How To Find Meaning in Life With Physics And Comedy

Einstein had once said, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute." That was him describing his famous theory of relativity, but if you've chuckled to yourself after reading it, then you are in good company.

Because according to physicist and comedian Rupesh Mahore, physics and comedy have helped him find purpose in life. How so?

Like others in India, Rupesh was brought up (and trained) to believe that engineering was the most respected profession ever. After many years of severe hard work, he managed to enter one of the top institutes in the country, IIT-Delhi.

And to pursue what again? A bachelors degree in textile technology; Rupesh didn't even know if that was a thing, to be honest!

Fast forward to today: Rupesh is a physics student at NIT Rourkela instead, and at the same time, one of the popular faces in Eastern India's comedy circuit, having shared the stage with likes of Zakir Khan, Atul Khatri, Sorabh Pant and others!

A trio of comics

Leading English daily The Times of India has described his humour as "intellectual and authoritative". But besides being a comic, Rupesh is an educator as well.

He says, "When teaching physics, there is deep honesty and integrity if I am able to deliver fundamentals of the universe to a student and give a better perspective to it."

Rupesh has worked under the guidance of Professor H.C. Verma, best-selling author of Concepts of Physics. Considering his research on materials science, Rupesh has been selected to work at Indian space agency's Laboratory of Electro Optical Systems (LEOS) where he would be working for the mission of Chandrayaan-2 and Gaganyaan.

With Professor Verma

But in order to be where he is at today, Rupesh has had to make bold decisions in the past. He dropped out of engineering college in 2016, "If it wasn't for physics, I wouldn't be here," Rupesh adds.

Convincing his family and asking for their support was a difficult phase in life. Talking about it further, he says, "In India, students and their guardians are not aware of the diverse range of career choices available, which has led to students ending up in a flock. We need to see sciences and arts in the right manner to actually live the best life possible."

After dropping out, Rupesh started teaching physics to high school students in his locality earning a bare minimum. Then, one thing led to another and he began performing on stage.

canvas laugh club

In the midst of recognition and fame on stage, Rupesh did not forget his love for physics. To carry out his interests in it, he joined the course of integrated physics at NIT in Rourkela. Here, he completed writing his first research paper on nano-fabrication.

Rupesh says, "For me, physics has allowed me to understand the world for better and stand-up comedy a liberating art form has given me solace." Clearly, his example is enough to inspire any physics student (who also has some sense of humour).

A Universe of Atoms, An Atom In The Universe

American physicist Richard Feynman was a man who always jumped into an adventure. He was an artist, a story-teller and an everyday joker whose life was a combination of his intelligence, curiosity and uncertainty.

In the summer of 1955, Feynman wrote a poem about the earth and its development as a planet of activity, of living things and ultimately of beings who would be able to think and wonder. This poem came right after the discovery of Miller-Urey experiment.

Feynman says,

I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think.

There are the rushing waves

mountains of molecules

each stupidly minding its own business

trillions apart

yet forming white surf in unison.

Ages on ages,

before any eyes could see

year after year,

thunderously pounding the shore as now.

For whom? For what?

On a dead planet

with no life to entertain.

Never at rest

tortured by energy

wasted prodigiously by the sun

poured into space.

A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea

all molecules repeat

the patterns of one another

till complex new ones are formed.

They make others like themselves

and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity

living things

masses of atoms

DNA, protein

dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle

onto dry land

here it is

standing:

atoms with consciousness;

matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea,

wonders at wondering: I

a universe of atoms

an atom in the universe.

In a free verse poem Feynman has demonstrated once again the great extent of his intellect and imagination.

Earth was once a lifeless planet.

A whole lot of activity was still made possible because of the presence of the sun. This went on for "ages and ages" meaning for the amount of time we cannot comprehend since we can only think about in days, weeks and months.

Then, deep in the sea, under conditions as described by British-Indian biologist Haldane, a whole range of organic molecules began to mature as discovered by Miller-Urey experiment in 1952.

A whole lot of activity happened in a distant past to give birth to creatures who could think and wonder today. Feynman ends the story by saying, "My mortal body is indeed a universe of atoms but I am just an atom in the universe myself," which is a great realization.

