Spirals of science
Luke A. Schwerdtfeger
The timing was perfect. A few weeks after the experimental protocol that had served me for years inexplicably stopped working, my grad school adviser approached me about writing a review paper detailing the history of our field. I was feeling hopeless about my lab work. I had seemingly tried everything to fix the broken tissue culture system, but nothing worked, crippling not only my productivity, but also my confidence. Shifting my focus to literature review and writing offered a welcome respite. And although I didn't expect it, this historical venture ended up teaching me how science proceeds across generations—and it provided the key to getting my research back on track.
"Each generation is assisted by the knowledge of the scientists who came before."
While diving into the literature, I stumbled upon a string of reports from the 1910s describing experiments that were shockingly similar to the protocol I had been struggling with. The more I read, the more I questioned whether anything I was doing was actually novel. They led me to another set of intriguing papers, including one from 1934 describing a tissue culture method so complex that it seemed impossible.
Maybe there was unrealized value in this long-forgotten system, I thought. I set off to replicate the work.
After a couple of tries, I succeeded, which provided a much-needed confidence boost. I was amazed that such an advanced system had been invented more than 80 years ago. I couldn't wait to tell my adviser that I had replicated it.
To my surprise, he wasn't as enthusiastic as I was. He asked a simple question: What's the utility? I didn't have an answer. This method was much more difficult than my current, albeit broken, protocol. So why should we care about it? Why not instead pour my time and energy into fixing my modern protocol?
I was determined to come up with some hidden utility for the rediscovered system. It was too interesting, too radical compared with what I had been doing to not be useful. But I couldn't think of anything. My surge of inspiration gave way to gloom. I was stuck with my broken method.
Returning to my adviser's office the next day, I was ready to admit that he was right and that replicating the historical method had been a waste of time. But he asked another simple question: Had it taught me anything? The answer was yes. On a technical level, it reminded me of the importance of paying attention to details, even minute and seemingly insignificant ones, which were critical for reproducing such an intricate method. Just as important, my excitement in trying a challenging, complex method got me out of my research slump. Perhaps that was the true utility.
With renewed vigor and focus on the details, I finally got my protocol working again, after nearly 5 months of troubleshooting. The problem turned out to be infuriatingly simple: a bad component in the tissue culture media. As fate would have it, I got my protocol working just as our review paper was accepted for publication.
My adviser often uses the phrase "spirals of science" to describe how science progresses. The idea—which he inherited from his postdoc adviser—is that researchers sometimes retrace paths conceptually similar to those explored by previous generations. But each generation is assisted by the knowledge of the scientists who came before, which allows the spiral to progress upward.
This notion hadn't fully resonated with me when he mentioned it after we found the tissue culture papers from the 1910s. But after troubleshooting my protocol while diving into the history of my field, I saw exactly what he meant. And I took confidence from the thought that, no matter how slowly, I was progressing up the spiral.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Friday, October 12, 2018
Economist and Python !
Economist Paul Romer, a co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics, is many things.
He is one of most important theorists on the drivers of economic growth. He is an ex-World Bank chief economist. He is a supporter of clear academic writing. He is the chief evangelist for charter cities—small jurisdictions within a country that operate autonomously of the national government—as a way to encourage better governance. But perhaps most notably for a 62-year-old economist of his distinction, he is a user of the programming language Python.
Economics involves a lot of math and statistics. The most commonly used tools to crunch numbers are the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel and programming languages Stata and Mathematica. These are the tools that tend to be taught in economics classrooms across the world. All three of them are proprietary and privately owned.
Romer believes in making research transparent. He argues that openness and clarity about methodology is important for scientific research to gain trust. As Romer explained in an April 2018 blog post, in an effort to make his own work transparent, he tried to use Mathematica to share one of his studies in a way that anyone could explore every detail of his data and methods. It didn't work. He says that Mathematica's owner, Wolfram Research, made it too difficult to share his work in a way that didn't require other people to use the proprietary software, too. Readers also could not see all of the code he used for his equations.
Instead of using Mathematica, Romer discovered that he could use a Jupyter notebook for sharing his research. Jupyter notebooks are web applications that allow programmers and researchers to share documents that include code, charts, equations, and data. Jupyter notebooks allow for code written in dozens of programming languages. For his research, Romer used Python—the most popular language for data science and statistics.
Importantly, unlike notebooks made from Mathematica, Jupyter notebooks are open source, which means that anyone can look at all of the code that created them. This allows for truly transparent research. In a compelling story for The Atlantic, James Somers argued that Jupyter notebooks may replace the traditional research paper typically shared as a PDF.
Romer believes that open-source notebooks are the way forward for sharing research. He believes they support integrity, while proprietary software encourage secrecy. "The more I learn about proprietary software, the more I worry that objective truth might perish from the earth," he wrote.
He is one of most important theorists on the drivers of economic growth. He is an ex-World Bank chief economist. He is a supporter of clear academic writing. He is the chief evangelist for charter cities—small jurisdictions within a country that operate autonomously of the national government—as a way to encourage better governance. But perhaps most notably for a 62-year-old economist of his distinction, he is a user of the programming language Python.
Economics involves a lot of math and statistics. The most commonly used tools to crunch numbers are the spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel and programming languages Stata and Mathematica. These are the tools that tend to be taught in economics classrooms across the world. All three of them are proprietary and privately owned.
Romer believes in making research transparent. He argues that openness and clarity about methodology is important for scientific research to gain trust. As Romer explained in an April 2018 blog post, in an effort to make his own work transparent, he tried to use Mathematica to share one of his studies in a way that anyone could explore every detail of his data and methods. It didn't work. He says that Mathematica's owner, Wolfram Research, made it too difficult to share his work in a way that didn't require other people to use the proprietary software, too. Readers also could not see all of the code he used for his equations.
