ramadocblog

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky is an in-depth look on how humans behave!

One behavior the author mentions in the novel is called the Reciprocal altruism

Now it may sound complicated but it is fairly simple and you would have actually known and done the simple sounding version of this act!

Technically though reciprocal altruism is a social behavior where an organism helps another at a cost to itself, with the expectation of getting help in return later.

This is actually a crucial behavior in animals for cooperation among non-relatives, seen in baboons forming coalitions or cleaner fish cleaning larger fish, relying on memory and recognizing “cheaters” to maintain fairness!

Remember that the first act of altruism is not easy!

Acting altruistically (reducing own fitness) with the expectation of future reciprocation, boosting long-term fitness is the theme here and this term was coined by Robert Trivers in 1971 to explain cooperation beyond kin selection.

The fact here is that individuals help those who have helped them, often using past behavior as a cue for future reliability. The chief point here is that there is an essence of give and take! If you cheat in between you are out!

Organisms must remember past interactions to identify and avoid individuals who take help but don’t give it back (cheaters)!

If you thought it happens only in Humans; it is surprisingly common in animals!

Like say in Baboons, the Males form temporary alliances (coalitions) to gain mating access, expecting support later.

In fishes like the cleaner Fish, the small fish eat parasites off larger fish; larger fish protect them in return!

In many vampire Bats, the bats that fail to feed may receive regurgitated blood from a successful bat, expecting the favor returned.

In humans of course this is the norm! One individual helps another expecting the favor to be returned in kind or cash! Here the chief factor is trust! If you that is lost then the whole deal is out!

Which is why that famous story of the person who steals the horse from another who actually helped him is the key!
In that the person tells to the thief, “Do not tell anyone how you stole! Then people will stop trusting each other!”

The thief then gets a pang of guilty conscience and returns the horse!

Do help and get help in return! That is Reciprocal Altruism! You of course know it as the more common saying; “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours!”

So whose back are you going to scratch to get reciprocal altruism!?

Then again true altruism is rare and one rare example is a soldier who does not hesitate to give his or her life for the country!
One such legend was General Bipin Rawat…

You will be missed sir

Jai Hind…

When it comes to loneliness, apparently the size does not matter!

In case you are feeling little or lonely or both then take assurance in the fact that there is a lonely animal which is ‘still searching’ for a companion but still has not found anyone else!’

It may be the last of its species or the first! Both are causes to be lonely!

The name given to it is the 52 BLUE!

So “52 Blue” is the colloquial name for the 52-hertz whale, a single whale of an unidentified species that has been tracked since the late 1980s by its unique, high-pitched call.

It is often referred to as the “world’s loneliest whale” because its frequency is much higher than that of other whale species, such as blue whales (10-39 Hz) and fin whales (20 Hz), leading many to believe no other whale can hear its calls!

Frequency: The whale’s call is at an unusual 52 hertz, roughly equivalent to the musical note G#1. Over the years, the call has reportedly deepened slightly, suggesting the whale has matured!

By the way in case you think such a ‘whale’ of a problem can be solved! You will be shocked to know that it has not even been seen! How could a ‘whale’ remain hidden!?

Well; the scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution speculate it could be a malformed individual, a hybrid (possibly a blue and fin whale cross), or a member of an unknown species!

But the fact remains that the whale has never been sighted, only detected by U.S. Navy hydrophones in the North Pacific Ocean. It follows a migration pattern similar to blue and fin whales, traveling between the Aleutian/Kodiak Islands and the California coast.

While the story is emotionally resonant, scientists caution that they don’t know if the whale is actually lonely or if it simply communicates differently. Its survival and apparent maturity indicate it is likely healthy, and some similar calls have been detected since 2010, suggesting there may be more than one such whale!

So there is hope! A big hope! Just do not be blue, 52 blue!

So there is only one such whale in the world! In the same way there is only one legendary Rifleman who single handedly stopped over 300 Chinese armed personnels!

