<p>The science of the future could make man live longer. Prof C N R Rao would probably have loved to live in the future. His yearning to live long comes from the passion to work more for science. <br /><br /></p>.<p>“I wish God had made it possible to live 200 years. But I know it will, unfortunately, be less. I know I have very little time, so I have to do what I can fast,” Rao said at the silver jubilee lecture of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. <br /><br />Rao said, “For India, time is running out. Time has come for this poor country to catch up with the advanced world, else we’ll be an nth-rate country. So I call not for nationalism, but self-preservation.”<br /><br />“Treat it as a joke. But the Nobel awarded to the three winners this time in chemistry should have actually been awarded to their computer, which did all the calculations,” he said.<br />The prize for 2013 was awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”. <br /><br />“If you die too quickly, you can’t get the Nobel, which is what happened to many scientists and if you live too long, there’s a chance you have to work more for it.” <br /><br />Prof Rao expressed dissatisfaction with the way Madam Curie was treated. <br />“Madam Curie was the only woman scientist in those days to win a Nobel and that too twice. But, people wrote obnoxious things about her. They even told her she was not eligible to be a member of the Academy of Sciences.”<br /><br />The greatest scientist for him, he said, was Michael Faraday. Faraday offered tremendous variety doing electronics when there were no electrons, working on benzene and then on magnetism and the electrode and nano were named by him. <br /><br />‘We all do idiotic things’<br /><br />Bharat Ratna awardee Prof C N R Rao on Monday brushed aside the “idiot” controversy and any sense of offence politicians may have felt, saying all people do idiotic things at one point or the other, including himself. <br /><br />He said that he did not call politicians idiots, but only said certain decisions taken by them may have been “idiotic”. <br /><br />The statement sounded like damage control for the remarks he made on Sunday - “Why the hell these idiots these politicians have given so little for us... for the money that government has given to science sector, we have done much more.”<br /><br />Speaking to reporters after delivering the silver jubilee lecture of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, at the Centre premises, he said, “I did not use the word idiot. Why are you making a big thing of it? I only said investment in science is very less and there is inadequate funding because of idiotic decisions. I said their decisions may be idiotic and that the investment is idiotic. What is wrong in that? I used the expression because politicians sometimes don’t understand priorities when you want something done and take decisions that are not always right, especially when it comes to funding for science. You ask one thing and they give you one thing. I have decided now to use the word again. I don’t really care what you write, but I think idiot and idiotic are not bad words and I didn’t call anyone idiot.”<br /><br />Rao said: Criticism should always be done openly and constructively, not selfishly. Then it is valid. I am open to that.”<br /></p>
<p>The science of the future could make man live longer. Prof C N R Rao would probably have loved to live in the future. His yearning to live long comes from the passion to work more for science. <br /><br /></p>.<p>“I wish God had made it possible to live 200 years. But I know it will, unfortunately, be less. I know I have very little time, so I have to do what I can fast,” Rao said at the silver jubilee lecture of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. <br /><br />Rao said, “For India, time is running out. Time has come for this poor country to catch up with the advanced world, else we’ll be an nth-rate country. So I call not for nationalism, but self-preservation.”<br /><br />“Treat it as a joke. But the Nobel awarded to the three winners this time in chemistry should have actually been awarded to their computer, which did all the calculations,” he said.<br />The prize for 2013 was awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”. <br /><br />“If you die too quickly, you can’t get the Nobel, which is what happened to many scientists and if you live too long, there’s a chance you have to work more for it.” <br /><br />Prof Rao expressed dissatisfaction with the way Madam Curie was treated. <br />“Madam Curie was the only woman scientist in those days to win a Nobel and that too twice. But, people wrote obnoxious things about her. They even told her she was not eligible to be a member of the Academy of Sciences.”<br /><br />The greatest scientist for him, he said, was Michael Faraday. Faraday offered tremendous variety doing electronics when there were no electrons, working on benzene and then on magnetism and the electrode and nano were named by him. <br /><br />‘We all do idiotic things’<br /><br />Bharat Ratna awardee Prof C N R Rao on Monday brushed aside the “idiot” controversy and any sense of offence politicians may have felt, saying all people do idiotic things at one point or the other, including himself. <br /><br />He said that he did not call politicians idiots, but only said certain decisions taken by them may have been “idiotic”. <br /><br />The statement sounded like damage control for the remarks he made on Sunday - “Why the hell these idiots these politicians have given so little for us... for the money that government has given to science sector, we have done much more.”<br /><br />Speaking to reporters after delivering the silver jubilee lecture of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, at the Centre premises, he said, “I did not use the word idiot. Why are you making a big thing of it? I only said investment in science is very less and there is inadequate funding because of idiotic decisions. I said their decisions may be idiotic and that the investment is idiotic. What is wrong in that? I used the expression because politicians sometimes don’t understand priorities when you want something done and take decisions that are not always right, especially when it comes to funding for science. You ask one thing and they give you one thing. I have decided now to use the word again. I don’t really care what you write, but I think idiot and idiotic are not bad words and I didn’t call anyone idiot.”<br /><br />Rao said: Criticism should always be done openly and constructively, not selfishly. Then it is valid. I am open to that.”<br /></p>
