Lets Go back To Genes

My first paper

2006-09-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to my first paper. my paper This paper was the culmination of our year long effort. Though i have two more papers but those papers are in Proceedings of conference.One published in "Proceedings of Neural, Parallel & Scientific Computations" and other titled "Application Of Self Organizing Map – A Powerful Datamining Tool For Prioritization Of Malaria Endemic Zones In Arunachal Pradesh, India" in "Recent dvances in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics" yet this paper is very dear to me. Sharing it with you

CCMB succeeds with test tube deer project

2006-03-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

A test tube fawn named Spotty will soon be the star attraction in the Nehru Zoological Park here. 'Spotty' was born on March 14 The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has completed the first successful artificial insemination (AI) in India on spotted dear by non-surgical vaginal insemination. With this, India has joined Australia and the United States, the only countries who have achieved the birth of live fawn using the same procedure. The other method of AI is surgical insemination where the uterus is opened up. This procedure, however, is not preferred by wild life biologists as the risk factors are more. Talking to media persons Director of CCMB Dr. Lalji Singh said: This success will form the basis for future attempts to increase the numbers of other endangered deers and other animals in our country. We requested the Central Zoo Authority to give us permission to use AI technique on endangered species but told us to prove the efficacy of this procedure on smaller animals to start with. Spotty is doing fine. Soon the general public will be able to see it in the Nehru Zoological Park.” In the present study taken up by three CCMB scientists, including Dr G. Umapathy, S.D. Sontakke and Anuradha Reddy, as many as three females were inseminated and after four and half months one of them animals was found to have conceived by ultrasonography. The conception was confirmed one-and-a-half months later.'Spotty' was born after an anxious eight-month wait. This effort was part of a long-term project of the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), which is coming up in Attapur in Rangareddy district. The Rs 14 crore scientific facility will be ready by June. Though 'Spotty' may not create ripples like 'Dolly' did a few years ago, it is likely to serve as a shot in the arm for conservation efforts. "This could become a model for future attempts to increase the numbers of endangered species like the white-backed vulture, and the Asiatic lion,"Dr Singh said. Andhra Pradesh chief conservator of forests K S Rao said: "It's a big success for CCMB and a small step in the conservation of endangered species."Apart from CCMB, Nehru Zoological Park, the Central Zoo Authority and the Union and state departments of biotechnology took part in the project.

[Lalji Singh] [Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology] [Conservation of Endangered Species] [India]

Change

2006-02-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Anti-Malaria Watch

2006-01-30T03:30:00.000-08:00

Anti-Malaria Watch Forget all those bells and whistles you may want in a watch, there’s nothing quite like the “Malaria Monitor,” which promises to sound an alarm if it detects the malaria parasite in the wearer. Basically, instead of being able to go underwater or check your heart rate, this watch will prick your wrist four times a day with a tiny little needle and test your blood for malaria parasites. Not bad for a timepiece. If the parasite count is over 50, it will set off an alarm and—you’ll love this—flash a big, bright mosquito on the face of the watch. So if the mosquito is flashing, it’s time to take your pills (which promise to kill the disease in 48 hours). The watch will cost about $280, so it would have to be picked up by aid organizations and given out for free to be of any use to the people who really need something like this.

Chimpanzee genome unveiled

2005-09-02T02:17:00.001-07:00

The genome of our closest living relative – the chimpanzee – has been released by an international consortium of scientists. The chimp genome sequence, which consists of 2.8 billion pairs of DNA letters, will not only tell us much about chimps but a comparison with the human genome will also teach us a great deal about ourselves. “The major accomplishment is that we now have a catalogue of the genetic differences between humans and chimps,” says lead author, Tarjei Mikkelsen of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. In keeping with previous studies comparing much smaller portions of the chimp and human genomes, the new comparison shows incredible similarity between the genomes. The average number of protein-changing mutations per gene is just two, and 29% of human genes are absolutely identical. What is more, only a handful of genes present in humans are absent or partially deleted in chimps. "No silver bullet" But the degree of genome similarity alone is far from the whole story. For example, the mouse species Mus musculus and Mus spretus have genomes that differ from each other to a similar degree and yet they appear far more similar than chimps and humans. Domestic dogs, however, vary wildly in appearance as a result of selective breeding and yet their genome sequences are 99.85% similar. So most of the differences between chimp and human genomes will turn out to be neither beneficial nor detrimental, in evolutionary terms. The real challenge then will be finding the changes that played a major role in the evolution of chimps and humans since the two lineages split, 5 to 8 million years ago. Nothing obvious has leapt out of the initial analysis. “From this study, there’s no silver bullet of what makes chimps chimps and humans humans,” says Evan Eichler of the University of Washington at Seattle, US. Rapid evolution Comparing the two genomes has thrown up numerous candidates for what makes humans different though. One such set came by comparing 13,454 specific genes in the chimp and human genomes, looking for signs of rapid evolution. For each gene, the researchers compared the number of single letter mutations that alter the encoded protein versus silent mutations that have no effect. Silent mutations are possible because most amino acids are coded by more than one 3 letter DNA ‘word’ - for example, proline is coded by CCU, CCC, CCA, and CCG, so a change at the third position makes no difference to the protein. Comparing the two types of mutations allowed the team to spot genes that have had changes favoured by natural selection while taking into account the background mutation rate. And 585 of the genes studied in this set – many involved in immunity to infections and reproduction – had more protein-altering mutations than silent ones. Mikkelsen believes these will be a good place to look for genes that make humans different from chimps. Homing in But comparing genome sequences can only tell scientists so much. Now begins the methodical job of homing in on the promising parts of the sequence and identifying the differences that count. “This is best viewed as an exciting starting point,” says Simon Fisher at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, US. “In the same way that knowledge of our own genome sequence has not automatically led to a full understanding of human biology, so the decoding of other primate genomes will not, by itself, reveal exactly what sets us apart.” But he admits: “Coming face to face with the details of evolution is really spectacular.” Journal reference: Nature (vol 437, p69)

