Does National Geographic understand your DNA?

Human nature is inherently obsessed with its own identification. It tries to identify itself its roots, connections, origin and the reasons for creation. These associations are sometimes answered by religious confirmations, beliefs in the supernatural or predestined creation of the universe or sometimes through the evolution of the fittest race which makes us feel so proud on our powerful existence. No doubt science has made so much progress that now it can claim some of the facts in the annals of human survival on this unique planet. Interestingly with developments in science and technology the study of human past can not only be a classical anthropological study but also a huge source of revenues for entrepreneurs. National geographic team in collaboration with IBM has identified such a model where alleged 70,000 years of human history are going to be traced by using some intact DNA sequences.

---full article will be posted later

Hunger of Food versus Fuel

India is growing at 9% (GDP) per annum. The economy is expected to grow for a decade and is going to surpass many nations to become one of the largest economies in the world. This looks like a dream come true for a country where over “90 percent of people” live on less than $1 a day. Towards the dream of riches and development lie some big hurdles. India needs a secure and sustainable supply of energy resources to meet its growing demand. As oil is predicted to peak and run out in the near future, renewable sources of energy are being explored.

Bio-renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are tested alternatives to replace gasoline and diesel in order to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. Biofuels can be theoretically used to replace all gasoline and diesel required for the transportation sector. These fuels are grown on agricultural land just like any other crop and therefore provide a sustainable option. However, a big shift from a fossil fuel based energy economy to an agriculture based energy economy can cause some serious troubles to poor people by affecting the food prices. Spiraling prices could lead to mass starvation, malnutrition and even deaths. Estimations have predicted that running a car on biofuels for a year will require the same amount of agricultural land as is needed to feed a poor person for a year. A decision has to be made. Should India continue its quest for energy independence by depriving its poor citizens from food which they need the most?

Poverty and Fuel

Poverty in India exists in different forms and it can not be simply understood by defining a poverty line. The country has a history of elections being fought on the sole issue of food prices. Many people spend more than 80% of their daily income on purchasing everyday food without saving anything for the future. Every now and then there is news of mass starvation and suicides by farmers in rural India. However news reports generally do not cover hunger and malnutrition faced by individuals at different places. It has been observed that people usually stop purchasing a food item if its price rises marginally due to interrupted supply. In such a deteriorated situation if price escalates on a continuous basis by using food for making fuel (or using agricultural land for producing fuel) then it will bring death and starvation to many poor citizens. Therefore, before making any energy policy for the country which might adopt a food crop or an agricultural land for making fuels, it should be critically analyzed.

In India, currently two types of biorenewable fuels are promoted which could utilize agricultural land for its production: “ethanol produced from sugarcane” and “biodiesel produced from Jatropha”. This article will analyze the effects of both these fuels on food production. Interestingly, any kind of renewable technology if developed properly can actually help in satisfying India’s rising demand for energy. Biofuels can be produced in such a way that it can avoid a direct confrontation with food crops.

Ethanol from Sugarcane

India looks keen in adopting the Brazilian model of ethanol production using sugarcane. Brazil is a leading country in terms of ethanol production by producing about 36% world’s total ethanol followed by US. United States uses corn for producing ethanol. Both these crops are grown on agricultural land and form a larger component of food. It has been observed that due to the use of corn for producing ethanol, corn prices in US have escalated in recent times.

At present production levels, India can barely meet its domestic demand of sugar which is used primarily as food. Brazil has developed its ethanol production using sugarcane by eliminating part of the Amazon forest, and neglecting its effect on environment. India does not possess such a luxury of increasing its agricultural land.

Sugar as a primary component in the food chain should be used as a food source prior to any other usage. There are two possible ways of producing ethanol from sugarcane: the first is by using molasses which comes out after making sugar, the other is sugarcane juice which can be directly used for making ethanol without producing any sugar. It is estimated that at reasonably higher prices of ethanol it will become economically profitable for companies to produce ethanol directly from sugarcane juice. This will certainly compete with the sugar production. In this case it is advisable to the government to intervene and stop any direct production of ethanol from sugarcane juice.

A new technological development which is underway could help in avoiding such a dilemma. Cellulosic ethanol technology is supposed to be an efficient and environmentally cleaner way of producing ethanol. However, conversion of cellulose and lignin to simple sugar molecules forms the biggest hurdle. A breakthrough in this technology development could solve the problem. Cellulosic ethanol looks promising as it can take any form of biomass which is abundant in nature in the form of agro-forest waste.

