True geniuses of science are the ones who think and think better in dissimilar ways. It is this kind of thinking that has resulted in scientific revolutions, said former vice-chancellor, University of Mysore (UoM) Prof S N Hegde, here on Thursday.
He was delivering the inaugural address at a Department of Science and Technology sponsored Inspire Internship Science camp 2012-13 at Rani Bahadur Auditorium at UoM premises.
Urging students to inculcate curiosity and a culture of inquiry, he lamented that universities are not recognising the contributions of researchers and scientists of international repute in the country.
Explaining that only ‘pure science’ evolves into a ‘technology’ in the future, he said that when inventions or discoveries are made it is ‘pure science’. It takes a while for the science to be implemented in technologies. “Technology is a derivative of science,” he said.
Former vice-chancellor of BLDE University, Bijapur B G Mulimani said that after 1950 individual contributions of Indian scientists to science, like the ones made by C V Raman, S Chandrasekar, S N Bose and Srinivas Ramanujan, became sparse and was replaced by collective achievements.
“India has not realised the wealth creating potential of knowledge. Even though we create a large number of Ph D’s, knowledge creation is negligible,” he said.Asserting that science involves intellectual and aesthetic creativity, he said that no sacrifice is greater than pursuing truth. Practising science is a way to pursue the truth, he said.
“Science progresses only by asking good questions. Greatest contributions to science was given by scientists in their early twenties,” he said referring to the theories of Issac Newton and Albert Einstien.
Vice chancellor of UoM, Prof K S Rangappa, in his brief address spoke on the excitements in the pursuit of science.
As many as 175 PUC students from 29 colleges of Mysore, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts are participating in the camp.
Students were given demonstrations in Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany in the laboratories of the university, informed organising co-ordinator of the camp, V A Vijayan. The camp was organised by the Committee for Development of Science in Schools.
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