In step with elephants

Switching between walking and running seem natural to us  but  technically  these are   two different activities. Locomotion, which includes walking, jumping and running is an important topic in biomechanics.  Intense  research in the field  of gait analysis   has helped   orthopaedic medicine a great deal  to not only to  treat and  cure but also to  improve  the designs of orthopaedic aids for  the injured and the handicapped.   Also assumes great significance in sports medicine.

The movement of the centre of mass (COM) of the body, the contribution from potential and kinetic energies and  absence or presence of an airborne status  these are the features  that  distinguish a Walk from a Run.  During  walking  the COG moves in a curvaceous manner from side to side akin to an inverted pendulum, as feet take turns to be grounded and airlifted,  there will be fleeting yet recurring moments when both feet are on the ground, and potential and kinetic energy contributions are out of phase.   During  running the COM is bobbing up and down like a bouncing ball,  there are moments when the entire body is suspended in air,  the potential and kinetic energy contributions are in phase and the kinetic energy demands soar.  The same criteria hold good for quadrupeds too. 

While the fleeting airborne status during running is indeed a reality for  humans or agile quadrupeds such as deer or tiger,  could this be true for   elephants too?   Two teams one headed by Professor  Norman Heglund from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium  and the other by  Professor John Hutchinson  (  Department of Veterinary Sciences  and  Structure and Motion Laboratory  Royal Veterinary College, London,)  set out to study the way  elephants negotiated distances at slow and faster paces.  The question to be settled was “ do they walk,  or run?”  

A complex proposition indeed. To understand the complexity in its entirety, just  have a look at the  animal   itself.  A mature bull elephant could weigh as much as 5000kg and stand tall at a  3 meters. Give and take a 1000kg or a meter  depending on the generic  and gender variations.   Elephant  legs are  cylindrical columns, in more  precise terms   load bearing pillars; tall, fat and  straight. The feet circumference could range of 120-140 cm.  The front  foot  is quite circular in shape, and the rear  a bit  oval.  Composed mostly of elastic fibrous tissue these are very efficient shock absorbers too. Anyway,  with such proportions it is not easy to have a graceful gait, yet elephants walk majestically. But can they really run?

.

To monitor the gait features of the heaviest animal on earth,    Heglund and team decided to construct a test rig at the  Elephant Conservation Centre (ECC) in Lampang, Thailand.  As Heglund  puts it “an 8 m long, elephant-sized force platform from sixteen 1 meter square  force plates.”  Force plates are devices which work on Newton's Law that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Complete with transducers,  cameras and computers it measures the ground reaction forces exerted as one  walks on it .  The entire set up   was custom built in  Belgium and shipped to  ECC,  where they  were assembled over a sturdy reinforced concrete platform in the middle of a long gait track.  

It must not have been easy to get the elephants  walk over the  desired path.   They must have  needed excessive coaxing by their mahouts.  Even then  instigating them   to  charge forward  onto  the test rig must have been no less than  close encounter with danger. A herd of 34 elephants including a baby of  870kg  and an adult of 4000kg finally  participated in the experiment.  Speed profiles and  corresponding energy diagrams over the center of mass were recorded for each one separately. 

Now to the results:  believe it or not the elephant  is indeed a very very energy efficient  animal.  The team found out  that  the energy expenditure on locomotion for an  elephant’s  is 1/3rd that of humans and 1/30th that of mice.  Elephants  take quicker steps; ( high “step frequency”).   At slow pace they have 3 feet grounded and in  "faster mode " have two feet on ground. While this effectively keeps the COM  displacement  and hence energy requirements to a minimum,    doesn't  qualify for running; because the mandatory  airborne phase is absent.      However energy diagrams recorded a slight vertical displacement   of  the center of mass ( bouncing),  characteristic of trotting during the second half of the gait cycle! 
Ha so the elephant walks as it trots!     