Chimpanzee genome unveiled

2005-09-02T02:17:00.000-07:00

Time to celebrate........

2005-07-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

FOR PROMOTING PEACE: M.S. Swaminathan (second from right), Chairman, MSSRF, receiving the Hiroshima Peace Award instituted by Chugoku Soka Gakkai, in Hiroshima recently. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, was given the Hiroshima Peace Award, instituted by Chugoku Soka Gakkai, Hiroshima, in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to world peace based on his noble commitment to humanism." The citation described Prof. Swaminathan as the "father of Indian modern agriculture and father of economic ecology," who had relieved millions of people of hunger not only in India but also throughout Asia. Its a time for celebration for us, Indians . Though it is just another feather in Dr.Swaminathan's cap, it is a true recognition to his contribution towards fight against hunger.Dr. M.S. Swaminathan " Father of Indian Green revolution combined all the great components of a revolutionary: vision, dedication, energy and follow-through to remove our ""ship-to-mouth" existence" . A peace prize to an agriculture Scientist????Yes, he fought a war, a war millions of asian were fighting against starvation and changed the history. Another news to rejoice........ Indian scientist Modadugu V. Gupta has been awarded the 2005 World Food Prize for his work to improve nutrition for over one million people through the expansion of aquaculture and fish farming in South and South-east Asia. He is the sixth Indian to receive the coveted prize. So its raining awards..........

Dard ka Rishta..............

2005-07-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

There once was an oyster whose story I tell, Who found that some sand had got into his shell. It was only a grain, but it gave him great pain, For oysters have feelings although they're so plain. Now, did he berate the harsh workings of fate, That had brought him to such a deplorable state? Did he curse at the government, cry for election, And claim that the sea should have given protection? No -- he said to himself as he lay on a shell, Since I cannot remove it, I shall try to improve it. Now the years have rolled around, as the years always do, And he came to his Ultimate Destiny -- stew. And the small grain of sand that had bothered him so, Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow. Now the tale has a moral, for isn't it grand, What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand? What couldn't we do if we'd only begin, With some of the things that get under our skin

Everything is a miracle........

2005-07-26T04:15:00.000-07:00

My Inspiration

2005-05-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

My Inspiration

Chand ke Paar Chalo

2005-05-19T02:14:00.000-07:00

Chaand Ke Paar chalo……….. I remember very well in my childhood, my grandmother used to tell stories about an old woman spinning on moon, and poems expressing desire of moon to get a new dress. As I grew up, I found moon to be an inspiration for many poets who will compare the beauty of their beloved with the moon. But today even girls know a comparision with moon points out a scar on their face. Then came the knowledge that on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon where he said these well-known words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. It might have been wild imagination for man for years to have an abode on moon,and inspired many songs and poems like “ chand ke paar chalo………..” but few people have stepped in to cash on desires of people . I was reather amused to see this article “Indian buys plot on moon for $140 Mar 27, 2005HYDERABAD: An entrepreneur here seems to be over the moon for having bought a five-acre lunar plot and has the legal deed to endorse the claim though how he plans to live there is still a mystery. "If it is not possible during my life time, may be in the next generation," says Rajeev V Bagdi who bought the plot of land on the moon through an Internet transaction for USD 140. (India Times, India)” Who knows tomorrow we will be found when asked about our weekend plans, saying” Kuch Nahin, bas Chand tak ja rahe the.”

Color Blind or colour brained ? Now that is the question..............................

