Electric power transmitted wirelessly in Japan

In a breakthrough, Japanese researchers have successfully transmitted electric power wirelessly to a pinpoint target using microwaves, an advance that brings space-based solar power closer to reality.

According to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or Jaxa, the researchers were able to transform 1.8 kilowatts of electric power into microwaves and transmit it with accuracy into a receiver located 55 metres away.

In an experiment conducted last week in Hyogo prefecture in western Japan, the microwaves were successfully converted into direct electrical current, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The experiment was the first in the world to send out high-output microwaves wirelessly to a small target, a Jaxa spokesman said.

In space-based solar power generation, sunlight is gathered in geostationary orbit and transmitted to a receiver on Earth.

Unlike solar panels set on Earth, satellite-based solar panels can capture the energy around the clock and are not affected by weather conditions.

If implemented, microwave-transmitting solar satellites would be set up approximately 35,000 kilometres from Earth.

Researchers “are aiming for practical use in the 2030s,” Yasuyuki Fukumuro, a researcher at Jaxa, said.

According to Jaxa, a receiver set up on Earth with an approximately 3-kilometre radius could create up to one gigawatt of electricity, about the same as one nuclear reactor.

Malaria: people with blood group A more vulnerable to severe disease

A protein produced by some strains of the malaria parasite can cause red blood cells, especially in blood group A individuals, to form clumps, thereby increasing the severity of disease, according to research just published.

When certain strains of Plasmodium falciparum, the single-celled parasite that is responsible for the most dangerous forms of malaria, get into red blood cells, those cells start sticking to other red blood cells as well as to walls of blood vessels. The resulting obstruction to blood flow can damage tissues and lead to severe malaria that is life-threatening.

Previous research had implicated the ‘P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1’ (PfEMP1) in red blood cells forming clumps. (Such clumps are called ‘rosettes’). Once the parasite infects red blood cells, this protein that it produces appears on the outer surface of those cells. The protein then latches on to receptor molecules found on other red blood cells, creating rosettes.

However, when PfEMP1 was removed from red blood cell surfaces using enzymes, rosette-formation was reduced only in those of blood group O but not blood group A. This indicated that PfEMP1 may not be the only molecule involved in rosette formation, noted a Scandinavian team of scientists in a Nature Medicine paper.

With a series of experiments, the team showed that another protein could have a hand too, principally affecting individuals of blood group A.

The RIFINs too are secreted by the parasite and then get to the surface of red blood cells. There are 150rif genes that carry the genetic information for RIFINs. One P. falciparum parasite examined by the team carried 85 such genes, but with just one of those genes being responsible for much of the RIFINs it produced.

The RIFINs were thought to act as decoys, making it difficult for the human immune system to detect and destroy parasite-infected red blood cells, commented G. Padmanabhan of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, who has studied the malaria parasite over many decades but was not involved in the research that led to the Nature Medicine paper.

“For the first time another role has been found for the rif gene family,” he told this correspondent.

Suchi Goel of Karolinska Institutet at Stockholm in Sweden and colleagues introduced a rif gene into Chinese hamster ovary cells. Those cells, with the RIFIN protein on their surface, “bound large numbers of group A RBCs [red blood cells],” the scientists noted in their paper. The rosette formation with group O RBCs was “less pronounced.” Moreover, when molecular tags that marked RBCs as belonging to group A were removed, their binding to cells bearing RIFIN were similar to those of group O.

Only RIFINs of sub-group A, which accounts for about 70 per cent of these proteins, led to rosettes being formed.

The protection offered by blood group O could “explain why the blood type is so common in the areas where malaria is common,” said Mats Wahlgren, the study's principal investigator, in a press release.

Impact of rising temperature on pests

The effects are several and complex

Climate change resulting in increased temperature could impact crop pest insect population in several complex ways. Increased temperature can potentially affect insect survival, development, geographic range and population size.

Temperature can impact insect physiology and development directly or indirectly through the physiology or existence of hosts. Depending on the development strategy of an insect species, temperature can exert different effects.

