Presentations by Dow India scientists were representative of the key areas of reseach that are currently being undertaken in Pune. Manoj Kharkar presented a paper on ‘high throughput research for catalyst development’, while Dr Raj Deshpande presented a paper on ‘catalytic conversion of biorenewable resources for platform chemicals: possibilities and options’.  B P Kiran focussed on ‘acicular mullite for controlling diesel particulate emissions.’

NCL Research Foundation, an institution aimed at promoting excellence in science and technology, in association with The Dow Chemical Company, USA, has instituted an ‘Endowment Lecture Series’ in the honour of Dr Paul Ratnasamy, former director of NCL. This lecture is delivered by eminent professors and scientists invited by Dow each year. The 2009 lecture was entitled ‘making fuels and chemicals from tomorrow’s raw materials: challenges for catalysis’ and was presented by Professor Jens Weitkamp, a renowned scientist in the areas of heterogeneous catalysis, separations and purifications by adsorption and applied materials science with a focus on zeolites, with more than 300 scientific papers to his name.

This low cost ATM was developed at IIT Chennai by TeNet group of Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala. It is low cost by design- this ATM plugs into a Kiosk PC connected to a bank server. Unlike PIN numbers for log in, customers finger prints are used. The mechanism was designed by Vortex , the licensee, promoted by innovator L.Kannan, who earlier developed low cost spinning equipment with support under TePP. For this no frills ATM, funding came from Aavishkaar. Initial testing was done by ICICI and now adopted by SBI.

आइए बनाएं सोना

प्राचीनकाल में रसायनज्ञ पारद या पारे से सोना बनाने की विधि जानते थे.यह बात आज कपोल कल्प्ना या मिथ सरीखी लगती है जबकी इसके कई प्रमाण मौज़ूद हैं.सच्चाई यह है कि य प्रकिया बेहद कठिन और अनुभव सिद्ध है.तमाम कीमियाग़र सोना बनाने में नाकामयाब रहे, कुछ थोडे से जो सफल रहे उन्होने इस विद्या को गलत हाथों में पडने के डर से इसे बेहद गोपनीय रखा.

राक्षस दैत्य दानवों के गुरू भृगु ऋषि जिन्हें शुक्राचार्य के नाम से भी संबोधित किया जाता है, उन्होंने ऋग्वेदीय उपनिषद श्रीसूक्त के माध्यम से सोना बनाने का तरीका बताया है. श्रीसूक्त के मंत्र व प्रयोग बहुत गुप्त व सांकेतिक भाषा में बताया गया है. संपूर्ण श्रीसूक्त में 16 मंत्र हैं.

भारत के नागार्जुन, गोरक्षनाथ आदि ने इन मत्रों की रसायनिक दृष्टि से सोना बनाने की कई विचित्र विधियाँ, कई स्थानों और कई ग्रंथों में बताई गयी हैं. अर्थात, श्रीसूक्त के पहले तीन मंत्रों में सोना बनाने की विधि, रसायनिक व्याख्या और उनका गुप्त भावार्थ, आपके समक्ष प्रस्तुत किया जा रहा है.

श्रीसूक्त का पहला मंत्र

ॐ हिरण्य्वर्णां हरिणीं सुवर्णस्त्र्जां।

चंद्रां हिरण्यमणीं लक्ष्मीं जातवेदो मआव॥

शब्दार्थ – हिरण्य्वर्णां- कूटज, हरिणीं- मजीठ, स्त्रजाम- सत्यानाशी के बीज, चंद्रा- नीला थोथा, हिरण्यमणीं- गंधक, जातवेदो- पाराम, आवह- ताम्रपात्र.

विधि – सोना बनाने के लिए एक बड़ा ताम्रपात्र लें, जिसमें लगभग 30 किलो पानी आ सके. सर्वप्रथम, उस पात्र में पारा रखें. तदुपरांत, पारे के ऊपर बारीक पिसा हुआ गंधक इतना डालें कि वह पारा पूर्ण रूप से ढँक जाए. उसके बाद, बारीक पिसा हुआ नीला थोथा, पारे और गंधक के ऊपर धीरे धीरे डाल दें. उसके ऊपर कूटज और मजीठ बराबर मात्रा में बारीक करके पारे, गंधक और नीले थोथे के ऊपर धीरे धीरे डाल दें और इन सब वस्तुओं के ऊपर 200 ग्राम सत्यानाशी के बीज डाल दें. यह सोना बनाने का पहला चरण है.