2005-05-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Even I never knew the brain has color before I saw this funny quizzer on Vivek's blogand that prompted me to see my brain color.When my mother chose this name" Neelima" for me she was standing under the sky and looking on sapphires.I was always(rather I am) so fond of blue that I will pick any shade of blue for any thing, It was a joke in our circle "show her the first thing in blue and She will not look out for any other color." My brother used to tease me " we will get you married to a petrol pum worker" I always used to wonder" Why?" which I understood many years later.So, even I expected my brain to be Blue (if it have to have any color for that matter)but it came out to be green. Disappointing , when Neither I like even to have green veggies, nor even a green thumb, its really disappointing.Want to have a look on my brain? Here it is.........
What Color is Your Brain?
brought to you by Quizilla At work or in school: I work best by myself. I like to focus on my ideas until my desire for understanding is satisfied. I am easily bored if the subject holds no interest to me. Sometimes, it is hard for me to set priorities because so many things are of interest. With friends: I may seem reserved. Although my thoughts and feelings run deep, I am uneasy with frequent displays of emotion. I enjoy people who are interesting and of high integrity. With family: I am probably seen as a loner because I like a lot of private time to think. Sometimes, I find family activities boring and have difficulty following family rules that don't make sense to me. I show love by spending time with my family and sharing ideas and interests. Any way, I m concerned with size and its ability.

AB HUM AUR YE TAPTI DOPAHARI.............

2005-05-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

With mercury soaring high, touching the mark of 43degree centigrade, not much is left to choice than being confined to indoors. But sitting idle is an open invitation to the memories which creep in from the distant past. So, Ab hum aur ye tapti dopahari , beech mein yaadein zinda hai, but memories are there to stay and live .........I wish i could habve lived again all these memories again, again all over.

4 baras ke baad..........

2005-05-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Just few minutes from now, I will be talking to my bhaiya, something which did not happen in past 4 years. I am at the top of world, thousands of things to say, millions to share but get scared sometime that " Will he care?"are ye to tukbandi ho gayi.

Hope of Meal

2005-05-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

Anopheline mosquitoes Are circling you in the hope of a meal. She takes a bite, saliva from her mouthparts Drool parasites which you can't see or feel Your brain can get sick, You will have a coma After the rage and the headaches have passed You're veggie soup, home to protozoa, Mosquito lands, time to go home at last.. Fall on your knees, Pale, burning with fever Plasmodia Are in your blood, were in your spleen Malaria There's no real cure, just in your dreams... Who said so, as far as poem is concerned, its Ok.But different scientists across the globe are working for the cure of malaria, its prevention and cure and i m proud to be a part of the team contributing towards control of Malaria . under the able guidance of my guide and my senior Kumar Sir, i hope we will be able to prove this poem wrong.Once my brother remarked " We will find a way or make one" but these words act as constant source of inspiration for me .

seeing the world by one eye

2005-05-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I thought, it was going to be yet another day of my life. But I was proven wrong as the time unfolded.Just like any other Sunday, I slept till 10: 30a.m wanted to sleep some more but was forced to wake up by bang on my door. With Asha, (my friend, not the hope), came to Big Bazar for shopping, It was damn hot outside.We reached the GPO for posting my PSC application and saw another man working with snail's pace, Finally , our turn came . We entered the Shopping mall, and my world changed in just 10 minutes. Got a pair of contact lens, it was a new world. Got rid of specs, was geeting a strange feeling of something missing. We had a helluva good time and Some kulfi from Gokul chaat shop(a gastronomic delight in this hot climate)enjoyed every bit but may be khushi ka overdose ho gaya, kal hi ek contact lens ishvar ko pyara ho gaya, I forgot to remove it while washing my face. So, now there are two options left, one to go back to my same old specs, or to see the world through one eye. I think, proverb should be left alone for books and I should stick to my friends for past 3 years, my good old Specs.

The Monkey's viewpoint of evolution

2005-05-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree Discussing things as they're said to be. Said one to the others, "Now listen you two, There's a certain rumor that can't be true. That man descended from our noble race. The very idea! It's a dire disgrace. No monkey ever deserted his wife, Starved his baby and ruined her life. And you've never known a mother monk, To leave her baby with others to bunk, Or pass them on from one to the other, Till they hardly know who is their mother. And another thing you'll never see A monk build a fence around a coconut tree, And let the coconuts go to waste, Forbidding all other monks a taste. Why, if I put a fence around this tree, Starvation would force you to steal from me. Here's another thing a monk won't do, Go out at night and get on a stew. Or use a gun or club or knife, To take some other Monkey's life. Yes! Man descended, the ornery cuss, But, brother, he didn't descend from US!

Read just now, So there is much more to learn from monkeys than Gandhian Principles.

