BY AKEEL FAROOQ KAPRINI
BONABAZAR SHOPIAN
Friday, 18 May 2012
IIT JEE 2012 results, Bihar’s Super 30 shines again
Patna: In another big score, 27 of the 30 students from Bihar’s Super 30, a free coaching centre for underprivileged students, have cracked the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) this year, its director said on Friday.
“It is again good news that this year, 27 out of the 30 students made it to the IIT-JEE… it has underlined how with proper opportunity, students from poor families can also reach the prestigious IIT,” Super 30′s founder-director Anand Kumar told IANS.
The successful candidates include the wards of a truck mechanic, a farmer, a daily-wage labourer and vendors.
“All of them have managed to successfully chase their IIT-JEE dreams at Super 30 with their commitment and hard work,” he said.
Last year, 24 students of the institute had cleared the IIT-JEE.
Super 30, which helps economically backward students crack the IIT-JEE, was selected by Time magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.
Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation are free for the students. Anand Kumar said the institute is supported by income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.
In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to IITs. In 2008, for the first time, all 30 students of the centre cracked the exam, a feat which was repeated in 2009 and 2010.
The results of IIT-JEE 2012, which was held on April 8, were announced on Friday morning.
Courtesy: IFY-IITians FOR YOUTH
IIT JEE 2012 results out, Faridabad boy tops the exam
The results of the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam 2012 were announced early this morning.
Faridabad’s Arpit Agarwal has claimed the top spot this year with a score of 385 out of a maximum of 401.
Arpit is a student of Modern Vidya Niketan School, Sector 17, Faridabad.
Bijoy Kochar from Chandigarh and Nishant Kaushik from Bhilai grabbed the second and third rank respectively.
Bijoy Kochar from Chandigarh and Nishant Kaushik from Bhilai grabbed the second and third rank respectively.
More than 5.6 lakh students appeared for the Joint Entrance Exam for admission to the coveted Indian Institutes of Technology held on April 8, 2012.
The results were announced on the official websites of all the IITs.
Students who clear the JEE will now compete for the 9,600 odd undergraduate seats in the 15 IITs, namely IIT-Bhubaneshwar, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Indore, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Madras, IIT-Mandi, IIT-Patna, IIT-Rajasthan, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Ropar.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Biography of the Universe in the Light of Latest Scientific Theories
The following excerpts are from a brilliant new book authored by a Kashmiri theoretical physicist Dr. Mir Faizal who has been a student at NIT along with a fellow scientist from Copenhagen University
SCIENCE
Does Science Contradict Itself?There is a popular misconception about science that it keeps contradicting itself and, thus, it is not trustable. Today it says one thing and tomorrow another. So how can we rely on any conclusion that science has made? This misconception occurs due to a lack of understanding of how science works.
Science does not contradict its theories but keeps generalizing them. For example, when Einstein formulated the theory of relativity he did not prove Newton wrong. He only formulated a more general theory to describe higher energy scales. This theory reproduced the results obtained by Newton’s theory at the energy scales which Newton was considering. Only at higher energy scales it gave different results to the ones that would be derived from Newton’s theory.
However, Newton had never tested his theory at those energy scales. Thus, Newton’s theory was correct but only limited to lower energy scales. Einstein’s theory was a generalization and not a contradiction to the theory of Newton. In fact, a requirement for Einstein’s theory to be a correct theory describing nature was that it had to reduce to Newton’s theory at the energy scales which Newton was considering. This was because Newton’s theory had been experimentally tested and proven to be correct at those energy scales.
A consequence of this was that it was not necessary to know Einstein’s theory of relativity if only low-energy phenomena were being analyzed. This was because Einstein’s theory would give the same results that would be obtained from Newton’s theory at those energy scales. Recent experiments suggest that nature is described by a more general theory than Einstein’s theory. This general theory has still not been completely formulated. A requirement for this yet unknown theory is that it should reproduce the results obtained from Einstein’s theory at the energy scales at which Einstein’s theory has been tested and proven to be correct.
Science and Miracles
It must be stressed that the idea of nature being so perfect that it can be expressed in terms of complex mathematical laws is a belief, and like all other beliefs it cannot be fundamentally proven to be correct or incorrect. One of the reasons why this belief exists is that it has never been proven to be wrong and, moreover, it has led to great progress within science. However, for all unexplained phenomena this remains only a belief. This is because as long as there is no theory to explain these phenomena the belief in the existence of such a theory is only a belief. Even though this is only a belief, it is the belief of which the whole establishment of modern science and, thus, our modern civilization is based on. To contradict this belief is considered to be a blasphemy in science. Thus, miracles which break natural laws can never be accepted in science. As per definition miracles are singular events which cannot be tested and reproduced, and so they are not scientific. However, a belief in miracles is not merely against the scientific method; it is against the whole philosophy of science which is based on the belief that the universe is consistent and elegant. This is because miracles assume that all order in nature is broken at some point on earth because of the action of a human being. This can never be accepted by anyone with a scientific bent of mind.
