Sir Venkata Raman

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Trichinopoly in Southern India on November 7th, 1888. His father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics so that from the first he was immersed in an academic atmosphere. He entered Presidency College, Madras, in 1902, and in 1904 passed his B.A. examination, winning the first place and the gold medal in physics; in 1907 he gained his M.A. degree, obtaining the highest distinctions.His earliest researches in optics and acoustics - the two fields of investigation to which he has dedicated his entire career - were carried out while he was a student.

At an early age, Raman moved to the city of Vishakhapatnam, which is situated in state of Andhra Pradesh, where his father accepted a position at the Mr. A V N College. Raman’s academic brilliance was established at a very young age. At the age of twelve, he finished his matriculation education and entered Mr. A V N College and two year later moved to the prestigious presidency college in Madras (Chennai). When he was the age of fifteen he finished at the head of the class too received B. A. with honours in physics and English. In those days, it was a system of government that students who did well academically were typically sent to abroad (England) for additional studies. Because of Raman’s poor health, he was not allowed to go abroad and he continued his studies at the same college. In 1907, barely seventeen, Raman received his Master degree with honors. He got first position in the University in M.A. In the same year, he married with Lokasundari Ammal and with whom he had one son, Radhakrishnan.He completed his education in Visakhapatanam and Madras (Chennai). After getting top ranking in the Financial Civil Service competitive Exam, he was appointed as Deputy Accountant general in Calcutta. At the time of his graduation, there were few opportunities for scientists in India. This forced him to accept a position with the Indian Civil Services as an Assistant Accountant General in Calcutta. While there, he was able to sustain his interest in science by working, in his remaining time, in the laboratories of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. He studied the physics of stringed instruments and Indian drums.

He completed his education in Visakhapatanam and Madras (Chennai). After getting top ranking in the Financial Civil Service competitive Exam, he was appointed as Deputy Accountant general in Calcutta. At the time of his graduation, there were few opportunities for scientists in India. This forced him to accept a position with the Indian Civil Services as an Assistant Accountant General in Calcutta. While there, he was able to sustain his interest in science by working, in his remaining time, in the laboratories of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. He studied the physics of stringed instruments and Indian drums.

In 1917 he was offered the newly endowed Palit Chair of Physics at Calcutta University, and decided to accept it. After 15 years at Calcutta he became Professor at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore (1933-1948), and since 1948 he is Director of the Raman Institute of Research at Bangalore, established and endowed by himself. He also founded the Indian Journal of Physics in 1926, of which he is the Editor. Raman sponsored the establishment of the Indian Academy of Sciences and has served as President since its inception. He also initiated the Proceedings of that academy, in which much of his work has been published, and is President of the Current Science Association, Bangalore, which publishes Current Science (India).

Other investigations carried out by Raman were: his experimental and theoretical studies on the diffraction of light by acoustic waves of ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies (published 1934-1942), and those on the effects produced by X-rays on infrared vibrations in crystals exposed to ordinary light. In 1948 Raman, through studying the spectroscopic behaviour of crystals, approached in a new manner fundamental problems of crystal dynamics. His laboratory has been dealing with the structure and properties of diamond, the structure and optical behaviour of numerous iridescent substances (labradorite, pearly felspar, agate, opal, and pearls).

Among his other interests have been the optics of colloids, electrical and magnetic anisotropy, and the physiology of human vision.

Raman has been honoured with a large number of honorary doctorates and memberships of scientific societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society early in his career (1924), and was knighted in 1929.

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THERE ARE NUMBER OF LAWS TO REGULATE THE DETERIORATION OF OUR ENVIRONMENT ,A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF THOSE ,WITH THERE FUNCTIONS  ARE LISTED BELOW.

