H. Gobind Khorana, 1968 Nobel Winner for RNA Research, Dies | Hacker News Reader

H. Gobind Khorana, 1968 Nobel Winner for RNA Research, Dies

nytimes.com

101 pointsnikhilpandit13 comments

I am an Indian, and it is usually a matter of pride for us that people of Indian origin have scaled heights in academia and elsewhere. Which is why it surprises me that the largest Indian English dailies that I subscribe to, haven't really said much about the passing of a great scientist. They seem more busy in talking about perfectly useless reality shows.

The Hindu covered it prominently. That's how I came to know. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/eco...

I am sure they would have covered some fad in the science & technology section. Like some vague research claiming that wine is good for heart or chocolate is good for memory etc.

The truth is that most of Indian dailies are not fit for reading any science related news or even news for that matter.

  The truth is that most of Indian dailies are not fit for reading any science related news or even news for that matter.

With the exception of "The Hindu", which is the only daily I find professional, without bias to any ideology/organisation and mostly free of grammatical, spelling and other errors.

"The Hindu", which is the only daily I find professional, without bias to any ideology/organisation

'The Hindu' is generally considered pro-CPM (Communist Party) hereabouts (South India).

Indeed.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article25...

  A leading light of the Telangana Armed Struggle, a first 
  generation communist leader and veteran trade unionist Raj 
  Bahadur Gaur passed away here on Friday morning. ... The 
  CPI and several other organisations mourned the death of 
  the communist leader who enjoyed wide respect.

The editor is a former communist and the editorials reflect his pro-CPM views, but on the whole, the articles are mostly neutral and reported in a matter of fact way.

It is more like center leftist. Although politicians of CPM do feature on editorials

I wish it were true. It is more than 'center leftist', it has a blatant left bias which even clouds the reporting. I was an ardent reader of 'The Hindu' but stopped reading it after its coverage on issues like: 'Nandigram', 'US India Nuclear deal'. IIRC it used to carry reports about Chavez hailing him as great leader, but reports from other newspaper doesn't seem to imply the same. So I stopped reading it all together.

It is sad that are no good English dailies (in India) which concentrate on issues that matter to people. Much of them don't carry any detailed reports, focus on celebrity gossip and/or are blatantly biased.

I am also Indian. And I have never considered him Indian just because he was born in India. He moved away very early in his life and became an American citizen in 1966. The only mention of India in the article is once in the 1st para. So, for me, he was American in all significant aspects.

One of those giants people are always standing on the shoulders of.

And he stood on his share. Watson and Crick. That teacher under the tree in his village. His father.

It surprises me how few Indians know about Khorana. He is the only Indian (person of Indian origin) to be awarded the prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Khorana and his team had established that the mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid.

Khorana was the first scientist to synthesize oligonucleotides.

He extended the above to long DNA Polymers using non-aqueous chemistry and assembled these into the first synthetic gene, using polymerase and ligase enzymes that link pieces of DNA together. as well as methods that anticipated the invention of PCR.

These custom-designed pieces of artificial genes are widely used in biology labs for sequencing, cloning and engineering new plants and animals.

Khorana's invention has become automated and commercialized so that anyone now can order a synthetic gene from any of a number of companies. One merely needs to send the genetic sequence to one of the companies to receive an oligonucleotide with the desired sequence.

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