1. Biomechanics of locomotion in Asian elephants J Exp Biol 213, 694-706.2010, Genin et al

2. Integration of biomechanical compliance, leverage, and power in elephant     limbs    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2010 107:7078-7082. Ren et al

3. .http://mathaware.org/mam/2010/essays/TongenWunderlichRunWalk.pdf

4. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ferrisdp/Farley&Ferris,1998.pdf

Hair raising experiments

Who isn’t worried about hair? Age and gender  take a  united stand against this common enemy.   And what challenges!    Either it is too oily or too dull;  too thin or  too bushy;  too curly or too straight to be styled;  greying too fast or too dark to take up any color!  Every third commercial in the TV suggests solutions with desirable outcomes. Pick your choice.

Besides being the crowing glory, body hair as an integral part of skin plays  an important  role in maintaining homeostasis. The hair that sticks out of the skin is actually a string of dead cells. But can there be death without birth?  Indeed hair  too goes through a birth and  growth period before embracing death.

Life cycle of the hair is actually   the  life cycle of  the hair follicle.  No new hair follicles are made postnatally, the lower portion of the follicle goes through cycles of regeneration  to produce new hair to replace the old.  For this  we are born with a storehouse of stem cells  Anatomically this storehouse is  called the “bulge” ( a rather unscientific term, I agree) at the base of the hair follicle.  These stem cells  are pluripotent, means they can   differentiate into adult hair follicles, epidermis or  sebaceous glands.  Because of the pluripotency  and also because they can be easily cultured in the lab,  skin stem cells  have attracted considerable scientific curiosity.  Several laboratories  around the world are  actively involved in  unravelling the mysteries of the skin and hair.   

Anagen and Telogen are the active and resting phases of the hair follicle  cycle.  The dynamic transition from growth state to rest state is the catagen phase.  During the anagen phase the hair follicle sports  vigorous growth and hair forms.  How long the anagen phase prolongs decides how long the hair will be. But this is genetically predetermined. At the end of the growth phase,  the blood and nutrient supply to the follicle is cut off and it  shrinks and shrivels.  The nascent   hair is pushed up to replace the old one. The shrivelled follicle rests before getting rejuvenated for the next cycle.  Every single hair follicle goes through these three stages albeit  not at the same time.  The  green, amber and red signals  during the hair  life cycle is definitely not synchronised. Imagine  shedding all our sclap hair in one go! What a disaster. Likewise hair on the scalp  has a different  cycle time than the one on the eyebrow or for that matter hair on the hands.  There are instances of synchronized seasonal  cycles.  For example it has been reported that in several breeds of  sheep  the hair is in the telogen phase during winter months. When the ambience warms up in spring the follicles move into anagen phase and  get  ready to shed the old hair.  

Sure enough there is a circadian rhythm at work and scientists  had recognized this very early. The biological  Master clock is in the hypothalamus, (suprachiasmatic nuclei to be precise) but then there are a few autonomous ones scattered elsewhere in other tissues, skin being one among them.  The circadian rhythm is implemented through  a very intriguing interplay among   sets of proteins called, CLOCK, BML1, CRYs and PERs.  The dancers frequently change partners,  take quick  forward and backward steps, ( positive and negative feedbacks)   to  regulate the anagen, catagen, telogen phases.      

Janich et al (3)  conducted in vivo and in vitro studies on special breed of rats. They focussed on the  “bulge” stem cells.  The stem cells have two classes of population: one group  in an “Ever Ready to Go” state, while the remaining   lazily dozing off.    What causes this class divide.  isn’t yet clear. But      Janich et al observed that by disrupting circadian rhythm  they could either increase or decrease the population ratio.    However   upsetting the circadian rhythm  proved  detrimental because it  led to premature aging.

1. Epidermal stem cells: Properties, markers, and location

Robert M. Lavker  and Tung-Tien Sun

PNAS December 5, 2000 vol. 97 no. 25 13473-13475

2. Epidermal stem cells of the skin.Blanpain C, Fuchs E.  Ann. Rev. Cell Dev Biol  2006;22:339-73.

 

3. The circadian molecular clock creates epidermal stem cell heterogeneity.

Jannich et al Nature Vol. 480, 209-214, 2011.