There is actually a memorial of this legend in AP! It’s an absolute divine place sorounded by pristine beauty! Still remember going there as a child…

You will never be forgotten Shri Jaswant Singh Rawat! Or as we know him in Arunachal Pradesh; Baba Jaswant ji

Jai Hind…

Ayodhya Alliance by Ashwin Sanghi

E book

Book review

Thriller Genre!

Ashwin Sanghi is back and how! I was not happy when Ashwin went to the detective whodunnit mode without the inputs from our Ithihasa!

Ayodhya alliance takes care of any complains!

Like most of his books on the Bharat series; this one also goes with two to three stories running parallels but thousands of years apart!

Though I was interrupted by Dan Brown’s latest; it was hard to put this down to pick that up! In fact this one is more closer to us and deserves more time!

The novel starts in the present times with the mention of Operation sindoor and the Indian defense! There is a big need to reinforce our machinery with armor so powerful that we can face anything!

When you want to have a better future, the best way is to take a look at the past!

So Ashwin takes us between the two time periods and of course in the end there is a connection (or many!) and of course an Alliance!

The novel Ayodhya Alliance tells us about this amazing technology in ancient times where the metal was made with a secret process which made sure that the iron remains rust and corrosion free for ages! A feat even difficult now with modern methods!

The theme of the two fishes who are moving in either direction! The Abstract image of that is one of the most famous symbols in China and now all over the world!
This symbol is shown in many places along with many links all over the world! Super fishy to say the least but in a good way!

He talks about the Kailasa temple! The amount of carvings and that too intricate ones done by the artisans is simply mind blowing! To think that it was done in ancient time and also with man made tools is simply amazing! Apparently invaders finally gave up on this task and realizing that it was impossible to completely destroy the temple as the rock was simply too hard to demolish, even though artisans used only hammers, chisels and picks to construct it!

If you like K pop then this may be good news! Indians have a cool connection with Korea! One of the Queens maybe from Ayodhya! That is the central crux or character of the storyline!

The queen was Heo Hwang-ok also known as Empress Boju was a legendary queen mentioned in Samguk yusa, a 13th-century Korean chronicle. According to Samguk Yusa, she became the wife of King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya at the age of 16, after having arrived by boat from a distant kingdom called “Ayuta”!

The India-South Korea connection revolves around the legend of Queen Heo Hwang-ok who is also known as Princess Suriratna who forms the parallel female lead of the story!

He also tells about the new revolutionary concept of QUBIT!
A qubit (short for quantum bit!) is the fundamental unit of quantum information, serving as the quantum counterpart to a classical bit!

So overall a thrilling ride between the past and the present; between India and the world and some fact and fiction thrown around for some fun!

Of course do get over your colonial hangover before you start reading this one without any bias!

The connections of NYT sometimes (most of the times actually!) really makes you mad! You are supposed to group stuff together!

It is the adult version of match the following!

Yesterday there was a word which sent me running to Google!

The word was Herpetofauna!

Do you know what that is! Do you now realize that I will tell you whether you want to know or not!

Oh yeah, while at that you will also learn what is Herping! Now that is not a typo of Helping! Though it may be close!

So coming to the connection!

Herpetofauna refers to the collective group of amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, caecilians) and reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, tuataras) in a specific area!

This term is derived from the Greek herpetón (creeping) and fauna (animals).
Yes! If you have seen the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom then there is a scene in which you are supposed to go through all the creepy things to reach a lever! If you have phobia of creepy things then you better not watch it!
Herpetofaunas are both creepy and slimy!


But these specific amphibians and reptiles actually play crucial roles in ecosystems as predators and prey, and many species, especially amphibians, act as vital indicators of environmental health due to their sensitivity to habitat changes, making them important subjects for ecological study (herpetology) and conservation efforts!

They are characterized by cold blood! Like the amphibians which have smooth moist skin and often require water for reproduction (e.g., frogs, salamanders).

The reptiles though have scales or shells and are more independent of water due to amniotic eggs (e.g., snakes, lizards, turtles).