Environmental laws In the Constitution of India it is clearly stated that it is the duty of the state to ‘protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country’. It imposes a duty on every citizen ‘to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife’. Reference to the environment has also been made in the Directive Principles of State Policy as well as the Fundamental Rights. The Department of Environment was established in India in 1980 to ensure a healthy environment for the country. This later became the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1985. The constitutional provisions are backed by a number of laws – acts, rules, and notifications. The EPA (Environment Protection Act), 1986 came into force soon after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and is considered an umbrella legislation as it fills many gaps in the existing laws. Thereafter a large number of laws came into existence as the problems began arising, for example, Handling and Management of Hazardous Waste Rules in 1989. Following is a list of the environmental legislations that have come into effect: General 1986 - The Environment (Protection) Act authorizes the central government to protect and improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources, and prohibit or restrict the setting and /or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds. 1986 - The Environment (Protection) Rules lay down procedures for setting standards of emission or discharge of environmental pollutants. 1989 - The objective of Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules is to control the generation, collection, treatment, import, storage, and handling of hazardous waste. 1989 - The Manufacture, Storage, and Import of Hazardous Rules define the terms used in this context, and sets up an authority to inspect, once a year, the industrial activity connected with hazardous chemicals and isolated storage facilities. 1989 - The Manufacture, Use, Import, Export, and Storage of hazardous Micro-organisms/ Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells Rules were introduced with a view to protect the environment, nature, and health, in connection with the application of gene technology and microorganisms. 1991 - The Public Liability Insurance Act and Rules and Amendment, 1992 was drawn up to provide for public liability insurance for the purpose of providing immediate relief to the persons affected by accident while handling any hazardous substance. 1995 - The National Environmental Tribunal Act has been created to award compensation for damages to persons, property, and the environment arising from any activity involving hazardous substances. 1997 - The National Environment Appellate Authority Act has been created to hear appeals with respect to restrictions of areas in which classes of industries etc. are carried out or prescribed subject to certain safeguards under the EPA. 1998 - The Biomedical waste (Management and Handling) Rules is a legal binding on the health care institutions to streamline the process of proper handling of hospital waste such as segregation, disposal, collection, and treatment. 1999 - The Environment (Siting for Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999 lay down detailed provisions relating to areas to be avoided for siting of industries, precautionary measures to be taken for site selecting as also the aspects of environmental protection which should have been incorporated during the implementation of the industrial development projects. 2000 - The Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 apply to every municipal authority responsible for the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing, and disposal of municipal solid wastes. 2000 - The Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules have been laid down for the regulation of production and consumption of ozone depleting substances. 2001 - The Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001 rules shall apply to every manufacturer, importer, re-conditioner, assembler, dealer, auctioneer, consumer, and bulk consumer involved in the manufacture, processing, sale, purchase, and use of batteries or components so as to regulate and ensure the environmentally safe disposal of used batteries. 2002 - The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) (Amendment) Rules lay down such terms and conditions as are necessary to reduce noise pollution, permit use of loud speakers or public address systems during night hours (between 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight) on or during any cultural or religious festive occasion 2002 - The Biological Diversity Act is an act to provide for the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources and knowledge associated with it Forest and wildlife 1927 - The Indian Forest Act and Amendment, 1984, is one of the many surviving colonial statutes. It was enacted to ‘consolidate the law related to forest, the transit of forest produce, and the duty leviable on timber and other forest produce’. 1972 - The Wildlife Protection Act, Rules 1973 and Amendment 1991 provides for the protection of birds and animals and for all matters that are connected to it whether it be their habitat or the waterhole or the forests that sustain them. 1980 - The Forest (Conservation) Act and Rules, 1981, provides for the protection of and the conservation of the forests.  Water 1882 - The Easement Act allows private rights to use a resource that is, groundwater, by viewing it as an attachment to the land. It also states that all surface water belongs to the state and is a state property. 1897 - The Indian Fisheries Act establishes two sets of penal offences whereby the government can sue any person who uses dynamite or other explosive substance in any way (whether coastal or inland) with intent to catch or destroy any fish or poisonous fish in order to kill. 1956 - The River Boards Act enables the states to enroll the central government in setting up an Advisory River Board to resolve issues in inter-state cooperation. 1970 - The Merchant Shipping Act aims to deal with waste arising from ships along the coastal areas within a specified radius. 1974 - The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act establishes an institutional structure for preventing and abating water pollution. It establishes standards for water quality and effluent. Polluting industries must seek permission to discharge waste into effluent bodies. The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) was constituted under this act. 1977 - The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act provides for the levy and collection of cess or fees on water consuming industries and local authorities. 1978 - The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules contains the standard definitions and indicate the kind of and location of meters that every consumer of water is required to affix. 1991 - The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification puts regulations on various activities, including construction, are regulated. It gives some protection to the backwaters and estuaries. Air 1948 – The Factories Act and Amendment in 1987 was the first to express concern for the working environment of the workers. The amendment of 1987 has sharpened its environmental focus and expanded its application to hazardous processes. 1981 - The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act provides for the control and abatement of air pollution. It entrusts the power of enforcing this act to the CPCB . 1982 - The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules defines the procedures of the meetings of the Boards and the powers entrusted to them. 1982 - The Atomic Energy Act deals with the radioactive waste. 1987 - The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act empowers the central and state pollution control boards to meet with grave emergencies of air pollution. 1988 - The Motor Vehicles Act states that all hazardous waste is to be properly packaged, labelled, and transported. The above laws have been sourced from: Environmental policy-making in India – The process and its pressure, TERI report. Indian Environmental Legislations, list from the MOEF web site. Strengthening Environmental Legislations in India, document by Centre for Environmental Law, WWF. Shailesh kr shukla 167shailesh.bot@gmail.com

