Unlocking the riddle of life

Sophie Amundsen begins her philosophical quest after she gets mail from an anonymous Philosopher asking her `Who are you?’, `Where does the world come from?’ The 14-year old girl, the central character in Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, finds herself enrolled in a pursuit to untangle the riddle of life. While this novel about the history of philosophy, one of my favourite books, dwells on life’s mysteries philosophically, I can’t help asking the same questions and more from a scientific perspective. Do we know where we come from, why we are here and, most importantly, why we ask why?
I would have been perfectly happy had I believed in the certitudes of religious faith with its cosy idea of god-designed world. But such a divine-created world based on the creation myth in the scriptures has been destabilised after Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in the 19 th century. The theory of evolution and natural selection explodes this designed world and shows the stark reality that there is no clearly designed plan in which humans are inevitable. All life forms undergo mutations. A mutation can be a fatal defect and once in a great while that mutation acquires a better chance of survival and reproduction.
I know people who find it very difficult to digest the idea of evolution. This difficulty, however, arises from their failure to understand the gradual process of evolution, changes that occur over a period of a million years or 10 million years. Jonathan Weiner, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (1995) explains the human difficulty to imagine changes that occur over the vast span of life with the image of frozen waterfalls he used to see during his journeys. Though we can infer from this image that water was trickling down the cliff, that it was gradually frozen and that all those shapes of ice have been formed by the gradually accumulated flow, we don’t see ourselves any of that flow as we drive by, he says.
But science has made it easier for us to understand evolution by unlocking the codes in our cellular DNA, the human genome. According to J. Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, scientists are yet to find out a gene structure that is unique only to humans. There are some differences in the gene structures of various species, but these differences are minor, he says reminding us that everyone of our genes came from another species at some other time.
Recently, scientists found bacteria that have been locked in salt crystals for 250 million years. In our brains formed by `unimaginably complex matrix of nerve cells’, there are some structures that are similar to the genetic code of this bacteria. Doesn’t it shed light on the mystery of evolution that took an immense amount of time?. The competitive instinct to survive and the ability to attract best mates are part of the story of evolution that is now being unravelled by the study of genes.
According to fossil scientists, Homo sapiens emerged 100,000 years ago, while sharks evolved 100 million years ago and survived the asteroid impact that eliminated nearly everything. Examining the structure of the DNA double helix molecule, the scientists have found that we humans have almost exactly the same code for life of the shark. As Dr. Venter says, a lot of our protein sequences are 100 per cent identical in all mammals. It was three-and-a-half billion years ago that the first DNA molecule began to replicate and acquired complexity though it is based on a simple four-letter code: four amino acids which in endless combinations controlled all of life then and now. “We (humans) are a tiny little blip in time for evolution”, says biologist Rob Shumaker.
Darwin was 26 when he visited Galapagos Islands in September 1835 when he was serving as naturalist at HMS Beagle. Though he stayed there for just five days, what he found there, strange animals, inspired him to do more researches for solving the `mystery of mysteries’. Darwin got his cue from pigeon breeders who could breed a large variety of pigeons. This helped him imagine evolution occurring over a vast time scale. “Human imagination is very limited. We are very bad in making intuitive guess as to how long it would take to evolve something”, says Richard Dawkins.
Imagination is now replaced by technology which allows us to observe evolution in action. The HIV/AIDS virus identified in early 1980s, for example, had been changing itself so rapidly that human immune system can’t keep up with the changes evolving in the machinery of its own cells. We can also see farmers fighting against pests which fight back with their weapon of rapid evolution to equip themselves to survive deadly pesticides.
Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, the idea that organisms compete to attract mates, explains the use of ornate feathers of peacock. Evolutionary psychologists propose that sexual selection was central to the development of the human intelligence and ability to create music, art and poetry. “…this fantastically elaborated gift that we have for language, for understanding with each other, for empathising with each other…is as fantastic as the peacock’s tail”, says Jonathan Weiner. “We are both highly influenced by both genes and culture”, adds Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine.
What could have happened to Sophie Amundsen as she comes to the end of her philosophical mission to solve the riddle? She realises that the truth is far more complex than she could have imagined as she finds that she is only a character in the novel.
(This write-up is based on `Understanding Evolution’, a documentary produced and written by Ned Judge and telecast by The Science Channel.)

