The Forbidden Universe

Title: The Forbidden Universe – The Occult Origins of Science and the Search for the Mind of God

Author: Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince

Publisher:  Constable, London, 2011 (First)

ISBN: 978-1-84901-409-0

Pages: 350

Before proceeding further, let me straight away cry out at full blast the one impression that was welling up inside me – this book is perfect rubbish. Don’t even touch this filthy one, full of pseudoscientific rant. The authors claim themselves to be ‘world-renowned writers, speakers and broadcasters’, but the impression we get is that they are snake-oil peddlers. The book is neatly brought out, with fine layout and good quality print, but any positive comments end there. In fact, it is written as two parts, the first pondering over origins of modern science claiming to be from hermeticism, a little known Egyptian belief system with laughable propositions such as the material world was created by a semi-god who is the lieutenant of a more powerful being, the authors stop short of calling it God, instead naming it GUD (Grand Universal Designer) and then goes on to claim that it designed the universe, thereby trying to affirm that intelligent design is the origin of the universe. However, the first part is passable, in fact. The second part, In Search for the Mind of God is really outrageous and questions the integrity of the reader and the scientific establishment. Being pea-brained is nobody’s fault, but the authors should not expect their readers to be like them.

History of mystical thought ran deep in the Renaissance period. Modern science’s origins are thought to be on three events – Copernicus’ publication of heliocentric theory (1543), Galileo’s publication of its proof and ostracism (1633) and Newton’s publication of Principia Mathematica (1687). All three of them are claimed to be students of mystical and magical thinking, based in hermeticism by Hermes Trismegistus (thrice-great Hermes). The corpus of Hermes, Hermetica, as it is called, formed the backdrop of scientific discoveries in the renaissance period. Authors go even so far as to claim that heliocentric theory was presaged in hermetica. However hard they try to establish this, the argument is flimsy. Just because the hermeticists put the sun at the centre, every speculation which placed the sun centrally need not be extensions of the original one. Their frequent references and imagines prominence of secret hermetic societies also fail to impress. Finally, with Rene Descartes, science and magic parted ways. Cartesian logic postulated that mechanical explanations lay behind physical events.

As noted earlier, the second part is the most unfortunate. In search of the mind of God, it attempts to prove that the Universe was designed for life, particularly intelligent life, by designers euphemistically called GUD. The physical parameters and constants which seem to be fine-tuned to facilitate life, they argue, is in fact made so by the designers. The so called ‘proof’ put forth is taken from discredited or doubtful hypotheses long kept at arm’s length by main stream science. False details are also used. While discussing stellar evolution, authors rightfully point out that formation of carbon nucleus was a very fortuitous event in nuclear synthesis. Without carbon, life would not exist. They then argue that “making of carbon is a rare event according to physical laws, whereas of course, the universe is actually overflowing with it” (p.217). This is gross falsehood. The percentage of carbon among elements is less than 1% - so much for overflowing! Also, the contention that universe is fine-tuned for intelligent life also doesn’t hold water. What proof we have? If it was so optimized, why is it that life is confined only to a medium-sized rocky planet orbiting a medium-sized star in a very ordinary galaxy, among the trillions of such galaxies? And here in the solar system too, intelligent life came forth only during the last one or two billion years, out of the 14 billion since the solar system emerged. So, how can a novelty which exists in only a tiny speck of sand in the huge universe for only a fraction of the time since time itself began, claim that the entire universe and the laws that govern them are fine-tuned for it? If 99.999999% of the universe is not fit for life, let alone intelligent life, the only conclusion we can rightfully draw is that it is not designed for life, rather, life was a fluke which may not repeat again, even if the conditions are reproduced again. This realization indeed help us to keep humanity in perspective of greater things and not to lose sight of them.

