Tuesday 22 December 2015

Land of Milk & Honey

Land of Milk & Honey

Not all people, we must admit, are waiting with breath for the achhe din, some as we saw last week are already in the achhe din zone; a few others are already salivating at the prospect of a clear indication that achhe din are but a daybreak away.

Take the case of Ram Prasad Yadav, a Class X student studying in Patna. He is sure that achhe din have arrived. His father has promised him a brand new motorcycle of his choice, if he manages to pass his board exams which are coming up in a couple of months.  You might be tempted to question why Ram Prasad Yadav, an extremely mediocre student who can barely write his own name either in English or Hindi, is so certain about passing his board exams. But then you don’t know Bihar, do you? He has already made jugaad that he will get all the right answers duly supplied to him in the required answer books right through the window of his examination hall, leaving him the onerous task of substituting the answer books. You must be thinking that his father must be very well off to afford such jugaad and the ensuing prize.  Well, think again; he is just a constable in the police force but then with (part) prohibition coming up as promised by Mahagatbandhan it is time for achhe din to arrive with a bang at least for the Yadav family and many more who find themselves in a spot as sweet as he does.

Take the case of Pascal, no friend of mine, but I am sure you would know a Pascal somewhere around you wherever you are. A very enterprising guy who is in the business of upliftment of people’s spirits by, you guessed it, providing them with “spiritual” assistance. True to the honoured tradition of “simple thinking and high living” he has made it his  vocation to help simple people achieve ‘high’ in life which they can otherwise only  dream of.  Of course Pascal has never worried about such mundane things like licenses and taxes etc, but he has always prided himself on the quality of his products. He is now planning to take a trip to Bihar to scout around for suitable joint venture partners who can brew the stuff as per his tried and tested recipes. His elder son Paolo is already looking after the Gujarat franchise and now he has the opportunity to settle his second son Anton in Bihar. What more achhe din can one expect!!!

But then achhe din for some can become burey din for others. Check it out with the liquor shop guys. They feel that life has brought them down by a peg or two. Some of them even felt that they have been properly quartered. The promised achhe din seem to have evaporated into thin air, rather like the contents of their stock-in-trade. So they approached the ‘gubermint’ to sort out the matter. End result was that the liquor shops will now be allowed to sell milk. While this opens up new pastures for dairy industry, the liquor shop owners are sure relieved that they have not been entirely put to grass by Mahagatbandhan.  

One doesn’t know the precise reason for this milk policy, but some may argue that that it has been dictated by the second-in-command in the state cabinet who is probably still sporting his milk-teeth. Or maybe this is a way to get rid of loads and loads of fodder which must still be in the godowns of the first family of Bihar - a legacy of the fodder scam.

My friend Guy Wise, who is also an ardent devotee of Bacchus, feels this stratagem of having both milk and alcohol available at the same counter is nothing but a master stroke to turn Bihar into land of ‘Milk and Honey’ which is precisely the name of a cocktail with exactly the same ingredients.

Cheers. Wish you a Merry Christmas and achhe din in 2016 and may you find your own land of Milk and Honey.

 LazyBee

22nd December 2015.

Saturday 12 December 2015

Of Fables And Fabled Court Cases

Of Fables And Fabled Court Cases

And for another week-end, a few stray thoughts and a few general observations and a few points of view (some of it my own work and some as reported by media):

From Russia comes this tale of love right out of Aesop’s fables. In Vladivastok zoo, Timur, a goat, was pushed into the enclosure of Amur, a tiger, as a live prey for the latter’s mid-day lunch or maybe a mid-night snack (the report is silent on these salient features of Amur’s dietary habits).  Timur, the goat, managed to make friends with Amur. End result? Timur, the timorous, has been sharing his dwellings with Amur who has become a bit amorous towards Timur. One is not aware whether Timur convinced Amur to give up his flesh-eating habits forever or if Timur has developed a sudden distaste for goat meat or if Amur decided that that since Thanksgiving was just over, he should reserve Timur for Christmas or New Year.  

Unfortunately, the news papers which are first to jump on stories like this, tend to keep the reader in complete darkness about the next episodes detailing the progress in such cases. I am sure readers will be keen to know how and when the of love affair between Amur and Timur would end; whether the end comes by zoo authorities granting a reprieve to Timur and removing him from Amur’s enclosure or if finally Timur would get Amur’s goat resulting in Amur finally claiming his goat. Our position is rather like that of Reader A, who finds at the end of page 228 that pages numbering 229 onwards have been maliciously torn away by some sadistic reader, let’s call him B, who happened to have laid his hands on the whodunit under question prior to A’s having done so, leaving A wondering forever if it was indeed the butler who did it or was it the butler’s lookalike second footman who did in the cook in the scullery.    


Elsewhere in the Land of The Setting Son, Master, the bĂȘte noir of the Grand Old Party, pulled out another skeleton out of the rickety old cupboard of the erstwhile ruling party heralding another joust of a national battleground. Old Empress and the Prince (both now in wilderness) immediately invoked superwoman powers of Prince’s daadi maa  to fight the evil magic unleashed by the wicked wicked opponents who think nothing about starting a fight over small change of Rs 5,000 crores. Well, now if daadi maa jab yaad aa gayee hai to shayad jaldi hi Prince ko apni naani bhi yaad aa jayegee.


Long awaited judgement in Salman Khan case has come out and against all expectations of people like you and me, the main accused has helped in doing  a Houdini in the “water-tight” case that Mumbai police had claimed they had built up. By popular consensus it has been decided that:

1. The car Salman was traveling in was a proto-type of Google driverless car under beta testing.

2. The car got drunk when it was parked in the parking lot of Marriot.

3. The car wanted to have something to eat (not having been invited by Salman to chai-coffee in the Rainbow Bar, it was obviously very very hungry), so finding American Express Bakery in its sight, the car tried to gatecrash and grab some buns.

QED.  

Now that the case is mort judice (dead in the court, dead by the court and dead for the 
court), my only comment is:  XXXX XXXX XXX.

My friend Guy Wise says, if the judgement had turned out to be anything other than “Not Guilty” he would have lost all faith in power of money. 

It may just be better if we, as a society, decide not to waste our time and energy on frivolous litigations like these dragging on for dozens of years and wasting tax-payers money. I am sure we can utilize these resources better by pursuing cases against ticket-less travellers or some Gram Panchayat officials caught while taking bribes of 10 rupees.  


