying data.

I wrote a piece in The Hindu last March on how New Scientist found the paper by the American reserachers led by Catherine Verfaillie  appers to be too good to be true. Investigations have now shown that it is nothing but fraud.

Much like in the case of Hwang, the American researchers have resorted to manipulating photographs to make it appear as coming from different experiments. 

What is surprising is that while Hwang had to quit the University and South Korean Governmant even withdrew his licence, the University panel investigating Verfillie’s case did not find “enough evidence” to conclude there was scientific misconduct!

Should stern measures not be taken against such researchers as they have found strong evidence.  WIll it mean that more scientists can indulge in such practices and go scot free even if they found out later.

Is the panel not setting a wrong precedent by not punishing the scientists ?  Or was it forced not to punish them as the research was about how adult stem cells could be as versatile as stem cells taken from embryos?  Was it because the research is in line with Bush’s pro-life stand?

These are very disturbing issues but if science has to progress and if papers published in “reputed” journals are to be taken seriously, then these scientists have to be punished.  If the University cannot do it, then the journals have to by not publishing their papers in future.  Can they do it?

My edit in The Hindu stressed on how reputed journals should take extra care to spot these frauds before the papers are published.

The documentary “The truth about Monsanto” shows how humanity will be wrecked by GM technology

The next world war will be faught not with bombs or guns. 

If you think World War III will never take place, then you are wrong.  It has already started.  It may take a few years to kill, maime  millions of people, either directly or indirectly.  But it has already started.

The tool used is genetic modification of our food crops.  The bombs are genetically modified (GM) seeds. And the villian is none other than  Monsanto.

And with pliant governments and regulatory agencies, such as the ones in India, Monsanto is free to do anything it wants.

Just watch this documentary  “The world according to Monsanto.”  It is more shocking than the book.

Drug discovery: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceutical Ltd ties up with Merck to develop compunds

Indian pharmaceutical companies are getting in to R&D.  Not having deep pockets or the expertise to develop the compounds and do animal and human clincial trials, they are tying up with MNCs to develop novel compounds. 

It is a win-win situation.  For the Indian companies, it means that they would be paid to do the initial part of the drug discovery. They also get to learn how to go about developing these drugs.  And the MNCs get the laborious work outsourced and get into the picture only when the drug has passed the proof-of-concept stage. 

So they are very different from the earlier model when Indian companies developed the compounds and licenced it to foreign Pharma companies.  They never got paid when developing the compounds!

I wrote a piece in The Hindu on how the Chennai based Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceutical Ltd last month tied-up with Merck to deveop chemical compounds.  According to the agreement, Merck will supply the biological targets like proteins, enzymes etc and Orchid will develop the compounds. Orchid has to also undertake animal testing and then go up to Phase IIa human clinical trial stage (proof-of-concept stage).  Merck will take over from that stage.

Orchid will develop antibacterial and antifungal compounds. Orchid had got in to research only a few years ago. 

You can also hear the audio podcast.  I interviewed Dr. C.B. Rao, Deputy Managing Director of Orchid.

The sudden attraction for nuclear energy

Dr. Baldev Raj, Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) says metallic fuel will be used in fast breeder reactors coming up after 2020.

The IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei has said that more than 50 countries are getting interested in nuclear energy. The sudden love for nuclear could be mainly because of the rising cost of oil and the general decline in coal reserves.

But nuclear energy is not a panacea.  There will be greater demand for natural uranium as more and more countries opt for nuclear energy .  And much like oil and coal, uranium is not a renewable one.  There is only a fixed quantity of uranium available in the world. One can only expect that as more and more countries opt for nuclear energy, and countries such as India increase the number of nuclear reactors, there will be a pressure and incentive to explore and find newer uranium reserves.

That said, the best way to squeeze the most of the uranium available is to opt for fast breeder reactors.  That is what India has done.  Rather they have mastered.  After nearly 25 years of research, India is in a commanding position with respect to fast breeder technology.

Dr. Baldev Raj, Director of IGCAR spoke to me on how India started working on this challenging technology and how it mastered it.   

The Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam recently crossed 1.55 lakh MW days/tonne burn-up.  Higher the burn-up, the better it is.  It is like squeezing the most energy from a given mass of fuel. It is planning to increase the burn-up to see the end of life of the fuel.

The first 500 MW commercial Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is coming up at Kalpakkam near Chennai, India.  Two more 500 MW reactors will come up at Kalpakkam.  And two more at some other place. 

The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam that does all the R&D on fast breeder technology has already taken up another challenging work of developing metallic fuel.  The advantage of metallic fuel is that it can produce much more extra plutonium than it consumes.  It is far superior than the fuel that will be used in the fast breeder reactor coming up at Kalpakkam and 4 more to come up before 2020.

With the seeding trial exposure, Merck’s woes with Vioxx never seem to end

The myraid unethical ways in which pharmaceutical companies can suppress and manipulate data seem to always surprise and shock a lay person.  

