Cover Photo: Mahesh Vaze

“Children of migrant workers who clean the Kumbh area.”

Migrant sanitation workers arrive at the Kumbh Mela looking for work. At the deprived end of a wide and unforgiving class-divide where others come to seek divine grace, these workers hope to keep the wolves from their doors just a little longer.

In this photograph of the children of migrant workers, Mensan Mahesh Vaze has managed to capture honest expressions that only the innocence of childhood can offer.

You can follow Mahesh’s flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/54655879@N07/

1

My Dear Wo-Mensans, Don’t get me wrong –the men of Mensa are encouraged to listen

in on this conversation –but I address this to you.

With rape, marital abuse, female feticide splashed across our news media with such unfailing regularity, the media (including the men in media) paints a picture of ‘man’ as the transgressor and, consequently, as the sole person responsible for righting the wrong. But rather than defining it as a war of the sexes, gender equality needs to be addressed at an ideological level. It is essential that we continue the conversation of women’s emancipation not as ‘you’ and ‘we’, but as an ‘us’.

While ‘slut-walks’ and ‘girl power’ have been inducted into social parlance we need to build a larger vocabulary that defines ‘equality’ and the goals that it aims to achieve. Women’s empowerment is always associated with powerful, achieving women who rise in corporate or social hierarchies. These are super-women who balance career and family; or who rise against all odds to emerge as shining beacons of hope to others. While these are laudable examples and indeed remind us of what women are capable of, the very stereotype of the ‘achieving woman’ argues against women’s equality.

Caitlin Moran, a columnist for The Times and author of ‘How to be a woman’ speaks of the need to reclaim the term ‘feminism’. Feminism isn’t about sloganeering or being anti-men. It is about acknowledging that you are equal to men. She argues that equality for women does not necessarily have to be equated with achieving as much as or more than a man. It instead includes the right to be an under-achiever; put on a few pounds and not worry about it; not have life’s plans dictated by the ticking of a ‘biological clock’; choose comfortable shoes over painful heeled one –in short, to not treat yourself as one big ‘To Do’ list.

Forget about what the men think –do you give allow yourself these choices? Do you allow other women to make these choices? Think about it and carry this conversation forward.

~N V Krishnamoorthy, Editor, MInd

In this Issue: Do Boys Really Have All The Fun? …2 Welfare Economics And The Woman’s One-man Show …7 Lensa: Spotted Munia …8 Gender Equations In The Animal Kingdom …9 Why So Serial? …12 Unspoken …13 Solutions …13

Submissions: Send in your articles and contributions in plain text format and pictures in high resolution .jpg format to:

editor.mensaindia@gmail.com

Disclaimer: All contents in this magazine are opinions of the individual authors and contributors. Neither Mensa India, the society, its office bearers nor the editors are responsible for any content or views expresses.

Feedback: Like it, love it or hate it? Tell us how to make the MInd magazine better. Write in to the editor at

editor.mensaindia@gmail.com

2

Do Boys Really Have All The Fun?

Right from the point that Eve emerged from the rib of Adam, Human history –both mythological and recorded –has always been about ‘Man’. Women have enjoyed honourable mentions but far lesser prominence. It took much time for women’s equality and rights to be acknowledged, and even more for them to be granted. But complete equality is still a distant dream.

Today, our social dynamics are undergoing a radical change with people on both sides of the gender-divide working earnestly to bridge the gap. There is much being done and yet, much, much more to be accomplished before we can claim to live in an egalitarian society. But some

argue the pace at which social reforms –especially those that require drastic changes in conventional perceptions –need to be brought about gradually. Gandhiji, in his autobiographical work, My Experiments with Truth, instructs that change, when it deals with people changing their world-views, must be brought about such that the transgressor realizes his mistakes and reforms, so that his victim and he might co-exist in harmony. But in a wave of neo-liberation, are we forcing opinions on people merely for political correctness? Does the onus lie entirely with men to change themselves to create an equal world or are women demanding too much while conceding too little? To paraphrase a popular movie star who sells two-wheelers to young women, ‘Do boys really have all the fun?’

Priyanka Deosthali presents an argument of why men don’t really have it easy in an unequal world:

Being a feminist at heart, I have often fought belligerently for the “unfairness” that a woman has to face. But being in a corporate team of 30, with only a couple of other female colleagues, often puts me in an all-male company at lunch, tea or other hangouts. The “boy-talk” that I am exposed to in such situations has given me a completely new perspective about the life a man faces.

All those ladies out there, who think that all “boy-talk” comprises of booze and babes, need a reality check. The talks consist of much, much more –and often unanimously conclude with “Things are just so easy for a woman!!” Being a woman, I try to disagree with them; but then, a little voice from the corner of my mind tells me that this may actually be true! And, not without reason –I do come across instances where it is so

obvious that things have been unfair for the men and they have always been so.

Quick questions: How many of us had that very strict math teacher at school, who handed out canings liberally to the guys while the girls were let off with a slight warning? How many of you guys in school have shouldered blame for a mischief caused by that girl sitting next to you? How many of those bikers out there have paid heavy fines to the traffic police, while that girl on the Activa, who jumped a signal, was let go when she made an innocent and cute puppy face, looking like she was about to cry? How many of software engineers out there have pulled all-nighters at work, while your female colleagues were asked to go home early, all because they are ‘women’? Why? They were paid the same weren’t they? And don’t women keep fighting for equality all the time? Where does equality go in a situation like this? Or is it just by convenience?

These are only minor instances, but unfair-

What’s your take?

3

ness happens at very large levels. My colleague Vijay would do anything to be a musician. To be honest, he is bad at his job –all because he doesn’t like it! Well Vijay belongs to a well-to-do family, and his parents don’t exactly depend on him to put food on the table. So I suggested to him, “Why don’t you give it a chance? Take a break and plunge into it. Money may be less at first, but then you won’t have any regrets about it.” He made a face that said “You don’t understand anything do you?” He then proceeded to explain the complications to me: “My parents expect me to be the ‘man of the house’; to take up the responsibilities –financials and otherwise. For starters I need a stable income. Also I am 28 and they are looking for a bride for me. No girl would marry a jobless guy, no matter how well his family does.” He ended all this with “Its easy for you, no one expects you to support.”

Taking financial responsibility of the household comes inevitably to the men –if a man fails in this, he is perceived to have failed entirely. While financial support is ‘expected’ of men, women may ‘choose’ to do it voluntarily. So suppose, a woman decides to give up a job and stay at home and better her cooking, knitting or embroidery skills, it is just her lifestyle choice. But if a man decided the same, he is loathed, frowned upon and called names. In our society, a man is just not given the choice. He must be the breadwinner of the family.

Reema, my neighbor, has always been a working woman. Her husband decided to quit his job to study at a premier Indian business school. Since then, where ever Reema went, she was looked upon with awe and respect for being so supportive of the family. But all she did was work… like she always did. What if it was the other way around? What if Reema studied and her husband supported? So what? He is supposed

to be doing that, isn’t he? Have we ever thought about all those husbands of such housewives? Don’t they solely take up the financial responsibility of the family? Have we ever stopped and applauded them?

So far I have been talking about all those familial responsibilities shouldered by men. But then take a look at this –men ‘have’ to be the brave ones, protecting the sisters and female friends and colleagues. A perfect hero is the one who can help the damsel in distress. But, who comes if the dude himself needs help? Oh! Well, he can fend for himself –he is a ‘Man’!

