abdulkalam Address and Interaction with the Students of Jamia Markaz Institutions

Address and Interaction with the Students of Jamia Markaz Institutions 

Questioning mind is the nutrient for blossoming of science Imagination leads to creativity Creativity blossoms thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge results innovation Innovation makes the nation great I am delighted to address and interact with the teachers and science students of various colleges of Jamia Markaz. I am happy that Markaz has built a reputation for its contribution of providing modern education combined with Islamic teachings. My greetings to all of you. I am very happy to be in the midst of science students. Science has grown and blossomed and will blossom, what is the nutrient for the growth of science? It is only question and question till you get an answer, experimentally or theoretically or both. I would like to talk on the topic "Questioning mind is the nutrient for blossoming of science".

My experience in the environment of question and questions I recall in the year 1970s, one side I had to work with Dr. P.D. Bhavsar, with his sodium payload (my team was building sodium payload) with his counterpart in France Prof. Blamont. The same rocket launch would have Langmuir probe of Dr. Sathya Prakash with his NASA counterpart. I still remember, many successes came in getting the data from 60 to 200 km on the atmospheric structure using sodium payload, also the Langmuir probe. Another important experiment the magnetometer of Dr. Sastry with his research students. Dr. Sastry put, so many restrictions on the flight because of the magnetometer - payload. It was a challenging task to work with Prof. Sastry. Then comes my work with Prof. Pokunkov, Meteorological Centre of Moscow. What a delicate instrument he used? It was a beautiful thing to see Prof. Pokunkov?s payload (radio frequency mass spectrometer). It was not only the science of measuring the atmospheric constituents, but the payload looked beautiful also. Somehow I started liking Pokunkov. We used to work for him many days and nights. He used to bring sandwiches and a flask full of tea. He was feeding us throughout the night. In those formative days it was helpful. Then comes my hero, Prof. UR Rao, with his counterpart Prof. Oda who gave me the toughest problem which I came across in building the payload. I don?t know, why his proportional counter in x-ray payload should be so delicate such that no shock should be experienced except earth's "g" when the nosecone jettisoned at 60 kms. All the sounding rockets would spin. When the rocket spins, naturally the part of the jettisoned nosecone will hit the experiencing a shock of in 6 "g" for few milliseconds. Now I had to devise a unique fiber glass rim as a shock guard. We allowed the split nosecone to hit on the ring thereby absorbing the shock. When the x-ray data was received from specified stars, he treated our team beautifully with a good dinner. All these scientists belonging to different disciplines, we could solved only through the questioning minds of our scientists and engineers and the patience of the responding scientists.

Above all, this experience with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai and his expert?s scientists really gave me to work with the greatest university with men of scientific eminence nationally and internationally with a scientific way of working. It was working, intellectual working, scientific and technological working, and above all when the failure occurred, defeating the failure and succeeding were the greatest lessons learnt from Prof. Sarabhai?s leadership.

Moon as a laboratory Friends, I have always liked to sit in a class. Always when I visit schools and colleges in India and abroad, I would like to see, how teacher teaches and students interact. Recently, I was in Andhra Pradesh, in a one teacher school class room upto Vth class. I was with the students in the evening at 7 pm. in the outdoor class with full moon shining. Later, I realize that the outdoor class had a purpose as visualized by the teacher. The teacher was teaching, how children can be always happy? Dear children you see the full moon, the beautiful scene in the sky which brings smiles and cheers. Remember, you smile the family also smiles. How many of you keep your parents happy. The whole class lifted their hands, they said, they will do it. I also lifted my hands with the Vth class students. Then the surprise came. The teacher said, moon is the natural satellite of planet earth. She asked, dear children, can anyone of you tell me "what is the name of the artificial satellite ? our ISRO has launched around the earth?" Only one boy responded that ISRO launched Rohini satellite. Then teacher convert the class with moon as a laboratory. She had a cloth black board. She already drawn first day of the moon, after new moon, how it looks. Second day ? third day - ---- today is the fifteenth day, that is why you are seeing the full moon radiating beautiful light. She asked, moon gets light from where? There was no reply at all. The teacher herself answered that the moon gets the light from the sun. One teacher class I enjoyed, particularly I was astonished with the foresight of the teacher in organizing the class on full moon day and she converting the moon as the laboratory for teaching.

