Sunday, May 25, 2014

My Beautiful Genome





Title: My Beautiful Genome – Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time
Author: Lone Frank
Publisher: Oneworld, 2011 (First published 2010)
ISBN: 978-1-85168-833-3
Pages: 313

Lone Frank is a distinguished science writer in Denmark and a journalist with a doctoral degree in neurobiology to boot. She has widely written in scientific journals and is the author of books like The Neurotourist and Mindfield. The present title is also one among the author’s most favorite genre. It is a summary of the field as it exists in developed countries, the First World, so to say, and discusses about implications of what researchers and industrialists do on the genome, the genetic sequence that makes one different from another. With technology getting cheaper to sequence and analyze genes, the number of applications to which the data is put to use has skyrocketed. It came into being by identifying susceptibilities to specific heritable diseases like breast cancer and depressive disorder, but soon developed into racial profiling, identifying tendencies toward behavioral disorders and at last towards genetic matchmaking that surreptitiously inches towards neo-eugenics. Frank discusses all these issues with the detachment of a journalist, at the same time submitting her own genetic material as input to each of the technologies she gives an account of. She has travelled widely as part of this book’s preparation, as attested by the author’s presence in seminars, workshops, research establishments and entrepreneurs. The greatest virtue of the book is that it doesn’t pass judgment on the cutting edge technologies like selectively aborting fetuses that show symptoms of mutations in order to ensure a healthy new generation. She adopts a neutral, open attitude towards this vexed issue and allows the reader to form his own conclusions, and relegates herself into the background after providing him with all the relevant data on this issue.

People know the details of their ancestors generally only up to three generations into the past. Beyond that, ordinary people have no way of knowing anything. But the curiosity still prevailed. Many of us have wondered at one time or another about the origin and descent of our ancestors through the misty paths of historical time. And, to where did our ancestors belong to, about 100 generations ago? Such questions were unanswerable hardly a few decades ago, but no longer so, thanks to the development of genetic profiling that was one of the offshoots of genetic engineering that began at the discovery of DNA’s double helix architecture by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1963. Cataloguing of genes and polymorphisms have enabled us to probe into the distant past in order to throw light upon our racial heritage and geographical roots from which our forefathers began their journey through time. Frank describes her experience at firsthand of such tests offered by commercial enterprises in many parts of the world. There is not much point in deducing that one’s forebears originated from an outpost of civilization in central Asia or that our genome contains special features that are exhibited by specific tribes towards whom we no longer feel an affinity to. But still, such information more than matters to a few individuals in our society.

An area that is attracting wide public attention is the screening for diseases that show heritability. Depression, schizophrenia and breast cancer are some of these, for which strong correlation between genes and the disease have been established. But this presents a dilemma. What if the disease is not preventable, say Alzheimer’s disease? The foreknowledge that it is written in your genes that you are predisposed towards the disease only makes you more stressful – at least that is what is observed commonly. And then there is the issue of changes in consensus. A gene may be thought to be harmful today, but after thorough studies, it may turn out to be innocuous. In such cases, a report issued in a year with warnings against specific maladies may prove to be utterly erroneous the next year. Then there is the added trouble with percentages of likelihood. Genetic testing is not like a clinical examination such as blood tests. There, the results are pretty final and if it says you are afflicted with something, you probably are. But the study of relevant genes only tell you a statistical likelihood that you are more prone to a particular condition by a specific percentage, than the normal population. But the public is not generally aware of finer nuances of the figures and assume that they already posses the disease. No wonder genetic testing for heritable diseases is strictly controlled by law in some countries. A person is not allowed to simply walk in to a genetic lab and have his or her genome tested. The author expresses dissent about this and comes to the consensus that an individual should be allowed to have knowledge of genetic quirks that he harbors in his genes. A enlightening discussion on the interpretation of percentages connected with diseases may be obtained from the book, The Tiger That Isn’t, reviewed earlier in this blog.

