The Fort - A Novel of the Revolutionary war by Bernard Cornwell

An Unappealing Fort!


Having read all of Bernard Cornwell's books till date, I was disappointed with 'The Fort'. Usually Mr.Cornwell's formula seldom fails to work - his authentic research, excellent writing skills and imaginative story telling makes reading his books a lingering pleasure. Unfortunately 'The Fort' has no heroes nor villains or even a credible plot. Based on a small battle between a British Force and American rebels in 1779 during the Independence war in the coast of New England, Mr.Cornwell tries to tell the story from both sides. But frankly, the story becomes very boring and it took me a great effort to complete the book. Some interesting facts about Paul Revere and John Moore do provide some excitement but does not make it worth the effort of reading over 440 pages.

As usual, Mr.Cornwell's research stands out - but you might as well read the last few pages of the Historical Note to enjoy that.

Arsenic - any one?

Element number 33 of the periodic table jumped into prominence this week with the discovery of arsenic based life form on earth. It seems the bacteria GFAJ-1 uses arsenic instead of phosphorus (which all known life forms use) for its DNA backbone.
Arsenic, famous as the poison of choice in Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories as well as being allegedly used by the English to finish off Napoleon Bonaparte, works well as a poison due to its similarity with Phosphorous - our cells easily accept it and try to use it in lieu of Phosphorous.

Discovered in Mono Lake, California by geomicrobiologist Felissa Wolfe-Simon, GFAJ-1 does not naturally prefer arsenic. But when grown in culture and given an arsenic rich diet, devoid of any phosphorus, instead of dying of like other organisms this particular bacteria, GFAJ-1 used arsenic in place of phosphorus in DNA and other molecules inside the cell.

How is this discovery so significant? It is a very momentous discovery for two reasons - (1) It implies that life can be very different from what we think - especially as we search for extraterrestrial life. It is not a coincidence that the announcement of this discovery was made by NASA as one of relevance to astrobiology (2) It might also support the theory of the origin of life in hydrothermal vents down under the oceans (a concept well explained by Nick Lane in his book ‘Life Ascending’).

Till now, the biochemistry of life has been dominated by the Big Six - Oxygen, Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulphur and Phosphorous - the critical elements for life to exist. Well, now here is new biological paradigm - and let us see what new science this will give us.

Matt Ridley vs Bill Gates - Debate

Check out the review by Bill Gates on Matt Ridley's book 'The Rational Optimist' in Wall Street Journal



http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704243904575630761699028330-lMyQjAxMTAwMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html

Designer Genes - A new era in the evolution of man by Steven Potter

Our Genetic Destiny?



Sometimes potent things come in small packages. In this short book of 175 pages, Steven Potter takes us through the fields of DNA sequencing, genetic modification, stem cells and embryo manipulation. We have seen numerous books come out in recent times on these subjects, but this tome differs from them through its simplicity, lucidity and clarity of vision.

Steven Potter shows us why it would be impossible to stop human beings from changing their genetic code - initially it would be to cure diseases and then to prevent them - but sooner or later to improve it. The ethical and moral dilemma involved in these are discussed in a very balanced manner and it would be highly beneficial if our politicians and so called leaders spend some time in understanding the basic science behind the issues, through reading books like these.

Towards the end of the book, Dr.Potter springs a surprise by a Kurzweilic play of hypothesizing the potential of smarter than human machines and how humans might be forced to make themselves better (quite drastically by changing their genes) to stay ahead of the machines.

This is a an interesting and thought provoking book and a very easy read.

The Smart Swarm by Peter Miller

Learn from the ants, bees, fish, termites and locusts!




Through a very insightful book, Peter Miller turns to Nature to explain crowd behavior. Leveraging upon numerous scientific studies, Peter elaborates the principles through which even insects with low individual intelligence perform extraordinary feats of brilliance as a group. That too without hierarchy or elaborate rules!

Peter Miller calls this intelligent group behavior - the smart swarm. He then explains how the smart swarm works - using biology to unlock the secrets of collective behavior. The dangers of group behavior are also brought out through the examples of locusts - which is useful to understand how human groups also sometimes turn violent.

What are the principles of smart swarms?

The first principle of a smart swarm is self organization. Through the basic mechanisms of decentralized control, distributed problem solving and multiple interactions, members of a group without being told can transform simple rules of thumb into meaningful patterns of collective behavior. This is explained through the functioning of ant colonies - that is "Though Ant's aren't smart, why Ant colonies are?"

The second principle of a smart swarm is 'diversity of knowledge' - which is basically achieved through a broad sampling of the swarm's options, followed by a friendly competition of ideas. Then using an effective mechanism to narrow down the choices, swarms can achieve 'wisdom of crowds'. The honeybees example of choosing a new nest illustrates this very clearly - and Peter shows how communities and businesses can build trust and make better decisions by adapting this.

The third principle is indirect collaboration. If individuals in a group are prompted to make small changes to a shared structure that inspires others to improve it even further, the structure becomes an active player in the creative process. This is explained beautifully with the example of how termites build huge structures. We also see this in our internet world through Wikis!!!

The fourth principle is adaptive mimicking. With the example of flight behavior of starlings, Peter shows how the basic mechanisms of coordination, communication and copying can unleash powerful waves of energy or awareness that race across a population evoking a feeling of mental telepathy.

The author explains how the above principles will give businesses powerful tools to untangle some of the knottiest problems they face. With examples ranging from Oil, Aircraft manufacturing to Movies, very useful practical situations are given throughout the book.

I would strongly recommend this book all interested in Science & Business.