Our planetary system Another experience, during my visit to UAE, I inaugurated an Indian school named JSS International School, Dubai. When the preparation was going on for the inaugural function, I was moving from place to place in the school, particularly I visited class rooms where number of students from Class V and Class VI were being taught by a teacher. As soon as the teacher saw me, she asked me to take the class. I went to the black board and I started interacting with the students instead of loading them with the lessons. I asked the children, our sun (star) has how many planets? Many hands went up. One girl said, there are nine planets and some students said, there are eight planets. I said, the right answer is eight planets, since the ninth planet Pluto has been removed from the list of planets, because it does not meet the criteria of a planet, in size, weight and orbital motion. I asked one student, tell me which is our planet. There was a chorus answer "Earth". Who will talk about the earth? One VIth class student got up and said, our earth rotates on its own axis. Many students said, it takes 24 hours for one orbit that?s how we get day and night. I was very pleased with the knowledge of the young on the solar system. Then I asked the class, what does the earth do, there was pin drop silence. Again a Vth class student said, earth orbits around the sun. How much time it takes to complete the one orbit? Many hands went up, they said 365 days. Our Sun belongs to which Galaxy? Only one boy responded, Milky Way. How much time our Sun takes for one orbit of our Galaxy? No response. Of course, it is difficult. I gave the answer 200 million years. Children had a great surprise. I said; our galaxy milky-way has millions of stars, some of them with their planets. So the sun goes in a huge elliptical orbit which takes more than 200 million years. I was impressed with the class and greeted them and left. I am sure that the students of Jamia Markaz Institutions are having such educational environment for building their self-esteem and self-confidence. Now let me talk to you friends, the story of inventions inventors, discoveries and discoverers which will inspire you to become great inventor and discoverer.

Inventors and Inventions Let us study important inventors and their inventions. a. The Wright brothers and the plane. b. George Eastman and film c. Thomas Edison and the light bulb d. Alexandra Graham bell and the telephone.

Discoverers and Discoveries Let us study a few Discoverers and their discoveries. a. Albert Einstein and the energy equation E=MC2 b. Srinivas Ramanujan and number theory c. Chandrasekhar Subramaniyam and Chandrasekhar Limit d. Sir CV Raman and Raman Effect

What is the unique nature of thinking minds of discoverers and inventors of the world. Inventions and discoveries have emanated from creative minds that have been constantly working and imaging the outcome in the mind. With imaging and constant effort, all the forces of the universe work for that inspired mind, thereby leading to inventions or discoveries. I am sure, the education system in Jamia Markaz institutions are providing challenging environment to the students for nurturing creativity and innovation. Friends, now I am going to narrate some incidents that took place in the life of the scientists who discovered the energy equation, Raman Effect, gave new meaning to the number theory and gene targeting.

Inspire the young minds In Albert Einstein life, we find that his interest in science started early, beginning with his encounter at the age of nine with magnetism, which he called "the first miracle". He was given a compass by his father and Einstein was endlessly fascinated by the fact that invisible forces could make object move. This experience made a lasting impression on him. His interest in compasses was reinforced when he found a caring mentor to hone his ideas. At the age of 12, he experienced second wonder in a little book given by his mentor Max Talmud with Euclidean plain Geometry which he called "Holy Geometry Book". Einstein called this his "second miracle". Here Einstein made contact with the realm of pure thought. Without expensive laboratories or equipment, he could explore universal truth, limited only by the power of human mind. Mathematics became an endless source of pleasure to Einstein especially if intriguing puzzle and mysteries were involved. Let us now discuss the birth of Raman Effect.

Questioning mind Born in Tiruchirapalli on November 7, 1888 Raman was a bright student right from the start. Apart from being fascinated by optical science, he was also deeply interested in acoustics. That perhaps tempted him to discover that the mridangam and tabla produced more melodious sounds than any other percussion instrument. He was fascinated by colourful things, be it a flower, butterfly or gem.

The ship sailed from the port of London towards Calcutta. On board was young man who had delivered lecture a lecture on the acoustics of violin, in London. He was now on the ship?s deck gazing at the blue waters of the ocean. As he glanced up at the blue sky, a series of questions popped up in his mind. "Why are both the sea and the sky blue in colour? What is the science behind this occurrence? His mind revealed him the reason could be scattering of light by water molecules. His instinct told him the reason could be the prove it scientifically to be accepted by others.

When the ship anchored at Calcutta, the young man immediately went on to conduct experiments to prove his theory. His research in optics, the science of light, resulted in the discovery of the Raman Effect. He announced it to the scientific world on March 16, 1928. The discovery won him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930. It was the first time that this prize was awarded to an Asian! Even before this, his contribution to the science of optics had been acknowledged and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1924. You would have learnt about the 'Raman Effect' in detail at school. But do you know the discovery subsequently helped in determining the internal structures of some 2,000 chemical compounds? Can you guess, what was the cost of the equipment that Raman used to prove his theory? A meager two hundred rupees! The day he discovered the Raman Effect, February 28, has been declared the National Science Day.

Raman strongly felt that scientists should not be confined to laboratories in an effort to solve scientific problems. They should search around themselves and find those answers in accordance with nature. For, the essence of science was independent thinking and hard work and not equipment. How true! Though the oceans and the sky have always been blue in colour, it needed a questioning mind with a scientific outlook to find the reason behind it!

