VISMAYA: History & Philosophy of Physics

Category: History

  • Conversation with Suneeta Vardarajan

    Suneeta Vardarajan is a Professor of Physics at IISER Pune, working in gravitation and mathematical physics. Her group studies black holes, from classical perturbation theory, which helps identify astrophysical signatures of black holes, to their quantum features. In this episode, we discuss the research questions she has been interested in over the years and her ability to effectively combine research with teaching and science communication.

    References:

    ‘Sites.Iiserpune.Ac.in/~suneeta/’. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://sites.iiserpune.ac.in/%7Esuneeta/.

    ‘Suneeta Vardarajan’. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/physics/people/faculty/regular-faculty/suneeta-vardarajan/350.

    ‘Vardarajan Suneeta – INSPIRE’. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://inspirehep.net/authors/987127.

    SMC_IISER Pune. Beyond Darkness | Public Lecture Programme on Black Holes | IISER Pune. 2026. 02:08:09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_N3PFMUxPc.

    srijit bhattacharjee. Suneeta Vardarajan: Recent Developments in Semi-Classical Gravity. 2024. 01:05:22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvSO1YT6tY.

    Vardarajan, Suneeta. Non-Euclidean Geometry. 1584457087. 880. https://www.ted.com/talks/suneeta_vardarajan_non_euclidean_geometry.

    X (Formerly Twitter). ‘(1) Suneeta Vardarajan (@Ms_Gravitas) / X’. 26 July 2026. https://x.com/ms_gravitas.

  • Perhaps…truth..

    Perhaps it is not a question of truth, but it is the reaction to the truth. Perhaps it is not the feeling of the truth, but the consequence of knowing that truth can be so deep and yet can reach so far. Perhaps truth, which is generally considered slow, can intrigue our minds and revisit us instantaneously.

    Is there anything called ‘the truth’? The truth itself may look like a transient, but again, the question remains: Is truth so important? A scientist, an artist, a curious mind is in search of truth, in their own way. The vocabulary, the picture, and the question may have textures and different forms, but there is a strange kind of unity in the pursuit of the truth. A human life is perhaps worth living and perhaps worth pursuing in the pursuit of this truth. Perhaps that is the lesson. We need to relearn, unlearn, and teach ourselves that truth matters for humanity.

    As we search for truth, peace, and knowledge, we realize that none of these is independent of the others. Perhaps a few human beings in the history of humankind have made an attempt to attain the ‘truth’. They don’t remain with us, but the pursuit remains. Perhaps humans are transient, and truth is a constant. Perhaps…that is a truth.

  • Process <–> Results

  • A more realistic view of science through history..

  • Some Ideas on Ideas…

  • Astronomy in Africa: Who is studying it?

    Africa and Africans have had rich knowledge about astronomy. The authors of a recent paper on arXiv explore some interesting issues of where that knowledge comes from and who is exploring it.

    The abstract reads:

    Africa has deep and diverse traditions of astronomical knowledge, ranging from archaeological astronomy, pharaonic stellar timekeeping, and manuscript astronomy in Timbuktu and the Sahel, to ecological seasonal astronomy in southern Africa and calendrical computation in the Ethiopian tradition. These multiple epistemic traditions form part of a long intellectual history that precedes and intersects with contemporary astronomy on the continent. In the context of this long-standing intellectual heritage, an important question arises regarding the contemporary circulation of African astronomical knowledge within the global scientific system. This study therefore examines where African astronomical knowledge is produced, validated, and circulated in modern scholarly communication. Using bibliometric data from the Web of Science Core Collection, our analysis investigates publication and citation patterns in the research area Astronomy and Astrophysics between 2000 and 2025, with particular attention to the publication venues of African scholars. The findings highlight a critical paradox: while African researchers are active contributors to global astronomical discovery, the intellectual capital generated through this work is largely stored, validated, and circulated through publication systems located outside the continent. This pattern reflects broader asymmetries within global scholarly communication, where dominant publishing infrastructures shape visibility, citation impact, and authority. By applying a decolonial lens to metrics such as citation impact and ownership, the paper calls for a critical reassessment of the academic practices that sustain epistemic coloniality. It concludes that achieving scientific equity requires a strategic shift in publication choices to build and fortify a sovereign African knowledge archive.

