manomayam

Repercussions of Friendship - Health Risks

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:02:00 +0000

चिरकाल साहचर्यात् भवन्ति सख्यसदृशानि चेतांसि (Longer association will transform the minds of associates).

It will also affect the physiological well-being.

Choose your friends wisely, they may make or break you, says an old adage. Now, scientists have backed it after finding link between toxic relationship and a host of illnesses such as cancer, depression and heart attack.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that negative social interactions can lead to increased inflammation, which may in turn cause a host of illnesses from cancer to heart disease and high blood pressure.

"We wanted to see how mental states such as optimism, or social relationships such as competition, get under the skin," study co-author Shelley Taylor, a social neuroscientist at the UCLA School of Medicine, was quoted as saying by ScienceNews.

For their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, Taylor and colleagues looked at the relationship between day-to-day stress and two proteins that trigger inflammation in the body, called pro-inflammatory cytokines.

The researchers asked 122 young, healthy adults to keep a diary of all positive and negative social interactions for eight days, as well as descriptions of any incidents that involved competition.

"We picked young adults with no history of heart disease or inflammation disorders or depression because we wanted to look at the biological processes in a population that was healthy," Taylor said.

Several days later, they swabbed the volunteers' inner cheeks for fluid samples.

Analyses revealed that the people with the most negative social interactions recorded in their diaries, and those who reported stressful competition in work or academic pursuits, had substantially higher levels of one of the inflammatory proteins, TNF receptor 2, than did those who recorded fewer such incidents.

People reporting stressful competition for another's attention had high concentrations of the other inflammatory protein, interleukin-6.

The volunteers then underwent a stressful 25-minute test in which they did arithmetic calculations in their heads and gave a brief speech in front of strangers.

After this test, people who had had the most negative interactions earlier in the week again showed high levels of the inflammatory proteins.

The link between short-term stress and revved-up inflammation could have an evolutionary basis, said Nicolas Rohleder, a psychologist at Brandeis University in the US who wasn't part of the study team.

"As early humans, we had to fight for our lives -- fight or flight," he said.

Inflammation has a useful short-term role in fending off pathogens, so triggering inflammation as a response to stress may have been a way the body fended off infections caused by those encounters, which often resulted in some form of injury, he said.

"Humans are not really running away now." So reduced stress -- and therefore less inflammation -- may be one of the mechanisms that links social support with health outcomes, Taylor said.

"Relationships are vital to health, like your diet," she added.

Tulasi Importance (Understanding our Tradition .. 2)

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Light has a natural associated property - Heat. Hence light and heat are combined to describe any object of illumination. Except for a few exceptions due to technical advancement such as metal halide/ cfl, Energy Generation Points have these twin features.

Radiation, be it nuclear/ solar or otherwise become intolerable beyond point. For the basic protection from Radiation, we use clothes, herbs etc. Women are affected by the radiation in the kitchen/ sun. Hence, Indian Household traditions make it mandatory for them to be in contact with Tulasi Plant in one form or another. Similarly, every temple has an avenue to use the Tulasi leaves in the worship.

Now, let us understand the basis of the tradition.

The ancient Indian tradition of growing tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) in the backyard is not without scientific backing. Research shows that the tulsi or Indian basil mitigates the ill-effects of radiation, whether background or nuclear, and can protect cells in patients undergoing radiation therapy for cancer.

Scientists at the DRDO’s Institute of Nuclear Medic-ines and Allied Sciences, and the Department of Rad-iobiology, Kasturba Medic-al College, Manipal, have successfully tested tulsi ex-tracts on mice for its anti-radiation and anti-cancer properties. The DRDO is now preparing a herbal co-ncoction from tulsi that wi-ll serve to prevent and cure the ill-effects of radiation. In the mouse model, there was no impact on bone marrow after the mice, exposed to radiation, ingested the tulsi preparation. It is the bone marrow that is affected in case of radiation exposure, and this brings down the immunity level.

The DRDO now proposes to take up human trials, says Dr W. Selvamurthy, chief controller (research and development), DRDO, who presented a research paper on the anti-radiation impact of tulsi extract at the 99th Indian Science Co-ngress, which concluded in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. “We need to conduct a few more tests and take up phase II trials before it is released for general use,” said Dr Selvamurthy. The DRDO is spending `7 crore on the tulsi project. Research on the anti-radiation effect of tulsi in animals has been going on in India for the last four decades. Doctors at KMC discovered that tulsi contains a chemical called glutathione, which gives it the anti-radiation properties.

Super fast Camera

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:26:00 +0000

Heard some boast about the Shutter Speed of Camera?

This super fast camera could put all boasts out of contention. With a mind blowing speed of Pico Second (1 Trillionth of a Second), the new camera in development will be a great value addition to Medical/ Space/ Graphics/ Research applications.

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It might be the size of a dustbin, but scientists have managed to invent a camera that can capture the speed of light.The super-fast camera can show a bullet-shaped pulse of light travelling from one end of a laboratory flask to another in a fraction of a second. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said it will be some time before the camera is commercially available.

Captured: A camera with a trillionth of a second shutter speed has caught the speed of light as it travelled from one end of a laboratory flask to the other

Researchers at MIT's 'blue-sky science' think tank predict super-fast photography could benefiting mankind within 10 years. It could even lead to hand-held medical scanners being used in hospitals.

Ramesh Raskar, associate professor of media arts at the MIT Media Lab, told The Sunday Times: 'With our ultra-fast imaging we can actually analyse how the photons are travelling through the world.' The camera can also create 3D images because it is capable of 'seeing' photons of light even inside objects.

The device was made by adapting a 'streaker tube' - used by chemists to scan and capture light. It can record the progress of light pulses through a flask of liquid.

Split second: The camera could be available to capture spectacular images in around ten years and could even lead to handheld medical scanners

Each still picture had a shutter speed of 1.7 picoseconds - a trillionth of a second. Mr Raskar added: 'Watching this it looks like light in slow motion. It is so slow you can see the light itself move across the distance.

'This is the speed of light captured: there is nothing in the universe that moves faster, so we are at the physical limit of high-speed photography.'

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What is in the Age 50?

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:17:00 +0000

At 50, people may celebrate Golden Jubilee Year.

What is so special about that age? You are likely to be at your competitive best! Especially men...

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The age of 50 marks the most competitive phase of our lives, when we desperately try to outperform our opponents, a new study has revealed.

The findings by US scientists contradict the conventional assumption that the need to outperform others subsides, as we get older, and could have implications for the workplace, where pushy young employees are often seen as having more drive than their older colleagues.

Psychologists from the University of Oregon set up a stall at a shopping centre and invited hundreds of volunteers to solve maths equations as quickly as possible, the Daily Mail reported.

The participants, who were aged from 25 to 75 years, at first played on their own, scoring points that could be swapped for cash prizes.

But they were then made to play against a contender and only scored points if they beat them. To measure their competitive streak, in the final round they were given the choice between playing on their own or taking on a rival.

Almost 70 per cent of men aged 45 to 54 opted to go head-to-head with an opponent, compared to half of those between 25 and 34.

A similar pattern was observed among the women, but their desire to compete was consistently lower than the men’s.

The researchers revealed that they were astonished by the findings as they had expected men’s thirst for competition to subside with age, due to falling testosterone levels, changing priorities and the decline in confidence that often comes with getting older.

However they insisted that the outcome could be explained by men’s need to feel socially dominant as they age – a feeling which research suggests also peaks at around 50.

“It is surprising that we found a gradual increase in competitive preferences until the age of 50, only then followed by a decline,” researchers said.

“Successfully engaging in competition is critical for establishing social dominance. It’s plausible that with this comes an increased taste for competition.”

“Men do so without much regard for their actual probability of winning, whereas women take this aspect into regard as would be expected from a rational decision-maker,” the researchers added.

Lunar Eclipse Facts - Some specialties in Dec 2011

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:27:00 +0000

This year's second total lunar eclipse on Saturday, Dec. 10, will offer a rare chance to see a strange celestial sight traditionally thought impossible.

Ringside seats for the lunar eclipse can be found in Alaska, Hawaii, northwestern Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and central and eastern Asia. Over the contiguous United States and Canada, the eastern zones will see either only the initial penumbral stages before moonset, or nothing at all.

Over the central regions of the United States, the moon will set as it becomes progressively immersed in the Earth's umbral shadow. The Rocky Mountain states and the prairie provinces will see the moon set in total eclipse, while out west the moon will start to emerge from the shadow as it sets.

The moon passes through the southern part of the Earth's shadow, with totality beginning at 6:06 a.m. PST and lasting 51 minutes. [Total Eclipse of the Moon (Infographic)]

For most places in the United States and Canada, there will be a chance to observe an unusual effect, one that celestial geometry seems to dictate can't happen. The little-used name for this effect is a "selenelion" (or "selenehelion") and occurs when both the sun and the eclipsed moon can be seen at the same time.

Seeing the impossible

But wait! How is this possible? When we have a lunar eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon are in a geometrically straight line in space, with the Earth in the middle. So if the sun is above the horizon, the moon must be below the horizon and completely out of sight (or vice versa).

And indeed, during a lunar eclipse, the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky; so in a perfect alignment like this (a "syzygy") such an observation would seem impossible.

But it is atmospheric refraction that makes a selenelion possible.

Atmospheric refraction causes astronomical objects to appear higher in the sky than they are in reality.

For example: when you see the sun sitting on the horizon, it is not there really. It's actually below the edge of the horizon, but our atmosphere acts like a lens and bends the sun's image just above the horizon, allowing us to see it.