10 Greatest Women Physicists You Didn't Know

Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac, Feynman and we can go on and on. You all identify them very well as the heroes of physics and astronomy.

It is however a disappointing fact that the sheroes of physics and astronomy remain uncelebrated still. So, we feel it duty to bring to you a list of ten greatest women physicists.

10. Lisa Randall

Lisa researches particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is a professor of theoretical physics. She contributed to the Randall–Sundrum model with Indian-American physicist Raman Sundrum.

Randall-Sundrum model in physics describes the various aspects of particle physics, for instance, supersymmetry, in terms of a warped-geometry higher-dimensional universe. First published in 1999, this model of the universe has since generated thousands of citations.

Lisa explained her most acknowledged work at a non-technical level in the book, Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, which went on to become world's first successful book on theoretical physics by a female author.

9. Helen Quinn

Helen is an Australian-born particle physicist and educator known for contributions to both fields.

Working with Howard Georgi and Steven Weinberg, Quinn showed how the three types of particle interactions which look very different as we see their impact in the world around us, become very similar in extremely high-energy processes.

Her most significant contribution to theoretical physics include the Peccei-Quinn theory which implies a matter-antimatter symmetry and the possible source of the dark matter that pervades the universe.

8. Jocelyn Bell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an Irish astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsar, a highly-magnetized rotating neutron star, in 1967. She was a postgraduate student at the time of discovery.

She helped in building the 16,000 m² radio telescope over two years and was the first person to notice the anomaly, sometimes reviewing as much as 29 meters of paper data per night.

Her discovery was recognized by the award of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics, but despite the fact that she was the first to observe the pulsars, Bell was excluded from the recipients of the prize.

7. Chien-Shiung Wu

Chinese experimental physicist

She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which contradicted the most revered law of conservation of parity. This discovery resulted in her colleagues Lee and Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics. Wu was not publicly honored until 1978.

6. Vera Rubin

American astronomer Vera Rubin uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves.

By observing the minor deviations from Hubble's law in galaxies, Rubin provided evidence for the existence of galactic superclusters. Her most significant discovery was providing the first evidence for dark matter.

Vera Rubin spent her life advocating for women in science and was known for her mentorship of aspiring women astronomers.

5. Lise Meitner and Andrea Ghez

Position 5th is a tie: Along with long-time collaborator, Otto Hahn, Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner led a small group of scientists who became the first to discover the nuclear fission of Uranium.

Otto Hahn was recognized with 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry but Meitner's contributions overlooked. Today, nuclear fission is used to produce electricity in the nuclear power plants.

According to Physics Today, Meitner's exclusion from the most coveted award may well be summarized as a mixture of disciplinary bias, political obtuseness, ignorance, and haste.

Andrea Ghez is an American astronomer, who is known for her research on Milky Way galaxy. She has won the Nobel Prize for physics and is only the fourth woman to win the highest honors.

4. Donna Strickland

Canadian physicist

Donna is a pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018 for the invention of chirped pulse amplification.

Its creation has enabled doctors to perform millions of corrective laser eye surgeries. She said that after developing the technique they knew it would be a significant discovery.

She became the third woman ever to be awarded Nobel Prize in Physics, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963.

3. Maria Goeppert Mayer

Maria Goeppert was a German-born American scientist and Nobel prize winner in Physics (1963) for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus.

The nuclear shell model is a model of the atomic nucleus which uses the Pauli exclusion principle to describe the structure of the nucleus in terms of energy levels.

2. Emmy Noether

Emmy Noether was a German mathematician known for contributions to theoretical physics. She was described by Albert Einstein as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.

As one of the leading mathematicians of her time, she developed the theories of rings and fields in abstract algebra. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the connection between symmetry and conservation laws.

When she was recruited by University of Göttingen, one faculty member protested, "What will our soldiers think when they return to the university and find that they are required to learn at the feet of a woman?"

Completely unegotistical and free of vanity, she never claimed anything for herself, but promoted the works of her students above all. A teacher of such quality is not readily available these days.

