Physics, Innovation and society M. Shamsher Ali

1. Physics, Innovation and society M. Shamsher Ali

2. Before I talk on physics, innovation and society, let me tell you a story. I was once doing some transactions in a bank. The manager of the bank recognized me and started a conversation. He told me that the bank had hired some students of mine. I asked him how they were doing. He told me that he had been very surprised to find that the ‘physics boys’ were doing extremely well although they did not have any prior education in banking.

3. He asked me the reason for this. I told the manager: the simple truth is that physics gives people an analytic bend of mind and trains them to ask the right question at the right time. This is no mean achievement for someone who has studied physics but somehow could not stay in his field for some reason or other.

4. The domain of physics stretches from the smallest of the small to the biggest of the big. And the contributions of physics to all aspects of life and environment, material and non-material have indeed changed the face of the world. These contributions took some time to be made. Every time a discovery/innovation in physics had been made, it took a certain time period for that discovery/ innovation to make an impact on the society. This has been illustrated below with a few examples:

5. a) In 1820, Danish Physicist Oersted observed that when a compass needle was brought near a current carrying wire, it swung. Electricity and magnetism were now seen to be knit together through this accidental observation. Following this observation researches were made and within twenty five years electrical generators and motors were developed and telegraph was invented. Within 60 years the incandescent lamp was invented and electrification of the world began.

6. b) In 1883, it was observed by Thomas Edison that if a metal plate were sealed into a light bulb near the heated filament, an electric current would travel across the vacuum between the filament and the plate in one direction but not in the other. This is what we call Edison effect. Within 40 years of this discovery, radio became a household affair. Within 60 years, television was replacing radio and electronics was being used to build computers.

7. c) In 1896 French Physicist Bequerel noted that a photographic filament wrapped in a black paper was fogged by the nearby presence of a urarium compound. This observation gave rise to the science of radioactivity. Within 25 years after this observation, atomic physicists were smashing atoms. And within another 25 years they even smashed cities. Within 60 years nuclear power stations were being used for the generation of electricity.

8. d) In 1903 the Wright brothers flew the first heavier man air flying machine which hopped a few feet through the air and coming down after a few seconds. In 60 years, that first airplane gave rise to descendents including jet liners traveling across oceans.

9. e) In 1926, physicist Goddard fired a rocket into the air which reached a height of 124 feet and a speed of 60 miles per hour. Within 35 years, Sputnik was in orbit and within 45 years man landed on the Moon. Within 60 years, man began his journey into the Cosmos.

10. f) In 1944, a substance called DNA was studied. It revolutionized the life sciences with DNA- based molecular biology. In 1953 (less than ten years), using the X-ray diffraction technique of the English physicist M.H.F Wilkins to study nucleic acid, F.H.C. Crick and J.D Watson working at Cambridge University were able to determine the structure of the double helical structure of DNA,

11. the hereditery blue point of life (For their work in this field Wilkins, Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel prize for Medicine and Physiology). If we add 60 years to 1944, we see that already before 2004, the Human Genome Project was completed by two teams independently. Dolly and Jefferson have now become household names; And clandestine efforts are being made to clone the human being.

12. g) In November 1947 physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observed that when Electrical contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, the output power was larger than the input. William Shockley saw the potential in this and worked over the next few months greatly expanding the knowledge of semiconductor and is considered by many to be the father of the transistor.

13. In 1956, John Bardeen, Walter H Brattain and William Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the first silicon based transistor. If we add 60 (sixty) years to 1947, we see that already by 2007, the micro-electronics revolution had taken place and globalization of the world had begun through the use of the Information Super Highway.

14. In all of these examples, one notices a magic number 60 years which happens to be the time gap between the discovery of a phenomenon and its full technological flowering for the benefit of the society. I have highlighted this point in some detail only to make the home that governments of developing countries should not always expect very quick dividends from investments.

15. Now a days this gap has been considerably reduced mainly because the number of investigators has increased with improved communication between them and researchers do not have to build every equipment themselves; a number of equipment can be purchased off the shelf. Also international collaboration in science has increased manifold. CERN provides a wonderful example of collaboration. CERN was created in 1954 and if the magic number 60 years is added to it, what would we expect from it in 2014? May be some new chapters in particle physics could be opened – Higgs Bosons could from part of reality!

16. Politicians of many countries have been questioning for quite sometime the luxury (in their language) of going in for expensive high energy research involving huge expensive accelerators. History however is witness of many dividends from high energy research. “WWW” which was born at CERN paved the way for today’s Information Super Highway. The production of high magnetic fields, attainment of low temperatures, high vacuum and the emergence of superfast computers are additional remarkable spin-offs of such researches.

17. The results obtained from high energy researches are beginning to satisfy the basic quest of the human mind “What are the ultimate building blocks of nature”? In the process, some clues to the mystery of how the universe began also started becoming available. Thus, high energy physics combined the studies of the very large and of the very small namely cosmology and elementary particle physics.

18. Finally, the international collaboration that was evinced in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiments both in terms of fabrication of bits and piece of experimental hardware as well as of detection software and computer calculations have been a remarkable achievement of science unparallel in the history of mankind. If such collaboration could be achieved in the process of disarmament and other peace building initiatives, heaven would be realized right on this earth.

19. In conclusion, it must be pointed here out that the general impression existing in the minds of many that the days of physics are over is not really correct. There are still many challengers of physics and physics-related technologies: safe nuclear waste disposal; finding out nuclear energy releasing reactions bypassing the urarium chain reaction; increasing the efficiency of solar cells; attainment of room temperature super conductivity; achieving nano technology on a much wider scale and finally arriving at the final theory for everything.

20. To this end, all governments should provide the necessary funds for R and D work in physics. And international collaborative projects following the models of ICTP, CERN and other international laboratories must be undertaken. Asia has been home to many big ideas in physics. So have been Europe and America. Many Asian countries cannot go for big science in physics. On the other hand, the world must not be deprived of the talents of the Asian physicists. Thus, it is proper that Euro-Asia collaboration in physics is launched on a significant scale in the greater interest of the culture of physics for the development of nations.

21. (The author Prof. Dr. M. Shamsher Ali is a theoretical physicist and is currently Vice Chancellor of Southeast University, Dhaka, Bangladesh and President, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.)

22. Thanks.