Pathways to the Spirit

How can science provide us with pathways to the spirit when we are living in the modern age of the brain? Today, the majority of scientific materialists, which include most psychologists, neurologists and psychiatrists, believe that anything we call mental or spiritual is merely a by-product of biochemical processes taking place in the brain. For them, the spirit or soul is merely an illusion - it simply doesn't exist. For other scientists however, consciousness and the spiritual self are not regarded as illusory epiphenomenona but rather something that transcends the physical brain altogether.

So if the soul or spiritual self is something other than a by-product of brain activity, then what is it? Spirit is generally described as an indwelling animating force present within all living things, associated with mind, will and feeling and responsible for one's sense of personal identity as a spiritual being and immortal soul. Within the context of Christian theology it is part of the trinity, called the holy ghost, while parapsychologist usually regard it as an indwelling nonlocal consciousness which is nonphysical in nature and therefore capable of mentally transcending many normal limitations of physical space and time, as well as surviving the demise of the physical body. In this article we will examine two different scientific pathways to the spirit provided by prominent research biologists and quantum physicists who have rediscovered an ancient truth - that the indwelling spirit is present in the physical world actively participating in its enfoldment. The Biology of the Spirit
Gregory Mendel (1822-1884), an Augustian monk who lived in Brunn Austria, discovered the fundamental biological laws governing heredity by breeding pea plants in his monastery garden. He crossed varieties and species of plants, carefully observing the physical characteristics of the hybrids that he produced. His conclusions, based on his discovery that physical traits are genetically inherited, were published in 1865 in an obscure scientific journal, which to his surprise attracted practically no attention. It wasn't until 1900 that Mendel's discovery resurfaced again, when Hugo DeVries, Erich Von Tsohermark and Carl Correns, working independently, duplicated Mendel's experiments and corroborated his findings.

Today, based on Mendel's materialist genetic theory, all living things are merely regarded as biochemical machines entirely programmed by their genes. Living organisms are regarded as nothing more than complicated collections of organic particles, blindly pushed and pulled by its neighbors. Richard Dawkins describes living things, including ourselves, as nothing more than automatons or 'gene machines'. Thus one's biological fate is sealed as it entirely predetermined, unalterably recorded in their genes.

The independent existence of mind and spirit are no longer recognized as they are considered to be merely epiphenomenona created by biochemical processes taking place within the physical body. Now, geneticists have gone even further, claiming that it is not only physical characteristics that are inherited but all psychological traits including abnormal behavioral as well. Whether it be an inherited disposition to acquiring a particular disease, a health problem, or a tendency to abnormal behavior such as lying, stealing or homosexuality, one can always opt out of any personal responsibility for their condition or behavior by claiming that it is not their fault - that they get it from their genes!

One of the problems with conventional genetics is the kind of language generally used to describe biochemical processes. If genetic material is composed of inert molecules of protein and amino acids, how can they possibly contain a 'memory' of coded genetic information? We cannot legitimately describe biochemical processes by appealing to subjective terms as if matter had mental qualities - a concept which biologists have already rejected.

If the brain is a blob of matter and consciousness is merely an epiphenomenona created by its activity, then how can we claim that the right side of the brain 'appreciates music', or imply that inert chemical molecules are aware of their environment and can intelligently respond to it. We can't attribute to physical matter subjective characteristics that belong to mind unless it really does posses those characteristics. And this is the crux of the problem; what if matter really does have mental characteristics that most biologists are unwilling to recognize?

According to molecular biologists the primary necessity of living things is to reproduce themselves through genetic duplication and DNA is perceived as being the physical blueprints required for the reproduction of the species - but who is there to read those blueprint? If these genetic blueprints are merely comprised of different forms of inert, unintelligible molecules, then how do we explain how a plant is able to successfully develop without the presence of some form of intelligence to inform and guide the complex biological processes involved in its development? The belief that blind biochemical processes can accomplish this miracle is entirely unwarranted.

The Psychogenetic Revolution
I recently obtained a copy of Dr. Bruce Lipton's book: The Biology of Belief, which has finally substantiated my long-held belief that there is something drastically wrong with the current scientific theory of genetics. As a result of his extensive research in cell research, he has literally turned the scientific world up-side-down with his revolutionary approach to a new biological theory he calls epigenetics.

Dr. Lipton is certainly well qualified to lead such an important revolution. He began his career as a cell biologist, receiving his PhD. Degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine in 1973. Between 1987 and 1992, while conducting basic research at Stanford University's School of Medicine, he achieve an important breakthrough in the study of cellular behavior which seriously challenges the validity of the conventional genetic theory that is so widely accepted by biologists today.

In our search for pathways to the spirit, Dr Lipton has discovered a very important one that will help us understand how the mind and spirit participate in the enfoldment of all living things. In what remains of this section on the Biology of the Spirit I would like to summarize Dr. Lipton's findings and would encourage you to visit his website at www.brucelipton.com.

Some of the insights that Dr. Lipton's research reveals includes the following:
1.The body is not a mechanical device but depends on the participation of mind and spirit. Although every cell is a free-living entity capable of surviving on its own, the body's collective cellular community works together responding to the intentions and wishes of the controlling voice - the mind and spirit. These messages that we mentally send to our cells, including our particular unconscious beliefs and the way we perceive the world around us, directly influences our genetic programming and physically affecting our well-being. For example, habitual negative thinking or prolonged chronic stress are so debilitating that they are able to over-ride healthy genetic programming resulting in many forms of organic dysfunction and disease.

2. Conventional thinking among most biologists continue to entertain the concept of 'genetic determinism' which is the theory that the nucleus of the cell containing genetic material is the commanding center or all cellular activity and is in complete charge of the development of a living organism. But Lipton has demonstrated that once the genetic material in the cell's nucleus is removed it continues to survive for several months. In the absence of any genetic material the cell is still able to maintain its metabolism, digest food, excrete waist, breathe and respond to its immediate environment. As Dr. Lipton has concluded: the fact that a cell maintains a successful and integrated life in the absence of genes reveals that they are not the 'brain' or controlling center of the cell. In actuality, genes cannot be the controlling center of cellular activity as they have no way of chemically turning themselves on or off. What then does turn genetic activity on and off, thus controlling all cellular activity?

3. Dr. Lipton made the revolutionary discovery that it is the membrane surrounding the cell, which provides a perceptual interface with its environment, that is actually the controlling center of cellular activity. This outer membrane of the cell has previously been regarded as being a passive, semi-permeable barrier, whose primary function was to contain the cytoplasm. But it has been discovered that this outer cellular membrane has receptors and effectors capable of monitoring and responding to signals in its surrounding environment. In other words, it has the perceptual capability of being consciously aware of changing conditions in its environment, with the capacity of responding accordingly. But an even more revolutionary discovery is that we are not helpless victims of our genetic inheritance. Because we are continually interactively communicating with these outer membranes surrounding the millions of cells that comprise our physical body, we can alter our genetic programming by changing our beliefs, intentions, and the particular way we perceive reality.

Such a discovery immediately frees us from the dominating fear that is normally associated with the materialistic doctrine of genetic determinism, providing us with an awareness of how we can intentionally begin to participate both mentally and emotionally in influencing our biological well-being. In addition, Lipton's theory of epigenetics ushers in a new age of enlightenment - a biology of the spirit that provides us with an important path that each of us can follow in discovering our spiritual nature that is intimately interwoven within the very cellular structure of our biological world.

Quantum Physics and the Sacred
Does Quantum physics also provide us with a pathway to the spirit? Dr. Lawrence W. Fagg, a retired research professor in nuclear physics originally associated with The Catholic University of America believes so; a conclusion resulting from his thirty-five years of pioneering research exploring the quantum frontier between spirit and matter. His revolutionary findings were published in a book entitled: Electromagnetism and the Sacred, in 1999.

