Below are the YouTube links to the 2 talks I gave on C.V. Raman on the occasion of India’s Science Day
The first talk is about : C.V. Raman: A brief History
Organized by IISER Pune Science Activity Centre
Age group 6 to 100: Students, Teachers, Science Enthusiasts and all Members of the Public
The second talk is about : C. V. Raman : History of Ideas
Organized by Science Club IISER Pune
Target audience: Science students and researchers
Apart from ideas, and the utilitarian, materialistic benefits,what can science offer to the society? This is a question I repeatedly ask myself in understanding a related question: ‘why I do what I do?’. This question, in my opinion, is also at the heart of social relevance of the pursuit of science.
A vital aspect which scientific research can indirectly teach and train its practitioners and its beneficiaries is the ability to empathize.
Empathy towards a fellow living creature, and not just human beings, requires oneself to suspend ones ego and understand something from a different perspective. This act needs patience, and the result is almost always enriching.
A quote (mis?)attributed to Plato puts it succinctly:
“The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self.”
One of the interesting aspects of scientific research is to study an idea or an object of interest from various different viewpoints. This ability to look at a particular thing from various conceptual angles enriches the understanding, and concomitantly clarifies the purpose.
Many a times one would be able to obtain an unexpected insight by looking at something from a different viewpoint.
The pursuit and the spirit of scientific enquiry essentially requires the same attributes as empathy, and hence the connection.
It is astonishing fact that we are witnessing a war among human beings in this day and age. Human beings are the most dominant creatures of our planet. This domination has already caused a severe problem in the form of climate change, and has drastically affected our own well being. War is the last thing you want at any circumstance.
If we have to overcome these problems, we cannot ignore science or empathy. In an essense, ignoring them is like reversing the benefits of human intellectual evolution.
We humans can do far better than this…
Raman was an extraordinary scientist, great communicator of science, and a very interesting human being with strong opinions and independent thought…. his scientific journey is an ‘audacity of hope’. His human endeavour.. from Bowbazar to Bengaluru..is what makes Raman what he is…and what he will be remembered for..
Raman’s work was deeply influenced by many great classical thinkers, and Euclid was one of them. To quote Raman
“Not until many years later did I appreciate the central position of geometry to all natural knowledge. I can give a thousand examples. Every mineral found in Nature, every crystal made by man, every leaf, flower or fruit that we see growing, every living thing from the smallest to the largest that walks on earth, flies in the air or swims in the waters or lives deep down on the ocean floor, speaks aloud of the fundamental role of geometry in Nature. The pages of Euclid are like the opening bars in the Grand Opera of Nature’s great drama. They lift the veil and show to our vision a glimpse of the vast world of natural knowledge awaiting study.”
To know more, you may want to attend the announced talks..
Happy Science Day !
This year, on India’s Science Day – 28th Feb, I will be giving 2 webinars
1)9:45 AM to 10:15 AM:
C.V. Raman: A brief History
This is a pre-recorded talk
Organized by IISER Pune outreach.
IISER Pune Science Activity Centre
Age group 6 to 100: Students, Teachers, Science Enthusiasts and all Members of the Public
https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/events/3430/national-science-day-2022
2) 6pm – live talk
C. V. Raman : History of Ideas
Organized by Science Club IISER Pune
Target audience: Science students and researchers
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/91706756774?pwd=Q3lLOXB3ODVnZHd0ZVJaTWc4QjFoUT09
Probably, these talks will be put on YouTube too. I shall post the links when available
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00342-w
This is so obvious to Indian research community… open access is open only to the readers, not to the authors from low and lower-middle income countries such as India
Above article in nature reinforces this point.. with a data backed reference
Since my student days, I have been studying various things Richard Feynman wrote. His 3 volumes of lectures in physics have been one of the ‘go-to sources’ on basic physics. I have also enjoyed reading his lectures on advanced topics, including nanotechnology and computing. Apart from all this, I have also been impressed by Feynman’s viewpoint on science, society and human living.
In the passing, I have read that he did not like philosophers, but I always felt that Feynman’s thoughts were deeply philosophical without the frills of sophisticated language.
Recently, I came across a wonderful conversation with Leonard Susskind, a close friend of Feynman and an accomplished physicist himself. In this video (around 40.18 min), Susskind highlights that Feynman was deeply philosophical. He emphasizes that Feynman did not like the way philosophical discourse was conducted, especially in the context of the philosophy of science. This point kind of reinforced my impression of Feynman and was heartening.
I admire Feynman for making science interesting, but I am also very well aware that Feynman has been criticized for being sexist. Feynman was a scientific genius, but he had his flaws.
Anyway, the whole conversation with Susskind is educative. The best part is when he talks about why he likes teaching (around 1.06 hours in the video), which is worth watching.
Linked is an open-access, e-book released by SPIE, OSA et al.,
“Discovering Light: Fun Experiments with Optics”
Topics are very interesting…look forward to reading it..
Enjoy !
“The physicist is most cogently identified, not by the subject studied, but by the way in which a subject is studied and by the nature of the information being sought.”
Above is an interesting quote by Sol Gruner, James Langer, Phil Nelson, and Viola Vogel from a 1995 article in Physics Today titled WHAT FUTURE WILL WE CHOOSE FOR PHYSICS?
Although written more than 25 years ago from the viewpoint of US physics community, many of the issues discussed in this article are pertinent even today. Probably more so in the Indian context.
Nice read :
What Future Will We Choose for Physics?
Sol M. Gruner, James S. Langer, Phil Nelson, and Viola Vogel
Citation: Physics Today 48, 12, 25 (1995); doi: 10.1063/1.881477
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.881477
There is absolutely no conflict between doing good science and being kind to people with whom you work, and this includes not only colleagues and students, but also administrative staff and everyone in an academic ecosystem. The below linked article makes a good case for this point.
It also derives some relevant lessons from philosophy which can be applied to academic environment. Worth reading…if you have access
https://www.cell.com/trends/cell-biology/fulltext/S0962-8924(21)00229-4
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Physics 