About 6 months ago the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) published the paper (you can read only the abstract.  You need a subscription to read the full paper) on how the company withheld safety data to make the drug appear as safe.  The paper talks about how the company did not even inform the Institutional Review Board, the first point of check, of the deaths.

And now comes the news about how the company went about conducting “seeding trials” to promote Vioxx.  It got 600 primary care physicians to prescribe the drug to more than 5,500 patients.

Seeding trials are done primarily to market the drugs and not to collect scientific data. That being the objective, it should not surprise us that it was the marketing division and not the research division that designed and conducted the “trial.” 

The FDA did not know it, nor did the doctors or the poor patients.  Well, even the journal Annals of Internal Medicine that published the “trial” data did not know the real objective of the study. 

That tells us how good drug companies are in making a study with fabricated/manipulated data appear good and real.

But the ghost of Vioxx keeps haunting the company even months after it withdrew the drug from the market. The latest is the paper  (again you can only read the abstract and need a subscription to read the full paper) published in the Annals of Internal Medicine .  The journal also published an Editorial in the same issue of the journal (sorry, even an abstract is not available for free reading).

One can one wonder how those who reviewed the paper failed to find out the real objective of the study.  The Annals of Internal Medicine is a reputed journal.  And if reputed journals can miss it, I think we need to take every paper that deals with results of clinical trials with a pinch of salt.

This may be the fist instance where the company’s documents prove that it was involved in a seeding trial.  But that companies engage in such unethical practices is a common knowledge.

Now compare this with what companies that manufacture and sell GM seeds.  While the drug companies have to submit the data to FDA prior to a drug’s approval, there is no such compulsion for companies like Monsanto.  All they have to do is to provide the “summary” of the results to the FDA.

Summary ensures that there is no scope for verifying the claims made by Monsanto or Syngenta.

I think the drug companies should be feeling down and frustrated that they could not get the Congress and the FDA to adopt a similar policy for them.

Synthetic biology and the opportunities it offers explained

The Science journal has two articles posted today on synthetic biology. This is a good starting point for those planning to start a career or wanting to know more about this field. 

The first article explains the basics and gives a lot information on major projects initiated in different countries. It clearly mentions that the filed is in its infancy.  But you may be aware that this field has a lot potential and applications in different areas including medicine. 

The second piece looks at what three people coming three diferent areas of specilisation have to say. The author has interviewed a microbiologist, a mechanical engineer and a chemist.

Yes, synthetic biology is an inter-disciplinary field where engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, to name a few, can find their place.

 

Want to have a hearty laugh? Read Monsanto’s Code of Business Conduct

If you are surfing the Net to find something very funny, feel like having a hearty laugh or well, if you are finding it difficult how to state very confidently something that you never practice, then you should read Monsanto’s Code of Businees Conduct.

“At Monsanto, we are committed to building relationships based on Integrity.” That is the first line in the list of things they want to do but have never come anywhere close to it. Well they as a company will cease to exist if they follow each and everything that they have stated there.

To be very frank, I wish they had not kept it brief.  They have again denied us the opportunity to laugh our hearts out and keep stress and many other diseases at bay. 

Oh, those robbers!!

University of Minnesota concludes falsification of images by Catherine Verfaillie

The online issue of Science has a news item (you can only see the summary. A subscription is needed to read the full news item) on the findings of the academic misconduct committee set up by the University of Minnesota to investigate Catherine Verfaillie’s case of image alteration.

The committee has said that four of the seven images in the Blood journal where she published her paper had problems. ”The aspects of the figures were altered in such a way that the manipulation misrepresented experimental data and sufficiently altered the original research record to constitute falsification.”

“Eliminiation of bands on blots, altered orientation of bands, introduction of lanes not included in the original figure and covering objects or image density in certain lanes were found,” the report has stated.

But more than the act of falsification, what is even more shocking is that Verfaillie has defended her supervision although Reyes, the student who did the work, says that “for several of images, she merely globally adjusted the brightness and contrast in data images without any intent to deceive.”

One can only wonder how adjusting the contrast and brightness of the images can lead to the introduction of lanes, elimination of bands etc.

And finally Reyes has in an e-mail to Science noted, “These errors were unintentional and were COMMON and ACCEPTED practices at the time.”

Now do we take this as some kind of desperate measure to escape criticism or is she really telling us what is going on in these labs and what kind of ethical practices scientists and researchers follow?

Now I shudder at the thought of “common and accepted practices” researchers employ.

The Edior-in-Chief of Science journal Donald Kennedy had stated in January 2006 following the Hwang Woo Suk’s case: “We are implementing improved methods of detecting image alteration… “  Though no case of image manipulation has surfaced after that in Science, I wonder if they have in place a system to detect it. And if they do have it, other journals need to emulate it. 

 

 

Why is the University not releasing the complete report of the committee?  Those who read these journal papers have a right to know what had really happened and what they found.  We afterall read these journals and take these reports seriously. We have a right to know the full details.

The university has forwarded the report of the committee to the federal Office of Research Integrity.  

