Feynman's Nano, Now - 1

    In this series of post, I try to think and analyze from where 'we' stand today and explain the points delivered by Dr. Feynman in his famous lecture of 1959, . I am not one among the Nanotechnology or Nanoscience research community. I am a common man having a little bit of interest and very little understanding of science. I am explaining this, because readers should not misunderstand the meaning of 'we' in 'where we stand today'. This 'we' refers to the entire human community. That is where, I can be considered one among those who a pushing the limits down that smaller world foreseen by Feynman and that is how I can feel proud and happy.

    Remember the year as the series continues. Excerpt and his thoughts are 50 years ahead from now.

Feynman's Nano, Now - 1
    Excerpt from Feynman's lecture below,

    "They tell me about electric motors that are the size of the nail on your small finger. And there is a device on the market, they tell me, by which you can write the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. But that's nothing; that's the most primitive, halting step in the direction I intend to discuss. It is a staggeringly small world that is below. In the year 2000, when they look back at this age, they will wonder why it was not until the year 1960 that anybody began seriously to move in this direction.

    Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britanica on the head of a pin?"

    I do not know if anybody really wondered that way. Rather, people should have thanked Feynman for being someone who at least thought of such possibility in 1960. Otherwise, we would not be approaching this smaller world so fast and still be running between rooms to operate a computer. I think Feynman had estimated every one and everything would work the way he was and was quite optimistic while mentioning the year 2000. Ten years from then, we have not written any encyclopedia on the head of a pin. But the growth we have had so far, certainly make us think that this is not a mere fantasy.

    There had been a lot of development until now, in the small scale (Nano) biological world like Human genome project, work on DNA sequencing and lot of pharmaceutical developments. Though biological science is pushing the limits faster, other fields are not just spectators. Like in electrical sciences, the limits of the circuits are already getting pushed below 32nm with lot of challenges. In material sciences, carbon nanotubes are openings up lot of possibilities.

    As an end note of the post, last week, while I was spending my Christmas vacation in a very calm and quiet place far from the buzzling metro I live in, I received a mail from one of my friends, whose team, though not encyclopedia, had put a world map on to an optical chip. Please note 'optical chip'. This is not the same integrated circuits we had been working and talking for the past 40 to 50 years. It's quite different, again approaching the nano scale. You can read more here.

50 Years of Feynman's Famous Lecture

Last week, I was reading a newspaper article about nanotechnology which cited the famous lecture presented by Dr. Feynman. It triggered the curiosity in me to know more about that lecture. For those, who do not know who this person is, Richard Feynman was a famous theoretical physicist of this era, who is well known for his work on Quantum Mechanics and his simple explanation of complicated aspects of physics.

This title of this lecture was "There's plenty of room at the bottom". It was delivered by him in 1959 at California Institute of Technology. Fortunately, the development in networking world has reduced the space-time distance (Is it also some sort of special or general relativity!?). Now it is available online, here. Thanks to Ralph Merkle and Zyvex.

Place take time to read his lecture and you will know why I mentioned about his "simple" explanation style, earlier in the post.
More to come in future posts...

Why not Science

Science and Philosophy is same under some context. Science is the 'study of creation'. Philosophy is the 'study of creator'. There are very few people working whole-heartedly in both these two. Let me analyse the reason for decreased count of people in the field of science. One of the major reason is science requires a huge insight and questioning about the topic under test. Lets see about this insight and questioning at a later point. Before that lets see where the man power is concentrated. Its all towards technology and selling it. Technology is nothing but a way to make money out of already known science. Almost entire manpower is towards money through technology. This is a fake fancy that world offers. But there is life behind this fancy world also. Every fancy thing can satisfy the senses, not the soul. Soul satisfaction is achieved only by the real. Think of a thing at this point - Science has not grown the way technology has grown in the past few years. In this topic, I would like to discuss some factors and reasons for the above.

