Science is Borderless

Sulekha Rani.R, P.G.T Chemistry, KV NTPC kayamkulam

Prof. Bert Sakmann - a German medical doctor and a research scientist who in 1991, together with German Physicist won the Nobel Prize for medicine for research into basic cell function and for their development of the patch-clamp technique. This technique conclusively established the existence of characteristic set of ion (+ve and –ve) channels in cell membranes, that in turn established the role it plays in diseases like diabetes, cardiac, epilepsy and certain neuromuscular disorder.

Prof Bert Sakmann who did his elementary education in a rural background had a passion for Physics and Engineering in school days. He got interested in Cybernetics in the final year school, since he realized that living organisms could be understood in engineering terms. Thus, the seed of inter-disciplinary research was firmly rooted in him in a very young age. He enrolled himself for medical education. After foundation courses in bio-chemistry and physiology, he did his doctoral thesis in electro physiology. He attended medical schools in Freiburg, Berlin and Paris. As a doctoral student, he worked on electro-physiological basis of pattern recognition. For this, he closely worked with electrical and computer scientists. He learnt the basic mechanism of vision. Later, he ran his own laboratory in physiology in close collaboration with physio-chemical and bio-chemical departments. In his own words, he enjoyed working with fellow scientists on scientific adventures.

Now, here we can find a doctor and a researcher with the capability of working in multiple laboratories simultaneously and becoming a team scientist, sharing the research, sharing the work and sharing the rewards too. He is the real example for “Science is borderless”.

C V Raman - his value to Science

(Sulekha Rani.R, P.G.T Chemistry, KV NTPC Kayamkulam)

Sir CV Raman –a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction, which determines the observed luminosity, and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted.

Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science.

Nobel Glory To India (physics ,Chemistry and medicine)

Sulekha Rani.R, P.G.T Chemistry. KV NTPC Kayamkulam

CV Raman - Physics Nobel, 1930

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.

Raman made, in 1928, the unexpected and highly surprising discovery that the scattered light showed not only the radiation that derived from the primary light but also a radiation that contained other wavelengths, which were foreign to the primary light.

Raman investigated the universal character of the phenomenon by using a large number of substances as a scattering medium, and everywhere found the same effect.

The explanation of this phenomenon, which has received the name of the "Raman effect" after its discoverer, has been found by Raman himself with the help of the modern conception of the nature of light.

According to that conception, light cannot be emitted from or absorbed by material otherwise than in the form of definite amounts of energy or what are known as "light quanta".

Thus the energy of light would possess a kind of atomic character. A quantum of light is proportionate to the frequency of rays of light, so that in the case of a frequency twice as great, the quanta of the rays of light will also be twice as great.

Har Gobind Khorana - Medicine Nobel, 1968

Har Gobind Khorana won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. He shared this award with American scientists Robert W. Holley and Marshall W Nirenberg.

An American molecular biologist of Indian Punjabi origin, Dr. Khorana was responsible for producing the first man made gene in his laboratory.

His work helped bring closer the day when synthetic DNA may be introduced into the defective human tissues to bring about their repair or treat mentally retarded people and change them into more intelligent and healthy human beings.

His synthesis of RNA, capable of replication in laboratory, was a step towards the creation of life artificially. In fact, the researches opened up a new branch called Genetic Engineering in Science.

The biological language is common to all living organisms. Dr Khorana and his team had established that the mother of all codes is spelled out in three-letter words. He was also the first to synthesize oligonucleotides, that is, strings of nucleotides.

S Chandrasekhar - Physics Nobel, 1983

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars.

He was the first to show how the fate of a star lies in its own birth mass. On a long sea voyage from India to England in 1930, Chandrasekhar passed the time by developing a theory that proposed that a stable white dwarf couldn't be the fate of stars above a certain critical mass.

According to his calculations, stars more than 1.4 times the mass of the Sun, which became known as the Chandrasekhar limit, must collapse under the force of their own weight, and be destined for a more spectacular fate.

If the original star was up to 2-3 times the mass of the Sun, the collapsed corpses left behind from the explosion end up as highly dense neutron stars. Stars that are more than 2-3 times the mass of the Sun suffered an even more exotic death -- the force of gravity becomes so strong that matter disappears entirely into a black hole.

Chandrasekhar adopted a highly unusual approach to his research, investigating a fresh field of study each decade, such as how stars die, how radiation passes through a star's atmosphere and the theory of black holes.

