Why?

I have been selected for the Visiting Students Research Programme (popularly VSRP) at National Centre for Radio Astronomy (NCRA-TIFR) for Summer 2011 and I will be working on ‘modelling the gas distribution in high-redshift galaxies and relating this to galaxies in the local Universe’.

When I told about this to my friends, many of my friends (mostly form engineering or finance background) asked me, “Why do you want to work on something like that?” Their criticism clearly pointing towards the fact that such a topic does not affect the humanity, not in the direct sense. Such a study will not increase the mileage of a car, nor will it solve the problem of power deficiency.

Ever since Man acquired the ability of thinking, He has been wondering “why what we see is the way it is?” He observed what was happening around and tried to deduce the laws governing different phenomena. To seek knowledge, to understand the surroundings is the fundamental character of humans. For thousands of years Man questioned everything that was happening around him and hunted for answers. He formulated theories about occurrences in his environment. Using these theories he created tools and machines for His assist.

One of the greatest and glorious examples of this is Sir Isaac Newton (I know many people curse this name) and the Theory of Gravitation. (The “apple falling from tree” story is a myth). There’s an interesting story about Newton. After completion of his high school, his mother wanted him to give up studies and start managing his deceased father’s farms. (‘Wish he had followed his mom’s advice!’ you’ll say!) It was his Uncle’s and Schoolteacher’s continuous requests to his mother made her change mind and let him go to Cambridge. Back to my point, the theory of gravitation is a marvel. What makes you roll down the hills is the same thing that makes the moon go around the earth! Isn’t that amazing? Now nobody had asked Newton to do this, to come up with a theory of Gravity. It was the inquisitive nature of his that asked the questions ‘why does the moon go round the earth? Who or what makes it do that? Why an up thrown ball comes down?’ And he thought about these and he found the answer. (It’s not that easy, try for yourself!)

After developing this theory, he came to know that every ball thrown upwards doesn’t necessarily have to come down. (Read escape velocity). And because of this idle musing of his, we have artificial satellites which, you know what they are used for...

A similar example can be given about the theory of Atoms. For thousands of years people had wondered ‘everything we see, what it is made up of?’ The Greeks thought all material were made up of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. They came up with the concept of an ‘Atom’, an indivisible particle of matter. (Indian philosophers also came up with similar theory independently.) Experiments done in the following two millennia confirmed this hypothesis. (Although E, A, F and W lost their place as fundamental entities, the idea of Atom was confirmed.) In the late 19th Century it was observed that the atom is divisible and was made up of positive and negatively charged parts and thus electron was discovered. In the early 20th century, as a result of efforts by Rutherford, Bohr and later Schrodinger, Dirac and many others, different models of atoms came forward and were refined time and again to give a proper model of an atom. Using this model the working of semiconductors could be explained. It was further used to develop better semiconductors and transistors which make up every tech gadget you use today.

The aim of physical science is to explain what happens around us, to explain every event that has happened, based on logical judgment. Develop a theory based on the evidences and observations. Use this theory to make predictions about further experiments and observations. If your theory can explain it, well and good; otherwise you will have to improve it (or someone else will).

“As long as Physical Science exists, the highest goal to which it aspires is the solution of the problem of embracing all natural phenomena, observed and still to be observed, in one simple principle which will allow all past and, especially, future occurrences to be calculated” – So said Max Planck, the Father of Quantum Theory.

Now going back to my project topic, the aim is to develop a consistent theory to describe the formation of galaxies in the early Universe by studying the gas dynamics of these galaxies and comparing these with the dwarf galaxies in the neighbourhood of our local galaxy cluster. If this works, great! If not, it will imply that there are some hidden unknown parameters that are affecting the evolution of galaxies. Then there will be a need of a theory that incorporates these unknown factors.

But above all this, there is one obsession that we do all this for, ‘pleasure’! As the greatest mind of the 20th Century, Richard Feynman said, “Physics is like Sex! It may give some fruitful results, but that’s not why we do it.”