Instead of using Mathematica, Romer discovered that he could use a Jupyter notebook for sharing his research. Jupyter notebooks are web applications that allow programmers and researchers to share documents that include code, charts, equations, and data. Jupyter notebooks allow for code written in dozens of programming languages. For his research, Romer used Python—the most popular language for data science and statistics.
Importantly, unlike notebooks made from Mathematica, Jupyter notebooks are open source, which means that anyone can look at all of the code that created them. This allows for truly transparent research. In a compelling story for The Atlantic, James Somers argued that Jupyter notebooks may replace the traditional research paper typically shared as a PDF.
Romer believes that open-source notebooks are the way forward for sharing research. He believes they support integrity, while proprietary software encourage secrecy. "The more I learn about proprietary software, the more I worry that objective truth might perish from the earth," he wrote.
Monday, May 28, 2018
ECG Sudarshan
George Sudarshan – A Lifelong Pursuit Of Science And Vedanta
by
Aravindan Neelakandan
- May 15, 2018, 11:59 am
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan. (Asianet) Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan. (Asianet)
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan made groundbreaking discoveries in the realm of quantum physics in a 50-year career.
A tribute to a genius physicist and a profound Vedantin.
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was not just another physicist. He was a physicist who saw in his pursuit of science a spiritual sadhana. His physics was organically integrated with his Vedanta.
The discoveries made by Sudarshan are today becoming more and more relevant. One such discovery is Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE). It was formulated by Sudarshan and B Misra in 1977. According to QZE, an observed quantum system changes at a rate slower than an unobserved quantum system. In 2001, physicist Mark Raizen observed QZE in actual quantum systems. Today, the emerging field, which examines the role of quantum processes in biological phenomena, looks at some important biological mysteries like bird navigation. In fact, Neill Lambert and his co-workers use the QZE in 'the radical ion pair mechanism' in avian magnetoreception to explain the mystery of bird navigation. Another interesting contribution of Sudarshan is the proposal of tachyons, (which he proposed along with O M P Bilaniuk and V K Deshpande) in 1962. These are theoretical faster-than-light particles. The creative output of Sudarshan to science continued for more than five decades.
In 1999, he co-authored Doubt And Certainty: The Celebrated Academy Debates On Science, Mysticism Reality with Tony Rothman. It is a very interesting and important book. While the authors point out how the Eastern mysticism does have important insights to offer to humanity with the worldview that is being unveiled by quantum mechanics, they also point out where to draw the line when people like Deepak Chopra use the Q word or rather abuse it for peddling questionable speculations.
Why does one pursue science? In a TV interview to a Malayalam channel, the physicist answered by quoting Vishnu Sahasra Nama (VSN) - "A Brahmin pursues it for Vedantic knowledge; Kshatriya pursues it for victory; Vaishya pursues it for wealth and Shudra pursues it for comfort." Then he pointed out that none of such motivations are in themselves inferior or superior to them. One of the important insights of Sudarshan was his observation that the psychology of discovery has a spiritual dimension to it. After pointing out that the very first name in VSN is viswam - the universe, he explained:
The openness of scientists in the moment of discovery is one of impersonal knowledge manifesting itself within, rather than one of discovering something outside oneself. This particular point deserves emphasis because many scientists are very careful to avoid any talk about the role of their personal experience in their discoveries. ... In the Hindu tradition, however, personal experience is the ultimate authority with regard to all things. ... Within my tradition, much emphasis is placed on the moment of discovery. Such insights need not be earth-shaking. They could be something quite trivial or small, but nonetheless they involve discovery.
George Sudarshan, 'One Quest, One Knowledge' In 'Science and the Spiritual Quest' (Ed. Richardson Et Al), Routledge, 2002
The year was 2004 when I was writing popular science articles in Tamil. I wrote to Sudarshan to clarify some doubts I had and he replied to me - someone from an obscure corner of India, and whose writing may not have been exactly brilliant. I had asked him if he could enlighten me on the parallel between the differences in Sankya-Buddhist philosophies and a debate between Schrodinger and Heisenberg. He explained patiently and the answer is worth quoting here. Here's his explanation on Feynman's approach to the world of subatomic particles:
Feynman looked on a positron as a negative-energy electron propagating 'backwards in time'. If a positron went from A at time t1 to B at time t2, A would lose energy and B would gain energy, and t2 is later than t1. But the same result is there if a negative-energy electron went from B at time t2 to A at time t1. This is 'backwards' in time. The great merit of Feyman's way of looking at things is that calculations involving electrons, positrons and photons are considerably simplified. It is this ease in computation that made Feynman's way of looking at things very popular. Otherwise it is not a new theory.
He touched on the problem of tachyons too. As he pointed out the inherent paradoxes that emerge from the approaches, he eloquently and effortlessly showed a Vedantic flash too:
In the theory of tachyons such a reinterpretation is necessary to make sense of observations on tachyons. I wrote a paper with O.M.P. Bilanuik in American Journal of Physics. But whatever interpretation you use, any classical picture of a quantum system leads to paradoxes and intensities. For example, Feynman's picture would say electrons with momentum p goes from A to B. But if you know the energy and momentum precisely, you cannot determine the space-time locations. So also the photon; for visible light it is about 4000 Å but the size of the atom is only about 1 Å. How can a photon originate from the atom? [This is maya, the deliberate spontaneous misuse of models.]
Then he ended the long reply with these unforgettable lines:
With regard to methods of Schrodinger and Heisenberg on quantum mechanics, they started from basically different models. Schrodinger used smooth wave equations while Heisenberg used matrix arrays to describe the positions and momentum. Within a year, Schrodinger proved the equivalence of the two by observing that the partial derivatives occurring in the wave equation were, in fact, infinite dimensional matrices. A more substantial example is the view of Abhinava Gupta about the 'ultimate experience'. ...
