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Science Simplified!

                       JAI VIGNAN

All about Science - to remove misconceptions and encourage scientific temper

Communicating science to the common people

'To make  them see the world differently through the beautiful lense of  science'

Members: 22
Latest Activity: 1 hour ago

         WE LOVE SCIENCE HERE BECAUSE IT IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING

     THIS  IS A WAR ZONE WHERE SCIENCE FIGHTS WITH NONSENSE AND WINS                                               

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”             

                    "Being a scientist is a state of mind, not a profession!"

                  "Science, when it's done right, can yield amazing things".

         The Reach of Scientific Research From Labs to Laymen

The aim of science is not only to open a door to infinite knowledge and                                     wisdom but to set a limit to infinite error.

"Knowledge is a Superpower but the irony is you cannot get enough of it with ever increasing data base unless you try to keep up with it constantly and in the right way!" The best education comes from learning from people who know what they are exactly talking about.

Science is this glorious adventure into the unknown, the opportunity to discover things that nobody knew before. And that’s just an experience that’s not to be missed. But it’s also a motivated effort to try to help humankind. And maybe that’s just by increasing human knowledge—because that’s a way to make us a nobler species.

If you are scientifically literate the world looks very different to you.

We do science and science communication not because they are easy but because they are difficult!

“Science is not a subject you studied in school. It’s life. We 're brought into existence by it!"

 Links to some important articles :

1. Interactive science series...

a. how-to-do-research-and-write-research-papers-part 13

b. Some Qs people asked me on science and my replies to them...

Part 6part-10part-11part-12, part 14  ,  part- 8

part- 1part-2part-4part-5part-16part-17part-18 , part-19 , part-20

part-21 , part-22part-23part-24part-25part-26part-27 , part-28

part-29part-30part-31part-32part-33part-34part-35part-36part-37,

 part-38part-40part-41part-42part-43part-44part-45part-46part-47

Part 48 part49Critical thinking -part 50 , part -51part-52part-53

part-54part-55part-57part-58part-59part-60part-61part-62part-63

part 64, part-65part-66part-67part-68part 69part-70 part-71part-73 ...

.......306

BP variations during pregnancy part-72

who is responsible for the gender of  their children - a man or a woman -part-56

c. some-questions-people-asked-me-on-science-based-on-my-art-and-poems -part-7

d. science-s-rules-are-unyielding-they-will-not-be-bent-for-anybody-part-3-

e. debate-between-scientists-and-people-who-practice-and-propagate-pseudo-science - part -9

f. why astrology is pseudo-science part 15

g. How Science is demolishing patriarchal ideas - part-39

2. in-defence-of-mangalyaan-why-even-developing-countries-like-india need space research programmes

3. Science communication series:

a. science-communication - part 1

b. how-scienitsts-should-communicate-with-laymen - part 2

c. main-challenges-of-science-communication-and-how-to-overcome-them - part 3

d. the-importance-of-science-communication-through-art- part 4

e. why-science-communication-is-geting worse - part  5

f. why-science-journalism-is-not-taken-seriously-in-this-part-of-the-world - part 6

g. blogs-the-best-bet-to-communicate-science-by-scientists- part 7

h. why-it-is-difficult-for-scientists-to-debate-controversial-issues - part 8

i. science-writers-and-communicators-where-are-you - part 9

j. shooting-the-messengers-for-a-different-reason-for-conveying-the- part 10

k. why-is-science-journalism-different-from-other-forms-of-journalism - part 11

l.  golden-rules-of-science-communication- Part 12

m. science-writers-should-develop-a-broader-view-to-put-things-in-th - part 13

n. an-informed-patient-is-the-most-cooperative-one -part 14

o. the-risks-scientists-will-have-to-face-while-communicating-science - part 15

p. the-most-difficult-part-of-science-communication - part 16

q. clarity-on-who-you-are-writing-for-is-important-before-sitting-to write a science story - part 17

r. science-communicators-get-thick-skinned-to-communicate-science-without-any-bias - part 18

s. is-post-truth-another-name-for-science-communication-failure?

t. why-is-it-difficult-for-scientists-to-have-high-eqs

u. art-and-literature-as-effective-aids-in-science-communication-and teaching

v.* some-qs-people-asked-me-on-science communication-and-my-replies-to-them

 ** qs-people-asked-me-on-science-and-my-replies-to-them-part-173

w. why-motivated-perception-influences-your-understanding-of-science

x. science-communication-in-uncertain-times

y. sci-com: why-keep-a-dog-and-bark-yourself

z. How to deal with sci com dilemmas?