Biodiesel from Jatropha

India is leading the world in the development of Jatropha as a fuel crop. Jatropha’s seed produces oil which can be easily converted into biodiesel by chemical reactions. At present, India consumes more diesel than gasoline and therefore biodiesel offers some promises for energy independence. Jatropha is not used in food and it can be grown in any kind of waste land. For example, there are proposals to grow the crop around railway tracks. It is estimated that if cultivated and developed properly on 20% of the available wasteland of the country, Jatropha will form the third largest crop in terms of area after wheat and rice. It will produce about 20% of India’s diesel demand in 2011 and could also create about 30 millions jobs in rural sector.

With these figures there does not appear any problem in using Jatropha for producing fuel. However, in a moment it can be realized that it is extremely difficult to grow Jatropha solely on waste land. At higher prices of biodiesel it will be profitable to grow Jatropha also on arable land where it can be maintained easily. Food crops such as wheat and rice can not sustain a direct competition from fuel crop in the market. Prices of these crops will rise threatening a larger number of deaths due to hunger. Only government interventions can help in avoiding such a fierce competition between food and fuel. It needs to be ensured that no fuel crop will be grown on arable land.

Government in a democratic country holds responsibilities towards its citizens. Under immense pressure for development, the government also has to make sure that all sections are benefited from this development especially the lower class. In both these cases we have seen possible ways by which adopting a renewable fuel can have little or no impact on food production. India’s energy policy should take this in account before making any decision. While aspirations for energy independence are good on the surface, they should not be made at the cost of food necessary for the poor.

India's Sace Odyssey

The God said ‘Let there be Light’ and there was ‘Light’. Straight through the optical 5ft giant lenses I could see the light coming from a 1500 light years distant star. This was the breaking research news for the scientific community at Kalam Space Research Center and Observatory (KSRCO), orbiting at an attitude of 300 nautical miles, inclined 35 degrees to the equator (low-Earth orbit). Scientists at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) were all excited.

It has been 80 years when India has first set up a low earth-orbiting observatory, ASTROSAT in 2017. In subsequent missions Kalam Observatory was set up in 2050 taking over a SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project in collaboration with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). With new discoveries it has now taken a distinct edge over its American counterparts in SETI research. The two telescopes mounted at the Kalam Observatory; APJ-1 and APJ-2 are showing interesting results. A distant solar system with a star and a planet as similar to our Sun and Earth has raised hopes of millions of discovering some creatures living like us. Everyday scientists analyzing the data obtained from Indian observatory are coming up with exciting predictions, some have already discovered water in large quantity and some of them were optimist of finding living creatures. This cousin planet is recently given the name ‘Vikram’ to honor the visionary leadership of Dr Vikram Sarabhai in developing Indian Space Research program.

I remember it was Dr G. Madhavan Nair back in early 21^st century who initiated the project of setting up a low earth orbiting observatory. With the successful fulfillment of India’s first mission to moon Chandrayan-1 in 2009, the country became also interested in setting up a far side moon observatory. To observe most of the astronomical events it is desirable to have data from all wavelengths. Unfortunately earth’s atmosphere absorbs most of the falling radiations. So a need for setting up a low earth-orbiting observatory was felt by astronomers in late 20^th century. Hubble telescope was the first flagship mission of NASA set up in 1990 and was subsequently abandoned in 2013 after many intermittent repairs. Till then a satellite platform has always remain a cumbersome experience because of its very short operational lifetime and lack of continuous technical support. India took a lead in this project setting up the first ever moon observatory ‘Madhavan’ in 2030. For radio astronomy far side of the moon has proved to be the cleanest place in the solar system, from where scientists can observe and collect data without any interference from earth which is blocked away by moon.

‘Madhavan’ is the only observatory in space which has lived more number of years than others without any major repairs. It is expected to work for another 100 years. With the subsequent development in technology it is renowned to be of its excellence in space observations. It is a multi wavelength lunar based observatory that can detect all the wavelengths. For example it can study frequency range lower than 30 MHz which is in the radio range and is impossible to detect from earth surface or near earth orbiting observatory.

This lunar observatory has a much longer life time due to the absence of any oxidant medium like in higher earth atmosphere viz. oxygen. Moon also offers a very low seismic activity. Its seismic quietness can only be disturbed by big hits with meteorites. This helps in taking observations for longer periods without any perturbations.

