Category Archives: Nature India Essay Competition

Nature India Essay Competition

Return of the Ridleys

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There is hope that technology may help the Olive Ridley turtles and their human protectors.

Special Mention, Nature India Essay Contest 2020

Shambavi Naik

An Olive Ridley hatchling.{credit}Deepak Sahu{/credit}

There was fear in Suhas’s eyes as we dug up the Olive Ridley hatchery. He had expected the hatchlings to burrow out four days before. But there was no sign of them yet, so we decided to check if all was okay. As his hands moved the sand, frantic but delicate, he uncovered an alarming sight. Thousands of eye-less, red-coloured fire ants swarming over the helpless, newly hatched Olive Ridleys.

The scene was gut-wrenching. Suhas had been brought up on this beach in the idyllic little village of Wayangani, off the Konkan coast. Wayagani is populated mainly by fisherfolk, the closest grocery store is 6 km away, there is no tap water and electrical supply is unreliable. My grandfather had moved out of this very village to pursue a better life; as a consequence, I have been raised in Mumbai. But that day as Suhas and I were looking down at the carnage together, neither his experience as a village fisherman, nor my education as a cancer biologist could help hold back our tears.

Over the past 15-20 years, a group of volunteers led by Suhas have made a spirited conservation effort to save the vanishing Olive Ridley turtle. UNDP has recognised this by calling him a biodiversity champion. Though the turtles chose the remote beach to nest, the eggs were routinely lost to predation and poaching. The villagers had formed teams that scoured the roughly 1.5 km beach through the night, searching for female turtles that had come to nest.

Suhas with Olive Ridley hatchlings

Once the female was spotted, the team would wait till she finished laying her eggs. As she waddled her way back to the Arabian sea, the team quickly dug up the eggs and moved them to a secure location. They also cleared up the turtle’s tracks, so that her visit to the beach remained unknown. Roughly three months later, the team would celebrate the birth of baby turtles and watched over them as they explored their way to the sea. Over a decade of sustained efforts, the villagers had been rewarded by an ever-increasing number of turtles choosing their beach to nest.

But then, from 2016, more incidents of fire ant predation started occurring. In the 2018-2019 season, about 60% of hatcheries had been lost. Promptly the villagers had tried traditional ways to block the ants. Relocation of eggs away from human settlements, applying turmeric around the eggs, placing fresh neem leaves around the nest; but nothing protected the hatchlings. As nest after nest was lost, the villagers were fatigued and despondent. After guarding the eggs for three months, to lose them in this manner is brutal.

Suhas observed that the fire ant predation had accompanied a change in the egg-laying season for turtles. The turtles would usually nest from October-December, but were now laying eggs until January-February. Consequently, eggs which used to hatch in January-February now hatch in March-April. The warmer sand temperatures in March-April are conducive to the fire ants and could be a reason for the increased attacks on the turtles.

In a fight of man versus man, the villagers had won against the poachers. They had stayed up all-night, meticulously watched over the hatcheries throughout the season, fought off poachers and predators; but they had won. But this is a fight of man-vs-man-made climate change and one that the unassisted two hands of a rural volunteer cannot win.

This was when Suhas had reached out to me for help, thinking that a scientist might offer some solution. Unfortunately, I had studied nothing of ant predation in my years of studying breast cancer. But since then I have been on the lookout for solutions that could help the villagers and the turtles. Olive Ridleys are classified as a vulnerable species worldwide and India is one of the hotspots for their nesting. A solution to my village’s problem could help save thousands of turtles across the country. The survival odds for an Olive Ridley turtle is as low as 2 in 1000, and they need any help they can get to able to thrive.

But there is hope that technology may help the turtles and their human protectors. Conservation biologist Helen Pheasey has used 3D printing to create fake eggs equipped with GPS technology. When placed in a nest with real eggs, these eggas can be used as tracker for any movement in the nest. This technology is great to identify if the eggs have been removed from the nest by a poacher and trace their movement. This may provide relief to the night shift volunteers who monitor the hatcheries, but will not protect against the fire ants.