These reserahcers have to be punished, if it is serious to uphold science and the art of scientific investigation.

China will do to science what it did to win the most gold medals in 2008 Olympics

I dare to say that China will become one of the science power-houses in the world in about 10-15 years’ time.

You saw that happening in the Olympics where it won the most gold medals.  It is after a very long time since the US has found itself relegated to the second position in the gold medal list.  The London Olympics in 2012 will see China topping it in the overall medals as well.

And I am sure they can do something quite similar in scienceas well.  They are spending millions of dollars to attract, retain and build science research in the country.  The online issue of Science has an interview with the Premier Wen Jiabao.

The interview only touches upon the ways in which China plans to go about developing its expertise in science.  Even the extended interview  does not discuss the issues surrounding science in detail. I wished Science looked at it more thoroughly.

Finally, radiation impact on patients gains centre stage

The UN seems to have finally realised that it is the patients’ interest that is paramount when it comes to studying/ monitoring the radiation impact. For too long, doctors and technicians, and workers in nuclear industry have been the subjects of study.  The world body seemed blissfully ignorant of patients.

This is important as there is little attention being paid to reduce as much as possible the level of radiation received by pateints.  On the other hand, hospitals/diagnostic centres abroad and in India advertise about the 5-beat CT scan to diagnose any heart problems. 

CT is indeed a powerful tool to identify medical problems.  But to use it as a tool to screen for any heart problems is ethically wrong. 

I found the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai using the wrong criterion while deciding the dosage for children.   Instead of reducing the dose based on body weight, they were doing it based on the age of the child. Now we know that not all children of a particular age have the same weight.  It is elementary. And the guidelines clearly spells out the need to use the body weight and not the age while deciding the dosage. Yet the doctors proudly, and quite ignorantly showed me how they adjust the dosage.

And many hospitals use the same dose for both adults and children. 

 

 

 

The trials and tribulations of Indian scientists working with government institutions

Much like in the US and countries in Europe, attracting people to science is becoming a major problem in India.  The IT boom saw students turning their back to science.  And with biotechnology not yet taking off the way it should have, students have no incentive to take to science.

But for those who have opted for science, life seems like hell.  Unless they are in some of the prestigious institutions, chances are that the teachers are only as knowledgeable  as the students. 

And then if you have taken up a job in one of the government centres/laboratories, and not some private company, it can get terrible.

Pay is not good.  Everyone knows it.  But what shocked me was when a very senior scientist with a respected government institution in Chennai told me that travelling abroad to attend a conference or a meeting is fraught with bureaucratic hurdles.   Even when the travel expenses are met by someone else.

One has to first get the approval from his parent institution.  The file is then sent to Delhi.  Clearances from the Ministry for External Affairs and Ministry of Health are required. And if the stay is going to be longer than one week, clearance from the Finance Ministry is also required!

And the daily allowance has been done away with if you are travelling within the country.  Instead, scientists are given actuals not exceeding Rs150 a day!

All this when the Prime Minister talks about creating exciting career opportunities for scientists.

A new open-access journal on AIDS

The International AIDS Society has launched a peer-reviewed open access journal on AIDS. The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) , it is said, will cover all aspects of HIV-related research across various disciplines.

Lapse by journal leads to duplicate publication

Researchers have been caught in the act of plagiarising, fabricating, manipulating, and at times republishing the same work, almost verbatim, in another journal.  It is a breed where the likes of Catherine Verfaillie will find a place. 

The authors’ reputation takes a beating, and why not, when they are caught republishing their papers.  But at times, journals and not researchers have to be blamed for duplicate publication. 

Rob Siebers writes in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) blog that his paper was republished by the same journal Indoor Air in the very next issue.  And he also mentions that though the journal carried an erratum, the PubMed, which shows the abstract of papers, shows up his work as a ’duplicate’ publication.

But for such rare cases as Siebers, the plague that is entrenching itself in the scientific community is really sickening.

According to the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a duplicate publication is one that ”substantially duplicates another article without acknowledgement.”  A paper in the journal Bioinformatics says that the NLM found 607 records (as on July 2006) in Medline to be duplicate publications. The true duplcation, they found, translates to nearly 42 %.

Read this paper on “Different patterns of duplicate publication” in the  Journal of American Medical Accosiation (JAMA)  for more information. Another piece in Nature journal is also informative.

Indian Government says homosexuality is a disease

Beleive it or not, the Additional Solicitor General has stated in the Delhi High Court that homosexuality is a “disease.”  And hence argued that it should not be decriminalised.

Luckily the Court did not buy that stupid argument.   Instead, it has come down heavily on the Additional Solicitor General.

The Health Ministry is trying to decriminalise homosexuality. But some other ministry is not very comfortable with it.

It is shocking that a person of such high standing should cite this reason to stall the scraping of  section 377 on the Indian penal code that criminalises homosexuality. Not only has he revealed his lack of imagination to come up with something sensible to oppose the scrapping of section 377, but has shown to the world how the government thinks and acts when it comes to removing the hurdles that come in the way of reducing HIV/AIDS incidence/prevalence.  

