The Value of Science - Richard Feynman

Ages on ages ... before any eyes could see ... year after year ... thunderously pounding the shore as now. For whom, for what? ... on a dead planet, with no life to entertain.

Never at rest ... tortured by energy ... wasted prodigiously by the sun ... poured into space. A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the patterns of one another till complex new ones are formed. They make others like themselves ... and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity ... living things, masses of atoms, DNA, protein ... dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle onto the dry land ... here it is standing ... atoms with consciousness ... matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea ... wonders at wondering ... I ... a universe of atoms ... an atom in the universe.


AMAZING... Go read here

Scientists killed by their experiments

Seed magazine has given the list of top 10 scientists killed by their experiments.

Women in Science- 2008 awards by L'Oreal & UNESCO

L'Oreal with UNESCO has been rewarding women for their excellence in science since 1998. Five Laureates from five continents, every year: a unique award that has recognized 52 exceptional women scientists in 10 years.



I am happy that a Prof at his site in tamil has written a wonderful report on the awardees.

Rishi Scientists of India

Get to know Nagarjuna(wizard of chemical science),Acharya charak (father of medicine),Acharya sushrut (father of plastic surgery),Acharya patanjali(father of ayurveda),Acharya bharatwaj (father of aviation technology),Acharya kapila(father of cosmology) here

Via Desipundit

Polymerase stops ...Dr Arthur Kornberg-- RIP

The discoverer of DNA polymerase ,dies at 89.and worked in his laboratory at Stanford University until a few days before his death.

Here is an article on life and discoveries of this passionate Biochemist

Hats off to Prof P. N. Rangarajan.

Prof Abinandhan of Indian Institute of Science in his blog Nanopolitan has posted a good news today. It is about winners of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards for the year 2007.

One of the them is Prof Pundi.Narashiman Rangarajan of Department of Biochemistry,IISc. He is well known for his works on DNA vaccines. Earlier he was awarded the Biotech Product and Process Development and Commercialization Award-2005 by DST for transferring recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine technology to Biological E. Ltd., Hyderabad leading to production of BEVAC. Prof PNR and Dr.G.Padmanabhan have developed the first combined DNA-based rabies vaccine for the control of rabies in dogs .


Prof P.N.Rangarajan's article on DNA VACCINES in Resonance is here

I found this intersting communication of Prof PNR on Waiting for the Nobel: Has IISc sacrificed experiment for research? to IISc faculties of Biochemistry,MCBL, MRDGand CES . He expressed that " Individual aspirations and institutional goals have been in conflict atmany of our national research organisations for far too long"

The first person awarded with a patent for a gene -Dr Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty

Dr.Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty is a distinguished Indian-American Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

His most notable creation is a biology-based solution for cleaning up toxic oil spills using the generically engineered bacteria-Pseudomonas (today classified as Burkholderia cepacia or B. cepacia).

Listen to his interview about his great work here at BiotechNation.

It is great hearing from a renowned Professor.

Don't miss it.

Thanks to Deepak singh at bbgm for the pointer

Bruce Alberts

Image source : http://www.nature.com/

A leading textbook and a bible for any Biosciences is "MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE CELL" by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter .You can have a full access to the entire textbook here at NCBI

Bruce Alberts is an Amercian Biochemist known for his extensive study of the protein
complexes that allow chromosomes to be replicated.

The Work of Bruce Alberts on DNA Polymerase and Leading and Lagging Strand
Synthesis is well explained in this JBC classics.

Profile of Bruce Alberts as an Education President when he was the President of the National Academy of Sciences states

Alberts found the companion laboratory sections to be even more frustrating than the assigned textbooks. Laboratory assignments consisted of following a set of instructions, he says, then comparing answers with a friend, fudging data to get the right answer, and turning in a pointless notebook. "Cooking classes," he calls them.

All of us who are professors did well with lecture-style teaching and tests," he says, "and so we think that everybody else should be able to learn well in exactly the same way."

I admire him as a teacher than a researcher.Salutations to this great Educationist.

Anne Laura McLaren - RIP

Anne Laura McLaren is a renowned reproductive biologist and geneticist. Her works on embryo transfer and culture (she was one of the first to culture mouse embryo outside the womb) lead to a popular Invitro Fertilisation(IVF) technology .

She died in a car accident on 7th July 2007

Fellow scientists rave about her boundless enthusiasm with which she used to pursue her research.At 80,she was very active in research,still publishing papers and books.

Frequently she would come out with a succinct statement such as: "When the embryo is outside the woman's body, genetics tells us that father and mother have equal rights. When the embryo is inside the body, physiology tells us that the woman's right is paramount."

In an interview in Cambridge for the Association for Women in Science and Engineering (AWiSE), of which she was president, she said: "When I was young I never thought of myself as a woman scientist, just as a scientist, and as a woman. There was no statutory maternity leave, we just had children and got on with things as best we could."

says Guardian

Home page of her research group is here

One of the icons of Women scientists,she will remain as a role model.

Maverick biologist or a Star scientist ?

Get to know all about the biologist J.Craig Venter and his works here.


Via DNA Network .

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