This effect actually lengthens the amount of daylight for several minutes or more each day; we end up seeing the sun for a few minutes in the morning before it has actually risen and for a few extra minutes in the evening after it actually already has set.

The same holds true with the moon, as well.

As a consequence of this atmospheric trick, for many localities there will be an unusual chance to observe a senelion firsthand with Saturday morning's shadowy event. There will be a short window of roughly 1-to-6 minutes (depending on your location) when you may be able to simultaneously spot the sun rising in the east-southeast and the eclipsed full moon setting in the west-northwest.

Regions of visibility

For places to the east of the Appalachian Range, this will, unfortunately, be a non-event. Although the moon will still be above the horizon when it begins to enter the Earth's shadow at 6:33 a.m. EST, it initially is the penumbral shadow that first contacts the moon.

This shadow is so faint that at least three-quarters of the moon's diameter must be immersed within it before you would have a chance of detecting it visually, either with your naked eyes or using an optical aid. That means, if you live in places such as Boston, New York or Miami, the moon will look perfectly normal as it sets.

But from southeast Ontario, through the Ohio Valley and continuing south to the central Gulf Coast, the upper-left portion of the moon will begin appearing somewhat darker or "smudged" as it begins to disappear beyond the horizon. As you head farther west, the moon's entry into the much-darker part of the Earth's shadow (the umbra) will become evident at 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time or 6:45 a.m. Central.

Across portions of the Upper Midwest, the Nation's Heartland, down into the central parts of Oklahoma and Texas, about half of the setting moon will be immersed in the umbra. The shadow will appear to be creeping almost straight down across the moon's face from its upper limb.

Across the Central and Southern Plains only the lowermost portion of the moon will remain in view as it moves down below the west-southwest horizon. Farther west and north, across the Desert Southwest and High Plains, the moon will rise completely immersed in the Earth's shadow, while for parts of the Intermountain Region, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, the moon will begin to emerge from the umbra as it sets.

Important facts to consider

In order to observe the selenelion, you should make sure that both your east-southeast and west-northwest horizons are free of any tall obstructions that might block your views of the setting moon or rising sun.

Also, keep in mind that, depending on the clarity of your sky, you might actually lose sight of the moon about 10 or 15 minutes before sunrise thanks to the brightening morning twilight and the moon sinking into any horizon haze (atmospheric "schmutz").

Keep in mind that this holds only for the uneclipsed portion of the moon. Indeed, if the moon is totally eclipsed at moonset, you will probably have to scan the western horizon as the twilight increases in order to detect the moon, which will perhaps resemble a dim and eerily illuminated softball.

Physical Exercises for longer period is harmful, even fatal

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Jogging may be okay, but going for extreme endurance events like marathons could take a toll on your heart, says a new study.

It's said that putting the heart under heavy strain for long periods causes scarring of the heart muscle, known as fibrosis. This damage is normally reversed within a week of an event, the repairal process serving to make the heart fitter.

However, researchers who followed 40 elite Australian athletes have found evidence of ‘more permanent damage’ in five of them, the European Heart Journal reported.

According to them, fibrosis can impair how well the heart performs when a person is exercising intensively. It can also lead to irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias. And serious arrhythmias can be life-threatening.

Lead researchers Dr André La Gerche at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium said: "It is likely to affect only a minority of athletes, particularly those in whom more intense training fails to result in further improvements in their performance."

He said that the five who saw longer-term damage had been training and competing for longer than the others. "It is most important that our findings are not over-extrapolated to infer that endurance exercise is unhealthy. Our data do not support this premise," he added.

The researchers found damage in the right ventricle, one of the four chambers of the heart, using MRI scanning.

They found no damage in the left ventricle. However, experts are fully convinced. Professor Sanjay Sharma, a consultant cardiologist and medical director of the London Marathon, was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying, "It is too early to say that taking part in endurance sports causes long-term damage to the right ventricle."

But, this study is an indication that it might cause a problem in some endurance athletes with a predisposition and, therefore, it should be studied further, he added.

Water Bulb (Solar)

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:44:00 +0000

Surprised to know that water and bleach refracting Solar light to illuminate the interior.

In this maze of windowless tin shacks, school classes are often held outside because even in daytime it’s too dark to see the blackboard. Now a youth group is hoping some 2-liter plastic bottles filled with water and bleach can brighten Kenya’s slums.

The soda bottle-as-lightbulb was first discovered in Brazil by mechanic Alfredo Moser in 2002. In the decade since, tens of thousands of people who can’t afford electricity or other sources of light like candles have converted to the water bottle lightpoint.

When the bottle is hung through a hole in the roof and filled with water and bleach, the bottle refracts sunlight and can produce as much light as a 50- or 60-watt bulb.

Veronica Wanjiru, 24, a mother of two, said even illegal electrical hookups, candles and paraffin are too expensive for many in the Korogocho slums.

Her 11-year-old and 5-year-old had to do their homework outside and in a rush before the sunset. Now that she has a water bulb, it can even produce light at night during a full moon.

“Before they put it in, my children would sometimes use candles, but after they have finished they would forget them on, which can even burn the house,” she said.

The youth group called Koch Hope has been so successful in installing water bulbs for people like Wanjiru that it’s now struggling to meet demand. The group installed the first 100 bulbs for free in April in hopes of attracting attention from donors and expanding the project.

Matayo Magalasia, one of the few people from the area to go to college, saw Moser’s invention on the Internet last year and sought to replicate it. He approached a youth group known as Koch Hope about bringing light to Korogocho.

“I grew up here and I knew the houses were dark even during the day. I had to do my homework outside because we did not have light,” Magalasia said.

Paul Jumbi, 28, a member of Koch Hope, said the group hopes to install the water bulb in every house in the slum and then expand to other Nairobi slums. Jumbi, though, said the project’s expansion has been curtailed by a lack of money.

The plastic bottles are easy to find, but buying the sealant to put around the hole in the iron roof where the bottle sits is expensive.

Jumbi said their first attempts to install the water bulb were met with resistance from people who thought the hole would let in rainwater.

He and his team persuaded the owner of a primary school where students were being taught outdoors because they could not see the blackboard inside. Installing it in the school led other residents to buy in to the idea.

During electricity shortages in Uberaba, Sao Paulo in 2002, Moser discovered that hanging a plastic bottle full of water from his roof brought in extra light. The idea behind Moser’s simple invention — known in different places as solar water bulb or water bulb — has spread to slum dwellers in at least three continents.

In the Philippines, a non-governmental organization is attempting to use the solar water bulb to brighten 1 million homes by next year. The project is known as “Isang Litrong Liwanag,” which translates to “A Liter of Light.”

Key to Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:40:00 +0000

Every one wants to be happy? Is it not?

Then, what is the key to happiness - is the most nagging question, for which almost every creature is groping continually. Normally attribute happiness to attaining/ acquiring possession or retaining it.

(Needless to say, Failure to do the same will result in unhappiness.)

But, the key to attain ever lasting Happiness is to realise that you are happy by nature - say Vedas.

निरतिशय सुखस्वरूपमात्मानम् वेद।

How is this possible?

Tell your mind about this fact. Constant Reminders will help a lot.

Read the latest scientific data from Italy about this aspect.

Scientific evidence now suggests that one cn boost up one's mood by training the brain to do so.

People who are content are believed to live longer, form healthy relationships and are less inclined to turn to crime, psychotherapist Christine Webber writes in the Daily Mail.

According to Webber, recent developments in neuroscience have found the brain forms new neural connections in life, and when a person is joyful, that part of the brain structure is found to become active that registers happiness.

Italian psychiatrist Giovanni Fava, in his study, encouraged his patients to keep a diary and record in it all their happy moments.

He found that once people wrote down details of positive moments, happy feelings took root in their minds, Webber noted.

According to some researchers, individuals who are optimistic tend to deal with life's downturn better than those who are less upbeat.

Reasons for Hair Loss - Some observations

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Caring for your hair is an important aspect of personal grooming and healthy hair is a sign of robust health. Though dandruff or dead cell is a common problem affecting the young and old alike, many a time hair fall comes as a forewarning of other diseases like thyroid, high BP, hormonal changes, diabetes, obesity and PCOD. People who observe special diets to become slim are prone to hair loss because they become deprived of nutrients.

Retention of hair works in different ways in men and women. Men have a tendency to lose hair unless it is kept short which makes it essential for them to go for a hair cut every now and then.
There is a general tendency to apply oil in a bid to attain healthy hair growth. But there is no scientific basis to this as our scalp is gifted with a natural secretion called sebum that gives its natural sheen and keeps dryness at bay.
But change in climate, excessive use of shampoos, low water level and hair treatments like colouring and straightening can damage the sebum glands. Most alarming is the fact that stress can cause hair fall among children from the age of four. A feeling of insecurity and various reasons like parental incompatibility have to be checked.
Alopecia Areata is another medical condition where a person loses hair in circular patches usually from the scalp; however there are cases where there is hair loss from other parts of the body. If hair is lost only from the scalp, it is termed alopecia areata totalis and if it is only from other body parts it is termed alopecia areata universalis.
Many nutrients like zinc are necessary for the healthy growth of hair. When under extreme stress, a condition called zinc depletion sets in resulting in hair loss and even greyness. Often, a lifestyle change like change in water can also contribute to the condition called alopecia or hair loss.
Constant wearing of caps can cause monk fringes (loss of hair in the covered area). There are seven stages in alopecia and many come in for treatment at the fourth stage when it’s difficult to bring in any improvement.
So it is important to consult a specialist before it is too late. Genetic factors are also a reason for extensive hair fall. For the correct treatment of hair loss, it is vital to study the history of the patient and not every one can be administered the same treatment.
But eating right and consuming at least two litres of water a day helps control hair loss to a certain extent.

