biology

John Barnabas

John Barnabas is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Barnabas rather than just read about it. In short: John Barnabas (1929–1994) was an Indian evolutionary biologist, known for his contributions in the fields of Molecular Systematics and Evolution. He was a member of the Science Advisory Committee to the cabinet as well as the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India.

Key takeaways

John Barnabas belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Barnabas to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Barnabas from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Barnabas (1929–1994) was an Indian evolutionary biologist, known for his contributions in the fields of Molecular Systematics and Evolution. He was a member of the Science Advisory Committee to the cabinet as well as the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India. A Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, Barnabas was also an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1974, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography Born on 12 October 1929 in Mangalore, a port city in the south Indian state of Karnataka, John Barnabas did his early schooling at local schools before graduating in science from the University of Madras. Moving to Mumbai, he obtained his master's degree from University of Bombay and joined the then newly started Ahmednagar College as a member of faculty in 1954. He also continued his researches and secured a PhD from University of Pune in 1956. He served Ahmednagar College till 1981 during which time he held many positions such as that of a lecturer, a professor and a head of the department. In between, he had two stints abroad as a post-doctoral fellow, first at Yale University (1958–59) and then at Groningen University (1960–61). In 1983, Barnabas joined the National Chemical Laboratory as a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow and after the tenure of the fellowship in 1985, he continued at the laboratory as the head of the Division of Biochemical Sciences. He worked there holding the Distinguished Fellowship of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research from 1991 till his death on 30 July 1994, at the age of 64.

Legacy Barnabas was known to have done pioneering research on haemoglobins of mammals, with respect to the sequence of amino acids in them, and his studies helped in a wider understanding of the subject. He proposed novel methods by which the molecular structure is utilized in the measurement of evolutionary distance and the rate of change. His methods, based on parsimony analysis, assisted in developing phylogenetic trees and helped to understand the evolutionary history of different eukaryotic lineages. His research findings have been documented by way of a book, Phylogenetic Perspectives of Protists, and several articles. Barnabas contributed in the establishment of the department of biochemistry at Ahmednagar College in 1963, when he returned to the college after his post-doctoral stint abroad. He served as the councilor of the International Society for the Study of Origin of Life from 1980 to 1983 and sat in the scientific advisory committees to the cabinet (1983–85) as well as the Department of Biotechnology (1990–93). He was also associated with the research councils of several scientific agencies including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the advisory committee for space sciences of the Indian Space Research Organization. He was a member of journals such as Biotechnology Letters, Science Technology, Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Journal of Biosciences and the journals of the Indian Academy of Sciences (INSA) and the Indian National Science Academy. He also served as a member of the INSA council from 1984 to 1986.

Awards and honors Barnabas was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1974. He received the Sreenivasayya Memorial Award in 1976 and the same year, he was elected by the Indian Academy of Sciences as their fellow. Two years later, the University Grants Commission of India selected him as a National lecturer and the Indian National Science Academy elected him as their fellow in 1979. In 1983, his project, Phylogenetic Systematics Based on Molecular Data sets, was selected for the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship which he completed in 1985 at the National Chemical Laboratory. Barnabas, who was a life member of the Society of Biological Chemists, India, presided the organization during 1985–86. INSA awarded him the Golden Jubilee Commemoration Medal in 1989. He was also a life member of the Society for Scientific Values, a member of the Guha Research Conference, a founder fellow of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science and an elected fellow of the Institute of Chemical Technology (then known as University Department of Chemical Technology) and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The many award orations he delivered included Vyas Memorial Award Lectureship of the Association of Microbiologists of India (1986) and Salim Ali Memorial Lectureship Award of Indian Institute of Science.

See also Molecular systematics Evolution

Notes

References

External links "Remembering the Leaders". National Chemical Laboratory. 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Barnabas

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Barnabas claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Barnabas before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Barnabas ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Barnabas

In research: John Barnabas appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Barnabas in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Barnabas is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 1994 deaths, 20th-century Indian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Barnabas outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Barnabas in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Barnabas means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Barnabas out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Barnabas in simple terms?

Why does John Barnabas matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Barnabas?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Barnabas.