1. Marie Curie

Polish physicist and chemist

Marie Skłodowska Curie was denied admission to college because she was a woman, but she persisted, and went on to become the only person in history to win Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity, a term that she coined, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium.

Pierre and Marie Curie

While a French citizen by marriage, Marie never lost her sense of Polish identity. She named the first chemical element she discovered, Polonium, after her native country.

She had famously said, "Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."

10 Greatest Scientists Who Never Won A Nobel Prize

This is a list of scientists who have contributed greatly to our understanding of the world but who unfortunately never won the top honors. While some of the nobel snubs were the product of personal grudges or general biases particularly against women, others were matters of bad timing.

10. Stephen Hawking

British physicist and mathematician

The ailing theoretical physicist was known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology, general relativity and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. For a man who was given just a few years to live in his twenties not only did he beat the odds but also revolutionized physics for next half a century.

9. Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Her discovery of rotating neutron stars was recognized by the award of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics, but despite the fact that she was the first to observe the pulsars, Bell was excluded from the recipients of the prize.

Irish astrophysicist

As a postgraduate student, she helped in building the 16,000 m² radio telescope over two years and was the first person to notice the anomaly, sometimes reviewing as much as 29 meters of paper data per night.

8. George Sudarshan

Indian physicist

In 2005 several physicists wrote to the Swedish Academy, protesting that Sudarshan should have been awarded a share of the Prize for the Sudarshan–Glauber representation in quantum optics, for which American physicist Roy J. Glauber won his share of the prize.

7. Chien-Shiung Wu

Chinese experimental physicist

She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which contradicted the most revered law of conservation of parity. This discovery resulted in her colleagues Lee and Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics. Wu was not publicly honored until 1978.

6. Lise Meitner

Austrian-Swedish Chemist

Lise Meitner along with long-time collaborator Otto Hahn led a small group of scientists who became the first to discover the nuclear fission of Uranium. The 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded exclusively to Otto Hahn and once again, a deserving candidate was not recognized.

According to Physics Today, Meitner's exclusion from the chemistry award may well be summarized as a mixture of disciplinary bias, political obtuseness, ignorance, and haste. Today, nuclear fission is used to produce electricity in the nuclear power plants.

5. Georges Lemaitre

Belgian Cosmologist

Lemaître proposed the Big Bang theory. He was the first cosmologist ever nominated for the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics for his prediction of the expanding universe. Remarkably, he was also nominated for the 1956 Nobel prize in chemistry for his primeval-atom theory. He did not win both times.

4. Henri Poincaré

French scientist

Poincaré is considered brighter than Einstein by many a scientists. He was the first to propose gravitational waves emanating from a body and propagating at the speed of light as being required by the Lorentz transformations. Poincaré was nominated a record 51 times for the Nobel Prize but never won.

3. Nikola Tesla

Serbian Inventor

Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor known for his contributions to physics and engineering. He is most recognized for developing the alternating current electric system, which is still the predominant system used across the world today. His other inventions include Tesla coil, remote control and wireless telegraphy.

2. Edwin Hubble

First, he revolutionized cosmology by showing that ours was not the only galaxy. The clouds of light which astronomers saw in the night sky were actually other galaxies beyond our Milky Way. He calculated distances to these galaxies.

American Astronomer

Second, he took the world by storm by proving that the galaxies were moving away from one another. The entire universe was expanding. He calculated the speeds at which the galaxies were receding. At the time of these two crucial discoveries, the Nobel Prize in Physics did not recognize work done in astronomy.


Hubble spent much of the latter part of his career attempting to have astronomy considered an area of physics. Shortly after his death, the Nobel Prize Committee decided that astronomical work would be eligible for the physics prize, however, the prize is not one that can be awarded posthumously.

1. Satyendra Nath Bose

Indian Theoretical Physicist

Bose is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate, the fifth state of matter.

Bose's work was evaluated by an expert of the Nobel Committee, Oskar Klein, who did not see his work worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Several Nobel Prizes were awarded related to the field initiated by him but Bose himself was never presented the coveted prize. Yet half the particles in the universe obey him and that itself is a remarkable achievement.

Is gravity a theory or a law?

