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| SCIENCE TRIBUNE | Thursday, July 18, 2002, Chandigarh, India |
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Astronomers
hope to find ET in next 25 years Garden
for visually handicapped Cow
urine reduces drugs’ side-effects |
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Astronomers hope to find ET in next 25 years SCIENTISTS searching the stars for aliens are convinced an E.T. is out there — it’s just that they haven’t had the knowhow to detect such a being. But now technological advances have opened the way for scientists to check millions of previously unknown star systems, dramatically increasing the chances of finding intelligent life in outer space in the next 25 years, the world’s largest private extraterrestrial agency believes. “We’re looking for needles in the haystack that is our galaxy, but there could be thousands of needles out there,” Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at California’s non-profit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, says. “If that’s the case, with the number of new star systems we now hope to check, we should find one of those in the next 25 years.” But Shostak, visiting Australia to attend a conference on extraterrestrial research, said detecting alien life, like the big-eyed alien in the film E.T., was only the start. “Even if we detect life out there, we’ll still know nothing about what form of life we have detected and I doubt they’ll be able — or want — to communicate with us,” Shostak said. Since it was founded in 1984, the SETI Institute has monitored radio signals, hoping to pick up a transmission from outer space. Its Project Phoenix conducts two annual three-week sessions on a radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Project Phoenix, widely seen as the inspiration for the 1997 film “Contact” starring Jodie Foster, which depicted a search for life beyond earth, is the privately funded successor to an original NASA programme that was cancelled in 1993 amid much scepticism by the U.S. Congress. But the search has been slow. About 500 of 1,000 targeted stars have been examined — and no extraterrestrial transmissions have been detected. “We do get signals all the time but when checked out they have all been human made...and are not from E.T., more AT&T,” said Shostak. He said the privately-funded institute was developing a giant 26 million dollars telescope to start operating in 2005 that can search the stars for signals at least 100 times faster. The so-called Allen Telescope Array, named after sponsor and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is a network of more than 350, six-metre (20-foot) satellite dishes with a collecting area exceeding that of a 100-metre (338-foot) telescope. The Allen array, to be built at the Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Fransciso, will also expand the institute’s stellar reconnaissance to 100,000 or even one million nearby stars, searching 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Shostak said he is convinced there is intelligent life out there — but don’t expect to find a loveable, boggle-eyed E.T. He said if any aliens share the same carbon-based organic chemistry as humans, they would probably have a central processing system, eyes, a mouth or two, legs and some form of reproduction. But Shostak thinks any intelligent extraterrestrial life will have gone light years beyond the intelligence of man. “What we are more likely to hear will be so far beyond our own level that it might not be biological anymore but some artificial form of life,” he said. “Don’t expect a blobby, squishy alien to be on the end of the line.” Reuters |
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Garden for visually
handicapped A thing of beauty is joy forever, goes the saying. But what beauty means to blind and visually handicapped persons who cannot enjoy the environs around them. The National Botanical Research Institute — the NBRI — found an answer to this by developing a garden for the blind. First of its kind in Asia and sixth in world, the garden in Lucknow exposes the blind to the beauty of nature through three senses — touch, feel and smell. Inaugurated on July 21, 2001, the garden has created niche for itself as visually handicapped people, not only from Lucknow but also from the neighbouring districts have visited this place. Dr Kamla Kulshreshtha, scientist eco-education in the NBRI, said that the central idea to set up such a garden was to facilitate the visually challenged and physically disabled persons to enjoy the floral kingdom and its diversity surrounding them. In this garden, the blind are made to feel the flowers and plants, recognise them by smell and understand them by feeling them. Not only this, the description of the floral kingdom is explained through Braille. It reads as what exactly flowers and flora stands for in this eco-system, how these coloured beauties are beneficial and what is the medicinal importance of these plants. There are at least 36 varieties of flowers. The flowers and flora which can be understood by touch are: Crinum asiaticum (Sudarshan), Eranthemum roseum (Gulgham), Quisqualis indica (madhumati), Polianthus tuberosa (Rajanigandha), Aster amellus (Aster), Brunfelsia americana (Kal aaj aur kal) and Ixora parviflora (Ixora). By smell are: Ocimum sanctum (tulsi), Murraya exotica (kamini), Gardenia jasminoides (jasmine), cymbopogon citrates (lemon grass), Mentha spicata (pudina), Cestrum diurnum (Din ka raja), Cestrum nocturnum (rat ki rani) and Melaleuca decora (golden). The precautions are also taken to ensure that there are no poisonous variety of plants or any plant that has thorns. Then what is the garden without rose! Dr Kulshreshtha said that the NBRI has overcome this difficulty by producing a hybrid variety of rose (Rosa hybrida "cultivar"). It is a thornless variety of rose developed by the scientists of the NBRI and named as City of Lucknow. It was a challenge to develop a garden where the blind can move freely, without any help, and can even know where exactly are the turns or the blind ends, said Dr Kulshreshtha. The total area of the garden is 0.1 hectare, which is divided into four blocks. These blocks have direct access with footpaths lined by chequered tiles at zero level elevation. The whole path is punctuated with pebbles. Small pebble space, of the size of door mat, means at the right hand side of that place is a board with information about flower beds is written in Braille. It also contains the botanical name as well as local name of the plant. Similarly, pebble paths, trifurcated in inverted T shape, identify turnings. The visitor can go to his right, left or straight depending upon his or her choice. A blind person can identify these turns with his walking sticks by striking it against the pebbles and can easily take a walk of the garden, said Dr Kulshreshtha. The main entrance of the garden is decorated with Quisqualis indica (Madhumalti), a climber decorated in U-shape. The fragrance of this flower greets the visitor and informs him/her that they are at the threshold of entering the garden. There is natural fencing of Murraya exotica (kamini) — a scented flower and many varieties of Hibiscus rosa sinensis (gudhal) — prevent the visitors to stray out of the footpath. Then the exotic fragrance of tulsi and feel of succulent plants give the visitors out of world feeling, said Dr Kulshreshtha. Over 100 visually handicaps have so far visited this garden and many more are expected to visit soon. It is a small gesture from the NBRI towards visually
handicapped people. We have tried to fill colour in their lives through this
garden, and may be we are successful in this, she said. |
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Cow urine reduces drugs’ side-effects INDIAN
scientists say cow urine is a “bio-enhancer” that can dramatically reduce dosages and side effects for patients taking antibiotics and cancer drugs, a specialist journal, Chemistry and Industry, reports in its July issue. The scientists have received an American patent, 6410059, for the discovery that a “distillate of cows’ urine” greatly boosts the ability of cell membranes to absorb drugs. That boosts the drugs’ potency, which means their dose can be cut back to achieve the same effect, it says. “This invention has direct implication in drastically reducing the dosage of antibiotics, drugs and anti-cancer agents, while increasing the efficiency of absorption of bio-active molecules, thereby reducing the cost of treatment and also the side effects due to toxicity,” Murli Manohar Joshi, Minister of Science and Technology, told the journal. Chemistry and Industry is a bimonthly published by the 121-year-old Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), based in London. Lab tests showed “the killing activities of anti-cancer and anti-tuberculosis drugs can be improved between two and 20 times, and that of antibacterials between two and 80 times,” the article says. “Experiments with the anti-cancer drug Taxol showed that its killing activities against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 were greatly enhanced.”
AFP |
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CROSSWORD
Clues Across: 1. Computer language for scientific use. 7. To build or raise a structure. 8. Non-crystalline form of quartz used as a gem stone. 9. A silvery white alkali metal used in manufacture of alloys. 11. Short for Deodorant. 12. Temperature below freezing point is also called so. 14. Popular name of semi-automatic rifle. 15. Yellow aluminium compound used as a gem stone. 21. Abbr. for an analyser displaying level of different frequency bands in audio spectrum. 22. Doctor’s code for one pill a day. 24. Type of foundation for buildings having large base. 26. Impure oxide of Aluminium used as an abrasive. 28. Abbr. for Sugar Technologists Association of India. 29. Widely used metallic element. 30. An Indian PSU managing gardens and warehouses of tea. 31. A skin disease mostly affecting the face. Down : 1. Group of Alumina silicates used in ceramic industry. 2. Part of upper room projecting from wall of house and having a window too. 3. A glass vessel with a large bulb and long narrowing neck. 4. ….gram, a graph representing the values of a variable over a range. 5. Produced on reaction of acid with metal. 6. A layer of wood. 10. An enzyme. 13. Symbol for Tin. 16. Pertaining to vision or eye. 17. Symbol for Protactinium. 18. A kind of palm tree. 19. Element found in borax. 20. A small unit of power. 23. An unit of Force in CGS system. 25. Mixed Glyceride. 27. Abbr. for Automobile research centre of TELCO. Solution to last week’s
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