Darwin's theory proven wrong by a 15 year old

2005-05-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

Darwin's Theory of Evolution proven wrong! Above-Sally Nixon puts the finishing touches on her theory.BOSTON, MA- In a shocking new report that has shaken up the scientific community, Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution, a theory accepted by virtually all scientists, has been proven wrong. And you'll never guess who discovered it: A 15-year old girl.Sally Nixon, a 15-year old Christian from Boston, reported her findings last night in an internet chat room. Her findings included this bombshell: "If we evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?"Nixon added, "Plus, the Big Bang theory violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. All evidence about the universe points to God. Plus, the Bible has been proven correct numerous times."The uproar in the scientific community was immediate. Zoologist Richard Dawkins, an Oxford graduate and author of several books on evolution, including The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker was flabbergasted. "How is it that in my 50 years of research I missed such an obvious error in the theory of evolution? An error so obvious, that a 15-year old girl with no background or training in science, was able to find so easily? I just don't get it," he said. "All my work has been proven wrong; I hope Christ will forgive my sins."Stephen Hawking, the brilliant cosmologist and physicist and author of The Universe in a Nutshell was equally shocked. "People... have... compared... my... work... with... that... of... Newton.... and.... Einstein," Hawking said. "But... it's... all... been... proven... wrong. I... feel... like... such... a... fool."Sally Nixon is having an easy time adjusting to her 'celebrity' status in the field of science. "It's good to see that people are giving up on Darwin's bogus theory," she said. "Do I look like a monkey to you? All I'm really happy about is that more people will start worshiping Christ, instead of wasting their time on bogus scientific theories."

I have no idea how much truth is there in this story . but it still sounds interesting enough to share

Theory of evolution may be the worst mistake in science

2005-05-12T02:26:00.000-07:00

"Evolution is a fairy tale for grown-ups. This theory has helped nothing in the progress of science. It is useless." (Professor Louis Bounoure) "Scientists who utterly reject Evolution may be one of our fastest-growing controversial minorities… Many of the scientists supporting this position hold impressive credentials in science." (Larry Hatfield) "One is forced to conclude that many scientists and technologists pay lip-service to Darwinian theory only because it supposedly excludes a Creator…" (Dr. Michael Walker) "In fact, evolution became in a sense a scientific religion; almost all scientists accepted it and many are prepared to 'bend' their observations to fit in with it." (H.J. Lipson) "Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution we do not have one iota of fact." (Dr. T.N. Tahmisian) "I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has." (Malcom Muggeridge) "… The theory of evolution may be the worst mistake made in science" So, after reading these many views and posting them, I think, I can dump the " Origin and Evolution" Chapter I was supposed to read today , without any guilt.

TIME TRAVELLERS:ANY ONE LISTENING

2005-05-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Dorai, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is hosting a Time Traveler Convention on campus this Saturday. Make plans now, because it’s the last such party.“You only need one,” he said. “The chance that anybody shows up is small, but if it happens it will be one of the biggest events in human history.Dorai only asks his guests to show proof they come from the future: Bringing the cure for cancer, a solution for global poverty or a cold fusion reactor would suffice. In case MIT is long gone by the time a time machine is invented, Dorai’s invitation includes geographic coordinates for the East Campus Courtyard (42:21:36.025 degrees north, 71:05:16.332 degrees west). To spread the word, Dorai asked friends to scribble invitations on pieces of acid-free paper and slip them into obscure library books. He is also giving media interviews and posting his thoughts on a Web site. The convention starts at 8 p.m. For dramatic effect, time travelers are encouraged to show up at 10 p.m. sharp. In between, revelers will take in a lecture on time travel by an MIT physics professor and listen to student bands belting out time-themed songs. MIT physics professor Alan Guth is weighing an invitation to speak at the convention. Guth’s work involves applying theoretical particle physics to the early universe, but he said he has dabbled in writing about time travel theories. “Most of us would bet it’s impossible, but none of us can prove it’s impossible either,” he said. Dorai doesn’t consider himself a believer or a skeptic. “I’m an experimentalist,” he said. “If there’s only going to be one, it should be here at MIT.” Apart from the near-certainty that time travel is impossible, Dorai sees another potential problem. “If thousands of time travelers come, then the MIT police might try to shut the party down,” he said.

Why (Y)Chromosome?

