Elder Brother

“The human being is the elder brother of all other living beings. He is endowed with intelligence more powerful than animals for realizing the course of nature and the indications of the Almighty Father.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.10.4 Purport)

It’s just not fair. The elder brother gets all the grief, all the negative attention, and seemingly none of the benefits. The younger siblings can mess up all the time, perform poorly, set a bad example for others, and still not get nearly as much blame as the eldest child does. This is a fact of life that must eventually be accepted, for the older one is supposed to be wiser. They are expected to set a good example for the rest of the children to follow. The elder brother has the authority as well, for they are more powerful than the younger brothers until full maturity is reached. With that responsibility comes the potential for setting the best example and also providing the best protection. The elder brother who fulfills their obligations thus achieves a very high end in life.

Why does the eldest get this burden? What if they didn’t ask for it? The younger ones live under the protection of the parents and the elder brother. The protection of the parents is easy to understand. The mother and father provide for the food, clothing and shelter and make sure that the difficulties in life are minimized while the young ones have a chance to mature. The protection of the elder brother comes in the form of the shielding of the parents’ influence. In the majority of cases, the younger siblings can skate by without drawing too much attention to themselves, but the elder is not so lucky. They are the first ones to get the blame and the last ones to get the credit. Nevertheless, throughout the course of human history there have been some terrific elder brothers, who bore the responsibility without uttering a complaint and set the best example for future generations.

Of course a brother who is an incarnation of God would serve as the ideal example. Shri Ramachandra, also known as Lord Rama, the eldest son of Maharaja Dasharatha, set a terrific example for His younger brothers to follow. Sometimes the right course in life wasn’t apparently clear and Rama was not without His own difficult circumstances. As the eldest son, Rama was expected to be the successor to the throne, but on the eve of His coronation, He was instead ordered to leave the kingdom. Here was an instance where Rama was wronged without a reason. He was treated unfairly only because of the selfish motives of one of Dasharatha’s wives, Kaikeyi, who wanted her own son Bharata to be on the throne.

“Please tell me which of Your enemies shall today be deprived of their life, fame, and friends by me. I am Your faithful servant, so please do instruct me as to how I shall go about bringing this whole earth under Your control.” (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 23.40)

Lord Rama was the most powerful bow warrior of His time, so He could put up a violent resistance at any time. Indeed, this is what the younger brother Lakshmana suggested. Lakshmana was the third of four sons of Dasharatha, and he was the closest to Rama, though all the brothers respected and loved their eldest brother. Rama took the news of exile to the forest for fourteen years in stride, but Lakshmana did not. He did not have an example to set. Rather, he was able to follow his natural inclination of loving Rama first, without giving much attention to other details.

Lakshmana loved Rama more than anyone else, and he showed this by suggesting that the Lord enact a coup and take over the kingdom. Lest Rama think He would have to do all the work, Lakshmana insisted that he would administer the violent overthrow all by himself. Should Dasharatha or Bharata mount an opposition, Lakshmana would defeat them in battle. Rama was certainly pleased to the heart by the devotion shown by Lakshmana, but the suggestion was never taken seriously. Dasharatha and Bharata had done nothing wrong, and if Rama ignored the order, it would sully the family name established by the many pious kings who previously ruled in the Ikshvaku dynasty.

Rama set the example of an ideal elder brother and righteous ruler. He was detached from the outcome of events, though He fought rigorously to defend dharma, or religiosity. His brothers didn’t bear nearly the same burden because they were not the eldest in the family, but they appreciated everything that Rama did for them. Bharata, for his part, would later try to convince Rama to return home from the forest, but the Lord responded with many cogent facts relating to the shastras, or scriptures, and the need for upholding the good name of the father.