An ecologically sustainable solution to the fire ants may come in the form of their natural enemies – a parasitic fungus, Kneallhazia solenopsae and a virus, Solenopsis invicta virus-3 (SINV-3). A combination of 3D printing and gene editing/synthetic biology could help engineer fake eggs coated with fungal spores or viral particles. These eggs when placed in the nest would not harm the turtles, but could keep the fire ants at bay. Alternatively, large scale systemic studies can enable us to identify molecular pathways that lead the fire ants to find and attack the eggs. The artificial eggs could be laced with appropriate synthetic smells that could mask these signals emanating from the real eggs.

Villages such as Wayangani intentionally stay away from using harmful pesticides that could interfere with ecological balance. This is true of many other villages and conservation groups across the country. Finding solutions depends on scientists working with the local people focused on conservation to protect these fledgling species. Technology & Science led sustainable conservation methods have the potential to re-energize India’s natural ecosystems with minimum interference.

Experts estimate that the rate at which we are currently losing species is 1000-10000 times higher than the background extinction rate. It may be too late to save some of these species, but for others new technologies could bring a ray of hope.

[Shambhavi Naik is a fellow at Bangalore based Takshashila Institution and Director of CloudKrate Solutions Pvt Ltd..]

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A friend indeed

A friend indeed

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Chatbots are becoming an extension of human capabilities of search and analysis, as they steadily grow better to perform a variety of tasks on our behalf.

Second runner-up, Nature India Essay Contest 2020

Arijit Goswami

Arijit Goswami

No stretch of time can fade my vivid memory of the fine afternoon when I first saw a computer before my eyes. Led in a queue by our class teacher into an air-conditioned room (the computers of those times were indeed spoiled brats under heat), I was no less enamored by the glow of the VDU, as I was enticed by the quirks of the friend I had inside the machine. Peeping from corners of application windows, the Microsoft Office Assistant interacted with me just like a real living-breathing friend. A friend that promised to not judge me, nor mock me, but be the personification of ‘a friend in need is friend indeed’.

Nineteen years later, I grieve the loss of that paperclip-shaped friend to oblivion, though I see it reincarnated everywhere across the world, living through smartphones, websites and a myriad of gadgets. Be it Google Assistant, Cortana, Siri or Amazon Alexa, chatbots have come a long way since then. These conversational interfaces are what infuse life into our gadgets, enabling them to interact with us just like any other human being. Leveraging AI and Natural Language Processing, these artificial machines accumulate, dissect, comprehend and respond to information from humans. Over the years, they have matured so well that one can not only resolve queries with these bots, but can also share some light moments with them and also get loads of work done seamlessly. So much so, that now chatbots are becoming an extension of human capabilities of search and analysis, as they steadily grow better to perform a variety of tasks on our behalf.

Today, I wake up to an alarm that I set the previous night, not through clicks on smartphone or by turning knobs behind a clock. I simply wish my Alexa ‘good night’ and tell her to set alarms for 7am and also at 8am, lest my slumber gets the better of me. I reach my office and log into my online bank account. Right at the bottom-right sits my friend eager to resolve any of my queries. I simply type in my query into the chat box, and regardless of whether I indulge in extreme politeness or utter rudeness, I am assured of a courteous response and quick resolution of my problems. The chatbot also does a wonderful job of recommending me products and services that are best suited to me. Guess what? I no longer need to get tossed around bank counters for getting my work done, no longer need to ask friends and relatives for best deals and no longer need to be distressed with irrelevant marketing calls as the bot knows what’s best suited for me as per my behavior.

By the end of my tiring day, I am too hungry. 10 years ago, I would have had to scavenge through the streets for restaurants. But no more! My smartphone glows up with a notification from Zomato recommending me deals. I confess to Zomato about my cheat day and make it my accomplice in food guilt. I simply need to type in a few keywords and my payment is automatically done, leading to an awesome conversational selling experience. While I wait for my order to be delivered, I interact with the chatbot. The conversational AI tracks my mood through text analytics and emotion analytics, and responds to me with emoticons and witty messages. And sometimes, out of the blue, I just wonder if it is really a bot or an actual human talking to me behind a veil of a software.