Lap Top (Battery) Hazards and precautions

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:38:00 +0000

High time to adopt discipline in using a Laptop .... after seeing repeated accidents caused by Laptop Batteries.

Switch Off/ Log Off the Laptop before going to sleep.
Do not place Laptop or any Electronic Gadget near your head, while in sleep. (Remember that your head more valuable than the gadget or its convenience.)
In case of emergency of fire, remember the points.
Remember that these precautions should be well presented and remembered by all the family members. Because, in case of an emergency the first one to notice should respond quickly. More importantly, to extinguish the fire, one need not know to use a laptop or know its mechanism.

Owning a laptop may have become a necessity for some and fashionable for the rest, but it poses a potential fire threat to thousands of users who prefer to take the device to bed and go to sleep without logging off, as was seen in the recent death of a Kolkata-based executive.

Sayan Chowdhury, a 34-year-old MNC employee, was found dead in his bedroom November 6, where he had dozed off while working on his laptop.

The laptop and the charging cord were found partially burnt.

According to the autopsy report, he lost his life either because of overheating of the battery, which caused a fire, or electrocution or carbon monoxide poisoning.

This incident bears an uncanny similarity with the case of 25-year-old Arun Gopalratnam, an MBA graduate, who died June 4, 2010 in a tragic fire in Wisconsin, US. The blaze was reportedly caused by his laptop when it overheated on his bed while he slept, because it had not been logged off.

Investigators found that the laptop's positioning on the bed had cut off air from its cooling fan, overheating the set, which sparked the fire and produced carbon monoxide, killing Gopalratnam in his sleep.

Similarly, an overheated laptop also killed a 56-year-old man in Vancouver, Canada. The unnamed man fell asleep with the computer still logged on. His laptop's placement on the bed had cut off its source of ventilation, causing the lithium ion battery, a relatively new technology, to overheat and burst into flames that proved fatal for him.

Being lightweight and portable, users prefer to take their laptops to bed to work, surf the net or watch movies, until they fall asleep in the wee hours without logging off, even as the batteries overheat and start a fire.

Experts advise people to avoid this practice.

"Bottom line is that we take things for granted. We feel safe putting a device that pushes 19 volts and holds many harmful chemicals on the lap. We put a potential grenade next to our eye, hoping it won't go up in flames," writes US gadget expert, technical consultant and blogger Jeffrey Powers.

"If your battery is dead, replace it. Charging a dead battery is like continually trying to light a fuse that is soaked in water. Eventually, it will spark," he adds.

Almost invariably, lithium batteries seem to be a major factor in exploding laptops because of certain limitations, which had necessitated companies like Dell, Sony and IBM to recall a series of batteries in the past.

"The only thing you can do if your laptop heads into flames is...don't throw water on it. Remember, this can create a fire hotter than a standard fire," advises Powers.

"A Class D fire extinguisher will help stop the fire. Try to use something to push it into a trash can or something non-flammable. Keep the laptop plugged into a surge strip, that way if the fire breaks out, the surge protector trips," says Powers.

A Class D fire is one that involves combustible metals or combustible metal alloys. There are basically two types of Class D fire extinguishers. It is the second variant that uses a copper based dry powder, the only known lithium fire fighting agent which can put out laptop flames.

The current drive towards more compact laptops also downsizes ventilation to manage heating, just as slimmer batteries raise chances of a short circuit from a punctured separator, a membrane that separates the positive and negative charges in a battery. DVD players built into laptops too add their share of heat.

Lithium in laptop batteries is a highly reactive metal that can burn or explode simply by being exposed to air or water. It is present in a flammable liquid, which surrounds a metal coil inside the battery. As this liquid heats up, it flows like water in a radiator, carrying metallic particles.

One of them can pierce the separator, triggering a short circuit that ignites the flammable liquid or generates greater heat and pressure, which end in a leak or an explosion.

Bye Bye Diabetic Injections??

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Good Bye daily Injections for Diabetics!

Here's some good news for those suffering from diabetes, scientists are developing a pill to treat or even prevent the most common form of the disease.

An international team, led by Curtin University in Australia, which is developing the new tablet, claims the pill allow diabetics to get their daily insulin substitute and avoid needles.

Over the past 10 years, lead scientist Prof Erik Helmerhorst and his colleagues looked at millions of compounds on pharmaceutical databases to try to emulate the molecular map of insulin.

"On a computer, in silico, we searched three million compound structures for their ability to fit that map," he said.

In short, they found one, and are developing it as part of their dream to ‘take the needle out of diabetes’.

"Our innovation is the development of a new chemical entity, a small drug molecule we have discovered and developed, that can be taken orally as a tablet to replace insulin per se," said Prof Helmerhorst.

The research has the ability to revolutionise the treatment of diabetes, which is a growing worldwide problem. Professor Helmerhorst said there was a niche market for their drug molecule to target Type 2 diabetics to help delay to the onset of insulin dependency.

"The reality is that nearly one-third of Type 2 diabetics will end up needing insulin therapy at some stage," he said, adding that the insulin substitute would appeal to people who were averse to taking insulin via injections or by pumps.

"We've had a lot of interest already, including a Chinese and UK group interested in the technology," Prof Helmerhorst said.

Insomnia - one more remedy!!

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Study found that drinking cherry juice helps one sleep an extra 25 minutes a night, and people who consume it regularly have an improved quality of sleep.

Suffering from insomnia? Drink a glass of cherry juice daily before going to bed, for a study says that it holds the key to a good night's sleep.

Researchers at Northumbria University have found that drinking cherry juice helps one sleep an extra 25 minutes a night, and people who consume it regularly have an improved quality of sleep.

They have found that cherry juice significantly increases levels of melatonin in the body, the hormone regulating sleep, a finding which may benefit those who have difficulty sleeping due to insomnia, shift work or jet lag.

In the study, led by Dr Glyn Howatson, 20 healthy volunteers drank a 30 ml serving of either tart cherry juice or a placebo juice twice a day for seven days.

Urine samples were collected from all participants before and during the investigation to determine levels of melatonin, a naturally occurring compound that heavily influences the human sleep-wake cycle.

During the study, the participants wore an actigraphy watch sensor, which monitored their sleep and wake cycles and kept a daily diary on their sleeping patterns.

The researchers found that when participants drank cherry juice for a week there was a significant increase in their urinary melatonin (15 to 16 per cent) than control condition and placebo drink samples, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

(Dhaniya) Coriander Seeds - Good for anxiety reduction

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:42:00 +0000

Researchers have found a natural, safe and cheap remedy in coriander seeds to relieve anxiety and mental tension.

“The anti-anxiety activity of coriander seeds is similar to the action of diazepam or anti-depressant drugs,” said Poonam Mahendra, who led a team of pharmacologists on a research study on effects of coriander seeds.

While drugs have side-effects, coriander seeds are natural and safe, added poonam. According to the research findings, coriander seeds or dhania influences the mind, calms it down and provides relief from mental tension and anxiety.

As a part of the experiment, the team fed hydro-alcoholic extract of coriander seeds to a set of mice and cross-checked the results obtained from another set of mice fed with diazepam. The action exerted by coriander was similar to diazepam, but without any side-effects. For results to be positive, coriander seeds should be taken in sufficient quantity. “Anxiety affects one-eighth of the total population in the world. It is characterised by a state of excessive fear, motor tension, sympathetic hyperactivity and apprehension. The drugs available in the market have unwanted side effects like sedation, muscle relaxation and temporary loss of memory,” Poonam said adding that coriander is the natural way of finding relief from mental tension and anxiety.

Battle against the Corruption - Monster ... some updates

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:23:00 +0000

At last some good news for people about reduction of corruption at public offices in India.

CVC Setting up the mechanism to share information on graft among various agencies.
Call toll free number 1964 to register your complaint 24x 7.
Govt notifies rules to punish corrupt officials, by tightening screws and removing laxities.

Next in line -

Inclusion of Private Sector Bribery, including Corporates and NGOs.
Removal of overlapping duties, leading to evasiveness.
Protecting Anonymity, to spare the public from the wrath of Existing Babus.
Bringing in transparency in appoints.
Finally, the process of elections - the mother of all battles against Corruption.

As Sastra says - कारणव्यतिेरेकेण कार्यस्यासद्भावः। The effect cannot be different from the cause.
If the appointment/ selection/ election is corrupt, the result would be equally corrupt, if not worse - at best.
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NEW DELHI: Harassed by corrupt babus (officials) demanding bribe or delaying work?

Aggrieved people will soon be able to seek help through a 24x7 toll-free number, 1964, to be made functional by the Central Vigilance Commission. According to the country's anti-corruption watchdog officials, the number will act as a one-stop solution for all complaints related to corruption.

"The anti-bribery helpline will assist complainants in their problems related to unnecessary lingering of work in a concerned government department due to a demand of undue favours or bribe by public servants," a CVC official said. He said that a full-fledged call centre will also be set up to provide services round the clock. "People will be able to register complaints related to bribery being faced by them in all the central government ministries, departments and public sector units, among others," the official said.

However, complaints related to Delhi government or its departments will not be resolved through the proposed helpline or by the commission since it does not come under its jurisdiction. The Central Vigilance Commission was set up in February 1964 by the government, hence the choice of the toll-free number.

