.! ournal or Sc ient iric & Industr ial Rcsc,lrch Vo l. 5() . Fchruary 20()O. pp 161-1 X()

SCI-TECH UPDATE

Nohel Prizes 1999

Medicine or Physiology The 1999 Nobd Pri ze in Ph ys iol­

ogy or M ed icine. i :-- awarded to the

German -born cell biologist Gunter Blobel for hi~ insights into how the cc ll u. es a Z IP code ~y~ tem of sorts

to deli ver thousands of proteins to

v<lrious addres se~ within the ce ll.

.lust <I S people try to organi ze

their belongings by dev ising filin g:

Guntcr B lohcl

sy~tem ~ . cd ls havc to sort new ly synthes ized proteins

;lIld sendt hem where ver t hey arc needed- into di rrerent

i ntern<ll compartments call ed organell es or even out of

the ce ll alt ogether. In the I 960s. George Pa lade of The

Rodefe l le r U ni ver~it y in New Y ork C ity had found that

proteins designated to be exc reted pass through a sort of

relay stati on ca l lcd the endoplasm ic reti culum (ER) . a

vast folded membrane system that looks like a deflated

beach ball - a discove ry that helped earn him a obe l

Prize in 1974. But no one had a clue about the inner

workings of this protein-sorting machinery. Blobel. who j o ined Palade in the late I 960s and has

stayed at Rockefdler ever since. was capt ivated by thi s

protein sec retion pu zz le. In 197 1, together with David

Sabatini . he formulated a simple model of how ce ll~

regulate thei r protein tratTic-the first few amino acids

in a nascent protein chain serve as an address tag that

tell s w hether or not the protein is destined for secreti on

;lIld hence fo r im port in to the ER. Bloba l opined that at

fi rst it was i ust a wonderful idea, it was quite a bo ldth ing

tn say because nothing hinted at a signal sequence but it

w,,~ by far the best thing they could came up w ith . In the foll ow ing years Blobel deve loped a ce ll -free

system that mi mickcd the ce ll s' protei n sorting pathway,

so that he could identi fy the molecular players. Finall y ,

in 1975. he succeeded in dec iphering the first signal

sequence. A t the sa me time he expanded the ori ginal

hypothes is by propos ing that the ER membrane contains

a prote in channel through w hich the prote ins to be

secreted sneak int o the ER.

I31 0be l and his colleagues then went onto pin dovvn

the va ri ous parts of the ER ex port system. In the earl y I 98()s the work cu lminated in their discovery both of the so-ca lled signal recognition protein (SRP). which read ...

the ER Z IP code by binding to it in the cy topl asm. anc! of the receptor on ER membranes to w h ich the complex

of SRP and nascent protein chain then docks. At the same time B lobel and others showed that simil ar Z IP

codes also serve to gu ide proteins to other ce ll o rga nc llc~

such as mitochondria , the cellul ar power plant s. and

chl oroplasts, the site o f photosynt hes is in plant ce l ls . B lobel ex plains th at it is always va riati ons on the same

theme-various signal s, SRPs, and docking receptors for different organelles. Fi nall y , in the seri es of ex peri ­ments. done in the earl y 1999s, hi s team demonstrated the ex istence of the long-e lusi ve ER channel.

Together these studi es laid the foundation .~ for mod­ern ce ll bio logy. B lobel was the first one to make mo­

lecular ce llul ar biology and ca mc up with mec hanism: before that it was merely descript ive. B lohel' s ide; ls

have also shed li ght on diseases such as familial hyper­

cholesterolemia and lysosomal storage disorders, w hich resu lt from errors in the signal s or the transport machin­ery. Protein signals have became a crucial tool for re­

searchers who geneticall y modify bacteria plants , and

animals to produce drugs. By adding a specific tag to the desi red proteins, genetic engineers can, e.g. tag them for excreti on, mak ing them much eas ier to harvest.

A lthough B lobe l ' s work is standard tex tbook knowl­

edge these days, protei 11 Z I P codes ha ve seen st ill bad

times . Blobel says that people did not li ke the idea of a signal (sequence) even as late as in the 1980s. Espec iall y

the proposed channel was a li ghtning rod for the oppo­

siti on; some of them got ve ry angry but onl y when his team could show that the channel reall y ex isted did the t ide- turn for good. IScience, 286 ( 1999) p.6661

Physics

o HSDK

Two Dutch physicists, Prof Gerardu s' t Hoo ft (52).

U ni versity of Utrecht, Ut recht and Pror. Ma rl i nu ~ .I (j

Veltman (68) also from the same uni versit y . ha ve been

162 .I SCIIND RES VO L)<) FEBR ARY 2000 SCI-TECI I PDATE

Prill'. M; l rtillll~ .1 G VCIIIll;111

"warded the 1999 obel Pri ze in Phys ics roreluciciating

the quantum mechanical structure or the unified elec­

troweak interacti on in parti c le physics during earl y 7(' ' .

T he Nobel citati on spec ifi call y refers to their pionee rt ng

contrihuti on in the vexed issue orthe ' renormali zabilit {

()f nOIH lhe I iall gau ge ri eld theori es wh ich became pre­

requ isite in such theori es like the 'electroweak theory'

(I 'iz. th e so-ctlled standard sucn ® U( I ) gau ge Illodel

uf the uniri ca ti oll o f el ectromagneti sm w ith the we" k

rad io; lcti v it y force) . Furthermon . .:. they ha ve developed

powerrul computati onal too ls in quantum ri eld theori es

lor ohtainin g prec ise valu l's or ph ys ical parameters like

t he masses or hea vy leptons. qU;lrks and W -gauge bos­

O il S which got excc! len t con fi rmat ion recentl y in high­

energy part icle accelerat or ex peri ments. Ve ltman jo illed Uni ve rsit y or U trecht in 60s in the

Inst itul e rmTheoreti cai Ph ys ics and deve loped versatile

computer ;tl gorithlllS ror eva luati ng parameters in quan­

tum rielcl theori es plagued by occ urrence or ' di vergent '

integral s; hithert o compli c lted ; \11 ({r/hoc " renorillali za­

ti on" tec hniques we re deve loped in 4(),s hy TOlllonaga,

Schw inger, and Feynnlan ror sal vaging the archet ypi cal

gauge theory. Quanlllill E lt..:ctrocl ynamics (Q ED ). Feyn­

illan had indeed sys temati zed renormali zati on ca lcula­

ti ons which in vo l ved several steps ( i.c. ' orders ' in terms

01 the Integ ral powers or the QED coupling con stant = 11137) into graphi cs dubhed 'Feynman diagrams' . Thi s

had Indeed made QED vcry sUlTess rul w ith deli cate

measurements of parameter.s like elec tron's magneti c

moment anomal y (g-2) and Lamb shift s which agreed wi l h QED predica ti ons to one port in !() 12( I) or hetter.

SL'vc ral researchers att empted to ex tend the methodol­

ngy to other types or themie,s such as mason ri elds but

\\ i tll parti al .success. Hut V eltman rirml y beli eved in the

c1liclcy oJ' his computer programs ror renormali zing ;tli

Iypes or gauge theori es ;t cl to tes t new result s. A ttil isjuncturc C' t Honrtjo ined him in 1969 ane! was

~Ive n the doctor;tl progr;tm on the renorm;tli zabilit y or lhL' ,,()-ca ll ed "non- ;thel ian " rield theories . He succeeded

IX')( lIld ex pect;t li ()1lS ~\Ild pu hli shed tlNO cl ;tss ic papers

in N llc/('(t r P/n·.I ;('.I -U. 197 I . en~1 hi i ng j uS! i ric;tt i on or t he

1967 electroweak theory of Sheldon Clashow, Steven

W einberg, and (Late) Abdus Salam (the tri o bagged the

obel Pri ze in 1979). To get a reeling o r Hooft and V ell lllan' S work. rirsl

ex amine renormali zat ion in QED . Herein , Ward -Tak ­

hashi identity ansat z ensures thilt perturbati ve c;t lcula­

ti ons to all orders remove di vergences ( i .e . infini te

va lues) and further that Feynman diagrams to all ordel's

in can be combined to get finite answers. In essence.

these imply redefi niti on o f bare mass and charge ( /1/" , Cn )

into III and c: for instance /1/ = III" - III, etc. D ivergences

imply /1/ infinite. Renormali zati on is an adhoc mathe­

matical subtraction which makes bOl h I II" and III infinite

in such a way III (so also e) becomes r inite to co inc ide

w ith ex perimentall y measured va lues .

However, thi s was I'casiblc in QED ;tl one c() nrirllli n~

to the Ahelian U( I ) sy mmetry w ith gUllge ;II IIU r;UI/ ('c ( in

simple terms elec tri c potential c;tn he Illc;tsured w ith all Y

chosen null value). But other rorces li ke the we;tk inter­

acti on (responsible for radi oacti v it y) and strong nuclear

force arc governed by non-A belin symmetry (v iz. SL:2

and SU3. respecti ve ly) . w herein renormali za t ion would

not work. Th is is because in an abel i;tn ri eld , the rotati on

by 360" or the vector o f transformati on return s to the

in it ial state: so sequence or tran srormat ions can be dOlle

in all Y order. But in non-abelian the ry such ;t rotati oll

chan ges the sign o r thc vec tor, so order in sequen ti al

tran sformati ons important. Such a situat ion wouldm;tke

renormali zabilit y virtuall y imposs ibl e. Aga inst thi s.

Hooft ' s achievements in 197 1 under Ve ltman ~ Ire vit;tI

breakth roughs. Technica ll y these <l 1l1ounted to a modi ­

fi ed Ward identity and mathematica l re rormulat ion ror

renormal izing non-abelian fi eld theories.

A n essential ingred ient or Hoon and Ve ltman theor~

is the scheme for comput ati on or the ~auge bosom W

and Z" masses (80-90 GeV J an d med iating the elec­

troweak rorce; further they correc tl y predicted the Sll ­

permass ive Higgs p;trt ic le respollsihle ror the sy mmetry

bre;tkdown o f the elcetrowe;tk theory . vVith the ;tvail ­

;tbilit y or intense beams o r W -p;lrti c ics in recent years

at CERN 's LHC-co llider or at Fermi l;th 's Teva tron ac­

ce lerator, there predicti ons ha ve been ex perimentally

confirmed: in parti cular. DO-CDF coll aboration at Fer­

milab measureci the top-quark ma.ss in 1995 w hich

agreed c losely w ith predic ti ons o f H ooi't allel Ve ltman in 70s.

C urrent ly, Vel tman is engagcd III ex tending hiS C()Ill ­

put;tti ()naltoo l to topolog ll';tl fi eld.., . "irl ngs. CIL'.. <, upel ­

g r;tvit y . G .· t I-100 ft is pow illv c ~ t l ga ti l l g on I hl'

SCI-TECH UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY :W()()

topological structures in Planck-scale physics (below IO-n c m); interesting ly the Boolean va ri ab les of the

theory were analogous to 'ce llular automata ' of infor­mation theory' restrictec~ th8 validit y of the types of quantum fi e ld theories IHooft in Abdus Salam Fetschrift Proceedings, Salwlllesl, 1<)93, Trieste; Hilldll , 13 Octo­b8r I <)<)91.

o R SAMBASIVA N

('5 /67 A. LalVrence Road

Chemistry Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian ­

born chem ica l ph ys ic ist, who works ,It the Ca lifornia In stitute of Tech­nol ogy in Pasackna, has pione8r8d the use of ultra-short laser pul s8s which th8 atoms make vigorously as th e y k nit and b rc a k c he m i c a I s bund~ . Zewai l" s freezc-frame view of reactions won him the I <)<)9 No­

bel Priz8 in Che mistry.

New Delhi 11 00:15

Ah med Zcwail

At the molecular level. c hemistry is breathless ly rast.