However, chatbots are going to transform this world and how we interact with devices in ways still unimagined. Can you imagine that we may soon have chatbots providing therapy to distressed people? Reports published by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) say that it is possible to automate the expertise of a therapist. Woebot is an automated conversational agent that uses a short user-friendly survey and adds a fine sense of humor to cheer up its users. Wysa is an AI penguin on smartphone that helps anxious people to improve focus, manage conflict and relax. And though they are still inept at handling nuanced concerns of humans, the day is not too distant that we will confide the emotions from our deepest recesses of mind and seek help of chatbots that will be the best ears to listen to us.

How would you react if someone told you that chatbots are helping refugees in rehabilitation? Syrian refugees in Lebanon are using a chatbot, Mona, to flag their cases to non-profits that help them connect to lawyers, doctors and authorities of host nations for resettlement. DoNotPay, a robot lawyer gives free legal aid to refugees seeking asylum in Canada, UK and US, through a seamlessly easy to use conversational interface. With Lucia, MarHub and even WhatsApp being leveraged by NGOs, non-profits, and even the United Nations, for refugee rehabilitation, the humanitarian future of chatbots looks bright.

Not to forget, that chatbots will soon become our virtual assistants in all matters of life, from handling our daily chores to keeping our fitness on track and being our omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent secretary for life.

I can very well visualize the day when chatbots will grow quite mature in the way they handle not only our written text, but also our emotions, location and circumstances to proactively provide contextually-sensitive services. The day is not far when future generations of chatbots will be our closest friends, mentors and confidants. And maybe one day, I will wake up and stare at my tablet where the great grandchild of Office Assistant will peek from the corner of screen, wish me a pleasant morning, and provide me with updates of all household chores it has automatically completed on my behalf to make my life more blissful than ever.

[ Arijit Goswami is a manager at Capgemini India in Mumbai.]

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Mapping the malady of cancer

Mapping the malady of cancer

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The demonstrations we were so proud to have put together garnered forced applause and empty smiles. We had not addressed their main concern, the sense of finality associated with cancer.

Second runner-up, Nature India Essay Contest 2020

Aditi Ghose

Aditi Ghose explaning an exhibit on COVID-19 at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Kolkata.

A group of cancer patients under palliative care, aged under 15, were scheduled for a guided visit to our Science Centre. As a science communicator I was desperate to make it special. Having lined up the choicest of our expositions, I was adamant on giving them an amazing experience. From decking the halls with cheerful banners, to ensuring that they could touch and see science-in-action – I believed that all would take part.

At the end of the day though, I realised I couldn’t have been more wrong. Moving along on wheelchairs through decorated alleys, the children wore desolate looks. The demonstrations we were so proud to have put together garnered forced applause and empty smiles. No amount of enthusiasm from our side could counter the children’s vibe of helplessness. The care-givers thanked us for our initiatives that day, but we knew we had failed. We had not addressed their main concern, the sense of finality associated with cancer.

With the World Health Organisation reporting that one in six deaths is caused by it, cancer is aptly called ‘the Emperor of All Maladies’.  The messages about cancer can be conflicting. ‘Cancer cannot be prevented.’ ‘It is a death sentence.’ ‘It’s contagious.’ ‘Everything causes cancer.’ ‘Over-the-counter remedies can cure cancer’. ‘Children don’t develop cancer.’  Trying to turn these children away from their fears and divert them to our regular demonstration routine had been a mistake. They could be best addressed only where they hurt most — we had to show them how cancer is being challenged today. We called in a few favours and asked the children to visit again. This time we wanted to tell them of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Project.

Featuring a cast of more than 1300 scientists and clinicians with 744 affiliations between them, across four continents, analyzing 2658 whole genomes for 38 types of cancer, the PCAWG Project had revealed, in a suite of six research papers, the most complete picture (yet) of how DNA glitches drive tumour cell growth. It had identified the driver mutations — limited between four of five in 95% of the samples —  that powered the typical shattering and rearrangement of cells in tumor growths. This implied that patients diagnosed with those hallmark mutations will, in principle, be matched to a drug that targets the protein made by that driver gene. Another paper revealed that these mutations cropped up years or decades before the actual cancers were diagnosed. Detecting such anomalies suggested that many could be detected and treated earlier now.

Processes such as defective DNA-repair mechanisms or exposure to environmental mutagens produce characteristic patterns of DNA aberrations. Expanding our knowledge of genomic data sets of these mutations, the current study had identified 97 such signatures, crucial to the refinement and extension our understanding. It introduced the idea of ‘molecular time’ to classify mutations in tumour cells – helping identify and perhaps monitor common mutational trajectories. Papers matching data to functionally link DNA and RNA alterations illustrated the power of their integrated analysis for cancer studies.

