Author: drsriramnathan

There is an interesting novel called Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky!

The author had written amazing novels such as Determined and Behave! I was supposed to start with the first one ‘WHy Zebras…’ and then move on to Behave and finally Determined! Unfortunately I started from the last which is rare!

May be that is why we get ulcers!

The Zebra would have started with the first!

But the fact of the matter is that Zebras do not get ulcers! This is mainly because they do not spend half of their time thinking about the future spoiling their health!

They live one day at a time!

It is so easy to understand the problem but so difficult to get the solution! I have myself not to worry or stress or eat on time or do not think too much about future; all this while I can hear my inner voice ridiculing me! “YOU DO ALL THESE THINGS BUDDY!”

Anyways Robert gets into the whole system!

He starts by stating that Zebras generally do not get ulcers because they experience stress as an episodic, short-term physical emergency rather than a chronic psychological state.

The core reasoning includes an interplay between Episodic vs. Chronic Stress!

A zebra’s stress response (the “fight-or-flight” system) is designed to handle immediate physical threats, like being chased by a lion. Once the threat is over, their body quickly returns to a state of calm!

Unlike humans, zebras lack the complex neural architecture to worry about future problems or ruminate over past events. They don’t experience “anticipatory stress” over mortgages or social status, which in humans keeps the stress response constantly activated!

Also in humans, the sustained release of stress hormones like glucocorticoids—caused by chronic worry—eventually suppresses the immune system and shuts down digestive repair mechanisms. This makes humans more vulnerable to the Helicobacter pylori bacteria that often leads to ulcers!

Finally as zebras only use their stress response for its intended evolutionary purpose, they avoid the “slow accumulation of damage” (such as heart disease or ulcers) that plagues modern humans who remain in a perpetual state of psychological alert!

The Zebra sees the lion once! We see LIONS everywhere and all the time! They are known as BOSS, MONEY, HEALTH and FUTURE PLANS!

Plus the Zebra does not have to worry about the lates FASHION trend!

I know what you thought when I mentioned that! And NO! You cannot DO THAT!

You can however reduce your stress by listening to Robindra Sangeet by Guru Rabindranath Tagore!

Shubh Ratri…

When you thought that the leader is this small gland sitting on the top of your head; it was proven that even that leader has a boss!

The gland was only the acting leader! There was another Boss who had the control all along!

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers is a book by Stanford University biologist Robert M. Sapolsky.

In the novel he talks about one of the greatest races in the endocrinology history!

The race to find who actually has the control!

The race was nasty and personal!

But then it did yield rich dividends!

The story is a runaway script from a soap opera!

For years Pituitary gland was thought to be the boss who controls the secretions of most of the hormonal glands in the body! But it was seen late that the isolated pituitary ‘behaved’ erratically!

It was as if there is a loss of control! While it allowed more secretions of certain hormones and stopped many others!

The postulation was that there was a real control CENTER in the brain!

Now these hormones are not like nerves which could be see or experimented to identify! Added to that the quantity secreted was so little!

The research was spearheaded by Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally!

They started together as close friends but one fine day a small argument made them part ways and they both created history separately!

Starting in the 1950s/1960s, these two researchers competed for nearly two decades!
Their work involved processing massive amounts of animal brain tissue (hundreds of thousands of sheep/pig carcasses) to isolate minute amounts of active substances!

The real zeal was to best the other! One of them even admitted that! The intense rivalry and public spectacle was a stuff of gossip mills in the scientific community!

Finally they both  managed to isolate and characterize hypothalamic hormones (such as TRH, GnRH, and CRF).

They had found the BOSS! HYPOTHALAMUS!

The pioneering neuroendocrinologists who separately found the hormones finally SHARED the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that the brain, specifically the hypothalamus, controls the secretion of pituitary hormones!

WHo says competition is bad!

Everyone actually! Even the premise of the novel mentioned at the start of this blog also states that! The story of this competition leading to NOBEL is an exception; not an example!