Dr. Fagg's general thesis is that the material world is electromagnetic in nature and that its interactions, which underlie the very fabric of our experiential world, from rocks and planets to minds and living organisms, all depend on the activity of virtual photons which are the 'messenger particles' for the electromagnetic force responsible for the formation of the physical world.

Every form of electromagnetic radiation is composed of photons, both real and virtual. Real photons, which are observable and can be measured, are responsible for illuminating the world around us. They are produced in various ways, for example, when charged particles are accelerated or when electrons collide. Virtual photons on the other hand, are not observable or measurable, yet they play a vital role in constraining electrons to specific orbital paths surrounding the nucleus of an atom thereby providing a stabilizing force required for structuring and sustaining the existence of the many different kinds of molecules that comprise our physical world. Without the active participation of virtual photons there would be no electromagnetic interactions and consequently no physical world at all.

As all electromagnetic phenomenon are essentially different forms of light, Dr. Fagg believed that the creative role of light in manifesting physical reality reflects the wisdom of sacred scripture and religious beliefs which have persistently claimed down through the centuries - that God is light. He wondered if there really was a meaningful connection between electromagnetism and God's immanence within the nature of things. But if that were the case, then we should expect to find an all-pervasive intelligence actively present within quantum phenomena itself, and that is exactly what we do find!

Quantum Action-at-a-Distance
The concept of nonlocality, or 'action-at-a-distance' was first proposed in 1935 by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, which has since become know as the EPR paradox. This was originally a 'thought experiment' which involved sending twin particles off in separate directions, each with its own spin. If one was spinning to the left the other would have to spin to the right. Now, assuming that these spinning particles were separated by a vast distance, what would happen if an experimenter suddenly changed the spin of one of the particles? Would the other particle become aware of this change and alter its own spin in the opposite direction?

Alain Aspect, a French physicist, was able to successfully perform the EPR experiment in 1982 and found that twin quantum particles did in fact communicate with each other at a speed greater than the velocity of light, compensating for any abrupt change in polarization or direction of spin. The question now is, how do we propose to explain this exchange of information?

First of all, orthodox quantum mechanics in its original form was not capable of explaining this type of mental phenomena. Since the inception of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg and Bohr, consciousness had been completely excluded from the physical universe. Bohm, an American physicist, later introduced his theory of the 'quantum potential' which postulated fields of active information in terms of 'pilot waves' and 'back action', which provided a workable model for understanding the relationship existing between quantum energy and the distant communication between particles in the EPR experiment.

For David Bohm, a particle rather than just being causally influenced by mechanical forces, is always accompanied by a pilot wave which informs and guides it. The idea of 'active information' is that the pilot wave, which has very little energy itself, uses the information it has to directly influence or control the much greater energy possessed by the particle. According to his concept of 'back action' quantum information is also constantly fed back from the particle to the pilot wave, which then revises the information it has accordingly. Like a pilot controlling the incredible power of a jumbo-jet, information is conveyed from the plane’s instruments according to a mental choreography in which the plane and the pilot interact, giving it the semblance of a living object that is sensitive and responsive to changing conditions in its environment. It is this same kind of scenario that is taking place on the quantum level.According to Bohm, in order to understand this interaction taking place between an informed particle, its pilot wave and the objective environment, including the presence of an observer, all these elements must be viewed in their undivided wholeness. The humble particle, like other living things, is not entirely subject to chaotic mechanical forces but rather through the presence of consciousness provided by the quantum pilot wave which accompanies it, it is able to participate to a degree in its own self determination. For further information on Bohm's contributing to the development of quantum theory, there are two books that are well worth reading: Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm, and Infinite Potential: the life and times of David Bohm by F. David Peat.As physical reality is comprised of quantum electromagnetic energy, we need to finally recognize the fact that ordinary matter exhibits a nonlocal, rudimentary level of consciousness that is able to transcend the physical limitations of time and space such as the ultimate speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles a second. Through time, these pilot waves or quantum fields of awareness associated with matter have slowly evolved to progressively higher functional biological levels of consciousness and at each level there is a proportionately higher degree of complexity and response, such as we find in living organisms. As quantum electromagnetic energy manifesting as our experiential world is simply different manifestations of light, we are in a position to appreciate Dr Fagg's revolutionary insight into the relationship that he has found to exists between electromagnetism and the sacred. Both Lawrence Fagg and David Bohm have provided invaluable insights regarding the nature of an important pathway to the spirit which is actively present at the very deepest levels of the quantum world.

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Studying genetic variations across the Indian population

The research: The DNA for 75 genes spread across all chromosomes, and one 5.2 million bases long segment of chromosome 22 that houses 49 genes were analysed.

Human Genome Organization (HUGO), which turned 20 years of age in 2008, held the Human Genome Meeting (HGM) at Hyderabad in the last days of September.
Drs Samir Brahmachari of Delhi, Lalji Singh of Hyderabad and Partha Majumder of Kolkata organized HGM 2008. Attended by over 1,000 scientists from over 44 countries, HGM 2008 was the forum where new advances in the field of human genetics were present ed.
Dr Charles Cantor set the mood of the meeting in his plenary talk where he pointed out how the costs of sequencing the genome have plummeted; he suggests that within the next decade, the cost of sequencing an entire human genome would be no more than a few thousand rupees.
Dramatic drop in cost
To get a feel of this, recall that it cost Rs.12,000 crores to do this five years ago. Why do I say this? Because of one of the programmes led by the three Indian musketeers mentioned above. They put together a daring programme in 2003 called the Indian Genome Variation (IGV) consortium. This aims to obtain genetic information on over 4,000 genetic markers from a thousand health and illness-related genes from ethnic and language groups from across the whole of India. The IGV database or IGVdb was released in part at HGM 2008. By studying the genetic variations across the vast populations of India, it aims to address several questions regarding our health and well being. Are there clusters of populations that share genetic predispositions towards certain health conditions? Can the same treatment be given to all people across the country or should there be group-based calibration?
What is the nature and extent of genetic differentiation within and between these clusters? These questions are relevant to India, where people marry and found families and communities based on language, religion and social practices. IGVdb attempts to draw a broad canvas of the health map across India, using DNA-based markers.
Some health conditions depend on what is writ in a single gene. Sequencing the gene and finding errors in it allows us to understand the basis of the condition. But many health conditions depend on more than one gene and are thus complex. Sequencing many of the genes is a harder task. But there is a short cut. Any two unrelated people share 99.5 per cent of the DNA sequences of the chromosomes in their genomes. But one may have the letter A at a particular site in a chromosome while the other may have C. Each of these sites is called a single nucleotide polymorphism, SNP or snip. Each of the two possibilities is called an allele. A series of consecutive alleles on a given chromosome is called a haplotype. In other words, adjacent SNPs that are inherited together are a haplotype. Thus when we analyze the SNP variations between individuals and group, we get an idea of their genetic predispositions. Haplotypes are shared between populations but their frequencies can vary widely. Thus haplotype mapping (HapMap) becomes a useful tool to study a group, cluster or community of people. And this is done by sequencing the DNA of chosen chromosomes and doing SNP analysis around chosen genes. Statistical analysis of the data is then done and the haplotype diversity across populations analyzed and classified. IGV chose about 2,000 people from across India, collected as groups of people from the same ethnic and linguistic groups from six geographic habitats and sociocultural strata (large population, caste based, isolated population, tribes; and special populations, religious groups). This gave them a set of 55 representative populations.Fiftyfive populations
And they analyzed the DNA for 75 genes spread across all chromosomes, and one 5.2 million bases long segment of chromosome 22 that houses 49 genes. This allowed them to analyze the nature and variation in the 55 populations, based on 405 SNPs.
How can we use IGVdb? IGVdb is an attempt at the genetic census of India. It would help us address questions of the type posed above, and answer them with a greater degree of certainty and confidence. For more details, please go to http://www.igvdb.res.in/.

