Before coming to The United States, I was a research assistant in a biological lab in Bangalore. An essential part in the life of any academic in Bangalore is the Tea Board, a canteen situated in the campus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, but open to all. The beverages and snacks there are of excellent quality and very inexpensive. The humble seats outside have supported many a great Nobel Laurates. It is to to this place that I and my friend went to play chess.
Drawn by the game, an elderly gentleman of dignified appearance, nonetheless a stranger to us, pulled himself a chair next to us. In due course of time, we started conversing with him and revealed to him that we were interested in the general area of biology and were working with fruitflies. There upon, he confessed that he himself was a Biology teacher and narrated us a story which I now offer to the dear reader.
A great many years ago, when he used to teach eleventh and twelfth grade students in the evenings to make some extra income, he was asked by his landlord to undertake the responsibility of his four nephews, all in their twelfth grade. All four of them were very remarkable in that they had excellent memory but no intelligence. In essence, they were fools. They could do very well in Arts, but the landlord was too proud to let any of his nephews take up Arts. He insisted on them taking Science and so it was that his tenant (our friend, the teacher) found himself coaching the four fools in the subjects of Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
What our teacher had done in essence is given them a protocol to follow in life to pass most of the examinations well. The protocol was so good that many years later, the four fools returned as researchers with international recognition having their own labs and sufficient funding. They came back to pay respects to their master and found him reviewing a manuscript revealing a new airborne virus of a deadly nature. The author of the manuscript was a friend of the teacher and when his students expressed interest in applying their newly learnt skills to tackle that virus, the teacher so arranged with the author that his former students could work on it.
The first student had studied genomics very well; he promptly proceeded to sequence the genome of the virus. The second student was very good with molecular biology, so he cloned the individual genes in the viral genome into various expression vectors. The third student was skilled in generating transgenic fruit flies and he microinjected all the genes-bearing vectors into various fruitflies. The fourth student had mastered genetic analysis - he crossed various transgenic flies with each other in all combination to study the functioning of individual genes of the virus in isolation and in a group.
Having done all of this, they invited their master to their labs. When the master called to confirm their meeting on the appointed day, he came to know the sad news that all four of his pupils were in their deathbed, having been infected by the very virus that they were studying. The genes that had been segregated apart in the beginning had come together by means of various genetic crosses and reconstituted the deadly airborne virus in the eye of the fruit fly!
Our friend paused at this stage in his story and asked us rather philosophically - who was the biggest fool of the four pupils? He promised to meet us the next day to reveal the answer. We forgot our game of chess, mesmerized by this puzzle and talked about it the whole evening and night. I wish the reader also experience the same titillation and break the story here. The solution will be revealed in the next part.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
On Non-Violence And Why My Hair Smells Like Detergent
The principle of non-violence evokes a feeling of awe and respect - something that is evidently true but so difficult to practise that only the likes of Buddha and Gandhi can be truly non-violent.
The non-vegetarian and the mice-sacrificing scientists are left with a vague feeling of somehow being helpless in reconciling their instinctive belief that they are good people, and their inability to debunk the principle of non-violence.
My wife, Sonal, is a firm believer in the principle of non-violence. She was born into Jainism, a religion very much like Buddhism that is founded on the principle of non-violence. She also connects to many teachings of Buddhism. She is also a scientist and is working very hard on finding a cure for Severe Combined Immune Disorder. She found the gene that was mutated in the genetically inherited form of this disorder and created knock out mice. She eventually sacrifices them at a time when they may yield maximum information of the disorder.
This apparent incogruity in actions can be explained by invoking two more principles -
1. A human life is worth any number of other life forms.
2. Inaction to save a human life is also violence when timely action might save the human life.
Unlike the principle of non-violence, which sounds simple, noble and axiomatic, these two principles will find many nay-sayers. Animal rights people will firmly disagree with the first. The second one is essentially incomplete - Hundreds of Thousands of Jewish lives would have been saved if Hitler's mother had performed abortion or even better, never conceived the baby. Yet, such actions only seem arbitrary in the absense of demonstrable connection between inaction and loss of human life.
In any case, Sonal recently had a chance to refelct a little more on practice of the principle of non-violence in our daily life, when we took a 2 week vacation to India. Now, she wanted to be kinder to the bacteria that grow in your dirty clothes while waiting for the Laundry Day. So, she started washing clothes immediately, instead of waiting for 2-3 weeks, in our bath-tub where we take bath. Since we already had bought a year's worth of washing detergent from Costco, and incidentally, we had just ran out of Biolage conditioner, which is why there was an empty conditioner container in the bathroom, she transferred a small aliquot of the detergent into the conditioner container.
