The year 2022 has been chosen as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development by the United Nations General Assembly. To commemorate it, the Lucknow chapter of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) organised a mini-symposium at CSIR-CDRI under the convenorship of DrSaman Habib. The guests were welcomed by CDRI director Dr D Srinivasa Reddy. In her inaugural speech, Prof. ChandrimaShaha, President-INSA highlighted the significance of the programme and said that concepts and ideas from basic research are vital to translation into applications. Prof. Shaha said that material developments have made our lives comfortable and elevated our standard of living. However, humankind has also plundered earth so brutally that we have been forced to ponder if we have really progressed.
In the scientific sessions chaired by Dr PK Seth and DrMadhuDikshit, DrVandana Prasad, Director, BirbalSahni Institute of Palaeosciences, traced the evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants) from over 230 million years and put in perspective how a continental shift from the south pole to the present location led to interesting appearances and disappearances of plant and animal species in India. Dr PK Singh from NBRI talked about his work on development of cotton which is resistant to whitefly infestation. His team cloned a new insecticidal gene from an edible fern and introduced it in cotton plants for the control of whitefly. DrSabyasachiSanyal talked of the detailed study in mice of diabetes that showed that female mice are fitter than the male counterpart during the same age group except during certain stages. Prof. Harshavardhan Wanare from IIT-Kanpur spoke on how light and its wavelength variations changed the visual and thermal colours of Earth. Prof. KS Venkatesh from IIT-Kanpur philosophically looked at the evolution of science and at some limitations of S&T as an enterprise. He said that some of these constraints are inherent and epistemological, and will therefore remain with us forever, and limit the ability of an S&T driven society for ‘endless’ progress. He said that the worst problem of all is that our political maturity as a species is still extremely low, forcing us to live in a perpetual state of social unrest, which stems largely from unequal social relations.
The symposium saw discussion on wide-ranging themes wherein Dr CM Nautiyal from INSA talked about scientific temper and the importance of nurturing and promoting it. Citing a number of his experiences, he said that effective communication of science is essential to progress. He discussed the goals of IYBSSD2022 and explained how basic science was critical for achieving them. A seasoned journalist MsKanika Gupta, shared her experiences from conflict zones, particularly Afghanistan and inferred how lack of scientific temper can be the root of the troubles of a society. Her presentation conveyed the tragedies of the people some of whom were at no fault while some were self-damaging under the false dreams sold to them. The talks were followed by presentations by 12 research scholars from national research institutes of Lucknow (CDRI, NBRI, CIMAP, IITR, and BSIP) covering the role of basic science in health, clean water and sanitation, biodiversity, innovation, and climate change.
