science musings - from dream 47 (1 mb pdf) - Arvind Gupta

369 Pages·2009·0.85 MB·English

by  Pradeep Kumar

Science Musings:
Selected editorials from DREAM 2047
Science Musings:
Selected editorials from DREAM 2047
Vinay B. Kamble
Vigyan Prasar
Published by
Vigyan Prasar
Department of Science and Technology
A-50, Institutional Area, Sector-62
NOIDA 201 307 (Uttar Pradesh), India
(Regd. Office: Technology Bhawan, New Delhi 110016)
Phones: 0120-2404430-35
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in
Copyright: 2009 by Vigyan Prasar
All rights reserved
Science Musings: Selected editorials from DREAM 2047 by Vinay B. Kamble
Cover design and typesetting: Pradeep Kumar
Production Supervision: Dr. Subodh Mahanti, Shri Rintu Nath and Shri
Manish Mohan Gore
ISBN: 978-81-7480-203-3
Price: Rs. 200/-
Printed by: Viba Press Pvt. Ltd., Ph. 41611300
Contents
Preface ........................................................................................... ix
Making Science More Assessible and Less Frightening...............1
Rising From the Rubble.....................................................................4
Investment In Real Terms ................................................................7
Literacy Campaigns - A Decade Later..........................................10
Quest for Self-Reliance ....................................................................13
Predicting the Future.......................................................................16
Clones - It’s Human Beings Now...................................................19
Child Prodigies.................................................................................22
No Longer Hypothetical..................................................................25
Save That Drop.................................................................................29
Popularizing Science Through Matri-Bhasha..............................32
Attaining Criticality.........................................................................35
Scientific Laws and Society ............................................................38
The Great Indian Arc of the Meridian ..........................................41
Back with a Bang..............................................................................44
Not the end of the road ...................................................................47
Keeping Droughts at Bay................................................................50
Surviving New Drugs......................................................................54
Retain Traditions Change Attitudes..............................................57
Why Popular Science Writing is So Unpopular ..........................61
A Blueprint of Life............................................................................65
The Road to Space............................................................................69
vi Science Musings: Selected editorials from DREAM 2047
At War with SARS............................................................................72
A Hard Way to Software.................................................................76
Little Bumps under the Spreading Sky.........................................80
A Jheel and a Lagoon.......................................................................84
The Fizz and the Pesticides.............................................................88
The Challenge of AIDS....................................................................92
Venus Transit – A Rare Celestial Spectacle..................................96
Quest for Excellence.......................................................................100
Roving on Mars...............................................................................103
Internet — How it all began .........................................................107
The Sixth Wave...............................................................................111
Two Centenaries and a Golden Jubilee.......................................115
Into ever-widening thought and action......................................119
Satellite for Education, Science and Technology.......................122
The Tragedy Lives On ...................................................................126
Tsunami Lessons ............................................................................130
Science in Schools...........................................................................134
Bridging the Divide........................................................................138
Protecting Our Ancient Wisdom and Heritage.........................142
The Call of the Wild.......................................................................146
Science Popularisation : Whose Cup of Tea is it, Anyway? ....150
Nature’s Fury – We Compound It Further.................................154
High Growth Low Development.................................................158
The “First” India Science Report..................................................162
Bird Flu: Scare on Wings...............................................................167
Are We Losing the Battle Against Bacteria? ..............................171
The Virus Has Finally Landed .....................................................177
Myths and Media ...........................................................................181
Evolution – Can It Run Backwards?............................................185
In Search of Pleasure – From Caffeine to Cocaine ....................189
Dwarfed – Still a Wanderer..........................................................194
Contents vii
Asking Mosquitoes to Buzz Off...................................................199
Already Hot and Getting Hotter..................................................204
Fake Medicines Sick Business.......................................................209
Polio: The Elusive Frontier............................................................214
No Wake up Call but a Screaming Siren....................................218
Incandescent Bulbs: A Burnt out Case?......................................222
Wireless Communication: Much More to Come.......................226
An Orbiting Home .........................................................................230
Rivers at Risk...................................................................................234
India at 60 - Growth and Challenges...........................................238
An Adventure That Began Fifty Years Ago...............................243
Living Beyond Our Means - But How Long? ............................248
The Case of the Indian Monsoon.................................................253
A Messenger’s Messenger.............................................................258
Emerging Infectious Diseases.......................................................263
Smashing Particles to Understand the Universe.......................268
Climate Change and Health .........................................................274
Chronic Lifestyles Chronic Diseases...........................................280
Feeding the Hungry.......................................................................285
A Case for Nuclear Energy...........................................................290
