speculating..!!!???

The whole world, along with me celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin. He had a kick-ass work life. Well, whats better than vacationing in a lonely island and calling that your "laboratory". Have you seen ours??? Ok the scientist in me continues further, so here we go!

Born at a time when studies could not be done at the molecular level, Darwin and spencer "rightly" correlated origin of species to the origin of the universe. It gave rise to some agnosticism, triggered by the conflicting concept of God sending the 13 spp. Also, it gave a lot of scope for science fiction for years to come.

They were born to be skeptical, to question everything giving rise to 'science' as such. To think of what was achieved centuries agao, I speculate if we as a group of scientists are even reaching anywhere. Nothing really has changed over the last twenty years. With advance in technology like having a whole genome sequenced in less than five minutes, we havent achieved breaking success with either cancer or AIDS. We have only added to the list with mutant varities of bird flu and salmonella.

In my opinion, scientists today compared to 100 years back, are more concerned about short term success and material recognition. (like publishing a paper). Added to the fact that we have made education comprehensive and rigid that there is no scope for thinking beyond. Like for example, what if our categorization of animals and birds were all wrong? Anything that lays an egg outside itself is a bird, whereas anything that breast feeds is a mammal? We have learnt and accumulated so much knowledge, that we are not sure when to give our radically different ideas a chance. Should we go unlearn everything to give ourselves a broader perspective?

why am I the poop checker.!

My colleague and I were helping a grad student extract DNA from her samples. All sophisticated equipments around, gloved hands, lab coated and hair tucked behind. We even look like scientists.
We overheard her boss discussing how it was extremely difficult to get PCR products out of ..faeces. Saara whispered "OMG., is it really poop?" I did not even want to know. "Which animal is it?" she inquired. "Goeldi's" came the dignified reply. "Its a monkey". Saara said ironing out my forehead creases. "Its a south Amercian monkey, found in Peru. It is an endangered species, so we can't afford blood or skin samples. He is very pretty you know, and we are trying to find out the environmental concern that is leading to its extinction. Isnt it exciting?"
But its still poop right? Now is the only time I am proud that I work with fungal rots on plants.
Out of context here, but I just connected it to Sid saying "Why am I the poop checker?". I love ice age.

Apoptosizing life!!!

Most people are convinced that mortality is the best way of life. Give room for the next generation, dont deplete resources etc., But in one of the many conversations that I had with myself, I was wondering if it really is. It sparked off from the time I read Lord of the Rings. Well I am not much of a fan of fantasy books, but just to make this point, am using it.
The four races described are interesting in terms of their mortality/immortality. The elves, dwarfs, hobbits and us. The shorter the life span the more the population. There are very few dwarfs and even fewer elves. So since we have such a short life span, are we trying to live life in "complete"? In terms of which rapidly reproducing, depleting resources and exploiting the environment? The dwarfs and elves have a more "living with nature" approach. I think while trying to accomplish, we are just growing more and more selfish. We want everything for everyone of us. We dont care if the Olive ridley becomes extinct or who tha Caspian tiger or the dodo really was. Well, not to get very emotional but just reflecting that through the "rat race" we have been reproducing worse than them and taking over everyone's space.
Since it started with the context of life span versus quality of life, I am here day dreaming on how good it would be if we had 20 years to finish a college degree... how better am I going to listen in class?

An ode to PLB524

It was the most amazing course anyone could have taken. The course had only four students registered and we were from 5 different nationalities and from 4 different religion (instructor included). Almost every class extended for another half hour over a table of cookies and coffee discussing religion, philosophy and politics. But the best discussions till date have been about culture and food :-). Now you guys know why I enjoyed the class so much. The instructor had a unique teaching methodology involving formal debates, review writing and movie watching. The best two debates have been about intelligence and the other about death. I wish I had somehow video taped them. I wonder if I would ever come across such diverse thinking again anytime.
If any of you are wondering what this course was, it was gene regulatory networks, offered by a plant pathologist..and believe me, we would never go off subject. Geisler somehow made these amazing connections and kept us grounded on the subject. Well, what an inspiration. Not to study but to teach...