Green Apophyllite

Sigh.. I did a search for Green Apophyllite and most of the top returned links were websites about crystal healing and crystal therapy! :(

I wish Google would introduce a 'credibility metric' in their website ranking algorithm.

Apophyllite is a phyllosilicate (silica and oxygen tetrahedrons are organized in stacked sheets) . It occurs as a secondary mineral in the Deccan basalts, along with zeolites, quartz and calcite. The green color is due to trace amounts of vanadium. I wanted to confirm that. Instead, I got links to websites telling me that Apophyllite "opens the heart chakras and encourages the release of old emotional wounds".

The picture of green apophyllite that I have posted was taken at the Gargoti Mineral Museum near Nasik.

Those Magnificent Vedic Men In Their Flying Machines

“Aeroplane is a vehicle which travels through the air from one country to another country, from one continent to another continent, and from one planet to another planet.”

...was the timely explanation given at the 2014 Indian  Science Congress as part of a paper titled “Ancient Indian Aviation Technology” by Anand Bodas and Ameya Jadhav.

Siddartha Deb writes about the curious story of how the supposedly ancient document "Vymanika Shastra" or “Science of Aeronautics" on which this presentation was based came to be written. Except that the document is not that ancient.. it is about a hundred years old and the flying machines that it describes are incapable of flying...

Deb also opines about the role of a resurgent Hindu nationalism and what all this tells us about India's place in the modern world. There are some very funny passages in the article, but ultimately you are left feeling sad... sad about a spineless science administration for letting this absurdity play out at a science conference. And sad at the delusions that drive people, at the resulting perversion of science, at the increasing intolerance for rational debate in this country and the damage it is doing to our society.

Confused Article In The Hindu On Evolution, Disease And Paleolithic Lifestyles

What's up with The Hindu?.. another terrible article on science and evolution and biology by a medical professional soon after the recent ignorant hateful essay on homosexuality. Following reader outrage and detailed corrections that article on homosexuality has been retracted by The Hindu.

This one is by a cardiologist Dr Hegde. He begins thus:

Darwinian evolution has become outdated and its place is taken by the Lamarckian hypothesis of evolution by environmental compulsions. Darwin himself agreed with Lamarck but the neo-Darwinians, who have a big business interest in keeping the status quo, are at it even now. Even Erasmus was for environmental evolution long before Darwin came into the picture. Most of our pathophysiology of diseases is based on the Darwinian model unfortunately and it has to change for good. Earlier the better.

Darwinian evolution dead but kept alive by a conspiracy of big business... What utter rubbish! Later Dr. Hegde complains that "medical doctors do not go into evolutionary biology, even if a few of them go into biology". I hope he has counted himself in that list of medical doctors not getting into evolutionary biology for the above para is as uninformed as it gets.

Lets gets some terminology out of the way.

Geopathic Stresses Behind Indian Expressway Mishaps

Ok..something lighthearted.. but this really was published as a serious article in the newspaper DNA:

Geopathic stress or simply “bad energies” are harmful radiation arising from the depths of our planet. According to geophysicists, there is a natural magnetic field on the earth’s surface to which all beings are acclimatised. Geopathic stress arises when this natural magnetic field of the earth is distorted by weak radiations generated by underground streams of water, sewers, drains, certain mineral concentrations, fault lines and underground cavities. This stress impact on the physiological condition of drivers leading to critical errors while driving. However, awareness about the existence of this factor can help drivers, experts say.

... Tyres bursting at this spot are the cause of a major number of accidents. The stretch has numerous cracks in the road, which are affecting vehicles. These cracks are due to hollow spots, which are generated due to tectonic movements and cannot be repaired by re-tarring, the earth at these high geopathic stress spots shifts periodically in intervals.

An explanation by people who dabble in Vastu.. which studies among other things the "energy" being emitted by the earth. This "energy" is manifest only to a select few.. alas the world's physicists have been unable to measure it and understand its nature.