Reproductive biology of an insect may be affected both positively and negatively. Climate, temperature and precipitation in particular, have a very strong influence on the development, reproduction and survival of insect pests and as a result it is highly likely that these organisms will be affected by any change in climate.

Warmer temperatures in temperate climates will result in more types and higher populations of insects. Some insects like arctic moths take several years to complete one lifecycle.

Some crop pests are ‘stop’ and ‘go’ developers in relation to temperature —they develop more rapidly during periods of time with suitable temperatures. Increased temperatures will accelerate the development of these types of insects, possibly resulting in more generations per year.

Insects that spend important part of their life histories in the soil may be more gradually affected by temperature changes than those that are above ground simply because the soil provides an insulating medium that will tend to buffer temperature changes more than the air.

Rise in temperature in winter may help to continue the lifecycle of some pests. Lower winter mortality of insects due to warmer winter temperature could be important in increasing insect populations.

Insect species diversity for a particular area tends to decrease with higher latitude and altitude indicating that rising temperature could result in more insect species attacking more hosts in temperate climates.

How chameleons change their colour

With a little help from Raman spectroscopy, Swiss scientists have found the answer to an endlessly intriguing evolutionary poser: How do chameleons change their colour?

It turns out that chameleons have a mobile “lattice” of nanocrystals on the surface of their skin, which come together and disperse thereby shifting the wavelength of light reflected by the reptile.

Scientists studied the panther chameleon Furcifer pardalis from Madagascar, known for its particularly dynamic colour changing abilities — going from green to red within minutes — especially during social interactions such as courtship or male-male combat. These nanocrystals — of different shapes, sizes and organizations — are distributed in two layers of skin cells called iridophores (iridescent light-reflecting cells). While the upper layer of iridophores is responsible for rapid colour change achieved by a shift in spacing of nanocrystals in a triangular lattice, the deeper layer of cells broadly reflects light, especially in the near-infrared range, the scientists report in Nature Communications.

“When encountering a male competitor or a potentially receptive female, a mature male panther chameleon can shift the background colour of its skin from green to yellow or orange, whereas blue patches turn whitish and red becomes brighter with less conspicuous hue modifications,” says the paper. This process can occur within a couple of minutes. The distance between crystals is on average 30 per cent less in the resting state (blue or green skin) than it is in the excited state (yellow or white). With an increase in distance between nanocrystals in excited male panther chameleons, iridophores shift their selective reflectivity from short (blue) to long (red or infrared) wavelengths, causing the corresponding shift from green to yellow/orange skin, says the paper.

Chameleons originated in post-Gondwanan Africa around 90 million years ago. The way these iridophores are organised allows some species “to combine efficient camouflage with spectacular display,” while also potentially providing passive thermal protection, the researchers add.

When lack of sleep turns a nightmare

Obesity, diabetes, heart ailments linked to sleep disorders

Today is World Sleep Day. Experts acknowledge that sleep-related disorders are fast becoming public health issues. Doctors handling patients with sleep disorders say there needs to be more awareness about the link between sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes and heart ailments.

Senior doctors say sleep deprivation has the potential to negatively impact brain function, the immune system, metabolism and hormonal balance. “Sacrificing sleep for three days at one go could increase the levels of fatty acids in blood levels that lower the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugar, ultimately setting patients up for diabetes,” says a statement issued by doctors on Thursday.

“Diabetes predisposes persons to sleep disorders and makes them vulnerable to hypertension and heart diseases. When an obese individual struggles with diabetes, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), a sleep disorder, in which patients have pauses in their breath during sleep, can be the culprit. About 30-40 per cent of diabetics can suffer from OSA,” endocrinologist K.D Modi says. Obesity is also a major cause for sleep-related disorders.

“In India, obesity will make Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome (OSAS) a public health issue. Obese individuals, irrespective of their age and sex have nearly four times higher risk of having OSA. It has been found that hypothyroidism, a secondary cause of obesity, also predisposes an individual to OSA,” says professor and head of Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders at AIIMS, Randeep Guleria.

