Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
IMITATION SCIENCE
_ IMITATION SCIENCE: _ The figure below shows imitation jewelry resembling real jewelry but costs only rupees 788/= In the same way, imitation science resembles science but fares poorly on scientific methods: There is no evidence to show that high dose vitamins prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease and maintain good health in healthy (non-pregnant) adults. There is no evidence to show that calcium supplements prevent fractures in normal adults including post-menopausal women. Yet billions take vitamins and calcium pills recommended by doctors and/or media driven by pharmaceutical industry which displays purported scientific studies (imitation science) showing benefits of vitamins and calcium supplements. _______ Prologue: There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon in which Calvin poses the question to Dad: “Why does ice float?” Dad responds: “Because it’s cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes to the top of liquids in order to be nearer to the Sun.” […]
SCIENCE OF LOVE
__________________ SCIENCE OF LOVE: _______________ In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, one researcher likened love at first sight to narcissism, because it turns out what we’re most attracted to is someone who happens to be looking at us. Again, this has evolutionary roots, as we shouldn’t spend time chasing a mate who’s not interested, but it’s narcissistic because the person we tend to look at, of course, looks like us. It’s like falling in love with your own image in the mirror as shown in the figure above. _______ Prologue: Shruti Hassan says that she is my fan. Esha Gupta wants to frustrate me. Is this love? Well, they are playing safe. If you have a reason why you love someone, it is not love. You can’t have a reason for loving someone, it just happens and you know it…..Love is an extremely […]
OBESITY
OBESITY: _ _ Prologue: It only needs a daily excess of energy of 100 kilocalories (the equivalent of a small chocolate bar) to lead to an increase of around 5Kg of fat over 12 months or 50 Kg over 10 years. For thousands of years obesity was rarely seen. Obesity is a modern problem – statistics for it did not even exist 50 years ago. The increase of convenience foods, labor-saving devices, motorized transport and more sedentary jobs means people are getting fatter. It was not until the 20th century that it became common, so much so that in 1997 the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic. The WHO describes the “escalating global epidemic” of obesity as “one of today’s most blatantly visible — yet most neglected — public health problems”. Obesity is a bigger health crisis globally than hunger, and the leading cause of […]
MIND READING
MIND READING: _ The baby in the figure above is trying to read mind of mother. _ Prologue: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. A controversial comment indeed but everybody wants to read mind of others and prevent others from reading their minds. Most of us have heard the old adage, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” In other words, keep your negative thoughts to yourself. But what if someone could read your thoughts? Thinking about what’s going on in other people’s heads, is something we do practically all the time. Did your boss like your presentation? Why did the beautiful woman on the bus smile at you? This type of mind reading is so ubiquitous in everyday life. Mind-reader is a […]
FEAR
FEAR: _ _ Prologue: I was watching movie “Jaws” in a theater with friends in Mumbai 30 years ago. In one scene, a deserted wrecked ship is being explored under water by divers and suddenly the shark makes appearance with frightening music and my whole body just jerked for a second. My friends were laughing and said that I am very fearful. Well, now they know that I am not fearful as I took all powerful media & politicians head-on. But that jerk of my body was an instantaneous response to advent of potential threat. That is fear and that is natural. If I were to pinpoint one pervasive emotion in society today, it would be fear. Fear is not a new emotion. Throughout history, it has marked societies and even mobilized them, whether they were facing down plagues or the threat of nuclear annihilation. Since the 1980s, society at […]
