Weird

Many carbon containing materials can be converted into diamonds - including peanut butter.

Yes.They have made it happen.

Amazing Intersections

The intersection of arts and science.

Cute little ants marked with paints

Female Spider's Genitalia

And there is "Knowledge is beautiful" - some of history's great scientific minds with the seductive physical draw that their minds hold for us intellectually. Funny.

More at Art of science.

Ninja and cellular respiration

Here is a fun biology project on ninja enzymes in Cellular respiration.

rasi, tasi ,natsi...........and the NEW HERO

rasi, tasi, natsi, scn, sn, sno .... And there are pi, XIST, PINC ..

These are all growing RNA-tailed acronyms. Wings of our new hero in the limelight, RNA.

What is the RNA revolution about ? The Economist unravels it here, here and here .

Endogenous trans-acting siRNA(tasiRNA), repeat-associated siRNA (rasiRNA),
smallscan RNA (scnRNA) ,tiny noncoding RNA(tncRNA) small modulatory RNA (smRNA) and many such small RNA's mediate gene silencing .

But in all this excitement and adulation, poor proteins are still waiting in the wings — unhonoured, unsung. says Dr.Balasubramanium.

Truely,RNA is not just a ferryman.

" A shot of Inspiration"

is here

SciAm via Scian

What are the rules that Brain uses to lay down memories? -An exciting memory code.

A malignant flame- Inflammation .

Cells Hijjacked.

Should Science speak to faith? -Heated exchanges between Krauss and Dawkins.

And much more at Scientific American July Issue .It is free

Thanks to Selva at the Scian for the information.

SCN9A and Thaipoosam

Image source -Sepiamutiny

Those of you from the state of Tamilnadu,India must be knowing what THAIPOOSAM is. What fascinates me about the event is the fervour with which the devotees perform acts like tongue and body piercing with vels, walking barefoot over hot coal etc.. It is surprising to note they do not feel the pain at all.

Do they all have a gene mutation in SCN9A ? I do not know.

What is SCN9A ?????

Nerve fibers have different proteins embedded in their endings, each of which is sensitive to a different kind of injury. These sensor proteins act by letting a few sodium ions flow into the nerve, though not enough to set off a pain signal. The proteins made by the SCN9A gene amplify the initial activity by letting a much larger number of sodium ions flow in, initiating an electrical signal that is interpreted as painful when it reaches the brain.

There are many who does such offerings.All of them are not professionals.I doubt all of them carry mutations in the gene for pain.

Teaching relativity to a bacterium

Wrting four copies of Einstein's formula E=mc2 into a bacterial genome....

Encoding a year’s worth of the New York Times magazine into the junk DNA of a cockroach...

Is it something to do with science fiction? No. It happens here.

Nifty Idea

EVO DEVO- exploring evolution

NYtimes Science has come up with a special issue on EVOLUTION. There are articles explaining the EVO-DEVO concept,issues surrounding Darwin's theory,Human evolution and much more.

There is a video on Science of evolution.

It is interesting .Take a look.

Is there any concern?

While there are a lot of deliberations,discussions about premier engineering institutions are going on here,here and here,is there any concern for the plight of arts and science colleges,particularly the self-financing ones.

Will anyone like Abi sir bring the facts to the fore?

Why is that no newspaper is bringing out aspects like quality,faculty,govt measures etc etc etc concerning these colleges?

Teachers are travelling companions

Teachers, are merely travelling companions, “sharing the same uncomfortable feeling of ‘estrangement’ when confronted by ever-changing perceptions, broadening horizons, closing doors, rivers that sometimes seem to block their path and which, in fact, should never be crossed, but followed.”

Says Paul Coelho in his new book ‘The Witch of Portobello’ as quoted in THE HINDU.

Absolutely true.

Oh my Lowry....

(photo source: Journal of Biochemistry)

Oliver Howe Lowry (1910–1996)

What salt is to food ,the same is protein estimation to any biochemical study. And who is not aware of the Lowry method of protein estimation. It is the most highly cited paper in the publishing history. As of January 2004, it was cited 275,669 times.

