RANDOM MUSINGS

The book ‘Thirteen things that do not make sense’ is a very interesting read written in a typical style laced with humour. The breezy pace of the book is no less than a murder mystery.
The first mystery is that only 4% of the cosmos is explained by the matter which we have discovered till now. The familiar atoms, molecules, and the elements constitute a measly 4% of the entire cosmos. About 25% is made of some exotic dark matter about whose nature we have absolutely no clue. WIMPS, some kind of weakly interacting particles are a possible candidate but the search is on for the last few decades. An amazing 70% of the universe is simply called the dark energy. Dark energy, because the nature of this energy has remained dark to the human mind. There is an energy which is an anti-gravitational force and is accelerating the expansion of the universe at a rate which our physicists are scratching their heads to explain. The vacuum which we know as a vacuum of nothing is actually a place of great energy being created and destroyed all the time. The present explanation of the universe is a combination of the Big Bang, the dark matter and the dark energy. But, another theory seems to be getting popular which is called MOND or Modified Newtonian Dynamics, which also explains the universe without invoking the dark matter and energy. The jury is still out on the final explanation of the cosmos, which may just around the corner or maybe hidden from the human mind till as long as the mind in the present form exists. In the latter case, it is a hopeless journey, that is if the destination is important. If one believes that the fun is in the journey, we can keep exploring. Earth, water, fire, air, and space are the five elements in the Indian philosophies and Ayurveda. We know only so much about the first four; space is the biggest unknown.
Pioneer space crafts were launched in the 1970’s to study the outer planets. It has done its job and has crossed our solar system and is flying away from us into the dark space. After 2 million years, they will encounter another planetary system. Till that time, it is just going to travel in the great empty space. The Pioneer took the famous picture of the Earth from the edge of the solar system as requested by the famous Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan wrote a very poetic essay on that picture called ‘The pale Blue Dot’. The main problem with the Pioneer is that it is behaving badly and does not seem to respect the laws of physics. There is drift in the path of the space crafts which does not fit with the trajectory as predicted by the existing laws of physics. Nobody knows about this, but there are a few scientists who have devoted their lifetimes to understand this deviation and what this implies for the future of science. The entire flight data of the two space data, which was available almost in a rotting state on the old style punch cards, have been resurrected in the most painful manner by teams of scientists all over the world. The verdict still stands; the drift of the Pioneer is against the laws of Physics and certainly does not make sense.
The most frustrating thing for any person is when the status quo apple cart is upset. Sometimes, it is a nuisance, sometimes it is a major shake in the whole thinking and our way of doing things. There are certain constants in physics which seem to exist a priori. It is a given, like the ratio of the mass of electron to the mass of proton, or the speed of light. But, when data starts coming from the edge of cosmos, or some curious phenomenon on Earth that the constants of physics have not been constant but are up to something dirty, there is a lot of trouble. Changing constants of physics is something which disconcerts our scientists and if proven, will rewrite the books of physics. Like any revolutionary thought, in the words of the oft quoted Kuhn, there is a lot of resistance to the idea of changing constants; but it may one day cause a paradigm shift-an entirely new way of looking at things. If all the laws of physics are written at the beginning of the Big Bang, it is the ultimate destiny. Everything is happening because it has to happen that way. This includes the unfolding of life too. In which case, there is no free will. Everything is destiny. Physicists talk of things which are absolute destiny in the same breath with quantum theory where nothing can be known fully. The great paradoxes and the mysteries of life indeed.
He then speaks about the mystery of the cold fusion experiments, a controversial subject which ended the careers of a few scientists. Energy in the Suns and the nuclear reactors are obtained by a process of fission where one nucleus is broken and energy is released. The bad part of this huge potential energy is that it requires a huge amount of heat and pressures like those required in the Sun to generate. So, when a couple of scientists declared that energy can be released at room temperatures when two atoms are fused together, fusing rather than fissuring, naturally there would be great excitement. The chemists showed in some experiment that when heavy hydrogen fused with some element called palladium, the fusion process released energy at room temperatures. Unfortunately, the results could not be replicated and the scientists were subjected to lifelong abandonment and abuse. The talk of cold fusion in science is akin to talking of pornography in the Church, as the author puts it. But, later, there were experiments which did show release of energy at low temperatures, and there was some scam of some sorts when the results were fudged to prove the experiments wrong. Well, the scientists are all humans after all. There is no denying that.