Plants and Life on Earth

Plants helps us in many ways..

Plants make food

Plants are the only organisms that can convert light energy from the sun into food.  And plants produce ALL of the food that animals, including people, eat.  Even meat.  The animals that give us meat, such as chickens and cows, eat grass, oats, corn, or some other plants.

Food: Everything we eat comes directly or indirectly from plants. Throughout human history, approximately 7,000 different plant species have been used as food by people.

Plants make oxygen

One of the materials that plants produce as they make food is oxygen gas.  This oxygen gas, which is an important part of the air, is the gas that plants and animals must have in order to stay alive.  When people breathe, it is the oxygen that we take out of the air to keep our cells and bodies alive.  All of the oxygen available for living organisms comes from plants.

Plants provide habitats for animals

Plants are the primary habitat for thousands of other organisms.  Animals live in, on, or under plants.  Plants provide shelter and safety for animals.  Plants also provide a place for animals to find other food.  As a habitat, plants alter the climate.  On a small scale, plants provide shade, help moderate the temperature, and protect animals from the wind.  On a larger scale, such as in tropical rainforests, plants actually change the rainfall patterns over large areas of the earth's surface.

Habitat: Of course, aside from humans' myriad uses, plants make up the backbone of all habitats. Other species of fish and wildlife also depend on plants for food and shelter.

Plants help make and preserve soil

In the forest and the prairie, the roots of plants help hold the soil together.  This reduces erosion and helps conserve the soil.  Plants also help make soil.  Soil is made up of lots of particles of rocks which are broken down into very small pieces.  When plants die, their decomposed remains are added to the soil.  This helps to make the soil rich with nutrients.

Plants provide useful products for people

Many plants are important sources of products that people use, including food, fibers (for cloth), and medicines.  Plants also help provide some of our energy needs.  In some parts of the world, wood is the primary fuel used by people to cook their meals and heat their homes.  Many of the other types of fuel we use today, such as coal, natural gas, and gasoline, were made from plants that lived millions of years ago. 

Medicine: One-quarter of all prescription drugs come directly from or are derivatives of plants. Additionally, four out of five people around the world today rely on plants for primary health care.