Some r8action s, such as the ru sting o r a nail , may seem slu ggish, but that is because th8 indi vidual molecules r8act on ly rare ly. Once the reactants meet and c reate an en8rgy barrier the making and breilk ing of bonds takes

a mere IO() or so l's . or l]uadrillionths of a second. On thi ~ di scovery the Chcmi ~ t I{ obin Hoc hstrassc r at the

Uni v8 rs it y of Penn sylvania says that a large number of (l ther c hemi sts ar8 forceu to think about ch8mical reac­

tion~ in a different way, in real tilllc. Th8 trick was co ming up with an ultrafast camera

capabk of freez. i ng t h8 wh i I' of mokcu Ies, much as a nash and a fa st ca mera shutte r that ca n halt the blur of hummin ghlrd wings in mid- ni ght. fortu nate ly, for Ze­wail. in th e latc I 960s and 70s res8arch groups around the wor ld "vere ckvdopin g la sl.: rs that generated shorter and short er light pul ses . A s lllall table top lkv ice ca lled a colliding Plll "8d mock- locked (C PM ) laser- devel ­oped hy Bc ll Labs rescarchers C harl es Shank and Erich

Ippc n- prnvl.:dto he th l.: ca ille ra J.':c\\'ail n8eded. Zl.:wili l sil ys thilt if we could recllg ni l.c th8 tillle re:--o­

luti on wh ich will be short er th;1I1 a vihrati on o r atoms in

iI mo k cuk. th l.: n one could ."ec honds breaki ng. The ('PM la~er and its successor" generate iI wi de range o r li ght freqllenciL'<' and thcn c mit thcm \l ill y ciuri ng thc hri e f mOlllc nt s whe n the ir w;\\ 'clcngth" all march in lock '-. tcp, crc , l ti ll~' ,II ' inlL'l'.,c' pl,l".: . T IlL' 1l.: :-. lI lt i:, a rb~ l ,

as short as 7 fs, well within the time it takes the atoms into mol ecules up to vibrate back and forth.

To ca pture the action, Zewail constructed an appara­tus to feed reac tant gases into a vacuum c hamber and then used a CPM laser as the equ i va lent of a camera and flash. He set up hi s laser to fire pairs of ultrashort li ght pulses. The initial pulse- the flash-suppli es the en­ergy that the target molecules need to surpass the energy barrier and beg in reacting. The second pul se, rirecimerc fs later. illuminates the reacting mo lecules, whic h e ither absorb the pulse or respond to it by flu orescing at wa ve len gths that de pend on the ir configurati on. By varyin g the time interval between the two pulses and recording the absorbed or emitted li ght, Zewail could track the c hcm ical reaction from the startin g mo lecules , through the intermediate states that result as bonds arc stretched, broken, and rearranged, to the final products .

In his rirst ex periment s, in the late I 98()s. Zcvva il anel hi s co ll eagues watched as molec ules o r iodoc yanide split into the ir component iOlls in a reacti on that tool-, a mcrc 2()() rs. It was a wonderful se t o r ex periment s that had a big impact on che mistry. By witnessing the birth and death of molecules in just fs , no chem ical reactions tak e place rast er than thi s, noted the Royal Swed i ~ h

Academy of Science in its citation. Zewa il 's work initiall y focu sed on simp le reac ti ons

o r gaseous molecules and answered basic questi ons about reacti on mechanisms, revea ling, e.g ., that mole­cul es containing two equival ent bonds break them one at a time in stead of simu lt aneousl y. Since then hi s group and others around the world have pushed the techno logy to chroni c le che mical changes in liquids and solid:-- a~

wel l. The result is a whole new discipline of fs science. whic h has yie lded insi ght s int o eve rythin g from how pla nts capture sunlight during photosynthes is to how the human eye manages to sce at ni ght when the li ght i:-­rai nt.

Paul Co rkum, who heads rs sc ience research at th l.: ational Research Counci l in Ollawa, Canada, says that

thi s year ' s Nobe l prize was a we ll de~e rved award . Still. Zewa il says thaI it is not the samc as recogniti on from scient iri c peers, epitom ized hy the nbel Pri ze ISc;('J/ (·(' .

286 ( 19<)9) p. 6671 .

Economics

!:l

sse;

Th i.· year's pri ze 1'01' economi cs has been awarded In

pror Robert Mundell of the Un j \ 'er~ it y or Montrea l. C,lIlada 1'01' II is piO ll eL:1 in!.'. '.'.'(lIi-, wilich C() Il Cl.:III~ li l: lltl"

16.+ .r se llND RES VOL)<) FEBRUi\RY 2000 SCI-TECH PDATE

ana ly:-- i:-- in future development of thc internati onal

monctary arrangemcnts. It is rcmarkable that he and

coworkcrs predi cted qui te accuratc ly the present day

globa l fi scal situations. Dr Mundcll 's research, once

considered esoteri c and irreleva nt , pro vides the rrame­

\vnrk for curren t understandin g of international ex­

,;hange rate~: and was uscd n:centl y to e:-- tahli sh the

ground rules for the European Monel<1ry Union.

M unde ll rece ived hi s PhD from the Massachuseth

Institut e of Technology in 1956. After World War I,

when most I internation,d I capital sys tems co l lapsed.

This was sa l vaged to sO llle ex tent by the well -known

Bretton-woods agenda for internati onal currency regu­

lat ions. From then unti l thc ea rl y 1960s, a system or

ri Acd cxc hangc rat es lin ked virtuall y all coun tries, and

,I merc tri ck Ie or rund ~: passed bet ween cou nt ri es-colll­

pared to the es timated $2 trilli on now cxehanged on thc

internat ional market s evcry day.

Pcrhap:-- it wa~ his C illadi an upbringi ng-Canada

,Ind the United Stat e:-- have always rreely exchanged

Illoney- that made Mundell see things dirkrentl y . He

theori l:ed that when international capital is hi ghl y mo­

bi le and the exchangc ratc is rixed, the central bank lose:-­

control or the money supp ly and hence or domesti c

intercst rat es; riscal po li cy bccomes the onl y too l left for

inl'iuencing thc domcs ti c econolllY. As a rcsult, says

Rogofr. "we now know that ri xed exchange rates arc

un stabl e" w hen cap ital fl ows increase. Markct pressurcs

inevitab ly force countries to adopt either floating ex­

change rates or a common currency. I n papers written ill

the I 96{):--. when he was wo rk ing at thc Intern ati onal

Monetary Fund . Mundell drew on Canada ' s experi ­

ments wi th both rixed and fl oa ting cxchange rates to

show how large capital fl ows limit governments' op­

ti ons. In a typi cal paper Mundell outlined the criteri a

under which multiple countri es could successfull y

merge their currenc ies. Throughout the 1990s. changes in the technology of

trade and communication dramaticall y increased inter­

national capital fl ow and mm t Western countri es aban ·

doned fixed exchange rates. Even more surprising,

eleven European states are well on their way to full y

instituting a common currency rollowing the principl es

Mundell set forth four decades earlier. Almost 40y later

thc framework Mundell devcloped " is st ill a workhorse

of modern i nlernat ional macroeconom ics ".

o R. SAMBASIV AN

ADSL connection on the superhighway may cause problems in transmission

According to Britain 's Telecoms (BT) regulator the

superfa st "a lways on" Internet connect ions ADSL

through an ordinary pho lll~ l i ne is endangered by cr ip­

pling electromagnetic interference if there is a rree-for­

all between competin g companies . At the same time. One l concedes thJt competi tion i:-- necessary to prevent

BT having a monopoly. Ond 's dilemma cent re<, on Asynchronous Digital

Subsc ri ber Line (ADSL) technology. which prolllise:-- tn de li ver broadband Internet and video into Bntain ' <,

homes. BT has becn runnin g consumer trials or ADSL in Suffolk and north London and wants to capitali ze on thi s lead . But One l doubts that there wi ll be seri olls

interference between ri va ls lines ir BT is all owec.lto go

ahead , and competi ng companies t hen come onto the

sccne using overlappin g frcquencie-.;. BT howeve r. wants to set the Standards for the phone lin e~ that it

own:-- . Whosoe ver wi n:-- , the issue is :--ound ing \Varlllng be ll s ror the fl edgling ADS L industry in the US, wherL' the interkrence issue ha:-- not yet been cOIl:--idercd.

Conventional copper telephone wire:-- are designedtn

carry anJlogue speec h freq uencies up to 4 kH7. . ADSL uses a spec ial modem in the hOll1e and another at the

telephone exchange to ex tend this to I () mHz. Fu ture

systell1s, such as High and very High data rate DSL (HDSL and VDSL) w ill oller up to 50 MB/s.

Internat ional StancIards for ADSL leave provicIers

free toju ggle frequencies and data capac i t ies to su it local conditi ons. Orten wants to let BT' s com etitors use their prererred version or DSL over BT'~ linc<,. It accept~ that thi s ri sks inter fe rence belweenmismatched se rvice,

as they run close together in underground duct:-., but hopes to work wi th the Radio communicat ions Agency to iron out clashes. BT would rather control the technol­

ogy by itsel f. According to the US study it is wrong to all ow frec

competiti on wi thout anyone ll1anaging th e ADSL spec­trum which is as an unregulated se rvices pro lifera te where they w ill start in terfering, resulting in corruptcd data and distorted video INe\ \ Sci, 163 (No. 2 195) ( 1999) p. 61.

o sse;

'Core c-journals' project to cut costs and improve access

The California State Uni versity (CSU) has carried out the ex periment in elec tronic use of Sc ientiri c j ournals

SCI-TECH UPDATE J SCIIND RES VOL 5lJ FEBRUARY 200()

;Ind ent ered and I H- month contract with a secondary publisher (a subsc ripti on service that se lls packages of jou rn;il s to librari e:-., under li cence to the pub li shers) for ;1 'Casco set of e lectroni c subscripti ons, in a bid to improve access and cut Co.s ts . Thi s was to include the Journals most req ues ted at two thirds of campu s librar­le:-..

Thc project. set up by a comm ittee consists solei, of Ca lifornia sta tc lihraries. is widely seen as a radical Illove with litt le facu lt y input.

John C Ca lhoun. libr;l ri an at the Domingnez Hill s Campus c Iai med t hat it was not in the natu re of librari ans to engage in "rad ica l moves to imperil sc ho larship". But researchers and students are expected to c lash with lihraries over red uced availabilit y of research materials .

When proposa l:-. were req uested . uni versity offi ciab sought so me I ~()() journal s for the 2 1 librari es at the stat ew idc system. whi ch ha:-. .f5.000 facu lt y member:-. and aho lll ~5().()O{) st llclenl:-'. Alba na based EBSCO in ­formal ion services won the 500.{){)() contract. The Ii brar­ie.' will rece ive aholll 5(H)" core jOllrnal :-. ' s a" EBSCO could nOI per:-.uadc ot hers- inc luding man y oflh e maj or n; lI11e:-. such as Nature. sc ience , ca ll. Biochemistry and Geolugy- to join the agreement. Campus li braries has been subscribing these indi vidua ll y.

CSU olTic i;ils say thecon!;icl s will represe nt s a strong pll iitical statemen t. wresting con lrol over Ihe m;linte­nance of academi c journa l co llections frol\1 publ ishers and secondary puhli:-.hcr~ . T he~e ha\'c forced many li ­braries 10 hu) packages. inc luding :-.ome journal s they don'l need ;Ind mulliple copie:-. or{)ther~ \ hen thcy onl y relju ired \ lnl'.

Eva n A Reader. direclor of CSV ' s e lec troni c in fo r­Illal ion services. sa id contr;lct was the firsl major step toward, moving libraries In elcctronic publi shing. The deal also secured some conlTs:-.ions. inc luding perpetual use of articl es the universit y has paid for (even if thc ~ uhscri pli () n is 1;l te r Glnce ll ed ). unlimited inte r- library loans ;lIld occa:-.ionaluse by aUlhorized members of Ihe pu hlic al uni\ c r. il )' lihrari l'~.