2005-05-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

In continuation to my yestersday's posting , "A Universe Without ♂ (males)", This is an excerpt from Times article :THE FUTURE IS FEMALE : The male species is doomed, says Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University. And a woman-only world is possible It is no secret that men are basically genetically modified women. In this respect, our evolution can be regarded as a gigantic and long-running GM experiment. Its legacy has been to endow men and women with different and often conflicting sets of genetic interests. It is a weary lament to lay most acts of violence and aggression squarely at the feet of men. Yet the association is strong and undeniable. Women only rarely commit violent crimes, become tyrants or start wars. NI_MPU('middle'); The accusing finger points at the only piece of DNA which men possess and women do not: the Y-chromosome. Ironically, although the Y-chromosome has become synonymous with male aggression, it is intrinsically unstable. Far from being vigorous and robust, this ultimate genetic symbol of male machismo is decaying at such an alarming rate that, for humans at least, the GM experiment will soon be over. Adam, it seems, is cursed. Like many species before us that have lost their males, we run the real risk of extinction. The Y-chromosome is in a mess — a genetic ruin littered with molecular damage. Why is it such a shambles? Originally, the Y-chromosome was a perfectly respectable chromosome, just like the others, with a collection of genes doing all sorts of useful things — but its fate was sealed when it took on the mantle of deciding sex. This probably happened in the early ancestors of the mammals, perhaps 100m years ago when they were small, insignificant creatures doing their best to avoid the ruling dynasty of the time — the dinosaurs. A mutation on one of those ancestral chromosomes suddenly, and quite by chance, enabled it to switch on the pathway to male development. The problem is that the Y-chromosome has never been able to heal itself. Unlike X-chromosomes, which pair up and swap genes to minimise bad mutations, the Y-chromosome, which has no partner, cannot repair the damage inflicted by mutations, which keep accumulating. Like the face of the moon, still pitted by craters from all the meteors that have ever fallen onto its surface, Y-chromosomes cannot heal their own scars. It is a dying chromosome and one day it will become extinct. Male infertility is on the increase. An astonishing 7% of men are either infertile or sub-fertile. There are a whole host of causes but a substantial proportion, that is between 1% and 2% of all men, are infertile because of mutations on their Y-chromosomes. That is an astonishingly high figure. The human Y-chromosome is crumbling before our very eyes. There is no reason to think things will improve — quite the reverse, in fact. One by one, Y-chromosomes will disappear until eventually only one remains. When that chromosome finally succumbs, men will become extinct. But when? By my estimate, the fertility caused by Y-chromosome decay drops to 1% of its present level within 5,000 generations, which is about 125,000 years. Not exactly the day after tomorrow — but equally, not an unimaginably long time ahead. In June, the journal Nature announced the almost complete sequence of a human Y-chromosome, which revealed something completely unexpected. There were signs that amid the wreckage of once-active genes, the Y-chromosome is still capable of safeguarding genes — but only by effectively having sex with itself. Does this mean that men are now saved from extinction? Sadly not. Does the news extend men’s day of reckoning? Unfortunately not. I deliberately use “men” instead of “our species” because only men require a Y-chromosome. Of course, unless something changes in the way we breed, women will vanish too and our entire species will disappear at some time in the next 100,000-200,000 years. The questions we face boil down to this. Do we need men? Can we do without them? There are many, of course, who would rejoice at the extinction of men. Valerie Solanas was one. She is best known as the woman who shot Andy Warhol in 1968. The previous year she published the venomous SCUM manifesto, which begins: “Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.” The expanded acronym of her manifesto title — the Society for Cutting Up Men — leaves us in no doubt as to Ms Solanas’s preferred solution to the world’s problems, but unless other arrangements are put in place, their demise will take women with them. Destroying the male sex would be a very short-lived victory. Men are still required for breeding, if nothing else. As things stand just now; sperm are needed. But for how much longer? One genetic solution that I offer is to abandon men altogether. It sounds impossible but, from the genetic point of view, very little stands in its way. Consider what is happening when sperm meets egg. The sperm brings with it a set of nuclear chromosomes from the father which, after fertilisation, mixes in with a set of nuclear chromosomes from the mother. What is to stop the nuclear chromosomes coming not from a sperm but from another egg? Let’s think this through a little more. We know that sperm can be injected into eggs. If we can do that, there is nothing to stop the nucleus from a second egg being injected instead. That would be very easy. But would it develop normally? At the moment the answer is no, but it is short-sighted to say that it is fundamentally impossible. The only difference from any other birth is that the sex would be predictable. The baby is always going to be a little girl. The entire process has been accomplished without sperm, without Y-chromosomes and without men. Importantly, the baby girls will not be clones. They are the same mixture of their parents’ genes, shuffled by recombination just as thoroughly as any of today’s children. They have two biological parents, not just one. Their only difference from any other child is that both parents are womenFrom a genetic point of view, they are completely normal, indistinguishable from any little girls around today. In a world where men were still around, when they grew up these girls would be able to breed in the old-fashioned way just as easily as women today. With all these advantages, I am sure that someone will try this before very long. Lesbian couples already enlist the help of a man to donate his set of chromosomes to fertilise the eggs of one of them. At some point these couples will want to have a baby to whom both, rather than just one of them, are parents. It is almost bound to happen and, unlike human cloning, I would have no really moral objection. Men are now on notice. NI_MPU('middle'); But would it catch on, and could it be an acceptable solution to the extinction of our species posed by the crumbling Y-chromosome? That is harder to say. Once men entirely disappeared, and were long forgotten, all reproduction would need to be assisted to some extent. However, if the wholesale extinction of men were to be purposefully and deliberately engineered, this Sapphic form of reproduction would have to be in place before the men