N. E. Quest Volume 1 Issue 1 April 2007

Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

Newsletter of NORTH EAST INDIA RESEARCH FORUM http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/northeast_india_research/ http://www.geocities.com/ne_india_research_forum/index.html

WISH YOU ALL HAPPY BIHU & NEW YEAR

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

EDITORIAL It’s a great honour and proud privilege for me to present the first editorial of NE QUEST- the online news letter of North East India Research Forum. I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some of my experience, thoughts and feelings through this editorial. If I look back, when the first thought of formation of the forum came to my mind, I was almost at a fix whether it would really work. My mind was saturated with diverse questions likewhether I will be able to bring the N.E. researchers together, whether people would cooperate with me etc etc. The list of questions was endless. Again I thought of great people’s works, outcome of all great works did not reach smoothly, success did not come to them overnight, there were lots of hurdles. Could anybody imagine simple observation by Newton- the falling of apple from a tree would lead to so many revolutionary scientific theories? But it took time for him to prove himself, sometimes things are understood to the world even after a person’s death. All these things moved me most, I thought of doing something atleast in a small level. I concluded thinking’’ it does not matter how many times we win or lose, what matters is how many times we bounce back.’’. The forum was started on 13th of November 2004. Fortunately the first member I approached joined the group with out any hesitation which gave me abundant inspiration. He was none other than our beloved Dr. Prodeep Phukan. Now I feel it is the right time for me to thank him. Since last two and half years we have been trying to build a network of researchers belonging to the most beautiful part of our Nation…the North East part, the Seven Sister States. The web is being formed through the science’s one of most valuable gift to the modern day life..Internet. It was formed aiming at bringing all the science researchers of the North East part of India under one umbrella, no matter which field of science he or she belongs to. Our region is one of the richest in India, if we look at its natural resources, fertile land,

climate, etc, yet it is one of the most undeveloped parts. In this regard, if we consider one of the states of seven sisters, Assam, it has literacy rate of 65%, out of which 70% goes to arts, 6% Commerce, 1.5% Technical education and only 12 % goes to science education which is a very gloomy picture indeed. So we have a long way to move. Through this forum, I dream of science to reach every nook and corner of the north east India, whose limitations does not lie only to the intellectual class. I dream of using science for social cause which is not limited to the chapters of science book and experiments in the laboratory. I dream a movement of science of its own through this forum which happened never before. But again I firmly believe dreaming without proper thinking will not achieve the goal, for success begins with a fellows will. Its all in a state of mind. Well, the group has already started to form and we need to maintain the spirit and we can win only if we think we can. If we properly utilize our knowledge we can transform our region and present a different outlook. Here, no one can deny the role of science and technology as a tool for development of a region. The future, the health of NE QUESTour quest for excellence will depend more on the enthusiasm and excellence of younger participants. We strongly encourage younger members to publish their research articles in NE Quest and work hand in hand with the senior members. It can be considered as the platform for sharing our views, thoughts, dreams with fellow members. At this point I would like to sincerely thank all the fellow members and moderators of the forum for helping in launching of the newsletter. This is the beginning and we have miles to go. Hope NE Quest reaches the point of zenith. Thank you & Wish you all a very very Happy Bihu and Happy New Year. Arindam Adhikari (Volunteer Editor of this issue)

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

CONTENTS 1. THE FORUM 2. SCIENCE, R&D News 3. NE INDIANS MADE US PROUD

2 3 4

4. EVENT AND NEWS FROM NORTH EAST INDIA 5. NORTH EAST INDIA RESEARCH FORUM MEMBERS IN NEWS, AWARDS / FELLOWSHIP RECEIVED BY MEMBERS 6. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ATTENDED BY MEMBERS OF THE FORUM 7. INSTRUMENT OF THE ISSUE –AFM 8. ARTICLES SECTION a) Biofuel Based Rural Energy – The Issues and The Challenges Dr. Dhanapati Deka b) Glimpses Of Lindau Meeting 2002 Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur c) Wastelands: The Hidden Potential Ms. N. Bhattacharyya d) Smart Materials: The Emerging Technology Dr. Siddhartha Gogoi e) Lentinula edods (Shiitake) – A mushroom species for human health care Mr. Mahananda Chutia f) Zeta Potential in Surface Chemistry of Minerals Dr. Manash Ranjan Das g) X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy: A Synchrotron-based Technique for Structural Analysis-

5 6 6 6 8 12 16 17 20 22

Mr. Pankaj Bharali h) Applications of structural adhesives in bonding aircraft structures Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi i) Intellectual Property And Its Importance With Special Reference To Patents

23

Mr. Abhishek Choudhury j) Seaweeds: A renewable reservoir of bio active molecules Dr. Kamalesh Prasad k) What is Nanoparticles and Why Nanoparticles Md. Harunar Rashid

29

9.ABSTRACT OF PhD THESIS/ RESEARCH WORK a) Ph. D. thesis abstract of Dr. Prodeep Phukan (Asymmetric Hydroxylations of Olefins, Reductions of Ketones and Organic Transformations Using Heterogeneous Catalysis) b) Ph. D. thesis abstract of Dr. Joshodeep Boruwa (Investigations Towards the Synthesis of Natural Products or Parts Thereof Involving Nitro Stabilized Carbanions) 10. HIGHER STUDY ABROAD Country of this Issue: Germany 11. TROUGH THE LENSE OF FORUM MEMBERS

26

31 37 38 44 47 48

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum 3. Way to have a contact with all members =29% 4. Scientific discussions = 14% 5. Others = 2%

THE FORUM North East India Research Forum was created on 13th November 2004. 1. How we are growing. At the beginning, it was a march hardly with few members and today the forum comprised of a force of more than 100 researchers. Now expectations have risen and there are reasons to be. It is hoped to grow more in quality and quantity. 2. Discussions held in the forum • • •

Necessity of directory of all the members of the forum. Possibility of organising conference in the N E India. Taking initiation on setting up of South East Asian Scientific Institute.

3. Poll conducted and results. •

North East India is lacking behind the rest of the country due to1. Geographical constrain =0% 2. Bad leadership = 40% 3. Lack of work culture = 36% 4. Corruption = 18% 5. Apathy from Central Govt. = 4%

•

Which area of science is going to dominate by creating a great impact on society in next decade? 1. Nanoscience & nanotechnology = 22% 2. Biotechnology = 11% 3. Nanobiotechnology = 38% 4. Chemical Engineering = 0% 5. Medicine = 11% 6. Others = 16% 7. None = 0%

•

Kindly let us know your view regarding the following topic. What activities of this group you like most ? 1. Research articles= 33% 2. Information about vacancy/positions available=10%

•

Selection of name for Newsletter There were total 36 proposals submitted by members of the forum for the Newsletter. The name proposed by Mr. Abhishek Choudhury, N.E. QUEST received the maximum number of votes and hence it is accepted as the name of the Newsletter.

4. Future activities Proper planning and consequent implementation always play an important role in every aspect. Some of the topics/activities/suggestions which were being discussed, time to time in the forum will get top priorities in our future activities. Those are mentioned here, • Preparing complete online database of N.E. researchers with details. • Organising conference in the N.E. region-proposed by Dr. Utpal Bora. • Research collaboration among forum members. • Motivate student to opt for science education. • Help master’s students in doing projects in different organisation-proposed by Mr. Khirud Gogoi. • Supporting schools in rural areas by different ways. To run the forum smoothly, to make it more organised and to speed up activities, formation of a committee/team is essential. The combined discussion of the moderators and senior members make the forum feel the importance of Advisors, co-ordinator, volunteer, webmasters etc. Of course it needs more discussion and will be approved by poll.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

SCIENCE, R & D NEWS • Researchers from University of Copenhagen, Denmark have achieved a breakthrough in the field of blood groups by developing new technology that could convert blood types A, B, and AB into the universal type O. As it stands there are constant blood supply shortages, this technology would be beneficial because blood type O can be given to any patient irrespective of their own blood group. They claim to have found two unique glycosidase enzymes in bacteria that can convert one blood type to the other. It was also found that the enzymes can remove sugar molecules from the red blood cells, which provoke an immune reaction in the recipient. [Nature 446, 586 - 587 (05 Apr 2007)] • Scientists from University of Heidelberg and the University of Bayreuth, in Germany have created first non-Carbon material with near-Diamond hardness. The material is a boron nitride “nanocomposite”. It is made of crystalline boron-nitride grains that are each a few to several nanometers in size. Now the scientists are involved in preparing a bulk material that is hard, tough, and thermally stable, and thus ideal for cutting and drilling. (March 8th, Applied Physics Letters, PhysOrg.com) • Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, researchers have built a prototype "nanogenerator" that can produce continuous direct-current electricity from such sources as blood flow or vibration. The nanometer-scale generator is based on arrays of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires that move inside a "zigzag" plate electrode. A piezoelectricsemiconducting coupling process converts mechanical energy into electricity. The zigzag electrode acts as an array of parallel integrated metal tips that simultaneously and continuously create, collect, and output electricity from all of the nanowires. The approach presents an adaptable, mobile, and cost-effective technology for harvesting energy from the environment, and it offers a potential solution for powering nanodevices and nanosystems.( Science 6 April 2007)

• Biology and chemistry researchers from Virginia Tech, USA, are creating molecular complexes to bind to and disrupt the DNA of diseased tissues, such as tumors or viruses. A student at Virginia Tech. has created an LED system that glows a beautiful shade of blue when the special molecules successfully bind to DNA. His invention now provides rapid screening to accelerate discovery of promising new drugs. (News release issued by Virginia Tech) • Fats in our stomach may reduce the protective effects of antioxidants such as vitamin C. Scientists at the University of Glasgow found that in the presence of lipid the ability of antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid (the active component of vitamin C), to protect against the generation of potential cancer-forming compounds in the stomach is less than when no lipids are present. • A fungus that can convert waste paper into an antibacterial and super-absorbent material has been discovered by researchers at Borås University College in Sweden. The discovery could provide a commercially and environmentally viable material for disposable diapers and sanitary wear. The products would not only have improved hygiene qualities but would be entirely biodegradable and so reduce the impact on landfill sites for these bulky products. • Chemists at the University of Washington in Seattle are developing ‘smart’ sunglasses that will allow the wearer to instantly change the color of their lenses to virtually any hue of the rainbow. Clear, red, green, blue or purple, virtually any color could be obtained instantly by tuning a tiny electronic knob in the frame, the researchers say. (Source: the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society)

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum forms of cancer, skin diseases and emphysema continues to this day. These days however Barua is retired from the research lab. But he still has an interest in vitamin A.

NE INDIANS MADE US PROUD 1. Prof. Rohinikanta Baruah (1910-1968) was the architect of the foundation of present Biochemistry dept. of Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh. During his time the department started rising to one of the well equipped research centre. In 1964 he left Dibrugarh

3. Dr. Dhiraj Bora was designated as ITER Deputy Director-General for CODAC, Heating and Current Drive Systems, and Diagnostics, in July 2006. ITER is a joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and

Prof. R.K.Boruah University and joined Guahati university. With limited resources he could publish research article in the prestigious journals like Nature ( Barua, R. K. et. al. Nature, 1962, 193, 165 ; Barua, R. K. et. al. Nature, 1963, 197, 594). (With input from Dr. Prodeep Phukan and Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi) 2. Prof. Arun Bhushan Barua is involved in the research of vitamin A. For more than 40 years, the scientist has researched the chemistry, biochemistry, bioactivity, metabolism, analysis and nutritional aspects of

Dr. Dhiraj Bora technical feasibility of fusion power. The partners in the project - the ITER Parties are the European Union (represented by EURATOM), Japan, the People´s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA. ITER will be constructed in Europe, at Cadarache in the South of France. 4. Prof. Jitendra Nath Goswami, is the Director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Dr Goswami, who held several important academic posts during his illustrious career,

Prof. Arun Bhushan Baruah vitamin A and carotenoids. The last 25 years of that research has been conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology of Iowa State University. His research led to the chemical synthesis of a water-soluble form of vitamin A and determination of its biological activity in animals and humans. The clinical usefulness of this compound in the treatment of certain

Prof. Jitendra N. Goswami is a Fellow of the three Science Academies in India. He is also a member of the National Committee for Space Researches. He was

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum fortunate to analyse for the first time the Lunar sample carried back by Apollo-11 mission in the early seventies of the last century. Dr Goswami is also endowed with several prestigious national and international awards, namely the Indian National Science Academy's Medal for Young Scientists (1978), the NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award (1986) and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for his pioneering contributions to Planetary Sciences (1994).