T hi:-. CO l1lr;lC! i:-. among numher nf mo ves sweeping lite re:-.earch pu hli :-. hin g world ;1" use nf Ihe Internet increa,e. TIll' Nalion;ti In<,\itute of He;tllh (NIH) ha:-. pre po,ed ii, 0 \\ n electronic publishin g system to '.:"unle r what II con" lders hig h cosl' to un l\'crsi ti es it fUlld~ . Stili~rnld ulli\ 'crs it" and till' British Medical Jour­n;ti ;t!rL:;lcly ;lIi n o l ; ; ~,-Td pl ~ llh 1('. pllhl i, 1l l'kC:IIClllic: jo llr-1;1"- of 11<'1] · jK'l' r-rL'\ ie\" ~'d rc \",'a rch . Llni\ ( i· ~ it ) ur Ca lifmlli ;I's dl~Ii ~ I: li hi';lr\ ha" ·1.!2nc ,-1 a I()n ~ tern con-

tract with E lsev ier sc ience 10 prov ide most of the Dutch firm 's 1100 journals to its ca mpu ses through an elec­tron ic system, Sc ience Direc t.

Whil e CSU's ex periment is being monitored by in­stitutions as far away as Japan , there are considerable ohstacl es to its success -i n particular. the diffi culties libraries face in securin g the journal s they wa nt from publis hers reluctant to change the rules .

Each CSU library mu~ t bu y an y exI ra journal" from its own budget. This sets the stage for <In inev itable fight over library ex penditures . The core-journal con tract ha" been funded from a spec ial state library all otment. whel1 it end s uni versit y offi c ial s determined new fu nding mec hani sms. San Diego State Uni versit y (S DSU) which has the sys tem's larges t anci oldest lihrary, won't con­sider dropping its 30()O print subscri ption until the core­journal programme establi shes a cred ibl e track record ove r a co nsi derab le period of time. Karan kinne). till' library's interim dean. say:-. that gaps in its co li cct l() 11 would be costl y and problematic to fill if it relied [('Ill

much on th e deve loping programme I N Ull/re . 40()

(1999) p. 20()1.

European Molecular Biology Organization (E MBO) backs single electronic repository

W

SSCi

The Europea n 10lecul ar Biology Organisation III

co llaboration wi th the US I ;lti ol1al In st itut l' of Hea llh (N1H ) ha ve launched Ihe g lohal web repo:-.i lm) fm lilerature in the li fe sc ience" .

Dr Harold Va rmus. the Direclor of the J IH . ha" fo rmed database that woul d freel y be accessible to c' \'e­ryone--call ed 'E- Biomed' and proposed that it Illay be taken forward via an Internati onal Coa liti on.

Frank Gannon , Executi ve Di rec tor of EMBO. says that ils aim is to be a pa rtl1er in the selling up of intern ati onal governing bod y that wi ll be formed by int eres ted panies. EMI30 's pos iti on is tlwt a singk searchable loca ti on for all scicntific data of re!c\ance In life sc iences is quite desirable .

Under the proposal. EMBO scie nti sts would il l'll' III ad mini ster <In assess ment procedure for thl' repo,itnr). T he computing infrastructllre Inr the European ;trI11

would he handled hy the European ;vtolecular Biolog) Laboratory ' s outstation the European Bioinforlll(1tic" ins titute, in C lmhridge. UK.

EMI30's vi~i()n oftl e rep() :-'l t(Jry dilrer~ Imn l 11:,11 Il f 'E-8 iull led', htl\\ever. Fur e>'LlIllple. it \V,uJ!" the rejio;,;­tor) IlCli to bc rc.,tril ted to th L' h'\lIilCuic,t1 liieratulL. h Ui

166 J SCIIND RES VOL )l) FEBRUARY 2()()() SCI-TECH UPDATE

to in clude all the lik sciences, including plant biology and biotcchnology.

Accordin g to internal EMBO documcnts the organi­za ti on' s main concern is that the ' E-B iomcd' proposal could resu lt in a ' loss of quality control' that could serious l y damage molecu IiIr biology. The 'E- B iomed' proposal allows authors to submit to e ither an un -re­kiTed e-print server or a peer-reviewed server- in ef­kcl. a large electroni c journal. But EMBO has re jected ~111 un -rekrred repos it ory, and has also questioned the need for full blown pec r rcv iew within ·E-B iomed'.

Gannon remarks that an un-referred site alon g the lines of the Los Alamos e- print scrver in phys ics will not

work in Biology. The interpretati on of biological re­sea rch is much more subject ive-and controversial­than thilt of ph ys ics and is dependent on the controls that are ca rri ed oul. ~MBO proposes that all papers subm itted to 'E­

Bloll1ed' should be "assessed ' for acceptance by a mo­saic of learned societies to ensure that they constitut e reasonahly sound sc ience. EM130 would send the paper to one of its 1,000 me mbers and would ask if there an: good rq roducible methods, if are the data presented

clea rl y and whether the conclu sions arc reasonable and not ex trapoiated. Papers meeting these criteria wou ld rece ive an ' EMBO approved" stamp.

nder the EMBO proposal, the repository wou ld not introduce such a peer- re view system. Gannon pred ict s that journals of lo w qualit y and circulation wi ll disap­pear, but the top journals will remain. The lead ing journal s carry a lIlessage that thi s is work that has been upgraded/improved/approved hy the referee ing sys tem they arc the rcal asset in a way that has been taken for granted so far.

The need is not to re invent the journals system with the 'E- Biomed' but to link in the journal s, perhaps by li ce nsin g material from them. It is our endeavour to defend top journal s and scientific societies I Nalure, 400 ( 1999) p. 97; 398 ( 1999) p. 735; 399 ( 1999) p. 81.

Mirrors I'eplacc masks in DNA chip formation

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A fast er and economical way to fabri cate D A arrays using mirrors instcad or masks that could put the syn­thes is of arrays on the i nd i vidua l sc ientist 's bench-top has been developed by a team at the University of Wisconsi n, Madison.

DNA chips, which co nsist or short strands of DNA attached to a solid surface, are most often used 1'0 1' gene cx pression analysi s.

Most co mmerciall y ava ilable oli gonuc leotide array\ are currently produced by a method developed by Af­fymetrix , Santa Clara, C~"ifornia in whi ch the arrays arc fab ricated using light directed syn thesis and a series of photolithographic masks. An array or ol igonuc lcolidc\ n bases long requires as man y as 4n masks . UV li ght directed on to the chip cle<lvcs a photo labilc protecting group rrom the ends of the selected D A molec ules. all owing another nucleotide to be added.

Wisconsin team uses the same chem istry but rep laces the masks with a di gita l mi cromirror device (DMD) des igned by Texas In struments, Dallas. for projection televis ion. The group combines DMD, which crealc\ "V irtual masks ", with a commerc ial D A syn thes izer [() construct arrays of 01 igonuc leotides co ntai n i ng nearl y hal f-a-mi II ion reatures. The device i ~ ca lled m<l k Ic\,­array sy nthes izer. The DNA ch ips is illuminated with UV li ght and some of the pi xe ls arc turncd on and oil hy flipping the mirrors. By load ing an image on the COIll­

puter, one can project on the D A chip whatever pattern one wan ts without having to chan ge an y masks .

With thi s technol ogy one ca n make the results of an ex periment and the very nex t day design a chip based on these result. . Harold R (Sk i p) Garner (./ 1' ) of the Depart­ment of Biochemistry and int erna l medi cine at thc Uni ­ve rsit y of Tcxas, Southweste rn Medical Center, Dalla". has constructcd a similar DNA array sy nthesizer: it differs s li ghtl y from that of the Wisconsin group in it s projec ti on opti cs.

Garner, who collaborates with Affymerix and Texas Inst ruments , be li eves that the co mmercial potential or maskless array sy nthes is may be limit ed.

Garner furth er recalls that thi s tec hnology is impor­tant. Using micromirror arrays "makes it possible to rapidly and inex pensively generate ncw and very large oli gonucleotide arrays so that one can anLtl yse one se t of genes and then move onto another. Wisconsin work is "an excellent validati on and verificat ion of thi s ap­proach".

Commenting on the Wisconsin work, Ri chard P Rava, Senior Vice President and Chief technology offi­cer at Affymctrix , says: although micromirror methods "may ha ve niche appl iccltion for creating small number of custom arrays, it is believed that the standard semi­conductor manufacturing technol ogies that Allymetri x uses are optimal for prov iding a scalable proccss for

SCI-TEC H UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 167

making large number of hi gh-quality arrays 1 Chem Eng NCII'S , 77 (No 40) ( 1999) p.n

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Studies on the use of Air Force research reactor The US Air Force (USAF) research nuclear reactor

is used ror the studies in engineering, material s sc ience, ag riculture, and medi cal therapi es which has been ac­quired by the Uni versity or Ca lifornia (UC), Davis .

The reactor. located at the USAF' s Me Clellan Ai r Force Base, about 20 miles rrom the Uni versity, mak in g it the youngest o r the TRIGA (Training, Research/Iso­topes General Atomi cs) class or research reactors.

The reactor rorms the core or a developing research programme at Da vis. which wi II become more important in future as older research reactors are decommi ss ioned and not replaced .

Kev in M Smith , UC Da vis Vice-chancell or for re­search says that UC Dav is may be the onl y userul reactor ill future. Under terms o r the agreement the reactor is being used at least :') I per cent or the time for research the remainder o r the time is used for revenue prod ucin g commercia l work .

The Air Force has been using the reactor neutron radi ography to detect hidden cracks and derec t in aircraft wlll gs.

The US Department or Energy has provided $8 mil ­li on to rund research and operati onal arts ror the reactor . And the k deral Government has give n $ 17.6 million ror the ruture decommiss ionin g of the reactor.

US Da vis has deve loped a programme or teaching and research around the reac tor it plans to co llaborate with UC Berkeley's department or nuclear Engineering and with UC Irvine 1 Null/rc, 401 ( 1999) p.~ 161.

Solar PV as a mcdium for' reducing grccnhouse­gas cmissions

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The Solar Photovo lt aic (PV ) energy could be usel'u l ill st;lving oil seve re climate change as suggested by Eastern Elec trici ty and it s representati ve or key sectors across a wide range o r Briti sh indust ry which includes IItilit y sec tor. ;ltWest from ba nkin g, General Acc ident rrom In su rance. Foster and partner,> from building BP ;l1ld lntersolar representin g the sola r industry. This task force in 1997. concluded that the global warming threat \Va'> so seri ous that all renewable and effi c ient energy technologies we re 'v ital" hut solar ' PV ' could be the

single most important long-term means of achiev ing the red ucti on in greenhouse gas emi ssions which are the ultimate agreed Objecti ve of t he Conventi on on CI imate Chan ge .

With the ex isting solar PV technology, one can gen­erate more electricity than it draws from the grid . II' necessary, a building can , in effec t. act as a stand al one polluti on-free power plant, need ing no mains electrici ty. no gas , no oil - even in cloudy northern latitudes. The roof, the wa ll s, even the windows could all be trappi ng the heat of the sun and turning it directl y into electric it y via so lar PV cell s. Solar-thermal co ll ec tors are trapping stillmore of the sun ' s rays , turnin g them huge into hu ge quality of hot water.

Hi gh effici ency batteries and fuels can store electri c­ity for later use. Solar electri city is bein g converted in to hydroge n to be burned as pollution- free fue l. Indeed. solar PV could, in princip le suppl y all the wo rld' s ell­ergy demands manifold , thereby reducing global ellergy related greenhouse-gas emi ssions close to zero.

The best and cleanest of the vari ous PV tec hnologies is probably amorphous silicon thin film . Thin-film tec h­nol ogy is less effici ent but much cheaper then the older and better known crystall ine sil icon technology. The biggest thin-film-PV - manufacturi ng plant in the wor ld produces less than 10 MW/y. The bi ggest crystalline silicon"pl ant produces onl y 2:') MW, and globa l PV production or all types in 1997 was onl y 160 MW. It is because of these low vo lumes of producti on that price is relati vely.