4. Clock genes, hair growth and aging

Mikhail Geyfman and Bogi Andersen AGING, Vol 2, No 3 , pp 122-128, 2010

 

Science and Technology for the Developing World

 Earlier  published in  JFWTC Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2009

With the developing countries increasingly poised to dictate the global market trends and growth potential, it is only appropriate that focus shifts to their specific needs. So what exactly are the specific needs of the developing world? Topping the list are obviously clean water, energy and healthcare at affordable costs. The qualifier “at affordable costs” has a universal appeal not just restricted to developing nations. Human mind is tuned to equate low cost with low (read less efficient) technology; a grave misconception indeed. High tech and low cost are not necessarily mutually exclusive as the cell phones technology has proved admirably. So the need of the hour is innovative ideas. Governments in the developing countries are getting sensitized on the power of science and technology as strong enablers for national progress and are open to ideas from all segments of the society.

Govt of India, for example, has floated several platforms for the collaboration of scientists and technologists with entrepreneurs to fast track “an innovative idea to market”. The Techno Entrepreneurial Promotion Program (TEPP) is one such initiative under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. TEPP recently came forward to partner with the GE Edison Challenge, the annual technical challenge for students organized collectively by GE India Technology Centres and hosted by JFWTC, Bangalore.

This year students were challenged to come up with a technical solution, practical and sustainable for the energy needs of a small Indian rural community. TEPP volunteered to award Rs. 20,000/- as seed money for each of the 18 finalists to build models prototypes to substantiate their ideas. Subsequently each team will get to interact with a business incubator cell to prepare a strong business case. They could then approach the TEPP for the second phase of funding to translate their ideas into reality. As Dr A.S. Rao, former Director of TEPP puts it “Of course this is investing in risk. Perhaps less than 1% of the funded projects will mature into successful products / business. But it is worth the risk .”

Other devloping countries are not lagging behind either.Last year in Mexico and this year in Durban, I got the privilege (Accompanying Person, as the Academy puts it ) of seeing at close quarters the workings of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). The events th th were the 10 and 11 Annual General Conferences of the Academy respectively.

TWAS is a consortium of distinguished scientists and engineers founded in 1983 with head office in Trieste,

Italy. Late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam was instrumental in this intiative. One of the focus areas of the organization is sustainable development through science and technology, a common thread linking ~900 members across 100 countries: 85% of them from developing countries. TWAS firmly believes cultivating scientific temper is key to alleviating the miseries of the developing world and works very closely with Science and Technology Ministries to promote scientific research in key areas. Besides, the Academy has in place a host of other programs and activities too. For example (TWOWS) is a platform exclusively for women in science and engineering, while Inter Academy Panel (IAP) focuses on International Issues. The IAMP (InterAcademy Medical Panel) and the Consortium on Science, Technology and Innovation for the South (COSTIS) have broader playing fields.

More often Science and Technology per se cannot provide complete solutions. Efficient management is equally important. A case in study is eThekwini; the Water and Sanitation Services for the city of Durban. To begin with Government of South Africa treats water as a human right and provides 200 litres of water to every household every day free of charge. This is the baseline. Any requirement above this threshold is charged on a well defined slab system. EThekwini has 29 decentralized waste water treatment plants (DEWATS) in which it treats 500 million litres of waste water per day.

Tailpiece

While at Durban, I visited the Phoenix farm, the first ashram Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi founded in 1904. Most of the original buildings were destroyed in ethnic violence in the 80’s but the house and an office have now been rebuilt on the same site. The building which originally accommodated the printing press is currently a school and the house, a simple structure, a sort of museum. It was here that Gandhiji gave definite shape to building an egalitarian society based on the principles of nonviolence; it was here his ideas on satyagraha took root. It was electrifying to touch the printing press which must have churned out copies of Indian Opinion. Photographs and original letters are displayed on the walls of the house; many of them rare and precious. These bring into focus momentarily the man and the workings of his noble mind. For example the one Gandhi wrote to his elder brother regarding a family feud. 

Outside the mango trees were heavy with fruits and of course the fruits tasted divine

Of Microbes and Men

 Earlier published in JFWTC inhouse Journal  

A microbial power plant?   Concept is not new, has been bouncing around for almost 100 years.  Bruce Sterling’s science fiction “Distraction” set in the year 2044 does allude to it.  A series of articles in a recent issue of Nature ( 18^th May 2006)  focuses on microbial capabilities and efforts to harness them for serving mankind.  A team of   electrical engineers, microbiologists, biotechnologists and environmental chemists spread across globally, definitely see  a possibility, albeit  not immediate. There are several hurdles to overcome before  the lab  model becomes a commercial reality.