Many thousands of years later, an incarnation of dharma itself, Maharaja Yudhishthira, set a great example for his four younger brothers. The Pandavas faced many hardships and it would have been easy to ignore the rules of propriety and simply go on the attack against the aggressors in this case, the Kauravas. Bhima, one of the younger brothers, was always in an irritated spirit, angry at the people who had wronged his family. If not for Yudhishthira’s calming influence, Bhima might have acted upon his inclination towards violence. The eldest brother had much pressure on him, and sometimes he buckled under that pressure, but never did he completely abandon virtue. Rather, he was there every step of the way to set the best example, which would eventually result in the triumph of the Pandavas over the Kauravas. Of course that victory was not without the aid of the same Shri Rama in His original form of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the bigger picture, the human being is considered the elder brother of all living entities. Strange to think that we have a relation to tigers, alligators and insects, but we do. Every life force is a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, miniature samples of God that are vastly inferior in the output of divine qualities. Knowledge, wealth, beauty, fame, strength and renunciation exist in the human being but not nearly to the same levels as they are found in the Supreme Lord.

The variety in species exists because of guna and karma, or inherent qualities and fruitive action. Yet just because one person makes a mistake and another is free of mistakes doesn’t mean that there is any constitutional difference between the two. The results are just temporary, while the qualitative makeup is the same. In the same light, the lower species are either travelling upward in the chain of spiritual evolution towards the highest form known as the human birth or they have temporarily fallen down from the auspicious condition of the human life.

In either case the human being still bears the burden of responsibility, for they are more intelligent. If the younger brother and older brother should get into a fight, even if the older is not in the wrong, the parents will blame him. “But Dad, I didn’t start it. He hit me first.” What is the response of the parents? “Well, you’re supposed to know better. He doesn’t know what he is doing, but you do.” For the human being this same principle applies. Just because the tiger eats other animals doesn’t mean that the mature human being has to follow the same behavior. Rather, with the combination of sobriety in thought and activity in the mode of goodness, the human being has the chance to realize the oneness of spirit, to see the undivided in the divided.

“That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all existences, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the mode of goodness.”  (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.20)

Not that everyone is the exact same entity or God Himself, but every living being is part of the giant collection of spiritual energy known as Brahman. Only the human being can realize Brahman, and from that realization comes model behavior, which seeks to maintain that equal vision and also advance to the next position of loving God in His personal form. The living entity must eat another living entity to survive, for that is the law of nature. At the same time, however, there is discrimination. Even amongst meat eaters, there isn’t a desire to eat other human beings or cats or dogs. Therefore, the human being naturally uses discrimination, and with the vision of Brahman, the right kind of discrimination is applied.

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it.”  (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.26)

How do we know which living entities we are allowed to eat? Grains, fruits, vegetables and milk have been provided to the human being for its sustenance. There is no sin involved in eating these foodstuffs when they have been first offered to the Supreme Lord. Animal flesh cannot be offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for He has no desire to profit from another creature’s unlawful slaying. The food consumption of the human should also be limited, as eating is not meant solely to fulfill urges for sense gratification. It is correct to try to maintain the vital force within the body, for as long as there is conscious thought within the human form there is every chance of realizing God. But to try to go beyond maintaining the body and enjoy the senses at the cost of others is not a valid utilization of effort.

From setting the best example through loving God, the human being automatically has love for other creatures. With love for everyone, there is no question of anger, rage, greed, vengeance, or unnecessarily inhibiting the growth of others. Thus simply by loving God, by regularly chanting His names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, the elder brother that is the human being sets up conditions where everyone can move forward in their evolution towards the same platform of God consciousness.

In Closing:

The elder brother sets example on how to live,

Proper knowledge to younger siblings he gives.

In quarrel, spotlight on elder all the same,

Even if younger started, elder still to get blame.

Human being is elder of species, should set good example,

By knowing that all living entities of God are a sample.

Tigers and other creatures their prey they will chase,

Wiser human their behavior not to imitate.

Grains, flowers and milk for human being’s palate,

By devotion to God, in pure goodness sit.

Why Astrologers go wrong in their prediction?

