Short Feature
PRADEEP KUMAR BASU
I
F you want to be a good scientist, you have
to cultivate your power of observation.
Then, you can contribute to science even
if you do not have a very good theoretical
knowledge. True, you won’t be able to
make fundamental discoveries in science,
as that requires a thorough grounding in
the subject, plus some knowledge of higher
mathematics, but surely you would make
some contributions useful to the society. Let
me give you some examples.
We parted from the chimpanzees
around 4 million years ago (mya). After half
a dozen other branchings, our species,
Homo sapiens came into prominence
around 2 mya. Two discoveries made by
very observant people made this possible.
Consider the pioneering invention of
the first scientist of around one to two million
years ago, who worked out the method of
controlling fire. He would have observed
jungle fires caused by lightning, which
unfortunately was not in his control. He
would have observed that the fire terrified
the animals and also that the burnt animal
carcasses were softer, tastier and easier
to eat and digest. He would have also
observed that the fire left the stones and
rocks unharmed.
He would have pondered and tried
to find a way of having controlled fire. Then
probably, he observed that fires also started
when dry twigs or two stones rubbed against
each other. Also, that dry twigs and leaves
made good combustible materials. In the
next jump of imagination, he would have
thought of a receptacle of stones to hold
the fire. No maths, no equations, but a
revolutionary invention!
A protein-rich meat diet supplied
the energy requirement for developing
a bigger brain and all the consequences
that followed. A fire at the cave door at
SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2013
night also kept the wild beasts away. Human
beings were on their way to civilization all
because of a small invention: control of fire.
Another discovery of the times was
the use of stone tools. Some scientist would
have discovered that if you sharpen the
edges of certain stones like flint, the sharp
edges could be used to cut animals easily.
Attaching these sharpened stones at the
end of long sticks allowed them to kill big
animals like bisons, woolly mammoths,
etc. from a safe distance. It meant a
great supply of meat for days! Basalt
and sandstone were used for grounding
another food item: legumes (alfalfa, peas,
lentils, beans, soy, peanuts etc.). The two
discoveries together gave a great boost
to nutrition. Both the discoveries primarily
required acute observation power, and
a bit of imagination – two ingredients
essential for making a discovery in science.
People of Polynesia – a group of islands
in the Pacific Ocean – lived in around 1000
islands spread over an approximately
triangular area with each side of the
triangle being around 6400 kms! They set
sail from their islands to different islands
across the Pacific to as far as New Zealand.
Since they had no written language, the
only way they knew their location was by
remembering how they got there. That
required remembering every shift in wind
directions, ocean currents, and the sky: stars
and clouds and any lands they crossed.
Beaks changed as the birds
developed different tastes for
fruits, seeds, or insects picked
from the ground or cacti.
Long, pointed beaks made
some of them more fit for
picking seeds out of cactus
fruits.
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Scientists have verified that their
navigators know around 250 stars, can sense
the presence of an island by watching the
reverberation of waves across the hull of their
boats, knowing that every island group has its
specific reflection pattern. At night, they can
discern five distinct ocean swells, caused by
local weather disturbances or long range
deep waves of the Pacific Ocean. They
also study the motion of particular birds
and the animal life of islands they pass. For
emergencies, they carry frigate birds which
do not touch water. Once released they
will find land or return. All this information
is stored in the brain and correlated to do
accurate navigation! It shows a stupendous
combination of observation power and
memory. No wonder navigators occupied
a high place in their society. Today’s
navigators are armed with radar, sonar and
GPS. Still ships do collide sometimes!
The ancient Egyptian civilization
owed its glory to the river Nile. Every year,
with clockwork regularity, the Nile flooded
its banks. The rich irrigated soil gave Egypt
Finches
Short Feature
The greatest
discovery
based
on sheer
observation
is Charles
Darwin’s
Theory of
Natural
Selection.
excellent remedy for a number of ailments:
asthma, back pain, fatigue, impotence,
and jaundice. Today, a top quality yartsa
can fetch $1, 00,000 for a kg! No wonder it
is called “Tibetan gold”.
the bumper crops which made it a world
power. They got the leisure and money
to build the Pyramids and magnificent
temples .Alexandria housed the biggest
library in the world. The Egyptians worshiped
the crocodile as the God of fertility. Why?
