Dear friends, As part of my quest to understand the nuances behind the working of the human body I attended a journal club organized by the zzzzz department. The meeting went on well until an idividual wanted to know how exactly a protein secreted in the cytoplasm found its way into the Mitochondria ? the powerhouse. There are two schools of thought : clutching and pulling. This individual was familiar with both the schools but he just wanted to initiate a discussion (intentionally or unintentionally). And that opened the pandoras box!! The cell biologists said that based on established PramaNams (experiments done, published/cited in Nature/Science/Cell ...., and individuals awarded with Nobel Prizes) it has got to be xxxx. They went on and said that to confirm this you got to talk to your bosses and really read up lots and lots of litterature. The biochemists didnt agree to this and counter argued and presented their established PranaNams (equally well published/cited in Nature and acknowledged with Nobel Prizes) and were quite convinced that its nonsensical to think xxxx is the mechanism when yyyy is obvious. What started as a genuine fact finding exercise gradually turned ugly. Some of the members failed to see that they are amidst a large gathering and hence need some decorum. Instead they started asking questions like "prove to ME", "show ME", "convince ME" as if he is the monarch of the entire populace. While adiyEn was caught in the cross fire something stuck me. How fortunate this ignorant soul is in that his little protein that wants to reach the Mitochondria and keep him alive is doing its duty irrespective of whether he knew how it accomplished it or what others swear is the only way by which it would do it. I wonder whether attending these meetings would help me to make the protein transport more efficient. I dont think so. On leaving the meeting, I asked yet another passive audience if he understood why they were so ugly in defending their theory. He laughed at me and said "Simple. Poverty. The fear of loosing their grant and potential doctoral students. If these people are really after science they would collaborate more closely and sincerely and design drugs that would not have the "bite a pill and get a dozen side effects for free" consequence. I rest. adiyEn R.Srinivasan This Eye is precious protect it!! This I is dangerous destroy it!!!
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