Common hands and singing wings
The club-winged Manakin. What a wonderful bird! I read about this bird in the May issue of the National Geographic. This is one of the very few birds, in existence, that uses it body parts to “sing” during courtship rituals. As if this extraordinary feat was not adequate to woo his mate, the male Manakin also does a moonwalk, a la Michael Jackson, high up in the canopy of the tropical forests of Ecuador. You can watch this behavior in the video below.
The story gets even more fascinating. Dr. Kimberly Bostwick, has put together a beautiful set of videos on her research of manakins and how she systematically unraveled the mystery of how the club-winged manakin makes its wings sing. Kudos to Dr.Bostwick for her single minded dedication and painstaking research in understanding this remarkable product of evolution. I will not spoil it for you but point your browser to
Singing Wings Org and enjoy the videos (click on the big white area). I promise, you will not be disappointed.
Talking of evolution, there was a second remarkable article on the commonality of hand structures across species. Carl Zimmer writes “The hand is where the mind meets the world. We humans use our hands to build fires and sew quilts, to steer airplanes, to write, dig, remove tumors, pull a rabbit out of a hat. The human brain, with its open-ended creativity, may be the thing that makes our species unique. But without hands, all the grand ideas we concoct would come to nothing but a very long to-do list…”
This article is beautifully illustrated (humans, cats, frogs, elephants!,dolphins), but unfortunately it is not available in its entirety for public consumption (NG has to make money right!). These illustrations and animations really come live on the iPad. They are exquisite.
If there are any evolution doubters out there, witness the beauty of the scientific enterprise piecing together the evolutionary jigsaw puzzle , in the articles noted above. Richard Leakey, believes that skepticism regarding evolution will soon be history (the link will take you to a Huffington Post article).
PS: I have no affiliation with NG but am a huge fan of the magazine. National Geographic Magazine, in print, is already a wonderful magazine replete with visual treats. Growing up, I have borrowed it from well-to-do neighbors and derived immense pleasure from viewing the breathtaking photographs as well as reading the informative articles on different dimensions of the world we live in. Many decades later, they have been producing the same high quality magazines, in print. I read a recent version on the iPad and the videos and image quality are breathtaking, titillating your visual senses maximally.
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an inspiring and entertaining talk
A couple of nights ago I had the opportunity to listen to Dr.Michael Phelps from UCLA. He is the inventor of an imaging technique popularly known as PET (Positron Emission Tomography). Since its invention, it has been used 37 million times worldwide to help detect tumors in vivo!
His early years were steeped in tragedy. He lost his two young siblings in a fire. His mother had 50% burns on her body. Due to the circumstances, he was given up for adoption to a neighbor. He was a boxer and a welterweight champion, till a coma suffered in a car accident put paid to his dreams of a boxing career. A friend coaxed him into attending college (“with the promise of women, sex, and booze….”). Eventually, he obtained a PhD in Chemistry and started out a as faculty somewhere in Washington State. From here, he went on to describe the journey that lead to the invention (a key ingredient was passion …. with a little help from friends along the way). All this culminated in tremendous monetary success (he sold his company to Siemens for, I think, a couple of billion dollars).
He is a great speaker, peppering his talk with lots of well placed humor . He was speaking to an audience of wannabe entrepreneurs as well as seasoned entrepreneurs. His messaging was near perfect. In the space of 45 minutes, he told a beautiful story of tragedy, resilience, serendipity, entrepreneurship, innovation, success, humor, goodwill, passion, and friendships. This is a talk that will stay with me for a long time.
He ended the talk with this joke (not original) – I have reproduced it from this site
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Moms are the best
This is a shout out to all the Mothers out there. Happy Mother’s day! You are the best type of human there is….period. Normally, I would have been a little down on this day, because my daughter has had the “miraculous love” of a mother for a very short period in her life. This year, I feel better. My daughter, like all other kids in her class, had to make a gift for Mom. She wrote this. (I served as the proxy – substitute Mom instead of Dad) .
Dad who…..
Dad who gives me energy like the tornado, it keeps going around.
Dad who has the gift of art like Van Gogh painting the night sky
Dad who gives his best effort in everything he does
Dad who has a bright colorful personality like a box of crayons
Dad who has eyes like ebony pearls in a mine
Dad who loves me more than shimmering emeralds
Dad who is sneaky like a lion tip toeing in the high grass
Dad who dreams big like a baby going to the moon in an hour
Dad who has the best kid in the whole universe
(She told me it was directed to me because she had nobody else. This was a poignant moment. I know she misses Mom…a lot) . This, coming from a 10-yr old is a humungous shot in the arm to lift the spirits and keep going.
