Honourable Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, inaugurated the “Hall of Oceans” exhibition at the Regional Science Centre and Planetarium, Kozhikode.

Honourable Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, inaugurated the “Hall of Oceans” exhibition at the Regional Science Centre and Planetarium, Kozhikode.

In the infinitely vast and unending cosmos, which boasts of billions of galaxies each home to billions of stars, one of which is our very own galaxy the Milky Way of which our Sun is one of those billions of stars that our galaxy is made up of, our Earth is one of those eight planets that our solar system supports. The Sun and our planet Earth are very unique. Earth is the only known “spec” of dust, in the unending cosmos, that harbours life in its varied life forms. Earth, also called the Blue Planet, is home to the most precious substance, Water that makes life possible. 70+ percent of our earths surface is made up of water, which gives earth its unique “blue” identity. It is the Sun, water and nature’s cycles of natural phenomenon, spread over millions and millions of years, that resulted in the formation of life on this unique planet. In recognition of the role that the oceans play in the inextricable linkage of formation of life on earth with the oceans, that RSC Kozhikode was tasked to design and develop the exhibition “Hall of Oceans”. My colleague Mr V S Ramachandran, the head of the Centre, and his team have developed this wonderful richly illustrated exhibition with support from the Nehru Science Centre. The exhibition has several hands on exhibits with models, multimedia, videos, dioramas, simulator etc. It was an honour and privilege for us that this new facility was inaugurated by the Honourable Chief Minister of Kerala.

The inextricable linkage of life on earth with the oceans, has now been very well established. Even in our mythology evolution of life forms from ocean have been elucidated in the dashavaratara, the eight avataras of lord Vishnu. Yet, the oceans have remained majorly mysterious. This mystery is borne out from the fact that the oceans are still 90% unexplored, and less understood than perhaps the surface of Mars. Despite occupying 70% of our planet’s surface, what we know about ocean is far less than what it calls for. However over the years the mystery of Oceans is gradually getting demystified. The Hall of Oceans exhibition, it is hoped will help in exciting the young minds to understand the oceans better and that some of these young minds may well go on to be the Syed Zahoor Qasim of tomorrow’s India.

Ocean has been the cradle of life forms. From the seemingly infinite ways in which the light and water intermingled to dramatically produce those bioluminescent bacteria, twinkling like stars in the deep ocean, or the way rays of sunlight fall on water to evaporate a vast volume of the salty water that the oceans and seas are made up of, to form clouds and result in the water cycle producing rain and fresh water that aid the biodiversity of life, the study and understanding of oceans has been very important. The exhibition, Hall of Oceans, covers a wide ranging topics. One of the exhibits is the Millers experimental model. Stanley Miller is considered as the father of chemistry of origin of life. Millers experimental set up, a model of which is presented in the exhibition, almost overnight transformed the study of the origin of life into a respectable field of inquiry. Working in Urey's laboratory, Miller placed the four gases in a closed system over a reservoir of water that simulated the early ocean. He heated the water to fill the system with water vapour and repeatedly passed an electrical discharge through the gas to simulate lightening, which showed that some particles in the ocean can melt together to form different particles, amino-acids the forerunners of the RNA and DNA biological molecules. These primordial particles are the ‘bricks’ that built life on earth. Over millions and millions of years, this process led to the creation of the first bacteria and single cell organisms from which ‘higher’ lifeforms evolved leading upto the human species as evidenced and revealed to us by the great Darwin, through his monumental works on the Origin of Species by Natural Selection.

The exhibition has models and information that highlights the multitudes of the Oceans including the socioeconomic importance of oceans to the Indian Peninsula highlighting specifically on Kerala. One of the dioramas depicts the speciality of the Kerala coast - the mudbanks (known in Malayalam as chakara). Mud banks are formed as a result of the formation of clay and organic matters on the coast that occurs after monsoon with the sea remaining calm, thus resulting in good harvest of fish. The Indian Ocean matters today, arguably more than ever. It is a major conduit for international trade, especially energy, which has been high lighted in the gallery. Other exhibits including colourful corals, and varied other life forms in ocean are included in the exhibition as models and visuals, which are spread across the gallery aimed at educating and creating interest among the students in particular and public in general. Other models in the exhibition include working models on plate tectonics, tidal waves, tsunami, simulator, large video screen with some stunning videos.

The Chief Minister, who spent his precious time to visit the exhibition and impressed with what he saw, pledged complete support to the Centre including committing to allot additional land for the expansion of the Science Centre. With a humble beginning back in 1996, when the Centre was opened, the Calicut Science centre and planetarium has now come a long way with several new facilities that have been added and we are now at a stage when the 6 acres of land where it is located does not have any further scope for expansion. The Centre and planetarium now attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually and has become a people’s centre.

I take this opportunity to complement Mr V S Ramachandran, who has been the prime mover for the great achievements of this Centre, and his entire team who have strived hard to make this possible. Kudos to each one of them and a special thank you to Mr Ramachandran for whom my support as the head of the Nehru Science Centre, which is the head office of the Regional Science Centre and Planetarium, Kozhikode, has been incidental to the team RSCC’s success.

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