The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Nobel Laureate opposes ‘grandiose’ projects

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Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Nobel Laureate opposes ‘grandiose’ projects

Staff Reporter

Money and resources can be put to better use: Perl

Perl won the top honour in physics
He lauds India’s moon mission

PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR

Inspiring presence: Nobel Laureate Martin Perl at the Loyala Academy in Hyderabad on Monday. —

HYDERABAD: Criticising advanced countries like the U.S. for “wasting money and resources” on “grandiose” scientific projects, Nobel Laureate Martin Lewis Perl has urged countries to avoid such projects. Prof. Perl was in the city to address students of the Loyola Academy Degree and PG College as part of their college day celebrations. The Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1995 (for his discovery of sub-atomic particle Tau Lepton) opposed projects like International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which involved a total cost of 20 billion Euros, and felt that the money could better be spent on solar energy research. Incidentally, India too is part of this project, which was aimed at controlled nuclear fusion in a laboratory.

Advice to students

Saying that it was impossible to judge the various implications of scientific discoveries, he gave the example of the discovery of ‘black hole’ by Indian Nobel Laureate Subramanyan Chandrashekar. “The work he did was out of his pure thought and had no bad consequences.” However, the work done by Madame Curie, another Nobel Laureate, in radioactivity, though wonderful on many counts, had its own implications, he said.

Appreciating India’s efforts to reach the Moon, he said that it was time nations like India took the lead in finding inexpensive ways of carrying out space research like it did in its recent moon mission. “Old people know a lot of things and have lot of wisdom. But they generally don’t get new ideas. New ideas come from young people,” he told the students, encouraging them to take up research activities.

Condemning the amount spent by the US and other countries on military research, he explained how the same amount could be spent in better ways. “USA has the strongest Navy. It spends about $ 8 billion to build one aircraft carrier. The same amount can be used to provide clothing and food to many people,” he said.

Brushing aside traditional hierarchy of learning, where a philosopher is placed above an engineer, Mr. Perl said that both had equal intellectual capacity and were discovering something that would benefit humanity. “Whether it be the discovery of new cotton cloth or about the stars, both are equally important,” he said. Roger Hansell and Biswajit Ganguly, Directors of Noble Institute for Environmental Peace (NIEP), were guests of honour. Loyola Academy entered into research collaboration with the NIEP.

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