Domestication

Lightning seldom strikes twice, they say, but if it strikes twice you may be damned that it'll strike you the third time. I don't know much about lightning, but internet jokes that are forwarded by mails sure do strike you so many times that most people look at the subject and delete. This post originates from one such forwarded mail that claimed (under point 31) that no new animals have been domesticated in the last 4000 years.


On the face of it such a claim seems totally false since we do come across eccentric people who tame exotic creatures every now and then. However if you consider large scale domestication the forwarded mail sounds correct. Doesn't it seem odd then that humans who have been domesticating for millennia suddenly lose interest in domesticating altogether? Here's a concise list of human achievements in the field of domestication that I extract from wikipedia:
Dog: Domesticated around 15,000 BC
Sheep: Domesticated around 10,000 BC
Bottle gourds: Domesticated around 10,000 BC  (first plant form to be domesticated leading to the agricultural revolution later)
Pig: Domesticated around 9,000 BC
Goat: Domesticated around 8,000 BC
Cow: Domesticated around 7,500 BC


and from then there's a flurry of animals domesticated for the next 6,000 years as though it was the rage of those millennia. And then it stopped. Almost like an abolition law had been passed, but already domesticated animals and plants continued to be domesticated. The religious revolution set in - the good lord was a shepherd (Krishna), so was Jesus Christ. And much as they exhibited domestication, there wasn't much progress - had the human race run out of animals to domesticate? Or has humans domesticating other humans put an end to all new domestication?


Seemingly not. If there had been a lull in the advances in domestication, it has been put to rest in the age of information. Seemingly strange, but it is in this age of advanced technological achievements that man has turned again towards domestication. The largest ever domesticated animal - the Guinea Pig! There are indeed several other animals used for research, but none as popular the guinea pig. Laboratory rats and monkeys are well known for experiments conducted on them. Here are a couple of items fresh from the newspapers this week - monkeys experimented for obesity and another where wasps are taught to recognise smells so that they can be used to detect explosives.


The principles of domestication hasn't changed - the day may not be far when we domesticate babel fish and we can all be rid of having to learn so many languages. All the best Babel fish, the humans will hunt you down until you're domesticated or extinct.

Maiden Flight of the "Solar Impulse"

The Solar Impulse, a solar powered aircraft made its maiden flight yesterday in Switzerland. Although this is not the first solar-powered flight, it is the most ambitious project so far, with plans for an around-the-world trip in 2012!

The Impulse is a 1,600 kg aircraft with a wingspan of 63.4 metres. It is powered by about 12,000 solar cells, installed on the wings of the airplane. The electricity generated is stored in lithium ion batteries, and power four 10-hp motors, that give the plane a speed of about 50-70 kmph. The maiden flight lasted about 90 minutes, with the plane reaching an altitude of 5,500 feet. Powered by sunlight, the 'plane uses no fossil fuel.

Compare this with a "conventional" Boeing 737 that carries over 100 passengers, cruises at 780 kmph, with a service ceiling of 37,000 feet, this may not seem much. However, if you consider the first powered flight by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903, the Wright 'plane flew with one pilot for 12 sec, covering a distance of 37 metres, at a speed of about 11 kmph, at an altitude of about 10 feet! We have gone a long way from the Wright brothers' "Flyer 1" to the Boeings of today!

The "Solar Impulse" (and other similar efforts before it) are the first steps towards developing feasible, solar-powered travel. They are certainly path-breaking, and their achievements must be recognized as pioneering efforts towards a new way of travel and life, one that is less polluting, and not dependent on burning fossil fuels. Solar cell technology certainly has a long way to go before it becomes a part of our lives as petrol and other fossil fuels have, but such efforts are proof that we will, eventually get there. Hopefully, the near future will see advancements in solar cell technology, making its widespread application technologically feasible, and more economical too.

Visit the site www.solarimpulse.com for more details on the flight, and lots of interesting information!

Evolutionary outsourcing

It is believed that mitochondrion was once a free living bacteria. As multi-cellular life forms evolved they simply used the mitochondrion as the energy house - the simplest form of what is called outsourcing today. Biologists would term them symbiotic relations. Over time, this symbiotic behaviour has become an integral part of a cell evolving in its own way.

Mitochondrion have their own DNA, a circular DNA like most bacteria. They divide by simple mitosis. However it is also strange that mitochondria not only grow and divide, but can also combine into another mitochondrion. Also unique is the manner in which mitochondria is passed genetically. During fertilisation the mitochondrial DNA comes only from the egg and hence used to study maternal lineage.

I guess if we had recombinant DNA, the mitochondrion may once again become a free living bacteria (with its own free will) which is probably why the evolutionary contract specifies capital punishment for the male mitochondrion!