Inner Nature: Cooperation versus Competition
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Nobel Laureate William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, tells of a group of young boys accidentally marooned on an island, who lost every smidgin of “civilization” and reverted to clannism, competition, and eventually to savagery: they kill the boys who show thoughtfulness. The book’s title became shorthand for the beast inside us all which needs to be...
Inner Nature: Time — reality or illusion?
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
When his dear friend Michele Besso passed away, Einstein wrote a condolence letter: “Michele has left this strange world a little before me. This means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction made between past, present and future is nothing more than a persistent, stubborn illusion.” Whether time is real, or whether it is “nothing...
Inner Nature: Merde!
By Vidya Rajan. Columnist, The Times
Merde. In other words, s**t, p**p, d**g, number 2, BMs, excreta, droppings, stools, feces. This is not a really pleasant subject of conversation, or even a polite one (unless you lived back in the eighteenth century when everyone was apparently fascinated by it as an indicator of health). But it’s an important part of life. If you’ve ever been constipated or...
Inner Nature: Cannibalism – proscribed or protein?
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Expose a young mouse mother to a stressful stimulus – say a sudden loud noise – and she may eat her own pups. Rough for the young. But what turns a mother from nurture to cannibalism in an instant? Bees will also eat their young – younger larvae first – under some circumstances ([1]). And humans too. Why do they do it?
Cannibalism, which is the consumption...
Inner Nature: Virgin Births
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
December seems a good time of year to bring up the topic of virgin births. Religion aside, this is actually an interesting and significant biological topic. Curiously, virgin births have been documented in all vertebrates with jaws with the exception of mammals. To be clear, the majority of organisms on this planet – single celled bacteria and protists – normally...
Inner Nature: Enduring Aging
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
This week, a Penn’s oak tree fell over in my neighborhood. It was on the grounds of the London Grove Meetinghouse, and we were all familiar with this venerable tree. It’s falling was a sad passing. Word spread on the grapevine, and we all went to pay our respects. A Penn’s oak is an oak which was presumed to have been alive when William Penn landed in Penn’s...
Inner Nature: The need for sleep
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
The death-like appearance of sleepers has fascinated people for millennia; death is even euphemistically called “eternal sleep”. But why do we and other animals need sleep? A good night’s sleep is considered a key to a clear head, and most of us sleep between 6 and 8 hours. But some notoriously high achievers, including Leonardo da Vinci Nikola Tesla, and...
Inner Nature: Wasps, ants and bees
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Summer. A time to kick back, relax and read, or listen to podcasts.
I enjoy podcasts, especially science podcasts. Two of my favorites are The Infinite Monkey Cage from the BBC and Ologies with Alie Ward. Both are erudite but also light-hearted and don’t take themselves too seriously – which is one of the failings of politicians, economists and some scientists,...
Inner Nature: The nature of instinct
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
One of the unexpected sights driving around my neighborhood in Chester county is seeing an adult male peacock with a magnificent tail walking about the streets. Peacocks are native to the tropics, and are the national bird of India. This peacock was probably bought as a pet, maybe as a pair, maybe alone. He’s since become feral, and has no partner. He has a big...
Inner Nature: Sentience
By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times
Two books released over the last two years: Lars Chittka’s “Mind of a Bee” and Stephen Buchmann’s “What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories and Personalities of Bees” have thrown into turmoil the question of sentience – the capacity for feelings – of honeybees, and whether we humans truly understand the capabilities of minds that operate...
