Thursday, March 29, 2012

Burning Rubber



Title: Burning Rubber – The Extraordinary Story of Formula One
Author: Charles Jennings
Publisher: Quercus 2011 (First published 2010)
ISBN: 978-0-85738-125-5
Pages: 294

This was meant only as a change from the more exacting books reviwed earlier in this blog. Motor sports was not an area easily palatable to my tastes. The book narrates the origins, developments and the great drivers who made the sport internationally followed, even though on sheer popularity counts, it doesn't come to the top categories. As for any other sport, the lion's share of spectators for Formula One racing is through television. People who have not at all viewed the sport earlier too find themselves glued to the television sets if they happen to land on a channel showing a closely fought out Grand Prix! The author is a professional journalist and has written for many major newspapers in Great Britain.

Racing began in France. The Paris - Rouen Trial of 1894 is marked as the first race, with a prize money of 5,000 francs for the winner who manage to chug through the 125 km distance. The organisers had intended the race for the new, internal combustine engine cars. But quite contrary to their expectations, a steam car came first, but, as so often happens in underhand dealings in auto sports, the prize was shared between it and a Peugeot petrol car, which came second. In those days, racing was played out on civil roads, causing great threat to public safety. First dedicated race track was built in Surrey in 1907 and was an instant hit. Many popular race tracks followed. The term Grand Prix was coined by the French from Grand Prix de Pau in 1901 and it stuck. By mid 1930-s, German makers Auto Union and Mercedes ruled the racing arena with high power, lightweight vehicles. After the lull of World War 2, racing reappeared as Formula One in 1950.

F1 racing, as it is popularly called, is heavily leaning on promotional revenue from sponsors. American mega companies stand in the forefront of the list of donors, but the sport has still not caught on in U.S. American racing circuits are unimportant and even American drivers are rare to spot. This should be seen in the wider perspective of insular mindset displayed by them on matters relating to sports, whereby they shut their eyes to outside influences. Football, which is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world, has not much takers in America, whereas they host American Football world series, which is not played anywhere else. Such antipathy to foreign games might have got extended to F1 racing too.

The text is hilarious to the utmost and is an easy page turner. The book goes a great deal with witty remarks and sarcasmic comments which delights the reader like nothing else. Events from 1950 onwards have found special attention with the author and a ringside view is guaranteed. Photoplates provided at two locations in the text are well anchored with the content and serves the purpose well. The series of photographs, covering the entire history from early cars to modern ones help to comprehend the range of developments that had taken place in the sport since its beginnings nearly a century ago.

The book deserves a fair measure of criticism as well. It is not particular on the details of development of the game. Instead of even describing how Formula One got its name, the author seems more inclined in going after the lascivious personal lives for professional drivers - and it provides a lot as practically everyone in the ring had had their heads turned that way. This scant regard to detail is sadly evident throughout the work. Explaining technical terms like ‘pole position’ was absolutely necessary, but left out by the author. This would have greatly helped anyone trying to get a feel of the game, particularly since F1 racing circuits have widespread appeal anywhere in the world. Asia is rapidly progressing, with circuits in Malaysia, China, India, South Korea and the Middle East. For those terms, I had to use the Net to get details. Jennings will be remembered for the lost opportunity which clearly he had with him.

The book is recommended for those who are well versed in the rules of the sport and want to follow the great drivers who thrilled the spectators during the formation years.

Rating: 2 Star

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Theory of Everything



Title: The Theory of Everything – The Origin and Fate of the Universe
Author: Stephen Hawking
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House 2007 (First published 1994)
ISBN: 81-7992-591-9
Pages: 124

Hawking is the unquestioned leader in popular science, helped in no small measure by the huge wave of public sympathy over his debilitating disease. If we follow an objective, impartial analysis of his contributions to science, we are still stuck at a few theorems of curious behaviour of blackholes, which themselves have not been established yet, unless through some very indirect methods. He has not won a Nobel (again, yet), particularly owing to the highly speculative, theoretical framework of his research. This book – based on seven lectures delivered by Hawking over the early 1990s – is a compendium of those early work, but not endorsed by the scientist. One feels no wonder for his reticence as the book turns out to be not well tuned to appeal to the tastes of a secular reader. God turns up in too many pages to engage a lay reader who has turned to such a book first of all to get a new perspective about the creation of universe other than presented through religious books. Even though on careful reading it turns out that Hawking does not endorse divine principles, such dillydallying serve to confuse the reader about the scientist’s true intentions.

Hawking delves into the history of the history of the universe as it unfolded from the ancient period to the present one. Theories from the time of Aristotle to Edwin Hubble are listed in the first lecture which provides a good framework of what is to follow. This is succeeded in the second lecture by an exposition on the origin of universe. Even though outlined as expanding in Newton’s theory, not until Edwin Hubble in the 1920s, everyone believed it to be static. Hubble established by careful measurement of redshifts of distant stars and galaxies that they were receding away from us and, as a corollary, the universe was expanding. Interest on the expansion soared after Alexander Friedman’s models predicted various scenarios founded on the General Theory of Relativity. The model was so successful that all further studies were based on some characteristics of the model and speculated on whether it would go on expanding, or reach a somewhat steady state after some time, or would begin contracting when a particular stage is reached. The contribution of the author to the scenario is his proof along with Roger Penrose that Big Bang is plausible if General Relativity is correct.

