THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 8, 2016- Topic 1
If “wonderful discoveries
happening in biology” had acted as a trigger for Nobel Laureate Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan to switch from physics to chemistry, the nearly matured and well-established
field of chemistry failed to enthuse Yoshinori Ohsumi, and he shifted to
biology. Autophagy — a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular
components — was known long before he ventured into the field, but it was his
paradigm-shifting research that revealed the importance of this fundamental
process that comes into play every other minute. His seminal work helped reveal
that vacuoles in yeast and lysosomes in human cells are not just garbage bins
but recyclers and fuel producers. Right from the stage of embryo development to
countering the negative effects of ageing, autophagy plays an important role.
As in the case of many Laureates, Dr. Ohsumi’s initial years were more than
frustrating, but he prevailed. His approach to science is an antithesis to what
is generally seen in today’s young researchers, and that precisely is what
helped him break new ground and bag the Nobel Prize this year — only the third
Laureate since 2010 to not share the Prize for Physiology or Medicine with others.
But lysosomes and other
cellular bodies would be severely impacted if molecular machines in our body
failed to work synchronously to carry materials around in a cell and for
several other functions. Though not as elegant as the molecular machines at work
inside us, the work done by Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard
L. Feringa, the winners of the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry, has set the ball rolling in the endeavour to realise Nobel
Laureate Richard Feynman’s dream more than 50 years ago of building very small
machines. Though very primitive at this point in time, science will see one of
the biggest revolutions when the cogs and cranks of their work are finally put
together to build machines on a nanoscale; nanomachines will find applications
in diverse fields, from medicine to electronics. Much like the nanomachines of
tomorrow, David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz’s
theoretical explanations for exotic states of materials by using topological
concepts will give birth to a completely different class of products. This year’s Nobel-winning physicists, they predicted
the exotic behaviour that other scientists later found at the surface of
materials and inside very thin layers, such as superconductivity and magnetism
in extremely thin materials. Physicists are now looking beyond the ordinary to
find new and exotic phases of matter that change in a stepwise fashion.
Vocabulary
Trigger: a small device that releases a spring or catch and so sets off a mechanism,
especially in order to fire a gun.
Example: He pulled the trigger of the shotgun
Synonyms: Activate, set off, set going
Enthuse: express
eager enjoyment, interest, or approval regarding something.
Example: They both enthused over my new look"
Synonyms: be enthusiastic, gush, wax
lyrical, bubble over, effervesce, be effusive
Ventured: dare to do something or go somewhere that may be dangerous or unpleasant.
Example: She ventured out into the blizzard
Synonyms: set out, go, travel, journey
Paradigm: a typical example or pattern of something; a model.
Example: There is a new paradigm for public art in this country
Synonyms: model, pattern, example, exemplar, template, standard, prototype
Vacuoles: a space or vesicle within the cytoplasm of a cell, enclosed by a membrane
and typically containing fluid.
Example: In slowly dried tissues, considerable cell wall folding
had occurred, there was substantial subdivision of the vacuoles and some plasma
membrane withdrawal from the cell walls.
Yeast: a microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by
budding, and are capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Example: The yeast cells in the envelope of yeast are the cells
that do the work in your loaf of bread.
Prevail: prove more powerful than opposing forces; be victorious.
Example: It is hard for logic to prevail over emotion
Synonyms: win, win out/through, triumph, be victorious, carry
the day, come out on top
Antithesis: a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
Example: Love is the antithesis of selfishness
Elegant: pleasingly graceful and stylish in appearance or manner.
Example: She will look elegant in black
Synonyms: stylish, graceful, tasteful, sophisticated, classic, chic, smart
Endeavour: an attempt to achieve a goal.
Example: An endeavor to reduce serious injury
Synonyms: attempt, try, bid, effort, venture, go, crack, shot, stab, essay
Cog: a wheel or bar with a series of projections on its edge that transfers
motion by engaging with projections on another wheel or bar.
Example: It is up to him to sacrifice himself, no longer the hub
of Arsenal's wheel, but a cog in the machine
Crank: turn the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine, typically in order to
start the engine.
Example: Imagine your commanders surprise when you crank up the
engine and hover over the Garage!
Synonyms: start, turn over, get going
Exotic: originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country.
Example: Exotic birds
Synonyms: foreign, nonnative, tropical, introduced, imported; foreign, faraway
