The Gene- Siddhartha Mukherjee

This past month has been a difficult time.  Two thesis to read.  One student whose thesis has to be submitted this year does not have a paper and the University declared that she will not be able to submit her thesis. We have been attempting to get it published since last November but journals kept rejecting it. We modified as per the comments given to us. Each time it took us a month to do the experiments and incorporate them into the revised manuscript. Finally we submitted to a journal who were kind enough to say that the paper can be resubmitted after revision. I got the entire lab working on the paper- we have resubmitted it and are waiting for the decision with bated breath. UGC thinks everyone should fit into one mould. Yes, there are too many Ph.Ds without a paper but just by putting a rule that there should be a paper before submission does not solve the problem. In fact when I talked to the University and when we approached the VC with the problem, remarkably, they had the same solution- submit it to one of the pay and publish journals.  Why do you need to submit it to a good journal? 
My jaw fell open.  Does not the VC know that most of the pay and publish journals are fake? That it is better to wait and publish the work in a good journal than in a dubious journal? Are such rules more important than getting a good publication? And exactly what are we trying to solve here?
Anyway, my only relaxation was reading and I finished reading The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  The book traces the history of identification of gene as the inheritance material. The early part was really enjoyable. He talks about eugenics, the horrifying experiments on twins done by the Nazis and the lasting impact it had on genetics. The latter part was I too felt rushed. And it is not the author's fault. The field has expanded so much that it is difficult to compress it in one book.  There are too many strands and each strand requires its own book.  That said, some of the early history I do plan to incorporate into my lectures for the M.Sc. students.

Nate's podcast- What is CRISPR?

Nate Butkus is 6 years old and he wants to become a biochemist when he grows up.  Meantime, he is a podcast host who talks about science because he likes science.  What he would like to do for his homework is to create a creature that has flaps of skin on its face, antennae on its head, and spikes on its back like a hedgehog.  And on his podcast, he wonders whether CRISPR can help him do it. 

CRISPR is the new exciting technology on how we can change the genome.  We are planning to use it in our laboratory to create knockouts so that we can learn what the gene we are interested in does in a cell.  But obviously its use extends far beyond that.  One of the things that the technology can do is to change a bad gene into a good gene and thus, effect gene therapy.

But listen to the podcast- the explanation is much better than what I am offering.

The Right to Silence

We are fond of noise.  Living as I do inside the campus, I thank every day for the sound of silence. On a cold winter day, just stop and listen to it.  It is so soothing and refreshing.  In the summer, early morning, I go for a walk.  The only sound I hear is that of the birds chirping. It is blissful, such a lovely way to start the day.
Stepping outside is a hazard- horns of all kinds being tooted randomly.  Every vehicle is in a rush. They have to move fast, fast, faster and what better way to do than to blow the horn. As loudly as possible.  The pedestrian, the lowest form of human being, has to make way for the moving vehicle. It does not matter what age the pedestrian is.  The old and the young, the able and the disable- all have to make way for the vehicle. It will remind you by blowing the horn, deafening you in the process.
Then there are all the religious establishments who have to reach out to the faithful and to God.  The jagrans are other thing- the all night jagrans, the nine-day puja during navaratri, the list is endless. The loud speaker is put at the highest possible volume so that no one gets sleep.
And don't get me started on Deepavali- a festival completely ruined by the high volume, highly polluting fireworks.  Without that noise and smoke how could the festival be complete?
We also have student events- fresher's party and the Hostel nights- neither of which are complete without the loudspeaker.  The Hostel nights coincide with the board exams of the children on campus. I often wonder our students have also gone through those torturous time of board exam.  Don't they remember how irritated they would be if any body made noise? Then what gives them the right to put loud speakers at high volumes during exam time?
My sympathies with Sonu Nigam, though the original statement he made could have been made little bit more diplomatically.  It is not the mosque only- it is every religious shrine.  The thing is I have the right to Silence, to be not bothered by raucous noise.
Will anything come out of it this controversy?  I doubt.