Geopathic stress levels were determined by a rigorous survey and using sophisticated measurements along all the accident spots on the highway. Apparently the high "geopathic stresses" are indicated by vigorous movement of a dowsing rod like equipment. Geopathic stresses are ranked on a scale known as the Lecher scale from 1 to 15. Spots on this highway go up to 11. 2 on the Lecher.  The greater the movement of the dowsing rod - which a person holds in their hand while surveying- the higher the "geopathic stress". The scale was established after assiduously applying a correction for the "hand tremble syndrome" that seems to afflict practitioners of this art (I made up the last bit).

I am learning a lot!

As a geologist I am not really aware of the earth's magnetic field being distorted by underground sewers and such and that "distortions" will suddenly affect human physiology to the point of being disoriented. Claims that there are cracks in the road due to tectonic movements are also false... "Uhh.. we would have noticed the earthquake?" Movements large enough to generate cracks in the road will have registered on seismometers.. no such largish earthquake damage has been reported by geologists in this part of the country..

After all this hooey.. the Vastuworld team does give admirable advice:

...one major help in reducing the accident rate on the expressway would be that the drivers would still have to drive safely and without breaking the rules.

 Now..the day that happens in India.. the earth will rumble mightily.. right up to 15 on the Lecher scale !

Indian Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar Shot Dead In Pune

Crushingly sad news from Pune, India. Yesterday morning two unidentified gunmen shot dead Dr. Narendra Dabholkar (pictured on left) who for many years had been the public voice of reason, fighting against the superstition and pseudo-science that permeates Indian society. The murder followed a persistent campaign by Dr. Dabholkar to get the Maharashtra state government to pass an anti-superstition bill.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union has a short article  on Dr. Dabholkar and his work.

I often hear people say that differences in belief systems and ideology must be debated peacefully and not result in violent outcomes. I think that really underestimates the power belief systems like religion have over human behavior. Much violence throughout human history has been because people hold what they see as nonnegotiable belief systems which then piggyback and amplify an inherent human tendency to divide people into an "us versus the other". Letting go of such strongly held beliefs becomes a question of self-preservation.

Besides, there is an economic angle to this too. Godmen and clairvoyants in India rake in enormous amounts of money channeled to them by an adoring gullible public. They have dedicated television channels where long distance blessings can be purchased. " Our daughter has been sick for the last 8 months" - "Make sure to  sew buttons of the same color on your husband's shirt.. Your daughter will be cured" is the kind of profound advice I have heard being given and which the believers willingly lap up.

Dr. Dabholkar's work threatened to put the brakes on this lucrative business.

Self Help Against All Those I"ll Heal You Quacks

I love the link posted by David Bradley on his excellent science blog sciencebase. The site is called The Red Flags of Quackery and its a one stop checklist to guard yourself against fantastic claims about miracle cures and from self styled "experts" conjuring up explanations for the unexplained.

David Bradley gives some sound advice too:

If your putative sCAM practitioner mentions energy as being some kind of universally pervasive force, point out that energy is nothing more than the capacity to do work in the thermodynamic sense and ask them in what units they are measuring the mystical energy of which they speak. If they try to invoke ancient wisdom point out that demons, blood-letting and trepanning are ancient wisdom. If they hint at ancient eastern mysticism, remember the words of the mighty Tim Minchin: “There is no eastern and western medicine, there’s medicine and then there’s the stuff that hasn’t been proven to work.”

The bonus for going to his site is this incredibly funny video of comedian Dara O'Briain's put down of alternative medicine and homeopathy.

Minister Promises Evidence Based Science Policy

At the 99th edition of the Indian Science Congress held in Bhubaneswar Orissa, Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh  announced that India will pursue a “well-balanced, transparent and evidence-based science policy”.

Since he has stressed that the policy will be evidence-based,  here is my recommendation - The Minister should issue a strong statement rejecting homeopathy and astrology as sciences and withdraw all government support for these fields.

oh.. and make Ben Goldacre's Bad Science compulsory reading in High School / College.

Tip: Indigenus

Darwin And Hitler And Other Interesting Evolution Talks And Readings

A compilation of evolution related news I came across the last week or so:

1)  How do new species evolve? Peter and Rosemary Grant have undertaken a monumental multi-decadal study of the finches of the Galapagos islands. They explain the conditions that lead to speciation, part of the Brilliantly Illuminating And Lively Lecture Series.  If you don't have time to sit through the talk, the Panda's Thumb has a summary of their findings.

