Chapter 3 - Small Things, Big Wonders... Bigger Mistakes

Author’s Note: Here in this third chapter, I discuss on the points which are going to
fumble and baffle most of the people. Genes, Micro-organisms and such other tiny
structures helped define us, believe me. I got inspiration to write this
chapter, from my sister Sharvari… wherein we chatted on the phone for an hour…
tossing ideas back and forth. When finally I decided to do the needful and
write it down. Hope you understand what I am about to abuse your mind with! Cheers.

What is a Gene? A gene according to the medical definition – is a unit of heredity
in a living organism. It normally resides on a stretch of DNA that codes for a
type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. In
simpler language (don’t worry, I will try and make this as simple as possible).
Genes are programmed codes, written in biological form which are stored on the
hard-disks of DNA’s and RNA’s (who knew God was a programmer. Sheesh, this
makes programming and coding the oldest profession in the world.) But jokes
apart, Genes are the basic functions which define the way in which the
monolithic programme (our human body) will run.

So what has this Gene got to do with evolution, right? Wrong, genes have
everything to do with evolution. As my sis Sharvari pointed out, the Gene
structures of Humans and Apes are similar upto 99%. So how is it that I can
still say that we humans haven’t evolved from apes? Simply because whatever
information she imbibed, was from her 12^th Std study books and we
all know the quality of those damn books! Bad language, dull teaching and pathetic
research make up a very good part of the 12^th Std syllabus, so it is
easy to get affected by this mindless droning.

Wake Up! Folks… research on genes was done in 1962 by some very lazy scientists who proved that the genome structure of Apes and Humans was 99% same. But when this research was thought of upon today, scientists have found some gaping faults in it. Firstly, the basis on which these ’62 scientists based there theory was, that the humans and apes had the same building blocks of proteins in there gene structure. But only ten days ago, I read an article by a very eminent scientist who studied this lazy research and found out, that if we accept the similarity of genes only on the basis of protein structures, then not only are we related to the apes but to the mosquitoes as well (doesn’t mean you have to stop killing them).

Secondly, this scientist pointed out that only the Full Gene Mapping of the Human DNA and RNA structure has been carried out… no such thing has been done with the Apes DNA and RNA. So this makes it very foolish to compare them both, when we have very little knowledge of the ape genes. As always we are making the common mistake of assuming things… things which we really have little idea about. And this mistake has prevailed time and again… leading us to assume that we evolved from the apes.

Now when we are talking about the minutest of elements… we might as well touch on the topic of diseases. Cancer, AIDS and many such other diseases are common between us and apes. So does this mean, we must be related to them, not in the least bit (for starters, swine flu affects humans as well as pigs. So if you are happy to be related to the pigs… well that’s your choice). Also, when we are looking at diseases, we only think of the ones that match, what about those that don’t. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and such other brain related diseases only affect us, the apes (bless their small and underdeveloped brain) never suffer from these diseases.

Does this mean that when we evolved and grew a superior brain, we also got along with it a dose of some very deadly diseases? Why on earth would evolution do that to us? As always, I have been shouting out this point… if we did evolve from the apes, why is it, that the final product was so messy? And since evolution is impartial, why the indifference towards us? Truth is, neither did we evolve from the apes, nor has there been any fixing between evolution… it is just the work of some very lazy (did I mention stupid) scientists, who want their ancestors to be apes. We have been twisting the facts to support our theories. And therein lies our biggest mistake, we have always been dogmatic.

Richard Feynman (a scientist whom I personally think to be the best among the lot) has said: ‘The previous experiments which have been performed and the results mapped, are not 100% true or even correct… so, if you want to succeed as an experimenter, before conducting any new research always check whether the base you are working on is firm’. It’s the oldest law of engineering: ‘A solid base makes a very good foundation’. So, we have always been assuming, that since our genes match, we must be related… has anyone really tried it out I wonder?

Now, there is one more point that my sister pointed out to me… Quote Sharvari: ‘If we assume your theory of evolution to be true, then why haven’t the micro-organisms from which all the other plants and animals evolved vanished.’ Real nice observation sis, only you’re committing the mistake, millions of other people have been committing from eons. Here is our problem – we humans tend to form groups, it has been the worst thing that can be attributed to us. If two things (here things can refer to any item under and beyond the blue sky) show some similarities, we immediately segregate them into a single group, when on the other hand there are so many things, which are not similar about them… but as always, we cannot teach a pompous fool, and man is the most pompous fool that is there in the market.

This bad quality has led us to segregate the micro-organisms under one entity. And our mind has inculcated this habit so solidly; we won’t even know we are committing a mistake unless someone points it out to us. So what mistake has my sister committed is the first question that may pop to your mind (i.e. if you are thinking and reading, if else your mind is somewhere else, you might not register a single fact). Well the mistake of thinking that micro-organisms are a single entity is something like a man having perfect vision who puts on a mask of blindness.

People, when we think of micro-organisms, our brain (of which we are so proud) immediately procures the info from a file stored in our brain… onto which due to constant hammering, the micro-organisms have been stored as a single entity. Wherein the truth is, that there are more varieties of micro-organisms present on the surface of your keyboard then there are people living in the city of Pune (and you thought that only toilets were dirty). So if their numbers are so large, why in God’s name did we think that they all would be of the same type?

What I have been trying to say from the last two paragraphs is, how can we classify them all as a single species when we know that their population beats us by a mind-numbing number (and we are afraid of population explosion). So, now what does the population of the micro-organisms have to do with our population? If you’re looking for similarities, then there are none that I can point out to you. But therein lies the funniest thing.

The difference in the types of the micro-organisms has helped define the chart of Evolution. If you are not still understanding, here is an example for what I have been trying to convey:

Let’s say we have three types of micro-organisms… A, B & C. Now, A lands up in a place where he feels that it is much more safer and better to evolve into something that can’t move. And so A decides to evolve into a tree. While B, whose brain (don’t think simple organisms are so simple, they’re far more complex, than most of the complex organisms present) feeds him with the fact that if he were moving much faster he would have more chances of survival and so B decides to evolve into an animal. And C, who wants nothing to do with this evolution, decides to remain a simple organism.

What has this stupid example got to do with evolution? Well it has everything that I have been trying to state and exactly where my sister got confused. If we know, that there are such tens of thousands of species present just nearby. How on earth did we end up saying that, why didn’t the micro-organisms all evolve. It’s exactly same as saying: Why don’t black people have fair kids? Why doesn’t a Sardar reproduce to give birth to a Gujarati son. It’s because lineage is very important.

Lineage is omnipresent in every micro-organism. A banyan tree has a lineage through which we can come to know, from exactly what micro-organism this gigantic tree has evolved.(although I don’t think that this kind of study is possible, not at least currently) And believe me, the banyan tree which came from a particular type of micro-organism, that same organism hasn’t evolved to form a mango tree. Do you now understand what I am trying to say? Micro-organisms did evolve into complex species and in this process the organisms were completely wiped out forming or evolving into new species. But there are so many varieties of them and that’s why, they haven’t completely vanished.

It’s because those that did evolve, went kaput from their basic forms and evolved into superior beings. But those that still remain in their basic formats… those are the micro-organisms we are currently seeing. Before I wrap this chapter up – Some food for thought… did you folks really believe that tigers, apes, mangoes, watermelons all evolved from the same micro-organisms… if yes, it’s time you started looking at the larger picture. Time you moved; from the small well of knowledge you have and take a dip in the vast ocean of knowledge that you are so perfectly ignorant about! Cheerio!