While trying to read up on biostats today, I found an interesting website that clarifies a lot of fundaes about stats. It also has good sections on other aspects of science that we tend to forget with the passage of time, such as dilutions and conversions.  The website is actually maintained by the author of  Math from Scratch for Biologists whose name is by Alan J. Cann

Here is the link for the website that focuses on the math section:

http://www.microbiologybytes.com/maths/index.html

The site also has sections on microbiology, virology etc but I didn’t like them as much as the one on Math from Scratch for Biologists.

Also you may want to check out their  About page to get more info about the website.

Yesterday I learnt that my ex-boyfriend has been seeing someone, in fact he has been seeing someone soon after we broke up.

This was news to me. Big News. Because my predictions about how he may behave after our break-up couldn’t be more off the track. From whatever jazz that had happened during the course of the break-up, I doubted if he may go into a relationship soon. So it was a shocker to know he has been up and running!

There was pain. The news didn’t go down too well with me. Pain melted into anger, anger slowly transformed into jealously, a jealousy that grew and finally surged up to a point where I zealously wanted to be in a relationship of my own. And not a relationship with just any guy, but a guy who is better than him. As if it’s a competition that has to be won.

But then the moment passed and I became my old self again. However, a stray thought took a new direction in my head and this is what I asked myself, “Could such jealousy be a driving force in the human species to seek out better mates? Could such jealously actually help a human find a better mate? Could knowing a fact that somebody else has a better mate, drive you enough to find a mate of your own who is better than what your competitor has landed up with?

Society or culture, of course would denounce such jealous thoughts of mine as morally wrong. But if you were in my shoes wouldn’t you have felt the same if you heard about your ex hooking up with someone else? Isn’t this a rather fundamental human emotion? I think it is, and so much so that people do recognise it as one. In fact many forms of media from  sitcoms to bestsellers have used such scenarios as fodder for an episode or a chapter.

Anyway the question I am throwing at you all is – - If this kind of jealousy is indeed such a basic emotion and it leads to a predictable response, then is it strong enough to shape evolutionary trends in the human species?

P.S. Even though this post started out on a personal note, it moved on to a larger question, which, it seems from the comments I have been receiving, is being ignored. Since, this is my “science” weblog, I request you all to leave a comment only if it pertains to the evolutionary question and kindly spare me the therapist’s couch. I have deleted all the comments that did not directly address the question I asked. I am sure your comments were well intentioned, but they were a little out of context in this case. Hope, no hard feelings, ok?

Senior College Teachers across Maharastra had gone on strike recently, their demands being among other things, parity for teachers appointed between 1991-99 without a NET/SET qualification.

This is a quote from a report in Express India: Professor C Sadasivan of  Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (MFUCTO)  said, “All teachers, who were appointed between September 1991 and July 4, 2000, have been brought under the NET SLET. However, at the time of their appointment, NET SLET was not mandatory. Hence this should not be made compulsory for all these teachers now and they should be given all benefits.”

NET or National Eligibility Test is an examination that determines the eligibility of canditates for Lectureship positions in Indian Universities/Colleges. In other words one has to clear this exam if one wants to  be a lecturer in India. But this wasn’t the rule when teachers were appointed between 1991 to 2000. So even those who haven’t cleared this exam are teachers in Senior Colleges today.

Now before I begin to tell you what this post is about, let me tell you what this post is NOT about. This post does not attempt to fall into the debate of whether NET really is necessary; or if NET-cleared teachers are better than the ones who have not cleared NET. Rather, this post is about the sheer lack of will on part of the teachers to at least try a hand at the exam. Our teachers are the ones who prepare students for an examination. Then why are they themselves shying away from an exam, now that its their turn to sit on the other side of the bench?

If a woman who takes ballet classes refuses to perform on stage in front of an audience, or if a man who runs karate classes refuses to take part in a tournament, won’t she/he loose her/his credibility as a ballerina/karate champ?

So what sort of a lecturer are you, if you are not willing to sit for an exam of the very subject you teach?

Granted, NET is a very tough exam. I have heard that a mere 2% of all those who attempt it, clear it. I have myself attempted it once before in order to test the waters, to get a jist of what I am dealing with. Even though I didn’t clear it in the first attempt I developed a reverence for the test. It really does test your skills in your subject, not your mugged up knowledege about it.  And it tests your ability, not just as a researcher or lecturer but as a human being capable of clear, logical, and independant thought.

Why couldn’t the body of teachers have asked the government to set up preparatory classes for them, or extra consessions like short study leaves, or asked for a consession to sit for the exam more than once? Why a complete and downright refusal to take the test at all? Where is the spirit to try? Where is the spirit to learn? I am sure our teachers are  over-worked what with all the lectures and the correcting of papers;  our professors they have no time to sit and study. Which is funny isn’t it? Because they have to attempt an exam about the very subject they spend time teaching, or correcting papers.

And these are the very people who are preparing younger minds to give examinations in our colleges today.

Do check out this article on Edge.

It tries to figure out what makes us human drawing from work on Bonobos to Silver Foxes; and suggests some insights that I was not aware of, previously.

