Raman : His Spectrometer and the City of Joy - Kolkata

Raman : His Spectrometer and the City of Joy - Kolkata

This day, 7th November, 1888, was born the par excellence scientist, the one and only, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in Tiruchirappalli. His association with the city of Joy, Kolkata, is legendary. It was in this city that Raman fell in love with his passion for science, on seeing the historical ‘Indian Association for Cultivation of Science (IACS)’ board, while travelling in a tram on way to his office as the Assistant Accountant General, a highly lucrative job of the Indian Financial Services with the British Indian Government. The rest, what they say, is history which ultimately led to Raman getting the most coveted Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for the discovery of an effect - Raman Effect - known after his name.

To commemorate  the momentous achievement of Raman, the city of Joy chose a brilliant, Guinness Book record winning, idea in which 1598 students of classes VI to XI from different schools from across West Bengal attended a lecture on astrophysics at the Science City, Kolkata, to set a new record in the Guinness Book of World Records. This unique event - a 45 minutes lecture was delivered by Samir Dhurde, science educator, astronomer and Science Outreach In-charge from Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). This was one of several events,  which have been organised during the fifth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) that is currently on in Kolkata. As a mark of India’s respect to the legendary scientist, Raman, each  of these students made a small model of an advanced low cost spectroscope, with cardboard, during a practical experiment session that followed the lecture.

Raman too had used a low cost, locally built Spectrometer, in this very city, which aided him and his associates in making their profound experimental readings that won Raman the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 1930.  Spectroscopes are instruments that are used by astronomers to record the temperature and understand the chemical composition and other characteristics of celestial bodies, which are millions of light years away from earth.

The Raman Spectrometer, was developed by him and his colleagues in Kolkata while working at the IACS some times during the period 1924 to 27.  The functioning of this path breaking instrument was first published in the renowned international magazine, Nature, in 1928. This very instrument, which won Raman the Nobel Prize, was one of the six precious antiquity objects that were sent from India to be a part of the historic exhibition ‘Illumination India - 5000 years of science and Innovation’ that was exhibited at the London Science Museum from October 2017 to April 2018. This historic exhibition was one of the major events to commemorate the India - UK year of Culture. Our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, paid a visit to this exhibition in London. I had the unique honour to be the Nodal Officer from India for this exhibition for which we had sent six antiquity objects of historical significance besides 8 other non antiquity objects.

The Raman Spectrometer had 6 different components, namely the Mercury Vapor Lamp, Collimating Lens, the Sample holder, the Collecting lens, the Violet Filter. The original Raman Spectrometer, which was sent for the exhibition was not in working condition as the inner contraptions of the spectrometer were missing. This instrument was originally used to identify materials that display Raman Scattering. Sir, C V Raman got the Nobel Prize for the discovery of an effect named after him in the year 1930, using this very instrument. On completion of the exhibition the Raman Spectrometer along with other antiquity objects returned back to India and the Raman spectrometer is now in the custody of IACS, the very institute where Raman developed and used this instrument.

Rahman’s love for experimental science bloomed in the dusty ambience of IACS. It was this very place which resulted in Raman voluntarily choosing to forego his lucrative financial services job to settle for a lesser salary job at the Calcutta University - as the Palit Professor. This opportunity provided Raman a chance to represent the Calcutta University for a conference in England.  It was during this historic return voyage to India in 1921 that the blue colour of the Mediterranean Sea gave raise to an impregnating idea that Raman continued to work on. Raman had pursued his entire studies in India and it was for the first time ever that he was making his trip to London. By then he had already attained some reputation in the study of optics and especially acoustics, which was known to the English physicists J. J. Thomson and Lord Rutherford, who gave Raman a warm reception in England. Raman’s specialty had been the study of the vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the violin, the Indian veena and tanpura and so also the Indian percussion instruments, the tabla and the mridangam, which he had proved had some unique characteristics that produced pure harmonics unlike the western percussion instruments.

It was the return trip from London to Bombay aboard the SS Narkunda that would change forever the direction of Raman’s future. During the fifteen-day voyage, Raman became fascinated with the deep blue color of the Mediterranean. He was not inclined to accept Lord Rayleigh’s explanation that the color of the sea was just a reflection of the color of the sky. He therefore proceeded to outline his thoughts on the matter while still at sea and sent a letter to the editors of the journal, Nature as soon as the ship docked in Bombay (Mumbai now). A little time later Raman was able to show conclusively that the color of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules. Raman became obsessed with the phenomenon of light scattering. Immediately on his return to Calcutta, he and his group began an extensive series of experiments and measurements of light scattered primarily by liquids but also by some solids. In less than an year after his return from England - in 1922  - Raman published his work on the “Molecular Diffraction of Light”,  the first of a series of investigations with his collaborators, which ultimately led to his discovery, on the 28th of February, 1928, of the radiation effect which bears his name (“A new radiation”, Indian J. Phys., 2 (1928) 387).

It was on the 16th March 1928 in Bangalore that Raman for the first time talked about his new discovery in a public function.  He began his lecture in Bangalore with these prophetic words “ I propose this evening to speak to you on a new kind of radiation or light emission from atoms and molecules.” Professor Raman delivered this lecture to the South Indian Science Association in Bangalore. Raman during the course of his lecture described the discovery that, according to him, resulted from a deceptively simple experiment. This famous experiment was conducted by Raman and his colleagues at the IACS, Kolkata, far away from those great centres  of scientific research in the Western world. They had used the simplest of inexpensive equipment for their measurement. Although Raman’s original experiments were done by visual observation, precise measurements were made with their historic spectrograph. Raman and his students, during their initial experiments, used only a mercury lamp, a flask of benzene, and a direct vision pocket spectroscope. However the results that they obtained went on to capture the attention of scientists around the world and bring many accolades, including the Nobel Prize, to Raman.

As we celebrate the Guinness Book of Records by students of Calcutta it is time that we pay our respects and reverence to the legendary scientist Sir C V Raman who became instrumental in making this achievement possible. Long live Raman and his profound Raman Effect.

Dr Kakodkar’s Book : Fire and Fury : Transforming India’s Strategic Identity’

Fire and Fury : Transforming India’s Strategic Identity’ - by Anil Kakodkar and Suresh Gangotri - the much awaited book released. 

