A novel Science Communication Conclave at IIT Kharagpur tries to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the media to pave the way for better news dissemination
February 28 was the day C.V. Raman went to the media to disclose to the world his discovery of the ‘Raman effect’. What better way to celebrate National Science Day, as this day is known, than re-energize the bond between the scientific community and its messengers and interlocutors – the media? That is precisely what IIT Kharagpur’s two-day Science Communication Conclave 2020 has done. This unique initiative of the Institute brought together top science journalists and communicators throughout India, researchers, faculty and students to deliberate on how best to disseminate news from the world of science and technology.
In his address to the audience, Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur, pointed out, “National Science Day is a reminder of the importance of science dissemination and it should be done by any means possible.”
Was this task of dissemination of news related to science and technology anyway being jeopardized by scientists’ reservations about opening up to the media? Were journalists jeopardizing the intent and purpose of communication in their hurry to ‘break news’? Is scientific jargon serving as a barrier to the correct representation of scientific developments? Is science news becoming less popular? Could there be ways to spur its popularization?
The congregation of mediapersons, scientists, as well as students took a hard look at the issues at hand. Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean, International Relations, convenor of the event, set the tone by opening the conclave with a presentation on the development of cloning technology that at once highlighted the follies and expected rigour of reportage on a scientific development. “There is an enormous need to disseminate factually correct information and at the same time to live up to the demands of the media industry,” said Prof. Bhattacharya.
For some years now, science news have taken a backseat in traditional media. Supplements dedicated to science have been dropped and science news have shrunk often to half a page being devoted to it. Senior journalists, such as Ms. T.V. Padma and Mr. Dinesh Sharma, highlighted the problems facing science journalism today – organizationational constraints of the media houses who were dependent on advertisements, the preference for ‘breaking news’, low priority for science news vis a vis political news and news from the world of entertainment, the lack of mentoring of science journalists, the lack of infrastructural support or of networking bodies.
They also drew attention to what they called ‘communication bottlenecks’ with the scientific community that were adding to the troubles. Often, scientists’ unwillingness to publicly communicate on research and the lack of an institutional policy on communication complicated matters.
Despite the drawback, senior journalists such as Mr. Pathik Guha (Anandabazar), Mr. Amal Sarkar (Ei Samay), Ms. Padma, Mr. Sharma, Mr. B.R. Srikanth, and a younger crop, such as Mr. Mohamad Shafi Shamsi, Mr. Indrajit Kundu, Mr. Sujoy Dhar, or Mr. Shwetank Dubey, were making all out efforts to encourage public interest in science through innovative ways of story-telling or through the use of more visual elements such as infographics.
In fact, alternative media appear to be making a major advance in this respect by opening up ways for better and more impactful science communication. “We live in the times of ‘convergence media’,” remarked Mr Sujoy Dhar, correspondent for Reuters in Kolkata and a writer for Inter Press Service (IPS), pointing to the enormous advantages of online news dissemination.
Ms Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya, National Editor at Citizen Matters, an online civic media platform that researches and reports on critical urban issues, pointed out, “Online has a lot of space and can also experiment with different formats. It is a foregone conclusion that videos, podcasts and photoessays have a lasting impact and can catch a readers’ attention further.”
Ms Sahana Ghosh, staff writer with Mongabay, an international science news website, said, “With sound graphics, infographics, and other visuals, a story can be told in a wonderful manner. There is also scope for collaborations and cross-disciplinary work. The advantage for scientists lies in the fact that we can create high impact small packets of information and these are easy to digest.”
The conclave also showcased the works of two science communicators with a difference – Ms Ipsa Jain, currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Bengaluru, who uses art and aesthetics as a vehicle for storytelling, and Lipsa Panda, currently working as a visual research communicator for the Lancet and FT commission, who also holds a PhD in Respiratory Immunology from CSIR- IGIB, Delhi. “Science cannot be breaking news but it has to be disseminated. A quick check and you will see that newspapers have 20 million readers, but Facebook has 2.9 billion, and YouTube 1.9 billion…. These are the platforms through which you can bring awareness about what kind of research you are trying to do, and this awareness can create interest so the audience will eventually demand to read science news,” argued Lipsa at a panel discussion on the ‘Role of alternative media in taking science to a wider audience’.
The poster exhibitions of the work of Ms. Jain and Ms. Panda at the conclave, which drew a lot of attention, clarified their point even better.
How could the scientific community help the media in its efforts for wider news dissemination? The discussions at the conclave seemed to suggest a few ways.
For one, greater cooperation between scientifists and mediapersons. “Remember, we are not adversaries. We need each other to take the news of science to the people,” said Prof. Pallab Dasgupta, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who was also panellist at the discussion titlted “Lab to media – bridging the language gap”.
A greater interaction with mediapersons, in fact, had helped both Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, renowned hydro-geologist and Associate Professor, Geology and Geophysics, and Prof. Bhargab Maitra, a noted expert in urban planning and development, and transportation and Head of the Ranbir Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management and Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, to make an impact at the level of policy-making. Both of them pointed this out during their talk at the conclave.