The efforts warranted hundreds of terabytes of data, spread across multiple data centres, exacting millions of processing hours, making this level of international collaboration a reality. Pinpointing 705 recurring mutations in cancer genomes, acquiring samples protecting patient privacy while generating terabytes of data for use by the researchers, the project was a milestone in cancer genomics, along with a marvel of cloud genomics. It was only fair that the findings and implications of this gargantuan scientific endeavor be put forward to those who hope and pray for such miracles day in and day out. All that was left to do was figure out how.

Poring over the original papers, I realised the research findings were basically a heat-map, identifying the causal regions responsible for the genetic aberrations. A similar heat-map, for an entirely different purpose, was devised in 1914. It was the First World War and the number of bomber-planes that made it home was central to deciding the outcome of the war. To turn the odds in their favour, researchers from the Center for Naval Analyses had devised a simple card containing the outline of the bomber-plane, to be handed over to the returning pilots, to mark out the areas where the plane had taken a hit. Stacking up such cards would lead to a heat-map indicating where the planes were receiving the most damage.

It turned out that these regions included the centre along the tail gunner and edges along the wings. These were the most resilient parts of the plane – they had managed to return home, hole and all. The parts that were left unscathed in the cardboard outline – the cockpit and the fuselage – warranted a layer of protective-cladding.  Planes that had been hit in those areas were lost forever. Taking the missing planes into account was seminal to the contemporary discipline of operational research. Similarly, identifying the driver mutations in each cancer cell is going to be decisive in developing precision medicine, tailored to understand cancer better. We decided to tell the data-intensive story of the latter while demonstrating the bomber plane heat-map on paper gliders.

Skeptical at first, the children were gradually drawn in to the floating gliders. By the end of the session, the room was resonant with their laughter while the floor was carpeted with their paper planes. We even saw their care-givers eyes sparkle. A few strategically reinforced bomber planes had not won the war for the Allies – but they certainly helped. The six PCAWG papers and global consortium of researchers are only perhaps the beginning – their collaborations, knowledge exchanges and insights are going to provide the air beneath the wings of all fighters who battle cancer — either for themselves or for someone they care about.

[Aditi Ghose is an Education Assistant at the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Kolkata. She can be reached at aditincsm@gmail.com.]

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A grain of truth

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Idlies not only belong to society but to science too. A well-fed scientist may churn out more discoveries than a starving one.  What is the point of science if it can’t give back to society solutions to the miseries plaguing it?

Runner-up, Nature India Essay Contest 2020

Kavitha with a (hopefully) fluffy dosa.

Kavitha Sankaranarayanan

Unkempt hair, shabby clothes, huge spectacles precariously perched over the nose, a disoriented look, one who prefers agarose-gels to beauty-gels, who trouble-shoots experiments instead of shooting goals on the field — the societal image of a scientist, though perceived as madness by the majority has still caught the reverie of a few like me.

I still vividly remember my interaction with a ten-year-old on potential career choices. Being a freshly minted scientist then, I felt it was my responsibility to help him make an informed decision, and thus possibly inspire a potential future Nobel Laureate (My mission – win the Nobel and inspire others into making the plunge into the fascinating world of science). With gusto, I sat upright and asked him “How about becoming a scientist?” He replied instantly “Hey no no…”. I was shocked. I think suggesting becoming a criminal might have evoked a less contempt on his little innocent face. This awakened me to the perception of scientists by the society. (Note to reader: This boy now aspires to become an aerospace scientist, so my chance at having inspired a potential Nobel Laureate still lives on).

Back then, the scientific community was isolated in its own niche and considered an intelligent, less fun, unsociable crowd. Things have moved on and now we find scientists adept at not only their work, but also equally skilled at other ‘extra-academic pursuits’.

