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The Hindu
26-06-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
More higher education institutions needed for students interested in science, says Ashoke Sen
While the establishment of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) about two decades ago gave a fillip to science education in India, there is a need for more higher education institutions to cater to the students who want to pursue science, Prof. Ashoke Sen, Infosys Madhava Chair Professor, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru, said on Thursday. Current trends The current trends indicate a heavy incline towards engineering, medicine or management, which enable students to earn well, but science will be pursued by those who are genuinely interested in the subject. 'The demand is quite high; even to get into IISERs, there is tough competition,' Prof. Sen said. IISERs, he said, have provided opportunities to interested students to pursue science. 'I am not particularly concerned about more students opting for professional courses. As long as there are enough opportunities for people genuinely interested in science, we are doing good enough,' Prof. Sen added. On the research front, however, he sounded a note of caution, saying that India's allocation to science research, was minuscule, compared to China and other developed countries in Asia and the West. Besides, bureaucracy, with its regulations and administrative control, made it difficult to access grant money. 'Restrictions on the use of grant is a bottleneck in doing experimental research in India. Theorists, fortunately, do not suffer from this, unless they want to buy a big computer,' he added. Prof. Sen was at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Taramani on Thursday to deliver a lecture on 'Classical Gravitational Wave Tails from Quantum Soft Theorem' as part of 'The Alladi Ramakrishnan Centenary Lecture Series'. His lecture dwelt on the use of certain results in quantum gravity, called soft graviton theorem, to simplify the calculation of aspects of gravitational waves produced by a scattering process (an explosion, like supernova, or a cluster collision). The application of the theorem simplifies the otherwise complicated calculation process to arrive at the source of the scatter. Experimental use In the theoretical realm, this method may still be experimentally used to reconstruct the scattering process once gravitational waves from scattering are detected. Practical use related to actual measurements depended on several factors such as sensitivity of detection instruments and the frequency of such scattering processes in the universe. Prof. Krishnaswami Alladi, Professor of Mathematics, University of Florida, and Prof. V. Ravindran, Director, IMSc, spoke.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Oil spills and industrial waste in rivers and coasts put marine life and human health at risk
A study shows how small traces of oil spills and industrial waste are making rivers and coastal waters toxic for marine life . What lurks beneath the surface after an oil spill? A study by scientists in Chennai peeled back the layers and found how chemicals from oil spills — petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs) — are harming aquatic life in India's rivers and coastal waters. The researchers found that even in trace amounts, these chemicals can be toxic to species such as crabs, shrimp, fish, and molluscs. Crustaceans, in particular, are at high risk and are most vulnerable to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in PH. The findings are important because oil spills and industrial waste regularly release PHs into the water, but the full effects on marine life have remained unclear. It's not just marine life that is at risk. Experts say when crustaceans absorb toxic petroleum hydrocarbons from polluted waters, they can make their way onto plates, and if consumed, contaminated seafood can cause serious health threats, including cancer and hormone disruption. The study looked at 320 different PH chemicals found in common fuels such as diesel and crude oil. This includes 16 PAH, which were categorised as hazardous pollutants. Fluorathene, a component in dyes and pharmaceuticals, naphthalene used in insecticides and some plastics, and phenanthrene used for synthesising bile acids, cholesterol, and steroids were among the PAHs. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like CFD's: Investing $200 in Emaar Malls can give you a second income TradeLG Undo Instead of just measuring overall pollution, the researchers studied each chemical individually. They used large toxicology databases and built digital maps using computer software and tried to establish thresholds for regulatory purposes after assessing how different species of an ecosystem are affected. "We identify the concentration levels at which PHs in the environment start harming organisms, the species most at risk, and the biological processes through which these pollutants cause harm," says Shreyes Rajan Madgaonkar of the computational biology group at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), which did the study in collaboration with the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR). The study team was led by Prof Areejit Samal of IMSc. The study linked 75 PHs to 177 chains of harmful effects inside the bodies of aquatic species or toxic biological pathways. The researchers also mapped out which species in crabs, fish, and shellfish are most affected and how the chemicals build up in animals over time. They also used pollution data from Indian rivers and coasts to calculate risk levels for these PHs and found that four of the eight sites were at high risk with one of the 16 priority PHs analysed. This includes areas such as Veraval Harbour in Gujarat, Gomti River in Uttar Pradesh, Mithi River in Mumbai, and Mahanadi River in Odisha. One of the PAHs, benzo(a)pyrene, harms many important body processes of animals, and its effects can be passed down to subsequent generations. The researchers say it is possible to create a tool to track the risk of PHs across India's water bodies, provided more environmental concentration data on PHs in Indian waters becomes available. The team said the findings will help policymakers and regulators set better safety limits. "It will assist with test method development in view of targets in adverse outcome pathways and help define safe levels to protect marine life," says K Venkatarama Sharma, group head of marine ecotoxicology at NCCR. Meenakshi Bajaj, Dietitian at the Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Chennai, says PAHs are carcinogenic and mutagenic. "Eating seafood contaminated with it can lead to oxidative stress and liver toxicity. PAHs are also potent endocrine disruptors and can harm the foetus if pregnant women consume such seafood over the long term," she says, adding that frying, steaming, or even boiling cannot remove PAHs from food. "Vulnerable groups (children, pregnant women, elderly) must avoid seafood contaminated with chemically polluted waters," she says. Email your feedback with name and address to
