We are What Our Father ate

London: Like father, like children. Yes, you're what your father eats, says a new study.

An international team has found that a father's diet while growing up can affect the future health of his offspring -- in fact, paternal diet influences lipid metabolising genes of his children, the 'Cell' journal reported.

In their study, researchers have discovered that a father's lifestyle can be passed down to his children because it "reprogrammes" his genes.

The study has shown the hereditary effects of a process called "epigenetics" which is how the environment and lifestyle can permanently alter people's genes as they grow up. These altered genes can then be passed on to children.

Dr Oliver Rando of University of Massachusetts Medical School, who led the team, said his research could help identify individuals at high risk of illness such as heart disease and diabetes.

Workplace attitude differs in private, public sectors

Fri Dec 24 2010 13:12:24 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) by IANS ( Leave a comment )

London, Dec 24 (IANS) High levels of emotional intelligence (EI) foster positive attitudes at private sector workplaces, but not in the public sector, a study says.”The results emphasise the existence of significant behavioral differences between the private and public sectors, says Galit Meisler of the University of Haifa in Israel, who conducted the study.

“Executives intending to carry out reforms or implement management plans in the public sector should be well aware of these differences,” explains Meisler, according to a Haifa statement.

Emotional intelligence describes the ability or capacity to perceive, assess and manage the emotions of oneself and of others.

The study, supervised by Professor Eran Vigoda-Gadot, surveyed 809 employees and managers within four organisations - two in the public sector and two in the private sector.

A comparison between the two sectors revealed a higher level of organisational politics in the public sector.

The political skills of public sector employees were much more developed. Yet, significant differences in employees’ emotional intelligence level were not found.

The study shows that EI has a much greater impact on private sector employees’ perceptions and attitudes compared to public sector employees.

Moreover, the study found that employees from the public sector were more likely to use forceful influence tactics, regardless of their emotional intelligence level.

In the private sector, however, employees with a higher level of emotional intelligence were less likely to use such tactics.

There's no magical formula to win a Nobel Prize: ‘Venky' Ramakrishnan Published in The Hindu Dt.21.12.2010

Do not work on anything you are not interested in. This is an absolute minimum to succeed, says the Nobel Laureate

What does it take to become a Nobel laureate?

Venkataraman ‘Venky' Ramakrishnan, who won the coveted award for chemistry last year, is of the view that no special attributes are needed to achieve the feat.

“There is no magical formula for winning a Nobel Prize,” Professor Ramakrishnan said at a public lecture here on Monday.

Replying to a question from the audience, he also stressed that there was no need for India to win a Nobel Prize to become a scientific power. “I also don't think that if India wins a Nobel Prize, it would mean suddenly that Indian science is okay.”

Interacting for nearly half an hour with students and researchers, Professor Ramakrishnan said: “Do not work on anything you are not interested in. This is an absolute minimum [to succeed].”

He advocated the ‘Crick test' for the students. “It is a classic test that you can use. It was first proposed by Francis Crick. He said if you do not gossip about your problem, that means you are not really interested in it.”

Professor Ramakrishnan added: “If you are a science student…everyday science is a tedious [affair] and you have to have the patience to see a problem through. This depends on how much you care for the problem.”

He urged young researchers to set a five-year horizon for their work. “This is more applicable to young investigators — where do you want to be in the next five years, not in terms of status but in terms of work.”

Professor Ramakrishnan said researchers should choose the right place to pursue their area of interest. “It does not necessarily mean the most prestigious place, but it has to be one with a very good intellectual environment for your work.”

Elaborating on this, he said: “If you go to a second-rate place and you are first-rate, it is very difficult to do first-rate work because you do not get that critical feedback you need for first-rate work on a daily basis.”

‘BOOMING FIELD'

Replying to another query, Professor Ramakrishnan said he chose biology as his field of work after graduating in theoretical physics because the new field was booming and there were fresh breakthroughs every now and then.

“Physics is in a difficult situation in the sense that fundamental problems in physics have become extremely difficult, and [it is] really going to require amazingly smart and original thinkers to lead the way out of it.”

