One of the nation's celebrated and accomplished scientist, Prof C N R Rao, took the audience, which included scientists besides students, by total surprise when he began a lecture with an experiment igniting alcohol in a water can!

As the escaping gas hissed, the can raced to hit the wall of the J N Tata auditorium with a loud thud. Prof Rao walked away nonchalantly to the mike.

Originality

"I made a rocket in 5 minutes. And it worked well because I didn't ask for permission! If I had told Prof Balram here what I intended to do, he might have refused. Don't wait to ask if you want to do good experiments," he told the students, before going on to talk about 'Climbing the infinite ladder, recounting legends'.

Youth power

He was addressing students from all over the country assembled at the summer programme at IISc, organised by Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana, a programme initiated by the DST to encourage students of basic sciences, engineering and medicine to take up research careers.

Saying that one learnt by watching how others did science, Prof Rao went on to list a few great scientists like M Faraday, J C Bose, E Rutherford, Hans Albrecht Bethe, and his 'guru' Nevill Mott.

Human science

 "Never separate science from humanity," he advocated while stressing how all the great teachers passed on traditions and the search for perfection.

Going philosophical, the professor said that he was aiming at immortality by doing science.
"To forget the self and trivialities of life, I do science" Talking to a young crowd was the best birthday gift he could have had, Prof Rao said, "I love the young but the young shouldn't forget tradition, the old. Don't make youth a weapon!"

As part of its summer programme, KVPY has a series of talksover the next four days