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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
15 THE HINDU THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
SNAPSHOTS
Scientists reveal how, at the
cellular level, an insect and its
symbiotic bacteria work together
to make up a single organismal
system. Amino acid transporters
play a key role in the evolutionary
success of these insects.
Symbiosis of insects
and bacteria revealed
Electric cars do not expose
passengers to higher
electromagnetic elds than those
permitted by international
standards. In fact, eld intensity
is well below the highest
permitted value, experts say.
No risk from magnetic
elds in electric cars
REUTERS
When large quantities of
phosphates, like in cheese, are
consumed, the production of the
FGF23 hormone is stimulated. This
has a negative effect on the
cardiovascular system and leads
to high BP and heart disease.
Phosphate-rich foods
bad for the heart
AP
It has been about 10,000 years
since our ancestors began
farming, but crop domestication
has taken much longer than
expected a delay caused less by
genetics and more by culture and
history, according to a new study.
History to blame for
slow crop taming
AFP
The family of proteins known as
the phytochrome family, found in
all plant leaves, detect the
presence of light and inform the
cell whether it is day or night, or
whether the plant is in the shade
or the sun.
Proteins in plants make
them light-sensitive
K. MURALI KUMAR
The Hindu Science & Tech
Online
Why it matters -
http://thne.ws/scimatters
This week in science -
http://thne.ws/weekinscience
Blog -
http://thne.ws/thecopernican
Wines fruity avours fade rst
In a study of wines it was found that fruity avour
perception disappears fromthe palate earlier than
oaky, oral and earth avours perception.
Benign bug beats salmonella
A benign bacteriumshows promise in blocking
Salmonella fromcolonizing raw tomatoes,
serving as a biological control agent.
O
n May 1, 2014, Physical
Review Letters con-
rmed the existence of a new
super-heavy element 117. Su-
per-heavy elements are ele-
ments beyond atomic
number 104. They do not ex-
ist in nature.
It is a memorable day for
scientists inIndia. Drs Susant
Lahiri and Moumita Maiti
from the Saha Institute of
Nuclear Physics (SINP)
joined the other international
collaborators led by Professor
Christoph Duellmann at GSI
Helmholtz Centre for Heavy
Ion Research, in carrying out
the historic experiment.
Presently, Dr Maiti works in
the Indian Institute of Tech-
nology, Roorkee.
A few atoms of the super
heavy element emerged when
calcium-48 ions at high ener-
gies impinged on a specially
prepared target of berkeli-
um-249 (Bk). Presently, re-
searchers call the element
ununseptium for its 117 pro-
tons (20 protons of calcium
and 97 from Bk). An atom of
element 117 is 40 per cent
heavier than an atomof lead.
The international team
consisted of 72 scientists and
engineers from 16 institu-
tions in Australia, Finland,
Germany, India, Norway, Po-
land, Sweden, Switzerland,
the United Kingdom, and the
United States.
Oak Ridge National Labo-
ratory (ORNL) in the U.S.
produced 13 mg of berkeli-
um-249(half life of 330days),
a heavy element over an 18-
month campaign by neutron
irradiation at its High Flux
Isotope Reactor. ORNL
chemically separated and pu-
ried the isotope before ship-
ping it to Mainz University
which made the special target
assembly that could with-
stand the intense calciumion
beams from the GSI acceler-
ator.
Drs.Maiti and Lahiri esti-
mated that the cost of 33mg
of Bk is about $ 7.4 million.
They also revealed that it was
loaned to GSI.
How many of these nuclei
have been produced to date?
Is there a scientic need for
producing more of these nu-
clei?
Previous to our experi-
ment, experimenters working
at the accelerator laboratory
in Russia, Dubna, have re-
ported the observation of
four atoms of the nuclei of the
element 117 isotope with a
mass number of 294 ....The
main interest in the current
generation of experiments
lies in the proof that an atom-
ic nucleus with 117 protons
can exist, which means that
element 117 exists, said Prof.
Christoph Duellmann, the
group leader of the team and
Professor at Johannes Guten-
berg University Mainz.