It is a shame that the Additional Solicitor General is caught in a timewrap and is not in sync with reality.  But he is not alone.  A piece published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2005 shows that many in the medical profession still think that there are no homosexuals in India The author has said that his professor believed that “homosexuality was a US invention.”

Or probably, those opposed to scrapping it are of the view that social norms define if something is a disease, as this letter to BMJ reflects.  A paper, again in BMJ in 2004, shows how doctors tried to “treat” homosexuality from 1950s in Britiain, only to realise that its is not a disease afterall.  So the Additional Solicitor General has some more literature to read.

It is shocking for another reason as well.  The nodal body – the National AIDS Control Organisation – has a done an excellent job in educating and creating awareness about HIV/AIDS.  And many States have performed excellently in even reducing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.  So one would only expect the government to be proactive in taking all the necessary measures to reduce the incidence. 

It is time to tell him that homophobia, and not homosexuality, is a disease.

In fact many hindu temples have sculptures of men indulging in homosexual act. Anal and oral sex are also well depicted in many temple sculptures.

Probably he has never visited a temple!

 

 

 

 

Potatoes: the winners of FAO’s World Photography Contest

Here are the winning photos of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) World Photography Contest.

Though I love photography and have taken some good pictures, I did not find these photos breathtaking.  Rather I just fathom what is so great in these photos.  

Can somebody educate me please

Latest change in ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 orbit transfer strategy

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has changed Chandrayaan-1 orbit transfer startegy.  Earlier it was to go around the Earth twice in an elliptical orbit before moving towards the moon.

But ISRO has changed it. Dr. Madhavan Nair, the Chairman of ISRO, speaking to me over phone, confirmed this change in the orbit transfer strategy.    

The satellite will now go around the earth three times, and then move to revolve around the earth and the moon twice.  It is in the second such revolution that it will move into the moon’s sphere of influence. 

It will take about 11 days to complete the first revolution around the earth and moon. 

An ISRO spokesperson told me that the initial orbit will have a perigee (nearest point to the earth) of about 250 km and apogee of 23,000 km.  And the orbit will be made more elliptical by repeatedly firing the spacecarft’s liquid apogee motor at the opportune time when the spacecraft is at the perigee position.  Apparently, the the firing has to happen five times till the apogee is about 3,86,000 km.  It is at this apogee position that the spacecraft will pass in the vicinity of the moon. 

And once this happens, the sapcecraft is slowed down so that the gravity of the moon captures it into its orbit.  The spacecraft’s orbit is then progessively reduced in three stages so that it reaches the desired orbit of 100 km from the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan-1 launch by ISRO successful

Chandrayaan-1 has been launced successfully. The spacecraft was following the predetermined path perfectly. And all the four stages disengaged at the correct time.

Though it was cloudy, it did not rain at the time of the launch.  There was no lightning or thunder, the two factors that could have put-off the launch. But about 10-15 minutes later it started raining.

Since the orbit-transfer strategy has been changed, the time taken to reach the desired 100 km lunar orbit will be 15 days and not five-and-half days.

Dr. Madhavan Nair explains why ISRO changed Chandrayaan-1’s orbit-transfer strategy

Dr. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO, explained to me why ISRO changed the orbit-transfer strategy.

It was done basically to allow the scientists enough time and room to calibrate all the systems such as ground tracking system. It is important to remember than this is the first time that ISRO is getting into deep-space mission.

By changing into five orbits – 3 around the earth and 2 around the earth and the moon – it will give sufficient data to understand how the gravity of other planets, sun and moon affects the spacecraft’s orbit. 

The first orbit will have an apogee (farthest point from the earth) of 23,000 km.  The second will have an apogee of 1,60,000 km  and the third will have an apogee of 2,60,000 km.

The second and third will give scientists the opportunity to check if their claculations are correct and to calibrate the systems. So far only theoretical information was available.  But when it goes in to the 2nd and 3rd orbit scientists will have actual data. 

The fourth orbit, where the spacecraft will move close enough to the moon and takes 11 days to complete, will give them better opportunity to calibrate their systems before it moves to final orbit (fifth) where the spacecraft will come under the influence of the moon’s gravity.

The earlier startegy was to have just two orbits around the earth and then move on to the moon.  This according to him would have given them very short time to evaluate all the parameters and hence could have given rise to some errors.

Merck: Half truths about Gardasil vaccine to prevent cervical cancer caused by HPV

It is fact that pharmaceutical companies tell the media only those things that are in their favour.  So it was not surprising that MSD Pharmaceutical, Merck’s Indian subsidiary, resorted to the same when it held a press conference in Chennai. 

The press conference was to announce the commercial launch of Gardasil, the vaccine to prevent  cervical cancer caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV), in India.  

In the very begining the Director Vaccine of MSD said “education, screening and vaccination” are the cornerstones to prevent cervical cancer.  But she never mentioned that only 70 % of cervical cancers are caused by subtypes 16 and 18. 