LazyBee

12th Dec 2015

Friday 4 December 2015

Achhe Din - AAP ki Meherbaani

Achhe Din  - AAP ki Meherbaani


It is true that the whole country is still waiting for achhe din. Now, you can either passively wait for the achhe din to arrive or do something which will force achhe din to visit your quarters. The aam aadmi may or may not be in a position to bring home achhe din for himself but Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership is surely full of capable guys who can do something about it if they make up their mind. And made up their mind they have. The Delhi State MLAs have unanimously decided that “enough is not enough” and have taken the matters into their hand.

Now AAP leaders are humans like you and me and they feel like all of us that their salaries and perks need a revision (upward, obviously).  Well, honestly nothing wrong with that. Show me anyone who doesn’t feel that he / she is (grossly) underpaid, right from the Class IV employees to the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India in the babu-land and from trainees on shop-floor to the (professional) Managing Directors in private sector. But not all of us are lucky enough to get our way. Even the mighty Cabinet Secretary has to wait for Pay Commission to recommend revision of pay, something which happens once in 10 long years. He may make his suggestions regarding the revisions that he would like to see, but finally he has to accept whatever decisions are taken.

But all this is for billions of mere mortals like you and me, the Chosen Ones (and who chooses them, mere mortals like you and me) choose to tread a different path. No Pay Commissions for them and no ungainly haggling over rate of inflation and Dearness Allowance for them. Just appoint some “independent committee” headed by a retired bureaucrat who knows which side of the slice of baked dough has a thick layer of golden yellow fat applied to it and who is only too happy to echo His Masters’ Voice.   

MLAs of Delhi Assembly have by an overwhelming majority decided to rectify their penurious status and given themselves a raise which shall hopefully pull them above the poverty line. The MLAs will henceforth get Rs 2.35 lakh per month instead of paltry Rs 88,000 they were getting earlier and thereby maybe just keep the wolf off their doorsteps. Phew. Thank God.

AAP which enjoys a strength of 67 in a house of 70 was expecting that the bill ratifying the proposed amendments to their pay-packets would sail through without any opposition. But the spoilsport BJP MLAs (numbering two) tried to oppose the bill and had to be shouted down. Looks BJP guys themselves don’t believe that achhe din aanewaale hai.  

My friend, Guy Wise, says all this gives a different twist to the classic Lakhnawi tale of two nawabs missing their train in their time-honored protocol, “Pehle aap” ,”Pehle aap” . Here we have a bunch of modern-day nawabs clamouring “Pehle AAP”, “Pehle AAP” as they all jump on the gravy train.


LazyBee

4th December 2015.

Friday 27 November 2015

Bond Baaja Baraat

Bond Baaja Baraat

“Stirred not shaken” says the only man I know who has this fancy for his martinis. The name is Bond, of course, James Bond. Alas, his last adventure is not a stirring one but manages to leave the viewer totally shaken.  True to its title this “Spectre” of a film leaves one totally spooked.  

Bond’s films have been all about supermen; Super-villains from Dr No, Goldfinger, Sir Hugo Draxs and how the super-hero JB manages to outwit them maybe just by the skin of his cigar stained teeth. But Spectre is in a class by itself.  Here you have our man fighting a dangerous assassin in a helicopter over Mexico City, managing to throw off both the assassin and the pilot, have a ultra high speed road race in unnaturally deserted roads of Rome, flies an aeroplane with most of both the wings missing etc but what takes the cake is the destruction of (a city-sized) secret hide-out of the Super Villain -  Blofeld in some remote part of North Africa. All without breaking into sweat, well maybe just a little bit.

But it is the Super Villain Blofeld who should get all the kudos. Here is Bond departing on a chopper, Blofeld’s hide-out somewhere in N Africa totally wrecked and  still Blofeld manages to reach London (presumably before Bond does) and lays out a precise plan to kidnap Bond and his girl-friend Madeleine Swann, prepare an elaborate trap where Bond gets 3 minutes to find Madeleine before the time-bomb brings the building down. I mean guys, why not just shoot the two of them while you still have your victims under your control???? I mean just encash the Bond and let Madeleine have her Swan song !!! But No; these Super Villains are cast in a different mould. Why restrict yourself to a couple of bullets when a few megatonne equivalent of TNT, PETN or some such exotic explosives are available to do the job? All the more bang and pyrotechnics for the buck poor viewer is spending.  

And while all this is happening, there is a sinister plot afoot to usurp everyone’s freedom by bringing intelligence agencies of 9 countries under one mega intelligence organization Centre of National Security. Shades of 1984. The Centre of National Security is going to be run by “C”, a career bureaucrat who conveniently happens to have switched over to the dark side. 

Spectre BTW is the name of this deadly organization which is surreptiously  controlling everything, drugs, arms-trafficking, human trafficking you-name-it all over the world. It has seven arms controlled by the boss man. Since they could not find an animal or an insect with seven appendages they used an octopus engulfing a few PYTs in the title sequence. For one brief moment I entertained hope that they will persist with the octopus theme and have Aishwarya in the film. No such luck.   

Of course the movie has its plus points, beautiful locations in Swiss Alps, aerial shots of Mexico City and Rome and last but not the least a beautiful new Bond girl Lea Seydoux (aptly pronounced as ‘seduce’. I did a quick check to see if this was an assumed name. No, some people somehow get borne in a family with right name).

For long the Hollywood types have insinuated that Bollywood plagiarizes their plots, music and sometimes the entire movies, but the same guys refuse to see the reverse transfer of ideas. Take for instance the startling disclosure that Blofeld is Bond’s foster brother (son of Bond’s foster parents not brother of Bond’s foster wife or foster girl-friend as some of you may be thinking), now is that in any way different from the “melemein bicchde huye” brothers? Or brothers sundered adrift in a dam-burst or separated in an earthquake? 

But let me tell you, these Hollywood guys are far behind us. There was no emotional embrace of brothers or “tumhare paas kya hai?” “mere paas maa hai”  type scene. I understand from reliable sources that the next Bond movie will have something on those lines. Sufficient groundwork has been done to ensure that Blofeld is very much alive and kicking at the end of Spectre.  Minor details like how to bring back the dead parents of JB are being worked out. We understand that MGM has approached Farah Khan to help out with her expertise of creating Om Shanti Om! Bond’s baraat will go on. Doesn’t matter if the viewers’ brains get bajaaoed in the process!!