Whether more data are
needed for such a proof, will
be decided by the joint work-
ing party of the International
Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry and the Interna-
tional Union of Pure and Ap-
plied Physics, which reviews
claims for the discovery of
new elements and makes a
judgment if the presently
available data are sufficient
or not.
About any practical appli-
cations if follow up research
leads to the discovery of more
super-heavy elements, Prof.
Duellmannsaid: This cannot
be foreseen at the moment.
The study of super-heavy ele-
ments is currently a purely
fundamental research topic.
If future generations of scien-
tists will succeed to synthe-
size much more stable
super-heavy elements, maybe
even in larger quantities, new
materials would naturally be
found: for example a solid
block of element 117?
What will its properties be?
Will it be more useful for cer-
tain applications than other
known materials? While I do
not expect that the possibility
of producing such quantities
in the next decades, new ave-
nues for the production of su-
per-heavy elements may
eventually be found and open
these exciting prospects. If
we look back only 100 years,
the expectation to ever study
element 117 did not yet exist.
Hundred years later, we
study its production and
some of its properties. For
other super-heavy elements,
like erovium (element 114),
rst chemical studies are con-
ducted, with single atom
quantities. The prospect that
in the future it may be pos-
sible to nd new materials is
very fascinating. Dr Duell-
mann hoped.
The Indian team shared
signicantly and withrespon-
sibility, ve and half months-
long round the clock beam
time at GSI, Darmstadt, Ger-
many. Dr Lahiri stated.
The Sydney Morning Her-
ald claimed that the Austra-
lian researchers have
co-created element 117; it is
legitimate to call Lahiri and
Maiti also the co-creators of
the element.
So how did the collabora-
tion between SINP and GSI
Helmholtz Centre start? On
my personal endeavour, I
started this collaboration
with GSI Nuclear chemistry
group, whose present spokes-
personis Professor Christoph
E. Duellmann Dr Lahiri said.
The Department of Atomic
Energy funded SINP to carry
out this and similar projects.
It is now for more than 10
years that we are involved in
the Super-Heavy Element
(SHE) research (chemistry
and physics of SHEs). The
present result is a part of our
continuous endeavour, he
added.
K.S. PARTHASARATHY
Former secretary of AERB
ksparth@yahoo.co.uk
Indian role in producing super-heavy element 117
HIGH SPEED: A view into the 120-metre long linear
accelerator at GSI, which accelerated the calcium-
ions used to produce element 117. PHOTO: GSI
C
itizen science
in India is still
in its infancy,
but it is the
way forward, says Mo-
hammed Dilawar who runs
the Common Bird Monitor-
ing of India, programme from
Nashik. This programme,
started in 2012, now has over
2,000citizens, from34states,
involved in observing and
making notes about the com-
mon birds in their locality.
The organisation is now in
talks with Wildlife Institute
of India to validate the data
using statistical tools.
While it is not new that
amateur scientists have made
scientic observations that
mattered, Internet usage and
the ensuing possibility of in-
volving huge numbers of citi-
zens in data collection and
analysis is relatively new in
India. Mr Dilawars belief
that Citizen Science (CS) is
the way forward is echoed by
the scenario in the West, for
instance, where the situation
is quite mature. CS initiatives
like Zooniverse, eBird, etc,
have participation that runs
into tens of thousands, and
whats more, the databases
built up by these have found
their way into numerous
peer-reviewed publications.
In an article published in
the journal Science in April,
authors Rick Bonney, Jennif-
er L. Shirk, Tina B. Phillips et
al discuss this phenomenon
and outline a future course
for CS initiatives. Expressing
the desire that the term citi-
zen science, regardless of size
of the project, will grow to
refer to those programmes
that truly do science, they
emphasise the importance of
developers employing sound
research or monitoring de-
sign. This cannot be overem-
phasised in a climate where
critiques of CS are many
times based on the conten-
tionthat untrained personnel
cannot come up with data
that is of the quality equal to
that obtained by profession-
als.
There is a recent instance
where this contention has
been proved wrong. Studies
involving monitoring of
sharks have shown that qual-
ity of data collected by citizen
scientists can be as reliable as
that collected using automat-
ed tools (Gabriel Vianna,
PLOS ONE, April 23). This is
just one instance, and in-
creasingly, Citizen Science
initiatives are being treated
with the seriousness due to
scientic study.