"We have worked out the technical modalities with the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). There are a few things needed to be worked out with other stakeholders. We plan to start it within two-months time," the official said.

Presently, the CVC has a toll free number 1800-11-0180 and 011-24651000 which is operational between 9am and 7pm from Monday to Friday. "The 1964 will be working seven days and there will be no such time limitation to register complaints," the official added.

Desk Job - Money Spinner or Killer??

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:31:00 +0000

There were times, when parents toiling hard in the fields in agrarian activities or outdoor hard jobs, encouraged children to study well, so that they can obtain employment in an office, to minimize discomfort in life.

Little, did they imagine those those comfort levels would turn out to be killers (lifespan decreasers) for the future generations. Decreased metabolism is proving to be a major concern as an avenue to early death.

Read on the report from New South Wales, Australia.

-------------

Bad news for those who have desk jobs, a new study has found that sitting down for long periods of time increases risk of early death.

The study of more than 200,000 men and women in NSW has found that the longer people sit each day the greater their chances of going to an early grave. Even when exercise was taken into account, it was often not enough to offset the effects of sitting for several hours.

Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day had a 48 per cent increased risk of death compared to more active people who sat for less than four hours a day.

Co-author of the study, Adrian Bauman, of the University of Sydney’s school of public health, said people with physically active jobs such as gardeners, builders and childcare workers faced less of a problem than those chained to a desk.

“Your lowest risk of death is if you are physically active and don’t sit,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Professor Bauman as saying. Your highest risk is if you don’t do any physical activity and you sit a lot of the day."

"What’s happening is when you sit, the meal you have just eaten is broken down into sugar and your blood sugar stays high. Sugar wants to be taken into muscles and the liver to be used but if you’re sitting it’s just circulating so your blood sugar stays high,” Prof Bauman explained.

The findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the 45 and Up Study, the largest ongoing health research project in the southern hemisphere.

Vaccination or No Vaccination?

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:56:00 +0000

Vaccination improves Body Immunity, But ...

It could impair the body's ability to develop resistance .. is the alternative view. Let us understand that perspective thru the personal experience of a Health Journalist.

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It was a year before her daughter was born that health journalist Reba came across anti-vaccination literature.

“I was intrigued and started reading what was written about vaccines with my husband. I also talked to doctors and other experts. There was no absolute proof that vaccines are either safe or effective. We resolved that if we had a child we would never subject her or him to any kind of vaccination,” Reba Paul, the editor of Health Café, told this newspaper.

Three months after the pledge was taken, Reba became pregnant. The child, who has been kept away from vaccines as if they were the plague, is now three-and-a-half years old.

“Except for the mild fever associated with the sprouting of a new tooth, Eva has been absolutely free of childhood infections,” Reba said.

According to her, controlled group studies carried out in the West have shown that non-vaccinated children are healthier than vaccinated ones. A child’s ability to fight infection, Reba says, is connected more with a good diet and sanitary surroundings than vaccines in the blood stream.

“For the first six months I gave my child only breast milk and nothing else. After that I added fruits and coconut milk. A child's digestive system is not powerful enough to digest cereals,” Reba says.

What scared Reba the most about vaccines was the presence of metals like mercury and aluminum in them. “How can I subject my child to vaccinations when I won’t even dare to give her toys coated with these metals?” she asks. She is also alarmed by the frequency of the vaccinations.

“These injections are administered when the child's internal systems are at a tender stage of development. I simply could not allow stuff like mercury and aluminum to be deposited in my baby's nervous system,'' she says.

The main reasons for paediatric problems, according to Reba, are bad food choices and unwanted vaccinations.

Here are some links that scared Reba about vaccinations

*Vaccination, The Hidden Truth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKsuQhC9Cs

http://www.sunherb.com/truth_about_vaccines.htm

*Dr Shiv Chopra, a member of the Canada Health Board, on vaccines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWTxgDtS000

*A doctor’s take on the dangers of vaccination

http://www.drcarley.com/

*A mother’s opposition to vaccination

Home Remedies - Few Suggestions

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:52:00 +0000

Let us see how some of the home remedies can help us in relieving pain and cure the disease we come across in our everyday living:

OIL PULLING:

Dr. Med. Karch, a Russian, introduced a simple process for the Human body by using oil. This was further popularized by Lt. Col T. Koteswara Rao (Retd.). Initially it causes doubts, but after trying it out the results are astonishing.

The Process:

1. Take one spoon of refined oil in the mouth on an empty stomach early in the morning, before eating or drinking anything.

2. Without much effort or speed, slowly suck and pull the oil through the teeth. Gargle the oil within closed mouth for 15 - 20 minutes.

3. During this process, the oil becomes liquid and white like milk. Spit the liquid out and wash your mouth thoroughly, preferably with warm water.

4. DO NOT SWALLOW the oil as it contains toxins and harmful bacteria drawn from the body through the saliva. Continue this process everyday for better results.

The Cure:

The process of Oil Pulling can give relief and cure Headaches, Asthma, Bad Breath, Nose Block, Tooth Pain, Acidity, Ulcers, Cracked Feet, Joint Pains, Stomach Problems, Problems related to Lungs, Liver & Nerves

Who can practice this:

Oil Pulling can be practiced by all from the age of 5 years onwards for any type of health problems. People who a! re in a habit of taking a lot of medicines should try this, as it will release a lot of toxins from the body.

Which Oil to be Used:

Any cooking oil can be used, but the most preferred is the Sesame Oil.

CURE FOR ACIDITY:

Acidity, it is said, is worse than Cancer. It is one of the most common dis-ease people encounter in their daily life. The home remedy for Acidity is Raw Grains of Rice.

The Process:

1. Take 8 - 10 grains of raw uncooked rice

2. Swallow it with water before having your breakfast or eating anything in the morning

3. Do this for 21 days to see effective results and continuously for 3 months to eliminate acidity from the body

The Cure:

Reduces acid levels in the body and makes you feel better by the day.

CURE FOR CHOLESTEROL:

Cholesterol problem accompanies with Hypertension and Heart Problems. This is also one of the common problems in people who have High Blood Pressure and Diabetes. The home remedy for Cholesterol problem is RAW SUPARI.

The Process:

1. Take Raw Supari (Betel Nut that is not flavoured) and slice them or make pieces of the same

2. Chew it for about 20 - 40 minutes after every meal

3. Spit it out

The Cure:

When you chew the supari, the saliva takes in the juice that is generated and this acts like a Blood Thinner. Once your blood becomes free flowing, it brings down the pressure in the blood flow, thereby reducing Blood Pressure too.

CURE FOR BLOOD PRESSURE:

One of the simple home remedy cure for Blood Pressure is Methi Seeds or Fenugreek Seeds.

The Process:

1. Take a pinch of Raw Fenugreek Seeds, about 8 - 10 seeds

2. Swallow it with water before taking your breakfast, every morning

The Cure:

The seeds of Fenugreek are considered good to reduce the blood pressure.

CURE FOR DIABETES:

There are 2 home remedies for Diabetes. One is Ladies Finger and the other is Black Tea.

BLACK TEA:Due to high medication, the organ that is worst affected is the Kidney. It has been observed that Black Tea (tea without milk, sugar or lemon) is good for the Kidney. Hence a cup of black tea every morning is highly advisable.

The Process:

1. Boil water along with the tea leaves (any tea leaves will do).

2. Drink the concoction without addingmilk, sugar or lemon.

The Cure:

Black Tea will help in enhancing the function of the kidney, thereby not affecting it more.

LADIES FINGER or OKRA:

Ladies finger is considered to be a good home medicine for diabetes.

The Process:

1. Slit the ladies finger into 2 halves vertically and soak it in water overnight.

2. The next morning, remove the ladies fingers and drink the water, before eating your breakfast.

The Cure:

After the ladies fingers are soaked overnight in the water, you can observe that the water becomes sticky in the morning. This sticky water is considered to be good for people who suffer from Diabetes.

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:03:00 +0000

Water Vapour cools.

We knew that, since our childhood lessons.

Now, the researchers state that, vapour from vegetation and irrigation is contributing to the cooling of our planet.

According to scientists, evaporated water helps in cooling earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, a study said.

A new study by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have demonstrated that evaporation of water from trees and irrigated crop areas could cool the planet which could have major implications on decision making for land use.

These findings were published online on September 14 in Environmental Research Letter. "In the Indian backdrop of proposed Land acquisition Bill, this findings could have major implications for land-use decision making," he said.

"It is well known that clearing of forests for agriculture and infrastructure development can contribute to local warming by decreasing local evaporative cooling, but it was not understood whether this decreased evaporation would also contribute to global warming," Govindasamy Bala of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, IISc Bangalore told PTI.

Globally, this cycle of evaporation and condensation moves energy around, but cannot create or destroy energy. How could then evapotranspiration change global climate if the net heating is zero?

According to Bala "it is the feedback loops in the climate system. In this case, it is primarily the cloud feedback. Enhanced surface evaporation causes an increase in the amount of low level clouds in the atmosphere. These clouds scatter more solar radiation back to space and cool the planet," he said.

"The policy implications of this study are enormous. The recent Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate showed that around 13 Million hectares of forests are converted to other uses or lost each year."

"In addition to contributing to global warming through CO2 emissions, deforestation in the tropics could be causing more global mean warming through reduced evapotranspirtation. Conversely, planting trees in the tropics could remove CO2 from the atmosphere as well as cool the planet through enhanced transpiration," Bala said.