And it was never revealed during the presentation that patients should continue regular screening even after vaccination.  Regular screening for cervical cancer is required  even after vaccination as the vaccine can at most prevent only those caused by these two subtypes.

While they they kept telling us about the important role we played in educating the society (as if we never knew it in the first place and wanted Merck to teach/remind us), they did not care to tell us the truth, the whole truth. 

And to add insult to injury, there was a doctor, who had come on Merck’s invitation, who told us that the vaccine has 98 % possibility of preventing cervical cancer! That was a great effort to mislead  journalists who were not covering health issues regularly.  And most of them actually did not know the finer details. 

Very upset with the way the doctor tried to create a wrong impression about the vaccine and the company remaining silent on the issue of regular screening even after vaccination, I ensured that they did not succeed in misleading the journalists who had gathered there.

The doctor had to admit that the two subtypes account for only 70 % of cervical cancers, and that the vaccine can prevent only 98 % of this possibility.

But the company tried to defend itself by saying that it did tell about about screening.  They had to finally concede that screening after vaccination was never talked about.

The company also mentioned that 50 % of women get infected by HPV.  Did they borrow that data from some study/survey done abroad or is India specific.  If it is India specific, how and when did they get it.  They could not provide a satisfactory answer to these questions.

The Editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine has raised many questions about the vaccine.  The fact that the trial looked for only the antibody response and not the efficacy is worrying.  So should we vaccinate young girls?  A paper in the same issue of the journal says that it will take about two decades before we know the health implications of the vaccination programme.

FDA amendment will encourage the use of placebos in clinical trials done in developing countries

The question of using placebos (dummy) or proven drugs available in the market when a drug is tested during clinical trials has been an ethically contentious issue. It has now acquired different dimensions.

The amendment by the US FDA, which will come into effect from October 27, 2008, will make sure that patients in the developing countries who become the subjects of clinical trials may only get placebos (dummy) and not drugs that are already in the market.

But the World Medical Association (WMA) guidelines, which is known as the Declaration of Helsinki, revised its ethics guidelines last week.  The revised guidelines make it neccesary to test a new drug against the best current proven intervention.  And placebos can be used only when there is no current intervention.

But the FDA has its own take on this, especially while conducting trials oversease (read developing countries).  It wants the pharmaceutical companies to follow the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) or follow the regulations of the country where the trials are undertaken. 

That is precisely the problem.  Many developing countries do have have very good regulations, and it wants to exploit that situation. According to a news report in Science (you need a subscription to read the news item), the FDA Associate Commissioner has been quoted as saying that “FDA regulations have dropped references to the Declaration of Helsinki because some of WMA’s policies – such as the bias against placebos – are not consistent with US law.”

It should not come as a surprise as the US does not care about international agreements and  guidelines when such agreements are not in their best interests.

So India, which is seen an ideal place to conduct clinical trials, will see more US companies using placebos and not the already available drugs in control group.

Chandrayaan-1 raised to its second orbit having an apogee of about 74,000 km

At about 5 am today, ISRO finally raised Chandrayaan-1 to its second orbit with an apogee of about 74,000 km.  It was raised to its first orbit of 38,000 km apogee on Thursday and the plan was to raise it to its second orbit of about 74,000 km apogee on Friday (October 24).  But that did not happen.

It was raised to about 74,000 km apogee orbit only this morning.

For whatever reason , ISRO has changed the way Chandrayaan would be raised to highly elliptical orbits.  Its updated mission sequence shows a different one than what was told by Dr. Madhavan Nair to me. 

Even on Wednesday after Chandrayaan-1 was launched, the ISRO website showed the older mission sequence. This was changed sometime after Wednesday late evening. Yet, the website shows the last update as October 6! 

I wonder why an oragnisation that launces satellites cannot take care of its website content.

Australian government under pressure to label GM food

The Australian Government is under pressure to label GM food.  Labelling is a must in Europe where consumers demand to know what they buy/eat.  But that is not the case in the US. 

The Bush Government has ensured that genetcially modified food would not be labelled.  And that is because the govertnment see them as nothing “different” from conventionally grown food.

The US government also does not insist food derived from genetically engineered animals to be labelled. Genetically engineered animals, unlike cloned animals, are manipulated like in the case of plants, to bring about some changes in theri characteristics.  And yet they would not be labelled!

Catherine Verfaillie’s fraud explained

The New Scientist has a wealth of information of how Catherine Verfaillie’s fraud was unfolded.  This piece in the magazine explains how and what of the controversy and has many links to other articles that finally led to the exposure of the fraud. 

It is a must read piece as it explains what led to New Scientist suspect the results and how it went about uncovering the fraud.  This is a good example of investigative journalism.

Read also this piece that was published a few days later. The committee set up by the University of Minnesota came down heavily on her and charged for image falisification.

Chandrayaan-1 fired to its third elliptical orbit

Chandrayaan-1 was fired to its third elliptical orbit this morning around 7 am.  The apogee is about 1,65,000 km. The firing went on as planned and without any problems.