were dispensed with. There is one immediate benefit from men’s extinction. In a way, Adam’s curse is permanently lifted. Sexual selection disappears for the simplest of reasons — there are no longer two sexes. Sperm no longer fight sperm for access to eggs. There are no sperm to do batt1e, no chromosomes to enslave the feminine. The destructive spiral of greed and ambition fuelled by sexual selection diminishes. The world no longer reverberates to the sound of men’s c1ashing antlers and the grim repercussions of conflict. But let’s look at the alternatives. Extinctions happen all the time and I suspect that a good many species have already fallen victim to the process of chromosome decay. Some, however, have found a way around their death sentence. One strategy is to recruit genes on other chromosomes to take over the job of male development. It might take only a small mutation to convert a gene on another chromosome so that it becomes capable of duplicating the job of one of the endangered Y-chromosome genes. This way, when the gene was eventually battered to death on the Y-chromosome, its job was already being done elsewhere and its disappearance from the Y no longer mattered. It is a race against time. Can a species get the genes it needs off the Y-chromosomes, or recreate them elsewhere, before it goes belly up? Always the last gene to go will be the Y-chromosome’s sex master switch itself, the SRY (Sex-determining Region on the Y-chromosome). We know it is capable of jumping ship and smuggling itself onto another chromosome. In a variation on this theme, another possibility open to the inventive is to bypass SRY altogether by switching the male development process a step or two down the chain of command. These secondary relays, the genes switched on by the signal from SRY, are already safely stowed on other genes. A lucky mutation in one of these could activate the relay without waiting to get the nod from SRY. No longer needed, SRY could be left to its fate. All of these ways of escaping from the dying Y-chromosome are risky and need a lot of preparation, for instance in relocating the sperm production genes before finally jumping ship. Lots of species will have tried this to avoid extinction. It was thought that none had succeeded but in 1995 researchers found a mammal that had managed to escape its fate. When they looked under the microscope at the chromosomes of a small burrowing rodent called the mole vole, Ellobius lutescens, which lives in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, they discovered that the males didn’t have a Y-chromosome. Neither, it turned out, did they have an SRY gene. This inconspicuous little rodent had managed to complete that last manoeuvre and activate a gene relay one or two stages down the line from SRY. And only just in time. The mole vole Y- chromosome has now completely disappeared. The mole vole is now safe from Y-chromosome-driven extinction, the only mammal species known to have succeeded in getting itself out of danger. For the mole vole, the problem has been shelved for tens of millions of years. For us and all other mammals who still have to rely on a Y-chromosome to make males, the danger is much more immediate. Many men have overcome their infertility with the help of a fertility treatment called ICSI, which stands for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Introduced in Belgium in 1992, ICSI is an extension of the well-known procedure of in vitro fertilisation where an egg and sperm are mixed in a test tube and the embryo which grows from the fertilised egg is reimplanted in the mother’s womb. That technique, introduced to the world by the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, has since helped an estimated 700,000 couples to have their own children. With ICSI, the sperm do not have to be capable of fertilising an egg on their own, as in straightforward in vitro fertilisation. They get help. Even a completely immobile sperm can reach its destination. It is simply injected directly into the egg with a fine needle. Once inside, its handicap no longer matters and fertilisation goes ahead as normal. Then, just as in run-of-the-mill IVF, the embryo is implanted back into the mother. What could be simpler? Infertility cured. Or is it? The danger is this. If the man’s infertility is caused by a damaged Y-chromosome, then ICSI will hand this Y-chromosome on to all his sons — who will themselves be infertile for exactly the same reason as their father. If that happens, they are going to need ICSI to have children too. We have merely handed down the problem to the next generation. Although ICSI will not prevent the extinction of men, it is at least a technique which we know works. The other remedies that spring to mind have yet to be proved effective, but if men are to be retained they are at least worth considering. For instance, what would happen if we deliberately abandoned the Y-chromosome and switched the necessary genes to the other chromosomes where they would be safe? In other words, if we pre-empted the demise of the Y-chromosome and deliberately engineered the solution so fortuitously arrived at by the mole vole? The human Y-chromosome could be left to decay — it cannot be saved — but men would be reprieved. NI_MPU('middle'); But could this be made to work? It will not be long before we know all the genes that are present and necessary on today’s Y-chromosome to make a man in full working order. We know most of them already — including SRY, of course, and the few genes that help to make active sperm. Even with today’s comparatively primitive genetic engineering technology, once they are all known, it will be easy to cut them out of the wreckage of the Y-chromosome and assemble them together in a compact genetic package. Or they could be made from scratch, even with present-day DNA synthesis instruments. From there, it would be a relatively straightforward task to insert the package into another chromosome, and the chances are it would work straight away. A fertilised mouse egg destined to become female has been successfully diverted to at least superficial masculinity by the injection of the mouse equivalent of SRY. Sure, it was infertile; but if the egg had been injected with the complete package of male genes, the mouse would have been both male and fertile. A fertilised human egg which would otherwise develop into a girl would, given this treatment, grow into a perfectly healthy man indistinguishable from any other, until you looked at his chromosomes. He would have two X-chromosomes; but instead of being infertile like XX males today, this man would have all the necessary sperm genes. But what about his own children? No immediate problem there either. Assuming that the package of male genes had landed safely on one chromosome, this new-age Adonis would be able to have sons and daughters in equal proportion, their sexual destinies decided only by whether they received from him a sperm carrying the repackaged chromosome with the added genes (for sons) or an original (for daughters.) The prospects for the Adonis chromosome are excellent. It will reprieve men from the brink of extinction and guarantee them a future for several million years.

