COIMBATORE: “In science (research), always lookout for the field or direction which is challenging and where people have lost,” Physics Nobel Prize winner David J Gross advised students here on Wednesday. He shared his ideas while addressing students on the ‘Frontiers of Fundamental Physics’ at the PSG College of Technology here.
Giving the audience a glimpse of his journey towards the concept of Asymptotic Freedom that won him the Nobel Prize in 2004, he started by explaining Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus and the subsequent discoveries like proton and quarks. “To study about things that form an atom and what is there inside an atom, we theorist usually collide them with high energy. After the discovery of nucleus, what was lacking was the theory behind it,” said Gross.
With the discovery of quarks, quantum physics took a new turn and that also gave new challenge to Gross. An experiment at Stanford University led to the discovery that protons are made up of quarks. But there was no theory to explain why quarks are not visible when an atom is split. Gross and his team worked on this aspect in vacuum and came to the conclusion that vacuum, being a complicated medium, is full of fluctuating fields. This led to the idea of Asymptotic Freedom, which explains that particles become weaker when energy increases and distance decreases.
Gross explained how and why Physics is the basis for everything. He also advised upcoming scientists to be curious, passionate and have perseverance to succeed in the field they are interested in.
Earlier he inaugurated the Physics Research Scholars Poster Presentation and unveiled the foundation stone for the PSG GRD Science and Technology Museum, commemorating the 90th year of the institution.
The museum will be a centre for dissemination of scientific literacy among all sections of society, especially school students. It will be located at PSG Institute of Technology and Applied Research, Neelambur and is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2017. I t will also have a ‘Science Amusement Park’ for children, which will be a study-cum-recreational area.