In fact, scientifically speaking, miracles could be normal events that were misunderstood by people as supernatural events. For example, consider one of the most famous miracles in history: Jesus’ resurrection. There was no doctor to verify that he had actually died on the cross. Crucifixion was thought to be a painful way to die as it took many days for people to die on the cross. The only way to speed up the death of a person was to break his legs. Jesus was crucified for only a few hours on the cross and his legs were not broken, so it is highly unlikely that he died during the crucifixion. In fact, survival from crucifixion was normal and has been well-documented to occur for many people in the past. Now, if he was alive after the crucifixion and was rescued later on, there would be no breaking of a natural law. However, people around him could have easily misunderstood this as a miracle breaking a natural law. In fact, most miracles that have been documented historically are of this nature. Of course, it is impossible to exclude that miracles could be totally fabricated in the course of writing a book about past events. Apart from these, some frauds cheat people by performing magical tricks and claiming these to be miracles. Such types of miracles are outright frauds and most modern miracles belong to this category. It should be emphasized that there is no clash between any religion and science. The clash only occurs when literal interpretations of religions are used and compared with science.
Dr. Mir Faizal, Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Dr. Rubini Kannangara, Molecular Biology at Copenhagen University
Science does not contradict its theories but keeps generalizing them. For example, when Einstein formulated the theory of relativity he did not prove Newton wrong. He only formulated a more general theory to describe higher energy scales. This theory reproduced the results obtained by Newton’s theory at the energy scales which Newton was considering. Only at higher energy scales it gave different results to the ones that would be derived from Newton’s theory.
However, Newton had never tested his theory at those energy scales. Thus, Newton’s theory was correct but only limited to lower energy scales. Einstein’s theory was a generalization and not a contradiction to the theory of Newton. In fact, a requirement for Einstein’s theory to be a correct theory describing nature was that it had to reduce to Newton’s theory at the energy scales which Newton was considering. This was because Newton’s theory had been experimentally tested and proven to be correct at those energy scales.
A consequence of this was that it was not necessary to know Einstein’s theory of relativity if only low-energy phenomena were being analyzed. This was because Einstein’s theory would give the same results that would be obtained from Newton’s theory at those energy scales. Recent experiments suggest that nature is described by a more general theory than Einstein’s theory. This general theory has still not been completely formulated. A requirement for this yet unknown theory is that it should reproduce the results obtained from Einstein’s theory at the energy scales at which Einstein’s theory has been tested and proven to be correct.
Science and Miracles
It must be stressed that the idea of nature being so perfect that it can be expressed in terms of complex mathematical laws is a belief, and like all other beliefs it cannot be fundamentally proven to be correct or incorrect. One of the reasons why this belief exists is that it has never been proven to be wrong and, moreover, it has led to great progress within science. However, for all unexplained phenomena this remains only a belief. This is because as long as there is no theory to explain these phenomena the belief in the existence of such a theory is only a belief. Even though this is only a belief, it is the belief of which the whole establishment of modern science and, thus, our modern civilization is based on. To contradict this belief is considered to be a blasphemy in science. Thus, miracles which break natural laws can never be accepted in science. As per definition miracles are singular events which cannot be tested and reproduced, and so they are not scientific. However, a belief in miracles is not merely against the scientific method; it is against the whole philosophy of science which is based on the belief that the universe is consistent and elegant. This is because miracles assume that all order in nature is broken at some point on earth because of the action of a human being. This can never be accepted by anyone with a scientific bent of mind.
In fact, scientifically speaking, miracles could be normal events that were misunderstood by people as supernatural events. For example, consider one of the most famous miracles in history: Jesus’ resurrection. There was no doctor to verify that he had actually died on the cross. Crucifixion was thought to be a painful way to die as it took many days for people to die on the cross. The only way to speed up the death of a person was to break his legs. Jesus was crucified for only a few hours on the cross and his legs were not broken, so it is highly unlikely that he died during the crucifixion. In fact, survival from crucifixion was normal and has been well-documented to occur for many people in the past. Now, if he was alive after the crucifixion and was rescued later on, there would be no breaking of a natural law. However, people around him could have easily misunderstood this as a miracle breaking a natural law. In fact, most miracles that have been documented historically are of this nature. Of course, it is impossible to exclude that miracles could be totally fabricated in the course of writing a book about past events. Apart from these, some frauds cheat people by performing magical tricks and claiming these to be miracles. Such types of miracles are outright frauds and most modern miracles belong to this category. It should be emphasized that there is no clash between any religion and science. The clash only occurs when literal interpretations of religions are used and compared with science.