University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). He obtained the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in

5. Prof. B. N. Goswami is professor at Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, IISc., Bangalore. He was born and brought up in a remote village Patbausi in Assam. He recieved college education in Cotton college, Gauhati (B.Sc. Physics), Masters in Physics from Gauhati University

Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985 and 1987, respectively. Prior to joining UMKC in 1989, he was a member of the technical staff in the traffic network routing and design department at the AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey from 1987 to 1989.

Prof. Deepankar Medhi

• • Prof. B.N.Goswami in 1971. He completed his Ph.D. in Plasma Physics in 1976 under the guidance of Prof. Buti in Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. His doctoral work involved studies of linear and non-linear instabilities in magnetic plasmas. He joined the newly formed group "Climate Research' in PRL in 1976. Met Prof Jule Charney in 1977 and his invitation to work with him made him Atmospheric Scientist. He received many prestigious awards. He is also recipient of Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award, in Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, 1995 by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. 6. Prof. Deepankar Medhi is Professor (and past Head) of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering (CSEE) Department, School of Computing and Engineering (SCE) at the

• •

EVENT AND NEWS FROM NORTH EAST INDIA All the Central Universities of N.E. India to have medical studies faculties. Central Govt. is planning to set up Regional Cancer Centres (RCCs) in each of the eight ( + Sikkim ) North Eastern States. Proposal of upgrading Jorhat science college to Indian Institute of Science. India’s first science village is being set up at Jamugurihat in Assam. The science village will have a planetarium, botanical garden, heritage park, a wetland project, bird sanctuary, aquarium, science museum, library, auditorium, children's park and a laboratory. The first phase is scheduled to open by the end of this year. Gramya Jana Bigyan Mancha (GJBM), an NGO engaged in spreading scientific awareness, is executing the project. The brain behind the project is Shri Radhika Mohan Bhagawati, a journalist at whose behest scientist Shri Dinesh Chandra Goswami prepared the project for GJBM. The president of GJBM is Shri Kshiradhar Baruah, a national award winner for popularisation of science.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

NORTH EAST INDIA RESEARCH FORUM MEMBERS IN NEWS, AWARDS / FELLOWSHIP RECEIVED BY MEMBERS 1. Dr. Prodeep Phukan, Reader, Chemistry Department, Guwahati University received Ramanna fellowship (Dept. of Science & Technology, India 2007-2009). 2. Mr. Khirud Gogoi, Senior Research Fellow, National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune in RSC Chemical Biology news, for their discovery of a series of modified nucleic acids that show potential as gene targeted drugs. 3. Dr. Tridib Sharma receives JSPS fellowship. 4. Dr. Utpal Bora receives JSPS fellowship.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ATTENDED BY MEMBERS OF THE FORUM •

Dr. Dhanapati Deka, Reader, Dept. of Energy presented a research paper on ‘Biofuel consumption and future needs-a case for North east India’ in the World Bioenergy Conference 2006 held in Jonkoping, Sweden during May 30th – June 1st 2006.

------------------------o----------------------Information about Cover Page Image: In the cover page of the newsletter two images are of AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) imaging of conducting polyaniline dispersed in Polyvinyl Acetate matrix coating. The image left side is simple imaging (topography) and the right side is the simultaneous conductivity mapping of the sample. In the topography pinholes could be seen and in the conductivity mapping the yellow spots projecting upwards are conducting polyaniline particles.

INSTRUMENT OF THE ISSUE AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) The atomic force microscope, AFM, is a high resolution type scanning probe microscope. It was invented by Gerd Binnig, Calvin F. Quate and Christoph Gerber in 1986. It is used not only for molecular scale microscopy (high resolution imaging), but also for the study of interaction forces between two surfaces. Repulsive or attractive interactions, adhesion, friction, lubrication etc. can be accurately measured and analyzed by AFM. The AFM is being used to study many different systems in Material Science, Surface Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Nanotechnology, etc. It is being also used to solve processing and materials problems in a wide range of technologies affecting electronics, telecommunications, biological, chemical, automotive, aerospace and energy industries. The AFM uses a microscale cantilever with a sharp tip (probe) at its end to scan the specimen surface (placed on a piezo-scanner) in order to obtain an image of it. The cantilever tip is typically made of silicon or silicon nitride with a tip radius of curvature on the order of nanometers. When the tip is brought into proximity of a sample surface, forces between the tip and the sample lead to a deflection of the cantilever. The deflection is measured by monitoring the incident spot on a photodiode of a laser beam reflected from the top of the cantilever (Figure 1). The way in which image contrast is obtained can be achieved in many ways. The three main classes of imaging modes are contact mode, tapping mode and noncontact mode. Contact mode is the most common method of operation of the AFM. As the name suggests, the tip and sample remain in close contact as the scanning proceeds. Tapping mode is the next most common mode used in AFM. In this mode the cantilever oscillates at its resonant frequency (often in the range of kilohertz or

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum hundreds of kilohertz) and positioned above the surface so that it only taps the surface for a very small fraction of its oscillation period. This is the recommended mode for imaging soft samples, which could be damaged in contact mode. Non-contact mode is, in practice, similar to contact mode, but the applied load of the tip on the sample is so low that, in fact, they are not in contact. The repulsive interactions between the tip and the sample allow the tip to scan the sample without touching it. Usually this is a difficult mode to operate in ambient conditions with the AFM.

In this way, different kind of forces between surfaces can be detected and quantified by AFM: mechanical contact forces, Van der Waals forces, capillary forces, chemical bonding, electrostatic forces, magnetic forces, solvation forces, friction forces, etc. Even conductivity in a sample can also be mapped using special AFM tip.

Image of a typical AFM

Schematic representation of AFM The colloid probe technique is widely used for the study of interaction forces between two surfaces by AFM. In this technique, a spherical particle (usually with a diameter of a few microns) is glued at the end of the cantilever (colloid probe). The forces between the colloid probe and a substrate placed on the piezo-scanner are measured as they approach or separate each other (interaction forces) or as they slide each other (friction forces). The forces are measured by monitoring the deflection of the cantilever with the same optic system mentioned previously. That deflection is converted into force by applying Hooke’s law. To do that, the cantilevers have to be calibrated previously to get their spring constants.

The potential, the versatility and the sensitivity of the AFM have converted this sophisticated device into one of the most popular devices nowadays in many different research lines around the world. ( With inputs from Dr. Juan Jose΄ Valle Delgado, Institute of Surface Chemistry, Stockholm ) References 1. G. Binnig, C. F. Quate, C. Gerber, Phys. Rev. Lett. 56 (1986) 930. [Creation of the AFM] 2. W. A. Ducker, T. J. Senden, R. M. Pashley, Nature 353 (1991) 239. [Colloid probe technique] 3. J. Ralston, I. Larson, M. W. Rutland, A. A. Feiler, M. Kleijn. Pure Appl. Chem. 77 (2005) 2149. [ Measurements of interaction forces and friction forces. ]

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ARTICLES SECTION Biofuel Based Rural Energy – The Issues and The Challenges

Dr. Dhanapati Deka Introduction Energy is an essential input for industrial and economic development and for improving the quality of life. Non-availability of energy supply means absence of energy services, which will in turn mean the inability of vast number of people to satisfy their basic needs. A better life and an improved standard of living are the fundamental aspirations of the 70 per cent of humanity living in the poor countries of Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. For the poor, a better life first means satisfying the basic human needs, including access to jobs, food, health services, education, housing, running water, sewage, etc. In providing for these needs, energy is an important element. India has more than 5.6 lakh villages and 80% of its populations are living in rural areas. One of the most important tasks is to provide adequate, reliable, convenient and efficient supply of energy if quality of life for this mass section is to be raised from its present level of grinding poverty. Access to modern energy provides the productive capacity for stimulating economic development and reducing conditions of poverty while improving health, air quality, productivity, comfort, education and hardship imposed on women and children. In most of the rural areas, different energy sources and devices are available, which are capable to meet their energy requirement. However, these sources contribute to the well-being of people only if these sources are properly harness and utilized. To attain specific goals, a proper

balance is needed among, technical, social and economic benefits derived from these sources and the social and economic costs required for operation and maintenance. Rural Energy Scenario From historic times, rural people were solely dependent on biomass-based fuels (wood, animal dung and crop residues) to meet their energy requirements. Later, fuel mixing has been taken place after fuel switching partially to fossil fuel based liquid (kerosene) and gaseous (LPG) fuels. At present, biomass fuels meet 85–90% of the domestic energy demand and 75% of all rural energy demand. Cooking accounts for almost 90% of household energy. The fuels and devices available to people living in poverty are typically less efficient, more hazardous to users and more damaging to the environment than those enjoyed by the better-off. The use of traditional fuels has a negative impact on the health of household members, especially women and children, when burned indoors without either a proper stove to help control the generation of smoke or a chimney to vent the smoke outside (Smith, 1987). Traditional cookstoves cause indoor concentrations of important pollutants, such as small particles less than 10 microns in diameter, known as PM10, carbon monoxide, benzene and formaldehyde. Such exposures are linked to acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive lung diseases, low birth weights, lung cancer and eye problems, primarily, among women and children. Besides, the fuels and devices available to people living in poverty are typically less efficient, more hazardous to users and more damaging to the environment than those enjoyed by the better-off. The main fuels used for lighting in the rural households are kerosene and electricity. Kerosene used in household lamps is a poison and a major fire hazard; yet, lighting using kerosene can be twice as expensive as and up to 19 times less efficient per lumen of output than fluorescent lights using electricity as the

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum energy carrier (Reddy, 1994).. Majority of the kerosene lamps are hurricane type lamps, which produce very poor light of about 60-70 lumens (lm) (a 100 W bulb produces ~ 1300 lm and for reading about 200 lm/m2 or lux is sufficient). Moreover, inefficient lighting services in the home and in public areas are directly related to poor safety and personal security. Insufficient access to modern and affordable energy services and technologies for agricultural activities, forces rural producers to cultivate more land, spending more times with excess manpower. Irrigation is mainly through electrical and diesel pumpsets, while the rural industries and the transport sectors rely primarily on animal power and to some extent on commercial sources of energy like diesel and electricity. Transport sectors in most of the villages are still relying on animal power. Due to their poverty, only small fractions are able to use diesel or petrol driven vehicles. Rural industries affect badly due to erratic supply of electricity. The lack of energy is equally debilitating in the social service sector such as education, health care, water supply, water treatment, communicating roads etc. The use of commercial fuels such as kerosene, diesel, electricity etc. are largely confined to urban areas whereas their availability in the rural areas is limited due to remoteness and high transportation cost involved in them ( Singh et al., 1996). Availability of electricity, kerosene, petroleum etc makes life easy for the urban people. Incomes of the households play important role on purchasing of these energy sources to meet their energy needs. LPG occupies major part as cooking fuel followed by kerosene. Per capita energy consumption is much higher than rural people. There have always ruralurban disparities on income distribution, expenditure pattern, energy availability, economic development etc. On an average, one in every 25 households in rural areas had an income of more than Rs. 72,000 while every fourth household in urban areas reported a similar income (Pradhan, 2000). It can be

said that an increase in the family income leads to an increase in quantity of energy consumed, a change in the type of fuel used and a change in the end use of the fuel consumed ( Deka, 2000). In most of the rural areas, different energy sources and devices are available, which are capable to meet their energy requirement. However, these sources contribute to the well-being of people only if these sources are properly harness and utilized. Regional variation on geographical setting, socio-economic conditions of the people, culture, food habit, abundance of energy resource in the locality etc are also playing important role in energy consumption pattern of a locality. Therefore, there is need to identify problems along with the demand and supply of energy in rural areas for each region before going for a need base rural energy planning. Assam is a small state with a total population above 26 millions. It is the centre of north-eastern India and is a strategic corridor for South East Asia. Assam per capita income is almost two third of the National Average. 89% of the population are widely scattered in rural areas and 41% are living below poverty line. Per capita electricity consumption at 140 kilowatt hour (kwh) is less than one third of the national average and the lowest in India. Therefore improved power supply at a reasonable cost is essential to revive the state industry and economic development. Most of the villagers in this region are still not aware of the renewable energy systems, which are thought to be bringing a change of their energy use pattern. Fuel wood is a predominate fuel satisfying about 80% of the cooking energy need of the rural areas of Assam, which are burnt in inefficient traditional cook stoves. To address these problems, several efforts have been made by both governmental and non-governmental organizations in the form of national programmes for rural electrification, and promoting renewable energy technologies