Chandrayaan-1 reached the third elliptical orbit (deep-space) this morning at about 7 am. Picture source: www.isro.org

Firing Chandrayaan-1 to its second elliptical orbit with an apogee of about 74,000 km was delayed by a day.  It was fired only yesterday early morning.

But everything went on as planned this time around. In this orbit, it will take Chandrayaan-1 about 73 hours to go once around the earth.  

Chandrayaan-1 is now almost midway to the moon.  The moon is about 4,00,000 km from the earth. And ISRO has sent the spacecraft to deep space, something India has never done before.

Chandrayaan-1 wispers from 1,65,000 km

Despite having powerful electic transmitters, Chandrayaan-1 is able to only “wisper” from its third orbit that has an apogee of 1,65,000 km.

“So it is quite a big challenge to communicate with the spacecraft when it is travelling deep in space,” said an official of the Telemetry Command Control and Tracking Network (ISTRAC) to The Hindu.   

The two big antennae of ISTRAC in Bangalore are doing the job of tracking the signals from Chandrayaan-1 and communicating with the spacecraft. It is the ISTRAC that sends the command to the spacecraft to fire the Liquid apogee motor (LAM). And only when the LAM fires does the spacecraft move to higher elliptical orbits. 

One would have to wait to see if the signals from the scapecaft are strong enough when it moves to higher orbits of 2,70,000 km and then to 3,86,000 km, and finally after reaching the 100 km lunar circular orbit.

Have GM companies finally bought the European commission?

Europe, which strongly resisted GM crops, appears to have finally yielded to the likes of Monsanto. The Independent on Sunday has an explosive piece on how European leaders are going about in a secret manner to facilitate the entry of GM crops.

The report in The Independent is based on two confidential documents that it got hold of.  The documents reveal the plan to “speed up” the introduction of genetically modified crops/foods and to “deal with” public resistance to them.

27 members states of EU have participated in the meeting. 

Two meetings were held. The conclusions of the first meeting calls for “speeding up of the authorisation process based on robust assessments so as to reassure the public.  And the second meeting is about how “decisions could be made faster without compromising safety.”

Making decisions faster without compromising safety is another way of saying ignoring safety “on the pretext of having conducted a thorough scientific study.”

This is what we have seen in India and many other countries.

To study the safety of GM crops/foods takes time.  Then how can decisions be taken fast?

The reports may appear as innocent, but a careful study shows that the agenda is to bulldoze any opposition by the anti-GM groups.

The European Commission officials are in favour of GM crops/food.  But the governments are split on this issue and hence the Council of Ministers are deadlocked. But the Commission has the legal authority to wave them through anyway. And this will leave the governments that are against GM crops/food fuming and fretting.

It appears that Monsanto and others have broken the Berlin wall that prevented their entry into Europe. And if European Commission can be bought, can countries like India ever prevent them from becoming well entrenched?

Amen.

Cobalt-60 contaminated steel from India finds its way to France

Lift buttons made by Otis from Cobalt-60 contaminated steel from India has raised a flag.  The French Nuclear Safety Authority found 20 workers were  exposed to radiaton doses higher than their annual limit.   About 500 lift buttons have been recalled from the market.

In 2004, steel handles containing Cobalt-60 and made in India were detected.  

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) of India is investigating the incident. 

A detailed article will appear in the Science and Technology pages of The Hindu on October 30.

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 is nearly 35,000 km off the original plan

Chandrayaan-1 is off the mark by 35,000 km in its thrid orbit

Chandrayaan-1 reached the third orbit with an apogee of 1,65,000 km.  But the orginal plan was to reach an apogee of nearly 2,00,000 km.  It is thus about 35,000 km off the mark in its third orbit. 

The fourth orbit should have an apogee of nearly 2,70,000 km.  And that means Chandrayaan-1 has to be fired an extra 35,000 km tomorrow.

This is not an alarm situation, though.  ISRO can correct it without much of a problem.

UPDATE: ISRO has overcome the shortfall of 35,000 km apogee when it raised Chandrayaan-1 to its fourth orbit (with an apogee of about 2,67,000 km) on October 29.

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 will be raised to its fourth orbit tomorrow morning

Chandrayaan-1 will be raised to its fourth orbit tomorrow morning between 5-7 am.  It will reach its perigee (nearest point to the earth) tomorrow around this time.  Firing Chandrayaan-1 to its next highly elliptical orbit will happen when it reaches the perigee point. 

The fourth orbit will have an apogee of about 2,67,000 km.  The third orbit has an apogee of 1,65,000 km.  In its fourth orbit, it take 6 days to come once around the earth.

Chandrayaan-1 raised to its fourth orbit of 2,67,000 km apogee

Chandrayaan-1 was successfully raised to its fourth orbit this morning around 7.30.  “Everything went on as planned,” M. Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayaan-1 told me. 