Why is it called Newton's law of gravity and not Newton's theory? Is Einstein's theory of general relativity scientifically inferior to Newton's law? Since in our day-to-day usage, the law carries more weight than the word theory?

Questions like these are doing the rounds on the internet. So we see it fit to explain, once and for all, what scientific terminology is. Before studying science, you must know the meanings of such terms like: axiom, hypothesis, experiment, model, law and theory.

Luckily, this terminology is well incorporated in the method of science. So, let us first understand the scientific method with an example and then we will answer whether gravity is a theory or a law. You will be surprised.

It is observed that bees are attracted to flowers. This statement is taken to be true to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. This is called an axiom.

Bumblebee

Then, a natural question arises. Why are bees attracted to flowers? This is the first step of the scientific method. An observation is followed up by a question. Like, on one summer day, Isaac Newton had questioned the fall of an apple.

One may guess that bees are attracted by the color of flowers. Another person may say that bees are attracted by the nectar inside flowers.

All guesses are called hypotheses.

A scientific hypothesis can be tested in laboratory with the help of an experiment. First, bees are let inside a glass chamber containing artificial flowers. Second, bees are let inside another glass chamber containing real flowers. Further observations are noted down.

It is observed that bees are attracted to artificial flowers, they sit on them briefly, then fly away. Thus, the first hypothesis stands true as bees are indeed attracted by the color. In the second set-up, bees sit on real flowers and remain there for long. So, the second hypothesis is also true.

After hypotheses have been tested, it is time to formulate laws, theories or conclusions on basis of the result. In our case, we come to the simple conclusion: "bees are attracted to flowers due to both color and nectar."

A law, on the other hand, is a formula. Like, Newton's law of universal gravitation is used to calculate the "magnitude" of the gravitational force between two objects of mass separated by a given distance.

Newton's law

Newton's law is also used in a model so as to mimic remote physical phenomena locally, say on one's computer, such as sky-diving or revolution of Moon around Earth. Thus, a model is generally a simulation. But Newton's law does not attempt to explain how or why gravity works.

In science, theory holds a special place. It is a well-substantiated explanation of the natural world that can incorporate all facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. So, Einstein's theory of general relativity explains "why" things fall.

While laws rarely change, theories get modified whenever new evidence is discovered. Einstein published his version of the theory in 1915 and since then the theory has adapted as new technologies and new evidence have expanded our view of the universe.

Is gravity a theory or a law?

So, is gravity a theory or a law? Well, first of all, it is an always acting force that one can feel. Second, it is both a theory and a law. The law of gravity calculates the amount of attraction while the theory describes why objects attract each other in the first place.

You have now an understanding of terms such as axiom, hypothesis, experiment, law, model and theory, by our use of the scientific method. Whenever you encounter a phrase like "it is just a theory" from the other party, you will know where they lack in their understanding.

Origin of Life on Earth According To Science

Man has always wondered how he came into existence, who created him, and why he was created. Questions of such nature have been asked throughout human history. Every ancient thinker, philosopher or prophet, has tried to give some answer to this question and suggest some mechanism for the birth of life.

Man is but a small part of life. In reality, there is a vast variety of creatures lingering around us. How did they come into existence? Are we related to them in any manner whatsoever? This article proposes to take you back to a distant past when there was no life on our planet and helps you imagine how life could have originated on it.

Panspermia

According to an ancient Greek idea, life exists throughout the universe. It is distributed to different planets in small units through space dust, meteoroids, asteroids or comets. It was assumed that under favourable conditions of temperature and moisture, these units of life would come alive and give birth to the initial living beings.

Panspermia

Panspermia was first mentioned in the writings of the 5^th century BC Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. Despite being old, the idea is quite witty, isn't it? It has assumed a more scientific form in the recent years thanks to the contributions of astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe.

It is a very well known fact that the cosmic dust is present throughout space. Hoyle and Wickramasinghe proposed in 1974 the hypothesis that most of the dust in the interstellar space has to be largely organic, for life to spread, which Wickramasinghe later proved to be correct.

But Panspermia assumes that there is a universal storehouse of life throughout space and thus indeed avoids answering the question as to how life anywhere originated in the first place.