Blackholes is a favourite topic of Hawking. He seems to preserve the sense of awe and wonder of his student era while describing them. The concept of blackholes was first proposed in 1783 by John Michell in a theoretical perspective. Einstein’s relativity required them to exist. So far, none had been observed directly, but based on gravitational perturbations on nearby bodies, science has reached 95% certainty that they do exist. Discoveries of quasars by Maarten Schmidt in 1963, which suggested gravitational collapse (a mechanism of blackhole formation) and pulsars by Jocelyn Bell in 1967 which are rotating neutron stars (a variation of blackhole formation) helped to shore up the confidence of scientists. Hawking predicted that blackholes should radiate particles and energy as opposed to conventional thinking. The critics later fell in line when the proof was undeniable. As Hawking observes, observation of a blackhole is the only thing that separates him from the Nobel Prize.

Origin and development of universe finds enthusiastic flare in Hawking. There are four fundamental forces in nature – the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism and gravity. Efforts have been for unifying all the different forces under an overarching umbrella of a unified theory, which is fondly called Theory of Everything, justifying the title. On a general survey of the state of scientific learning, the author argues that it was possible for a person to grasp all fields of knowledge in Newton’s time, whereas even full-time professional scientists are able to scratch a small area of a wider field of science.

The book is not cohesive and lacking in structure. Factual errors are also present, though mercifully, only in the historical narrative. Hawking claims that Aristotle estimated the circumference of earth as 400,000 stadia length (p.3), though it was done by Eratosthenes. As another example of the author’s unwanted nexus with religion in a science book, he goes apologetic on St. Augustine’s date of creation of the world as 5000 BC, ”is interesting that this is not so far from the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 BC, which is when civilization really began” (p.9). Even if we accept for argument’s sake that Ice Age ended on the date proposed, St. Augustine was still off by a factor of 2, that is 100%. If we accept such arguments as authentic, the claim that water boils at 50 deg C also would have to be admitted. The error in the statement is the same as that of St. Augustine.

The book is compiled before Hawking’s masterpiece Brief History of Time was published and we see a lot of material recycled from the author’s various works. Hawking shocks readers with comments like “The initial state of the universe must have been very carefully chosen indeed if the hot bigbang model was correct right back to the beginning of time. It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us” (p.79-80). Thankfully, the next paragraph states that Alan Guth’s inflationary model obviates the need for a God. Also, in another lecture, it goes “God simply chose that the universe should be in a smooth and ordered state at the beginning of expansion phase” (p.102). Again, examples of such intellectual pauperism is seen at few other places too.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Opus Dei

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Title: Opus Dei – Secrets and Power Inside the Catholic Church
Author: John L Allen, Jr
Publisher: Allen Lane 2005 (First)
ISBN: 0-7139-9911-X
Pages: 387

Opus Dei (latin for God’s Work) is part of the Roman Catholic Church and is directly responsible to the Pope. The group had attracted public attention for the thick veil of secrecy surrounding their members and its modus operandi. The frenzy reached its zenith after the publication of Dan Brown’s immensely successful work, The Da Vinci Code, in which the author has protrayed an assassin motivated by religious ideals and a member of Opus Dei as an important character in the story. John L Allen, who is an American journalist based in Rome and specializes in news about the Catholic Church is ideally placed to comment on the sect and its roots that run deep inside it. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church.The maxim, knock and it shall be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7) is very true as regarding Allen’s research for this book. The archives of Opus Dei which is comparable to a national secret service agency as far as efforts of privacy are concerned open effotlessly before him. That’s the power of contacts in a religious set up – you’ve to know at which door to knock to open another specific door!

The foundation of Opus Dei may be dated to Oct 2, 1928 in a vision experienced by Josemaria Escriva in Spain, revealing God’s wish that a secular order, consisting only the laity may be established which is quite different from other religious orders. Ordinary members treat their day to day work as dedicated to God and sanctify their efforts in the physical world. By this, Escriva proclaimed, laity can achieve holiness equally well as that of the clergy. The sect, which is known as The Work among its members profess equal status for women. Curious initiation rites are prescribed for newcomers. A person, aspiring to become a member of the sect has to inform the local director, which is called whistling – akin to a teacup which is heated for a time and is near boiling. A member has to be at least 16 and a half years old at whistling and the admission ceremony is on attaining 18 years of age or 1 year later, when oblation takes place. Every year, on March 19, they renew the pledge and inform the prelate of their intention to stay in the fold. After 5 years, they reach fidelity, permanent membership. There are 5 kinds of members in the organisation – supernumeraries (members leading secular lives who can marry),  numeraries (members leading celibate lives and whose income from work is appropriated by the sect), associates (celibates like numeraries but doesn’t stay in centres), numerary assistants (women selected for domestic chores in a centre and for helping out priests who are only men) and cooperators (non-members, but who take part in the holy work).

The membership of Opus Dei is not numerous by any standards. There are about 85,000 members in the world and 1850 priests, 40% of whom are from Spain. Centre in India was opened in 1993, but nothing much is discussed about this centre. Reverence to the founder who died in 1975 exceed all limits in the sect. Escriva was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002. During his working life, he took particular care not to align on the wrong side of powers that be in Spain of that era – General Francesco Franco. The sect was not at all fascist, but they found that keeping their mouths shut was the safest proposition. A prominent ex-member allegedly quoted Escriva as saying, “Hitler had been badly treated by world opinion because he could never have killed 6 million Jews. It could only have been 4 million at the most” (p.66). Opus Dei promptly deny these allegations.