I am one among several in the scientific community, who is aware of the key role played by Dr Anil Kakodkar in the two Nuclear Tests that India conducted (1974 and 1998) in Pokhran.  Kakodkar was also the key architect of the background negotiations for the India - US Civil Nuclear Agreement and a key contributor to India’s strategic Nuclear programme. Therefore, when I received an invitation for his ‘ Fire and Fury : Transforming India’s Strategic Identity’ Book release, I was very excited, more so because Dr Kakodkar was also to deliver his key note address during the book release at the Nehru Centre, on 1st November. My excitement, like many others, was heightened by the catchy and familiar title of the book ‘ Fire and Fury’.  Another book with similar title ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’, by Michael Wolff, had created an unprecedented hype when it was released in USA. The author of this book claimed that - with his extraordinary access to the White House - he had revealed in his book what happened behind the scenes in the first nine months of Trumps presidency. I was therefore eagerly waiting for the release of Dr Kakodkar’s book, to see if he too had revealed in his book, what happened behind the scenes of the two Pokhran tests and the nuclear deal. 

The Nehru Centre hall, where the book - authored by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Dr. Suresh Gangotra, Senior Technical Advisor to the Chairman, AEC - launched by Dr KN Vyas, Chairman, AEC, was packed to capacity and many more extra chairs were ordered to accommodate those who were standing. Having been accustomed to low key book releases of scientists, the overwhelming response with several distinguished professionals and media personnel in attendance came as a surprise to me. Was it because, like me, many had come to listen to Dr Kakodkar unravel those secret moments during the two Pokhran Tests? I thought so. 

But then off late it is observed that there is a sudden new found love by media and Indian society for scientists and scientific institutions and their achievements.  The patriotic fervour that gets played out during major scientific achievements, which was witnessed recently during the Chandrayaan 2, has created an accentuated interest of Indian society in science. Therefore it is no wonder that many people may have turned up to the book launch to be the first to know more about the Pokhran tests directly from the words of one its key architects - Dr Kakodkar. Whatever be the reason, heightened interest in science and scientists is a welcome change for Indian society.

For long Scientists were considered as those ‘who work in closeted ivory towers. Fortunately, such thinking has changed and in the recent past scientists have become the darling of the Indian masses, the evidence of which was played out during the Chandrayaan 2 mission resulting in the high pedestal on which ISRO Chief, Sivan, was placed by the Indian public and the media. For us - the science communicators - it is an extraordinary welcome change. That being the case, Indian Cinema too has realised this new found love of public and very recently two  films; ‘Parmanu : The Story Of Pokhran’ and ‘Mission Mangal’, have been produced, which in cinematic way has used this new found love for Indian scientific patriotism by the masses, to harvest its benefits commercially. Both these films, portray, in typical Bollywood style,  success story of Pokhran and Chandrayaan projects by two of India’s best known scientific institutions, Department of Atomic Energy and ISRO, respectively. I am one of many who has seen both these films. Having seen the Paramanu film and also read a bit about the Pokhran tests here and there,  I was - like most others - curiously waiting to read Dr Anil Kakodkar’s book ‘ Fire and Fury : Transforming India’s Strategic Identity’ and to listen to him first hand on what he had to say on this topic, during the book release. 

He did not talk much about the Pokhran tests in his address. However he did mention that the title of the book ‘Fire and Fury’ was suggested by the Rupa Publisher. One could guess the obvious marketing reasons for this. SK Malhotra, who had worked closely with Dr Kakodkar as the media head of DAE, talked about the ‘600 pound Gorilla’, the name the American journalists gave to Dr Kakodkar for his tough and uncompromising stand that he took during the nuclear deal negotiations. Dr Kakodkar touched briefly on this subject and said that when George Bush met him, he said ‘so you are that Kakodkar? Are you happy? This revealed the stubborn stand that outwardly soft looking Dr Kakodkar had taken during the nuclear deal, which was exclusively in Indian interest. The book talks about the strong position that Dr Kakodkar takes on several issues of his conviction in many chapters and how he would stick to his points of view irrespective of with whom he was dealing. From his initial days in BARC while designing the Dhruv reactor to later days, Dr Kakodkar has always stood by his conviction, often times at the risk of compromising on his career prospects and yet has managed to be successful, the credit of this he gives to the great leaders of DAE. He has very deftly talked about the triumph and tribulations that went into the designing of the Dhruv reactor in the book, which I am is sure will motivate many young minds to stand by their conviction. 

Dr Kakodkar was amongst those secretly chosen few, who was involved in the first successful Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Experiment that India conducted on May 18, 1974 at Pokhran. He also played a key role in the Pokhran 2 successful Nuclear Tests, which were conducted during May 1998. In passing remarks, Dr Kakodkar eludes to the highest level of secrecy of the project when he says, Dr Raja Ramanna who was the head of the DAE during the 1974 Pokhran Test asked some strange questions to him, when Kakodkar went to meet him for an urgent discussion. He asked ‘ whether you have the habit of talking in sleep? When Kakodkar answered I could not possibly know that answer, he further asked whether his wife had talked about this to him. Though not explicitly mentioned by Kakodkar, the reason for such questions is certain that even in sleep the secrecy of the project should not be compromised. Such was the secrecy under which the tests were carried out. The chapter ‘ Making of a Nuclear State’ makes a very interesting reading and reveals in brief the utmost motivation of the team for the success of the Pokhran tests and its secrecy. During the course of the project, Dr Kakodkar came to be known as the ‘हों जाएगा’ man by Dr Raja Ramanna. The book also briefly covers the adverse conditions under which the team worked to make the tests successful and how they travelled taking circuitous routes and in different names to maintain secrecy of the project. Kakodkar briefly describes how resolutely Sethna stood against the Americans to enforce the agreed terms for fuel supply for the projects even during the sanctions. Kakodkar, all through the book, talks of his resolute stand on various issues, which he perhaps imbibed from leaders like Sethna. India, post the 1998 test, under the leadership of Kakodkar also demonstrated its nuclear submarine power pack technology to the world.

The book exemplifies the courage of conviction and firm resolve that has defined the remarkable life and times of Dr Kakodkar, one of India’s most respected nuclear scientists. The book recollects  the profound journey of Dr Kakodkar from a very humble beginnings in Madhya Pradesh and passing through testing times,  to attaining the highest office of the Chairman, AEC. It narrates the story of the Indian atomic energy programme by highlighting different events and watershed moments in the history of the DAE. The book also highlights his engineering skills particularly in design areas and how under testing times he could muster courage to chart a new path in designing of the reactors particularly the Dhruv nuclear reactor. It also chronicles the many inflection points of the Indian nuclear programme, which faced the worst of challenges during the sanction regime when even mundane and routine item purchase became a challenge. He highlights this point with a specific case when an Indian company refused to supply plumbing materials under the pretext of sanctions from US. 