I also wanted to share yet another of her creative outputs (Thanks are due to her teacher Terri, who inspires them in so many ways). The context here is a field trip to the Legion of Honor museum. After the tour, the kids had to pick an object and write a short poem…
Wine Glass
The elegant glass shimmers in the light,
the rim glistening in the shadow,
blue as dark as the ocean,
and white as clear as day,
all sealed up in a hollow empty glass.
This would have made Mom very, very proud indeed!
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Sagan’s lectures on natural theology
Ann Druyan’s introduction to Carl Sagan’s – Varieties of Scientific Experience, is wonderful. Just like he does in the lectures proper, she challenges us to open our minds to critical thinking….”what is wanted is not the will to believe, but the desire to find out….we are spiritually and culturally paralyzed, unable to face the vastness [of space], to embrace our lack of centrality and find our actual place in the fabric of nature…” Contemplate this image. The earth is but a pale blue dot afloat in the immensity of the universe…a small speck situated in a solar system within one of a hundred billion galaxies.
The book is a compilation of Sagan’s Gifford lectures on natural theology. As Sagan notes, natural theology is “…everything about the world not supplied by revelation”.
The lectures are organized as chapters. It begins with a chapter titled Nature and Wonder: a reconnaissance of heaven. It is a beautiful tour of what is known about the cosmos. Sagan introduces us to the vastness of the universe and gives us a sense of scale and our relative position in the scheme of the universe. He also tackles superstition [a belief without evidence], and operationalizes the definition of religion [ "binding together from Latin] so essentially science and religion are after understanding the interconnectedness of things.
In the next chapter - The retreat from copernicus – loss of nerve – Sagan takes on creationism, the anthropic principle [interpreting the world in human metaphors], and also gives us a sense of what the lack of centrality for Earth in the cosmic order really means.
Organic universe is another brilliant discussion on the chemical makeup, universal laws and such. We can see a sample of his wit here .”…so as science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. Of course its a big universe, so He, She or It can be gainfully employed in other parts….” I really like the notion of the ”God of Gaps”, ie., whatever we cannot explain is attributed to God.
The next lecture makes a case for why extraterrestrial intelligence may exist. Sagan also notes that whether it exists or not, it is still hugely informative because it says something about our loneliness. This is followed by a thorough debunking of “extraterrestrial folklore”, the claims of UFO sightings and visitations from aliens, that have been reported in the media over the years.
In the God hypothesis discussion, Sagan provides an operational definition of God, take us on a quick tour of the world religions and their claims and postulates. He then , with scintillating wit (there are many examples throughout), systematically deconstructs these ideas. He also put forth arguments on why God as an OmniX being is not internally consistent.
In the religious experience – he questions the efficacy of prayers, discusses the influence of hormones on human behavior, and coins a God molecule – “theotoxin” he says (tongue in cheek) “would be biasing the issue too strongly….”
In the next chapter, Crimes against creation, he is very concerned with the possibility of a nuclear winter, but in general, it can be interpreted as a general concern for the earth and its inhabitants. Elsewhere, he pleads, “… if you disagree with another human, let him live. There is nowhere in the hundred billion galaxies you will find another…”
The last chapter “Search” – anticipates the world is flat state of affairs. We started as hunter gatherers in small groups, have grown into nation states, now technology, communications, and transport have blurred those boundaries even further. In short, we have to think of ourselves as world citizens. Sagan urges us to think critically on all matters and have compassion for fellow world travelers. He asks why there is no equivalent of a 11th commandment – thou shalt learn….
In short, if I have not already conveyed it, this compilation of Sagan’s Gifford lectures is pure cognitive pleasure. Well worthy of earning a prominent place on your bookshelves. There are others who, in recent times, have gone after organized religion, such as Dawkins or Harris, but their tone has been angry and sometimes, completely intolerant. Here, I see, Sagan, like an explosives expert, placing the bombs through beautiful, calm, cogent, and brilliant arguments, strategically on the edifice of organized religion. The image I am striving for here is the demolition of tall skyscrapers that crumble in a heap with little or no collateral damage.