The focus is on the oxidative metabolic pathway of the microbes.  Chemically oxidation is stripping of electrons and reduction is gaining of electrons.  The essential consequence of the oxidative metabolic pathway is an electron transport chain which begins with  the nutrient  and after several steps  ends at oxygen.  Flow of electrons means passage of current.  So in a microbial soup if you can siphon off the electrons onto a suitable anode instead off to oxygen,  while continuously replenishing the nutrient medium then you have a fuel cell.

Yuri Gorby¹ and his team have put to work photosynthetic bacteria Synechosytis in a microbial fuel cell.  Central to this set is Gorby’s observation that the bacterial surface has thin whiskers of nanometer dimensions which together with cytochrome  facilitates conductivity.

At Penn State University Bruce E. Logan² and his colleagues are using these miniature power plants to clean wastewater and also to generate hydrogen.  By blocking the supply of oxygen and a meagre input of 0.25 volt, the team could achieve four fold increase of hydrogen production. 

The current per se might be infinitesimally small, but the potential?  That is what  Prof. Peter Girguis’³ team at  Harvard  is interested in.  But the problem is to make the electrodes “ bacteriophilic” or coax the bacteria to get closer and adhere to the electrode.

A couple of years earlier Schroder etal⁴ from Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of  Greifswald, Germany used platinum with a coating of poly (tetrafluor aniline) to  improve electrode/bacterial interface.  They reported Clostridium butyricum or Clostridium beijerinckii with   carbohydrates as nutrients could  generate  current densities between 1 and 1.3mA/sqcm. 

Recently Willy Verstraete and his team⁵ (Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology,   Belgium) demonstrated that when microbial fuel cell units are stacked together the power output could be multifold. They reported a  “Maximum hourly averaged power output of 258 W m^-3 using a hexacyanoferrate”. Their observation that in an MFC, the microorganisms colonise  as a biofilm and live in close contact with the electrode  is a crucial piece of information.   Because biofilms  are the toughest architecture of bacterial colonies and might be the surest way to improve the electrode-microbe interface. 

Kolter and Greenberg⁶ report that when bacteria opt  to settle down as a biofilm it secretes a glue which holds the colony together and also helps the film  cling  firmly onto the substrate surface.   Biofilms of microbial colonies  are tough, mutate quickly and become drug resistant.   Naturally    Kolter’s   interest is in rupturing the  film  so as to  break up the colony and subdue the microbes on a one to one basis.    But from the MFC  perspective   important question to ask is can we facilitate the secretion of that glue  selectively so  that the MFC microbes  adhere more firmly to  the electrode surface ?

1.      Batteries not included : News Feature ,  Lane, Nature 441, p274 (2006)

2.      Increased power and Coulombic efficiency of single-chamber microbial fuel cells through an improved cathode structure, Logan etal.  Electrochem. Comm. 8:489 (2006).

3.      Circuits of slime:   News feature,  Schibert,  Nature 441, p276 (2006)

4.      Electrochemistry Communications, Schroder et al   6, p955 (2004)

5.      Continuous electricity generation at high voltages and currents using stacked microbial cells,  Verstraete et al  Env. Sci. Techn 40, 3388   (2006)

6.      Superficial Life of microbes: Kolter and Greenberg,  Nature 441, p 300 (2006)

                                                                                                             

Through the Eye of a Needle

Published in JFWTC  inhouse Journal Vol 4 Issue 3 2008 

Years ago de Gennes addressed an interesting  situation in polymer physics. Suppose a sufficiently long polymer chain in a viscous solution, has  one end anchored to the wall.   How  fast  will the free end of  chain find its way to the surface?

He  referred to this as “ Ariadne’s thread’.  The allusion was to Greek mythology, of Ariadne helping her friend Theseus to enter and escape  from the infamous maze.  The maze (Labyrinth) was  built by Daedalus the architect  to entrap the dreaded monster Minataur.  Once inside one would go endlessly along the twists and turns without ever finding the exit.  Ariadne gave a ball of thread to   Theseus  and he was to tie one end of the thread to the door post as he entered and unwind the ball as he moved straight ahead  and down (and never  be tempted to turn left  or right or up).  Theseus  thus came  to the the heart of the Labyrinth where he encounters and kills the sleeping Minotaur and  retraces his way along the threadline back to the doorpost  ( read safety and freedom) .