If there are amphibians and snakes in an area then it is a good area as far as nature is concerned!

One of their roles is ecological where they serve as predators (controlling pests) and prey, impacting food webs.

They are sensitive to pollution and habitat loss, signaling ecosystem health.

The focus of Herpetology which is the scientific study of amphibians and reptiles is thus to save them from threats like habitat destruction which requires focused conservation and research.

Which brings us to Herping! That is simply the hobby of searching for and observing herpetofauna in the wild! Now that is a wild hobby!

So you learnt a new word! Do you know another new word called Gondhali?
It’s an art form and one of the legends of this art form is Venkappa Ambaji Sugatekar!

Do read about him!

Shubh ratri…

The third wish!

What are your wishes my master!?

These are the words which are a part of everyone’s dream at some point in his or her life! May not be the same Genie or the ‘provider’ of the wish but you get the point!

Now you may or may not get a magic lamp or do some penance for a hundred years or so to get your boon; but it always pays to be prepared!

Imagine one fine day you do get an opportunity to get your wishes fulfilled and you do not have your wishes ready! These things are like the OTP! They come with a time limit you see!

The most clever thing of course if your wishes are limited is to ask for more wishes as your last wish as in many stories!

I am guessing that the Genie will have some software update to ease out that bug!

So he or she would tell you that you can have only three proper wishes! So what will you wish for!?

Wealth is a given first wish and most intelligent ones would then ask for health! Some may try to test whether the wishes do work and then in that act, ‘waste’ the wishes! Do not attempt to do that!

So the first two wishes are a done deal in most cases!

What separates everyone apart is the third wish!

Some may ask for important position or a particular contract! Some may ask the control of the world! If it is real magic then some may ask for getting a ‘lost’ someone back!

Some crazed teen or young adult may ask for ‘true love!’

Then the Genie would evoke the technical issue that he or she cannot bring someone back or ‘make’ someone ‘fall’ in love! That has to come naturally! He or she cannot change the ‘course’ of nature! He or she cannot make you likeable to all with a snap! Even a Genie cannot do it!

Then again in a host of the literally work, the third wish is usually to undo the usually negative complications of the first two wishes! This usually happens when you do not think things through!

The first two wishes cause lots of chaos and the third wish is the solution!

Someone may ask that he or she understand whatever is there in all the books in the universe! But then that knowledge may make him or her accept that money is not knowledge and may make him get rid off it!

Someone may ask that he or she understand a complicated system! Like say, rocket science which is the usual adage when it comes to the most complicated system in the world since it involves so many factors and calculation! But simple knowledge is not enough since you cannot be everywhere and cannot do everything!

Then someone would ask for more version of ‘himself or herself’! Clone! The issue then would be more complication! Who would be the original and who is the clone!? Since you of course want your clone to have your intelligence! That is chaos multiplied!

I have also wondered if the wishes were asked to the participants of a beauty pageant would they still ask for ‘world peace’ as one of their wishes!
The men may probably settle for a ‘piece’ of the world!

Then moral thing of course would be to free the Genie of his bondage! Or you give the lamp to someone close and then he or she can extend the three wishes! But the Genie would be trapped inside!

The fact (really?!) of the matter though remains that you have to be prepared! Make a list and keep in handy in case you forget or the Genie tells you that it has to be a previously made list!

So what are you waiting for!? Start writing your wishes!

Growing up our wish was for friday to come as soon as possible since then you had both Turning point and Flop show on the TV! For the former you used to wish that you had more brain while for the latter you did not need any!

Turning point of course reminds me of Prof Yash Pal! My wish at the time was to grow up all wise, intelligent and knowledgeable like him! There is still time for that wish to come true even without a Genie or a lamp!

Time to dream!

Shubh ratri!

यत्र योगेश्वर: कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर: ।
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम ॥

Tinbergen brothers!

They are special brothers since they achieved what no other pair of brothers or siblings have achieved before and may not achieve in future!

Of course you can hope!