The second part also negates evolution. Putting forward questions which don’t come under the purview of the theory, like ‘how life originated in the first place?’, authors declare that evolution is not the proper theory and offers their own garbage as the solution. It evokes memories of arguments like “If you don’t know the answer to this question, then what I’m saying is true”. Quoting obscure books and tainted scholars, authors argue that evolution is not proved from existing evidence. A frequent source is Fred Hoyle, who was an ardent opponent of evolution. Hoyle, who was a physicist refused to accede to Big Bang theory when it came along. In fact, ‘big bang’ is a derogatory term coined by Hoyle to discredit the new theory. Comic suggestions abound in the text. One such case is related to subatomic particles which don’t follow the diktats of cause and effect where an event may occur at two places simultaneously. This queer case of quantum mechanics is extrapolated without any sense to claim that humans may be capable of reading the future or performing mystical feats. Glorification of parapsychology abound in the book. In the end, the authors come to the weird conclusion that human conscience is part of the spirit which propels the universe and hence that spirit called GUD is the designer of this world.

The book is definitely not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

Empire of the Moghul

Title: Empire of the Moghul – Raiders from the North

Author: Alex Rutherford

Publisher:  Headline Review, 2010 (First published 2009)

ISBN: 978-0-7553-5654-6

Pages: 493

Another novel on the most romantic of India’s dynasties – the Moghuls. This is the first book among a quintet that covers the entire dynasty. Alex Rutherford has strived much for this work, particularly doing good research and personally visiting the more important vistas where the events unfurled. With a judicious sense of selecting proper characters for the lead roles of the novel, she has displayed impressive workmanship. Poetic license grants authors immense freedom, but Rutherford prefers to lean more on the solid rock of history rather than the floating log of imagination. On the bedrock of historical fact, she paints a colourful saga of Babur, a small-time ruler of Ferghana and claiming blood links to Timur the Lame and Genghis Khan. Though the reader may want to differ on assigning on the young prince unquestionable greatness – as the author has indeed done – we may have to pardon her for embellishing the protagonist a bit too much.

Babur ascended the throne of Ferghana at the age of thirteen, upon the unexpected death of his father. Ferghana, Samarkand and Kabul were at that time ruled by princes of the House of Timur, Babur’s uncles and cousins. Internecine fratricidal warfare was a feature of the times. The lack of unity among the brothers helped their arch enemy, the Uzbek warlord Shaibani Khan forage into Samarkand and kill its ruler. The city was later given to Babur who was unable to retain it for long. Court intrigue denied him the throne of the magnificent city of Timur. Upon returning to Ferghana, he found that it was usurped by his half-brother. Having lost all he had, Babur lived as a brigand, skirmishing the outlying countryside and giving the rulers much discomfort. Return of Shaibani Khan at this stage succeeded in forging unity among the brothers and Babur was able to regain Samarkand for a short while. When Shaibani Khan returned with a greater force, Babur fleed, even surrendering his only sister to the conqueror’s lust. Luck was following him, as he neared Kabul, the local ruler died and the royal council invited him to take up the post. Uzbeks were not inclined to allow him to reign in peace, however. Shaibani Khan took Herat and marched ominously to Babur. Nevetheless, the Uzbeks were beaten by Persian Shah’s army who handed over the conquered kingdoms to Babur, on the condition that he and his subjects covert to Shiism, the official religion of Persia. Babur tactfully went on with the scheme, but his subjects at Samarkand threw the Shiite mullah out of the city and chased Babur through the streets. He fleed for a third time back to Kabul.

While licking his wounds among Afghans, and weary of warring against strong rulers to the North and West, he heard about the immense wealth of Hindustan and its weak rulers. He was made doubly fortunate in acquiring gun powder, cannon and matchlocks from the Ottoman Turks. Siege became a cake walk with the new weaponry. Babur moved south and met the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi on the battlefield at Panipat, handing a summary defeat and death to Lodi. With Delhi and Agra under him, his forces subdued the irreconcilable Rana Sanga of Mewar and paved the way for establishing his kingdom in India. On his death, his son, Humayun ascends the throne and the novel comes to end, with a strong hint of fratricidal jelousy which would soon consume the empire out of the land.