Three interesting links

1. The first one is about HeLa cells. As almost all in biological sciences know, HeLa were the first cells to be successfully cultured in the laboratory.  The cells were taken from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman suffering from cervical cancer, without her knowledge.  Those interested should read the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. I read it my cousin's place in one night- well, I was leaving the next day and I had to finish the book. It is riveting because it touches one of the issues that we rarely talk about in Indian Universities- Ethical practices. To return back to the point, STAT News has an interesting article on HeLa cells- 5 important ways these cells changed medical practice.

The second and third links are something I found on Nanopolitan blog. 

2. First of this is for the academics- Get a life.  I loved this message at the end of the article.  It is so important for all of us.  I often find it incomprehensible when I find some of my students working all sorts of hours in the laboratory. It is almost as though they have no other life other than the laboratory. Of course, there are things that they are interested in but I do not think many of them have a serious hobby that they take time out to pursue.  I also do not think many of them pay attention to their physical health. So for all of them- Go Get a Life and you will find that rest is easy.

3. The third link..well...I will leave it to you to read.

Of this and that

The past month has been difficult.  For one, Summer arrived with a bang. Overnight temperatures shot up giving us a taste of what was in store for us ahead. I am so not looking forward to May and June.  The mornings are cool, for now.  On walks in the morning, I can hear the koels, the barbets, and the oriental magpies.  The peacocks look magnificent as they perch on trees modeling their tails. This year I have been lucky to have caught sight of Shikra- last year I missed them.  The bougainvillea have just started blooming and the winter flowers have faded away.
On the garden side, we have planted the usual summer suspects- Bhindi (okra), Brinjals (eggplants), spinach and amaranth.  Ever optimistic, Nanku Ram has planted tomatoes once again. He thinks they will fruit this year. My mother, who is staying with me at present, was happy when I gave her the first brinjal.
On the university side- the rankings have rated us once again as the 2nd Best University (one spot behind IISc) but I cannot help think how long we will remain so. This year most of the schools are not accepting Ph.D. students. Only our numbers remained unslashed- this was due to the decision that we took about 4 years ago.  When the Supreme Court ruled that there would be 54% increase in seats, it was taken to mean at Ph.D. level too.  We ended up admitting 60-70 Ph.D. students per year which translated into 2-3 students per lab per year. After two years of this policy, it became evident to all of us that this cannot continue. We needed laboratory space and more important we needed enormous funds to support these many students.  So we requested the University to reduce our numbers. Needless to say it caused great consternation but we persisted and finally got the numbers reduced. As a result when the University decreed that we have to follow the UGC guidelines (8 Ph.D. scholars/professor; 6 scholars/Associate Professor; and 4 /assistant professor) we found that we were within the limits and thus, can admit students. 
But the question remains- how many will apply and how many will end up coming to us.
For the rest- a blanket ban has been put in place till the number of Ph.D. scholars reduce down to the UGC defined guidelines.  While it was truly mind-boggling to think that there were faculty with 20-30 students (how do they manage to guide these many students and ensure that they did good research work is something no one is talking about), yet a blanket ban will adversely affects us.
It is thus, a season of despondency as we ponder on what will be the impact of these guidelines on us.