Also Noble was Balraj Sahni!

Shubh ratri…

The Essential 55 by Ron Clark!

Audiobook

The best part is that the author is the narrator so it is staright from the heart!

He has this typical country accent which is very natural and pleasant!

The other best parts are how he raised money for his whole class to meet the president!

So in summary the Essential 55 is a New York Times bestselling book by award-winning educator Ron Clark that outlines 55 fundamental rules for manners, respect, and academic success.

It is no brainer that there are at least 55 rules!

Some rules are so basic while many are routine while a whole set of rule is about table manner!

The rules range from basic etiquette to deeper life lessons, often categorized into these themes:Respect and Manners!

Starts with how you must always Respond to adults with “Yes ma’am” or “No sir”.
Then you have the ‘Make eye contact rule’ when someone is speaking.
Followed by Congratulations to classmates when they succeed!

You have a whole section of rules on Social Graces like
Cover your mouth when sneezing and say “Excuse me”.
Do not brag about winning or show anger when losing.
When meeting new people, shake hands and repeat their names

Then there are rules in which he shows he is a very strict teacher!

Like Classroom Expectations where Transitions between activities should be swift and quiet.


Then you have rules on Life and Philosophy like the Rule 50: Be positive and enjoy life

The final two rules are Carpe Diem—seize the day and Be the best person you can be!

The complete list for the super lazy is this!

1. Respond to an adult when spoken to. 2. Make eye contact when spoken to. 3. Congratulate classmates. 4. Respect other students’ comments, opinions, and ideas. 5. If you win, do not brag, if you lose, do not show anger. 6. If you are asked a question in conversation, ask a question in return. 7. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough and say excuse me. 8. Do not show disrespect with gestures. 9. Always say thank you when given something. 10. When you receive something, do not insult the gift or the giver. 11. Surprise others by performing random acts of kindness. 12. When grading other students’ papers, give only the correct grade. 13. Follow along when we read together in class. 14. Answer all written questions with a complete sentence. 15. Do not ask for a reward. 16. You must complete your homework every day. 17. Subject transitions and moving to different classrooms will be swift, quiet, and orderly. 18. Be as organized as possible. 19. When homework is assigned, do not moan or complain. 20. When a substitute teacher present, all class rules still apply. 21. Follow the specific classroom protocols. 22. You may bring a bottle of water to class; you may not leave for a drink of water during class. 23. Know other teachers’ names and greet them in the hall by name. 24. Keep yourself and the bathroom clean and germ-free. 25. Greet visitors and make them feel welcome. 26. Do not save seats in the lunchroom. 27. Do not stare at a student who is being reprimanded. 28. Call me if you have a question about homework and leave a message – once. 29. The ABC’s of etiquette. 30. After dining in the cafeteria or elsewhere, be responsible for your trash. 31. (Used at his school) In a hotel room, leave a tip for the hotel workers who clean your room. 32. On a bus, always face forward. 33. When meeting new people shake hands and repeat their names. 34. When offered food, take only your fair share. 35. If someone drops something and you are close to it, pick it up. 36. Hold the door for people rather than letting it close on them. 37. If someone bumps into you, say excuse me, even if it was not your fault. 38. On a field trip, enter a public building quietly. 39. On a field trip, compliment the place you are visiting. 40. During an assembly, do not speak or call out to friends. 41. At home, answer your phone in a polite and appropriate manner. 42. When returning from a trip, shake the hands of every chaperone. 43. Keep right in the hallways when walking. 44. When walking in line, Keep your arms at your sides and move quietly. 45. Never cut in line. 46. No talking during movie or distance learning. 47. Do not bring Doritos into the school building (a joke in his classroom) 48. If anyone is bullying you, let me know. 49. Stand up for what you believe. 50. Be positive and enjoy life. 51. Live so that you will never have regrets. 52. Learn from your mistakes and move on. 53. No matter the circumstances, always be honest. 54. Carpe Diem. (enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe, seize the day ) 55. Be the best person you can be!

