Sciencing in a Pandemic: The Widening Divides

 Extended version: A Children’s Science book is born: When animal lover kid meets Genomics 

 

“A child can ask a thousand questions that the wisest man cannot answer.”

~Jacob Abbott, children’s book writer

Every child is unique. Some love the outdoors, and are in constant awe of the natural world around them, drinking in every natural element, including the details about the plants and animals that surround them. Others love books and board games, creating art or working on their little projects. And then there are those who make use of the best of the both worlds- even when they seem huddled in a corner with a book, or these days an educational tablet, they are travelling the entire world in their minds. Some of these worlds although real, are as wild as imaginary.

Every such bookworm dreams of writing a book at least once. It is the natural progression of devouring many books. Once in a while, such a dreamer meets an encourager, and a book is born.

Shreyas Maiti, son of a Neuroscientist and Chemical biologist, grew up listening to the wonders of the biological world, and catching up on anything missed out through the vast worlds of books and online educational content. Shreyas has always loved animals, and his favourite ones are fishes. One of his hobbies has been building aquariums and sharing his enthusiasm about this hobby, any chance he gets. It was during one such exchanges that Dr. Mitali Mukerji, then a Chief Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, asked him “Do you wonder why each fish is unique?”

Shreyas was of course familiar with the term genomics- the study of the whole set of genes, also called the genome. Dr. Mukerji, a genomics scientist for over two decades, nudged Shreyas to think about how the genomes of the animals that so fascinate him could give the answers to his curious queries on those animals. She invited Shreyas to intern at her lab during the summer, so that he could be introduced the concepts of genomics. Shreyas was the youngest summer intern at Dr. Mukerji’s lab: he spent the hours in the lab completely unravelling his curiosity, and having extensive discussions with another animal enthusiast, Dr. Aniket Bhattacharya, then a PhD scholar in Dr. Mukerji’s lab.

At some point Shreyas wondered out loud if there could be a book on animal genomes. Dr. Mitali took this as a cue, and encouraged him to write one, and she would of course partner with him to delve into the scientific literature and find the answer to his queries. Shreyas even suggested that the book could be dedicated to Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari, a pioneer in Indian genomics, but to Shreyas, the person who helped him understand many scientific concepts in the most interesting ways.

And so began a journey, where this school going teenager would sift through online articles, videos from the National Geographic channel, and some times even TED talks. They decided to call the book Genome Jaunts- inspired somewhat by the rather direction-less but organic journey of looking through animal genomes, Shreyas leading the way. Shreyas later confessed during the launch of the book few summers later, that he always thought writing about these animals was just a practice for his creative writing, and never could become a real published book read by teens like him, across the country.

As the number of animals started picking up, Dr. Mitali realized something. Shreyas was not easily satisfied when it came to the answers to his queries, and his list of animals were ever-growing. His questions were incisive, and he was quite critical about the kind of animal genomes sequenced and the questions the researchers themselves asked after performing the sequencing.

At the end of winter 2020, neither of them could have known that words like ‘genome’ or ‘sequencing’ would become mainstay in popular media. The pandemic and consequently the lockdown was upon the country. It was during this time Dr. Mitali found herself reaching out to Dr. Samatha Mathew, then a PhD student with Dr. Sridhar Sivasubbu at CSIR-IGIB, to ask her interest about joining in the adventure that was Genome Jaunts the book.

Hence the duo became a trio. “We” the authors of Genome Jaunts got together- a curious animal lover kid, a seasoned genomics scientist and a young researcher with an interest in science communication.

We worked remotely, the fascinating and enthusing animal facts making up for the horror of the pandemic and lack of in-person interactions. Soon the book had taken its shape. We decided to confine the book to 50 animal descriptions by Shreyas and their corresponding answers from genomes. Finding the genomes was quite another task- and if found, to satisfy the queries of our young author, an even more daunting affair. Shreyas’s curiosity luckily acted like the beacon in the dark for the senior authors to follow through. By the end of the year the book was compiled, with the most gracious support from Shreyas’s mother Dr. Beena Pillai, who kept the right distance to not interfere, but give inputs when needed. She then also penned the foreword for the book. Thus the first version of Genome Jaunts was ready to go out into the world.