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum like biogas, improved cook stoves and solar cookers. However, in spite of the existence of these programmes for nearly two decades, their impact on the rural energy scenario has been limited. There is urgent need of reorientation of the existing programmes to meet the energy need of the rural people. Rural Energy Policy and Issue The present supply-demand scenario indicates that biomass would continue to be the mainstay of the rural energy sector in the foreseeable future. The penetration of various commercial fuels will remain quite low, and at the present rate, it would take a long time for the Renewable energy technologies to make any significant impact on the sector. Therefore, any policy formulated to deal with rural energy will have to look for highly innovative options and make judicious investment choices. There are several issues to be considered while formulating such policies such as technological options, dissemination approach, commercialization of rural energy technologies and capacity building at the root level. The principal thrust of any meaningful rural energy policy is to shift from the present traditional biomass technologies to efficient biomass technologies, which provide greater energy service with same resource. Most rural energy programmes so far have been run as centralized, target-oriented programmes exclusive of other programmes. However, experience suggests that while determining the feasibility or adaptability of a particular programme or technology, it would be important to consider the priorities of the local people, and bring about an integration of various development programmes. The problem of energy development in rural India has many similarities to that in rural China. Enormous challenges face both countries regarding the design and implementation of suitable strategies to accelerate the development of rural renewable energy. While some strategies may exit similar forms in both countries, China has the state based rural energy planning against the centralized target

oriented rural energy programmes in India. We should analyze the most effective rural energy policy in China for implementation in India also. It is increasingly being realized that if local communities are to contribute significantly and find sustainable solutions to their environment and energy related concerns, there is need to build capacities at the grassroots level in terms of creating awareness regarding energy and environment issues, and developing technical and managerial expertise to plan and manage programmes effectively. The existing target oriented programme on rural energy of Govt. of India including National Project for Biogas Development (NPBD), National Programme of Improved Chullah (NPIC), Integrated Rural Energy Planning, Solar water heating programme, solar cooker programme etc are fail to generate much response from rural people and it is found that only about 20% has been implemented in our state so far out of the total potentials. For rapid participation of the rural people on any rural energy programme and for a successful implementation of such programme, it can be suggested that a decentralized rural energy programme is necessary with the active involvement of the local communities. Any such programme may be fruitful if the energy requirement in a particular locality according to food habit, socio-economic conditions, social acceptability to new technologies etc. is considered as priorities. Conclusion We need to evolve a comprehensive rural energy policy to meet the challenges. Seeing the possibilities of supplement the future cooking and lighting energy by liquid and gaseous fuels obtained from locally available biomass sources, the production of ethanol, biodiesel and pyrolysis oil may be emphasized. Similarly, supply of biogas from extremely efficient biogas digesters together with efficient storage system may be the basis of clean cooking energy. A

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum compact LP gas system supplied from a potable bottle of LP gas may give rural, lowincome families access to modern cooking, space and water heating, drying and lighting services. Kerosene distribution to rural people through public distribution systems may be reorganized with increased availability. Minimized Need programme for rural electrification may be pooled to meet the objective of 100% electrification. Temporary funding for rural electrification programme may be obtained from Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme ( MPLADS) and Jawahar Gram Siddhi Yojana (JGSY). Village level organization like PRIs, NGO can take active role for electrified the remote villages with government initiatives. Thus, a comprehensive and integrated (considering both conventional and non-conventional energy sources) decentralized rural energy programme can change the present energy scenario of the rural areas of Assam. References 1. Deka D. (2000) “Energy consumption pattern in rural areas of Assam. A comparative study on three different categories of villages in Sonitpur District”. In the proceedings of the National Renewable Energy Convention 2000, held at IIT, Bombay, Nov 30 – Dec 2, 2000. 2. Pradhan K Basanta, P K Roy, M R Saluja and Venkatram Shanta (2000). RuralUrban Disparities- Income Distribution, Expenditure Pattern and Social Sector. Economic and Political Weekly. July 15, Pp 2527-2539. 3. Reddy B. Sudhakar (1994) Biomass Energy for India: An overview. Energy Conversion and Management. Vol. 35 (40), pp 341-361. 4. Smith K. R. (1987). Biofuels, air pollution and health. A global Review, Plenum Press, New York. 5. Singh, Rai, Singh, Hazarika (1996). TERI report on Rural Energy Plan for Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh. Pp.4

Short Biodata of the Author: Dr. Dhanapati Deka has been working in the field of Bioenergy since last 15 years. Presently, he is working as Reader, Department of Energy, Tezpur University. He published at least 13 research papers in national and international journals as well as conference/seminars/workshop proceedings related to bioenergy, biofuels and fuelcells. He completed two minor projects on bioenergy. He has been invited as resource person in the workshop on bioenergy organized by IIT Guwahati, Regional MNES Office, Nagaland Renewable Energy Development Agency and other institutions located in North-eastern Region of India. He was awarded INSA Visiting fellowship by Indian National Science Academy for doing collaborative works on lignin characteristics at Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore. He presented a research paper on ‘Biofuel consumption and future needs –a case for North east India’ in the “World Bioenergy Conference 2006” held in Jonkoping, Sweden during May 30June1, 2006. Recently, during October1October 14, 2006 he was included in a Study Tour Team from India to United States of America related to Incident Command Systems and Disaster Management sponsored by United States Forest Services. E-mail: [email protected]

----------------------o-------------------------Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more.

by George Bernard Shaw Born: 26th July 1856 Dublin, Ireland. Death: 2nd November 1950

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Glimpses Of Lindau Meeting 2002

Dr. Ashim Jyoti Thakur 14th May, 2002, Wednesday. Place: RRL Jorhat At 4.50 PM, only 10 minutes before the closure of the working day, an urgent fax came from the Director’s office. I was winding up my works to have a cup of evening tea. Seeing the fax, my joys knew no bounds. The partial content of the fax is as follows: URGENT Dear Dr. Thakur, Hearty Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the DST Award for “Participation in the Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students in Lindau, Germany.” A team of 20 students/young researchers has been chosen to represent India in this meeting. …………………………………….. Yours sincerely G. Padmanabhan Historically, this Lindau meeting is the only gathering where one can have very close interactions with the Nobel Laureates in a informal way. Dates back to 1951, when the first of this meeting was organized at Lindau. Since then every year the same has been organized for a week in the month of June by the Committee of the meetings of Nobel Laureates in Lindau. The meeting has been dedicated to one discipline-chemistry, physics and physiology & medicine rotation wise. That is, every third year will be dedicated for

the same discipline. The meeting in 2002 was the 52nd meeting. Every year, about 2030 Nobel Laureates and around 500 students/researchers from the different parts of the globe assemble at Lindau. It is only in the year 2000, when the meeting completed 50 years of its existence, around 53 Nobel Laureates from all the discipline gathered there. The aim of the meeting is to keep the spirit of Alfred Nobel alive and to have informal discussions and exchange of views among students/researchers and Nobel Laureates through small group interactions, round table conferences, invited lectures etc. On the formal request of DFG (Deutch Forschungsgemeinschaft), Germany, India started participating in the Lindau meeting since 2001 (physics). On behalf of India, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India has been given the responsibility for selecting students/researchers to represent India in the meeting. After getting the news of my selection, it took me several days to come to a normal state, as I was excited and at the same time confused with what to do, how and what to talk with the Nobel Laureates, how they will respond, at what level they will talk, will I be able to understand their explanation etc.. etc.. thousands of such questions were having their Brownian motions inside my brain. Frankly speaking, at that time, I did not have so much of exposure to the national and international science. Therefore, confidence level inside ‘me’ was not up to the mark. Because, the intellectuality level within the Nobel Laureates are far above my normal level of intellectuality (if I have any). However, keeping in mind the great remark, “Every human being is endowed with his/her faculty of intelligence, but intellectuality is perhaps a bit distinct from common intelligence”, my confidence level moved to a higher (how much?) degree. That was my maiden abroad visit and air travel as well. Actually, the moment I stepped into the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati,

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum everything was quite new to me, my experiences started piled up. Our accommodation at Delhi was arranged in a guesthouse at Safdarjang Enclave. The two days stay at the guesthouse was very enjoyable, memorable one. I was shocked about the knowledge the other people had about North East. They were very much interested in this part of India and asked me so many silly questions. To my opinion, we cannot blame them, because media have exposed the North East as a dense jungle full of extremists, wild animals, cannibals etc., uncivilized people and customs. North East is far from the ray of modern civilization. But eventually, I was able to convince them. Anyway, it was nice to meet the people of other premier institutes of India like IITs, IISc. etc. Before leaving for Germany, we had couple of briefings and warm up activities at Delhi. There were tours to Ranbaxy pharamaceutical Ltd, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) etc. and we had the opportunity to look at the applied part of chemistry and chemical engineering. The interactive session was very interesting. Then S&T minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi; DG, CSIR, Dr. Mashelkar; Secretary, DBT, Dr. Manju Sharma; Secretary, S&T Dr. V.S. Ramamurthy are some of the eminent persons who addressed us at the briefings. Dr. Joshi’s lecture was very inspiring, illuminating and thought provoking. How a strong and focused observation coupled with a prepared mind can gift a researcher excellent piece of work that was clear from personal experiences in his brief lecture. Dr. Padmanabhan sir was kind enough to listen our views and problems. He tried to fulfill all our requests at his best. Our journey started on 30th June, 4-15 am. Lindau, a picturesque city on the bank of Constanz, Germany. After a journey of around 23 hours from New Delhi to Lindau via Paris and Munich, we were completely exhausted. Only the driving force was our spirit, otherwise we did not have any stamina that could fuel us and kept us going. We reached Germany on the wee hours of 1st July 2002. For lack of time, hardly we could sleep for 4

hours. The earlier night Germany lost the World cup final. Otherwise we could have been a part of Germany’s triumph. Without having sufficient sleep, in the morning at 8 am we headed for the venue to attend the opening ceremony, an excellent hall called ‘Inselle Hall’ near to our Hotel, Gasthof Stift almost 5 min walk. Our programme started at 8.30 in the morning, 1st July. Some of the interesting events and moments will be mentioned here. The topic of the round table conference was “What can chemistry and the scientific community contribute in Alfred Nobel’s spirit to the benefit of mankind in the 21st century.” The conference was chaired by Prof. Bengt Norden, other participants were Prof. Paul Crutzen, Prof. Richard Ernst, Prof. Sir Harold Croto, Prof. George Olah and Prof. Ahmed Zewail. It was emphasised by all that chemistry should shake hand with biology for further progress. The role of chemists at the genomic research was discussed in detail. In the afternoon, the officials conducted Lindau tour for the participants. In the dinner, I was amazed to see the Nobel laureates taking part in ball dancing. Prof. Ahmed Zewail (1999 Nobel Laureate) delivered a beautiful lecture on the topic “Chemistry and Biology in a new light.” All realized his research on Femtochemistry and its great potentiality. In his lecture it was the feeling like the marriage of chemistry and biology. He described success as - “The path of discovery is not straight. The path is full of surprises, full of hard work; it depends on being in the right place at the right time. Discovering something also depends on passion. If you have the passion and you are honest about it, you will do something important.” Self organization is an important phenomenon in supramolecular chemistry. Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn put forwarded his findings in self-organisation of functional supramolecular systems.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Evergreen, 1991 Nobel Laureate Prof. Richard Ernst discussed the application of Fourier Transformation (FT) methods in spectroscopy, especially the revolutionary changes in 2-D NMR spectroscopy. Although FT is an integral part of Mathematics, but nevertheless it also occupies an important position in other disciplines. We were very much delighted to know his other interests. Can you believe? He has vast knowledge and collection of Tibetan arts. He criticized the foreign policy of Bush administration vehementally in cartoon he prepared himself. An interesting presentation was from Prof. Paul Boyer. Our general perception is that the oxygen we breathe is our friend. Because with breathing it goes to the cells and helps in the synthesis of energy molecule, namely ATP. ATP breaks down to provide the energy required for the different functions of our body. But can it be our foe? The free radical character of oxygen makes it so reactive that we cannot ignore the dark side of it. At this stage it becomes dangerous. The subject matter of Prof. Paul Crutzen (1995) of Mainz was atmospheric chemistry and climate. The ozone layer in the stratosphere acts as a blanket and cut the UV radiation so that it cannot reach the earth, thereby saving the lives on earth. On the other hand, reacting with water molecule it forms hydroxyl radical. This hydroxyl radical destroys the unwanted gases coming out from the industries. Hence, the hydroxyl radical is called the ‘detergent’ of atmosphere. Due to geographical reasons, the amount of hydroxyl radicals is larger in the tropical region. Therefore a large amount of the emitted gas is removed from this area. On the other hand, since the amount of rain fall and the water vapour content is highest in this region, tropical region plays an important role in order to keep our environment clean. In this regard, we find the relevance of studying atmospheric chemistry. On the basis of these arguments, one can think that the tropical region is the cleanest part of the atmosphere. But the reality reveals something different. With the increase in the burning of anthropogenic mass and