Doctors add that a large number of OSA cases in the country go untreated, which highlights the need to spread awareness about such ailments among the general public

Glaucoma matters

Facts about Glaucoma:

What is glaucoma: Glaucoma occurs when fluid doesn’t drain from the eyes properly and builds up the pressure within the eye, above 10-20mm/Hg. It causes damage to the optic nerve. The older you get, glaucoma becomes more common and if not treated in time it can lead to loss of vision

Screening: Basic screening involves measuring the pressure in both the eyes. If glaucoma is suspected, for further screening, eye drops are used to enlarge the pupils for a better inside view of the eye and the optic nerve to check for damage. Visual field tests are conducted for assessing side and peripheral vision lost.

Treatment: Glaucoma surgery focuses on making a new outlet for drainage or doing away with the tissue that causes obstruction to the outflow. It can be managed with drugs depending on the severity.

Prevention: People think glaucoma causes blindness but it actually starts with loss of peripheral vision, which is not easy to diagnose early. But early diagnosis is the key to prevention. Like people go for blood pressure and sugar levels check up, everybody above the age of 40 should be encouraged to go for regular eye check up. And if there is a family history of glaucoma, then it is mandatory for those above 35 years.

Glaucoma treatment means living with the disease and managing it with long term commitment on part of both the doctor and the patient. It involves periodic monitoring and necessary follow up care.

Endophytic algae found in Indian Ocean

A species of algae previously reported to inhabit the seas around the British Isles and the East China Sea has now been found thriving in the Indian Ocean. The algae belong to a type known as endophytic — meaning they are microscopic in size and found living inside macroscopic seaweeds. Belonging to the species, Ulvella leptochaete, they are believed to confer ecological advantage to the host such as disease resistance. The discovery in the Indian Ocean gains significance because these algae may very well be an important source of anticancer compounds such as Taxol and this discovery may contribute in anticancer drug development.

Taxol, or Paclitaxel, is a well known anti cancer drug currently in use for many cancers including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. Most of the marine endophytes produce taxol, although no confirmation exists for the Ulvella leptochaete.

A team led by Dr. Felix Bast, Assistant Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda has recently published the results in the Journal of Biosciences. The research involved analysis of green seaweeds,Cladophora glomerata collected from Calicut, Kerala and red seaweeds, Laurentia obtusa collected from Mandapam, Tamil Nadu.

The researchers were able to discover the microscopic endophytic alga within its host seaweeds using advanced microscopes. Subsequently, researchers extracted and sequenced a small genomic region called Internal Transcribed Spacer, which is a routinely used DNA barcode for aquatic plants, and compared the sequence information with the global DNA sequence database NCBI-GenBank to confirm the identity of the endophytic algae. Further, they reconstructed molecular evolutionary legacy of this alga using computational phylogenetics, to reconfirm the identity.

“DNA sequencing is a technique for reading the code of DNA. As you know, DNA consists of four letter alphabets, A, T , G & C. These are nucleotide bases. These are linearly arranged to form genes that in turn code for proteins, and our entire life. If we know the code of a particular gene precisely by means of sequencing, the code can be used as a barcode to confirm the species identity. For example, gene coding for cox — an enzyme — is a standard barcode for animals. From unknown blood sample, we only have to sequence this gene and compare with DNA database to determine to which animal the blood belongs,” noted Dr. Bast in an email to this Correspondent.

“Phylogenetics involves the construction of a tree for the depiction of evolution. We used DNA sequence of endophytic algae and compared it with clo

Sindhudurg comes alive with a ‘pristine’ coral collection

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has found three new records of coral reef on the Sindhudurg coast near Malvan of Maharashtra during a recent survey.

Efforts are on to protect the reef with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which has sanctioned Rs. 80 lakh towards capacity building of the local people. A team from the Marine Biology Regional Centre of the ZSI in Chennai and another team from Kolkata conducted a study last week on the status of the coral reef and monitored its health.