The original paper of Lowry appreared in JBC in 1951.
It has been modified to make it more sensitive.Though other colorimetric assays like Bradford and BCA method are devised,Lowry method still rules,despite the interference problems.

He has written an article on How to suceed in research without being a genius.It is available in Annual review of Biochemistry.

Next time,when you do the Lowry assay,remember the pioneer of protein estimations

The Professors Profess

"Linus Pauling was laying in bed thinking about things I'm sure you all think about in bed -- structural chemistry! [Class groans.] Come on, what else is there to do in bed?"
- In a Biochemistry lecture

"How do you identify which peptides are bound? [Class stares blankly. Whispers loudly,] It's on the handout!"
- In an immunology lecture

"I wish I could ask for volunteers to demonstrate this process, but I'd get into trouble. This kinase reaches over and phosphorylates the other, then the other returns the favor. They turn each other on."
- In a cell biology lecture

More priceless quotes by MIT faculty here

Idli - THE BOSS

Idli and chutney.Sure.It is a marriage made in Heaven.

Do you know we are not the owners of our own Idli.It is a foreign import .Yes.This is what is found in a book by an eminent food scientist. There is a lot of History to Idli.

Interesting science facts about Idli are

1. Pulses are major source of proteins but they lack in essential amino acid methionine but cereals provide this amino acid. Likewise cereals also provide proteins but they lack in amino acid lysine. This amino acid is present in pulses. In Idlis,rice and Black gram mungo are used .

2. On an average ,one idli provides 65 kcal

3. Blackgram is the primary component involved in the fermentation of the batter. Total soluble solids, soluble nitrogen, and soluble acids of black gram are increased during fermentation whereas soluble sugars are decreased

4. The batter volume and microbial count vary with the degree of polishing done on the rice used.

5. Fermentation enhances the bioaccessibility of both zinc and iron

6. Rheology and particle size changes during fermentation of the rice-lentil batter.

7. After a certain period of fermentation, whey (liquid remains) started seperating from the Idli batter.

8. Hydrocolloids (hydrophilic polymers like agar,guargum,cellulose,gelatin etc ) are used to stablise commercial Idli batter preventing them from giving a hard texture to Idli after whey seperation

9. There is sequential change in the bacterial flora during the fermentation process.

10. pH and total acidity will change during the active fermentation.The acidity is high when the batter reaches the consistency for Idli making.

11. The predominant microorganism responsible for souring, as well as for gas production, was found to be Leuconostoc mesenteroides. In the later stages of fermentation, growth of Streptococcus faecalis and, still later, of Pediococcus cerevisiae becomes significant.

12. The substitution of rice with rice flour (as in Instant mix) will have significant effect on the specific gravity, acidity and pH of the idli batter, and textural and sensory quality of the idlis.

13.While we think,idli has a lot of nutritional value,it is shocking to see a scientific research stating that it seems that the nutritive advantage of this interesting food may lie mainly in its increased acceptability, but not in an increased nutritive value.

Well, it is an established entity.We can happily rave about our humble Idli.

Humble DNA ENCODEd

The ENCODE project has been completed and NATURE magazine has come up with a web focus on this.

ENCODE, the Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements is a public research consortium launched by NHGRI in september 2003. The project is to identify all the functional elements in the human genome sequence.

The goal is to map a variety of sequence elements including genes, promoters, enhancers, repressor or silencer sequences, exons, replication origin and termination sites, transcription factor binding sites, methylation sites, DNase I hypersensitive sites, chromatin modifications, conserved sequences, and RNA transcripts, to name a few.

Results of the analysis of targeted 1% human genome are provided for Free access.