• Lack of knowledge: This is perhaps the foremost reason. Most of the astrologers, after learning a bit, find it difficult to resist the temptation to start making predictions. A certain percentage of their predictions do turn out to be true since they have learnt a little bit of Astrology  after all. They cannot hold themselves back from showing off their half baked knowledge. Another reason if the temptation to start reaping, as soon as possible, the fruits of their efforts made in learning the subject. Once the customers start flocking to them, they lose the urge to keep learning further. Also, they are left with little spare time to make further efforts to learn more. They get too busy duping people.
• Lack of Talent:  In the modern times, since the pursuit of this subject is not considered very respectable, persons of genius do not take up the study of Astrology. They would rather prefer to become scientists, engineers, doctors, litterateurs, artists etc. This does not help the development of Astrology nor does it help add to the knowledge or find the missing links in this subject. Currently, there are no serious research projects related to this field. Thus this base of knowledge does not get updated.
• Incorrect Data: As the very basis of Astrology is mathematical, the data such as time of birth etc. must be accurate. If this data is incorrect, the horoscope and consequently the interpretation of it is bound to be faulty. The position of cusps, house divisions, and the planetary positions at any given moment needs to be accurate too. The numerous ephemeris  differ from each other so much that it seems incredible. One must follow the most accurate data (for example, from NASA) for calculations, in this age of science. Normally, astrologers tend to take the easy route, that of following some ready-reckoner sort of things, leading to inaccuracies in their calculations.
• Destiny of the subject: It may so happen that the fate of the person who wants his future read, does not favor the person in knowing his future. This idea may seem far fetched but it is not. Even in modern times, with all the development of medical science, patients keep dying of fully treatable diseases. If a person is destined to die of pneumonia, he will in spite of the fact that millions of people around the world are successfully treated for it every year. If fate can play a role here why cannot it play the same role regarding Astrology.
• The very nature of Future: Modern science divides the universe in two parts: known and the unknown. It is believed that whatever is unknown today, will become known tomorrow. Over a period of time, every thing will become known one day. But the enlightened sages have said that certain aspects of the existence is unknowable. These things do not belong in the domain of human knowledge. Certain aspects of future also belongs to the same domain.

Cashing Out of Corruption

Are 15 million mobile phones enough to wage war on graft in Afghanistan?

• BY JESSICA LEBER

Audio »

Jan Chipchase

When police officers in Afghanistan's mountainous Wardak province began receiving their $200-per-month salaries via their mobile phones in 2009, many wondered why they had gotten a raise. They hadn't. It turns out their superiors had been skimming from their salaries, which were previously paid in cash.

That anecdote appears in State Department cables describing M-Paisa, a mobile-phone payment system run by Afghanistan's largest telecom operator, Roshan, that now reaches 1.2 million Afghans and is described by U.S. officials as a potential "breakthrough technology" for the country.

Whether it's a few dollars under the table or thousands stuffed in a briefcase, cash is linked to corruption at all levels in Afghanistan. According to the United Nations, government corruption is the biggest day-to-day concern of Afghans, looming larger than even poverty or violence. The U.N. estimated that between 2008 and 2009, half of all Afghans paid at least one bribe to an official; the average amount was $160.

The idea now taking hold in Afghanistan is to avoid graft by paying people electronically, using the country's network of 15 million mobile phones. "Anywhere you have a middleman touching cash, you increase the opportunity for skimming," says Zahir Khoja, executive director for mobile money at Roshan, which is partly owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.

As cell-phone use skyrockets in even the poorest countries, mobile money is seen as a way to extend banking services more broadly. The people with by far the most to gain are the impoverished 2.5 billion who don't have access to a bank account and can't reliably receive, send, save, or borrow money.

According to Afghanistan's banking authority, the country has only about 300 branches and a few dozen ATMs for 34 million people. Less than 5 percent of Afghans have bank accounts. The banks aren't trusted, either. The largest, Kabul Bank, is embroiled in perhaps the nation's worst public corruption scandal, which caused a run on deposits in 2010 after $900 million went missing.

"The mobile network is one of the only networks that knit the country back together," says Kathleen McGowan, senior policy analyst for in Afghanistan for the United States Agency for International Development. The mobile-phone companies, which got going only in the last decade, also constitute Afghanistan's largest industry and its biggest taxpayers.

M-Paisa ("paisa" means money in the Dari language) allows anyone with a cell phone to receive a payment by phone with just a text message or, because most Afghans are illiterate, a call to a voice-activated menu. The recipient can then obtain cash at an M-Paisa agent. There's no bank involved; under a special license issued last year to Roshan, subscribers' funds are kept in escrow-like accounts.

Roshan licensed the technology in 2008 from Vodafone, which developed a successful mobile money program in Kenya that's called M-Pesa and has 15 million subscribers. The telecom initially had the idea of using the system to make microloans to small businesses. However, at the urging of the U.S. military, Roshan and the Ministry of Interior decided to see if M-Paisa could be used to pay salaries to the beleaguered Afghan National Police.