Being a work of fiction, there is no point in nitpicking historical accuracies in the plot. It is highly exaggerated, particularly the portions on Babur’s ‘tolerance’ to the Hindu belief system. A stout and fanatic believer of Islam, Babur was in fact, instrumental in destroying the peaceful cultural fabric of India. Seeds of discord and hate sown by him are still being reaped in the land. Obviously, it is unfair to judge a ruler with the enlightenment of a future age, but that is no excuse for portraying the medieval ruler with a petty mindset as a tolerant one! Any way, Babur was undoubtedly the most literate among his successors, probably with Aurangzeb exempted. He kept a diary of proceedings, which is reckoned as the first autobiography in history. Rutherford had relied heavily on it, for sure. The portrayal of Baburi, a handsome market boy referred as such in Baburnama as a larger than life figure and intimate friend of Babur is a case in point. Nonetheless, the name and circumstances make many historians attribute meaner motives – some even suggesting a hint of homosexuality which was practised by Turkish and Afghan noblemen.

The book lacks the imaginative spirit. What the readers feel is a mechanical narrative, pulled out from the leaves of a book on history. The author has miserably failed to carry the reader inside the minds of the protagonists and to marvel at the struggle going on inside the psyche of the celebrities. Even the narration of incidents is drool, unappealing and often feeling repetitive. The language is easy, which is expected from a book without much substance. Only those who want to have another view on Moghul history would like to pursue the remaining books in the quintet.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

Inside Apple

Title: Inside Apple – The Secrets Behind the Past and Future Success of Steve Jobs’s Iconic Brand

Author: Adam Lashinsky

Publisher:  John Murray, 2012 (First)

ISBN: 978-1-84854-744-5

Pages: 208

Apple, founded by Steve Jobs in 1976, is an iconic brand in personal computing, music players and mobile phones. Its pedigree is deeply awe inspiring, having come out with the world’s first graphical user interface and mouse, while Microsoft was dabbling with text-only DOS operating system. However, Microsoft aligned with Intel and did a revolution in popularizing the PC with cheap products and an open architecture, which was cloned by many competitors. Apple remained aloof, with overpriced Macintosh computers which couldn’t be repaired or upgraded by the user. Even if you wanted to replace the monitor, Apple’s service personnel had to be called in. Apple ensured that it exercise a monopoly of hardware and software. Soon, it was relegated to back shelves as PC sales soared while it clung on to expensive niches. The book details the dramatic turnaround of the company when Jobs retook charge as CEO and how he diversified into undreamt of portfolios. Jobs died in 2011 and Apple continues to move forward with his unparalleled legacy at its back. Adam Lashinsky is an editor for Fortune magazine and has extensive researches on the silicon valley in his kitty.

Steve Jobs was born in 1955. Though not trained as an engineer, he was a nerd who would stay around computer clubs. With Steve Wozniak, he developed Apple I, their first computer in 1976. The Macintosh line emerged in 1980. Increased business requirements made him appoint John Sculley as the CEO. Dwindling fortunes of the company and dissatisfaction over Sculley’s style forced Jobs to leave Apple in 1986. He founded NeXT and acquired another company, Pixar. The first half of 1990s saw Apple at its nadir, with enough money to stay solvent up to 90 days. Jobs reentered as CEO in 1997, and beginning with the introduction of a slew of cutting edge consumer tech products starting with the translucent iMac, the list quickly grew to include iPod, iPhone and iPad. By 2011, it shared the title of the world’s largest market capitalization with Exxon Mobil. Jobs developed pancreatic cancer and had to undergo liver transplantation too. Health issues forced him to relinquish the post of CEO in Aug 2011 to Tim Cook and he died two months later, in Oct 2011.

Apple operates in a manner unconventional in the extreme. It goes openly against the tenets of modern management principles. Steve Jobs’ was the only voice which counted in the end. He was inaccessible to subordinates, with the other guy always on tenterhooks when he had had to meet the CEO in social gatherings or casual meetings. Jobs derided the employees in many ways until he was assured of getting what he wanted, at the lowest cost. Apple’s salaries are matching with those of comparable industry majors, but no better. Apple’s reported work culture is not conducive to a normal human being, with utmost secrecy surrounding product development. All companies make good use of external secrecy, but in Apple, even seasoned employees who are not working on top secret projects are not disclosed details of it. They are not allowed to discuss their work-related matters to outsiders and even with their colleagues. In internal meetings, people wouldn’t start discussions about things until they are sure that everyone in the table is disclosed about it prior to the meeting. Any slackness on this count is dealt with harshly – swift termination a constant threat. Employees thus work like horses with their blinders on.