Dr. Mir Faizal, Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Dr. Rubini Kannangara, Molecular Biology at Copenhagen University
Qiblah
PROF G R MALIK
Some people, believers as well as non-believers, fail to understand the philosophy of Qiblah, the direction facing which prayers are offered. According to the Quran, fixing a certain direction as Qiblah does not imply that God is confined in that direction:
And Allah’s is the East as well as the West; so whithersoever you turn God’s countenance is there. (2:115)
Qiblah is actually needed to satisfy some irrepressible devotional urges of man. Our passion for worship remains unfulfilled unless we feast our eyes, and shower our love, in various forms, on the object of our devotion, circumambulate around and hold and kiss the signs that point towards Him. Since God is Incomparable and nothing can represent Him, we can have a measure of satisfaction by turning in a direction appointed by Him and what better direction could be fixed for this than the K‘aba, the first place of worship built for the One, True God in known history; and built by God’s beloved servant and messenger, Abraham (AS), respected by all Semitic religions and other cultures!
Lest there be any misconception, the Quran makes it patently clear that “virtue does not consist in turning your faces towards the East and the West.” (2:173). The rest of this verse (2:177) tells us that genuine virtue lies in faith in God, belief in the Hereafter and selfless service of mankind particularly the poor, the needy and the down-trodden. Thus the ultimate aim of a believer is to realize God in his life through seeking His pleasure and serving mankind. But even for this noblest of aims a direction is needed to sharpen, chasten and harness psychic energy of the individual believer and to forge unity in the community of believers by making it revolve around a single pivot. As Ghalib rightly put it:
Hai paray sarhad-e idraak se apna masjood
Qiblah ko ahl-i nazar Qiblah-numa kahtay hain
Far away from the bounds of apprehension is the object of our prostration;
Men of discerning vision treat Qiblah merely as a device pointing to Qiblah.
Let us read
Our students need to concentrate on their syllabus, but they should spare time to visit the world of literature
It is an index of a healthy society if people are serious in acquiring knowledge and information. In the civilized societies reading habits are inculcated in the younger generation from the very beginning. In our valley things are not as encouraging on this count as the kind of emphasis that is being given to career related education leaves little space for a taste like book reading to develop. It is very sad to find out that the entire scheme of things, that we call education, revolves round a few fixed themes and doesn’t try to expand its horizons.
From the very beginning to the apex institutions of learning we make our students confine their studies to some text books and some odd notes that help them get through their exams. Our teachers and parents never take the trouble of exposing children to the world of books so that their mind becomes strong and their vision opens up to the various trends that occupy the intellectual realm of world. This is the reason that our society has remained way behind where others have reached. The intellectual tradition that has developed in the West, and to a great extent in the Indian literary and academic circles, owes its birth and development to serious reading habits. There is no doubt that our students need to concentrate on their syllabus, but apart from that they should spare some time to know about various social sciences and add to their general knowledge. This will help them grow in their mental strength and their understanding of the changing trends and themes. Since we now live in a world that is practically as small as a village, we can not afford to remain oblivious of what happens around us in the rest of the world. Every single current of thought or any socio-politico-economic event which surfaces up, anywhere in the world, affects us in one way or the other. In this kind of a world any society that has less amount of knowledge and is incapable of engaging with the intellectual challenges is bound to lag behind and suffer at a collective level. Those of us who are associated with the world of knowledge and information are under an obligation to engage the new generation in serious reading and contemplation. It is only when our young generation gives enough time to acquiring knowledge that the world will open up itself to us. We can represent ourselves and our problems. Feeble indications that the sales of books have increased in the valley may give us a reason to feel slightly happy that younger generation has finally understood the importance of books.
It is an index of a healthy society if people are serious in acquiring knowledge and information. In the civilized societies reading habits are inculcated in the younger generation from the very beginning. In our valley things are not as encouraging on this count as the kind of emphasis that is being given to career related education leaves little space for a taste like book reading to develop. It is very sad to find out that the entire scheme of things, that we call education, revolves round a few fixed themes and doesn’t try to expand its horizons.
From the very beginning to the apex institutions of learning we make our students confine their studies to some text books and some odd notes that help them get through their exams. Our teachers and parents never take the trouble of exposing children to the world of books so that their mind becomes strong and their vision opens up to the various trends that occupy the intellectual realm of world. This is the reason that our society has remained way behind where others have reached. The intellectual tradition that has developed in the West, and to a great extent in the Indian literary and academic circles, owes its birth and development to serious reading habits. There is no doubt that our students need to concentrate on their syllabus, but apart from that they should spare some time to know about various social sciences and add to their general knowledge. This will help them grow in their mental strength and their understanding of the changing trends and themes. Since we now live in a world that is practically as small as a village, we can not afford to remain oblivious of what happens around us in the rest of the world. Every single current of thought or any socio-politico-economic event which surfaces up, anywhere in the world, affects us in one way or the other. In this kind of a world any society that has less amount of knowledge and is incapable of engaging with the intellectual challenges is bound to lag behind and suffer at a collective level. Those of us who are associated with the world of knowledge and information are under an obligation to engage the new generation in serious reading and contemplation. It is only when our young generation gives enough time to acquiring knowledge that the world will open up itself to us. We can represent ourselves and our problems. Feeble indications that the sales of books have increased in the valley may give us a reason to feel slightly happy that younger generation has finally understood the importance of books.
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