In addition to the commonly found species of Turbinaria mesenterina, Goniatsrea pectinata, Porites lichen, Porites lutea, Siderastrea savignvana, Coscinarea monile, Cyphastera serialia, Pleasiastrea versipora, Leptastrea sp, Cyphastrea sp and Goniopora sp, three new records of Goniatsrea sp,Porites sp and Turbinaria sp have been found in the survey covering 180 km of the Sindhudurg coast.

“Fishing is going on there and tourists are also coming to the area for corals. We have to find a way to balance fishing and tourism with the protection of corals in Malvan,” a ZSI official told The Hindu. Unlike the reefs found in other parts of the country — Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — those in Malvan are “pristine and still unbleached,” he said.

The ZSI had earlier transplanted coral reef from the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu to the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat over one square km with assistance from the World Bank.

Goa beaches to be studied for carrying capacity

Goa will rope in the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) to study the carrying capacity of its popular beaches in a bid to control pollution and proliferation of beach shacks.

“There may be too many shacks on the beaches. The carrying capacity of the beaches itself should be studied. The board had decided to ask NIO to study the carrying capacity of the beaches to understand how many shacks could be ideally put on a particular stretch of beach,” Goa State Pollution Control Board chairman Jose Noronha told reporters on Thursday.

Goa-based NIO is a central government agency that functions under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Several hundreds of beach shacks cater to the over three million tourists who arrive in Goa annually. The shacks are licenced every tourist season and have to be dismantled at the beginning of the monsoon.

Noronha said the study would look at issues related to sewage management and solid waste management in beach shacks. “We have received a lot of complaints regarding toilet facilities in shacks. We are looking if we can have a common toilet facility on a paid basis, which can be shared by 10-15 shacks.”

Noronha said a study involving the carrying capacity of Goa’s rivers would also soon be undertaken in view of the increasing marine traffic as well as river-oriented tourism and infrastructure projects.

“We have asked the environment department of Goa to study the carrying capacity of our rivers,” he said.

He said the decision was taken in view of the large number of projects proposed in Goa like house boats, jetties, marinas, pontoons, berthing points for trawlers and boats.

The baseline study, Noronha said, would help determine “how much (infrastructure) we can allow on which stretch” and would help measure water quality and examine the water bodies for contaminants.

Climaction: The differentiated impacts of climate change

Different countries are differently impacted, muddling motives to change

Last time we considered climate change impacts from an Indian perspective and why it would make sense for us to act. But climate change is a global phenomenon caused by all of us in differing extents and affecting all of us in different ways.

This is an important point. Understanding the differentiated impacts of climate change will help us understand why so little has been done so far. Impact here is defined by the IPCC, a group of 800+ of the world's leading climate scientists, as the intersection of risk, vulnerability and adaptation. An example may help: a very hot day, well above 100°F, is manageable if one can stay indoors in cold air conditioning. However, if one has an arduous manual job performed outdoors, a series of such days could prove fatal. The former is low impact while the latter is high impact.

The prisoner's dilemma provides a great framework to understand (in)action on climate change. This is a game in game theory that shows why two rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it maybe in their best interests to do so. The rules are as follows: Two prisoners are in two cells unable to talk together. They know this: if both keep silent, they both get off. If prisoner A squeals, but prisoner B is silent, prisoner A gets off and gets perks, while prisoner B goes to jail for 5 years and vice versa. If both squeal, they both go to jail for 2 years. Long story short, they both squeal, most of the time.

Climate change is a prisoner’s dilemma with horns and on steroids. If we, the world, cooperate, or arrest climate change, we all get a wonderful place to live. If we don’t, for some of us, our way of life ends. But wait, there’s more. If we don’t cooperate, we all don’t go to the same kind of prison - some of us stay out, some go to hell, some to a low security prison. Whether or not we will cooperate will depend (a) on how much it costs us, and (b) how much we gain by cooperating. The first step to solving this dilemma is to understand the payoffs (impacts) of key players in cooperating.

In Climate Change, the key players together constitute more than 50% of the world GDP, population and CO2 emissions. They are the US, China, the European Union and India.

