02 July 2002

Karl Popper once observed that the longer two intelligent people argue, the better their arguments become. So, whatever the cause of a dispute is, personal hatred, jeolousy, greed, racism, or all of the above, strife and competition have done much to advance our understanding of the universe. In Darwinian terms, we are built to be effective animals, not happy ones. Of course, we're designed to pursue happiness and to attain the goals of sex, status, etc that can bring us happiness, at least for a while. The frequent absence of happiness is what keeps us pursuing happiness and what makes us productive. So don't worry if you are not happy, at least you will be productive. 8:36:26 PM    comment []

Having been involved in fundamental research early in my career I have always been fascinated by what people study. Sometimes the study is to get a Ph.D and then move on to something else but sometimes its a lifelong career. Did you know, and I certainly didn't, that over 100 000 scientific papers have been published on the fly? Estimates are that only 5% of these have been read by more than a dozen people (Ref.: Martin Brookes, Fly-The unsung hero of 20th Century science). The rest remain largely unread. But, that 5% of fly research has provided science with tremendous steps forward in genetics and genetic engineering. Perhaps with all the new fangled document 'mining' techniques now available some brave soul should try to extract the other 95%-any offers? 8:26:55 PM    comment []

All of us at some time or another like to use quotations by famous people. I am particularly fond of motivational and inspirational ones. Take the very famous quote of Isaac Newton: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants". Now you may think that Newton said this in a great moment of achievement or inspiration. According to Michael White (Rivals-Conflict as the fuel of science), Newton said this to ridicule his archenemy Robert Hooke (he of 'Hooke's Law') who was a dwarf. How many other famous quotations were said in a context, or have a meaning, other than the way we have interpreted them? 6:18:55 PM    comment []