my indiasite and mypeopleonearth

my indiasite and mypeopleonearth

Sunday, February 25, 2007

CAN AN ANIMAL FALL IN LOVE?

Can animals fall in love? It is a question that sounds faintly ridiculous but, strange as it sounds, it is one that scientists are starting to take seriously. In the past few decades, a flood of discoveries has forced us to blur the boundary that exists between man and beast.

A century ago, we thought animals were essentially dumb and acted purely on instinct They had no language, could not make tools, and sex was purely for reproduction. We now know that many species can have sophisticated social lives, express emotions such as fear, hatred and even jealousy, and that many may have linguistic abilities.

It seems there is a new discovery every month elevating a particular species onto a new intellectual and emotional plane. It was revealed couple of years ago that sheep, whose very name was a byword for stupidity, could recognise human faces and form strong attachments to their keepers.

And it was revealed recently that elephants can recognise themselves in the mirror. Thought by scientists to be the ultimate test of ‘sentience’, the mirror test has been passed by most apes, the dolphin and, some claim, the pigeon.

Now a team of scientists have found that somewhale species have structures in their brains which indicate that they may be able to fall in love.

Patrick Hof and Van Der Gucht of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have found specialised neurons, called spindle cells, in the brains of humpback, fin, killer and sperm whales.

Spindle cells, found in the brain, were thought to be the preserve of humans and the other great apes — the chimps, the bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans. They were touted as the brain cells that set ‘higher’ primates apart from all other animals - specialised cells that are linked to emotion, speech, social skills empathy and ‘gut’ intuition.

“Whales communicate through huge song repertoires, recognise their own songs and make up new ones. They also form coalitions to plan hunting strategies, and have evolved social networks similar to those of apes and humans,” Dr Hof told New Scientist magazine.

In fact, whales were found to have three times as many of these cells, proportionately, as humans.

It’s quite a big step from finding a certain cell in a whale’s brain and deciding that the animal is capable of emotions. But there is evidence that the inner life of whales and dolphins are far more colourful and vivid than we thought.

People have always known dolphins are bright.Tales go back to antiquity of the mammals helping shipwrecked sailors, guiding drowning men back to land and so on. But just how intelligent they are has been a matter of fierce debate.

And while Dolphins have passed the ‘mirror test’, it’s only the difficulties faced by scientists wishing to study the behaviour a 60-foot-long behemoth in the labthat have prevented us from learning more about the workings of whales’ brains.

While chimpanzees can be easily studied both in the wild and in the lab, whales pose huge problems for animal researchers. Nevertheless, what we do know suggests that these animals may have an ‘inner life’ perhaps as complex as ours.

in 1990, a pair of male killer whales were found retracing the last movements of their dead mother, swinming hundreds of miles together for days.

Does this mean that whales grieve? That a species other than our own can show love to one another? We must always be on our guard when attributing human emotions and sentiments to animals. For we humans have a terrible habit of confusing sentimentalism with scientific fact.

In the film March Of The Penguins, not only were young audiences invited to boo and hiss the seal when it made a meal of the mummy penguin (what was the seal supposed to do, order pizza?), but we were invited to believe the pair bonding seen in adult emperor penguins was due to ‘love’.

Trouble is, it turns out penguins aren’t quite so ‘in love’ as the film would have had us believe. Far from being monogamous, emperor penguins have sex with up to 20 partners in a lifetime. Same-sex couplings have been observed in captivity too!

Emperor penguins are certainly impressive animals, and their determination and resourcefulness to breed in such an extreme environment is awe inspiring and worthy of admiration. But are they capable of love? Probably not.

Similarly, we imagine that the lifetime pair- bonds of species like the albatross are somehow evidence of romance, when it’s far more likely the rarity of these animals and difficulty of finding mates make monogamy an evolutionary advantage.

The truth is that we cannot know what it is like to be one of these animals and, sadly, they cannot tell us. But there is no doubt that the more we learn about animal behaviour — and about the structure of their brains — the more we are forced to conclude that the things we have in common, certainly with the more intelligent mammals, are greater than our differences.

Among our closest relatives, behaviour once thought to be the preserve of humans is now known to be commonplace. The bonobo engages in recreational sex, including lesbian coupling that is absolutely nothing to do with reproduction.

This means that we may have to think again how we treat these animals. If whales. for one, have language, form strong emotional attachments and are completely conscious of the1r own existence, this makes the case for hunting them for food completely untenable.