2) Donald Prothero, author of the book Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why It Matters writes about recent occasions of creationists organizing geology field trips with the aim of reinterpreting the geological record to fit a young-earth creationist view point and of creationists presenting papers at the Geological Society of America meetings.

3) Darwin and Hitler- that old bogey keeps getting raised again and again. At the Planets of the Apes blog Faye Flam puts down that bogey... again! The follow up posts  ( 1 2 3 4 ) on this topic are worth reading too.  P Z Myers at Pharyngula also pitches in and points to an upcoming scholarly work by Michael Lackey which shows that the Nazis were very much a Christian Reich.

4) At the Cosmos and Culture blog anthropologist Barbara J. King explains Paleolithic diets in the context of the recent fad adopted by some to revert to the diet of our hunter gatherer ancestors as a way to healthy living.

Why The Majority Of Scientists Believe In Evolution

Came across this golden oldie at JesusandMo.net.

Callan Bentley at Mountain Beltway has very ably demonstrated that the Dunning-Kruger effect afflicts most of the U.S. Republican Presidential candidates.

Bad Science Is Quite Funny

I am enjoying reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. As the back cover promises, it offers relief from scaremongering journalists, pill pushing nutritionists, flaky statistics and evil pharmaceutical corporations. I should add homeopathy to the list. It gets a thorough drubbing too.

The book is about exposing charlatans and quacks who misrepresent or ignore science and carve out a place for themselves as health experts promising cures and interventions to enhance the quality of your life.

It is fun to read not just because it is wittily written but it is a useful exposition on how sensible people can end up believing nonsense and how you can train yourself to critically weigh evidence and sift through the mountains of (mis)information and fantastic claims that self-serving experts throw at you.

No - Christchurch Earthquake Not Caused By Moon Alignment With Other Planets

I've noticed an increase in traffic on my blog. Search phrases are pointing to some old posts I wrote about astrology and earthquakes. Here are a couple of examples:

http://www.google.com/search?q=astrology%20prediction%20earthquake&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

http://nz.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=yfp-t-501-s&p=mr%20moon%20earthquake%20predictions&ei=UTF-8

Regarding the Christchurch earthquake, Chris at Highly Allocthonous has a post explaining the cause of the earthquake in terms of the regional tectonic set up and the forces involved. And see this USGS summary of the earthquake.

As for the astrologers .. here is my experience with one of them..

Was September 08 Earthquake Month?

Astrologers claim high success rates in their "predictions" but you have to examine their methods - the ones I have encountered don't give location information nor do they give a geological hypothesis in terms of the setting and stresses involved just why an earthquake is likely at a given location. Simply saying an earthquake is going to take place on a particular date or within a time interval does not count as a prediction because the frequency of big earthquakes on earth is quite high - 10-11 earthquakes of 6-7 magnitude occur every month, 3 -4 earthquakes of 5+ magnitude occur every day and more than 20 earthquakes of 4+ magnitude occur every day somewhere on earth.

Without a location and a geological justification there is no way to validate the claim. Astrologers can point to any one of the many earthquakes that shake the earth everyday as the one they "predicted".

Quality Management In Astrology

If you thought Astrologers in India don't go through rigorous scrutiny... then take a look at this:

They come with a quality stamp on them these days.

Environmental Impact Assessments In India Are Becoming A Joke

...time for another rant on the Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA) process (which is required for clearing large developmental projects) in India.

What do you do to get a green signal for a development project in a bio-diverse wetland frequented by migratory birds?

Answer: Do the EIA in the summer months..when the wetlands are naturally drier and there are no winter migratory birds! Then file a report saying that there is no ecological value to this area...go ahead and build your project!

According to Dr Asad R. Rahmani of Bombay Natural History Society and Prof Asha Rajvanshi of the Wildlife Institute of India, that is what is happening in the case of the Naupada swamps in coastal Andhra Pradesh where an EIA report filed neglected to do a multi-year survey and instead considered only the period of 3 months from March to May.

