Great investors are known to have the seemingly impossible twin traits of conviction to go against convention (the market) on the one hand and yet the humility to be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. Turns out it is no different with great scientists as this obituary of one of India’s most famous astrophysicists shows. Jayant Narilikar, best known to have questioned the Big Bang theory for the origins of the universe, passed away earlier this week. The Indian Express pays tribute:
“Big Bang is an exploding myth, read the sign outside his room. It was also a sort of theme song for the person inside.
For Jayant Narlikar, the established theory about how the universe came into being, through a Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago, was never really a settled issue.
… One of the most celebrated Indian scientists, Narlikar, then a young researcher at Cambridge University in the UK, had attracted global recognition for his work on what is known as the steady-state theory of the universe, developed by Hoyle, in collaboration with Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold.
The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe has a definite beginning, and a possible end. In contrast, the steady state theory, which was the mainstream theory in the 1950s and 1960s, maintains that the universe has always been the way it is, without any beginning or an end.
.. “It is not that Narlikar was blind to the new evidence coming out in support of Big Bang. He was a scientist of the first order. It is just that he strongly believed in his work. So, every new piece of evidence for Big Bang used to be taken as a fresh challenge by him, a new opportunity to test his ideas. And his responses, or criticism, of the new evidence used to be as scientifically rigorous as it can get,” said Somak Raychaudhuri, a former director of Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), which Narlikar was instrumental in setting up, and where he had an office room until a couple of years ago.
“In many ways, Narlikar was like Hoyle. They had amazing ideas on several matters related to science. Many of these were very unconventional ideas, but backed by rigorous mathematics and data,” said Raychaudhuri, now vice-chancellor of Ashoka University.
Narlikar’s legacy goes beyond the Hoyle-Narlikar steady state theory. Upon his return to India he established the IUCAA, India’s premier astrophysics research institution.
“He delved into science fiction, writing short and long stories in Marathi and English, many of which became part of the school curriculum. He pursued science popularisation, and campaigned against superstition and pseudo-science. He would specifically get himself photographed eating during eclipses to make a point. He used to organise special science sessions for schoolchildren at IUCAA and would spend hours answering their questions.
“One of his enduring legacies would be the large number of students he guided and mentored. Look at all the big names in astrophysics in India. Thanu Padmanabhan (who died in 2021), Sanjeev Dhurandhar, Ajit Kembhavi, Naresh Dhadich – all have been trained by Narlikar, and they, in turn, have trained many more. The astrophysics scene in India is quite vibrant,” said Tarun Souradeep, astrophysicist and director of Bengaluru-based Raman Research Institute, himself a student of Narlikar.
“Narlikar was a very good listener and very open to new ideas. It did not matter where the idea was coming from. He would often tell students, look it is amazing how that model works so well, now let us examine why our own does not work equally well in this situation. He would ask us to question established theories. Narlikar’s students excelled in very different fields within astrophysics. He never forced his own ideas on them,” Souradeep said.”
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