The pilot project, which began in 2009 with 53 officers, quickly showed the extent of the corruption problem. According to State Department cables made public by WikiLeaks, one frustrated commander demanded that his officers turn over their phones and PINs and attempted to collect their salaries from an M-Paisa agent.

"The comments we got back from [the policemen] were: 'We like this service because we get more money from M-Paisa,'" says Khoja, who estimates that about 30 percent of the officers' salaries had been getting stolen.

The Afghan police force faces higher casualties than either the army or the U.S. military, and the Ministry of Interior says paying officers promptly is important to keeping morale up. As part of its anticorruption strategy, the ministry is now expanding the mobile payment program to another 4,000 officers.

Making payments over cell phones would also cut the risk of transporting money around the country. About half of Afghanistan's 700,000 government employees don't have a bank account, and in some cases officials fly cash into rural regions to pay salaries. Ghulam Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan's education minister, threw his weight behind another mobile payment effort, led by carrier MTN, after one of his staff was killed during a cash delivery.

Although the Afghan government recently sought proposals to expand mobile payments, such efforts have moved slowly in part because of "determined" resistance from some bank and police officials, says Loretta Michaels, a Washington, D.C., consultant who worked in Afghanistan with Roshan to implement the mobile money system. 

Corruption is a sensitive diplomatic issue with U.S. troops exiting the country, even as tens of billions in aid still pours in. McGowan, the USAID analyst, says electronic payments have the benefit of rooting out graft without singling out specific officials or looking like an "anticorruption crusade."  

Other countries are also experimenting to see whether electronic payments can counter what experts call "money leakage." India, rocked last year by anticorruption protests, could save $22 billion annually by making welfare and other government payments electronic, according to a study by McKinsey. Officials in Argentina found that issuing electronic voucher cards practically eliminated bribery associated with certain public benefits.

In Afghanistan, experts don't think mobile payments alone will solve the country's corruption problem. "The bigger picture is about millions of dollars walking out of the country in people's suitcases to buy a Dubai villa," says Michaels. "But it's going to make a huge difference to individuals—to the rural teacher or policeman who suddenly sees an increase in their salary."

Did you know 1 billion people in developing countries depend on fish as a primary source of protein?

 

How is poverty measured?

                   http://www.worldbank.org/poverty - Do you wonder how we measure poverty? 
Do you know how we do it, but have a hard time putting it into simple words?
This 3 minute video explains the methodology that we used, how it works and why it is important. 
Go ahead! Use and share this video! And come to our website to learn more about poverty and equity!

Fatty diets may be associated with reduced semen quality

 by Biomechanism 

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Men’s diets, in particular the amount and type of different fats they eat, could be associated with their semen quality according to the results of a study published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1] on Wednesday.

The study of 99 men in the USA found an association between a high total fat intake and lower total sperm count and concentration. It also found that men who ate more omega-3 polyunsaturated fats (the type of fat often found in fish and plant oils) had better formed sperm than men who ate less.

However, the researchers warn that this is a small study, and its findings need to be replicated by further research in order to be sure about the role played by fats on men’s fertility. Professor Jill Attaman, who was a Clinical and Research Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School at the time of the research [2], said:

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“In the meantime, if men make changes to their diets so as to reduce the amount of saturated fat they eat and increase their omega-3 intake, then this may not only improve their general health, but could improve their reproductive health too. At a global level, adopting these lifestyle modifications may improve general health, as high saturated fat diets are known to be a risk factor for a range of cardiovascular diseases; but, in addition, our research suggests that it could be beneficial for reproductive health worldwide.”

A number of previous studies have investigated the link between body mass index (BMI) and semen quality, with mixed results. However, little is known about the potential role of dietary fats and semen quality, and so Prof Attaman and her colleagues set out to investigate it in men attending a fertility clinic.

Between December 2006 and August 2010 they questioned the men about their diet and analysed samples of their semen; they also measured levels of fatty acids in sperm and seminal plasma in 23 of the 99 men taking part.