Plants beautify

Plants, because of their beauty, are important elements of out human world.  When we build houses and other buildings, we never think the job is done until we have planted trees, shrubs, and flowers to make what we have built much nicer.

Climate: Plants store carbon, and have helped keep much of the carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels out of the atmosphere. shailesh kr shukla 167shailesh.bot@gmail.com

FOSSIL OF HISTORY'S MOST SUCCESSFUL MAMMAL FOUND...!

The 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China is helping to explain how multituberculates -- the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammalian lineage in the fossil record -- achieved their dominance.

This fossil find -- the oldest ancestor in the multituberculate family tree -- represents a newly discovered species known as Rugosodon eurasiaticus. The nearly complete skeleton provides critical insights into the traits that helped such multituberculates thrive in their day. For example, the fossil reveals teeth that were adapted to gnawing plants and animals alike, as well as ankle joints that were highly adept at rotation.

WHAT IS SIGNIFICANCE.?

Chong-Xi Yuan from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, China, along with Chinese and American colleagues, report their analysis of the fossil in the 16 August issue of Science.In light of these findings, researchers suggest that R. eurasiaticus paved the way for later plant-eating and tree-dwelling mammals.

The multituberculates flourished during the Cretaceous era, which ended over 60 million years ago. Much like today's rodents, they filled an extremely wide variety of niches -- below the ground, on the ground and in the trees -- and this new fossil, which resembles a small rat or a chipmunk, possessed many of the adaptations that subsequent species came to rely upon, the researchers say.

MINUTE DETAILS..!

The fossil of Rugosodon eurasiaticus is preserved in two shale slabs in part (left) and counterpart (right). It is about 17 cm (6.5 inches) long from head to rump, and is estimated to have weighed 80 grams (about 2.8 ounces). The sediments at the site of discovery are lake sediments with embedded volcanic layers. The fossil assemblage of Rugosodon also includes feathered dinosaur Anchiornis and the pterosaur Darwinopterus. By the dental features, Rugosodon eurasiaticus closely resembles the teeth of some multituberculate mammals of the Late Jurassic of the Western Europe, suggesting that Europe and Asia had extensive mammal faunal inter-changes in the Jurassic. (Credit: [Photographed by Zhe-Xi Luo of University of Chicago and Chongxi Yuan of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences])

CONCLUSION.!

The discovery of R. eurasiaticus also extends the distribution of certain multituberculates from Europe to Asia during the Late Jurassic period, the researchers say.

"This new fossil from eastern China is very similar to the Late Jurassic fossil teeth of multituberculates from Portugal in western Europe," explained Dr. Luo. "This suggests thatRugosodon and its closely related multituberculates had a broad paleogreographic distribution and dispersals back-and-forth across the entire Eurasian continent."

The report by Yuan et al. was supported by the Ministry of Land Resources and the Ministry of Science and technology of China; the Scientific Commission of Beijing; the Beijing Museum of Natural History; the National Science Foundation; Carnegie Museum; and the University of Chicago.

SHAILESH KR SHUKLA

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MUSLIM SCIENTISTS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO HUMANITIES ALOT

Here are some renowned muslim scientist with there works explained,take a look-

The Great Muslim Scientists of All Time.

Here is a little intro about them and their work to the world of science.All the scientists are before 14th century ..,When you the Europe was called a Dark continent ,Muslims Scientists Were ruling in all over the world!
I don't know what happened now But anyways Don't Forget the Past=)
Better be Proud!

Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī


Consequently he is considered to be the father of algebra,[6] a title he shares with Diophantus. Latin translations of his Arithmetic, on the Indian numerals, introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world in the 12th century.[5] He revised and updated Ptolemy's Geography as well as writing several works on astronomy and astrology.

His contributions not only made a great impact on mathematics, but on language as well. The word algebra is derived from al-jabr, one of the two operations used to solve quadratic equations, as described in his book.