 A+. sci-com-what-makes-a-story-news-worthy-in-science

 B+. is-a-perfect-language-important-in-writing-science-stories

C+. sci-com-how-much-entertainment-is-too-much-while-communicating-sc

D+. sci-com-why-can-t-everybody-understand-science-in-the-same-way

E+. how-to-successfully-negotiate-the-science-communication-maze

4. Health related topics:

a. why-antibiotic-resistance-is-increasing-and-how-scientists-are-tr

b. what-might-happen-when-you-take-lots-of-medicines

c. know-your-cesarean-facts-ladies

d. right-facts-about-menstruation

e. answer-to-the-question-why-on-big-c

f. how-scientists-are-identifying-new-preventive-measures-and-cures-

g. what-if-little-creatures-high-jack-your-brain-and-try-to-control-

h. who-knows-better?

i. mycotoxicoses

j. immunotherapy

k. can-rust-from-old-drinking-water-pipes-cause-health-problems

l. pvc-and-cpvc-pipes-should-not-be-used-for-drinking-water-supply

m. melioidosis

n.vaccine-woes

o. desensitization-and-transplant-success-story

p. do-you-think-the-medicines-you-are-taking-are-perfectly-alright-then revisit your position!

q. swine-flu-the-difficlulties-we-still-face-while-tackling-the-outb

r. dump-this-useless-information-into-a-garbage-bin-if-you-really-care about evidence based medicine

s. don-t-ignore-these-head-injuries

t. the-detoxification-scam

u. allergic- agony-caused-by-caterpillars-and-moths

General science: 

a.why-do-water-bodies-suddenly-change-colour

b. don-t-knock-down-your-own-life-line

c. the-most-menacing-animal-in-the-world

d. how-exo-planets-are-detected

e. the-importance-of-earth-s-magnetic-field

f. saving-tigers-from-extinction-is-still-a-travail

g. the-importance-of-snakes-in-our-eco-systems

h. understanding-reverse-osmosis

i. the-importance-of-microbiomes

j. crispr-cas9-gene-editing-technique-a-boon-to-fixing-defective-gen

k. biomimicry-a-solution-to-some-of-our-problems

5. the-dilemmas-scientists-face

6. why-we-get-contradictory-reports-in-science

7. be-alert-pseudo-science-and-anti-science-are-on-prowl

8. science-will-answer-your-questions-and-solve-your-problems

9. how-science-debunks-baseless-beliefs

10. climate-science-and-its-relevance

11. the-road-to-a-healthy-life

12. relative-truth-about-gm-crops-and-foods

13. intuition-based-work-is-bad-science

14. how-science-explains-near-death-experiences

15. just-studies-are-different-from-thorough-scientific-research

16. lab-scientists-versus-internet-scientists

17. can-you-challenge-science?

18. the-myth-of-ritual-working

19.science-and-superstitions-how-rational-thinking-can-make-you-work-better

20. comets-are-not-harmful-or-bad-omens-so-enjoy-the-clestial-shows

21. explanation-of-mysterious-lights-during-earthquakes

22. science-can-tell-what-constitutes-the-beauty-of-a-rose

23. what-lessons-can-science-learn-from-tragedies-like-these

24. the-specific-traits-of-a-scientific-mind

25. science-and-the-paranormal

26. are-these-inventions-and-discoveries-really-accidental-and-intuitive like the journalists say?

27. how-the-brain-of-a-polymath-copes-with-all-the-things-it-does

28. how-to-make-scientific-research-in-india-a-success-story

29. getting-rid-of-plastic-the-natural-way

30. why-some-interesting-things-happen-in-nature

31. real-life-stories-that-proves-how-science-helps-you

32. Science and trust series:

a. how-to-trust-science-stories-a-guide-for-common-man

b. trust-in-science-what-makes-people-waver

c. standing-up-for-science-showing-reasons-why-science-should-be-trusted

You will find the entire list of discussions here: http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum

( Please go through the comments section below to find scientific research  reports posted on a daily basis and watch videos based on science)

Get interactive...

Please contact us if you want us to add any information or scientific explanation on any topic that interests you. We will try our level best to give you the right information.

