‘Every life-form exists for a purpose, connected with another’

 

 

 

OFTEN, history is considered to be an account of human activity alone. However, when one meets Pranay Lal, a biochemist and an author and a caricaturist, one realises that history began shaping up long time before humans had arrived on the scene. One realises that human beings represent one life-form in the long natural history.

Pranay Lal, who works in the spheres of public health and environment, is author of two simply wonderful books ‘Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent’ and the latest ‘Invisible Empire: The Natural History of Viruses’ that come across as fine blend of science, history, and story-telling. ‘Indica’ won the best non-fiction debut award at the Tata Lit Fest as well as the World Book Fair Award-2017.

In his own admission, Lal loves grappling with complex, real-world problems. He thinks of himself as a Big Picture’ guy. And, given the fascinating accounts of natural history he has presented in these two books, and proposes to present in upcoming books, one finds that his self-assessment is no exaggeration. A conversation with him comes as a refreshing, enriching, and insightful exercise. While in city for the Vidarbha Literary Festival-2023, The Hitavada’ caught up with Pranay Lal for an interview. It offered an insight into the amazing world full of diversity and deep connect between various life-forms.

Q. You are a biochemist, an author, and above all, a curious man. Probably, this curiosity led you to study what took shape of your first book ‘Indica’. It is a wonderful mix of India’s geological history and ecological past. Why is the understanding of the natural history of the land, as diverse as India, necessary?

A. We are leaving the world worse off for our children. They will have less time and will be resource-crunched to salvage these complex problems we leave behind for them. Understanding the past, especially the Earth's processes that keep it in balance, is critical. We need to understand the piece we take for granted. These include soils, gravel, rock, mud, water, air, and everything. We have assigned places as wastelands and creatures as good or evil based on our utility function. We must now appreciate that each landscape and every life-form exists for a purpose. Each landscape and each life-form is connected with another. Nothing in nature is waste. Remove one and alter them, and the consequences are devastating. The study of deep natural history provides a deeper, more critical understanding and appreciation of the natural world. It helps develop critical thinking skills and scientific literacy, as well as foster a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world. Scientists and others can make better and more informed decisions about several emergencies that we face today.

Q. In an era when the world is making rapid strides in technology and there is an obsession with AI-ML, youngsters and teachers are more inclined towards human history than natural history. So, does it mark the end of basi sciences?

A. Not at all. I think machines can neither replace nor excite human imagination and creativity. The challenge currently is that we do so much hair-splitting, and have silo-ed our disciplines in the sciences. There are very few who have a Big Picture understanding of how the future should look. Basic sciences must, as the word suggests, come to basics. What I mean by this is that it should seek answers for large problems using basic analytical tools. These start by asking more why’ questions before we answer ‘how’, what’, when’, and where’. The current myopia is to trust technology implicitly. And that it will find answers to all our problems. The tragedy of our over-reliance on technology is that machines do not understand why the problem exists in the first place. Machines don't see nature and nature's services as part of the solution. I wonder what answer ChatGPT would give!

Q. India is emerging as the fastest-growing economy on the global scene. What role can research play in boosting this growth?

A. Research is critical but one must ask what kind of research? Research is not just lab or field-based but also critical inquiry and critical thinking. There are very few who sit back and think through confounding problems. Economics has always been devoid of ecology. Economics assigns values based on willingness to pay and willingness to accept. We need to find common ground where ecology is the first condition for growth. No society can function without ecological services that provide us with oxygen and clean air, water, and soil. The challenge is that we cannot idiot-proof economics given that there are too many uncertainties in that discipline. We need to work within natural boundaries. Currently, we don't understand how nature's myriad processes work. We are also not making more attempts to understand it either. Just as we don't understand how banks and other human-made mysteries function. Or don't function!

Q. Being an author and a researcher both at a time, there must be the pulls of the forces described by William Blake in the following words, “Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.” What has been your experience?

A. This quote reminds me of a survival mechanism that exists in nature. Mark Roth of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle conducted a very interesting experiment with hydrogen sulphide (H²S) to show how life may have emerged and survived in cycles. In high doses, hydrogen sulphide is lethal to organisms but, in 2010, Roth showed that when organisms are exposed to a sub-lethal dose of the gas, their bodies go into a coma-like condition. The movement of muscles ceases, the sensation in the nerves diminishes and vital functions like the beating of the heart and breathing are greatly reduced. Such effects are seen in virtually every organism, ranging from microbes to worms and mice. A higher dose of H²S would kill the animal, and a slightly-lower-than-lethal dose would only make it lethargic. As soon as the dose of H²S is reduced considerably, even after the animal has gone into coma, the effect of the gas wears off and the animal wakes up from its slumber. This experiment proves that it is possible to exist in a state between death and life, and the state in which the organism remains can be manipulated by the level of H²S (and perhaps other gases too). When conditions were adverse, some life-forms probably remained at rest, only to wake up when conditions were favourable once again. Roth’s experiment has proven to be critical to our understanding of how life may have emerged and how life-forms may have survived changing conditions.

But the larger question is, what is life? Scientists have long struggled to define it but most agree that life has three essential properties. First, living systems can self-assemble, which is against natures tendency towards chaos, disorder, and destruction. Second, life is a self-sustaining chemical system possessing the ability to evolve with and adapt to changing environments. Third, life is an interlinked chemical process designed to transfer energy from one organism to another. This means that life does not exist in isolation but depends on some source of energy. Virtually all life depends on other life-forms to survive, multiply and evolve. Different life-forms come together and shape their environment and that of others, making survival the game of life and death— possible. And then, what of viruses and ineffective proteins like prions which otherwise show no sign of life unless they find a host cell and multiply? How fascinating is this? I am sure Roth would be able to convince Blake that he may have got it the other way around!

Q. Natural history encompasses giants like dinosaurs and mammoths to invisible viruses and RNA stands. In human history, there must have been various references to these evolutionary processes, in respective languages and literature. In the Indian context, which explanation of evolution of life do you find the most profound?

A. Our understanding of evolution is still emerging. I am not sure I have read all literature and legends to comment on it, but I think there is no single text which explains it all. I am fond of quoting the story of Raktabeej, the mythical demon in Hindu mythology. According to legend, whenever a drop of his blood fell on the ground, it gave rise to another demon like him. The only way to defeat Raktabeej was to prevent his blood from touching the ground. The Hindu goddess Kali is said to have defeated Raktabeej by drinking his blood as it flowed from his body. To me this legend bears semblance to lytic viruses, the infinite propensity to multiply. Goddess Kali, on the other hand, could well be a process like CRISPR-CAS.

Q. In your opinion, how good or bad will human life be in the future?

A. I think things will get worse before they get better. The price our children and their grandchildren will have to pay is tremendous. I see an image that is a bit reminiscent of ‘The Children of Men’, the dystopian novel by P D James. The book is set in a future world where human infertility has caused the collapse of society and widespread chaos. It explores themes of hope, despair, and the meaning of humanity in a world without children and a bleak nature. But eventually, there is a ray of hope. For now, we need to muster all our resources, and nations must leave behind differences and work together. What’s preventing us from doing this is that no one is willing to pay for it. Like I said earlier, economics always trumps ecology.