Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon'ble Union Minister for Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences inaugurated ISOTRACE LABORATORY at NCAOR.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon'ble Union Minister for Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences inaugurated a state-of the-art research facility called ISOTRACE LABORATORY at the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research at its campus in Vasco da Gama. Dr. Shailesh Nayak the Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences was the chief guest at a function held on Monday in presence of Dr. M. Ravichandran, the Director, ESSO - NCAOR. The newly created facility is first of its kind in the country to enable scientists to carry out research on trace metals in oceans in a most efficient and clean way. The newly created completely metal-free calss 10000 clean laboratory would help scientists to carry out research on chemistry of ocean waters. Understanding the role of oceans in future climate change are crucial since the ocean offer the only possible natural sink for the rising greenhouse gases. However, to estimate this capability of oceans in sequestering gases like CO2 will depend on our knowledge of the functioning of oceanic ecosystem that depends on the inputs of micronutrients like iron in the ocean. Since analysis of trace metal like iron concentrations in ocean are limited by the various possible contaminations, it is necessary to have a totally metal free clean lab facility. The newly created research facility at NCAOR would help Indian scientists to carry out their cleanest possible chemical analysis  that would be internationally reliable and comparable.