The book release function went off very well with an outstanding key note address by Dr Kakodkar and an interesting reminiscence by S K Malhotra, former head of PR of DAE who had worked very closely with Dr Kakodkar. Dr Vyas spoke of the extraordinary debating culture that is part of the DNA of BARC and DAE by narrating the long technical debates and arguments that he had with Dr Kakodkar and how, not withstanding his seniority, Dr Kakodkar never showed his seniority power to silence him. 

One interesting aspect of the book is that it talks about the Science and Innovation Activity Centres, which are projects conceived by Dr Kakodkar to take science to the hinterland of the state and make it unstructured and non coercive. While dealing on this subject, Dr Kakodkar has credited our centre for executing two of these projects in Warna and Pravara Nagar.  He also highlights in his book, how important it is to create an ambience of holistic education and the need for creating wealth in rural areas,  where most Indians continues to live. It is an interesting read, which goes beyond the subject of atomic energy and spells out a vision for the future generations. It sets out a path for India to become a formidable global power, by highlighting that India needs to have educational institutes and innovation incubators shifted beyond the limits of metros into the rural heartland of India. He says that a paradigm shift is warranted to rural centric development  in contrast to logistic proximity of infrastructure rich urban centres. He highlights how important it is for the nation to be self reliant and that obsolescence overtakes even the best copied technologies. He emphasises that to achieve the target of reducing global warming by 1.5 degree Celsius by 2100, India with one of the largest fraction of population whose aspiration of life would need to be raised, would require unprecedentedly accelerated civilian nuclear capability for which the country must be prepared.

I do hope that large number of youngsters read this book and be inspired to contribute to the development of our nation. 

Eulogy for B V Sreekantan

Eulogy for  BV Sreekantan: Former Chairman of the Executive Committee of

Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and Member GB, NCSM (1982-90).

An eminent cosmic ray physicist, radio astronomer, and a key member of the project to detect neutrinos - mysterious, charge-less, massless subatomic particles - in the experiments that were conducted by TIFR scientists some 3 Kilometres below the surface of the earth in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka, and a student cum associate of Dr Homi Jahangir Bhabha, a Padma Bhushan awardee and a recipient of the Rajyotsava Prashasti by the Government of Karnataka, nonagenarian, Badanaval Venkatasubba Sreekantan, left for his heavenly abode on the night of the auspicious Deepavali day - Sunday, 27th October 2019 - in Malleswaram, Bangalore. He was 94 years old.

Sreekantan was among the preeminent scientists of India who made profound contributions to the fundamental research in the field of science while working with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for nearly four decades, including his tenure as its Director for more than a decade. There will be scores of eulogies and tributes penned down by many of his associates, students and admirers, which will touch upon his outstanding scientific contributions. However, I am not sure if any of the tributes to BV Sreekantan will mention his association with our centre - Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). Among his innumerable achievements, Sreekantan’s contribution to the establishment of our centre and his association with the apex science centre/museum body in India, the NCSM, may find a miss in the eulogies that will be written and therefore, I feel it an honour to place on records that Dr Sreekantan was very closely associated with the Nehru Science Centre during its formative years. He held the all-important position of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of our centre for a record two terms (8 Years) from December 1982 to January 1990. During this period, he also served as a member of the Governing Body, NCSM.

The foundational values that were cemented by stalwarts like BV Sreekantan in the formative years of NCSM have resulted in the current respected position that NCSM commands in society particularly in the Ministry of Culture, which almost always depends on NCSM for execution of most of their time committed projects independent of whether such projects pertained to scientific topics or not. It was during the tenure of Dr. BV Sreekantan that one of the pioneers of modern architecture in India, Achyut Kanvinde, was selected and appointed as the architect for the design of the Nehru Science Centre building. The magnificent, castle-like, building that now stands majestically tall in the midst of 12 acres of green ambience in Worli today, owes its genesis, among others, to Dr Sreekantan. It was also during the tenure of Dr Sreekantan that the Nehru Science Centre was inaugurated - on the 11th of November 1985 - by the then Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, in the presence of Narasimha Rao, Dr. Sreekantan, Dr Saroj Ghose, R M Chakraborty and other distinguished dignitaries. It was during the Chairmanship of Sreekantan that the first ever satellite centre of NCSM - the District Science Centre - came up in Dharampur, Gujrat in 1984.

Sreekantan was born on 30th June 1925 into a priestly family to B V Pandit and Laxmi Devi in Nanjangud, a small town, known for centuries-old Srikanteshwara Temple (also called Nanjundeshwara Temple) in the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. Sreekantan was the fifth child among eight brothers and three sisters. B.V. Pandit, father of Sreekantan - a famed Ayurvedic doctor who is credited to be the originator of the famous herbal tooth powder from this town - named his illustrious son - Sreekantan - in reverence to the lord Srikanteshwara. B V Pandit deviated from his family profession of temple priesthood to pursue his Ayurvedic studies and completed his degree and became a ‘Vaidya’ - an Ayurvedic doctor. Apart from Ayurveda, Sreekantan’s father was also proficient in Sanskrit and Vedas. While pursuing his Ayurvedic practice, he developed a special dental powder ‘Nanjangud Tooth Powder’, which continues to remain popular even today. He also produced several other Ayurvedic products like Kasturi pills for stomach ailments and other Ayurvedic preparations, which continue to be popular even today. All this helped the Pandit family flourish in their business, which helped in developing a creative ambience at home. Sreekantan grew up in this creative ambience and was blessed with an intellectually stimulating atmosphere at home. His father had a huge collection of books on diverse subjects including religion, literature, philosophy, liberal arts, mythology, science etc. This atmosphere, very early in life, helped Sreekantan develop a keen interest in reading and writing. It also opened up a new vista to the world of knowledge.