German vistas

I have been busy for the last few days rummaging through my computer folders to find out some of the snaps I took during my visit to Germany six years back. I thought those pics would look great in this era of mobile phone photography that allows you to immortalise every moment of your life till you choose to delete it for the next moment that you feel you have to immortalise.
Photography used to be one of my passions during my college days and after as I wandered in different places in and around my home district to take pictures of bridges, forts, trees, hills and whatever interested me. I was bequeathed an old Canon SLR from my late father who got it from his cousin settled in Borneo. I learned photography from photography books and did trial and error experiments using this camera. Digital photography did not exist even in the realm of imagination in those days. You had to wait till the film was washed and the prints taken to know if the `immortal' pictures you had taken came out well. The books are still with me but a used Nikon F801 camera I purchased over 10 years ago has stopped working. The Nikon SLR has been a museum piece for the past one decade. Whenever I fee the inner urge for photography, I take my albums and look at the photos I have taken. Here are some of the snaps I took during my tour of Germany in June/July 2002:

This is the Marktplatz of Calw, the cute little town, where German writer Hermann Hesse was born. I was enthralled by the architectural beauty of the town in the southern German State of Baden-Wurttemberg. I was in Calw for two weeks and I will never forget the hospitality of the people there.
This is river Nagold that flows through Calw. The photgraph was taken from a bridge across the river at nearby Hirsau. Seen in the background is the tower of an ancient Christian monastery. The house of my host Dietmar, where I stayed during my visit, was a stone's throw away from this spot. This picture brings back memories of Diet, as I call him, and his girlfriend Eva.
This is another part of Calw. It looks so peaceful, doesn't it? What is beautiful in this area is the perfect blend of traditional and modern architecture. This is the church in Holzbronn, a resort near Calw. I visited the church (Bernhardekirche). I still cherish the memory of my interactions with Volker Weis and his wife Margaret Ehni, both ministers of the church. Both were progressive in their outlook. They told me about the history of Protestant religion in Germany.
If I hadn't already constructed a house, I would have built a house exactly like this one I found in in Holzbronn. I can't imagine that house without that lamp post. This is the entrance to the Cistercian Monastery in Maulbronn. It was built in 1147. It is one of the best preserved heritage sites in Germany. I spent a whole day inside the monastery, a tourist destination now. I remember walking into a bar inside the monastery compound. Italian bartenders in the bar were very friendly.
This is a part of the Black Forest which is a wooded region in the mountains of south-western Germany. I saw a lot of fir trees on the upper slopes of the forest. The wooden bridge across a small stream gives an earthly charm to the entire greenery. This is a spot in Hirsau. Flowers, the lawn and the bungalow-type building are so captivating that you don't notice that post-modern steel sculpture.
I saw this guitarist on the Ludwig Strass (Ludwig street) in Munich. She was so involved in music that she didn't care to look at me who was taking her snap. This is the Central Railway Station in Munich. It reminded me of the Railway Station in Chennai. I spent a day in Munich. It was a whirlwind tour taking pictures at Marientplatz, Ludwig Strass and other landmarks of the city. This is Siegestory (Victory Gate) in Munich at one end of the Ludwig Street whose other end is Odeonplatz, the main landmark of which is Feldhernhalle (Commander's Hall) where Adolf Hitler made his first attempt for power in 1923.
This is a square in Romer, which is the old part of Frankfurt, a modern business city with its skycrapers. When I was just watching the sights of Romer, a group of Christian music troupe landed there from nowhere and started singing in praise of Christ. The singers were not Germans. This is Altes Schloss (old palace) in Stuttgart, capital of Baden-Wurttemberg. This was originally built around 941. It is a major landmark building in the city and it houses the Wurttemberg State Museum. I liked the yellowish ambience of this Baden-Wurttemberg State Parliament hall. The cube-shaped parliament has 128 seats for elected representatives, 240 seats reserved for guests in the visitors gallary. We were greeted by the Deputy President (Deputy Speaker) inside the hall when the house was not in session. Somebody with us asked her if the house allowed private TV channels to film and telecast the entire parliament proceedings, she said rather proudly: "We are a democratic country and there is no restriction for the media."

This was the latest high-speed loco engine on display at Stuttgart which is known for its automobile industry.

Three girls were presenting a public music performance on a street in Tubingen, Germany's Oxford or Cambridge. Tubingen is a youthful city. You know why? Students formed majority of the population in this city, that is.