Meanwhile, Bonney, Shirk,
Phillips et al stress upon the
importance of organising ex-
isting CS projects for maxi-
mum impact. Project
redundancy and repetition
being a danger of such large
projects, project developers
could adapt, adopt or collab-
orate with already-proven
projects. They also suggest
that developers can look at
new possibilities and oppor-
tunities for data collection,
for instance during natural
and manmade disasters, such
as oil spills, wild res or
earthquakes. They moot the
important idea of networking
CS projects around the world
so that the research can con-
tribute to a better under-
standing of phenomena like
climate change.
But in India, where the
numbers are still small and
this concept is yet to catchon,
there are obstacles still.
While technology need not
pose a problem anymore giv-
en the ubiquity of mobile
apps and even the Internet,
there are practical difficul-
ties.
Sometimes, some scien-
tists like to mark out certain
species and areas as their do-
main. Citizen Science will
neutralise this monopoly,
says Mohammed Dilawar. Ac-
cording tohim, while a collab-
oration with larger CS
projects worldwide is wel-
come, the projects should al-
so retain the local nature to
some extent to be benecial
in inculcating in the people
the culture of doing science.
The way forward for
Citizen Science
Networking of CS projects is key to tackling big issues like climate change
SHUBASHREE DESIKAN
EQUALLY IMPORTANT: Citizen Science initiatives are being treated with the
seriousness due to scientic study. PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR
D
iagnosing gestational
diabetes mellitus (GDM)
in pregnant women in low-
and middle-income countries
with high diabetes burden,
like India, has become easy
thanks to the revised 2013
WHO guidelines. Any inter-
vention that can prevent
many more becoming diabet-
ic therefore becomes impor-
tant. The revised guidelines
address the concerns faced by
pregnant women with gesta-
tional diabetes in developing
countries with a non-Cauca-
sian population.
The revision comes 15
years after the world health
body came up with its guide-
lines for diagnosing GDM.
Meeting the requirements
laid out inthe 1999 guidelines
was particularly challenging
for pregnant women.
Diabetes that develops
during pregnancy is called
gestational diabetes mellitus
(GDM). Though GDM most
often resolves after delivery,
the effects of elevated glucose
levels in a pregnant woman
tend to affect the foetus. Foe-
tuses exposed to elevated ma-
ternal glucose tend to become
big babies before birth (mac-
rosomia). Such babies are at
higher risk of becoming dia-
betic later in life much like
the women who had GDM.
A simple solution to pre-
vent this is to go in for uni-
versal screening of pregnant
women for gestational dia-
betes and to keep the glucose
level within desired levels
fasting plasma glucose 90
mg/dl and two hours after
meal 120 mg/dl. But it was
difficult to follow the 1999
WHO guidelines to diagnose
GDM, said Dr. V. Seshiah,
Chairman of the Diabetes in
Pregnancy Study Group India
(DIPSI) and WHO expert
committee member on GDM.
He is also the Chairmanof Dr.
V. Seshiah Diabetes Research
Institute and Dr. Balaji Dia-
betes care Centre, Chennai.
The 1999 WHO guidelines
required a pregnant woman
to come fasting for testing.
The plasma glucose level was
tested two hours after 75 mg
of glucose was given to a
woman. If the value was be-
tween 140 mg/dl and 199 mg/
dl, the pregnant woman was
diagnosed as having gesta-
tional diabetes. The revised
WHO guidelines retain the
same value but the biggest
difference is [that] women
need not come fasting for
testing, Dr. Seshiah under-
lined. A pregnant woman
can come for testing irrespec-
tive of her last meal timing.
The rest of the procedure
remains the same. The non-
fasting plasma glucose level is
tested two hours after 75 gm
of glucose is given to the
woman. If the two-hour
plasma glucose measurement
is between 140 [mg/dl] and
199 [mg/dl], she is diagnosed
as GDM, he said. The 140-
199 range for diagnosing
GDM in pregnant women is
the same as the one used for
diagnosing impaired glucose
tolerance (IGT) in non-preg-
nant adults.
