Moss recovered from beneath Canadian Glaciers!

Canadian scientists have discovered moss buried beneath the Canadian Arctic Teardrop glaciers as the glacier started melting. They tried to revive this moss by growing in a laboratory and the moss generated new stems. 

This moss is believed to have been buried beneath the glaciers during the little ice age between 1550 to 1850 AD. There have been three  main incidents of ice age on Earth - first began in 1650, second in 1770, and third in 1850. The ice ages are believed to have been caused by either a drop in solar radiation, volcanic activity, changes in the ocean circulation or drops in the human population.

Moss obtained from Canadian glaciers, revived by the scientists in the laboratory

The glaciers have started melting due to global warming. Glaciers in the Canadian arctic region have been melting at around four metres each year, for the past nine years. This melting of glaciers could lead to reviving the vegetation in the arctic region as has been the course by the moss.

The moss had survived in dormant state for over 400 years in the cold surroundings of a glacier. However, as soon as favourable conditions - nutrient supply, sunlight, water availability - were made available to it, it regained its growth pattern. This finding can have great implication on our global temperature change as if the mosses can revive under favourable conditions, they may lead to succession to higher species of plants. This would further lead to greening the arctic region.

As I earlier described in my post, Arctic to get greener, "The greener belt would lead to increase in global warming which is contrasting to the popular belief that tree cover leads to reduction in global warming effects. This is because of the albedo effect, which means that a part of the total solar radiation received by Earth is reflected back to the outer space by the snow cover of the Arctic and the clouds. Now with the increasing greenery of the Arctic, the snow will melt, thus leading to higher radiation reaching the Earth's surface and warming it up. This will lead to further increase in the Earth's temperature which will in turn lead to melting of more ice cover. "

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Giving Heartbeats: Modern Healthcare touching lives!

Modern healthcare is really touching our lives these days. Due to the upcoming advances in technology and instrumentation, we are able to save a large number of lives. Also, the average life expectancy has increased due to better medical facilities which are helping to cure the previously untreatable diseases by the discovery of new drugs. Also, the attempt is to reduce the treatment costs so that everyone is able to afford the treatments. One such disease I am going to talk about is Atrial Fibrillation. 

Atrial fibrillation (AF or A-fib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia which is the condition of irregular heartbeat  Our heartbeats follow a periodic cycle and any irregularity in that cycle causes very critical problems. AF may be asymptomatic in some cases which means it does not present any symptoms, but it is often associated with palpitations, fainting, chest pain, or congestive heart failure. 

The major problem with AF is that it increases the risk of stroke; the degree of stroke risk can be up to seven times that of the average population, depending on the presence of additional risk factors (such as high blood pressure). It may be identified clinically when taking a pulse, and the presence of AF can be confirmed with an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) which demonstrates the absence of P waves together with an irregular ventricular rate (P waves are present as the small peak just before the longer peak in the ECG curve).

The main goals of treatment are to prevent circulatory instability and stroke. The rate or rhythm control are used to achieve the former, while anticoagulation is used to decrease the risk of the latter. Now new technologies like Catheter- Ablation have been developed which help in controlling the rhythm of the heartbeat. It is an invasive procedure used to remove a faulty electrical pathway from the hearts of those who are prone to developing cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation.

In catheter ablation, one or more thin, flexible wires, called catheters are inserted into a blood vessel (usually the groin) and guided into the heart. Each catheter has two or more electrodes to measure the heart's electrical signals as they travel from one chamber to another. RF catheter is inserted into a blood vessel and guided into the heart to pinpoint the source of the abnormal electrical signals. These catheters used to deliver a low-voltage, high-frequency current that destroys the heart tissue responsible for the arrhythmia. Majority of the patients who have undergone catheter ablation experience either: 

1. return to normal heart rhythm,
2. long term reduction in the number of episodes of arrhythmia and the severity of symptoms.

This means that medicines for controlling heart rate or rhythm may be stopped or reduced following successful catheter ablation.

Catheter Ablation

Apollo Hospitals Chennai is the first hospital in the country to get the latest 3D mapping technology in arrhythmia management. The latest technology [CARTO 3 System] gives the three-dimensional view of the patient' s heart which helps the Electrophysiologist to identify the site of origin of the abnormal rhythm accurately and deliver the Radiofrequency catheter ablation therapy with high success rate.

The benefits of the curative catheter ablation therapy are mentioned below.

• Better Quality of Care: Most cardiac arrhythmias can be treated and cured by catheter ablation thereby eliminating the need for life-long therapy.
• Better Quality of Life: Catheter Ablation can restore the quality of life of the patient leading to a happier family life and improved productivity at workplace.
• Saves Lives: Some life-threatening Ventricular Arrhythmias can be successfully treated with catheter ablation thereby providing patients with an option to live.
• Cost-effective : The overall lifecycle costs of care for the patient may be reduced due the curative nature of catheter ablation therapy. Alternative device therapies can be more than five times costlier.
• Catheter ablation is considered safe and is not associated with a significant risk, so the chance of experiencing complications is low. And it is a keyhole procedure which allows the patient to get back to their work soon after the procedure.

This post is a part of Apollo Hospitals: How does modern healthcare touches lives? programme on Indiblogger. 

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Scientists stealing plant's energy

Plants have a very efficient mechanism for converting solar energy to chemical energy and using it for production of sugars and carbohydrates required by them. Scientists have been trying to build a similar mechanism for along time now but couldn't achieve such efficiency. So finally, they have build a mechanism to steal plant's energy produced during photosynthesis.

Scientists working in the field of nano-sciences at University of Georgia, have developed a mechanism to that allows them to capture the energy plants create during photosynthesis, and turn it into electricity that can power the human world. The study was published in Energy and Environmental Science journal.

In the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, releasing electrons in this process. These electrons are used by plants to produce carbohydrates from carbon-di-oxide gas and energy. Calkins, Umasankar and their team of scientists at University of Georgia, have tried to capture these electrons and utilize them for energy production. These electrons can be captured and transferred through a pipe in the form of electricity. 

They have used spinach thylakoids immbolizied on the carbon nanotubes, where thylakoids capture electrons and carbon nanotubes help to transfer them. They were able to obtain a maximum current density of 68 μA cm⁻² and a steady state current density of 38 μA cm⁻², which are two orders of magnitude larger than previously reported for similar systems. 

This is just a starting point for developing highly efficient mechanism for energy production. The carbon based nanostructured electrode has the potential to serve as an excellent immobilization support for photosynthetic electrochemistry based on the molecular tethering approach as demonstrated in this work. Also, further work is required  to stabilize the photosynthesis process so that electrons can be captured from them without harming the plant growth. 

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