The Romans considered the elephant to be the noblest of beasts, suffused with honour , intelligence and capable of true love-both for its fellows and its human masters. For centuries scientists have dismissed such notions about animal as childish and ill-informed sentiment. Now, it seems science may not be so sure! daily mail collected from mumbai mirror

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Electricity from nano particles

scientists have discovered a novel way to generate electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nano particles,report live science.
currently about 90% of the world's electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels,which creates heat, often in the form of steam.the stem spins a turbine that drives a generator to produce electricity.
but this method is indirect,and in the process,plenty of heat is wasted and its energy goes uncaptured. generating one watt of power requires about 3 watts of heat input and involves dumping into the environment the equivalent of about 2 watt of power in the form of heat. for the last 50 years ,scientists have been exploring ways to use this wasted heat.it even a fraction of the lost heat can be converted into electricity in a cost effective manner,the lead author said ,Mr. Arun Mujamdar of the university of California.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

ultra rich sex

survey of millionaires reveals money makes gender stereotypes redundant.
ever wonder how your life would change if you suddenly become obscenely rich? for one,you 'd have a better sex.that's the finding of a new report by market research ans consulting company prince and associate ,and pvt wealth expert Hannah grove , Forbes .com reported on its web site .
the survey conducted last year looked at the sexual views,behavior and experiences of about 600 men and women were married , an average of 57 and with a net worth of $89 billion.
the findings showed the majority,63% of men and 84% of women,credited their wealth with helping them achieve a better sex life. in addition, 43% of men and 83% women said they believe their money has let them lead more daring and exciting sex lives.
one third of men and 72% of women are members of the mile high club,having had sex while in flight,all had access to a private jet. and 54% of men and 73% of women reported having had an extramarital affair.
the study indicates a sense money makes people feel more powerful and gives them a better quality of life.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

how you celebrated your valentine day? just see

The cost of the valentine day - a 20 year old BCA students from Ahmedabad ,whose zeal to get his girl friend a gift for valentine's day proved to be costly blunder.he was nabbed foe stealing jewels worth Rs. 2.44 Lakh from his home.
police booked
Riki khatwani,along with a friend who is in classX ,for robbery at shajanand regacy tower in Memnagar. the booty was recovered from a jeweller.police revealed that he was having an affair with a senior IPS officer's daughter.when the sniffer dog was called in, we found Riki trying to avoid the dog .This was a give away. and also a screw found in his pocket which matched the screws on the lock of the front door of the house
the police recovered the booty from a jeweller.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Globalisation of corruption 1

Truckers pay more than Rs. 22000 crore a year as bribe to police ,RTO ,customers,octroi,and weights and measurements in India .
The staggering amount is the estimate of a survey conducted through interviews with 1222 truck drivers and operators in 12 major trucking hubs of India including Mumbai. The survey ,conducted by marketing&developing research associates (MRDA) for transparency international India was released in Delhi recently.
according to the survey ,the bribe is mostly paid at toll plazas,check posts,state borders and during en route stoppages by one of other agencies on pretext of checking documents.
the survey claim police and RTO share 88% of the bribe collected on roads and in transport offices with the former pocketing 45% of it.
pay bribes for overloading,for permits,for fitness certificate,traffic violations toll payment,octroi,no entry,alcohol abuse,parking,incomplete documents.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

new james bond in action


Daneil craig is the greatest bond ever. his predecessor pierce Brosnan who just gave him the label admits that the British actor's choice as the new james bond was great.Brosnan,who took on the mantle of the suave British super agent after Timothy Dalton and appeared in four 007 movies .golden eye,tomorrow never dies,the world is not enough,and die another day publicly admitted that he had been disappointed at not being offered fifth bond flick.

british police has identified the polonium killer of Russian spy

British police have made a breakthrough and identified the man who poisoned Alexander litvinenko a friend of of the murdered former Russian spy ,published in the times newspaper.
the suspected killer travelled to London on a forged passport and slipped the radioactive isotope polonium 21o into litvinenko's tea,according to a friend of the defector to Britain,who has worked closely with detectives on the murdered investigation.
according to revealing of police litvinenko visited millennium hotel in London to discuss a business deal.he went to the room with Russian business man kovtun and Andrei,another former Russian agent.the trio were joined in the room by a mystery man who was introduced as vladislav, was described as someone who could help litinenko win a contract with a Moscow based pvt security company.police revealed.
check my earlier blog regarding the story of spy death.