VISMAYA: History & Philosophy of Physics
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.
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.
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 :
Great to see Kamala Sohonie featured on google doodle today. She was (probably?) the 1st woman to get a science PhD in India – circa 1939.
Also featured in the book “Lilavati’s Daughters” which I mentioned in my recent podcast
Going by the timelines, Iravati Karve got PhD in 1930, in anthropology, which is generally categorized as ‘social science’. Nevertheless, all inspiring.
Iravati had deep connections with Pune, and taught Deccan College
More about her : https://www.ias.ac.in/public/Resources/Initiatives/Women_in_Science/Contributors/Iravati.pdf
More bios of inspiring scientists : https://www.ias.ac.in/Initiatives/Women_in_Science/The_Women_Scientists_of_India
I discuss the legacy of two important individuals Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar and their students. I highlight their styles of doing research and how they inspired important schools of thought. I emphasize the role of economic privilege and gender. I discuss Bimala Buti and mention about interesting books on women in science : Lilavatis Daughters and Lab Hopping.
“Bimla Buti.” In Wikipedia, February 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bimla_Buti&oldid=1138208481.
“Chandra :: About Chandra :: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar – The Man Behind The Name.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://chandra.harvard.edu/about/chandra.html.
“Chandrasekhar and His Limit – Google Books.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Chandrasekhar_and_His_Limit/HNSdDFOJ4wkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover.
Chandrasekhar, S. Liquid Crystals. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Cladis, Patricia E., Banahalli R. Ratna, and Ranganathan Shashidar. “S. Chandrasekhar (1930–2004): Discotic Liquid Crystals.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 43, no. 26 (2004): 3360–3360. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200460918.
Dunmur, David, and Tim Sluckin. Soap, Science, and Flat-Screen TVs: A History of Liquid Crystals. Oxford University Press, 2014. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Soap_Science_and_Flat_Screen_TVs/2iSQDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
Goodby, John W. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar (1930–2004).” Nature 428, no. 6986 (April 2004): 906–906. https://doi.org/10.1038/428906a.
Gray, G. W., G. R. Luckhurst, and E. P. Raynes. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar. 6 August 1930 — 8 March 2004: Elected FRS 1983.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 53 (January 2007): 127–41. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2007.0015.
Great Indians: Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-lJjR7pM7k.
“Imprints Collection.” Accessed June 17, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/bios/obituary_chandrasekhar.html.
“Imprints Collection – Collected Publications of Prof. Jayaraman.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/raman_era/Publications/sc@rri.html.
“Kameshwar C. Wali.” In Wikipedia, May 16, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kameshwar_C._Wali&oldid=1155091599.
Kumar, G. V. Pavan. “Raman’s Nephews.” Scatterings (blog), February 27, 2020. https://historyofscience.in/2020/02/28/ramans-nephews/.
“Lilavatis Daughters | Women in Science | Initiatives | Indian Academy of Sciences.” Accessed June 17, 2023. https://www.ias.ac.in/Initiatives/Women_in_Science/Lilavatis_Daughters.
NobelPrize.org. “The Nobel Prize in Physics 1983.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1983/chandrasekhar/biographical/.
Penguin Random House India. “Lab Hopping.” Accessed June 17, 2023. https://penguin.co.in/book/lab-hopping/.
“Prof. G S Ranganath.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/album/Prof.%20G%20S%20Ranganath/index.html#.
“Prof G S Ranganath | Imprints Collection | Raman Research Institute.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/bios/gsrangnath.html.
“Prof G Srinivasan.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/album1/Prof%20G%20Srinivasan/index.html.
“Prof. G. Srinivasan | Imprints Collection | Raman Research Institute.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/bios/srinivasan.html.
“Prof. S. Chandrasekhar | Imprints Collection | Raman Research Institute.” Accessed June 14, 2023. https://wwws.rri.res.in/htmls/library/imprints_collection/bios/chandrasekhar.html.
“Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar.” In Wikipedia, February 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sivaramakrishna_Chandrasekhar&oldid=1138214704.
“The Women Scientists of India | Women in Science | Initiatives | Indian Academy of Sciences.” Accessed June 17, 2023. https://www.ias.ac.in/Initiatives/Women_in_Science/The_Women_Scientists_of_India.
Wali, Kameshwar C. A Quest for Perspectives: Selected Works of S Chandrasekhar (With Commentary)(In 2 Volumes). IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1142/p175.
———. A Scientific Autobiography: S Chandrasekhar. WORLD SCIENTIFIC, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1142/7686.
Wali, Kameshwar C. Chandra: A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar. Centennial Publications of the University of Chicago Press. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3774392.html.
Wali, Kameshwar C. S Chandrasekhar: The Man Behind the Legend. PUBLISHED BY IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS AND DISTRIBUTED BY WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO., 1997. https://doi.org/10.1142/p030.