And I had wanted to interview him ever since, but somehow never got around to doing it. I have to end this article on a sad personal note as I feel a terrible sense of loss with the passing away of Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan yesterday (14 May) aged 86. That even the Nobel Prize lost an opportunity to honour itself for sidestepping this great physicist is no consolation. Nevertheless, to this great man, who combined in him a genius physicist and a profound Vedantin, the ideal homage would be to spread the harmony of self discovery and scientific discovery that he lived for - through articles, our curriculum and our culture.,
Aravindan is a contributing editor at Swarajya
by
Aravindan Neelakandan
- May 15, 2018, 11:59 am
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan. (Asianet) Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan. (Asianet)
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan made groundbreaking discoveries in the realm of quantum physics in a 50-year career.
A tribute to a genius physicist and a profound Vedantin.
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was not just another physicist. He was a physicist who saw in his pursuit of science a spiritual sadhana. His physics was organically integrated with his Vedanta.
The discoveries made by Sudarshan are today becoming more and more relevant. One such discovery is Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE). It was formulated by Sudarshan and B Misra in 1977. According to QZE, an observed quantum system changes at a rate slower than an unobserved quantum system. In 2001, physicist Mark Raizen observed QZE in actual quantum systems. Today, the emerging field, which examines the role of quantum processes in biological phenomena, looks at some important biological mysteries like bird navigation. In fact, Neill Lambert and his co-workers use the QZE in 'the radical ion pair mechanism' in avian magnetoreception to explain the mystery of bird navigation. Another interesting contribution of Sudarshan is the proposal of tachyons, (which he proposed along with O M P Bilaniuk and V K Deshpande) in 1962. These are theoretical faster-than-light particles. The creative output of Sudarshan to science continued for more than five decades.
In 1999, he co-authored Doubt And Certainty: The Celebrated Academy Debates On Science, Mysticism Reality with Tony Rothman. It is a very interesting and important book. While the authors point out how the Eastern mysticism does have important insights to offer to humanity with the worldview that is being unveiled by quantum mechanics, they also point out where to draw the line when people like Deepak Chopra use the Q word or rather abuse it for peddling questionable speculations.
Why does one pursue science? In a TV interview to a Malayalam channel, the physicist answered by quoting Vishnu Sahasra Nama (VSN) - "A Brahmin pursues it for Vedantic knowledge; Kshatriya pursues it for victory; Vaishya pursues it for wealth and Shudra pursues it for comfort." Then he pointed out that none of such motivations are in themselves inferior or superior to them. One of the important insights of Sudarshan was his observation that the psychology of discovery has a spiritual dimension to it. After pointing out that the very first name in VSN is viswam - the universe, he explained:
The openness of scientists in the moment of discovery is one of impersonal knowledge manifesting itself within, rather than one of discovering something outside oneself. This particular point deserves emphasis because many scientists are very careful to avoid any talk about the role of their personal experience in their discoveries. ... In the Hindu tradition, however, personal experience is the ultimate authority with regard to all things. ... Within my tradition, much emphasis is placed on the moment of discovery. Such insights need not be earth-shaking. They could be something quite trivial or small, but nonetheless they involve discovery.
George Sudarshan, 'One Quest, One Knowledge' In 'Science and the Spiritual Quest' (Ed. Richardson Et Al), Routledge, 2002
The year was 2004 when I was writing popular science articles in Tamil. I wrote to Sudarshan to clarify some doubts I had and he replied to me - someone from an obscure corner of India, and whose writing may not have been exactly brilliant. I had asked him if he could enlighten me on the parallel between the differences in Sankya-Buddhist philosophies and a debate between Schrodinger and Heisenberg. He explained patiently and the answer is worth quoting here. Here's his explanation on Feynman's approach to the world of subatomic particles:
Feynman looked on a positron as a negative-energy electron propagating 'backwards in time'. If a positron went from A at time t1 to B at time t2, A would lose energy and B would gain energy, and t2 is later than t1. But the same result is there if a negative-energy electron went from B at time t2 to A at time t1. This is 'backwards' in time. The great merit of Feyman's way of looking at things is that calculations involving electrons, positrons and photons are considerably simplified. It is this ease in computation that made Feynman's way of looking at things very popular. Otherwise it is not a new theory.
He touched on the problem of tachyons too. As he pointed out the inherent paradoxes that emerge from the approaches, he eloquently and effortlessly showed a Vedantic flash too:
In the theory of tachyons such a reinterpretation is necessary to make sense of observations on tachyons. I wrote a paper with O.M.P. Bilanuik in American Journal of Physics. But whatever interpretation you use, any classical picture of a quantum system leads to paradoxes and intensities. For example, Feynman's picture would say electrons with momentum p goes from A to B. But if you know the energy and momentum precisely, you cannot determine the space-time locations. So also the photon; for visible light it is about 4000 Å but the size of the atom is only about 1 Å. How can a photon originate from the atom? [This is maya, the deliberate spontaneous misuse of models.]
Then he ended the long reply with these unforgettable lines:
With regard to methods of Schrodinger and Heisenberg on quantum mechanics, they started from basically different models. Schrodinger used smooth wave equations while Heisenberg used matrix arrays to describe the positions and momentum. Within a year, Schrodinger proved the equivalence of the two by observing that the partial derivatives occurring in the wave equation were, in fact, infinite dimensional matrices. A more substantial example is the view of Abhinava Gupta about the 'ultimate experience'. ...
And I had wanted to interview him ever since, but somehow never got around to doing it. I have to end this article on a sad personal note as I feel a terrible sense of loss with the passing away of Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan yesterday (14 May) aged 86. That even the Nobel Prize lost an opportunity to honour itself for sidestepping this great physicist is no consolation. Nevertheless, to this great man, who combined in him a genius physicist and a profound Vedantin, the ideal homage would be to spread the harmony of self discovery and scientific discovery that he lived for - through articles, our curriculum and our culture.,
Aravindan is a contributing editor at Swarajya
Friday, April 13, 2018
Another perspective
The latest rankings in the World Happiness Report 2018 place India as low as 133 in a list of 156 countries. What is more troubling is that India has been on a declining trend, slipping 11 places in the 2018 report as compared to 2017. While on the economic and developmental indices, India seems to be moving in the positive direction, on happiness—the ultimate goal—it is concerning that India is slipping towards the very bottom.