fossil fuel, tropical and sub tropical region is badly affected. Prof. George Olah, pointed out the challenges to come in the future with extensive data in his lecture, “Hydrocarbons and Global Warming: Facts, Challenges and possible solutions.” It is well known and well recognized that among the

environmental problems, Global warming is one of the extremes. The main reason for this is the emission of carbon dioxide due to the excessive use of coal, oil, natural gas etc. His research is how to synthesise methanol from carbon dioxide and water and from methanol ultimately hydrocarbon in a sustainable manner. In this way we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and at the same time fuel scarcity will also be reduced. The most popular Nobel Laureate was Prof. Harold Croto of Sussex University (1998) with a smile always. When he proceeded to the stage with models of Fullerene and carbon nano tube in hand, it looked so attractive that everybody was happy. Croto described this nanotube as “elongated cousins of Buckminister fullerene.” His suggestion to us was, “You need to learn is doubt. Don’t believe anything you’re told without good reason and argument.” Olah is very much true in the saying that Science is international-there is no American or German Science. A scientist

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum shouldnot worry about the nationalities rather concentrates on solutions. We should find out the best science and solutions. After genome sequence, now it is turn for structural genomics. The aim is to find out the 3-D structures of all proteins. Prof. Johann Deisenhofer illustrated these developments in simple and lucid way. He was more confident that the research in structural genomics would help in understanding the protein folding and unfolding.

To wind up, “Lindau in general and this meeting is like a magnet.” Like other participants, it attracts me a lot and I hope I will have opportunity again to visit Lindau at least once more during my life time, so that it doesn’t remain as ‘once in lifetime’ achievement. With that hope, I sign out here. Short Biodata of the Author: Ashim Jyoti Thakur, hails from a small hilly town, Diphu in the Karbi Anglong District of Assam. Presently, a lecturer (since 29th July 2004) in the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur, Assam. He graduated from Cotton College (1995), Guwahati and completed his Masters from Gauhati University in 1998 (1997 batch). A recipient of CSIR-UGC research fellowship, Ph.D. was awarded to him by Dibrugarh University (2002). E-mail: [email protected]

These are few to be mentioned. After this meeting, I started thinking to what point science has been leading us, what is the limit of that? The different aspects of human genome project were discussed. At this point, I want to mention one statement from Prof. Zewail, “When you work on a discovery, you don’t necessarily know what the bad applications of that science will be. For example, consider cloning. Society will have to decide what it wants to do, but you cannot stop scientists from doing the work.” Prof. Croto was of the opinion, “Our technologies are becoming so powerful that they can be used for detriment or benefit of mankind. How do we police that? Its very difficult. Thats the worry. Scientists need to be involved in that discussion.” Our small group discussions did not end in science only. It goes beyond that because we were very eager to know their other sides also, their personal life, their hobbies, as a human being how were they etc. Their attitudes towards life and scientific approach to a problem attracted me a lot.

--------------------o.-------------------------Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

by Albert Einstein Born: 14th March 1879 Died: 18th April 1955 Nobel Prize: Physics, 1921 Citizen of Germany, Switzerland and USA

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Wastelands: The Hidden Potential

Ms. N. Bhattacharyya According to the National Wasteland Development Board (NWDB), India, wasteland means- “the degraded lands which can be brought into vegetation cover with reasonable effort and which is currently lying as under utilized and land which is deteriorating for lack of appropriate water and soil management or on account of natural causes.” Accordingly, wastelands can be categorized into two groups- Culturable and Unculturable. Culturable wastelands include surface water logged and marshy lands, salt affected lands, shifting cultivation areas, degraded forest lands, strip lands, mining spoils or industrial wastelands, degraded nonforest plantation lands, degraded pasture or grazing lands, gullied or ravenous lands, undulating upland with or without scrubs. These lands can be utilized for cultivation or to create vegetation cover on by proper management measures. While the unculturable wastelands include barren rocky, stony waste sheet rock, steep sloping areas, snow cover or glacial areas. These lands can not be avoided to leave as unutilized. Increasing biotic pressure, absence of adequate investment and appropriate management practices, high rate of population growth and high incidence of poverty in rural areas, overexploitation of natural resources, faulty land use practices, the break down of traditional institutions for managing common property resources and failure of new institutions to fill the vacuum are the basic causes of land degradation and wasteland formation. According to the World Resources Institute (WRI, 2005), globally, nearly 2 billion hectares of lands are affected by land

degradation to various degrees. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, 1999) predicts that if land loss continues at current rate, an additional 150360 million hectares could go out of production by 2020. At present, approximately 68.35 million hectares area of the land is lying as wastelands in India. In Northeast India (excluding Assam), about 23% (1993) of the total land is wasteland. Age old practices of shifting (Jhum) cultivation coupled with excessive deforestation for firewood and the wanton mismanagement of natural resources have brought more than 40% area of North East Himalayan states under wastelands (Bhatt BP et al, 2005). Till three decades ago, shifting cultivation was not alarming as its cycle was 15-20 years, but of late it has been reduced to 3-5 years partly due to population explosion and partly to loss of fertile soil due to over exploitation of forest resources. India shares 16% of the world population, while its land is only 2% of the total geographical area of the world. Naturally, the farm lands in India are in the constant process of various degrees of degradation and are fast turning into wastelands due to pressure on the land beyond its carrying capacity. The President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has recently called for a second green revolution, while inaugurating the Triennial Conference on Global Forum on Agricultural Research at New Delhi on 9th November, 2006. Need of food grains will be doubled by 2050, in India (Vancatesan, 2006). Hence, depletion of agricultural fertile lands due to extending wastelands is one of the burning problems of the world in current scenario. Due to fast depleting forest resources, crop productivity has declined remarkably in the Northeast regions of India since the crop husbandry is interlinked with the forest resources. Recently, wastelands utilization for cultivation of economic plants is a challenging programme worldwide for the benefit of the mankind and the environment.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum This practice will reduce the pressure on the agricultural lands available. With the help of proper management techniques, the wastelands can provide adequate support to the majority of our population, which still lives on a bare subsistence level. These lands are capable of producing enough fodder, forage, fuel or at least some vegetation cover to prevent further soil degradation. Recently, experimental practices are going on in various parts to utilize the wastelands successfully to grow market oriented medicinal and aromatic plants, bio-diesel plants etc. Possibilities are bright for the considerable improvement of fertility status of wastelands due to accumulation of biomass, crop stubbles, leaf litter, rhizospheric microbes etc. from the cultivated lands. References: 1. Bhatt BP et al (2005), Restoration of degraded land through Agro-forestry inventions; Agroforestry in Northeast India, Opportunities and Challenges. Pp 427-436. 2. IFPRI, (1999) “How large a threat is soil degradation?” 2020 News Letter. 3. Vancatesan J (2006), Wastelands: is it time to rethink? Current Science, 91(11): 14541455 4. WRI (2005) World Resources 2000-2001; People and Ecosystem- the Fraying Web of Life. Short Biodata of the Author: Ms. Nabanita Bhattacharyya is working as a lecturer Department of Botany, Nowgong College, Assam. Her research area is Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. The title of her Ph.D thesis is ‘Investigation on physiological performances on Houttuynia cordata Thunb (Masandari)with reference to its phytoremediation potential in uncultivable land’ Email: [email protected]

------------------------o-----------------------

Smart Materials: The Emerging Technology

Dr. Siddhartha Gogoi What is Smart material? The material can be treated as a smart when it exhibit interesting intrinsic characteristics which can be exploited within systems, or structures that, in turn, can exhibit ‘smart’ behavior. For example, a photo-chromic material that changes its colour when exposed to light is smart but a simple metal that changes its physical state when heating to its melting point is not smart. Science and technology have made amazing developments in the design of electronics and machinery using standard materials, which do not have particularly special properties (i.e. steel, aluminum, gold). Science and technology in the next century will rely heavily on the development of new materials. "Smart" or "intelligent" materials will play an important role in this development. Imagine the range of possibilities, which exist for special materials that have properties scientists can manipulate. Some such materials have the ability to change shape or size simply by adding a little bit of heat, or to change from a liquid to a solid almost instantly when near a magnet; these materials are called smart materials. These are materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly altered in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields. Research on smart materials is concentrated in the United States and Japan and shows a distinct difference between

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Western and Eastern approaches. American "smart structures" have emerged from the defence industry and have tended towards applications in aerospace and civil engineering, whereas the Japanese have concentrated more on imbuing the materials themselves with "intelligence". In India also, research on smart materials is going on but lot of exposures to this field are yet to be given. Why smart materials? To achieve a specific objective for a particular function or application, a new material or alloy has to satisfy specific qualifications such as • • • •

Technical properties Technological properties Environmental Characteristics and Economic criteria

Smart materials and structures incorporate one or more of the following features: •

•

Sensors or actuators which are either embedded within a structural material or else bonded to the surface of that material Control capabilities which permit the behavior of the material to respond to an external stimulus according to a prescribed functional relationship or control algorithm

At a more sophisticated level, such smart materials become intelligent when they have the ability to respond intelligently and autonomously to dynamically changing environmental conditions. The technologies encompassed by intelligent materials are diverse and include electrorheological fluids, fibrious materials, ceramics, photonics, microsensors, signal processing, piezoelectrics, biomimetics, shape memory alloys, neural networks, nanotechnology, conducting and chiral polymers, liquid crystals, microactuators, biotechnology and information processing.

Potential applications are similarly widespread and have excited interest in industrial, military, commercial, medical, automotive and aerospace fields. Embedded fibre-optic sensing systems are employed in many engineering disciplines to monitor critical characteristics. Several smart skins programmes have been initiated for both civil and military aircraft. Large space structures are also candidates for the incorporation of smart structural systems because of the variable service conditions in which they operate. There are a number of types of smart material, some of which are already common. Smart materials can be classified as follows: • Piezoelectric • Electrostrictive • Magnetostrictive. • Shape Memory Alloys. • Optical Fibers. • Rheological materials • pH-sensitive materials • Fullerenes • Smart gels • Materials with Added Functions. • Sensor Materials, Catalytic Materials, Textile Materials A few of them are described here: Piezoelectric materials are materials that produce a voltage when stress is applied. Since this effect also applies in the reverse manner, a voltage across the sample will produce stress within the sample. Suitably designed structures made from these materials can therefore be made that bend, expand or contract when a voltage is applied. Thermoresponsive materials, either shape memory alloys or shape memory polymers, are materials that can hold different shapes at various temperatures.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Electrostrictive materials when subjected to a magnetic field and vice versa, the material will undergo an induced mechanical strain. Consequently, it can be used as sensors and/or actuators. This material has the same properties as piezoelectric material, but the mechanical change is proportional to the square of the electric field. This characteristic will always produce displacements in the same direction. Magnetic shape memory alloys are materials that change their shape in response to a significant change in the magnetic field. Magnetostrictive materials refer to the material quality of changing size in response to either an electric or magnetic field, and conversely, producing a voltage when stretched. pH-sensitive polymers are materials which swell/collapse when the pH of the surrounding media changes. Halochromic materials are commonly materials that change their colour as a result of changing acidity. One suggested application is for paints that can change colour to indicate corrosion in the metal underneath them. Chromogenic systems change colour in response to electrical, optical or thermal changes. These include electrochromic materials, which change their colour or opacity on the application of a voltage (e.g. liquid crystal displays), thermochromic materials change in color depending on their temperature, and photochromic materials, which change colour in response to light, for example, light sensitive sunglasses that darken when exposed to bright sunlight. Smart glass or switchable glass, also called smart windows or switchable windows in its application to windows or skylights, refers to electrically switchable glass or glazing which changes light transmission properties when voltage is applied.