Crying is something we women take so much liberty in doing. Crying at smallest things helps us unburden our heads of something deeply troubling. All of this crying is considered normal for a woman, even if she is crying for a broken nail. Men, however, are just not allowed to cry, no matter how disturbed they may be. A crying man is perceived to be weak. They must be strong enough to hide their own tears and show the world a brave face.

And then women have a complete set of expectations from a man. Women expect men to be sensitive and strong at the same time. Women expect that men must have Shah Rukh Khan’s charm, Hrithik Roshan’s looks and Sunny Deol’s “Dhai kilo ka haath” –all in one. Men must be overly expressive of their feelings of love. And oh! They must also be the first ones to express their love. Men face the herculean –almost impossible –task of trying to understand a woman. And when he feels like he has understood her, he has to prove it and keep her happy! When it comes to love, men really have to do most of the work!

You don’t agree? Well our movies show that too! Take Maine Pyar Kiya, for instance. So

What’s your take? (Contd.)

4

Suman and Prem fall in love and are then cruelly separated by their fathers. Suman’s father challenges Prem to earn Rs.1000 in a month in order to prove his love for Suman. Prem gives up his silver spoon and all that comes with it to slog and slog and earn the 1000 bucks and finally wins over Suman. And everyone lives happily ever after.

So what was Suman doing all this while? Weeping and talking to that pigeon? Hey! But she was comfortably living under her father’s roof. All of this has been completely accepted by the audience. No one thought that Suman’s contribution to this “Great Love Story” was next to negligible? No one did, because again, that’s expected of a guy!

No one person or even the society as a whole can be blamed for turning a blind eye towards the bias that a man faces. Things that happened in the past, the stories that we heard from our grandparents when we were kids, and other things we see or hear or observe as we grow up etch a visual template in our heads as to how a man or a

woman should be. The general image of a woman is that of being physically weaker than man. Hence we presume that men must be emotionally and mentally stronger as well and that’s the root of all the different responsibilities that a man has to shoulder all by himself.

In this age, when women have become outgoing and economically independent, we can see a tiny wave of change in their viewpoint towards men. Even so, this change cannot happen overnight. For the beliefs and perceptions rooted in our society since ages to change would take a significant amount of time and efforts. Most importantly, change cannot happen unless you truly and completely believe it should!

Priyanka Deosthali is a software engineer by profession. She develops apps for iPhones and iPads, leading a team of 10 developers. Outside of work, she is a singer with many years of classical training. She loves to cook, is an avid reader and muses at pri112.wordpress.com and indianwoes.wordpress.com Priyanka makes guest appearances on Twitter at @Preeedeee

Trisha Kothari presents an argument of why it’s a man’s world after all:

Women have it all. There are several minority programs which gives women a competitive advantage over men in the fields of politics, education, and law. In fact, as a woman today, you are not that restricted by gender stereotypes and can pursue any field you want –from being a ballerina to corporate czar.” This is often the counter-argument propped up to support a sweeping term gaining popularity in recent times: “reverse inequality”. Is reverse inequality truly an existing phenomenon? Upon

closer examination of society today and the effects of present-day protocols on gender inequality, it emerges that it is still a man’s world today. The day when you won’t be discriminated on the basis of whether your DNA contains the Y chromosome has still to arrive.

One of the key arguments that people throw to highlight the non-existent reverse inequality phenomenon is the edge that women are given in consideration for positions in several fields, particularly in politics and business. After all, in several fields and applications, if a man and women with the exact same skills and experience

What’s your take? (Contd.)

5

apply for a job, often companies attempt to increase “diversity” by hiring the woman! However, critics often fail to look at the reasons and implications behind this small competitive advantage. Consider being the one in 3 women in an engineering classroom with 50 other men; or being the only woman running for a position on the Gram Panchayat. Sounds really encouraging, right? The fact that a woman can bear the pressures of being a minority in the crowd and still emerge with the same skills and experience as a man speaks immensely about her potential to handle pressure and perform a good job. In fact, she deserves the position more than a man, since she allowed herself to truly excel beyond the gender stereotypes. Moreover, in several nations, there exists a 33% quota for women in the Parliament. While the whole quota debate would take another column space, it is interesting to look back and think of where there is an attempt to maintain gender equality. The government is attempting to have a greater say of women in the Parliament. However, the 33% (instead of 50%, which is the real representative population of women in any nation) figure emerges from the fact that not too many women are interested in taking part in politics. Are women biologically incapable or uninterested in having their voices heard? Of course not! However, several societal factors come into play leading to fewer women believing that they are capable of playing a role in the politics of their village, state, or nation. And the very existence of these factors indicates that it is still a man’s world.

While several disregard these unconscious gender stereotypes, they undoubtedly exist. In a recent study (Source: American Psychology Association; http://www.apa.org/research/action/ share.aspx), two groups of 10 to 12 year old boys and girls were asked to take a test. As expected,

the performances of the gender groups were similar. The test was repeated, with a small modification for the groups to mention their gender before the test began. This lead to a deviation of 10 points between the genders, with the girls performing worse than before once they were made consciously reminded that they were women. A deviation of 10 points is not chance. This has to be a factor weighed in by society. Why is it that women perform much worse when they are conscious of their genders? This boils down to years of mistreatment and inequality, and the silent signals by society to the “weaker sex” that they are inferior to men. This is clearly lingering, as even groups of 10 - 12 year olds are highly aware of it. Even if these young girls disregard these unconscious stereotypes and move on, as soon as they enter adulthood, they are bombarded with questions such as “When will you get married? When will you have children?” (While men may too be asked these questions, it is interesting to note that they would often be asked more about their career rather than their marriage). Clearly, by now, the girl has the gender stereotype of the woman being inferior to the man clearly imprinted in her mind. Society will not be equal till we consider a man and woman equal in all respects. While more conscious acts of discrimination such as dowry are easier to tackle, these unconscious gender stereotypes are harder to deal with unless a strong attempt is made to change the image of women –not just in the collective outlook of society, but even inside the minds of women themselves.

And the final argument that the proponents for the existence of the reverse inequality phenomenon propose is the freedom the modern woman has today. She can pursue any career, regardless of her gender. While society may condemn a man being an artist or dancer, a

What’s your take? (Contd.)

6

woman can freely choose that option. She is also welcome in traditionally male-dominated fields such as technology or trading. Now these proponents forget several freedoms. Let us remind ourselves of these freedoms, and if women truly have them: The freedom to walk at 8 pm on the streets of New Delhi without the fear of being raped? No –women having that freedom is a ridiculous thought. The freedom to choose your partner who you will be spending the rest of your life with? No –such a freedom is still something people dream of in an emerging superpower like modern India. The freedom to be judged not on your appearance, but rather on your merits? No –a woman still is primarily judged by her looks, while men are judged by their credentials (To verify this, consider the first questions asked about the potential bride and groom in the thriving arranged marriage system: While a man is asked “What does he/his family do?”, the first question asked about a woman will be “Is she pretty?”). Till women don’t have these basic freedoms, how can we even think that the phenomenon of reverse inequality exists?

Several efforts have been made to bridge the gap between man and woman; to heal the wounds of centuries of discrimination against

women. While I strongly applaud these efforts, we are far from completion of the task. The existence of unconscious gender stereotypes; the freedoms that women still don’t have; and the reasons and implications behind “diversity ratio programs” highlight how the reverse inequality phenomenon, while a highly positive effort, is still not effective in encouraging gender equality. The truth is that until we stop viewing women as “lucky” for getting the minor benefits that her gender entails her to, and instead begin viewing men and women as complete equals, it will still be a man’s world.