Exxon and Ameri can oil companies deny that PV is particularl y re levant to an y encrgy poli cy debate as it professes that global warming is nothing much to worry abou!. BP and shell ha vc di scharged themselves rrom that madness, to their credit. For them, globa l wa rming is a problem, and so lar PV is indeed a solution. But they profess that a 100 MW/y thin -film - manufacturing plant cannot be built yet. She ll has entered the PV markets by manu facturi ng sma ll a mount s of crys ta II i ne silicon. ~ay­ing they are wa iting on tec hnolog ica l improvement s ill thi s film technology.

The solar century knows how to build the first 100 MW thin fi lm- PY-manufacturing plan!. Therefo re the solar century Global Communit y Fund . will exist onl y to elnpower those in dire need. The solar century is setting up an offi ce in I3e ijing with the sole intention of making c lear the so lar alternati ve .

Fina ll y the Solar Cent ury has worked for severa l years to persuade the numeroll s in surance com panies

16:-1 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEB RUA RY 2000 SCI-TECH UPDATE

that ha ve professed to be worried about unmiti gated enhancement of the greenhouse effect to amend their in vestment behaviou r accordin gly. The so lar century aillls to create in vestlllent vehi cles around the world whi ch provide a platforlll for the tri ck le of change to become a fl ood 1 TIl e Em/. 29 (2) ( 1999) p. 133 1.

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Electrochemical oxidation of methane in a fuel cell The d irect electrochemical ox ida ti on of methane in a

fu el ce ll has been reported by Murray and hi s coworkers from Imperi al Co ll ege, London. Us ing methane as the primary fu el favours dev ices that operate at hi gh tem­peratures such as molten carbonate and so lid-ox ide fu I cel ls (SOFC) . These electroclp mica ll y ox idi ze a mi x­ture of hydrogen and carbon monox ide, whi ch is gener­ated internall y from the natural gas (methane) within the fuel stac k. The development of SOFC technology has been pri nc ipall y directed towa rds large-sca le power generati on, and ea rl y commercial dev ices operating on na tural gas at about 9()()"C are ex pected to produce 1-3 MW of power. Such fuel ce ll s use anodes that contain nickel to catalyse the conve rsi on of methane to H2 and CO. but large amounts of steam has been added to preven t ca rbon depos iti on on the ni cke l- cerami c an­odes. whi ch severely degrades their performance. The steam-conversion reaction is endothermi c and has bee n sustained by significant thermal energy, whi ch is avai l­able in the hi gh- temperature SOFCs . In contrast, low temperature fu el ce ll s need an external processor to produce H~ and remove CO. whi ch not onl y reduces the efficiency of the system but al so increases the complex­it y and cost (Figurel.

There has been a growin g realizati on that there could be an important market fo r sllla ll ( 1- 10 RW) thi ck- film SOFC stacks operatin g at SO()-700"C. These systems provide heating and electri city for buil dings or prov ide electric power fo r aux i I iary fun cti ons (such as elec tric windows or air conditi oning) in vehicles. Although the prov ision of excess steam is appropriate for relative ly large ( I MW) SOFC systems, it int rod uces cost and effici ency penalties as the system size i:; reduced. The development by Murray et a l. of the direct electroc hemi ­ca l ox idation of dry methane in i ntermediate- tempera­ture SOFe's has many advan tages in small-scale appl icati ons.

In the SOFC research community. doped La 0.8 Ca 0.2 CrO.\ (LCC) and doped Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 () I. 95 (CGO) have rece ived max imu m attenti on. LeC is a promi sing anode materi al because of its wide thermodynamic sta­bi lity range, and exi sting use as an electri cal connector between sin gle fuel ce ll s.

Catalysts that contain ceria (such as CGO) have at­tracted interest because of its use of do ped ceri a which can improve the performance of SOFC anodes. Both LCC and CGO have guud catalyti c act ivity for methane ox idation. Steady-s tate meas urements with a li mited supply of oxygen gas indicate that LCe ox idi zes Illeth ­ane to CO2 and H20 at about 400"C. The reac ti on with CGO occ urs at lower temperatures, i.e. 3()()"C. Ex posure to res idual excess methane confirms that onl y slllall amount s of carbon are depos ited on both ox ides at 800-90()nC. The exce llent catalyti c be ha viour of the ceria-based material s is not totall y unex pected because Ce02-Zr0 2 (CZO) catalysis are used in catal yti c con­verte rs fitted to car ex haust svstems . It appears that CGO