The men were divided into three groups according to the amount of fats they consumed. Those in the third with the highest fat intake had a 43% lower total sperm count and 38% lower sperm concentration than men in the third with the lowest fat intake. “Total sperm count” is defined as the total number of sperm in the ejaculate, while “sperm concentration” is defined as the concentration of sperm (number per unit volume). The World Health Organisation provides a definition of “normal” total sperm count and concentration as follows: the total number of spermatozoa in the ejaculate should be at least 39 million; the concentration of spermatozoa should be at least 15 million per ml.

The study found that the relationship between dietary fats and semen quality was largely driven by the consumption of saturated fats. Men consuming the most saturated fats had a 35% lower total sperm count than men eating the least, and a 38% lower sperm concentration. “The magnitude of the association is quite dramatic and provides further support for the health efforts to limit consumption of saturated fat given their relation with other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease,” said Prof Attaman.

Men consuming the most omega-3 fats had slightly more sperm (1.9%) that were correctly formed than men in the third that had the lowest omega-3 intake.

Of note: 71% of all the men in the study were overweight or obese, and the health effects of this could also affect semen quality. However, the researchers made allowances for this. “We were able to isolate the independent effects of fat intake from those of obesity using statistical models,” said Prof Attaman. “Notably, the frequency of overweight and obesity among men in this study does not differ much from that among men in the general population in the USA (74%).”

The study is subject to a number of limitations that could affect the results; for instance, the use of a food frequency questionnaire might not accurately reflect men’s actual diets, and only one semen sample per man was collected. The authors point out that studies like theirs cannot show that dietary fats cause poor semen quality, only that there is an association between the two.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date examining the influence of specific dietary fats on male fertility,” they write. But they conclude: “Given the limitations of the current study, in particular the fact that it is a cross-sectional analysis and that it is the first report of a relation between dietary fat and semen quality, it is essential that these findings be reproduced in future work.”

Prof Attaman and her colleagues are continuing to investigate how dietary and lifestyle factors influence fertility in men and women as well as the treatment outcomes of couples undergoing fertility treatment.

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[1] “Dietary fat and semen quality among men attending a fertility clinic”, by Jill A. Attaman et al. Human Reproduction journal. doi:10.1093/humrep/des065
[2] Prof Jill Attaman is currently Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Dartmouth Medical School and a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Subspecialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

A surprising new kind of proton transfer

 by Biomechanism 

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Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have discovered an unsuspected way that protons can move among molecules — revealing new opportunities for research in biology, environmental science, and green chemistry

When a proton – the bare nucleus of a hydrogen atom – transfers from one molecule to another, or moves within a molecule, the result is a hydrogen bond, in which the proton and another atom like nitrogen or oxygen share electrons. Conventional wisdom has it that proton transfers can only happen using hydrogen bonds as conduits, “proton wires” of hydrogen-bonded networks that can connect and reconnect to alter molecular properties.

Hydrogen bonds are found everywhere in chemistry and biology and are critical in DNA and RNA, where they bond the base pairs that encode genes and map protein structures. Recently a team of researchers using the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) discovered to their surprise that in special cases protons can find ways to transfer even when hydrogen bonds are blocked. The team’s results appear in Nature Chemistry.

Stacking the odd molecules

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Uracil is one of the four bases of RNA (carbon atoms are brown, nitrogen purple, oxygen red, hydrogen white). Because methyl groups discourage hydrogen bonding, methylated uracil should be incapable of proton transfer. But after ionization of methylated uracil dimers, a proton moves by a different route, from one monomer to the other. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Southern California

A group led by Musahid Ahmed, a senior scientists in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division (CSD), has long collaborated with a theoretical research group at the University of Southern California (USC) headed by Anna Krylov. In recent work to understand how bases are bonded in staircase-like molecules like DNA and RNA, Krylov’s group made computer models of paired, ring-shaped uracil molecules, and investigated what might happen to these doubled forms (dimers) when they were subjected to ionization – the removal of one or more electrons with resulting net positive charge.