Well, de Gennes didn’t put any condition on where exactly the polymer terminal should appear on the surface.   What if he had?   This would have  changed a “random walk” process to a  more purposeful errand.  Any such  process then would need the machinery of “ molecualr recognition” for successful accomplishment.  This exactly is being addressed  in  the December 12^th issue of Science by  Deutman et al.    The challenge is to   coax  the   free end of a long polymer chain to thread itself through a molecular ring. 

Even in the macroscopic world it is not an easy proposition to thread a needle (especially if you wear bifocals).  You need to perfectly align the eye of the needle against the stiff tip of the thread to make the process easy and smooth.   Now you need to accomplish this at molecular level  and on top of it  the thread must find the eye of the needle  on its own ! This  has multiple biological implications  such as translocation of proteins and viruses across cell membranes.   The paper aptly titled “Mechanism of Threading a Polymer Through a Macrocyclic Ring” demonstrates this in a synthetic system.

For the eye of the needle, the team chose macrocycles  of varying ring size ( 5 to 22 atoms).   The threads were polymer chains (upto 440 atoms in length).   The threads were special in that they were knotted at one end. ( one terminal had a a bulky end group, while the other terminal was free).  Closer to the bulkier end, the chain carried a special affinity group  which could selectively recognize  and latch onto   companion group on  the outer rim of the macrocycle.   Complexation between the two groups  leads to a fluorescence signal and the team used this to monitor the kinetics of  threading.

Deutman et al have proposed possible threading mechanisms.   The  intramoleular insertion  model actually suffers a little  too much from steric  and process complexity : initial complexation of the thread and the ring and  then  looping of the chain followed by  insertion of the free end and then  the chain unlooping to stretch  and straighten out.  The thermodynamic calculations  are given,  but it isn’t very clear whether this multistep process  will pass the free energy and entropy audits.   It would be interesting to explore  the possibility of the   free terminal being  the guiding factor, rather than having the recognition site somewhere along the chain.  Another  twist to the challenge will be if  the macrocycle could sport a  molecular slit  through which the thread could  slip itself inside at  any point along the chain length.

In the same issue,  we get a peep into the  behaviour of a complex family  of  trans membrane proteins called secondary transporters,  which facilitates the passage of  small molecules and ions across the lipid bilayer.   While  substrate  molecules smoothly   roll to  the other side by  a mechanism  reminiscent of  peristaltic movement; the inhibitor moiety is stuck at the front gate itself.  Singh et al have  provided crystallographic data to support the same.

References :

1.Reptation of a polymer chain  in the Presence of Fixed Obstacles

de Gennes Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 55, p.572-579; 1971

2. Mechanism of Threading a Polymer Through a Macrocyclic Ring

Deutman et al Science Dec. 12, 2008   1668-1671

3. A Competitive Inhibitor Traps LeuT in an Open-to-Out Conformation.

Singh et al Science 12 December 2008: Vol. 322. no. 5908, pp. 1655 - 1661

Crossing the Frontiers

Published in JFWTC inhouse journal  Vol.4 Issue 1-2 (2008)

That geographical boundaries are never  barriers in the pursuit of science is once again  reinforced  in the  12^th June issue of Nature.  This issue  carries a  very important paper  by    29 scientists  from 4 nations on  how Gama Secretase Modulators ( GSM)  act  (1).    Gama secretase  is the   key  enzyme  which chops up the  Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)  into  fragments.   Of these fragments,   the 42 residue long beta amyloid peptides  cling together  to form the debris patches responsible for  Alzheimers’s disease.  The shorter fragments are (as of now) considered harmless because they don’t lump together .