SOfC Thermally integrated reformer

MCFC

500

to

1000 °C

Thermally integrated 650 °C reformer

Increasing complexi ty of processing

~~~~~ _ _ ________ ~[ PAFC ~ L~(~CO.::..<-=5...:..:%:..:..) ~ 200 °C

Decreasi ng efficiency

PEMFC (CO< tO ppm)

SCJ-TECl-1 UPDATE J SCII ND RES VOL 59 FEBRUA RY 2000 16lJ

and CZO promote the reduction of Ce4+ to Ce3

+ which enhances oxygen-exc hange processes and assoc iated catal yti c reactions.

These catal yti c studi es suggcs t that the use of ox ide electrodes instead of the standard compos ite ni ckel-ce­ramic anodes have advantages in producing direc t e lec­troc hemical ox idation or dry methane.

The ex periments of Murray el 01. use electrodes con­sisting of a thin layer (O.S Um) of yttria-doped ceria (YDC) together with a thick layer (2U m) of a nickel-ce­ramic composite as the current collector, demonstratin g one way to overcome the relatively poor electroni c conducti vity of YDC. Although it works in lab, but thi s soluti on is unli ke ly to be ad opted by SOFC developers for two reaso ns. First. natural gas usuall y contains higher alka nes (C1H", C\ H ~ etc.) that are more eas il y dissociated than methane, resultin g in carbon depos iti on on nicke l at lower temperatures. Secondly, severa l in­vestiga ti ons with intermed ia te- te mperature SOFC stacks has revea led that when nearl y all the fu el is conve rt ed to stea m and CO2, the nickel can be ox idized to fiO with a concomitant degradation in the anode performance.

A morc promisin g strategy is to fab rica te a compos ite anode ill which doped CeOc is mi xed with another ox ide-ex hib iting good electroni c co ndu cti vity, thu s avoiding the u ~e of nickel together. This approach is being exa mined hy many laborat ories around the world and is viable to commercialization of intermediate-tem­perature SOFC for sma ll -scale applicati ons I Nature,

400 ( 1999) p. 62() I.

New diameter gauges for tubes, pipes and bars

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A fami ly or revo lvin g diameter gauges for tubes, pipes and har stock of any material including metal , Pvc, rubbcr, g lass and Illan y others has been offered by TSI incorporated , a wor ld-wide lead i ng suppl ier of non-con­trac t dimcnsionalmeasurement gauges.

TSI RDMS 42()() seri es ga uges offer hi gh acc uracy, di ameter and profile measurement capabiliti es for non­concave prod ucts ranging rrom 1.0 to 150mm. The ga uges uti li zes fast-scanning, hi gh reso lution CCD tech­no logy tn provide diameter measurements with I () um reso luti on and repea tahilit y for cvcry degrec of rotati on. With ~ I ro tati on specd of 7() rpll1 , thc gauges olTer 14() truc profi le measurcmcnt s per Illinute. As a res ult, it is nne of the fa stes t rcvo lving diarnetcr gauges ava il able.

This helps increase product in spection and improve product quality.

TSI gauges are ava il ab le to meas ure three standa rd ranges: I to 50 Illm, I () to I I () mm, and 65 to 16Smlll. For larger sizes or spec ial applications , TSI offers Clh­

tom des igned gauges to meet the spec ifi c measurement requirements. IMPT 1111 , 4( 1999)p. 12()1.

New form of abrasives

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Abrasive particles are being made sharp and sp iky by Daedalus as the gases conduct heat very badl y. Thus, a snowflak e grow ing in air ca nn ot readil y get rid of its latent heat of condensati on. It s points and edgc~ arc much better coo led, and therefore grow much fast er. than its core. Hence the hi ghl y branched , dendriti c forlll of snowflakes are formed. Accord ingl y, to make an ideal sharp and spiky abras ive powder, it is co ndensed from vapour in a large mass of air or inert gas. Indeed , when some metal s (such as Zi nc) burn in air the resulting smoke compri ses fin e, hi gh Iy branched and poi nted single crystals of metal ox ide.

Dreadco chemi sts are now exploring these ideas. Abrasi ves, such as aluminiulll ox ide are made hy burn­ing the parent metal in ca refull y co ntro lled conditi ()n~.

But others, sLich as si I icon and tungsten carbides, cann ot be Illade simil arly. Thus thc tea m burn ~ derivati ve, such as aluminium trimeth yL silicon tetramet hyl, etc. in lim­ited concentrati ons of strongly preheated oxygen. The des ired abrasi ve is fo rmed by reac ti on in the intensely hot flame. Its vapour cools into a mi cro-snow of tin y, dendriti c, sharp edged, feroc ioll sly abrasive single cry\­tals.

Dreadco dendritic abras i ves has transformed the techn ology. Eac h partic le present s one or more cu ll i ng edges to the workpiece, and lacks grain boundaries and the sing le crys tals are immense ly strong . Grinding wheels formed from thelll carve elTortless ly through metal and masonry. Dendriti c abras ives wi ll even mah.c headway through modern engineering ceramics. Illany or which are so hard that at present they are almost useless. Daeda lu s dreallls of stri king a carbon arc in ultrahi gh-pressure xenon. It is rormed under ex tremely hi gh pressure and temperat ure, the resulting carbon va­pou r condenses into the most abrasive snow of all ­dendritic diamond dust I NUl lIre, 400 (6747) ( 10<)0 ) p. 82 11 ·

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17() J SCIIND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 SCf-TECH UPDATE

Cooling concrete The new way to cool buildings without the need for

air conditioning has been discovered by Luigi Ri va from Milan in Ital y. Hi s method in vo lves coverin g roof with a laye r of concrete that has been made porous by adding aluminium powder. whi ch effer vesces in the cement IllI X.

Once the porous layer is in place, it has to be soaked with water. A cooling effect is then produced us the water evaporates, absorbing heat energy. Although the roor must be watered regul arl y, Ri va says the cost of do in g thi s is about one- sevent ieth the cos t o r conven­tional air-conditioning. This method could be for any bui ldi ng with a flat roo f from homes to hos pitals 1 Chcli/ Ind. August 16 ( 1999) p. ()2() I.

New dual-function economical RTD transmitter for hazardous area

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A new PTI()() RTD transmitter with intrinsi ca ll y sa fe in put c ircuit s has bee n desi gned by HANS T URCK GmbH & Co., KG of German y. The IIIlIlfill10dulc MK .~ 2 is a dUed -fun cti on tran smitt er. It replaces the tran ~­

Illitter and barrier earlie r required for iso lating the tem­perature-depende nt sign;d in ;1 hazardous locati on. an I co nverting it into linear OI-l -20 Il1A current output for control equipment in a non-hazardous location . He1l1-tiling both of these fun ctions with one component sa ves space and ex pense.

The rour standard , fi e ld -se lec tabl e te mperature ranges of the MK- 32 transmitter are set using two convenient switches on the front cover. Other tempera­ture mcasuring ranges, between -2()()"C and +8()()"C, can be prograll1med at the factory. Each transmitter can ha ve up to four special ran ges ass igned to it.

The MK32 also features a hi gh/low al ;IrI11 setpoinl. and input ci rcuit monitorin g for wire break and short c irCUIt. When input monit orin g is activated, a switch de termines whether the output during a fault will be () Il1A or 20 mA, and the fault LED illuminates red .

When input c ircuit moni to rin g is deacti vated the out­put signa l foll ows the direction of the input signal: OmA for wire-break or 20mA for short-circuit. A green LED indica tes "POWER-O "statu s.

The intrinsi call y safe input c ircuit s of the MK32 are PT I ()() RTD- 3 01'-4 wire. with a res istance of A A per wire and RTD exc itati on current of approx. 250 uA. The MK32 prov ides an ad vanced lc vc l of safety in a simple ;1I1d easy- tn-wire. DIN-rail mountabl e package. featur-

ing full -si ze terminals that are easy to access and wire using a standard screwdriver.

For furth er detai Is, co ntact: Denni s M Gallaher. Nex t Coml1lunicati on ~. 652()

Edenval e Blid. Ste 11 2. Eden Prairie. MN 55346. USA

Major hunt for drug in Brazil launched

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The pharmaceutical multinational Glaxo Wellcomc and a small Brazilian biotechnology company ha ve signed a contract to sc reen up to 30,O()() compounds of plant, fun gus, and bacterial origin from several reg ions in the country.

As part of the deal. both companies have agreed that one-q uarter of any royalty arisin g t'rulll s ucce~s t'ull)

cx ploited patents will be used to support community based conservat ion, health , and educati on pro.i ec t~ .

According to Jorge Raimondo, Glaxo' s reg ional di­rector for Latin America, a further 25 per cen t or the royalti es will go to the uni versity group responsible for isolating and identi fyi n g the product inquest ion. The research foc uses on CtH. ,)ounds found in the Amazo ni an and Atlantic rainforests. and Glaxo We llcome has an option to li cense an y pmduct ari sing from it.

Rai mondo ~ays that t he agree ment re fl ec ts the com­pany' s view thaI. despit e the increasing use of comb in <I­

torial chemistry to sc reen large quantiti es of artifi ciall y synthesized molecules, there is still mllch to be learned from traditi onal remedies. One of the main interes t is the way that how some of these compounds control pain .

Officials from Glaxo and the Brazi lian company. Extracta, point out that the agrecment has been made possible by-and conforms with- new legislation on inte ll ec tual propert y int roduced in Brazil on the protec­tion of genetic material. It also conforms with the nited Nations Conventi on on Biol og ical Diver.~ity which spec ifies that the interes ts of loca l cOl1lmuniti e ~ will be taken into account. Th is contract o f the com pan ies opens the way for similar compan ies to join other uni versity ce ntres.

Antoni o Paes de Carva lho, Extracta ' s direc tor gen­eral and biophysics professor at the Federal Uni versity of Rio de Janeri o sa ys that the scienti sts in Brazil wi ll work on the identifi cation of molecules and the stud y of their bi ological properties. rather than just processing plant ex tracts for anal ys is .

Accord ing to Raimondo. Glaxo is parti cularl y inkr­es ted in molecules wi th potentia l antibiotic, anti -inrialll-

SC I-TEC H UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL S9 FEBRUARY 20()() 171

matary and possibl y anti-fun gicide properties . Paes de Carvalho says that one of hi s goa ls is to create a data bank or all the sa mples and mol ecu les screened INalllre,

400 ( 1990) p. 302 1. o

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Catalytic process converts ammonia in biogas to nitrogen

Chemistry Proressor Robert Burch and Barry W L Southward at Catal ys is Research Cen tre at the Uni ver­sity of Reading. England have developed a strategy for selecti ve ly ox id izing ammonia in biogas to nitrogen in the presence of large amount s of CO and H2. They achieved almost ze ro NO, emissi ons from simulated biogas mi xtures containin g substantial amount s or NH 1

hy usin g the hetero- pol yacid catal ys t 12- tungstophos­phori c ac id (H ,PW I 20~()).

Biomass-deri ved gas, or biogas, co nt ain s large amount s of fu el components such as CO and H2. It also contain s a small amount of am moni a that is converted to polluting nit rogen ox ides (NO, ) when burned. The acidic sites of the ox idati on catal yst adsorb bas ic NH 1

molec ules in preference to the neutral fuel molec ules. Accordin g to Burch the renewable energy sources

such ,is bi oma ss . wil l he or in creasing importance as part or an integra ted strategy to lower total CO2 emi ss ions. The success ful app li ca ti on or thi s meth odology to bi ogas cleanup coul d racilitate the commercial ex pl oi­tat ion or clea n, com pet it i ve, sustainabl e power IC helll

Eng Neil 'S, 77 (3:1) ( 1999) p. 52 ; C//('1I1 COIIIIIIIIII, ( 1999)

p. 1475 1· o

HSDK

Bright light source monitors hacterial chromium reduction

Hexava lent chromiul11. Cr(V I) is a perni cious envi­ronmcntal contaminant whi ch is widely used as a wood preserva ti ve and as a ru st inhibitor. It is hi ghl y so lub le in water and is tox ic.

As tri va lent ro rm. Cr(lll ). is re lati ve ly in so luble and immobi le and is thu s less harmful , sc ienti sts havedeve l­oped process to reduce Cr(V I) spec ies to Cr(lll ) as potential environmental remediators. Therefore, some natural metal ox ides and orga ni c molecules can conve rt rrom nile form nrC r(V I) to Cr(lll ) in geo logical envi­ronments. In addition . ce rtain types of bacteri a appear to not onl y thri ve in tox ic environment ofCr(V I). but to redu ce it to Icss mobile and less harmfu l form as well.

Ho i- Yin g Holman and co ll eag ues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Calif. are trying to give new in sight into Cr(V I) reducing abiliti es of these bac­teria . Using LBNL' s bri ght Advanced Li ght Source (A LS), they monitored in rea l time and with unprece­dented resolution a bacteri a l co lony and the di sappear­ance of Cr(V I) and corres ponding appearance of Cr(lll ).

Their study shows that the bacteri al process is by far the most important pathway for Cr(VI) reducti on in geologica l materia ls. The I () m spa ti al reso lution ar­forded by the bri ghtness of IR li ght obtained from the ALS, the group could produce spectromicroscopic "im­ages" whose peaks and va ll eys show the locat ions or the action. Fortu itously, a prote in in the bacteria. the chro­mium spec ies, and toluene all ha ve we ll-characteri zed I R absorpti on bands . The IR I ight does not des troy the bacteria , as many ot her anal ytica l tec hniques used to study these types of systems do.