Sreekantan developed an immense interest in science from the early days. He completed his formal high school in Nanjangud and obtained a two-year intermediate degree from Mysore. Influenced by his elder brother, he migrated towards physics and obtained his BSc Physics (Hons.) degree in 1946 and his post-graduation, MSc (Physics) in 1947, with a specialisation in wireless, from Central College, Bangalore. Sreekantan was taught by some of the best and most dedicated teachers in Physics at this college, which he reminisced about during one of his recent interviews. It was during this period that the Central College invited a number of scientists and experts from the Tata Institute and abroad to speak to the students. Homi Bhabha, who was then studying at the Tata Institute, delivered a lecture at the college and his lecture had a great impact on Sreekantan. Immediately after his MSc, Sreekantan joined the Communication Engineering Department of the Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore, as a research scholar. C V Raman was then with the Tata Institute and was facing stiff opposition for ‘patronising’ the Physics department at the cost of others. Frustrated with his humiliation, Sir Raman had almost certainly decided to quit the institute and start his own institute - the Raman Research Institute. Homi Jahangir Bhabha was one of the scientists who had worked with Raman at the Tata Institute and post his theoretical studies on cosmic rays in Cambridge, Bhabha had decided to introduce cosmic rays research at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which he founded with support from his family. Young Sreekantan had heard about the new institute, TIFR, and knowing fully well that the Physics department in the Tata Institute was going through a bad patch, decided to join Bhabha’s team in TIFR in Mumbai.

Sreekantan had attempted to meet Bhabha in Bangalore during one of Bhabha’s visits to the city but had not succeeded. However, he managed to get another opportunity to prove himself when he was called for an interview for a Research Studentship at TIFR, Mumbai. It was on the 6th of August 1948 that Sreekantan was asked to present himself before the selection committee of TIFR in the premises of Kenilworth - the building where TIFR and its founder were born – for the post of Research Studentship. In his application for the post, Sreekantan mentioned ‘Theoretical/ Experimental Physics’ as an area of his interest. He was therefore first examined for his knowledge of physics by a committee that was chaired by Bhabha, which he cleared successfully. Since theoretical physics demanded a fair amount of knowledge in mathematics, Sreekantan was asked to appear before a second committee that consisted of Bhabha, D. D. Kosambi and Levy. He was asked questions on matrices by Levy while Kosambi asked some questions in statistics. After the success of his second interview, Sreekantan was called to Bhabha’s room for the final discussion and it was here that Sreekantan was offered the job and he decided to follow Bhabha’s advice to join the Cosmic Ray department in TIFR.

Sreekantan joined TIFR on 12 August 1948. Thus began his long and eventful four-plus decades of journey in the world of scientific research in TIFR. Sreekantan was one of the first students of TIFR to carry out research in experimental cosmic ray physics. In his long scientific research career, Sreekantan, in the words of PC Agarwal - who wrote an excellent article on Sreekantan in the Living Legends of Indian Science section of Current Science - ‘went on to become that rare scientist whose work ranged from experiments a few kilometres deep underground in a mine - the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) - on cosmic ray particles and proton decay to altitudes up to several hundred kilometres with balloon and rocket-borne detectors to study X-ray emissions from neutron stars and black holes’, a rare feat indeed. Sreekantan had a remarkably successful career at TIFR culminating in his elevation as its Director in January 1975. Sreekantan served as the Director of TIFR for twelve long years (1975 -87) until reaching superannuation in 1987. He steered TIFR with distinction and left behind a rich legacy of cosmic ray physics and astrophysics, new research programmes and the creation of autonomous TIFR Centres, which are located away from the TIFR campus in Colaba namely; Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE, Mumbai), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS Bengaluru), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA Pune) and TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics (Bengaluru). His simplicity, sense of objectivity and fairness in the treatment of colleagues and other staff, generosity and accessibility to all, firmness when required and decisiveness won him appreciation from every quarter.

 During his 39 long years of service at the TIFR, Sreekantan put India on the world map of high-energy physics.

 With strong support from Bhabha and MGK Menon, Sreekantan nurtured and built an internationally recognized research group in TIFR, which studied the characteristics of high energy cosmic rays using a variety of detectors at ground level, mountain altitude as well as in deep underground mines. Sreekantan and other scientists’ early experiments in deep Kolar Gold Field (KGF) mines ultimately led to studies of energetic muons at a depth of up to 2760 metres. Failure to detect any cosmic ray-produced muons at this depth suggested the possibility

of detecting interactions of neutrinos in deep rocks in the mines. This ultimately led to the detection of a cosmic ray-produced neutrino event, which was the first of its kind and this finding was published in 1965. This finding paved the way for the TIFR group to undertake the well-known experiment to search for Proton Decay in the decade 1980–90 in the KGF mines. But most unfortunately that was not to be. The experiment by TIFR researchers - Sreekantan and others – on neutrinos warranted funding to the tune of 50 Crores of Rupees, which unfortunately was not forthcoming from the government. As a result, the project had to be shelved and the research in KGF had to be called off in 1990 and the mines of KGF were permanently closed. Had the Government been more indulgent and considered sanctioning the requisite budget, the course of the Nobel Prize in 2002 may have chartered a different story with an Indian name in it. The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2002 was divided, one half jointly to Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" the very works which Sreekantan and others were wanting to carry out in the KGF, before the two Nobel laureates.

It is however heartening to note that there is a continuation of these efforts now and India has joined the global scientific community in commencing the India-Based Neutrinos Observatory project (INO). In December 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the India-based Neutrino Observatory project, to be built at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. This is a milestone in the frontiers of science research programme which was initiated by Sreekantan at TIFR. INO is the latest in a series of neutrino detectors, neutrino factories and experiments being set up worldwide to promote research in particle physics. The INO project will be coming up at Pottipuram village, in Theni district, near the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe and their study can open new vistas in science.

Sreekantan was conferred with many awards and recognitions, which include among others; Padma Bhushan (1988), the CV Raman Award for Physical Sciences (1977) by UGC, the Homi Bhabha Medal for Physical Sciences (1978) by INSA, the R.D. Birla Memorial Award of Indian Physics Association in 1982 and the Ramanujan award of Indian Science Congress (1989). He was decorated with the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist State Award (2004) and the Rajyotsava Award by the Karnataka Government (1998). He was a UGC National Lecturer in 1978 and received the PMS Blackett Memorial Lecture Award of INSA– Royal Society in 1978. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru (1965); Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1976); National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad (1989) and Maharashtra Academy of Science. He was President of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and President, of the Physics Section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He served as Vice-Chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission (1987-93), and a Member of the Atomic Energy Commission (1985-86). He was an Editorial Fellow of the project ‘History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture’ and served as the Chairman of the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharti Vidya Bhavan at Bengaluru until his last.

Sreekantan has mentored many scientists in their doctoral research and is the author of over 300 scientific papers. He is also credited with the publication of five books either as the author or editor.