Avicenna

Avicenna was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and Islamic philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, Hafiz, logician, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist, Sheikh, soldier, statesman and theologian.

His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many Islamic and European universities up until the early 19th century .
Ibn Sīnā is regarded as a father of early modern medicine, and clinical pharmacology particularly for his introduction of systematic experimentation and quantification into the study of physiology,] his discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases, the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of contagious diseases, the introduction of experimental medicine, evidence-based medicine, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, efficacy tests, clinical pharmacology, neuropsychiatry, risk factor analysis, and the idea of a syndrome,[30] and the importance of dietetics and the influence of climate and environment on health.
He is also considered the father of the fundamental concept of momentum in physics, and regarded as a pioneer of aromatherapy.

George Sarton,, the father of the history of science, wrote in the Introduction to the History of Science:

"One of the most famous exponents of Muslim universalism and an eminent figure in Islamic learning was Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna (981-1037). For a thousand years he has retained his original renown as one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history. His most important medical works are the Qanun (Canon) and a treatise on Cardiac drugs. The 'Qanun fi-l-Tibb' is an immense encyclopedia of medicine. It contains some of the most illuminating thoughts pertaining to distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy; contagious nature of phthisis; distribution of diseases by water and soil; careful description of skin troubles; of sexual diseases and perversions; of nervous ailments.

Geber

He is "considered by many to be the father of chemistry.
abir Ibn Hayyan is widely credited with the introduction of the experimental method in alchemy, and with the invention of numerous important processes still used in modern chemistry today, such as the syntheses of hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation, and crystallisation. His original works are highly esoteric and probably coded, though nobody today knows what the code is. On the surface, his alchemical career revolved around an elaborate chemical numerology based on consonants in the Arabic names of substances and the concept of takwin, the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory. Research has also established that oldest text of Jabiran corpus must have originated in the scientific culture of northeastern Persia. This thesis is supported by the Persian language and Middle Persian terms used in the technical vocabulary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geber

Al-Jazari
The most significant aspect of al-Jazari's machines are the mechanisms, components, ideas, methods and design features which they employ.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī
He was involved in the measurement of the diameter of the Earth together with a team of scientists under the patronage of al-Ma'mūn in Baghdad.
The Alfraganus crater on the Moon was named after him.

Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi
Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, and philosophy, recorded in over 184 books and articles in various fields of science. He was well-versed in Persian, Greek and Indian medical knowledge and made numerous advances in medicine through own observations and discoveries.] He was an early proponent of experimental medicine and is considered the father of pediatrics. He was also a pioneer of neurosurgery and ophthalmology.

Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
physicist, an anthropologist and psychologist, an astronomer, a chemist, a critic of alchemy and astrology, an encyclopedist and historian, a geographer and traveller, a geodesist and geologist, a mathematician, a pharmacist and physician, an Islamic philosopher and Shia theologian, and a scholar and teacher, and he contributed greatly to all of these fields.

He was the first scholar to study India and the Brahminical tradition, and has been described as the father of Indology, the father of geodesy, and "the first anthropologist". He was also one of the earliest leading exponents of the experimental scientific method, and was responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanics, the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena, and a pioneer of experimental psychology.

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, described Biruni as "One of the very greatest scientists of Islam, and, all considered, one of the greatest of all times.

Al-Khazini
Robert E. Hall wrote the following on al-Khazini:

"His hydrostatic balance can leave no doubt that as a maker of scientific instruments he is among the greatest of any time."

Ibn al-Haytham
HE made significant contributions to the principles of optics, as well as to anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, visual perception, and to science in general with his introduction of the scientific method.

Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the "father of modern optics" for his influential Book of Optics, which correctly explained and proved the modern intromission theory of vision, and for his experiments on optics, including experiments on lenses, mirrors, refraction, reflection, and the dispersion of light into its constituent colours. He studied binocular vision and the moon illusion, described the finite speed[] and rectilinear propagation of light and and argued that rays of light are streams of corpuscular energy particles[16]travelling in straight lines.] Due to his formulation of a modern quantitative, empirical and experimental approach to physics and science, he is considered the pioneer of the modern scientific method and the originator of experimental science and experimental physics, and some have described him as the "first scientist" for these reasons.