After Sd of coex isti ng with a chromate so lution on a smooth piece of magnetile (a mixture of iron ox ides) , a

sampl e of bacteri a A rlhro/Jo crer (}XVdO Il .1 reduced a good porti on of the Cr(VI). By contrast. a control magnetik sample wi th no bacteria had I itt Ie effect on the Cr( V I) And a sample of the bacteria to which the group added toluene reduced even greater amount s or Cr(V I). Hol­man (' I 01. say that the bacteria degrade toluene \(J

produce catec hol and ot her sma II molecul cs t hat arc reducin g agents.

Two mysterious new peaks arose in the spectra th at the researchers later determined were probabl y from a Cr(V) compound , an intermediate that had prev iousl y on ly seen in specia l laboratory mi crob ial system.

Homan and colleagues also exposed nat ive bacterial colonies to chromate so lution on the ragged surface:-, or Co lumbia basalt rock chips taken from the boundary or a contaminuted area . They fou nd that aner four l11o nt h ~.

some of the co loni es wc re thri ving in Cr(l ll ) COIll ­

pound s. and Cr(V I) was gone. Derek R Lovley, Head of the microbiology depart­

ment at thc Uni versity or Massachusetts. Am herst, says t hat the Holman 's work represents "a !:!:ood fi rst step" towards applyin g new su rface chemi stfy anal ysis tec h­niques to the study or environment al microbia l proc­esses. This will be an important emergin g ~Irea ill cnvironmentalmicrobi ology over the nex t se vc ral years ICh('l1l Ellg NCII's , 77 (No. 35) ( 1999) p. 13\ .

o SS(;

172 .J SCIIND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 SCI-TECH PDATE

Quick determination of' enantiomer-enantiometer by Mass Spectroscopy

To measure quick and easy excess of one enanti omer over another in a co mpound lihrary ge nerated by com­binatorial che mi stry tec hniqu es has been developed by US chemi sts. M G Finn and hi s co lleagues at the Scripps Researc h In stitut e in La.J o lla, California, ha ve deter­mined the enantiomeric cont.ent of tin y product sa mpl es of chiral alcohols and amines-two common groups pro­duced by putati ve sy ntheti c catal ysts.

The researchers used chiral acy lating agents, tagged with two different groups to convert the alcohol or amine group into its es ter or amide fo rm. Then they determined the electroscopy ionisati on mass spectrum (ES r-MS) for the samp les (which need onl y he a few nano moles in size.)

Accord in g to Fi nn , the mass of the tagged es ters or al11 ides is corre lated directl y with abso lute confi gurati on of the ori ginal memhers of the li brary. Nevertheless, heca use the technique req uires onl y a ve ry low selec ti v­it y in the acy lati on step, it is ge nerall y app li cab le to a wide va ri ety 01' structures.

The ana lytica l steps in co mbinatorial chemistry have tcnded to be rate- limiting ones. However. by using mass spectrometry in thi s way, the process of co mbinatorial chemistry has been speeded up by provid in g a hi gh throughput method for mcasurin g thc effec ti veness of "terco-se lec ti ve catalys is in generatin g an enanti omeric excess I ChclIl firi! , 35 «)) ( 1999) p. 16 i

Recipe for pure water

o SSG

Chem ists have discovered a cheap and easy way to break down organi c poison in water whic h is contami­nated with deadl y chemicals wi th some improve ment s the meth od could be used to dispose of nerve gas and othcr chcmica l weapon ~.

Organi c chemi ca ls are among the .vorld ' s 1110st wor­ri:--omc pollu tants. They inc ludc PCBs and dioxi n, and Ill ilit ary was tes from expired explos ives to VX , a lethal nerve ga~ . Since organic cOIllPounds consist alillost ~n t irc l y of ca rbon. hydrogen and oxygen, it ca n be broken down into water and ca rbon di ox ide, al ong with tracc qua ntiti cs of re"'t ive ly h arllllcs .~ ions ."uch as ni ­trate:-- . sulphates and ch loride. Thi s process required e ithcr \'c ry harsh and ex pensivc co ndi tions, or equ all y toxic chemi ca ls.

Chemists led by Ay usman Sen at Penn sy lvan ia State uni versity have come up with a simple rec ipe: dissolve a small amount of oxygen and ca rbon-monox ide in water cont aining any orga nic chemica l, add a pinch of cheap metal catal ys t and cook at 85"C for several hI'S. By thi s the reaction leaves no detectabl e trace of organic co ntam inants. Sen says that at the end of the process onl y metal has to be fi Itered out. T here is noth i ng organ ic left.

The researchers di scovered the method when they noti ced that disso lved organi c compounds in contact with the meta l pallad iu m tend to oxid ize - the process in whi ch a molecule loses elec tron s and combines wi th oxygen. Sen says that the metal Catalyses the Com­pound 's oxidati on both direc tl y and indirec tl y, by con­verting water and oxygen into hyd rogen perox ide, a powerful ox idi z in g agent.

Ha ving tes ted the process with simple molec ules sllch as methanc, Sen movecJ on to try more comple x com­pounds which are chemicall y simi lar to nerve gases but sa fe.

Sen says the method mi ght eventu all y be useful as an alternati ve to inc inerati on for dest roy in g c hemical weapons stockpiles and improved the process a~ in thc ex isting form, the technique would require too much wat e r to be pract ic al INell ' Sci. 163([\ 0

220 1)( 1999)p.1 7 1.

Leprosy vaccine developed

::.J

sse;

A new leprosy vacc ine has been deve loped by L E Sante, a di vision o r Cad ila Pharmaceuti cals Ltd .

The company has started commerc ial manufacture and marketi ng of the drug. The search fo r Ieprovac was started by the company in 1973 and a few yea rs late r. nontox ic culti vable mycobacteri um wa~ iso lated a:-. a possib le trial candidate fo r the vacc ine fo r leprosy .

Aft er co rDpl etin g phase I,ll and III c lini cal tri,d s, it was found that the identifi ed mycobacterium had illl ­mun o- modulating properti es that enabl ed the vacc inc to be e frecti ve as an added therapeut ic option to trea t leprosy with no side effects.

Laprovac stimulates the body defence sys tem, whi ch becomes inacti ve again:--t the leprosy bacteria, rcac ti vc~

itse lf and ultimate ly overcome~ the d i~ca se. Leprovac accele rates bacterial cl earances whi ch enables the P,I­ti ent to be cured from leprosy in half the time it ta kes tn be cured wi th Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) alonc.

The vacc ine also reduces the le:-.ions. whi ch onc a part of every multi -bac illary leprosy patient. Thi :-. preven t:-,

SC I-TECH UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 173

the patient from being soc iall y ostrac ized and ultimately im proves the quality of life.

Currentl y the drugs used fo r the treatment of leprosy are a combinati on of a mult i-d rug regime compri sin g refa mpicin. clofaz imine and dapson, which are to be adm inistered bot h wi th and without supervision.

The technology fo r leprovac has been deve loped by National Institu te of Immunology and supported by the Department of Biotec hnology INandini Chem .1, 36

( 1999) p.49 1.

A new route for chiral building blocks

o SSG

Sang Y up Lee, Korea Advanced In st itute of Sc ience & Tec hno logy , Tae jon, South Korea, has suggested to make enantimerica ll y pure hyd roxy carboxy li c ac ids usin g bacteri a by first mak in g the correspondin g chiral po lyesters and then degrad ing them, which can be used an economical and efficient way to sy nthes ize these molecul es.

R-( -)hydroxy carboxy li c ac ids are useful chiral build­ing blocks for sy nthes izing biologica ll y acti ve fine chemica ls. In add it ion, to a chiral center that can be incorporated in to these compounds, the ac ids hydroxy and carboxy lic ac id functi onal groups can be conven­iently mod ifi ed.

Some bacteri a are al ready mak in g them. When grow n under conditi ons of nutriti onal stress, many types of bacteria store available carbon in the form of polyhy­droxya lkanoates (PH As) whi ch they later break down into R-(-) hydroxy carboxyl ic ac ids .. PHAs show co m­mercia l promi se in their own ri ght as biodegradabl e materials. Lee and hi s coll eagues foc used on ex ploring the range of carbon compounds th at bacteri a can use to make the biopolymers and on ways to improve the cost and efficiency of the process .

According to Lee, Illi croorgani sm can incorporate more than 120 kinds of carboxy lic ac id s hyd roxy lated at the 3-,4-,5, and6 pos ition into PHAs. [f the hydroxy l group in the start ing mate ri al is located at the chiral centre the biopolymer wi ll a lways adopt the R-(-)-con­figuration. It has been reasoned that va ri ous enan­ti omerica ll y pure R-(-) hydroxy carboxy li c compounds ought be convenientl y prepared by depolymerizing bi o­sy nthes ized PH As.

All bacteria that make PHAs al so have enzy mes to clegracle them bu t they all cont ain enzy mes that further metaboli ze the monomers. The tec hnological challenge is to grow the ce ll s in an environment in which the

depolymeri zing enzy mes are acti ve and those that would attack the monomers are not.

Lee has found that the cultures of the bacteriu m, Alcaligelles latus, can be induced to produce so much PH As that it accounts for 88 per cent of the organi sm' s dry weight. If ce ll s storing PHA are incubated. in a med ium that lacks a carbon source, the orga ni sm will degrade the polymer to prod uce R-(-)-hydroxy carbox­ylic ac ids. Lee has found that further degradati on of the monomers can be prevented at low pH .

Lee notes that an earl ier process prepared R -( -)-3-hy­droxy butyric ac id and R-( -)-3 hydroxyvaleri c ac id from microbiall y produced polymer by chemical degradati on of PH A using organic solvents at low effi ciency. His microbial process can depolymerize po lyrR-( -)-3h)'­droxy butanoate 1 with 96 per cent of efficiency in water. Lee suggests that eq uall y promisin g is the broad range of hydroxy ac ids that may be access ible by thi s strategy 1 ChclI1 Eng News, 77 (35) ( 1999) p. 57 1·

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Enhancing the activity of enzymes in nonaqueous media

Enzy mes would be more widely used in organic sol vents if their acti vity were not so drastica ll y red uced. Li zhong Dai and Professor Alex.a ncler M Kli ba nov at Massac hu setts Institute of Tec hnology have found the ways to enhance the acti vity of certain enzy mes in nonaqueous media. They fo und that fo ur lyophili zed ox idati ve enzymes - horseradi sh perox idase, soybean perox idase, Caldariomyces fumago chl oroperox idase. and mushroom polyphenol ox idase - function better in nonaqueous medi a if they are introduced by first dissolv­ing them in water and then d ilut ing the so lu tion with anh ydrous solvents.

The enzy mes, which are denatured durin g lyophili za­ti on, exhibit very little acti vit y when suspended direc tl y in a nonaqueous mediul1l . But they reac ti vate if firs t red isso lved in water. Da i and Kli banov have also sug­gested two complementary ways to l1linimize or e li mi­nate enzy me inac ti vati on due to lyophili zati on: use of phenolic and aniline substrates to protect the hyd ropho­bic pocket or the acti ve sit e and prevent its coll apse. and use of protectants such as polyols and polyethylene glycol to preserve the overa ll enzy me structure 1 Chel1l En!; News , 77(35) ( 1999) p.52; Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 96 ( 1999) p.9475 1.

o IISDK

174 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 SCI-TECH UPDATE

New biocompatible bone repair material developed

A team of researchers at the Tec hni cal Univers ity o r Dresden and Me rck Biomaterial , Darmstadt , German y, has developed a ncw compatibl e bone repack material, in the rorm of a Ikxibl c tapc.

Thc team generated a co ll agen-hydroxyapatite com­pos ite by hi ometri c synthesis under ph ys io logical con­dition s: they combined the co ll age n fibril assembl y and calcium phosphate rormation in one process. to produce mincralized co llagen. Then, by using EDC IN-(3-di­mcth yaminopropyl)-N-eth ylcarbodiimide l as a cross­link e r und e r vac uum riltrati on, th ey produced a co ll age n-hydroxyapatite tape . The tape rese mbles filt er paper in tcrms o r its thic kness. co lour. ability to absorb \\'~It e r. and it s Ikxihilit y when wct or dry.

T he tape has many intc resting feature s. SEM in vesti ­~a ti o n s ha ve show n that the tape eontains 111 si ze pores. Thi ~ se ll1i - perllleahilit y allows body fluid s, cell. and blood vesse l ~ tn penetrate t hc tapc. promot i ng bonc rc modell i ng and repai r. Somet i me after implantation thc ta pe i ~ eO l1lpl etc ly trans rorI)1ed int o nalUral bonc.

T hc group tes ted the abilit y or the tape to support cell growth hy seeding rat ce ll s onto the tape and then incuhatin g it. S EM anal ys is showed good cel l adhesi on in I h art er seedin g. and aner 3d allllos t the entire tape \\',IS cove red hy ce ll s. suggestin g that the material has good co mpati bi I it y. T he lllechan ica l pro pe rt ies o r the ta pe were al so tes ted . When thc tape is wc t- the co n­d iti on that it would be at once transplant ed int o the body - it shows a te ns ile stre ngth o r up to I MPa and a hi gh rr,lcturc strain (about 2() per cent ). which mean s that it i ~ fl ex ible enough to be applied in a wide ran ge or bone reco nstructi ve procedures. For exampl e the tape can be wrapped around hone wit hout breaking.

T he tape will he useful in buil d in g up layers with hyd roxyapatit e ceme nts to rorml aminated bone re place­lllent graft s . In additi on. it llli ght he useci to cover ho les in honc or to generate a llle lllhranc be tween differe nt types or ti ss ue 1 CII (' II/ Bril. 35( 10) ( 19lJlJ) p. 1 R I.

Small dose of alcoholma~1 reduce heat·t attack damage

o IIKK