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Powered by waste

It is perhaps because of the deep-rooted Brahminical aversion among some Indians for all things polluting that India has been hesitant to explore the potential of animal and human wastes to provide energy for direct heating or for generating power. Although gobar gas from cattle dung had been strongly promoted in India’s rural areas with big subsidies, it was not a great success mainly because Indian workers were unwilling to properly maintain these plants. But other countries have fewer inhibitions. With an accelerating world shortage of power and rising costs of fuels, many have started using bio wastes. San Francisco is generating some power from pet poop while several large US farms utilise pig litter and San Antonio generates electric power from human faeces. The world’s seven billion people produce about 140 million tonnes of faeces every day and 25 per cent of this has the potential power to produce roughly 100,000 MW of energy. India, with oneseventh of the world’s population, could therefore generate over 12,000 MW or add almost 12 per cent to its sluggish power generation capacity. Further, as the technology is quite simple and cheap much of this potential can be made available in a very short time. In fact, the technology is so simple and cheap that Rwanda has installed 20 human waste power generating plants of 500 KW each at some of its big prisons where many thousands convicted of genocide are incarcerated. These now provide about half of its electricity requirements. For this initiative Rwanda earned the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy with a cash component of $50,000. If little Rwanda can achieve this it is very clear that every Indian city and large village can do the same and save their environments from the chronic unhygienic stink that surrounds them. After extracting the methane, the digested human wastes make a virtually odourless fertiliser. Modern, largely automated plants are now available to greatly lessen human contact with bio wastes. If each community could sell the gas or power generated it would also earn enough to install a number of public toilets designed to efficiently collect the waste while also making the communities much more sanitary. But there could be a problem as the state electricity boards would have to accept this power and pay for it. However, as the capital costs are low and the fuel cost is negligible the sale of this power would be much more profitable than power from fossil fuels. And by cutting down the methane emissions that are 30 times more ozonedepleting than CO 2 , such plants could also earn valuable carbon credits. The process is very simple. The waste is first collected and fed into a silo from where it is pumped into a large closed tank or digester where it is simply stirred with electric paddles with a little water and air. The acids, enzymes and other stomach fluids continue the process of digestion releasing methane gas and leaving behind an almost odourless slurry that can be pumped into tankers with tractors to spread it on farm fields as a rich fertiliser. It can also be sun-dried and stored in sacks for use or sale. While the methane can be directly used as fuel, large quantities are difficult to store unlike electricity. Power from human waste will be especially valuable in urban areas but all farm wastes including poultry wastes can be effectively used. Suffolk in the UK has a power plant generating 12.7 MW of energy and consumes 125,000 tonnes of poultry litter per year. Encouraged by its success, it is now planning a human waste plant in Northamptonshire. Many entrepreneurs are discovering that there is gold in these bio wastes and some are trying interesting projects like producing N-Viro, a blend of waste coal dust and dried bio solids that are made into a solid cake that can be fed into a boiler or used as kitchen fuel. When people can lift the blinkers of their prejudices the scope for imaginative and profitable uses of bio waste is limitless.

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Quest for life on Mars

A NASA artist imagines the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity look like this on the Red Planet.

For well over a century, the prospect of life on Mars has been the subject of feverish speculation among scientists. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported seeing “canali” on Mars through his telescope and thought that the dark areas he noticed on the planet were the result of vegetation. By 1894, Percival Lowell, a wealthy American astronomer, who established the observatory that now bears his name, was asserting that in the Martian canals “we are looking upon the result of the work of some sort of intelligent beings.” What those Martian beings might look like and how they would behave towards neighbours on planet Earth have been the subject of much science fiction writing and films. It is no wonder that humans began sending probes to study the Red Planet almost as soon as the space age began. Just three years after Sputnik went into space in 1957, the Soviet Union attempted to send the Korabl-4 but the probe did not even reach the orbit around the earth. Since then, close to 40 spacecraft have been despatched to Mars, but over 60 per cent of those missions also ended in failure. It was Mariner-4 launched by the United States that sent back the first close-up images of another planet as it flew past Mars in July 1965. Finally, the Viking-1 lander, again from the U.S., touched down safely on its surface in July 1976, and it was followed by the Viking-2 lander a few months later. Both Viking landers were sent to look for signs of life. When the planet appeared to be barren, so great was the disappointment that it eroded political support in the U.S. for further Mars missions.
But interest in Martian life has revived. If such life exists — or existed in the past — it is likely to take the form of tiny microbes, not little green men travelling in flying saucers. There was an uproar in 1996 when a team of U.S. scientists reported in the journal Science that a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica carried telltale traces of primitive microbial life. Although that interpretation of the traces found on the rock is now not generally accepted, the possibility of life on Mars is not discounted. Space probes have discovered signs that liquid water was present on the planet in the past and that water in the form of ice is still plentiful below the surface. Where there is water, there may well be microscopic life. The Phoenix Mars Lander, which has landed safely in the far north of the planet, joins three other spacecraft and two robotic rovers that are currently examining Mars in unprecedented detail. The objective is not to look for life, but to determine if the Martian arctic soil could support life. Let us wait and see what it finds.

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Race against time

This is a race against time to prevent a global financial collapse, and on Tuesday, the clock was ticking louder than ever. Markets went into a tumble — with Wall Street slumping more than 4%, its worst loss since the immediate aftermath of 9/11, seven years ago. Policymakers went into a huddle. And investment bankers gathered in droves — on social networking sites and at offline watering holes — to rage against the seismic change in their fortunes from ‘masters of the universe’ (to quote bestselling author Tom Wolfe) to a tribe living in fear of the pink slip. Already shaken by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch, markets tanked further as major credit rating agencies downgraded US’ largest insurer American International Group (AIG), leaving it fighting for survival. The company, whose stock plummeted 61% to $4.76 in New York on Monday, is such a big player in insuring risk for institutions around the world that the prospect of it going under raised fears of a cross-border meltdown.The London and Tokyo markets tumbled more than 4% on Tuesday, hitting their lowest levels for more than three years. Central banks hit back, with the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Japan together injecting $210bn into money markets. But the Fed stunned the market by holding interest rates steady, dashing rate cut hopes and sending the Dow sliding again. The Dow had earlier steadied on hopes that the government would bail out AIG and that Barclays would buy some US assets of Lehman. In India, AIG has two insurance joint ventures with the Tatas — Tata-AIG — one for life and another for general. IRDA on Tuesday said according to accounts on March 31, 2008, both companies ‘‘have satisfactory solvency margins which are adequate to meet their liabilities’’, but following the US crisis, it has asked them to submit reports. The fear of a global slowdown drove oil prices to below $90 a barrel, down almost 40% from the record high of above $147 per barrel in July. Unfortunately, the declining rupee means this benefit is unlikely to reach consumers.