Divine Creation

One belief, common among the people of all cultures, is that all the different forms of life including human beings were suddenly created by a divine order about 10,000 years ago. These large number of creatures have always been the same and will last without change from one generation to another, until the end of the world.

Such a theory of creation is unreasonable because fossils of plants and animals suggest that life is of much older origin. In fact, some researches show that life on Earth existed even 3.5 billion years ago. There are very many reasons why this particular idea is untrue. It is therefore surprising as to why people may still hold on to this belief system.

Spontaneous Generation

The theory known as spontaneous generation held that complex, living organisms could come into existence from inanimate objects. Mice might spontaneously appear in stored grain or maggots could spontaneously appear in meat. It was synthesized by the Greek philosopher and biologist Aristotle.

Aristotle

According to Aristotle, animals and plants come into existence in earth and in liquid because there is water in earth, and air in water, and in all air is vital heat so that in a sense all things are full of soul. Therefore, living things form quickly whenever this air and vital heat are enclosed in anything.

Aristotle's influence was so large and powerful that his construct of spontaneous generation remained unchallenged for more than two thousand years. According to Aristotle it was a readily observable truth. But, in 1668, Italian biologist Franceso Redi proved that no maggots appeared in meat when flies were prevented from laying eggs.

There is no spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation is no longer debatable among biologists. By the middle of the 19^th century, experiments by Louis Pasteur and others refuted the traditional theory of spontaneous generation and supported biogenesis, the idea that only life begets life.

Chemical Evolution

The life as we know it is based on carbon containing molecules. Therefore, Soviet biochemist, Oparin, and British biologist, Haldane, proposed that life could have arisen from simple organic molecules. In other words, to understand the origin of life, one must have a knowledge of the organic molecules on earth.

The early Earth was a hot ball of fire. Sources of energy such as cosmic rays, UV radiation, electrical discharges from lightning and heat from volcanoes, were readily available. Therefore, the earth acted like a big factory producing thousands of compounds a day. This was a state of agitation.

early earth with warm waters

In these severe conditions, oxygen, could not remain as free oxygen. It was combined with other elements in compounds such as Water and Limestone. Compounds of carbon and hydrogen, such as methane, were also formed. Nitrogen and hydrogen combined to form ammonia. These compounds are today called organic compounds.

With the passage of time, the earth had started cooling down. As it cooled sufficiently, prolonged rains were caused due to condensation of steam. The rains began accumulating in the depressions on the earth and so the oceans were formed. The water was warm and soup-like containing various kinds of organic molecules in abundance.

organic molecules

Interaction between these compounds in the warm waters resulted in the formation of yet more compounds, which among other things also contained amino acids having a composition of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. These amino acids combined with one another in large numbers to form proteins, which are the building blocks of life.

Miller-Urey Experiment

In discussing events which must have happened billions of years ago, there is a certain amount of guess work and uncertainty involved. But the reasoning has to conform to a good deal of available evidence as well as to the basic laws of physical sciences.

The above idea could be tested by recreating the proposed conditions of the early earth in a laboratory.

In the year 1952, American biochemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey did exactly the same thing but on a very small scale. They subjected a gaseous mixture of methane, ammonia, water vapour and hydrogen in a closed flask at 80 degree Celsius to electric sparking, for a week.

When examined a week later, the arrangement was found to have formed simple amino acids in the bottom, which are essential for the formation of proteins. Miller and Urey had shown that several organic compounds could be formed spontaneously by simulating the conditions of earth's early atmosphere, as hypothesized by Oparin and Haldane.

Elements of life, produced by man, in laboratory.

The scientific community worldwide was largely impressed by this accomplishment. In fact, three years after the success of Miller's experiment, American physicist Richard Feynman wrote a poem, titled, an atom in the universe, celebrating man's knowledge of the origin of life on earth.


Miller continued his research until his death in 2007. He not only succeeded in synthesising more and more varieties of amino acids, but also produced a wide variety of inorganic and organic compounds vital for cellular construction and metabolism. We salute the efforts of such a scientist who devoted his life studying the most important question known to man.