The author waxes eloquent about the non-interference of the organization on the vocations of adherents. Politicians and businessmen interviewed for the book deny they were any way influenced by the Work. Freedom of Thought, offered by the sect is much trumpeted in many places, but doesn’t faithfully reproduce actual practice. As in any other religious order, on matters relating to doctrine and ecclesiastics, no dissenting voice is allowed as attested by quotations from Escriva himself. This, however, does not surprise the reader as enlightenment of such calibre is not to be expected from a mere church functionary. Opus Dei strongly condemns birth control measures, cloning, abortion and stem cell research. All member families, including in poor countries, are expected to raise a litter with consequent nosediving in living standards. The use of contraceptives is strongly prohibited even when not using it may lead to fatal diseases like AIDS. Escriva stressed the believers to recognise their identity as ipse Christus (Christ himself), advocating a perverse lust for suffering and celebration of avoidable pain, which he himself practiced to maniacal proportions.

Opus Dei is steeped neck deep in secrecy. Members’ names are confidential, even innocuous publications don’t go out of the fraternity. Unless some unlawful intentions are present, the stubborn urge to secrecy seems only to keep up an aura of intrigue to attract potential members. Allen whitewashes Dei’s practice by arguing that senior functionaries were more than willing to share the documents requested by him while researching for the book. But this argument proves nothing, as he was writing their own manifesto and the sect was determined to see that it falls to its lot. Even then, he was not allowed to take the documents home, nor to take copies of it!

The most peculiar thing about Opus Dei is the corporal mortification practiced by numeraries. They wear a cilice (a spiked chain, whose spikes are turned inwards) worn around the upper thigh for 2 hours a day, except on Sundays and feast days. They also perform self-whipping, using a string called Discipline, on the buttocks once a week while reciting Lord’s Prayer or Hail Mary. Once a week they sleep on the floor or without a pillow. Abstinence from tasty foods, avoiding television and electronic entertainment also form part of the rigorous lives of numeraries. It treats them practically like slaves, as it gobbles most of their income, sometimes their inheritance too and their mails are delivered opened. Such censoring has now become relaxed owing more to the impracticality of doing it in the modern technological context like cell phones, email and instant messaging.

The fraternity is accused to be immensely wealthy though the author takes great pains to establish that it is not indeed so. Robert Hutchison, a Canadian journalist’s 1997 book titled ‘Their Kingdom Come’ describes the nefarious particulars in shocking detail. The sect manages to abrogate responsibility to the revealed facts with a strange claim that those institutions are not directly owned by them, which is legally valid. Michael Walsh’s 1989 book, ‘The Secret World of Opus Dei’ claims that the businesses run by numeraries are in fact proxies of the sect, as any way, all the money owned by numeraries belongs to the order. Here again Allen manages to find fault with Walsh with the accusation that he has sided with Jesuits, who always had a grudge against Opus Dei. The sect also has links to politics, generally leaning to the conservative right. They manage to rope in promising future politicians too. In the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of Escriva held at Rome in 2002, U.S. Republican Senator Rick Santorum, who aspires to run for Presidency in 2012 elections was the most noted participant. He openly espoused a daring stance on more religious control of government – a mild form of American Taliban, to be precise.

The book brings out some curious facts about Opus Dei too. In order to show to the public that the order is not different from ordinary conceptions of priesthood, Escriva was said to have asked one of the first three ordained priests in Spain all of whom were non-smokers, to take up smoking! Also, in contrast to its preaching equal status to men and women, the latter are treated at best as domestic servants of the numeraries and priests. Boastful claims about equality are not tenable. There are two separate policy making bodies for men and women at all levels, whose members are not even allowed to talk to each other! In the General Congress, the supreme policy making body, convened every 8 years, only the men has voting rights (as a consolation, women are allowed to propose candidates).

Throughout the book, Allen continues apologetic justification of the Work, in the guise of neutral presentation. Whenever a criticism had to be accomodated in the text, he comes with four or five counterpoints to weigh the scale towards the sect. The most ridiculous argument comes when Allen prepares to justify corporal mortification, by claiming that many other Christian religious orders perform them. He says that even Mother Teresa used a cilice and whip (p.171). The book is nothing but thinly veiled propaganda material. It has bulleted lists to expound each operating principle of Opus Dei one after the other and in detail. It even plays down the psychologically aberrant practices like corporal mortification with a ludicrous assertion that Allen himself used a cilice, to get a feel of it, and didn’t find it uncomfortable! He maintain that it is often a lot easier than physical exercise regimen like running a mile (p.169). The most laughable declaration to counter accusations of former members is that ‘when I visited, I didn’t find anything amiss’. The objectivity of the author is also clouded with a purely one-sided narrative which is found everywhere in the text.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Friday, March 16, 2012

The Archimedes Codex


Reviel Netz

William Noel













Title: The Archimedes Codex – Revealing the Blueprint of Modern Science
Author: Reviel Netz and William Noel
Publisher: Phoenix 2008 (First published 2007)
ISBN: 978-0-7538-2372-9
Pages: 388

Joint authorship of books rarely elevate the title to commendable works unless one of them is a renowned scholar, who is otherwise tongue-tied before an audience who watches his every move with awe. In order not to make his readers disillusioned, he may opt for a ghost-writer or co-writer, who would be gifted in plucking the words straight from his heart to the readers even before he himself could barely had had the chance to utter them. The present book definitely doesn’t belong to this category, as both of them are little known outside their own circles – in fact, even inside the circle before they had the good fortune to handle the miracle which is the story of the book. Netz is Professor of Ancient Science at Stanford University, is a leading authority on Archimedes and editor of the Archimedes Palimpsest. Noel is the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum and Director of the Archimedes Palimpsest Project. Together, they unravel the tale of the palimpsest that came their way, and the heroic efforts – personal as well as scientific – which went behind decrypting it.

