Jonas Salk, Polio and the Vaccine patent

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Poliomyelitis has existed for thousands of years, with depictions of the disease in ancient art. The disease was first recognized as a distinct condition by the English physician Michael Underwood in 1789 and the virus that causes it was first identified in 1908 by the Austrian immunologist Karl Landsteiner. In the 20th century it became one of the most worrying childhood diseases in these areas.

The disease is preventable with the polio vaccine; however, multiple doses are required for it to be effective. Once infected there is no specific treatment. In 2016, there were 37 cases of wild polio and 5 cases of vaccine-derived polio. This is down from 350,000 wild cases in 1988. In 2014 the disease was only spreading between people in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

In 1948, Jonas Salk (a medical researcher and virologist) undertook a project to determine the number of different types of polio virus. Salk saw an opportunity to extend this project towards developing a vaccine against polio, and, together with the skilled research team he assembled, devoted himself to this work for the next seven years.

After successful tests on laboratory animals, on July 2, 1952, Salk injected 43 children with the vaccine he developed. In 1954 he tested the vaccine on about one million children, known as the polio pioneers. The vaccine was announced as safe on April 12, 1955 and was the first vaccine for the disease. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.

Jonas Salk campaigned for mandatory vaccination, claiming that public health should be considered a "moral commitment." His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When asked who owned the patent to it, Salk said, "Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Had he patented it.. he would have made as much as $7 billion from that patent!

Reference - Wikipedia

Astronomers discover 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter

 Photograph showing two of Jupiter’s 79 moons

One of a dozen new moons discovered around Jupiter is circling the planet on a suicide orbit that will inevitably lead to its violent destruction, astronomers say.

Researchers in the US stumbled upon the new moons while hunting for a mysterious ninth planet that is postulated to lurk far beyond the orbit of Neptune, the most distant planet in the solar system. The team first glimpsed the moons in March last year from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, but needed more than a year to confirm that the bodies were locked in orbit around the gas giant.

Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, was hardly short of moons before the latest findings. The fresh haul of natural satellites brings the total number of Jovian moons to 79, more than are known to circle any other planet in our cosmic neighbourhood.

Astronomers have discovered twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the total number of Jovian moons to 79.

Nine of the new moons belong to an outer group that orbit Jupiter in retrograde, meaning they travel in the opposite direction to the planet’s spin. They are thought to be the remnants of larger parent bodies that were broken apart in collisions with asteroids, comets and other moons. Each takes about two years to circle the planet.

Two more of the moons are in a group that circle much closer to the planet in prograde orbits which travel in the same direction as Jupiter’s spin. Most likely to be pieces of a once larger moon that was broken up in orbit, they take nearly a year to complete a lap around Jupiter. Which direction the moons swing around the planet depends on how they were first captured by Jupiter’s gravitational field.

Astronomers describe the twelfth new Jovian moon as an “oddball”. Less than a kilometre wide, the tiny body circles Jupiter on a prograde orbit but at a distance that means it crosses the path of other moons hurtling towards it. Scientists have named the new moon Valetudo after the Roman god Jupiter’s great-granddaughter, the goddess of health and hygiene. Collisions aren't frequent and this particular one is also unlikely to happen anytime soon. If it does happen, it can definitely be observed from Earth.

The team suspects that Valetudo is the final remnant of a once much larger moon that has been ground to dust by collisions in the past. Which raises the question of how long the tiny moon has left.

Reference - The Guardian

Read more at the Science Pole App

Discovery of Antiproton & Story of Chamberlain

The matter around us has a kind of mirror image - antimatter. A particle and its antiparticle have an opposite electrical charge, among other things. The electron's antiparticle positron was the first to be discovered. With high concentrations of energy, a pair of particles and antiparticles can be created, but when a particle and an antiparticle meet, both are annihilated and their mass is converted into radiation.

In a 1955 experiment with a powerful particle accelerator, Owen Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè confirmed the existence of the proton's antiparticle, the anti-proton. Owen Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè were awarded The Nobel Prize in Physics 1959 for their discovery of the anti-proton.