Albert Abraham Michelson was a celebrated American experimental physicist. He was associated with one of the most famous experiments in physics : Michelson-Morley Experiment, which formed an important input for Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
Recently, I discussed about this experiment in one of my podcasts.
Michelson’s ability to design and develop optical instruments including the interferometer named after him, was one of vital elements in his legendary pursuit to measure velocity of light. He continued to refine this measurement over a period of 40 years or so.
He was also the first American to win a Nobel prize in science (physics, 1907). Americans adored him, and he shot up to fame with his ingenious experiments and became a folklore of United States.
There is a very nice historical account of the Michelson-Morley-Miller experiment in the book titled : The Ethereal Aether; a History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-Drift Experiments, 1880-1930. by Swenson, Loyd S. published in 1972.
(Yes, you read it right, there was another guy called Dayton Miller who played a critical role in refining the experiment initiated by Michelson and Morley )
In Swenson’s book, there are two stanzas from a poem by Edwin Herbert Lewis that highlights Michelson’s legend. Below I reproduce the same :
But in Kyerson rainbows murmur the music of heavenly things.
Is not this stranger than heaven that a man should hear around
The whole of earth and the half of heaven and see the shadow of sound?
He gathereth up the iris from the plunging of planet’s rim
With bright precision of fingers that Uriel envies him.
But when from the plunging planet he spread out a hand to feel
How fast the ether drifted back through flesh or stone or steel
The fine fiducial fingers felt no ethereal breath. They penciled the night in a cross of light and found it still as death.
Have the stars conspired against him? Do measurements only seem?
Are time and space but shadows enmeshed in a private dream?But dreaming or not, he measured. He made him a rainbow bar,
E.H. Lewis
And first he measured the measures of man, and then he measured a star.
Now tell us how long is the metre, lest fire should steal it away?
Ye shall fashion it new, immortal, of the crimson cadmium ray.
Now tell us how big is Antares, a spear-point in the night?
Four hundred million miles across a single point of light.
He has taught a world to measure. They read the furnace and gauge
By lines of the fringe of glory that knows nor aging nor age.
Now this is the law of Ryerson and this is the price of peace-
That men shall learn to measure or ever their strife shall cease.
Indeed humans shall learn to measure or ever their strife shall cease…
I am G.V. Pavan Kumar, the author of this blog.
My research interests are :
In my research group, we study the interaction of light with soft-matter from a photonics viewpoint.
Until now, I have supervised 11 PhD theses, 11 MS theses, a few post-docs and several undergraduate students at IISER Pune (see my group members – past and present). I continue to learn a lot from them.
See our publications sorted by : topics / chronology.
Another strand of my research is the history of science. I am interested in the historical evolution of ideas in physical sciences and technology. I research the life and work of past scientists, innovators, and people driven by curiosity, and I write about them from an Indian and Asian perspective. My motivation is to humanize science.
Writing has been an integral part of my life since my childhood (1980s), and I have been in the process since the ‘pre-internet’ era. I have been blogging since 2008 or so. You can access my old blog site here.
Also connected to my blog are:
YouTube channel – Science meets History,
podcast – Pratidhvani: Humanizing Science.
My blog integrates all of the above.
You can access and listen to my audio podcast – Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science, on -Spotify, YouTube (audio), Google Podcast or Apple podcast (all links below).
Podcast Pratidhvani -Google podcast
Podcast Pratidhvani -Apple podcast
You can give your feedback here.
Note: My blogs/podcasts/videos are motivated by my research, teaching and learning. I create them in my personal capacity.
As an extension of my blog, I am starting a podcast in my individual capacity :
Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science
In several Indian languages, including Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi and many more, the word – Pratidhvani (ಪ್ರತಿಧ್ವನಿ/प्रतिध्वनि) – means resonance, reflection (of sound). Through my podcast, I intend to reflect on my thoughts as an academic scientist on some topics related to science, technology, history and philosophy of science. Listen to my first podcast, and let me know what you think.
References :
Kumar, G.V.P., 2023. Science + History —> better Science. Scatterings. URL https://historyofscience.in/2023/04/01/science-history-better-science/ (accessed 5.11.23).
Kumar, G.V.P., 2022. 12 Years as a faculty member in India – 12 lessons. Scatterings. URL https://historyofscience.in/2022/05/25/12-years-as-a-faculty-in-india-12-lessons/ (accessed 5.11.23).
Weinberg, S., 2003. Four golden lessons. Nature 426, 389–389. https://doi.org/10.1038/426389a
Mankutimma’s Aphorisms!!: 789, n.d. . Mankutimma’s Aphorisms!! URL http://mankutimma-aphor.blogspot.com/2012/12/789.html (accessed 5.11.23).