A smart fluid is a fluid whose properties (for example the viscosity) can be changed by applying an electric field or a magnetic field. The most developed smart fluids today are fluids whose viscosity increases when a magnetic field is applied. Small magnetic dipoles are suspended in a non-magnetic fluid, and the applied magnetic field causes these small magnets to line up and form strings that increase the viscosity. These Magnetorheological or MR fluids are being used in the suspension of the 2002 model of the Cadillac Seville STS automobile and more recently, in the suspension of the second-generation Audi TT. Depending on road conditions, the damping fluid's viscosity is adjusted. This is more expensive than traditional systems, but it provides better (faster) control. Similar systems are being explored to reduce vibration in washing machines, air conditioning compressors, rockets and satellites, and one has even been installed in Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo as an earthquake shock absorber. The Future of Smart Materials: The development of true smart materials at the atomic scale is still some way off, although the enabling technologies are under development. These require novel aspects of nanotechnology (technologies associated with materials and processes at the nanometre scale, 10-9m) and the newly developing science of shape chemistry. Worldwide, considerable effort is being deployed to develop smart materials and structures. The technological benefits of such systems have begun to be identified and, demonstrators are under construction for a wide range of applications from space and aerospace, to civil engineering and domestic products. In many of these applications, the cost benefit analyses of such systems have yet to be fully demonstrated.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum The Office of Science and Technology’s Foresight Programme has recognized these systems as a strategic technology for the future, having considerable potential for wealth creation through the development of hitherto unknown products, and performance enhancement of existing products in a broad range of industrial sectors. The concept of engineering materials and structures, which respond to their environment, including their human owners, is a somewhat alien concept. It is therefore not only important that the technological and financial implications of these materials and structures are addressed, but also issues associated with public understanding and acceptance.

Short biodata of the Author Dr. Siddhartha Gogoi was born in Sivasagar, Assam (India) in 1977. He completed his B.Sc. degree (1998) from Dibrugarh University and M.Sc. degree (2000) in chemistry from Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam (India). He did his Ph.D. in 2006 from Dibrugarh University, Assam in organic chemistry under the supervision of Dr. N. C. Barua at the Regional Research Laboratory in Jorhat, Assam, India. He has published six international papers and one short review article to his credit. His research interests are the total synthesis of bioactive natural products and the development of new methodologies. He is now working as a scientist ‘B’ in High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune.

---------------------o-------------------------Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

by Albert Einstein

Lentinula edods (Shiitake) - A mushroom species for human health care

Mahananda Chutia Edible mushrooms are valuable health food- low in calories, high in proteins, chitin, iron, zinc, fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. A good number of mushroom species are known to produce some effective constituents (glycoproteins, polysaccharides etc) having a range of action on human body including immune modulation, antitumor activity, liver protecting activity, cholesterol lowering, antiviral and blood pressure lowering effect. The medicinal mushrooms are safe for human consumption. Although frequently mistaken as vegetables, mushrooms are actually fungi and possess unique molecular nutrient profiles that are taking centre stage in the Broadway of medicinal food. Although, researchers are just beginning to explore a handful of the hundreds of mushroom species with medicinal benefits, it is exciting piece of pharmacognosy knowledge for those of us who want to use fungi to prevent immune dysfunction and other health problems. The Japanese wood mushroom Lentinus edodes is one of the most important and speciality mushroom and is commonly known as Shiitake (Japanese name). Lentinan and other compound of shiitake mushroom have several beneficial effects on human health care which prevent or inhibit brain tumor; prostrate, stomach and pancreatic cancer; Hepatitis B, virus infection and genital wart, HIV infection, platelet aggregation, anti thrombogenic

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum agent, liver function, controls high blood pressure and heart ailments and helps in building resistance. The most significant shiitake product on the market today is LEM (trade name), an extract produced from mycelia that shows high oral activity. Lentinan, an approved drug in Japan is the highly purified polysaccharide fraction of extracted mushrooms. It is generally administered by injection and has been used as an agent to prolong survival of patients in conventional cancer therapy as well as in AIDS research. Lentinan is currently in Phase II clinical trials in the U.S.

medicine as well as special food in China and Japan. However, South Asian countries also started Shiitake cultivation in large scale. The eco climatic condition of NE region is congenial for large-scale propagation of quite a number of medicinal mushroom species, which can be harnessed to take care of human health. A concerted effort from government, NGOs, educational institutions and corporate sector is essential for assured market of Shiitake for country wide growers as well as its popularization of this high value medicinal mushroom.

Short Biodata of the Author

North- Eastern region of India comprising hills and plains with varied ecoclimatic pockets offers tremendous scope for large scale cultivation of medicinal mushrooms. Shiitakes grow naturally on Asian oaks and beeches. For cultivation purposes, they will also grow on other hard woods including oak, sweetgum, poplar, cottonwood, eucalyptus, alder, ironwood, beech, birch, willow, and many other non-aromatic broadleaf trees. In India, the tribal population of Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram grow this medicinal mushroom species. At present, Manipur is the only state in NE India, where active cultivation of Shiitake has been initiated in an organized way. However, Horticulture Department, Govt. of Meghalaya has also started working with Shiitake in order to introduce this important species of mushroom. A small Shiitake farming unit can earn at least 75 to 80 thousand rupees annually which can provide very good incentive to the rural poor. Shiitake cultivation and marketing is indeed a global industry. For thousand of years, Shiitake has been revered as traditional

Mr. Mahananda Chutia is working as a project assistant at Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat, Assam in the Plant Science Division in a project related mushroom and medicinal & aromatic plants (DBT Project). He did his M.Sc. (2003) in Botany with specialization in Microbiology. He has also qualified NE SLET. He has published several research article in national and international journals. His research interests include Microbial diversity and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Immunology. Email: [email protected]

--------------------o-------------------------Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

Chanakya(Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Zeta Potential in Surface Chemistry of Minerals

Dr. Manash Ranjan Das The physico-chemical properties of the surface chemistry of minerals determined directly or indirectly by the electrical charge or potential on the particles. The theoretical basis of the surface chemistry of mineral oxide demands knowledge of the potential distribution around the particles. The knowledge of zeta potential can be used in the areas of colloid science to study the detailed features of charge and potential distribution at the interface in the presence of ions, multivalent ions, surfactants, polymers, protein and other areas like biomedical polymers, electrokinetic transport of particles or blood cells, membrane efficiency and microfluidics. The term of zeta potential comes from the concept of electrical double layer. It is the electrostatic potential, which is measured at the shear plane (the interface between the compact layer and the diffuse layer). The zeta potential of mineral oxides can be evaluated based on the four elctrokinetic effect: electrophoresis, electroosmosis, streaming potential and sedimentation potential. Zeta potential (ξ) of mineral oxides can be easily determined by measuring the mobility of the fine particle in an electric field. The mobility of the fine particle can be converted to zeta potential using Smoluchowski equation as follows. µE = 4πεoεrξ(1+ka)/6πη where µE is the particle mobility, εo and εr are the relative dielectric constant and relative permittivity of a vacuum respectively, η is the

solution viscosity, a is the particle radius and k is the Debye-Huckel parameter. Zeta potential predict the cleanness of the mineral oxide surfaces. When mineral oxide in contact with aqueous medium develops charge on its surfaces. The surface charge on the mineral oxide surfaces can be modified by changing the pH of the solidliquid suspension. The surface hydroxyl groups on the mineral oxide surfaces behave as a amphoteric in nature.

The surface hydroxyl group (−SOH) reacts with potential determining ion (H+ or OH−) and an oxide surface becomes positive site (S–OH2+) or negative site (S–O–) at solidliquid interface depending on the pH of the medium. Each mineral oxide is characterised by its own isoelectric point (IEP) and point of zero charge (PZC). At a certain pH majority of surface sites are neutral (−SOH) and that pH is known as a point of zero charge. The IEP means the pH at which the charge is zero and the fact that it is independent of ionic strength of the medium. At pH lower than the PZC the surface has a net positive charge and positive surface potential whereas, at pH above the PZC, the surface charge and surface potential are negative. The surface behaviour of the mineral oxide surface in aqueous medium is different depending on the pH of the medium. Nevertheless, the zeta potential provide a basic knowledge of surface property of mineral oxides in aqueous medium and can be made extensive used in developing their understanding of the processes involved in mineral flotation. Short Biodata of the Author Dr. Manash Ranjan Das hails from Khetri, Kamrup District, Assam. He did his B.Sc from Jagiroad College in the year 1998. He did his Masters in Science in chemistry (Special paper: Physical Chemistry) from Gauhati University in the year 2000. Then he joined Material Science Division of North East Institute of Science and

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Technology (NEIST)Assam [Formerly: Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat] for his Ph.D. He received his Ph.D. in the year 2007. Title of his thesis is "Adsorption of Organic Anions on the Metal Oxide Surfaces". His research interest includes Adsorption behaviour of benzenecarboxylic acid at the metal oxide-water interface, Dissolution of metal oxide in presence of organic anions, Propensity of simple organic anions at solution-vapour interface, Synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials by microemulsion method, Hoffmeister series effect on cmc of surfactant and on adsorption. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

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- Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything. - The earth is enjoyed by heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear. - A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.

Swami Vivekananda

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy: A Synchrotron-based Technique for Structural Analysis

Pankaj Bharali X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful technique for probing the local structure around almost any specific element in the periodic table (except the lightest) gives information on the number and chemical identities of near neighbours and the average interatomic distances up to 5-6 Å. XAS studies can be performed at trace levels (< 1000 ppm), which is useful e.g., for studying metal complexes on surfaces, catalysis and metal sites in bioinorganic samples. The X-ray source is synchrotron radiation, allowing the XAS technique to be used for atoms in any aggregation state (solid, liquid or gas) in all kinds of environment: crystalline solids, glasses, amorphous phases, liquids and solutions. An x-ray absorption spectrum is generally divided into 4 sections: i) pre-edge (E < E0); ii) x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), where the energy of the incident x-ray beam is E = E0 ± 10 eV; iii) near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), in the region between 10 eV up to 50 eV above the edge; and iv) extended xray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), which starts approximately from 50 eV and continues up to 1000 eV above the edge. The minor features in the pre-edge region are usually due to the electron transitions from the core level to the higher unfilled or half-filled orbitals (e.g., s → p or p → d). In the XANES region, transitions of core electrons to non-bound levels with close

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum energy occur. Because of the high probability of such transition, a sudden raise of absorption is observed. In NEXAFS, the ejected photoelectrons have low kinetic energy (E-E0 is small) and experience strong multiple scattering by the first and even higher

coordinating shells. In the EXAFS region, the photoelectrons have high kinetic energy (E-E0 is large), and single scattering by the nearest neighboring atoms normally dominates.

Figure 1: Different parts of X-ray absorption spectrum. Schematic diagram of multiple and single scattering are also presented.

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of XAS experimental set up. The sample holder (Koningsberger cell, golden colour) is also shown.

Figure 3: Actual XAS experimental set up showing different Ionization Chambers (ICs).