Biography

Chamberlain studied physics at Dartmouth College and at the University of California, Berkeley. He remained in school until the start of World War II, and joined the Manhattan Project in 1942, where he worked with Segrè, both at Berkeley and in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

In 1946, after the war, Chamberlain continued with his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago under physicist Enrico Fermi. Fermi acted as an important guide and mentor for Chamberlain, encouraging him to leave behind the more prestigious theoretical physics for experimental physics, for which Chamberlain had a particular aptitude. Chamberlain received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949.

L to R - Owen Chamberlain, Clyde Wiegand, and Emilio Segre

In 1948, having completed his experimental work, Chamberlain returned to Berkeley as a member of its faculty. There he, Segrè, and other physicists investigated proton-proton scattering. In 1955, a series of proton scattering experiments at Berkeley's Bevatron led to the discovery of the anti-proton, a particle like a proton but negatively charged. Chamberlain's later research work included the time projection chamber (TPC), and work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

SLAC and its neighborhood, where it stands out as a long straight feature. The main accelerator is 3.2 kilometers long—the longest linear accelerator in the world—and has been operational since 1966.

Owen Chamberlain was born on 10 July, 1920.

References

1. NobelPrize.org
2. Wikipedia

Read more at the Science Pole App

The Curious Case of Oliver Sacks

9 July 1933 - birthday of Oliver Wolf Sacks, a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author. He believed that the brain is the "most incredible thing in the universe." He became widely known for writing best-selling case histories about both his patients' and his own disorders and unusual experiences.

He noted in a 2001 interview that severe shyness—which he described as "a disease"—had been a lifelong impediment to his personal interactions. Sacks believed his shyness stemmed from his prosopagnosia, popularly known as "face blindness", a condition that, coincidentally, he also studied in some of his patients, including the titular man from his work The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. This neurological disability of his even prevented him from recognising his own reflection in mirrors. Sacks' eldest brother Marcus also had prosopagnosia.

Prosopagnosia is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognise familiar faces, including one's own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g., object discrimination) and intellectual functioning (e.g., decision making) remain intact.

Medial surface of left cerebral hemisphere. (Fusiform gyrus shown in orange)

The specific brain area usually associated with prosopagnosia is the fusiform gyrus, which activates specifically in response to faces. The functionality of the fusiform gyrus allows most people to recognise faces in more detail than they do similarly complex inanimate objects. The right hemisphere fusiform gyrus is more often involved in familiar face recognition than the left. It remains unclear whether the fusiform gyrus is only specific for the recognition of human faces or if it is also involved in highly trained visual stimuli.

Reference - Wikipedia

Read more at the Science Pole App

How George Dantzig's Late Arrival to Class Made Math History

In the math and science world, George Dantzig (1914–2005) is known as the Father of Linear Programming. But it's a time he was late for class that has made him an inspiration to millions around the world—even if they don't know him by name.

An Accidental Solution

After receiving his Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland in 1936, and a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan, Dantzig went on to study for his PhD at University of California, Berkeley.

At the University of California, Dantzig was enrolled in statistics class taught by the renowned Polish statistician, Jerzy Neyman. One day in 1939, while Dantzig was running late for class, Neyman began his lesson by writing out two examples of "unsolvable problems" on the classroom blackboard. When Dantzig eventually did show up, he assumed they were part of his homework, and copied them in his notes. Although he found the problems more difficult than his usual assignments, he meticulously drafted out solutions for each one.

Days later he handed them in with an apology to Neymen for being late again—thinking the problems were overdue. Weeks later, Neymen excitedly told Dantzig that he had solved the unsolvable, and not only that, but Neymen had prepared one of the solutions for publication in a mathematical journal. (This part of the story would have undoubtedly gone a little differently if texting and email was available back then!).

The Tardiness Heard 'Round the World

Dantzig went on to lead a stunning career. During WWII, he took a break from his studies to serve in the U.S. Air Force, a move that eventually resulted in his next breakthrough: the development of linear programming, as well as the simplex algorithm needed to solve it. His methods became so widespread and influential that in 1975 he was awarded the National Medal of Science by then-President Gerald Ford, and he remains known as the Father of Linear Programming to this day.