Sreekantan served as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two terms, the first from 1954 to 1955 and subsequently from 1965 to 1967. He was associated with the University of Tokyo as their JSPS visiting professor in 1977 and taught at the University of California at their Irvine and San Diego campuses during 1993-94. He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He held the post of vice chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission from 1987 to 1993, sat as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission during 1985-86 and has held the chair of the Research Council of National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. He is a former editorial fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture and chairs the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He also served as the chairman of the board of directors of Sadvaidyasala, an Ayurvedic medicine company founded by his father.

Sreekanthan remained academically active until his last and was the visiting professor of the National Institute of Advanced Studies  (NIAS) Bangalore.  I join the nation in general and the scientific community in particular in paying homage to this great son of India and pray for his noble soul to rest in eternal peace.

of detecting interactions of neutrinos in deep rocks in the mines. This ultimately led to the detection of a cosmic ray produced neutrino event, which was the first of

International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) 2019 : India bags, a Gold, Silver and a Bronze at Paitra neamt Romania.

The Deepavali celebrations for the Indian team at the XXIV International Astronomy Olympiad (2019) that is coordinated by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), got brighter with the results of the XXI, IAO 2019 which trickled in from Romania. All the three students, who were selected from amongst the best ones for representing India in the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) that was organised during the period from 19- 27 October 2019 at Piatra Neamt, Romania, made India proud by winning a Gold, Silver and a Bronze medal in the just concluded event at Paitra Neamt Romania. Dhananjay Raman from Delhi bagged the Gold for his stellar performance and was also adjudged the best student among all the contestants.

The Indian team which took part in the XXIV IAO 2019 at  Paitra neamt Romania included Dhananjay Raman from Delhi who won the Gold and the over all best performer, Venkata Aditya Josula from Hyderabad who won the Silver and Hitysh Lakshmi Kant from Bangalore who won the Bronze. The students were accompanied by three of our colleagues from across NCSM centres namely ; Dr Kanchan Kumar Chowdhury, Team Leader and Curator, NEZ Kolkata, Munikumar Balaji Minnal, Team Leader(Jury) and Curator,  RSC,Tirupati and Bharat Bhusan Shrivastava, Observer and EO, NSC Delhi. In all eighteen countries and 52 students took part in this highly competitive international Olympiad. The IAO (Jr)is one of the highly acclaimed International Science Olympiads that is coordinated and recognised by the HBCSE.

The Nehru Science Centre a unit of NCSM, has been privileged to play a significant role in ensuring that this highly academic event, which until the year 2014 was mainly organised by the HBCSE with NCSM confining itself to the funding of the event only, has now been able to conduct the OCSC, PDC and also manage the IAO at the international level on its own and end up bagging medals for all the participants. What is even more creditable is that we at the NCSM were initially hesitant to shoulder this responsibility, which needs an extraordinarily high level of academic specialisation, and therefore we were relying exclusively on HBCSE - known for such academic excellence -  for taking up this responsibility. But then for the first time we took that bold initiative to attempt organising this highly academic event on our own, courtesy encouragement from Prof Mayank Vahia, the then National Coordinator of Astronomy Olympiad, and ever since we have been managing this event on our own at NCSM and this year we have been successful in ensuring that all the three participants have won the medal and what is more creditable is that not only did Dhananjay win the Gold medal, he has also been declared the best among the best, which in itself is a major satisfaction for all of us at NCSM particularly some of my colleagues ; Madan Gopal, Srivastava, Kanchan Chaudhury, Balaji, Saket, and several others whose support and advice and guidance we have taken.

I have had the honour to play a very small role in this feat. With unstinting support from my colleagues, I was responsible in taking that major decision of NCSM organising the IAO on our own steam, particularly the OCSC, PDC and the international leg of the IAO event. Thank you so very much, my dear colleagues who reposed that extraordinary trust in my conviction that NCSM can conduct such highly academic events on its own.  This years result show that we have more or less come to the same exacting standards of HBCSE, when it comes to preparing our students for the International Astronomy Olympiad competition. May NCSM continue to excel and produce even better results in the years to come and aim for the year when all our students get Gold medals and make our country proud.

Most unfortunately one of the students, Master Hitysh from Bangalore has fallen sick and had to be admitted in the hospital in Romania and there are issues with the Visa for his overstay and also for the overstay of Mr Srivastava who is taking care of him. We have talked to the Indian Embassy and have also talked to the worried parents of the student and hopefully everything goes as per our discussions with the Indian Embassy in Romania and Hitysh and Srivastava too return back to India safely at the earliest until then please  do join me in praying for the early recovery of Hitysh and their safe return to India.

Incidentally I also have an honour to be a member of the National Steering Committee (NSC) of all the Science Olympiads, that is so very efficiently organised and managed by the HBCSE in India.

The Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati

This Post is courtesy my wife who insisted that I write on the Kamakhya Temple.

I am one of those who, though not an atheist, is far removed from an array of rituals, traditions, practices - with a plethora of forms and beliefs -  that are central to the beauty of what Hinduism is all about. Besides, I am not well informed on matters pertaining to religious issues and therefore I never write on this subject. Yet, I am making one time  exception and attempting this FB post on the Kamakhya Mandir, courtesy my wife who insisted that I write on the Kamakhya Mandir, the darshan of which my wife and I had during our short sojourn to Guwahati and Shillong on a rare vacation. She has endured the incorrigible me, when it comes to my tardiness on most family matters, for all of three decades so I better oblige.

Hinduism (सनातन धर्म) has complex roots that involve a vast array of rituals, practices and an innumerable number of deities, including the Goddess Kamakhya, in whose reverence the Kamakhya Mandir was consecrated several centuries ago, who are worshipped by Hindus. The Kamakhya Mandir is an ancient temple - a highly revered शक्तीपीठ - which is one of the best known religious centres that was famous for its mysticism and tantric practices. It is also known for a range of its sculptural art - from different times - that amalgamates myth, religion and art in an extraordinary blend. The reconstructed Kamakhya temple , which we now see, situated atop the Nilachal hill in Guwahati, dates back to sixteenth century. Decorating the walls and interiors of the temple are a range of elegantly and artistically sculpted stone images - quite similar to the Gupta art style - trace the myth behind the tantric traditions, for which the temple was known. This holy place had once become a centre that witnessed tantric sacrifices, mysticism and dark fanatics of sorcery.