Thc researchers at the Stanrord Uni ve rsity Medical Centc r. CaliI'. have round Ihal an amounl o r a lcoho l eq U i v; li enl to t hal round in onc 10 two dri nk s pro tec ts I he hC; lrt rro lll the kind or dalll;lgc sullc red during a heart

attack . They have also studied how the protecti ve benerit

occurs . The experiments - so far tried onl y in rats - showed

that ex pos i ng the heart to al co hol 1'0 1' I () to 2() mi n

immediately be rore insult was protec tive. The amount

o r al coho l suffi cient to reduce damage to the heart by 7()

per cent was equi vale nt to one to two a lcoho li c drin ks

consumed by a perso n. This is the first study to show that a hrief ex posure to

leve ls or alcohol that are rea lly tolerated well - eVt' n

for those worried about addi cti on -- provides protec­

tion . There are two situations in whic h the time o r infarct

is clearl y marked : Transplantation and any kind o f open

chest surgery. Heart s harvested 1'0 1' tra n'i plantation sur­

fer a peri od of ischemia be fore they reac h the rec ipi ent

and during open heart surgery the re is also ~ I pcri od o r

ischemia . It is be li eved that pati ents in bo th groups may

benefit rrom ex posure to al cohol. admi nistered intravc­

nousl y. just prior to the procedure, and is hoping 10

launch a clinical trial to test the theo ry. In additi on to determinin g that small amounts o r

alcohol can be good for the heart , researchers havc

fi gured out how the bene fit arises. They round th at

alco hol turn s on an enzy me called eps il on prote in kinase

C (PKC), and they have since rocused the ir crrort s on

ri nd in g a subsl<ince, other than alcoho l. t hat wi II act i vaiL'

it. While al cohol protec ts the heart by activating eps il on

PKC, it can also switc h on lots of other things ins ide tile

ce ll, whic h may be undes irable. Researche rs have de ­

si gned a very small prote in fragment. or peptide, that

spec ificall y acti vates e psil on PKC. When the peptide

was added to heart cel ls g rown ill vil ro. it protected the

ce ll s from ischemi c damage by turning on eps il on PKC.

Benefits were also seen in the h eart ~ or mice that were

geneticall y eng ineered to produce th e peptide soon an er

birth . It was found tha t these mice had normal . healthy

hearts ; bu t due to the peptide , they sllfre red less damage

and reco vered more qui ckl y from isc he mi c insult s th ;ln

d id the heart s or norma l mice . The researchers are continuin g to , tudy epsil on PKC

and re lated enzy mes to find out just how thcy work to

protect the heart mu sc le. They are al so in ves ti gating

how bes t to turn this bas ic researc h int n c lini ca l bencrit s.

The pe ptide Itse lf' is probabl y un .' uita ble as a med ic inc.

bu t il will serve as a te mplate ro r dru g deve loplllcnt. It

llli ghilead to a drug patient s can t,lke when ex pn ienc ing

SCI-TECH UPDATE J SCIIND RES VOL S9 FEBRUARY 2000 175

chest pain the way nitroglycerin is currently taken to increase blood fl ow to the heart.

Clue in the fight against cancer

o HKK

Professor Robert ewbold and hi s team at the Brunei Uni versity, Ux bridge, Middlesex, UK have found a way to sw itch off an enzy me th at helps cancer ce lls become ' immortal ' and keep multipl ying.

An enzy me call ed te lomerase is one of the factors responsibl e for shielding cancer ce ll s from their natural age ing process. According to Newbold , it is thi s enzyme that is be li eved to be deact ivated.

The discovery could lead to the development of new anti -cancer dru gs and impro ve the treatment of breas t cancer that kills about 14.0tlO women in the UK each year.

The new research has fin all y been abl e to pinpoint a new way to potenti all y deacti vat e te lomerase enzy me.

Newbo ld el (I I. searched ex tensively for ways to switch off the gene which prod uces the enzy me.

In laboratory tests, groups of healthy genes were transferred into breast tumour ti ssue to find out what co mbinati on mi ght block isomerase. Usi ng advanced geneti c tec hniques the scienti sts were able to locate the key genes to a small region of a parti cular chromosome. Attempts will now be made to mimic thi s group of genes.

It is hoped. this will eventuall y lead to the sy ntheti c producti on of dru gs that can stop the action of telom­crase.

The sea rch is a major step forward in the hunt for new and improved treatment s for breast cancer pati ents .

Fi nding new ways to combat the ' immortality ' of cancer ce ll s is beco min g a vital part of cancer resea rch and is proving crucial to the development of future anti-cancer treatment s.

For furth er detail s. co ntact: Profe .~sor Robert Newbo ld Brunl:1 Uni ve rsit y. Uxbri dge , Middk~ex UB8 :1 PH , United Kingdom,

Tel: 1895 274()()() , Fax: 18952:12 8()6 .

Blueberries and their new applications

o HKK

In a new stud y conducted by James Joseph of the US Department of Agriculture, Human Nutriti on Research Ce nter on Aging at Tuft s Uni versity in Boston, and Paula C Bickford 's . of the Uni versity of Colorado

Health Sciences Center and the Department of Veteran s Affairs Medical Center in Denver, animals were fed a blueberry extract diet, ri ch in naturall y-derived anti ox i­dants, showed fewer age-related motor changes and outperformed their study counterparts on memory tests. Indeed, blueberries and other foods containing anti ox i­dants may act to protect the body against damage frolll ox idative st ress, one of several biological processes implicated in aging and in the deve lopment of many neurodegenerati ve di seases.

In the study, three groups of older rats were fed an 8-week- long diet supplemented with fruit or vegetable extracts wit h potential antioxidant effects. A fourth group of an imals did not receive the specia l diet. The group of ani mals that recei ved the supplements showed some improvement on key indicators of age- related

dec line. The animal s that received suppl emcnts were given

either blueberry, strawberry. or spi nach ex tracts . Re­searchers found that the group of rats that was fed blueberry suppl ements ca me out on top in tests of bal­ance and coordination . The two groups given strawberry or blueberry supplements showed the most compelling evidence of protecti on against oxidat ive stress in their brains. On tests of working memory, a ll three groups receiving supp lements outperformed their control coun­terparts . In addition the groups receiving supplements all showed signs of the presence of vitamin E. a key antioxidant , in their brains .

The exc iting finding from this study is the potenti al reversal of some age-related impairments in both mem­ory and motor coordinati on, espec iall y witllt·blueberry suppl ements. For these animals , at least. researchers were able to produce a noti ccable improvement withi n relati ve l y shorter durati on.

The onl y way to determine whether particul ar food ingredients actuall y work to slow age-related cogniti ve dec line in hLlmans as well is to conduct controll ed clini ­ca l trial s.

Plant chemicals , call ed pliyloclielllico/s, are present in fruit s and vegetabl es and may ha ve additional bene­fi cial properties beyond the anti ox idant acti vity. The researchers beli eve that the phytochemicals present in blueberri es, strawberries, and spinac h may have proper­ties that increase ce ll membrane tluidity, a ll ow ing im­portant nutrients and chemical signals to pass in and oul of the ce ll , thereby red ucing infl ammatory processes ill ti ssues.

176 .I SCIIND RES VOL 51) FEBR UARY 200() SCI-T ECII UPDATE

Recent studi es suggest that a di et ri ch in fruits and vege tables - natural dietary sources of anti oxid ants­may have a benefic ial anti -cancer effect. Orange and ye ll ow vegetabics, fruits, and whole grain s are all ri ch in natural anti ox idants. Several currentl y popular sub­stances. inc lu din g vita min E. beta carotene, vitamin C. and seicnium, arc also th ought to have anti ox idant ef­kc t:--. in the body. but how they act uall y work is not co mpl ete ly understood. Researchers are stud ying the efkct i ve ness of t he:--.e and ot her agent s fo r their ant iox i­da nt properties and for their ab ilit y to protect ce lls agai nst damage and dea th associated with ox idati ve st ress 1 NIH Ne Il 'S Releuse, 15 September 1999; .J Nellro­sci. l:'i September /999 1.

o HKK

Dr Yusuf Najmuddin Memorial Lecture on Role of luslims in Scientific Development

Fi r"t of all . I \Vo ul d like to pay my homage to Dr Yusuf Najmuddin in whose memory thi s lecture has been dedicated.

Among the in stitut ions wh ich have prov ided educa­tion to Illu slims of Ind ia in basic sc ience and technology (S&T ), menti on may be made of the Ali garh Muslim Uni versity . .lami a Milli a Islamia. Anjuman-e- Islam, and several other organi sati ons whose contributi ons remain fundamental for higher educati on. I would particul arl y Illenti on in thi s connec ti on the name of Dr Ishaq .la mk­hanawal a who has dedicat ed himself for this nobl e cau se as Pres ident of Anjull1an-i- lslam.

If we loo k at the histori ca l background, we find th at the contri buti ons of mu sl illls in I ndia towards scienti fi c growth and deve lopment arc indeed important and sig­nificant. Starting from researches in indigenous medi ­c ine the ro le played by Prof. Salimuzzi.lman Siddiqui, a well kn own chemi st, in the di scovery of a dru g from RW{lI'O/f/u serpelllil/o , commonl y kn ow n as "asrol " or "se rpina". which controls bl ood pressure is spectacular. Even today . thi s drug in difkrent forms is used exten­sive ly for the treatment of hypertension. Similarly the contrihut ions of Dr K A Hameed, the founder of 'Cipla ' . and of Hakim Abdul Hameed the founder of Hamdard. arc we ll-known. Cipla is a leading drug company of the country and so is Hamdard .

In the fi e ld of ecol ogy and ornithology the contribu­ti ons of legendary Dr Salim Ali are simpl y outstanding. He dedicated his whole life for the study of birds of India, and today whatever we known about the birds, not onl y of India but of the Asian region as a whol e, is

because of hi s books and original papers . Hi s other famil y member namely Zafar Futehal ley and Humayun Adullah are foll ow ing hi s footsteps and are well -known authorities in the fi e ld o f ecology and conservati on. Tile Bombay Natural History Soc iety owes a great dea l to him . A new institution named as Salim Ali In stitute of Eco logy and Ornithology has been es tabli shed in Co illl ­batore .

A di stingui shed organ ic chemi st and former Di rcctOl'­General of CSIR. Dr Husse in Zaheer brought a new culture of CSIR . He gave autonomy and freedom to Nati onal Laboratori cs to moderni Ze their work in re­search and development (R&D). He encouraged the young scientists to a great ex tent. A foundati on in hi s name called "Zahecr Sc ience Found ati n" has been es­tabli shed in the country with its build ing in e\V Delhi .

In the des ign of rockets and mi ss iles the name of Dr A P .J Abdul Kalam. who has recen tl y received the hi ghes t titl e of "Bharat Ratna" is kno\V n throughout the country. Modest and una:--.su ming, th i ~ sc ientist from Tamil Nadu is a li vin g exam ple of dedi ca ti on for sc ien ­tifi c pursuits.

In the fie ld of OC: l' 'nd Ant arctic Research. with all modest y and humility, I would like to menti on Illy o\\' n name (S Z Qasim) for building almost the entire infra­st ructure in the form of sho re- based instituti ons. oceanographi c research vesse ls , and trainedman-powc r for the country. Polar research in Indi a was not kn own till the first Indian Antarcti c Ex pedi ti on was launched and I was se lected its leader. Thi :--. expediti on laid tile foundati on of polar research in the country. Today. there are more than 30 instituti ons in the country whi ch arc working in this fi e ld . In the fi e ld of ma rine gco logy the name of Late Dr H N Siddiqui , the Former Director of National Institute of Oceanography, Goa , a Bhatnagar and Padma Shri awardee is worth mentioning. In marine chemi stry the name of Dr S W A ~ aqi is well -known. He is a young sc ienti st of great promi~e and the winner of CSIR-Young Scientist Award and Bhatnagar Award and a Fe ll ow of Indian Academy of Sc i ence~ .

In the fi e ld of molec ular biology the spectacular contributi ons made by Prof. Obaid Siddiqui of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR ), Mumbai. ha ve been well-recognized throughout the world and lie has been elected as a Fe ll ow of the Roya l Soc iety. London and was awarded Padma Bh us han .

An important name in the fi e ld of physical chemi stry is that of Prof. Wahi d-Uddin Malik . About 100 scholar:--. have obtained Ph D degrees under hi s guidance and he

SCI-TECH UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBR UA RY 2 ()()() 177

has a unique di stincti on of serving as Vice-chancell or of threc universiti es of India .

In ph ys ics the name of Pro f. Wali Mohammad the fo rmcr Head of Ph ys ics Department in the AMU, and also thc Head at Luck now Uni versity in the field o r spectrosco py can be found in all the tex t books. Simi­h rl y. Pro f. Rais Ahmad in bas ic e lectro ni cs. who later became the Direc tor. ati onal Council for Educati onal Resea rch and Training (NCERT) and Vicc-c hairman Uni ve rsit y Grant s Commi ss ion (UGC) is widely known. In geophysics the work of Dr S M Naq vi of National Geoph ys ica l Resea rch In stitute. Hyderabad, has been graded as out standin g. He is a winner of Bhatnagar Awa rcl and a Fe ll ow of Indian National Science Acad­cmy.