A palimpsest (parchment document which was prepared by scrubbing off earlier text) was put on auction in 1999 in the U.S. An anonymous buyer bought it, whose identity is not at all revealed in the text. It was in a pathetic condition and contained the works of Archimedes, considered to be the father of science. The mysterious buyer very kindly granted Noel to have the book in his museum and exhibit it. He also financed the efforts to decode it. The manuscript was in fact a prayer book compiled in 13th century from parchment which contained Archimedes’ work. Not that the text was written by the legend himself, but was copied by a scribe in 10th century. Noel’s team had the unenviable task of recreating the rubbed out text by non-destructive methods and analyse them. Cutting edge scientific breakthroughs were freely employed in the project – multiple spectral imaging, X-ray imaging, custom-made image processing and optical character recognition algorithms, with use being made of even the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). The work had not fully completed when the book was on print, but the path has become clear to travel smoothly thereafter.

Archimedes (287 – 212 BCE) is the father of science and engineering. What Galileo and Newton reignited in 17th century Europe was the flame kindled by Archimedes in Greece in the 3rd century BCE, but was extinguished by tempestuous middle ages. He founded statics and hydrodynamics, made great contributions to geometry and combinatorics. It may even be said that he knew mathematical infinity that later became a respectful branch of mathematics only in the 20th century through the works of Georg Cantor. His calculational rigour is astonishing, when we realise that he had approximated p between 3-1/7 and 3-10/71. He was also a military engineer, whose contraptions put the invading Romans at bay during the second Punic War. Syracuse, his home state had the misfortune to ally with Carthage and invite the wrath of the powerful Roman empire. In spite of Archimedes’ work, the city fell through treachery and he was killed by a Roman soldier when he failed to answer his queries as Archimedes was in deep thought about a mathematical problem at hand. It is often said that the only Roman who had stepped into history of science is that soldier who killed Archimedes!

Archimedes’ treatises found circulation in Alexandria. The articles were in papyrus rolls as was the practice of the era. Eutocius converted the text to codex form in the 5th century which was a new form of compiling information. This is the ‘book’ form which we are so familiar with. The vagaries of history saw the centre of learning shift from Alexandria to Constantinople and our codex went along with it. Scholars collected and copied classical texts, but as religion began to gain ascendancy in intellectual life, Archimedes was relegated to the backbenches, since the monks were interested only to read Homer, Plato and Euclid. Photius compiled all treatises of Archimedes into three codices, now classified A, B and C. The first two are, however, irretrievably lost, the third one forming the protagonist of the book. This contains Archimedes’ Method, that contains his geometric works, Stomachions (combinatorics which paved the way for the science of probability) and about his ideas on hydrodynamics. Papyrus went out of fashion in the 9th and 10th centuries and it was made in parchment during the last copying. The codex remained in Constantinople till 1229 when it was erased and a prayer book was made.

A fascinating bit of history is narrated to show the frightful times that were the middle ages and the upheavals which tossed the codex across the Mediterranean Sea. The fourth Crusade was a peculiar one. Doge of Venice demanded a large sum of money to transport the holy warriors to Egypt from where they were to fight their way to the Holy Land. To meet the expenses, Pope Innocent III approved the installation of a puppet king on the throne of Constantinople, which was under the religious guidance of Greek Orthodox church. The puppet agreed to pay for the transportation once he was in the Seat. However, even after coronation of Alexius Angelus, the money was not forthcoming. Crusaders lost patience, ransacked and pillaged the city. The Christian soldiers raped the nuns and defiled Patriarch’s palace. However, three things materialized as the Pope wished – cash went into the coffers of the Doge, Catholic faith was imposed on the Orthodox and the classics went up in flames.

Codex C was erased and converted to a prayer book in 1229, as indicated in the manuscript itself. Around 16th century, after Constantinople fell to Muslim power, it was moved to a monastery in Palestine. By early 19th century, it again travelled back to Constantinople, which had changed its name to Istanbul by then. It was housed in a monastery owned by Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. World War I provided further tribulations in the form of internal political tensions. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who dethroned the Ottoman Sultan hanged the Patriarch himself in a bid to free his country from religious overdoses. The manuscript travelled to Athens, from where it was possessed by a French military man, whose heirs auctioned it off in 1999.

The codex presents mathematical wonders not heretofore seen. Netz establishes the claim that even set theory and calculus are anticipated in the ancient writings. Archimedes assembled the toolkit for making modern science. The book is structured in a sandwich form, with Netz and Noel writing the alternate chapters. While Noel pours on the conservation methods, imaging and analysing infrastructure and how it came about, Netz is focussed on the contents – what to make of it and how it advances our knowledge of ancient wisdom. Archimedes was very fond of estimating the area of curvilinear forms through the use of strightline structures like rectangles and squares. Detailed explanations, accompanied by illustrations make the book very helpful. The delightful combination of history and mathematics is so appealing that the readers feel urged to finish it in one go. The colour plates compiled in two sections gives a good chance to see the codex in the original form when it arrived at the museum and the hectic efforts which went in to extract meaningful content from it.

