A Life of Science

8/4/2019 A Life of Science

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A LIFE OF SCIENCEA personal history of a life spent in

doing and enjoying science

B R Sitaram


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Dos and Donts

Be serious: Stiff upper (andlower) lip while doing science!

Experiments that make sciencefun? How is that possible? Steveand Bill must be crazy!


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Dos and Donts

Do correct science: learn the names ofevery little bone in the human body, else

you do not know science properly! Howwill you pass the exam if you do not evenknow this?

You can know the name of a bird in all thelanguages of the world, but when you'refinished, you'll know absolutely nothing whateverabout the bird... So let's look at the bird and seewhat it's doing that's what counts. I learnedvery early the difference between knowingthe name of something and knowing

something. R P Feynman


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Dos and Donts

Respect your elders.

Listen carefully to whatyour teacher says.

Do not question: Say ahundred timeseveryday: The text

book is my holy bookand the teacher is theonly true interpreter ofthe holy words. Why is the classroom so noisy?

Cant the teacher control the

class?


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Dos and Donts

Science lies in the text book, notaround you! So dont waste your

time looking around you! Sir, why do you see colours in oil

films on the roadside?

Not in the syllabus

Question asked last year, so willnot be asked this year

Sit down and do not disturb theclass! Dont you see how the rest ofthe students are keeping quiet?


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Dos and Donts

Dont do science:

Scientists are cold,

logical people, who donot see any beautyanywhere. They wearlab coats all the time,

forget to comb theirhair, they are mad!!!
http://richard%20feynman%20the%20beauty%20of%20the%20flower.flv/


7/21

Dos and Donts

Dont do science: It is boring!

Descartes calculated the actual path taken by 20000different light rays falling on a raindrop and understood howa rainbow is formed How boring! What a waste of time!

Elizabeth Kostova spent 10 years researching about aperson called Vlad The Impaler, the original source of thevampire myth, and wrote a book (The Historian) on howVlad is still alive, biting people - How interesting! After all,you can never be certain that he is not alive, can you? His

remains have never been found!


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My Dos and Donts

Question everything: A healthy sense of

disrespect for others Enjoy science: it is the greatest achievement

of Man!

Science is everywhere around us; try to

understand it!

Do science correctly!


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My Dos and Donts

Apply Humes Criterion: "That no testimony is sufficient to establish a

miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood

would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors toestablish." When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to

life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more probable,

that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact,

which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one

miracle against the other, and according to the superiority, which I

discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater

miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous

than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend

to command my belief or opinion.([1758] 1952, p. 491)


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My Dos and Donts

Do not equate Scientific with Correct:

Ptolemy's theory of epicycles is scientific butincorrect!

Astrology is scientific but incorrect

Everything happens because it is fated so is not

scientific, cannot be tested Karl Popper: To be scientific, a theory must

be refutable.


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My Dos and Donts

Do not confuse the everyday meaning of the word

theory with the scientific meaning:1. a coherent group of general propositions used asprinciples of explanation for a class of phenomena:Einstein's theory of relativity.

2. a proposed explanation whose status is still

conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositionsthat are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact.

Scientific Creationists: Evolution is only a theory


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Some of my favourite science

experiences

Newton andthe Ray of

white light


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Question!

Candle experimentto show that 20%

of air is oxygen:

Water rises to 20%,so proved!

Problem: Use 3

candles, waterrises much higher,even up to 60%!

Does air contain

60% oxygen?
http://the%20independent%20-%20print%20article.pdf/http://the%20independent%20-%20print%20article.pdf/


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The Pressure of Water

In our old house, we hadtwo tanks of water. One

tank was at ground floorlevel, the other at third floorlevel.

When we used water fromthe two tanks, we observed

the following behaviour


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Some questions to think about

What is steam? Solid, liquid or gas?

Astronomers spend huge sums of moneygoing to far off places (or even hiring jets!) toobserve a total solar eclipse. Why do theynot just use a disc to block the sun?

Why can the earth see a lunar eclipse butonly a tiny fraction see a solar eclipse?


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If I make a model of an atom with the nucleus

as a mustard seed (about 1 mm in radius),the nearest electron will be 50 m away andthe next nucleus about 200-300 m away. Sothe atom is mainly empty space.

How come I can stand on the floor?


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Giraffes adapted to eating leaves from tall

plants by growing long necks. How did theydecide?

Is complexity the same as evolution? Man ismore complex than a worm; is he more

evolved? Cows give us milk. Or, do we take milk from

cows?


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10,000 years ago, Man learnt to grow plants.Or did plants learn to tame Man? They got aperfect slave who would carefully collect andpreserve seeds, till the land, add fertilizersand water, kill weeds,

No one had seen an atom in 1809, whenDalton published his atomic theory. So whydid people believe him?


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How do weknow what we

know?

A Life of Science

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