We all know trees provide shading and they also cool the local environment by evapotranspiration. However, scientists have long debated the role of plant transpiration on global climate.

The reason is that while evaporation causes a local cooling, condensation of the same water heats up the atmosphere somewhere higher but within the climate system, he said.

For this study, the authors used a global climate model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA and is freely available to the climate modelling community around the world.

"The model has full representation for atmospheric processes such as air circulation and transport of heat and water vapour, clouds, evaporation from oceans and soils, transpiration from plants, 'radiative' heating by solar radiation and greenhouse warming effect by carbon dioxide and other trace gases in the atmosphere," Bala said.

Scientists from both the institutions used a configuration of the model that has representation for the surface layer of the oceans as well as sea ice in the polar regions.

This type of climate model is also known as a general circulation model. Bala said the climate model was run on supercomputers to study the effect of enhanced surface evaporation on the climate system.

In one of their experiments, the authors increased the surface water evapotranspirtation to mimic increased tree cover on the planet.

Simultaneously, they also reduced the heat transfer from the surface, as in real world, so that the total energy addition into the atmosphere is zero.

No global-mean warming is anticipated in this experiment. But, to their surprise, they found a cooling triggered by increased cloud cover in the lower levels of the atmosphere.

Bala pointed out that in the past, many climate modelling studies on tropical deforestation studies have indeed simulated the local warming from deforestation.

But because water vapour plays so many roles in the climate system, the global climate effects of changes in evaporation were not well understood.

The researchers even thought it was possible that evaporation could have a warming effect on global climate, because water vapour acts as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Earth Quake Tips and Info

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

What to Do During an Earthquake

Stay as safe as possible during an earthquake. Be aware that some earthquakes are actually foreshocks and a larger earthquake might occur. Minimize your movements to a few steps to a nearby safe place and if you are indoors, stay there until the shaking has stopped and you are sure exiting is safe.

If indoors

DROP to the ground; take COVER by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture; and HOLD ON until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.
Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture.
Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place.
Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, loadbearing doorway.
Stay inside until the shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.
Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.
DO NOT use the elevators.

If outdoors

Stay there.
Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.
Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits and alongside exterior walls. Many of the 120 fatalities from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake occurred when people ran outside of buildings only to be killed by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

If in a moving vehicle

Stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle. Avoid stopping near or under buildings, trees, overpasses, and utility wires.
Proceed cautiously once the earthquake has stopped. Avoid roads, bridges, or ramps that might have been damaged by the earthquake.

If trapped under debris

Do not light a match.
Do not move about or kick up dust.
Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.
Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.

Earthquake Terms

Familiarize yourself with these terms to help identify an earthquake hazard:

Aftershock
An earthquake of similar or lesser intensity that follows the main earthquake.

Earthquake
A sudden slipping or movement of a portion of the earth’s crust, accompanied and followed by a series of vibrations.

Epicenter
The place on the earth’s surface directly above the point on the fault where the earthquake rupture began. Once fault slippage begins, it expands along the fault during the earthquake and can extend hundreds of miles before stopping.

Fault
The fracture across which displacement has occurred during an earthquake. The slippage may range from less than an inch to more than 10 yards in a severe earthquake.

Magnitude
The amount of energy released during an earthquake, which is computed from the amplitude of the seismic waves. A magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter Scale indicates an extremely strong earthquake. Each whole number on the scale represents an increase of about 30 times more energy released than the previous whole number represents. Therefore, an earthquake measuring 6.0 is about 30 times more powerful than one measuring 5.0.

Seismic Waves
Vibrations that travel outward from the earthquake fault at speeds of several miles per second. Although fault slippage directly under a structure can cause considerable damage, the vibrations of seismic waves cause most of the destruction during earthquakes.

What to Do After an Earthquake

Expect aftershocks. These secondary shockwaves are usually less violent than the main quake but can be strong enough to do additional damage to weakened structures and can occur in the first hours, days, weeks, or even months after the quake.
Listen to a battery-operated radio or television. Listen for the latest emergency information.
Use the telephone only for emergency calls.
Open cabinets cautiously. Beware of objects that can fall off shelves.
Stay away from damaged areas. Stay away unless your assistance has been specifically requested by police, fire, or relief organizations. Return home only when authorities say it is safe.
Be aware of possible tsunamis if you live in coastal areas. These are also known as seismic sea waves (mistakenly called "tidal waves"). When local authorities issue a tsunami warning, assume that a series of dangerous waves is on the way. Stay away from the beach.
Help injured or trapped persons. Remember to help your neighbors who may require special assistance such as infants, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Give first aid where appropriate. Do not move seriously injured persons unless they are in immediate danger of further injury. Call for help.
Clean up spilled medicines, bleaches, gasoline or other flammable liquids immediately. Leave the area if you smell gas or fumes from other chemicals.
Inspect the entire length of chimneys for damage. Unnoticed damage could lead to a fire.
Inspect utilities.
- Check for gas leaks. If you smell gas or hear blowing or hissing noise, open a window and quickly leave the building. Turn off the gas at the outside main valve if you can and call the gas company from a neighbor's home. If you turn off the gas for any reason, it must be turned back on by a professional.
- Look for electrical system damage. If you see sparks or broken or frayed wires, or if you smell hot insulation, turn off the electricity at the main fuse box or circuit breaker. If you have to step in water to get to the fuse box or circuit breaker, call an electrician first for advice.
- Check for sewage and water lines damage. If you suspect sewage lines are damaged, avoid using the toilets and call a plumber. If water pipes are damaged, contact the water company and avoid using water from the tap. You can obtain safe water by melting ice cubes.

What to Do Before an Earthquake

Earthquakes strike suddenly, violently and without warning. Identifying potential hazards ahead of time and advance planning can reduce the dangers of serious injury or loss of life from an earthquake. Repairing deep plaster cracks in ceilings and foundations, anchoring overhead lighting fixtures to the ceiling, and following local seismic building standards, will help reduce the impact of earthquakes.

Six Ways to Plan Ahead

Check for Hazards in the Home
- Fasten shelves securely to walls.
- Place large or heavy objects on lower shelves.
- Store breakable items such as bottled foods, glass, and china in low, closed cabinets with latches.
- Hang heavy items such as pictures and mirrors away from beds, couches, and anywhere people sit.
- Brace overhead light fixtures.
- Repair defective electrical wiring and leaky gas connections. These are potential fire risks.
- Secure a water heater by strapping it to the wall studs and bolting it to the floor.
- Repair any deep cracks in ceilings or foundations. Get expert advice if there are signs of structural defects.
- Store weed killers, pesticides, and flammable products securely in closed cabinets with latches and on bottom shelves.
Identify Safe Places Indoors and Outdoors
- Under sturdy furniture such as a heavy desk or table.
- Against an inside wall.
- Away from where glass could shatter around windows, mirrors, pictures, or where heavy bookcases or other heavy furniture could fall over.
- In the open, away from buildings, trees, telephone and electrical lines, overpasses, or elevated expressways.
Educate Yourself and Family Members
- Contact your local emergency management office or American Red Cross chapter for more information on earthquakes. Also read the "How-To Series" for information on how to protect your property from earthquakes.
- Teach children how and when to call 9-1-1, police, or fire department and which radio station to tune to for emergency information.
- Teach all family members how and when to turn off gas, electricity, and water.
Have Disaster Supplies on Hand
- Flashlight and extra batteries.
- Portable battery-operated radio and extra batteries.
- First aid kit and manual.
- Emergency food and water.
- Nonelectric can opener.
- Essential medicines.
- Cash and credit cards.
- Sturdy shoes.
Develop an Emergency Communication Plan
- In case family members are separated from one another during an earthquake (a real possibility during the day when adults are at work and children are at school), develop a plan for reuniting after the disaster.
- Ask an out-of-state relative or friend to serve as the "family contact." After a disaster, it's often easier to call long distance. Make sure everyone in the family knows the name, address, and phone number of the contact person.
Help Your Community Get Ready
- Publish a special section in your local newspaper with emergency information on earthquakes. Localize the information by printing the phone numbers of local emergency services offices, the American Red Cross, and hospitals.
- Conduct a week-long series on locating hazards in the home.
- Work with local emergency services and American Red Cross officials to prepare special reports for people with mobility impairments on what to do during an earthquake.
- Provide tips on conducting earthquake drills in the home.
- Interview representatives of the gas, electric, and water companies about shutting off utilities.
- Work together in your community to apply your knowledge to building codes, retrofitting programs, hazard hunts, and neighborhood and family emergency plans.
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Source - http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/index.shtm

Disabling Protein Fortilin - could be the way of treating Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Separate the undisciplined from the rest to contain damage.

This is the time-tested management theory from time immemorial. Now, this will be implemented in medical treatment for Cancer, as researchers find out the way to do this separation and disabling the protein.

Scientists have figured out a new way to kill cancer cells by disabling a protein known as fortilin, which promotes their unbridled growth.

Fortilin does so by neutering (removing) protein p53, which actually suppresses cancer. This finding potentially paves the way for treating a range of tumours and atherosclerosis (hardening of

arteries, with plaque build-up), which p53 also helps prevent.

"The p53 protein is a critical defence against cancer because it activates genes that induce apoptosis, or the death of cells," said Ken Fujise, director cardiology division, University of Texas Medical Branch, who led the study.

Fujise and his team used animal models to demonstrate that fortilin inhibits p53 from activating genes, such as BAX and Noxa, that facilitate cell death. Thus, cells that would be killed are allowed to proliferate, the Journal of Biological Chemistry reports.