Madhavan has a unique support system for its maintenance and communication. It has two modules one at the far side of the moon close to the South Pole-Aitken basin and one at the near side of the moon. The lunar far side unit offers complete radio silence for Madhavan and the near side unit helps in establishing good communication of both the units with ISRO at earth. Due to the availability of the unlimited land for laying out systems and instruments at moon’s surface, both these units are equipped with replacement parts and adequate power supply. The maintenance units can assemble smaller structures to larger and bigger ones in the low lunar gravity atmosphere which is relative hard and expensive to do at earth or in low earth orbit. The lunar gravity also helps in proper disposal of the contaminants and debris which keeps moving around in case of low earth orbiting observatory. ISRO in collaboration with NASA has also stationed a staff of 20 scientists and engineers at “Sarv Gyan Moon Research Lab (SGMRL)” on moon’s surface for the support and maintenance of all lunar observatories. So in case of emergency there is no need to send a separate mission in space for troubleshooting. Even the near side unit also offers a very good site of radio astronomy as most of the earth’s emissions get diluted by a factor of 1/r² at such a distance, which are very effective in near earth atmosphere.

Light scattering in earth’s atmosphere produce a diffuse background which makes most of the pictures and data not clearly readable. Absence of atmosphere at Moon’s surface avoids any such effects. One of the largest radio telescopes of the size 400 meters has been recently built to collect more accurate data. However since the set up of Madhavan, lunar observatories have been facing a major problem. The dust rose by different activities such as transportation on and off from the moon’s surface has been a major obstruction in observation due to very high residence time of dust particles in lunar atmosphere. A special system to avoid this problem has been designed. It consists of charged plate which attracts all the ionized dust particles. Moon also has a large variation in temperature during cyclic day and night. For this purpose all the observatory equipments are specially designed by ISRO to resist the effects of thermal expansions and contractions. Most fragile equipments are kept thermally insulated. Very fragile equipments like giant telescope lenses are manufactured at the site by using the support from SGMRL to avoid any risk of shipping from earth.

Both of these India’s flagship observatories ‘Kalam’ and ‘Madhavan’ work in coordination with ISRO. Many unique and interesting astronomical observations like super nova explosions and gamma ray burst have been studied using these two observatories. Kalam once helped in saving the earth from a probable hit of an asteroid falling into the earth orbit from the group of Amors. It detected the asteroid before the ten days of probable collision and the asteroid was then destroyed by firing a nuclear armed missile back in 2080.

At a circular orbit of around 500 km, oxygen atoms are broken by ultra violet rays into very reactive free radicals that degrade fast the exposed surfaces of satellites. Due to this effect India has to destroy its first successful space observatory ASTROSAT after 20 years of its launch. Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) then decided to develop smart materials which do not react in oxidant atmosphere. These materials were successfully applied in Kalam Observatory at all the exposed surfaces and even after 57 years it is doing its job properly. At Kalam Observatory measurements of very high accuracy can be achieved. Resolutions in the optical range of wavelengths are far better than the giant telescope observatories set up at the high mountain peaks of Himalayas. Sometimes theoretical diffraction limitations of resolutions can also be achieved.

Low earth orbiting observatories are not effective in keeping track of longer durations of the source object because of its faster orbiting speed. Therefore when the Kalam observatory first detected the light from the Vikram’s solar system, some of the tracking schedules were then transferred to Madhavan observatory which can keep an eye for relatively longer durations. The slow Moon’s rotation speed permits up to a maximum of 14 days continuous exposure. In the earlier space observatories like Hubble and Compton it was observed that pointing accuracy of the satellite relies heavily on a gyroscope and once they fail the satellite become unusable for astronomy. This problem was then controlled by mounting a ‘pseudo gyro’ a software-only gyroscope on the satellites to take over from the failed gyros which has prevented some major backlash in Kalam Observatory. ISRO has also developed efficient solar systems that continuously supply energy to a space satellite.

The classic terrestrial astronomical observations from the earth’s surface have become a history today. No one does research using a monster telescope mounted on the top of a mountain. The satellites provide an excellent platform for astronomical observations in the absence of the disturbance from atmosphere. It has also helped astronomers in coming over the age old limitations of resolution and absorption of certain wavelengths. Lunar observatories are the next step in this aspiration of seeing beyond the limits. While both these types of observatories are self sufficient in providing a clearer picture of universe it appears that lunar observatories have a certain advantage in terms of the higher exposure periods. However before making any decision we should not ignore the role of Kalam Observatory in detecting the distant solar system that has given new directions in SETI research. We should also realize the importance of India’s first multi wavelength astronomy satellite ASTROSAT that has opened the doors of more advanced lunar as well as space observatories for the universe.

Lets Pray for Peace

Today three Indian Muslim doctors have been detained as suspects for the terror plot in UK. This is really shocking as it is hard to believe that one of the most respected profession in the world will, as easily fall into the hands of corrupts who are not only trying to disgrace themselves but also their society. Intellectuals of a society are supposed to be responsible for their deeds. When the world Muslim community is facing the biggest siege in its history of existence, intellectuals are expected to take away the words of peace and harmony by their actions and should restrain from violence.