Then he talks about the absolute mystery of universe called life. Life is either commonplace as can be seen from the fact that it started very early after the formation of the earth. But, in the absence of any proof of life in the alien worlds, or the near impossibility till now to create life in the laboratory using chemicals, it looks like a miracle. One Flemish Nobel winning biologist has put it succinctly, ‘Life is either commonplace where it can be formed from matter given certain conditions, or a miracle. Too many steps are involved for something else in between the two.’ The transfer of life from alien worlds, especially Mars is an interesting hypothesis which may be a distinct possibility within the realms of real science. In which case, we are all aliens. Good thought, I would say. The important thing is even today we do not know the correct definition of life. We know the characteristics of life; energy metabolism, creating order out of disorder, reproduction, interaction with environment and so on and so forth, but the actual definition is elusive. A lot of matter in organised forms does what life as we define do. But we know intuitively that it is not life. Self- replicating robots are the closest matter comes to the definition of humans perhaps in the present scenario, but the essential Consciousness is still with the humans and probably other living matter too. This Consciousness cannot be and will never be replicated in the labs for sure. So, Vedanta and a lot of philosophers are probably right here that Consciousness is primary, matter comes next, and mind comes last.
The Viking probe initially reported microorganisms on Martian soil using radioactive carbon experiments devised by one American scientist called Levin. There was initial euphoria and the scientists celebrated, which quickly turned into a disappointment as further experiments failed. Levin was unconvinced for a long time. Later, a few papers did come up stating that the equipment for the later experiments were faulty and had failed to detect microorganisms even on Earth soil which was teeming with life. It is still a mystery of some sorts, probably not a scandal. The jury is still out on the presence of microorganisms on Martian soil. The planet Mars is being looked at with the most intense interest because it may be a future home for Earthlings. Terra-farming is an evolved and strong idea where extra Earth planets like the Mars, or one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn may be turned into human habitats. A very strong growing population with increasing longevity of life may literally force the humans to take such steps.
In 1972, a radio signal was received in an observatory lasting for 70 seconds or so which has been termed as a ‘wow’ signal. This signal had all the hallmarks of an intelligent alien civilization sending a coherent message from the constellation called Sagittarius. Unfortunately, this narrow bandwidth signal, which characterises an intelligence derived message has never been repeated. Never ever after that. Alien search has been a controversial area of science. The politicians have always resisted the idea because the dollars spent do not seem to have any ROI (returns on investment) in the near or any foreseeable future. It is almost considered as money spent for romanticism. However, a strong body of scientists and private parties have kept the funding and the interest in the subject alive. Aliens have always fascinated scientists and laymen alike. In the words of Arthur Clarke, ’We may be the only ones in the Universe or we may not be the only ones. In either case, the thought is staggering.’ The speed of light is a great barrier to any meaningful communication with alien civilizations. Aliens who come too close to us in their spaceships would be so advanced that they may not simply bother to elevate us and cooperate with us. The humans who have a propensity to shoot first and then ask; or as happened with the colonials, a few decades of advanced technology were enough to exploit, loot and plunder-are certainly not fit to be interacted with!
The Mimi virus is the largest virus discovered by accident and that happens to be the missing link between the life as we have defined it and the almost life called virus. The Mimi virus is the largest virus and when put by the side of an ordinary virus, the size contrast is like a human being standing by a twelve storey building. The Mimi virus probably is the missing link, and is speculated as being the true precursor or ancestor of all living beings, LUCA as it is called. The search for the Last Universal Common Ancestor is a very exciting search in the biological field.
Death is then talked upon and takes on its role in the scheme of life and evolution. Is it necessary for evolution? Can it be controlled?Though ageing, senescence, and death are accepted a priori for all living matter as a consequence of so many probable mechanisms, there are a few animals like the fruit-fly, Blanding turtles who defy the rules of ageing. There are so many theories for death, and there is again a race by scientists to find the elixir of life studying the animals which do not age. There are a few whose reproductive potential increase with age. Is death an evolutionary mechanism for group survival? That is laughed at by people like Dawkins, because evolution has purely been seen for individual survival. The telomeres at the edge of the normal chromosomes are seen to be a key in the ageing process. As a person ages, the telomeres deplete, causing progressive damages in the gene make-up. These lead to ageing. There is an awesome research going on to manipulate these telomeres.