Lets start with questioning and insight. I think if everyone was a kid, then science would have grown a long way. Science always need these 'Whys and Hows' for its development, which are only asked by a kid in our society. Even you and I had these questions during our childhood. Where have these gone? Have we got answers for all the questions that we had? Not exactly. There is a big burial ground made in every one's mind by the good, great architects of our society. By architects, I mean our parents, teachers and all our mentors. There are exceptions in the world for every statement. But they cant be considered as example. If a child questions a teacher in the kindergarten or his/her parents, most of the times they don't have answers, because either they never had this question or they were never answered. They are not ready to get defeated by this question of a small kid, which in their sense does not know as much as they know. So, they are forced to apply the authority over the child. Child cant do anything more than subsiding. This is the first shovel of sand for making the burial ground. As the same happens, time and again, child ceases to question. Surely, if the same question pops up in the mind of a grown-up, well educated man or a woman, it would end up in a new discovery. I would like to substantiate the claim with an experience. After my graduation, when I was teaching a child of 7th standard about light, that kid asked me so many questions that I could not answer. The question was 'How light travels in Vacuum? How is the energy transfer happening in Vacuum?'. I really could not answer these questions. I know this was some kind of defeat for me. I could have just told that these are laws and are already proven (which was what I heard most often from my school teachers). Then it means I had my contribution in burying the child's ability to question. I had to search a lot for answers and got the kid in touch with a person who had specifically studied optics. Here two good things happen. When you are unable to answer the kid's question, the kid feels that he has defeated you in intellect. This boosts his morale. When you answer him after searching a lot, he feels encouraged to search for solutions.

Another thing thing to observe here is the way science is being taught in schools. Whenever there is an unanswerable question to a teacher, the he tells you that it is an assumption or a law. There are no un-meaningful assumptions in the scientific arena. This concept is created in the high schools. The student grows up and whenever he comes across a difficult part of derivation, he starts assuming with no meaning behind it.

Next thing is the way we read scientific concepts and laws. When we come across a law, we blindly follow that. We need to remember one thing, "Every law is not always right". Growth of science stops under this mentality. If Neil Bohr has had this mentality, there is no Bohr atom model. Even we can be another Bohr. All it needs is to argue against the existing law, no matter however great the person had made it. Another observation is to be made here. Suppose Einstein or Newton was publishing a law or a concept. They were considered one of the great intellects of their times. So not except a few equal intellects would have questioned the fact. So, there are probabilities that they were(are) wrong. So, we need to be bold to go against them. May be we are wrong. But there are always truth behind wrong things. If theft is considered as a wrong thing, there are always truths like poverty and illiteracy. Only after the wrong things called the theft has happened, these truths could be probed and the standard of living could be improved. So, even if we were wrong, someone will head to the right solution because of us.

Next is the herd instinct, especially in the Indian society. Nobody wants to be individualistic. Everyone wants to be in the center of the herd. Science needs different ways and openings for the a single problem. Due to this herd instinct so many openings are shut down and everyone heads to the same solution. Staying with the herd, for many people has an advantage that they don't run the risk of exposing their ignorance. If one departs from the herd, then he will be asked to explain why he has departed. He has to offer the detailed justifications and his understanding of the subject will be criticised. Once among the herd, the originality is lost. Greatness of Socrates came to light only after his death. He opposed the whole society and great political figures, because he knew he was right.

Above all that discussed above, there are two things called patience and perseverance which is required for the scientific community. These two things are rarely found in youth. Think of great minds like Thomas Alva Edison and William Roentgen, the patience they had during the experimentation. Achieving the goal is not always simple and quick. Once in my college computer science department, I saw a quote, "Success without difficulty is triumph without glory". Every difficult success, discovery, solution is difficult and requires patience and perseverance.

India has a lot of intellectuals who complain about the lack of infrastructure in the country. I ask every one of them, "What do we need more than the convoluted flesh lying inside our cranium"? It can do wonders. It can face any challenge and find a solution for that which no other animals can. This is one reason why evolution has stopped. Human brain is so powerful to make the humankind, creators themselves (AI, Robots). Lack of infrastructure in the country cant justify the lack of scientific growth.

With all this writing I only want to increase the interest of the youngsters towards science, without which technology is not there. We should remember that money cant buy everything like attitude, mentality, desire all that is needed for success. Its a fake that can buy only the fancies of the world. So, to do something great, we need to think big and come out of the herd. Everyone is sent to this world for some purpose, which is apparently not money. Whenever the mind and soul finds peace and satisfaction in doing something, that should be the real purpose for which we had been sent for. Holding the purpose and carrying on would fetch us the light at the end of the tunnel. For some, the tunnel is short, for some the tunnel is long. Some travel with high velocity to reach fast, some travel with less velocity to reach slow. But everyone can reach it and feel the light.