Modulators  are small chemical molecules which  as the name implies, influence the activity of an enzyme. For example  ibuprofen  modulates gama secretase to preferentially produce only the  short fragments.   The global team had a very clear objective in mind: to find out the mode and site of action of  ibuprofen like  modulators.   This then could pave for the design/identification  of more powerful modulators to effectively counter the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.   Usually, molecules such as modulators, inhibtors or enhancers,  bind to the  enzyme itself and alter its  ability to bind to substrate.   However  the team was surprised to find that the  GSMs actually  sat at strategic positions on the  substrate APP and prevented  the  enzyme from making larger cuts!   So now there is a rush to screen and identify  the best of the lot and pharmaceutical firms are already smelling  billions of  dollars in profit.

The same issue of Nature describes the possibility of pH imaging of tissues in vivo (2).   GE Healthcare is an industry partner in this work done in collaboration with University of Cambridge.  The assumption here is that tissue pH is  indicative of  the tissue health. So can we measure or map it ?  The team injected  hyperpolarized ¹³C enriched bicarbonate solution into mouse having subcutaneous lymphoma. They then   measured the signals of  H ¹³CO₃ ^-  and  ¹³CO₂  using  MR .  pH could then be calculated from the age old Henderson-Hasselbalch equation.   This paper  has  two significant take aways   yes  the tumor pH is lower than the surrounding tissue pH and  yes, it is possible to measure tissue pH in a quick,  noninvasive way.

The 8^th World Congress on Biomaterials held at Amsterdam from 29^th May till 1^st June had an apt subtitle: Crossing of Frontiers.  The Congress, held once in 4 years facilitates  interactive sessions not only on Biomaterials  but also on all relevant adjoining scientific disciplines.  It was indeed a crossing of frontiers of materials, medicine and biology on one hand and academy and industry on the other.  The wide range of  perspectives that these  groups brought to the discussion table  facilitated innovative collaborations.

The Congress was just intense. I have never poured over a conference abstract book with so much thoroughness.  With 9 parallel oral presentation sessions from  8.45 AM till 5.30PM and  15 clusters displaying close to a total of  1600 posters,  it was necessary to do some homework.     Sitting  late into the night  I marked  the specific oral and poster presentations  I must not miss at any cost.   

“Layer by layer nanoassembled biomaterials”  was one such  theme.     Often referred to as LBL , this technique  is an area of intense research today because of the  innumerable possibilities it offers,  in terms of  structure and function of the ultimate product.   Akashi’s  group from Osaka University  presented the their elegant work on the fabrication of  cellular multilayers on  gelatin and fibronectin  films. 

On Nanopatterning    IBM research group at Zurich  in collaboration with  Georgia Tech,  demonstrated  how the simple technique of microcontact printing   could be used to get not only  protein arrays but  entire  protein libraries on a  substrate surface.    MAPS (Microstamping onto an Activated Polymer Surface)   a new acronym  that caught on fast,   refers to  the process of  patterning  biological ligands and proteins onto the surface of polymers.

 Three dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering  was another actively deliberated  theme.  Spanned across  several sessions  participants presented new data on  synthetic and natural polymers, composites, hybrid hydrogels,  electrospun systems,  etc. with spherical and cylindrical geometries getting special attention.  The symposium on “ what intrinsic information content is required of the scaffold  in the tissue engineered constructs” was an attempt to set  some guidelines on the selection of the scaffold chemistry and geometry depending on what needs to grow on it.

Hydrogels  continue to be  the most preferred  biomaterial  for many applications.  I was pleasantly surprised and indeed proud  when several of our papers  published a decade ago were cited  in connection with synthesis and characterization of Polyethyleneglycol  hydrogels.  

Tail piece :

The  Biomaterials Congress  opened with the enactment of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch”.  The characters marched to the stage to the accompaniment of the drum beat and took up their positions as if ordained by Rembrandt.  For a moment we were transported to the Rembrandt era  till we saw one of them easing out of the cluster and go to  the mike to address the audience.  There is an interesting addendum to the “Night Watch”.  History states that  all those in the  painting actually paid Rembrandt  to be there, except perhaps  the drummer.

1.Substrate targeting g Secretase Modulators:

   Kulkar etal  Nature 453,  925- 929  ( 12 June 2008)

2. Magnetic resonance imaging of pH using hyperpolarized ¹³C labeled bicarbonate

   Gallagher et al  Nature 453, 940-943 (12 June 2008)

3. World Biomaterials Congress   http://www.wbc2008.com/

Climate Change : Are we prepared?

