Face to face -'Homi Jehangir Bhabha: A visionary' (B V Sreekantan talks to Richa Malhotra)

Dr Homi Bhabha was an ‘institution builder’ and a scientist par excellence. His birth centenary is being celebrated from 30 October 2008 onwards. Dr B V Sreekantan was one of his first Ph D students in the field of cosmic rays at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), an institute built by Bhabha. In this conversation, Sreekantan gives us an insight into the various aspects of Bhabha’s personality. He describes Bhabha’s research interests, his approach towards improving the state of science and technology in India, and also how he stood apart from the rest of the scientists. He projects his views about Bhabha based on their personal interactions. He highlights Bhabha’s inclination towards the arts, and this was no less than his passion for physics. It is our good fortune to learn about Bhabha from someone who had been closely associated with him and enlightened by his guidance

Hill containment of nuclear power plants (NIAS Report No. R13-2012)

While India, after independence has made tremendous progress in several areas of technology such as - atomic energy, space, electronics, information, communications and so on, it is a woeful fact that in terms of providing basic necessities of life like food,water,health facilities,education and electrical power it is still reeling at atrocious levels. It is a regrettable fact that nearly 40% of the population is still below the poverty level. There is no electricity for majority of the villages. Even in most of the cities nearly 20% of the population is without the electricity. The governmental agencies are fully aware of this situation and ambitious plans have been drawn up to remedy this situation. Strategies for long term energy security are shown in Figure 1 [1]. At the present time (2012), thermal and hydroelectric sources dominate the power scenario. While nuclear power is less than 3% (4.78 GWe) today, it is hoped that it will reach about 25% (GWe) by 2050 using only the indigenous Uranium. This share will be doubled to about 50% (600 GWe) by importing 40 GWe LWRs along with requisite uranium fuel, for them during the period 2012-2020

Dirac’s Large Number Hypothesis: Is it related to 40 Hz Gamma Oscillation or Consciousness?

All physical theories depend on the values of few universal constants like Planck constant, speed of light and gravitational constant. These theories show us that, if the values of the constants were even slightly different, the world around us - from atom to universe, would also be completely different. Is it mere a chance or fine tuning of these universal constants made the existence of life possible in the present universe? Dirac Large Number hypothesis based on the precise values of these constants made a profound impact in this debate in twentieth century physics. The present authors found another large number which is of the order of Dirac large number 1040 in life sciences. This is the ratio of smallest time scale of 40 Hz oscillation in neuronal system of brain and the smallest timescale called Planck time in the present universe. Since 40 Hz oscillations dominate at awake and REM sleep states, our findings may shed new light on the issues of life and consciousness and the fine tuning of the fundamental constants in the present universe

Science and Beyond: Cosmology, Consciousness and Technology in the Indic Traditions (NIAS Special Publications No.SP2-2004)

The announcement of the Symposium whose proceedings you now hold in your hands said: Modern science, mathematics and technology have during the last three centuries, transformed our understanding of life, nature and the universe, and provided mankind with unprecedented power to control its environment - for good or ill. This extraordinary development, built on older scientific and technological traditions in both East and West, has been so spectacularly successful that it has raised a fundamental question: Is there anything beyond Science?. For, even as scientific knowledge is increasingly translated into power over the physical world, the very practitioners of the science have often been drawn on a quest beyond it - and that quest has often led the seeker to philosophy, religion, spirituality, humanism and other similar paths to an integrative view of life and the universe. If there is something beyond science, what is it - for each of us, and for mankind as a whole

Multi-Billion Dollar Projects to find answers to some Fundamental Questions in Physics and Astronomy

Everyone who has an eye and a ear for the happenings in the frontiers of science knows that two major discoveries have been made in the last few years ---the discovery of the Higgs Boson 1n 2012 and of Gravitational Waves in 2015. In both these there has been global participation from different countries of the world. Each one of the experiments has cost the world tens of billion dollars. The production of Gravitational Waves was a consequence of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity proposed in 1915 and the Higgs Boson prediction was a consequence of Quantum Field theory. Apart from these, there are still many subtle issues concerning both these theories that need clarification through further experimentation. Also many projected discoveries in particle physics are awaiting discovery--super symmetric partners of known particles, Proton decay Axions, WIMPS etc. Astronomy has thrown in many surprises, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, whose identity has to be determined the magnetic spectrograph on space station has given new results on primar cosmic rays that contradict ground based and balloon based experimental results of earlier years. To resolve these issues,, mega buck international collaborative ventures are in various stages of undertaking. In this talk an attempt will be made to focus on the scientific importance of these projects and outline the technical details and implementation efforts in different countries