Just read a good article on possible migration of Dragonflies.

Here is the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8149000/8149714.stm

Enjoy!

This is one of my first tries at fiction, I have publised it elsewhere earlier but since I no longer use that blog, I don’t mind posting it again here. I’m not going into the details of whether is really is science-fiction or just plain fiction and will just go ahead and post it here. So here it is:

MXC10441

“You guys actually caught one of them?”
“Yes! It is at the Security Centre right now.”
“What? What does it look like? Does it talk? Does it eat? How big is it? Is it hideous? Its hideous isn’t it? Gigantic and slimy?”
“Wo! Wo! Cool it! Now don’t go telling stories to your friends to get some spot light on you, this information is not public yet.”

Tishka looked at his elder brother with amazement in his eyes. “You have actually managed to capture one of the invaders and you plan on keeping this a secret? This is what everybody wants to hear! This is what will bring morale back to our defeated armies!”

“We will go public with it when the time is right.” said Malekh.

“Time is right? This is the right time! The masses have lost their will to fight! This is a gigantic victory; we have actually managed to bring home a prisoner!”

“Yes I know Tishka, we all at the Security Centre know that, but…”
“But what?” Tishka urged him.
“Well there are…things to be taken care of”, said Milekh vaguely.
“C’mon, go public with it Malekh!”

“Go public with what? The fact that we have just managed to capture one of them? So what? The masses will ask for more, they will want information. They will want to know everything about the invaders. You know how it’s been, theories and speculations everyday. Not a day goes by without some lunatic proclaiming they have seen one of the aliens or they have had ‘visions’ or have been contacted by the aliens in their sleep!” exclaimed Malekh.

This was true. Self-proclaimed extra terrestrial experts were in the spotlight these days, they were the only breed that had actually gained something ever since the invasion had begun.

“Look..” began Malekh, but Tishka only gave him a disappointed look. He had hoped this would mean the turning of the tables for them.
“Look…” , Malekh tried again to explain. He hunched up and spoke in a lower tone, “we are, or we think we are developing some form of communication with this thing. We might actually get answers to the millions of questions everyone is asking”.

Tishka looked up. “What kind of communication?”
“Well its crude so far, but it could improve..”
“What have you learnt so far? And what does it really look like?” asked Tishka, his enthusiasm rising.
“Well they are not that big, for one thing” answered Malekh with a smile.

“And? Are they really smart? They must be. Where are they exactly coming from? Some planet far? How are they traveling?”

His elder bro smiled slightly, and began.

“As I said, its not that big but it has these weird tentacle-like things that it uses for practically everything. But there has to be some kind of brain or ‘think-organ’, but we think it lies somewhere else”
“Somewhere else? It doesn’t carry its brain with it?”
“Well, we don’t know, it may probably be in the sphere-like object that we think is its head. Our rays still have to pass through that part of its body to know whats inside. But it could be keeping it someplace else, someplace safer, because its body looks so fragile. But that’s still not proven yet.”
“And you know what? It is slimy sometimes! It secretes some kind of substance. We think it does that either as a response to external temperature changes or it could even act as a mood indicator.”
“Wow!”
“But the best part is, we think we know where it’s coming from, we may actually know their home planet!”
Tishka knew what that meant. If they knew where the home planet was, they could actually launch an attack on the invaders. The invaders could become the invaded.
“We think they have plundered their planet and they are now searching for another habitable place.”
“So they come from a planet very much like our own? That narrows it down to only a few! So which one is it?” asked Tishka eagerly, thankful he had not skipped astronomy classes.
“Well, it might be MXC10441.”
“Which one is that? Is it the small dot you sometimes see in the southern hemisphere?
“Yeah”
“Oh! Wow! So its MXC10441…thats their home planet..” said Tishka more to himself that his elder bro.
“Well of course, that’s the name we have given it, they themselves don’t call it that. We think they refer to their home as ‘earth’…”

Last summer I had the opportunity to write a research report on a small research project we carried out in our lab.  When I look at that report all hardbound and golden embossed or similar such reports written by my seniors in our lab, it somehow reminds me of domineering old English men with monocles sitting on their high backed chairs and a smug expression on their faces.

Intimidating.

And then I watch videos on TED such as this, that explained to me a complex concept of mathematics that I’m sure I would not have understood if I was sitting in a room with a blackboard or reading it in a peer reviewed journal.

This particular video is consilience raised to infinity! Who would have thought a single talk could merge crochet, maths and coral reefs and make meaningful conclusions out of it? I also loved their idea of Play Tanks, or Kindergarten for Adults.  It opened up my mind in a way a research paper could never have. And yet if I am to carry out research it will have to involve the task of presenting it in the conventional humdrum research paper-form. Another addition to the growing stacks of old English men. If only I could use crayons or cartoons or little animated clips or humour… Imagine such a research paper! Imagine opening a peer-reviewed journal with pop-up art in!!  Not only will such alternative modes of presentation help a researcher to express himself but they will also go a long way in recruiting more scientists and exposing students to the beauty of science.

