Can we be part of epic discoveries?

On 20 August 1897, in Secunderabad, Ross made his landmark discovery of malarial parasite in the stomach tissue of an anopheline mosquito.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays.

Both the stories were in my standard-V science-book.

I get confused between ‘Ross’ and ‘Rontgen’ all the time. 

® Both their names start with ‘R’.  And I remembered that both had different consonants in their names. Did not remember which was in which.

® ‘Rontgen’ was easy to remember because it is so close to the Indian name of ‘Ranjan’.

® ‘Ross’ could have been associated with fruit juice, but I forgot to make that association that time.

®When in confusion, it is convenient to remember the things they are associated with. That gives a way out to google and confirm.

® ‘Ross’  was in an Indian city of Secunderabad although he was not an Indian citizen. Did India interest him as well?

A discovery is as interesting as an epic.

Memory association with some interesting aspect will create the story. 

I liked Ross’ sketch as a mosquito-fishing scientist.  He found a parasite which hides itself with a protein surface that switches on and off the gene inside to travel in the red blood cells to enter the nucleus of a cell in order to multiply.

So is a virus.

We could control a parasite, but not a virus!

A Virus which does not even have a cell wall, considered to be essential of a living being.   Which means it is not a living creature.

Even then.

 By the way, we have photographed an electron which is just 2 Nanometer of size, then can we not use the X-ray to photograph the virus which is 300 Nano-meter in size?  Perhaps it will be possible to dissect if we can take a detail picture of its structure leading to the invention of a cure. 

To contain COVID-19.

Find yourself. Command attention.

It does not matter how insignificant you are, you can be the immune producing ani-virus. One who flags off dwindling immunity demanding attention. Ensure to be on the positive side. However, one never knows what is termed as ‘positive’, till posterity confirms it.

The process-documentation of the discovery

Stage -1 : Patient proximity

® Ross must have accidentally discovered the mosquito connection. What must have he engaged in? Looking for some pathogen in blood or the vomit material?

® He saw a mosquito biting a patient. That is when he also observed lot of mosquitoes around.

® He observed swampy surroundings

Stage -2 : Withdrawing from the problem scenario

® He traveled to another city on holiday, and on a after-rain long night walk around his place of stay, he was bitten by mosquitoes.

® He thought a mosquito net would be necessary and so he slept inside a net.

Stage -3 : The offsite experience

® He woke up for an early morning walk, and again was bitten.

®He was bitten again by another mosquito while having tea.

® He observed the mosquito which sat down on his hand, as he was  lost in thoughts, might be while sipping the second cup of his tea as it was still very early in the morning.

Stage -4 : Exploring a common occurrence further

® This time he allowed the mosquito to settle down as it pierced thru his skin.

® It sits unusually long if not fended off. Actually it does not fly off on its own at all.

® And the entire action has different sitting position at different stages.

® He took the dead mosquito sample for his investigation.

Never let go of any opportunity to experiment.

Stage -5 : Back to the laboratory

® He returned to Secunderabad and the next day he was keenly observing the mosquito which bit the patient.

® Immediately he saw there was a difference in the mosquito behaviour.

® He observed the mosquito.   It also looked different.

® The patient in the process of fending the mosquito off, actually killed it.

® He took the dead mosquito and the little blood that came out of the mosquito as sample.

®He laboratory tested.  Found the same parasite which he had found in the patient’s blood.

® Was the mosquito affected by the same parasite?

® Where from the parasite came?

Stage -6 : The conjecture

® Apart from the little boy in the house nobody else had the parasite according to his earlier blood testing of the entire family members.

® He had found the same parasite in everybody around the neighbourhood.

® He just had discovered the parasite in the mosquito.

® Is the mosquito responsible?

® He starts fishing more mosquitoes, documenting his findings

Rest is history.

Statutory warning L Not to laugh

Is this has been your journaling as well?

Yours: Sangeeta (Nilima Sangeeta Bandhavgarh)