In order to explain what happened next, it is necessary for me to go into my bathing habits. My bathing consists of 6 steps when I have to shampoo - 1. A long shower to wake up and get in a mood to go to the next step 2. Applying the shampoo 3. A long shower to wash off the shampoo and get in a mood to go to the next step 4. Apply conditioner to my hair 5. Applying soap/Body wash all over my body 6. A long shower to wash off the conditioner and soap and you guessed it .... to get in a mood to get out of shower.
By now, you would have begun to understand that I am on an autopilot, and not really thinking about what I am doing in the bathtub but in a totally different world, transported to by my bathroom singing. After the long and hot shower for washing my hair off, I felt my way into the familiar Biolage conditioner container (which is a very wide but short cylinder) .... took a dollop of the contents and applied to my hair. The only surprise was that it was a little too liquidy (conditioners are very very thick). I made a mental note to check next time I would take the dollop of conditioner (Because I use a lot of everything, including conditioner). So, the next time I bent down, I did open my eyes and saw something BLUE. The conditioner that I am used to is White in color. That is when I realized that I had applied Sonal's detergent into my hair. I just washed the Blue stuff away and since I was in a hurry, I did not further take any elaborate measures to get the smell of the detergent out.
But my head smelt like detergent for the whole day.
In any case, this incident did rise the question of which is better - To kill the bacteria on Day 0 (when there are just a few) or to kill bacteria on Day 20 (when they have multiplied a few million times)? In either case, violence is necessary. In order to justify the course of action taken, it becomes necessary to invoke yet another principle:
It is better to commit less violence than more violence
Let us now ask what course of action must be taken by any student of non-violence:
1. Firstly, he must consider all possible consequences of all possible actions (and inaction).
2. Then, he must calculate Violence-Index for all actions ... he must calculate in two currencies - the human violence and the non-human violence.
3. Then, he must find the course of action that first minimizes human violence and then minimizes non-human violence.
4. He must then execute this optimal course of action.
I can sympathize with the students of non-violence - so much thinking is involved in the simplest of actions! As my friend Yousang puts it, Buddhism is a religion of the Elite only.
................................................................................................
So many difficulties and confusions arise when one accepts the principle of non-violence as the starting or the fundamental principle. I myself do not subscribe to the principle being fundamental. My views are:
1. Animals have no rights
2. Amongst humans, only the humans that are part of the society have rights (only those rights that the society grants them) and obligations (the basic rules of the society that must be followed at all times).
3. If the society is based on people behaving peacefully and honorably towards each other, then it follows that you will not initiate violence. In such a society self defense is still sanctioned. Since the present society in which we find ourselves is of such nature, it follows that by being a part of it, we have tacitly agreed to society's principles.
In summary, on its own, the principle of non-violence just boils down to honoring your agreement.
The non-vegetarian and the mice-sacrificing scientists are left with a vague feeling of somehow being helpless in reconciling their instinctive belief that they are good people, and their inability to debunk the principle of non-violence.
My wife, Sonal, is a firm believer in the principle of non-violence. She was born into Jainism, a religion very much like Buddhism that is founded on the principle of non-violence. She also connects to many teachings of Buddhism. She is also a scientist and is working very hard on finding a cure for Severe Combined Immune Disorder. She found the gene that was mutated in the genetically inherited form of this disorder and created knock out mice. She eventually sacrifices them at a time when they may yield maximum information of the disorder.
This apparent incogruity in actions can be explained by invoking two more principles -
1. A human life is worth any number of other life forms.
2. Inaction to save a human life is also violence when timely action might save the human life.
Unlike the principle of non-violence, which sounds simple, noble and axiomatic, these two principles will find many nay-sayers. Animal rights people will firmly disagree with the first. The second one is essentially incomplete - Hundreds of Thousands of Jewish lives would have been saved if Hitler's mother had performed abortion or even better, never conceived the baby. Yet, such actions only seem arbitrary in the absense of demonstrable connection between inaction and loss of human life.
In any case, Sonal recently had a chance to refelct a little more on practice of the principle of non-violence in our daily life, when we took a 2 week vacation to India. Now, she wanted to be kinder to the bacteria that grow in your dirty clothes while waiting for the Laundry Day. So, she started washing clothes immediately, instead of waiting for 2-3 weeks, in our bath-tub where we take bath. Since we already had bought a year's worth of washing detergent from Costco, and incidentally, we had just ran out of Biolage conditioner, which is why there was an empty conditioner container in the bathroom, she transferred a small aliquot of the detergent into the conditioner container.
In order to explain what happened next, it is necessary for me to go into my bathing habits. My bathing consists of 6 steps when I have to shampoo - 1. A long shower to wake up and get in a mood to go to the next step 2. Applying the shampoo 3. A long shower to wash off the shampoo and get in a mood to go to the next step 4. Apply conditioner to my hair 5. Applying soap/Body wash all over my body 6. A long shower to wash off the conditioner and soap and you guessed it .... to get in a mood to get out of shower.