The latter half of the book is a bit terse and does not follow the humorous streak observed in the former. One reason might be that Frank has devoted this portion to explain the cutting edge research going on this area. She is eager to participate in study projects in the field and don’t hesitate to share the results with the readers, overlooking issues like privacy. An interesting area of research is that of epigenetics, the study of changes in the genome during the life of an individual. Though we have the same DNA in our liver and brain, only those genes specific to cleanup are activated in the liver, and only those for communication of neural signals are turned on in the brain. The blocking of specific portions is done by affixing chains of methyl groups at appropriate points in the DNA. This is a natural and essential process, but sometimes, exigencies in upbringing like stressful childhood and abuse may cause modifications in genome, and gene expression is affected. This is proved in experiments with animals, but human trials are obviously not feasible as at present. However, this is discernible in the development of twins. Their genome is alike when they are children, but as they grow up, differences become more and more noticeable. This is due to changes occurring to their genome due to the environment in which they live. This is a classic dilemma of nature verses nurture, the genes that is in your nature, and the behavioral peculiarities cultivated as part of your nurturing program. What we learn from the author’s experience is that a lot of research is being done on this front, and by the year 2020, application of medicine would be based on genetic tests on the patient, to ascertain that the drug is beneficial to him.

The final section of the book deals with a new trend in the western world where people consult genetic matchmakers before entering a relationship and screen for mutational deficiencies in offspring which are conceived in vitro. Ethical issues are connected with this and may be thought of as a new incarnation of eugenics, the notorious branch of knowledge that took birth a century ago in Europe and postulated to limit the right of having children only to those genetically perfect, or in other words, the Whites. However, we don’t need to bring in old accusations anew against this nascent technology as the social milieu has changed beyond recognition in the last century and no race would presumably be allowed to enforce its will on dissenting others. In this light, it might be foolish not to take advantage of the benefits offered by the technology and bring up a new generation free of avoidable genetic disorders.

The book’s narration is free flowing and the experience enjoyable, particularly during the first half. Frank gatecrashes into genetic labs, presenting her genome for analysis and forms the basis of subsequent discussion. This candid approach helps to keep the personal touch between the author and her readers. By the time one completes the book, not only has he grasped a snapshot of what is brewing in the genetic cauldron, but has obtained a firsthand impression of the author’s behavioral traits and how it is linked to genes and her own upbringing. The book contains a good index and notes section, but a section on further reading is sorely missing.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

A Study of History, Vol 1




Title: A Study of History Vol. 1 – Introduction; Geneses of Civilizations
Author: Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1985 (First published 1934)
ISBN: 978-0-19-215207-7
Pages: 478

Toynbee’s magnum opus was a milestone in historical theory, which is said to be the next such attempt after Marx’s study in the previous century. The 12-volume series attracted widespread attention and is thought to be the last word in its genre. I made a go at it in 2002, reaching almost halfway, but then lost steam and the attempt was dropped. The language is so superb and formidable that completing a volume was a hefty task. Twelve years later, I am trying to scale this mountain once again, and it is immensely satisfying to have reached the first landmark. Anticipation of the moment when I complete the series brings me goose bumps. Arnold Joseph Toynbee need no introduction. He was simply the greatest historian of the last century. His 12-volume series which over arched his career from 1934 to 1961 brought him fame as the author of an audacious attempt to formulate theories out of social phenomena documented in history. His mind numbing scholarship that ranges equally in literature as in history has produced its most valuable fruit in this historical series.

When making a study of history, we should define an ‘intelligible field of study’ in which analysis should take place. This field, however, should not be limited by the modern concepts of nation-states. Spatially, it must be extensive so as to envelope other states, which share common attributes with the purported field of study. In time, it must reach to the dawn of cultural attributes that is a peculiar feature. Industrial Revolution had furnished mankind with the twin ideals of nation-states and democracy, but history is a wider arena, in which the scholar must focus on society rather than states. Toynbee identifies some societies that are ‘intelligible fields of study’ such as Western Orthodox, Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Far Eastern societies. It appears that religion was the most prominent identifying factor for a society.