He is also considered by some to be the founder of experimental psychology for his experimental approach to the psychology of visual perception and optical illusions, and a pioneer of the philosophical field of phenomenology.

Among his other achievements, Ibn al-Haytham gave the first clear description and correct analysis of the camera obscura, discovered Fermat's principle of least time and the concept of inertia (Newton's first law of motion), discovered that the heavenly bodies were accountable to the laws of physics, presented a critique and reform of Ptolemaic astronomy, first stated Wilson's theorem in number theory, formulated and solved Alhazen's problem geometrically using early ideas related to calculus and mathematical induction,and in his optical research laid the foundations for the later development of telescopic astronomy,[34] as well as for the microscope and the use of optical aids in Renaissance art.

Al-Kindi
also known by the Latinized version of his name Alkindus to the West, was an Arabpolymath: a philosopher, scientist, astrologer, astronomer, cosmologist, chemist, logician, mathematician, musician, physician, physicist, psychologist, and meteorologist.
In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world. He was a pioneer in cryptanalysis and cryptology, and devised several new methods of breaking ciphers, including the frequency analysis method.] Using his mathematical and medical expertise, he was able to develop a scale that would allow doctors to quantify the potency of their medication.


Ibn Sahl

Abu Sa`d al-`Ala' ibn Sahl) (c. 940-1000) was an Arabian mathematician, physicist and optics engineer associated with the Abbasid court of Baghdad. About 984 he wrote a treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses in which he set out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. Ibn Sahl is credited with first discovering the law of refraction, usually called Snell's law.[1][2] He used the law of refraction to work out the shapes of lenses that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses.

Al-Ghazali
known as Algazel to the western medieval world, was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia (modern day Iran). He was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, physician, psychologist and mystic of Persian origin], and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sufi Islamic thought. He is considered a pioneer of the methods of doubt and skepticism, and in one of his major works, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, he changed the course of early Islamic philosophy, shifting it away from the influence of ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, and towards cause-and-effect that were determined by God or intermediate angels

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CLONING ALL ABOUT..

Research advances over the past decade have told us that, with a little work, we humans can clone just about anything we want, from frogs to monkeys and probably even ourselves!

Of all the reasons, cloning for medical purposes has the most potential to benefit large numbers of people. How might cloning be used in medicine?

what is cloning??

Have you ever wished you could have a clone of yourself to do homework while you hit the skate park or went out with your friends?

Imagine if you could really do that. Where would you start?

What exactly is cloning?

Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. This means that every single bit of DNA is the same between the two!

You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They weren't made in a lab, though: they're identical twins, created naturally. Below, we'll see how natural identical twins relate to modern cloning technologies.

How is cloning done?

You may have first heard of cloning when Dolly the Sheep showed up on the scene in 1997. Cloning technologies have been around for much longer than Dolly, though.

How does one go about making an exact genetic copy of an organism? There are a couple of ways to do this: artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer. How do these processes differ?

1. Artificial Embryo Twinning

Artificial embryo twinning is the relatively low-tech version of cloning. As the name suggests, this technology mimics the natural process of creating identical twins.

Open large version 

In nature, twins occur just after fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell. In rare cases, when the resulting fertilized egg, called a zygote, tries to divide into a two-celled embryo, the two cells separate. Each cell continues dividing on its own, ultimately developing into a separate individual within the mother. Since the two cells came from the same zygote, the resulting individuals are genetically identical.

Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it occurs in a Petri dish instead of in the mother's body. This is accomplished by manually separating a very early embryo into individual cells, and then allowing each cell to divide and develop on its own. The resulting embryos are placed into a surrogate mother, where they are carried to term and delivered. Again, since all the embryos came from the same zygote, they are genetically identical.

2. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Somatic cell nuclear transfer, (SCNT) uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact clone, or genetic copy, of an individual. This was the method used to create Dolly the Sheep.

What does SCNT mean? Let's take it apart:

Somatic cell: A somatic cell is any cell in the body other than the two types of reproductive cells, sperm and egg. Sperm and egg are also called germ cells. In mammals, every somatic cell has two complete sets of chromosomes, whereas the germ cells only have one complete set.

Nuclear: The nucleus is like the cell's brain. It's an enclosed compartment that contains all the information that cells need to form an organism. This information comes in the form of DNA. It's the differences in our DNA that make each of us unique.

Transfer: Moving an object from one place to another.

To make Dolly, researchers isolated a somatic cell from an adult female sheep. Next, they transferred the nucleus from that cell to an egg cell from which the nucleus had been removed. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized zygote. It developed into an embryo, which was implanted into a surrogate mother and carried to term.

CLONING MYTH

In What is cloning? we learned what it means to clone an individual organism. Given its high profile in the popular media, the topic of cloning brings up some common, and often confusing, misconceptions. Misconception #1: Instant Clones! Let's say you really wanted a clone to do your homework. After reviewing What is Cloning? and Click and Clone, you've figured out, generally, how this would be done. Knowing what you know, do you think this approach would really help you finish your homework...this decade? A common misconception is that a clone, if created, would magically appear at the same age as the original. This simply isn't true. You remember that cloning is an alternative way to create an embryo, not a full-grown individual. Therefore, that embryo, once created, must develop exactly the same way as would an embryo created by fertilizing an egg cell with a sperm cell. This will require a surrogate mother and ample time for the cloned embryo to grow and fully develop into an individual. WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF CLONING? When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few attempts that worked. What we don't see are the many, many cloning experiments that failed! And even in the successful clones, problems tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood. Cloning animals shows us what might happen if we try to clone humans. What have these animals taught us about the risks of cloning? 1. High failure rate Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries. That's a lot of effort with only a speck of a return! Why is this? Here are some reasons: The enucleated egg and the transferred nucleus may not be compatible An egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly Implantation of the embryo into the surrogate mother might fail The pregnancy itself might fail 2. Problems during later development Cloned animals that do survive tend to be much bigger at birth than their natural counterparts. Scientists call this "Large Offspring Syndrome" (LOS). Clones with LOS have abnormally large organs. This can lead to breathing, blood flow and other problems. Because LOS doesn't always occur, scientists cannot reliably predict whether it will happen in any given clone. Also, some clones without LOS have developed kidney or brain malformations and impaired immune systems, which can cause problems later in life. 3. Abnormal gene expression patterns Are the surviving clones really clones? The clones look like the originals, and their DNA sequences are identical. But will the clone express the right genes at the right time? In Click and Clone, we saw that one challenge is to re-program the transferred nucleus to behave as though it belongs in a very early embryonic cell. This mimics natural development, which starts when a sperm fertilizes an egg. In a naturally-created embryo, the DNA is programmed to express a certain set of genes. Later on, as the embryonic cells begin to differentiate, the program changes. For every type of differentiated cell - skin, blood, bone or nerve, for example - this program is different. In cloning, the transferred nucleus doesn't have the same program as a natural embryo. It is up to the scientist to reprogram the nucleus, like teaching an old dog new tricks. Complete reprogramming is needed for normal or near-normal development. Incomplete programming will cause the embryo to develop abnormally or fail. 4. Telomeric differences As cells divide, their chromosomes get shorter. This is because the DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome, called telomeres, shrink in length every time the DNA is copied. The older the animal is, the shorter its telomeres will be, because the cells have divided many, many times. This is a natural part of aging. So, what happens to the clone if its transferred nucleus is already pretty old? Will the shortened telomeres affect its development or lifespan? When scientists looked at the telomere lengths of cloned animals, they found no clear answers. Chromosomes from cloned cattle or mice had longer telomeres than normal. These cells showed other signs of youth and seemed to have an extended lifespan compared with cells from a naturally conceived cow. On the other hand, Dolly the sheep's chromosomes had shorter telomere lengths than normal. This means that Dolly's cells were aging faster than the cells from a normal sheep. WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES IN CLONING? Ethical, legal and social issues. There are several types of issues to consider as we think about cloning. Ethical issues are those that ask us to consider the potential moral outcomes of cloning technologies. Legal issues require researchers and the public to help policymakers decide whether and how cloning technologies should be regulated by the government. Social issues involve the impact of cloning technologies on society as a whole. Some questions to ponder. The questions raised here have no clear right or wrong answer. Instead, your response will depend on your own set of values, as well as the opinions of those around you. Who has the right to have children, no matter how they are created? Who doesn't? Why? Is human cloning "playing with nature?" If so, how does that compare with other reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or hormone treatments? Does cloning to create stem cells, also called therapeutic cloning, justify destroying a human embryo? Why, or why not? If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the parent? What are some of the social challenges a cloned child might face? Do the benefits of human cloning outweigh the costs of human dignity? Should cloning research be regulated? How, and by whom? 167shailesh.bot@gmail.com contact-9891563238

