Colour is in the eye of the beholder

Here is my next write-up for the New Indian Express. I talk about the subjectivity of colours and why colours are not the properties of the objects themselves but only exist in our heads.

This leads to an interesting possibility. Does this subjectivity mean that bats (that don’t see) could use these colours for different textures of surfaces they encounter (as Richard Dawkins wondered in one of his books)? Do other animals use these colours as labels for the different temperatures they feel or for the different sounds they hear? I don’t know. But there is a probability that we might never know it. It is with this thought (though not put this way) that I end the article.

The gene’s eye view

The New Indian express has asked for an article every fortnight (Yay!). This is my next piece for the New Indian Express. I talk about why evolution must be looked at as being for the benefit of the gene (and not as for the benefit of the individual). This is the crux of the classic book The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; the book that changed the course of my life. Without that book, I would have been a hugely different person today.

The article is titled “Soft emotions spur genes in evolution race” by the paper, though I had called it “The gene’s eye view”. I dont mind their changing titles, but in this case, they have got it wrong. The title seems to suggest that the emotions are the cause, and the genes the effect. It is actually the other way round. It is the genes that cause the emotions. I guess I should point that out to them.

Science as philosophy

I have written a small piece titled “Science and Philosophy of life” for the New Indian Express (Indian Express is now split into two sister concerns, one is called The Indian Express, that operates in North India, and the other The New Indian Express operates in the South). I had titled the piece as “Science as Philosophy”, but it morphed into its current title while getting published.

I was given a word limit of 550 words. I felt it was too short to write about any science concept and so I wrote my opinion that we humans neither have any purpose for our existence here nor are we part of a plan, and that we do not need philosophy (or even worse theology) to answer questions like “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”. Read it and let me know what you think.