I was fortunate to attend a "Tree Growers Association" meeting in my city recently. It was a big eye opener as I could see productive participation from government bodies, industry as well as farmers. Add to it the fact that this meeting (monthly) has been going on for 150 months straight, serious stuff ain't it?
Wonderful people sharing their hands-on experiences, problems and solutions in a very informal ambience. I loved it.
The focus of the whole meeting was on natural farming - particularly agroforestry with the so called cash crops - trees for which industrial demand is huge.
There was this 'ancient scriptures quoting, nature loving' genetic scientist who shared a real life 'science trying to control nature and failing horribly' story in a superb narrative style. Am glad to share the same here:
India is an important producer of Sugar from Sugar Cane. Many pests ride this crop at will and some of them just destroy the crop completely (specific types of Sugar Cane Borers). Our scientists tried various means to control this menace and could not find a local solution to this problem.
So, they decided to import parasites from Abroad that were successful in controlling / eradicating S.C Borers in other countries, mainly Japan.
They invited Mr. Trichogramma Japonicus and Ms. Trichogramma Chilonis (you may swap the Mr. and Ms. tag as you please!) and unleashed them on the native S.C Borers thinking that they have found a means to conquer the pest and in a way, Nature itself.
Little did they know that Nature had a huge surprise for them in store!
These two creatures fell in love (also with the alien climate!) and started breading some unknown species rapidly and totally forgot our S.C. Borers!!
Our scientists had no clue as to what to do. They scratched their heads in absolute confusion for a while and came up with an innovative and apt name for the new species (Science needs to 'tag' everything it touches you know?).
Trichogramma Confusum was thus born in the fields of India as an unexpected gift to Science! No, I am not kidding!!!!!
(Google won't reveal it because scientific mistakes like these are never published unless an insider blows a whistle; sadly, this incident happened before whistle blower culture was born).
(Google won't reveal it because scientific mistakes like these are never published unless an insider blows a whistle; sadly, this incident happened before whistle blower culture was born).
The S.C Borers are still happily riding the crops, confusum or not and our Scientists ended up with more problems to handle than what they began with!
Another quote from this same scientist kind of 'shook up' even the sleepy ones in the audience and nailed a great message:
'In your quest to make quick profits, you expect and attempt to speed up the growth of slow growing trees, say Teak and the likes of it, by various means against natural order. I ask you this question. Try answering it with unwavering conscience. How many of you would want your girl child to reach puberty faster? Say at 7 or 8 years instead of 20?'
Sadly, this question is not hypothetical anymore...This is already happening in developed countries though by unintended consequences (chemicals used in food/Junk Food/BT food, easy access through media to information not appropriate for that age etc...).
When god particles try to 'create' or speed up more partcles, it has to face its own music, all the time.
'Higgs! Bosan! Remember? We are all Star dust!'
When god particles try to 'create' or speed up more partcles, it has to face its own music, all the time.
'Higgs! Bosan! Remember? We are all Star dust!'
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