LazyBee

27th November 2015

Friday 16 October 2015

Just Not Cricket !

Just Not Cricket !

And for another fortnight, a few stray thoughts and a few general observations and a few points of view (some of it my own work and some as reported by media):

Adjoining our housing society is a “basti” which is not so well-developed and we have long suspected that a few elements from the basti are responsible for a few items in our society going missing. Of course there is a boundary wall separating the two but it is not a deterrent for those who are determined to enter our premises to further their own agenda.  Notorious members of the basti like Kalia, Munna, Raju and their “gang” members are not welcome in our society.  A few years ago, in order to foster “inclusive” environment for our neighbours, we had instituted an annual cricket match between boys from our society and those from the basti. One does not know if this gesture had any statistically significant outcome in reducing the number of break-ins or not but at least a few “intellectuals” in our society felt elated that they were doing something for the humanity.

Recently our society decided to install CCTVs in order to deter and if not, at least identify miscreants (post facto) in case of any break-ins. We were all very happy that we were taking this long overdue step. But we had apparently not taken into consideration the “hurt” we would cause to the bastiwallas by our utterly heartless and despicable, selfish action.  There were demonstrations on our gate that we had created a “trust deficit” by this action of ours, there were banners put in the basti condemning our society and we even received a letter from the basti - mohalla committee asking us not to vitiate the spirit of “peaceful co-existence” which had guided both parties for the past 60 odd years and immediately uninstall the CCTVs. 

We understand that Kalia, Munna and Raju even went to the local police station to lodge a complaint against this step taken by us, which they claimed was detrimental to the spirit of free enterprise which was enshrined in the constitution of the country.  

When they found that the police were not willing to interfere in this matter and that our society was not willing to reconsider our decision of continuing our CCTV surveillance the bastiwallas gave us the ultimatum. “We will not play cricket with you. ”  Serves us right!!!  Wonder how we will ever get by in the world now.

We are now waiting for the enlightened bleeding hearts from our society to come out of the woodwork and start remonstrating against this ghastly inhuman step we have taken and shaken the very foundations of decency. It’s just not cricket, old chaps!

Elsewhere in the world, it was business as usual. Aerial bombings by Russia, US, Turkey and many more. Some against the ISIS and some purported to be against ISIS. Some on-target and some not-so-much-on- target inflating the already high tally of collateral damage to the civilians through displacement of a huge mass of population due to the ongoing wars.

CNN –IBN came up with a scoop telling the world that all the top brass in Pakistan knew all along that Osama was hiding in Abbottabad for 5 years. Oh! That!!! (Yawn) So what’s new? Tell me something that every Taufique, Dilawar and Haroon  did not know. No one should be surprised if it turns out that it was Musharraf who signed the lease agreement for the (now- most-famous) compound in Abbottabad or that ISI was running monthly “Osama-se-Charcha” program for its select sympathizers (and financiers) from UAE and Saudi. After all ISI had to recover the costs it was incurring on the operation code-named “Hide-Osama-Pretend-To-Look-For-Osama”. True ISI was milking Uncle Sam for billions of greenbacks, a few additional millions from true friends are always welcome. It is not a charity organization, you know!     


LazyBee
16th October 2015

Friday 25 September 2015

CRISPR WAY TO A BETTER LIFE

<CONTROL-X><CONTROL -V> CRISPR  WAY TO A BETTER LIFE

I am sure all of us are proficient in Cut – Paste / Copy-Paste operations. Most of us have used this route to improve of our output one way or other. My generation was regrettably not able to use these operations for getting better grades but surely we too have used these to embellish our presentations and project reports. At least I have. 

Now just suppose that you could use the same operation for improving your life by getting rid of some bad genes you may have inherited – no fault of yours or your parents though – because they had no control on what they received from their own parents and so on. This may appear as a sci-fi fantasy but the scientists are now confident that they can do so and do so fairly easily. 

In April this year, a team of Chinese researchers created a global uproar when they published a paper describing attempts to edit the genomes of human embryos. Led by Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, they used a new technology called CRISPR / Cas9 to try and edit non-viable, single-cell embryos obtained from fertility clinics.

CRISPR is an acronym for ‘clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats’ and Cas9 is an enzyme or a protein which can be guided to specific sites on any gene and can be used to cut one or both the strands of the DNA double helix. It essentially does what we do with our reports, cut out the strings of letters and words and either paste them where we require them or just consign these cut pieces into oblivion. Only in this case, the words and letters CRISPR/Cas9 operates upon are the letters which make up the genetic code, DNA.

A technique using CRISPR/Cas9 has now been developed which can ensure that specific sites on genes can be targeted and the genetic sequence can be modified suitably either by cutting out a few words or patching new ones or adding new ones.   

As you can imagine the implications are tremendous. We now know which genes are responsible for causing as many as three thousand genetic disorders. In theory, if we knew the mutations that give individuals a severe disorder, correcting that genetic defect might now be possible.

A quick backdrop for meaningful understanding of what is involved : Probably all of us are familiar by now with the building blocks of our DNA -  A(Adenine), T(Thiamine), C(Cytosine) and G(Guanine).  Any three of these four building blocks combine to form groups of three called “codons”. There are 64 different codons which can get formed, each of three letters. These codons are “words” which make up a “sentence” which actually represent a “gene”. A gene can be a short sentence or a very long sentence. Any misspelling of one or more words or a repetition or omission of a word can cause malfunction of the gene in question. All of us inherit two copies of any particular gene, one from each parent. Normally even if there is some disorder in one copy of a gene, the other copy takes over and if that one is without any defect, the gene functions normally.

 But there are some diseases where a defective gene controls the functioning irrespective of a “normal” other half being present. One such disease is Huntington’s disease. The gene responsible for this is located on Chromosome 4 of human genome. The gene sequence contains a “word” CAG which is repeated a number of times in a stretch. It could be just 6 times in some individuals, some 30 odd times in others and more than 100 times in a few individuals. If you have up to 35 repeats of CAG in your gene, you will be fine (most of us have 10 to 15 repeats) but if the number exceeds 39 then you are definitely going to get the dreaded disease.

The onset of disease begins with slight deterioration of mental faculties and progresses to jerking of limbs and deep depression, hallucinations and delusions leading to premature death.
The relation between the number of repeats and the age at which the disease sets in is correlated to a remarkable degree. If you have 39 repeats, on an average you will get symptoms by the age of 66; with 40 repeats at 59; with 41 repeats at 54; with 42 repeats at 37; if you have 50 repeats then by the age of 27.    