Our mail ID: kkartlabin@gmail.com

Discussion Forum

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October to April is normally considered to be the wet season in California, yet this January, the region is experiencing some of the most devastating fires it’s ever seen.As of January 10, five major…Continue

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Q: Why is space exploration so fascinating to humanity? Krishna: Yes, most people agree on this: space exploration is highly fascinating! …Continue

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Q: How can mosquitoes be used to vaccinate humanity?Image credit: Nature…Continue

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2015 at 8:50am

Darbha (Desmotachya bipinnata) is a tropical grass considered a sacred material in Vedic scriptures and is said to purify the offerings during such rituals.

At the time of eclipse, people place that grass in food items that could ferment and once the eclipse ends the grass is removed.

A systematic research was conducted by the SASTRA University researchers, in which cow’s curd was chosen as a food item that could ferment easily.

Five other tropical grass species, including lemon grass, Bermuda grass, and bamboo were chosen for comparison based on different levels of antibiotic properties and hydro phobicity.

Electron microscopy of different grasses revealed stunning nano-patterns and hierarchical nano or micro structures in darbha grass while they were absent in other grasses.

On studying the effect of various grasses on the microbial community of the curd, darbha grass alone was found to attract enormous number of bacteria into the hierarchical surface features.

These are the bacteria responsible for fermentation of cow’s curd.

During eclipse, the wavelength and intensity of light radiations available on the earth’s surface is altered. Especially, the blue and ultraviolet radiations, which are known for their natural disinfecting property, are not available in sufficient quantities during eclipse.

This leads to uncontrolled growth of micro-organisms in food products during eclipse and the food products are not suitable for consumption. Darbha was thus used as a natural disinfectant on specific occasions, say researchers at SASTRA University.

Further, the scientists say that darbha could be used as a natural food preservative in place of harmful chemical preservatives and the artificial surfaces mimicking the hierarchical nano patterns on the surface of darbha grass could find applications in health care where sterile conditions were required.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 17, 2015 at 9:02am

Folic acid supplementation cuts risk of stroke in hypertensive adults
Use of folic acid therapy results in significant reduction of risk of stroke among adults with hypertension (high blood pressure). This is the main finding of a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study from the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial (CSPPT), included data on 20,702 adults in China and has been published to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session.
The results of the study showed that for the primary outcome, which was first stroke, the folic acid plus enalapril supplement resulted in significant reduction in risk compared to enalapril alone (2.7% of participants in the enalapril–folic acid group vs 3.4% in the enalapril alone group). Relative risk of first ischemic stroke (2.2% with enalapril–folic acid vs 2.8% with enalapril alone) and composite cardiovascular events consisting of cardiovascular death, mycocardial infarction and stroke (3.1% with enalapril–folic acid vs 3.9% with enalapril alone) was also significantly reduced. The beneficial effect of folic acid supplementation was most pronounced in participants with lower baseline folate levels. With respect to the MTHFR genotype and baseline folate level, among individuals with CC or CT genotypes, both highest risk of stroke and greatest benefit of folic acid therapy were in participants with the lowest baseline folate levels. For those with the TT genotype, the results indicated that the biological level of folate insufficiency may necessitate higher dosage of folic acid supplementation.
Efficacy of Folic Acid Therapy in Primary Prevention of Stroke Among Adults With Hypertension in China
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2205876

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 17, 2015 at 8:34am

Humans may harbor more than 100 genes from other organisms
You’re not completely human, at least when it comes to the genetic material inside your cells. You—and everyone else—may harbor as many as 145 genes that have jumped from bacteria, other single-celled organisms, and viruses and made themselves at home in the human genome. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which provides some of the broadest evidence yet that, throughout evolutionary history, genes from other branches of life have become part of animal cells.
Scientists knew that horizontal gene transfer—the movement of genetic information between organisms other than parent-to-offspring inheritance—is commonplace in bacteria and simple eukaryotes. The process lets the organisms quickly share an antibiotic-resistance set of genes to adapt to an antibiotic, for instance. But whether genes have been horizontally transferred into higher organisms—like primates—has been disputed. Like in bacteria, it’s been proposed that animal cells could integrate foreign genetic material that’s introduced as small fragments of DNA or carried into cells by viruses. But proving that a bit of DNA in the human genome originally came from another organism is tricky.
A group of researchers now pinpointed hundreds of genes that appeared to have been transferred from bacteria, archaea, fungi, other microorganisms, and plants to animals, they report online today in Genome Biology. In the case of humans, they found 145 genes that seemed to have jumped from simpler organisms, including 17 that had been reported in the past as possible horizontal gene transfers.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/03/humans-may-harbor-more-1...

