Cosmic ray produced Radioisotopes for studying the General Circulation in the atmosphere

The possibility of using cosmic ray produced radioisotopes for studying large scale circulation in the atmosphere has been explored recently. The potential significance of these isotopes in the field of metrology arises because of the following features in their production and properties-(l) Several radioisotopes are available whose half-lives are comparable to time scales involved in the atmospheric circulation. Four of the isotopes (S35, Be7, P33, and P32) have half-life periods ranging from three months to a fortnight, and one (Na22) has a half-life of about two and a half years, and (2) Isotope production is continuous, constant, strongly dependent on the latitude and altitude in the atmosphere and independent of meteorological factors, These isotopes can be used for investigating the nature of circulation of air in the troposphere and the detailed mechanism of exchange of air between the stratosphere and the troposphere. Experimental work on the use of these isotopes in meteorology has so far been confined mainly to determination of the concentration in rainwater by the Geophysics Research Group of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. Some of the important results of these investigations are summarized in this pa per.

In the field: an interview with Rohini Balakrishnan

Rohini Balakrishnan is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, where she investigates animal communication and bioacoustics. After her undergraduate degree in Biology at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, she completed a Master's degree in Zoology at the University of Pune, India, and a PhD in neurogenetics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, before undertaking postdoctoral research at McGill University, Canada, and the University of Erlangen, Germany. Telling us about her research experiences in the Kudremukh National Park, India, Rohini Balakrishnan reflects on working with crickets, bushcrickets, bats and elephants, explaining how these animals communicate against loud background noise and why silent female bushcrickets are more vulnerable to bat predation than noisy males.

First person – Kalyanasundaram Parthasarathy

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Kalyanasundaram Parthasarathy is first author on ‘Spatial odor discrimination in the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (L.)’, published in BiO. He conducted the research described in this article while a Senior Research Associate in Professor Mark A Willis's lab at the Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He is now a Postdoc in the lab of Professor Sanjay P Sane at National Centre for Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India, investigating how animals use sensory cues to navigate, the related behaviours and the underlying brain function.

Scientometric Analysis of Astrophysics Research Output in India: A Study Based on H Index

This study analyzes the Astrophysics research output in India from the year 1989-2016. The data was downloaded from web of science database which was maintained by Thomson Reuters. The findings of the study revealed that The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has contributed 2725 records in astrophysics research during the study period of 1989-2016. This institute’s h index based local citation score is (LCS) 23 and h-index based on the local citation score excluding self- citations is (LCSX)15 and Global citation score (GCS) is 89.The time series analysis study shows the future trend of growth in astrophysics research output in India might take a decreasing trend during the years to come.