Toynbee introduces twenty-one societies around the globe that is related to the five living societies in one form or other, either across space or in time. These five living species are affiliated and apparented to old societies and the author names them – Hellenic, Syriac, Indic and the Sinic respectively. And then the general principle is enunciated. Civilizations take roots; grow with a vitality of its own creativity, reach a mature phase and then disintegration sets in. in this phase, internecine warfare erupts between contending states in the bosom of the society. This period is called ‘Time of Troubles’, at the end of which one of the states rise up as a supreme power at the expense of its neighbors and establishes a universal state, ruled by a dominant minority and its religion. After an interval of time, this state itself begins to dissolve, and barbarians begin to gnaw at its borders. Toynbee called them ‘Volkerwanderung’ (a german term for ‘wandering nations’). These outsiders grow powerful as time progressed. In the meanwhile an internal proletariat develops a different form of religion that is acceptable to the masses. The term ‘proletariat’ has no relationship with that of Marx’s coinage. In our sense, it means a community that is not at all related to the ruling dominant minority. After the Volkerwandeung gets sufficient powerful, it displaces the universal state, adopting the universal church of the internal proletariat. This is the exact point at which a new society is being born of the chrysalis of the old one, being affiliated and apparented to it. He lists out the names of all 21 societies which are living at present or died out. The archeological evidence for the Indus Civilization had not been conclusively established at the point of time of the writing of the volume. Consequently, Toynbee provisionally classify the Indic society to be apparented to Sumeric society, due to the fact that John Marshall’s initial expositions of the newly founded civilization hinged on the similarity of seals obtained from Harappa and ancient Sumer.

According to the prevailing logic propounded by Toynbee, a civilization originates by the cession of a degenerated society’s internal or external proletariats linked by a universal church. But we have to account for the independent origin as well, as many of the ancient societies grew up without being parented to another. The author solves this puzzle with a concept deftly borrowed from Darwin’s evolutionary theory. The birth of an independent civilization is attributed to be the result of mutation sustained by primitive societies whose number is huge while compared to full fledged societies that are intelligible fields of historical study.

Having set the stage for all societies that ever existed to display their wares, Toynbee goes on to analyse what caused civilization to bloom in the first place. The spark of innovation that catalyzed a primitive society into a civilization is investigated in detail and a convincing assertion established.  Race and environment were assumed to be the two factors that guided a society along the path of civilization. The author rubbishes both ideas. In fact, he minces no words in uprooting the weedy concept of racism from the minds of historians who might have accumulated a sense of racial superiority as a result of widespread acceptance of Western political and scientific ideas. He borrows the findings of modern science to point out that the changes in skin colour, which constitutes the essence of racial theories is in fact the presence or absence of a chemical called melanin. The environmental factor is also discarded with an illuminating comparison of similar environments around the world and detecting the emergence of civilizations only in a few. Tropical forest is a common feature in India, Indonesia and Yucatan peninsula, but an independent society emerged only in the latter. Likewise, fertile river deltas exist at many places, but only in a handful of them did societies that attract our attention arise. Thus environment alone as a factor does not carry much weight.

In the end, the theory of ‘Challenge and Response’ is emerged. In a nutshell, it may be summarized as follows. An environmental or a human factor may throw a challenge to the society that is staying peacefully in a geographical location in the form of climate changes or aggression. The ingenuity of response to the challenge determines the success or failure in sprouting a civilization from it. At the end of the last Ice Age, sea level rose and precipitation plummeted along the Nile valley. Grass lands slowly transformed into desert. Primitive societies that lived without any concern till that time were thus thrown a challenge. Some migrated to the upper reaches of the Nile where similar climate to which they were habituated still existed. In a sense, they shirked the challenge and are still to be found in the primitive state today. Another group faced the call and converted the jungle swamps into land fit for husbandry and agriculture, paving the way for the rise of the Egyptiac Civilization. Similar arguments hold for the Sumeric and Sinic civilizations as well.

