Linked below is a fantastic, well researched & authentic biographical sketch of Oppenheimer – through a series of essays by Ashutosh Jogalekar
The movie has created a hype, and in India, people have taken interest for various reasons.
At the core – Oppenheimer was a scientist, in true spirit.
Seema Sharma is an experimental particle physicist who was also part of the experimental discovery of Higgs Boson at CERN. She is an Associate Professor, in the department of physics at the Indian institute of Science education research, Pune – India.
In this episode we discuss about her journey from Rajsamand Rajasthan, to TIFR Bombay, then to FermiLab US and then to IISER Pune. We did a deep dive on what it takes to be an experimental physicist. We discuss about the role of conceptual understanding of various topics in physics, including quantum physics, to do cutting edge experiments. She further revealed her understanding of doing mega science projects in large collaborative networks and how it has influenced her thinking. There is a small and nice segment in Hindi in which Seema explains about her research and motivations.
Listen…as we humanize science
google podcast link : https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lMTcyMGUwYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/MzMzZjI5NDctZDQyMi00MWQ2LTg0YjQtN2Y0YjE2MGI2M2E2?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwioitCEjIiAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
youtube audio link : https://youtu.be/GPXzn5FxV4M
Seema Sharma’s Webpage: http://sites.iiserpune.ac.in/~seema/.
References:
Sutirth Dey is an evolutionary biologist. He is a Professor of Biology at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. In this conversation we discussed about his own evolution as a biologist, his career trajectory from Patna, Delhi, Bangalore to Pune, and how his knowledge, research and teaching has been influenced by the interactions he had over the years. There is a nice segment in Bengali and Hindi where he explains his research on evolutionary biology and ecology. We also discussed his deep interest in reading and Qawwali music, and many more things…
Listen, as we humanize science.
Sutirth is on Twitter : https://twitter.com/SutirthDey.
References :
Nowadays, it is very common to see various advertisements and social media posts where blatantly unscientific and irrational suggestions are explicitly presented, and even celebrated.
Perhaps this is one of the best ways to avoid probabilistic thinking, which is not natural to human beings. Irrationality attracts a lot of people, and those who understand this utilize it for their benefit. It is the fastest way to group people into a stream as you don’t need to explain. The burden of explanation is always on the rational and not on the irrational. Essentially, it is an asymmetric game.
Generally, any explanation leads to more questions. These questions can further lead to enquiry and that has a cognitive cost. Irrationality does not have to pay that cost.
This has been happening for ages, just that their forms keep changing. It is important to emphasize that cultures across the world, including India, have elements of spirituality and rationality.
Most of the time, the spiritual element is over-emphasized, whereas the philosophical and rational aspect is not given the same prominence. If you dig deeper into any culture, it is the philosophical and rational that has elevated the thought process by asking probing questions, but it is the spiritual which captures the attention.
One way to overcome this problem is to emphasize the rational aspect of the culture. If people start appreciating the fact that there were many people from their own cultural roots who did think deeply and questioned everything, then there is a historical connection. Importantly it leads to a realization that rationality is not something foreign but a cultivated human behavior indigenous to ones own culture.
This is where I make a case for compassionate rationality. It is important that we take the path of patience and explain the gravitas of rationality and its cultural roots without being condescending in our tone and in our thoughts. We need to emphasize its benefits compared to blind faith. We need to make a strong case that rationality has a historical past in our own culture, and importantly it has utility in the present and in the future.
After all, being an atheist/rationalist is not incompatible with being an empathetic and compassionate person. One can still not believe in god and appreciate the cultural roots. One can still go to a temple/mosque/church/any place of worship and be in awe of the architectural beauty and creativity. One can still have a friend who is deeply religious, and have a meaningful argument.
One can still be rational and human.
References for further exploration:
Watson, Peter. “Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud.” Accessed May 26, 2023. https://peterwatsonauthor.com/books/ideas-a-history-from-fire-to-freud/.
Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. Penguin UK, 2006. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Argumentative_Indian/gcGiwyBS3YwC?hl=en&gbpv=0
Pinker, Steven. “Rationality.” Accessed May 26, 2023. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Rationality/HT0NEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
Episode 4. Science, Rationality and Compassion, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewZIue55Zl0.
Aditi Sen (De) is a Professor at HRI, Allahabad. We had a freewheeling conversation on her biography, research on quantum information, motherhood, her experience of working in Europe and India. Also we have small segment in Bengali বাংলা (her mother tongue) on quantum research and motivations. Listen as we humanize science…
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0PxgZe1sdPwlIkDCUXwDht?si=1aWctGNcRmmc3i1H4SmT9g
YouTube: https://youtu.be/NPxLccZ5Z64
1. “Aditi Sen (De).” Accessed June 27, 2023. https://sites.google.com/view/aditisende
2. “Aditi Sen De.” In Wikipedia, April 14, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aditi_Sen_De&oldid=1149772049.
3. Konar, Tanoy Kanti, Ayan Patra, Rivu Gupta, Srijon Ghosh, and Aditi Sen De. “Multimode Advantage in Continuous Variable Quantum Battery.” arXiv.org, October 29, 2022. https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.16528v1.
4. Physics World. “Quantum Batteries Harvest Energy from Light,” April 9, 2022. https://physicsworld.com/quantum-batteries-harvest-energy-from-light/.
5. “Schrödinger’s Cat.” In Wikipedia, May 16, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat&oldid=1155122246.
6. “Dagmar Bruß | Falling Walls.” Accessed June 27, 2023. https://falling-walls.com/people/dagmar-brus/.
7. ICFO. “ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences.” Accessed June 27, 2023. https://www.icfo.eu/.
8. “ICREA.” Accessed June 27, 2023. https://www.icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/anna-sanpera–trigueros-318.
9. “Maciej Lewenstein.” In Wikipedia, June 24, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maciej_Lewenstein&oldid=1161681689.
10. “Marek Żukowski.” In Wikipedia, February 9, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marek_%C5%BBukowski&oldid=1138310178.
11. “Universität Düsseldorf: People.” Accessed June 27, 2023. https://www.tp3.hhu.de/en/people.
Jerel Walker of the fame of Halliday, Resnick ,Walker textbook fame has a superb article on this: https://www.reed.edu/physics/332/pdf/Leidenfrost.pdf
Wikipedia has a reasonable explanation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect#:~:text=The%20Leidenfrost%20effect%20is%20a,the%20liquid%20from%20boiling%20rapidly.
I tell the story behind laser invention. It is a story of human imagination, tenacity, device invention, intense competition, blame and humour. I discuss how the Cold War era USA created an environment to innovate and compete, all thanks to Sputnik…
References :
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Physics 