January 4, 1999
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Heroes,
Villains and Zeroes '98 AVELIN
MARY Small-college facilities, perplexing problems, dangerous chemicals -- nothing would stop the nun from her award-winning research.
On August 24, 1998, an Indian was named one of the "2,000 outstanding scientists of the 20th century" by the International Biographical Research Centre at Cambridge. Two months later, the American Biographical Institute selected her "Woman of the Year 1998". Sister Avelin Mary, a shy Tamil nun barely known outside Tuticorin's St Mary's College, became a celebrity. The college principal's findings will potentially save millions of dollars and offer a magic solution to "fouling" -- the chemical coating a ship acquires over years on the sea. This adds to its weight, reducing speed as well as fuel efficiency. For ages mankind's only response was scrubbing. Then scientists discovered fouling mixes seemed to steer clear of coral beds and sponges in the sea and concluding that the chemical continuously oozing from the corals was a fouler fighter. Sister Avelin, with a PhD in marine biology, was fascinated with this discovery and went on to discover that several soft corals of the Indian Ocean contained fouler inhibitors. Of these, Juncelia juncea contained the most potent compounds. Its extract is now called Juncelin in honour of its discoverer. The discovery is yet to find commercial exploitation. Within Sister Avelin throbs a stout Indian heart: "My success shows that we are equal to the West." In the end, Sister Avelin may or may not conquer commerce. But she has already achieved something greater -- a reconciliation of spiritualism and science.
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