The book is littered with long quotes and notes in many languages, including French, German, Greek and Latin. Naturally, this impedes the free flow of navigation. The language is exquisite and the prose of a very high caliber. Reading is a tough exercise, but it is worth the effort when counting the numerous instances of original thought and logically sharp analysis and conclusions. There may be source for disagreement with the author regarding his assertion of the Mahayana and Hinayana schools of Buddhist thought as fossils still lingering in Tibet and Sri Lanka respectively. Both the religions are going strong in the two countries at present and earmarking them as fossils don’t do justice to the argument.  

The author’s attack on racism as an explanation for the origin of civilizations is very progressive for his time, when the black people were not even allowed to vote in America. His unequivocal condemnation of such fallacious ideas bring home the fact that scholars who combine intuition with wide reading transcends the barrier of time and culture. However true this assertion may be, there is an unfortunate aspect in which Toynbee falls short of another enlightenment that came a little later. This book places religion in a high pedestal, as “a human being’s religion is a vastly more important and significant factor in his life than the colour of his skin, and is therefore a vastly better criterion for purposes of classification” (p.224). It is clear that he couldn’t foresee the drop in status of religion as a personal identifier. The author’s vulnerability is seen again in his remarks on ‘casteism’ in India, as “The disappearance of the racial factor which originally evoked the sense of caste has not entailed the disappearance of caste-consciousness. In India to-day there is hardly a sign that the sense of caste divisions is yielding to any sense of common nationality, transcending caste, on the objective basis of a common country and a common race” (p.243). Even in 1934 when this first volume saw light, this outright comment fell far short of reality and exactly 13 years later, India proved Toynbee absolutely wrong on this point by carving out a state amidst all the debilitating effects of caste.

The book contains a number of annexes that range to about a third of the entire book. Many are not particularly appealing that caters to only a few minor points in the argument. These may safely be skipped. But the annex on Shiism and its growth in Iran at the arms of Ismail Shah Safawi provides good reading.

The book is highly recommended for the serious reader of history.

Rating: 4 Star

Thursday, May 8, 2014

India at the Death of Akbar

















Title: India at the Death of Akbar – An Economic Study
Author: William Harrison Moreland
Publisher: Low Price Publications, 1990 (First published 1920)
ISBN: 81-85395-82-9
Pages: 328

W H Moreland, as he is famously known, is an ICS-turned historian, who specialized in history through his official duty in analyzing land records. He has contributed many books into the collection of Mughal history, like Jahangir’s India, A Short History of India, and From Akbar to Aurangzeb, which is reviewed earlier in this blog. History tells the tale of monarchs and dynasties, but the plight of the common man is never accounted for. The rosy splendor of kingdoms frequently outshines the feeble radiance of domestic lives in historical lore. As a result, we are ignorant of the social and economic conditions through which the ordinary men and women conducted their lives. Moreland makes an economic study of the social, commercial, industrial and agricultural conditions prevailing in India around the time of the death of Emperor Akbar, in 1605. In this book divided into eight chapters, the author enumerates the administration, agricultural production, stratifications in society, commerce, standard of life and addresses the issue of whether India was a wealthy country at that time. He brings to light the root cause behind some queer social peculiarities like incidence of heavy dowry while marrying off girls. Readers would readily appreciate the economic reasons listed by the author in molding a custom that still refuses to die out. The book is very easy to read and a good deal of research has gone into it.

