SHILLONG: Renowned physicist and Padma Bhushan recipient, Bikash Sinha believes that real scientists would come up from the North East which has not been touched yet.
Sinha was in the city for delivering lecture on “The Beauty and Aesthetics in Science,” on the third edition of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Lecture Series organised by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong at the State Convention Centre on Friday.
APJ Abdul Kalam died at IIM, Shillong, while delivering lecture on July 27, 2015.
Stating that scientific awareness is still at a nascent stage in the North East, he said, “The general intelligence is very high, it needs to be polished up so that they can get excited about doing science and clear prospects.”
Commenting on communication technology, the Padma Bhushan recipient said, “Kids don’t read and the language is changing; nobody writes ‘you’ but they write as ‘u’. The language has become terrible to an extent.”
Sinha said that in 10 years time urban kids will not take science and would take up photography and cinema which he said is a good feature of communication.
Delivering a lecture to the students, he spoke about the misuse of science vis-à-vis the atomic explosion which killed thousands in Japan, axing of luscious green trees and the adverse impact of climate change.
“It is your job to make sure that nobody destroys Mother Earth because she has given us food, shelter, love, passion, beauty etc”, he told the students.
Later, in an interaction with the students, Sinha said science is ugly when it is misused by humans. “It is ugly when millions are killed with the push of a button.”
Answering a student’s query, he stressed on nurturing the spirit of discovery rather than innovation.
“The word innovation is used too much. The spirit of discovery should be with you,” he added.
Sinha is an Indian National Science Academy (INSA) honorary scientist and an expert in the field of nuclear physics and high energy physics.
He is the former Director of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur in June 2005.
The physicist has also been the Homi Bhabha Chair Professor of the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and was a member of the scientific advisory board to the Prime Minister of India.