Apparently no other factor can influence this progressive deterioration. There is no cure or any drug which can even slow the march of this dreaded disease. This is a sort of disease where CRISPR/Cas9 is the only solution. The families in which Huntington’s is common may soon get relief through this technology. It is not clear if patients already affected by onset of this disease can benefit from this treatment but surely the younger patients should be able to get full relief.  

Similar to this, another 5 diseases have been identified which are caused by  mistakes in sequence of CAG in other genes. All are neurological diseases. Hopefully, patients suffering from these can also look forward to relief through this technology. 

This technology can be used for altering genetic structure of any organism, bacteria, plants or animals. This is bound to open up a large number of potential areas of application.
Designing of bacteria which can combat infections and even bacteria for specialized industrial applications should now be possible. 

Botanists will be able to script another green revolution by creating modified plant species which will drastically improve the agricultural output. Disease resistant genes can easily be “cut-pasted” into plants which will yield more output under more stringent climatic conditions which global warming is bound to bestow upon us soon enough. 

A modified strain of (male) mosquitoes has already been developed which will yield predominantly male off-springs; drastically reducing the female mosquito population. In keeping with the conventional wisdom ‘female of the species being deadlier than the male’ it is the female mosquito which feeds on animal blood and is responsible for spreading dengue, malaria and filariasis. One can expect more such initiatives under “gene drive” which will be used to control population of pests. Hopefully the ecology will receive due consideration as this will surely lead to big changes in food-chain which may backfire on us humans.  

Surely no one will have any objections to this technology as long as treating diseases and containment of pests are concerned, but it is doubtful if any one (read governments)  can restrict this technology solely for prevention and cure of diseases. George Orwell stated once ‘Any technology which can be used, will be used’.

With such a powerful tool in hand, research is already afoot to modify genes for a better progeny. Junjiu Huang is just one of the numerous scientists frantically working on such projects. Francis Galton, who happened to be a first cousin of Charles Darwin, had coined a term ‘Eugenics’ to denote the science of improving the stock of human species – like we have done with other species. This had set in motion a strong debate in Britain, Germany and US in the early part of the 19th century. (It will be worth our while to revisit that debate at some other juncture). Luckily the matter did not progress then even after a strong push from Hitler’s Nazi Germany. But with these new easy-to-employ gene-altering tools available to any friendly-neighborhood bio-engineering / genetic–engineering  laboratory, the probability of this technology being kept out of reach of common man is, as mathematicians love to put it, vanishingly small.  

There is every likelihood that both you and me will end up with great grand-kids all looking like either Dev Anand or Madhubala and all with IQ of 160+ to boot. Aldous Huxley must be chuckling in his grave. His ‘brave new world’ would perhaps arrive a few hundred years earlier than he had anticipated.

LazyBee 
25th September 2015

References : Wikipedia, ‘Genome’ By Matt Ridley etc

PS  Just when I was sitting down to do this article, I came across one in Times of India which essentially offered most of the details that I was planning to give. So I had to do some mid-course correction and add some specific examples about how CRISPR is likely to make our lives easier. I am enclosing that article from Subodh Verma of Times of India which will give you more information on the subject matter.  (You can also figure out for yourself where and what I have cut-pasted from his article).
Editing Our Genes

In April this year, a team of Chinese researchers created a global uproar when they published a paper describing attempts to edit the genomes of human embryos. Led by Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, they used a new technology called CRISPR to try and edit 86 non-viable, single-cell embryos obtained from fertility clinics.

They wanted to edit the gene responsible for B-thalassemia, a fatal blood disorder. CRISPR (pronounced like ‘crisper’) has swept through the scientific world in the last few years and is now poised for commercial use. It is thought to be revolutionary because it gives humankind a powerful tool to edit, delete, add, replace, activate or suppress specific genes. Humans can, theoretically, change the genetic basis of various traits — from correcting disease causing mutated genes to genes that determine whether you will have brown eyes or black.

The discovery has led to a dramatic rise in funding for research based on CRISPR and a patent war between various scientific institutions. It has also left scientists sharply divided over whether such a technology can be allowed to pick and choose characteristics of future human generations.

CRISPR is an acronym for ‘clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats’. This mouthful of a name was given two decades ago when scientists found a strange thing in bacteria genomes. There were these repeating sequences with no known use. Genetics was still developing and the scientists thought no more of this.

Sometime later it was found that these CRISPR sequences were used by bacteria to ward off predatory viruses. The mechanism was unravelled but again nothing more was thought of it. Then, around 2011, several genetic scientists in the US and Europe hit pay dirt. They found that the CRISPR mechanism could be turned around and manipulated for performing cut-and – paste functions on genomes. And the control was fantastic. You could precisely snip off a bit of DNA from a gene and replace it with another pre-fabricated bit of DNA.

Jennifer Doudna, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, led one of the research groups. She told TOI the technology is a “site-specific DNA ‘scissors’, allowing researchers to cut and then either remove or replace genetic material in a cell or organism.” What this means is: first, a piece of RNA is created for unzipping a DNA strand at the target site; then it is lodged in a protein called Cas9 which is the scissors part of the machinery; this complex unzips and cuts away the specific DNA bit. You can replace it with a totally new DNA bit or a corrected version, as needed.

Another pioneer is Prashant Mali, professor at University of California, San Diego. Born in Rajasthan and educated at IIT-B, John Hopkins and Harvard, Mali explains the intricate working of CRISPR: “The remarkable aspect is that the ability to target a new genomic site simply requires one to alter the sequence on the guide-RNA — this makes the technique really democratic in its  ease of use. This has spurred its widespread adoption by thousands of labs around the world in only a few years.”

After four different groups announced their success with CRISPR in 2013, within eight months various groups used it to cut and change targeted genes in human cells, mice, rats, zebrafish, bacteria, fruit flies, yeast, worms and even crops.

The mechanism is breathtakingly simple and cheap. Doudna says it “can be undertaken in a basic lab environment at remarkably low cost”. Mali confirms that it is “very easy to use and also cost-effective enough that it will be soon be a routine procedure in most biology labs.”
Another pioneer, Feng Zhang of Broad Institute, has founded a company called Editas Medicine for using CRISPR in therapeutics. Its CEO Katrine Bosley said they are working to translate the promise of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology into a new class of medicines to treat serious, genetically driven diseases. “This technology enables precise corrections to errors in DNA, and we are working to apply it to treat a broad range of diseases at the genetic level where patients don’t have good therapeutic options.”