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum To bring out the importance of XAS, title of two recent articles have been cited from literature. More details could be found in the corresponding publications. ----------------o-----------------1. Fe L-Edge XAS Studies of K4[Fe(CN)6] and K3[Fe(CN)6]: A Direct Probe of BackBonding. 2. Atomic XAFS as a Tool To Probe the Reactivity of Metal Oxide Catalysts: Quantifying Metal Oxide Support Effects. References: 1. G. Meitzner, Catal. Today, 39 (1998) 281 – 291. 2. M. Fernandez-Garcia, Catal. Rev. 44 (2002) 59 – 121. 3. Website:http://www.hasylab.desy.de/ 4. R.K. Hocking, E.C. Wasinger, F. M.F. de Groot, K. O. Hodgson, B. Hedman, E. I..Solomon, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 128 (2006) 10442 – 10451. 5. D. E. Keller, S. M. K. Airaksinen, A. O. Krause, B. M. Weckhuysen, D. C. Koningsberger, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129 (2007) 3189 – 3197. Short Biodata of the Author Pankaj Bharali was born in Assam, India. He received his Bachelor degree in Chemistry from Govt. Science College, Jorhat and obtained his Master degree in Chemistry from Gauhati University, Guwahati, India in 2002. Then he joined Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Jorhat, India as research fellow and afterwards moved to Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, India. Currently, he has been working for his PhD under the supervision of Dr. B.M. Reddy, Senior Scientist, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Division, IICT, Hyderabad. His research interest is in the area of synthesis of nanostructured mixedmetal oxides for catalytic applications.His present address is: Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad – 500 007, India *Email: [email protected]

-Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, halfhearted success that breeds bitterness all around. -Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness. -To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal. -We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Born: 15th October 1931 -Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success. -Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. -We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream. ----------------o------------------

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Applications of structural adhesives in bonding aircraft structures

Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi An adhesive may be defined as a material which when applied to surfaces of materials can join them together and resist separation. This definition was proposed by Kinloch (1987). In terms of the substances involved, the principle component of an adhesive or sealent is an organic polymer, or one or more (usually two) compounds which can chemically react to produce a polymer. At the time of application the molecular contact with the adherends; that is it must wet the surfaces. It must then harden (cure) to a cohesive solid. Pressure sensitive adhesives are an exception in that they do not harden but remain permanently sticky. It is impossible to to know for certain when and where adhesive materials were first used. According to Roman author and scientist Pliny the Elder, that glue was invented by Daedalus. According to legend is that Daedulus and his son Icarus, escaping from Cretan imprisonment using wings fashioned from feathers(somewhere around 1300-1000 BC). In most of the accounts, the feathers are joined using wax, although Apollodorous actually uses the term ‘glue’. This dramatic and highly ambitious use of adhesive bonding unfortunately ended in failure. Although Daedalus successfully completed his own journey to Sicily, but Icarus showing the over-enthusiasm of his youth, flew higher and higher, and as he got closer to the sun, the wax melted and he felt to his death. Adhesives are used extensively by the aerospace industry for bonding structural components of aircraft (both military and commercial), missiles and satellites.

Sealents are used in joints around windows, in fuel tanks etc.; hot melts and pressure sensitive adhesives are utilized in aircraft interiors (primarily in fabricating decorative panels); while thermosetting adhesives are used to bond load bearing structural components. Structural adhesives consist of adhesive compositions that are normally used in high strength, permanent applications. A structural adhesive as distinguished from other adhesives, is one that fastens together elements of a structure. It must therefore be capable of transmitting structural stress without loss of structural integrity within design limits. The most important feature of a structural adhesive is that they are generally formulated from thermosetting resins that require chemical crosslinking either with the addition of a curing agent or heat curing at elevated temperatures The first applications of adhesives for bonding aircraft structure probably date back to about 1920, when lightweight airframes were fabricated with plastisized nitrocellulose-impregnated fabric stretched over a framework of wooden stringers. The wood adhesives used for these applications were first based on casein, then urea formaldehyde resins, and finally phenol formaldehyde resins. As aircraft structure shifted from wood to aluminium, more sophisticated adhesives capable of withstanding higher stresses were required. De Bruyne of Aero Research Ltd. in Britain is generally credited with doing the pioneering work that led to the development of the first commercially important adhesive for metal bonding. This system known as Redux was first used by De havilland and Bristol in the mid-1940s. The Redux process involved applying a liquid phenolic resin to the surface to be bonded, covering the liquid with excess powdered vinyl resin, allowing the resin time to wet out, and then shaking off the excess powder. Although redux is still in use today, it has largely been displaced by adhesives supplied in film form. The advantages of

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum film adhesives over the redux system are twofold: (1) these are supplied at exactly the desired weight and (2) the formulation is precisely controlled. The next major improvement in aircraft adhesives occurred in the late 1950s with the introduction of adhesives based on epoxy resins. They dominate the field of structural adhesives Once cured they are characterized by high chemical and corrosion resistance as well as good mechanical and thermal properties. Since these adhesives crosslink via an addition reaction, no volatiles are released during hot cure. This made low pressure bonding possible and the use of no perforated honeycomb feasible in sandwich structure. There are two basic needs of an adhesive bonding in aircraft structures. The first is that the adhesive will stay stuck for the life of the structure, in all service and storage environments, while the second is that the adhesive will not fail even when the surrounding structure has been broken. The adhesive materials used for these purposes fall into three distinct groups. These are 1. Metal/metal- hot cure The hot cure adhesive materials used by the aircraft industry are mainly based on either phenolic or epoxy resin systems. Redux film 775 is one of the most important of the metal-to metal adhesives used for major structural build applications. In the UK, Redux Film 775 was first used in 1962 by DeHavilland on the 125 Business Jet. Cytec FM47 is a film adhesive supported by glass fibre scrim and toughened with polyvinyl butyral. 3M Co. developed an unsupported film adhesive toughened with nitrile rubber (AF31). Hexcel Redux 308A (NA) is an unsupported film adhesive with spun rock wool added to control flow during curing and aluminium powder to increase toughness. This adhesive film is also used in bonding the metal-to-metal flanges of metalto-metal honeycomb structures. Cytec FM73 is a film adhesive supported by polyester knit fabric scrim which controls

the flow and glow line thickness during cure. AF163-2 is a film adhesive supported with nylon scrim to control flow and glue line thickness which was developed by 3M Co. Scrims act as carriers for the otherwise fragile raw adhesive polymers enabling the film to be handled. The scrim also serves as a glue line control device and controls the adhesive flow during the curing phase. Scrims may be of cotton fabric, polyester, nylon or of glass. 2. Metal/Metal honeycomb bonds-hot cure Only epoxy systems are used for these applications. Hexcel Redux 308 is an unsupported epoxy film adhesive with no flow modifiers and is bonded at 1800C at a pressure of 345 kPa. AF3109-24 is another unsupported epoxy film adhesive with no flow modifiers and was developed by 3M Co. 3. Structural metal to metal- cold cure Two epoxy systems most used in aircraft structural bonding are Hysol-Dexter EA9330.1 and SW9323B/A-150. The two adhesives contain a small amount of glass beads to control the thickness of the glue line. Figure 1 gives some of the indication of the degree to which bonding is utilized in a modern aircraft. Aircraft applications to date have included the bonding of reinforcing doublers and stiffeners to both fuselage and wing panels; the former being employed to reinforce holes for mechanical fasteners and window/door openings. In addition epoxy film adhesives are frequently employed for the production of honeycomb sandwich structures where aluminium or Nomex honeycomb is bonded to aluminium or composite skins. Such structures have been employed to produce aircraft structures such as rudders, flaps, elevators, ailrons, doors, floor panels as well as engine structures such as nacelles and thurst reservers since they provide attractive combinations of strength, stiffness and weight in addition to offering excellent fatigue and sound insulating characteristics. Cold cure epoxy adhesives are employed in the repair of

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum aircraft components which have suffered damage due to accidents (ground impacts for example), lightning strike and bird impact. Some aircraft manufacturers have made extensive use of adhesive bonding. De Havilland and Fokker were the pioneers in adhesive bonding in primary aircraft structures. Extensive use of adhesive bonding was seen in bonding aluminium airframe of the SAAB 340 aircraft. The aircraft has a superior structural efficiency and durability,

which could not have been achieved with conventional riveted structures. Cessna made an even more extensive application of bonding to the fuselage of the Citation II jet aircraft, and used the same technology to make wings on other aircraft with far fewer fuel leaks than on conventional riveted wing boxes. The secondary structures, control surfaces and fixed panels, on the Boeing 747 made extensive use of metal bonding, mainly with honeycomb.

Figure1 Diagram of an aircraft showing the sections of the aircraft that are adhesively bonded. Short Biodata of the Author Dr. Rashmi Rekha Devi, has been serving as Scientist ‘B’ in Defence Materials & Stores Research & Development Establishment (DMSRDE), DRDO, Kanpur since 2005. She did her M. Sc. in Polymer Science from the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Assam in 2000. She was awarded Ph. D. degree by the same university in the year 2006. Her Ph.D. works are on Woodpolymer composites. Her areas of interests are Development of UV-curable adhesives, structural adhesives for joining aircraft

structures, carbo - graphite materials for high performance applications and development of wood-polymer composites. -------------------------o----------------------------The world is his who does his job with compassion by Saint Tiruvalluvar (Tamil poet)

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Intellectual Property And Its Importance With Special Reference To Patents

Abhishek Choudhury “Intellectual Property”(IP) is nothing but a type of property. Now what is the difference between the property we thought of and the property named as IP. For this we have to define first the two types of property. One is of tangible form and the other is of intangible form. By tangible property we mean Land, Jewallaries, Buildings etc. which we can touch, see and then feel. But, IP is not a property of such type. This is the one which we, the human beings create through our intellectual understanding. It may be a poem or a story or a piece of art or an invention. The tangible properties we care a lot. Because we spend money to buy or to acquire those and where there is investment we always try to maintain that. Our aim is to save our property for the sake of ourselves and for our coming generations. Similarly IP is also a valued property. We use our most valuable time to create it. Directly and indirectly we spend money also for its creation. The ultimate work is a outcome of our own effort. This is not less then that what we invest for acquiring tangible properties. Why not to aware of our IP then? In a formal term IP is a product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes. As we are in a profession, which is related with Research in the area of Science

and Technology I would like to highlight the form of IP which is more useful for us and it is nothing but PATENTS. Now, what is a Patent? We usually fence our plot where we planned to stay. The reason for doing that is to protect it from acquisition by another party. Patent is nothing but fencing around our invention. So that we can legally prohibit the other party from using my invention for his profit. In a formal way we can say that patent is monopoly granted to the applicant by the judiciary. Patents are issued for a period of twenty years and are country specific also. There exist three essential criteria which determines the patentability of an invention. These are 1. Novelty 2. Non-obviousness and 3. Utility After 18 months from the date of filing of a patent, the patent document is published by the patent office of the respective countries. Legally the most important part of a patent document is the ‘CLAIMS’. The whole invention is legally protected by claims from any sort of exploitation. Another part of the patent document which is very important from researchers point of view is ‘DESCRIPTION’. In this part we have background of the invention and the whole experimentation which is done. In this part the inventors have to describe the exact condition of experimentation that can be repeated by anybody anywhere, which is known as best mode. Grant of a patent does not guarantee any monitory benefit until and unless we commercialize our invention. We have two ways for commercial utilization of our invention. One is to license our invention to a second party for production and sell. The second one is to manufacture, produce and sell by ownself. Developed countries like US, UK, JAPAN etc. are very strong in protecting their IP. University of Texas, North Carolina University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and many more are having

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum stronger Patent portfolios. With the help of this they are gaining lots of business. The profit thus is utilized for developing new technologies. But in India the Patenting scenario is yet to meet the level that it can achieve. As in next few years we are going to become one of the economic super powers of the world so it is seen that INDIAN scientific and business community now urges a necessity for developing a strong IP regime. Thus if we become aware of our IP and its utility then we can worth use it for the benefit of our society in a larger term. (NOTE: Here are websites of a few free online databases where we can search for patent documents.

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/, http://www.uspto.gov/patft/, http://ep.espacenet.com/, http://www.google.com/patents, http://www.freepatentsonline.com/.) Short Biodata of the Author Mr. Abhishek Choudhury completed his M. Sc. in Polymer Science from Tezpur Central University, Assam in the year 2005. At present working as a Project Assistant- II in CSIR Unit for R&D of Information Products, Pune. He is also perusing P. G. Diploma in Patent Laws from NALSAR University, Hyderabad. He is also learning TRIZ methodology of Inventive Problem Solving.

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The Archimedes screw. This was a machine with a revolving screw shaped blade, and was used to drain ships and transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals. Versions of the Archimedes screw are still in use today in developing countries.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Health care has two aspects e.g. healing or amoreliation of disease conditions with medicines and sustenance of the health system. Seaweeds have been reported to be the source of many bioactive and nutritionally important compounds e.g. antibacterial, antiviral, immunomodulator, cytotoxicity, anticancer, blood anticoagulant, antifertility, vitamins, proteins and minerals.