With the advent of social-media platforms, science has reached even the remotest areas and it is not uncommon to hear an octogenarian in a rural location rant away about coronavirus and remedies to cure it. This digitalisation of daily life has to a large extent bridged the gap between science and society. Science is not, and should not, be limited to journal publications, medals/awards and honorary membership in societies.  What then attracts some humans to it? This kept me pondering until I came up with a few plausible reasons. Science is for the curious in nature; while most of us get awed by nature and its wonders, a few seek to satisfy their innate curiosity by figuring out the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of these mysteries. Given such a scenario, this clan of professionals are very much linked to the society and help in its progress.

Let me outline a project of high societal and gastronomic importance being researched by my team. India, along with the rest of the world, is facing the effects of global warming and if I were to break the news that rice production is on the decline, as one tucks into steaming hot fluffy idlies or crispy dosas, it may be a big jolt. India’s best scientific brains has been coming up with various solutions to tackle this crisis.

Plants, like all living things, need water to survive and wilt during water-deficit conditions. The key to battling this situation, as logic suggests, is to increase/make more-efficient water-uptake from the soil and to decrease water-loss from the plant. While most drought-tolerant plants have innate mechanisms to overcome such situations, most pampered crop plants including rice, do not. An understanding of these mechanisms would provide the key to developing robust varieties of these commercially important crop plants. My group has been interested in this aspect of biology, motivated by the cause of ensuring that dosas remain a viable breakfast option.

We have been investigating water-uptake mechanisms in the root-cells of these plants and how some varieties seem to be more efficient than others in imbibing water from an arid soil. Such knowledge could provide the much-needed information on these weapons that could be implanted through crop breeding techniques into the ‘weaker’ commercially important crops.

While efficient water-intake methods do help, it may not be effective unless and until the plant does not waste water from its tissues. This is orchestrated by small pores (stomata) in the leaf guarded by cells (aptly called ‘guard-cells’) which control stomatal opening, thereby regulating water loss through transpiration. My team has identified some key proteins in these cells which keep the stomata open and this discovery could lead to a possible method to efficiently regulate stomatal-function during drought conditions. This could also revolutionise the means of selection of ideal parents for crop-breeding.

The reason this is of importance in rice is that commercially important varieties, especially the popular ‘idly’ rice, is very drought-sensitive, while robust drought-tolerant varieties may possibly make rock-hard idlies. How do we continue producing drought-tolerant idly rice while retaining the ‘aromatic fluffiness’ of the idlies? This is where discoveries step in.

So back to the question: What is the connect between science and society? In this case, idlies not only belong to society but to science too. A well-fed scientist may churn out more discoveries than a starving one.  What is the point of science if it can’t give back to society solutions to the miseries plaguing it. What is society if it cannot inspire science by supporting and recognising the efforts with ample feedback and encouragement? Children in our country idolise and get inspired by scientists like Dr. A.P.J. Kalam who have reached the pinnacle of success by sheer hard work and tenacity.

Scientists inspire society and society inspires scientists. This symbiotic relationship is what is going to usher in a golden era of progress in scientific understanding. Here is to a period of amalgamation of science with society and let the ‘scientific-madness’ spread to every individual and manifest as a curiosity to learn and seek knowledge.

[Kavitha Sankaranarayanan heads the Ion Channel Biology Laboratory at the AU-KBC Research Centre of Anna University in Chennai.]

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A predictive lifeline

A predictive lifeline

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“As a new doctor I always felt guilty when a baby died just after my watch, this takes away so much of that feeling, I can watch them from wherever.”

Runner-up, Nature India Essay Competition 2020

Abhilash Gangadharan

A neonatal ICU.{credit}A. Gangadharan{/credit}

I spun around at the noise. A baby in the critical section of the neonatal ICU (NICU) had woken from sleep, and began to heave and regurgitate into the ventilator mouthpiece. As I watched, it started gasping for air. To confirm my worst fears, the monitor began to beep as the baby’s oxygen saturation started falling.

I was an intern with a research group applying predictive analytics on real-time physiological data from neonatal infants. We were installing data acquisition modules that aggregated data from patient monitors and ventilators and sent them to the cloud for real-time analysis and predictions. We had already implemented a way for doctors to monitor the NICU from anywhere, and check on the status of each baby by logging into a website accessible only to them. The baby’s status, updated to the last minute, was at their fingertips even while they were away from the hospital.

