Wonders of knowledge Do you want to know about the number of species found in the Moyar river in the Nilgiris? Simple, all you need to do is track fisherman Kellappan. He knows! And nobody else does. And while there are about 300 species of medicinal plants in Karnataka alone, available data is on one or two species like the Amla alone. Now consider this. The largest sacred grove in the Western Ghats containing biodiversity hotspot lies in Kerala in a privately owned land! If all that sounds pretty tough to believe, you have Prof Madhav Gadgil’s word for it. Speaking at a sectional session on the scientific challenges of the recently passed Biological Diversity Act, 2002 he noted how the Act would bring some home in documentation and dissemination of information on biodiversity hitherto unavailable. Stressing on the need to harness local knowledge, he, however cautioned that this knowledge which is all that we have on many topics will have to be validated before being used. It would be a useful exercise to employ the locals in gathering this information, he said talking of how high school teachers in 42 villages were able to help with info on 170 plant species found in the western ghats. Centuries-old farming practices Fourteen panel sessions on varying topics from bettering silk yields to modern day maths to alternative medicines for malaria seemed to give the audience at the 90th session of the Indian Science congress enough matter to chew on. Sericulture is almost a 2000-year-old farming practice in India said Dr Gopinathan of the Indian Institute of Science as he spoke on Impact of Genomics and Biotechnology in Sericulture. India being the second largest producer of silk in the world, the impetus is now on how to produce better quality silk from the existing native and exotic species of the silkworm and think of alternate uses of the silkworm besides production of silk. An effort in this direction has been made through the production of transgenic silkworms that carry for example the luciferin protein and therefore 'glow'. To do that the the polyhedral gene of the common virus that infects the silkworm - BmNPV has been replaced by the gene that codes for luciferin. Similar experiments are on to produce transgenic silkworms that could probably produce the human growth hormone or probably carry hepatitis vaccine so that these insects would act as natural bioreactors of the future. Work at this end is on and the future holds great promise, said Dr Gopinathan. ÿ