Let’s start with the US. The US is geographically and politically very diverse. California and the US Southwest are and will be hit hardest by the changing climate. Much like India, they will become drier, so households and agriculture will be sorely beset. The rich and famous in Hollywood already spend crores of rupees a year in buying water. Forest fires, encouraged by increasing drought and heat, burned 9.2 million acres of forest in 2012 (roughly the size of Kerala) with rising risks to health and property. So it’s not surprising that Arnold Schwarzenegger, erstwhile Terminator and current governor of California, is a committed climate change fighter.

Moving to the East Coast: Hurricane Sandy that hit the US in 2012 left behind $60 billion in property damage and 150 deaths in its wake. The Northeast will be pounded by heavy rainfall and powerful storms as the climate warms leaving expensive infrastructure and the urban poor vulnerable to flooding and its aftermath.

The rest of the US will be affected by climate change but manageably so and many parts like the Midwest might even benefit with longer crop growing cycles and nicer weather. The Great plains of America is home to oil companies and oil-derived wealth and the fracking (getting oil & gas from shale rock) revolution - they will not want to give that up easily to lessen climate change especially as they are not impacted too much.

While President Obama and politicians from the badly impacted regions may push for climate action, the political process in the US prevents them from delivering substantive action.

On to China.

China is a powerful country with 1.3 billion mouths to feed and a third of its workforce in agriculture. Dust storms now bombard the capital, frequent droughts have begun to plague agriculture, floods and storms threaten the prosperous south-eastern cities and the air is thick with haze. Heat waves threaten the urban Chinese and incidence of dengue is set to increase. Many of China’s glaciers are predicted to disappear by 2050 further impacting agriculture, especially in the dryer north. China has woken up to the dangers of climate change and in typical Chinese fashion, has started to act. From next to nothing, China has the largest installed wind power capacity today and is targeting 70 GW of solar installations by 2017. It is the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer. China has been building another great wall - one made of trees to prevent sandstorms over Beijing.

Next time, we will look at the European Union and revisit India and see where that leaves us in solving the prisoner’s dilemma, and the climate problem.

World’s first solar-powered aircraft to land in Gujarat on Tuesday

The Swiss solar-powered aircraft’s flight got delayed by a day due to bad weather conditions in the UAE.

Solar Impulse, claimed to be the world’s only solar-powered aircraft, will make a stop over in Ahmedabad on Tuesday as a part of its maiden global journey.

“Solar Impulse will take off from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and land in Ahmedabad after making a first stop over at Muscat in Oman. It will make a pit-stop in Ahmedabad,” a release issued by the aircraft project’s PR firm said.

After making a landing here, the solar-powered aircraft’s founders and pilots Bertrand Piccard and Androrschberg are likely to stay in the city for two days before leaving for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the release said.

The Swiss solar-powered aircraft’s flight got delayed by a day due to bad weather conditions in the UAE. The aircraft was scheduled to land in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Piccard and Borschberg, during their stay in the city, will reach out to the government, NGOs, universities and schools to spread the message of clean technologies.

The aircraft is also likely to hover above river Ganga in Varanasi to spread the message of cleanliness and clean energy, an official associated with the project said.

Solar Impulse is claimed to be the first aircraft to fly day and night without a drop of fuel, propelled solely by the sun’s energy, as per the project’s website.

The single-seater aircraft made of carbon fibre has a 72 metre wingspan, larger than that of Boeing-747 and weighs just 2,300 kg, equivalent to the weight of a car.

The 17,248 solar cells built into the wing supply electric motors with renewable energy. The solar cells recharge four lithium polymer batteries totalling 633 kg each, which allow the aircraft to fly at night and therefore have virtually unlimited autonomy, it said.

This round-the-world flight will take-off from Abu Dhabi and make a halt at Muscat (Oman), Ahmedabad and Varanasi in India, Mandalay in Myanmar and Chongqing and Nanjing in China.

After crossing the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, the aircraft will fly across the US stopping at Phoenix, the Midwest and New York City, said the website.

The test flight of the aircraft was conducted in the US in 2013.

There just isn’t enough space at Jannaram

The deer rehabilitation centre (DRC) at Jannaram, the headquarters of Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), sorely requires more area to accommodate the growing number of ungulates.

