Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
THE NANO WORLD
THE NANO WORLD Prologue: Can you identify what is this? A group of scientists discovered that placing gold nanoparticles within the leaves of trees causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow. The idea of using trees to replace street lights is an ingenious one – not only would it save on electricity costs and cut carbon dioxide emissions, but it could also greatly reduce light pollution in major cities. The picture speaks louder than the words. Majority people of the world know very little about nanotechnology & nanoparticles but we are ushering in an era of nano-revolution which is going to change our lives for ever. I myself was as ignorant as you on this subject until I decided to welcome the year 2011 with a novelty. Nano (symbol n) is a prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 10 – 9 or 0.000000001. The […]
GENETICALLY MODIFIED
GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM): Prologue: A year 2006 study of the global impact of GM crops, published by the UK consultancy PG Economics and funded by Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance concluded that globally, the technology reduced pesticide spraying by 286,000 tons in 2006, decreasing the environmental impact of herbicides and pesticides by 15%. On the other hand, a year 2009 study published by the Organic Center stated that the use of genetically engineered corn, soybean, and cotton increased the use of herbicides by 383 million pounds, and pesticide use by 318.4 million pounds. Whom to trust? This is the paradox about GM food. There are thousands of studies and research works on GM whose conclusions contradict each other. People are caught in the cross-fire between pro-GM lobby and anti-GM lobby. I do not know the truth but I will try to educate people on the most controversial issue of 21’st century. […]
HUMAN ERROR
HUMAN ERROR Prologue: On 10’th December 1996, the Mumbai high court passed an ex-party order asking me to pay rupees 10,000 every month to estranged wife on the ground that my lawyer was absent in the court-room. I immediately appealed to the divisional bench of Mumbai high court. The divisional bench of two judges heard my appeal and reduced the amount to rupees 7,000 in the open court in front of everybody present and dictated the court typist to type the new order. The court then got busy with many other matters pending before it. However the court typist typed rupees 10,000 in the new order. Later on, my lawyer met the judges in their chamber and pointed out the typographical error. The judges refused to accept human error and said that due to inflation, cost of living is more and therefore rupees 10000 is appropriate. Till today, I […]
SEX EDUCATION
SEX EDUCATION: Prologue: When I was a small child of about 6 to 8 years old, I asked my relatives about how I came to this world. They told me that a child comes from heaven. I was wandering how it is possible; even at that immature age. Nobody told me that relationship between a man and a woman brings a child. When I got admission in medical college at the age of 17 years, my friends who got admission in engineering college came to my house to see anatomy books. I was surprised. I asked them what they want. They told me that they want to know everything about male and female genitalia as they are growing up and they have no knowledge about it. Most teens want to know about sex but do not know how to get information. So they buy magazines & books, see movies, visit […]
DENGUE
DENGUE: Prologue: I have treated about 150 patients of dengue fever in the year 2008 and 2009 in India and I want to share my experience with the rest of the world about this not-so-bad infamous disease which was wrongly labeled ‘horrible’ as patient’s relatives run from one place to another place in search of platelet transfusion looking at low platelet count with fear and the fear psychosis augmented by treating doctors. Synonyms and abbreviations: Dengue fever = DF Dengue hemorrhagic fever = DHF Dengue shock syndrome = DSS Dengue virus = DENV DIC = disseminated intravascular coagulation GI tract = gastrointestinal tract NSAIDS = non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs Normal saline = 0.9 % sodium chloride solution = 9 gram salt dissolved in 1 Liter water. ICF = intracellular fluid ECF = extracellular fluid = interstitial fluid + intravascular fluid Dengue fever is an acute febrile viral illness caused […]