Most of the rules are sraightforward but many of them are followed by sweet country stories and they are a delight to listen to!

Some rules may feel like the words on a prison rule book but discipline MUST be learnt when you are young and that is a no brainer!

The rules are specific to Ron and his teaching methods with some rules being the same for all! You or any teacher can use them as a guideline and get or form their own!

Two hours of listening to the peppy teacher really went by so soon!

So you know multiverse and the parallel universe since you are so intelligent and knowledgeable!

I am sure though you may not have heard about UNIVERSE 25!

If you have then you are indeed very knowledgeable but for those who have not heard of this; here you are!

Now this is not a fictional universe somewhere in a different time and space!

It was an artificial universe created for rats! But what it showed will shock you to the core and then some!

If you were worried about rat race then this is actually a nightmare!

The Universe 25 experiment (1968–1973) was a rodent study by John Calhoun at the NIMH to test the effects of overcrowding in a “utopian” environment.

The aim was to provide unlimited food, water, and space!

So you set up a universe in which everything is plenty! No fight for food! No need to work and all you need to do is LIVE!

You would think if the situation is so good then it would have been paradise!

Well; it was HELL!

The setting was a 10-square-foot, climate-controlled enclosure designed for 3,000+ mice, with ample food and nesting, removing survival pressures.

Initially everything was hunky dory! Like the honeymoon phase of marriage! It is the next phase which is the most important!

The rats had fun; reproduced and seemed happy!

Then you had the collapse or the “Behavioral Sink”!

As the population reached 600, overcrowding disrupted social structures.

Males became hyper-aggressive or completely passive, while females stopped nurturing young!

Then you had a subset of mice which became the “The Beautiful Ones”!

A subset of mice withdrew from society, ignoring mating and fighting to focus solely on sleeping, eating, and grooming, earning the name “beautiful ones”!

All day was spent only in making themselves more “BEAUTIFUL” and no time spent on work or any other social interaction!

By day 600, reproduction ceased. The last mouse died around day 920, resulting in total extinction despite abundant resources!

The irony was that there was no RAT RACE!

Calhoun concluded that when space is lost and social roles break down, populations experience a “death of the spirit” followed by physical extinction.

While popular in the 1970s as a warning of urban overcrowding, modern historians, such as Edmund Ramsden, suggest the crisis was caused by excessive social interaction, not just population density.

It highlighted that material abundance without purpose can lead to societal decay!

It has been replicated in many places and sections even in humans where the resources are plenty and you do not have to worry about tomorrow!

So next time you get groggy getting up in the morning since you have to either read or work; think about UNIVERSE 25 and well; SNAP OUT OF IT!

And listen to some nice music courtesy the legend Gulshan Kumar!

And sleep in this universe 1!

Shubh ratri…

The Essential 55 is a New York Times bestselling book by award-winning educator Ron Clark that outlines 55 fundamental rules for manners, respect, and academic success!

Of course the 55 are only Ron’s rules! Every teacher may have his or her own rules!

The novel starts with this disclaimer and the open acceptance of the fact that Ron did not want to be a teacher in the first place!

In fact he was mischievous enough to have trapped himself on an oven and even been a lonely backpack traveller who ended up eating a rat and getting food poisoning! That being irresponsible to the core!

He was then forced to teach and apparently won several awards and turned out to be a great teacher and follower of rules!

His book is an essential handbook of rules and regulations including how to behave and how to eat!

All from a guy who had nothing to do with teaching when he was growing up! This is the biggest irony!

When you ask anyone what he or she wants to be; there would never be a kid who would tell that he or she would want to be a teacher when he or she grows up!

When in fact if you think about it, being a teacher is one of the most important profession along with the farmer for the future of human civilisation!

Most of the times though the ones who end up teaching are those who do not end up with anything!