Hailing from the land of money, movies, chaos and dreams (if you haven't yet figured, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay), Trisha Kothari is currently pursuing her degree in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. When she is not waking up at 3 am to code algorithms for her class, or having heated discussions with her friends on the genesis of different social phenomena, she enjoys travelling and exploring places, acting, and meeting interesting people. She makes infrequent appearances on Twitter at @trisha_kothari. Feel free to ping her at kotharitrisha@gmail.com for coffee and conversations!

About

“What’s your take?” is a column that poses an argument and invites Mensans to take a strong stand of ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’. The aim is to explore the subject –not so much as a debate, but –as an exercise in analyzing the argument from within the restricted framework of a specific stand.

If you would like to participate in “What’s your take”, drop us a mail at

editor.mensaindia@gmail.com

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Leanin.org is a global community committed to encouraging and supporting women leaning in to their ambitions. On their tumblr blog, ifuwerentafraid.tumblr.com, they are asking women to name their fears in order to face and overcome them. Check out the video link at: youtu.be/bAxQXZbhyvM

What’s your take? (Contd.)

7

Welfare Economics And The Woman’s One-Man Show

As soon as I end my introduction mentioning that I am associated with the Grameen Creative Lab (GCL), most people come back to confirm, “Ah! So you’re at the Grameen Bank, the one in Bangladesh?” Some jump a few steps further and ask for the latest on microfinance. While my work deals with neither the Grameen Bank nor microfinance, GCL is closely linked to the former (both founded by Prof. Muhammad Yunus), and I’ve had a fleeting experience with the latter.

When I first came across the Grameen Bank, the idea of microcredit, or small loans changing the standards of living for millions of poor, sounded like an overstatement. As I explored the concept in greater detail, some characteristics of the industry stood out for me. In particular, I saw that most microfinance was being given to women. In fact, of Grameen Bank’s 8.4 million borrowers, no less than 96% are female. Why?

Lending exclusively to women has several advantages for the business proposition of microfinance. As three decades of experience have proven, women are much more reliable borrowers, and are far less likely to delay or default on their loans. The loan is further secured by the income generating opportunities (such as cottage industries) that the woman borrower is expected to avail of.

Men, on the other hand, are considered unfit to handle small sums of money, and would either try to flee with, or spend the cash on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or any other of the choicest forms of abuse. Au contraire, the social impact of microfinance is overwhelmingly positive with women –a group counted among

the most poor and vulnerable sections of society. Besides alleviating personal poverty, any increase in a woman’s income is linked with a corresponding improvement in the health, nutritional and educational status of other household members –particularly children.

There are situations in which the husband runs the business, and the wife is merely a front for securing microloans. Even in such cases, the husband being obligated to ask the wife for money and repay her regularly is enough to change the social dynamics, and hopefully the socio-economics of the house as well. Once women start making visible economic contributions, growth in self-esteem, confidence and status (within the household as well as the wider community) follows, giving them a greater voice.

And what happens when that voice is not allowed to emerge?

One of the biggest health, economic, and environmental issues in rural India today is the prevalence of traditional cooking stoves. They burn inefficiently, cause higher consumption of fuel/wood, greater indoor pollution, and lead to respiratory, pulmonary and vision problems affecting some 400 million people in India, and leading to nearly 8,75,000 premature and avoidable deaths in South Asia. To tackle this silent epidemic, several players in the public, private, and social sector have come up with cheap/subsidised and efficient advanced cook stoves (ACS’s). I had the opportunity to study their adoption in rural Maharashtra. Besides variation by socio-economic categories (SECs), a surprising observation was how adoption within the same SEC varied by communities and the status of women in them. Communities in which women did not enjoy a high stature and

Development Diaries

8

participation in decision-making had a majority of households continuing with old cooking methods, wasting money on fuel, inhaling indoor smoke, and damaging their eyes, bodies, and the environment.

Thus, gender equality and women empowerment need to be seen not just as a step to improve the plight of women, but instead as a much more selfish measure to make concrete improvements in our overall social and economic landscapes. Women are not just half our population –they are the change agents installed in every family and household. They are the half that has taken upon itself the onus of securing our future and the welfare of society. Will society help them help it?

Shrey Goyal is a part of the Grameen Creative Lab team building the social business movement in India. He loves quizzing, movies, books, traveling and is attempting to learn French. Shrey tweets at @ShreyGoyal and can be contacted at me@shreygoyal.com.

Development Diaries is his column that aims to open a window into the lives at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid and highlight the conditions and situations requiring empowerment and social change. The column will analyze the effectiveness of various state and non-state forces engaged in creating the change, and explore different philosophies and methodologies of the business of doing good. The column will highlight the work done by change agents in making a measurable difference. The author ultimately hopes to help the reader realize his or her own role and responsibility in bringing greater social equity to the world that we live in.

Lensa: Spotted Munia

Birds in general, are considered to be amongst the fairest societies in the animal world when it comes to Gender Parity. In most birds, the males and females share parental duties of building nests and caring for the young ones. The fact that the males go to great lengths in order to impress a female –be it by using their vividly coloured wings or by exhibiting their most

elaborate nest-building skills –while the female can snub them and simply fly away, makes it abundantly clear that bird societies can do without any "Nari-Mukti Morcha".

In thi picture, the parent munias seem to be enjoying brunch with their chicks. And my, don't they make the perfect postcard picture of a happy family!

Camera settings and other information: Place: Seawoods, Navi Mumbai Camera: Cannon SX130 (Point-and-shoot) Tv: 1/125 Av: 5.6 ISO: 80 focal length : 60mm

~Durva Mayee

Development Diaries (Contd.)

9

Gender Equations In The Animal Kingdom

Flashback:

Some two billion years ago, The Earth was a peaceful place where amoebae and algae enjoyed their bachelorhood, and when they got bored or longed for company, they split into two –easy! ...Till someone called Natural Selection whined about job satisfaction –it had too little to choose, from a bunch of genetic clones and a couple of odd mutants –so much so for “Survival of the fittest”.

The complaints lodged went something like this “Mr. Mitosis is pretty useless when the task is to come up with something innovative. All it can do is Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. And Genetic Mutation is too slow and too random. If any measurable progress is to be made on Project Evolution, then these two should be fired with immediate effect.”

So a grand plan was hatched and Meiosis was introduced. And soon we had variety at a much lower cost. This sped up evolution. Eventually, as layoffs are not an easy option in the “natural” universe of Processes (Products are comparatively easily discarded, e.g. Dinosaurs), Mitosis was demoted, but put to use to do the mundane jobs of multiplying cells and tissues, and genetic mutation was retained to provide the ‘element of surprise’ now and then. But by far, treatment of DNA during reproduction in species was handed over to Meiosis.

Present:

Whether or not we mention it pain-stakingly with every example, the Ultimate Hero and doer of all the good, bad and ugly in Nature is the one-and-only Natural Selection. Given the theme of the issue, today we will not dwell upon who

the employers of Natural Selection were or why they complied with its demands. All we can say is that they unwittingly opened a can of earthworms –and confusingly hermaphroditic ones at that.

As an example of the confusion created: “A male has no father and cannot have sons, but he has a grandfather and can have grandsons.” No, no, this is not some puzzle that you are supposed to solve – this is a strange fact of life for a male of the hymenoptera order (that includes all bees, wasps and ants) as a result of haplodiploidy (males, haploid; females, diploid).