How ludicrous.....how absurd can the process get?!!

The problem begins with how the state classifies the land. This piece of wetland is considered a "wasteland" by the district authorities. The hired consultants use that as a baseline and make no attempt to seriously evaluate the ecosystem.

That's how increasingly the EIA system seems to work...terms of reference and baselines are purposely kept narrow, limited and ill-considered and consultants with a past history of saying what the government wants to hear are favored. By relegating the EIA to a side-show with no real powers to halt a project or make its design conditional to the EIA finding,  a culture of shoddy science, incompetence and sheer dishonesty is being encouraged.

Beyond popular articles in mainstream media the EIA is coming under some more serious scrutiny in science publications as well. In the January 25 2010 issue of Current Science Devendra Kumar Agrawal, Mahendra S. Lodhi and Shradha Panwar do a case study of the potential impact of planned hydroelectric projects in the Alaknanda catchment in Uttarakhand and conclude that the EIA process is inadequately equipped to evaluate the region wide ecological impact of these projects. The EIA considers each project as separate and its larger impact on adjoining areas is not included in the scope of the EIA study. This piecemeal approach does not consider cascading and other non-tangible effects of these projects.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest which has the final say on these reports and projects is applying different clearance standards for different issues.

Here is what the Minister of Environment and Forest Mr. Jairam Ramesh said recently about the decision to withhold introduction of Bt Bringal (Times of India February 10 2010):

"It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary principle based approach till such time independent scientific studies establish to the satisfaction of both the public and the professional the safety of the product".

Fine words..Mr Minister..but how about extending the same principles ...caution, precautionary principle based approach...independent science...satisfaction of both the public and the professional...to the EIA process?

Why has the EIA process been rendered so toothless that a project can begin even before the relevant EIA is completed..?

You Mr. Minister are overlooking and presiding over a grotesque perversion of science and the consequent loss of valuable biodiversity, ecological services and the livelihoods of people who depend on them.

India is a signatory to the Ramsar Agreement... a commitment to protect valuable wetlands.

Don't be a mute spectator.

You'll Understand Homeopathy If You Understand Einstein

....Homeopathy - can it get more stupid than this...?

Warning: Advanced degree in physics and chemistry required to follow this discussion:



Now you know why those white pills pack so much punch! They are literally powder kegs of energy.

Teaching Human Evolution In Pakistan Can Be Dangerous

Kenneth Chang of New York Times has written an interesting summary on the teaching and acceptance of evolution across Muslim countries and among Muslim immigrants in many western nations.

Atomic physicist Pervez. A Hoodbhoy went through a dramatic moment while lecturing at a university in Pakistan:

Pervez A. Hoodbhoy, a prominent atomic physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan, said that when he gave lectures covering the sweep of cosmological history from the Big Bang to the evolution of life on Earth, the audience listened without objection to most of it. “Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up,” Dr. Hoodbhoy said.

Mentioning human evolution led to near riots, and he had to be escorted out. “That’s the one thing that will never be possible to bridge,” he said. “Your lineage is what determines your worth.”

Its scary that this took place not at some isolated madrassa but at a national university. Overall acceptance of evolution - especially human evolution - is low in Muslim countries. The technological advancement engulfing these countries is not necessarily paralleled by a more scientific mindset among citizenry. Religious beliefs are playing a large role in driving a wedge between the two. Turkey is a great example. Just 2-3 decades ago creationism was not a factor affecting science education in Turkey. Today, the influence of Islamic parties is greater in society, evolution teaching is diluted at the school level and creationist textbooks are influencing biology syllabus.

The article does not mention Muslims in India but I doubt if attitudes towards evolution are significantly different among Indian Muslims.

And I wonder what the break up would be according to educational level and how it compared to Hindus.

The Probability Of Evolutionary Pathways

Joe Thornton of the University of Oregon and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute writes these thoughts about how to understand and appreciate the probability of evolution following one specific pathway among many possible:

Consider the future: there are countless possible that could emerge from our present state, making the probability of the one that actually does evolve extraordinarily  low.  Does this mean that the future state that will ultimately emerge is  impossible?  Obviously not.  To say that our present biology did not evolve  deterministically means simply that other states could have evolved instead; it does not imply that it did not evolve.