Of molecules and (wo)men
In this past weekend’s edition of WSJ review, the following article appeared
The Trust Molecule
(click above to go to article)
Why are some of us caring and some of us cruel, some generous and some greedy? Paul J. Zak on the new science of morality— and how it could be used to create a more virtuous society
The basic message is oxytocin can foster trust and increase social bonding. Zak writes “…oxytocin orchestrates the kind of generous and caring behavior that every culture endorses as the right way to live—the cooperative, benign, pro-social way of living that every culture on the planet describes as “moral.” The Golden Rule is a lesson that the body already knows, and when we get it right, we feel the rewards immediately….”
This all sounded very good and seemed like the only thing left for us to do was inject ourselves with oxytocin and the whole world would be one large Berkeley hippie commune. Obviously, this would be too easy. I was not entirely satisfied and tried to find out what others had to say on this topic. I found this on the APA site “…
Oxytocin has been on a joy ride for 20 years, ever since animal studies first linked the hormone to bonding between mother and newborn, as well as between mating adults. Dubbed the “cuddle” or “love” hormone by the popular press, more recently it has earned attention for its role in promoting trust.
One company, Vero Labs in Boca Raton, Fla., has even put it in a cologne-like spray, marketed as “Liquid Trust”: Fifty dollars buys a two-month supply that promises consumers “confidence in a bottle,” according to its website….”
Oxytocin doses seem to help children with autism cope much better socially. But some researchers warn that it does have a darker side. From the same APA article …”More evidence of oxytocin’s downside comes from Mount Sinai School of Medicine psychologist Jennifer Bartz, PhD. In a study published online in November in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, she and her colleagues examined whether oxytocin might boost trust and cooperation, as measured with a well-studied economic game, among men and women with borderline personality disorder, who tend to have volatile relationships. She found that rather than increasing trust and teamwork, a dose of oxytocin decreased those feelings compared with a placebo.”
While the jury is still out on the how, why and what of oxytocin, Zak has happily dubbed it the “moral” molecule and in new age style advocates a bunch of behaviors that can enhance social bonding, hugs being his most favorite one. I have to note here that as I was reading these articles, I was reminded of this lady who is fondly referred to as Amma(Mother), by her followers. She apparently can heal, just by hugging and touching. In fact, the byline on her website (link above) says – Embracing the World. The oxytocin definitely must be free flowing in that commune.
Another chemical doing the rounds in the news is dopamine. Researchers have figured out the more adventurous (“scout”)bees in a colony have lower amounts of dopamine making them less averse to novel experiences. Incidentally, in humans it is just the opposite, higher dopamine levels lead to novelty seeking behaviors. As Spock would say, Fascinating!
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An eye opener – that’s garbage!
For those of us who mindlessly engage in consumption binges, have you considered what happens to all the material waste you produce (if you have not caught on, I am not talking about the stuff drained down the toilet)? I think I know the answer. There was a very interesting piece in the WSJ – Grappling With a Garbage Glut – which gives us enormous cause for pause and some soul searching. Among industrialized nations, the USA is the worst offender, no surprise here, dumping on average about 7 lbs per person per day which translates to about 102 tons per year! Staggering. Some other facts, 19 billion pounds of polystyrene peanuts make their way to the landfills. Disposable cutlery (knives, forks and spoons) waste is about 40 billion! There is enough steel in the garbage dumps to reconstruct the whole of Manhattan!! And get this, Texas can be shrink wrapped with the plastic film at the landfills. Ridiculous.
I grew up in India in a middle class family. There were no big box retail chains. I helped my parents shop vegetables every week. I carried a bag to the store. Groceries were packed in old newspapers. Biodegradable jute fiber was used to bind the newspaper packing. My parents still use containers which are now probably 40+ yrs old (mind you, they are made of plastic and are almost in pristine condition). Table cleanup in hotels used the stems of banana leaves. Food in restaurants were served on banana leaves (not everywhere though). The used leaves served as food for the cows. There are many other examples. There was much efficiency. Recycling was a natural outcome of the economics of daily life.
I have despaired on the last few visits. Surely, the standard of living has improved enormously because of globalization. But it comes at a huge hidden cost. Rampant consumerism (a sad side effect of the world is flat paradigm) is a Western cultural export that has taken a firm foothold in India now. The problem is compounded because the disposal and recovery mechanisms, and infrastructure, for waste management are not as advanced as in the West. Well, you get the idea.
Here in the US, in the name of saving the environment and weaning shoppers away from plastic bags, a whole cottage industry has sprung up, making millions of reusable bags adding more junk to the mix. I am sure there are designer labels versions available to the wealthy.