As for the incident of the unsolved problems, that became a legend that spread far beyond the math world, circulating in classrooms and boardrooms for generations as an amazing lesson on the power of motivation and positive thinking. It may have even provided the basis for math-heavy storyline of the 1997 Matt Damon and Ben Affleck film, Good Will Hunting. So, the next time you find yourself running behind, don't get frustrated—just remember that every so often, lateness can lead to genius!

How about solving an 'unsolved' problem today?

George Dantzig

Jerzy Neyman

References -

1. Curiosity.com
2. Obituaries of George Dantzig

Read more at the Science Pole App

What is a cloudburst?

A cloudburst is sudden copious rainfall. It is a sudden aggressive rainstorm falling for a short period of time limited to a small geographical area. Meteorologists say the rain from a cloudburst is usually of the shower type with a fall rate equal to or greater than 100 mm (4.94 inches) per hour.

Generally cloudbursts are associated with thunderstorms. The air currents rushing upwards in a rainstorm hold up a large amount of water. If these currents suddenly cease, the entire amount of water descends on to a small area with catastrophic force all of a sudden and causes mass destruction. This is due to a rapid condensation of the clouds.

They occur most often in desert and mountainous regions, and in interior regions of continental landmasses.

During a cloudburst, more than 2 cm of rain may fall in a few minutes. They are called 'bursts' probably because it was believed earlier that clouds were solid masses full of water. So, these violent storms were attributed to their bursting.

Source - Rediff.com

Earth farthest from the sun on July 6

Planet Earth reaches a milestone today, as it swings out to aphelion, its most distant point from the sun. We reach this point on July 6, 2018, at 10:17 pm IST.

Is it hot outside for you on your part of Earth right now? Or cold out? Earth’s aphelion comes in the midst of Northern Hemisphere summer and Southern Hemisphere winter. That should tell you that our distance from the sun doesn’t cause the seasons.

This illustration greatly exaggerates the eccentricity – or oblongness – of Earth’s orbit, but you get the idea.

The fact is, Earth’s orbit is almost, but not quite, circular. So our distance from the sun doesn’t change much. Today, we’re about 5 million km farther from the sun than we will be six months from now. That’s in contrast to our average distance from the sun of about 150 million km.

The word aphelion, by the way, comes from the Greek words apo meaning away, off, apart and helios, for the Greek god of the sun. Apart from the sun. That’s us, today.

Looking for Earth’s exact distance from the sun at aphelion? It’s 152,095,566 km. Last year, on July 3, 2017, the Earth at aphelion was a tiny bit closer, at 152,092,504 km.

Source - EarthSky.org

Botanical life in close-up – in pictures

Colin Salter’s new book is a selection of extraordinary electron microscopic images of the plant world around us, including seeds, pollen, fruiting bodies, trees and leaves, flowers, vegetables and fruit

Some plants use scent to deter predators or encourage pollinators. The aroma of the scented pelargonium comes from oil held in its leaves and can be released by rubbing or lightly squeezing them: Pelargonium citronellum, seen here with pollen grains, smells of lemons.

Among these characteristically elongated cells of onion tissue, the small coloured bars are calcium oxalate crystals, which also precipitate from over-acidic urine in the human body to form kidney stones. Calcium oxalate has been found in more than a thousand plant families and its function is not entirely clear. It’s assumed that crystals form to absorb excess calcium ingested by the plant. Some plants contain it in toxic quantities, for example rhubarb (leaves, not stem) and Dieffenbachia, which can choke and render speechless those who eat it.

Cannabis resin is produced by the glandular hairs (trichomes, here yellow) on the leaves of the plant. Cannabis sativa, the green cells in this image. Those using the plant recreationally will know that hash comes from this resin, while marijuana is made from the leaves and flowers.

A honeybee leg. Bees have six legs, each covered in tiny hairs ideal for gathering the pollen that the bee needs to feed its larvae. Here you can see, in extreme magnification, that even the hairs have hairs, and these images also give an indication of just how small each grain of pollen must be. Flowers can attract bees in various ways, including scent, the offer of nectar, and the provision of a landing ‘lip’ in the shapes of their petals.

