Friday, September 30, 2022

Amazing Animals

 

Humans are born with a gender. It is either male or female and in some cases as a transgender.  But we do not have the choice/capability to change our gender as this capability the Mother Nature has not given us. Even though it is possible with surgery and medical procedure to change but the surgery is spread over a long period, expensive and only done on the advice of medical practitioners and psychologists in some cases only. The option is either/ or only.

Most of us have seen the famous blockbuster film the “Jurassic Park”.  The picture is based on creation of an island, where the dinosaurs are hatched from eggs in the lab and then released on the island for the visitors to get a glimpse of them. In Jurassic Park all the dinosaurs are male so as to keep the population in check. But in the end we see the velociraptors population growing, due to breeding. We are also shown their nests and eggs. Finally the island had to be destroyed so that it does not become a threat to Human population. How many of us have wondered as to how this was possible that velociraptors were able to mate and have off springs even though only males were created in the lab? The answer lies in the beginning of the movie where in the auditorium the procedure of creation is revealed. The DNA of the vlociraptor had a broken link and this link was restored in the lab by using the link from the DNA of African Green Frog. This African green frog has an amazing ability given to it by nature that it has the capability to chnange its sex. If the population of frog consists of males, then some frogs change their sex to female. This process is called protogyny and occurs when a population is too heavily skewed towards male. Inadvertently the scientists at Jurassic Park gave this ability to the velociraptors due to a DNA link of African frog being given to the DNA chain of velociraptor and hence some changed over to female as the population was only of males and the result was the increase in their population.  

Even though humans do not have this capability but a large number of animals have this capability besides African frog. Some of them are bisexual like copperhead snake which are capable of virgin birth as females fertilize their own eggs.  Some butterflies have both the characteristics of male and female and this normally happens in one out of 10,000 cases. Hawkfish has an amazing ability that it starts off as a female that can morph into male if required when situation calls for it and again change back to female if required. Humped Wrasse can change over from female to male. Sea Bass found in USA can also change over female to male depending upon supply and demand. Clownfish born of one sex can change over to other if necessary. Male bearded dragons, green sea turtles, cardinal, Banana slys and common reed frog, etc all have these capabilities.

I do not know whether we humans were given this capability to change or not or if given we have lost it due to some reasons or our inability to exploit this amazing capability. In some cases of animals like sea, bearded dragons, etc this change can even occur at the time of birth and is strongly dependent upon sea and sand temperatures.

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Rear Seat Belts in Cars

 

The recent crash of a Mercedes car in which two persons sitting, in the rear seat died, who were not wearing seat belt, but the two persons sitting in front seat wearing seat belt survived with injuries and one may require surgery. This incident brings to highlight the requirement of wearing seat belt by all passengers. Wearing seat belt does not guarantee no injuries but may save one's life.
I have heard of excuses like, it is not required, which law or rule, it is cumbersome, it spoils clothes, it is a short journey and on and on but not a single reason given for wearing seat belts.
Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) makes it mandatory for passengers occupying front facing seats (whether front or rear) to wear seat belts. This is given in Chapter VI (Control of Traffic) rule 138, clause 3 (2) of the CMVR.
Therefore as per rules there is no ambiguity that all front facing passengers are to wear seat belts. The problem is the lack of awareness and will to follow the rules which is missing in our citizens.
In 2005 Govt of India had issued a notification making it mandatory for car manufacturers to provide seat belts not only in front seats but also in rear seats. During a drive in south Delhi as per information published about 150 challans were issued for not wearing rear seat belts in private cars and taxis in just two hours.
The issue is compounded when one puts seat cover in the vehicle and invariably if one is not careful the rear seat belts are buried in the seat cover.
Please make sure to wear seat belts in rear seats also in order to safeguard your life and ensure that seat covers do not cover seat belts in the rear..