Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment:

Japan plans to scrap n-plants after 40-year mark

• Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis
• Many more of the 54 reactors in Japan will reach the 40-year mark in the near future, though some were built only a few years ago.

  • The new restrictions mean that only six Japanese reactors are currently running.
  • Japan is likely to face a power shortage if it carries out the 40-year rule
• The law may include loopholes to allow some old nuclear reactors to keep running if their safety is confirmed with tests.
• The proposal could be similar to the law in the U.S., which grants 40-year licenses and allows for 20-year extensions. Such renewals have been granted to 66 of 104 U.S. nuclear reactors.
• Japan does not currently have a limit on years of operation. It had planned to expand nuclear power before the meltdown, but has since ordered reactors undergoing routine inspections to undergo new tests and get community approval before they can be restarted.

Study points to medicinal value of Vechur cow milk

• The Vechur cow, acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest in the world (90 cm in height), is in the news again after a scientific analysis of its milk confirmed medicinal properties. 

  It is an indigenous breed of Kerala

  It has anti-bacterial property in the protein component of the cow's milk
• The study by a Kochi-based institute was published in the International Journal of Functional and Evolutionary Genomics (GENE)
• The finding could provide a boost to the rearing of Vechur cows, which had been categorised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations as a critical breed, implying that it was rare and facing extinction.
• The Lactoferrin gene of the cow was sequenced and expressed for the first time

  • Lactoferrin (Lf) is a glycoprotein. 
  • The full coding region of Lf gene of the cow was cloned and sequenced. 
  • Antibacterial activity of the recombinant Lf showed suppression of bacterial growth. 
  • To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the full coding region of Lf gene of the Vechur breed is sequenced, successfully expressed, and characterised
• The three-dimensional structure analysis of the protein confirmed the ‘Arginine' position. 

  • Arginine is an amino acid with specific therapeutic functions like wound healing, cell proliferation, cell signalling, and management of cardio-vascular diseases