Sibling rivalry is a given! Any sibling are the best of friends and the biggest competitors to each other! Which is why a pair is lucky if they are in different field!

Then again they can inspire each other do to better and may be even reach the legacy of Tinbergen brothers one day!

Did you know that one of the best siblings are the elephants! The huge gentle giant is a great brother or sister since they usually have a big age group by which time the sibling rivalry does not happen! It is more of a second mother or father type of relationship here!

Now like most humans, elephants are born one at a time, and older sister elephants babysit their younger siblings while the mother is away! And then there are the naked mole rats, which can have hundreds of siblings, all from one mother called the queen. In their network of narrow underground tunnels, the younger or lower status sibling has to make way for the older one.

Some animal siblings are unusually helpful to each other. Now European shrews, which are so tiny that a litter of them can fit into a teaspoon. To keep from getting lost, they move in a caravan, with the mother leading and the children following along, grabbing onto the sibling in front of them with their teeth! Having a sibling is a gift in many ways!

Then you have the Tinbergen brothers!

So their accomplishment is that they are the only siblings who have each won a Nobel prize!

Jan Tinbergen was awarded the first prize in Economic sciences in 1969 while his younger brother, Nikolaas Tinbergen (Nico), was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine just four years later, in 1973!

They are the only set of brothers to have each received the prestigious award.
Now if you are a part of a sibling pair or more; they are the ones to match or beat! Now do be Noble even if you do not get the NOBEL or stylish!

Style reminds me of Manish Malhotra!

Shubh ratri…

अनन्तविजयं राजा कुन्तीपुत्रो युधिष्ठिरः । नकुलः सहदेवश्च सुघोषमणिपुष्पकौ ।

Do you know the most precious and in demand people for any research in the world?

They also form amazing storylines and great movie plots!

If they are more than two then it is the best thing ever which happens to a research team!

The book called Behave by Robert Sapolsky also tells us how these people are like the literal lottery for researchers!

Now now, do not get impatient!

The best people for any research are TWINS!

This is because twins have the same genetic built if they are monozygotic and even if they are dizygotic ones; they share at least 50 percent of the genetic trait!

So  if you want to study the effect of environments then you have two or more of the same human in different situations! The way they react is the perfect fodder for proper research!

Some of the most famous tests and research studies done on twins include the landmark Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart and the unique NASA Twins Study with the Kelly brothers.

The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA): Conducted from 1979 to 1990 by Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, this landmark study involved over 100 pairs of separated identical and fraternal twins from around the world!

The study assessed the relative contributions of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) to a wide range of traits, including personality, intelligence (IQ), personal interests, and even mannerisms.

They found that identical twins reared apart showed remarkable similarities in personality, behavior, and IQ, suggesting a strong genetic influence on these traits. The famous “Jim twins” (James Lewis and James Springer) were a prominent example, sharing numerous coincidental life details!

In fact the result of this study are constantly seen in movies and stories where twins separated at birth and reared by different parents and environment may have some differences but share some common ‘quirks’ or ‘habits’!

The NASA Twins Study: A unique 2015-2016 study that compared the physical and mental changes of astronaut Scott Kelly during a year in space with his identical twin brother Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth as a control subject!

Now you know TED talk! Do you know TED study!?

The TED study or Twins Early Development Study is one of the largest ongoing twin studies in the world, based in the UK, following more than 13,000 twin families since the mid-1990s!

Be happy you are not a twin! Sometimes only one is enough! Reasons do not matter! Like the great Humanist Ramaswamy Venkataraman!

Now stop remembering stories of the evil twins and sleep!

SHubh ratri!

अहं सर्वस्य प्रभवो मत्तः सर्वं प्रवर्तते

What is common between Acidity, sound and Earthquake!?

It has been said that the simplest explanation is the best!

Even in neurology which is actually a complex science, Neurologists always have to explain the lesions in the simplest possible way! So all the signs of weakness and the ‘palsies’ must be explained by the least number of lesions in the brain!

But the answer to the above three is not simple!
In fact even though mathematics was my favorite subject in school; this was one topic which I used to loath since I hardly understood much!