The ethical debate that has erupted around CRISPR is because it can also be used to edit germline cells or pluripotent stem cells. Germline cells are eggs and sperm cells. Any changes in these will naturally be inherited by subsequent generations. Pluripotent stem cells can develop into any kind of tissue, and changes in these would affect large number of cells. Mali says one should venture into this area only after thoroughly understanding “the underlying scientific and ethical implications”. “Using CRISPR-Cas9 to engineer specific traits is still a long way off, but the bioethical implications of the technology are currently being reviewed in many regulatory agencies in the US and elsewhere,” Doudna said.
In other words, the technology is at hand. The question is whether we should use it or not .

Times Of India,
Times & Trends 

Sept 13 2015, Mumbai Edition

Friday 4 September 2015

The Coming Red Revolution - II

The Coming Red Revolution – II

A few years ago, NASA started on a program to develop artificial meat which could be grown “in vitro” on the spaceship itself, with a view to feed astronauts on long flights. A space-ship, as you would realize, has extremely limited resources and needs to conserve and recycle these in order to extend the possible flight time. Probably sometime during this exercise, realization must have dawned that the same considerations apply to Spaceship Earth. After all, essentially we are just a giant spaceship, totally on our own with limited resources and with almost negligible probability of being able to “import” any ingredients that we (may) require except energy from Sun. 

This thinking has been widely accepted now and “sustainability” has become a very important factor of consideration today. The issues which were highlighted in Part-I, regarding livestock farming are receiving a great deal of attention and among other remedies being discussed and probably foremost among them is the production of artificial, laboratory-grown meat.

Almost a century ago, in 1932, Sir Winston Churchill had predicted in an essay about future: “Fifty years hence we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” One can infer three things from this statement. One, Sir Winston was an extremely prescient man; two, he was more than a bit optimistic about the time-frame required to achieve such a feat, and three he was not aware of such delicacies as tandoori chicken and tangdi kabab, otherwise he would have surely added chicken legs to chicken wings and breasts in the list of chicken parts to be cultivated.  But overall, his prediction was surely in the right direction.

Worldwide, a number of universities are trying to develop technology for manufacturing artificial meat.  Europe, which must feel the pinch of land shortage more than other developed countries, has taken a lead in this development. Prof. Mark Post of Maastricht University of Netherlands is one of the leading researchers in this space.    

On August 5, 2013, the world's first lab-grown burger was cooked and eaten at a news conference in London. Prof. Mark Post’s team had taken stem cells from a cow and grown them into strips of muscle which they then combined to make a burger. The burger was cooked by chef Richard McGeown of Couch's Great House Restaurant, Cornwall, and tasted by critics and food researchers, who agreed that it does taste like meat though with a slightly different mouthfeel. Overall verdict was “acceptable”. 

Here's how the process works: scientists biopsy stem or satellite muscle cells from a livestock animal, such as a chicken, cow or pig. The cells are then placed in a nutrient-rich medium where they divide and multiply, and are then attached to a scaffolding structure and put in a bioreactor to grow. In order to achieve the texture of natural muscle, the cells need to be physically stretched and flexed, or exercised, regularly. This is done by passing small amounts of current of electricity which mimics electrical signals in the nervous and motor systems of live animals. The end result is a thin layer of muscle tissue that can be harvested and processed into ground beef, chicken or pork, depending on the origin of the cells. The best part is a single set of stem cells can produce hundreds of tones of end-product, thus minimizing the pain to live animals.
Scientists have even coined a term for in-vitro meat, “shmeat” which is derived from “sheet + meat” since the meat formed in-vitro is harvested as thin strips or sheets of meat.

No doubt the technology is far from serving a juicy steak made in-vitro as it requires creation of blood  vessels in the muscle mass and also mechanism for transport of metabolized products etc to give that juicy mouth-feel that a steak has, but scientists are already on their way to make various organs for transplant into human body and incorporation of that technology for in-vitro meat should be within our reach.  

The advantages of “shmeat” over the “classic” meat grown on farms are simply overwhelming. Detailed studies have been conducted to assess the impact of vertical farming.  Today the figures could be treated as “guestimates”. Let’s look at these :

Land : It is claimed that every hectare utilized by ‘vertical farming” (a synonym for “shmeat” production) about 10 - 20 hectares of agricultural land can be freed. Some studies have estimated the land saving to the extent of 98%. Moreover the production need not be confined to land and can be moved to sea. As per one estimate a bio-reactor of half the size of an Olympic swimming pool can feed 20,000 people.

Energy : The vertical farming would cut down the energy requirement for meat production by between 35% - 60%. The energy requirements of bio-reactors can also be met through solar power. Only chicken farmed in a conventional manner may have lower energy consumption than in-vitro meat.

Green House Gases : There would be a major reduction in GHG generated and  moreover it will be feasible to collect methane generated in bio-reactors and use the same for energy generation.

Water : The water consumption in bio-reactors can be controlled and water recycled to a great degree, thus reducing the water requirements to a fraction of conventional requirements and reducing the groundwater contamination drastically.

Health : Livestock farming gives rise to certain diseases like Mad Cow, Avian Flu, Salmonella, Trichomonas, E-Coli and other flesh-borne diseases. All these diseases would cease to be relevant with in-vitro production. Today almost 70% of the antibiotics produced are pumped into livestock, apart from steroids and growth hormones. The pesticides too get introduced in the human food-chain through animal meat.  In-Vitro meat will be totally free of traces of theses.  
In fact, “shmeat” will give us an opportunity to enhance its quality by addition of desirable ingredients such as omega-3 acids apart from controlling the fat content and profile of fatty acids incorporated in it.
So it appears all the factors which we had identified as “negatives” for livestock farming have been cleared as far as “shmeat” / vertical farming is considered.

Now let’s take a look at other factors which make or break a new technology,

1. Economics :  As with any new path-breaking technology the initial cost of production of in-vitro meat is very high but already the fresh estimates claim it that a burger from in-vitro production will cost about $8 which is very encouraging. Researchers are estimating that shortly the cost could come down to as little as $2-2.50 per kg at which point the economics would have conclusively swung the in-vitro way. In Indian context goat meat at Rs 400 per kg may not have many takers if in-vitro meat is available at these prices.

