SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: JULY 2018

Dr Chris Barnard with Louis Washkansky

1 July 2018: The Organ Transplant Bill passed in Indian Parliament in May 1994 legalized the organ transplants in India, enabling a team of doctors led by Dr. P. Venugopal to perform the first successful heart transplant in India on 3 August 1994 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. But the First Cardiac transplantation in India was performed by Dr. Prafulla Kumar Sen and his team in KEM Hospital, Bombay in February 1968. In fact, Sen had performed India’s first ever cardiac surgery, in 1952, to cure a rheumatic mitral valve. Sen became the fourth surgeon in the world to attempt a heart transplant, and he did it within three months of the world’s first heart transplant (by Chris Bernard on December 3, 1967). Though Sen's patient died soon after surgery, his achievement marks 50th anniversary of the actual Heart Transplanting event in the country. Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

2 July 2018: The Kerala State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) has identified Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki districts as climate change hotspots in the State, with a high degree of vulnerability to natural hazards like flood and drought, impacting on human life and biodiversity. According to the projected scenario, the atmospheric temperature in Kerala would rise by 2 degree Celsius by 2050. The minimum surface temperature in the Western Ghats region may rise by 2-4.5 degrees Celsius and the number of rainy days is likely to decrease along the entire western coast. If sea level rises by 1 metre, 169 sq.km. of the coastal region along Kochi would be inundated. Paddy production in Kerala would drop by 6% with each degree rise in temperature. Crops like Cardamom, Coffee, Tea and Black Pepper are also likely to be affected due to climate change. Link:http://www.moef.nic.in
 
3 July 2018: Scientists announced that they have recorded the coldest temperature ever on Earth. Using satellite data, researchers discovered that a series of valleys on an ice sheet in eastern Antarctica reached a temperature of minus 98 degrees Celsius (minus 144.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth was minus 89.2 degrees Celsius (minus128.6 degrees Fahrenheit) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983 by ground measurements. In Russia, Verkhoyansk was initially considered the coldest city in the world, and has the largest range of temperature on earth, at around 105° Celsius (189° Fahrenheit) between extremes. The city wanted to use this reputation to attract tourism, however the nearby city of Oymyakon which also lies within the Arctic Circle is now considered colder. The new discovery is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Link: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com