Another way that emerged from the discussions was training scientists and researchers on public communication. Several among IIT Kharagpur’s faculty acknowledged the need for it to ensure correct reportage of scientific developments. Some like Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dean of the Office of Sponsored and Industrial Research Consultancy at IIT Kharagpur, had already started the initiative by asking his students to put down their research work in the simplest possible language. “The more effective the communication, the more effective the way the journalist can disseminate the news. In fact, this kind of training is part and parcel of advanced research for students around the world,” said Prof. Chakraborty.
A host of IIT faculty talked about new and emerging areas of research. Prof. Swagata Dasgupta on protein chemistry, Prof. Sudeshna Sarkar on Artifical Intelligence, Prof. Saibal Gupta on ‘analogous studies’ of planetary topography, Prof. Chacko Jacob on nanomaterials and new materials, Prof. Brajesh Dubey on waste management, Prof. Sangeeta Bhattacharya on public health matters and Prof. Dilip Swain on food security. Many of them cautioned the media against hype.
As Prof. Sunando Dasgupta, Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Head of the Advanced Technology Development Centre, IIT Kharagpur, pointed out, “Science is a process of inquiry. You cannot expect breaking news to happen on a daily basis… For example, there can be no breaking news in cancer cure. It is an ongoing work and the steps that we take are at best incremental. But yes, scientists need to explain what they are doing. However, they are not trained to communicate what they are doing.”
Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, former Director of IIT Kharagpur, left a lasting impression with his concluding talk on Vigyan Katha Sagar, his proposed mission to take science to school children through Next-gen stories that embed principles of modern science and technology and enable critical thinking. Prof. Chakrabarti wrote, “The talk was inspired by the timeless masterpiece – Kathasaritsagar and its immense potential for a revisit. I illustrated the untapped power of simple age-old stories like Thirsty Crow in modern light and gave a sample of some of my own initial attempts at story-telling on problems solving and algorithm design meant for school students. Request others to share their ideas and possible stories.”
The Clinical Biomarkers Discovery Laboratory at IIT Kharagpur is actively involved in using the newly emerged field of metabolomics, which is capable of providing biological end-point markers of the cellular processes that occur as a result of disease. The lab focuses on the use of metabolomics for comprehensive identification of disease biomarkers and understanding of the pathogenic mechanism underlying complex human diseases. Prof. Koel Chaudhury, who heads the lab, talks to the KGP Chronicle about how she has used the metabolomics approach to investigate women’s health, the progress her team has made and the future challenges. 
The approach to illness and disease management has changed considerably with the evolution of medicine. In the past, medicine was strictly practiced according to the symptoms presented by the patient and was essentially based on the individual expertise of the physician, and thus was known as intuition medicine. Presently, medicine is based on the evidence produced by scientific research which also include the clinical trials, and is termed as evidence-based medicine. Most of the medical treatments today are designed for the average patient using the “one-size-fits-all” approach. Unfortunately, this type of treatment is seen to be very successful for some patients but not for others. In future, medicine is to be practiced according to algorithms that will take into consideration the patient’s characteristics, e.g. their genome, epigenetics, microbiomes, proteomes, metabolomes, environments and lifestyle to make diagnostic and therapeutic strategies precisely tailored to individual patients. It is envisioned that this will lead to the emergence of an effective P4 (predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory) healthcare system.
Our team uses the multi-omics approach including quantitative proteomics, NMR and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to identify robust biomarkers in serum/urine/tissues/exhaled breath condensates/bronchoalveolar fluid which can assist in early disease prediction, identify disease sub-categories and predict individual disease risk. We also use ‘omics’-driven studies to enhance our understanding of the disease pathogenesis and monitor the therapeutic effect of drugs so that personalized therapeutic strategies targeting the underlying disease etiology can be developed.
Some of the clinical research questions our team is presently addressing using the ‘omics’ approach are listed below:
In what stage of development is this research?
Our research is translational and interdisciplinary in nature. We have active collaboration with clinicians and faculty members of various departments within the Institute. The aim of our team is to carry out ‘omics’-driven translational health research which will provide the ideal platform to diagnose diseases early in a non/minimally invasive and cost-effective manner.
It was in 1920 that Hermann Staudinger, the legendary German organic chemist, proposed the concept of ‘macromolecules’. Since then macromolecules have revolutionized the materials sciences and biosciences and supported the rapid growth of the plastics industry. It is not without surprise that the Rubber Technology Centre of IIT Kharagpur, which has spearheaded research in rubber and polymers since its inception in the 1980s, should think it fit to celebrate the beginning of the second century of the macromolecule with the holding of the International Conference on ‘Green and Sustainability in Polymers and Functional Materials: Opportunity and Challenges’, particularly at a time when the environmental alarm bells have been ringing loud.