There weren’t any doctors around now though. It was  2 a.m., and I was watching a baby die. I rushed out of the room and saw a nurse in the main NICU standing across the hall. I gesticulated wildly until she noticed me, she came over and I motioned to the baby. She looked at the clearly distressed baby and said “this isn’t my shift”. She went back to the nurse’s room and called out for someone else to deal with the problem. The baby’s struggle to breathe began to subside and with horror, I thought it would pass in front of my eyes. All I could do was look on helplessly as it choked on vomit.

Out of nowhere, a doctor came in. I pointed and croaked “baby…choking”. The doctor looked and yelled for two nurses and equipment. Over the next 10 minutes they suctioned away the vomit from its airways and replaced the contaminated ventilator paraphernalia and the baby was breathing again, peacefully.

Abhilash Gangadharan

Drained, I made my way out of the NICU into the hospital corridor. As I stripped my protective covers, apron and mask, the doctor came out and said “Thanks for the app”. It dawned on me then that his arrival at the critical moment was not just good fortune. He continued, “I was just about to leave, and gave the babies monitored by the app a final look, and saw this baby had turned red”, he was referring to the software indication of abnormal vital signs. He continued, “This is really going to change the way things are done around here. As a new doctor I always felt guilty when a baby died just after my watch, this takes away so much of that feeling, I can watch them from wherever. Can you put in an alarm system for when a baby goes critical as well?”

That was the moment of realisation for me. Initially we had met quite a bit of resistance from doctors who regarded this as an intrusion of analytics which made them feel as if their work was being audited. But as they got used to the system and saw how all the information for every patient was available at their fingertips, they grudgingly agreed it was convenient. But none of the doctors wanted any data-driven insights, medical decision-making or suggestions from our platform, clearly telling what they considered their prerogative. This was the first time a doctor had clearly indicated approval.

With an increasing number of premature births, more infants are required to spend time in the NICU. These are often under-staffed, with over-worked nurses and doctors. Expecting meticulous care and attention to detail for every neonate is hoping for the impossible. Medical complications are more common in neonates, and keeping track of a baby’s real-time vital signs is intensive. Avoiding errors in medication is possible by screening out contra-indicated drugs. By using the aggregated history of a patient’s stay in the NICU, it is possible to implement dynamic calculation of drug doses using daily birth-weights. This reduces the mental load of having to keep track of every patient and gives the doctor space and time to think of the bigger picture. This also helps them study and keep abreast of the latest in neonatal research, allowing them to improve their skills and processes of neonatal care.

The complementing of medical infrastructure with artificial intelligence-based systems improves clinical outcomes. The increasing number of premature birth cases is correlated with the rising number of IVF procedures due to fertility problems. More infants need to spend time in the NICU until they can safely be sent home. Improving the health outcomes of neonatal infants assumes manifold importance in such a scenario. Monitoring them constantly using automated algorithms and generating timely alerts is very useful for doctors. In case of any complications during their stay in the NICU, such a system ensures hypoxia is avoided. Such medical lapses can cause life-long problems for neonates. Predictive real-time analytics on incoming data can predict sepsis even before it is apparent to doctors using changes in heart-rate-variability, making timely live-saving medical interventions possible.

Ultimately, science that works towards improving the health of the nation’s youth would be the most impactful and help in improving society.

[Abhilash Gangadharan  is a PhD scholar at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi.]

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Memories of paati

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Memories of paati

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As paati lost her memory and identity, we would sit by her side and recollect fond memories from the past, in the hope that our narration would magically revive her brain. With artificial intelligence and targeted therapies, perhaps there’s hope for millions like paati.

Winner of the Nature India Essay Competition 2020.

Gowri Natarajan

An old photo of Gowri Natarajan as a child with her grandmother (paati) Kamakshi at their home in Chennai.

My paati (Tamil for grandmother) once showed me her diary, in which she had written down names of some people in our family. I sensed a certain degree of disquiet, as she explained that she had trouble recollecting names now and then. At the time, paati was entering her 70s. Apart from forgetting names, she was in perfect health. Her subtle memory lapses indicated mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, not all those who have MCI develop AD, and in people with MCI, the cognitive impairment does not interfere with day-to-day functioning and does not alter their behavior.