The spacecraft was raised to the predetermined apogee of 2,67,000 km.  And thus it has overcome the shortfall of 35,000 km apogee in the third orbit.

It will now take six days for Chandrayaan-1 to come once around the earth. So the next firing will take place only after six days. The apogee of the fifth orbit will be around 3,81,000 km.

It is at this apogee that it will come under the influcence of the moon’s gravity. Further manoeuvring will then be done to make Chandrayaan-1 go around the moon.

Intellectual work makes you eat more

Just dismiss the idea that it is only physical work that will make you eat more. A study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine has found that intellectual work can make you eat more too.

Researchers had 14 students to do three different things – just sit and relax; complete a series of memory and attention tests; read and summarize a text.

They found that after the memory session, students consumed food equivalent to 203 calories. And after the memory test session they consumed another 253 calories.  But intellectual work, as such, burnt only 3 extra calories.

So intellectual work burns very little calories but makes one consume more calories.  And now that explains why people become obese if they do a lot of intellectual work but never exercise.

The Scientic American has an interesting piece based on the study findings.

Chandrayaan-1: The basics of orbit raising explained

This is the first time ever that an Indian spacecraft has been sent lakhs of kilometres away from earth.  This has been done by incrementally changing the apogee (farthest point from earth).  I realised that several people did not understand or know how this was done.  And that made me write the  lead piece in today’s Science and Technology pages of The Hindu explaining the basics.

The basics of orbit transfer

The piece first addressed why all the firings happened at the perigee (nearest point to earth) — the need for 3-4 ground stations to track the spacecraft before it is fired to the next higher orbit, using less energy to achieve this, and finally to increase the apogee.

Next, I looked at why the perigee increases very little while the apogee increases by several hundreds of kilometres.  That is to do with the duration of firing. The firing at the perigee does not happen at one instant but over a period of several seconds.  This is responsible for the perigee distance to also increase.

And while we are discussing about the duration of firing, it is interesting to note that the duration of firing is the most when it comes to raising the spacecraft from the initial orbit to the first orbit (1060 seconds), and the least to take it from the fourth to the fifth orbit (150 seconds).

Finally, I addressed how the spacecraft is able to reach the 100 km circular orbit around the moon.  This is by slowing down the velocity of the spacecraft.  Reducing the velocity is done by firing Chandrayaan-1 at both perigee and apogee.  But the firing itself takes place only after Chandrayaan-1 is flipped by 180 degrees.

Bt cotton in India: Monsanto charged with biopiracy

The ugly face of Mosanto shows up again. Only this time, it is Monsanto that is being charged with biopiracy.  The Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board, India, has charged Monsanto for developing Bt cotton using the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) bacteria taken from the soils of Mahanadhi village in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh.

The Board Chairman charged Monsanto of stealing the bacteria to develop indigenous version of Bt cotton capable of resisting Indian bollworm pest that attacks cotton. 

 The article does not however say how the Board came to the conclusion that Monsanto had indeed used Indian Bt strains for developing Bt cotton seeds. 

But the Board is very clear that the company shares with it a part of its sales revenue.  But all that it is seeking is just 1-2 % of sales revenue. It is a pity that the Board is demanding a measly share of 1-2 % sales revenue. If Monsanto has indeed resorted to biopiracy, then it should be made to cough up much more annually.

While Monsanto has flatly denied any misdoings, the Board is ready to take the legal route to make Monsanto pay a price.

Remember how Indonesia resisted, and is still resisting, world pressure to share its bird flu strains with WHO after it found out that an Australian based pharmaceutical company had used its strains to make a bird flu vaccine.

That is biopiracy. The developing countries share their genetic material and companies in the developed countries use them to develop products. Only that Indonesia had the gumption to stand up and refuse to share its strains despite international pressure.

Basically there is nothing wrong with companies developing products based on genetic material acquired from the developing countries. Ideally, the country sharing the material should stand to benefit in some way.

All that Indonesia has been demanding is that it should have ready and easy access to vaccines if and when a bird flu pandemic strikes.  Now that is a fair demand, considering that countries where the companies manufacture the vaccines will tend to first stockpile them before ever giving it to others. 

Look at this this way.  The genetic material used to make the vaccine comes from Indonesia.  But it will not have the vaccine when a bird flu pandemic strikes.  This is troubling for another reason.  Indonesia is the bird flu hotspot and any pandemic would start here. My Editorial in April last year brought out the issue that Indonesia will not have the vaccines when they need it the most. 

Although the WHO talked about having an equitable sharing mechanism, and efforts are being taken to have the system in place, nothing concrete has happened so far. But it has, as a first step got the electronic sharing mecanism in place.  My Editorial in April this year looked at this.

Catherine Verfaillie’s manipulated images

The paper published in the journal Blood has images that have been reversed and a few changes made to make them appear as different. Pic source: New Scientist

If New Scientist could identify image manipulation by Catherine Verfaillie in the journal Blood, how did the peer-reviewers miss it?  It becomes all the more difficult as even a casaul look at the images reveal that they have been reversed and a few changes made to make them appear as different images. 