SCIENCE AND HUMAN...! Science makes discoveries ... and the list would be interminable. The underlying question is: what use do we make of these discoveries? In some cases, it's a political issue - look at the huge number of scientists concerned with developing the atomic bomb who begged Truman not to actually use it to destroy cities. (Why were they developing the bomb in the first place? because they thought that Hitler had much of the necessary knowledge and wouldn't have been so conscientious about how he used it). In other cases where you could say that the findings of science may have been misused, it'll be either because they haven't yet extended their research - DDT did a brilliant job of eliminating malaria, saving milions of lives, and only later did people like Rachel Carson point out the collateral damage. And there are commercial players involved now - so that many genetically modified agricultural products that have been bred to be disease-resistant have also got an added twist that means that the farmers have to buy new supplies each year. Science doesn't harm people--people harm people. Take the gun, for example.  If you added up all the people who were killed by guns, it wouldn't even come close to the number of people who were killed with rocks and sticks and bare hands before the gun was invented.  While it's true that the homicide rate is much lower in nations like Japan and England where gun control is practiced, the higher homicide rate in the U.S. is as much a product of our proclaimed love affair with freedom as it is a product of high rates of gun ownership.  At any rate, the science behind the development of the gun--chemistry, ballistics, metallurgy, basic physics--has produced as many strictly beneficial technologies as it has questionable ones. On the balance far more good than bad... ...but I understand where the question comes from. Sometimes these days it seems like science and the things we can now make are becoming a bigger threat than they are worth.  Sometimes the simple life of a century ago is rather attractive when considering the crowded, polluted cities of today, the threat of global disaster from nuclear war or a biological weapon.  There have been times when I have seen a picture of an Amish carriage making it’s way across a rural landscape and thought maybe that isn’t such a bad idea. Every scientific advancement is a tool for development. That development can be for good or for ill. The same explosive that is used to cut a road through the mountains to bring goods and services to isolated villages can also be used to make a bomb to kill people.  The same electricity that powers an MRI machine also powers the electric chair on death row.  Nonetheless, I believe the advances of science have allowed an improvement in humanity, a positive effect on our quality of life. Science has done more good then bad. Science is a double edge sward it can bring great good, ie vaccines cures, technology that makes life easier but if abused it can cause great harm like atomic bombs, chemical warefare war planes boats etc. Environmental damage. Even science put to bad use can bring good. Better materials to fight a war like WWII was a good thing I do not think you would want to be living under the Nazies. Shailesh shukla email.167shailesh.bot@gmail.com