Twenty three thousand is a big number. Or is it? Depends on what one is referring to. Most experts expected more. Maybe lakhs, they thought. Genes. The three base pair sequences in the massive molecule of our DNA. Every one of our cells has a copy. About 23000 of them determine what we are- as […]
Whirlpools and languages:
In 1938, Richard Archibald, an explorer, penetrated the interior of New Guinea and was surprised. Who wouldn’t be? Everyone sort of knew that the area was uninhabited. But it turned out that nestled in the valleys between two rows of mountains, were 50000 aboriginal people, speaking approximately thousand different languages. An area one tenth the […]
The Fatal Gap
‘Wow!’ I exclaimed, looking at my friend’s flat. “What did you do with the bottles and the cigarette cases?” His uncle and aunt were visiting. They will report back to his parents. My friend had cleaned up his living room. Years of accumulated muck had vanished. I congratulated him. How did he manage it? It […]
When a Calling dies.
I just read Paul Kalanithi’s ‘when breath becomes air’. Some had told me that it was inherently depressing. What is joyous about death? Especially when it is about death that is imminent, untimely and destroys a life full of promise? Yet we are all potential Kalanithis. May be I should say were? He was thirty […]
Five points why cities are both good and bad.
Cities are a natural progression of human population growth and progress: Where ever there has been a rapid growth of population powered by agriculture, animal farming or industry, there has been rise of the city. Cities are a more efficient way of packing in people: Studies have shown that per capita utilization of resources is […]