STEM

A Visit to an India Full of Science and Engineering

This article originally appeared at Scientific American

I am writing this to you from New Delhi, India as I am here with the International Reporting Project as a New Media Specialist! We have been in the crowded, bustling, port city of Mumbai, the central city of Nagpur (home of several tiger refuges), the rural village area of Gadchiroli, and finally to the modern city of New Delhi in order toexamine issues of child survival. I have several blog posts written in the run up to this project, with many more to come over the next month or so.

Did you know India has a National Science Day? National Science Day is celebrated in India on February 28 each year to mark the discovery of the Raman effect (the scattering of photons from an atom or molecule) by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on February 28, 1928. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in 1930.

12 years ago Blog, Engineering, Science, STEM, Travel • Tags: Angela Saini, child survival, Geek Nation, Genome Valley, India, International Reporting Project, Jantar Mantar, National Science Day, Raman effect, Scientific American, STEM, V.V. Raman

Childhood Malnutrition in India, Part 2

Malnutrition and Sanitation

What if children seem to have enough of the appropriate nutritive food, yet still exhibit signs of malnutrition? Could there be something else going on here? Indeed. In the past few years, scientist have discovered a phenomenon called ENVIRONMENTAL ENTEROPATHY which is caused by prolonged exposure to food and water contaminated with feces.

Environmental enteropathy, (EE) also known as gut dysfunction, affects up to 50% of children in the developing world, and causes no overt symptoms or signs in children.

12 years ago Blog, Engineering, Health, Science, STEM, Travel • Tags: Engineering, environmental enteropathy, golden rice, India, International Reporting Project, Joanne Manaster, Malnutrition, NPR, sanitation, science, wiseGEEK

Childhood Vaccines in India, Part 2

Part 2: Vaccination Challenges in Developing Countries

Developing countries generally wait an average of 20 years between when a vaccine is licensed in industrialized countries and when it is available for their own populations. Economic, infrastructural and scientific hurdles all contribute to this long delay. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is a partnership between many public and private organization, including UNICEF, WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, members of the vaccine industry and NGOs. GAVI was formed in 1999 to address the long delay between vaccine availability in industrialized countries and developing countries. Scientific advances that would help make more vaccines available in developing countries include the development of temperature stable vaccines, development of vaccines that required less than three doses to immunize and the development of needle free methods to administer vaccines.

12 years ago Blog, Health, STEM, Travel • Tags: bioengineers, CDC, cold chain system, Gates Foundation, HIV, India, International Reporting Project, malaria, The History of Vaccines, tuberculosis, UNICEF, Vaccine Viral Monitors, vaccines, WHO

Childhood Vaccines in India, Part 1

Part 1: How vaccines are made and how they work

In 2008, WHO estimated that 1.5 million of deaths among children under 5 years were due to diseases that could have been prevented by routine vaccination. This represents 17% of global total mortality in children under 5 years of age.

Hygiene, proper nourishment and sanitary conditions make for a healthy community, with lowered incidence of infectious disease, but since much of this is lacking in developing countries, vaccination is very helpful to giving the immune system a boost.

We can thank scientists, physicians and engineers for their work in understanding the immune system and how to make it work for us against disease by using vaccinations.

12 years ago Blog, Health, Science, STEM, Travel • Tags: attenuated vaccine, child survival, diphtheria, effective vaccines, hepatitis, inactivated vaccine, India, International Reporting Project, pertussis, Polio, STEM, tetanus, The History of Vaccines, typhus, vaccine types, vaccines, WHO

Other Pediatric Diseases in India (Malaria and HIV)

Image is of the Anopheles mosquito, the main insect vector of Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of Malraria via the CDC

This post is a continuation of Pediatric Diseases in India (part 4).

MALARIA

“Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that affects more than 500 million people annually, causing between 1 and 3 million deaths. It is most common in tropical and subtropical climates and is found in 90 countries—but 90% of all cases are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of its victims are children. The first stage consists of shaking and chills, the next stage involves high fever and severe headache, and in the final stage the infected person’s temperature drops and he or she sweats profusely. Infected people also often suffer from anemia, weakness, and a swelling of the spleen. Malaria was almost eradicated 30 years ago; now it is on the rise again.” (source)

12 years ago Blog, Health, STEM, Travel • Tags: AIDS, artemisinic acid, CDC, HIV, India, International Reporting Project, malaria, mosquito, plasmodium, STEM, WHO

Diarrheal Diseases in India (Cholera and Rotavirus)

The image “Pathways to Diarrhea” comes from the CDC.

This post is a continuation of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases in India post.

Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. It is both preventable and treatable.

Diarrheal disease kills 1.5 million children every year and account for >10% if child mortality in India.
Globally, there are about two billion cases of diarrheal disease every year.
Diarrheal disease mainly affects children under two years old.
Diarrhea is a leading cause of malnutrition in children under five years old.
Diarrhea can be of bacterial origin (ex: cholera), viral origin (ex: rotavirus) or parasitic (ex: ameobic dysentery)

12 years ago Health, STEM, Travel • Tags: A Planet of Viruses, CDC, cholera, diarrheal diseases, India, John Snow, Robert Koch, rotavirus, The Ghost Map, vaccine, WHO

Pediatric Infectious Diseases in India

This is the first in a series of five posts leading up to my trip to India to examine issues of child survival with the International Reporting Project via Johns Hopkins University with significant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the duration of the trip, I am to consider my self a New Media Journalist with IRP.

Infectious diseases are common all over the world. You probably know them as generally communicable diseases of bacterial, viral or protozoan origin that will enter the body and infect it, causing illness and sometimes leading to death, especially if the body is weakened by malnutrition or stressful environmental factors.

12 years ago Blog, STEM, Travel • Tags: books, cholera, diarrheal diseases, Gates Foundation, GIS, HIV, India, International Reporting Project, malaria, mathematics, pneumonia, respiratory diseases, rotavirus, STEM, TB, tuberculosis, UNICEF, videos, WHO

My Little Black Book of Scientists I Love

On a very warm and muggy July 30, 2010, outside of Krannert Theater on the U of Illinois campus, Joanne gave a live presentation to an audience of 400 people for the Champaign-Urbana Pecha Kucha 20 slides 20 seconds each!

I play a time traveling beauty who can visit any scientist I wish. Find out who is in my little black book of scientists I love! The superb phone image in my presentation was designed by Matt Cokeley, formerly of Popular Science and currently the Creative Director of Mag+.

I was lucky to present all of this science after the beer break, where people may have imbibed a bit, making them a bit more receptive to all of the science and scientists I presented. It was great fun!

14 years ago More Science, Science, STEM, Video • Tags: Albert Michaelson, Claude Bernard, Enrico Fermi, Joanne Manaster, Lisa Meitner, Little Black Book of Scientists I Love, Marie Curie, Matt Cokeley, Michael Faraday, Pecha Kucha, Pecha Kucha CU, STEM, video

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