What connects the Yellowstone National Park, Egyptian mummies and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic?
This is a story about a bacteria that changed the world!🦠🦠
An amazing mid-week history story that you never knew!
Read along 🧵
Yellowstone National Park, in western USA, is sort of a living volcano with lots of hot springs, boiling pools and other geothermal fantasies.
In 1969, microbiologist Thomas Brock was visiting the park to test water samples from these boiling hot springs!
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No one expected life to survive in those high temperatures. But to Brock's surprise, there was a bacteria living in it at 80C degrees
It was named Thermus Acquaticus - the one that can live in hot water
It was fascinating, but it just stayed a lab curiosity for the next 20 yrs
Cut to late 1980s. American Biochemist Kary Mullis was trying to replicate copies of DNA from a small sample such that it can be studied in more detail for gene analysis
We didnt have a powerful microscope to look at a small DNA sequence. So replication was a mandatory need.
This could help in many things. Better gene research, archaeological analysis, dating of mummies, identifying criminals in forensics, accurate paternity tests etc etc
Till then, none of these could be done very accurately and Mullis was trying to solve it by replicating DNA
He devised a process where a small piece of DNA was heated until it split. Then an enzyme called Polymerase was used to make another copy of the DNA.
By repeating this process, we could make millions of copies to be studied in more detail. 25 cycles meant 30 million DNA copies!
But the issue was that this Polymerase died on heating as it couldnt survive high temperatures. Mullis then looked up our friend from 1969
Thermus Acquaticus - born for high temperatures. He used it in his process & boom, he could now create a chain reaction of DNA copying! 🧬🧬
Thus was born Polymerase Chain Reaction, short for PCR! Mullis had changed the world overnight and got the 1993 Nobel prize in Medicine for this
We could do better cultural studies using genes, find relatives of Tutankhamun, identify murder criminals, do accurate paternity tests
PCR helped in all sort of gene analysis but was still a complex science term only for 30 years
Till 2020. When the Covid Pandemic hit.
You know where this is going.
We needed a quick way to find if our body had the Coronavirus without extensive lab testing.
Enter RT-PCR!
RT-PCR was a form of Covid testing where a small nasal swab from our body can give multi million copies of DNA which can be examined for the total count of Virus in our body.
We saved millions of lives using a science that wouldn't have existed without this volcanic bacteria!
A bacteria found 50yrs ago that could survive at high temperatures helped us fight the pandemic!
Who knew that even volcanic pool water can be sweeter than nectar!
One cannot not marvel at the great wonder of nature here!
RT if you liked this crazy story & follow for more🦠🧬
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What is happening in Manipur?
Who is fighting with whom?
Why?
The answer involves history & geography.
A simple explainer 🧵
Manipur is full of mountains. And one large valley in the middle called the Imphal Valley.
The mountains are mainly populated by the Kuki people and the Naga people.
The valley is populated by a third clan - the Meitei people.
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Basis historical evidences, its the Meitei & the Naga who have lived in this area from earlier times. A large expansion of Kuki tribe happened during the British era who encouraged more Kuki settlers to balance power against other tribes as part of their 'Divide and Rule policy'
#OnThisDay July 15th, 1799 - A remarkable discovery of a single slab of stone changed our understanding of human history!
It was the finding of the 'Rosetta Stone' by Napoleon's army while trying to build a fort!
Join me on a history tour to visit this crazy story! 🧵
The story starts all the way around 3000 BC when the ancient Pharaonic Egyptian civilization started. We know the Pyramids & the Sphinx but another major relic from then are the Hieroglyphics - an advanced pictorial script that the Egyptians used in their wall inscriptions!
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It was the main script for communication for those in the Nile Delta for more than 2000 years & it was mainly pictorial mixed with grammar and syllables.
But by 300 BC Egypt was under Greek rule, hieroglyphics was being slowly forgotten for the new Greek & Latin scripts 3/n
Lets say you've a simple well in your backyard. One day suddenly you find out that it's hiding a 1000 yr old historic monument!
Imagine the shock & thrill you'll feel as it unravels
Join me to hear one such actual wonder story in Ep3 of #ArtTreasuresofIndia
Rani Ki Vav! 🧵
First the story. 11thC AD. Modern day Gujarat was ruled by the Chaulukya Dynasty with Bhima I as it's king & Udayamati as it's queen. The landscape was part desert & arid like. Water management was a key priority & creating water bodies was a very royal act! 2/n
As Bhima I died, Udayamati was grieving him. It was the time when everyone built temples. But Udayamati decided to build an inverted temple of sorts. 65m long & 20m wide and 28m deep strucutre!
A step well built by the queen in memory of her king - Rani Ki Vav!
This time we travel back 1000 years ago to look at an artwork of astounding beauty commissioned by Rajendra Chola, the all conquering Chola emperor
Join me on a tour to visit the 'Chandesa Anugraha Murthi' - an Indian art marvel
🧵
First the story. In the Chola country, along the banks of the river Vanni in a small village a pious man Yajnadatta is blessed with a son who is named Vicharasarman.
Vicharasarman was very intelligent & one day he sees the village cowherd beating the cows.
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Angry at him, Vicharasarman takes upon himself to tend the village's cows & his love ends up producing a bounty of milk.
Seeing the excess milk going waste, he builds a sand Linga & starts bathing it with the milk everyday & meditates upon Lord Shiva in front of it
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India is facing a poor monsoon this year with many states with deficit rainfall 😰
One of the main reasons for this worrisome situation is the 'El Nino' weather system which has set in this year
Join me in this Geography Explainer on what El Nino is & how it impacts you! 🧵
First lets understand how monsoons form due to winds from the pacific ocean. The Pacific covers almost half the surface area of earth & affects global climate
In a normal year, warm winds blow across the pacific in western direction - from South America to Aus to Asia
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As summer progresses, these warm winds heat up the ocean near India which leads to more evaporation in these waters & leads to formation of the monsoon cloud systems & we promptly get monsoon rains across the country at the start of June