श्रीसूक्त का दूसरा मंत्र

तां मआवह जातवेदो लक्ष्मीमनपगामिनीं।

यस्या हिरण्यं विन्देयं गामश्वं पुरुषानहं॥

शब्दार्थ – तां- उसमें, पगामिनीं- अग्नि, गामश्वं- जल, पुरुषानहं- बीस.

विधि – ऊपर बताए गए ताँबे के पात्र में पारा, गंधक, सत्यानाशी के बीज आदि एकत्र करने के उपरांत, उस ताम्रपात्र में अत्यंत सावधानीपूर्वक जल इस तरह भरें कि जिन वस्तुओं की ढेरी पहले बनी हुई है, वह तनिक भी न हिले. तदनंतर, उस पात्र के नीचे आग जला दें. उस पात्र के पानी में, हर एक घंटे के बाद, 100 ग्राम के लगभग, पिसा हुआ कूटज, पानी के ऊपर डालते रहना चाहिए. यह विधि 3 घंटे तक लगातार चलती रहनी चाहिए.

श्रीसूक्त का तीसरा मंत्र

अश्व पूर्णां रथ मध्यां हस्तिनाद प्रमोदिनीं।

श्रियं देवीमुपह्वये श्रीर्मा देवीजुषातम॥

शब्दार्थ – अश्वपूर्णां- सुनहरी परत, रथमध्यां- पानी के ऊपर, हस्तिनाद- हाथी के गर्दन से निकलने वाली गंध, प्रमोदिनीं- नीबू का रस, श्रियं- सोना, देवी- लक्ष्मी, पह्वये- समृद्धि, जुषातम- प्रसन्नता.

विधि – उपरोक्त विधि के अनुसार, तीन घंटे तक इन वस्तुओं को ताम्रपात्र के पानी के ऊपर एक सुनहरी सी परत स्पष्ट दिखाई दे तो अग्नि जलाने के साथ ही उस पात्र से हाथी के चिंघाड़ने जैसी ध्वनि सुनाई देने लगेगी. साथ ही हाथी के गर्दन से निकलने वाली विशेष गंध, उस पात्र से आने लगे तो समझना चाहिए कि पारा सिद्ध हो चुका है, अर्थात सोना बन चुका है. सावधानी से उस पात्र को अग्नि से उतारकर स्वभाविक रूप से ठंडा होने के लिए कुछ् समय छोड़ दें. पानी ठंडा होने के पश्चात, उस पानी को धीरे धीरे निकाल दें. तत्पश्चात्, उस पारे को निकालकर खरल में सावधानी से डालकर, ऊपर से नींबू का रस डालकर खरल करना चाहिए. बार बार नींबू का रस डालिए और खरल में उस पारे को रगड़ते जाइए, जब तक वह पारा सोने के रंग का न हो जाए.

विशेष सावधानी

· इस विधि को करने से पहले, इसे पूरी तरह समझ लेना आवश्यक है.

· इसे किसी योग्य वैद्याचार्य की देख रेख में ही करना चाहिए.

· इसके धुएँ में मौजूद गौस हानिकारक हैं, जिससे कई असाध्य रोग उत्पन्न हो सकते हैं अतः, कर्ता को अत्यंत सावधान रहते हुए, उस जगह खड़े या बैठे रहना चाहिए, जहाँ इससे निकलने वाला धुआँ, न आए.

The Indian R&D services market is expected to grow from $5 billion last year to $40 billion in 2020, according to Sachin Mulay, Wipro general manager, citing figures from a study by Indian software industry organization, Nasscom.

Wipro is currently “the largest third-party R&D services company in the world,” says Mulay in an interview this week with InformationWeek. And “R&D is the next big thing in India,” he says.

R&D isn’t exactly new at Wipro, it’s been providing R&D services for about 25 years, Mulay says. However, Wipro’s revenue from this business has been growing nicely lately, at about 30% annually. While the company won’t provide “forward looking statements,” it does anticipate it will continue to be a major player as the third-party R&D market in India grows eightfold over the next decade or so, he says.

Wipro’s R&D services outsourcing business will grow organically and through acquisitions, Mulay says. In the last few years, the company has acquired a few R&D service type companies, including Detroit-based Quantech Global Services, a mechanical engineering design and analysis firm in the automotive industry.