. Regulatory Approvals :  As of now “shmeat” has no clearance from regulatory agencies. It is likely that there are a few hiccups in obtaining the clearances but surely these can be overcome by sheer weight of facts and mandatory testing of products like in the pharma industry. The in-vitro meat can have a much more regulated quality and also meet stringent requirements as far as pollutants are concerned.

3. Consumer Acceptance : This could be the single most important factor as religious sentiments are intricately involved with such a product. Whether the rabbi will consider “shmeat” as “kosher”, or whether church will have any objections, whether maulawis will consider this meat as “halal” or whether “shmeat” from cow’s stem cells will pass muster with Hindu  ideologues in India are questions that need to be worked on. Luckily, there is a large body of population which will not be bothered by these hypothetical considerations. It is these mass of people which will determine the fate of this technological break-through.    
One factor why the acceptance for “shmeat” is likely to be easier is what I term as “moral cowardice” that most non-vegetarians (including this writer) suffer from. We all know that the juicy steak or spicy chicken curry that we are enjoying has come from a once living creature and one way or the other, we are responsible for killing it, but we don’t want to accept that and are always finding ways to justify our actions by comforting ourselves that the slaughter was carried out “painlessly” or that the chicken was anyway destined to be eaten by somebody and that somebody just happens to be you etc. “Shmeat”  will give us a perfect way out and allow our palate full freedom to enjoy steaks and tandoori chicken without feeling guilty. A few of my gourmet friends have often extolled superior qualities of venison over goat or lamb meat but I have always refrained from consuming venison as I consider deer as an endangered species. But I will gladly order an in-vitro venison steak today if it were to be on the menu.

In lighter vein, we may discover that a T Rex tangri kabab or a fried Pterodactyl wing is the most delicious dish in the world and one may have to pre-book a take-away at least a couple of weeks in advance because there was so much demand for the item.         


Today mankind is looking at setting up bases on Moon and Mars. Very clearly there is a need to be at least a two-world civilization to guard against “homegrown” threat of nuclear catastrophe or an external threat like an asteroid strike either of which could obliterate life on the earth before mankind has a chance of taking any steps to survive this 6th extinction. A technology like vertical farming will essentially boost feasibility of maintaining such bases in worlds which may not support conventional agriculture and food grown in laboratories will be the only source of sustenance for early colonists. Therefore, in-vitro meat production and other technologies which can support life in space voyages or on extra-terrestrial colonies need to be perfected at the earliest. This is one Red Revolution that everyone must welcome and support. 

LazyBee aka Shirish Potnis

Friday 28 August 2015

The Coming Red Revolution - I

The Coming Red Revolution  - I

Around the end of the 19th century the US Senate was seriously contemplating closure of US Patent Office, as the wise men then in charge of affairs felt that all the inventions that could be made, have already been made and that keeping the Patent Office going was a waste of tax-payers’ money. A lot has happened since then and one can only guess what these wise men would experience if they were to somehow materialize today from whichever world they have proceeded to after their tenure on Earth was over.

Notwithstanding all these developments over the last century, it will be clear to anyone, who is even peripherally aware of scientific developments taking place, that we are just at the beginning of an explosion that is about to occur on almost all the fronts. For quite a few years now, science and technology have been operating on a resonating frequency, each feeding on the advances made by the other, to push the frontiers of knowledge even further. If anything, one can safely say that the pace of development currently being experienced, will only accelerate further. Where that will lead the mankind to, is something that even the best brains find difficult to state with any degree of confidence.

Compared to the other fields, biological sciences have been relatively a slow moving segment till now but that is not true anymore. A lot of important advances in this century and beyond will come from the field of biology. By most important, I mean the ones which affect the common man the maximum. Aided by advances in other fields like the nanotechnology and computational science, the biological sciences have made astounding leaps in recent years. We have already seen the completion of mapping of human genome project. The possible spin-offs from this are still being enumerated. Gene therapy is one area which rightfully attracts the maximum attention due to the possible benefits in treating Cancer and other diseases. Gene therapy alone will require a separate discussion. 

An important area which stands to gain enormously from the genetic engineering discipline is food production.  I am not referring to Genetically Modified (GM) food which is no doubt an important part of technological advance and one expects that once the initial hiccups regarding acceptability of GM technology are sorted out, it will provide a lot of benefits which will encompass better yields, better resistance to various plant diseases and even varieties which can incorporate drugs and nutrients for the benefit of the consumer.  
Let’s take a look at another segment of genetic engineering which can radically alter man’s lifestyle. A few weeks ago, The Times of India carried an article titled “Bistro in Vitro” - about a futuristic gourmet restaurant, a “bistro” which serves food grown “in vitro” in laboratories. Scientists have already reported success in growing meat in laboratory. Of course, today a burger or a steak “made in lab” will set you back by a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, but if one traces the trajectory of developments in various industries over the past few decades, one can expect that it will only be a matter of a few years before you will have the option of ordering “inorganic” meat rather than a farm-grown “organic” variety.

We are familiar with “green revolution” which pushed up the agricultural yields substantially and the “white revolution”, which made a country deficient in milk (India) into a milk surplus one. Now this “red revolution”, though still in future, promises to alter the global food consumption, agricultural and industrial patterns in a radical way.

In order to comprehend the changes that such an advance could bring about, we will try to take a look at the demand and supply of meat and meat products and various inputs that go into maintaining the entire chain of these products and also the “side-effects” of livestock farming.  This will give us an idea of the changes that will be brought about by this disruptive technology.  The figures may be a bit dated and also a bit fuzzy given the difficulty in getting the correct figures globally but will still serve to provide us a sense of future.

Consumption of Meat:

First of all, let us take a look at the meat consumption habits. Broadly dividing the world into vegetarians and non-vegetarians, FAO statistics state that approx 10% of the world population is vegetarians with about 31% of Indians at one end and about 3% of Chinese and 5% of Brazilians at the other end of the spectrum. All the rest of the countries are clustered in 7% to 13% range. The choice of whether to be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian seems to be dictated mainly by abhorrence to kill animals for food as preached by various religions and religious sects. It may not be out of place to speculate that, if general populace were to have an option of having “inorganic” meat, the number of non-vegetarians is most likely to go up. Already in India one can see the trend towards more persons eating non-veg as even youngsters from traditional vegetarian families get “converted” into non-vegetarians.