What can India do to stem this rapid decline?
Perhaps we should learn from Latin America. They suffer from a situation of weak political institutions, high corruption, high violence and crime rates, very unequal distribution of income, and high poverty rates, but are far higher up the list in happiness ratings. Latin Americans' happiness levels are also above what income levels would predict. "World Happiness Report" explains the happiness in Latin American countries through the strength of strong family ties.
The family is the basic unit and foundation upon which society is built and sustained. The family thus plays an important role in the functional nature of society. J.H. Larson and T.B. Holman (1994) described marriage as the most important and fundamental relationship because it provides the basic structure for establishing a family and raising the next generation.
As part of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the world's longest studies of adult life spanning 80 years, researchers have collected a cornucopia of data on their physical and mental health.
"The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health," said Robert Waldinger, director of the study and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation." According to the study, strong relationships are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.
Thus, quality of the relationship with one's life partner becomes a parameter that has crucial significance beyond the four walls of one's house. In the focus to eradicate the burden of caste from our society and obliterate the oppressive attitudes of the khap panchayats, inter-caste marriages are encouraged in India by governments and modern society as a whole. While this trend has several positives going for it, it also has a fundamental flaw. It encourages individual decision-making epitomized by love marriages over collective decision-making epitomized by the concept of arranged marriages. It removes parents, immediate family members, and the immediate societal links from the decision-making process regarding choosing one's life partner.
Western cultures, with their emphasis on personal desires and independence, have long since moved away from this practice of involving parents in the marriage decision. On the other hand, arranged marriages are seen as outdated concepts where the decision regarding one's life partner, possibly the most important decision in one's life, is taken in a jiffy with the individuals concerned having little say and the family members taking all the crucial decisions.
Sheena Iyengar, professor at Columbia Business School and author of the famous book The Art Of Choosing, Cassie Mogilner, professor of marketing at Wharton Business School, and Baba Shiv, professor of marketing at Stanford Business School, have studied love marriages and arranged marriages through the lens of brain's decision-making process. According to them, there are broadly two types of decision-making processes—sequential and simultaneous. Sequential decision-making is the process where only a single option is considered at any point of time. This is mostly used in situations where the cost of choosing a wrong option is very low and the consequence of a wrong decision is very low. Whereas, when the cost of a decision is high and the consequence of a decision is very high, we tend to use simultaneous decision-making—a decision-making process where all the options available are evaluated simultaneously and the best is chosen.
Love marriages follow sequential decision-making process while arranged marriages follow simultaneous decision-making process. Studies have shown that the levels of satisfaction after a decision arrived through simultaneous decision-making process is higher than if the same decision was made through a sequential process.
In an arranged marriage, the information search is a collective process involving parents, family members, and other members of the society. Whereas in love marriages, the information search is solely an individual's responsibility. Cognitive dissonance theory reminds us that one tends to collect information that confirms with our existing thinking. One tends to avoid negative information about one's existing beliefs, if the final choice has already been made. Decisions of love marriage tend to fall prey to this fallacy. A 2004 study from the University College London has proved that what Shakespeare wrote, "Love is blind and lovers cannot see", is true. Feelings of love suppress certain areas of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking.
Of course, the processes involved in arranged marriages have to improve so as to allow more discussions between the individuals who are to get married. But one cannot ignore arranged marriages' superiority in providing more stable marriages, and thus building a society that is happier than most.
Biju Dominic is the chief executive officer of Final Mile Consulting, a behaviour architecture firm.
What can India do to stem this rapid decline?
Perhaps we should learn from Latin America. They suffer from a situation of weak political institutions, high corruption, high violence and crime rates, very unequal distribution of income, and high poverty rates, but are far higher up the list in happiness ratings. Latin Americans' happiness levels are also above what income levels would predict. "World Happiness Report" explains the happiness in Latin American countries through the strength of strong family ties.
The family is the basic unit and foundation upon which society is built and sustained. The family thus plays an important role in the functional nature of society. J.H. Larson and T.B. Holman (1994) described marriage as the most important and fundamental relationship because it provides the basic structure for establishing a family and raising the next generation.
As part of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the world's longest studies of adult life spanning 80 years, researchers have collected a cornucopia of data on their physical and mental health.
"The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health," said Robert Waldinger, director of the study and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation." According to the study, strong relationships are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.
Thus, quality of the relationship with one's life partner becomes a parameter that has crucial significance beyond the four walls of one's house. In the focus to eradicate the burden of caste from our society and obliterate the oppressive attitudes of the khap panchayats, inter-caste marriages are encouraged in India by governments and modern society as a whole. While this trend has several positives going for it, it also has a fundamental flaw. It encourages individual decision-making epitomized by love marriages over collective decision-making epitomized by the concept of arranged marriages. It removes parents, immediate family members, and the immediate societal links from the decision-making process regarding choosing one's life partner.
Western cultures, with their emphasis on personal desires and independence, have long since moved away from this practice of involving parents in the marriage decision. On the other hand, arranged marriages are seen as outdated concepts where the decision regarding one's life partner, possibly the most important decision in one's life, is taken in a jiffy with the individuals concerned having little say and the family members taking all the crucial decisions.