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India to be 4° hotter in 40 years

The effect of climate change on India could be far worse than previously estimated. Latest projections indicate that after 2050, temperatures would rise by 3-4 degrees over current levels and rainfall would become both heavier and less regular, posing a grave threat to agriculture. These are part of the research conducted by scientists at Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, one of the key government institutions studying climate change in India. The findings are currently under review by a well-recognized scientific journal. This provides another, more serious wake-up call for India’s planners to look at adapting to the impending climatic changes. More important, it demands that the developed countries reduce their emissions substantially before their accumulated emissions turn these projections into a reality for India and other developing countries. If even a part of the projections turn into reality, the IITM modelling has dire implications for almost all aspects of life in the country — agriculture, power, water resources and biodiversity. The team at IITM, led by Krishna Kumar, used what is known as ‘‘A1B scenario’’ to pick a curve against which greenhouse emissions are calculated. The A1B scenario refers to a UN-accepted set of changes in the world economy that drive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It presumes a global economy growing by 3% annually with high rates of investment and innovation, use of varied sources of energy and an economic convergence between the developed and developing countries. With the emission growth curve drawn from the A1B scenario, Kumar and his team used data relevant to India in complex climate models to generate future projections for dozens of climate parameters that allowed them to map out how temperatures and monsoon would change if emissions rose. ‘Cities to bear brunt of rise in temperature’ New Delhi: Research conducted by scientists at Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has revealed that temperatures would rise by 3-4 degrees by 2050, The results of their work will now be used by others to calibrate how vulnerable the country could be on different fronts if these projections come true. The study is an eye-opener. It says the rise of temperatures would be far more over northern India than the peninsular region. The temperatures would begin rising in northern and western regions initially and then the pattern would shift eastward. The increase would occur in both night and day time temperatures. Global modelling results have been suggesting that average annual precipitation in the country may see about a 8-10% increase. The pattern of increase in rainfall too is predicted to move from north and north-west India towards the east. The consequences are easy to see — cities like Delhi that are not able to handle the occasional heavy shower even today, as was the case this year, could get flooded rapidly. The scene may not be much better for cities like Mumbai.

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Continuing quest for life on Mars

For well over a century, the prospect of life on Mars has been the subject of feverish speculation among scientists. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported seeing “canali” on Mars through his telescope and thought that the dark areas he noticed on the planet were the result of vegetation. By 1894, Percival Lowell, a wealthy American astronomer, who established the observatory that now bears his name, was asserting that in the Martian canals “we are looking upon the result of the work of some sort of intelligent beings.” What those Martian beings might look like and how they would behave towards neighbours on planet Earth have been the subject of much science fiction writing and films. It is no wonder that humans began sending probes to study the Red Planet almost as soon as the space age began. Just three years after Sputnik went into space in 1957, the Soviet Union attempted to send the Korabl-4 but the probe did not even reach the orbit around the earth. Since then, close to 40 spacecraft have been despatched to Mars, but over 60 per cent of those missions also ended in failure. It was Mariner-4 launched by the United States that sent back the first close-up images of another planet as it flew past Mars in July 1965. Finally, the Viking-1 lander, again from the U.S., touched down safely on its surface in July 1976, and it was followed by the Viking-2 lander a few months later. Both Viking landers were sent to look for signs of life. When the planet appeared to be barren, so great was the disappointment that it eroded political support in the U.S. for further Mars missions.
But interest in Martian life has revived. If such life exists — or existed in the past — it is likely to take the form of tiny microbes, not little green men travelling in flying saucers. There was an uproar in 1996 when a team of U.S. scientists reported in the journal Science that a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica carried telltale traces of primitive microbial life. Although that interpretation of the traces found on the rock is now not generally accepted, the possibility of life on Mars is not discounted. Space probes have discovered signs that liquid water was present on the planet in the past and that water in the form of ice is still plentiful below the surface. Where there is water, there may well be microscopic life. The Phoenix Mars Lander, which has landed safely in the far north of the planet, joins three other spacecraft and two robotic rovers that are currently examining Mars in unprecedented detail. The objective is not to look for life, but to determine if the Martian arctic soil could support life. Let us wait and see what it finds.

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Evollution of Man

MR. MEAVE LEAKEY'S latest findings on man's evolution should further add to the reputation which the distinguished Leakey family had earlier won for itself for the light it had thrown with its sustained anthropological research in Kenya. At a time when the British rulers of Kenya had a rough time with their efforts to suppress the deadly Mau Mau rebellion in the mid- Fifties, the celebrated anthropologist, Dr. L.S.B. Leakey (1903- 1972), decided that it would be worthwhile to explore the origins of the Kikyus of the country and their traditions. His fossil discoveries were published in The Mau Mau and the Kikiyu along with a number of other seminal works on the Kenyan tribes, one of which is the revealing White African. While it would be far- fetched to imagine that research on African tribes and their origins initiated and sustained by anthropologists and the better understanding it had led to brought down the racial barriers in Africa and elsewhere, the scene today in that multi-racial continent is one of greater tolerance and understanding than in the earlier decades of the last century.
The older Dr. Leakey had established that the evolution of man had taken much earlier than had been previously believed and that it was centred in Africa and not in Asia. His son, Richard Leakey, carried the research further and if the present findings of Mr. Meave Leakey throw more light on a subject of unflagging interest, they could call for a fresh assessment of earlier data. The earliest fossil remains of the anthropoid ape dating back to over 30 million years had long been supposed to be very closely related to man while the skull fragments of the Neanderthal man indicated that the evolution of humans should have taken place much later at around 150,000 years ago. A distinction was also made between homo sapiens and homo erectus, the latter being regarded as the forerunners of the earlier species of Neanderthal man. The latest fossilised discoveries by paleontologists of a battered but complete skull estimated to be 3.5 million years old, suggesting a different breed of early humans, should add to the uncertainty about the evolution of man. The questions which they might throw up would hinge upon whether in the course of its evolution, the human race had looked very different and even unrecognisable from how it had been during the last few thousand years of recorded history. It might have taken anywhere between several thousands and millions of years for the fossilised remains scattered across this millennia to bring about an evolving resemblance to the human being. Obviously the humans did not arrive as the finished product which the non-anthropologists might presume it to be. The evolutionary conveyor belt on which the human race was placed should have been moving slowly to accommodate mutations. The latest discovery of a complete skull and face of an entirely new breed of early humans dating back to 3.5 million years suggests how the human anatomy was responding to changes across time.
The evolution of man could not have been in a straight line placing him in succession to the earlier species which were going to perish. The rest of the pre-historic creatures amidst whom he had to take his place should have found him easy prey and it was going to take a long time for him to emerge from being the hunted to become the hunter. The crucial role which the evolving human race was going to acquire for itself was determined by the special qualities of the brain enclosed by the cranium, the earlier shape of which has now been discovered. It should probably tell us a great deal more about how the human head mentioned by Mr. Leakey played a crucial role in the evolutionary process heading towards the ascendancy of man over other species.

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New find strengthens Darwin's theory

In what is one more body blow to those who question Darwin's theory of evolution, scientists recently have discovered well-preserved fossils of a fish that provide the vital transitional link between fish and land dwelling four-legged vertebrates — tetrapods. One of the many objections to Darwin's theory is based on the apparent lack of transitional links and intermediate forms in fossil records to prove conclusively that evolution had ever occurred. But the discovery of three well-preserved nearly complete skeletons of Tiktaalik roseae, "an intermediate between fish with fins and tetrapods with limbs" has proved the sceptics wrong. Tiktaalik, with its many morphological and functional changes, has provided the much sought after scientific evidence to the transition of fish to land living animals. Found in sedimentary rocks belonging to the Late Devonian period, 375 million years ago, in the Canadian Arctic region, the fossils show characteristics of a shallow water river deposition in subtropical to tropical climatic conditions before drifting continental plates carried them to their present habitat. Tiktaalik fits well between the earlier evidences of fish able to walk in shallow water that lived some 385 million years ago and fish with limbs bearing digits that lived about 365 million years ago. Shallow water has been found to play a pivotal role in the evolutionary changes; the fish developed a new mechanism of head movement, respiration and body support system, thus allowing Tiktaalik to exploit both water and sub-aerial habitats.
Tiktaalik provides a vital missing link in the fish to tetrapod transition spanning a period of about ten million years. For a transitional fossil to fit snugly between existing fossil records, it should resemble as well as differ from those immediately higher and lower down in the phylogenic tree. Tiktaalik has many morphological features that are intermediate between its nearest neighbours. In fact, it resembles a poorly preserved animal that belongs to a lower order in the evolutionary tree. The discovery of Tiktaalik can be likened to the finding of proto-bird Archaeopteryx, considered a breakthrough in tracing the transition from reptiles to birds. Despite the finding of a vital link, there still exist lacunae in fossil records tracing the transitional changes going up to tetrapods. Tiktaalik found in the Canadian Arctic, one of the most inhospitable terrains, is proof that rocks do contain within them many secrets waiting to be uncovered. The answer lies in searching for the right rocks in the most probable depositional environment and geological time period for the missing link, just the way scientists zeroed in on the most probable rocks while looking for Tiktaalik fossils. The latest discovery of Australopithecus anamensis, a transitional link in the evolution of humans in the Middle Awash region in northeastern Ethiopia, which is also home to seven other human-like species, is yet another example.