A quest into the economic history of a period should establish a basic picture of the society, its institutions and the economic opportunities available to the people. Moreland establishes the population of the country around the year 1600 as 100 million in an ingenious way. During Akbar’s reign, and most of the medieval period, imperial service was the only option available to the populace for their livelihood, other than agriculture. But the Mughals, being themselves foreigners and having absolutely no religious, emotional or social attachment to the country, employed foreigners for filling up most of the plum jobs in the service. Among the mansabdars - which included all nobles and those aspiring to be nobles – 70% of the incumbents were foreigners. The author had not done any analysis of the astronomical amount of money that might have left the country on account of perks and salaries for this multitude of aliens. But Moreland could not have done that, since he himself was a representative of British Imperialism that was resorting to exactly the same technique, some 300 years later. Has anyone calculated the amount of wealth that had left India as a consequence of employing foreign nobles in the service of Mughals and earlier Sultanates? Perhaps the figure may simply be terrifying! I have a hunch that India might have lost many times more than the wealth it had lost due to devastating raids by the plunderers like Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammed of Ghor. Coming back to Akbar’s nobility, the remaining 30% consisted of Hindus and Indian Muslims equally. Another interesting observation then follows – except for 5 officers that included Birbal, all of the Hindu nobles was Rajputs! Clearly the Emperor had accommodated them due to political expediency alone. And it is plainly evident that the bulk of the common people had no representation in the nobility. And the nobles were not diligent about the welfare of the subjects, as most of them were intent on hoarding money secretly, to pass on to their families after their death. The Emperor was legally the heir of the nobles. So, when one died, royal officials took hold of his property and his descendants would be lucky if some form of provision is granted to them out of mere compassion. This resulted in a class of officials greedy and corrupt to the core.

A comparison of the chief crops during 1600 and 1900 is given. The state of agriculture was not fundamentally different after three centuries wherein the peasant toiled hard for bare subsistence. They were also bound to the land and not allowed to migrate to the cities where also the situation was not promising. We read about meager wages for the king’s husbandmen, who were also fined heavily and regularly for minor errors while tending to the master’s pets. Taxation on farming was set at one-third, which is harsh by modern standards, but moderate for the times under consideration. We also read of cash crops like cotton and indigo gaining ground in response to healthy demand from overseas. India generated the opium required for Asian markets. The commodity was traded at par with other products, making it no dearer than other merchandise.

The author was an administrator of British Raj and the nonchalant evaluation of the wellbeing of the people of his day over their ancestors three centuries back, is striking. Moreland’s work is made highly relevant by his comparison of the historical object to modern conditions prevailing at the same locale. While making comparisons to his own time, regarding the economic well being of the populace, he is content to note that the people are on the same level as they were in the year 1600. Without an air of apology at the ineffectiveness of the British colonial regime in improving the lot of the people they are governing, the author seems to expect gratitude for not making them even poorer. Availability of food grains, wages and essential metals had not improved in the intervening period, but cotton and iron had become plenty, because of the improvements in technology. Moreland’s passive acceptance of the status quo may be suspected to be an outward manifestation of a guilty complex at the realization that the British is only the most recent of exploiters of India.

The economic condition of the society is analyzed in an illuminating way. Except the nobles, all of them were exceedingly poor. They went about naked only with a cloth around the waist. This was not due to the warm climate alone. Same attire prevailed in the north too, where clothing was essential for efficiency during winter months. The dwelling places were so small and frugal that no furniture other than a bedstead was available. In fact, travelers had compared the social system of India to the schools of fish living in sea, as Thomas Roe stated, “the great ones eat up the little. For first, the farmer robs the peasant, the gentleman robs the farmer, the greater robs the lesser, and the King robs all” (p.269). The spectre of famine always loomed in the background. Efficient modes of distribution were unavailable due to the menace of robbers on the land routes and pirates on the sea. This meant that if rain failed in a particular area, the inhabitants had to starve or migrate. Widespread famine was also not uncommon. Ordinary people resorted to selling themselves or their children into slavery in lieu of a handful of grain. We hear of ships that carried grain into the port, returning with slaves in their hold. Cannibalism also took place in extreme cases. Moreland cautions us to contemplate the splendors of Agra or Vijayanagar against this background of devastating poverty.