While Wipro will provide local onsite R&D services to customers, the big draw in outsourcing this work to Wipro is the cost savings from having it performed in India. So that’s where the bulk of the R&D activities take place. “The majority of design work will be done in India,” even though Wipro does have small R&D teams in places like Mountain View, Calif., in the United States and in Germany.

Today, Wipro employs about 95,000 people worldwide, including 19,000 who work in its R&D services business, Mulay says. Fewer than 10% of those R&D services people are based at customer sites outside of India. Within the next two or three years, the company expects to have a total company headcount of about 200,000 workers.

Certainly, as Wipro looks to expand its R&D services business, the company faces other challenges. For one, Mulay admits that U.S. and other global customers can be uneasy about outsourcing R&D functions to third parties in India, but especially in making such moves public. Contracts with R&D customers “are extremely confidential, they’re very sensitive,” he says. Still, there are some customers willing to go public with these sorts of arrangements. For instance, Tivo has licensed Wipro-designed middleware that will be built into Tivo’s high-definition DVRs, Mulay says.

Also, IT leaders often have their doubts about Indian firms’ ability to bring innovation to the table. In an InformationWeek Research survey earlier this year, of 430 IT pros who work with Indian IT service providers, just 10% cite “innovative ideas” as one of the most significant benefits that would prompt them to use such services again; 72% cite lower costs.

Finding talent to work for third-party R&D services companies in India isn’t easy, either. “The pool of people in R&D in India is quite limited,” Mulay admits. For instance, the pool of R&D people in India tends to move around from employer to employer, often landing jobs at non-Indian companies that set up R&D shop in India.

“People like electronic engineers often end up taking jobs at captive R&D centers,” he says. That’s required Wipro to become “innovative in our recruiting, building stronger partnerships with engineering colleges” in India, he says. That means recruiting third-year engineering students to work for Wipro even before they graduate.

To help compensate for some of those challenges, it’s Wipro’s plan to expand its R&D services to cover “the complete ecosystem,” he says.

For instance, along with its semiconductor design services for niche markets, Wipro will forge other partnerships to have those chips manufactured and delivered to the customer, as well. “In a sense, we’re putting more skin in the game,” he says. Instead of getting paid for the design of the chip, the company could instead generate revenue based on the market share that chip captures once it’s shipped, he says. “We’ll move from input revenue, to output revenue, to outcome revenue,” he says. “We’ll be joined at the hip with customers.”

“We don’t use outsource to describe our R&D services, we call it extended engineering,” he says.

Would you extend your R&D functions to third-party companies in India?

The next time someone in the room sneezes, you might want to wonder what exactly is on their mind after researchers found evidence that in certain people sneezing can be triggered by sexual fantasy.

t.

“We thought this unusual and performed a literature search of the topic,” he wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Together with colleague Dr Harold Maxwell, Dr Bhutta found that typing the words “sex”, “sneeze” or “sneezing” into Google produced a surprising number of hits.

“Although internet reports do not give us an accurate incidence, our findings do suggest that it is much more common than recognised,” wrote Dr Bhutta and Dr Maxwell.

While some of them seemed a bit apprehensive about coming to India after the terror attack in Mumbai, all of them were convinced that barring a few incidents, India is a safe place to live, work and travel.

Speaking at the formal inauguration of the Science Conclave on Tuesday morning they all echoed the same sentiment and feeling.

“India and Indian youth have contributed greatly to the international scientific community though they have a long way to go,” was the common refrain in their speeches.

Jerome Issac Friedman, who has worked under stalwarts like Encrico Fermi and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1990 for discovering quarks (the building blocks of protons in an atom), said that in addition to technology, we need to focus on the development of basic science.

“We need to concentrate on basic research,” he said, adding that the greatest invention of this century the transistor (a semi-conducting device used in every electronic micro chip) is responsible for 2/3rds of the economy of certain modern nations, referring to countries in South East Asia which have a flourishing semi-conductor manufacturing business and account for almost 50 percent of all the semi conductors manufactured in the world.

He wondered why India was not able to catch on the manufacturing boom particularly in semi-conducting devices and electronic gadgets like other nations like Taiwan, Malaysia and Korea in spite having a huge pool of technocrats and scientists.

Martin Lewis Perl, an American physicist, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his discovery of the Tau Lepton, said that besides brainpower Indian culture, art and dance are valued treasures and exports to the US.

He stressed on the need for Indian scientists to delve deeper into the basics of science, particularly physics which is the foundation of all research in related fields.

Sir Harold (Harry) Walter Kroto, FRS, an English chemist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prizein Chemistry, talked about the great Indian food available in London and the booming business by Indian restaurants in his hometown.

