The Science & Technology Weekly – 18 April – 1 May, 2016

Starting 4th April, 2016 we have a started a new initiative to post Science and Technology Compilation of all articles coming in leading newsdaily on a weekly basis. We look forward to simplify the preparation of aspirants by easing out their task in one of the most vague topics in UPSC preparation. The compilation will make aspirants aware with day to day happenings in the field of science and technology as well list out basics in brief.
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1. Cancer drugs can stop progression of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s
2. Coral reef finds stun oceanographers
3. Carbon sharing between trees
4. Arctic link to the monsoon
5. Global warming brings better weather to U.S

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[1] Cancer drugs can stop progression of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

News

• University of Delhi researchers found that the progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases can be suppressed or stopped by downregulating the expression level of d-myc in Drosophila (fruit fly).

What is d-myc?

• d-myc in an evolutionarily conserved human homolog of c-myc proto-oncogene, the findings in fruit fly may be applicable to humans as well.

Alzheimer’s

• A progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions.
• Brain cell connections and the cells themselves degenerate and die, eventually destroying memory and other important mental functions.
• Memory loss and confusion are the main symptoms.
• No cure exists, but medications and management strategies may temporarily improve symptoms.

Parkinson’s

• A disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement, often including tremors.
• Nerve cell damage in the brain causes dopamine levels to drop, leading to the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
• Parkinson’s often starts with a tremor in one hand. Other symptoms are slow movement, stiffness and loss of balance.
• Medications can help control the symptoms of Parkinson’s.

Etiology of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases?

• Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases occur due to accumulation of abnormal clumps of proteins in neuronal cells.

• The abnormal clumps are formed when a mutation to tau protein acts as a trigger and causes the addition of more phosphate group to the tau protein.

• The addition of more phosphate group to the tau protein causes it to fold into the wrong shape and stick together to form fibre-like structure.

• Which eventually bundle up to form clumps (neurofibrillary tangles) of proteins in the affected brain cells.

Subject used:

• Fruit fly

• Fruit fly was genetically programmed to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Why?

• Cellular and molecular investigations were carried out in fruit fly as undertaking such studies on human subjects is unethical.
• Also, brain tissues are completely degenerated in people with Alzheimer’s who have died.

The c-myc proto-oncogene in humans is a global regulator of gene expression.

• When this gene is regulated, it prevents other genes from enabling more phosphate group to get added to the tau protein, thereby restricting/stopping the progression of disease.
• Since a majority of anti-cancer drugs attempts to regulate c-myc proto-oncogene expression.
• use of such drugs in people with early stages of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease can help in stopping the progression of the disease.

Conclusion

• Most of the attempts at drug development have failed in the past.
• First time it demonstrated that a common drug target c-myc proto-oncogene can be used to treat two most devastating human disorders — cancer, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

[2] Coral reef finds stun oceanographers

News

• A huge 9,300 sq km coral reef system has been found below the muddy waters off the mouth of the river Amazon

• 600-mile-long (nearly 966 kilometer) reef, which ranges from about 30-120 m deep and stretches from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhao state

• They found over 60 species of sponges, 73 species of fish, spiny lobsters, stars and much other reef life.

This discovery came as a complete surprise to the oceanographers.

Why it was not suspected?

• Because many of the world’s great rivers produce major gaps in reef systems where no corals grow.
• Corals mostly thrive in clear, sunlit, salt water
• Equatorial waters near the mouth of the Amazon are some of the muddiest in the world.

Condition of these new coral reefs:

• It is relatively impoverished.
• They in grave danger.
• Because Brazilian government has sold 80 blocks for oil exploration and drilling at the mouth of the Amazon and 20 of these are already producing oil — some, it is thought, right on top of the reef.

[3] Carbon sharing between trees

Tree-to-tree interaction in forests goes beyond mere competition for resources (Research in Switzerland)

• Around 40 per cent of the carbon in fine roots of spruce trees came from neighbouring trees.
• This is crucial for forests, especially under stress conditions like wildfires
• Anthropological activities releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere since industrialisation
• It is interest to know what degree forests are able to absorb this amount
• Researchers used a tall canopy crane to label five 40-metre-tall Norway spruce trees with stable carbon isotope 13.
• Five unlabelled spruce trees were used as control.
• The labelled and unlabelled trees were then measured for C-13 from “tip to toe” – canopy twigs, stems, and fine roots.
• This was also done for neighbouring unlabelled non-spruce trees.
• They noticed that labelled carbon does find its way to other trees, albeit in the root zone
• In fact, the numbers revealed that roots of neighbouring trees, species no bar, shared an almost similar isotopic signature.
• The scientists strongly suspect that this interaction is mediated by networks of symbiotic fungi called mycorrhiza which connect the roots of different trees.
• Mycorrhizal networks are very common in most forests across biomes and climates. In spruce forests they are so common that they are considered a substantial carbon sink.

[4] Arctic link to the monsoon

Scientists are looking for specific oceanographic factors that could influence Indian monsoon, in polar waters.

• IndARC, the country’s first moored-underwater observatory in the Arctic, had recently been deployed for the continuous monitoring of the oceanographic parameters from various depths.
• IndARC is expected to provide significant inputs in the understanding of the Arctic climate and its possible link to tropical processes, specifically the Indian monsoon.
• The observatory carries with it an array of high-end oceanographic sensors strategically positioned at discrete depths in the water column.
• The sensors are programmed to collect real-time data on seawater temperature, salinity, current and other vital parameters.
• Climate change is felt first and fastest in the Arctic.
• It manifests as rising temperatures, loss of sea-ice and the melting of ice sheets.
• Any change in the Arctic region can influence climate patterns, sea-level rise and biodiversity changes across the globe, he noted.
• The deployment of IndARC won the researchers the National Geoscience Award 2014, which was presented recently.
• The observatory will help overcome logistical constraints in reaching the location during the harsh Arctic winter and obtaining near-surface data for the collection of oceanographic data.
• It will also aid the continuous collection of data from depths very close to the water surface as well as at different discrete depths, he said.
• The oceanographic data acquired through the observatory, besides providing for an increased understanding of the response of the Arctic to climatic variability, would also provide inputs in the understanding of the Arctic processes and their influence on the Indian monsoon system through climate modelling studies.

[5] Global warming brings better weather to U.S

Warming

• Thanks to climate change, 80 per cent of people living in America have been experiencing pleasant and favourable weather conditions during the last 40 years.
• Winter throughout the U.S. has become warmer with increasing temperatures but summer temperature has not risen to levels where it has become markedly uncomfortable.
• The result is that weather has shifted toward a temperate year-round climate that Americans have been demonstrated to prefer.
• A body of evidence shows how climate change might have catastrophic global consequences. And it is true that there has been a rise in the frequency of extreme heat events and a decrease in cold spells in the U.S. and the patterns in these trends vary across regions within the country as well as across seasons. But over all, there has been an improvement in the local weather over the last few decades.
• As a result of the favourable weather, there has been “low levels of concern” about the problems of climate change in the U.S. and not sufficient reasons to provoke the public to quickly move to a low-carbon emitting country.

• What is indeed worse is that the favourable changes in weather come despite the country being one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
• Countries in the tropics, which have not been the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, have been facing the brunt of climate change such as drought, heat waves, flooding and changed rainfall pattern.