Published in JFWTC inhouse Journal Vol3 Issue 4 2007

Whichever way we look at it, the picture is dismal.  In a single stroke “climate change” has turned the picture of future  bleak  with just grey and black.  Be it the Amazonian forests in South America or the e Western Ghats in south western India,  experts say we are on the brink of losing it all.  Minute upward variations in temperature  portend cataclysmic  consequences.

Malhi etal in the 11^th January issue of Science analyzes the combined effects of climate change and deforestation on the precious  ecoheritage of Amazonian forests.  These forests are essential drivers  of the hydrological cycles over the whole of northern hemispheres in particular and global in general (the  El Nino effect).  If  climate change  is the sum of multiple activities not easily comprehended, contained or controlled, could we at least  put a check on defrorestation?  Malhi et al give us  alarming figures arrived at in 2001.    837,000km²  of forests cleared for pastures, soybean production and other human activities.  Containing deforestation alone thus looks to be the immediate first step.   But  how effectively can we do it?

Some of our good intentions could actually bring about alarmingly opposite results. For example the effort to switch to biofuels to contain emissions.  The case for greener biofuels   seems to be  actually askew.  Benefit calculations of biofuels  are based on  greenhouse gas emissions  alone  and don’t take into consideration the entire crop cycle and its effect on the ecosystem.  William Laurance  of  Smithsonian  Tropical research Institute, Balboa, Panama, describes a rather convoluted situation.   Governmental subsidies are luring American farmers to  switch  from Soy to Corn.   Result ?  Scarcity in the global market place drives Soy prices high and Brazilian farmers with an eye for profit  are losing no time in  clearing large stretches of Amazonian forests for cultivating soy.  So when we complete a full circle are we really achieving what we intended to achieve?  Is there a real winner?  

Two very recent publications in the 29^th Feb. issue of Science  confirm our worst fears.  Calculations done by  Timothy Searchinger  of Princeton University  and his team show that we will be very much in the red if  crop lands become biofuels farms. It would take  us upto several centuries to pay up for this “carbon debt.”   In the same issue  Joseph Fargione  and his team  presents results  which  concur  with this observation.

That brings us  to the question of how climate change would affect the food situation.

Here we have an added challenge: increasing population. We are perhaps fast approaching the Malthusian limits.  Urbanization is progressively encroaching into land available for cultivation.   Food crops will take time to adapt to variations in temperature and rain fall and the immediate result would be a decline in the production.   Lobell et al  cautions that by 2030 we will be in a critical situation with respect to food security.  The  situation in the geographical regions of    South Asia, China and South East Asia  collectively with  a total of over 500 million malnourished people  is at a greater risk.   Rice is the staple food in this region.  Rice cultivation requires plenty of water and is heavily dependent on seasonal rains.  With temperature on the upward trend, rains are bound to be erratic.    A streak of rosy paint here is that the rice genome has been completely mapped.  Scientists should feel the urgency in genetically engineering rice and other crop varieties that could withstand higher temperature and drought, the inevitable consequences of climate change. 

Another ray of hope : Geneticist Craig Venter   is  absolutely convinced that  his  “Fourth generation fuel” project   will be ready  in about 18 months.  He is focused on genetically  modifying  mictobes  to accept  CO₂   and give out  octane in return.  Not that such microbes don’t exist.  They do, but   octane yields are  pitifully low, nowhere near the needs of humankind. Venter is confident  that   genetic engineering is the answer. His own words  "We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future. We are limited here only by our imagination."

Prabha R. Chatterji

1. Climate Change, Deforestation and the Fate of  the Amazon

    Malhi et al Science, 2008,  319 p 169-172

2. Switch to corn promotes Amazon Deforestation

    W. Laurence  Science 2007,  318, 1721

3. Land clearing and biofuel  Carbon debts.

   Fargione et al Science 2008, 1235

4.Use of US  cropland  for biofuels increases greenhouse gases through emissions 

    from land use change

    Searchinger  et al Science  2008, 319, 1238

5. Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for  Food security in 2030

    Lobell et al  Science 2008, 319 p607-610

6. Craig Venter at the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. Feb. 2008