October 2006
Table of Contents:
Editorial
At last the waiting and the anxiety is over. The third issue of Jeev
is here. Though this issue has taken a little longer to be compiled and put up,
we have worked on it really hard so as to do justice to the amazing response we
have had for the first two issues...... [more]
Articles
The “Conscious” Bacterium
by Prof. Subramony Mahadevan
Microorganisms are commonly perceived primarily as the causative agents
of most contagious diseases that plague the humankind. This view gradually changed
during the first half of the twentieth century, whereby, they began to be recognized
as model organisms to study fundamental aspects of life processes, giving birth
to a new field called molecular biology. Recent studies have shown that bacteria
are extraordinarily perceptive to their surroundings and can respond to changes
in the most amazing ways. They can communicate with others..... [more]
Evolvability: Is it a misnomer or the basis
of life? by Paras Chopra
Can some organism be more evolvable than others? Is there some kind of
genetic capacity built into organisms that allows them to evolve at different
rates compared to other organisms. Are they so built or developed that certain
changes might trigger their evolution at an accelerated pace such as changes
in the environmental conditions?...... [more]
Biological data mining: Integration of
biology and data mining by Aparna Bajaj
Biological data mining is a new area of science presently in its nascent
stage. It involves the combination of statistics, molecular biology and computation
methods for analyzing and processing biological data contained in huge databases
of genomes, protein, DNA and RNA sequences....... [more]
Digital Evolution by Paras
Chopra
Have you heard of the names Tierra, Avida or Nanopond? If you are an evolutionary
biologist (or even a plainly curious person) and you haven't heard of them then
my guess is that you have missed much...... [more]
Columns
Interview of Prof. Subramony Mahadevan
by Paras Chopra
Brief Biography: I have been working at the Indian Institute of Science
for the past sixteen years, guiding research students and teaching. I was an
undergraduate in physics who later on switched over to biology as I became interested
in the subject. I obtained my Master's degree in Molecular Biology from the
Madurai Kamaraj University and doctorate degree from Tufts University Medical
School, Boston, USA, in the field of Molecular Microbiology. I came back to
India after a three year post-doctoral stint at the Harvard Medical School,
Boston...... [more]
Company Profile - Shantha Biotechnics: An Indigenous
Biotech Company by Anshuman Mirani
It is indeed ironical that that in most discussions about biotechnology
sector in India, the common man remains unaware of the many breakthroughs achieved
by Indian Biotechnology companies themselves...... [more]
A Different Perspective
by Aakanksha Gaur
"Every great physical theory starts as a heresy and ends as a
dogma". Although AI can't be justified as a physical theory but i
wonder whether its fate will be the same as cited above by the incisive remark.It's
been decades since the advent of the "IDEA" that we can mimic our
own intelligence and now it has been shaped into a full researched field of
cognitive sciences...... [more]
Extras
The Biology Quiz by Soumya Lipsa
Rath
Let us see how many questions can you answer out of ten?.... [more]
The Biotechnology Quiz by Deepak
Singla
This quiz is created to provide the information about various Biotechnology
institutions/companies in India...... [more]
Feedback
Please write us your comments, suggestions, questions, etc about the articles and/or magazine. We will try to answer your queries, and accept any criticisms and suggestions with a smile :) We also invite articles for the next issue of Jeev.October, 2006, Jeev
http://www.dce.edu/jeev
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