Monthly Archives: April 2015

Now, a Planet Named After Chess Grand Master Viswanathan Anand

Leaders, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion

VishwanathanCF03apr2015

Chennai :

Here’s a question for the nerds… what do Roger Federer, Jesse Owens, Arsene Wenger, Donald Bradman and India’s Viswanathan Anand have in common?

Well, apart from all of them being connected to some sport, they all have  minor planets named after them. The former World Chess Champion joined this unique club when a minor planet (4538), located roughly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, was named after him.

The newly-named minor planet, (4538 Vishyanand), was discovered by Kenzo Suzuki of Toyota, Japan, on October 10, 1988.

A staff members of Minor Planet Center, Michael Rudenko, was invited to name the object as it remained unnamed for more than 10 years.  “The idea of naming a minor planet for Anand was entirely my own,” Rudenko told Express exclusively. “After careful consideration I selected him because in addition to being a great chess player he is also a gentlemen and astronomy enthusiast,” Rudenko said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Swaroop Swaminathan / April 03rd, 2015

GH institute wins accolades abroad

Science & Technologies, World Opinion

For over five years, William Abraham was in constant pain. It was so excruciating, he would take leave from his job as a computer operator and stay at home for a couple of days.

Today, eight months after his surgery for chronic calcific pancreatitis at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH), Mr. Abraham, 34, has no pain.

His surgery was a combination of two procedures. The delineation of the procedures, as a research paper, won GH’s Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology the ‘Best Free Paper’ award at the Asia Pacific Hepato Biliary Pancreatic Conference held in Singapore, recently.

“Chronic calcific pancreatitis is a condition in which stones develop in the pancreas,” said S.M. Chandramohan, head of the institute.

This could happen to people living in the tropics, or due to alcohol usage, or unknown factors too. Frey’s procedure was a surgery performed on these patients to remove the stones. But the problem was, pain recurred in up to 20 per cent of patients after the surgery,” he said. “One of the reasons for pain after surgery was the irritation of the nerves. Once they were de-sensitised, there was no pain,” said D. Kannan, professor at the institute.

A study performed by the institute between January 2013 and July 2014, when 66 patients were operated on for this condition, showed that with the injection of alcohol, or celiac plexus neurolysis, 97 per cent of patients did not suffer from pain, post the surgery.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – April 03rd, 2015