Well, one may argue that it becomes easy as we know what we should look for. While it is true to a large extent, it becomes difficult to accept that peer-reviewers could miss this, as they are supposed to scrutinize everything very carefully.

They are the gatekeepers and we expect them to do a better job.

Much like journalists who  are pulled up when they fail to detect a fraudulent claim but never appreciated for detecting many and never reporting them (as readers never get to know them as they are not published), peer-reviewers should be preventing many Catherine Verfaillies from getting into print.  But they cannot afford to slip even once.  The scientific community pays a huge price for such lapses.

Consider for instance that Nature journal had indeed not republished Catherine Verfaillie’s maniuplated images.  Many scientists would not have wasted their time trying to replicate the experments.  It was the Nature paper and not the one published in Blood that attracted the most attention within the scientific community and made many to replicate the results.

Oh, what a colossal waste of time.

Nature, a high-impact factor journal, cannot afford to slip even if those who had peer-reviewed the paper submitted to Blood did.

The second photo of earth taken by Chandrayaan-1

The picture of earth taken on October 29 by Chandrayaan-1 from a height of 70,000 km. The southern coast of Australia is seen in this picture

Chandrayaan-1 has beamed the first pictures of earth taken on October 29 at a height of 9,000 km and 70,000 km.  The first picture shows the northern coast of Australia.  The second one shows the southern coast of Australia.

The pictures were taken using the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) after it was switeched on.   It is this camera that will map the lunar surface to prepare a lunar atlas.

The main purpose of taking pictures of the earth is to test how well the camera on board the Chandrayaan-1 is working.  ISRO had tested all the 11 scientific instruments on board the Chandrayaan-1 before it was launched.

There are totally 11 scientific instruments (payload) on-board the Chandrayaan-1.

The first photo of earth taken by Chandrayaan-1

 

The first image of earth taken by Chandrayaan-1 on Cotober 29 shows the north coast of Australia

This is the first image of the earth taken by Chandrayaan-1 on October 29.  It was taken at 8 in the morning (Indian Standard Time) when Chandrayaan-1 was at a height of 9,000 km from the earth. The image shows the northern coast of Australia.  

This was taken the moment the terrain mapping camera was switched on, and was taken to test if the camera was working. This is the first instrument that was tested after Chandrayaan-1 was launched and before it can reach moon.

 The second photo taken at 12.30 pm by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) the same day (October 29)  at a height of 70,000 km shows the southern coast of Australia. 

The 18-metre antennae that received the earth images data sent by Chandrayaan-1

The Terrain Mapping Camera will be used to take photos of the moon and send them to the 18-metre antenna in Bangalore.  This was taken the moment terrain mapping camera was switched on, and was taken to test if the camera was working. This is the first instrument that was tested after Chandrayaan-1 was launched and before it could reach moon.

There are totally 11 scientific instruments (payload) on-board the Chandrayaan-1.

The Indian Deep Space Network’s 18-metre antennae has been established for the Chandrayaan-1project at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) campus nested amidst the hills around Byalala village, 40 kms away from Bangalore.

The scientific instruments (payload) on-board the Chandrayaan-1

You can see the photos of these payload. 

The Chandrayaan-1 carries 11 scientific instruments that will carry out several investigations. One of the most important instruments is the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), an Indian payload developed by ISRO.  

This was the first instrument to be operated on October 29 when the spacecraft had reached just 9,000 km and again the same day when it had reached 70,000 km height. It took the first photo of the earth (northern coast of Australia) at 9,000 km height and the second photo of the earth (southern coast of Australia) at 70,000 km height.

The next one which will become operational is the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) that will land on the moon and carry an Indian flag. It was again developed by ISRO. It is a technological forerunner for future landings on the moon.

The final orbit raising of Chandrayaan-1 successful

Chandrayaan-1 was raised to its fifth orbit this morning around 5.  It will have an apogee of nearly 3,80,000 km.  And when nears the apogee (the farthest point fom the earth), it will come under the influence of the moon.  This will happen on Novemeber 8.

 The velocity of Chandrayaan-1 is reduced by reverse firing (the spacecraft is turned 180 degrees and then fired) before it reaches the apogee.  This helps the moon to capture the spacecraft.  But for the velocity reduction, it will not be possible for the moon to capture the spacecraft and make Chandrayaan-1 orbit around the moon.  

Once captured by the moon, Chandrayaan-1 will be fired again.  But this time the firing is not to raise the orbit but to change the course of orbiting — from around the earth to around the moon.

If everthing goes fine, the intial orbit around the moon will have an apolune (the equivalent of apogee) of nearly 7,500 km and a perilune of 500 km.  There will be three more successive firings to reduce the apolune and perilune (first orbit of 7500 km by 125 km; second orbit of 250 km by 125 km; third orbit of 250 by 100 km).  The fourth and final firing will take Chandrayaan-1 to the circular orbit of 100 km around the moon.

The time taken to reach the moon’s influence will be about five-and-half days.