Towards the end of the book, the most relevant question of whether India was a wealthy country at the death of Akbar is addressed. The land is described as rich and fabulous by travelers, but this statement reflects only the lives of a chosen few. By an ingenious method, Moreland finds the per capita wealth and asserts that the poor people were slightly better off, while the aristocracy was considerably worse than their forefathers, 300 years ago. He has resorted to a series of estimates and assumptions that help to establish his point. It must also be remembered that India didn’t want the merchandise of Europe to balance her exports of cotton, pepper and opium. Consequently, Europeans had to pay for their imports in silver. This silver horde was absorbed by the aristocracy and temples in India. Such huge consumption of silver and gold might be one of the reasons why India was thought to be a wealthy country. The author establishes that the people on an average were miserably poor as in the early 20th century.                                  

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Saturday, May 3, 2014

In Search of the Multiverse




Title: In Search of the Multiverse
Author: John Gribbin
Publisher: Allen Lane, 2009 (First)
ISBN: 978-1-846-14113-3
Pages: 228

Coming from the lair of one of the greatest writers of popular science, the book commands attention not only for its title, but in layout too. Cosmology and astrophysics are exciting subjects of the genre, finding wholehearted support from all classes of readers. Questions on the origin of the universe and time have been raised from prehistoric times, but physics explains it with a flourish. This book is all about a fundamentally new idea gaining ground in academic circles where the feasibility of multiples universes existing side by side is accepted. Each of these worlds might be slightly different from ours, with different histories which will not affect us in any way. With this convenient postulate, Gribbin answers the confusing problem of the cosmic parameters so fine-tuned for life. After all, if there is an infinite array of possible universes, it is natural that some of them would be conducive to life and hence we are here! The question of verifying the postulates does not arise, since the technology is not yet ripe for generating the tremendous quantum of energy required for the test run. In fact, some of the arguments may never be tested. Then, what is the sanctity of this concept as a scientific principle, which assumes testability and falsifiability as sacrosanct touchstones of reason? Astrophysicists are not concerned with this paradox and they continue to churn out theories and predictions which shuts commonsense out of the loop. In one part, Gribbin calls in the arguments of Richard Dawkins regarding evolution in the biological world caused by natural selection as the basis for the creation of multiple universes which differ slightly among one another. The idea of multiple universes is so tentative that we, the readers are under no obligation to accord the level of respect we bequeath to scientific theories. With this preface firmly in mind, a reader might find the book inspiring by granting a glimpse on the state of thinking in the global physics community. We would be amazed by the range of ideas and speculations that are produced by analyzing quantum mechanics and general relativity. Moreover, Gribbin sums up the work performed and results obtained during the first decade of the present century. The book is essential reading just for this reason.

The sequence of events that led to the germination of the idea of Multiverse is explained succinctly in the first part. The book assumes previous exposure to the concepts and weirdness of quantum mechanics in order to understand the argument. We have heard about Schrodinger’s famous thought experiment on a cat held in a box which contained a sealed vial of poisonous gas and a radioactive substance. Whenever a gamma ray is emitted, it breaks the vial releasing gas to kill the cat. We don’t know what goes inside and after a time, if we bother to look inside, the cat may either be dead or alive. But what if we don’t peer inside? Uncertainty guides the release of gas and quantum physicists say that when we are not looking at it the cat may be in a superposition of states – of being dead and alive at the same time. Made any sense of that statement? Unfortunately quantum physics is that strange and yet so absolutely true! The American Hugh Everett also thought it absurd and he proposed an even stranger postulate to explain the crux of the experiment. He proposed that the universe consists of countless multiverses in which all the outcomes of an event take place, but don’t have the ability to influence events in other multiverses. Suppose we toss a coin and turns a head. Everett states that the multiverse splits at the instant of tossing, in which the head appears in one world and the tail in the other. This argument turns the claim of philosophers that ‘nothing is real’ on its head to argue that ‘everything is real’. But there is a caveat. Those outcomes occur in other multiverses and don’t affect us anyway.