The rehabilitation centre is bursting at the seams, what with the 10-hectare area becoming too cramped for the 64 animals.

However, pressure on the facility will ease in the coming days when over a third of its animal population will be relocated to the Vana Vignana Kendram, Warangal. “We will give away about 25 animals, mostly spotted deers and nilgais, to Warangal,” reveals Jannaram Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer K. Damodar Reddy.

The DRC currently accommodates 50 spotted deer, 7 nilgais, 6 sambars and one black buck. Some nilgais that have become ferocious and present the risk of attacking other animals at the park have their movement restricted to separate enclosures.

Forest officials and wildlife experts disagree on what space can be termed sufficient.

Though there is no comparison between the ideal population density in the wild and the one in facilities like the DRC, the 10 hectares are not sufficient for animal movement. The fact that the animals in the park are provided green fodder by the Forest Department helps do away with the need for the animals to move about.

“At KTR, the population density of wild animals is 31.5 per sq. km., but as many as 50 can be accommodated in the area,” the DFO opines as he draws a comparison. “Wild animals need much more space as they have to scout the area in search for fodder, unlike animals at the DRC,” he adds. “There is also no territory encroachment among the herbivores as in the case of the carnivores,” Mr. Reddy pointed out another aspect to drive home the point that population pressure at DRC was not alarming.

However wildlife experts differ, saying more space would help the animals integrate seamlessly to wild environments whenever the need arose.

“Expansion of the area is needed for infusing wild characteristics in the animals which will help in their release to the forests whenever there is overcrowding,” said a wildlife expert.

Wild animals need much more space as they have to scout the area in search for fodder, unlike animals at the DRC

K. Damodar Reddy

Divisional Forest Officer

Expansion of the area is needed for infusing wild characteristics in the animals which will help in their release to the forests whenever there is overcrowding

a wildlife expert

The deer rehabilitation centre (DRC) at Jannaram, the headquarters of Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), sorely requires more area to accommodate the growing number of ungulates. The rehabilitation centre is bursting at the seams, what with the 10-hectare area becoming too cramped for the 64 animals.

Forest officials and wildlife experts disagree on what space can be termed sufficient.

However wildlife experts differ, saying more space would help the animals integrate seamlessly to wild environments whenever the need arose.

“Expansion of the area is needed for infusing wild characteristics in the animals which will help in their release to the forests whenever there is overcrowding,” said a wildlife expert.

Wild animals need much more space as they have to scout the area in search for fodder, unlike animals at the DRC - K. Damodar Reddy, Divisional Forest Officer

Expansion of the area is needed for infusing wild characteristics in the animals which will help in their release to the forests whenever there is overcrowding a wildlife expert

Human diseases put endangered chimps at risk

West Bengal is now home to the second highest population of the one-horned rhinoceros in the country after Assam, with the number growing to 250 in the State.

A State Forest Department survey in January has revealed that the Jaldapara National Park in the State has nearly 200 of these endangered animals and the Gorumara National Park, 50. Jaldapara now has the second highest population of them after the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, which has over 2,000.

Jaldapara recorded 186 in the previous survey in 2013 and Gorumara 46 in 2014, V.K. Sood, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), North Bengal, told The Hindu on Thursday.

Describing the rise in the rhinoceros population as a major success, Forest Minister Benoy Krishna Barman said the State had just 20 of these animals in 1990. “From 20 in 1990 to 250 now is a major feat. This is the result of conservation efforts and [work of] our local communities,” Mr. Barman said.

Admitting to incidents of poaching, the Minister said the State had set up a new body involving personnel of forces such as the Border Security Force and the Shashatra Seema Bal. The rhino habitat is on the borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

Reports showed at least five incidents of poaching in north Bengal in the past year. The State Wildlife Board has suggested that forest guards be issued shoot-at-sight orders, but the government has so far not agreed to it.

Experts point out that the rhino population has a skewed male-female ratio — 2:1.4 in Gorumara.

Rhino numbers rise in West Bengal