Uracil is one of the four nucleobases of RNA, whose structure is similar to DNA except that, while both use the bases adenine, cytosine, and guanine, in DNA the fourth base is thymine and in RNA it’s uracil. The USC group used a uracil dimer labeled 1,3-dimethyluracil – “a strange creature that doesn’t necessarily exist in nature,” says CSD’s Amir Golan, who led the Berkeley Lab team at the ALS. The purpose of this strange creature, Golan says, is to block hydrogen bonding of the two identical monomers of the uracil dimer by attaching a methyl group to each, “because methyl groups are poison to hydrogen bonds.”

The uracils could still bond in the vertical direction by means of pi bonds, which are perpendicular to the usual plane of bonding among the flat rings of uracil and other nucleobases. “Pi stacking” is important in the configuration of DNA and RNA, in protein folding, and in other chemical structures as well, and pi stacking was what interested the USC researchers. They brought their theoretical calculations to Berkeley Lab for experimental testing at the ALS’s Chemical Dynamics beamline 9.0.2.

To examine how the molecules were bonded, Golan and his colleagues first created a gaseous molecular beam of real methylated uracil monomers and dimers, then ionized them with a beam of energetic ultraviolet light from the ALS synchrotron. The resulting species were weighed in a mass spectrometer to see how the uracil had responded to the extra boost of energy.

“Uracils could be joined by hydrogen bonds or by pi bonds, but these uracils had been methylated to block hydrogen bonds. So what we expected to see when we ionized them was that if they were bonded, they would have to be stacked on top of each other,” Golan says. Instead of holding together by pi bonds, however, when ionized some uracil dimers had fallen apart into monomers that carried an extra proton.

Where the protons come from

“What we did not expect to see was proton transfer,” Golan says. “Surprising as this was, we needed to find where the protons were coming from. The methyl groups consist of a single carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms, but methylated uracil has other hydrogens too. Still, the methyl groups were the natural suspects.”

To test this hypothesis, the researchers invited colleagues from Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry to join the collaboration. They created methyl groups in which the hydrogen atoms – which like most hydrogen had single protons as their nuclei – were replaced by deuterium atoms, “heavy hydrogen” atoms with nuclei consisting of a proton and a neutron of virtually the same mass.

The molecular beam experiment was repeated at the ALS, and once again some of the methylated uracil dimers fell apart into monomers upon ionization. This time, however, the tell-tale monomers were not simply protonated, they were deuterated.

Says Golan, “By looking at the mass of the fragments we could see that instead of uracil plus one” – the mass of a single proton – “they were uracil plus two” – a proton and neutron, or deuteron. “This proved that indeed the transferred protons came from the methyl groups.”

The experiment showed that proton transfer in this case followed a very different route from the usual process of hydrogen bonding. Here the transfer involved not just an attraction between molecular arrangements that were slightly positively charged and others that were slightly negatively charged, as in a hydrogen bond. Instead it required significant rearrangements of the two uracil dimer fragments, to allow protons of hydrogen atoms in the methyl group on one monomer to move closer to an oxygen atom in the other. Theoretical calculations of the new pathway were led by USC’s Krylov and Ksenia Bravaya.

The moral of the story, says Golan, is that methyl groups do not always kill proton transfer. “Granted, this was a model system – what we did was ionize the uracil systems in the gas phase instead of in solution, as would be the case in a living organism,” he says. “Nevertheless, we showed that proton transfer is possible without hydrogen-bonding networks. Which means there could be unsuspected pathways for proton transfer in RNA and DNA and other biological processes – especially those that involve pi-stacking – as well as in environmental chemistry and in purely chemical processes like catalysis.”

The next step: a range of new experiments to directly map proton transfer rates and gain structural insight into the transfer mechanism, with the goal of visualizing these unexpected new pathways for proton transfer.

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“Ionization of dimethyluracil dimers leads to facile proton transfer in the absence of H-bonds,” by Amir Golan, Ksenia B. Bravaya, Romas Kudirka, Oleg Kostko, Stephen R. Leone, Anna I. Krylov, and Musahid Ahmed, is published by Nature Chemistry and appears in advance online publication at http://www.nature.com/nchem/index.html. Golan, Kostko, Leone, and Ahmed are with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, and Golan and Leone are also with the Departments of Chemistry and Physics at the University of California at Berkeley. Bravaya and Krylov are with the University of Southern California. Kudirka is with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division. This work was supported principally by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and by the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation.

