Serendipity

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The photograph intended was of a Black-crowned Night Heron; the photographer was unaware of the Pileated Woodpecker flashing through until the image was viewed later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

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Serendipity is not mere luck...it is more of pluck.

When you are angling for a shrimp and you get a hilsa it is luck. But if you get a frog and don't throw it away but take it home and cut it and find a diamond ring in its belly, it is serendipity.

That is...when you are looking for something and something else turns up unexpectedly and fetches you the Nobel, your discovery is serendipitous (what an ugly word!).

Apparently the word 'serendipity' comes from a Persian Tale called 'Three Princes of Serendip' who were all the time catching those frogs. Serendip is supposed to come from Simhadweep or Swarnadweep...it doesn't matter...both refer to Sri Lanka who were out of the T-20 the other day rather unserendipitously :-(

Modern Physics is full of Serendipity.

Roentgen was working with cathode rays and was expecting to see more of the same. But it turned out that what he was finding on the sidelines were not streams of cathode ray particles but an unknown deeply penetrating X-things which he called X-rays (the name stuck!). And he pleaded with his wife to insert her hand in the path of those thingamajigs intending to take a photo of her lovely hand. 

And what he got was not her hand but her bones:

 

http://butterfliescreations.blogspot.in/


Watch her diamond ring. And he realized that what he discovered would be a boon to humanity and refused to take a patent on it. This gels with his youth-style:

 

"He was expelled for refusing to reveal the identity of a classmate guilty of drawing an unflattering portrait of one of the school's teachers. Not only was he expelled, he subsequently found that he could not gain admittance into any other Dutch or German gymnasium"...wiki

But of course he won the very first Nobel in Physics and donated all the prize money to his University of Wurzburg...and went bankrupt.

Rutherford was bombarding his gold foils with alpha particles expecting them to go through rather like bullets shot at a thatch door...and discovered some of those chaps were ricocheting and hitting his face. And found the 'nucleus' which, according to Eddington, is the greatest revolution in mankind's concepts...it robbed our worktable of all of its 'substance' and showed it is mostly vacuum.

And of course he got his Prize...in Chemistry...for something else...

Talking of Chemistry, most of their early discoveries were serendipitous...they wanted to make gold from lead and discovered nitrogen maybe...alchemy was the mother of chemistry...see the root 'chem' if you don't trust me.

And a couple of them were bombarding uranium with neutrons expecting it to wiggle and end up in radium but found that it ended up in barium...the serendipitous discovery of nuclear fission and the Bomb...Hahn walked away with his Prize.

The serendipitest of all was two telephone workers trying to reduce noise but went on to discover it can't be reduced anymore...they discovered proof of the Mother of all Bangs...and walked away with the Prize in Physics rather than a promotion in Bell Labs...their names are A. Penzias and R. Woodrow Wilson (name matters in serendipity).

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Coming to the more mundane world, there are instances of a chap attending a friend's marriage and ending up as the bridegroom serendipitously...the World of Appu comes to mind.

Three most momentous events of my own life, such as it is, are serendipitous:

1. Both my friend, PSKR, and I were working under the same Reluctant Guru, Prof DP at AU, Waltair for our Ph. D.'s. And both of us concluded after two years that we have to quit for a permanent job. And were looking out in 1965.

I got a Lecturer's Job Offer at the AMAL College at Anakapalli, a few miles from Waltair, and was about to join. One of those days, PSKR told me he was applying for an Associate Lecturer's job at a strange place called KGP and asked me to apply too for the sake of company...they were giving upper class return train fare. I said ok...who would take an Associate Lecturer's Post when a Lectureship was on his plate?

Both of us had a fun time traveling to KGP and back. But on March 24th I got an Offer Letter from KGP while PSKR didn't. I felt sorry for him and was about to 'regret' the KGP job. Then PSKR asked me to look at the Pay Scale.

It was frightening...IIT KGP was offering Rs 465 while Anakapalli offered me Rs 175 (consolidated).

Rest was my lifeline...

2. My HoD saw me wasting my time in the Faculty Club playing ping-pong and rebuked me and asked me to join one Prof SDM in Theoretical Physics. I was as against that idea as going to KGP...till I peeped into his Room and saw a crazy old man in a yogic trance....another turning point.

3. I was looking to marry an MA or MSc and was offered an MD. I rejected her outright in the morning and turned round and accepted the offer by the evening...she was looking to marry anyone but a doctor...and ended up marrying a doctor of sorts...viz. of Philosophy.

The height of serendipity would be a homeopath trying to discover a cure for baldness and finding out he got a cure for cancer...Sid Mukherjee would withdraw his book from the market happppppily!

Many ex-students of mine wrote to me that they discovered this blog serendipitously...although they didn't use that ugly word:

"Dear Sir,

Hope my mail finds you in the best of your health and days.

Many years since I met you, Sir. I was spending some time on Google today (my favourite place to hang-around when I do not know what I want to do) and I came across your blogsite. In short it brought KGP back to my mind like a repeat telecast. It is actually too good to try and find more complex word to define it.  I am still reading the various topics .....

I got your mail id from the same page. I have also put up the link on my Facebook site. I am sure the KGP Phy Dept guys would love to read the pages.

I would look forward to hear from you Sir, about where did you settle after retirement and how r Aunty and Srinath doing ?

Best regards

Dalia"

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Last Laugh

One day around 1995 I was walking by the Phy Office and Didi saw me and beckoned me and said:

"Sir, The Telephone Exchange called me just now and informed me that you have a call from Europe"

So, I walked to the Exchange out of curiosity and was told that the caller cut off and didn't mention the country from which he was calling...just Europe.

I then walked to Manoj-da's Room in the EE Dept. He was the Chairman of Telephones and asked him if he could help trace the call:

Manoj-da: Are you expecting a call from Europe?

Me: Yes

Manoj-da: From which country?

Me: Sweden

Manoj-da saw the twinkle in my eye and chased me all the way down the corridor...

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