"When normal cells become cancer cells, our bodies' natural biological response is to activate p53, which eliminates the hopelessly damaged cells," said Fujise, according to a Texas statement.

"This process explains why the majority of people are able to stay cancer-free for most of their lives," he said.

"Conversely, mutated p53 genes are seen in more than half of all human cancers, making them the most frequently observed genetic abnormality in cancer," said Fujise.

According to Fujise, now scientists can begin exploring compounds that could modulate fortilin's activity on p53.

Such a compound would be a powerful chemotherapy agent and, because p53 inhibition has also been associated with atherosclerosis, it could also protect against coronary disease and its many complications, including heart attack and stroke.

Peel of Banana - can purify Water

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Banana peels, useful in polishing silverware and leather shoes, may have another surprising use, as a water purifier.

Gustavo Castro and colleagues said that minced banana peels performed better than a number of other purification materials in removing potentially toxic metal contamination from water.

Mining processes, runoff from farms and industrial wastes can all put health and environment harming heavy metals such as lead and copper into waterways.

Current methods of removing heavy metals from water are expensive, and some substances used in the process are toxic themselves.

Previous work has shown that some plant wastes, such as coconut fibers and peanut shells, can remove these potential toxins from water.

The researchers found minced banana peel could quickly remove lead and copper from river water as well as, or better than, many other materials.

They noted that a purification system made of banana peels can be used up to 11 times without losing its metal-binding properties.

Banana peels are attractive as water purifiers because of low cost and because they don't have to be chemically modified in order to work, they added.

The study appears in ACS's journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

అరటి తొక్క ಬಾಳೇ ಹಣ್ಣಿನ ಸಿಪ್ಪೆ

Ray of Hope for AIDS Cure - Muted Gene develops Resistance to HIV

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:32:00 +0000

LONDON (Reuters) - For his doctors, Timothy Ray Brown was a shot in the dark. An HIV-positive American who was cured by a unique type of bone marrow transplant, the man known as "the Berlin patient" has become an icon of what scientists hope could be the next phase of the AIDS pandemic: its end.

Dramatic scientific advances since HIV was first discovered 30 years ago this week mean the virus is no longer a death sentence. Thanks to tests that detect HIV early, new antiretroviral AIDS drugs that can control the virus for decades, and a range of ways to stop it being spread, 33.3 million people around the world are learning to live with HIV.
People like Vuyiseka Dubula, an HIV-positive AIDS activist and mother in Cape Town, South Africa, can expect relatively normal, full lives. "I'm not thinking about death at all," she says. "I'm taking my treatment and I'm living my life."

Nonetheless, on the 30th birthday of HIV, the global scientific community is setting out with renewed vigor to try to kill it. The drive is partly about science, and partly about money. Treating HIV patients with lifelong courses of sophisticated drugs is becoming unaffordable.

Caring for HIV patients in developing countries alone already costs around $13 billion a year and that could treble over the next 20 years.

In tough economic times, the need to find a cure has become even more urgent, says Francoise Barre Sinoussi, who won a Nobel prize for her work in identifying Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). "We have to think about the long term, including a strategy to find a cure," she says. "We have to keep on searching until we find one."

The Berlin patient is proof they could. His case has injected new energy into a field where people for years believed talk of a cure was irresponsible.

THE CURE THAT WORKED

Timothy Ray Brown was living in Berlin when besides being HIV-positive, he had a relapse of leukemia. He was dying. In 2007, his doctor, Gero Huetter, made a radical suggestion: a bone marrow transplant using cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, known as CCR5 delta 32. Scientists had known for a few years that people with this gene mutation had proved resistant to HIV.

"We really didn't know when we started this project what would happen," Huetter, an oncologist and hematologist who now works at the University of Heidelberg in southern Germany, told Reuters. The treatment could well have finished Brown off. Instead he remains the only human ever to be cured of AIDS. "He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," says Huetter. Brown has since moved to San Francisco.

Most experts say it is inconceivable Brown's treatment could be a way of curing all patients. The procedure was expensive, complex and risky. To do this in others, exact match donors would have to be found in the tiny proportion of people -- most of them of northern European descent -- who have the mutation that makes them resistant to the virus.

Dr Robert Gallo, of the Institute of Virology at the University of Maryland, puts it bluntly. "It's not practical and it can kill people," he said last year.

Sinoussi is more expansive. "It's clearly unrealistic to think that this medically heavy, extremely costly, barely reproducible approach could be replicated and scaled-up ... but from a scientist's point of view, it has shown at least that a cure is possible," she says.

The International AIDS Society will this month formally add the aim of finding a cure to its HIV strategy of prevention, treatment and care.

A group of scientist-activists is also launching a global working group to draw up a scientific plan of attack and persuade governments and research institutions to commit more funds. Money is starting to flow. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is asking for proposals for an $8.5 million collaborative research grant to search for a cure, and the Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR, has just announced its first round of four grants to research groups "to develop strategies for eradicating HIV infection."

THE COST OF TREATMENT

Until recently, people in HIV and AIDS circles feared that to direct funds toward the search for a cure risked detracting from the fight to get HIV-positive people treated. Even today, only just over five million of the 12 million or so people who need the drugs actually get them.

HIV first surfaced in 1981, when scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered it was the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). An article in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of that June referred to "five young men, all active homosexuals" from Los Angeles as the first documented cases. "That was the summer of '81. For the world it was the beginning of the era of HIV/AIDS, even though we didn't know it was HIV then," says Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has made AIDS research his life's work.

In the subsequent three decades, the disease ignorantly branded "the gay plague" has become one of the most vicious pandemics in human history. Transmitted in semen, blood and breast milk, HIV has devastated poorer regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, where the vast majority of HIV-positive people live. As more tests and treatment have become available, the number of new infections has been falling. But for every two with HIV who get a chance to start on AIDS drugs, five more join the "newly infected" list. United Nations data show that despite an array of potential prevention measures -- from male circumcision to sophisticated vaginal or anal microbicide gels -- more than 7,100 new people catch the virus every day.

Timothy Brown (Berlin), First Patient cured of AIDS

Cellular Phone Side Effects - Damaged DNA, Brain??

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Waiting for conclusive proof for Possible damage due to Cellular Phone usage?

Here is some data, from experiments.

A group of international scientists has released what they call 'stunning proof' confirming cell phone use can disrupt DNA, impair brain function and lower sperm count.

A meeting on Monday by Environmental Health Trust, with the Turkish cancer society, and Gazi University, revealed the new research that the scientists say shows just four hours of cell phone exposure can damage DNA, brain and sperm function.

Other new important work from Australia shows damage to human sperm.

"We are deeply concerned about what this could mean for public health," said Prof. Nesrin Seyhan , WHO and NATO advisor who is head and founder of Biophysics Department and Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory at Gazi University in Ankara.

"This work provides a warning signal to all of us. The evidence justifies precautionary measures to reduce the risks for everyone of us," says Prof. Wilhelm Mosgoeller from the Medical University of Vienna who has led European research teams, who found that RF-EMF induce DNA breaks.

A research team at the University of Athens discussed how insect studies have demonstrated that acute exposure to GSM (Global System for Mobile) signals brings about DNA fragmentation in insects' ovarian cells, and consequently a large reduction in the reproductive capacity of the insects.

Further studies demonstrated that long exposures induced cell death to the insects in the study.

Workshop attendee Dr. Adamantia Fragopoulou, leader of a team at the University of Athens, shared a finding about embryonic development taking place in the presence of a mild electromagnetic field.

Throughout the gestation period, exposure to radiation for just six minutes a day affects the bone formation of fetuses. The team suggests that this is possibly caused by the interaction of cell phone radiation with crucial molecules and ions involved in embryogenesis.

Dr. Seyhan shared work performed at Gazi University demonstrating that the increasing use of cell phones-and the increasing number of associated base stations-are becoming a widespread source of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.

It suggested that some biological effects are likely to occur even with low-level electromagnetic fields. The team concluded that 900 and 1,800 MHz radiation levels are related to an increase in the permeability of the blood-brain barrier in young adult male rats.

The rat's brains can be used to correspond to the brains of human teenagers.

In addition, research from the University of Athens shared their studies demonstrating that rats exposed to cell phone radiation were unable to remember the location of places previously familiar to them.

This finding is of potentially critical importance for people, who heavily rely on spatial memory for recording information about their environment and spatial orientation.

Birth Day of our Spiritual Teacher - What is so special about it?

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:39:00 +0000

Sadguru Janma Dina Utsavam

(Birth Day of our Spiritual Teacher)

What is so special about it?

- Vamshi Krishna Ghanapathi

Time is eternal and admits of neither an identifiable beginning nor a quantifiable conclusion. However, mankind devised sagacious systems to gauge the units of time, with the aid of celestial phenomena and objects, such as planetary constellations and their relative positions for their convenience of transactions and possible curiosity about forecast. Our Ancestral Sages combined their intuitive powers and long term observational skills with stringent penances. This enabled them to establish the earliest system of reckoning time, commencing with the very genesis of the Universe (Brahmaanda), as well as the Mortal Body (Pindaanda). The implications behind each unit of time’s coincidence with each unit of the body (Celestial/ Human/ Biological) were discussed threadbare in a myriad of texts.

Thus the system of Jaataka Chakram (Kundali) or Horoscopy Chart, was derived, by means of which any person could ascertain what was in store. In the case of anunfavourable forecast, several remedies were provided with this system of forecast. This served to uplift a soul from its pall of gloom, and provided a measure of assurance. The asynchronous analysis of life with the able assistance of the guidelines available in the Dharma Sastra (Code of Righteousness) was also made an inseparable part of our life, and this was resorted to during casual exchanges or introspection.