The 2007 FAO figures places the average World per capita consumption of meat and meat products (excluding fishery products) at 38.7 kgs with Luxembourg topping the charts (presumably due to a large contribution from “floating population” of visitors to that small principality). US of A at 125.4 kgs was  the highest consumer, if we disregard the outlier Luxembourg, and was substantially above the figures of any other developed country.

The meat consumption is showing an up trend of 3% pa. Looking at the projections of population the world population is likely to touch 9.5 billion by the year 2050. If the same trends continue., both of increase in rate of consumption and population,  it is not inconceivable that with general increase in living standards in the developing countries, the world meat consumption could almost triple till 2050.

Inputs Requred For Meat Production :

That brings us to the question of various inputs that are required for production of meat and to assess how the world could cater to such demand.

1. Fodder : Farm animals like pigs, cattle, sheep etc convert plants into their body mass and as can be expected, the efficiency of this process of conversion is fairly low. A pig or a head of cattle requires a feed of around 15kgs in terms of corn and other cereals per kg of their “optimum” weight. This is the ratio of feed consumed over its life time to the body mass accumulated till the point of slaughter.  There would be a further processing loss till the meat products are delivered to the table. Probably it would mean around 20-25 kgs of feed per kg of finished product.

 Globally about 60% of the livestock feed required is obtained in the form of grain (mainly maize) and 40% as foraging. It is estimated that about 40% of the cereals produced by the world are required to feed the livestock in one form or other, about 750 million MTs (MMTs)of 2,250  MMTs of cereals produced are directly used for animal feed and some additional quantity as processed animal feed. The end result, worldwide animal feed industry produced 873 MMTs of feed in 2011. 

2. Water : It is estimated that pigs which make up the maximum share in meat products require about 15 litres of water per day on an average (and the global population of pigs is billion plus).  Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the United States. Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food. As a comparison, raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for kilogram of food produced, rice- 1,912 litres, wheat – 900 litres and potatoes - 500 liters.

Agriculture is one of the main end-use of water and if present trends continue (in all forms of consumption), 1.8 billion people will be living with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world could be subject to water stress. Although there is a vast amount of water on the planet, sustainably managed water is becoming scarce. We would soon reach a state defined as “peak water” which will be the point when we reach physical, economic, and environmental limits on meeting human demands for water and the subsequent decline of water availability and use sets in. .

Apart from land and water, fertilizers, pesticides, labour and energy are major inputs to livestock farming.   
There are a number of negative factors which are associated with livestock farming and meat processing. 

A. Land : Livestock requirements account for the single most important utilization of land which adds to the pressure on land.  As per FAO estimates, as far as cereals are concerned, the cereal consumption for livestock production is about 75% of the cereal consumption of humans. Considering that the total land used for cultivation is about 1.5 billion hectares and the land under cereal production is estimated to be around 693 million hectares as per FAO (2013), it would be possible to feed billions more if the cereal production was not diverted to animal feed.

B. Deforestation and Soil Erosion:  Increased livestock production has come at the cost of deforestation and overgrazing of pastures. Loss of forest cover is estimated to take place at the rate of 9 million hectares per year. That means between now and 2050, forest cover equivalent to almost the whole of India, will have been lost. Moreover, this deforestation is happening in the rain forests and tropics which will probably affect the environment more drastically.  Probably equally serious but not noticeable has been the erosion of top soil due to overgrazing. It is estimated to be about 12 million hectares per year.  On lands which are used for grazing, the loss of top-soil is estimated to be on an average 2 MTs per hectare per year.

C.  Contamination of Ground Water : Excess of fertilizers and pesticides which cannot be absorbed by plants drains of into soil and this ultimately leaches into subterranean water, affecting the quality of ground water. Excess consumption of nitrogenous fertilizers is the main cause of the nitrates in groundwater. The pesticides and herbicides, most of which tend to accumulate in the soil and groundwater add to the contamination of the groundwater.

D : Greenhouse Gases : Livestock generate a large quantity of nitrogen oxides and methane as a part of their digestive processes. There are varying figures of how much is the livestock farming adds to the greenhouses, a conservative estimate would be 10% - 12%, thus contributing substantially to the global warming.

E : Energy Consumption : Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein, according to a report.

Tracking food animal production from the feed trough to the dinner table, it was found that broiler chickens to be the most efficient use of fossil energy, and beef, the least. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1. (Lamb meat production is nearly as inefficient at 50:1, according to the ecologist's analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. Other ratios range from 13:1 for turkey meat and 14:1 for milk protein to 17:1 for pork and 26:1 for eggs.)

F : Depletion of Mineral Stock : Out of the fertilizers, nitrogen based fertilizers are by and large derived from nitrogen captured from atmosphere but potassium and phosphorus based fertilizers are derived from minerals which have a limited stock.  At the current rate of usage, although potash stocks could last much longer, it is estimated that the (economically) mineable reserves of phosphates would last only between 50 to 100 years. 

G : Introduction of Harmful Chemicals in Food Chain: Animals reared for slaughter are often fed growth hormones, antibiotics  and other chemicals in order to accelerate mass accumulation. Many of these are not metabolised and their residues are found in the meat of such animals. The harmful effects of such ingredients are probably not fully understood as yet but are quite likely to substantial.

Sea has often been touted as an infinite source of food which can supplement the food available from land, but the reality does not support this contention. The total production from all aquatic sources, sea as well as inland fisheries, covering both fish and crustaceans together amounts to 148 MMTs. Out of this 128 MMTs is consumed and the balance being used as fishmeal / animal feed etc. The aquaculture accounts for 47% of the catch. There is not much scope for increase of production in this area as most of the sea catchment areas are reporting depletion of stocks of fish and the inland operations are adding to both pressure on land usage as well as contamination of ground water.

The conclusions are inescapable. We are rapidly moving to a situation where food shortages, water shortages and poor water quality will be the harsh reality which the world will have to contend with. No country is likely to remain free from the repercussions of issues of this nature and magnitude. Replacing animal proteins in our diet by plant proteins is just one way to partially rectify the situation.

One does not see a sudden change of heart occurring in 70% of world’s population to opt for vegetarianism. Nor is it possible to completely abolish livestock farming, deeply intertwined as it is with a number of other activities like dairy, farming, wool  production and even as a part of agricultural waste recycling, organic fertilizer production and many more.

So reduction effected in livestock farming by switching over to vegetarianism is not going to be substantial and we will only be able to postpone the day of reckoning. The solution lies elsewhere. It is to the hard-working twins, Science and Technology, working in tandem with each other, that we must look for salvation. Meat grown "in vitro" is one solution which promises to help us do that. This is one Red Revolution that we must all welcome and embrace.