Design is Apple’s forte. Often without any feedback on consumer preferences, Jobs sets down instructions to produce gadgets people would love to use. With a world class design centre chaired by Jonathan Ive, meticulous attention to every minute detail make Apple products stand apart. Designers make decisions and make other departments to produce the item they wanted which is quite the other way round in competing companies. It also insulates its technical talent from the mundane details of financial constraints and proceed ahead with what they do best. Only the CFO, directly reporting to the CEO, handles finance in the executive team which advises the CEO who runs the company. Beauty of the product is the company’s USP in which they still reign supreme. However, even with all the brag about impeccable products and being a different company, Apple too manufactures its product range in China by outsourcing, like any other. Apple decides what the customer wants and implement it, rather than the other way. It makes fun of PC companies, which fill them with software the users wouldn’t be seeing at all. Jobs called them ‘crapware’. Apple’s policy is of frugality – the iPad didn’t even have a camera when it debuted. That was available only in iPad 2, an expensive upgrade a few years later.

The company’s PR program is as tight knit as its HR. Favourite journalists find places of prominence and keep them lured to the company with occasional interviews with the CEO and other tidbits. Customers also get what Jobs wanted them to receive. Apple’s products are steeply priced, with features that are common in other brands curiously omitted. IPhone users have to avail Apple Service technicians even to replace the set’s battery. The company’s hierarchy is highly skewed to serve the interests of the CEO, and Lashinsky gives a neat description of who counts in the enterprise with a brief presentation on the higherups who have some clout in the corporate ladder and wonders at the operational pathways it could explore in the post-Steve Jobs era. Jobs’ death would definitely be a crushing blow to the enterprise, but much depends on the new CEO who has worked well under Jobs for a long time. The company is yet to improve on the features of some of its software like Numbers, its spreadsheet program. This is a very poor cousin of Microsoft’s Excel because Jobs was not at all interested in spreadsheets himself whereas its presentation software, Keynote was far superior to competitors like PowerPoint because it was Jobs’ favourite who used it to present for seminars and new product meets. Also, there are signs that Apple’s philanthropic record is scaling up in the post-Jobs era under a more sympathetic Tim Cook. This is particularly noteworthy when we remember that when one executive once asked Jobs why he wasn’t more philanthropic, he replied that giving away money was a waste of time! (p.84).

The book paints Apple in a sympathetic light, which is quite expected from an author who has close business links with it. The fact which is astonishing to the reader is why Jobs is getting the respect from the society which he didn’t deserve. He tried hard to keep the personal computing industry under wraps and monopolistic practices, but miserably failed before the popularity of the ubiquitous Windows-Intel platform. If Apple had been successful in the battle then, probably the popularization of computers wouldn’t have taken place. They would continue to be the favourite toys of the rich and fabulous. The myriad software available for the PC make it attractive and worth the money for common people as compared to Apple’s very few offerings priced sky high and distributed by the company itself. Jobs was unflinchingly harsh in dealings with his employees and was no philanthropic. Compare him to Warren Buffett or even Bill Gates and the money the duo spending on charity! Even now, Apple’s bulk share of income from manufacturing music players, mobile phones and tablets rather than Macs. So, in a sense, Jobs’ popularity need not be taken as a token of the success of his philosophy. The book is also easy to read and impressively structured. It can be finished very quickly.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Naming Nature

Title: Naming Nature – The Clash Between Instinct and Science

Author: Carol Kaesuk Yoon

Publisher:  W. W. Norton & Co, 2010 (First published 2009)

ISBN: 978-0-393-33871-3

Pages: 299

When science journalists decide to publish on their area of specialisation, the happy result usually is a well referenced work written with conviction surging forth from every line and page. Carol Kaesuk Yoon likewise writes on her branch of study coupled with her professional expertise as a writer for the New York Times. The subject matter of the book is the tussle between human instinct which classifies living organisms according to its lights and science, which does the same thing, but leaning on quite different supports and coming out with dumbfoundingly profound categories which find no resonance with human judgement. This is to be expected from an evolved species like humans whose power of classification demanded only one thing in return – the survival of the person. Human life in the wild relied heavily on his successful demarcation between animals he could eat and those who could eat him. This simple truth of the survival of human species forms the bedrock on which human judgement is put together. Obviously, there is no coherence between our inner lights and scientific classifications based on genetic material, namely DNA and its extensive lists of evolutionary taxonomy.

