Research in biology is also hypothesis driven. However, the greatest excitement lies in discovering the unexpected, which is often the case. You are left scrambling to do what Randall Munroe has illustrated - looking for a plot that you hope will impress the reviewers enough to accept your paper, and confuse the tenure and promotion committees to grant your wish. alt-text: Cauchy-Lorentz: "Something alarmingly mathematical is happening, and you should probably pause to Google my name and check what field I originally worked in." There was Ayla. The main character of Jean Auel’s famous book Clan of the Cave Bear. Ayla broke all the rules of the Clan of (presumed) Neanderthals who had reluctantly adopted the orphaned child. She could not help herself because she was different, presumably a Cro-Maganon, an early version of Homo sapiens. Setting was Europe, perhaps 40,000 years ago, when the two species overlapped. I had read this absorbing book soon after it was published in 1980, after borrowing it from the American Centre Library near Connaught Place in New Delhi. Then Durc came along. Son born as a result of mating between Ayla and Broud, a man of the Clan. Auel did not have much space to develop Durc’s character in the book, but we now know that we all are descendants of Durc-like hybrids, at least those of us who are out of Africa. Simultaneously, we are also learning and accepting that Neanderthal’s were culturally quite advanced, that is, not so much Neanderthal-like, a put-down of the yore. Now there is Denny. The non-fictional daughter of a female Neanderthal and a male Denisovan, who got together to have some fun about 90,000 years ago. First described in 2008, Denisovans are a recent addition to the extensively branched human tree. Many of us also carry Denisovan genes. It is mind boggling to think of the probability of finding Denny, unless frequent Ghotuls of Neanderthals and Denisovans were a norm. (Source: Nature of 22nd August 2018; various resources on Internet, and Cave of the Clan Bear. This book had stayed fresh in my mind all these years. I recently read it again when I recommended it to my son, who could not put it down either.) |
This is our irregular blog. We will post about space, cartoons, science, happenings or whatever takes our fancy. Any comments can be e.mailed to neeraj[dot]jain4e4a[at]gmail[dot]com
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