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Chandrayaan is on its way to the moon, regarded by many Indians as a god, but ‘devout Hindus - many of them, no doubt, rocket scientists - see no disharmony between ancient Vedic beliefs and contemporary scientific practice’, according to a New York Times opinion article.

A week before India’s moon mission was launched Oct 22, millions of Hindu women embarked on a customary daylong fast of Karva Chauth, meant to ensure a husband’s welfare, broken at night on the first sighting of the moon’s reflection in a bowl of oil, Tunku Varadarajan wrote in the NYT Wednesday.

Reverence for the moon, he said, extends to the website of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which carries this verse from the Rig Veda, a sacred Hindu text that dates back some 4,000 years: ‘O Moon! We should be able to know you through our intellect,/ You enlighten us through the right path.’

The seeming contradiction between religion and science, between reason and superstition is resolved in India by its ‘modernity of tradition’, Varadarajan writes, borrowing the phrase from the political scientists Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph.

Varadarajan is a professor of business at New York University and the opinion editor at Forbes.com.

He notes that the Hindu astrological system is predicated on lunar movements, but clarifies: ‘The genius of modern Hinduism lies in its comfort with, and imperviousness to, science.’

He relates how days after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, a model of the lunar module was placed in a courtyard of the most venerable temple in Varanasi, the holy city.

‘The Hindu faithful were hailing man-on-the-moon; there was no suggestion that the Americans had committed sacrilege,’ Varadarajan writes, adding - with a caveat against exaggeration - that science sometimes struggles to co-exist with faith in the US in ways that would disconcert many Indians.

The opinion piece writer then also concedes that India’s first lunar mission is no doubt a grand political gesture - space exploration in the service of national pride.

‘This kind of excursion may provoke yawns at NASA, but judging from round-the-clock local coverage it has received, the mission has clearly inflamed the imagination and ambition of Indians. Yes, even moon-worshipping ones.’

Scientists at Newcastle University have now unravelled the mechanism by which the fundamental building blocks of life, proteins and metals, bind together.

Lead author Professor Nigel Robinson has revealed the mechanism, which ensures that the right metal goes to the right protein.

Life, microbe, plant or human, are all made up of atoms, which include metals such as copper and manganese which act as catalysts in proteins, which in turn around the metal atoms.

In their study, the researchers had shown that copper and manganese protein wrap around the correct metal atoms in different parts of the cell, which are zones containing different metals. Thus, which protein attaches to which metal is determined by where the folding action takes place in the cell.

Earlier scientists believed that the right metals were simply those, which were most attracted to the protein, but the new study led by Professor Nigel Robinson at Newcastle University, might change this perception.

“This has taken us one step closer to understanding why metals and proteins assemble in the ways they do,” Nature quoted Robinson as saying.

He added: “One motive behind the work is pure curiosity, but as so many proteins need metals this type of work has many potential uses - for example, in synthetic biology which is striving to produce green power from bacteria by using energy from sunlight to produce hydrogen gas, a process which needs nickel and iron.

“It may also help in diseases such as Alzheimers where there are unexplained links to proteins binding metals such as copper. There’s also application in controlling infections by Staphylococcus aureus; a bacterium which our bodies defences succeed - or sometimes fail - in killing by removing manganese and zinc from abscesses.”

In the study, it was demonstrated that the way the metals attach is identical for a protein that binds manganese to one that binds copper. In both cases the metals bind inside protein barrels with the same type of metal-attractions.

The researchers carried out the work in a blue-green algae, a cyanobacterium, and showed that a protein requiring copper transports to the periplasm, the outer area of the cell, where it then folds around the available metal, which is copper.

On the other hand, manganese and not copper atoms are found in the cytosol, in the middle of the cell. They showed that a protein requiring manganese folds in the cytosol. The manganese protein is then transported to the periplasm having first trapped its manganese.

In the new study, the researchers first developed a new approach to discover metal-binding proteins, which is now being swiftly applied to lots of other types of living cells and other essential metals (zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron).

The study is published in the recent issue of Nature.

Lauding India on its first unmanned scientific mission to the moon, the US Wednesday said it showcased its technological prowess and exemplified ideals of bilateral partnership between the two countries.

“The US congratulates India on the successful launch. This is a proud moment in Indian history and demonstrates India’s technological prowess by joining the international community in the peaceful exploration of space,” US ambassador David Mulford said in a statement here.

Alluding to two instruments provided by the US for Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, the US envoy said the launch in which scientists from the US worked closely with their Indian partners, exemplified “the ideals of our bilateral partnership”.

The 44.4-metre-tall, 316-tonne rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11), had a copybook launch at 6.20 a.m. from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh Wednesday morning and completed its mission by placing Chandrayaan-1 into its scheduled orbit around the earth within 18 minutes, as planned.

The spacecraft carries 11 scientific instruments, five from India and six from universities and laboratories of the European Space Agency, the US and Bulgaria.