Worth of Human

Astronomy has always been the most fascinating subject for me. The scale of billions of numbers (years, galaxies and planets), possibilities of extraterrestrial life or lives and big bang theory-what else a kid can desire? No wonder Star Trek represents the passion of a generation and Carl Sagan a hero of kids, interested in science. Though in the modern school education system of India, the subject does not get much attention, the country can boast of Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, a Nobel Prize winner, who explains the evolution of stars.
I remembered when I read about the gravitational force as a cause of planet’s motion around the stars, I was curious to know why all of these do not strike. My science teacher was not able to satisfy the curiosity. Luckily, Doordarshan, India‘s state run TV network used to telecast the series of Carl Sagan translated into Hindi and programs of Yash Pal, to make my generation of India curious enough to choose Science. Later, I chose science and mathematics for my higher studies and came to know about the centrifugal or pseudo or inertial force. Though I do not stick myself with theoretical sciences, science is always an interesting subject.

It appears that all the old civilizations had great knowledge of stars and planets. Historically, people travelled long distances, and spent time in monasteries to learn the science. The knowledge of Indian civilization which has been survived long enough still amazes scientists worldwide. From time immemorial, the area drags the attention of all those seek spiritual wisdom. But does not the essence of spirituality link with the knowledge of science? A simple realization of days and nights of the earth in comparison to the neighboring planet say Jupiter undermines our time scale.

In the current system, the subject of science or common sense is divided into various disciplines. We study archaeology based on the carbon isotopes left in fossils and history (still not classified under science) through the remains of buildings, jewels and some texts, if languages are understood completely. Only in 300 years of the earth time scale (A year is the time it takes a planet to complete one cycle around the star), we created from steam engines to enough nuclear weapons to destroy the human race. Now compare it to all the years of same time scale, took to be Homosapien from Chimpanzee. Amazing!! A bullet shot can kill a living being in nine seconds, but it takes nine months to create a human life and two years for an elephant. No wonder most of earlier scientists Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Newton and Einstein were great philosophers too, since they have the power to think beyond their time.

Considering the well recorded violence of last 1000 years of history, there is no doubt that our survival lies in science and common sense, not in greed, lust and crime. We know about the end of Dinosaurs through their fossils, a phenomenon took place million years ago, with more certainty than the end of some great civilizations. Downing the time scale, it can be compared to our life; we remember some special days whole life through photos or emblems, but cannot recollect what we ate two days ago. Who knows it is one more chance for the survival of Human civilization before any ‘Great Destruction’?