In the fi e ld of in organi c chcmistry and catal ysi s the name of Prof. M Taqu i Khan who was earlier the Direc­to r of Ce ntral Salt and Marine Chemica l Research Insti ­tute. Bhav naga r. remains very prominent. A Fell ow of ,dl thc National Sc ience Academi cs, he has co ntributed ,·cry ri chl y towards the development of desalin ati on tec hnology based on reverse os mos is. His wife, Badr Taqui Khan has bee n a Professor of Chemi stry in Os ma­ni a Uni ve rsity and is a Fell ow of ati onal Academy of Sc ienccs.

There arc sevcral di stinguished sc ienti sts from the Ali garh Muslim Uni versit y (A MU) and Jamia Millia Islami a whose names arc worth mcnti onin g. The most worth y name is of Pro f. Babar Mi rza, my teacher and we ll-wisher who has been a rea l huilder of the Deparl ­ment of Zoology as Head . Then co mes the name of Pro f. Abrar Mustafa Khan of the Department of Botan y - a Fell ow of several Sc ience Academi es and the winner of Rafi Ahmad Kid wai Pri ze in agri cultural sc ience . Among the younger scienti sts the name of Prof. Shamim Jairajpuri the present Dean of the Faculty of Science in AMU. Fe llow of sevcral Science Academies and a For­mer Director, Zoo logical Survey of India is worth men­tioning. He has made notabl e contributi ons in Pl ant Hematology . Another sc ienti st, Pro f. A K .lafri , former I-lead of Zoo logy Departillen t is a Fell ow of Nati onal Academy of Sc iences and is kn own ror hi s work on fi sh and fi sheries.

From .lamia the nailles of Prof. Z H Z~lidi in ph ys ics who has done co mmendahl e work in material research and of Prof. Fai zan Ahmad , Head of Biosc iences De­partment , are worth noting.

I shall be failing ill my dllt y, if I do not menti on the name of a few women scienti sts who have distingui shed

themselves in their fi e lds of study. The name of Dr Hamida Saeedu zaffar will always remain fres h in om minds. The daughter of Pro f. Saeecluza tlar the Principa l of Kin g George Medical College, Lucknow. she as Professor of Ophthalmology at the AMU, made ori gi nal contributi ons whil e at the Lond on Uni vcrsity in deve l­opi ng an understand i ng of the eye disease glaucoma and its treatment. Other important names arc tho\c of I)r Sultana Zaheer in the fi c ld of "S tandards" in ph ys ics. Dr

ajma Zaheer, a Professor in Biochemi st ry at the Jaw<t­harlal Nehru Uni versity (J NU). and a vcry promisi ng young chemist, and Fe ll ow of ational Academy or Sc ience, Dr Kaiser Jamee l, a Seni or Sc ienti st in the Indian Institute of Chemi ca l Tec hnology, Hyderabacl. and Dr Qamar Rahman , another seni or sc ienti st in the Indian Tox icological Research Centre. Luckn ow.

I n the engineerin g fi e ld the names of Dr R H S iddiqu i. a former Professor and Head of Civil Enginee ring and of Prof. Ras hiduzza far , former Vice-c hancell or of Jamla Hamdard who had an untimely death in an acc idcnt in Saudi Arabi a are important to note. In the field or Sc ience Commun ieat ion, Dr S A I R izv i. fo rmer DepUl) Director, Nati onal Institute of Sc ience Communica ti on (CSIR) and the editor of several prcs ti gious journ als has made significant contributi ons . S imilarl y the work or Mr M A Qureshi of the National Institute or Sc ience, Technology and Deve lopment Studies on rural deve lop­ment is worth noting.

Among the Rl s the name of Prof. S R Qasim. a noted Professor of Environmental Engineerin g at the Unive r­sit y of Texas and Prof. Wasi1l1 A Siddiqui at the Uni ve r­sity or Ha wa ii and of man y others are worth mcnti oning.

Thus. I ha ve been able to summarize above from memory the names of several important muslim :--cien­tists whose works will always remain outstanding. In additi on, there are hundreds of youn g scienti sts who are contributing their best to the nati on in the fi eld of S&T. Thus , I feel it is essential for us to look back and evaluate whether the role of muslims in sc ientifi c development durin g the last SO years has reall y becn signifi ca nt or not.

o S 7. QAS I\I

Prese J1t1 y. ChairmaJ1 . Delhi In stilulC of Tec hno log) . formc rh Member (Sc ience). PlanJ1ing C() lllllli ~sioJ1 a III I

Vice-chance ll or . .l ami a Milli a Islamia. Ncw Deihl

Swadeshi Science Movement Of India, Delhi (V igyan Bharti, Delhi): A Report

Swadeshi Science Movement is a movement with a total commitment to the swadeshi spirit and an Indian

17X J SCIIND RES VOL 5') FEBR UARY 2000 SCI·TECH UPDATE

approac h in Sc ience and Techn ology (S&T) with a suitable int erfacing between the great ancient sc ientific heritage and the modern know ledge in solving the prob­lems or our nati onal deve lop ment. This movement as a soc iety has been launched at the national level and it 's units in a ll states or Ind ia would endeavour towards na ti onal reconstructi on. Basicall y it deals with the adop­ti on and lItili zati on of S&T as an effect ive instrument s ror ach iev i ng the socia l wei rare or man ki ncL at the same time. opposing any attempt to the ex pl oitati on of Illasses through S&T. It ·s motto has been selected as: with the materi al-ph ys ica l sc iences, we ri ght the causes of un­natural death and with the spiritual sciences, we attain hi gher stages of consc iousness. i.e .. immortality. An account of the ac ti vit y or the Swadeshi Science Move­ment or India , Delh i (SSMD) is heing hi ghli ghted here. Ac ti viti es or the SSMD durin g the pe ri od December 1l)95 to March 1999 are report ed which were presented in its general body Illeeti ng held at the ati onallnstitute or Science. Tec hnology and Deve lopment Stud ies, New Delh i II() ()12 on Novembe r 19, 1999.

MW I/ )()"'cr St rengtli ort /f(' SSM!)

During the span or three years the membership of the SSMD has been graduall y in creas in g and the number or the melllbers have now grow n to about 100. Life mem­hers and annual membe rs arc 74 and 10, respecti ve ly, hesides rour patrons.

.)·cient istsITeclinologisl.\/ llIrllfst rio/ists Meet 1<)<)51

SSM)) organi sed the Sc ienti sts/Technolog ists/ Indus­tr ia li sts meet at the Scope complex. ew Delhi on December 26. 1995. Prof. Dr Murli Ma nohar Joshi , presentl y the Hon' ble Mini ster ror Human Resources Deve loplllent and Science & Tec hnology was the chie r .. gues t or the day who forma li sed the launching of the De lhi unit or SSM in the prese nce or over 125 partic i­pant s. The event turned out to be an hi storical one wi th a memorahle de liherati on from Dr. Joshi who converged on the glory or the ancient sc ientifi c tradi ti ons and the tccill1o l()gicil aspects with cert ai n typical "li ve" ex peri ­ences Dr himse lr ai med ror the masses ror nati onal recon:-.truc ti on through Industry - R&D/Ed uca ti onal institu ti onal lin kages. Prof. K I Vasu, at ional Coord i­n ~ lt o r or SSM elaborated on the pertinent aims and ohjec ti ves or SSMD and ad vocat ed for the explorati oll and ex pos iti on or the grea t achi evements or ancient Illdia in hoth natural anel soc ial sciences. espec iall y ill their sy nthes is.

? Seminar Lectu re 1997-

SSMD organised an another Seminar on January 10, 1997 at Indian In stitut e or Technology, New Delhi and initi ated a Lecture Series Progralllme. First lecture of the programllle was given by Dr Kri shan LaL Director's grade scientist , National Phys ical Laboratory (CS IR ) on the topic of "Indigenous Development of Sophisti­cated Equipments" highli ghting the ac hievement s of

PL in the development of crys tal growth and hi gh reso lution X-ray diffracti on apparatus . About )0 mem­bers parti c ipated. It was recall ed in the deliberati ons how the SSM in the past attained success in translating one or it s mi ssion into prac ti ce in Tami lnad u by way or taking some of our technologies to the villages . Kun­drakudi has been considered as the model vill age con­cept in thi s context. Need of the hour, thererore, has been to work for not only the Na ti onal movement but also for the build-up or a mass movement in thi s directi on for attaining se lf- suffic iency through SSMD. it was rinall y reso lved by the gatherin g.

TII 'in Prog rwl1l11es or tli e Nationol COllle r~lIc (, olld RI" F eshe r CO llrse alld PIIMic Fllll ctioll f<)<) 7-,· 1 1

SSMD organ ised: (i) National Confe rence and Re­fresher course on Industrial Metal Fini shin g and Elec­troplating with emphasis on pollution contro l measures and (ii ) Public fun cti on on Sc ience wit h respect to Indi an languages at I ndian Agri cult ura l Resea rch I nst itute.

ew De lh i du ring ovember 10-1 3, 1997. Hon' bl e Sa­hib S ingh Verma , the then C hi c I' Mini ster, Delhi and presentl y M P, Ga l inaugurated the Conference and refresher course and al so released the bili ngual Souve· nir. Prof. A K Raychaudhuri . Director. at ional Phy"i­ca l Labo rat o ry re lea sed th e Bilin g ual Boo k 0 11

Electroplatin g and Metal rinishing, ed ited by Dr D P Bhatt , Drs Rashmi , V N Ojha and Kav indra Pant (Edi­torial Board members). About 100 de legates rrom dif­ferent parts of the country attended the programme.

Sri Kup C Sudarshan, An engin ee r turned social act ivist/g rea t sc ho lar and Sahsa rka ryavah o r th e Ras htri ya Swayamsevak Sangh was the ma in speaker of the public fun ction.

Pro f. M M Joshi , then the Chai rman or Public Ac­COllnt s COJllmittee, Ga l, pres ided over the programll\e and ad vocated for the li se of Sansk ri t to transmi t tlie sc ience to the masses. This talk o r Dr Josh i to propagate Sanskri t was later re ll ec ted in tile HRD mi ni .'itry's !)~-9() budget ror Sansk rit language whi ch wen t up from Rs 19 crore to Rs 36 c r~ rex when he became th HRD Mini ster. To implement thi s vision and also one of the mi ssioll\

SCI-TECH UPDATE J SCI IND RES VOL 59 FEBRUARY 2000 I 7!)

of SSMD to use a ll Indian languages in sc ience, Dr 0 P

Bhall in iti ated the need of a fresh dialogue amongst the

sc ience and industry personnel and arranged a meet ing

with Dr R A Mashe lkar, DG-CS I R during June 1998 and

briefed him with the above hav ing the need to mark the

glori ficati on of ancient S&T, wherein to begil\ with,

refres her courses on sc ience and sansk rit could be regu­

larl y conducted at CS IR level and thus CSIR coul d take

the lead to govern the Schoo l of Sansk rit languages as

we ll , befitting the cause of nat ionhood in the area of

S&T. I am happy to share with the members that DG-CSIR

in one of the functi ons of central secretari at of Hindi

Pari shad, Delhi to re lease Vigyan Ganga-Energy issue')

gave the ratifica ti on to one of the aims and objecti ves

and stated that S&T cannot be a c lass co"mmodity and so

in orderto take it to the 2 1 st century i.e ., next mill ennium

and to make it a mass commod ity, Hindi is the one of

the best modes to do thaI.

Seminar Lecture IYY8 12

SSMD organ ised the second lect ure of it ' s lectu re

series programme on 20th Jul y 1998 at PL. Prof B S

Rajput , Vice- Chancellor of Kumaun Uni versity, Naini ­

tal, spoke on the subject of "Sc ience in Ancient Indi a"

in Hindi. Over 100 members attended the lecture. On

thi s occas ion, a di nner-cum-di scussion meetin g was

also held at the residence of Pro f Ram Badan Sin gh, then

the Director, IARI and presentl y the Chairman, Agricul ­

tura l Sc ien ti sts Recrui tment Board, ew Delhi . Hon'ble

Prof. M M Joshi , S&T and HR D Mini ster, GOI was

present fo r more than 2 h along with many other intel­

lectua ls. Main agenda of the discussion was the proposal

of the acti on plans for revam ping SAC-C, CSIR and

other ed ucati onal in stitu tions. Mini ster gave a kind pa­

tien t hearing to the proposa l and also interacted one to one in thc discussion .

Press Releases with Regard 10 the FUII Cl iollinf oj ll/(' Government and Other National Concerlls 1:1 - 5

SSMD has been putting-forth her view- poin ts timl' and aga in under its purview regarding the issues con­cerning the soc io-scient ifi c interests of the nation e.t! . we hailed the achievement of Indian Sc ienti sts & Engi­neers fo r the Pokhran Success Story 98 and expressed confi dence that the economic sancti ons imposed by the advanced countries would not retard the country' :-, eco-nomic growth ...... .... and many other press releases .

Honollrs/Awards The felicitation certi ficate in honour of SSMD was

received from Dr A R Kidwai, then Governor of Bihar on behalf of the International Assoc iat ions of educators for world peace, America (an affiliated organi sati on of United Nati ons), Jakir Hussein Institute and IIEE (I ndia) durin g 1997 for serving the cause of nati onal construc­ti on and social service.

ame of the SSMD was included in one of the list of the book let of Delhi Government fo r giving Honou r towards soc ial services during 1997 ISources:

( I ) Broadcast of the Hi f{ hli f{h ls hy All India Radio, De lhi ; December 27 1995 (morning); (2) Vi nocl Varshney in The Hindustan, Delhi ed n, January 13 1997; (3) Panchjanya , November 30 1997; (4) OrRaniser, November 23 1997; (5) Vinod Varshney in The Hindus­

tan, Delhi edn, August 2S 1997; (6) Dainik JaRarcm, November 10 1997; (7) CSIR News, December 30 1997; (8) Times oj India, June 2 1998; (9) Na"hha ral Tillles, August 13 1998 ; ( 10) J Sci Ind Res, 57 ( 1998) 2 15- 19; ( II ) Paint India - Book Rev iew of Electrop lating and Metal Fini shing 1997, February 1998 issue; ( 12) Tele­

cast oj the HiRhlif{hfS by DD- I , Jul y 22 1998,7.20 pm; ( 13) Hindu , May 2 1 1998; ( 14) Salldhya Times, May 17 1996 and ; ( I S) Jansa fl a, May 27 1996.

DEVE ORA PRAKASH BHATf

Gen. Secrelary anc! Conveller. Swadeshi Science Movement of India. Delhi

do ational Physica l Laboratory. New Delhi I I () () 12. Phone: 57 14:1 ()}

I X()

Reference

Page I ()2 1

J SCII ND RES VOL 50 FEB RUARY 20()()

Additions and Corrections

Vol 58 , December 1999

As printed

AS Si

S Bandopadhyay

S( I IE 'H 1I1'[)ATL

To be read as

A Si

S Bandyopadhyay