We will take a detailed look at the status of this Red Revolution in Part II of this paper. As they say, “watch this space”.

LazyBee aka Shirish Potnis

Note : I have drawn heavily on the publications of FAO, USDA and other  official organizations and of course Wikipedia.  



     

Thursday 6 August 2015

Hello! Is Anybody Out There?

Hello! Is Anybody Out There?

Stephen Hawking, who requires no introduction and Lord Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer to Her Majesty, cosmologist and astrophysicist, are few of the names which Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has been able to rope in for his project “Breakthrough Listen”. The $100 million initiative launched earlier in July 2015 aims to survey 1 million star systems and  100 nearest galaxies looking for signs of intelligent life.

The concept that we may be able to receive signals coming from space was recognized by Nicola Tesla in 1896 and was translated into action on ground once we developed the technical capabilities of initiating such a search. Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was initiated in 1960 under Project Ozma and the search has been on for the past 55 years.  No positive results as yet which is but to be expected though we do keep on getting false alarms from time to time. The telescopes pick up some signals which do not appear to be random in nature but on closer inspection are found to be arising out of some natural phenomenon. Sometimes these “false alarms” too lead to some fresh insights into the cosmos. It is like finding one more piece in the cosmic jigsaw which may one day help us get the complete picture.    

Project Breakthrough Listen has two initial objectives, the first one as stated to study the nearby stars and galaxies and the second one to design a message to beam to the stars; a message which will concisely inform the recipients about “us”. A similar effort had been done earlier with the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft which were launched in 1972 and which carry a plaque containing information about where the spacecraft has originated (Earth, its location in the solar system etc) and about the species which has launched the craft (about ourselves, numbering system followed by us, the chemistry upon which we function etc) to the stars. Similar message was beamed in the direction of globular cluster of stars M13 from Arecibo radio telescope from Puerto Rico in 1974. Both these were very limited one-time initiatives and the scientific community does not have much hope that these messages would ever be received by intelligent beings.

Milner will be launching a separate Breakthrough Message initiative which will study the ethics of sending messages into space and create a message which will used to communicate with other civilizations. It has been reported that the creator/s of such message will receive a prize of one million USD, so if you feel you have what it takes to design a message which the ET will find easy to decipher, just put on your thinking caps. References to both Arecibo and Pioneer messages are given below. These were created by a team consisting of Frank Drake who founded SETI and my favourite science writer, Carl Sagan.

The current initiative will radically increase the time available for active search for ETI. Currently the time available on various telescopes for SETI is pitifully low, only about 24 to 36 hours per year per telescope. Project Breakthrough Listen will provide thousands of hours each on the two telescopes contracted for the project, Green Bank Observatory at West Virginia, US and Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.  

Drake who is also involved with Project Breakthrough Listen in an advisory capacity was the one who formulated Drake’s equation to estimate the number of possible civilizations that would be in existence concurrently with us. Drake’s equation, at this point of time, has a number of unknowns which need to be estimated to arrive at even a remotely reasonable “guestimate” . And by “remotely reasonable guestimate”, one means a few orders of magnitude. (For a comprehensive discussion on probability of finding intelligent life in the Universe, readers may please refer to “Intelligent Life In Universe” by Carl Sagan and Iosif Shklovsky. I would have loved to provide more details here but as it happens to all good books, my copy was “borrowed” rather permanently by a so-called friend who was immediately thereafter afflicted with selective amnesia as far as that particular transaction was concerned!)

That brings me to an interesting sidelight. It is claimed that around 1992 that is about 20 years after the launch of Pioneer 10, a stone was found in Kupang, Indonesia which message engraved on it which was strikingly similar to the messages sent out via Pioneer and Arecibo.

In my opinion, SETI program which excludes investigations into UFO phenomena is an incomplete one. As an incorrigible UFO-phile, brought up on the diet on Erik Von Daniken’s books in his formative years, the author is one among many enthusiasts who share an unshaken belief in UFOs  and would dearly love some confirmation of existence of ET during our lifetime. Till now investigations of UFOs have  been mainly the precinct of government bodies and an overwhelmingly large number of cases have been dismissed as sightings of moon, Venus, meteors, diffraction in atmosphere, ball lightning, weather balloons, haziness due to fog and a variety of rare natural phenomena. At times the explanations have looked dubious if not plain ludicrous. It will be fitting if a private organization, which operates with a clear mandate of transparency, is given the responsibility of investigating such claims and either verify or debunk the same. After all why go looking around the empty space with a hope that somebody is out there when you can find a calling card left by ET in your backyard here?  

True, a large number of such sightings and narratives of reported encounters of first, second and third kind, would turn out to be hoaxes, but there are a number of instances which clearly warrant some serious introspection. With the proliferation of cameras and cell-phones, the number of recordings of UFO have shot up exponentially. There are sightings from all continents and although a few hoaxes cannot be ruled out, there would be some which cannot be explained away. Physicist Michio Kaku estimates that at least 5% of the sightings are “unexplained”. There are sightings of UFOs flying along jetliners (both military and civilian) captured on video by competent trained personnel who are not likely to be easily deluded. Readers can check many these for themselves by just searching “UFO” on youtube.  
      
I mention here a well documented case which has been recorded by the US Air Force and RAF officers in  Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk UK in 1980. Here over a period of 3-4 days, a number of officers, including Colonel Charles Halt who was in-charge of the RAF station, encountered an UFO and could experience effects like extreme increase in radioactivity, failure of electrical equipment.  Colonel Halt submitted his detailed report in an unambiguous manner about the encounter but as has happened with numerous other incidents, the report was never publicly acknowledged.

Breakthrough Listen, with its hugely influential team, can surely achieve a major breakthrough by accessing the old files in various governments and establishing the truth once for all. I feel an official  acknowledgement of UFOs and encounters with ET will go a long way in generating support for initiatives like SETI and Breakthrough. 

As a small gesture, you can join in seti@home program which will enable you to contribute computer time to SETI for analyzing a part of data which is being collected. Maybe you (or rather your computer) will be the one who will identify that one small message which will change our understanding of cosmos for ever.   

LazyBee aka Shirish Potnis


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uOfO52dl9k Star map on rock, Kupang Indonesia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUa8u8a6Qeo Michio Kaku and UFO sightings over Alaska and Iran.