A Great Karadian ….!

                                                           I can very much imagine that my Grand Grand Son say Rohan is getting a call from his client on an evening ! Call from the client to visit his office next day morning at 10 am to discuss an important order finalisation. Rohan before going to bed asks his wife – as an additional care – to wake him up  at 5.30 am. ‘Being wife’ she asks Rohan the reason for getting up an hour before the routine time. In explanation Rohan says ” I have to see a customer tomorrow for a finalisation. The customer is at MG Road in the Bharat province on the Moon. I have to leave home atleast at 7.30 am ..! Good Night.

                                                           Don’t scratch your head much. I can very well see that reaching on the moon in an hours time, in fact in a few minutes- from anywhere on the earth will be easily possible, may be after 50 years, 100 years. Laughed at me ? Hey, chill. It was not possible to reach Singapore within 5 hours in the year 1912 ! 100 years ago. In 1912 an imagination of reaching Singapore in five hours was a cause of scratching head, was a teaser, isn’t it ? On Wednesday, 4th July this year thousands of scientists from the world gathered in Geneva have given a sense to my imagination. They had a discovery. Discovery of a particle similar  (they call it “consistent”)  to that particles which have given existence to the universe. Higgs boson as these particles are called. I don’t like the other popular name. The popular name is God’s Particles. Higgs boson exist, but they can not be seen. So Higgs boson is a theoretical particle but  Peter Higgs said in 1964 that the particle was responsible for Mass. Without the particle no Gravity is possible ! And my imagination starts here, Now that they have seen Higgs Boson & may be after experiments for 50 years or may 100 years if they are successful in detaching the particle from the matter, matter can travel with the speed of light !!! Yes, then will it not be possible to reach the Moon within a few seconds ?

                                                         My imagination is not important, what is important is the relentless efforts of the entire scientific community in the discovery. The Large Hadron Collider built by the scientists at European Center for Nuclear Research ( CERN)  in Geneva itself is a miracle of this century. Without this 27 km long underground ringed tunnel with ultra complex control systems it would not have possible for the world to do the experiments. And here comes the matter of pride for all Indians and especially those who are associated with College Of Engineering Karad. I feel so proud that our friend Ms Anupama Kulkarni was one of the team members of the scientists at Geneva to contribute for this experiment. Anupama works with BARC. She did her Bachelors In Electrical Engineering in 1993 from COEK. She was deputed to work at CERN in Geneva for two years. I am happily sharing with you herewith her pictures while working at CERN, Geneva.
After the phenomenal achievement of the scientists on 4th July, Anupama wrote to me in an email :

“…..As an Indian, we all feel proud due to association of Shri Bose, but after him or Dr. Bhabha, who is next? On the horizon of particle physics, we are very small. The question  is how, as an Individual, I (every Indian) am going to change the situation? (Lack of united national feeling)………….Oh, my mail is flowing to some other direction!! (But, I couldn’t resist this) . Any news coming from LHC, I go to the same state of mind as if I am in CERN Control Centre and enjoying the all lively atmosphere forgetting EVERYTHING else and then wish “Kash, ye Bharat me kyu nahi hota?…….”

Anupama, with young scientists like you in India, I am confident one day ” Ye Bharat mein bhi Hoga”.

Here are a few pictures of Anupama :

Above Anupama with her colleagues at the CERN Control Laboratory

In the Underground Tunnel of LHC.

You made us all Proud, Anupama.

by Sudhir Mutalik