By now, you would have begun to understand that I am on an autopilot, and not really thinking about what I am doing in the bathtub but in a totally different world, transported to by my bathroom singing. After the long and hot shower for washing my hair off, I felt my way into the familiar Biolage conditioner container (which is a very wide but short cylinder) .... took a dollop of the contents and applied to my hair. The only surprise was that it was a little too liquidy (conditioners are very very thick). I made a mental note to check next time I would take the dollop of conditioner (Because I use a lot of everything, including conditioner). So, the next time I bent down, I did open my eyes and saw something BLUE. The conditioner that I am used to is White in color. That is when I realized that I had applied Sonal's detergent into my hair. I just washed the Blue stuff away and since I was in a hurry, I did not further take any elaborate measures to get the smell of the detergent out.
But my head smelt like detergent for the whole day.
In any case, this incident did rise the question of which is better - To kill the bacteria on Day 0 (when there are just a few) or to kill bacteria on Day 20 (when they have multiplied a few million times)? In either case, violence is necessary. In order to justify the course of action taken, it becomes necessary to invoke yet another principle:
It is better to commit less violence than more violence
Let us now ask what course of action must be taken by any student of non-violence:
1. Firstly, he must consider all possible consequences of all possible actions (and inaction).
2. Then, he must calculate Violence-Index for all actions ... he must calculate in two currencies - the human violence and the non-human violence.
3. Then, he must find the course of action that first minimizes human violence and then minimizes non-human violence.
4. He must then execute this optimal course of action.
I can sympathize with the students of non-violence - so much thinking is involved in the simplest of actions! As my friend Yousang puts it, Buddhism is a religion of the Elite only.
................................................................................................
So many difficulties and confusions arise when one accepts the principle of non-violence as the starting or the fundamental principle. I myself do not subscribe to the principle being fundamental. My views are:
1. Animals have no rights
2. Amongst humans, only the humans that are part of the society have rights (only those rights that the society grants them) and obligations (the basic rules of the society that must be followed at all times).
3. If the society is based on people behaving peacefully and honorably towards each other, then it follows that you will not initiate violence. In such a society self defense is still sanctioned. Since the present society in which we find ourselves is of such nature, it follows that by being a part of it, we have tacitly agreed to society's principles.
In summary, on its own, the principle of non-violence just boils down to honoring your agreement.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
On World Chess Championship 2008 - Kramnik vs. Anand at Bonn
It is the finals of the world chess championship 2008 at Bonn. 12 games will be played between Anand and Kramnik. He who scores 6.5 first will become the world chess champion.
At the time of writing, 8 games have been played, Anand has won 3 games, and the remaining 5 have been drawn. Anand already has 5.5 points and needs one more win or two more draws to retain the title.
The biggest surprise of the Match has been Anand's opening choice as White. He has been a devoted e4 player all his life. For this particular Match, he has exclusively opened with d4. This must have negated all the preparation Kramnik had done for the past few months. Most interestingly, Anand's repertoire as both Black and White is now almost exactly the same as what Kramnik used to play! Thus, he is beating Kramnik by playing like Kramnik!!!
Since the tournaments and matches are so dominated by one's opening preparation, the true Over The Board strength remains unchallenged mostly. I had an interesting idea for tournament format to address this problem - what if all players are required to play first 10 moves of the games by correspondence? That way, when the game begins, opening is no more the determining factor. Both sides would have had ample chance to study the position and make creative preparations.
The audience will also get a chance to make their own analysis with the aid of a computer and make better predictions about the future moves or course of the game. Most importantly, if someone wins, it is because he better understood the position. In other words, the winner of the tournament understands chess the best!
At the time of writing, 8 games have been played, Anand has won 3 games, and the remaining 5 have been drawn. Anand already has 5.5 points and needs one more win or two more draws to retain the title.
The biggest surprise of the Match has been Anand's opening choice as White. He has been a devoted e4 player all his life. For this particular Match, he has exclusively opened with d4. This must have negated all the preparation Kramnik had done for the past few months. Most interestingly, Anand's repertoire as both Black and White is now almost exactly the same as what Kramnik used to play! Thus, he is beating Kramnik by playing like Kramnik!!!
Since the tournaments and matches are so dominated by one's opening preparation, the true Over The Board strength remains unchallenged mostly. I had an interesting idea for tournament format to address this problem - what if all players are required to play first 10 moves of the games by correspondence? That way, when the game begins, opening is no more the determining factor. Both sides would have had ample chance to study the position and make creative preparations.
The audience will also get a chance to make their own analysis with the aid of a computer and make better predictions about the future moves or course of the game. Most importantly, if someone wins, it is because he better understood the position. In other words, the winner of the tournament understands chess the best!
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