But (!!) with the advent of competition and awareness; the teacher or more accurately the private TUTOR now is a very lucrative profession! Teachers in premium institutions earn much more that the biggest businessmen or doctors! They would have even taught those businessmen or doctors!

If you add the reach of social media then there are teachers who are as famous as the biggest rock stars and even earn as much!

The trends now favour such professionals who are easy to reach and whose reach is wide! And teaching or spreading knowledge and gaining information is always a great outlet!

The curiosity of the human mind would always make sure that one would do anything to know more!

Very soon you would have a child of five announcing to the world that he or she would want to TEACH when he or she grows up!

What can I teach you today! Except to say that on this day…
May the fourth (force!)be with you!

That’s from star wars in case you don’t get it! Now watch some star wars in a Hindi movie like shehnahah by Virender Raj Anand! You may know him as Tinnu Anand!

Shubh ratri…

With the NEET exam around the corner; I remember those days and nights of endless studying!

If you felt sleepy then you can either listen to music (instrumental or Pink Floyd!) or make a cup of tea!

One hack was to solve some mathematical problems which would literally wake me up since it was my favourite subject (Ironical I know!)!

The most common would be to calculate the speed or position of an object or solve an equation!

But (!!) if you think in broader sense then it is actually not possible because of a famous (now infamous!) principle!

So we think can measure a car traveling at 60 KM per hour or a tortoise crawling at 0.5 KM per hour and simultaneously pinpoint where the objects are located. But in the quantum world of particles, making these calculations is not possible due to a fundamental mathematical relationship called the uncertainty principle!

Formulated by the German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the uncertainty principle states that we cannot know both the position and speed of a particle, such as a photon or electron, with perfect accuracy; the more we nail down the particle’s position, the less we know about its speed and vice versa!

In other words, if we could shrink a tortoise down to the size of an electron, we would only be able to precisely calculate its speed or its location, not both at the same time!

The only thing certain in Physics and Mathematics was the fact that you get proper answers to any questions! That was the beauty of these subjects! But Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle actually made that impossible!

Which is why you have a group of jokes called the Heisenberg uncertainty jokes!

One famous joke which was made popular by Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular jokes in the quantum world! So much so that even Robert mentioned it in his novel Determined!

Heisenberg is speeding down the highway when a cop pulls him over.

The officer asks, “Sir, do you know how fast you were going?”

Heisenberg replies, “No, but I know exactly where I am!”

The officer, confused, says, “You were going 108 miles per hour!”

Heisenberg throws his arms up and cries, “Great! Now I’m lost!”!

There is also a Schrödinger’s Addition if you know what I mean!

After Heisenberg’s outburst, the cop searches the car and finds a dead cat in the trunk. He yells, “Hey! Did you know you have a dead cat back here?” Schrödinger replies, “Well, I do now!”!

While web Browsing you may even come across this common tech-physics meme which shows a pop-up saying “This website wants to know your location” with the caption: “Deny. Allow. Heisenberg.”!

Many of these principles sometimes reminds me of what my grandmother used to say; Ellam MAYA!

The connection between the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and the bharatiya concept of Maya lies in their shared view that the world as we perceive it—definite, separate, and fixed—is not the ultimate reality!

In fact both Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, noted that quantum indeterminacy mirrors the ancient Vedantic idea that our senses provide a “deception” or a limited projection of a deeper, unified truth!

That’s deep! In fact even sometimes cartoons apart from being funny also convey serious message! Like the toons by Mario Miranda! I love cartoons and cartoonists since my natural sketch is cartoonish!

Now sleep or not! Keep Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger guessing!

Subh ratri!

Everyone knows about the Butterfly effect!

But do you know the origin?

The Novel Determined tells about this short story called “A Sound of Thunder”!

This is often credited as the origin of the term “butterfly effect”, a concept of chaos theory in which the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world could create a hurricane on the opposite side of the globe!

In the novella you have time travel for the rich! You can go back in time and shoot even T REX!

But you are specifically told to stay in the marked path and not even kill a MOUSE!