Cataloging of the living world around him forms a basic instinct in humans. With his sense organs, man or any animal for that matter, prepare a perceived environment in its brain, also called umwelt (German word for environment). This term finds elaborate usage in the book.  Umwelt is not necessarily be a true representation of the living world. Human umwelt is constrained by the frequencies of visual light he can perceive, with infrared and ultraviolet being out of range. However, for avian umwelt, these frequencies are part and parcel of the makeup and their umwelt differ markedly from us. There was a time, just three centuries before, when mankind was utterly confused at the vast collection of plants and animals pouring in from the New World to Europe. The explorers and naturalists followed wildly inconsistent classifications so that the same organism was named in quite different ways by various people. Enter Carl Linnaeus, the father of scientific classification. He was born in 1707 in Sweden and possessed great love for accumulating plant and animal specimens. At the age of 28, he published his magnum opus, ‘Systema Naturae’, the 14-page booklet which became the bible of botanists and zoologists. He introduced latin binomial naming system – two part names with latin roots – which immediately set the standard.

A century passed by, without anyone noticing the chinks in the armour of the new system. Darwin made his famous voyage around the globe in 1831-36 and began ruminating over a new theory which would transform the entire scientific world by storm. Unfortunately, Darwin was not a recognised scientist and his theories hence wouldn’t be taken seriously by the professionals. So he began his work on barnacles (rock like immobile creatures which stick on to the hull of ships, whales’ sides and the like). Darwin hoped to classify the forms into species so that he can be an accomplished taxonomist. He managed to attain the coveted level but also found immense variability among the barnacles. Darwin observed the genetic variability which was so fundamental a constituent in his theory of evolution, but which had eluded him for many years. This upended the Linnaean system over its head, which was founded solidly on the concept of immutability, the naïve belief that God’s creations are unchangeable. Thus emerged a new system of classification which is scientifically precise, but totally unconnected with human umwelt. Many outwardly similar species found themselves categorized in different genera (like monarch and viceroy butterflies) and visually different forms found evolutionary kinship.

From this base, Yoon moves on to claim that the human umwelt – humanity’s shared vision of the living world – works identical in various cultures, listing out several examples of bird and fish names in little known American Indian languages and claims that any man, having no exposure to those exotic tongues can discern which is a bird and which is fish, just by listening to how the name sounds. It is even claimed that men are able to manage only around 600-odd names for genera, and goes on ‘prove’ that hypothesis using anecdotal evidence, taking her husband and a friend as the ‘guinea pigs’. The power to classify living forms and the seat of human umwelt resides in the left temporal lobe of human brain. People who suffered damage to this part of the brain failed to register any organic living forms, though they were as powerful as before to understand and group inanimate objects.

The twentieth century undermined human umwelt without even a remaining trace. Subtle differences in genetic makeup of organisms forced the hands of taxonomists to resort to other classification schemes. Ernst Mayr championed the cause of evolutionary taxonomy while Robert Sokal brought into the realm of biology potent tools of mathematics and statistics. In the flash of a moment, numerical methods elevated categorization to objective heights from the trenches of subjective predilection. Numerical taxonomy expressed the affinities and relationships among life forms as a number. Linus Pauling, Emile Zuckerkandl and Carl Woese were instrumental in going a step further to bring in molecular taxonomy – by examining the DNA of specimens. Willi Hennig’s classification, which eventually came to be known as cladistics, produced the most stunning effect. It was thoroughly based on evolution, and the connection from a parent to an offspring is stressed by leaning heavily on acquired traits from a common ancestor rather than traits first seen in that specific organism. Cladists did away with most families in taxonomy, fish among them. Fish is a too wide a variety to be grouped together even under the widest assemblage. According to them, in a set of salmon, lung fish and cow, the last two are most closely related than with salmon, even though it and lung fish have characteristics inherent to fish. If examined closely, the resemblances are obvious – cow and the lung fish share the same respiratory mechanism against the more primitive one of salmon. To top it all, they grouped birds along with dinosaurs.