But I am aware of where the problem lies. A research paper or the language in it  should be in a purely objective form. Science is, after all, not an entity wih emotions and feelings. Each researcher is but a mere contributor to a vast and rapidly growing body of knowledge and there is no place for an individual’s opinion or emotions. What a pity though. Since a scientist most probably has chosen to be a scientist of his or her own accord; he is not a scientist out of compulsion, but choice! Such a person will feel for the work he has performed, but sadly he can’t express it in a research paper because the current norms go against such an act.

But should a research paper be the only path of communication between scientists? If a researcher wants to talk about his work in a more lucid fashion, maybe he could do it using a blog or platforms like TED. And yet it won’t be the same, it won’t be the same as a peer reviewed journal which has a comic sans font. Such a journal could never be taken seriously and no one would want to publish in it.

Alternative ways of presentation  is a novel idea in itself. Pity we are not making full use of it.

Hunting for new viral threats, before we become the hunted.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nathan_wolfe_hunts_for_the_next_aids.html

If I had to list all my fav videos on TED, then that list would be endless.

So, since I have some time on my hands right now, I shall post a link to one of my fav TED videos everyday.

Here is the link for today:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html

FYI,

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So the people at TED are building a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

You can also subscribe to TED talks here.

There was an essay competition organized by a local economic group, the title for the essay being ‘ Global Warming-Challenges for India’.  This post is about a discovery I made while preparing for the essay.

There is a certain website I stumbled onto during one of my searches:  http://www.worldclimatereport.com/.

At first glance, it seemed like a pretty good one. It said

“World Climate Report, a concise, hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press. As the nation’s leading publication in this realm, World Climate Report is exhaustively researched, impeccably referenced, and always timely. This popular web log points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as “proof” of disastrous warming. It’s the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty, such as the Kyoto Protocol, which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States.”

“Acclaimed by those on both sides of the global warming debate, World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what Nature now calls the “mainstream skeptic” point of view, which is that climate change is a largely overblown issue and that the best expectation is modest change over the next 100 years. WCR is often cited by prominent scientists and lawmakers and is a surprisingly enjoyable read—which may account for its broad appeal.”

So it appeared like a place where I could get a lot of information about the ‘other side’, the side of ‘climate skeptics’ who have apparently interpreted the data diffrently. But the more I read the more I disliked the way the authors wrote. I found their writing too inflamatory and simply non-professional. For a while I didn’t give  much thought to their style of writing but after a point I thought they had crossed the line.

So I did a bit of gooling on the authors of this website and about the website itself. One google search led to another and I ended up uncovering a lot of nasty stuff.

I discovered that ‘world climate report’ is a newletter of the Greening Earth Society. Aaah, such a plesant name! This Greening Earth Society makes you think of hard working dedicated people working together to make the world a better place, battling major fund crunches. But in reality  I found  that this society is funded by no other than Western Fuels Association.  Hmm, a fuel association funding climate skeptics, how convinient.  Groups established by industry bodies like the Western Fuels Association have been criticized as Astroturf organizations, since they appear superficially to be grassroots initiatives.

But the story does not end here, through some more googling I found yet another website by Greenpeace called Uncovering Exxon Secrets. Fyi, Exxon is the world’s largest  fuel company.

 Greenpeace has uncovered a network that channelizes money from Exxon to institutes like, well you guessed  it, Greening Earth Society. I quote from the Greenpeace’s webite:

“With names like “The Cato Institute”, “The Heritage Foundation”, “Frontiers of Freedom Institute” and “Tech Central Station” you might think these groups are independent organisations. You would imagine their opinions are unbiased and impartial. You might assume they are balanced and neutral.”

“But if you did, you’d be wrong. These and many other think tanks, which have names designed to hide their real agenda, are putting forward opinions denying or debasing the science behind global warming. And they are getting funding from the fossil fuel industry which is causing the problem.”

You  should see the names of some other  NGOs and organizations this company funds - Arfica fighting malaria, Accuracy in Media, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Centre for Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Climate Change, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Climate Research Journal, Citizens for  the Environment, Alliance for Climate Strategies, Global Cimate Coalition, Institute for Biosphere Research, International Climate Science Coalition…the list is endless.

Greenpeace’s website also says:

“When these groups (like World Climate Report and Greening Earth Society) talk to media they don’t like to mention who funds them. They want the media to believe that they are independent commentators. So journalists are often left with the wrong impression – and so is the public.

ExxonMobil, also known as Esso or Mobil, is the world’s biggest oil company. It has plenty of money and is not afraid of using it to fund pseudo-science and front groups to shoot down anyone speaking out about global warming. Since 1998 ExxonMobil has spent more than US$ 12 million on climate sceptics.”

Greenpeace’s  website has actually documented Exxon Mobil’s funding of climate skeptics themselves. Dr. Michaels, one of the authors of World Climate Report has acknowledged that 20% of his funding comes from fossil fuel sources. He received $63,000 for research on global climate change from Western Fuels Association,

I was disgusted by looking at the  enormous scale in which autoturfing is being done by this Corporation. The silver lining is that their dirty deeds have been exposed.

Check these websites out for yourself and spread the word! Spread the awareness!!