This incidents has clearly shown that the community at its most troublesome period is lacking true guidance and leadership and therefore mistaken from the righteous path. The complexity of this problem, which can make an academically oriented apparently simple and spiritual person, frenzied for suicide and mass murder has to be understood in historical as well as societal context.

Muslims in the world were not expected to be like that as they are portrayed today. No Islamic country has taken active part in any of the world war. None of them were involved in supposedly the most heinous crime of human history, the mass massacre of Jews. Ironically Jews were given shelter and comfort in Islamic countries at their odd times when they were not able to find solace in most of the civilized and developed part of the world. Unfortunately now for about 60 years Palestinians are suffering the atrocities of the crime, which they didn’t do. Their plight and misery have always taken a soft corner in the hearts of Muslims all over the world. The unjust and biased foreign policy of the allegedly Imperialist State and its blindfold following by allied states has intensified this problem. This had serious repercussions in the past and sometimes this perpetual injustice has been misinterpreted by the Muslim society. For example one of the cruelest leaders of the Muslim world, Saddam Hussein who has killed more Muslims than any other has been taken as a Hero with utmost respect. Terrorism is another form of misinterpretation and shows a lack of guidance and central command of rightful resistance.

So how should a society deprived from technical and scientific developments react towards injustice in this modern world, under consistent scanning of its actions? The answer will come through the same spiritual texts, which are mistaken for the violent interpretation of Jihad. Imam Hussein at the famous battle of Karbala, more than 1400 years back, had shown the world, the path of glory without shedding any blood. He fought with unjust strongest army of that time with only 72 companions, children and women without bowing his head. The message was clear; non-violence and truth always lead to the path of victory. Mahatma Gandhi had also acknowledged this unique style of martyrdom during struggle for Indian Independence. The Muslim world at this time of crisis desperately needs a leader who can bestow vision to the society with the path of truth and non-violence. Certainly one single event of 9/11 cannot change and define the future destiny of more than one billion population of the world. Things cannot be totally reversed and state of the art problem of Middle East has to be solved in a justified manner that can help both the countries to grow and prosper.

Scientific, cultural and spiritual education is another way of developing a society, which is lacking directions. Cultural and spiritual are more important in a sense that these ingredients will affect in the optimum moral and ethical development of an individual who will make decisions based upon his conscience and will not get easily provoked.

Back to the heart breaking news, I still have a deep regard and respect of the Indian Muslim community. Given a choice between a Muslim and a secular state, they stood with the secular state and even after 60 years I feel proud of their decision. Their contribution in the building of the state cannot be ignored. I hope that misdeeds of certain individuals will not be mistaken as an action of the entire society. Somewhere the following lines of my poem echo in my heart

Har gali khush rang kahkashan si ho
Aoo buland hath karein phir dua main

“Lets pray the roads be peaceful and prosperous” (Probably a utopian dream but let it be ……. )

Because here I am not afraid

Since many years I have been contemplating on the morals and values involved in traditional versus modern educational system. While most of the ancient forms of knowledge seeking approaches realize the importance of “Karma (duty)”, we are tempted more towards result oriented educational system. The supreme lord said in Bhagwat Gita “O Arjuna, do your duty efficiently as a service or Seva to Me, free from attachment to the fruits of work”. Are these fruits taking precedence over karma? Look at the modern educational structure of corporate services: management, technology, finance, marketing, health, law, media and many more. Students are taught in schools to act smart (but not hard) so as to follow the shortest path to success. The definitions involving critical intricacies of hard work, patience and respect are getting distorted.

The society is approaching with zeal for an educational platform where minds can think free and remain out of fear. The foundations are lead but are maligned by the prevailing atmosphere of distrust and dishonesty. The corruption may not be evaluated with financial or economic metrics but has to be understood with a clear mind to uphold the dignity and moral values of an educational system. How many students today can remember the name and teachings of their Guru? How many of them actually show any respect to the acquired knowledge? Students show disinterest in learning subjects which are assigned as their courses and are more inclined towards options and opportunities in gaining temporary financial assets.

Probably this might be a utopian dream but a place where the mind is not afraid of seeking true knowledge in whatever form it comes in its way should exist somewhere in this world to uphold truth eternally. This place could stay in the stable mind of a Karma Yogi (who believes in doing his duty) or in the form of an educational system where students will show boundless enthusiasm towards knowledge as if it is not a curse but a divine blessing to human beings from their Lord.