The book is noted for its earnestness in conveying the idea that humans has lost touch with everything nature. We have no need of the umwelt, which was absolutely essential for survival even before a few tens of generations. This also paves the way for lethargy displayed by society in responding to distress calls originated by scientists for the preservation of endangered species. The author has rightfully identified the disconnect between modern society and nature and analysed it in detail. It also provide some curious facts about scientists and their behaviour. Carl Linnaeus delighted in derogatorily applying the names of his enemies to malicious organisms. He named the nasty weed Siegesbeckia orientalis after Johann Siegesbeck, one of his harshest critics. Also, he named Rudbeckia, a tall and ‘noble’ plant, after a valued patron.

Nevertheless, the book is a drudgery and unappealing. No exciting concepts which dot the landscape of molecular biology has been described, even though she has come close to PCR and DNA manipulations which make it so exciting. A very regrettable lapse is that the author’s study was not based on tried and tested scientific method. Often she resorts to anecdotal proof, like taking her husband and a friend as sample data to prove that humans are capable of managing only about 600 animals names and her infant son’s first utterance to prove that kids develop a strong sense of the living world. The evidence is very much subjective and the conclusions can only be taken as mumbo jumbo, not science. Yoon’s tall claims that names of fish and birds used in one part of the world could be understood elsewhere is also not conclusively established. She did this experiment with about 50 students and came up with a score of 58% correct answers. With this figure, which is slightly more than pure chance (50%, like tossing a coin) that can be explained by the exposure of the students to similar jargon earlier in their lives, she argues that her assertion is vindicated. Such extravagant statements would only help to spread a smile on scientifically minded people’s faces. After completing the book, the reader would be forced to consider whether the time invested in it has been spent in a worthwhile cause.

The book is recommended only to biologically minded persons.

Rating: 2 Star

Down Under

Title: Down Under

Author: Bill Bryson

Publisher: Black Swan 2001 (First published 2000)

ISBN: 978-0-552-99703-4

Pages: 422

With Bryson’s works like At Home – A History of Private Life, and A Short History of Nearly Everything already reviewed in this blog, you become his fan for life. A great travel writer and a commendable author in every way, Bryson’s book on Australia is entertaining at its best. This work is a roundup of the author’s many travels to that continent-cum-nation, alone or with companions. With a perfectly unconventional itinerary, Bryson ends up in places a very few had gone before and go through adventures fewer still had even dreamed of. Officially, this book may be classified as a travelogue, though it is anything but! True, it narrates the author’s travel across the length and breadth of the country in every possible mode of journey like train, car and plane, yet at the end of the day the reader would definitely wonder if another person would follow his route or mode of travel. His excursions are purely borne out of his immense love for Australia and her people. It is only to personify his great admiration for the country with equally great prose that Bryson travelled to little known places, that too, by road traversing thousands of kilometres.

Australia is the dryest, hottest, flattest, most infertile and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents in the world. Only Antarctica comes behind Australia in this regard. Its population is confined to narrow strips of fertile territory along the eastern, south-eastern and western coasts. All of its cities are located along coasts and the interior is a giant and deadly desert, locally called the outback. Very few roads cross the desert and sure death awaits any soul who is stranded it for any reason. All help will be days or weeks away with nothing but scalding hot, dry earth resembling martian landscape to keep him company. To obtain a feel of the outback, many of Bryson’s travels were through it in rented cars of train. Also, he recites many anecdotes of people who got lost in the desert, most of them gruelling. Australia, being the sixth largest nation on the globe and due to its complicated geography of the cities placed only along the coast, makes up enormous distances between the cities. Cities like Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide are established at the end of a long road cutting across mostly uninhabited regions where nature takes the sole responsibility to entertain the weary traveller. With such an exotic setup, Australia is a paradise for adventure-seekers.

