WHOI's Singh: A man of many parts

BACK OF THE BOOK

Hanumant Singh went to the us to become a computer jock. Nothing unusual about that; thousands of Indians follow the same course every year. Except that Singh's conventional story takes a twist; he did do his computer engineering, but then went on to do PhD in oceanographic engineering.

How do you define an ocean engineer? Singh, who is in his mid-30s, is a bit of everything, part biologist, part seismologist, part electronics engineer, part marine archaeologist and part geologist. He works with underwater vehicles and robots to study oceans and their impact on our lives. Ask him how he got interested in oceans, coming as he does from Chandigarh, which is miles away from any ocean, and Singh quips: "It has a lake."

As an assistant scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Massachusetts, Singh is at present writing a proposal to carry out research in the Bay of Bengal. "The Andaman and Nicobar islands are among the most seismologically-active regions in the world. It would be interesting as well as prudent to mount an expedition there, particularly in the wake of the tsunami last year," he says. It will be no easy task as the Bay of Bengal is heavily sedimented, making it difficult to study and map features on the ocean floor. If things go to plan, the project should be on next year.

Singh is in India to gather some information for his proposal, and visit family and friends in Chandigarh. He did his schooling there at St Johns. After one year at Punjab Engineering College, he moved to the US to study computer engineering at George Mason University. How he ended up in WHOI, which is an independent marine research and engineering organisation, is another story.

"I was your typical broke student, looking for work to make some extra money, and I saw this ad from WHOI. Strangely enough, they were looking for someone who could write computer code, which is what I did." That was in 1989.

He talks about how he and his team design and use autonomous underwater vehicles and robots to map and take images of ancient shipwrecks, hydrothermal vents and coral reefs, and unravel other mysteries of ocean science. Recently, he and his team pictured an amazingly healthy deep-water coral reef off Puerto Rico.

Incidentally, a team from the institute led by scientist Bob Ballard had discovered the wreck of the Titanic. While it is pivotal work, Singh thinks it also overshadows the other relevant work that the institute does. "The Titanic sank, let's get over it," he says. He would like to talk about hydrothermal vents, which are like geysers on the ocean floor and support a thriving ecosystem. Scientists believe that hydrothermal vents beneath the ice-covered Arctic Ocean could provide clues to the origin of life on this planet.

Singh also feels that space science is overrated. "Every shuttle expedition costs about $500 million (Rs 2,200 crore). We can only dream of such budgets. The human race knows more about the dark side of the moon than we know about the bottom of the seas."

Singh should know; exploring the deepest parts of the ocean is his mission. The other thing he wants to do is complete a marathon in under three hours. He took part in the Boston Marathon in 1994. "The last six miles are the killer," he says. You see, they aren't underwater.

-Kushan Mitra

TREADMILL
BELT-TIGHTENING TIME

The new gym I'm going to is a plush, glass-and-chrome affair with state-of-the-art equipment, polished trainers and smart spot-boys. The members are all spandexed and brand-tagged. Everyone smells nice; they smile at each other and make polite small-talk. Quite a change from the gyms I've been used to where sweaty, smelly muscle-bound lifters groan, yell and shout profanities all the time. The other thing I noticed is the number of accessories people carry: training gloves, arm-bands, knee-caps and lifting belts. It's these last mentioned items that I'd like to draw attention to. Lifting belts.

Time was when lifting belts were worn by uber-huge powerlifters, snatching and jerking their way to medals at the Olympics or other athletic events. Now, however, every serious gym goer seems to carry one. I've seen grown men lift puny five-pound dumb-bells wearing belts or do weight-free squats with the said items strapped around their waists. Does it matter? Do lifting belts help?

Lifting belts support the lower back when you are lifting heavy weights while standing on your feet-think weighted squats, dead-lifts, even overhead lifts like upright military presses for the shoulders. Belts help reduce stress on the lower back by pressing down on your abdominal cavity, thereby providing support from the front.

When worn, lifting belts have to be tight around the waist but loosened immediately after doing each set of an exercise. This is because a very tight belt can push up your blood pressure. Thus, if you're doing squats, tighten the belt during the set but loosen it immediately afterwards.

Belts are of no use in exercises that do not put pressure on your spinal erectors (muscles that hold up the lower back), or involve lifting light to moderate weights. Always check with a trainer or a physiotherapist (yes, my new gym has a resident physiotherapist!) whether you should wear a belt or not, particularly if you plan to lift heavy weights.

Caveat: The physical exercises described in Treadmill are not recommendations. Readers should exercise caution and consult a physician before attempting to follow any of these.

-Muscles Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com

KNOW YOUR ARRHYTHMIAS

When pop-science dispensers speak of killing-stress, they are referring to arrhythmia (pronounced a-rhythm-ea). Stress isn't the only cause (although it may be the most common). A lowdown:

What: The heart has a natural pacesetter, the sinus node, a cluster of cells in the right atrium responsible for maintaining a steady 60 to 90 heartbeats a minute. When something goes wrong with this mechanism, it causes an increase in heartbeat rate and, subsequently, chest pain, dizziness and light-headedness. In extreme cases the cells in the sinus node could turn malignant.

The cause: Unknown. However, according to Dr K. Subramanyam, Cardiologist, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, arrhythmias may be caused by anything from excessive smoking and intake of alcohol to stress to diabetes.

Symptoms: Increase in heartbeat rate, palpitation, chest pain, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting.

Cure: In the early stages, temperance helps. If malignant, the affected cells have to be killed by radio frequency waves, a process called ablation. Our advice: Just slow down a bit.

-Indrani Rajkhowa