Just now I read Dr. P. K. Iyengar's wonderful tribute to Homi Bhabha on his Birth Centenary.
A great tribute to a great Scientist and a born Leader!
But, this happened to recall some qualms I always had about what I call: "The Indian Physics Innocence".
....That was a lecture I attended in the S. N. Bose Seminar Room at IIT KGP. Dr. Iyengar was giving a wonderful talk on the topic of the day: "Cold Fusion". Great orator. Many skeptics questioned its feasibility. Dr. Iyengar snapped: "I have done Neutron Counting all my life, so I should know."
Cold Fusion was the supposed answer for our future energy needs..cheap and efficient...it went cold in no time...a crazy idea born abroad...crazy ideas are the stuff of science...e.g.: when everyone thought it was Radium, two dogged chemists (as I wrote elsewhere) insisted it was Barium; and the Bomb was born in 6 years....but such and such and so and so don't happen daily...
Then; our tech-savvy Rajiv Gandhi as P.M. was roped in as Chairman of another Nobel-winning thing: "High Temperature Superconductivity"...a cure for all energy losses; where has it gone?
And meanwhile someone said there is a "Fifth Force": and we went into deep pits to discover it...does it exist?
Indian Physics is very vibrant and colorful...but maybe a little innocent...
But, innocence that never hurt anyone; and maybe a day will come:"out of babes and innocents":
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Matthew 21:16: And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
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Surely I am not competent enough to criticize stalwarts : but this is the beauty of our Blogosphere...here a cat can look at a king;
Here we go again:
This is the beauty of our Blogosphere
A cat can wink at a king here
And like his Cheshire forebear
Grin, delete and disappear!
For truly this is the Wonderland
Alice and Tompkins would understand
Gamow meets his Carroll here
Prose and Verse hand in hand!
Hail Blogoshpere!
All are truly friends here.
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