Crisis in Fundamental Sciences – Physics and Astrophysics-2018

Sreekantan, BV (2018) Crisis in Fundamental Sciences – Physics and Astrophysics-2018. [Audio] (Unpublished)

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Abstract: It is well known that at the beginning of 20th century there was a crisis in physical sciences triggered by experimental discoveries: constancy of the velocity of light, the ultraviolet catastrophe, the emission of spherical lines, the discoveries of radioactivity, x-rays, electrons and protons etc., which could hot be explained within the frame work of “classical physics”. This resulted in the advent of the two special theories – the `Quantum Theory’ and the `Special Theory of Relativity’. Subsequently during the whole of 20th century upto now thanks to the development of new technologies, a number of exciting discoveries have been made in the areas of physics and astronomy extending over the micro, macro and mega domains of the universe revealing many entirely new phenomena. In parallel several new theories have been developed as extensions and modifications of the quantum theory and theory of relativity. However, all the new phenomena discovered have not been satisfactorily explained and also all the theoretical predictions have not been experimentally verified even after 30-50 years. This has led to a new crisis and some senior scientists have been even writing articles and books suggesting that there is a need for a re-examination of the scientific methodology itself especially since experimental discoveries are taking lot of time and the cost is running to tens of billion dollars and the efforts of thousands of scientist and technologists are involved. These aspects will be discussed.
Item Type: Audio
Subjects: General > Founding Faculty > B V Sreekantan > Events and Lectures
NIAS Resources > NIAS Lectures
Date Deposited: 28 Sep 2018 10:10
Last Modified: 08 Nov 2021 17:37
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    Funders: UNSPECIFIED
    Projects: UNSPECIFIED
    DOI:
    URI: http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/1709

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