Consider your own life history as an analogy.  We can all look back at the road  we have traveled and identify chance events that had profound effects on how our lives turned out.  “If the movie I wanted to see that night when I was 25 hadn’t been sold out,  I never would have gone to that party at my friend’s house, where I met my future spouse….”  Everyone can tell a story like this.  The probability of the life we actually lead is extraordinarily small.  That obviously doesn’t mean that its historical unfolding was impossible.

That we inhabit an improbably reality requires a divine explanation only if we, like Behe, take the teleological view that this is the only reality that could exist.  But if we recognize that the present is one of  many possibilities, then there is no difficulty reconciling the nature of  evolutionary processes with the complexity of biological forms. As history unfolds, potential pathways to different futures are constantly opening and  closing. Darwinian processes are entirely adequate to move living forms  along these pathways to a remarkable realization – but just one realization out of many others that could have, but didn’t, take place.

Beautifully written.

The entire article is worth reading as it explains how complex traits with interlocking components can evolve through a combination of natural selection and random genetic drift acting on adaptive mutations and neutral intermediates. And this is not just theory. Joe Thornton leads a team that does experiments to show how this can happen. The article encapsulates modern evolutionary thinking about the evolution of complexity quite well.

That it is a devastating put down of the arguments made by the Intelligent Design community makes it especially pleasurable to read. 

Dumbest Argument Evah For Introducing Intelligent Design In Evolution Classes

Not even Intelligent Design (ID) proponents would have used as argument as dumb as the one the writers of the TV show Boston Legal did recently.

I caught only part of the show a couple of days ago, fortunately the part where the judge is ruling on whether ID should be taught along with evolution in biology classes. The defendants are members of school boards who want ID to be taught. The State is against the idea and is prosecuting.

Not verbatim but the ruling went along something like this:

Judge: I've heard all the arguments. Now.... its clear that religious beliefs should not interfere with a secular education...

Prosecution eyes light up, confident congratulatory glances exchanged... Defendants look glum

Judge: ...But its also clear to me that secular eduction should not completely erase the role of religion in our lives...

Prosecutors shake heads with an air of resignation, Defendants look much more cheery..

And then this eye popping piece of legal reasoning..

Judge: Haven't all of us wondered at one time or the other...don't we all have a sense of wonder and awe when holding a new born baby that there must be something more to life .. a higher mystery... than science can explain.... So I am ruling that ID should be taught alongside evolution... Case dismissed!!

Off course this fictitious case gives a ruling exactly opposite to the one where ID suffered a crushing defeat in court some years ago. In that ruling Judge John E. Jones III made it clear that ID is a lovechild of religious parents, a descendant of creationism, and is not a scientific theory and cannot be taught in evolution classes. His rejection of ID did not depend on whether science explains everything or not. In fact he makes it clear that the theory of evolution does not rule out the presence of the Almighty.

But Judge Jones said...well he didn't exactly say it, I am saying it ... but he ultimately meant ...

That while it is possible that holding a bald, slippery and naked baby may invoke a sense of mystery and awe in some of us, and a feeling that science does not explain everything about life, that does not qualify as a reason to include ID alongside evolution. A sense of mystery and awe are not scientifically testable alternative explanations of life. In other words ID besides saying that evolution cannot explain this or that doesn't offer any positive solution to the problem.

Television networks are ruled by ratings and they would have calculated that a show in favor of religious views over evolution would be approved by lots of American viewers. ID proponents have been over the years distancing themselves from making any overtly religious or mystical arguments like the one in this show since they want to be seen as "scientists". They would positively avoid any mention of religion when making their case. But the writers of the show inadvertently revealed their true motives.

Homeopathy Really Does Work

Check out this hilarious video on Emergency Room Homeopathy:



Strong stuff this Homeopathy!