Now came the part of dilemma. We did not know who would be interested in publishing such a book. We reached out to folks within our networks and Dr. Mathew posted to the then very active Indian Science Twitter, the online community freshly bonded over lockdown woes. Everyone who came across the book lauded the idea of a teenager leading the project, and yet we failed to see a set path to publishing our book. It was a chance discussion with Dr. Ambily Sivadas, also a CSIR-IGIB PhD graduate, who’s son was another animal lover kid and very fond of the activities put out by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-India, that gave a direction to the jaunt of Genome Jaunts. Dr. Sivadas’s brother Akhil Sivadas, also an animal enthusiast and working in the field of wildlife conservation, suggested we approach the Environment Education department of WWF-India. World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) is a not-for-profit organization, doing exemplary work in the area of wildlife conservation. The Environment Education department of WWF-India routinely engages with youngsters in the country and publishes kid-friendly books on wildlife conservation, the returns from all of which cycles back to the activities of WWF-India.

We shot our shot. We reached out to WWF-India Environment Education team with the first compiled draft of Genome Jaunts- each of our animals described in two sections: Shreyas is curious why… and Genome reveals… The response from the team was extremely positive; in all of their publications this would be the first time they would link genes to the behavior and appearance of animals. Our book draft of course had to undergo copyediting and Neha Raghav, now the head of Environment Education WWF-India promptly put us in touch with Bijal Vachharajani, children’s book author and editor for very valuable critique for tuning our content to the right audience. We now set to work, once again entirely remotely, with the WWF-India team, for several rounds of copy-editing and of course, illustrations. Shreya Bhat, senior content and training manager with WWF-India used a fine-toothed comb and worked with us meticulously to clarify every point made such that our book could be palatable to anyone 10 years and above, without any particular exposure to advanced science topics. Surbhi Bhadani, our illustrator and design consultant with WWF-India, set to work on the layout with the aim of a complete transformation of our book into an entirely illustrated science book for our young readers. And deliver she did! We also added animal ID cards and exercises for engaging with our readers on the WWF-India team’s suggestions. Shreyas painstakingly compiled the different video sources that inspired him to pick each animal for the book. Last but not the least, we also recorded “The making of the book” as the opening section.

It was then time to find a suitable publishing house keeping in mind getting the widest reach possible- Neha putting her shoulders to the wheel for this endeavour. This is where we really did seem to hit a wall. All the regular publishers of children’s books had a set format in mind, and our book was a tad too unconventional. After encountering several closed doors, Neha took a stand for Genome Jaunts- she decided WWF-India would publish it under their sole branding, along with other publications of theirs. This also meant that all the proceeds from our book would go to WWF-India, for their diligent efforts of wildlife conservation. We who started this unknown journey, were more than glad with this arrangement. As Shreyas rightly puts, it was a dream come true seeing the logo of WWF juxtaposed with our names on the cover of Genome Jaunts, the book to us was near priceless already.

When the date of the virtual book launch was fixed, we were beyond excited- it was also a mixture of disbelief and happiness. It was like a pet project we started during the pandemic lockdown was finally ready to fly out into the wild! The WWF-India team promptly put up the book on the WWF-India Nature store and Amazon India webpages. We had eminent guests for the virtual book launch, scientists and science communicators with their own legacies- Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar, Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Prof. Harini Nagendra and Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari himself, to whom the book is dedicated. The launch was exhilarating and at times emotional for us, owing to the many kind words of appreciation and the fact that the guests did not shy away from mentioning the greatest USP of our book- our young author with the curious questions and the senior authors answering those.

At present we are in discussions with different stakeholders on how to best showcase our book, and IndiaBioscience has already given us the spot light by featuring us on the section ‘Offerings from the community.’ There are few take aways that us authors have had during the journey of putting this book together and publishing. Even when India has several biodiversity hotspots, our book highlights animals mostly found in or described by researchers in other countries. This points to a gap and a potential opportunity for the animal behavior researchers in the country to package their science more for a general audience, so that the next time someone like Shreyas searches for ‘fascinating animals’, animals found in the country also pop up on their screens. And from the point of view of Dr. Mukerji, Genome Jaunts is the right way to approach scientific problems as well- let the younger generation ask the questions and lead the way. As someone pointed out online, we also hope that our book encourages many young curious minds to turn to science, especially girls, taking lead from Dr. Mukerji. WWF-India has given us a unique branding which makes sure our book reaches the right audience, and we are excited and in much grateful anticipation to see the ripples our book creates in the years to come.