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பதிவு செய்த நாள் : மார்ச் 13,2012,23:14 IST
கடுமையான மின்வெட்டில் தமிழகம் தத்தளிக்கிறது. உடனடியாக மின் உற்பத்தியை பெருக்க வேறு வழியும் இல்லை. எனவே, கடைசியாக அரசுக்கு புது திட்டம் ஒன்று உதித்துள்ளது. இத்திட்டப்படி, தமிழகத்தில், வீடுகள் தோறும் சூரியமின் சக்தி உற்பத்தியை கட்டாயமாக்க முடிவு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. தமிழகத்திற்கான, மரபுசாரா எரிசக்தி மின் கொள்கை தயாரிக்க பட்டுள்ளது. அதில், சூரியமின் சக்தியை கட்டாயமாக்குவதுடன் பல முன்னோடி திட்டங்கள் பரிந்துரைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. இது தற்போது வரைவு நிலையில், முதல்வரின் ஒப்புதலுக்காக வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. கடந்த, அ.தி.மு.க., ஆட்சியில் மழை நீர் சேகரிப்பு திட்டம், எல்லா கட்டடங்களுக்கும் கண்டிப்பாக அமல்படுத்தப்பட்டதை போல், இந்த திட்டத்தையும் கட்டாயமாக்க அரசு திட்டமிட்டுள்ளது.

மத்தியஅரசை நம்பி...: தமிழகத்தின் அனைத்து மின் உற்பத்தி முறைகளும், மத்திய அரசை நம்பியே உள்ளன. அனல்மின் உற்பத்திக்கு, மத்திய அரசு நிலக்கரி தர வேண்டும். அணுமின் நிலையம், மத்திய அரசின் கட்டுப்பாட்டில் உள்ளது. நீர்மின் நிலையம் அமைக்க, பல்வேறு மாநிலங்களோடு போராட வேண்டும். எரிவாயு மின் நிலையத்திற்கும், மத்திய அரசு தான் எரிவாயு ஒதுக்க வேண்டும். இந்த நிலையில், இந்தியாவில் முதன்முறையாக, சூரியசக்தியை அதிக அளவில் பயன்படுத்தும் மாநிலமாக தமிழகத்தை மாற்ற, முதல்வர் ஜெயலலிதா முடிவு செய்துள்ளார்.

தனி கொள்கை: இதன்படி, தமிழகத்திற்கு என, மரபுசாரா மின்சார கொள்கை வகுக்கப்பட்டு உள்ளது. இதில், மரபுசாரா எரிசக்திகள், சிறு புனல் மின்நிலையங்கள் ஆகியவற்றை அதிகப்படுத்த, உரியயோசனைகள் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. தமிழக எரிசக்தித் துறை செயலர் தலைமையிலான, மின்கொள்கை கமிட்டியில், மின்வாரிய தலைவர், எரிசக்தி மேம்பாட்டு முகமை தலைவர், திட்டக்குழு உயரதிகாரிகள், ஊரக வளர்ச்சித் துறை அதிகாரிகள் மற்றும் துறை பொறியாளர்கள் இடம் பெற்றுள்ளனர். இந்தக் குழுவினர், ஓய்வு பெற்ற பொறியாளர்கள் மற்றும் துறையில் சிறந்த வல்லுனர்கள் மற்றும் ஐ.ஏ.எஸ்., அதிகாரிகளிடம் ஆலோசனை பெற்று, மின் கொள்கை தயாரித்துள்ளனர். இந்த அறிக்கை, முதல்வர் ஒப்புதலுடன் விரைவில் வெளியிட தயாராக உள்ளது.

