tweeting science

27 August 2012

How it would be like reading to a piece of rock (@N165Mars) which is jeopardized by a car (@MarsCuriosity) equipped with deadly LASER gun in sandy desert area! This rock belongs to another lonely planet miles away from us. No, it is not just a scene from animation film.

A spacecraft (@NASAVoyager2) cruising far away from the earth and is about leave our solar system pushes notifications on your mobile screen periodically with latest updates. No, you are not hero of sci-fi movie.

A humanoid robot (@NASArobonaut) is under development in a laboratory tells the world that he has learnt to operate switches.

Well, this is all reality and these interactions are possible because of Twitter.

If we say America’s space agency (@NASA) along with other agencies are leader in the field of Space, people all around the world are curious to know what they are up-to? Formed 54 years ago, running on budget of almost $18 billion NASA is handling so many projects like interplanetary, comet-missions, satellites, spacecrafts, space telescopes and many more. Same case is with European Space Agency (@ESA). These aspiring projects are carried out by scientists, astronauts, engineers working at different facilities like research centers, observatories, telemetry, Construction and launch pads. Obviously huge information and news are always coming out. Earlier to seek information one has to go on the website and find particular project, related research. To keep a track of specific news was difficult, but now these people and institutes are tweeting the latest news and updates. It makes easy to tap news of your own interest.

You name a thing; it has twitter account, facebook page and blog. In this era of social media on the internet, micro-blogging site Twitter has kept itself at distinct level from others. It is known for its unique usage for sharing thoughts, information, sometimes embedded with multimedia all bounded in character limit of 140. Space agencies are effectively and extensively using twitter to reach out people across the globe having interests in astronomy and space.

In the month of August there was series of censorship and blocking of websites and twitter accounts by the Government of India to avoid the circulation of rumors and hatred. At the same time, on the other side, why can’t govt. take opportunity to encourage research institute to reach to general public through these new ways of media? Bring on the top scientists, technocrats in front of young generation to share and interact on open platform as they never appear in main stream media on regular basis. If Prime Minister Office can understand the importance of twitter surely others can. If Bollywood stars get thousands of followers overnight, I am sure that many geeks are waiting for their role models to come on social media websites. Channelize the existing news in effective ways. Make new stars.

If ISRO has undertaken a project, if DRDO testing new missiles then only news are covered traditional media only a day before the event. These institutes can give informational releases more often on social media to promote their work and do public awareness activity in a way which was never done before. Meteorological dept has many updates every day but IMD’s website design hardly helps in understanding the information. Likewise more than fifteen institutes come under dept of Science & Tech. these are needed to increase quality of internet presence.

With our government’s initiative students are getting Tablet PCs in their hands, it’s time to give them information.

1 April 2014

P.S.

ISRO started its own facebook page after huge response to Mars Orbiter Mission’s facebook page.

I just loved the way Political parties and leaders have joined the social media platform to reach out to the public.

Need of New drugs for TB

You see that white fuzzy object in the centre  Well, it consists of thousands of stars. Among these some are bigger than our sun and some are smaller. And there are many which can’t be seen by our naked eyes. Our solar system is made of sun at the centre with eight other planets revolving around it. And in the whole universe we know the only planet which has life  – Earth! The living planet! Earth has life in many forms. Plants, trees, birds, animals live together interdependent on each other. Few feed on plants. Few animals feed on other animals.

Not to forget micro-organisms  Life on earth started with it! So life on earth is pretty complex. But in all of these, human species stood aside of other living things. With its own intelligence man is the leader on this planet. Even though no species on the earth feeds chiefly on human flesh, there are many reasons which are catastrophic to man.

There is no way to say that intelligent Man is immortal and there are many ways in which human’s life comes to demise. TB is among the catastrophic diseases.

Tuberculosis, its symptoms and drug used

Tuberculosis has been present in humans since antiquity.  mycobacteria cause serious diseases in mammals. TB is one of them and is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is contagious and airborne. Dr. Sawant who gave some information about it to me said, “It mainly affects lungs. If bacteria are detected in sputum it is categorized in category1. In some cases i.e. in category2 it also affects Pleura and intestine. These bacteria enter in body through air.” Infected person coughs and micro-organisms in droplets travel through air and if other person breathes in that air, he gets infected, said Dr. Sawant. On asking about why TB is called as disease of poverty he said, “Body resistance of poor people is not so good because of lack of nutrition”. What I think – may be the standard of living also major factor in spreading TB.

Various combinations of medicine – ethombutol, pyarazinamide rifampicin are given to patients according to his health condition. It takes around 6 months to recover from TB in some cases more than that.

Since 1995, 46 million people have been successfully treated and up to 6.8 million lives saved through DOTS and the WHO’s Stop TB Program.

India’s Revised National TB Control Program has made efforts for systematically engaging all care providers through a public-private mix DOTS and has developed guidelines for the involvement of NGOs.

Still the purpose is not served.

 Mortality

TB is lethal disease. The number of people who died from TB fell to 1.4 millionin 2010, including three fifty thousand people with HIV, which means around 4 thousand deaths every day.

Being the largest country in Asia, India is the highest TB-burden country in the world and has contributed 25 percent of the estimated global TB cases in 2010.

There is need to take a note of important point – There is significant number of people who leave treatment without completing it.

Need of New Drugs

Multudrug resistance (MDR) TB and extreme drug resistance (XDR) TB are big problems in getting rid of this disease. Science Magazine reports why TB is hard to cure. Recently Down to Earth Magazine reported improved cure for TB.

So there is need of new drugs which would be very effective in short period of time. It should also be affordable as funds shown by WHO in this factsheet are so high.

Tb is more prone to poor people in developing nations, elevating the standard of living would help in solving problem.

We, humankind are blessed by nature/evolution to be the leader on this planet; it’s our moral responsibility towards society to leave no man behind. We have to be obliged to take every section of society with us to prosperity.

Vigyan Prasar and OSDD are organizing Youtube video competition on on “The Need of New Drugs for TB”. Last date of submission has been extended to 30th November 2012

My entry in competition is coming soon!

P.S.

Video by me and Aaditya Patil  on Youtube is live now.