APPLICATION OF NANOSCIENCE

Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve studying and working with matter on an ultra-small scale. It is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It deals with structures of the size of 100 nanometers or smaller and involves developing materials or device s within that size.

The application of nanoscience in a number of different harmless consumer products is seen widely.

Sunscreens utilize nanoparticles zinc oxide.

Clay nanoparticles have made their way into composite materials, where they offer transparency and increased strength.

Anti-aging skin creams developed with nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles are used in antiseptics.

As abrasives in paints.

Coatings for spectacles making them scratch-proof and unbreakable.

Self-cleaning coating for windows.

Scratch-proof tiles.

Anti-graffiti coatings for walls.

For improved ski waxes.

HIGH YIELDING RICE (HYR)

The best ideas in science are often so simple that, once they are conceived, it is hard to imagine why nobody thought of them before. This appears to be the case with a proposal to change the height of the rice plant’s panicles in the canopy. The panicles are the parts of the rice plant that bear the spike lets, which in turn form the grain. The yield of the rice plant depends on the amount of starch that fills the grains. This in turn depends primarily on the process of photosynthesis occurring in the leaves. Photosynthesis requires sunlight as a source of energy. But the architecture of rice plants places the panicles high in the canopy, which some of the leaves, paradoxically, are in the shade and thus obviously not in the best position for maximum photosynthesis to occur. This is true not only of traditional rice plants, but also of modern cultivars had two serious faults. What was needed was to lower the panicles in the canopy so they no longer shaded the leaves.
When the yields are increased on a plant with panicles high in the canopy, the extra weight of the grains causes the plant s to fall over (lodge), especially when it rains and the wind blows. But if the panicles were lowered, this tendency would be reduced because the center of gravity of the plant would be lowered.

INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (IRRI)

Thirty-five years ago, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations of the USA in cooperation with the Government of Philippines, set in motion an unprecedented global experiment. Together they established a research center to unite within a developing country the talents of international and national scientists to raise the yield of the world’s most important food crop, rice. Rice was the staple food for 90 % of the world’s poor people, and the goal was to avert what was widely seen as an imminent threat of mass starvation among them.
The research center, of course, was International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A statement of its first director, Robert F. Chandler, Jr., in IRRI’s first annual report (1961-62), exemplifies the visionary spirit that animated the Institute from the beginning. Dr. Chandler wrote that it should be possible to produce a rice plant with the characteristics needed for the necessary increased yield within five years. Only four years later, IRRI had done just that, with IR8. The new variety followed by many others, triggered the Green Revolution, which led to a doubling of rice production throughout Asia and saved hundreds of millions of lives.

Disk Storage
· 1 Bit = Binary Digit
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1000 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1000 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1000 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte

Processor or Virtual Storage
· 1 Bit = Binary Digit
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
· 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
· 1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
· 1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte

Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes… What Are They?
These terms are usually used in the world of computing to describe disk space, or data storage space, and system memory. For instance, just a few years ago we were describing hard drive space using the term Megabytes. Today, Gigabytes is the most common term being used to describe the size of a hard drive. In the not so distant future, Terabyte will be a common term. But what are they? This is where it gets quite confusing because there are at least three accepted definitions of each term.

According to the IBM Dictionary of computing, when used to describe disk storage capacity, a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes in decimal notation. But when the term megabyte is used for real and virtual storage, and channel volume, 2 to the 20th power or 1,048,576 bytes is the appropriate notation. According to the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary, a megabyte means either 1,000,000 bytes or 1,048,576 bytes. According to Eric S. Raymond in The New Hacker's Dictionary, a megabyte is always 1,048,576 bytes on the argument that bytes should naturally be computed in powers of two. So which definition do most people conform to?
When referring to a megabyte for disk storage, the hard drive manufacturers use the standard that a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes. This means that when you buy an 80 Gigabyte Hard drive you will get a total of 80,000,000,000 bytes of available storage. This is where it gets confusing because Windows uses the 1,048,576 byte rule so when you look at the Windows drive properties an 80 Gigabyte drive will report a capacity of 74.56 Gigabytes and a 250 Gigabyte drive will only yield 232 Gigabytes of available storage space. Anybody confused yet? With three accepted definitions, there will always be some confusion so I will try to simplify the definitions a little.

The 1000 can be replaced with 1024 and still be correct using the other acceptable standards. Both of these standards are correct depending on what type of storage you are referring.

WHAT IS SYSTEMS BIOLOGY?

Systems thinking is used in a variety of scientific and technological fields. Indeed, this paradigm has proved indispensable in disciplines as disparate as commerce, production, and the aviation industry. Aleksander Bogdanov (1873–1928) was probably the first exponent of systems thinking. In his "Tektology: Universal Organization Science" (1913–1922), Bogdanov ambitiously proposed that all physical, biological, and human sciences could be unified by treating them as sets of relationships and by seeking the organizational principles that underlie all systems. The foundation of general systems theory was later developed extensively by the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Bertalanffy's statements on the topic appeared as early as the mid-1920s. Why then is it only now in the genomic era that it is so "hip" to talk about systems biology? Analogous to past developments in other scientific disciplines, biologists in the post-genomic era are challenged with huge volumes of data (e.g. genome sequences, expression data), originating from heterogeneous technologies (e.g. microarray, yeast two-hybrid, ChIP-chip) and representing innumerable states of the system (experimental conditions). This massive influx of information and the desire to make it biologically coherent has forced us to think not in terms of single molecules but in terms of "systems."
Although ecologists and physiologists have been using a systems approach to study plants for many years, a systems biology approach that reaches to and includes molecular details is only feasible now with the advent of genomic technologies. Thus, the exciting prospect of the post-genomic era is for the first time to be able to integrate knowledge across different levels of biological organization and to anchor this at the molecular level. Systems biology is sometimes loosely associated with the use of genomic technologies to understand specific biological processes. We believe systems biology has a larger and more ambitious scope, and we advocate a definition anchored in the general systems theory put forth by Bogdanov and Bertalanffy: The exercise of integrating the existing knowledge about biological components, building a model of the system as a whole and extracting the unifying organizational principles that explain the form and function of living organisms.

Rodrigo A. Gutiérrez, Dennis E. Shasha and Gloria M. Coruzzi
Department of Biology, New York University, New York, New York 10003 (R.A.G., G.M.C.); and Department of Computer Science, New York University, New York, New York 10012 (D.E.S.)
Source: Plant Physiology 138:550-554 (2005)

INFORMATION

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) is used in the treatment of common cold, allergies and respiratory disorders. It is also helpful in healing wounds. It has antioxidant activity and prevents the cell membrane of vital organs from getting damaged due to oxidation. Vitamin C deficiency can lead to scurvy in which there is lack of synthesis of collagen in the human body resulting in bleeding disorders, malformation of bones and growth retardation. The natural sources of Vitamin C are lemon, orange, gooseberry (amla), tomato, strawberry and other citrus fruits.

Amphibians are usually oviparons, i.e.they do not give birth to babies but lay eggs. However, a few species are known to be viviparons, wherein they give birth to their offspring instead of laying eggs. Recently scientists for India and the U. K. discovered viviparity in a caecilian (legless amphibian) Gegeneophis seshachari, which is a first find of its kind in India and the entire Asia.

The Government of India launched the Project Snow Leopard (RSL) on 20 January 2009 in New Delhi. The PSL is an initiative to conserve the globally endangered flagship species (Uncia uncial) found in the high altitude Himalayas.