http://genomebiology.com/2015/16/1/50

Expression of multiple horizontally acquired genes is a hallmark of both vertebrate and invertebrate genomes

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 17, 2015 at 8:28am

Origins of life: A new study has shown you can create the most simple building blocks of life using three things that would have been present in abundance on early Earth - hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), and ultraviolet (UV) light.
In order for life to have gotten started, there must have been a genetic molecule - something like DNA or RNA - capable of passing along blueprints for making proteins, the workhorse molecules of life. But modern cells can’t copy DNA and RNA without the help of proteins themselves.

To make matters more vexing, none of these molecules can do their jobs without fatty lipids, which provide the membranes that cells need to hold their contents inside. And in yet another chicken-and-egg complication, protein-based enzymes (encoded by genetic molecules) are needed to synthesise lipids.
A team led by chemist John Sutherland from the University of Cambridge in the UK has made a discovery that just might resolve this problem. Six years ago, they figured out that simple and very common carbon-rich molecules, acetylene and formaldehyde, can be put through a series of reactions to produce some of the precursors for RNA. So perhaps billions of reactions between acetylene and formaldehyde over billions of years could have randomly given rise to the first RNA molecules. But, says Service, this doesn’t answer the question of where the acetylene and formaldehyde came from.
Sutherland and his team investigated, and came up with even simpler ingredients for RNA, and these ones we know were abundant when Earth was only newly formed - hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulphide, and ultraviolet light. Together, these three ingredients can not only produce ribonucleotides, which are the basic building blocks for RNA, but more importantly, they can also produce amino acids and lipids at the same time, which helps solve the conundrum outlined by Service above. The lipids are there to provide the materials for the cell membranes, and the amino acids are needed to form the proteins that help replace and pass on DNA and RNA. So where did these chemicals come from? Meteorites could have converted hydrogen cyanide from some of the simplest molecules you can get - carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen - right near early Earth. "Evidence suggests that life started during, or shortly after the abatement of, the Late Heavy Bombardment, and processes associated with meteorite impact have been implicated in the generation of hydrogen cyanide and phosphate on the Hadean [early] Earth,” the team writes.

And hydrogen sulphide and ultraviolet light were already in the area, so it wouldn’t have taken much for the various molecules to eventually make contact with each other.
http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchem.2202.html

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 17, 2015 at 8:22am

BIOENGINEERING
A synthetic fibrin cross-linking polymer for modulating clot properties and inducing hemostasis

New gel can stop wounds from bleeding

And could find applications on the battlefield, or in the toolkits of emergency response teams.
Traumatic injuries resulting from gunshot wounds or traffic accidents, can often be fatal if the injured person doesn’t receive prompt medical care.

Now, an injectable polymer material that encourages faster, more durable blood clotting at wound sites, could stop bleeding following these life-threatening injuries.
The material, known as PolySTAT, was developed by engineers at the University of Washington in the US, and mimics a natural protein in our body that helps strengthen blood clots.

The team says that following injection, their wound healing polymer “circulates innocuously in the blood, identifies sites of vascular injury, and promotes clot formation to stop bleeding”.

So far they have only tested their polymer on rats, but report in the press release that 100 percent of the animals injected survived “a typically-lethal injury to the femoral artery”.
The results have been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/7/277/277ra29

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 17, 2015 at 8:08am

A small success for scientists in antibiotic search: European biologists have discovered a bacteria-killing compound in common mushrooms that grow in horse dung. Unusually for an antibiotic, copsin is a protein; but laboratory trials showed it to have the same effect on bacteria as traditional antibiotics.

Chemists around the world are involved in a race against time to find a solution to the growing problem of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. It's a major threat to the health of the global population, which had long assumed that antibiotics would always be available to cure bacterial illness.
copsin in the common inky cap mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea that grows on manure, while researching how the fungus and various bacteria affected each other's growth. According to lead researcher, post-doc Andreas Essig, horse manure's rich substrate is key.