Tip: The White Coat Underground

My Article In Pragati On Vedic Sarasvati and River Ghaggar

One of the more unexpected outcomes of starting this blog has been my writing on the intersection of geology, culture and religion. I was asked by the online magazine Pragati to summarize the geological evidence for the claim that the Ghaggar River which flows through Haryana and Rajasthan is really the river Sarasvati described in the Rig-Veda.

Why is this so important? The claim is that the identity of River Ghaggar is crucial evidence speaking to the controversial issue of whether the Vedic civilization was built by "alien" Arya-speakers who migrated into India from Central Asia beginning around 1500 B.C. after the Harappan civilization collapsed or whether it represents a wholly "indigenous" construction, continuous with the Harappan complex.

Obviously the thought that Hindu civilization was the creation of outsiders makes this a very touchy topic. The terms "alien" and "indigenous" refers to historically documented human migrations. No one doubts Pleistocene and early Holocene human migrations into India.

I find that this controvery about people coming from outside is puzzling to many. Assuming the migration scenario is true, Hindu or more precisely Vedic civilization did not spring into existence the day Indo-Aryan speakers entered India. Civilization, culture and Hindu philosophical thought evolved through hundreds of years of settlement within what is now India. That makes it indigenous regardless of whether the ancestors of some of these people came from outside India.

But right wing Hindu religious groups have their own take on what makes a Hindu. A Hindu is someone whose "pitrubhoomi" or fatherland or land of ancestors has always been India, and also one whose "punyabhoomi" or holy land or land of religion has always been India. That through eternity.

Migrant ancestors need not apply..

Oh well.... here are some interesting applications of geology....

For many years supporters of this view were using a combination of the Rig Veda and archaeology as evidence that the Ghaggar is the Vedic Sarasvati. Lately though a different kind of evidence has been brought to bear on this problem— the geological history of the Ghaggar. If geological evidence shows that the Ghaggar was in the past a mighty river and one that had a glacial source, it would fit descriptions in the Rig Veda of a large Sarasvati flowing from the mountains to the sea. More importantly it would allow Hindu religious groups to claim that the Vedic people were present in Northwest India much before the Ghaggar dried up about 1800 B.C. That would strengthen their claim that the Harappan civilisation represents the beginning of Vedic civilisation in India. To that end a lot of effort has been undertaken to generate and collect geological data that supports this view. This data comes in three flavours: geomorphologic, petrologic and geochemical.

Supporters claim that taken together these three types of data show beyond doubt that the Ghaggar is the Vedic Sarasvati. A more critical viewing of the data does not inspire such confidence..........continued..

Download Pragati and read the rest of the article here....

Pragati has got together a bunch of articles stressing that historical analysis and debates should be carried out using good science and not ideology. There are several other articles and book reviews worth reading on various aspects of the history of India.

Human Migrations: Females Entered India Before Males

Theories of human presence and migration into and out of India have always been controversial. Were the Aryans indigenous to India or did they migrate from central Asia? Was there an invasion and subjugation of local populations or co-habitation and slow assimilation?

Now researchers have gone even further back in time and added another chapter to the story of human evolution in India. Evolutionary biologists and geneticists from Dept. of Evolution and Ecology, University of Patna say that they have pinpointed using mitochondrial genes and Y chromosome genes the dates of the first human migrations into India.

Mitochondria are inherited through the female line. The analysis shows that the mitochondrial coalescent i.e. the date of the most recent common ancestor of living mitochondria in India is about 60,000 years ago. On the other hand the coalescent for the Y chromosome, genetic material inherited only through males is about 30,000 years old in India.

The lead researcher Dr. Adi Manav said that this shows that human females migrating out of Africa entered India before males. The pattern is unmistakable he said. Early human females were smarter and more adventurous than males.

The map below shows the migration patterns of females and males mapped using different mitochondrial and Y chromosome markers.


Asking the media to stick to the facts and not to indulge in dramatic and sensational reporting Dr. Adi Manav said that they were still working on some minor details like how a female only population managed to survive for about 30,000 years without male presence.

He added confidently that :

Genetics doesn't lie. In keeping with the highest traditions of scientific inquiry at Univ. of Patna, now that we know what definitely happened we will come up with a story for how it happened.