Apart from this, a periodical review of a person’s performance in life was an important factor. Such review was deemed to be indispensable for the betterment of human life.

This requires the identification of some significant occasion. Consequently, the concept of Birth Anniversary was recognised and designated as the most suitable occasion for such annual performance reviews.

Contrary to the contemporary pomp and extravaganza associated with Birth Day Parties, in the name of re-union, homogeneity, and gaiety; this day was devised by our traditions, as an occasion for achieving the following objectives.

Birth Anniversary is the right occasion for:

1. Prayer to the Almighty, in gratitude for the unique and great gift of Human Birth.

2. Introspection, with respect to our actions, during the past year and the overall progress made in life.

3. Contemplation of future action in accordance with the goals of life, vis a vis spiritual and material progress.

4. Plans for equitable distribution of our prosperity and wealth, and the suitable means for achieving it.

5. Finally prayer for extending longevity with the same Quality of Life for another year.

6. Seeking the Blessings and Guidance of the Great Learned Souls, for the betterment of life.

7. Re-dedication and Re-orientation of Life towards the stated or perceived objectives, and focusing on the Goal of Life, as determined by the meritocracy.

8. Rationalising the use of the remaining life and stemming wastage of time, to the optimum level, with proper planning and execution.

Is There a Need for Celebration?

Yes! It is absolutely necessary to celebrate the great treasure termed Human Birth, which we all possess. We should cherish the labour and efforts of our previous Janma and Karma (Actions of Previous Births).

Hence, there is a need to celebrate this invaluable possession, with a view to put it to the optimum use, for our betterment and that of those around us.

How About Enlightened Souls Such as the Sadguru?

Despite the best description, a modicum of doubt persists in sceptical minds, regarding the need to celebrate the Birth Day of the Guru.

Does the Guru still require the performance of the above stated activities, if he is so enlightened? – is the pertinent question at this juncture. In order to comprehend to a greater extent, let us look at the phenomenon of Avataara (Re-incarnation) of a wise and enlightened soul on this planet.

Inequality and Difference are real.

How much so ever, we may exclaim aloud that all are equal; it is not true, under all circumstances. It is only true to the extent that the aspect of Divinity, Consciousness, Bliss and Wisdom equally permeates every creature. However, the extent to which this transpires varies from creature to creature, which explains the obvious differences in traits, understanding, names and forms amongst us. It is also an acknowledged fact that there are more souls, who are less advantaged than the few privileged ones, who had acquired their resources through tireless efforts spread across many births.

Based on the incidence of the majority being in a somnolent state, on account of intellectual and spiritual impoverishment; God regularly deputes a miniscule proportion of enlightened souls to uplift the majority. This juxtaposition of Enlightened Souls with the common folk constitutes incontrovertible proof of dexterous and compassionate attitude of God towards Humanity.

Hence, the Divine Deputation is called an Incarnation. The relevant Samskruta term depicts greater accuracy of description.

Avataara denotes coming down to the level of the underprivileged. Therefore, we always find one leader and myriad followers.

Leader and Follower

Once, we realise the mess that we are embroiled with and understand the indecisiveness which we undergo to escape it, we comprehend the necessity of the guiding factor for our emancipation. As the Guiding Factor, in the form of the Sadguru, explains the reasons behind maladies and persuaded the follower to shun malpractices, the disciple values His Personality. This valuation is frequently elevated to veneration, as the disciple enjoys the benefits of Enlightened Guidance.

In order to express gratitude, reverence towards the Guidance, the disciple looks for an occasion that will aid in the process.

The pursuit of an occasion, practically directs followers to the day that had brought the joy of wisdom not only to them, but alsoto innumerable other followers. This unique day is the Day of Incarnation of the Sadguru. Therefore, followers, without exception, have an occasion and the right to celebrate the Incarnation Day of their preceptor.

Expression of Reverence and Admiration

As the beneficiaries of Sadguru’s Guidance resolve to acknowledge the presence of their benefactor on this planet, they close ranks to celebrate the Spread of Wisdom. This celebration usually comprises of several means and methods including:

1. Direct Expression of Reverence in the form of Paada Puja (Worship to the feet of the revered person, as a mark of highest respect).

2. Acts of Charity, to demonstrate the adherence to the Preaching of the Sadguru

3. Activities based on the principles enshrined in the doctrine of Sadguru’s Philosophy; such as discourses and seminars.

4. Honouring Similar Enlightened Souls and Scholars.

5. Conduct of Rituals for the physical well-being of the Sadguru. (Aayushya literally denotes wellbeing and long life)

However, the principal activity that actually pleases the Sadguru, is to carry out a candid self-introspection that includes the items on the following check list:

1. What is the transformation achieved so far, in my life due to association with the Sadguru, especially during the past year?

2. Am I parsimoniously dispensing my resources for a goodcause?

3. Am I engrossed in material benefits only?

4. Am I limiting the precious association with Sadguru, to mere guidance in pecuniary and mundane matters?

5. What is the probability of my becoming a virtuous example for a true disciple? If not, what else needs to be done?

6. How best, am I equipped to serve the mission of the Sadguru, and how can I help others to attain the benefit of His Guidance?

This progression of attitude is in actuality, what the Guru looks for in all the disciples. With a view to denoting such progress, the Birth Anniversary is called Vardhantee, which essentially means growth among the followers.

This triumph alone vindicates His incarnation (which is nothing but a descent from the Eternal Supreme Bliss to moribundinfrequent spells of happiness) and proves His mission successful. Hence, it is termed as Jayantee, which means the Ever Victorious; as the decimation of ignorance takes place, through the spread of the light called Wisdom.

The Birth and Death Anniversaries of Great Souls, in many parts of our country, are referred to as Jayantee and Vardhantee. In some regions of India, the Birth Day is referred to as Vardhapana Utsava; which means the day of nurturing growth.

Essentially, all these terms relate to meta-physical spiritual growth, and are not limited to physical growth, which is bound to stop at some point. (A Wide Following, as an indication of achievement, is the Triumph of a Person’s Legacy - Jayantee. Enlargement in the number of such entities, practising the legacy is Vardhantee. Nurturing the growth is Vardhaapana.)

Darkness is absence of light. (As the Darkness cannot be quantified, the degree of ignorance cannot be described.) Only Light can be measured and quantified. Similarly, the symbols of wisdom, our scriptures, are qualified and quantified as the source of rays of enlightenment.

If a disciple truly intends to celebrate the Birth Anniversary of the Sadguru, it is mandatory to verifiably collect the rays of His wisdom and emulate the magnificent examples set by Him. Thus the celebration would be a Jayantee (Triumph) and Vardhantee (Growth) in letter and spirit.

Sri Gurubhyo Namah

O my Guru, Infinite!                       Datta I pray show me light
Keep my mind always right           Give me might Help me fight
Fill my heart with morality                        Help me serve humanity
Bless me always, o! Trinity                        Lead me to eternity
Kill my ego open my eyes            Show your form give me peace

Clean my mind Make me wise      Your grace is the greatest prize
Pardon me Take me along             My journey is very long
Make my tongue sing your song    Sacchidananda make me strong

-----

Sanskrit in Schools - Supreme Court Judgement (1994)

noreply@blogger.com (VKG) — Sat, 21 May 2011 01:19:00 +0000

The judgement of Honourable Supremet Court

(Favouring Sanskrit studies in schools.)

PETITIONER:

SANTHOSH KUMAAR

Vs.

RESPONDENT:
SECY., MIN. OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

DATE OF JUDGMENT 04/10/1994

BENCH:
HANSARIA B.L. (J) HANSARIA B.L.

(J) KULDIP SINGH (J)

CITATION: 1995 AIR 293 1994 SCC (6) 579 JT 1994 (6) 454 1994 SCALE (4)391 ACT:

HEADNOTE - JUDGMENT:

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by B.L. HANSARIA, J. A professor of Cambridge University is deeply engrossed in his studies in his calm chamber. An agitated English soldier enters the study room and accuses the professor of not sharing the trauma of war which he and many others like him are facing while fighting Germans. The professor calmly asks the young soldier for whom he is fighting. Quick comes the reply that it is to defend the country. The wise man wants to know - what is that country to defend; which he is prepared to shed his blood. The soldier replies it is the territory and its people. On further questioning the soldier says it is not only this but the culture of the country which he wants to defend. The professor quietly states that he is contributing to that culture. The soldier calms down and bows in respect to the professor and vows to defend with more vigour the cultural heritage of his country.

2. This is what is said to have happened during the Second World War when England was fighting almost a last ditch battle of survival and all Englishmen contributed in their own way to the ultimate victory of England.

3. The above shows the concern for Culture evinced even by the Westerners. So far as "We, the people of India" are concerned, they have always held in high esteem the cultural heritage of this ancient land. And to foretell our views, learning of Sanskrit is undoubtedly necessary for protection of this heritage. The stream of our culture would get dried if we were to discourage the study of Sanskrit, and that too on the most untenable 581 ground that if the Central Board of Secondary Education (for short 'the Board') were to do so, it would have to make facilities available for learning of Arabic and Persian - these being also classical languages, which is the ground advanced by Additional Solicitor General, Shri Tulsi, appearing for the Board, in it not being in a position to accept the prima facie view expressed by us on 19-7-1994, when these cases had come up for hearing, that Sanskrit should be included by the Board as one of the elective subjects in the syllabus along with Assamese, Bengali, etc., which are the languages specified in the Eighth Schedule of our Constitution, mentioning about Sanskrit being also an Eighth Schedule language. The desire to keep Sanskrit out does not stop here, as the submission also is that if Sanskrit comes, the Board shall have to bring in languages like French and German. This is not all, as it is contended by the Additional Solicitor General that the Board feels that arrangement may have then to be made for imparting education even in Lepcha, a language whose name many of the Indians might not have even heard.