Societies are still grappling with the consequences of the difference in sexes, each species trying to deal with it in its own unique way. Some have formed elaborate societies with well defined division in labour. Others show their unhappiness about this whole grand plan of Evolution through violent interactions, and some have managed to duck the question altogether by resorting to parthenogenesis. But in all three ways, one truth has emerged: Life goes on!

A look at how the HEs and SHEs are doing:

The Social: 1) Bees (female dominant) 2) Lions (male dominant) 3) Bee-eaters (parity) The Violent: 4) Black-widow / praying mantis (female violent) 5) Bed-bugs (male violent) The Hermaphroditic: 6) Earthworms (both organs present through life) 7) Clown fish (born as one, can change to other) The Victorious Duckers (Parthenogenetic): 8) Aphids, stick insects and some lizards like the New Mexico Wagtail (all-female societies) Moving Closer to human societies: 9) Langurs and chimps

Book Review

10

Note: An Evolutionary Biologist will give a wary/ tired expression on having to clarify for the nth time that association of morality to animal behavior is sacrilege –as animals behave on instinct, not intellect. In other words, they are pre-programmed to behave in a particular way with little choice to move away from the trend. And yet, as laymen we cannot resist the temptation of drawing parallels.

So here goes a small bit of layman-analysis of the interactions that are encountered:

The Social:

The societies that went the social way seem to have settled for one of the three choices: the female dominant, the male dominant and the more-or-less equal.

For example, the Bee-colonies with their Queen and the female worker-force are a female dominant society. The drones just sit on the nest or fly to mating sites and do nothing constructive. The Queen of the colony lays eggs and the rest of the sterile female work-force does all the jobs –right from building the nest, foraging, collecting nectar, caring for the eggs and feeding the larvae etc. True that the drones get to eat free of cost, but if there is a shortfall in food-supplies of the colony, the workers just take the drones by the legs and throw them out.

Also, a Queen can decide and regulate whether to have sons or daughters and skillfully uses this to her advantage depending on the demographics of her nest and needs.

Among the lions, the males dominate the society. In a pride, all the members cooperate to attack a prey. But when it comes to dividing the kill, the lion muscles out the largest share (or the Lion’s share as we know it) followed by the

females according to their social status and the weaker ones like cubs etc have to satisfy themselves with the leftovers.

A bee-eater society is more-or-less equal as is the case in most bird societies. The males and females share parental responsibilities of building nests and caring for the young. This does not in any way mean all is free and fair. There are conflicts here too, but those do not concern us over here.

The Violent:

The ones that are upset with the whole set-up of this world vent their fury on their partner in a life-threatening way. If the females are unhappy about the unequal division of labour, they simply consume the male (yeah, let the biologists defend them with various reasons like the need for vital nutrients during egg-laying) and the males of such species have indeed devised ways to protect themselves by offering nuptial gifts in the form of food to distract the female’s attention. Examples of this are the Black-Widow Spider and the Praying Mantis.

If the males are the ones who are sulking and frustrated, then they grab hold of the female and inseminate by directly piercing the abdomen e.g. Bed Bugs (again, comes the evolutionary explanation of trying to place the sperm as close to ovary to increase the chances of passing down ones genes(called Increasing Fitness in evolutionary biology terms). But the female in such cases is injured and the open wound can also prove fatal, but it lays eggs anyways. Directly consuming the female by a male could not have been selected by Natural Selection, our all–powerful hero for reasons unknown, (but as promised, we will not discuss this today), as that would preclude the possibility of producing

Book Review (Contd.)

11

offspring and make it impossible for genes to be passed down to the next generation. Hence by default, such attempts must have been voted to extinction by Natural Selection.

The Hermaphroditic:

The other way of sharing responsibility equally and undoing the asymmetry sown in by meiosis is the hermaphroditic way. The species in which individuals have both the reproductive organs present throughout their lives (e.g. earthworms); or the ones that are born as one and change into the other sex, are hermaphrodites. As you can guess, there are some species that can change sex any number of times in their life-span and there are those that can change only once.

E.g. the Clown fish (yep, you are right if u are thinking of Nemo) is a sequential hermaphrodite that is born as a male but can change into female as it becomes fully mature. (I’d like to see a version of Finding Nemo in which the dad who has set out on a quest to find Nemo, matures fully into a female in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and continues its journey… as that would be closer to reality(?))

The Duckers:

There are those like aphids and stick-insects and some reptiles –that are mostly self-sufficient, all-female societies that reproduce by parthenogenesis (that is, they lay unfertilized eggs that mature into females) and just stick their tongue out at meiosis.

So what exactly do we mean by male and female?

When the aphids come out of unfertilized eggs, we call them females, but the bees that

come out of the unfertilized eggs are males! How? Why? Err… Sharp as meiosis was, it was crooked too. Assigned with the task of creating variety and randomness to keep Natural Selection occupied and interested in its job, it slipped in an inherent difference within the species by dividing the cell unequally. When meiosis produced two unequal products, one half of the population that agreed to bear the burden of the heavier one came to be defined by the longer title SHE, and the ones who ran away with the “no strings attached” free-to-move product assumed the truncated title HE (with an inflated ego).

Moving closer to humans:

The Langurs and Chimpanzees have societies and their social instincts are well documented. But I guess the less said about them the better. (#Female Bias –do not wish to discuss unequal societies# according to your preference)

The Conundrum of Inequality:

In elaborate societies –with uncles and aunts and grandfathers and grandchildren living in groups, with the role of instinct diminishing and intellect rising, there arises a complex behavioral pattern. Here, the reference is not just to a human society, but to any of the above mentioned societies- be it bee-eaters or lions or chimps and Langurs.

The humans, with the presence of intellect (which, in its peculiarly kind form, is also referred to as emotion) have shown, by far, the most beautiful response to the “Conundrum of Inequality” posed by meiosis.

We, as humans, form families –groups of individuals that decide to come together, not just to share responsibilities of the progeny but, with

Book Review (Contd.)

12

the understanding that there is more to life than what natural selection or meiosis dictate –that passing down genes to the next generation (ok, to be fair to meiosis, diversified genes, and thanks to natural selection, well-adapted genes that are more worthy of survival) cannot be the sole aim of life.

The ability to think has given us umpteen ways of looking at things and coming up with ideas. And as a society, we’ve conceived the idea of fairness and justice. A kid with a lame limb is not abandoned under the guise of survival of the fittest, nor is an individual with a great idea suppressed on the basis of gender or social status. All humans may not be born “equal” but still are considered (or at least, famously proclaimed) to be so. We share a realization that whatever might have been done by the natural forces is not final and we have the ability to make improvements just the way natural selection continues to do even today under its Project Evolution.

So, humans have challenged the eat-procreate-die cycle that Natural Selection so loves to bind animals in. Whatever differences it did impose on the HEs and SHEs in humans as it has on all other societies, intellect has helped to overcome the disparity. In these terms, it has balanced the two sides of the equation thus proclaiming men and women as equals –a society in which brute force (again a darling of natural selection) has taken a back seat. The societies that do not adopt this approach or give

up mid-way tend to stagnate and come to the verge of decay. And the ones that do, form dynamic civilizations on the path of progress –acquire wings that are faster than what evolution could grant a bird; get night vision that snakes and bats would envy.

We can run, we can fly, we can see beyond the UV and IR and we can hear what no other being on earth can hear (obviously with the devices that we built) – and these are the rewards of just knowing how a fair and just society should be – our thinkers and writers and poets showed us their dreams (this is the class of humans that posses that kinder form of intellect called emotion) We strive to achieve their vision of a just society and our achievements grow manifold.