Scented geraniums are not geraniums but pelargoniums – the two families were redefined in the 18th century, having originally all been classed as geraniums. This is a close-up of the leaf of a lemon-scented geranium. The red spheres on some hairs (trichomes) are glands that secrete a scented oil. The scent discourages grazing livestock and attracts pollinators. The yellow sphere is a grain of pollen.

In this enhanced image the ‘mouths’ are the pores on the underside of an elder leaf. The ‘lips’ are the guard cells that expand and contract on either side, closing or opening the pores between them to permit the exchange of gases. During the day, plants give out oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, and they breathe in carbon dioxide, their only source of carbon from which to grow new cells. At night they exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen. Trees are truly the lungs of the planet.

These ‘flowers’ are actually the scale-like hairs (trichomes) on an olive leaf. They have evolved their peculiar shape to minimise moisture loss, a necessary asset in the hot, dry, windy conditions of the Mediterranean countries in which the olive tree, Olea europaea, is grown. At bottom left you can see two slotted leaf pores, which during the day absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The process is reversed at night.

Pollen, which produces the sperm cells necessary for fertilisation of flowering plants, falls into one of two classifications – monocot or dicot (both are seen here). Monocot pollen has a single furrow or pore on its surface, dicots three. Many differences between plants are related to the two types of pollen.

There are several hundred species of Aspergillus fungus, all of them forms of mould found on plants and starchy foods. They reproduce through spores (conidia) at the end of stems (conidophores). A. niger forms almost completely spherical spores radiating outwards from the tip of the stem.

Stripped of the petals and an enclosing ring of male reproductive structures (stamens), this is a striking view of the female reproductive system (pistil) of a rose. Below this crown of the stigma waiting to receive sperm-generating pollen, the rose has many ovaries. After fertilisation they swell to become rosehips, food for birds, which later disperse the seeds from the hips in their faeces. Most garden roses no longer produce hips because they have been bred to have so many petals there isn’t room for pollinating insects.

Source - The Guardian

Read more at the Science Pole App

Ocean spray on Saturn moon contains crucial constituents for life

Nasa probe detected complex organic molecules in plumes of water and ice as it flew over Enceladus

Blasts of ocean spray that erupt from a moon of Saturn contain complex organic molecules, making it the only place beyond Earth known to harbour crucial constituents for life as we know it.

Astronomers detected the compounds in plumes of water and ice that shoot from huge fractures in the south pole of Enceladus, a 300-mile-wide ice ball that orbits Saturn along with 52 other moons. Enceladus stands out among the planet’s natural satellites because it hosts a global water ocean beneath its frozen crust.

Scientists found tell-tale signs of organic molecules far more complex than amino acids and 10 times heavier than methane in data gathered by Nasa’s Cassini probe as it flew over the fractures on Enceladus. Known as “tiger stripes”, the fissures reach several miles down into the ice and are largely filled with ocean water that percolates up from the ocean.

The discovery has boosted calls to send another mission to Enceladus to answer once and for all whether life exists on the frigid body. While complex organics are necessary for life, and could even be remnants of alien microbes, the compounds can easily be made in routine reactions that have nothing to do with biology.

Frank Postberg, a planetary scientist who worked on the data at Heidelberg University, said that with modern instrumentation it would be straightforward to check Enceladus for signs of life. “You don’t have to land or drill, you just fly past,” he said. “This is not science fiction. You can just go there and check: is there life or not?”

The Cassini probe made several flybys of Enceladus during a mission to Saturn that lasted more than a decade and ended last year when it plunged into the planet. On one flyby in 2015, instruments on the probe sniffed hydrogen in the ocean spray, a potential food source for any microbes there.

Postberg and his colleagues have found that most ice particles blasting out of Enceladus are almost pure water. But a small proportion, about 1%, are rich in organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and potentially nitrogen too. Some were made up of hundreds of atoms.

Enceladus is believed to have a warm, porous core beneath its 50km-deep ocean. The scientists propose that organic compounds form in the water and rise up on bubbles where they gradually build up a surface scum. This matter is then turned into a spray when further bubbles burst, allowing the organics to be sucked out in plumes by the vacuum of space.