However, with time, paati’s memory lapses became more frequent. In addition, behavioral changes such as mood swings, irritability, and poor spatial navigation became apparent. A visit to the neurologist and a brain scan confirmed her diagnosis as moderate stage AD. As the years passed, paati’s condition worsened. Hallucinations, disturbed sleep patterns, anger, tantrums, fear, and confusion became frequent. At this stage, she could not identify others around her, and one could say that she lost her own identity as well. She was unable to perform basic tasks, and we had to appoint a nurse to care for her. During her last days, paati lost her ability to communicate, was bedridden, and her brain and body effectively shut down.

Around 50 million people have dementia worldwide, and AD is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. The number of people with dementia is expected to reach ~75–80 million by 2030. The global annual cost of dementia, including social and economic costs, is about a trillion USD. The costs are predicted to increase and will likely present a grave social problem, given the greater proportion of older people in the world today due to improvements in health care.

AD is devastating not just for the sufferer, but also caregivers, health-care systems, and society. Paati‘s memory loss, confusion, and inability to perform basic tasks lead to isolation, depression, and withdrawal from society. From a caregiver’s perspective, I recall moments when my family and I would empathise with paati’s anger and confused state of mind, but there were also times when her mood swings and irritability took a toll on us. I remember a time when paati left the house thinking she lived elsewhere, and we found it quite challenging to convince her to return home.

Gowri Natarajan

During my doctoral pursuit in neuroscience, I was able to reflect on paati’s predicament through a scientific lens. When we see a familiar face, watch a scene from a movie, or visit a childhood haunt, these stimuli evoke certain memories, emotions, or responses that are unique to each of us. The human brain is an intricate network of neurons, the functional units in our brain. Different neuronal networks in our brain process various sensory stimuli from the world around us and consequently evoke responses that shape our personality and define who we are. In AD, neurons in the brain die and are unable to communicate with one another. The loss of neurons commences in the limbic network in the brain, which is critical for learning, memory, and emotions. As the disease progresses, the neuronal loss spreads to other regions in the brain that send commands to the body to perform basic tasks. At this stage, entire neuronal networks are disrupted and cease to function. In the final stages, widespread neuronal death occurs, with significant shrinkage of brain tissue.

Currently, there is no cure for AD. Although medications alleviate some behavioral symptoms, they do not halt the progression of AD. The treatment landscape has been riddled with failures in clinical trials due to several challenges. Firstly, a ‘single-target’ approach, in which a drug works to correct one aspect of the AD-afflicted brain, has not been effective, given the multiple ways in which the disease affects the brain. To address this challenge, scientists have been working to develop a better understanding of the biology of AD in animal models. This preclinical research has led to the discovery of several targeted therapies that, when administered together, could correct multiple aspects of this complicated disease simultaneously.

Another key challenge lies in the late diagnosis of AD. Often, a definitive diagnosis is made only when people begin to show overt symptoms beyond just memory impairment. At this stage, therapies often fail, since the disease has already progressed significantly and irreversibly. A glimmer of hope for addressing this challenge is emanating from the fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In a study conducted in California, researchers successfully trained an AI learning algorithm to detect subtle changes in brain metabolism from brain scans of people referred to a memory clinic. The algorithm demonstrated 100% sensitivity for predicting AD in these people six years before the definitive diagnosis was made. Perhaps we might bear witness to a time in the near future when such learning algorithms could be used in neurologists’ clinics to predict AD in people who show memory impairments, thus providing excellent opportunities for early interventions.

In her active days, one could often find paati sitting on the kitchen floor with a large plate in front of her. The aroma of cocoa powder would waft through the air. I would rush into the kitchen, to find her busy mixing the special ingredients that went into making her homemade chocolates, using a recipe that she had committed to memory. As paati lost her memory and identity, we would sit by her side and recollect such fond nuggets from the past, in the hope that our narration would magically revive her brain. I imagine that countless others around the world must also be attempting such methods to rejuvenate the memories of their loved ones afflicted with AD.

With scientific advancements in the field of AI and targeted therapies, perhaps their hopes would become a reality some day.

[Gowri Natarajan is a neuroscientist based in Hyberabad.]

Announcing winners of NI Essay Competition 2020

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We are delighted to announce the winners of the Nature India Essay Competition 2020.