Kamakhya temple is one of the main Shakti pithas (sacred place), among the fifty one शक्तीपीठ (Shatkti pithas), that is dedicated to the Mother Goddess Kamakhya - another form of the legendary Goddess Parvati. Kamakhya is worshiped in this temple in the form of ‘ womb and a Yoni’. Like most history in India, which is unclear when it comes to its exact dating or establishing its period, the Kamakhya temple too has its own share of uncertainty to its history. There is little material evidence to trace the exact period when this temple was originally built. However there are several corroborative evidences including some ancient texts -  the Kallika Purana and Yogini Tantra - that do provide some reference to the antiquity of worship of Goddess Kamakhya. Based on these corroborative evidence, it has now been fairly established that the Kamakhya temple may have originally been built between 5th to 7th century A D and rebuilt several times later post it’s destruction. The temple has its own share of legendary tales.

Like the two legendary epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata - the most famous mythological stories that have transcended generations passing on from one generation to another through oral traditions, the Kamakhya temple too has its own share of oral legends and mythological beliefs. The origin of the Kamakhya temple owes its genesis to one such mythological story. Legend has it that according to the Kalika Purana, Daksha the father of Sati (Parvati) once organised an यज्ञ (sacrificial ritual) - a pious religious ceremony. In this decorated यज्ञ Daksha  invited all Gods and Goddesses but excluded his daughter Sati and his son in law her Lord Shiva, who he disliked due to the so called strange appearance of Shiva and also because Shiva once ‘neglected’ him and made him wait, when he visited his daughter. On hearing the news of यज्ञ being performed by her father, Sati went to her fathers home to attend the यज्ञ without an invitation. Daksha was unimpressed to see his daughter attend his Yagna, uninvited. He angrily started insulting her husband and not withstanding the pleadings by his daughter not to insult her husband, he was unimpressed and continued insulting Lord Shiva. Sati could not bear her husbands insults any more and in uncontrollable anger she gave up her life by jumping into the fire of the यातना कुण्ड. Incidentally the necessity of diverse shapes and exacting sizes of the fire altars that were used for the यज्ञ that are responsible for the the ancient Indians to excel in mathematics. Hearing the news of his wife’s death, Shiva - known for his infamous anger - became furious and went to his father-in-law's house in a fit of rage and destroyed the sacrificial alter and then carried the dead body of his beloved wife Sati, on his shoulder and started roaming around the tribhuvana performing his तांडव -  dance of distraction. Knowing well the rage of Shiva and his legendary Tandava Nritya, all Gods and Goddesses became fearful and went to seek solace with Lord Vishnu and requested him to give Mukthi to Sati. Lord Vishnu very cleverly used his legendary Vishnu Chakra to remove Satis body from the shoulders of Shiva and in the process Satis body was fragmented in to fifty one pieces and all the parts of Satis body were strewn over different places. Places where Satis body fell are consecrated as शक्तिपीठ। It is believed that one part of Satis body - the Yoni and the womb - fell on top of the Nilachala hill, which was then consecrated as the temple of Kamakhya.

It is also widely believed that the original temple was destroyed by an Islamic ruler  but then it was soon reconstructed on its remains. According to an inscription on the Kamakhya temple, Koch king Naranarayana reconstructed the temple over the ruins of the old structure in 1565 A D. The nature of the current temple indicates that the original structure of the stone built temple is reconstructed many times; hence, the sculptural compositions of this temple reflect their characteristic style of different periods. Historians and archeologists have suggested that some of the stone carvings on the walls of the temple reveal the characteristic styles of the Gupta art as well as art of Orissa. Sculptures of Assam closely associated with the style of Bengal and Orissa are also seen on the temple walls.  The Kamakhya temple essentially follows the Nagara style of architecture that are seen in most temples in North India. The sculptures are apparent mostly on the exterior walls as well as on the interior walls of the temple. A good number of sculptures are also fixed on the temple gates and some of these can be clearly seen in the attached photos which we clicked during our दर्शन of the deity on the 13th October. There was unending queue divided into three separate lines one for the Defence Personnel and their family one each for a special and General  दर्शन। It took almost three hours for us to complete the दर्शन, not withstanding the special दर्शन that we sought. All through the queue my wife was fully engrossed in her religious thoughts and beliefs while I was trying to try and understand the art and architecture of this unique temple.

One may differ when it comes to ones religious beliefs but then one thing is a constant in India across all historical monuments - including the temples and mosques and churches and other religious and worship places - they exhibit an outstanding knowledge of ancient Indians in art, architecture and technological acumen that establishes ‘The Wonder that was India’ - borrowing from Basham.

Our trip to the North East besides Guwahati also included a visit to Shillong and its surroundings including the lesser known Nartiang Monoliths, which I managed to visit by convincing my wife that the place also has another शक्तिपीठ, the Durga Temple. The monoliths of Nartiang were truly a visual treat which can be seen in the accompanying images that I clicked.

All in all it was a memorable vacation that we enjoyed from 12th to 18th. A long waiting time in Kolkata airport helped me complete this post, which I hope pleases my wife at whose insistence I have penned this post.

Mahabalipuram (Mammalapuram) : A Reminiscence.

Mahabalipuram (Mammalapuram) : A Reminiscence.

 Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), the sixth century centre of Pallava art and architecture and a world heritage site, known for its centuries old connect with China, has rightfully been chosen for the ongoing meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visible optics and the chemistry between the two leaders, as they walked through the historic sites in Mamallapuram until halting at the precincts of the Shore temple for witnessing a cultural treat in an extraordinary setting with the majestic shore temple as a backdrop, hopefully augurs well for the cementing of the bilateral relationship between the two giants of Asia. Watching live the two leaders walk through the heritage sites in Mamallapuram, reminded me of our visit (my wife and I) to this city during May 2018, and here I am reminiscing our visit to this city, particularly those sites, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited.

The name Mamallapuram - also known as Mahabalipuram - is said to be derived from the word "Mamallan" - meaning great warrior - a reference to the great Pallava King Narasimhavarman I, of the Pallava dynasty, who ruled the region from 630 to almost 670 AD and was known for his love of art and sculpture. This ancient historic beach side city, is a curious potpourri of art, culture, history, heritage, architecture that is considered to be an archeological treasure trove with its famous group of monuments listed among UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. The first thing that strikes you in Mamallapuram, is the majesty of the rocks, the pristine sands, the clear blue sky, the deep blue sea.