Durva Mayee is an architect who likes to sit and wonder about Life, the Universe and Everything. As random ramblings about the design of the space-time fabric are not enough to subsist and justify her existence in society, she ekes out a living by designing spaces for the grounded earthlings. This article is a result of the condensation of disparate musings that occurred to her while reading “Survival Strategies: Cooperation and Conflict in Animal Societies” by Raghavendra Gadagkar and the subsequent “googling” she engaged in, to quell her queries. She can be contacted at durva_m@yahoo.co.in

Some parts of the article have been reproduced ‘as is’ from the book, “Survival Strategies: Cooperation and Conflict in Animal Societies” by Raghavendra Gadagkar.

Why so Serial?

Find the missing terms in the following sequences:

1) 61, 52, 63, 94, __, __ 2) O, T, T, __, F, S, __, E

3) L, M, I, __, O, S, N, S, E, I, __ (Football) 4) 0, 3, 8, __, 24, __, 48, 63 5) BW : B :: CK : S :: PP : S :: TS : __ 6) A, B, C, E, __, K, __, Q, S, W

Book Review (Contd.)

13

Unspoken

Her idle gaze roamed unchecked, flitting in and out of spaces in an otherwise contiguous mass of humanity, until it came to rest upon him. In the midst of this chaos, he stood out as a beacon of serenity. She stared at him longingly while he calmly hawked his wares, crying out in practiced legato, even as people walked past him unmindfully. There was a reassuring detachment between his internal thoughts and external circumstances.

The clinking of the coins thrown in her aluminium basin momentarily distracted her, but she went back to staring at him. For years she had seen him selling his goods, standing at exactly that spot. But he did not even seem to be aware of her existence –or at least, hadn’t made to acknowledge it. She hurriedly repressed that last thought of false hope. She wondered if she was truly invisible to him as she was to the countless feet that thronged the place. Another blanket behind a bowl in a line up of blankets behind bowls outside God’s gates.

Another couple of coins thrown pitifully at her broke her stream of thoughts. She silently muttered a curse and pushed the bowl outside of coin-throwing range. The money would only keep the wolf from the door for another day. But her aching heart was being ravaged by the wolves of loneliness and yearning, and without respite. How she wished she could muster the courage to get up and walk to him. What she would say, she did not know. But that would come when she had walked up to him. For now her feet felt leaden and incapable of movement. She pined away in silent agony. Her eyes focused out, framing her face in beatitude.

He stole a sideways glance at her. In the midst of this chaos, she stood out as a beacon of serenity. He stared at her longingly…

The following pages are from the Mensa World Journal

(Formerly called the Mensa International Journal)

About: “Wordsmith” is a column that invites poems, stories, essays and anything else that weaves with words, paints with prose or evokes vivid scenes, smells and sounds through artistic assembly of letters.

If you would like to send in articles for “Wordsmith”, send in your mails to

editor.mensaindia@gmail.com

Solutions with inputs from Sumit Goyal

Why So Serial?

1) 61, 52, 63, 94, 46, 18

2) One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

3) L, M, I, E, O, S, N, S, E, I, L L I O N E L M E S S I

4) 0, 3, 8, 15, 24, 35, 48, 63 (n2 – 1)

5) Bruce Wayne : Batman :: Clark Kent : Superman :: Peter Parker : Spiderman :: Tony Stark : Ironman

6) 1-A, 2-B, 3-C, 5-E, 7-G, 11-K, 13-M, 17-Q, 19-S, 23-W

Wordsmith

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013

april 2013 issue 004

International ElectionsAmerican Mensa Chair, Elissa Rudolph (pictured) has been declared International Chairman, unopposed, effective July 1, 2013 for a period of two years.

Congratulations, Elissa!

The Chairman of the International Election Committee also writes,

Uneven years are election years at Mensa International. We elect our International Chairman, the Directors of Administration and Development and our Treasurer. And at the same time we vote for or against proposed constitutional amendments. All theseissues directly concern every one of you. Unless you do not care. And that appears to have been the problem in the past. International elections traditionally have had a low turnout. Or, to put it more bluntly, they have had an embar-rassingly low turn out. The overall participation rate of the last election in 2009 was 3.56% (in 2011 there was no

election as there was exactly one candi-date for each of the four positions). Some countries do much better, butsome others do even worse. And only 22 countries sent in ballots. Neither did Direct International Members (DIM) that are cared for by the inter-national office vote in great numbers. This may be due to a cumbersome, paper based election process. You have to print out a ballot sheet, mark your voting decisions, put it into an envelope and post it to your national Mensa office or dedicated election centre. But that should not stop you. I firmly believe that we can do better than we did in previous elec-

tions, much better. The International Election Committee will do its best to encourage all 45 national Mensa organizations to send in ballots and I count on every one of you to exerciseyour democratic right to vote. The election takes place in April/May this year. Your national chairman will have informed you of the details.

Peter FröhlerChairman, International

Election Committeefroehlerp@gmail.com

from the executive committee...

01

It’s that odd year again! By this I mean the Mensa International elections are held in every odd-numbered year for the roles of International Chairman, Treasurer and Directors of Development andAdministration. Individuals can stand for no more than two consec-utive terms in any one of these roles, so all but the Treasurer must change this year, including me.

Nominations closed on 1st February, and as there was only one nomination for International Chairman, Elissa Rudolph, the current chair of American Mensa, was declared elected. She will take over the role from Willem Bouwens (Netherlands) with effect from July 1st. Many congratulations to Elissa, who has been a member of ExComm for the past four years so knows well

the job that lies ahead of her! Willem will certainly be a hard act to follow. There are two candidates for the role of International Treasurer – Ru-dolf Challupner (Austria) and Jacek Cywinski (New Zealand). Two candidates are standing for the role of Director of Administration - Grethe van Geffen (The Netherlands) and Therese Moodie-Bloom (Australia), and two for Director of Development

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013 02

- Cinthia Reyes (Mexico) and Bjorn Liljeqvist (Sweden). The election of the fifth elected member of the Executive Committee (ExComm), the Director -Smaller National Mensas, is held by a separate vote of the International Board of Directors because it is a representative posi-tion. This year there are four candi-dates for this role - Bibiána Balanyi (Hungary), Lars Endre Kjølstad (Norway), Cristiane Cruz (Brazil) and Cinzia Busi (South Africa), all current members of the IBD. All the successful candidates will take over from the current ExComm on 1st July, where they will join the chairmen of the larger national Mensa groups, American Mensa, British Mensa and Mensa Germany.

Amendments to the ConstitutionThe ballot of all the members will also include seven amendments to the Constitution. Three were held over from 2011, when there was no ballot of the worldwide membership, and four are new. Because there is such a large number of amendments, IBD agreed to group them into three questionson the ballot, with the five minor ‘housekeeping’ motions in one ques-tion and each of the other twoamendments to be voted on sepa-rately. One of the two reduces the number of petition signatures required to stand for international office from 200 to 100. The other amendment would delete the state-ment that members of Provisional National Mensa groups remain Direct International Members at the same time as being members of their PNM association. If this amendment passes, members in a country that has a Provisional National Mensa will be members of that PNM, but not at the same time also Direct

International Members. There is a forum at www.mensa.org/forum/con-stitutional-amendments-2013 available for discussion of all the constitutional amendments (you will need to be logged in as a member). Please do use your vote in both the MIL election and the Constitutional ballot. The candidates may well have different ideas about the future direc-tion of Mensa, so please check them out. The international ballots are dis-tributed through your national group, perhaps alongside your national elec-tions, so when voting, please read and carefully follow the associated voting instructions, to ensure that your votes are valid and will be counted. Your vote must be received no later than May 15. Good luck to all the candidates!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my two terms as Director of Administration, despite an intense workload at times. It has been a privilege to work with such a great bunch of people on ExComm and the IBD, and through this work, to be in contact with volunteers from all around the world. However, after 13 years at national and international board level, it’s time for me to hang up my boots. I’ll still be around as a volunteer and hope to make some international gatherings, so maybe I’ll see you there sometime. I do hope so! Finally, in January, Mensa Belgium was recognised by Mensa Interna-tional as a Provisional National Mensa. Congratulations to the board of Mensa Be VZW, who have worked very hard to regain compliance with Mensa International requirements. It is now a good step on the way to Full National Mensa status.