Any way, the too detailed exposition on finding the area of a parabolic segment (p.147-154) creates the impression that it is interesting only to specific readers who follow the history of mathematics with deep attention. While there is no contending the fact that Archimedes played a great role in the development of mathematics and science, the authors’ assertion that “use of infinity as a precise mathematical tool allowed the great explosions of mathematical discoveries and therefore of scientific discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries” (p.181) appear to be far fetched and assigning unwarranted credit to Archimedes. We must keep in mind that even if Archimedes was unknown, these discoveries would have taken place.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating:
4 Star

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The God Delusion



Title: The God Delusion
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Black Swan 2007 (First published 2006)
ISBN: 978-0-552-77429-1
Pages: 420

This was a book I was looking for, for the last few years. Nothing has contributed to Rationalist movements worldwide more than this volume written by perhaps the greatest living icon of humanism and scientific thinking. Dawkins is incomparable if you compare his literary range and breadth and depth of external references. This book is no exception to this rule as is evidenced by the long list of supporting data at the end of it. It is also the product of Dawkins’ untiring war on organised religion and the undeserving respect they forcibly demand from an unwilling society. The meek surrender of the state and civil society to the illogical ranter of adherents of religion morally infuriate the author and through the clever use of fitting examples and pathbreaking logic, succedes in imparting the indignation to the reader.

Dawkins begins with a caveat that no respect is going to be granted to religion throughout the book. Illogical religious actions are accorded the sanction of law, if it could be shown that such an action constitutes free practice of even an esoteric sect. U.S. has particularly fallen for this fallacy which is a grave concern when considered in conjunction with the fact that the country abounds with fanatics of all hues. The public respect given to organised religions which are unhesitant to kill and smash obstacles which come their ways is misplaced and imprudent. The mayhem resulting from the publication of a few cartoons on Prophet Mohammed in a little known Danish journal is a case in point to demonstrate the depth of intolerance and disregard to freedom of expression guaranteed to citizens in an enlightened society. Three cartoon which were really offensive – but were not published in the journal – were given widespread publicity by some mullahs who had availed political asylum in Denmark itself. Such hatred is the result of irrational belief, which the author inspects next in turn. Various beliefs, from outright religious practice to agnosticism is examined and laid threadbare. However, one gets a feeling that he is unduly harsh on agnostics who are called fencesitters in a truculent attack. However, to put things in their right proportions, Dawkins acknowledges different flavours of atheists, some of them very close to being atheists themselves. He also concludes that the concept of God can be put under the investigative rigour of science and that there is no evidence of it.

We come across arguments favouring the existence of God in many forms. Some appeal to the aesthetic sense, claiming how a thing of beauty could come about without the overarching divine supervision. Scriptures and personal experiences are also frequently cited as ‘evidences’. The greatest shot in the arm for such people is usually the acquiescence from religiously inclined scientists themselves. But none of these stand the vigour and rigour of scientific scrutiny. Personal experience is uncertain testimony as the brain – which is really a computer providing a simulation of the outside world, based on sensory inputs – is quite capable of presenting miraculous results when in fact nothing particularly spectacular has had happened. Dawkins claims that among the achievers in science, religiously minded people are small in numbers and puts forward the idea that as intellect and IQ increases, a tendency is seen in people to shun religion. However, this is not conclusively proved and is anecdotal evidence at best. Creation of the universe and life is claimed to be the handiwork of God, since no explanation is foreseen by its proponents to unravel the mysteries of ‘irreducible complexity’ found in animal body parts like the eye or molecular flagellar motor. This means that the organ will cease to function if any one of its components put together by the creator is omitted. Dawkins convincingly trashes the idea, by demonstrating variations of eyes in every intermediate flavour among the fauna. The eye will work in a reduced capacity even without cornea! The development of these organs is the result of natural selection which goes one step at a time, but eventually reaches pinnacles of locally adapted lifeforms. However, origin of life cannot be explained in this way, which must surely have been a one-off event, which is not totally improbable, considering the vastness of the visible universe. But it definitely occurred, otherwise we wouldn’t be here to contemplate about it.

How did religions evolve? What advantages they possessed in early human settlements? The author says it was a byproduct of a genetic behaviour which is essential for survival. Children obey without demur authority figures such as parents. This is indispensable to impart accumulated wisdom to the young minds. This practice was continued through adult stage by obeying a tribal elder’s religious incantations. Good morals are sometimes attributed to spring from religion which is an unsubstantiated assertion. The morals exhibited in some chapters of the Old Testament like the books of Genesis and Judges (described in detail in the volume) as performed by great elders like Abraham and Joshua seem immoral by today’s standards. Anyhow, we can’t judge ancient people with the enlightenment of a future age. The zeitgeist moved on, irrespective of what religion professed along the centuries, moving us towards the present age. This shows that the morals are not a product of religious thought. All religions permit employment of slaves and suppression of women as moral acts, but these are abhorrent in the present-day world. Dawkins also successfully counter the claim that atheists like Stalin and Hitler had killed millions. Stalin was definitely an atheist, but Hitler’s religious proclivities are more dubious. He expressed catholic sentiments many times in his career and the Roman Church supported him throughout the World War. A list of several such instances are given.