4. We fail to appreciate at all the stand taken by a responsible body like the Board, which has been entrusted with the onerous duty of educating the youth of this country "in whose hands quiver the destinies of the future", as the same is wholly untenable. Without the learning of Sanskrit it is not possible to decipher the Indian philosophy on which our culture and heritage are based.

5. The question raised being important requires us, to answer it appropriately, to first know what our policy- makers have said about the importance of Sanskrit. We shall then apprise ourselves about the place of Sanskrit in our educational ethos and shall finally see whether teaching of Sanskrit is against secularism? Our education policy qua Sanskrit.

6. Being called upon to decide whether Sanskrit is required to be included in the syllabus of the Board as an elective subject so far as teaching in secondary school is concerned, may we say at the threshold a few words on the importance of education as such. This point is not required to be laboured by us in view of the Constitution Bench decision of this Court in Unni Krishnan case¹ in which the majority Judges well brought home the importance of education. It would be enough to mention what Mohan, J. (as a majority Judge) stated in that judgment. According to the learned Judge, education is a preparation of living and for life here and hereafter and education is at once a social and political necessity. It was also observed that victories are gained, peace is preserved, progress is achieved, civilisation is built up and history is made, not in the battlefields but in educational institutions which are seed- beds of culture. Education was, therefore, regarded as enlightenment and one that lends dignity to a man. 1) Unni Krishnan, J. P. v. State of A. P, (1993) 1 SCC 645 582.

7. As we are concerned in these cases with the teaching in the secondary schools, we may say something about the importance of education in its early stages. It has been well recognised that it is this education which lays the foundation for a full and intense life and so this education must carefully keep alive the spark of curiosity and fan it into a beautiful, bright flame whenever it comes. It has been stated that it is the education received in early stages which widens the contacts of child or youth with the surroundings of the world; and with every new and fruitful contact with the world of things, the world of men and the world of ideas, life of the young becomes richer and broader. It is early education which seeks to broaden the mind by exposing the learner to the world of thought and reflection, which can inspire him with lofty idealism by giving him the glimpses of a good life which a worthy education is capable of bringing.

8. We may now advert to the broad framework of our education policy as accepted by the Central Government. For our purpose it would be enough if we refer to the policies as formulated in 1968 and 1986. Here again, we would confine our attention to what was stated in these policies regarding Sanskrit. In the 1968 policy the following found place qua this language: "Considering the special importance of Sanskrit to the growth and development of Indian languages and its unique contribution to the cultural unity of the country, facilities for its teaching at the school and university stages should be offered on more liberal basis. Development of new methods of teaching the language should be encouraged, and the possibility explored of including the study of Sanskrit in those courses (such as modern Indian philosophy) at the first and second degree stages, where such knowledge is useful."

9. The 1986 policy has to say as below in this regard in para 5.33: "Research in Indology, the Humanities and Social Sciences will receive adequate support. To fulfil the need for the synthesis of knowledge, inter-disciplinary research will be encouraged. Efforts will be made to delve into India's ancient fund of knowledge and to relate it to contemporary reality. This effort will imply the development of facilities for the intensive study of Sanskrit."

10. It would be of some interest to note that when Sir William Jones, one of the most brilliant men of 18^th century, came to India in 1783 as a Judge of the then Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort Williams in Bengal, he got interested to learn Sanskrit and it grew so strong that within six years he not only became the master of the language but translated Kalidas's Shakuntala. After about two hundred years it has fallen to the Judges of the present Supreme Court to highlight the importance of Sanskrit and to see that it finds its due place in the niche of our national life.

Place of Sanskrit in our educational ethos

11. It is well known that Sanskrit is a mother of all Indo- Aryan languages and it is this language in which our Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads have been written and in which Kalidas, Bhavbuti, Banabhatta and Dandi wrote their classics. Teachings of Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, Madhawacharya, Nimbark and Vallabhacharya would not have been woven into the fabric of Indian culture if Sanskrit would not have been available to them as a medium of expressing their thoughts.

12.The report of the Sanskrit Commission (set up by the Government of India) which was submitted in 1957 speaks eloquently about the importance of Sanskrit. We do not propose to burden this judgment with all that was said by the Commission in this regard. It would be enough for our purpose if we take note of some passages finding place in the report which highlight the quality, substance, content and strength of Sanskrit. At page 71 of the report it has been mentioned that Sanskrit is one of the greatest languages of the world and it is a classical language par excellence not only of India but of a good part of Asia as well. At page 73 the report states that the Indian people and the Indian civilisation were born, so to say, in the lap of Sanskrit and it went "hand in hand with the historical development of the Indian people, and gave the noblest expression to their mind and culture which has come down to our day as an inheritance of priceless order for India, nay, for the entire world". The report further speaks at page 74, about the "great mental and spiritual link" of Sanskrit and of it being the elder sister of Greek and Latin, and cousin of English, French and Russian.

13. There is no need to dilate on the importance of Sanskrit further in our national ethos in view of what was stated by no less a person than the first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in this regard, which is as below: "If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly - it is the Sanskrit language and literature, andall that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance, and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long the basic genius of India will continue.

"Is teaching of Sanskrit against secularism?

14. Of the three objections mentioned by the Additional Solicitor General regarding the inability of the Board in acting in accordance with the prima facie views expressed by us in our order dated 19-7-1994, the only objection which merits our close look is that if Sanskrit were to be included as an elective subject, Arabic and Persian shall also have to be so done. The two other objections, namely inclusion of French and German also in the syllabus and of language like Lepcha do not deserve any consideration for obvious reasons.

15. The first objection needs our consideration because in some quarter there may be a feeling that by conceding to Sanskrit alone as an elective subject, we would act against secularism, which has been accepted by a nine-Judge Bench of this Court in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India² as a basic structure of our Constitution. It is apparent that we cannot give any direction 2 (1994) 3 SCC ¹ 584 about which it can be said that it is against the secularist requirement of our Constitution.

16. For the disposal of the cases at hand it is not necessary to elaborately discuss what are the basic requirements of secularism inasmuch as in Bommai case² this exercise has been well done by the learned Judges. It would be enough for our purpose to note what some of the learned Judges said in this regard. Sawant, J., with whom one of us (Kuldip Singh, J.) agreed, quoted in para 147 of the report what Shri M.C. Setalvad had stated on secularism in his Patel Memorial Lectures, 1965. One of the observations made by Setalvad was that a secular State is not hostile to religion but holds itself neutral in matters of religion. The further observation in para 148 is that the State's tolerance of religion does not make it either a religious or a theocratic State. Ramaswami, J. stated in para 179 that secularism represents faiths born out of the exercise of rational faculties and it enables to see the imperative requirements for human progress in all aspects and cultural and social advancement and indeed for human survival itself.

17.It would be profitable to note that according to Justice H.R. Khanna secularism is neither anti-God nor pro-God; it treats alike the devout, the agnostic and the atheist. According to him, secularism is not antithesis of religious devoutness. He would like to dispel the impression that if a person is devout Hindu or devout Muslim he ceases to be secular. This is illustrated by saying that Vivekananda and Gandhiji were the greatest Hindus yet their entire life and teachings embodied the essence of secularism. (See his article "The Spirit of Secularism" as printed in Secularism and India: Dilemmas and Challenges edited by Shri M.M. Sanklidhar.)

18. We also propose to refer to what was said by the Sanskrit Commission on the subject of "Sanskrit and National Solidarity" in Chapter IV of its report. The Commission has, in this context first stated that Sanskrit is the "embodiment of Indian culture and civilisation". It then observes that the Indian people look upon Sanskrit as the binding force for the different peoples of this great country, which was described as the greatest discovery which the Commission made as it travelled from Kerala to Kashmir and from Kamarupa to Saurashtra. The Commission, while so travelling, found that though the people of this country differed in a number of ways, they all were proud to regard themselves as participants in a common heritage; and that heritage emphatically is the heritage of Sanskrit. According to the Commission one of the witnesses who appeared before it went to the length of suggesting that if the Sanskrit Commission had come before the States Reorganisation Commission, many of the recent bickering in our national life could have been avoided. (pages 80 and 81).

19. From what has been stated above, we entertain no doubt in our mind that teaching of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject can in no way be regarded as against secularism. Indeed, our Constitution requires giving of fillip to Sanskrit because of what has been stated in Article 351, in which while dealing with the duty of the Union to promote the spread of Hindi, it 585 has been provided that it would draw, whenever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit. Encouragement to Sanskrit is also necessary because of it being one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule.

20. We, therefore, conclude by saying that in view of importance of Sanskrit for nurturing our cultural heritage, because of which even the official education policy has highlighted the need of study of Sanskrit, making of Sanskrit alone as an elective subject, while not conceding this status to Arabic and/or Persian, would not in any way militate against the basic tenet of secularism. There is thus no merit in the first objection raised by the Board.

21. In the aforesaid premises, we direct the Board to include Sanskrit as an elective subject in the syllabus under consideration. Necessary amendment in the syllabus shall be made within a period of three months from today.

(The writ petitions are allowed accordingly. No order as to costs.)