Sylvia HerbertDirector of Administration

admin-mil@mensa.org

Lipstick on your collar - could be a danger...A new study involving 22 brands of lipstick found that 55 per cent contained trace amounts of lead - which could pose a threat to the wearer’s mental health and could lower IQ levels. Researchers found that twelve of the lip products sampled tested positive for the toxic substance with the highest levels at 3.22 parts per million, the Daily Mail reported. Commenting on the findings, Dt Sean Palfrey, medical director for the Boston Lead Poisoning Prevention Programme, warned that even low level lead exposure poses a serious health risk and could affect mental health. He told GMA, which commissioned the study, “What we know now is that even the lowest levels of lead can harm your IQ and your ability to learn.” Many anti-lead activists, however, say there are far more important dangers to consider than lipstick. Dr Halyna Bre-slawwec, chief scientist for the Personal Care Products Council, said, “If you were serious about the public health aspects of lead poi-soning, you would not be looking at lipstick. You would be looking at locations where children live. Do they live near hazardous waste dumps - are they chewing lead-containing paint fragments?” Currently, there are no stand-ards set by the Food and Drug Administration limiting leadlevels in lipstick manufacturing.(Reprinted from Mensa Magazine, February 2013, ed. Brian Page)

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013 03

There is considerable responsibility and authority vested in the Ombudsman. With such responsibility and author-ity must go a considerable degree of care. Any issue that has moved a member of a national Mensa to bring a formal complaint to the Ombuds-man has probably already generated a certain amount of emotional heat on one or more sides. It is important that the Ombudsman is able to remain de-tached from this emotional heat and to deal only with the issues of the dispute. Generally speaking, the Ombuds-man will seek to reconcile the parties. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the case, the parties will usually have to get along inside Mensa in the fu-ture. Mensa members are often quite emphatic in expressing their views, but the Ombudsman must withstand such passionate statements of point of view and work to get cases stated in as factual a manner as possible, complete with specific detail. When a dispute arises, any party to the dispute may seek guidance from the Ombudsman, but the Ombudsman will not undertake an investigation unless there is an official complaint, in writing, giving the particulars as specifically as possible. The Ombuds-man may then choose the means of pursuing the investigation, including:a. seeking written responses from those

complained against;b. utilising any expedient form of com-munication with the parties involved;c. appointing a deputy in one or more locations to gather further informa-tion and/or conducting direct meetings with parties to the disputes, and or, d. seeking advice from the Internation-al or other National Ombudsmen. In conducting an investigation, the Ombudsman should generally seek to limit the discussion to the substance of the dispute or complaint but should accept all information and observa-tions pertinent to the complaint. The Ombudsman should not allow the in-vestigation to become an overly broad examination of the general conduct of one of the parties, and nor should the investigation be used to defame either party. If reconciliation is not possible, the Ombudsman may have to make a finding that will displease - or even adversely affect - one or more of the parties. In making such a finding, the Ombudsman should:a. keep the finding relevant to the dispute or complaint;b. be restrained rather than extravagant in expression;c. avoid any personal commentary on the parties involved, and,d. bear in mind that if the finding has to be read out in court it should bring

credit and not discredit to Mensa The Ombudsman has the authority to specify publication of the findings in any particular case, but this is usu-ally only done when decisions are of concern to the general membership.Publication is not usually appropriate in disputes between members or when a dispute between a member and an official Mensa entity affects only that member. Publication would be expect-ed, for example, in a case concerning the validity of an election, misuse of an elected office, or denial of membership rights assured in bylaws or the Consti-tution. Publication should be specified to occur in the official journal of the Mensa entity affected by the decision, which could include the Mensa World Journal. It must be clear that the Ombuds-man’s files are confidential. Any infor-mation gathered in an investigation is intended solely to assist the Ombuds-man in resolving a dispute. Any public record should include only a statement of the substance of a dispute or com-plaint and the Ombudsman’s findings.The Ombudsman may also be provided with the role to safeguard the Na-tional Mensa in the event of a dispute within a Board or between Boards. The National Statutes/Bylaws may include that in the event of a non-functioning Board, or for a call for an EGM from

The role of the ombudsman in national MensasThe Ombudsman is an examining body with respect to all other offices, and is also responsible for ensuring that National Mensa conducts its business in compliance with the Constitution of Mensa International, as well as the local Bylaws/Statutes. Many National Mensas have vari-ations in the way that the role of Ombudsman is imple-mented. Martyn Davies, International Ombudsman, outlines the fundamental guidelines for us.

Photo: Desislava Palabuykova

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013 04

the required percentage of the Mem-bers, the Ombudsman is tasked with providing that EGM or for raising an election for a new Board to continue the operation of the National Mensa. These guidelines are extracted from an advisory document on the set-ting up and operation of the role of National Ombudsman. If anyone has any specific questions arising from the above then please contact your Nation-al Ombudsman or me at the address below. It is important to be aware that in the event of disputes within Mensa, all efforts to resolve the dispute must be effected within your national Mensa in the first instance, before seeking redress outside of Mensa.

Martyn DaviesInternational Ombudsman

ombudsman@mensa.org.

international SIGS

One of Mensa’s main purposes is “to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members.” Personally, I don’t think it’s one of the main purposes – I think it is THE main purpose of our great organiza-tion. The most popular aspects of Mensa – the online forums, social media outlets and in-person events – all come back to one thing: Mensans interacting with Mensans. That is where Special Interest Groups (SIGs) really shine. A SIG is a group of Mensans who share a specific interest. It can be a paper newsletter, an online venue, or in-person gatherings. The important thing is the chance to meet and grow with fellow members. International SIGs are those that

Recently appointed International SIGs Coordinator, Barbara Kryvko has been a member of American Mensa since 1987, and lives near St Louis, Mis-souri with her husband Gary - who she met at a Mensa meeting. Shortly after joining, she attended local events, then joined several SIGs which were both successful in connecting with Mensans outside her local group and also very enjoyable. Since then, she’s continued expanding her circle of Mensan friends both nationally and, now, internationally. She explains her enthusiasm for SIGs...

start out in one country, and then decide to encompass members from anywhere on the globe. They apply for recognition by MIL, and are listed on the mensa.org web site. They currently include the Cat SIG from the UK, my-SIG from Denmark, the Rein-surance SIG from Switzerland, and WebHeads (for those interested in web page development) from the US. I encourage you to log into mensa.org and check out the list of Interna-tional SIGs. If you are a SIG Coordi-nator, consider applying for recogni-tion as an ISIG. The world is waiting!

Barbara KryvkoInternational SIGs Coordinator

SIGs @mensa.org

Congratulations...