Fighting stress

We are all working against deadlines, aren’t we? That is the bane of modern life. An admirer of modern technology though I am, I feel that technological innovations and inventions, especially in the communication field, haven’t made our life any easier than we thought they would. Those of us employed in private companies are invariably working more than 10 hours every day. Not only are we burdened with work overload, but we are also asked to complete the works before the deadlines given to us.
Personally I feel that the very word `deadline’ itself triggers stress reaction. It is intimidatory, more so because it has its origin from military campaign. Let us see what Webster’s Dictionary says: Deadline is a “line drawn around a prison, to cross which involves for a prisoner the liability of being instantly shot. Hence, a fixed limit, beyond which disaster is imminent.” (My heart is pounding when I read those words). David Poson in his The Little Book of Stress Relief suggests moderate terms such as `time frame’, `time limit’ or `target date’ to replace the scary word `deadline’. (This book is a must read for all people, especially those who are experiencing stress-related problems).
The greatest casualty of the contemporary work culture that is being promoted in the globalised world is the work-life balance. You cannot manage to have leisure even when you are enjoying your day off because you are not supposed to switch off the mobile phone your company has given you, your laptop tempts you to check your mailbox every now and then, and more importantly, you think about your work when you are not supposed to do so. Leisure has become a dirty word today. `Work, work and do more work’ is the latest work culture concept in private companies. Technology, I believe, has deprived us of our right to leisure and laziness. Technology, in the first place, is expected to diminish the quantity of work we do to earn our livelihood.
Bertrand Russell believed so and he was an advocate of four-hour-work-a-day concept that will ensure `happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia’, he wrote in his 1932 essay `In Praise of Idleness’, which you can read in his book with the same title. Blasting the modern tendency to believe in the `virtuousness’ of work, Russell says that `the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organised diminution of work.’
Russell’s words cannot be more relevant today when survival in an ambience of cut-throat competition is seen to be more important than happiness. Till a few years ago, I thought that my good performance in my work was the source of my happiness. So I worked hard even during holidays. Quality time I used to spend with my family was diminishing without my knowledge. One day, I was completely overwhelmed by a sense of alarm as though something terrible was going to happen to me. I was sweating and I felt butterflies in my stomach. It took a few days before I realised that I was facing stress-related anxiety disorders. My life on the fast lane was starting to tell upon my mental and physical health. I struggled with this problem for nearly one year until I decided to change my lifestyle by making a self-assessment of my potential and expectations. I still occasionally experience spells of anxiety problems, but they are under control.
Stress reaction can be given an evolutionary explanation. Every living creature experiences situations that required `fight or flight’ reaction. Stress reaction is just that. The problem with human beings today is that we often experience imaginary situations that continue to keep our adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones rising.
If you have not already started experiencing stress-related problems, your bucket of stress has some more space to be full. But don’t wait till it is full. Identify people (yes, relationship can be a stressor of the worst kind) and things and beliefs that are obstacles to your inner sense of happiness. Say `No’ when you want to say `No’ and don’t be a pleaser. Take it as an advice from a person who used to be a pleaser till he found that pleasing people is not his job.

(By the way, how's the photo? I took this photo using my Nikon F801 during my visit to Holzbronn, small resort, in Germany in 2002. Isn't that small patch of wooded area in a public garden with a beautiful house in the background something that touches your inner sense of calm?)

Media and `Islamic terrorism'

Well, I am back to action after a spell of boredom. For the past week I have been busy reporting incidents of violence and killings in some parts of my district where red and saffron brigades went on a killing spree, tit-for-tat style. I am familiar with this periodic outbreak of political murders, bomb-throwing and clashes. During the latest spate of manslaughter and house attacks, I felt that the scope of innovation possible in the use of language in the media did not match the innovation of people who instigated violence and murdered rival party workers in broad(est) daylight. So? So I felt that I could only use the words (to describe this latest sprouting of madness) that I have been using for the last several years while reporting similar incidents. Words and expressions like brutal, inhuman, killing in broad daylight, severed head of the victim, multiple stab injuries, perpetrators of violence, assailants barging into houses of rival party workers etc. left a sense of ennui in me.
I was also preparing for a seminar on `Media, language, objectivity' held in a college located in a rural setting. I told the audience, mostly comprising graduate students, that objectivity of the media could not be the same as the objectivity of science. I asked the audience if they considered as objective a comment in the recent issue of Time Magazine that `North Korea is the most barbaric regime on the planet.' Expectedly, majority of the students said `no'. You could not expect a different response, for 90 per cent of the students in the college, I was told, belonged to a students' union loyal to the CPI(M). Then I showed them a report in The Hindu headlined `Saffronised police show their colour' (March 3, 2002) which tells us about the communalisation of the police force under the Modi government in Gujarat. When I raised the same question (whether it was objective), there was no response not because they did not consider it objective, but rather because of their feeling that I was trying to push them into a trap. Finally, I presented a Nanidgram-datelined report in The Telegraph (November 13, 2007) which was a graphic news story about hooded, gun-carrying, motorcycle-riding CPI(M) workers `roaring into Nandigram' to `consolidate' their `recapture' of the area. There was silence in the audience when I hurled the same objectivity question. Yes, they knew that they were trapped. But someone was waiting to trap me during the Q & A session.
He quoted a media critic who writes columns in a magazine run by a Muslim organisation and asked why the media was using the term Islamic terrorism to describe terrorist attacks by a small group of Muslims and why the same media did not use the term Hindu terrorism to refer to attacks on Muslims by Hindu fanatics in Gujarat in 2002. Having decided that I would not be politically correct while responding to the question, I said that Islamic terrorism was a reality whether you liked the term or not. In Gujarat, it was a communal violence, with members of the majority Hindu community carrying out genocidal attacks against Muslims. It was not an attack inspired by any dogma of Hinduism. Islamic terrorism was Islamic terrorism because the terrorists were carrying out their attacks in the name of Islam, I said. All those 19 youths who hijacked planes and hit them into the twin towers in New York had been inspired by some of the tenets of Islam, I said.
I told the audience that Muslims still took their holy book seriously whereas majority of Christians and Jews did not waste their time pondering about what the Old Testaments god says in the Bible.
I think we have to call a spade a spade. Islamophobia is a spectre created by fanatic Muslims to ward off any genuine criticism of Islam.