Sheena Iyengar, professor at Columbia Business School and author of the famous book The Art Of Choosing, Cassie Mogilner, professor of marketing at Wharton Business School, and Baba Shiv, professor of marketing at Stanford Business School, have studied love marriages and arranged marriages through the lens of brain's decision-making process. According to them, there are broadly two types of decision-making processes—sequential and simultaneous. Sequential decision-making is the process where only a single option is considered at any point of time. This is mostly used in situations where the cost of choosing a wrong option is very low and the consequence of a wrong decision is very low. Whereas, when the cost of a decision is high and the consequence of a decision is very high, we tend to use simultaneous decision-making—a decision-making process where all the options available are evaluated simultaneously and the best is chosen.
Love marriages follow sequential decision-making process while arranged marriages follow simultaneous decision-making process. Studies have shown that the levels of satisfaction after a decision arrived through simultaneous decision-making process is higher than if the same decision was made through a sequential process.
In an arranged marriage, the information search is a collective process involving parents, family members, and other members of the society. Whereas in love marriages, the information search is solely an individual's responsibility. Cognitive dissonance theory reminds us that one tends to collect information that confirms with our existing thinking. One tends to avoid negative information about one's existing beliefs, if the final choice has already been made. Decisions of love marriage tend to fall prey to this fallacy. A 2004 study from the University College London has proved that what Shakespeare wrote, "Love is blind and lovers cannot see", is true. Feelings of love suppress certain areas of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking.
Of course, the processes involved in arranged marriages have to improve so as to allow more discussions between the individuals who are to get married. But one cannot ignore arranged marriages' superiority in providing more stable marriages, and thus building a society that is happier than most.
Biju Dominic is the chief executive officer of Final Mile Consulting, a behaviour architecture firm.
Sunday, April 8, 2018
travel writeup on Jaisalmer
Nitin Chowdhary
The strange steps led me into the house with the turquoise board. In the kitchen was an old woman, crouching over utensils
It was a hot afternoon on an otherwise unmemorable day. The air was dense, and together with the heat, it fast melted the skin into sweat. I remember being hungry; it wasn't an ordinary hunger, but the one that chewed up the stomach as if feeding on the muscles. I had hung around taking pictures in the alleys of the palace in Jaisalmer, and had somehow lost track of time. It was 4 p.m.
The usual affair with this old part of the town is that it is easy to get lost in the bylanes. However, it's also true that every street has something to offer: a lac bangles shop in one, a gypsy clothes shop in the second, a surahi kiosk in another; and hopefully food was not faraway either.
On one such narrow lane, a small turquoise board — hung from the first floor balcony of an old house that had its blue coat chipping off — proclaimed a perfectly forgettable restaurant name. I was travelling on a lavish budget that had rendered me fussy. But there were no fancy places around here to eat at. So I stepped in.
Silent encounter
The steps were strangely large, cumbersome to negotiate, entirely ill-designed. The steps led me into someone's home and the silence made its presence felt instantly to me, the only visitor at this hour. A few moments passed. Eventually, a weak voice called out from a distance. With eyes accustomed to the gloom now, I stepped towards the lonely figure, an old woman, crouching over utensils in the dark corner that was her kitchen. The old woman cleared a space on the cemented floor beside her for me to sit.
"Aap kitne log ho (how many of you)," she asked, pointing to no one in particular. It was a strange question to ask a lone figure sitting in front of you. It took me a few minutes to realise the woman was blind.
Time to order
I must have appeared unsure, for she felt about for my hand and handed me the menu. It was an old laminated yellow sheet of paper that listed a few dishes and their prices.
"I don't know what's written on this paper. It was my son who made it and asked me to show it to visitors. But you pay what you think is suitable."
She then listed the few vegetables she had with her that day and asked for my choice. Food was somehow not on my mind any more, but I picked some random dishes.
She apologised for being unprepared and said she was not expecting any visitors. I reassured her and she began the preparations: smelling and feeling the spices, peeling vegetables, and lighting a fire. In between, we spoke.
Her son works in another city and he had set up this small business for his mother. "He thinks I cook well. But I don't know whether you'll like the food. You must have come from a big city, no?"
I nodded, sharing a few details from my life as well, how I travel to find stories, where my parents lived, and why I was travelling alone.
Steps again
Somehow I felt more and more lonely. She must have sensed the melancholy in my voice and invited me to go up to the terrace. She said she would call me by drumming a pot when the food was ready. I negotiated another pair of ill-designed steps on the way up, but this time I wondered how the old woman managed — did she crawl these ugly steps, did anyone help her, what when she fell sick?
I sat on the top step, feeling overwhelmed, as if I had travelled enough. I didn't know what I was looking for when I had left home, but now I knew. I felt like going home to my parents, to the life I had temporarily left behind.
It felt as if all my travels thus far, all my indulgences, my aimlessness to this point, the heat and the hunger that drove me here, had all prepared me for this very moment, this encounter with the old blind woman who was cooking a lunch for me downstairs.
Just then the tin pot began to rattle.
An adrenaline rush-seeking travel writer who lives in Malmö, Sweden.
The strange steps led me into the house with the turquoise board. In the kitchen was an old woman, crouching over utensils
It was a hot afternoon on an otherwise unmemorable day. The air was dense, and together with the heat, it fast melted the skin into sweat. I remember being hungry; it wasn't an ordinary hunger, but the one that chewed up the stomach as if feeding on the muscles. I had hung around taking pictures in the alleys of the palace in Jaisalmer, and had somehow lost track of time. It was 4 p.m.
The usual affair with this old part of the town is that it is easy to get lost in the bylanes. However, it's also true that every street has something to offer: a lac bangles shop in one, a gypsy clothes shop in the second, a surahi kiosk in another; and hopefully food was not faraway either.
On one such narrow lane, a small turquoise board — hung from the first floor balcony of an old house that had its blue coat chipping off — proclaimed a perfectly forgettable restaurant name. I was travelling on a lavish budget that had rendered me fussy. But there were no fancy places around here to eat at. So I stepped in.