Though a travelogue, Bryson probes into the nitty-gritty of the country he is visiting and lays out the whole history, sociology, politics and geography in very interesting asides. Who would have thought that Australia has lost a serving prime minister at sea? The author not only gives the finer details, he specifically goes for it. Whenever he descends on a city, he immediately sets out for long walks along its streets to muster little first-hand experiences which would invariantly crop up in a free society. This was in no way helped more by the natives who are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging, as observed by him. Bryson’s bold comments are sometimes sharp-edged but they are warranted for the inequity of the circumstances. He mocks at the gullibility of early Australians in the belief that their real home was the United Kingdom, who would come to their rescue in their hour of need. However, the second World War extinguished all such hopes as Britain ordered Australian troops to be moved to India to save her endangered empire from Japan, when in fact Japan had set its sights on Australia itself. The country’s transformation as a nation began around this period, as a consequence.

However, whenever we think of Australia, the foremost consideration which leaps to mind is its racial relationship. Discrimination against coloured people including its own aborigines constitute a deep stain on Australia’s character and is not likely to be cleaned up in the near future. Especially relevant was the recent spate of attacks against Indian students in many cities across its length and breadth. The nation which began its existence as an open prison for criminals from England continued its policy of White Australia, right up to 1970 at which time only whites were allowed to migrate and settle in the country. Migrant workers were treated badly and often successful ones were selectively assaulted to serve their white colleagues’ jealousies. Even today, the aborigines lead a wretched existence among the whites, with their civil liberties guaranteed only a few decades before. Their children used to be taken forcefully from the parents by the state in a vain bid to instil a different mindset in the young minds. Siblings were indiscriminately distributed to far off stations and they were made orphans with living parents – the worst aspect was that there was no legal recourse to such highhandedness.

The book is eminently funny and readable. His comments on hearing a cricket commentary on car radio is witty in the extreme, as “It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavours look interesting and lively; that was merely an unintended side effect”, also, “It is the only sport in which spectators burn as many calories as the players (more, if they are moderately restless)” (p.155). It is really a page turner and readers are compelled to finish it as soon as they can. Each new adventure is very interestingly presented and attract genuine excitement. Readers also gape in wonder at the supreme handling of geographical and biological wonders like Great Barrier Reef and living stromatolites.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

How We Live and Why We Die

Title: How We Live and Why We Die – The Secret Lives of Cells

Author: Lewis Wolpert

Publisher:  Faber and Faber, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 978-0-571-23911-5

Pages: 221

A good book to unravel the mysteries going on in developmental biology. It is said that the 21^st century will be the era of biology and medicine, just like the 20^th was of physics and technology! Leafing through the book, we find the saying to be accurate to the hilt. Inventions like live television and computers are marvels of science, but they pale into insignificance when we encounter the secrets behind how life is made and ticking and how we can tinker with it to eradicate diseases which were long considered incurable. Lewis Wolpert is a distinguished developmental biologist and emeritus professor of biology as applied to medicine at University College, London. He has authored many books on the subject and is a leading expert. Surprisingly, and to make all engineers proud of him, he was trained as a civil engineer, but left the field after he found designing of concrete structures was not sexy enough for him (his own italics).

Though learned in many ways, the ancients were clueless about how life originated and functioned. It was only in the 19^th century, after the invention of microscopes, did science managed to get a peep into the cellular world. What they found there was enough for riveting their attention to it. All life is composed of billions of tiny cells, which make up the organism. Cells are the factories in which all body functions take place. Digestion of food, movement of muscles, energy transfer during respiration and reproduction – all take place at the cellular level. Cells consist of a nucleus which orchestrates the chores in it and is the location of DNA which preserves inheritable characteristics of the organism. Energy for all these activities is produced in a special area called mitochondria in the form of ATP molecules, which is also called the energy currency of life.