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Rendezvous with an asteroid

THE LANDING OF a spacecraft on Eros, an asteroid in deep space, is truly a magnificent achievement for more than one reason. Launched by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, the spacecraft Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), is the first cosmic probe launched by a non-NASA (the U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration) outfit. It is the first time that a space vehicle has landed on an asteroid which should give it a grandstand view of the star- spangled universe. And it is not exactly a ``near Earth rendezvous'' as it has been called since Eros is quite far away at a distance of 165 million miles. The Earth-based manoeuvring which has gone into the steering of the spacecraft should have been highly intensive and brilliantly executed to enable it to catch up with the asteroid which should have been extremely difficult even if it had only been moving at high speeds. The movements of all asteroids and the directions they take unlike those of planets are highly irregular and the landing of NEAR virtually turns out to be a trapping of Eros into the service of space scientists.
Sir Arthur Clarke who is globally known for his studies of space exploration had actually regarded such a rendezvous which he called ``interplanetary hitch-hiking'' almost as an impossibility in his Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds. Such hitch-hiking has now turned out to be a reality and the space vehicle it has left on Eros could have a piggyback ride on the asteroid which would continue to meander in space as it has been doing for several million years. The landing of the space vehicle on Eros should immensely enrich the knowledge about what is going on with its beaming of data to Earth-based stations from the asteroid. The landing of NEAR on Eros also provides an occasion to recall the potential hazards which were foreseen by space scientists earlier. Asteroids of varying shapes and sizes - mostly of rocks - range from those which are quite a few hundred miles in width to those much smaller. The possibility of asteroids moving wildly in space and straying into Earth's orbit to hit the planet with a destructive ferocity is no longer deemed as unlikely. Such hits had taken place earlier and one of them is said to have snuffed out the hardy dinosaurs which roamed over the Earth for as long as 150 million years ago to black out the planet from the Sun under several million tonnes of dust. Such a catastrophe is now being foreseen for the Earth during the next century from a comet heading towards it. The defensive measures being considered for averting the catastrophe envisage the deflection of the comets or asteroids away from the Earth. The NASA had set up a committee in 1994 headed by Dr. Eugene Shoemaker to draw up a plan to identify and catalogue possible collisions of comets and asteroids with the Earth. Such a collision had already taken place within the solar system itself when the comet christened as Shoemaker-Levy had crashed on Jupiter and the cosmic disaster was captured in a remarkable live telecast. It is learnt that such near misses, known and unknown, are already said to be taking place. Direct hits by these asteroids would spell doom and could litter the Earth with craters like the one left in the Gulf of Mexico by an asteroid-hit a few million years ago
The landing of NEAR on Eros should throw more light on asteroids which are not just space jetsam and should initiate further studies on how they came into being. However, unlike in the case of the moon from where soil samples were brought to Earth by astronauts, access to the geology of asteroid rocks million of miles away can only be through hi-tech space probes. Space scientists have in fact already gained such access to just as far away Mars and discovered that it has water in its poles.

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Mysteries of the brain

PENETRATING STUDIES CARRIED out so far suggest conclusively that the human brain is the most unexplored and mystifying territory which would baffle scientists for quite a long time yet. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, Professor and Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, Santiago, in his recent presentation of the subject at the Apollo Hospitals gave some tantalising glimpses of the ways in which the brain behaves and responds for dictating behaviour and which he has dealt with in absorbing detail in his Phantoms in the Brainwith his co- author, Sandra Blakeslee. The picture which emerges is of a mocking, teasing presence inside the human head submitting itself to the exacting demands of Einsteins on the one hand and remaining hopelessly beyond the reach of morons on the other. If, as Dr. Ramachandran has pointed out, India's achievements have ranged from the realistic to the abstract, it is an indication of the powers locked up in the brain which could throw up glittering images of the cosmic dance of Shiva brought to life in sculptures.
The diverse creativity of the human brain has enriched the world with discoveries spread from that of the Copernican theory which replaced Earth and the planets by Sun as the centre of the universe much to the indignation of the Roman Catholic Church to the Theory of Relativity. It had led to the flight of imagination in the plays of Shakespeare to the writings of Boris Pasternak who had kept alive the longing for freedom in the Soviet Union even while remaining silent for nearly twenty years. However, it could go haywire and throw up hallucinations which are ``more real than reality''. A great deal which yet remains to be known about the brain is about its right and left ``hemispheres'' with the former having a much broader ``searchlight'' than the latter. While the left hemisphere is concerned with speech, language and semantics, the right is projected by Dr.Ramachandran as the ``intellectual'' half for taking care of the ``more subtle aspects of language, such as nuances of metaphor, allegory and ambiguity''. Any damage to either of the hemispheres could affect proper brain coordination which would look strange and despairing to a normal person. Among the lessons which are taught in elementary physics is that the image in a mirror is ``as far away from the mirror as the object is in front of it''. Dr. Ramachandran mentions the case of mentally ill patients who take this description literally and try to reach the image on the other side of the mirror as the result of the inability to distinguish the real object from its image. It is an instance of a brain suffering from a disturbance to its intricately placed perceptions.
Among the oft-mentioned instances of the strange manifestations of the brain is the still very little understood mathematical genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan. The world would never have known him but for the equations mailed to the Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy who was initially inclined to dismiss them as the scribblings of a ``crackpot''. It was perhaps another case of the brain taking over at the right time when Hardy thought again of the equations and saw that no one else except Ramanujan had the imagination so far to think about them. The equations which could well have remained as just the jottings on a piece of paper as they might have to most were coming alive to Hardy to put him on a trail blazed by Ramanujan. If the brain is a teaser, it could be because it is very demanding on the geniuses who have blazed and would continue to blaze new trails in their chosen disciplines. The brain which intrigued the caveman with images on the wall thrown up by the sunlight continues to tease today's cosmonauts with the beckoning, expanding space. The real wonder here, however, is the brain which comprehends it all.