Mensa Slovakia which has at-tained the status of Full National Mensa

Mr. Christos Apostolidis who has been re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Mensa Greece

Mensa Japan which has recently celebrated its 5th anniversary

Mensa Belgium which has recently achieved the status of Provisional Mensa

Did you know...• TheminimumnumberofmembersrequiredforanationalgrouptobecomeaFullNationalMensaisjust250 (maintained for a period). When they reach 500 they are eligible to vote at the International Board of Directors meetings (but if a small country has >75 members per million they need just 250 members to vote). There are ad-ditional criteria that must be met. • MensaacceptsIQscoresfromanumberofstandardizedtests,butalwaysconsidersthepercentilerank,notthe IQ itself.

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013 05

early intelligence: man’s best friendThe journal Nature recently published research on how wolves evolved intodomesticated dogs 1, and indicates that this was parallel to humans evolving from a nomadic lifestyle. Of course, any research into events 10,000-15,000 years ago is difficult for obvious reasons, but the evolution of the DNA and genome research discipline has yielded tools able to project/extrapolate backwards in time to see approximately when different strands of genes converge. It is thus a methodology that makes it possible to predict with a certain level of probabil-ity a point in time, for instance, when a certain mutation began to spread for a certain mammal. A very important and intelligent step in human evolution is the fact that man befriended wolves and used them in hunting, as night-time guards against wildlife and to pull sleds. The dog probably precedes all other mammals such as sheep and cows, for example, in becoming a domesticated companion to humans 2. However, exactly how and why they were domes-ticated remains unclear according to the recent article, but it shows that the process started at least 10,000 BC in southern East Asia or the Middle East. The two most likely triggers given are either the capturing of wolf pup-pies for use in hunting and guarding, or the lifestyle change in humans from nomadic to sedentary, leading to an increased attraction to human dumps as a food source for the wolves. Researchers Axelsson et al state that, to their knowledge, this is the first genome-wide sequence-based search performed in dogs and that they are able to show that the formation of dogs out of wolves is clearly linked

to a diet rich in starch relative to the carnivorous diet of wolves. Starch in food is broken down by dogs in a three-step process: Starch is cleaved to maltose/saccharides; Sac-charides to glucose; Glucose trans-portation and uptake. In all of these three stages thereis evidence in the article that the domestication required selection (i.e. change) in three specific genes that makes this possible. If you are interested in a deep-dive into the subject, the names of these three are AMY2B, MGAM and SGLT1 respectively. Dogs of today differ from wolves morphologically in that they have re-duced skull, teeth and brain sizes. But they also have reduced aggressiveness, and the article has findings support-ing the hypothesis that selection for altered behaviour in aggressiveness and social skills were important during dog domestication. In conclusion, the findings may have unlocked ways of deciphering the genetics of behaviour in at least small mammals, and the article of course also indicates that human development into an agricultural society was the catalyst for the domestication of man’s best friend: the dog.

Henrik LundinVice-president Mensa Sweden

viceordforande@mensa.se

1 “The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-richdiet”, Axelsson et al, Nature, published online 23 January 2013, doi:10.1038/nature11837.2 “Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel”,Davis & Valla, Nature 276, pp608-610, 1978.

Less than ZeroA New Scientist article in the January 12 edition has the title “Atoms Go Beyond Absolute Zero.” This is an example of headlines gone wild. The article mixes up “temperature” and “entropy” in a way that is difficult to sort out. I’m not sure whether to blame the scientists or the reporters. What they’re talking about is this: scientists at Ludwig Maxi-milian University in Munich, Germany, are doing cute things with small clouds of atoms near absolute zero. When there is any amount of molecular motion, the speeds of individual molecules are not all identical. They cover a range. If you chart their speeds, most are very low and a few are high. The Munich guys have used lasers to flip the distribution to have many molecules moving fast, and only a few moving slow-ly. They claim this constitutes moving “beyond absolute zero.” The article contains a line chart showing entropy going from zero to infinity and then back to zero as energy increases. This is confusing and misleading. If they want to talk about entropy, that’s fine. But don’t mix it up with tem-perature. Please don’t redefine familiar terms, either. Webster has a perfectly good definition of temperature. Let’s stick with that. Mind-bending headlines and murky terminology do not benefit the public. They only add to confusion.

John BlinkeJohnb44221@cs.com

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013

The hippocam-pus - a structure of the brain

whose shape resembles that of a sea-horse - is also called the “gateway” to memory. This is where information is stored and retrieved. Its performance relies on new neurons being continu-ally formed in the hippocampus over the entire lifetime. “However, in old age, production of new neurons dra-matically decreases. This is considered to be among the causes of declining memory and learning ability,” Prof. Dr. Ana Martin-Villalba, a neuroscientist, explains. Martin-Villalba, who heads a research department at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and her team are trying to find the molecular causes for this decrease in new neuron production (neurogenesis). Neural stem cells in the hippocampus are responsible for continuous supply of new neurons. Specific molecules in the immediate environment of these stem cells determine their fate: They may remain dormant, renew themselves, or differentiate into one of two types of specialized brain cells, astrocytes or neurons. One of these factors is the Wnt signaling molecule, which promotes the formation of young neurons. However, its molecular counterpart, called Dickkopf-1, can prevent this. “We find considerably more Dick-kopf-1 protein in the brains of older mice than in those of young animals. We therefore suspected this signal-

ling molecule to be responsible for the fact that hardly any young neurons are generated any more in old age.” The scientists tested their assumption in mice whose Dickkopf-1 gene is per-manently silenced. Professor Christof Niehrs had developed these animals at DKFZ. The term “Dickkopf ” (from German “dick” = thick, “Kopf ” = head) also goes back to Niehrs, who had found in 1998 that this signaling molecule regulates head development during embryogenesis. Martin-Villalba’s team discovered that stem cells in the hippocampus of Dickkopf knockout mice renew themselves more often and generate significantly more young neurons. The difference was particularly obvious in two-year old mice: in the knock-out mice of this age, the research-ers counted 80 percent more young neurons than in control animals of the same age. Moreover, the newly formed cells in the adult Dickkopf-1 mutant mice matured into potent neurons with multiple branches. In contrast, neurons in control animals of the same age were found to be more rudimen-tary already.

Blocking Dickkopf improves spatial orientation and memorySeveral years ago, Ana Martin-Villalba had shown that mice lose their spatial orientation when neurogenesis in the hippocampus is blocked. Now, is it possible that the young neurons in Dickkopf-deficient mice improve the animals’ cognitive performance? The

06

DKFZ researchers used standardized tests to study how the mice orient themselves in a maze. While in the control animals, the younger ones (3 months) performed much better in orienting themselves than the older ones (18 months), the Dickkopf-1-de-ficient mice showed no age-related decline in spatial orientation capabili-ties. Older Dickkopf-1 mutant mice also outperformed normal animals in tests determining spatial memory. “Our result proves that Dick-kopf-1 promotes age-related decline of specific cognitive abilities,” says Ana Martin-Villalba. “Although we had expected silencing of Dickkopf-1 to improve spatial orientation and memory of adult mice, we were sur-prised and impressed that animals in advanced adult age actually reach the performance levels of young animals.” These results give rise to the ques-tion whether the function of Dick-kopf-1 may be turned off using drugs. Antibodies blocking the Dickkopf protein are already being tested in clinical trials for treating a completely different condition. “It is fascinating to speculate that such a substance may also slow down age-related cognitive decline. But this is still a dream of the future, since we have only just started first experiments in mice to explore this question.”Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

(2013, February 7). Gene silencing spurs fountain

of youth in mouse brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved

February 10, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.

com /releases/2013/02/130207150911.htm

Cognitive decline in old age - new link discoveredScientists from the German Cancer Research Center have discovered in mice that significantly more neurons are generated in the brains of older animals if a signalling molecule called Dickkopf-1 is turned off. In tests for spatial orientation and memory, mice in advanced adult age whose Dickkopf gene had been silenced reached an equal mental performance as young animals.