Dr Ramakrishnan - Chemistry Nobel, 2009

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Born in 1952 in Chidambaram,Tamil Nadu- a senior scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 along with Thomas E Steitz (US) and Ada E Yonath (Israel) for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering

S Chandrasekhar - A very good teacher , he considered teaching is a life time mission.

Chandrasekhar Subramanyan’s most famous discovery was the astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass (~1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalently, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole following a supernova. The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar while on a ship from India to Cambridge, England. The Chandrasekhar Limit led to the determination of how long a star of particular mass will shine. In 1983, Chandrasekhar Subramanyan got the Nobel Price for this discovery.

Two of Chandrasekhar's students in 1947 were the doctoral candidates Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang in Particle Physics research. Even though Chandrasekhar Subramanyan maintained his office at the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, he would regularly drive the one hundred miles to Chicago to guide and teach Lee and Yang and others many a times in difficult weather conditions. In 1957, these two of his students won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics research. This also brings out Chandrasekhar Subramanyan’s commitment to science and there by to his students. Science indeed is a life time mission for Chandrasekhar. It is this characteristic which makes youth to become passionate towards science.

“Five Minds for the Future” written by Howard Gardner.

“Five Minds for the Future” written by Howard Gardner.

Sulekha Rani.R, P.G.T Chemistry, KV NTPC Kayamkulam

1. Disciplinary mind: Disciplinary minds require the mastery of major schools of thought that may include science, mathematics, history and religion. Apart from this the disciplinary mind has to be enriched with expertise in at least one professional field. Research confirms that it takes up to 10 years to master a discipline. This mind also knows how to work steadily overtime to improve skill and understand.

2.Synthesizing mind: What is needed is the ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into an integrated system and communicate the synthesized thoughts. With the increasing volume of information in the present day world, capacity to synthesize assumes great importance.

3. Creating mind: It is essential to build capacity to uncover and create solutions to new problems, questions and phenomena. For examples on creativity, in general we look for leaders, rather than managers.

It puts forth new ideas, poses, familiar questions and arrives at unprecedented answers. The creating mind seeks to remain at least one step ahead of even the most sophisticated computers and robots. I understand that most of the computers of the future and accessories will be micro sized, wearable and will have wireless communication with each other. Moderately priced PCs capable of performing about a billion calculations per second today will be able to perform about a trillion calculations per second within next 10 years. It is predicted that by 2019, the computational ability of an ordinary PC would exceed the capability of human brain. By 2029, the capability of a normal PC would be around 1000 times that of the human brain. My view is that definitely the creating mind of the human being will always be superior to the most powerful computers in the horizon.

4.Respectful mind: It is a uniquely developed mind, a mature mind that has awareness and appreciation for differences among human beings. The capacity built in the respectful mind, leads to understand other persons on their own terms with mutual trust. In the world where we are, all interlinked and need to maintain working relationship, intolerance is no longer a viable option.

5. Ethical mind: It is indeed a built-in-capacity for fulfilling once responsibility as a worker and as a citizen simultaneously, It will essentially lead to “work with integrity and succeed with integrity”. The mind conceptualizes how workers can serve purpose beyond self interest and how citizens can work unselfishly to improve the lot of all. The ethical mind then acts on the basis of these analyses. In the present scenario, the need for respecting mind and ethical mind is very important, because many of the societal problems today are arising out of lack of consideration for others and overwhelming selfishness of the individual. The education system has to cultivate these minds among the youth, so that they learn to respect others, are tolerant and perseverant for realizing their goals in life.

Inspiring Thoughts By Dr.APJ Abdulkalam

Inspiring Thoughts by Dr. APJ Abdulkalam

Sulekha Rani.R, P.G.T Chemistry, KV NTPC Kayamkulam

1. What was thought

impossible has happened

and what is thought possible
has not yet happened
but it certainly will happen.

2. The education system has a

tremendous responsibility to
transform a child into a
leader- the transformatino from
‘what can you do for me’ to
‘what can i do for you’.

3. Conscience is a great

ledger where our offences
are booked and registered.

4. Hard work and perseverance

are beautiful angels who will
reside on your shoulders.

5. An ignited mind is the

most powerful resource
on the earth,
above the earth and
under the earth.

6. Education and values

imparted in childhood are
more important than the
education received in college
and university.

7. Teachers themselves should

Be lifelong learners.

8. Teachers have a great

Mission to ignite the minds
of the young.

9. A teacher has to

create a lifelong
autonomous learner.

10. A teacher’s life lights

Many lamps.

11. Science is all about

asking questions and
finding the right
answers through hard
work and research into
laws of nature.

12. Give one hour a day
exclusively for book reading and
in a few years you will become a
knowledge centre