Category: Wanderings

The month that was February

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This month onwards I’ll do a monthly round-up of activities. A sort of reflection on all the interesting things that I got to do.

Writing

I feel that it was a good come back month. After a break of not writing much in December and January, because of the PhD viva preparation, I was glad to have written more than I thought I would (list below).

My favourite piece was Flea market. I learnt lots and the researchers were very helpful. The reference to Jonathan Swift’s poem, which I thought worked very well, I have to admit, was Geoff Carr’s (my editor) idea.

For The Economist

  1. (Cancer) Refusing to die: How exposing cancer cell’s trickery can help our own immune system to fight cancer
  2. (Pharma industry) Teaching old pills new tricks: With fewer new drugs, it may seem that the pharma industry is doomed. But there may be a way out
  3. (Ecology) Flea market: The world’s most abundant organism may just have got trumped for the prize by its own killer
  4. (Atmospheric science) From dust to lawn: How desert sands from Sahara cause rainfall in California (and presumably beyond)

Other places

  1. (Book Review) Innovation Generation by Roberta Ness: How to produce creative and useful scientific ideas – Chemistry World
  2. (Chemistry and Biology) NO for longevity – A small gaseous molecule may hold key to a longer life – Chemistry World
  3. (Writing) With so much good writing, is it worth struggling for some more? – My guest post on SA Incubator, a blog for young and upcoming science writers
  4. (Startups) One startup has attempted to solve India’s bus problem – My first post on Quartz, an online global news outlet launched by the Atlantic
  5. (Geoscience) A submerged continent found – My first post for The Hindu‘s weekly science page published in all their print editions

On my science blog The Allotrope

  1. (Environment) India and endosulfan: A bitter harvest : India’s response to the ill-effects of a toxic pesticide has been slow and inadequate
  2. (Health) Chest X-rays are not effective at detecting TB infections: When immigrating why should you be exposed to X-rays for no good reason?
  3. (Cell Biology) Manipulation of biological clocks teaches an important lesson: Nature’s puzzling way of adding inefficiencies in a biological system in order to increase help an organism thrive
  4. (Ecology) Domestic cats are mass killers: The Oatmeal got it right. How much do cats kill? Too. Damn. Much.

Reading 

This month I set myself the challenge of reading 10 books. The plan was to, on completion of the challenge, extend it to reading 100 books in one year. Sadly I could only do 5 books (two half-read books don’t count). But this hasn’t dampened my resolve. I would still like to complete reading 100 books because there is a lot of value in reading books. So even though I couldn’t live up to my own challenge this month, I am going to try to do it over the next 11 months. Perhaps this will give me some leeway in catching up to my reading when I fall back (like I have this month!). Here’s a list of books and links to their reviews that I completed this month:

  1. Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles by Ruchir Sharma (292 pages)
  2. The Curious Incident of the Dog at the Night-time by Mark Haddon (226 pages)
  3. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer (307 pages)
  4. QED: The strange theory of light and matter by Richard Feynman (172 pages)
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (284 pages)

Listening

I discovered a new band, thanks to Loudwire, that I liked instantly: Dead Sara. The lead singer, Emily Armstrong, has this rusty voice that works really well with the music. I could also feel her passion for the song, which is always something that helps the listener connect to the music.

I listened to these songs on repeat:

  1. Dead Sara – Weatherman
  2. Water – Evolution (especially while reading Foer’s book)
  3. Bentley Rhythm Ace – Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out (good writing music)
  4. Queens of the Stone Age – Autopilot

Travelling

In the first week of February I had everything set for a trip to Monaco with some Oxford mates. Sadly I couldn’t get a visa. Some of it was my fault, but mostly it was because of the stupidly inflexible system. Apart from not getting to go to a cool destination with friends, losing lots of money and feeling sad, I also got a big C on my passport instead of the visa. (No idea what C stands for, and I’m not keen to find out).

On a happier note: I did manage to go to Ireland, which is a lovely place. Not so different from the UK though. Dublin was exciting and the country side was beautiful. February is not the best month to be in Ireland, but I was luck to find two sunny and slightly warm days. Here is a teaser, taken on the cliff walk from Bray to Greystones:

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Journey by the sea

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A white man’s burden

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Review of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Even though it’s less than 100 years ago, the 1930s was a very different time from today. Racial discrimination was rife in America even though it had been sometime since slavery had been banned. To Kill a Mocking Bird is a story narrated by an 8-year old of that period as she learns her way of life in Maycomb, a (fictional) sleepy town in Alabama.

From simple struggles of learning to settle in school, of not having a mother, of trying to be a girl to that of dealing with a father who fights against racial discrimination, Harper Lee does a great job of describing Jean Louis Finch’s story. Lee’s vivid story-telling endears the reader to Jean Louis’s every up and down.

Atticus Finch, Jean Louis’s father, is the central character. Although the society around him blames him for many faults, one that he definitely does not deserve is that of being a bad parent. He has a laid back attitude with his son and daughter, but one that helps them each to flourish in their own ways. He hides little from his kids and respects each of their quirks.

In an incestuous town of white folks, Atticus is made to defend a black guy who is convicted of raping a white woman. A situation in which the weaknesses of being human and the ideal goals of a justice system come head-to-head. Through the trial and Jean Louis’s everyday life, the reader meets characters of every kind. There is a brother to look up to, an over-bearing aunty, a family whose kid never leaves home, a wise old lady, nasty cousins, a motherly black woman, among others. Each of their personality has something to offer.

But there is a discomforting feeling to read how this intelligent 8-year old is able to describe and explain very complex social phenomena, but is still a naive girl who is trying to fit in society. This disconnect is more apparent to me having just read The Curious Incident of a Dog at the Night-time, where the narrator is a kid with Asperger’s syndrome and the reader sees the world “exactly” through his eyes.

Lee’s book has its slow spells, but a reader who endeavours is rewarded. As with all good books, Lee is elegant at creating strands of stories that run parallel to the main one. Though sometimes I wished that some strands were given less space than they deserved.

While it is a great story, and arguably a better piece of literature, I wouldn’t go so far as to call this book one of the greatest I’ve ever read (as many of my friends seem to suggest).

TLDR: Why is it that our brains are all wrinkly?

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Some mammals have smooth brains (rat), while others have a lot of folds (dolphins). Higher folds lead to greater surface area and denser connections between neurons, which in turn help increase the brain’s computing speed and allow for specialisation of certain regions.

The obvious question then, and one that Robert Toro asks in a new paper is: Are these folds encoded in our genes or is it because larger brains have to fold up to be accommodated in a smaller space?

Toro finds that it has little to do with genes and mostly to do with brain size. This observation explains it succinctly: The back part of our brain which develops earlier has greater space to grow in and thus has fewer folds compared to the front of our brains (ie the neocortex).

The growth of the human brain is the most important thing that happened in our evolution. Understanding how it happened is just as important as having a large, wrinkly brain to wield.

Reference: Roberto Toro, Evol. Bio. 2013, 600. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11692-012-9201-8

Further reading: Carl Zimmer on the Loom (http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/22/on-the-possible-shapes-of-the-brain/)

Image credit: Roberto Toro