A great injustice pointed out by the author is the characterization of children along religious lines of their parents. Descriptions like Christian children or Muslim children should be realized to have as ridiculous a connotation as atheist children or liberal children. Instead, they should properly be called children of Christian parents or Muslim parents and like wise. When this term is used, not only it posits the situation clear, but has the added advantage of making the children realize that they have a choice when they reach thinking age. Transmitting religious ideas to children early on is equivalent to abusing them. Children and later grown up people also find consolation in god. There are two ways to give consolation, either materially – like providing warm clothes to a person shivering in cold, or psychologically. Science is capable of providing the first variety and peoper mental awareness will take care of the latter.

The book is a manifesto of atheism. Religiously minded people may better avoid this book, if they desire to remain where they are at present. This is particularly effective when the author takes on the argument that morals come from religion. He makes mincemeat of opponents on this particular issue, by citing extensively from Old Testament and clearly drives home the point. Dawkins’ sharp humour is evident most vividly in describing the following passage from the Bible, “’Thou shalt have no other gods but me’ would seem an easy enough commandment to keep: a doddle, one might think, compared with ‘Thou shalt not covet they neighbour’s wife’. Or her ass. (Or her ox)” (p.276) – the hastily added parantheses made me roaring with laughter. Even while despatching cartloads of criticism to scriptures and religion, the author keeps a good sense of proportion and intellectual balancing by acknowledging the literary merit in them and preserving some cherished traditions through some harmless rituals. At the same time, the conviction is still stressed, that we can still give up belief in god without losing touch with a treasured heritage.

What can we point out as the weak links in a book by Dawkins? Not much, presumably. His efforts to explain origin of life on Anthropic principle (the conditions on Earth was suitable for the emergence of life, among the billions and billions of planets and that’s why we are here) are understandable, but attributing it to the origin of eukaryotic cells and consciousness is stretching the point too far. It must be acknowledged that our knowledge about these still consist of some gaps which may be expected to be filled in the near future. Even if science cannot claim the honour for the time being, religion is not at all a contender for the slot.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Broca's Brain



Title: Broca’s Brain – Reflections on the Romance of Science
Author: Carl Sagan
Publisher: Ballantine Books 1990 (First published 1974)
ISBN: 0-345-33689-5
Pages: 381

The talent of the incomparable science writer that is Sagan, proves itself to be timeless through the reading of this brilliant work, published 38 years ago. The scientific era of Sagan and Feynman gradually transformed to that of Dawkins and Hawking in the last decades of the century and the reading public has enriched themselves through the writings of these four magnificent authors. Broca’s Brain is another dazzling effort from Sagan to shore up confidence and hope among the skeptics and free thinkers of the world. The breadth of the author’s creative range has something in store for every nuance of admirers of science and its method. The title, in fact, is a tribue to the Musee de l’Homme (Museum of Man) in Paris, which houses representative parts of human anatomy in varying stages of disgust. It also displays the brain of Paul Broca, who painstakingly conducted studies on brains and identified that part of it which is responsible for articulate speech and thinking – in a sense, that which delineated the human species from the rest. That region of the brain is called Broca’s Area in his honour.

The book is divided into five parts, dealing with various aspects of science touching our everyday lives – namely, Science and Human Concern, The Paradoxers, Our Neighbourhood in Space, the Future and the Ultimate Questions. A good drubbing is meted out to pseudoscientific practitioners in the second part. Sagan goes to great lengths to bring out the fallacies of their arguments with convincing proof, earmarking entire appendices for doing the calculations in a rigorous way, sticking firmly to the scientific method. Science is a quest for knowledge, what one can achieve is limited only by the number of neurons in the brain. The universe, with about 1080 particles may seem out of bounds for the brain, had it behaved in mutually exclusive ways. But, rules of organisation restrict the number of ways in which the particles can be assembled. Such restrictions are called ‘laws of nature’. Scientists look for such laws, find it through intuition and skeptical analysis, subject them to falsifiable trials to check the predictions made by the theory and accept or reject it based on the results. No appeal to authority can be granted in science. However, there will inevitably be some borderline cases such as new theories of how the universe is behaving, which has not been subjected to intense experimentation and hence they are not yet accepted nor rejected. Charlatans exploit them to the hilt to hoodwink gullible people. Many scientists are reluctant to engage those impostors in their own game, attending calmly to their own work. Such attitude is detrimental as dubious ideas get imprinted on the public mind, unless they are repudiated at the slightest available opportunity. The best antidote to pseudoscience is science itself, whose findings are infinitely many times more mind boggling than the former’s. The gravitational force which binds the heavenly bodies and the DNA, which transfers heredity between generations are only to name a few among them.

Sagan goes on to unveil several myths. A common misconception is the visits by extraterrestrials to earth. There are people who attribute origins of religious miracles in sacred texts to alien influence. A curious case in point is that of Dogon tribe in Mali, West Africa. They possess a remarkably accurate set of astronomical beliefs, surpassing any ancient society anywhere in the world. They envision a solar system in which the planets revolve around the sun, know that planet Jupiter has four satellites and star Sirius has a dark companion rotating around it at a period of 50 years. These observations are not possible by naked eye, making the origins of these ideas puzzling for scientists. On the other hand, on most other aspects of creation myths, their ideas are as primitive and wild as that of other societies. Sagan attributes the sophistication of Dogon’s astronomical beliefs to contact with an exotic society – the European, not aliens! Probably, they might have assimilated these beliefs from Europeans visiting those parts, mutated them through internal usage and retransmitted to scholars who came later.

