Darwin Explains-Why this Blog??

As a professional biologist and a teacher, I always begin my classes or lectures with one of the most memorable quotes in science, ‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’ by Prof. Theodosius Dobzhansky. Prof. Dobzhansky was one of the greatest population geneticists of his time. In fact, his seminal work in population genetics paved the way for a ‘modern synthesis’ of evolution. Prof. Seawall Wright, Prof. Ronald Fisher and Prof. JBS Haldane (the maverick genius who spent considerable time in India at the invitation of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis) laid the foundation for ‘quantitative evolutionary biology (my phrase)’ by marrying mathematics with the science of genetics to provide a ‘new synthesis’ of evolutionary biology in the around the first quarter of the last century.

The quote coming from Prof. Dobzhansky has been taken to its extreme by biologists like Prof. Stephen Jay Gould and Prof. Richard Dawkins to explain the evolution of the size and pricing of Hersheys’ chocolate bars, baseball scores and even the spam mail, exhorting you ‘to send 25 copies of the mail within one week or invite unending troubles’, and of course the evolution of the concept of god. Paraphrasing Prof. Dobzhansky it can be safely said that ‘Nothing in around us makes sense except in the light of evolution.’ It would be my endeavour in this blog to show that the process of ‘evolution by means of natural selection’ propounded by one the greatest natural philosophers of all time, Mr. Charles Robert Darwin is so elegant and simple (but unimaginably deceptive) that it can be used to explain issues ranging from corporate wrangles, political shenanigans in the parliament, the universal mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflict and even the roller coaster ride of Indian cricket team whose position at the top never seems to go to ‘fixation’ or ‘fixed (much of that in later blogs).’

I am acutely aware of the pitfalls of such an endeavour which might often involve oversimplification of established principles or even rank trivialization. However, since it is not my effort to make evolutionary biologists out of everyone, both I and fellow bloggers should rest easy. Nay, my effort will be to sensitize everyone to learn from the principles of evolution to accept the fact that ‘strife and competition’ (nature red in tooth and claw?) are at the core of biological evolution. An equally well established fact however is also that, cooperation also is quite common in the natural world of animals, plants and of course humans. My hope is that this blog will help students to ‘flip’ the principal of evolution through natural selection in their minds and shriek eureka!

A spin-off of all this would be a better understanding of strife and competition in human societies, which in turn would help us move towards a more cooperative and peaceful world. Now that is a real long shot and a height of being self indulgent. I am not unduly worried about making predictions on the basis of evolutionary principles for two reasons. One, almost nothing in this blog would be ‘original’ except the effort since I would be drawing my lessons from the gurus mentioned above, two, evolutionary processes work on a time-scale that is humanly unimaginable. One has to take recourse to metaphors to appreciate the process of evolution, for instance if the entire history of the earth since the big bang were to be collapsed to a film of 24 hrs man arrives in the last frame of the last spool! So I would, in fact, encourage all bloggers to make such predictions, of course only after they have a handle on one of the most ‘deceptively simple’ ideas in science.

If I have started this blogging I must acknowledge Prof. Niranjan Joshi of Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore and my son K.C Karthik, for encouraging this venture. I would like to add the caveat that in case of any goof ups on my blogs Prof. Niranajan Joshi should be absolved of all liabilities! I must also acknowledge the ‘technologists’ who rile evolutionary biologists for wasting their time and tax payer’s money by their eccentric pursuits. The shocker, of course, was the recent experience of a Ph.D. student facing an interview for a position in a reputed chain of national research institutes. The candidate was virtually in tears after being ribbed by the interview committee for his attempts at using the principles of ecology and evolutionary biology for technology development as part of his thesis.

I am fond of quotes and I will end with one. Almost thirty five years ago, Richard Dawkins lamented ‘Philosophy and the subjects known as ‘humanities’ are still taught as if Darwin had never lived. No doubt this will change in time.’ Forget ‘philosophy’ or ‘humanities’, biologists seem to have gone from bad to worse. The purpose of this blog would be served if I can spark interest in evolutionary biology and lead bloggers to the 'gurus' for a better appreciation of biology.