Serendipity:When my chance will come?

2005-05-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

"Serendipity :Science calls chance discoveries "serendipity,"- because of a 1754 story by English writer Horace Walpole, "The Three Princes of Serendip," (Serendip is the old Persian name of Sri Lanka) who kept discovering things they were not seeking. This word serendipity has been voted as one of the ten of English words that were harder to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company U will be prompted to ask , what’s great in that? Even I keep finding things at times and places when I was not looking for them, It’s a matter of chance that even you can land up as being a great discoverer .So never curse your luck, when u get something ,some result which was unexpected. “Serendipity means when fortune knocks at your door at an unexpected time, you have to be ready to receive her” · Phonograph · Discovery Of Electromagnetic Fields · The Discovery Of How Rubella Leads To Congenital Defects · Fermi's (Non)-Discovery Of Nuclear Fission · Discovery Of Current Electricity · Cure Of Diabetes · Discovery Of X-Ray · Safety Glass · The Blunder That Founded 3M · Discovery Of Teflon · How Typhus Gets Transmitted · Proof Of The Big Bang · Vulcanisation Process · Structure Of The Crystals · 3M's Post-It Note Pads · Principle Of Immunisation Be it Aleaxander Flemming’s discovery of penicillin, the invention of Post it Notes, Alfred Nobel’s discovery of Blasting gelatin, the discovery of Polyethylene, the discovery of psychedelic , effects of LSD by Albert Hofmann , the discovery of Cosmic microwave background radiation, all are gifts of serendipity ……………………. And the list is endless. But can one conclude that creative discoveries are accidental by nature? Not really. In all these cases, the mishap could have been dismissed as inconsequential, as was done by many scientists in the cases of X-Rays and the radio "noises" which proved the Big Bang theory. Similarly, Fermi failed to see the significance of his accidental discovery, because he refused to believe what he saw. The accidents became a source of discovery and innovation, because these people were willing to look at them as meaningful occurrences. Newton, after all, was not the first person who saw an apple falling off the tree. As Pasteur remarked: "Chance favours the prepared mind."

Beete Pal

2005-05-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

Just read these lines on Rahul's blog and I could not control the tears flowing.This is the magic, when u can make the world laugh with u , cry with u, These lines are so touching......... beete pal chhoone lage hain dil ko aise, dost rakhe haath kandhe pe jaise... kaisi ye kirNein si chhan rahi hain, kaisi tasveerein si ban rahi hain... kitne mausam yaadon mein hain aate jaate, baarish aaee khul gaye hain kaale chhaate... din hain alsaaye hue jo aaee garmi, sardiyoun ki dhoop mein hai kaisi narmi.. . pal pal ek samay ki nadiya hai jo behti jaati hai... apne des ki mitti ki khushboo mujhe yaad aati hai... pighle tanhaaiyon ke hain jo andhere, jagmagaane se lage hain kitne chehre.. .ek lori hai... ek laal bindiyaa,laut aaee hai mere bachpan ki nindiyaa.. .vo koi iktaare pe kab se gaa raha hai, koi aanchal jaane kyoun lehraa raha hai.. .har ghadi naee baat ek yaad aa rahi hai, dil mein pagdandi si jaise ban gaee hai, ye pagdandi mere dil se mere des jaati hai... apne des ki mitti ki khushboo mujhe yaad aati hai....

Is paar priya tum ho madhu hai

2005-05-11T04:50:00.000-07:00

"Is Paar priya tum ho madhu hai, us paar na jane kya hoga us paar abhage manav ka adhikar na Jane kya hoga" -Dr.Harivansh rai Bachchan (Don't ask me who is Madhu, Let it be a mystery or get back to your Hindi dictionary ) With so many mars mission scheduled in future, these lines keep haunting me.Missions scheduled for the future: 2005 August 10 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Surveyor 2005 Orbiter (Nasa, France?). Scheduled to arrive at Mars in March, 2006. To study Mars from orbit between March 2006 and July 2008, perform high-resolution measurements including images with a resolution of 20 to 30 cm, and possibly serve as communications relay for later Mars landers until about 2010. 2005 MRO information, images and links at SEDS, Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2007 Late Mars 2007 Remote Sensing Orbiter (CNES, French Space Agency): Remote Sensing Orbiter. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2007 Late, Ariane V Mars 2007 Netlanders (CNES, French Space Agency): Network of 4 small landers to perform scientific measurements on the surface of Mars over one Martian year. Netlander homepage; Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2007 Late Mars 2007 Communications Orbiter (ASI, Italian Space Agency): Communications orbiter for Netlanders and future missions. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2007 Late Phoenix - the selcted Mars 2007 Small Scout Missions (Nasa): An in-situ volatile and organic molecule survey (LPL/Univ of Arizona). Phoenix informations, images and links from SEDS; Scout Mission Press Release (Nasa HQ PR 01-122, June 13, 2001); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC); UA Press Release, December 6, 2002; Nasa Press Release 02-238 of Dec 6, 2002, Solar System Exploration: Missions: Mars: Mars Scout (JPL) 2009 Late Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Smart Lander, Mars 2009 Mobile Scientific Laboratory (Nasa): Formerly scheduled for 2007. Will include new technologies: A small long-range, long-duration rover powered by a small nuclear reactor, equipped to perform many scientific studies of Mars, and to demonstrate the technology for accurate landing and hazard avoidance in order to travel to difficult-to-reach sites. 2009 Mars Science Laboratory information, images and links from SEDS; 2009 MSL page (JPL), Smart Lander page (JPL), Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2009 Late Mars 2009 Communications Satellite (Nasa, Italy; under study). Possible Communications Satellite. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2009 Late Mars 2009 Small Net-Landers (Nasa, France; under study). Possible Small Net-Landers. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2009 Late Exo Mars (ESA). Will include an orbiter and a descent module that will land a highly mobile rover, weighing up to 200 kilogrammes, on the surface of Mars. 2011 Mars Scout 2 (Nasa). A mission succeeding and extending the 2007 Mars Scout, Phoenix; details to be defined. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2014 Mars 2014 (Nasa, France, Italy, international?; under study). Possibly first sample return mission. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC) 2016 Mars 2016 (Nasa, international?; under study). Possibly another sample return mission, or orbiters, landers, rovers. Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC abhi to manav ne bas paer badhaye hai us anchue anjane antariksh ki aur, kahin aur jeevan ki talash mein, srishti ki anboojhi paheliyon ko suljhane ke liye, par don't u think that biggest proof that intelligent life is there somewhere in universe that never attempted to contact us, just kidding.