The Five Rathas are by far the most famous of the many rock cut arts in Mahabalipuram, which are mesmerisingly imposing in their grandeur, intriguing in their concept and amazing in their art. The Rathas represent the five Pandava brothers and their wife Draupadi from the epic Mahabharata and all of them are carved from a single boulder. They are master sculpted with intricate carvings that portray mythological tales, which are depicted in these sculptures.

Shore Temple, by far the most famous heritage structure of Mahabalipuram, is perched atop a rocky outpost with the deep blue sea as its natural backdrop. It is an architectural masterpiece, which represent the peak of the Pallavas’ artistry. Unlike the rathas and the mandapas, the Shore Temple is the earliest example of a stone built temple. The design of the temple is such that its unusual architecture is famously called a landmark by day and a beacon by night. The Shore Temple is also interestingly an abode of both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu, a rare occurrence in temple architecture.

The Arjuna’s Penance exemplifies illustrated in rock art of the city. The story of Arjuna’s penance or as some historians believe, Bhaghirathis’s penance to bring river Ganges to earth is depicted in bas relief. The surrounding scenes present everyday life depictive of the times. This is what makes Mahabalipuram rock art so unique. It is resonant of the cultural influences that it has absorbed over the times and disseminates it through the various sculptures that depict that time.

Mahabalipuram was a seaport right from the beginning of the Christian era. The epigraphical sources confirm Pallava kings' active contacts with Ceylon, China and the Southeast Asian countries. The city came to the glory after the Pallava started building the structural and monolithic temple architecture in this area. The city was dotted with "Seven pagodas' once upon a time, as referred by the earlier mariners. Now all but one, Shore Temple' has survived and the rest are all believed to have been submerged in the sea as per the local traditions and the foreign accounts. There are records from the European travellers, who gave the name as ―Seven Pagodas, that while they were sailing along the Coromandel Coast, they noticed Seven Pagodas, from a few miles away on the sea. It is believed that there stood seven pagodas topped with copper roofs, which helped as a landmark for the mariners as the sun-rays used to reflect from those roofs. It is also believed that out of a total of seven temples originally constructed, all have submerged in the sea over a period of time and the only temple that has survived is the Shore Temple.

It is therefore no wonder that this historic city, which connects both India and China to more than a thousand years, was chosen for the India China summit meet for the two two leaders and hopefully the ambience and the art and aesthetics of the city helps the two countries to strengthen their bilateral relations.

Lithium Ion Battery the Driver of Ubiquitous Computing, Deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019)

Lithium Ion Battery the Driver of Ubiquitous Computing, Deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019)

Can any one of us imagine an Indian curry without the ubiquitous chillies and masala? Will definitely not. Both these important ingredients are integral part of any Indian cuisine, and so is the Lithium Ion Battery for any of the portable electronic devices that are ubiquitous and are an integral part of the human society in the modern day connected world, that we now live in. It is in recognition of the primacy that the lithium ion battery enjoys in the modern world, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded this year’s Noble Prize in Chemistry to Dr. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, ‘for the development of lithium ion batteries’. Many scientists were anticipating a Nobel recognition for the invention of this battery and finally their anticipation has come true and in the process Prof Goodenough has become the oldest Nobel laureate in the Nobel history, he is now 97.

The three laureates are lithium ion battery pioneers and are the movers and shakers of the technology that shaped these batteries and ushered them to the current era. Their remarkable research, which they have endured, has led to the modern day technology for the lithium ion batteries, which now form an inalienable & Integral part of the rechargeable mobile computing world. These lithium ion batteries provide a lightweight, rechargeable power source for mobile phones, laptop computers, and other electronic gadgets. The lithium ion batteries have now shifted gear to make their inroads into the next generation automobiles and electric vehicles - made famous by the likes of Elon Musk - The Tesla automobiles and others.

Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing - a world where smart devices are all around us woven inextricably into the very fabric of everyday life - has now more or less became a reality and the Lithium Ion Batteries have played a pivotal role in making this possible. Weiser was the chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States and he is widely considered to be the father of ‘ubiquitous computing’, a term he coined in 1988. He said “Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.”. This profound and prophetic visionary statement is now here for every one of us to see and experience cutting across sections of society. Ubiquitous computing has now become a reality with the explosion in the information technology and the Internet of Things, connecting devices of our daily life with the global internet. Central to the ubiquitous computing is the Lithium Ion Battery, which silently plays a pivotal role in the background every single gadgets that drive the ubiquitous computing world.

Supplying constant, uninterrupted and uninterruptible power to the mobile computing devices, which drive the ubiquitous computing world we live in today, without encumbering the user is an ongoing challenge. In the modern world of ubiquitous computing, the breakthrough in the rechargeable lithium ion batteries, gifted to humanity by the three Nobel laureates, Dr. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, have had an unprecedented role and therefore rightfully deserve to be awarded the Nobel Prize. The lithium ion battery gave that initial impetus to the ubiquitous mobile computing tools. Most of these gadgets like the mobiles, laptops wireless devices, etc rely exclusively on rechargeable lithium ion battery. We have now become so accustomed (almost addicted) to charging our devices that first thing what we look for, wherever we go, is a power point, where one could recharge our lithium ion battery. The absence of such a simple but important facility, which has now become a must ritual, in the modern world, can cause significant inconvenience and sometime may also lead to psychological issues.

Unlike the conventional batteries, which get their power from chemical reactions that break down the electrode, lithium-ion batteries generate power via the reversible flow of lithium ions between the anode and the cathode. But to make this technology possible, the scientists had to tame lithium—an alkali metal that is prone to explosion. The story of lithium ion batteries’ discovery dates back to the 1970s, when the world was facing a major oil crisis. There were efforts to try and combat oil crisis and one such successful attempt was made by Stanley Whittingham at Binghamton. He was working for the oil and gas company - Exxon - and was researching energy rich materials. It was during this period that he figured out how to make a battery cathode from titanium disulfide (TiS2). TiS2 is a layered material, and lithium ions slip between its layers, and this process is known as intercalation. Whittingham paired this with an anode made from metallic lithium and added an organic liquid electrolyte that could conduct lithium ions between the two electrodes. This was the first rechargeable lithium battery.