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013 07

supplementally... John Blinke

Fists of Theory. Science News 26 January 2913, p. 16. “Theory: Survival of the Fistest.” The human hand is an amazing bit of biological engineering. Compared to other primate hands, ours are better for dexterity, worse for climbing, and - some say most importantly - essential for fist fighting. The way the shortened fingers fold up with our longer, stronger thumb provides a small strong surface area and less chance of breaking fingers in a fight. There is quite a bit of debate about this as other authori-ties suggest the pugilist fist is an accidental prod-uct of the need to manipulate tools.

Old Cheese Science News 26 January 2913, p. 16. “Early European Farmers Ate Cheese.” Proudly clogging arteries for mil-lennia with all kinds of rich foods, several ancient village sites in Poland have produced evidence of cheese production more than 7,000 years ago. Perforated ceramic pots that were evidently used as cheese strain-ers show chemical evidence of milk fat residue. By separating the curd from the rest of the milk, people were able to produce a low lactose milk product that they made into cheese. They did this at about the same time that Europeans were becoming toler-ant to lactose. This leads to a ques-tion: if they could tolerate milk, why not just drink it instead of turning it

into a work-intensive cheese product? The answer could be that cheese is easier to store for a long time.

Double Double Helix ScienceDaily, 20 January 2013. “‘Quadruple Helix’ DNA Discovered in Human Cells.” DNA is famously constructed like a twisted ladder - a “double helix.” Lab tinkering produced quadruplex DNA that had four twisted strands instead of

two. Now, that artifi-cial quad structure has been found in nature. It is associat-ed with areas where cell duplication is going on, especially in cancerous cells. It is not clear whether quad DNA is

functional, or is an unwanted artifact, like knots in a rope. Either way, it could provide a target for anti-cancer therapy.

Long View Science News 12 January 2013, pp. 6-7. “Clutch of Distant Galaxies Reveals Infant Universe.” Astronomers have ideas about the way the universe evolved to its present state. They test those ideas as often as they can. One of those tests used the Hubble Space Telescope recently to find galaxies that existed just 380 million years after the Big Bang, which occurred 13.7 billion years ago. The distance is established by measuring the red shift of the galaxy’s light: the bigger the red shift, the faster the galaxy is moving away from us. The faster it is moving, the more distant it is. Astronomers do not expect to find any galaxies earlier than

200 million years after the Big Bang because they think neutral hydrogen filled the universe at that time, slurp-ing up any starlight that might have existed.

High LifeScienceDaily, 23 January 2013. “Hail-stones Reveal Life in a Storm Cloud.” (PLOS One)Earth has micro-organisms on the ground and under the sea. What about up in the air? Indeed, there seem to be bugs in the clouds. This is suggested by analysis of hailstones. Scientists at Aarhus University, Denmark, have recovered at least three kinds of bacteria from hailstones that appear to be resident in storm clouds. They also found 3,000 chemical substances up there that usually occur in soil.

LHC Weirdness Science News 12 January 2013, P. 12. “Smashups Spark Odd Behavior in Matter at LHC.” The LHC was built to discover the Higgs boson, which had been pre-dicted. But, what scientists really want to find are unexpected events. They may have had their wish granted, because some particle paths seem to be coordinated when they should be random. The odd behavior turned up during calibration runs while collid-ing protons with lead nuclei in the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. Now that the calibration is complete, the collider can get to some serious business and the strangeness might be proven or dismissed shortly.

Johnb44221@cs.com

mensa world journal

mensa world journal april 2013

international directoryChairman: Mr Willem Bouwens Trompenburgstraat 6-G, 1079 TX Amsterdam The Netherlandschairman-mil@mensa.org Tel: +31 (0)20 661 2718Director Admin: Ms Sylvia Herbert 16 Farley St, St John’s, Worcester, Worcestershire WR2 6JD Englandadmin-mil@mensa.org Tel: +44(0)1905 422231Director Development: Ms Bibiana Balanyi Mensa HungarIQa, H-1426 Budapest 72, Postafiok 99 Hungary development-mil@mensa.org Tel: +36 209 135175Treasurer: Ms Cyndi Kuyper, 2606 Henderson St, West Lafayette, IN 47906-1537treasurer-mil@mensa.org Tel: +1 765 463 1393Dir. Smaller National Mensas: Mr Bjorn Liljeqvist dsnm-mil@mensa.orgHon. President: Dr Abbie Salny 407 Breckenridge, Wayne NJ 07470 USA Tel: +1 973 305 0055SIGHTCoord: Mr Steve Mai SIGHT@mensa.orgInt. SIG Coord: Ms Barbara Kryvko sigs@mensa.orgOmbudsman:Mr Martyn Davies ombudsman@mensa.org

editorial staffEditor: Ms Kate Nacard 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048 Australia ijeditor@mensa.org Tel: +61 2 9516 1024 ijeditor@mensa.orgScience: Mr John Blinke Johnb44221@cs.comBooks: Mr Tom Elliott tme@verizon.netFeature Articles: Mr Thomas Hally thomas_hally@yahoo.com

Executive Director: Mr Michael Feenan, Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, Lincolnshire NG32 3EL, UKTel/Fax+44(0)1400272 675 mensainternational@mensa.org

The Mensa World Journall (MWJ) is produced under the auspices of the Mensa International Board of Directors. Mandatory content as identi-fied by the MWJ editor must be published in every national Mensa magazine. Publication of other content is recommended but optional. Opin-ions expressed in the MWJ are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other individual or any official Mensa body. Submission Guidelines: Language: English only. Text: MS Word (Windows), .rtf (Word/Mac), plain text, PageMaker (Windows), InDesign (Windows) Length: 500 word limit. Send by e-mail, fax, snail mail to the Editor. The Editor reserves the right to include or edit submissions for space and content considerations. All unoriginal submissions must be accompanied by written permission for publication from the original author.Permission is granted for MWJ articles to be reprinted in any Mensa publication provided that the author, MWJ and MWJ’s editor are acknowledged. Permission must be sought from the MWJ editor for reprinting of any part of the MWJ in non-Mensa publications.

08

international calendarJuly 3-7American Mensa Annual Gathering, Fort Worth, Texas http://ag2013.us.mensa.orgJuly 31 - August 4European Mensa Annual Gathering (EMAG) Bratislava, Slovakia September 6-9Asian Mensas Annual Gathering (AMAG) Singapore September 21-25International Board of Directors Meeting Calgary, Canada www.ibd2013.comNovember 22 -24Australian Mensa Conference (AMC) with concurrent Kids Conference, Perth, WA www.mensa.org.au/

AMC-2013

Check www.mensa.org for contact details for all international events open to all members

Send a Mensan into Space! George Symeounides, a member of Mensa Cyprus, has entered the race for a place in the L.S.A. Lynx Space Acad-emy, the opportunity for an ordinary person to go into space. He needs YOU to vote for him to advance to the next stage. Chair of Mensa Cyprus, Christina Angelidou, says: “It would be very interesting to send a Mensan into space. We’ll need to keep George in the first 200 candidates when voting ends on the 30th of April. Please vote for George Symeonides to go into space!”

www2.axeapollo.com/en_GB/47306/george-symeonides/