A Universe Without ♂ (males)

2005-05-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

A Universe Without ♂ (males) : Beware those male chauvinists who consider that the world can’t do without them !!!!!!!!!!! Indeed, this article is going to have a mixed reaction from readers . It will come as a shock to the males suffering for superiority complex but as sigh of relief to their female counterparts.Nature is full of examples where only female members are capable of producing their progeny and which completely lack male members by a phenomema called Parthenogenesis(Virgin Birth, u can compare it with nature's way of cloning). Few examples are millipede Nemasoma, cockroach Pycnoscelus, spear-winged fly, Dipsa bifurcate, aphids(honey bees).But the most interesting comes from a whiptail Lizard.In 15 of the Cnemidophorus species there are no males. How much boring it may sound , but there are some advantages to a parthenogenic lifestyle: -All members of species can lay eggs and reproduction is more efficient -Good mutations are passed on more efficiently in clones than in sexual species -You don't waste a lot of time and energy searching for a mate . Then why do the nature created different sexes??????? Some Things to Think About 1.Are there any advantages to having 2 sexes? Will males in our species someday also disappear like those of the whiptail? Quite sad, but very very probable………..you can post your thoughts for this blog.I will be updating you more in coming blogs till then if you are male, keep praying that the day never comes:-) For Females , Time for celebration. Rejoice. 2.Why is nature still experimenting with so many types of reproductive strategy? Answers any one?

The Road not taken

2005-05-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

The Road Not Taken : Yes, today again it happened with me.while going to a friend's house, as usual was lost in my own world, and gave a cursory look on roads, unable to decide right or left, took right turn , (assuming it to right)and ended up in walking 3 Km more in this sunny afternoon of Hyderabad). But This reminded me of a poem read long back.It goes like this: TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Had nice south Indian Lunch at friend's house , (finally after this much walking , I had elephant running in my stomach)Rice, Mango Pappu, Beans curry, papad, curd and a funny looking chutney. Lesson learnt: appearances are always deceptive, that funny looking chutney was the tastiest I had in my life, Yummy.............Please control the saliva dripping out( Ivan Pavilov's experiment on reflex action gave me clue for writing this), go home, have your Lunch and then may be, an afternoon nap, sounds like heaven. Isn't it?

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Happy snoring

GENES:Its GENES not JEANS

2005-05-11T02:30:00.000-07:00

GENES:Its GENES not JEANS DNA HANd http://images.google.co.in/images?q=tbn:cmPrrnjW_V8J:www.chem.agilent.com/cag/feature/07-00/feature_graphics/01_DNAhand.jpg They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and theirpreservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence ... they go by thename of genes, and we are their survival- Richard Dawkins (English biologist,1941-) in The Selfish GeneThis quote dates back to 1976, the year I was born, may be its a reason for my interest in genes and Genetics. I will be writing more on this stuff and share my views and recent developments in genetics, Biology and science of living. Till then Some tests for you:Please stick your tongue out. Who can roll their tongue up at the side into a tube? Now who cannot. While I’m in the business of being silly I’ll try another test. Clasp your hands together without thinking. Have you got the left thumb on top and or the right thumb on top? You mightjust try it the other way but I think you’ll agree you find that it is a bit uncomfortable.Now the genetics of hand clasping and tongue rolling isn’t straightforward but it is certainly a statement that we are all very different from each other. All that diversity of course, is coded in the magical molecule that is known as DNA. DNA is basic recipe for all diversity we see around.For more on DNA, wait 4 next blog.