Seaweeds: A renewable reservoir of bio active molecules

Dr. Kamalesh Prasad Products of marine algae or seaweeds have been used as medicine as well as food and feed, and latterly as nutraceuticals. Advanced societies of the world consume seaweed extracts (in the form of alginates, agars and carrageenans) every day in their foods or pharmaceuticals which is complemented by the excellent safety records for commonly ingested species.

BIOACTIVITY OF SEAWEEDS: Contemporary Era Antiviral,Antiimplantation / antifertility, Cytotoxic, Antimicrobial, Antitumor, Antifouling agents, Toxins, Anti-inflammatory / immunomodulator, Receptor antagonist, Antiviral including anti-HIV, Blood anticoagulant / antithrombic, Anti-ulcer, Antiheptotoxic, Lipid peroxidation.

LIPID SOLUBLE IMPORTANT BIOACTIVE MOLECULES Some important bioactive molecules isolated from Seaweeds are

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Toxins from Seaweeds: Some important toxins isolated from seaweeds are

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Inhibitors of quorum sensing bacteria: Antifouling

Sulphated Fucans of Brown Seaweeds

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

gp 1) and macrophage scavenger receptors. Antivirals from Seaweeds of Indian waters Antiviral formulation from Indian seaweeds. An extract with antiviral activity including a mixture of extracts from Spatoglossum asperum, Padina tetrastromatica, Sargassum tenerrimum, and Stoechospermum marginatum. A process for preparation of the extracts, and a method of treatment using the extracts are described. [Anil Chaterji et al. US Pat. No. 20040241185 A1; December 2, 2004]

Fucoidans of seaweeds are consisted mainly of 4-sulfated L-fucose, occasionally 2,4-disulfated, containing less than 10% other carbohydrate monomer units, have a wide spectrum of activity in biological systems. Fucoidans exhibited the following activities: • Blood anticoagulant / antithrombic • Anti-inflammatory • Antioxidant • Anti-Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) • Hypolipidemic activities • Antiviral including anti-HIV activities via antiproliferative and antiadhesive effect on cells. • Fucoidans from the temperate brown algae Fucus vesiculosus has been used as a “specific” ligand for L- and Pselectins (Leukemia inhibitor factor and

Isolation, chemical investigation and antiviral activity of polysaccharides from Gracilaria corticata (Gracilariaceae, Rhodophyta). [B Ray et al. Int. J. Biological Macromolecules 31:87-95, 2002. ]

Antifertility Activity of Seaweeds The leading non-contraceptive micorbiocide, under development by the Population Council, is Carraguard, a seaweed extract that inhibits the attachment of the pathogen to target cells. Carraguard

is a large molecule, made from carrageenan a gelling seaweed polysaccharide, which appears to coat both the pathogens and the vagina. Clinical trials are planned in South Africa [December 2005, The Population Council Inc].

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum

Summary: The marine world presents a rich resource for novel compounds. Seaweeds belonging to the classes Rhodophyta, Phaeophyta and Chlorophyta have shown various biological and pharmacological activities. Substances that are currently receiving most attention from pharmaceutical companies for the use in drug development, as well as from medicine-related researchers, include sulphated polysaccharides as antiviral substances, halogenated furanones from Delisea pulchra as antifouling compound and kahalalide F from a species of Byropsis as a possible treatment of lung cancer, tumors and AIDS. Other substances such as macroalgal lectins, fucoidans, kainoids and aplysiatoxins are routinely used in biomedical research. Using a combination of biodiversity, high-throughput screening and advances in analytical techniques, it is anticipated that the bioactive leads would materialize as drugs or drug intermediates. Seaweeds has additional merits of being used as nutraceuticals. Thus it represents a significant challenge requiring participation of several scientific disciplines such as marine biologists, chemists, engineers, pharmacologists, clinicians and dieticians. In such R&D activity with highest level of scientific inputs and commercial focus, complex issues of species conservation, natural resource management, financial

equity, IPR and indigenous/national ownership, need to be addressed for bringing a product to the market. Short Biodata of the Author Kamalesh Prasad (b 16 July.1976 at Lakwa, Sibsagar, Assam), has been working as Scientist-C at Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar since 2003. After receiving his M.Sc degree (First class first position, 199899) from Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam in Chemistry (Organic Chemistry specialization), he joined RRL-Jorhat as research assistant. He joined CSMCRI, Bhavnagar as Scientist-B in 2000 and completed his PhD on chemical and rheological studies on seaweed polysaccharides. He is a recipient of national merit scholar ships, departmental merit scholar ships during his secondary, graduation and post graduation as. He is also a recipient of Late Deva Kumar Saikia memorial prize money for securing highest mark in chemistry in BSc ( Govt Science college, Jorhat, Assam, 1996). He has also qualified for exams viz., GATE, NET-LS (CSIR-UGC). His present research area is Polysaccharide and carbohydrate chemistry. E-mail : [email protected]

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum What is Nanoparticles and Why Nanoparticles

Md. Harunar Rashid A nanoparticle ( or nanopowder ) is a microscopic particle whose size is measured in nanometres (nm) at least one dimension <100nm. Nanoparticles are of great scientific interest as they are effectively act as a bridge between bulk materials and atomic or molecular structures. A bulk material should have constant physical properties regardless of its size, but at the nano-scale this is often not the case. Size and shape-dependent properties of metal and metal oxide including semiconductors such as quantum confinement in semiconductor particles, surface plasmon resonance in some metal particles and superparamagnetism in magnetic materials as well as catlytic properties are observed. At the small end of the size range, nanoparticles are often referred to as clusters. Metal and semiconductor nanoparticles as well as hybrid structures (e.g., core-shell nanoparticles, metal alloy and organic-inorganic nanocomposites) are well known nanomaterials synthesized so far. Nanospheres, nanorods, and nanotriangles, nanosponge of metal, metal oxide are just a few of the shapes that have been grown. Nanoparticles made of semiconducting material may also be labeled quantum dots if they are small enough (typically sub 10nm) that quantization of electronic energy levels occurs. Such nanoscale particles are used in biomedical applications as drug carriers or imaging agents. Characterization of nanoparticle is necessary to establish understanding and control of nanoparticle synthesis and

applications. Characterization is done by using a variety of different techniques, mainly drawn from materials science. Common techniques are electron microscopy [TEM, SEM], atomic force microscopy [AFM], dynamic light scattering [DLS], X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy [XPS], powder X-ray diffractometry [XRD], optical spectra and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy [FTIR]. Nanoparticle research is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields. The National Nanotechnology Initiative of the Indian government (by Dept. of Science & Technology) has driven huge amounts of state funding exclusively for nanoparticle research. Although it is attracted the attention of materials scientist due to its application in various filelds, nanoparticles present possible dangers also, both medically and environmentally. Most of these are due to the high surface to volume ratio, which can make the particles very reactive or catalytic. They may also be able to pass through cell walls in organisms, and their interactions with the body are relatively unknown. However, free nanoparticles in the environment quickly tend to agglomerate and thus leave the nano-regime, and nature itself presents many nanoparticles to which organisms on earth may have evolved immunity (such as salt particulates from ocean aerosols, terpenes from plants, or dust from volcanic erruptions). Short Biodata of the Author Md. Harunar Rashid from Mankachar, Assam, did his B. Sc. from Goalpara College, Assam. He did his M. Sc. from Gauhati University, Assam. He is at present Senior Research Fellow in the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences, Kolkata. His topic of PhD research is ‘’Synthesis of Shape Tunable Metal and Metal oxide Nanoparticles and Their Applications’’.

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ABSTRACT OF PhD THESIS/ RESEARCH WORK Ph. D. thesis abstract of Dr. Prodeep Phukan

Dr. Prodeep Phukan Title of the thesis: Asymmetric Hydroxylations of Olefins, Reductions of Ketones and Organic Transformations Using Heterogeneous Catalysis

The synthesis of enantiomerically pure α-amino alkyl or aryl ketones is of wide interest in that it provides a direct route to the synthesis of biologically active βamino alcohols, heterocyclic compounds and unnatural amino acids. Literature search reveals that a few direct methods are available for the preparation of racemic amino ketones but no method is known for the synthesis of chiral amino ketones. Chapter I describes a direct method of amination of silyl enol ethers using Sharpless asymmetric aminohydroxylation2 conditions to provide optically pure α-amino ketones (1) ( Scheme-1).

CHAPTER I OsO4 - Catalyzed Amination of Silyl Enol Ethers : Enantioselective Synthesis of αAmino Ketones

OTMS R1

R2

OsO4, Chloramine-T t-BuOH : H2O (1 : 1) (DHQD)2-CLB or PYR

R1, R2 = alkyl, aryl

O NHTs

R1 R2 1

Scheme-1 CHAPTER II Synthesis of Optically Active Amino Acids Using Asymmetric Aminohydroxylation The OsO4 catalyzed asymmetric aminohydroxylation (AA) of olefins has become the most powerful method for the preparation of a wide variety of enantiomerically pure aminoalcohols. Direct and one pot introduction of both amino and hydroxyl functionalities make this process more practical. In this chapter this synthetic methodology is applied to synthesize amino acids. This chapter is further divided into two sections.

Section A : Enantioselective Synthesis of α-Hydroxy βAmino Acids In recent years syn-β-amino-αhydroxy acids (2) have received considerable attention as crucial component of peptidomimetic protease inhibitors. For instance (2S,3R)-β-amino-α- hydroxy unit has been found in amastatin and a marine natural product microginin which inhibits angiotensin-converting enzyme. Several multistep syntheses are known for the synthesis of this moiety. Here a very short route is described for the synthesis of two such compounds (Scheme 2).

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Scheme - 2 Section B : A Short and Efficient Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure Naphthyl Glycine 1–Naphthyl glycine (3) is a representative example of aryl glycines, an

important class of non-proteinogenic aminoacids. Aryl glycines are present in many biologically active compounds such as cephalosporins or nocardicins. Moreover they have potential interest as

Scheme - 3 chiral building blocks or as precursors of chiral ligands for asymmetric synthesis. Most of syntheses of naphthyl glycine (3) are either not stereoselective or based on chiral auxiliary approach in which the chiral inductor cannot be recovered. Some other syntheses are also reported involving Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation. This Chapter III Synthesis of Adrenergic Blockers using chiral cyclic sulfate as synthon With the new synthetic developments of the enantiomerically enriched diol, their stereoselective transformations are of contemporary interest and are widely used for the total synthesis of

section provides a short and efficient synthesis of enantiomerically pure naphthyl glycine employing asymmetric aminohydroxylation as key step (Scheme 3).

-xa variety of naturally occurring and biologically active molecules. These diols can be converted to chiral cyclic sulfates, which can be opened with a variety of nucleophiles in a regio and stereoselective manner to give optically active product. Application of this strategy is described in this chapter to get enantiomerically enriched amino alcohols. This chapter is divided into two sections.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Section A Asymmetric Synthesis of β-Adrenergic Blocker, (S)–Penbutolol Although racemic β-blockers have been used over two decades, there is now a great deal of concern about enantiomerically pure isomers which are having higher

affinity to the β- receptors. (S)–penbutolol is one of those drugs whose synthesis is not much known. This section describes the synthesis of (S)–penbutolol starting from phenol by employing asymmetric dihydroxylation as a key steps (Scheme 4 ).

Scheme 4 Section B : Asymmetric Synthesis of the Antiarrhythmia agent R-(+)–Sotalol Reentrant ventricular arrhythmia is a major factor for most cases of sudden cardiac death. Class III antiarrhythmia compounds such as R-(+)–Sotalol effectively control such arrhythmia and these drugs are in

various stages of clinical trials. In the past few years considerable progress was made in the preparation of R-(+)–Sotalol by chiral chromatographic separation, chiral homogeneous hydrogenation etc. This section describes the enantioselective synthesis of R-(+)–Sotalol using asymmetric dihydroxylation process (Scheme 5).