WHOs non-fasting plasma
glucose testing recommenda-
tion makes testing easy for
pregnant women. The non-
fasting test is patient-friendly
and causes the least inconve-
nience to pregnant woman.
The single-step procedure is
easy to follow, economical,
simple and evidence-based.
Women develop nausea or
tend to vomit if they are given
75 gm glucose in a fasting
stage, Dr. Seshiah said.
Several studies done by a
team led by Dr. Seshiah have
found that the non-fasting
test two hours after 75 gm
glucose challenge had no sta-
tistically signicant differ-
ence from the fasting test.
The single-step procedure is
followed in India, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Screening for gestational
diabetes should be done in
the rst trimester (at least by
12-16 weeks). Earlier, the
screening was done at 24-28
weeks. The reason why WHO
does not recommend the late
screening (24-28 weeks) is
because by the 12
th
week, the
beta cells developinthe foetal
pancreas. And these foetal
cells respond to the elevated
maternal glucose levels. As a
result, when the foetus gets
more than the required
amount of nutrition (glu-
cose), it gets converted into
foetal fat; the foetus thereby
gains weight and becomes
big. So, the earlier the screen-
ing of pregnant women, the
better the foetal outcome.
Often, a modied meal plan
(staggered, small portion
meals) is sufficient to control
the elevated maternal glucose
level. In our study, over 90
per cent of GDM women re-
sponded to a meal plan. Only
10 per cent required a very
low dose of insulin, he said.
Non-fasting test sufficient for
gestational diabetes screening
R. PRASAD
The revised WHO
guidelines are easy to
follow and economical.
PHOTO: M. SRINATH
.
T
he chikungunya virus of-
ten leaves those it infects
with severe joint pains. This
could be the result of arthritic
changes brought about by the
virus getting into certain cells
inthe bone, suggests research
that was recently published.
Suresh Mahalingam at the
Griffith University in Austra-
lia and colleagues studied
such changes using a closely
related virus, the Ross River
virus (RRV). This virus in-
fected bone-forming cells,
known as osteoblasts. The in-
fected cells began secreting
molecules that attracted cer-
tain immune cells (mono-
cytes) and turned them into
bone-devouring cells called
osteoclasts. These osteoclasts
produced arthritic bone loss,
they reported in a paper in
the Proceedings of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences .
The work, along with other
recent studies, suggested that
infection by RRV and related
viruses may directly lead to
arthritis and could be ame-
nable to forms of treatment
for that ailment, write Kate D.
Ryman and William B. Klim-
stra of the University of Pitts-
burgh in the U.S. in a
commentary on the paper
published in the same jour-
nal.
The authors showed that
when the RRV infected hu-
manosteoblasts grownincul-
ture, those cells began to
produce various molecules,
including some that served to
bring monocytes to infected
bone sites
The infected osteoblasts al-
so began churning out inter-
leukin-6 (IL-6), a molecule
that induced those same cells
to produce more of a protein,
RANKL(receptor activator of
nuclear factor-kappaB li-
gand). The binding of RANKL
to a molecule on the surface
of monocytes, which had
been attracted to the infec-
tion sites, coaxed them to
turninto osteoclasts, the cells
that can break down bone.
Such differentiation into
osteoclasts could be held in
check by yet another mole-
cule secreted by osteoblasts,
osteoprotegerin (OPG),
whichlocks ontothe RANKL.
However, IL-6 not only caus-
es osteoblasts to ramp up
RANKL secretion but reduc-
es the amount of OPG they
put out. This disruption of
the RANKL/OPG system can
tilt the balance toward bone
resorption, noted Prof. Ma-
halingam and colleagues in
their PNAS paper.
They found that the uid
drawn fromthe joints of RRV
patients had elevated levels of
the protein and lowered
amounts of OPG. These pa-
tients alsohad higher levels of
a protein marking the forma-
tion of osteoclasts. A previ-
ously published study carried
out by a different group has
shown that the chikungunya
virus too could infect osteo-
blasts, leading those cells to
secrete more IL-6 and
RANKL as well as less OPG.
