WIDE ANGLE

The current standstill due to the COVID-19 situation appears to be the best time to analyze the best and worst in sapiens. Talking from a student’s perspective, the pandemic, on one hand, stripped off our opportunities for internships. On the other hand, many found new avenues and opportunities to explore. Let me give you an example:

 

Our lab (Vaidya Lab) at DBS-TIFR has been conducting an online weekly book club since July. The entire idea of organizing an online book club stemmed from a discussion on internships and access to laboratories. We had said no to so many students for an internship during this stretch since physically interning in our lab wasn't possible. Thus we came up with the idea of an online book club and picked "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" by Robert Sapolsky as the subject. Here, Sapolsky beautifully brings out neurological aspects of some of our common behaviours from a non-academic perspective. Through his book, Sapolsky embarks with us on a journey from seconds to minutes to hours to days to weeks to months to years to decades to centuries and beyond(!) of the possible phenomenon that plays a crucial role in our current behaviour. Furthermore, this book busts many myths around behaviours associated with gender, sexuality, privilege, hierarchy, biases, and many more!

 

Vidita says, “This book is way more than a neuroscientist's engagement with complex behaviours and neural circuits that regulate them. For me, this has been such a wonderful opportunity to interact with the millennials/Gen Z/Gen Y so much younger than me and to learn from them their views on the wide array of topics. We have dwindled in numbers as time has passed but the interest stays high and our discussions have left with us with plenty of food for thought”.

 

Point of view and experience of book club members:

 

Bandhan Goyal: There is a long chain of causal events that led me to the very first email regarding a book discussion. I have discussed that in detail in my future article “Hiatus to Biology”. Obviously, not being from a Biology background, I didn’t know who the author is and what the book was about. The only two words that caught my eye were “Vidita Vaidya” – someone I  really wished to interact with, though I never imagined this chance would come so early in my career; ergo I signed up for the club. 

 

It’s been an amazing experience, I’ve completed the book, and it has offered me so many perspectives, pushing me to the next level of open/broad-mindedness. I really wish this book, together with “Sapiens”, be added to either the school or at least to the undergraduate curriculum, irrespective of the field of study the students are engaged in. 

 

I learned a lot from it, specifically the neurobiology at play behind our behaviour, the way the environment shapes us and our decisions, and not just in the present but all the way back to human evolution. The book beautifully explains the science behind our actions, our thoughts, and our feelings. Chapter 16 is my favourite as it talks about some very important topics like Neuro-Law, Free-Will, etc., and also beautifully summarizes the whole book.

 

Us-/Them-ing and Pseudospeciation were big blows, portraying the reality of the world, practised by almost everyone consciously and unconsciously. The author explained the ways and the accuracy with which the neuropsychological tests can predict adult behaviour. Other important factors in the same being Gene-Environment interactions and Epigenetics. It was not just the vast factual knowledge that I gained but also the author’s take on various scientific methods and research was refreshing. 

In addition to the book, the discussions that took place were very insightful. Diverse views from fellow participants and moderators, from a scientific aspect, increased my knowledge and awareness manifolds, while also clarifying all my queries including the disagreements with the author. Overall, it gave me more clarity on how nature works and what led it to work the way it does.

 

Tanya Pattnaik: As an undergraduate science student in India, the cards are already stacked against us with the limited exposure and research experience that is available. When the pandemic broke out, I couldn’t have possibly anticipated what it meant for my carefully curated internship plans. I returned from my mid-semester break to a closed campus and rapidly spiralled into uncertainty. Taking it in my stride, I started looking for more opportunities suited to the situation that would help me grow as a student and a scientist. It was a sheer chance that a senior I was talking to told me about a reading project that was going to be started by Dr Vidita Vaidya’s lab. As any other student would have, I jumped at the chance of being a part of an initiative involving a group from one of the best research establishments in the country. However, for me, this was also a chance to interact with a group whose work I had followed since my second year in college. I remember during my first-year internship, while waiting for the simulations to run, I would listen to Dr Vidita’s TEDx talk and her “Chai and Why” sessions. I believe that was what prompted me to join a neurogenesis lab for my second summer internship. Thus having this opportunity to connect with a bunch of neuroscientists was like a dream come true! 

 

That being said, under these unique circumstances, I did not know what to expect. We were people from different backgrounds, geographic locations, with different degrees discussing what can be called a genre-shattering book, in an attempt to understand human behaviour. Logging into the first meeting, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the conversations flow so easily, different ideas amalgamating beautifully, and constantly keeping us thinking. Months after the first meeting, I still look forward to these weekly book club sessions with enthusiasm. Listening to people discuss the same chapter from so many different perspectives is really refreshing. The sessions are moderated by different people each time, and everyone has a unique touch to make it interesting. For example, when Shweta moderates, she likes to end by asking the participants their favourite part of that session’s chapter. With BG, I always look forward to how he relates his interpretation to insight relevant to the current climate. It is amazing to know that what started as a conversation about the privilege of internships has morphed into this book club, where I meet and connect with so many people I would not have under “normal” circumstances.

 

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Point of view by:

 

Vidita Vaidya, Neuroscientist and Professor, DBS-TIFR, Mumbai

Bandhan Goyal, BSc student, IGNOU 

Tanya Pattnaik, Integrated MSc student, NISER, Bhubaneshwar

 

Collated by:

 

Amartya Pradhan, Junior Research Scholar, DBS-TIFR, Mumbai