A genius well ahead of time: Failure did not deter him Ramanujan, born and raised in Erode, Tamil Nadu, first encountered formal mathematics at the age of ten. He demonstrated a natural ability at mathematics, and was given books on advanced trigonometry by S. L. Loney. He mastered this book by age thirteen, and even discovered theorems of his own. He demonstrated unusual mathematical skills at school, winning many awards. By the age of seventeen, Ramanujan was conducting his own mathematical research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler-Mascheroni constant. He received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam. He failed his non-mathematical coursework, and lost his scholarship. Srinivasa Ramanujan lived only for 33 years and did not have formal higher education or means of living. Yet, his inexhaustible spirit and love for his subject made him contribute to the treasure houses of mathematical research, particularly in number theory - some of which are still under serious study and engaging all-available world mathematicians? efforts to establish formal proofs. Ramanujan was a unique Indian genius who could melt the heart of the most hardened and outstanding Cambridge mathematician Prof G H Hardy. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was Prof. Hardy who discovered Ramanujan for the world. Professor Hardy rated various geniuses on a scale of 100. While most of the mathematicians got a rating of around 30 with rare exceptions reaching to 60, Ramanujan got a rating of 100. There cannot be any better tribute to either Ramanujan or to Indian heritage. His works cover vast areas including Prime Numbers, Hyper geometric Series, Modular Functions, Elliptic Functions, Mock Theta Functions, even magic squares, apart from serious side works on geometry of ellipses, squaring the circle etc. One of the tributes to Ramanujan says that, 'every Integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan'. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal ociety (F R S) in 1918.

Ramanujan used to say "An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God". For him the understanding of numbers was a process of spiritual revelation and connection. In his investigations into pure mathematics, he drew extraordinary conclusions that mystified his colleagues, but were usually proven, eventually, to be right. He opened a universe of theory that still today is reaping applications. The landscape of the infinite was to Ramanujan a reality of both mathematics and spirit. His love for numbers led Ramanujan to number theory. Despite being affected by chronic health problems, he was breathing Mathematics throughout his short life and his genius was recognized internationally. The year 2012 is being celebrated National Mathematics Year as a tribute to Srinivasa Ramanujan during his 125th year. Let us now discuss the life of a scientist whose passion is gene targeting.

Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, harvest; take it to miller to be ground. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out and at the age of four and half years, he started sometimes living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for malnutrition where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to America to join his uncle and aunt.

He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh over there and started his education, interested in sports, studied political science. But he didn?t find interesting and changed into science, became a mathematics graduate in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry. Although he really liked Physics, its elegance and simplicity, he switched to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson, who advised him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.

His objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980 and by 1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In 1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse. By manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer?s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize in 2007. Noble laureate Capecchi life indeed reveals: -  "When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you". Let me now bring out the main characteristics of the scientist: scientist should never say impossible, because what is impossible today, can become possible tomorrow.

Nothing is impossible? Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence. In 1895, a great well-known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, "anything heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown." With in a decade, Wright Brothers proved man could fly of course at heavy risk and cost. On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1969, Von Braun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said "If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible".

In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The three great astronomers Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries.

Conclusion Friends, apart from acquiring professional knowledge, all of you have to become a great human being. Keeping that in mind, I would like to talk about Imam Ghazali a saint teacher who lived in the 12th Century. My father narrated to me a scene when Imam Ghazali was tested by Shaitan, the transgressed Angel. One day Imam Ghazali was unfolding his prayer mat for Magrib Namaz. At that time, the Shaitan appeared in front of him and said, "Respected Imam Sahib, I am just now coming from heaven where there was a discussion about great human beings and you have been judged as the best human being living on Earth. As a recognition of your great stature, you have been exempted from the trouble of performing Namaz in future." Imam Ghazali was restless as the Namaz time was approaching. So he looked at Shaitan and said, "Shaitan Sahib, first of all performing Namaz is not a trouble at all and when even Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him), was not exempted from performing Namaz five times a day, how can a poor Imam like me be exempted?. Thank you." He went on to perform the Namaz. When he completed the Namaz, Imam Ghazali still saw Shaitan was standing. Imam Sahib asked him what he was waiting for. Shaitan said, "O Imam you have excelled even the most favoured Prophet Adam, who could not win over my deception and I made him to eat the forbidden fruit." Realizing that Shaitan was flattering, Imam Sahib prayed to Allah, "Oh almighty, help me and save me from the deception of the flattery", thus making the disappointed Shaitan finally disappear. His mission failed. But one of the great human beings succeeded. I am sure that the teachers of Jamia Markaz Institutions are empowering the students with such profound qualities needed for success in all their missions. My greetings and best wishes to all of you for success in all your scientific missions. May God Bless you.

Oath for the science students 1. Science is a life time mission. I will work, work and work and succeed. 2. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is what process or product I can innovate, invent or discover. 3. I will always remember that "Let not my winged days, be spent in vain". 4. I realize I have to set a great scientific goal that will lead me to think high, work and persevere to realize the goal. 5. My greatest friends will be great scientific minds, good teachers and good books. 6. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed. 7. I will work and work for removing the problems faced by planet earth in the areas of water, energy, habitat, waste management and environment through the application of science. 8. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.