The scientists infected lab-
oratory mice with RRV, and
found that the virus could be
detected in osteoblasts em-
bedded in a membrane that
surrounds bones. By about
two weeks after infection, the
mice showed clear bone
loss at several places. They
gave some infected mice an
antibody that blocked IL-6, a
technique similar to an anti-
body treatment for rheuma-
toid arthritis that is currently
going through clinical trials.
The mice that received the
antibodies not only showed
greatly reduced bone loss, but
their RANKL-OPG levels also
improved.
The work demonstrated
that IL-6 is a critical media-
tor of the RRV-induced in-
crease in RANKL/OPG ratio
and bone loss, the scientists
said in their PNAS paper.
Many chikungunya pa-
tients suffer chronic joint
pains that lasted for months
and sometimes years, observ-
ed Prof. Mahalingam in an
email. What contributes to
this is not known. Our nd-
ings suggest that virus-in-
duced bone loss might be
responsible. Our ndings also
suggest that using existing
drugs that target factors that
trigger bone loss might be
useful in treating patients.
It is important to deter-
mine whether chikungunya
and other viruses closely re-
lated to RRV also produced
similar responses inlaborato-
ry animals as well as in hu-
mans, said Dr. Ryman and Dr.
Klimstra in their commen-
tary. The study may also shed
light on the arthritis pro-
duced by a wide range of oth-
er viruses, including the one
that causes dengue.
Deciphering the cause of viral joint pain
N. GOPAL RAJ
I
t is a well known fact that
over the past few years the
Arctic Ocean has experienced
a drastic melting of sea ice
attributed mainly to climate
change caused by anthropo-
genic activities. In the Arctic
region, north eastern Canada
and Greenland have experi-
enced the greatest warming
in the past 30 years.
While it may seemthat this
is due to the warming caused
by greenhouse gases inthe at-
mosphere, a study published
today (May 8) in Nature by
Qinghua Ding, Research Sci-
entist, Department of Atmo-
spheric Sciences, University
of Washington, and col-
leagues argues that roughly
half the warming has been
caused not by greenhouse
gases but by natural variabil-
ity of atmospheric temper-
atures.
Analysing atmospheric
pressure and temperature da-
ta for the period 1979-2012,
the study states that a Rossby
train of waves originating in
the central tropical Pacic
Ocean caused by abnormally
high sea surface temper-
atures may be the cause for
part of the warming inGreen-
land and north eastern Cana-
da.
The atmospheric Rossby
wave train is an atmospheric
phenomenon, a system of
meandering winds that trav-
els thousands of kilometres
and greatly inuences cli-
mate and weather patterns in
its path. In the case of warm-
ing of Greenland and north
eastern Canada, the Rossby
waves carry warm air from
the tropics to those regions.
The higher temperatures
in the upper troposphere of
Greenland and north eastern
Canada were spotted by satel-
lites which measured the
changes in geopotential
height in those regions.
When the air in the upper
troposphere warms and rises
it increases the height of the
air column. As a result, a par-
ticular atmospheric pressure
(say 200 hecta pascals) now
occurs at greater height. This
new height is sensed by satel-
lite and indicates an increase
in temperature associated
with warming. Thus the geo-
potential height is the height
in the upper troposphere that
varies with temperature.
Another factor for the
anomalous warming is the
North Atlantic Oscillation
(NAO). NAO is the leading
mode of the circulation varia-
bility inthe NorthAtlantic re-
gion. In the last 30 years, the
NAOhas had a negative trend.
A positive trend is whenthere
is a low pressure in the north
(Greenland) and high pres-
sure in midlatitude of the
North Atlantic so that a large
pressure gradient exists. On
the other hand when both re-
gions have low pressure and
the gradient attens out it is
called a negative trend.
There is nowidely accepted
view for the cause of its re-
cent trend. Mr. Ding notes in
an email: We argued that its
trend is caused by remote
forcing from the tropical Pa-
cic. The negative trend of
the NAO will also warm
Greenland through changing
the circulation in the Arctic.
When climate change is not
fully responsible for warming
K.S. RAJGOPAL