The answer is that acidity, sound and Earthquake are all measured in a scale which is LOGARITHMIC!

A logarithmic scale is a nonlinear scale that compresses a wide range of values into a more manageable and compact form by plotting them on a scale where each unit of distance represents a multiplication by a constant factor, not an equal addition.

Unlike a linear scale where the distance between 1 and 2 is the same as between 99 and 100, on a logarithmic scale, the distance between 1 and 10 is the same as between 10 and 100.

There are different ways on how it works like

While in a linear scale, each interval is the same size (e.g., adding 10 each time: 10, 20, 30). In a logarithmic scale however, each interval is a multiplication by the base (typically base 10). This means the values are spaced exponentially (e.g., 10, 100, 1000, 10000).

A logarithmic scale can make data that is widely spread out easier to visualize on a single graph, showing both large and small values more clearly.

So even in our practice as physicians or Otologists, we use this scale.

The decibel scale uses a logarithmic scale to represent the vast range of sound intensities our ears can perceive. A 10 dB increase is 10 times the intensity, a 20 dB increase is 100 times, and so on! So when we give an average loss in terms of Log scale it is not in terms of percentage which is a common misconception!

Even your standard scale of Acidity or the pH scale is logarithmic; a change of one unit represents a tenfold change in acidity! Imagine that! The difference between a pH of 6 and 7 is not so little!

Of course there are many other places where you use the Log scale like finance and sales but the one which is probably most famous around the world would be the one to measure Earthquakes! Or the  Richter scale!

The Richter scale is logarithmic, so an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 is 10 times more intense than a magnitude 5.0 earthquake, and 100 times more intense than a magnitude 4!

Do you understand how the small increment in the scale is actually a huge exponential leap? That is Log for you!

A huge leap also from chocolate boy to a serious guy is Jimmy Sheirgill!

Shubh ratri…

“कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन”

If you read non fictions and self help books then you would have certainly heard about the Marshmallow test!

In the recent times I have come across two novels which have mentioned the test and drawn their own interpretations!

The test is mentioned in Robert Sapolsky’s book Behave and In the book called Algorithms to live by; The computer science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

First get to know about the test.

Before you read about the test, know that the Human being is the ONLY species in the UNIVERSE who can reject an immediate smaller reward in anticipation of a bigger later reward!

The marshmallow test was a psychological study on delayed gratification led by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Stanford University. The experiment explored children’s ability to exercise self-control and resist an immediate reward for a larger one later.

In the classic procedure, a preschool-aged child was brought into a room with a treat (often a marshmallow, but sometimes a cookie or pretzel stick) placed on a table in front of them.

The researcher told the child they could eat the single treat immediately.

But if the child could wait for about 15 minutes until the researcher returned to the room, they would receive a second treat, for a total of two!

The child could signal the researcher back at any time by ringing a bell, but they would then only receive the single, immediate reward.

The researchers observed the children’s various strategies for resisting temptation, such as covering their eyes, singing, talking to themselves, or inventing games.

The beauty of the study is the long term follow up! This the key to a great study!

Initial follow-up studies, conducted years later, found strong correlations between the children’s ability to delay gratification and positive life outcomes. Children who waited longer tended to have:

Higher SAT scores and better academic performance.
Lower body mass indexes (BMI) and fewer substance abuse issues in adulthood.
Better social skills and greater ability to manage stress.
These findings led to the popular belief that self-control was a critical, stable trait for lifelong success that could even be taught.

Recently though more research, using larger and more diverse samples and employing stricter statistical analyses, has challenged the original study’s strong conclusions.

A major 2018 replication found that a child’s socioeconomic background and home environment were more significant predictors of later life outcomes than their performance on the marshmallow test itself.

Children from less reliable or lower-income environments may rationally choose the immediate marshmallow because experience has taught them that promises for future rewards are often broken!

Other studies have demonstrated that children’s ability to wait is heavily influenced by their trust in the experimenter to deliver the second reward!