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INSATS - Flying High

THERE IS ONE more Insat communication satellite in space. The Indian Space Research Organisation's newest bird, Insat-3E, was successfully put into orbit early Sunday morning aboard Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. Operations to move the satellite to its allotted position 36,000 km above the equator have begun. Insat-3E will join four other Insats already in orbit, making the Insat system, in ISRO's words, "one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific region." After the 3E becomes operational, the Insat system will have 128 transponders available for communications and broadcasting. ISRO intends to double that capacity by 2007.
ISRO's success with the Insats has been, as with its other endeavours, the result of farsighted planning. Vikram Sarabhai, who began the space programme, foresaw even in the 1960s how satellites could provide telephony and TV services in a vast and poorly connected country like India. In the mid-1970s, using an American satellite, ISRO conducted the world's earliest large-scale experiment in direct TV broadcasting. Over 2,000 villages all over the country were equipped with direct reception sets. This was long before cable TV or direct-to-home broadcasting was thought of. With the experimental APPLE satellite launched in 1981, ISRO got its first experience of building its own communications satellite.
When ISRO mooted the idea of building an Indian satellite system, the Insats, neither the Ministry of Communications nor the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting — which would be the principal user agencies — was enthusiastic. Both thought that their ground infrastructure sufficed. Considerable persuasion was necessary before the two departments, along with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (which in those days had charge of the India Meteorological Department), agreed jointly to fund the first Insats. The Insat-1 satellites were built in the United States and launched abroad. Even here, ISRO took over the handling of these satellites immediately after launch. The first of the Insat-2 satellites, which were designed and built within the country, was launched in 1992. Four more Insat-2s were built and launched in rapid succession. They had their problems, often for reasons beyond ISRO's control. But then so did the foreign-built Insat-1s. The Insat-2 satellites raised the Insat transponder capacity manyfold and put the Insat system squarely on the map. The Insat-3 satellites have undoubtedly benefited from ISRO's experience with their predecessors.
ISRO has demonstrated that it can build world class communication satellites. One of its aims must now be to make sure the Insat system serves much of the country's communications and broadcasting needs. The private sector is already the dominant force in satellite TV broadcasts, but many private TV channels are currently carried on foreign satellites. Likewise, private sector investments in telecommunications will only grow. At a time when international satellite companies want to expand their share of the Indian market, the Insats must be able to attract private sector customers and not get restricted to serving Government agencies. ISRO has already taken some steps to make it easier for companies to lease Insat transponders. Even so, the procedures for allocating and leasing transponders remain cumbersome. Since aggressive marketing could hold the key to Insat's future growth, ISRO needs to ponder further steps. For instance, is the Insat Coordination Committee, on which the three primary Government user departments are represented and which controls the allocation of the Insat transponders, still necessary? Another issue is whether corporatisation in some form of the Insat system will help. These are thorny issues no doubt, but for that very same reason, they need to be resolved speedily.

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speed with Broadband

Year after the Government unveiled an ambitious policy to promote broadband use, the Ministry of Communications is discovering the depressing reality that not all subscribers are ready to make the transition from dial-up Internet. Costs have dropped by nearly 75 per cent in the 12 months ended September, but the tariff reduction for 256 kilobits per second connections is rendered unattractive by restrictions on usage patterns or downloads. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that only about 600,000 subscribers among over 5 million Internet users have opted for broadband. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which envisaged a liberal policy framework for broadband, has rightly called for concerted efforts by service providers to achieve the original goal of 1.5 million connections each in the private and public sectors by December. Given the relatively slow pace of growth, it would seem the opportunity to create a competitive and subscriber-friendly regime was lost simply because the Government was disinclined to share the BSNL and MTNL telephone networks with the private sector for service provision.
International experience indicates that a mix of entertainment and social benefits has fuelled expansion of broadband, where subscribers generally have unlimited access to upload and download content. Music, entertainment and multimedia information, e-governance, health and telemedicine, social connectedness, and the availability of information have all actively promoted its use. New multimedia content such as podcasts (audio programmes of a specified format which can be located by search and book-marked) that inform and educate, is adding to the popularity of high bandwidth connections; some universities in the United States have begun to post podcasts of lectures delivered in classrooms online for downloading by students. Sadly, in the Indian context broadband has not made the major strides thought possible only a year ago, in the absence of a wider base of users and active promotion of content creation in areas such as education, agriculture, health care, and e-governance. It is unlikely this situation will change dramatically if the "rationing" mindset that limits data downloads is not replaced by a more progressive outlook; the Confederation of Indian Industry had, in its submission to policymakers, envisaged affordable access of 1.5 megabit speed and unlimited downloads for home users to boost broadband penetration. Besides lifting of data download restrictions, initiatives to provide free wireless Internet in educational institutions, public libraries, and government offices may be necessary for wider and more equitable access. There is some evidence available from the Pew Internet Project in the U.S. to show that adoption of broadband may have slowed (there was only a three per cent increase in 2005 over the previous year) because a significant number of the remaining dial-up subscribers have low purchasing power. Clearly, policy intervention holds the key.

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RESEARCH WITHOUT BARRIERS

THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT seeking open access to credible research reports took a significant step forward when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States recently unveiled its Public Access Policy that urges the scientific community to provide universal access to work funded by the state. Advocates of free access as defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative of 2002 generally welcomed the NIH move — which encourages researchers to file copies of their peer reviewed articles within 12 months of acceptance by a journal, and choose a date for their dissemination through the Internet. As a concept, open access has found supporters even among some private sponsors of medical research. The question of removing barriers has long been debated against the background of the high cost involved in subscribing to quality journals; there are nearly 28,000 international journals and the more expensive ones are priced around $20,000 a year. The policy approach of the NIH therefore marks a progressive step, however limited, for medical professionals and scientists, and also organisations representing patients with chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, arthritis, Down's syndrome, and a variety of rare disorders.
Advocacy for open access is growing with expanding connectivity to the Net. It has generated debate on the high cost of publishing research articles. The meticulous scrutiny involved in the process of publication is cited as a reason for the high cost of journals. Authors sometimes are required to pay page charges for getting their scientific work published in journals, although most of them are aided by project funds or other grants for the purpose. Happily, these concerns are not beyond resolution, as the most famous model of open access publishing, the Public Library of Science (PLoS), has demonstrated over the past couple of years. PLoS has set for itself the goal of giving any scientist, physician, patient or student anywhere in the world unlimited access to the latest scientific research. In keeping with this credo, its co-founder and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus has hailed the NIH policy as a "significant and positive step." While PLoS is not the first or only forum to enable open access to articles (there are over 1400 quality controlled open access journals listed in major directories), it took the idea forward by leveraging the strengths of the Internet and evolving its own model that welcomed original submissions from scientists for peer review and publication. Authors who can afford it pay a $1,500 fee to meet the costs, but this can be waived for scientists from the developing world. PLoS and its journals of Biology and Medicine have understandably won acclaim in the world of science.
Given the growing base of national medical and scientific research, India's open access advocates will no doubt be inspired by the NIH initiative and seek similar and stronger direction in domestic policy approaches. Important work is carried out in specialised institutes and a part of the university system in India. While most national journals are affordable, international publications are, as a rule, beyond the reach not merely of scientists in specialised fields but of most colleges and universities as well, given their meagre library budgets and the large number of journals they need to subscribe to. One solution will be to permit and encourage authors to archive their publications on the Internet, and offer their peer reviewed articles, free of charge, to reference libraries within a reasonable time frame for release in the public domain. That will ensure the integrity of research and also enable the community of scientists and other users worldwide to share knowledge much more equitably — by drawing on a broad searchable base of research.