Silent encounter
The steps were strangely large, cumbersome to negotiate, entirely ill-designed. The steps led me into someone's home and the silence made its presence felt instantly to me, the only visitor at this hour. A few moments passed. Eventually, a weak voice called out from a distance. With eyes accustomed to the gloom now, I stepped towards the lonely figure, an old woman, crouching over utensils in the dark corner that was her kitchen. The old woman cleared a space on the cemented floor beside her for me to sit.
"Aap kitne log ho (how many of you)," she asked, pointing to no one in particular. It was a strange question to ask a lone figure sitting in front of you. It took me a few minutes to realise the woman was blind.
Time to order
I must have appeared unsure, for she felt about for my hand and handed me the menu. It was an old laminated yellow sheet of paper that listed a few dishes and their prices.
"I don't know what's written on this paper. It was my son who made it and asked me to show it to visitors. But you pay what you think is suitable."
She then listed the few vegetables she had with her that day and asked for my choice. Food was somehow not on my mind any more, but I picked some random dishes.
She apologised for being unprepared and said she was not expecting any visitors. I reassured her and she began the preparations: smelling and feeling the spices, peeling vegetables, and lighting a fire. In between, we spoke.
Her son works in another city and he had set up this small business for his mother. "He thinks I cook well. But I don't know whether you'll like the food. You must have come from a big city, no?"
I nodded, sharing a few details from my life as well, how I travel to find stories, where my parents lived, and why I was travelling alone.
Steps again
Somehow I felt more and more lonely. She must have sensed the melancholy in my voice and invited me to go up to the terrace. She said she would call me by drumming a pot when the food was ready. I negotiated another pair of ill-designed steps on the way up, but this time I wondered how the old woman managed — did she crawl these ugly steps, did anyone help her, what when she fell sick?
I sat on the top step, feeling overwhelmed, as if I had travelled enough. I didn't know what I was looking for when I had left home, but now I knew. I felt like going home to my parents, to the life I had temporarily left behind.
It felt as if all my travels thus far, all my indulgences, my aimlessness to this point, the heat and the hunger that drove me here, had all prepared me for this very moment, this encounter with the old blind woman who was cooking a lunch for me downstairs.
Just then the tin pot began to rattle.
An adrenaline rush-seeking travel writer who lives in Malmö, Sweden.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
A knowledge hub for medicinal plants
A knowledge hub for medicinal plants
Shubashree Desikan
Chennai , March 17, 2018 19:25 IST
Updated: March 18, 2018 14:14 IST
Open source record of plants with "druggable" chemicals will help validate traditional systems
The use of Indian medicinal plants for drug discovery and therapeutics just received a boost. A database of such plants has been built by a Chennai-based team led by Areejit Samal of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
By documenting 1,742 Indian medicinal plants and 9,596 chemicals that plants use to thrive and ward off threats (phytochemicals), this database has the distinction of being the largest so far. This is a first step towards validating and developing traditional systems of medicine that use plant extracts.
For the repository, the scientists sourced information from several texts including those that documented tribal medicine. With supporting studies in the form of well-planned lab tests, this work has the potential to improve health care and enhance drug discovery.
Plants secrete various special chemicals to ward off predators, fight pathogens and survive in difficult situations. Some of these so-called phytochemicals have been used to prepare traditional medicines and also poisons. While there are extensive databases of phytochemicals of Chinese herbs, there has no similar work in India.
The new database, named IMPPAT (Indian Medicinal Plants, Phytochemistry And Therapeutics) brings together not just the Indian medicinal plants and their associated phytochemicals, but also the latter's 2D and 3D chemical structures, the therapeutic use of the plants and the medicinal formulations.
Among the many challenges in building IMPPAT was in removing redundancy and standardising names and spellings that varied across the several books and documents they have referred to.
From previous work we know that natural products are made of highly complex molecules, which therefore are more likely to bind to very specific proteins unlike commercial (or synthesised) drug molecules.
"We show that phytochemicals in IMPPAT also have high stereochemical and shape complexity similar to natural product library of Clemons et al, and thus, IMPPAT phytochemicals are also expected to be specific protein binders," says Areejit Samal. Drug molecules which are specific protein binders are likely to have fewer side-effects as they will bind specifically to their target protein.
Quest for druggability
The team analysed the features of the phytochemical structures using established "druggability" criteria.
This identified 960 potentially druggable phytochemicals of which only a small percentage showed similarities to existing FDA-approved drugs. "This offers immense potential for drug discovery," says Dr Samal. Of the 960 phytochemicals, 14 have the highest druggability score, and one of these is Skullcapflavone I – This is produced by two plants, one of which is Andrographis paniculata, commonly known as Nilavembu or Siriyanangai. Another interesting topper is Kumatakenin, which is made by three plants including Artemisia capillaris. This plant is a close relative of Artemisia annua from which Nobel laureate Youyou Tu extracted the drug artemisinin which has saved the lives of many malaria patients.
"We hope to expand the links between phytochemicals of Indian medicinal plants and their target proteins, enabling application of systems biology... Our resource will help future efforts render Indian medicine evidence-based rather than experience-based," says Dr Samal.
Shubashree Desikan
Chennai , March 17, 2018 19:25 IST
Updated: March 18, 2018 14:14 IST
Open source record of plants with "druggable" chemicals will help validate traditional systems
The use of Indian medicinal plants for drug discovery and therapeutics just received a boost. A database of such plants has been built by a Chennai-based team led by Areejit Samal of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
By documenting 1,742 Indian medicinal plants and 9,596 chemicals that plants use to thrive and ward off threats (phytochemicals), this database has the distinction of being the largest so far. This is a first step towards validating and developing traditional systems of medicine that use plant extracts.
For the repository, the scientists sourced information from several texts including those that documented tribal medicine. With supporting studies in the form of well-planned lab tests, this work has the potential to improve health care and enhance drug discovery.
Plants secrete various special chemicals to ward off predators, fight pathogens and survive in difficult situations. Some of these so-called phytochemicals have been used to prepare traditional medicines and also poisons. While there are extensive databases of phytochemicals of Chinese herbs, there has no similar work in India.