Life’s most critical activities take place inside cells, which have a huge skeletal structure to assemble components. The symphonic coordination of the subsystems is illustrated in the transport of sugar to the inside of the cell. Sugar molecules are stopped by the cell membrane and they get attached to it. They are held there, until an insulin molecule arrives at site. Insulin causes the chemical structure of the membrane to change and allows sugar molecule to enter inside the cell. Once inside, it is carried to required areas by special proteins called glucose transporters. Like wise, sodium is continuously pumped out of the cells by proteins which act as sodium pumps. About a third of the energy consumed by the human body is used to operate the sodium pumping mechanism, otherwise the pressure inside the cells increase to such a high level that the membrane may burst and cause the cell to die.

Proteins, synthesised locally in the cells carry out almost all the activities in cells. The mechanism of their synthesis using the program contained in DNA is impressively conveyed in the book. Also, recent trends of advances in stem cell technology, along with objections from religious groups are catalogued in critical detail. Cloning, IVF (in-vitro fertilization) and other reproductive techniques are examined in their ethical and clinical contexts. Cloning involves replacing the nucleus of a zygote with the nucleus from a donor. The cloned animal usually developed deformities or health problems and a reduced life span. Wolpert opposes human cloning on such risks and categorically states that no new ethical issues are involved. Cynicism by religious groups do not count for much on the point of respect for human life. IVF already discards several fertilized eggs after successful impregnation, each of which could develop into a human.

Quite contrary to social and behavioural scientists, the author argues that genes play a very crucial role in moulding us into what we really are. He is strongly on nature’s side in the famous question, nature or nurture?, that is, whether human behaviour is determined by nature (genes), rather than nurture (the circumstances in which the person grew). He says, “If you doubt that genes can determine criminality, look no further, for it is mainly males who commit violent crimes, not females. There is evidence of male superiority in mathematically gifted children, and that in women, unlike men, language and spatial skills are located in both sides of the brain. It seems that female attachment to infants is innate, whereas with men it has to be learned” (p.135). Many of us have an innate fear of snakes, but no child, no matter how often they are warned, fears an electric plug, which is equally, if not more dangerous!

Wolpert’s handling of the mechanism of aging is rather hazy, probably because the state of knowledge is also comparable. There is no genetic program for aging, it is primarily due to disintegration of maintenance in cells and errors creeping up in DNA replication. Evolution prevents aging in animals which have not reproduced and reared their young ones. After it is over, they become redundant and disposable. Evolution is thoroughly effective, but undoubtedly heartless! Oxygen, essential for life is one of the causes of cell damage as also insulin secretion. Reduced food intake causes longevity, a probable reason may be reduced insulin production. However, too little insulin may lead to diabetes.

Cancer is a fatal malady which affects cells in our body. Errors in DNA of a single cell make it continue to divide without end. Such uncontrolled proliferation causes the cancerous cells to compete and defeat normal cells in food and energy. They make blood capillaries to grow to them and increase to harmful levels. There are hundreds of types of cancers and genetic problems are involved in most of them. The book gives a brief but interesting discussion on the mechanisms of tumorous growth.

Like a genuine, concerned scientist, Wolpert expresses concern against misuse of scientific terms by snake-oil dealers, most often politely called alternative medicine or complementary medicine. He says, “Non-scientists have taken a scientific term and used it in a way that seems to be totally inappropriate; but because the word is from science, it gives it a spurious validity. Nowhere is this more evident than with the widespread use of the term ‘energy’ in what is politely called alternative or complementary medicine, but which bears little or no relation to science-based medicine. Thus Ayurvedic medicine claims that there are canals in the body carrying energy, and qi energy channels are central for acupuncture; crystal healing is based on transmission of energy, and faith healing also works, it is claimed, by channelling energy. There is no indication of how this energy is generated or what its nature is. Positive results are most likely due to the placebo effect” (p.201).

In 14 chapters, Wolpert presents before us the wonderful world of cells, of which we are made of. The activities taking place inside this microworld is mind boggling and beyond comparison in their complexity. The book presents a non-complicated and balanced view of things and touches upon all aspects of life.

The book also has some glaring drawbacks. There are no illustrations which would’ve saved the day. Wolpert is wrestling with explaining how the muscle cells contract using proteins myocin and actin (p.50-51), which would have been far easier with diagrams or photoplates. Probably in the next version of the book, this aspect should not be overlooked. Also, it assumes some background knowledge on biology, which is a little above the general reader or at least the reviewer.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star