Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published on 24 November 1859; its advance publicity had assured the sale of all the thousand copies on the same day. It continues to make deep impact on our ideas of biological evolution through the process of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. It is an elegant scientific theory based on detailed scientific observations. The subject was perhaps just ripe at this point of time for such investigations and the air was full of it. Indeed, there were many competing claims for the discovery; but the Newtonian foundation provided by Darwin made it really acceptable to the scientific mind. There have been remarkable advances since then, and the leaps of thought present in it have now been covered through systematic palaeontological studies. The extensive findings at Lake Turkana in Kenya by Leaky and his team, for example, have been valuable in this respect. Yet those naturalists a hundred and fifty years ago could have never imagined the researches on stem cells being carried out currently. The interest is multilateral.

The long history of life is a fascinating document. Fossils records continue to unfold the biological diversity that had come around some four hundred million years in the past. Large teams of palaeobiologists are busy in collecting and analysing more than a hundred thousand fossil specimens. But the data have many dimensions and there is confidence as well as wariness in the study. At the other extreme, massive investments are being made in tailoring life to specific demands. There is the commercial impetus in promoting genetically fashioned products. The “evil technology foisted by greedy corporations” on the consumer society is a foreboding sign full of apprehensions. The 800-kg pumpkin is one example of it. The worldwide popularity of French fries well illustrates the money-motivated organisations that spring up in our midst; it has urged the food giants to introduce engineered potatoes on a large scale. The saying goes that “human desire shapes the plants that then shape human desire.” There is truth in it. The overall picture is that of life in the service of man; rather than man trying to know and understand life, it is gratification that rules his conduct. The sense of direction that gives meaning to things is not available in these pursuits; there is also a good deal of non-science in the entire business. The tragedy of our time is, science as a source of power is more domineering than science as a branch of knowledge. This has led to unpleasant consequences.

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