Europeans more intelligent than Africans?

When James Watson and Francis Crick published their findings in a medical journal about the structure of DNA, it had created a storm in the scientific community of that time. Again after 54 years he tried to shake(intentionally or un-intentionally) the world by saying that "Whites are more intelligent than Blacks". But at this time the 79 year old scientist couldn't create a storm, rather he is forced to retire from his own job.

Dr. Watson and Crick made a breakthrough by unlocking the structure of DNA, "the most secrete of life", popularly known as 'Watson and crick double helix structure of DNA' in 1953 and for which they got Nobel prize in 1962. Dr Watson directed the 'Human Genome Project' at the American National Institutes of Health from 1988 to 1992. Until few days ago he was the director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. This is not the first time he made controversy.

Dr. Watson

In the past, he has said a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual. He has also suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, proposing a theory that black people have higher libidos.


After his interview published in Sunday times he is getting many criticisms not only from ethical and social experts also from Scientists from same field.



Dr. Craig Venter, the scientist/businessman who led the private effort to decode the human genome, has said that "Skin colour as a surrogate for race is a social concept not a scientific one" . "There is no basis in scientific fact or in the human genetic code for the notion that skin colour will be predictive of intelligence", Dr. Venter said.


After the interview The Bristol Festival of Ideas has canceled an appearance by Dr. The Science Museum has canceled a talk by American DNA pioneer Dr James Watson. After getting so much criticism, suspended from his job and later forfully regigned he apologized later by saying that "To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly."


My question is " how did he make such a huge mistake? Is that due to his age or his racial thought or anything else. I hope scientists are not saying anything on the basis of race.

“The Many Faces of Chemistry”

American Chemical Society(ACS) is celebrating its 20th National Chemistry Week(NCW), October 21-27. According to ACS NCW is a community-based annual event that unites ACS local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life.

This is mainly focused to school children and undergraduate students to encourage them to be interested in chemistry and related field so that many faces will be seen in future. There are several contests,like posters, going on in several communities.

Participate in the local community based programs to celebrate NCW.

HAPPY DASHAIN-2064

Can science really save the world?-Your ideas important

There is no doubt about global warming. Despite 10 years of international negotiations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide levels by between 60-80 per cent, global emissions are still rising. Then how can we save our earth? How can we cutoff the effect of climate change? or How can we tackle this problem? Is there any meaningful way? Well, what we can do is reduce green house gases and/ or solar radiation. But this is limited to anthropogenic emission only.

Scientists are trying to protect earth from this fearful warming in a way that could be only possible in science fictions. They want to change the planet, alter its oceans and reshape its cloud cover and thus reshaping our world.

The latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) has considered three major techniques to reduce sunlight reaching the Earth: orbiting mirrors, sulphur particle schemes and projects for enhancing cloud cover. Another idea is by increasing agricultural productivity and forestry. Carbon dioxide would be left in the atmosphere, stimulating plant growth, while reductions in sunlight would stop temperatures from rising even as CO2 levels continued to increase.

Do you have any ideas?

Look at some ideas:

1. Ocean Pumps: Pump deep cold water water to the sea. Cold ocean water is considered to be more 'productive' than warmer water because it contains more lifeforms which brings more lifeforms into contact with the atmosphere and its CO2. And these lifeforms are vital for absorbing CO2. These lifeforms would absorb CO2, die and then sink to the ocean floor, storing the carbon away for millennia.

2. Sulphur Blanket: Another idea is making a 'blanket' of sulphur that would block the Sun's rays from reaching Earth. Scientist has proposed as "hundreds of rockets filled with sulphur being blasted into the stratosphere".

3. Mirrors: This idea introduces the use of mirrors to cut radiation from the Sun by firing giant mirrors into its orbit. They are thinking about using a mesh of aluminium threads, a millionth of an inch in diameter. It would be like a window screen made of exceedingly fine metal wire. The screen wouldn't completely block sunlight but would filter infra-red radiation.

4. Cloud Shield: Increasing cloud cover using a seawater spray 'seeding' process could increase cloud cover by 4 per cent - enough to counter a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by shielding Earth from solar radiation. This plan is one of the cheaper ideas for countering rising carbon dioxide levels and is relatively low-tech.

5. Synthetic trees: Scientists are proposing a surprise technological variant- synthetic trees. These trees would not grow or flower or leaf - but they would absorb carbon dioxide.One of the synthetic trees could remove about 90,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in a year - the output of more than 15,000 cars and a thousandfold improvement on the natural behaviour of a real, living tree.

6. Forests of the seas: Another idea is to increase blooms of plankton and algae on the grasslands and prairies of the oceans. They absorb carbon dioxide, die and then sink to the seabed carrying the carbon dioxide they absorbed during their lifetimes. The favoured method for stimulating plankton growth is to use iron fertilisers. It is known that tiny amounts of iron are critical in stimulating phytoplankton growth in seas.

Please add your thought and ideas that may solve today's key environmental problem.

related link
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2185343,00.html

Constituent Assembly Election Uncertain in Nepal

The much awaited constituent assembly election has been postponed by election commission after it received request from government, though the commission was fully prepared to hold the polls. The election was scheduled on November. This is the second time the election has been postponed. But the new date for the election has not been announced yet. This makes the constitution assembly election uncertain. Nepalese are waiting for 'Constituent assembly election' for more than half decade. There is a possibility of repeatation of history.

I was actively involed in the 'April movement'. There were two reasons. We were suffering from kings autocracy and moists armed struggle. We wanted to get rid of both of these. From that movement we had hope that moists would come to peaceful politics and a republic setup would be formed in the country. And constituent assembly would be held to legistilate all changes which would also re-structure the country.

This is sad to know about the future of the polls.

Who is responsible for it?
Nepali Congress or Maoists? I think both of them are responsible to postpone the election date.

What will be result of this decision?