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Towards New Space Age

It was 50 years ago that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The beeping radio signals that emanated from the satellite heralded the space age. Since then humans have journeyed into space and returned safely; satellites have helped study the earth, keep watch over the weather, and broadcast TV programmes; probes have gone to other bodies in the solar system; and space-based telescopes have gazed at the far reaches of the cosmos. Just 12 years after the launch of Sputnik, humans walked on the surface of the moon. Then the intense rivalry between the two superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — that drove the space race disappeared and public interest in space waned. It is now 35 years since the last of the moon travellers returned home. During this period, the launching of satellites and humans going out to live on the International Space Station for months at a time has become an almost routine affair. Yet we could be on the threshold of a new and exciting age of space exploration and space travel.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the earth’s natural satellite. Japan’s first lunar probe Selene (nicknamed “Kaguya”) that was launched last month has reached its orbit around the moon. China’s Chang’e-1 spacecraft is likely to follow soon and India’s Chandrayaan-1 is expected to be launched in April 2008. All three countries have plans for further unmanned exploration of the moon. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wants to retire the Space Shuttles by 2010 and concentrate on the development of a new space transportation system. It aims to have humans back on the moon by 2020 and to begin the manned exploration of the Mars by 2037. Russia too is considering human flights to the moon and the Mars, and the present indications are that China, Japan, and India are likely to despatch, in course of time, their own astronauts to the moon and perhaps beyond. A new age of space exploration will surely see competition among space-faring nations. But if such exploration is to be sustained, as it must if humans are to establish a foothold in alien and inhospitable environments, cooperation will be vital. The International Space Station has proved that it makes sense to pool resources in an expensive venture. As a common goal, one needs to remember what Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the Russian school teacher who formulated some of the basic principles of rocketry and came to be hailed as the ‘father of space travel,’ wrote in 1911: “Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.”

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PSLV scores again

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is proving to be hugely versatile. On April 28, the launcher successfully carried no fewer than 10 satellites and ejected them with precision into their designated orbits. Since its first successful launch in 1994, the rocket has gone from strength to strength. In the course of 12 flights, the PSLV has carried 10 Indian remote sensing satellites, 14 small satellites for foreign customers (including eight launched on Monday), an amateur radio satellite, a meteorological satellite, and the country’s first recoverable space capsule. There have also been two dedicated launches carrying foreign satellites. Later this year, the highly dependable rocket will take Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar probe, on the first leg of its voyage to the Moon. The PSLV was conceived as a launcher to take India’s remote sensing satellites to a polar orbit. In its first successful flight, it carried a satellite weighing about 800 kg. Since then, scientists and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have steadily developed the launcher’s capabilities and today the rocket can carry a payload that is twice as heavy.
The availability of this launcher has been a crucial factor in ISRO being able to set up a large constellation of earth-observation satellites. These satellites produce data that serve myriad practical purposes, from better crop acreage estimation to providing inputs for disaster relief. Monday’s launch saw the PSLV put into orbit two more remote sensing satellites, Cartosat-2A and the Indian Mini Satellite-1. ISRO has ambitious plans to expand the number and range of its earth-viewing satellites in space — and those satellites too will no doubt go up on the PSLV. Although the rocket has earned an enviable reputation as a rugged workhorse, India is still a relatively small player in a commercial market dominated by launch vehicles like Europe’s Ariane 5 that can carry heavy communication satellites. This is not a market segment that can be served either by the PSLV or the current generation of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). India can begin to think of competing in this area only when the next generation GSLV Mark-III becomes operational. Its first flight could take place in a year or two from now, according to the latest annual report of the Department of Space. The PSLV has proved to be a terrific asset, but Indian launch vehicles have quite some distance to travel and bigger payloads to transport before they can take on the best in the world.

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Clouds of misery- Cherrapunjee

TO most people outside Cherrapunjee, it is the place with the world’s highest rainfall. But for the people who live here, it is the land of kwai. Kwai is betel nut, and the kwai tree provides sustenance to the local Khasis in more ways than one. Everyone here chews betel nut, enveloped in betel leaf with a dab of white lime paste. Any house one visits, one is greeted by posters of Jesus Christ on the walls and a tray of kwai on the floor. It is an intrinsic part of the rich, sometimes eccentric, folklore of the Khasi hills in Meghalaya. “If you ask a Khasi the distance from one village to the next, he will estimate it not by minutes, but by the number of kwais you eat on the journey,” jokes Denis P. Rayen, owner of the Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort in Laitkynsew village. No wonder kwai is the major cash crop in this valley of clouds, carpeted with thick tropical forests. Kwai plantations have sustained families for generations. But now, the kwai tree is losing its juice. “The yield per tree is falling,” says Bud Sing Bynnud, a farmer from Tyrna village, 14 kilometres downslope from Cherrapunjee town. “A decade earlier, we got 200 betel nuts from four trees. Now, we get only 100. With each passing year, the yield is declining. The early rains in March destroy the kwai tree’s tender leaves. Earlier, it never rained much in March, but now everything is changing. The rains are not regular.” If there is one thing that was regular in Cherrapunjee, it was the rains. The south-west monsoon supports the region’s thick tropical forests and small farms with their crops of pepper, betel nut, bay leaf, mustard and vegetables. But of late, the changes in the timing of the rains and the pattern of rainfall have harmed crops in villages around Cherrapunjee. The original Khasi name for the town is Sohra. The British, who annexed this region in the 1830s, called it Cherrapunjee. Alarmed by the torrential rainfall here, the Catholic Mission in the region started measuring it. That is how Cherrapunjee became famous as the wettest place on the earth and how the colonial name stuck. The State government recently changed the town’s name to “Sohra” officially. But it has not been able to erase the distinct colonial influence. Most Khasis are Christian, and the Khasi language is written in the Roman script. The log-cabin-style houses with their lace curtains, the churches, the tartan wraps that the women wear are all remnants of the British Raj. Walk through a village and you will hear rock music blaring from the small houses. The Khasis have a matrilineal culture, so women here are relatively empowered. The culture is very different from the rest of India. Cherrapunjee gets such heavy rainfall – the record is 11,952 mm a year – because of the Khasi hills. The Khasi hills are the first barrier in the way of the monsoon winds after they blow over the Bay of Bengal and the plains of Bangladesh. When these moisture-laden winds hit the steep slopes and valleys in the Khasi hills, they ascend rapidly, forming huge clouds. (That is how Meghalaya got its name, which means “the Land of Clouds”.) Many villages along the slopes are actually engulfed by clouds. During the peak monsoon season (June to September), the skies unburden sheets of water. Mobility is restricted. Nothing is spared. “The humidity destroys everything – books, photographs, clothes, and so on. It can get so damp that water condenses into droplets on your face. Some days, it rains more than 500 mm, which means that we can get almost as much rainfall in a day as Paris gets in a year [642 mm],” says Rayen.
Wet desert And yet, Sohra has an acute water shortage. It has been called a wet desert. People here have to walk miles for water. Deforestation and mining have made the town, situated on a limestone-rich plateau, bare. The heavy rainwater flows rapidly down the steep slopes of the Khasi mountains into Bangladesh (40 km from Cherrapunjee). The strong flow has eroded soil fertility, making it difficult to revive agriculture.
Most people in Sohra earn a daily wage either through trade or by working in the limestone and charcoal quarries along the hill slopes. Sohra is mainly a market town, where people from surrounding villages converge twice a week to sell their produce. But now supplies from the villages are dwindling. Harvests are destroyed by unseasonal rains. “It rains even before the pre-monsoon showers, normally in April and May. We must harvest before these showers. With the rains arriving early, we lose part of the harvest. The flowers and fruits or nuts get damaged or fall off the tree. Bay leaves get wet and are destroyed,” says Bud Sing Bynnud.
Earlier the rain came on time. Now, we don’t know when it will come. It has become difficult to time the planting or harvesting of our crops and trees. The crops don’t grow well and we get less than half the quantity we got around 10 years ago,” says the elderly Dhesto Sa