A 2020 study co-authored by Mischel and other researchers found that the test’s performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes when controlling for other factors like the child’s general self-regulation skills across their life.

In conclusion, while the ability to delay gratification remains important, modern science suggests it is a flexible skill influenced by environment and trust, rather than a fixed personality trait that determines destiny

Two other important findings are also concluded in the novels mentioned above; The first one is that thinking about the reward actually increases the frustration and actually delays the gratification! So it is opined that the best results are obtained when you do not think about the reward! The results seemed to indicate that not thinking about a reward enhances the ability to delay gratification, rather than focusing attention on the future reward!

While Robert Sapolsky states that the test is a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Sapolsky argues that no single gene, brain region, or experience can fully explain any given behavior. Instead, behavior arises from a combination of influences, from our genes and hormones to our environment and evolutionary history!

So practically all you can do is, do your work or duty and not worry about the result! 

Like how virus aka boman says! So what!

Shubh ratri…

“कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन”

If you read non fictions and self help books then you would have certainly heard about the Marshmallow test!

In the recent times I have come across two novels which have mentioned the test and drawn their own interpretations!

The test is mentioned in Robert Sapolsky’s book Behave and In the book called Algorithms to live by; The computer science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

First get to know about the test.

Before you read about the test, know that the Human being is the ONLY species in the UNIVERSE who can reject an immediate smaller reward in anticipation of a bigger later reward!

The marshmallow test was a psychological study on delayed gratification led by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Stanford University. The experiment explored children’s ability to exercise self-control and resist an immediate reward for a larger one later.

In the classic procedure, a preschool-aged child was brought into a room with a treat (often a marshmallow, but sometimes a cookie or pretzel stick) placed on a table in front of them.

The researcher told the child they could eat the single treat immediately.

But if the child could wait for about 15 minutes until the researcher returned to the room, they would receive a second treat, for a total of two!

The child could signal the researcher back at any time by ringing a bell, but they would then only receive the single, immediate reward.

The researchers observed the children’s various strategies for resisting temptation, such as covering their eyes, singing, talking to themselves, or inventing games.

The beauty of the study is the long term follow up! This the key to a great study!

Initial follow-up studies, conducted years later, found strong correlations between the children’s ability to delay gratification and positive life outcomes. Children who waited longer tended to have:

Higher SAT scores and better academic performance.
Lower body mass indexes (BMI) and fewer substance abuse issues in adulthood.
Better social skills and greater ability to manage stress.
These findings led to the popular belief that self-control was a critical, stable trait for lifelong success that could even be taught.

Recently though more research, using larger and more diverse samples and employing stricter statistical analyses, has challenged the original study’s strong conclusions.

A major 2018 replication found that a child’s socioeconomic background and home environment were more significant predictors of later life outcomes than their performance on the marshmallow test itself.

Children from less reliable or lower-income environments may rationally choose the immediate marshmallow because experience has taught them that promises for future rewards are often broken!

Other studies have demonstrated that children’s ability to wait is heavily influenced by their trust in the experimenter to deliver the second reward!

A 2020 study co-authored by Mischel and other researchers found that the test’s performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes when controlling for other factors like the child’s general self-regulation skills across their life.

In conclusion, while the ability to delay gratification remains important, modern science suggests it is a flexible skill influenced by environment and trust, rather than a fixed personality trait that determines destiny

Two other important findings are also concluded in the novels mentioned above; The first one is that thinking about the reward actually increases the frustration and actually delays the gratification! So it is opined that the best results are obtained when you do not think about the reward! The results seemed to indicate that not thinking about a reward enhances the ability to delay gratification, rather than focusing attention on the future reward!

While Robert Sapolsky states that the test is a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Sapolsky argues that no single gene, brain region, or experience can fully explain any given behavior. Instead, behavior arises from a combination of influences, from our genes and hormones to our environment and evolutionary history!

So practically all you can do is, do your work or duty and not worry about the result! 

Like how virus aka boman says! So what!

Shubh ratri…