The first prize winner is Hyderabad-based neuroscientist Gowri Natarajan for her essay titled ‘Memories of paati‘, a story of her grandmother that advocates the need for employing artificial intelligence and targeted therapies for the management of Alzheimer’s disease. Her narrative strongly underlines the importance for socially-relevant science.

 

Gowri Natarajan

 

Kavitha S.

Abhilash Gangadharan

Two essays jointly take the second spot — Abhilash Gangadharan’s “A predictive lifeline“, a compelling personal narrative on the need for better equipping our hospitals with neonatal medical diagnostic tools;  and Kavitha Sankaranarayanan’s “A grain of truth“, her passionate, philosophical and humorous take on a drought-tolerant idly rice variety.

Abhilash is a PhD scholar at New Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and Kavitha heads the Ion Channel Biology Laboratory at the AU-KBC Research Centre of Anna University in Chennai.

Aditi Ghose

Arijit Goswami

On third position, again jointly, are Aditi Ghose and Arijit Goswami. While Aditi’s “Mapping the malady of cancer“ talks of her learning from a failed science communication project that prompted her team to approach it better, Arijit’s “A friend indeed“ is a well well-reasoned take on the omnipresence of artificial intelligence and chatbots in our everyday lives.

Aditi is an education assistant at Kolkata’s Birla Industrial and Technological Museum and Arijit is a manager at Capgemini India in Mumbai.

Shambhavi Naik

A special mention goes to Shambhavi Naik‘s essay “Return of the Ridleys“, a gripping narrative of a very important wildlife concern around the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, with on the ground reportage that offers solutions. Shambhavi is a fellow at Bangalore based Takshashila Institution and Director of CloudKrate Solutions Pvt Ltd.

Congratulations to all the winners! The winning essays will be published in the Nature India annual volume due for publication later this year as well as in the Nature India blog Indigenus soon. Stay tuned!

The top essays will win cash prizes, a three-year subscription to Nature, trophies and certificates. The special mention essay will receive a trophy and certificate of appreciation. We will also release a list, in due course, of some more honourable mentions in this essay competition and award them certificates of appreciation.

Nature India received more than 200 essays in a call opened in January 2020 in partnership with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The essay competition was aimed at providing young and experienced scientists, researchers and authors in India, a platform to share ideas on how socially-impactful science can advance and strengthen the country.

The Nature India essay competition was open for scientists, researchers, writers or authors aged 25 to 50. The essayists had an opportunity to draft a compelling narrative with personal anecdotes, emotion and a science-backed story that may become potentially historic in helping shape the roadmap for India’s scientific future. The submitted essays were judged by a panel of editors, scientists and science communicators.

Nature India Essay Competition 2020 now open

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[This competition has now closed. We hope to announce the results in early April 2020 here at the Indigenus blog.]

Nature India in partnership with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is launching an essay competition to provide young and experienced scientists, researchers and authors in India, a platform to share ideas on how socially-impactful science can advance and strengthen the country.

The Nature India essay competition is now open for scientists, researchers, writers or authors aged 25 to 50. The essayists will have an opportunity to draft a compelling narrative with personal anecdotes, emotion and a science-backed story that may become potentially historic in helping shape the roadmap for India’s scientific future.

We invite thoughts on the societal impact of science in India in not more than 1000 words. We are looking for essays with an aspirational tone, emotions and story-telling without too much sentimentality.  The essays should be reasoned, well-researched, forward-looking and supported by existing science. They should ideally be informative and entertaining in equal measure. Adding a personal perspective to the narration is desirable. We are not looking for academic papers, an academic writing style or science fiction.

Submitted essays will be judged by a panel of editors, scientists and science communicators.

The deadline for completed essays is midnight, India time, on 9 March 2020. The winners will have their essays published in the Nature India annual volume as well as the Nature India blog Indigenus. The top three essays will win cash prizes (Rs 40,000, Rs 30, 000 and Rs 20,000 or equivalent), a three-year subscription to Nature, trophies and certificates. We will also feature the essayists and their ideas in a Nature India podcast.

Please send your submissions to natureindia@nature.com with the subject line “Nature India Essay Competition 2020”. Please include your name, affiliation and contact details in the email. We look forward to reading your imaginative and thought-provoking essays.

For inspiration, you may want to read these essays adjudged winner and runners-up (1, 2) of the Nature essay competition 2019.

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