Gribbin includes an informative chapter on the coincidences of physical reality that made intelligent life possible. There are many parameters like the strength of gravity when compared to electromagnetic force, the density of the universe and the unique energy states of carbon which are among few of these, that seems to have precisely tuned values. Without these, life as we know it would be impossible. All this is fine science, but Gribbin commits a blunder not to assert specifically that this was not due to a creator (or intelligent designer, in more fashionable terms) tweaking the dials of some celestial machine to cause those parameters to have the exact desired value. The author’s meaningful silence at this point will surely be considered a cue for creationists to come out with tall claims that scientists support the fallacy of creation or Intelligent Design. Gribbin’s criminal omission is pardonable for an author who wants more circulation for his books and more money to himself and his publisher. But as a scientist, his action is unworthy of the code of ethics that must be followed by all authors of popular science. When one deigns to read the rest of the chapter, it would become evident that what Gribbin meant is that these parameters are fine tuned in a multiverse that is suitable for life to evolve. In another multiverse, it would be different and life as we know it (italics mine) would not originate. But pseudo scientists jumps out at half truths and so, a warning on the part of the author excluding the possibility of a creator would have been in order. And we find such a clear posture right at the end of the book. The author forcefully rubbishes followers of Intelligent Design without mincing words. But it is strange that he waited till the last page to lambast any claims to the supernatural.

Talking on the issue of pranks and charlatans misinterpreting or pulling ideas out of context from genuine scientific discourse, another case is represented in the chapter on inflation, the phenomenon in the early universe when the primordial object expanded by a huge factor, in a way becoming the big bang. Before the Big Bang theory was accepted as scientific wisdom, another idea called ‘Steady State Theory’ did the rounds as the explanation for the origin of the universe. This was propounded mainly by Fred Hoyle and his Indian colleague Jayant Narlikar. The central concept in the model was the idea of so called ‘C-field’ (‘C’ stands for creation) which filled the universe and was responsible for both the creation of matter and a pressure which caused the universe to expand. Hoyle and Narlikar’s coining of the term ‘Creation-Field’ may be innocuous  and perhaps the best appellation. But, such a term causes enough scope for confusion and misrepresentation by proponents of religious concepts masquerading as science. Scientists should be more careful in such matters, silly it may seem. In the present case, as the steady state theory itself was discarded soon, nobody caught on to it.

The book takes us through a bewildering array of new notions in cosmology, each more bizarre than the last. To borrow a phrase from Arthur C Clarke, the concepts on the cutting edge of advanced physics are indistinguishable from magic. Putting aside the wisdom of the world we acquired over the ages and even common sense, we learn that time travel is possible by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a universe may spring up spontaneously out of nothing, and that numerous parallel universes exist side by side. In any case, most of the reasoning can’t be tested by today’s technology, even the Large Hadron Collider falling by the wayside. What we gather from this jumble of tall claims and fantastic postulates is the myriad opportunities offered by cosmology and quantum physics to the budding young scientists among the new generation. No amount of prejudice or peer pressure need confine them to look within the walls of established wisdom alone. Perhaps physics provides more space – infinite, or even into other universes, for that matter – for creative intellect to float on the wings of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, or any other theory that’d come to occupy pride of place.

However, it couldn’t be denied that the book is very dry and difficult at many places. For a book of this nature, lack of illustrative diagrams is unpardonable. As is usual in any book of the same genre that hit the shelves after Hawking’s  ‘A Brief History of Time’, Gribbin also tells the same story in background – of the development of quantum theory which no one understands, the quest for a theory of everything and about string theory, that seeks to don that mantle. This book puts forward the concept of multiple universes, or multiverse, as a corollary to the ideas we assimilated from the previous titles. The book is endowed with a decent bibliography and a fine index.

Gribbin is a favoured author whose many books were reviewed earlier in this blog, Watching the Universe, The Universe - A Biography, In Search of the Big Bang and Richard Feynman - A Life in Science, being a few of them.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star