It has been explained so well on what would happen if you do!

The ‘GUIDE’ explains what happens if you kill on mouse and thus eliminate by default all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse!

With a stamp of one foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!” 

He then adds Because of that one mouse and its progenies who are dead you have a fox die! The foxes that’ll need those mice to survive and for want of ten mice, a fox dies!

For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction!

So eventually it all boils down to this acccodring to the ‘GUIDE’: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food!

By stepping on all the tigers in that region as a cascade of stepping on one single mouse! The caveman starves!

Now the ‘GUIDE’ speculates that the caveman, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation!

From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization!

Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam’s grandchildren. 

The stomp of one foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. 

With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb! He even goes on to say that if he steps on a mouse and he would crush the Pyramids!

Unfortunately in spite of all the warnings, a tragedy does occur and when he returns back to the present time with a shock he realises that a dictator has become the PRESIDENT!

They investigate and see that while running all he did was to step on a BUTTERFLY!

The novel thus shows Bradbury’s concept of how the death of a butterfly in the past could have drastic changes in the future!

It was one of the first representation of the butterfly effect and is used as an example of how to consider chaos theory and the physics of time travel!

So if you do have a LEADER who you think is REALLY CRAZY! There is a possibility that a time travelling Physicist would have stepped on a BUTTERFLY! 

Now if you ever get an opportunity to go back in time and ‘accidently’ step on a Butterfly; make sure it is an ‘ORANGE’ coloured one for no particular reason!

Do not step over any butterfly which could have lead to successful CEOs like Anand Gopal Mahindra!

Now hopefully the ‘Butterflies in your stomach’ have been taken care of!

SHubh Ratri!

The novel Determined by Robert Sapolsky tells about how some genes Cheat!

Why they do that is because there are some organelles which were having a serious and possibly original and independent past!

Mitochondria and chloroplasts are the primary cell organelles believed to have once been free-living bacteria! So while the animal cell has taken them and formed then a part of their cellular structure; they have not forgotten their ‘origins’ or ‘ROOTS’! They still keep their ‘original’ codes alive by ‘Cheating’!

These genes which do the cheating are the Transposons or the JUMPING Genes!

Transposons “cheat” the DNA replication process by exploiting the host cell’s own replication machinery to increase their copy number without needing to undergo their own independent, energy-intensive replication process.

They achieve this through several “cut-and-paste” or “copy-and-paste” mechanisms that increase their presence in the genome during S-phase.

The S-Phase “Cut-and-Paste” Cheat is used by most Class II DNA transposons and they time this movement to coincide with S-phase to gain an extra copy.

Then you have the Replicative Transposition in which some transposons, like the bacterial Tn3 family, do not cut themselves out entirely but perform a “replicative integration,” where only one strand is processed, joining the donor DNA and target DNA to form a cointegrat!

Then you have the alternative Transposition, Replicating via “Rolling Circle”  and finally Using Host Repair Tools!

In many ways these Transposons make sure that some genetic material is SAVED or TRANSFERRED to the next generation at the cost of the host! All these so that the final cell does not forget its ROOTS! And that is at the cellular level! Imagine then the fight for ROOTs at the human level!

Then again watching the movie Michael; I was pretty amazed at how the JUMPING and SINGING gene of MJ has been TRANSFERRED to JAAFAR! An inspiring movie of a pop icon whose posters were the only ones I ALLOWED to be put up on MY ROOM walls!

Am still moonwalking in my head!

The novel Determined by Robert Sapolsky has an associated e book along with the audiobook and this has an extensive bibliography with author notes!

In one of the references, Robert makes an interesting observation on a well known proverb!

The proverb is about locusts!

“Locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks”

This proverb actually highlights unity, teamwork, and orderly movement without a central leader.

It emphasizes that, despite being small, they are “exceedingly wise” by operating collectively, mirroring an army’s, structure.

This is based on the observation that while normally solitary, locusts enter a “gregarious phase” when stressed, moving in massive, coordinated swarms!