The things that scientists are doing. When you go to the walking ground to walk with people, the realization comes that there are professions apart from your own, and ‘layman’ is indeed a broad category of people. Similarly, a book like this humbles one into the insignificance of one’s contribution to humanity. So many scientists, engineers, and technicians in so many fields are working. Some may aim for personal fame, money, or glory, but many are just doing it for the love of the subject they are passionate about and the love of humanity.
If death is peculiar, more so is sex. There are better ways to reproduce; and all the combined efforts of all evolutionary biologists from Darwin to Dawkins have still not been able to crack the mystery of sex. It is not a very effective way to reproduce; asexual reproduction is far more effective. Sexual reproduction is a very time consuming affair. Apart from the fact that it allows genetic shuffling, which may in turn be better in adapting to environmental changes, there is no other overriding advantage of sex in the scheme of things. Something so basic as death and sex still do not make sense in evolutionary science and it was a great essay to read. I never thought about these issues in my life as a doctor, so I can fairly guess a ‘layman’ would be quite taken aback with the concepts presented in the mystery behind death and sex.
We like to think ourselves free. Free will is another great mystery of science and an area of intense research by neurocognitive scientists. Experiments are proving that there is nothing like free will. Everything we say or do is destined in a clockwork like fashion. At the moment of Big Bang probably, even my profession and what I am writing now is determined. Maybe, an extreme view, but certainly thought provoking. One scientist puts it rather succinctly, ‘Free will is a fictional construction, but it has applications in the real world.’ It is best to think of ourselves as free; because the moral, ethical, and legal dimensions of believing that we have no role in the way we act or think can be very dangerous. Sri Ramana Maharishi was asked the question about freewill and destiny, an age old philosophical problem. His answer in Vedantic terms was very simple. Everything in the material world and the outside world is destiny. The path to the Self or divine is free will. That is the only thing which is in the realm of our own control. It is profound when one thinks about that. The scientists have a great problem to reconcile this business of destiny with quantum effects where nothing can be known to perfection, where matter is fuzzy at its deepest level, where time, cause and effect simply blow away.
The last two chapters deals with the biological curiosities called the placebo effect and homeopathy. Placebo is a very interesting subject and the cornerstone of all medical trials involving drug research. It is called a double-blinded randomized controlled study where two equal groups are treated with either the drug under study or a harmless placebo, but both the caregiver and the recipient patient are unaware of what is being delivered. This is an acknowledgement of the fact that the mind anticipating a result can heal the body due to probable hormonal releases as a response to even sugar water. Or sometimes, the natural course of the disease may be towards spontaneous cure. Huge research has proved that placebo treatment does not work; and equally good research has shown that it works. It probably works best for pain. Pain relief is a complex process where endogenous chemicals like endorphins are involved. These relieve the pain and the trigger for their release can be by morphine, a potent pain killer or by sugar molecules too. The jury is still out on the placebo effect despite some authorities wanting to formally hang the effect. Homeopathy is still more interesting. It just refuses to go away despite the ridiculous dilutions used in treating patients. One molecule of an active ingredient diluted in a volume of water fifty times the volume of the Earth is quite a dilution. But, despite stringent experiments going against it and the maths of the dilutions simply going against any sense, homeopathy forms a good bulk of treatment strategies in the Eastern and the Western worlds too. Why is it not going away? The individual successes have been so remarkable and miraculous that even the most hard-core scientists have converted to homeopathy. There are instances of cure which simply cannot be explained. But, there is a curious phenomenon of molecular rearrangements with the addition of a substance in water. The water molecules undergo molecular rearrangements in a way that allows for its medicinal properties. So in homeopathy the solvent is carrying the medicinal properties rather than the solute supposed to cure the disease. The solute which is given in such small doses give rise to the very same symptoms in large doses which is being treated! It is rather a paradox but the principle of immunization is the same. But, in immunization, immune processes of the body are involved. In homeopathy, no such processes are invoked except ‘energies’. Scientists and rational beasts have a difficult time in digesting that. Water is a peculiar chemical and it has at least 64 bizarre properties according to people who have made it an object of lifelong study! It might the secret ‘energy’ of homeopathic medications as is claimed by its practitioners. Homeopathy is a big nuisance for scientists which simply refuses to slink away and vanish. If at all, the pro-camp is getting stronger by the day.
The book was an exciting journey in the realms of science, the physical and the biological. The kind of books which makes one’s life so worthwhile perhaps. Maybe, I am being melodramatic. But, the sense of adventure and thrill was no less in reading this book than when I was scaling the high mountains in the Himalayas. It is a must, must, must read for everyone. No doubt.