Because they had carefully observed that
the crocodiles laid eggs just above the high
water mark of the impeding floods. This
allowed accurate planning and forecast of
the harvest. Since the crocodiles somehow
divined the flood level, they must be divine.
Quite logical, isn’t it?
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-195BC)
was a Greek mathematician, geographer,
astronomer and poet. He was the librarian
of the famous library at Alexandria in Egypt
where he lived. He made an important
observation. When the Sun was at the
zenith in Swenet (modern Aswan), it cast
no shadow of an upright stick. But at the
same time, it cast a shadow at Alexandria,
which was 7 degrees 12 minutes away from
the zenith. That means the Earth curves. A
simple calculation involving these figures
plus distance of Swenet from Alexandria
(5000 stadia, where 1 stadia=157.5 metres),
gave him the Earth’s circumference to be
39,690 km, which is less than 2% off from
the modern value!
Sometime before the 15th century,
some Tibetans made a discovery. They
observed that their yaks that grazed on a
particular mountain slope were healthier
and stronger than other yaks. Careful
observation showed that those fields had
growths of a tiny capless fungus poking
a few centimetres from the soil. It was
named yartsa gunbu. It was found to be an
Though rigorous clinical trials have not
been done, some studies done in China
have shown that it has an immune system
modulator beta-glucan and an anti-viral
cordycepin. It has brought prosperity to
a large number of Tibetans, all because
some one observed the yaks carefully!
Our Ayurvedic medicines that are primarily
based on herbs and minerals must have
had a similar origin: astute observation.
On 28 November 1967, a very
important discovery was made by a
researcher, Jocelyn Bell. She was at that
time working at Cambridge University with
astronomer Antony Hewish on a telescope,
to study an astronomical object called
quasars. One day, she observed a bit of
“scruff” on her chart recorder paper that
tracked across the skies with the stars. But
she did not ignore that “scruff”. She found
that the signal was repeating at a very
precise frequency. Initially, there was great
excitement. Could it be a signal from an
alien civilization? The signal was named “LTM
(Little Green Men)”!
Further research has shown that the
sources are rotating neutron stars. They were
named “pulsars” (pulsating stars). Pulsars
keep very accurate timing, some even as
accurate as atomic clocks. Antony Hewish
and Martin Ryle got the Nobel Prize for the
discovery. Understandably, there was a lot
of criticism of the Nobel committee, as to
why Jocelyn’s name was not included. The
lady however made no protest.
But the greatest discovery based
on sheer observation is Charles Darwin’s
Theory of Natural Selection published in
1859. On 27 December1831, a ship HMS
Beagle left on a scientific expedition around
the world. The voyage lasted five years.
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Charles Darwin was on board. One of his
observations, among thousands he made,
was in the Galapagos Islands. There he
discovered twelve varieties of finches (a kind
of bird), with slightly different characteristics,
depending on the islands they were from.
That set him thinking.
Darwin wondered about the changes
in shape of bird beaks from island to
island. The cactus finches boast longer,
more pointed beaks than their relatives the
ground finches. Beaks of warbler finches are
thinner and more pointed than both. These
adaptations make them more fit to survive
on food available on the particular island.
In other words, beaks changed as the
birds developed different tastes for fruits,
seeds, or insects picked from the ground
or cacti. Long, pointed beaks made some
of them more fit for picking seeds out of
cactus fruits. Shorter, stouter beaks served
best for eating seeds found on the ground.
Eventually, the finches evolved into 14
separate species, each with its own song,
food preferences, and beak shapes.
Years of painstaking work later, he
published his findings, best described in his
own words: “As many more individuals of
each species are born than can possibly
survive; and as, consequently, there is a
frequently recurring struggle for existence,
it follows that any being, if it vary however
slightly in any manner profitable to itself,
under the complex and sometimes varying
conditions of life, will have a better chance
of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.
From the strong principle of inheritance, any
selected variety will tend to propagate its
new and modified form”.
Careful observation can go a long way
in making a great discovery!
Dr Pradeep Kumar Basu retired as Director of Solid
State Physics Laboratory, DRDO, Delhi. Address:
POKHRAJ, Lakshminagar, South Ambazari Road,
Nagpur-440022; Email: [email protected]
SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2013