Science & Technology

 

Science & Tech

Bacteria can help

Farmers Use less Potash

Potash is one of the major

nutrients required by all crops. There

is no such source in India and the

entire requirement of potassic

fertilizer is met by imports and

distributed to farmers at subsidised

price eroding both the foreign

exchange reserve and revenue.

Import

During the year 2011-12 India

imported about 38 lakh tonnes of

potassic fertilizers for supplying to

farmers. One can imagine the

kg of Muriate of Potash which costs

Rs. 5,450. But to our advantage Indian

soils are naturally rich in potassium

and there is a potash mobilizing bacterium

to mobilize this native

potassium for plant absorption.

Potassium in soil exists in different

forms but the crop can absorb what

is present in soil solution only.

US Scientists Created frist

Cloned Human Embryo

A group of US Scientists in

second week of May 2013 declared

that they have succeeded in creating

a cloned human embryo using the

technique that helped in developing

the cloned sheep in 1996. The

scientists took fifteen years to create

the cloned embryo. The team of

spending by the Government apart

from the expenditure to the farmers.

Usually about 50-60 kg of potassium

is recommended for a hectare of rice.

Crops like sugarcane, banana, potato

and tapioca require more potassium.

As much as 200 kg of potassium is

recommended per hectare of sugarcane.

To supply this quantity of

potassium, farmers have to apply 330..

scientists developed the embryo

using skin samples of a woman’s egg

to develop an early cloned human

embryo. Aim of this research is

development of a source of stem

cells not a baby. These can be helpful

in repair of damage created after

heart attack or brains of patients of

Parkinson’s disease. Somatic Cell

Nuclear transfer technique was used

in development of the embryo and it

is the same technique that was used

for developing the Ship Dolly, the first

cloned animal in 1996.

Hydrogen

Sensor for Greater Safety

The use of liquid sodium as a

coolant in fast breeder reactors has

been made safer, thanks to a sensor

— electrochemical hydrogen meter

— developed by scientists at the

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic

Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, off

Chennai. The sensor has been thoroughly

tested at IGCAR; it was also

tested at the Phenix fast breeder reactor

in France. “It was first tested in

Phenix in 2009 for one year,” said T.

Gnanasekaran, Raja Ramanna Fellow

at the Chemistry Group, IGCAR. “Now

another sensor has been installed a

few days ago in one of the experimental

sodium loops in Cadarache,

France.” Liquid sodium metal, not water,

is used for extracting heat from

the extremely hot core (where

nuclear fission takes place) of a

breeder reactor. Aside from other

properties, liquid sodium has

excellent heat transfer properties

compared with water. The liquid

metal at about 550 degree C transfers

the heat to water in the

secondary circuit to generate steam;

the steam eventually runs the turbine.

Any large-scale mixing of sodium and

steam should be prevented as it can

lead to explosive events. The

pressure on the sodium side is low (1

bar) as the liquid sodium is at an

operating temperature of 550 degree

C, well below the 883 degree C

boiling point. However, at about 160

bar, the pressure on the steam side is

very high. But all that separates

sodium and steam is a thin (4-5 mm)

ferretic steel tube through which

steam flows. There is a possibility,

even if remote, of tube failure. Steam,

which is at a higher pressure than

sodium, tends to leak into the coolant

when the tube develops a leak. On

reaction with sodium, hydrogen and

sodium hydroxide are formed.

Sodium hydroxide, which is a caustic

material, further aggravates the

problem. Due to its low melting point,

sodium hydroxide turns into a molten

material at the site of the crack causing

further corrosion of the tube.