Highlights of the finding are (source -.www.nature.com)

• The human genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases are associated with at least one primary transcript and many transcripts link distal regions to established protein-coding loci.
• Many novel non-protein-coding transcripts have been identified, with many of these overlapping protein-coding loci and others located in regions of the genome previously thought to be transcriptionally silent.
• Numerous previously unrecognized transcription start sites have been identified, many of which show chromatin structure and sequence-specific protein-binding properties similar to well-understood promoters.
• Regulatory sequences that surround transcription start sites are symmetrically distributed, with no bias towards upstream regions.
• Chromatin accessibility and histone modification patterns are highly predictive of both the presence and activity of transcription start sites.
• Distal DNaseI hypersensitive sites have characteristic histone modification patterns that reliably distinguish them from promoters; some of these distal sites show marks consistent with insulator function.
• DNA replication timing is correlated with chromatin structure.
• A total of 5% of the bases in the genome can be confidently identified as being under evolutionary constraint in mammals; for approximately 60% of these constrained bases, there is evidence of function on the basis of the results of the experimental assays performed to date.
• Although there is general overlap between genomic regions identified as functional by experimental assays and those under evolutionary constraint, not all bases within these experimentally defined regions show evidence of constraint.
• Different functional elements vary greatly in their sequence variability across the human population and in their likelihood of residing within a structurally variable region of the genome.
• Surprisingly, many functional elements are seemingly unconstrained across mammalian evolution. This suggests the possibility of a large pool of neutral elements that are biochemically active but provide no specific benefit to the organism. This pool may serve as a 'warehouse' for natural selection, potentially acting as the source of lineage-specific elements and functionally conserved but non-orthologous elements between species.

Take a Look

Cloning the Buddha

I just happened to read a Richard HeinBerg book on Cloning the Buddha-The Moral Impact of Biotechnology . I like the views and doubts raised by the author against the tall claims made by Biotechnology and genetic engineering. I remember a saying "making money with biology is biotechnology"

There are no doubts that GE has been making various advances for the mankind especially in medicine and agriculture.But are we morally right in dissecting and moving the genes as we please? How does "MORAL" comes into the picture of this science? And what are the negative side of this technology?The book provides answers for these questions

Some points are worth pondering,before attempting to play with genes.

It is not that just by decoding DNA,we will know everything to know about life The situation is, there is more to life than just DNA. DNA ,infact is conditioned by organism itself and by the environment.

There is a lack of corelation between an organism's size and the amount of DNA.Also various researches have pointed out that each gene is not encoding the same meaning in different species ,as we thought earlier.Almost every gene studied in higher organisms has been found to affect more than one trait.So the genetic code is still ambiguous

There is no one-to one reading of the genotype onto phenotype.There are lot of intervening steps .DNA just influences the developmental process,not direct them.

Each living organism has an inner purpose.The intuition,perception or belief that other beings have a self with an interior experience comparable to one's own is the basis of ethics.In the deployment of Biotechlogy ,we are profoundly altering our relationship with the living world.

To put it in a nut shell,we should treat nature as the cooperative,interdependent,self directed activity of numberless creatures.It implies a respect for wholes,whole natural systems that arise from intertwined homeostatic relationships between and among living beings.

The entire genetic engineering and Biotechnology which functions around the reductionist view that genes are everything is against this holistic view.

Take a look.It is intriguing.

Hot 50 Innovations in Nanotechnology

Nanotech Briefs® ,a magazine of NASA tech breif has annouces its third annual nano 50 awards.The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology.
Have a look at the innovations around the world that make it to top 50.

Human Genome Project-Video by NHGRI

National Human Genome research Institute,NIH has come up with a new updated education kit on Human genome Project.Their fabulous CD -Understanding Human Genome is available online now.You can even download all the CD contents. There is a new section on Bioinformatics and more.

The contents are a must watch .

NIH Videocasts

National Institute of Health has videocasts of lectures by eminent scientists.It is really a treasure to digg out lectures of our interest.