Public confidence in the honesty of scientists is being harmed by a small minority of researchers who behave badly, a conference heard last week. European research organisations agreed to work more closely to tackle the problem of fraud and other misconduct in science.

The meeting in Madrid on 17-18 November was organised by the newly formed Research Integrity Forum of the European Science Foundation (ESF) in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). It continued work set in motion by the first world conference on research integrity held in Lisbon in September 2007.

Fraud in science includes inventing data (fabrication), manipulating data to produce an unjustified result (falsification) or presenting the work of other researchers as one’s own (plagiarism).

There is little hard evidence of the extent of the problem but various estimates suggest that between 0.1% and 1% of researchers commit fraud and perhaps as many as 10% to 50% engage in questionable practices. Most of these are relatively minor, said Dr John Marks, Director of Science and Strategy at ESF, “but if people get away with it and if no-one says anything about it, it might invite bigger issues of misconduct.” He said that opinion polls showed that trust in scientists is still high “but that trust is easily lost by high profile cases of misconduct and that is why we are so concerned.”

A survey by ESF earlier this identified 18 European countries that had put in place codes of conduct for good practice in research but they varied greatly in how they dealt with suspected cases. Many have set up research integrity offices to promote good practice and discourage misconduct.

No European country has yet followed the lead of the US National Science Foundation which, along with other federal agencies, has statutory powers to investigate allegations of fraud including power to subpoena evidence. Dr Peggy Fischer, of the NSF’s Office of Inspector General, described how offenders can be required to take a course in scientific ethics or, in the most serious cases, banned from receiving any federal research funding for up to five years.

Systems in Europe tend to be more consensual and rely more on the self-governance of the scientific community. Professor Eero Vuorio, chair of the National Advisory Board on Research Ethics, said that all of Finland’s universities and polytechnics and most research funding bodies had signed up to a national code of good scientific practice. Allegations of misconduct are investigated by individual institutions to an agreed procedure with the help of outside experts. Sanctions are in the hands of employers.

Although most countries agree on the core definition of what constitutes misconduct, they differ in how they regard other unethical behaviour and how they deal with it.  The meeting heard reports on the situation in the United Kingdom, Portugal, the Czech Republic and France.

With much research now being done in international collaborations, problems can arise when fraud is committed within a cross-border partnership and there are no agreed rules on how cases are to be investigated and how sanctions can be imposed.

A move towards a common approach has been proposed by the Global Science Forum of the OECD, which would require potential collaborators to agree on what to do in cases of suspected misconduct. “When you’re doing your collaborative planning you need to recognise that things can go wrong,” said co-chair of the forum, Christine Boesz of NSF. She acknowledged that such an idea was new and was meeting resistance from some researchers.

The meeting also discussed the role of universities, national academies, international scientific bodies and scientific journals in promoting research integrity and heard of a project to compile a database of research papers known to be tainted by fraud. A proposal for a global clearinghouse to promote research integrity was also presented.

Members of the forum agreed to exchange information and good practice, to develop a code of conduct that could be used as a template for national codes, to develop a checklist to assist ESF members in setting up national and institutional structures to promote good practice and deal with misconduct, and to promote further research on the extent of misconduct.

Co-organiser Professor Juan José de Damborenea of CSIC told the meeting: “Society requires science and researchers to solve the problems that concern all of us. In general, public opinion has a good image of the honesty of scientists. We cannot allow it to be lost.”

चीनी परंपरागत चिकित्सक रोगी को देखने-सुनने , सूंघने तथा प्रश्न पूछने तथा छूने आदि के द्वारा रोगों की जानकारी प्राप्त करता था और अनुकूल इलाज करने की कोशिश करता था । जानकारी प्राप्त करने के उपायों में देखना , सूंघना , पूछना और नाड़ी पकड़ना आदि चार बुनियादी उपाय शामिल हैं । इन चार उपायों की अपनी अपनी विशेषताएं हैं , जो एक दूसरे का स्थान नहीं ले सकतीं । पर रोगियों का इलाज करते समय इन चार उपायों का संयुक्त रूप से इस्तेमाल किया जाना चाहिये ।