This symbolism is often used to demonstrate how a team or community can achieve massive goals through collaboration and unity, rather than relying on a single leader!

In fact the context has been extended to many other animals and insects like ants, rock badgers, and spiders that demonstrate significant, instinctive efficiency while working as a team!

The quote is thus frequently used as a metaphor for organized, collaborative action!

But; well you knew a BUT was coming!

As Robert states in the end with a question which he answers himself!

It goes like this’ “Oh, and by the way, why do locusts march?”

With all the philosophy and lore; the answer is actually pretty shocking!

“Each locust marches forward because the locust immediately behind is trying to eat it!”

So the real reason Locusts march in coordinated bands mainly is to avoid cannibalism by hungry, overcrowding neighbors!

When populations surge, the insects switch from solitary to gregarious behavior, creating massive, dense groups that march to find food and escape being eaten by the locusts immediately behind them, creating a relentless “forced march”!

Of course even that is philosophical! MOVE or I will eat you!

But if someone does try to do that you can go to court! Or try Rajat Sharma and his Aap Ki adalat!

Stay away from locusts though!

SHubh ratri!

The other day discussing about Pink Floyd made me remember the song Comfortably Numb!

It was a real life narration of being injected with a drug!

But this blog is not about that song!

But another similar song called Thorazine Shuffle!

Neurologists will know the terminology and of course the treatment! I was glad to learn a new thing (story of my life everyday!)

In the novel called Determined by Robert Sapolsky; he talks about two mental conditions where you have the interplay of Dopamine!

In fact it is an interesting problem which according to Robert is subtle and cool, in an abstract sort of way!

So, in schizophrenia, there appears to be an excess of dopamine in parts of the brain related to logical thought,  and a key treatment is to throw in a drug that blocks dopamine signaling. All good so far!?

Now come to Parkinson’s!

So Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder in which sufferers have trouble initiating movement, where the core problem is a loss of dopamine in a completely different part of the brain, and a key treatment is to give people a drug (most often L-DOPA) that will boost dopamine signaling!

See the problem here! Just like nectar; even more is not good!

Now here comes the interesting part!

We do not  inject any of these drugs directly into the relevant brain region. Instead, you take the drug systemically (e.g., by mouth or by injection), which means it gets into the bloodstream and has its effect all over the brain.

Give someone with schizophrenia a dopamine receptor blocker, and you decrease the abnormally high levels of dopaminergic signaling in the “schizophrenic” part of the brain back to normal; but at the same time, you decrease the normal levels elsewhere to below normal!

Give L-DOPA to someone with Parkinson’s, and you raise dopamine signaling in the “Parkinsonian” part of the brain to normal but boost signaling to above-normal levels elsewhere in the brain!

So if you treat someone with Parkinson’s using high and/or prolonged doses of
L-DOPA, do you increase their risk of a psychosis? Yes!

In the same way if you treat someone with schizophrenia using high and/or prolonged doses of a dopamine receptor blockers, do you increase their risk of a Parkinsonian movement disorder? Yes!

The problem in this case or the complication is called “tardive dyskinesia,”!

Which brings us back to the Thorazine Shuffle! This is the slang name for “tardive dyskinesia,”!

The Southern rock band Gov’t Mule has a song about it called “Thorazine
Shuffle,” whose final lyrics are “Ain’t no need to worry today, Thorazine
shuffle make everything OK.”

The phrase was common in mental health contexts during the mid-20th century to describe the visible side effects of heavy medicating!

Just when you thought that music is all noise and when you actually end up supporting noise!

Knowledge Knowledge everywhere just stop and think!

Now you need medication only when you do not have much devotion! Whether you believe in God or not; a simple meditation or concentration would calm your mind without any drugs! Watch some old serials like the Ramayana starring Dipika Chikhlia as Mata Seetha and you would be calmed!

Time for some Dopamine Detox!

SHubh Ratri!