The public lecture was organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Science and Technology Ministry's Department of Biotechnology.

Keywords: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel laureate

Indian power generation to go up by 28K MW by 2017 | iGovernment.in

http://igovernment.in/site/indian-power-generation-go-28k-mw-2017-38890
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India plans creating 58 mn more jobs by 2012 | iGovernment.in

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HindustanTimes - ht SPECIAL - MEDVEDEV VISIT - Orissa N-plant gift to Russia?

koraputonline@gmail.com saw this article on HindustanTimes ePaper, and thought you would find it interesting. You can find it at: - ht SPECIAL - MEDVEDEV VISIT - Orissa N-plant gift to Russia?

A nuclear power projects that Russia intends to set up in India may be shifted to Orissa from West Bengal where it was originally to be located following local protests there, government sources said.Barely weeks before Russian president Dmitri Medvedev's scheduled visit on December 2122 -and after Russia raised concerns about the protests -India has informally conveyed that a new site in Orissa could be made available.
“We have received this informal proposal and it sounds good,“ a Russian official said.
However, government sources said: “Last ditch efforts are on to sort out the problems regarding the Haripur site.“
The Haripur project envisages six nuclear reactors, which would require over 5,000 acres of land. Only the first two, however, each of 1000 MW, to be designed by the Russians, are so far in the pipeline.
But as at Singur and Nandigram, locals are resisting land acquisition claiming fertile and multi-cropped land on which more than 25,000 farmers depend for their livelihood, would be taken away from them for the project.
Here too, the protests, which have been on for the past two years, are led by Trinamool Congress, which controls the East Midnapore zillaparishad under which Haripur falls.“It is difficult for me to comment. The party opposing the project is an important partner of the present union government. It is up to the Centre to decide the matter,“ Nirupam Sen, West Bengal industries minister told the Hindustan Times, when asked if he was hopeful of sorting out the issue. But whether the project will fare any better in Orissa, which has also seen long drawn mass struggles against land acquisition by companies like Posco and Vedanta, remains to be seen.
Russians are committed to building six nuclear reactors in India â“ two at Haripur in West Bengal and four at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
Kudankulam already has two Russian-designed reactors under construction that are expected to be ready for commercial operations in March 2011 and December 2011 respectively.