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Scheme 5 CHAPTER IV Transfer Hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds using transition metal catalysts

The reduction of multiple bonds with the aid of hydrogen donor in the presence of a catalyst is known as transfer hydrogenation. In comparison with catalytic reduction using molecular hydrogen, transfer reduction using Hdonors such as ammonium formate, isopropanol, etc. has real and potential advantages since it avoids the risks and constraints associated with high pressure reactors. In this chapter several homogeneous, heterogeneous and chiral catalysts have been synthesized and screened for transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds. This chapter is divided into three sections.

Section A: Transfer Hydrogenation of Carbonyl Compounds Using Homogeneous Macrocyclic Nickel complex Compounds of most of the elements from the second transition series in the periodic table are suitable for catalytic reduction. Both salts and complexes of Pd, Pt, Ru, Ir, Rh, Fe, Ni, and Co have been used as catalysts for the transfer of hydrogen from molecular hydrogen or hydrogen donors to organic substrates. Most of the complexes reported contain the triphenyl phosphine moiety. This section describes the synthesis of Ni complex (I) and its remarkable catalytic activity for the chemoselective reduction of carbonyl compounds (Scheme 6).

Scheme 6

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Section B : Heterogeneous Catalysis in Transfer Hydrogenation of Carbonyl Compounds Of all the methods available for addition of hydrogen to organic compounds, heterogeneous catalytic transfer reactions have been relatively underutilized. Catalysts derived from Rh, Ru, Pd, Ni, Ir, Pt, Co are known to promote hydrogenation process. These catalysts are generally in the form of finely divided metals, as metals supported

on carbon or skeletal metals like Raney Ni. This section constitutes a study using Rh and Ru exchanged Clay as well as Ru on alumina for heterogeneous transfer hydrogenation process. Moreover, another catalyst Nd(acac)3.3H2O, which is not studied so far, is also screened for this purpose. Interestingly, this catalyst shows higher activity in a heterogeneous manner for transfer hydrogenation with the aid of isopropanol as hydrogen donor (Scheme 7).

Scheme 7 Section C Use of Chiral Nickel Complexes for Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation of Ketones The interest over the development of new chiral catalyst is increasingly growing in recent years and many Rh and Ru based catalysts have been developed for

asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. But Ni based catalyst is not studied so far for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. This section contains a study on various Ni based chiral complex for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds (Scheme 8).

Scheme 8 CHAPTER V Organic Transformations Using Heterogeneous Catalysis Zeolites and clays are aluminosilicates finding numerous applications in many areas of catalysis generating intense interest in industrial and academic laboratories. Reusability and recyclability make these catalysts more useful particularly in the industrial scale. As

catalyst, these materials exhibit appreciable acid activity with shape selective features. In addition, these materials can act as support for a variety of catalytically active metals. Use of these catalysts for various organic transformations are investigated in this chapter which is further divided into three sections.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Section A : Oxidation of α, α, α′, α′-Tetrasubstitued Secondary Amines: A High Yield Synthesis of nitroxyl radical using TS – 1 / H2O2 Nitroxyl radicals are compounds containing the >N-O group which has one unpaired electron. These radicals have wide

range of applications in the field of organic, polymer as well as in biochemical field. In this section a single step preparation of nitroxide radicals is presented using a heterogeneous catalytic system titanium silicate (TS-1) and aq. H2O2 (Scheme 9).

Scheme- 9 Section B : Amination of Silyl Enol Ethers With PhI=NTs Over Cu – Exchanged Y–Zeolite The amination of carbonyl compounds is an important reaction because of its potential applications for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and unnatural amino acids. Among the many methods available for the synthesis of amino ketones, use of PhI=NTs is found to be a good

aminating reagent. The aziridination of enol silanes reported by Evans could afford the α-tosylamino ketones in the presence of various copper salt as catalyst12 under homogeneous conditions. Here we are employing Cu–exchanged Y–zeolite, a heterogeneous catalyst for this transformation (Scheme 10).

Scheme 10 Section C : Cu-Exchanged Montmorillonite K10 clay Mediated Insertion Reaction of Methyl Diazoacetate into Acids and Thiols The reaction of methyl diazoacetate with a variety of aromatic and aliphatic acids and thiols catalyzed by Cu–Mont K10

has been studied. The study has resulted in the development of a convenient methodology for the synthesis of β-acid esters and β-thio esters respectively (Scheme 11).

Scheme 11

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum Short biodata of the Author Dr. Prodeep Phukan is currently working as a Reader in the Chemistry department of Gauhati University. He did his M.Sc from Gauhati University in the year 1992. He did his Ph.D in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, in 1999. He has received several fellowships which include Alexander Humboldt Fellowship (University of Tuebingen, Germany, Jan 2002-March 2003), INSA Visiting Fellowship (I.I.Sc, Bangalore, June-July -2005), Ramanna Fellowship (Department of Science and Technology, India, 2007-2009).

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-If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.

Ph. D. thesis abstract of Dr. Joshodeep Boruwa

Dr. Joshodeep Boruwa Title of Thesis: Investigations Towards the Synthesis of Natural Products or Parts Thereof Involving Nitro Stabilized Carbanions. For the past century, the total synthesis of natural products has served as the flagship of chemical synthesis and the principal driving force for discovering new chemical reactivity, evaluating physical organic theories, testing the power of existing synthetic methods, and enabling biology and medicine. This Ph. D thesis describes total synthesis of some pharmacologically important natural products involving some novel strategies. Chapter I Highly Regioseletive Ring Opening of Epoxides with NaN3: A Short Synthesis of (-)-Cytoxazone

Friedrich Max Muller (German Scholar, December 6th, 1823 – October 28th, 1900)

Cytoxazone is a microbial metabolite isolated from Streptomyces sp., which has been identified as a selective modulator of TH2 cytokine secretion. We found 4 Å molecular sieve acts efficient and reusable solid catalyst for regioselective ring opening of epoxides with NaN3 to afford the corresponding azidohydrin. To validate the potentiality of this methodology, it has been used for the synthesis of (-)-cytoxazone. The requisite epoxide 4 was constructed Sharpless ADH strategy; ring opening with NaN3, in the presence of molecular sieves afforded the key intermediate 5, which was eventually transformed into the target molecule.

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum OH

OH

COOMe MeO

COOMe

COOMe

OH

MeO 1

OTs

MeO

2

3

O HN

N3

O OH

MeO

O COOMe

COOMe OH

MeO

MeO

Cytoxazone 6 5

4

Scheme 1 Ref: Boruwa, J.; Borah, J. C.; Kalita, B.; Barua, N. C. Tetrahedron Lett. 2004, 45, 7355-7358. structure by removing the 2-methyl group and their activity has been tested against different pathogens. Interestingly some of the compounds showed promising activity against M. tuberculosis. Another important aspect of this synthesis is lipase catalysed kinetic resolution of 8, to give 9 and 10, which are important synthons in the synthesis of pine sawfly sex pheromones.

Chapter II Synthesis Absolute Stereochemistry and Molecular Design of the New Antifungal Antibiotic Produced by Streptomyces sp. 201 The absolute stereochemistry of the new antifungal antibiotic isolated in our laboratory has been determined by its synthesis, a series of analogues has also been synthesized by varying the length of the alkyl chain, also by simplifying the OH O2N 7

OH 8 Kinetic Resolution

Important fragments in pha romone synthesis

OH

OAc

+ 10

9

N O

N O

O 11

O 12

Scheme 2 Ref: Boruwa, J.; Kalita, B.; Barua, N.C.; Borah, J.C.; Mazumder, S.; Thakur, D.; Gogoi, D.K.; Bora, T.C. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett, 2004, 14, 3571-3574. Chapter III Selectively Protected 1, 2-diol from Epoxides in Aqueous Media: A Short Asymmetric Synthesis of Chloramphenicol

Nitrite ester has been projected as new protecting group for alcohol by synthesizing a series of selectively protected 1,2-diol from

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum epoxides in aqueous media. The utility of this reaction has been demonstrated by O

achieving a short synthesis of widely used antibiotic Chloramphenicol. ONO

O

ONO

COOMe OMe

COOMe

OH

13

N3 15

14 OH OH OH OH

O2N

NH2 16

17

Scheme 3 Ref: Boruwa, J.; Borah, J.C.; Gogoi, S.; Barua, N.C.

O

Cl

Cl

Tetrahedron Lett. 2005, 46, 1743-1746 boronolide has been exploited for a long time in crude form, Zulu used the roots of these plants as an emetic, and an infusion of leaves has been reported to be effective against malaria. A seteroselective total synthesis of (+)-boronolide has been achieved. The key steps are Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation, Shibasaki’s asymmetric Henry reaction, asymmetric allylation and ring closing metathesis

Chapter IV Stereoselective Total Synthesis of (+)Boronolide (+)-Boronolide was first isolated from the bark and branches of Tetradenia fruticosa Benth and then again from the leaves of Tetradenia barbare, which have been used as local folk medicine in Madagascar and Southern Africa. Medicinal properties of

OR

OH

OHC

EtO

O2N O

O

HN

O

O

OH 18

19

O 20

OTBS

OTBS OHC O

O

21

22

OTBS O

O

O

O

OH O

OAc OAc O

O

OAc

O 23

24

Scheme 4 Ref: Boruwa, J; Barua, N. C. Tetrahedron 2006, 62, 1193-1198 (Rated among the top 25 articles published in Tetrahedron in 2006). and M. Sc from the same university in 2000. In 2001 he joined Regional Research Short Biodata of the Author Laboratory, Jorhat (CSIR) and received his Joshodeep Boruwa was born in 1976 in Ph. D degree in 2006 working on total Dibrugarh, Assam. He obtained his B. Sc synthesis of natural products under the degree from Dibrugarh University in 1997

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Newsletter of North East India Research Forum direction of Dr. Nabin C. Barua. Currently he is working as a post-doc in the group of Prof. Dr. Richard R. Schmidt at the University of Konstanz, Germany. His primary research interest involves natural product synthesis as an enabling endeavor for the discovery of new fundamental processes and concepts in chemistry and their application to chemical biology.

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-Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve. -Anybody who has been seriously engaged is scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith.' It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with.

HIGHER STUDY ABROAD Country of this Issue: Germany Information on study and research in Germany: requirements, grants, universities, life in Germany etc you will find in the following website. www.studyabroad.com/germany.html www.campus-germany.de www.daad.de www.studyingermany.com/ www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/ ------------------------o---------------------Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. by Albert Einstein -Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need. by Voltaire -Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. by Benjamin Disraeli

by Max Planck

-The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. By Winston Churchill

Born: 23rd April 1858 Died: 4th October 1947

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TROUGH THE LENSE OF FORUM MEMBERS Photos from Nobel Lecture 2006

Nature

By Arindam Adhikari

By Mahen Konwar

Aula Magna Auditorium, Stockholm

By Mahen Konwar

By Mahen Konwar Physics: John C Mather

Physics: George F Smoot

By Arindam Adhikari

Chemistry: Roger Kornberg

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Details about the Northeast India Research Forum Date of creation of the foum : 13th November 2004 Area: Science and Technology Total number of members till date: 115 Moderators: 1. Arindam Adhikari, Ph.D. Institute of Surface Chemistry, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden Email: [email protected] 2. Jadab Sharma, Ph.D. Email: [email protected] 3. Utpal Borah, Ph.D. Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Japan Email: [email protected] 4. Ashim J. Thakur, Ph.D. Chemical Science Dept, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam Email: [email protected] Editorial Team of NE Quest 1. Dhanapati Deka, PhD Reader, School of Energy, Environment and natural reseources, Tezpur University, Assam Email: [email protected] 2. Tankeswar Nath, PhD. Scientist, R&D, Biotechnology, Jubilant Organosys Ltd. Gajraula, UP-244223, India Email: [email protected] 3. Manab Sharma, Ph.D. Dept of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Email: [email protected] 4. Áshim Thakur, Ph.D Chemical Science Dept, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam Email: [email protected] 5. Rashmi Rekha Devi, Ph.D Scientist B, Defence Material and Stores Research & Development Establishment, DRDO, Kanpur. Email: [email protected] 6. Pankaj Bharali, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India. Email: [email protected] 7. Arindam Adhikari, Ph.D. (Volunteer editor of this Issue ) Logo designed by: Manab Sharma, Ph.D. Dept of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Email: [email protected] Cover page designed by: Anirban, Pune

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