Molecular Rotor Measures Viscosity of Live Cells

Anant Babu Marahatta
Tohoku University
Japan (ananta037@gmail.com)

Introduction:
Viscosity is one of the major parameters determining the diffusion rate of species in condensed media. In bio-systems, changes in viscosity have been linked to disease and malfunction at the cellular level. These perturbations are caused by changes in mobility of chemicals within the cell, influencing signaling and transport and the efficiency of bimolecular processes.

Observation:

Fluorescence measurements of 1 made in methanol/glycerol mixtures of different viscosities shows that the fluorescence quantum yield increases dramatically with increasing solvent viscosity.The observed increase in fluorescence intensity is consistent with the restricted rotation of the phenyl group in the medium of high viscosity. The rates of radiative and nonradiative decays have been calculated from the measured fluorescence lifetimes and quantum yields. From these results, it has been concluded that, for 1, the nonradiative decay rate increases with decreasing viscosity, and the radiative decay rate remains approximately constant. Thus 1 is truly a molecular rotor which displays both fluorescence intensity and lifetime sensitivity to viscosity of the environment.

For detail, readers are requested to go through J.AM.CHEM.SOC. 2008,130, 6672-6673 if interested.

We must learn “How to love nation” from Japanese devotement

Anant Marahatta
Tohoku Univ.
Japan (ananta037@gmail.com)

After the scary and massive catastrophe on March, 2011 in northeastern Japan, several consequences raised in the world. Germany has already announced to shut down all the nuclear power plants within a decade; China has stopped to increase the number of power plants until the full safety measures are installed into already existed plants and the world’s super power USA has also checked the safety precautions in all the power plants including the biggest one located in the danger zone at California. Experts have already warned the US government and asked for installing safety measures especially in thhe California based reactors.

The victimized country, Japan, has already suspended around 40 reactors out of 50 for close inspection. It has decided to build 20m high seawalls around the reactors located in the danger zones to block them from giant tsunami. The biggest nuclear energy crisis forces to reduce the office hours of world’s largest manufacturers like Sony, Canon, Toyota, Honda, Toshiba and several others. Almost all the companies, universities and many research institutes, supermarket complexes, food-chain stores etc. are asked to minimize the electricity consumption. For it, all Japanese are doing their best by even removing their kitchen wares etc. Most of the chain stores and restaurants are using the play cards holding “Let’s do our level best. Never give up, Tohoku. Let’s build new Japan” at their main entrance. This is a very praiseworthy dedication of the citizens towards their nation.

Since the northeastern part of Japan has been jolting by several aftershocks. Almost every day, the skyscrapers are shaken 3-4 times in an average. After the strongest 9 M tremor on March 11, more than 5 jolts are already categorized into the strong range. They all cross 6 M in strength. The local and central government announce the tsunami warnings immediately after the strong earthquakes. But every Japanese is ready to challenge this horrified situation and gives his/her full support to the government for renovation.

We must learn “How to love nation” from their devotement.

Mixi vs. Facebook in Japan

Mixi, which was launched in February 2004, is the biggest social networking site in Japan. It is growing rapidly. The site has already more than 5 million users. Around 80% of those users are reported as “active”. The name “Mixi” supposedly refers to the fact that “I” can “mix” with other users. To join Mixi, you need to be invited by an existing member. The Mixi URL assigned to you contains a unique user number beginning at 1 and increased sequentially, it’s easy to tell how recently a user joined.

On the other hand, one year since Facebook was introduced to Japanese market; it is obvious that Facebook is not popular at all in Japan, while it is very successful in most of other countries.
Why Facebook is not popular in Japan?

International Collaboration in Science

Anant Marahatta
Doctoral Student (Chemistry)
Tohoku University
Japan
(ananta037@gmail.com)
(Relevant to my collaboration with Germany)

The general meaning of an “international collaboration in science” is explained by these advanced words: global science, global networks, global co-authorships, global interaction, global conference, global sharing, and spreading global hand for helping on different disciplines of science and technologies etc.

Though there is no political institution organizing the sciences on an international level, a self-organized, global network had formed in the late 20th century. It has been found that international collaborations are being doubled from 1990 to 2005. While collaborative authorships within nations have also risen.

This is the century of getting revolution in the world due to the different fields of sciences. If the researchers and scientists of any well developed countries have proudly announced that they are eligible enough to carry out any sorts of revolutionary changes in the field of science, they have initiated to deteriorate their countries themselves. So for getting several supports and ideas, all the countries if possible must be the member of the international collaboration. Any one can analyze that, international collaboration improves all the countries of the world by applying a range of tools including social network analysis and factor analysis, to expose the network.

There has been a rapidly growing literature discussing the increase in international linkages in science. Authors have been approaching the questions from three perspectives: 1) scientific analysis of the increase in the interconnectedness. 2) Social sciences analysis of collaboration in general and international linkages in particular and 3) policy analysis of the implications of linkages for funding and outcomes. The increase in investment in research and development from governments and non-governmental organizations (such as the World Bank) is for using science as a tool to aid development and for contributing to the diffusion of capacity into the collaborating countries. Scientific collaboration may lead to a range of outcomes such as publication of co-authored articles is one of these outputs.

Collaboration in the technology sector refers to a wide variety of tools that enable groups of people to work together. Collaboration encompasses both asynchronous and synchronous methods of communication and serves as an umbrella-term for a wide variety of software packages. Perhaps the most commonly associated form of synchronous collaboration is web conference using tools such as WebEX or Microsoft Live Meeting but the term can easily be applied to instant messaging as well.

According to the available information, at the global level, the network of interactions is shown to be very strong and highly interconnected. Above figure illustrates the association of all the countries of the world in 2000. The main point is that science is a highly interconnected network, with a dense core and a number of periphery countries.

Thus international collaboration seems one of the important tools for making revolutionary change in the world by developing and introducing the multidisciplinary fields.