Whittingham’s batteries were not free from problems and issues. The lithium metal was prone to cause short circuit in the battery, overheat, and then, possibly explode. Goodenough, who was working at Oxford University, discovered that lithium ions could also intercalate through cobalt oxide. At around the same time, Yoshino, who was working at Asahi Kasei Corp., showed that lithium ions could also intercalate in graphite. By using cobalt oxide as the cathode and graphite as the anode, Yoshino was successful in creating a battery that could run at about 4 V, much higher than the 2.4 V battery which was earlier developed by Whittingham. This improved battery was also safer, because it contained no metallic lithium. The battery could be recharged hundreds of times without its performance deteriorating. This improved lithium ion battery was introduced commercially in 1991. What is more interesting is that one of the Nobel Laureates, Prof Goodenough, is now the oldest Nobel laureate ever at 97. Many were hoping that he is rewarded for his work and fortunately their hopes came true. While announcing the Nobel Prize, Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, who was explaining the Nobel Laureates work during a press conference called the invention of this wonder device - the lithium ion battery “a highly charged story of tremendous potential.”

The lithium ion batteries are here to stay and drive the ubiquitous computing world, until a new era of battery free mobile computing dawns in, until such time we the consumers of these devices must eternally be grateful to the three nobel laureates, who made this possible.                  

A look into the past of our universe, wins this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

A look into the past of our universe, wins this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

The year 2019 has been an exciting year for global space enthusiasts, particularly in India. It happens to be the fiftieth year of the monumental ‘Giant Leap’ for mankind (Moon landing), the fiftieth year of the formation of the Indian premier Space research institution - the ISRO - and also the centenary year of Dr Vikram Sarabhai - the founding father of Indian space programmes. The icing on the cake came with yesterday’s announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, which honoured the the discoveries of the early universe and the exoplanets.

From the dim millennium of prehistory, humankind’s quest for observation, particularly the heavenly bodies, clubbed with the evolutionary trait of opposable thumb and bipedalism helped man to scale up to the top of the evolutionary pyramid and it is this quest that enabled humankind to advance knowledge, stretching far beyond the realms of our physical world, to the origin of our universe and humanity’s position in this unending cosmos. This year’s Nobel prize in physics recognises the contributions of three scientists who helped in our understanding of the origin of our universe and the discoveries of Exoplanets. James Peebles, a physicist at Princeton University, won half the Nobel prize (9 Million Swedish Krona) for his contributions to the physical cosmology, while Michel Mayor, a physicist at the University of Geneva, and Didier Queloz, an astronomer at Geneva and at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, shared the other half, for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star.

James Peebles - Bhishm peetamah in the field of cosmology -, professor emeritus at Princeton University, has helped us in understanding how from the Big Bang, the universe has swirled into galaxies and stars and other heavenlybodies, which we now see in the night sky, and so also other stars and galaxies that we cannot see. Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, were the first to discover an exoplanet, or a planet circling around our sun-like star. James Peebles has been studying the cosmos and trying to understand about the formation of the universe and its constituents for more than six decades. From the beginning of the 1960s, when the information and knowledge available in the field of cosmology was sparse and imprecise, Peebles has been painstakingly trying to understand the origin of our universe. Although astronomers had observed the cosmos and its constituents - the stars, galaxies, clouds of gas etc . - through telescopes, unfortunately they were struggling to explain much about them - the constituents of the Universe. Even the fundamental knowledge of the cosmological distances between celestial bodies or the age of the universe were imprecisely defined and measured. In doing so, there was also a wide variance to such measurements. Dr. Peebles’s research laid the foundation for the subject of cosmology to be more precise and that it relied on mathematical foundations.

The first of the evidence for the contributions of Peebles came in 1964-65, when two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, discovered - by serendipity - a background hiss of microwaves pervading the universe - Cosmic Microwave Background (CMG) -, which was an ancient light emitted when the universe was some 380,000 years old. The CMB provides a snapshot of the young universe. Penzias and Wilson were perplexed with the CMB, until they came across theoretical calculations of Peebles and others who had predicted this background radiation, which was a result of the universe cooling some 400,000 years after the Big Bang and thus producing the first of the chemical elements - the hydrogen and helium atoms - the forerunners to the world we know today. Peebles made detailed calculations (1966) of the abundances of difervent isotopes that would have been produced in this process, known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Ever since, Dr Peebles has been involved in most of the major developments, particularly post discovery of the CMB, in 1965. Later, in the 1970s, Peebles pioneered the theory of cosmic structure formation, which throw light into how the universe evolved into galaxies and dark matter and dark energy, which we now understand, what the entire universe is made up of in the present. Peebles work showed that the matter known to us only make up five percent of the universe, while the other 95 percent is made up of "unknown dark matter and dark energy".

It is for this reason that the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, while announcing the Nobel Prize said “ Dr. Peebles’s work on physical cosmology enriched the entire field of research and laid a foundation for the transformation of the science of cosmology over the past 50 years, from speculation to science.”

Are we alone in the unending universe and are is planet Earth and our solar system unique? This was one of the profound questions that was central to human curiosity. Fortunately astronomers had long presumed that there must be planets - similar to our solar system - in orbits around many other stars. But for several years, until 1992, astronomers could not locate any such planets. Whatever little claims of spotting planets that came up, could not stand closer scientific scrutiny to the exacting standards of science. But then in the year 1992, astronomers found the first planets outside the solar system, which orbited an exploded star, making them an unlikely place for life to exist. Three years later this year’s Nobel laureates - Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz - successfully found a planet around 51 Pegasus, a star similar to our sun, 50 light years away. Although this planet too was not habitable, it laid the foundation for the astronomers to study planetary systems that could be similar to our own. Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz did not see the planet directly. Rather, they looked at a ‘periodic wobble’ in the colors of light from the star. The gravity of the planet pulled on the star. The motion back and forth shifted the wavelengths of the starlight (Blue and Red Shift) much like what we experience when we hear a horn of a train or the siren of an ambulance, which rises in its pitch when approaching and falls when receding ( Doppler effect). This discovery was soon confirmed by other astronomers. This finding forms the basis for our modern understanding of the universe. The discovery of the first planet outside of our solar system, announced by Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz in 1995, has revolutionised astronomy. Now it is estimated that more than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy, some of which could be habitable. More and more planets are being spotted with more minds and money pooling into the search. With numerous projects planned to start searching for exoplanets, we may eventually find an answer to the eternal question, are we alone in the universe?

As we march towards our interplanetary exploration in which India too is actively involved with our plans for Chandrayaan, Gaganyaan and Mangalyaan, and we aim for those illusive years when man is likely to colonise outer planets, it is now time for us to celebrate and hail this year’s Nobel Laureates who paved way for this exploration.