The book contains a very good chapter on The Climates of Planets, which surveys the atmospheric parameters affecting climate. Curious observations – in the sense of looking back by a modern reader – is furnished in the chapter. He says, “Some evidence on the trend of global temperature seems to show a very slow increase from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to about 1940, and an alarmingly steep decline in global temperature thereafter” (p.228). How can we reconcile this statement with the modern contention that global warming is taking place in alarming proportions?

Being an astronomer himself, Sagan reserves considerable preference to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It is important ethically and practically to confirm whether societies as or more advanced than ourselves exist and how they managed to solve some of the survival issues facing us. This assumes significance as the book was written at the peak of cold war between U.S and the Soviet Union. If not for anything else, the technology we develop for the search may turn out to be useful for other more immediate practical purposes. Even if the search fails to locate any indication of life elsewhere, the revelation will bring with it a sense of responsibility to carry forward the civilization which we so painstakingly built up from scratch using 4.6 billion years of evolution.

The book is distinguished by the mark of inspired wisdom, presented as deductions from basic principles. Such a prescient caution to mankind is offered while describing Venus’ atmospheric turbulences. It has a very high level of CO2, producing a greenhouse effect which makes the planet uninhabitable to life forms, being at a temperature of 480 deg C. The author warns that our terrestrial technical civilization has the capacity to alter profoundly the environment of earth (p.181). It also contains an excellent chapter on the naming conventions and protocols of satellites of planets, asteroids and their surface features like craters, mountains and volcanoes. As the author was party to several such nominations, the readers enjoy a comprehensive treatment of the subject. Now, non-western civilizations are also candidates for such appellation. This has touched a special chord with my own interests, as I had recently compiled a list of such names having Indian roots. You can find it in my blog under the heading ‘India in the Solar System’.

The most serious drawback discernible is that the articles are dated, published more than 35 years ago, which is a long era in modern science. Several illustrated points like search for extraterrestrial intelligence are not of much concern in the latest focus. Sagan accords unnecessary concern to demolish the arguments of Immanuel Velikovsky who published a book, titled ‘Worlds in Collision’ in 1950, postulating that the biblical miracles like plague on Egyptians and the parting of the Red Sea before Moses were based on a close encounter with a portion of Jupiter which came this way and which later settled as an inner planet – Venus! No body gave any serious thought to this crazy idea, but the author set aside a long chapter and several appendices with detailed calculations, refuting the theory. This seems like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly, but the fly is killed nevertheless!

In another article, Sagan lists out the mechanism of meteors appearing on Earth’s surface and surmises that the black stone of Kaaba in Mecca – the holiest Muslim shrine in the world – is a meteor. He proposes testing a tiny piece of it to ascertain the veracity of this idea, which looks absolute naivete on the face of Islam’s attitude to such proposals. Also, in the chapter on communication with aliens, he asserts that intelligence of the other party could be discerned in several ways, sending pulses in prime number sequence one among them. A list of the first few primes are listed as 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and so on (p.320). Unfortunately, this seems to be a slip as ‘1’ is not a prime number. An unfortunate error from a great author!

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Friday, March 2, 2012

The People's Tycoon

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Title: The People’s Tycoon – Henry Ford and the American Century
Author: Steven Watts
Publisher: Vintage Books 2006 (First published 2005)
ISBN: 978-0-375-70725-4
Pages: 536

Henry Ford revolutionized the way Americans commuted, providing a cheap way to travel comfortably. His Model T cars put what was till then a privilege of the moneyed class within the reach of ordinary folk. The book, written splendidly by Steven Watts, who is a professor of history at the University of Missouri, is a biography of the American legend of early 20th century and how this down-to-earth man achieved so much from humble farm beginnings. It is not only a biography of Ford, but about the forces which were at play in the American social, economic and industrial spheres also, which culminated in the transformation of American civil society to a dizzyingly high standard of living when compared to other regions of the globe. Exploiting all avenues of competition and mass appeal provided by a democratic society, Ford successfully steered the organization he hatched from naught to the status of a huge conglomerate employing hundreds of thousands of workmen. The book examins in comprehensive detail the man, the germination of a successful idea in his mind, how he put it into effect, how he dealt with the employees – winning their hearts first with impressive pay hikes and then degenerating into thuggish practices to dissolve labour unions, and how his outlook and demeanour appealed to the common man, who were on his side for most of his career, except towards the end. What differentiates the book positively from other biographies is its focus on analysing the striking contrast between Ford’s actions in developing an essential urban milieu as a result of his industrial production and his inner conviction that society should once again go back to a rural landscape which provides avenues for industrial opportunities as well. Ford’s life and character made itself felt in three areas, 1) he was a prophet of America’s new consumer culture in the early 20th century, 2) he played a key role in shaping the mass culture with consumer abundance and 3) he rooted innovation in the rich soil of populism, glorified the common man and made him the benchmark of achievement and growth.