The new database, named IMPPAT (Indian Medicinal Plants, Phytochemistry And Therapeutics) brings together not just the Indian medicinal plants and their associated phytochemicals, but also the latter's 2D and 3D chemical structures, the therapeutic use of the plants and the medicinal formulations.
Among the many challenges in building IMPPAT was in removing redundancy and standardising names and spellings that varied across the several books and documents they have referred to.
From previous work we know that natural products are made of highly complex molecules, which therefore are more likely to bind to very specific proteins unlike commercial (or synthesised) drug molecules.
"We show that phytochemicals in IMPPAT also have high stereochemical and shape complexity similar to natural product library of Clemons et al, and thus, IMPPAT phytochemicals are also expected to be specific protein binders," says Areejit Samal. Drug molecules which are specific protein binders are likely to have fewer side-effects as they will bind specifically to their target protein.
Quest for druggability
The team analysed the features of the phytochemical structures using established "druggability" criteria.
This identified 960 potentially druggable phytochemicals of which only a small percentage showed similarities to existing FDA-approved drugs. "This offers immense potential for drug discovery," says Dr Samal. Of the 960 phytochemicals, 14 have the highest druggability score, and one of these is Skullcapflavone I – This is produced by two plants, one of which is Andrographis paniculata, commonly known as Nilavembu or Siriyanangai. Another interesting topper is Kumatakenin, which is made by three plants including Artemisia capillaris. This plant is a close relative of Artemisia annua from which Nobel laureate Youyou Tu extracted the drug artemisinin which has saved the lives of many malaria patients.
"We hope to expand the links between phytochemicals of Indian medicinal plants and their target proteins, enabling application of systems biology... Our resource will help future efforts render Indian medicine evidence-based rather than experience-based," says Dr Samal.
Friday, March 9, 2018
Architecture and other thoughts....
"Mr. Doshi's designs and architectural philosophy permeate our contemporary architecture. All one needs, according to him, is to keep doing what one does best. "If you have good aspirations and intentions and are connected to social service, that is all that counts in creating your world and the world around you."
Full article below from http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pritzker-prize-winner-balkrishna-v-doshi-the-quest-for-kumbhaka/article22985443.ece
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 90, the pioneer architect is still actively looking for the intangible.
To Balkrishna V. Doshi, the first Indian to win the the Pritzker Prize, the 'Nobel' for architecture, design is closely linked to his environment. The connect sums up his philosophy and how he approaches his work:"I think it is not in you, it is the world outside that makes you what you are, and so that outside world should be paradise."
While he is grateful for the award, in all humility, he distils what it means at a larger level: "It's a great lesson for everybody, that if we can do something significant, somebody somewhere in the world would recognise it."
Mr. Doshi's designs and architectural philosophy permeate our contemporary architecture. All one needs, according to him, is to keep doing what one does best. "If you have good aspirations and intentions and are connected to social service, that is all that counts in creating your world and the world around you."
In a career spanning the life of independent India (he graduated from the J.J. School of Architecture, Mumbai, in 1947), pioneer of modern Indian architecture worked with masters such as Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, and was involved in the founding of institutions such as the School of Architecture in Ahmedabad, School of Planning, the Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, and also Visual Arts Centre and Kanoria Centre for Arts.
Among Dr. Doshi's many honours are the Padma Shri, France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Global Award for Lifetime Achievement for Sustainable Architecture from the Institut Francais d'Architecture, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and India's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design. He also has honorary degrees from University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A, and McGill University, Canada, and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. His Sangath design has been listed among 125 of the most important works of architecture since 1891 by New York's Architectural Record magazine as part of its 125th year celebration.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize announcement video celebrating Balkrishna Doshi, the 2018 laureate on Vimeo. https://t.co/OuADemgUjM
— Pritzker Prize (@PritzkerPrize) March 7, 2018
At the recent 3rd World Congress on Vedic Sciences in Pune, he spoke on Architecture and Vedic Insights. Speaking of his experience designing the NIFT building, Delhi, he said, "How do you create a building that will adjust itself over time? A building without constraints? I considered the myth of the city in terms of migrations and movement. When you build an idea around a space, the client gets excited about the space and is more flexible to design ideas."
In conversation with this reporter after the event, Dr. Doshi discussed sustainability at greater length. For him, it is not just a contemporary catchphrase; it is the ethos of architectural design. Sustainability, he says, it is "something which can hold itself for a long time […] without losing much energy. It is like somebody lives a long life, and doesn't need much money or much sustenance. So, it is like self-generating balancing way of using energy." Citing IIM Bangalore, one of his many iconic designs, he says it doesn't need to spend money to be sustainable, "because it is natural stone, and there are creepers. The building that I design automatically happens to be sustainable."
Amdavad ni Gufa, a museum displaying M.F.Hussain's works on IIM's Ahmedabad campus, is one of his most experimental projects. The most memorable creative design experience, for him, was all the architectural rules he flouted. 'There are professional rules, structural rules of balance, and rules of how does it look like something else. So I was really trying to think, fighting with the crowd. What I did is a really completely new structure like soap bubbles, with brass. But then, how do you create them? So I found ferrocement, designed on the computer, built by the tribals.'
About one of his sustainable architecture explorations, the Aranya low-cost housing township in Indore in the early 1980s, Dr. Doshi asks, "What is the notion of shelter? Shelter is sacred. Shelter could be transitory or permanent. It's in our mind. Low-cost housing means empowering people […] so that they find their own identity and grow beyond."