दर्शन

चीनी चिकित्सा पद्धति की बुनियाद देखने पर आधारित है । चीनी चिकित्सा पद्धति के अनुसार शरीर के अन्दर आंतों का शरीर के दूसरे भागों से घनिष्ठ संबंध होता है । आंतों में असंतुलन पैदा होने से पूरे शरीर पर प्रभाव पड़ता है । अंतः शरीर की भावना , रंग , स्वरूप तथा हालचाल में भी परिवर्तन पैदा हो जाता है । इसलिए मनुष्य के बाहरी शरीर के हालचाल को देखने से शरीर के अंदर आंतों में लगी बीमारियों का पता भी लगाया जा सकता है ।

देखने के उपायों में शामिल हैं रोगियों का हावभाव , हालचाल , सिर व मुख , त्वचा , नाड़ी तथा मल आदि को देखना आदि । पर इन उपायों में सर्वप्रथम रोगियों के चेहरे के भाव , मुख तथा जीभ के रंग को देखना होता है । क्योंकि मुख और जीभ के रंग से रोगियों की आंतों में आए परिवर्तन का पता चल सकता है ।

सूंघना (और सुनना भी)

सूंघने वाले उपाय का मतलब है कि चिकित्सक रोगियों की आवाज़ सुनते हैं और रोगियों के मल आदि की गंध सूंघने से रोग का पता लगा सकते हैं ।

रोगियों की आवाज़ सुनने के द्वारा न केवल आंतों में लगी बीमारियों का पता लगाया जा सकता है , बल्कि रोगियों की आवाज़ में आए हुए परिवर्तन से शरीर के अन्दर आंतों में हुए परिवर्तन का भी पता लगाया जा सकता है । रोगियों की आवाज़ में बोली , सांस और डकार आदि शामिल हैं ।

रोगी के शरीर तथा उस के रहने वाले कमरे की गंध सूंघने के द्वारा भी रोग की स्थिति तय की जा सकती है । क्योंकि रोग के कारण रोगियों की आंत, खून और शारीरिक द्रव में बदबू पैदा हो जाती है , और इसी वजह से रोगियों की बदबू इन के रहने वाले कमरे में फैल सकती है , मिसाल के तौर पर संक्रामक रोग के रोगियों की बदबू इन के रहने वाले कमरों में फैली होती है ।

पूछताछ

चिकित्सक अक्सर रोगी से और रोगी के रिश्तेदारों से पूछताछ करके रोग लगने के कारणों , इस के विकास व वर्तमान स्थिति का अंदाज़ लगाता है , और इलाज करने के उपायों के बारे में सोचता है । पूछताछ करने के माध्यम से चिकित्सक रोगियों की निहित रोग की स्थिति का पता लगा सकता है , और अगर रोगियों की स्थिति काफी स्पष्ट नहीं होती है , तो पूछताछ करने से मूल्यवान सूचनाएं प्राप्त कर सकता है , या रोगियों की आगे जांच करने के लिये उपयोगी सूचनाएं प्राप्त कर सकता है । साथ ही पूछताछ करने से रोगियों की अन्य उपयोगी सूचनाएं जैसे रोगियों का दैनिक जीवन , काम करने का वातावरण , खाने पीने की स्थिति तथा शादी करने की स्थिति आदि प्राप्त की जा सकती हैं ।

पूछताछ करते समय चिकित्सक रोगियों की आम स्थिति जैसे नाम , लिंग, उम्र , हैसियत , शादी स्थिति , जाति , जन्मस्थान तथा इलाज लेने की तिथि आदि के बारे में पूछता है । इस के अतिरिक्त रोगियों की स्वयं सुनवाई , वर्तमान स्थिति , रोग लगने का इतिहास , व्यक्तिगत आपबीती आदि भी पूछता है । वर्तमान रोग की पूछताछ करने में मुख्य तौर पर गर्मी व सर्दी , स्वप्न , भाव तथा मल आदि की स्थितियां पूछी जाती हैं ।

नाड़ी देखना

नाड़ी देखते समय चिकित्सक हाथ से रोगियों की नाड़ी पकड़ने के साथ इन के शरीर को भी छूता है । इस उपाय में दो तरीके होते हैं यानी नाड़ी देखना और हाथ से छूना । प्रथम तरीके से चिकित्सक रोगियों की नाड़ी पकड़कर रोगियों की अंदरूनी स्थितियों का पता लगाता है । फिर चिकित्सक हाथ से रोगियों के शरीर को छूने से रोगियों के शरीर में हुए असामान्य परिवर्तन का पता लगा सकता है , और इसी से रोगियों के रोग लगने का भाव तथा स्थितियों की गंभीरता तय कर सकता है ।