Henry Ford was born the eldest son of William and Mary in 1863 at Dearborn, Michigan. He had only a semiofficial schooling, his mother tutoring him most of the time. When his beloved mother died in labour, he moved to Detroit, much against his father’s wish. With a natural flare for machines, he joined the Detroit dry dock company as a machinist. Soon after, he returned to Dearborn and settled in farm land gifted by his father and developed extensive working knowledge of steam engines for farm use. He experimented with nascent gasoline engines, along his much cherished desire of inventing a horseless carriage. He was selected as electrical engineer by Edison Illuminating Co in 1891 and moved back to Detroit. He continued his trials in spare time and in 1896, made ‘Quadricycle’, the first car built by him. Ford and others instituted the Detroit Automobile Co in 1899, but he couldn’t piece together a manufacturable prototype. The company soon wound up. In 1901, the Henry Ford Motor Co was formed for the same purpose, but this also was a nonstarter as Ford lost all interest in a cheap car and kept tinkering with a conceptual race car. He was ousted in 1902, the company later became Cadillac. Ford continued work on his brain child and developed a powerful racing car and set new speed records in the nascent industry. The fame helped him found the Ford Motor Company in 1903, with Model A reaching out to an enthusiastic society. However his indomitable individualism couldn’t stomach the control of his directors, who eventually had to go out of the company by selling their minority stakes to Ford. Model N soon followed, but his dream of putting together a sturdy, but lightweight and cheap car found realization in the Model T, introduced in 1908. This car sold millions and made the fortune of its successful designer.

A novel production technique, the ‘Assembly Line’ was first experimented in the company’s Highland Park factory in 1913 for producing Model T. Assembly line obviated the need for skilled workers – there was no need for workers to think about the work they were performing. This process attracted fierce criticism and ridicule from opponents like Charlie Chaplin whose film Modern Times make fun of the Assembly Line method. Whatever may be the tirades against it, Assembly Line shot up production from 82,000 units in 1913 to 585,000 in a few years. However, all was not smooth sailing for Ford. A patent issue threatened to stop the company which pleaded infringement of a peculiar patent called ‘Selden Patent’ which was really a very vague one. Every car maker was forced to pay royalty to an association of manufacturers who managed to obtain rights to the patent. Ford resisted the demands and got a favourable decree in a long legal battle. This proved to be publicity victory for him, as he seemed to successfully resist the attempts of big capitalists. Ford achieved the pinnacle of reputation in 1914, when he dramatically doubled the salaries of workers, claiming that they deserved more. A minimum of five dollars a day was guaranteed to every worker who was married or had to support aged parents. This ushered in a new era of five-dollar day in American industry, much to the chagrin of other industrialists. A sociological department was introduced in the Ford company, which monitored the workers – sometimes obtrusively, against drinking and domestic violence. They were also expected to live in a clean, sanitised place and was responsible for the well being of their children. The confidence he grabbed from these projects helped him to buy off minority stake from all such holders.

Ford began to dabble in politics during this period with his strong anti-world war I propaganda. His pacifism infuriated many in the country, making him the butt of all jokes. He claimed the war as a result of greed and unethical business practices of big financials, accusing Jews in particular. He demanded neutrality of U.S in the war and identified terrible waste with joining the war. He organized a Peace Ship and sailed in it to Europe to offer mediation. Nothing came of it and Ford returned soon after he set foot in Europe. He also ran for the Senate from Michigan in 1916 but was narrowly defeated.

The 1920s saw the empire built by Ford slowly beginning to crumple. Streaks of antisemitism and wayward religious beliefs like reincarnation put him in a bad light in public view. Though a staunch moralist on Victorian lines, it didn’t prevent from siring a child with a female employee. He turned into an autocrat, with sycophants trailing him at every step. Old time managers left the company one by one, often forced out by the machinations of unscrupulous hangers-on. After 1923, sales of Model T began to plummet, since the public was fed up with an unchanging model for 15 long years. Ford made his son, Edsel, president of the company in 1919, but continued intervention in its affairs, overriding his gentle son. Ford was forced to apologise to a Jewish businessman in a case of libel, but it didn’t deter him to receive Hitler’s ‘Order of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle’, an honorary medal in 1938. Acrimonious run-ins with President Roosevelt and his National Recovery Authority (NRA), built for tiding over the Great Depression put immense strain on Ford Motor Company. When U.S. plunged into World War II, Ford wholeheartedly converted his manufacturing setup to produce war planes. Resentment at the high handed attitudes of his father subjected his son to immense pressure and he died in 1943. This was a huge setback for Ford, who lapsed into a mentally unstable state. Ford died of cerebral haemorrhage in 1947.

Ford changed the face of America once and for all. For him, leisure – the new found luxury for working class people – was neither idleness of shiftlessness, but an activity with positive industrial value, because it increased consumption. His advertising stress was to Buy a Ford and Spend the Difference, as spending was the only way in which abundance was to grow. Saving would result in scarcity and abject poverty, as he argued. Society lives by circulation, not by congestion. He openly advocated for spending and self-fulfillment rather than saving and self-control.

The book is a product of great insight and wide scholarship. Watts’ description of the late-19th century American society which stood at the brink of a wide chasm between the strict forms of Victorian era and a free-for-all future is dazzlingly appropriate. It is logically and sequentially separated into many chapters with proper titles like Producer, Folk hero, Reformer, Politician and such. A synopsis of the contents of a chapter is given as its first section which really helps the user to preview what is coming. It covers the fortunes of the company over a long span of five decades and gives a clear message to the readers that a company and its founder could enjoy unrestricted privileges as long as the company is making profit. Whenever it slips into red, problems start which might grow to such extremes as to jeopardise the whole operations.

There is nothing much to point out against this wonderful work, apart from its sheer size. Passing over 536 pages of smaller sized print is sure to tire even expert readers when the end is reached. Watts could have provided an epilogue detailing the future travails of the company after Henry Ford died and control went to his grandson.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star