Chance, Dr. Doshi says, is important: "Accidents become a part of architectural expression. Where there is chaos or order, there are hidden opportunities. Since I'm not sure about my design, I'm open to my surroundings." While considering design, he incorporates the existing environment to enhance inherent characteristics. "For example, we look at whether you need to have more energy for air conditioning, or is it comfortable by using only nice brick walls or a hollow wall and proper orientation? If I get a good breeze, some good trees, or some water body, and the breeze goes through, then it will be very cool, comfortable; I don't need air conditioning. Then, if I have proper windows at the proper place which reflect light, then I don't need to use a lot more electric energy. So that is how to design a building; which is sustainable, and also doesn't use much energy, money, material, and maintenance."
When he follows his instincts, he says, "Spaces begin to flow, structures begin to flow, walls begin to flow." What he focusses on is a set of questions: "How do you make materials speak? How do materials sing with you? How can materials induce you to become alive?"
At 90, Dr. Doshi is still looking for answers, for the kumbhaka, the gap within, "Between inhaling and exhaling, there is a gap. That gap is what we're looking for in a building." Among the projects he's associated with is Naduhl (named for the Tamil word which means inner centre), an initiative in Pune promoting 'energetic' architecture. He explains that it fits his own pursuit of whether a building is "static or dynamic, rooted or moving" because "a building is alive; naduhl is intangible."
Full article below from http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pritzker-prize-winner-balkrishna-v-doshi-the-quest-for-kumbhaka/article22985443.ece
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 90, the pioneer architect is still actively looking for the intangible.
To Balkrishna V. Doshi, the first Indian to win the the Pritzker Prize, the 'Nobel' for architecture, design is closely linked to his environment. The connect sums up his philosophy and how he approaches his work:"I think it is not in you, it is the world outside that makes you what you are, and so that outside world should be paradise."
While he is grateful for the award, in all humility, he distils what it means at a larger level: "It's a great lesson for everybody, that if we can do something significant, somebody somewhere in the world would recognise it."
Mr. Doshi's designs and architectural philosophy permeate our contemporary architecture. All one needs, according to him, is to keep doing what one does best. "If you have good aspirations and intentions and are connected to social service, that is all that counts in creating your world and the world around you."
In a career spanning the life of independent India (he graduated from the J.J. School of Architecture, Mumbai, in 1947), pioneer of modern Indian architecture worked with masters such as Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, and was involved in the founding of institutions such as the School of Architecture in Ahmedabad, School of Planning, the Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, and also Visual Arts Centre and Kanoria Centre for Arts.
Among Dr. Doshi's many honours are the Padma Shri, France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Global Award for Lifetime Achievement for Sustainable Architecture from the Institut Francais d'Architecture, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and India's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design. He also has honorary degrees from University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A, and McGill University, Canada, and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. His Sangath design has been listed among 125 of the most important works of architecture since 1891 by New York's Architectural Record magazine as part of its 125th year celebration.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize announcement video celebrating Balkrishna Doshi, the 2018 laureate on Vimeo. https://t.co/OuADemgUjM
— Pritzker Prize (@PritzkerPrize) March 7, 2018
At the recent 3rd World Congress on Vedic Sciences in Pune, he spoke on Architecture and Vedic Insights. Speaking of his experience designing the NIFT building, Delhi, he said, "How do you create a building that will adjust itself over time? A building without constraints? I considered the myth of the city in terms of migrations and movement. When you build an idea around a space, the client gets excited about the space and is more flexible to design ideas."
In conversation with this reporter after the event, Dr. Doshi discussed sustainability at greater length. For him, it is not just a contemporary catchphrase; it is the ethos of architectural design. Sustainability, he says, it is "something which can hold itself for a long time […] without losing much energy. It is like somebody lives a long life, and doesn't need much money or much sustenance. So, it is like self-generating balancing way of using energy." Citing IIM Bangalore, one of his many iconic designs, he says it doesn't need to spend money to be sustainable, "because it is natural stone, and there are creepers. The building that I design automatically happens to be sustainable."
Amdavad ni Gufa, a museum displaying M.F.Hussain's works on IIM's Ahmedabad campus, is one of his most experimental projects. The most memorable creative design experience, for him, was all the architectural rules he flouted. 'There are professional rules, structural rules of balance, and rules of how does it look like something else. So I was really trying to think, fighting with the crowd. What I did is a really completely new structure like soap bubbles, with brass. But then, how do you create them? So I found ferrocement, designed on the computer, built by the tribals.'
About one of his sustainable architecture explorations, the Aranya low-cost housing township in Indore in the early 1980s, Dr. Doshi asks, "What is the notion of shelter? Shelter is sacred. Shelter could be transitory or permanent. It's in our mind. Low-cost housing means empowering people […] so that they find their own identity and grow beyond."
Chance, Dr. Doshi says, is important: "Accidents become a part of architectural expression. Where there is chaos or order, there are hidden opportunities. Since I'm not sure about my design, I'm open to my surroundings." While considering design, he incorporates the existing environment to enhance inherent characteristics. "For example, we look at whether you need to have more energy for air conditioning, or is it comfortable by using only nice brick walls or a hollow wall and proper orientation? If I get a good breeze, some good trees, or some water body, and the breeze goes through, then it will be very cool, comfortable; I don't need air conditioning. Then, if I have proper windows at the proper place which reflect light, then I don't need to use a lot more electric energy. So that is how to design a building; which is sustainable, and also doesn't use much energy, money, material, and maintenance."
When he follows his instincts, he says, "Spaces begin to flow, structures begin to flow, walls begin to flow." What he focusses on is a set of questions: "How do you make materials speak? How do materials sing with you? How can materials induce you to become alive?"
At 90, Dr. Doshi is still looking for answers, for the kumbhaka, the gap within, "Between inhaling and exhaling, there is a gap. That gap is what we're looking for in a building." Among the projects he's associated with is Naduhl (named for the Tamil word which means inner centre), an initiative in Pune promoting 'energetic' architecture. He explains that it fits his own pursuit of whether a building is "static or dynamic, rooted or moving" because "a building is alive; naduhl is intangible."
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
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