You have got to find what you Love

Read this immensely moving and inspiring speech of Steve Jobs,CEO of apple computers at Stanford univerrsity

Story of a powerful woman

Take a look at the story of Indira Nooyi,Pepsico CEO. A humble beginning from conservative chennai to powerpacked office of pepsi.

Genome sequencing

Watch how a genome is sequenced at Washington University Genome sequencing centre.

Entertaining Nano

Here is a video on nanoscience - technology at one-millionth of a millimeter through an entertaining mix of science and humor. Produced for University of California Television (UCTV) by using illustrative concepts that include a stadium-sized bowl of peanuts, a magic tennis ball and shrinking elephants to describe the quest to create the world's smallest magnet.

Stunning Microscopic Images

Here are some galleries of amazing microscopic images- crystals,bacteria/viruses,botanical and zoological objects.

Summer Training In Biosciences In India -II

CSIR Laboratories

Go through the webpages of the institutions and know about their research,Write to the professors well in advance.

Biotech companies in Bangalore

This site has a directory of Bio industry in karnataka.

Biotech hotspots in India

This article lists the companies that are top players in Biotech in India

Aravinda Biosolutions.Hyderabad

offers Job & Career Oriented Training Programmes, Live Projects, R&D services in the field of Bio-Technology & Bioinformatics

Bioonco,Tenali,Andra pradesh
is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused exclusively on the protein based therapeutics and diagnostics.offers training for graduate and postgraduate students for their project work(minimum six months).

DNA research centre, Secunderabad

is an autonomous registered research society, devoted for Vaccines and Drugs Research with the Bioinformatics Applications.Arranges various workshop and Training programmes as well as symposiums in the field of bioinformatics.

AV.Thomas Biotechnology,Cochin.

Offers training in Plant tissure culture applications

Summer Trainings in Biosciences in India - I

I find a lot of undergraduate and postgraduate students of Biochemistry,Microbiology and Biotechnology are looking for good institutes where they can learn experimental techniques or do a short research project during summer.

Hence I take up this task of compiling this list.The list includes both research institutes and bio companies offering summer training. I wish the students do the following

1.Identify your interest area.

2.Do some reading on the research works of the investigators of the institute.

3.Have an idea of what you propose to do,if you are given an opportunity

4.It is good you approach these institutions well in advance or look for their postings on their webpages.

Here is the list (with links)

Indian academy of sciences,Bangalore
IAS,Bangalore offers summer research fellowships for teachers and students .You have to choose a lab and a professor ,write a proposal to get selected. Announcements for which will appear during January of every year in Current science journal.

Jawarhalal Nehru centre for advanced scientific research Bangalore

Offers both short term programmes and summer research fellowships.The announcement for these fellowships appear in the media and on our website in October/ November every year.

Centre for cellular and Molecular Biology,Hyderabad
Offers fellowships for summer students.The placement is highly competitve.Look out for the announcement during dec/jan every year.

Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics,Hyderabad
has a seperate programme for summer research fellowships.

Central Drug Research Institute,Lucknow
Offers training programme for students.Application for which has to be sent in Feb-Mar for summer and in June -July for winter programmes.

Cancer Institute,Adyar,Chennai.
They do not have a seperate summer training programme.But you can contact researchers well in advance.There are departments of molecular oncology,bioengineering,medical physics
,radiation oncology,molecular microbiology and immnology.

Tuberculosis research centre,Chennai
It is a WHO colloborating centre for TB research and training.Con,tact the department heads and researchers.

M.S.Swaminathan research foundation,Chennai

MSSRF is doing research in the following areas: Coastal Systems Research Biodiversity
Biotechnology ,Ecotechnology ,Food Security ,Information, Education and Communication
Special Projects

TamilNadu's first Biodiesal Plant

Good to see that Banari amman group of industries are starting a new Biodiesal plant in Coimbatore ,TamilNadu.They are planning to make Biodiesal from Jatropa and Pongamia.

Wish to have a taste of Biocomicals.....

Have a hearty laugh with the science jokes available here. One on Free radicals is hilarious