Destination Moon...........................................................................296
From Spyglasses to Space Telescopes.........................................302
Living with Cancer.........................................................................309
Survival of a Theory through Natural Selection.......................315
Preserving Astronomical Heritage..............................................320
In Search of Other Earths..............................................................325
The Web Turns 20...........................................................................331
Longest Celestial Drama of the Century ....................................337
Angels, Demons and Science Communicators..........................343
Fickle Monsoons, Looming Droughts.........................................349
Little Water Big Excitement..........................................................355
Preface
As the title suggests, these are musings indeed, written for
Dream 2047, the monthly popular science magazine-cum-
newsletter of Vigyan Prasar. The selections in this
compilation cover a wide spectrum of issues and events that
were topical at the time of writing.
The readership of Dream 2047 ranges from school
students to general public, and those with science
background. Further, it reaches out to the most interior
regions and the remotest corners of the country where
science magazines, let alone popular magazines, are difficult
to come by. Of late, Dream 2047 has assumed the status of
USP for Vigyan Prasar.
Often Dream 2047 is the only source of scientific
information for those in the interior or the far flung areas of
the country. It is for this reason that a conscious attempt is
made to include historical and scientific facts in a simplified
manner in each editorial. May be, this is what prompted a
reader to comment that the editorials in Dream 2047 are more
like ‘articles’ than ‘standard’ editorials!
The present compilation of selected editorials includes
the period 2001 to 2009. The topics cover diverse spheres of
human activity; and the events that have greatly impacted
and shaped our lives. Hence, they also represent a wagon
wheel of how science and technology have forged ahead in
this period. But, musings they are - from Smashing Particles
to Feeding the Hungry; and from Angels and Demons to Water
on Moon!
x Science Musings: Selected editorials from DREAM 2047
I am extremely grateful to the readers of Dream 2047 who
have read the editorials with interest and have time and
again expressed their appreciation, thereby encouraging me
to continue with my task. It was the encouragement of the
readers and my colleagues at Vigyan Prasar that played a
key role in bringing out this compilation. I do hope it would
prove useful to those interested in knowing how science and
technology continue to shape our lives and improve our
understanding of the world around us.
I express my sincere thanks to my colleagues, Shri Rintu
Nath and Dr. Subodh Mahanti for their enthusiasm and the
immense efforts they have put in to bring out this
publication. Shri Biman Basu, the celebrated science
communicator and my friend, always was the first to read
and comment on the contents of the editorials for their
improvement. My sincere thanks to him. I also would like
to mention my colleague Shri Muneesh Wadhwa, a
commerce graduate, who read each of my editorials with
immense interest. Once he okayed it, I felt re-assured about
its readability. And finally my thanks to Shri Subhash Bhatt
who designed Dream 2047 every month and Shri Pradeep,
who designed the book and the cover page.
Vinay B. Kamble
29 November 2009
1
Making Science More Assessible and Less
Frightening
When we look back, especially at the last fifty years of
the millennium gone by, we cannot help but feel a
sense of pride and achievement. Our food production has
more than matched the three-fold increase in the population.
More than fifty per cent of our population can read and write
(it could be much higher in the next census!). Availability
of power has considerably gone up. There are more schools
and colleges and hence better opportunities for education.
Further, there also has been a general improvement in the
quality of life - cooking gas and telephone connections are
much easier to obtain, rail travel has become more
comfortable, and so on and on.
New technologies are fast replacing the “what-were-
once-new” technologies as they become obsolete. Just think,
how fast the “latest” model of a computer purchased by you
becomes obsolete, or how fast compact fluorescent lamps
are replacing the good old tube lights. Well, this is how it
should be. In the field of medicine, terms like
ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), organ
transplant, and in-vitro fertilization have almost become a
part of everyday life. Consider the advances in the field of
biotechnology. Genetically modified food products,
transgenic crops, cloning, gene replacement therapy, stem
cell harvesting and similar jargon is fast becoming a part of
our everyday vocabulary.
Let us look at the other side of the coin. Undoubtedly,
the new technologies have helped improve the quality of
life, thereby significantly changing our life-styles. However,
2 Science Musings: Selected editorials from DREAM 2047
it is also equally true that breakthroughs in the fields like
biotechnology have instilled a sense of awe and fear - fear
of the unknown - in our minds. Consider the question - are
genetically modified food products safe to consume? Will
transgenic plants with built-in pesticides give rise to a new
breed of pests which are resistant to these built-in pesticides?
How shall we tackle the problem then? What is the guarantee
that gene replacement therapy would be used only for the
human good? Would it not be misused to produce new
Frankensteins? Indeed, most of us are totally ignorant of
what the new science holds in store for us. Such doubts and
questions make the task of realizing our dream - even in a
small part - of every citizen with a scientific outlook a distant
dream indeed! Under the circumstances, how shall we make
the developments in science less frightening and more
accessible to the people?
Indeed, people do possess a keen desire to know and
understand the new science and new technologies as they
become part of their lives. The innate curiosity and the thirst
for knowledge always co-exist. Otherwise, over a century
ago, people in Punjab would not have thronged to listen to
Ruchiram Sahni’s lectures by paying a fee of two annas, or
the Albermarle street in London to listen to the discourses
of Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
A recent example is the overflowing Siri Fort auditorium in
Delhi where people turned up in thousands to hear Stephen
Hawking unravel the mysteries of the Universe and the
black-holes. True, there can only be one Faraday, Sahni or
Hawking. But, there certainly are thousands of mini-Sahnis,
mini-Faradays or mini-Hawkings amongst us, in our labs,
colleges, university departments, schools and Government
/ non-Government organizations who could take people
into confidence and engage them in discussions and free
debates. This is how developments in science would become
more accessible to people, and at the same less frightening.