GIAN Courses

The Ministry of Human Resources Development conceived this idea soon after the Modi government took over. The idea was to invite faculty from abroad to teach courses for 2-3 weeks in India.  The MHRD offered them total honorarium of USD 12,000 that included air travel. The program was named as Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN).  The implementing agency was IIT Khargpur  JNU, of course, decided to take up the offer and soon invited applications for GIAN course.  Under this initiative  I and my colleague conducted two GIAN courses.  And here are some of my thoughts:
1. The success of the initiative really depends on the guest faculty.  If the guest faculty puts in the effort and time to prepare a good course and is an excellent teacher, the program offers great value.  We had an excellent guest faculty and, indeed, I learned a lot from her about teaching. She made the students read papers, discuss them, and interspersed her lectures with discussion points, puzzles, and in general, made it an interactive session which the students valued.  I was little apprehensive whether the students would read the papers but they did. And not only that, some of them offered to write a term paper to get extra credit. This is big because motivating the students is something many of us are not good at.
However, if the guest faculty does not engage the students, the course becomes boring and the students end up getting a certificate without gaining any knowledge.
2.  The GIAN program is supposed to offer courses that are not offered at present in colleges and Universities/or courses that add value to the existing courses. The problem is then of integrating these courses into the existing course structure and ensuring that the students (undergraduate and post-graduate) get credit for it.  This usually means that the GIAN course has to be approved by the faculty and the board of studies. This is a long process and many times we are unable to do it because the program is of short duration and evaluation is problematic.  However, this is an issue that each College/University has to solve on their own.
3. The Indian consulates are clueless about the program.  The GIAN program states that the guest faculty need to get a business visa but the paper work required for a business visa does not match with the papers provided to the guest faculty.  Further, each consulate seems to be operating on an independent and autonomous mode. So they have different requirements for the same visa (I observed the same thing with student visa when I was the foreign student advisor) and the guest faculty and the host faculty scramble around trying to fulfill the requirements.
4. Accommodation and food- In JNU, our guest house is in shambles and generally people are advised not to stay there. This then brings up the problem of where do we house the faculty?  If we book a hotel, then the payment comes out of the honorarium given to the guest faculty.  By itself, it is not a bad idea but it is not made clear to the guest faculty at the time of applying.
5.The GIAN program itself has nothing for the host faculty. Fortunately, in JNU, the program coordinators made sure that the host faculty also get a token honorarium. 
I am not sure if GIAN is evaluating the courses or evaluating the program itself to make it more effective in its deliverables. In its present format, as we rolled out the program, the problems became visible and needs to be fixed.
But I will reiterate: Given an excellent guest faculty, the program offers tremendous scope as it can be taken by anyone.  We had an undergraduate student and a faculty from a Delhi college this time taking the course. Each one benefited in their own way.

Landour Days by Ruskin Bond

It all started with a book that I purchased at the airport en route to Chennai in December. The bookcover was fascinating- it was covered with flowers, a lady sitting in the middle, and a boy standing near her. The title of the book was "The Prospect of flowers" written by Ruskin Bond. I will confess. I purchased the book solely for the cover as I had already ready the short story "The valley of flowers" in Reader's Digest long back. I had loved that story.  The volume contained some stories that I had not read before including "The Blue Umbrella" that was made into a movie by Vishal Bhardwaj.
I went on to purchase two more books- Rusty Runs Away and Landour Days- at the book fair.
I like Ruskin Bond because of the language he uses (simple not convulated) and the stories he tells of people you and me meet every day on the streets. Sure some of the stories are recycled.  The Prospect of Flowers was also present in Rusty Runs Away as an incident that happens to Rusty.  I also felt Rusty was semi-autobiographical, a story of a school boy who is an orphan for all practical purposes. He has a guardian whom he dislikes He is sent to a boarding school and the book tells of his adventures.  It ends with Rusty leaving the guardianship and striking out on his own. It is set in the pre-partition India and the most evocative story was the friendship between Rusty and Omar.  On partition, Omar moves to Pakistan and dies in India-Pakistan war.
The final book that I read was Landour Days. I read this book sitting in the UGC office while waiting for my turn to present before the committee. Ruskin Bond is an inveterate dairy writer and I enjoyed his reflections.  The best part of the book was his musing on Landour, the writers who flock there, the houses built by the colonists that are empty and decaying now, John Lang-the lawyer to the Rani of Jhansi- who is buried there, and a gentle pace of life that is missing in the cities.