The conference, held under the aegis of MHRD’s SPARC scheme and in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, saw three plenary lectures and 14 invited lectures by distinguished scientists, faculty members and technologists from the academia and industry, who talked about the recent advances in green polymerization techniques, the development of new and sustainable functional materials and the use of these in diverse applications that ranged from the automobile industry to drug delivery.
In his inspiring plenary lecture, Dr S. Sivaram from IISER, Pune took the audience through the fractious yet scintillating history of the discovery of the ‘Macromolecule’ and showed how polymer science is indebted not merely to Staudinger, but to a host of other scientists, starting from Michael Faraday in 1826 – who first noticed ethylene and butene differed in their gas density, but had the same elemental composition, and opened up immense possibilities – to Wallace Carothers – who gave polymers its most acceptable definition – to Herman Mark in the late 20th century, who led the way for the X-ray crystallography of Macromolecules to show that a molecule could be larger than its unit cell.
Dr Sivaram also talked about the future possibilities of aliphatic polyesters such as polylactic acid (PLLA) and its competitive advantage over PET as a biodegradable, sustainable option. “There is still scope for new monomers and improved chemistry to tailor the structure and properties of aliphatic polyesters as a platform for sustainable materials.” Prof. Vimal Katiyar from IIT Guwahati too talked about PLLA and explained how bionanofillers could vastly improve the properties of PLLA.
New techniques for the development of new functional materials were elaborated severally by the speakers. Among them were Dr Sayam Sen Gupta from IISER Kolkata, who talked about fabricating porous materials through self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticles and silk proteins, Prof. Kinsuk Naskar of IIT Kharagpur, who gave an overview of the generation of thermoplastic elastomers and thermoplastic vulcanizates, and Dr Nabendu B. Pramanik from the Department of Chemistry, Lehigh University, USA, who talked about the development of hyperthin polymeric membranes for the separation of carbondioxide from flue gas as a way to fight global warming. Dr Hirendra N. Ghosh from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, elucidated on a new technique regarding metal-semiconductor interface that could majorly impact the production of solar cell and optoelectronic devices.
Both the industry representatives – Dr Virendra Kumar Gupta from Reliance Industries, and Dr Sujit S. Nair from Ceat talked about their initiatives in developing high performance elastomers with self-healing properties or functionalized polymers for new generation green tires that will make up 90% of the need of the automobile industry in the near future. Both of them talked about their company’s collaboration with IIT Kharagpur in the development of these polymers. “We have collaborative projects with different industries like major petrochemical industries in India and abroad, different tire industries, different rubber and polymer manufacturing industries in India and abroad, coating, paint industries etc.” reminded Prof Santanu Chattopadhyay, Head of the Rubber Technology Centre.
A major emphasis of the conference was on the use of various polymers for drug delivery. Dr Suhrit Ghosh from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science talked about the use of biodegradable polydisulfide in efficient drug delivery and drug release. Dr Braja Gopal Bag of Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, talked about the use of hybrid material –terpenoids – extracted from plants which showed great promise in drug delivery. Prof. Santanu Dhara of IIT Kharagpur talked about the various advances made by the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering group of the Institute in the development of customized biodegradable implants and the use of biological wastes for development of biopolymers and materials for healthcare delivery.
Dr Nabanita Saha of the University Institute, Tomas Bata University, Czech Republic gave the audience an introduction to her work in the development of magnetic insoles to help blood circulation in diabetic patients and the future prospects of ‘magnetic hydrogel’, a biomaterial that involved a polymer matrix. Prof. Rajat Das of IIT Kharagpur also talked about the development of highly stretchable, strong dual cross-linked self-healing hydrogels.
The increase in global surface temperature or global warming is a great concern, especially the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomena which is among the major consequences of the alteration of the earth’s surface due to human activities. The relatively warmer temperatures in urban areas compared to their suburban areas has potential health hazards, such as mortality due to high temperatures and heatwaves, and pollution in urban areas, opine the researchers Sarath Raj, Prof. Saikat Kumar Paul, Prof. Arun Chakraborty and Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath.
The key finding in the study is the role of anthropogenic activities in increasing the urban temperature in India. As per a World Bank report, approximately a third of the total population in India (~7% of the total world population) lived in cities in 2018. The trend shows an increase of urbanization by almost 4% in the last decade, meaning people have moved away from rural areas to find work and make a living in the cities. To accommodate the additional needs of this increasing population the cities have witnessed some of the major human activities pertaining to changes in land use and land cover through a decrease in green cover, increase in impervious surface area and infrastructural development. In addition, the UHI situation demands more energy (e.g. fans and air-conditioners) that would trigger greenhouse gas emissions. These have led to modify the temperature of a city, remarks said lead author of the paper Sarath Raj.
These data are also supported by the analysis of aerosols, night lights, precipitation and vegetation in the study regions. In areas like Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati etc where the urban areas are surrounded by large vegetated areas in suburban regions there is an enhanced cooling effect on surface in suburban areas during day as against cities like Delhi, Jaipur and cities in arid regions.