wian from Tyrna village. “Now, we get all four seasons in one day. You never know what to expect. It may be hot in the day and then suddenly cold or raining in the afternoon. Winters are getting warmer too.” The unpredictable climate has also made life more insecure for people like Dhesto. “At my age, I have to go for daily-wage work in summer. I started doing so only five years ago. I didn’t have to earlier. We got everything we needed from the land.” “The pattern of rainfall is changing. Now, we have at least 10 days in a year when the rainfall is more than 300 mm. Earlier, the average would be just below 100 mm, very rarely would it get higher. In 2007, there was 21.6 mm in March, but we got 570 mm in March 2008. The average over 35 years is 320 mm. We are seeing more extreme weather conditions,” says Rayen. “We may have lost the cooling effect of trees. These thick forests cool the clouds and bring rain. But the forests have been cut; maybe that’s why it’s not cooling as much.” Though the average annual rainfall remains the same, the yearly fluctuations are greater, says Surendra Singh from the North East Hill University in Shillong, who has studied weather data from 1903 to 1999. “In the period 1903-1959, there was a 15 mm per year increase in average rainfall. But during 1966-1999, the increase was much higher – 43.5 mm,” he says. “There are two possible reasons for this fluctuation. One, the changes occurring due to global warming. Two, local deforestation due to quarrying, mining and jhum [slash and burn] cultivation. It has affected the landscape, environment and economy of this region.”
Around 20 years ago, the roads leading to Laitkynsew were lined with people selling oranges. “This region was known for its oranges. Now, no one sells oranges and you rarely spot an orange,” says Joy Rayen, co-owner of the Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort, who was born and brought up in the village. “Around 30 years ago, there was a disease that killed all the orange trees. After that, we have not been able to grow oranges, no matter how many times we tried. The oranges from our villages were famous in the market for being sweet and plentiful. Now, we have to buy oranges from the market. I still have around 10 trees, but none of them gives any fruit. Citrus fruits normally ripen in October, but now they fall in July or August before they ripen,” says Kojen Wansai, headman of Lum Soh Phie village. Yet, he is lucky to have the last few orange trees growing in his yard. They are now a collector’s item.

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GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming-How Will It Affect You?Global warming is one of the last things on most people’s minds. However, global warming is being discussed more and more, because scientists are realizing global warming does not benefit humans. Global warming does not benefit humans, because it is causing the amount of people with skin cancer to rise, ruining crops, and causing people to lose their homes.One of the negative effects on humans due to global warming is skin cancer. Global warming is caused by a depletion of the ozone layer. This depletion causes more UVA and UVB rays to reach the earth’s surface. The UVA and UVB rays are what cause skin cancer (“Global”). Therefore, as global warming increases so will the amount of skin cancer. This is already evident today. The most fatal type of skin cancer is melanoma. Since 1981, melanoma has increased three percent per year. You can protect yourself from UVB rays by wearing sunscreen, but nothing will protect you from UVA rays that...

Global warming is an increase in the earth's temperature due to fossil fuels, industry, and agricultural processes caused by human, natural, and other gas emissions. This results in an increased emission of greenhouse gases. Short-wave solar radiation sinks into the Earth's atmosphere and warms its surface; while long wave infrared radiation emitted by earth's surface is absorbed, and then re-emitted by trace gases. Climate changes occur in our earth's atmosphere due to a buildup of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can occur naturally as well as a result of human activities. Problems can occur when higher concentrations of greenhouse gases are present in our atmosphere because they have enhanced our earth's heat trapping capability. There are many misconceptions about global warming. Some believe that pollution causes global warming, but the fact is global warming is the result of burning fossil fuels, coal, and oil that release carbon dioxide. Another misconception is nuclear power causes climate change. Nuclear power actually reduces emissions of carbon dioxide when used in place of coal. Some believe that global warming means that it will become warmer all over. The name is misleading because in some places, it will actually become colder. The majority of scientists believe global warming is a process underway and that it is human-induced. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases occur naturally. The Earth uses those gases to warm its surface. Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels, wood, and wood products are burned. Each greenhouse gas absorbs heat differently. If natural gases did not occur, the temperatures would be 91.4 degrees cooler than the current temperatures. These gases trap heat and cause the greenhouse effect, rising global temperatures. Human activities add to the levels of these gasses, causing more problems. The burning of solid waste, fossil fuels, and wood products are major causes. Automobiles, heat from homes and businesses, and factories are responsible for about 80% of today's carbon dioxide emissions, 25% of methane, and 20% of the nitrous oxide emissions. The increase in agriculture, deforestation, landfills, industrial production, and mining contribute a significant share of emissions too. The gases released into the atmosphere are tracked by emission inventories. An emission inventory counts the amount of air pollutants discharged into the atmosphere. These emission inventories are used by many organizations. The Centers for Disease Control have been involved in studying global warming's effect on human health. Global warming is a danger to a human's health. Its affect on climate can adversely affect humans. Plagues have been attributed to global warming. An increase in temperature can result in a longer life cycle for diseases or the agents spreading them. Living in a warm area makes egg production a quicker process. Global warming will lead to more precipitation, which enables infectious diseases to be more easily contracted and spread. Effects of global warming on human health might not be immediately detected. Global warming can affect our future ability to obtain food. As climates change, plants and animals will change, leading to a change in the eating patterns of humans. An increase in precipitation is one result of global warming that could have devastating effects. First, the quality of crops would be affected by an increase in precipitation. Second, increasing rain could lead to an increase in soil erosion. There are ways that you can help prevent global warming. Car pooling, auditing the energy in your home, buying fuel-efficient cars, and reducing the electricity in your home are ways to help prevent global warming. You can also write to your local congress representative or your local newspaper in response to stories, which say global warming, does not exist. Government authorities can help by passing laws to reduce emissions from factories. They can also form a treaty with other countries to legally bind limits on emissions of heat trapping gases. The future of emissions damage depends on several factors, demographics, economics, technology, policies and institutional developments. Future predictions do not look good for this planet if nothing is done. Without the help of emissions control policies, CO2 levels are projected to be 30 -150% higher in 2100. Our renewable resources will be very limited. With cooperation from citizens and government officials, we can slow the effect of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Global warming is a matter of great concern that is unfortunately quite often overlooked in light of other problems that seem to be more immediately demanding. However, for all the attention that this issue does not draw, that is how dire it is growing to be. There are many problems that are causing global warming, and if they are not rectified, or at least prevented from here on out there are going to be some severe ramifications in the near future. Greenhouse gases, holes in the ozone layer and the decay of the atmosphere are just a few of the problems that need to be at the very least understood by the general populace. Greenhouse gases are chemical compounds that are found in the atmosphere. Because of their chemical make up, they allow energy from the sun to enter the atmosphere freely. “When sunlight strikes the Earth’s surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation (heat). Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere.

Warning of the Future
You have all heard the doomsday stories of global warming and they all may be true. The temperature increases are shifting climate zones of warmer regions farther and farther north. Permafrost is the hard frozen earth that makes up most of the land area in northern Canada and Alaska. This layer freezes and refreezes every year but recently it has remained in its swamp like state longer and longer each year. This affects the availability of northern highways. In 1970, the highways that were supported by the permafrost were open 225 days of the year; these same roads are now only open about 75 days. The melting of the permafrost and the resulting slushy ground is toppling trees and houses that were held up by it. The Alaskan pipes were built on permafrost are breaking down more consistently.
These temperature changes will not just be affecting permafrost and toppling trees, there are much more dramatic effects global warming has on the world. The advance of warm temperatures towards the poles is causing massive chunks of the ice caps to break off into the ocean. This decreases habit and range for a variety of creatures who seek out colder waters interspersed with icebergs or stable breeding grounds for seals. The other great problem is rising ocean levels.
Ocean levels don’t rise from the melting of the ice sheets for the same reason as ice cubes in a cup of water keep the same water level when left out on a sunny day, which is just a property of water. The real danger comes from ice sheets covering land masses namely Greenland. If all the ice on Greenland melts the coast line of the world will plunge as sea levels rise 20 feet. This will cover most of Florida along with the low lying lands that most of the Earth’s densely populated areas lie. Millions of people would have to be relocated should land based ice sheets thaw out.

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