Special areas scientific research: advancing the cause in India

With fresh wind blowing in bringing global competitiveness and
collaboration, attitudes to scientific research will change from that of a
routine job to an adventure in creativity.

On April 20, 2005, a 26.7-million cubic foot balloon carrying a 459-kg
scientific payload with 38 kg of liquid neon was flown from the National
Balloon Facility in Hyderabad operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR). The payload collected air samples from different heights
ranging from 20 to 41 km and it was parachuted down safely. The samples were
independently analyzed at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology
(CCMB), Hyderabad, and the Natio nal Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune,
and live micro-organisms were found. Such findings have enormous
implications for astrobiology, besides providing important inputs to go into
the question of how life started on our planet.

Astrobiology deals with life outside the Earth, a question that is
increasingly gaining scientists' attention. For India, it was part of a
pioneering series of experiments. Being interdisciplinary in character,
astrobiology t had the participation of scientists from institutions
specializing in different fields. As the subject grows in scope and
interest, more scientists will come forward to participate with a distinct
need for an Indian institution devoted to astrobiology.

While challenges to research progress in India abound, there are also
several instances of world-class work being done. The upper atmosphere
experiment carried out by biologists and space scientists from Indian
research institutions clearly demonstrates the capabilities of Indian
researchers. The idea was for an objective study of whether the Earth's
atmosphere harbours living systems, especially extra-terrestrial
micro-organisms like bacteria and viruses. This was the first time a serious
attempt was made to analyse the microbial contents of the atmosphere under
strict biological controls. The expertise developed by ISRO in recent years
justified an attempt at sampling air from different heights using the
balloon technology.

In this pioneering effort, the payload consisted of a cryosampler containing
16 evacuated and sterilized stainless steel probes. Thus, the valves
attached to the cylindrical probes could be opened by a remote command from
the ground headquarters and the ambient air pumped in. The expertise
developed by the ISRO technical team was responsible for preparing such a
complex payload.

The first flight in 2001 was successful in collecting air samples from
various heights. After the payload was parachuted down and analyzed by CCMB
and also in Cardiff, U.K., several new bacterial species were identified.
Encouraged by the findings, a second experiment with several improvements
over the first balloon flight was planned and executed in 2005. The
biologists at CCMB and at the NCCS reported finding 12 bacterial and six
fungal colonies, with three strains identified as potential new species.

The question that came up then was: how did such life forms get to the upper
atmosphere? If no workable method can be found to lift the bacteria from the
Earth's surface to a height of 41 km, then based on the empirical evidence
there is strong reason to consider them as being of extra-terrestrial
origin.

The impact of this work can be profound if it is conclusively established
that the microorganisms detected in these experiments are indeed
extragalactic. The work has, therefore, generated interest amongst the
international community of exobiologists. For example, if the species found
at the height of 41 km is proved to be extraterrestrial in origin, it will
open up possibilities of a broad vista of life existing all over this vast
universe. It will also strengthen the hypothesis that life on the Earth
itself may have been seeded by such microbial showers, making all of us
extraterrestrial in origin. Needless to add that the realization that we are
not alone in the universe would be of profound significance in the study of
the origin and status, and possibly the future of life, on this planet.

Preferential funding of research programmes is a huge challenge in India,
especially for such interdisciplinary niche areas like astrobiology. While
large initiatives such as satellite and space launch programmes are
well-funded and they enjoy the public spotlight, we must find ways to
encourage and support research in new and emerging areas as well. For
greater impact in niche area research, the Indian science establishment
needs to be endowed with the requisite infrastructural and funding
commitment to conduct end-to-end research. Many of these niche research
areas offer great opportunity for the Indian science establishment to negate
legacy issues and be on an equal footing with the best research output in
the world.

Perhaps the greatest hindrance to planning exciting experiments and
achieving important results is the bureaucratic framework of our research
institutes. The hierarchical structure, especially pay scales of our
research institutes mimic the government's administrative structure.
However, the creativity and efficiency of a scientist vis-À-vis the
administrator evolve differently, with the scientist bringing differential
skill and qualification requirements to the table. Besides, a young
scientist is in the prime of his creative life and an administrator, on the
other hand, gains maturity with age. To base the promotion criteria of a
scientist on the same pattern as for an administrator is to ignore this
fundamental difference. This more often than not leads to frustration among
the younger generation of scientists as they see their bright new ideas
getting ignored or going unappreciated.

While dwelling on the lacuna on one side, it is heartening to see how the
balloon experiment breaks new ground. This inter-institutional
accomplishment illustrates the indigenous capability in successfully
fabricating experimental set-ups of entirely new types. This trend for
originality and creativity augurs well for Indian science. With fresh wind
blowing in bringing global competitiveness and collaboration, attitudes to
scientific research will change from that of a routine job to an adventure
in creativity. It is important for creative young scientists to feel
appreciated for the work done and the credit for such cooperative efforts,
as seen in the recent Nobel Prizes, would justifiably be apportioned in
proportion to the research contributions.

(Jayant Narlikar is Founder Director & Emeritus Professor, Inter-University
Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Prof. Narlikar is a theoretical
physicist widely known for fundamental contributions to astrophysics and
cosmology. Along with Sir Fred Hoyle, Prof. Narlikar proposed an alternative
to the Big Bang theory. He headed an international team which undertook and
found evidence for micro-organisms in the stratosphere. An intriguing
possibility is that the organisms could have arrived from space. Prof.
Narlikar has authored or co-authored a hundred books (professional, science
popularization, fiction). Prof. Narlikar is a member of three Indian
academies of sciences and Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences.)
....from the pages of THE HINDU newspaper....by...Jayant Narlikar