    There are some impressive snapshots of old manuscripts. An example is shown below:

    There are many more interesting points in the manuscript. Check it out.

    Reference to the paper:

    Koch, Rhea, and Amare Abebe. ‘From Timbuktu to SKA: Who Owns the Astronomy Knowledge Africa Produces?’ arXiv:2608.21119. Preprint, arXiv, 21 August 2026. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.21119.

  • The Controversial Schrödinger

    12th of August is Erwin Schrödinger’s birthday…. Although he has been one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics (of the cat fame) and has contributed deeply to the subject matter, in recent years, he has become (in)famous for his non-academic life. For sure, he had a controversial personal life and has been deservedly criticized for that.

    Only recently, there has been some new archival information (see this) that throws more light on this and gives some benefit of the doubt.

    An important lesson: Great science alone does not guarantee good human qualities in a scientist.

    ps:

    To paraphrase and expand on something I wrote recently –

    We continue to celebrate science by a person because science is not only of that person, but of humanity….

    A person learns from others, transforms it and passes it on.

    The human mind is both a conduit and a seed of an idea. Lest we forget the soil, sunshine, water and air.

  • Schrödinger & Poetry

    Recently, I came across an arXiv upload that discussed poetry written by Schrödinger.

    Below is a flavor of Schrödinger’s poetry reproduced from the arXiv article:

    “The brooding sun rests softly on the lake

    And barely marks its shallow breathing

    As gentle waves rock up and down

    In heavy glare of midday heat.

    ….”

    One of the surprising things I learned is that Schrödinger was interested in becoming a poet but later turned to physics and mathematics to ensure financial security: “Thus, in a 1931 interview by the English journalist and science writer John W. N. Sullivan he said: “I took up mathematics and physics quite early … But I must not give the impression that science alone interested me. As a matter of fact, my early desire was to be a poet. But I speedily realised that poetry was not a paying business. Science, on the other hand, offered me a career”” (Kragh, 2026, p. 2)

    Schrodinger had a deep interest in cultural studies and wrote a lot about them, as the author points out: “Apart from being a brilliant physicist, Schrödinger was also a humanist scholar, a polymath who engaged in cultural studies relating to music, theatre, philosophy, history, philology, and literature [Gronau and Gronau 2021]. Science and Humanism and Nature and the Greeks, both books written while he stayed in Dublin, bear witness to his broad cultural interests.” (Kragh, 2026, p. 1)

    It is also intriguing to see a few other physicists try their hand at poetry, as in this case with Felix Bloch:

    “Erwin with his psi can do

    Calculations quite a few.

    But one thing has not been seen:

    Just what does psi really mean?” (Kragh, 2026, p. 2)

    The article also has a discussion on Schrödinger’s Galilean dialogue, which has inclinations towards the development of ideas in physics.

    Do read the reference below for more:

    Kragh, Helge. ‘Erwin Schroedinger: His Poetry and Fragment of a Galilean Dialogue’. arXiv:2607.29497. Preprint, arXiv, 31 July 2026. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.29497.

  • Even transients have to wait…

    Everything has to wait, including the transients…

    If you sight a star
    on a rainy night,
    you need to wait
    to see the passing cloud.
    The transient here is
    not only the cloud,
    but your patience too.

    Rain comes and goes,
    so does the night.
    Even the star will
    not outlast.
    So does your memory.
    But you need to wait…

  • Criticism – just a science thing..

    Conclusion of a review paper:

    Reference:

    Beyer, Robert T. ‘Radiation Pressure—the History of a Mislabeled Tensor’. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 63, no. 4 (1978): 1025–30. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.381833.