Hafta Letters: On why everyone should care about science

Hello,

I am a subscriber, and I have something to say about the NL hafta 241.

Abhinandan, (and everyone else) should absolutely give a f*** about Chandrayan and all things science.

Could it be that you were too engulfed in the media hullabaloo surrounding the event and that is why you got turned off?

Anyway. Here are my thoughts in detail.

• We humans are what we are because we are curious about things. Millennia ago, people tried to find answers in religion, and now we have precise scientific methods to satisfy our curiosities. But, the point is we have always tried to find answers.
• Even rediscovering answers is important, as sometimes you need to totally internalize what is really going on. And more practically, sometimes building things “in house” frees us of paying foreign countries in very expensive forex about our sci-tech needs.
• I am an academician and I love science and technology. I started my new academic quarter last week. The first thing I asked my students in the mathematics class was what they thought mathematicians do. One of the first answers was: they work at NASA! We absolutely need children to have a scientific spirit (regardless of whether they actually become scientists or not), and that is why we need ISRO, Chandrayaan and what not.
• Many people think that basic science is useless.

Here’s a wonderful anecdote I’d like to share:
When a scientist was called to testify in front of the US Congress on why they should fund an accelerator and whether it has an immediate and direct value in security and defending their country, the scientist, Robert Wilson, replied: “It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending.” Read the details here.

• There are many positives in the failure of Chandrayaan. Firstly, we should realize that science absolutely needs every rupee we invest in it. But even then, it might not work. Taxpayers need to be patient. Scientific problems can not always be solved by only throwing lots of crores of rupees at the problem. We also need robust infrastructure of recruiting the best talent and that starts by inspiring kids to be fascinated with the scientific method. Secondly, the fact that we failed is in significant part due to the fact that these are hard problems that we are tackling. And, it is a good thing to attempt hard problems.
• Finally, Abhinandan, I gather that most subscribers of NL are scientists. Do you really want to piss them off?

Abhinandan, may I request you to start giving a f***, and make other people give a f*** too!

I am terribly sorry if this email came out as preachy. Wasn’t my intention. I really care about this stuff 🙂

~ Shashank