Crusade Against Climte Change-By Asutosh Mishra ,JNV,Koraput

CRUSADE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Earth is dynamic so as its atmosphere and climate. Many a changes
took place on its lap after the inception of earth. Sometime decreasing
temperature covered most of its surface with ice on the other hand
increasing temperature melted all the ice caps and mixed it up with vast
ocean. If we peep into the 640 million years of eventful history of earth
changes are conspicuous. The moot point here is “why there is so much
fuss about the present changes in climate”?
A slight change in climate leads to far reaching consequences. The
huge animal like Dinosaur was extinct from earth surface due to such
minor changes in climate. This change was natural where as the changes of
the present are mostly man made. A scientific data revealed that the
temperature of the atmosphere increased by 0.60C in twentieth century out
RISE IN TEMPERATURE,  INCREASE IN GREEN HOUSE GASES,  MELTING OF ICE SEA LEVEL RISE,  SINKING COAST,  TSUNAMI & EARTH QUAKE,  FLOOD,  EXCESSIVE SUN STROKE , LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY FOREST,  FIRE FOOD SCARCITY,  SPREAD OF TROPICAL DISEASES EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WORMING
of which the rate of change increased by three times after seventies and it
will reach between 1.10C and 6.40C in 21st century (The Samaj, 2009). It is
interesting to note the eleven out of twelve hottest years are within 1995 to
2006. Who is responsible for this alarming increase in temperature?
Sun is the primary source of all energy on earth surface. The energy
that comes from sun is in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Our
atmosphere is transparent to these radiations but the terrestrial radiation or
the reflected sun rays from earth are absorbed by green house gases such as
Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Ozone, Nitrous Oxide, CFC etc and in turn
atmosphere get heated. This process is known as glass house or green
house effect. Rapid industrialization, modernization, globalization,
materialistic way of life etc are basis of 21st century. It gives rise to
increase in green house gases. Eight thousand years before industrial
revolution carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was 20 PPM
(Parts Per Million) which increased to 107 PPM after 250 years from the
revolution. The annual rate of increase between 1995 and 2005 was 1.9
PPM. Likewise the concentration of Methane was 700 PPB (Parts Per
Billion) in 1750 which increased to 1745 PPB at present, Nitrous Oxide
from 270 PPB to 314 PPB and Chlorofluorocarbon increased from zero to
533 PPB (The Samaj, 2009). Rapid rise of these gases is creating the
catastrophic consequence of “Global Warming”. According to IPCC
around 90 percent of rise in temperature of earth surface after 1960s are
due to increase in these green house gases. If the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere increased by two times the temperature on earth will rise by
30C. As the effects of other green house gases are more then carbon dioxide
the consequence can easily be inferred.
The area covered by all the glacier of earth surface is equal to five
times of the total area of India. Rise in temperature has resulted in melting
of ice and thereby increase in sea level upto 10 to 20 cm by now. If this
process continues the temperature will rise to a minimum of 20C by 2100
and sea level will rise by 1.4m and a rise of 30C in temperature will lead to
melting of all the ice and a rise of fifteen feet in sea level. One-third of total
population of earth lives within 60 KM from the coast. Along with them
the low lying densely populated islands like Maldeep, West Indies,
Srilanka will have to face the brunt of vagaries of climate. India has a coast
line of 7500 KM and a population of 7.1million living in coastal region will
be affected by increase in one meter of sea level. Rise in sea level will
increase in the water level of rivers and thereby the large cities like Venis,
Bankok, Sanghai, Kolkota, Dhaka will be in danger. According to a study
the Gangotri glacier has receded by one third km during last thirteen years.
If the glaciers recede at this rate then the rivers like Ganga, Yamuna,
Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong will loose their existence. This will lead to
scarcity of food for fifty crores population living between Punjab to West
Bengal of India. It is also indicated by studies that the rise of 10C in
temperature will lead to decrease of five to ten percent in the yield of wheat
and overall crop yields will decrease up to thirty percent in South Asian
countries by the mid 21st century (Gautam, 2009). Likewise the rise of
1.50C in temperature and increase of two mm in precipitation may result in
decline in the yield of rice by three to fifteen percent (Senapati, 2009).
Along with this there will be frequent visit of severe flood, dangerous
drought, super cyclones, uncontrolled forest fire, spread of tropical
diseases, destruction of biodiversity, increase cases of sun stroke, tsunami
and earthquakes etc. What is to be done to mitigate this menacing problem?
The deprived section of society and under developed countries of
world will be affected most by this change. For a rise in one meter in sea
level USA will have to spend a huge amount to construct dams to check the
floods across its coast. Likewise Mumbai will have to spend 48 billion
dollar and small coastal towns like Baleswar of Orissa, will have to spend
75 million dollar (Sinha, 2007). Rich countries will be able to shoulder the
burden but what about the poor? On the other hand the rate of pollution by
developed countries is more. An estimate reveals that the contribution of
carbon dioxide to environment by USA is 18 percent, Russia 12 percent,
Brazil 10 percent, China 7 percent , India and Japan 4 percent each,
Germany and UK 3 percent individually (The Samaj, 2009). The climate of
all countries of the world is integrated with each other. Thus this problem
can be solved with the active cooperation of all the countries of the world.
Keeping this in mind the human induced climate change was opposed for
the first time since back 1979 in world climate summit. The Earth summit,
1992 and Kyoto protocol are some small steps towards this direction.
World leaders meet at the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen in December
2009 to search out the ways to solve this problem.
It is also the responsibility of each and every individual to fight
against this global problem. Small step like switching off the light, fan, TV
and other power driven gadgets when they are not in use, not using those
equipments that pollute or consume more energy, creating public
awareness, using renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass etc,
planting trees to celebrate occasions like birthday, not allowing polluting
industries to open in the vicinity etc can change the world to a safe place to
live in.
It is the right time now to undo the injustice done to our
environment. Delay will leads to self annihilation of mankind.
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