"Horse dung is a very rich substrate that harbours a diversity of micro-organisms, including fungi and bacteria," said Essig. "Now these micro-organisms are in a constant competition for nutrients and space and it's therefore very likely to find potent antibiotics in such an environment, which are used by the different organisms to inhibit the growth of the competitors."
"Horse dung is a very rich substrate that harbours a diversity of micro-organisms, including fungi and bacteria," said Essig. "Now these micro-organisms are in a constant competition for nutrients and space and it's therefore very likely to find potent antibiotics in such an environment, which are used by the different organisms to inhibit the growth of the competitors."
Essig and his colleagues from ETH Zurich and the University of Bonn cultivated the fungus in a laboratory, along with several different types of bacteria, and found that C. cinerea killed certain bacteria. Further research demonstrated that the copsin produced by the mushroom was responsible for this antibiotic effect.

"Now copsin kills bacteria by binding to an essential cell wall building block".
When you disrupt the cell wall synthesis bacteria usually dies rapidly. The binding pattern of copsin on this building block is very unique and therefore copsin is active against bacteria resistant to conventional antibiotics."
Copsin is a protein, whereas traditional antibiotics are often non-protein organic compounds. It belongs to the group of defensins, a class of small proteins produced by numerous to counter disease-causing micro-organisms. In fact, the human body produces defensins in the skin and mucous membranes to protect itself against infections.

http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2014/10/23/jbc.M114.599878

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2015 at 1:34pm

How wounds are healed....
In recent years, researchers have gained a better understanding of the molecular machinery of cell migration, but not what directs it to happen in the first place. What, exactly, is orchestrating this system common to all living organisms?

The answer, it turns out, involves delicate interactions between biomechanical stress, or force, which living cells exert on one another, and biochemical signaling.
The University of Arizona researchers discovered that when mechanical force disappears -- for example at a wound site where cells have been destroyed, leaving empty, cell-free space -- a protein molecule, known as DII4, coordinates nearby cells to migrate to a wound site and collectively cover it with new tissue. What's more, they found, this process causes identical cells to specialize into leader and follower cells. Researchers had previously assumed leader cells formed randomly.
The team observed that when cells collectively migrate toward a wound, leader cells expressing a form of messenger RNA, or mRNA, genetic code specific to the DII4 protein emerge at the front of the pack, or migrating tip. The leader cells, in turn, send signals to follower cells, which do not express the genetic messenger. This elaborate autoregulatory system remains activated until new tissue has covered a wound.

The same migration processes for wound healing and tissue development also apply to cancer spreading, the researchers noted. The combination of mechanical force and genetic signaling stimulates cancer cells to collectively migrate and invade healthy tissue.
With this new knowledge, researchers can re-create, at the cellular and molecular levels, the chain of events that brings about the formation of human tissue. Bioengineers now have the information they need to direct normal cells to heal damaged tissue, or prevent cancer cells from invading healthy tissue.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150313/ncomms7556/full/ncomms7556...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2015 at 12:34pm

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2015 at 12:29pm

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2015 at 12:25pm

According to science, practice doesn't make you perfect!

So forget what you've been told, 10,000 hours of practice isn't guaranteed to turn you into an expert. Here is why:

There's a long-standing myth that, in order to master a skill, all it takes is roughly 10,000 hours of practice. Scientists have debunked the myth once and for all, and shown that, while some people can become an expert with 10,000 hours of practice - or less - many can't, and there's a whole lot more involved than just hard work. In fact, an international team of psychologists found that deliberate practice can only explain around one-third of the difference in skill levels in chess players and musicians.

This leaves "the majority of the reliable variance unexplained and potentially explainable by other factors". Those factors, we're assuming, are natural talent and genetic ability.

-Journal "Intelligence"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289614000087

The researchers came to this conclusion after analysing data taken across six previous studies of chess competitions (1,082 subjects in total) and eight studies of musicians (628 subjects), and looking for any kind of correlation between practice and success. What they found was that, well, there kinda wasn't one, and there were huge variations in how much of a role practice seemed to have played in success.

One chess player, for example, had taken 26 years to reach a level that another reached in a mere two years. Clearly, there's more at work than just the sheer volume of hours practiced, the study (and a similar one by the same authors published in May [2014]) argues.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613000421

"The evidence is quite clear," wrote lead author David Hambrick from Michigan State University in the US in a press release in 2013, "that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice."

 

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