Talking of designer labels, in a different section of this weekend’s WSJ, there was another piece on how designers/labels are now eyeing plastic clothing. The title – Plastic is Fantastic. Go figure!
I wonder if all the garbage we generate will do us in before the oft talked about nuclear winter. But I am hopeful because we will come up with some innovation (nanotechnology, garbage death ray – mentioned in the article…..). In fact, we must.
If you are interested in the topic, you should also check out this fantastic thought experiment – A World Without Us.
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trends in data visualization
No matter how much data you collect, it has zero value unless it is converted to useful information. Visualization then is a very important component of this transformation, especially for complex data. To see what I mean checkout these three beautiful examples:
The first is a wind map. It collates wind data, from the National Weather service, for every state in the continental United States, and presents them as a dynamic flow patterns. Awesome!
The second is the History of the World in 100 secs.
The third is from GapMinder . Hans Rosling is the mastermind behind this stuff.
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Of Gulags and Heavens
I couldn’t help notice the irony in a couple of stories circulating in the media.
The first is a book review – Escape from Camp 14 – which is the story of a man who escaped from one of the North Korean gulags. A couple of weeks ago, I had read the excerpt of his actual escape – Escape from a North Korean Prison. This account already gives us a glimpse of the dehumanizing conditions Shin Dong-hyuk endured and how he made good his escape over the freshly dead body of his friend (he was electrocuted on the fence when trying to escape). I thought this was cruel. Till I read the book review. Shin actually witnessed the beating death of a 6-yr old classmate, the reason: she had stolen a few kernels of corn. In his teen years, he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother. He was also punished for the misdeeds of his parents (North Korea believes in punishing the whole family for an individual’s violations). I urge you to read both of these pieces to understand just how messed up North Korea is. To witness a completely brainwashed people whose self-image, actually never mind, one doesn’t exist, please watch this full length video from National Geographic. It is so tragic as to almost make you incredulous. Control over the individual’s mind is absolute. This is a nation of a little over 24 million people!!
The cover story in the latest issue of Time Magazine is entitled – Rethinking Heaven! In time for the Easter weekend, the article is a nice tour of how the notion of Heaven has evolved over the years in Christian thinking. Essentially, our conception of heaven has mirrored the dominant cultural sensibilities prevalent at any given period of time. Today, some in the church are advocating that Heaven is not a place up there in the clouds guarded by pearly gates. Rather, it is to be achieved by being eco-friendly, and making a difference through active participation in improving the lot of the underprivileged. In other words, Heaven is a place that can be built on Terra Firma. This to me is a very promising trend.
But, surely what constitutes Heaven must be relative. To Shin, escaping from the Gulag and having the chance to be human for the first time must have been Heaven!
auto analytics in the workplace
I read an article titled – Employees, Measure Yourselves -in the Wall Street Journal. The article discusses, auto-analytics, a new set of technologies, that can monitor your activities and provide feedback. One class of auto-analytics software allows tracking of screen time. That is, how many windows you have open, how much time you spend on each one and so on. Supposedly the intent is to enable you to be more productive at the workplace. In other words, it is a slack-o-meter. It has a lot of creep factor built in. But as I was reading this article, I was thinking about Jonah Lehrer’s interview on Fresh Air. The topic was creativity. The bottom line is: for innovation and creativity to do its magic, you have to allow yourself slack time, even daydream. So there is a bit of schizophrenia out there on this topic. More importantly, auto-analytics of this type is probably useful only to certain types of jobs where productivity is directly quantifiable.
The second type of auto-analytic technology uses cognitive mapping techniques. The idea is to facilitate the organization of your ideas over time so that you can potentially make associations that you may not have otherwise made, and have an “aha” moment. I can readily see the benefits of this technology (beacuse you could search for keywords and such which a paper based catalog would not allow). Your personal Watson?
To me, auto-analytics applied to health is the most interesting. Wellness programs are gaining in popularity among employers. After salaries, one of the biggest overheads for employers is health insurance. Employees in poor health, also cost them, in terms of lost productivity. So HR departments are going for Team Wellness Challenges, gym reimbursements, and the like to promote employee wellness. This is a great start. But I am very excited because we are working on some monitoring technologies and analytics that could change the way medicine is practiced today. Our first stop is women’s health in general and mothers to be, in particular. More on this when the time is appropriate.