திட்டம் என்ன: இதுகுறித்து கமிட்டியில் உள்ள அதிகாரி ஒருவர் கூறியதாவது: மழைநீர் சேமிப்பு திட்டம் போல், இடவசதி கொண்ட அனைத்து வீடுகளிலும், சூரியசக்தி தட்டுகள் வைத்து, மின்சாரம் தயாரித்து, தங்கள் வீட்டுத் தேவையை பூர்த்தி செய்ய வேண்டும். நட்சத்திர விடுதிகள், அரசின் சார்பிலான தங்கும் விடுதிகள், ஓய்வு இல்லங்கள் போன்றவற்றில், சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் பொருத்தப்பட வேண்டும். தமிழக தொழிற்சாலைகள் மற்றும் வெளிநாட்டு நிறுவனங்களும், தங்களது கட்டடத்தின் மேல்தளம் அல்லது வளாகத்தில், சூரியசக்தி கட்டமைப்புகளை அமைக்க வேண்டும். இதற்கு, மத்திய அரசின் மானியத்துடன், தமிழகம் சார்பிலும் சலுகைகள் அளிக்கப்படும். சூரியசக்தி ஏற்றும் ரீசார்ஜ் பேட்டரி பொருத்தப்பட்ட விளக்குகள், அரசின் சார்பில், சலுகை விலையில் விற்பனை செய்தல் போன்ற பல திட்டங்களை நடைமுறைப்படுத்தலாம் என, வரைவு அறிக்கையில் ஆலோசனைகள் கூறப்பட்டு உள்ளன.
காற்றும் கை கொடுக்கும்: தமிழகத்தில் கூடுதலாக, காற்றாலைகள் அமைக்கவும், கடலோரத்தில் காற்று எப்போதும் வீசும் பகுதிகளை தேர்ந்தெடுத்து, காற்றாலைகள் நிறுவவும் பரிந்துரைகள், மின்கொள்கையில் கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. அவை இறுதி வடிவம் பெற்று, முதல்வர் ஒப்புதலுடன் வெளியிடப்படும், என்றார்.

சூரியசக்தி கட்டமைப்புக்கு 50 சதவீத மானியம்: சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் அமைக்கும் செலவு, வீடுகளின் மின் பயன்பாடுக்கு ஏற்ப மாறும். உதாரணமாக, 1,000 வாட், அதாவது, 1 கிலோ வாட் திறன் கொண்ட சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகளை அமைக்க, 50 ஆயிரம் ரூபாய் செலவாகும். இதில்... * 15 வாட்ஸ் திறனில் நான்கு சி.எப்.எல்., பல்புகள்
* 750 வாட்ஸ் இஸ்திரி பெட்டி
* 150 வாட்ஸ் குளிர்பதனப் பெட்டி
* 75 வாட்ஸ் உயர்மட்ட மின் விசிறி அல்லது மேஜை மின் விசிறி
* 100 வாட்ஸ் "டிவி'
* 500 வாட்ஸ் மிக்சி
* 300 வாட்ஸ் கிரைண்டர் போன்ற பொருட்கள் பயன்படுத்தலாம். ஆனால், இவை அனைத்தையும் ஒரே நேரத்தில் பயன்படுத்தினால், 2,000 வாட் அல்லது 2 கிலோ வாட் மின் கட்டமைப்புகள் தேவை. எனவே, மின் விசிறி, விளக்குகள் உள்ளிட்ட ஒரு சில பொருட்களுக்கு மட்டுமே, சூரிய சக்தி மின் இணைப்பு கொடுக்கப்படும். சூரிய சக்தி தடைபடும் போது, வழக்கமான
மின் இணைப்பில் மின்சாரம் எடுத்து கொள்ள வசதி செய்யப்படும். இதேபோல், அனைத்து அரசு மருத்துவமனைகள், ஓட்டல்கள், போலீஸ் குடியிருப்புகள், அலுவலகங்கள், பயிற்சி மற்றும் தங்கும் மையங்கள், சமுதாய நலக்கூடங்கள், மெட்ரோ ரயில் நிலையங்கள் ஆகியவற்றில், சாதாரண விளக்குகள் பயன்பாட்டிற்கும், விடுதிகளில், சமையல் தொடர்பான கருவிகளை இயக்கவும், சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் அமைக்கப்படும். இந்த திட்டத்திற்கு, மத்திய அரசின் சார்பில், மொத்த செலவில், 50 சதவீதம் மானியமாக கிடைக்கும். மீதத் தொகையில், தமிழக அரசின் சார்பில் சில சலுகைகள் வழங்குவது குறித்து, ஆலோசனை நடக்கிறது. மேலும், தனியார் வங்கிகள் மற்றும் இந்திய மரபுசாரா எரிசக்தி ஏஜன்சி சார்பில், கடன் வழங்கவும் வசதி செய்யப்படும் என தெரிகிறது.

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