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In this talk, we will explore a few inter-related ideas about doing science and its translation in technology based on some impersonal lessons from my personal voyages in nanoscience and nature inspired technologies: (A) The power of lateral thinking or scientific creativity in solving scientific problems (do NOT follow the leader!). (B) Putting the fun back in science (it is not about the cracking the exams! . (C) Translating scientific ideas/research to tangible technology for the societal needs. The talk will be at a level accessible to a non-specialist, emphasizing the central role of ideas and scientific common sense even in the cutting-edge science, rather than an exclusive reliance on expensive state-of-art infrastructure alone. Examples will be from some of our work on micro/nano fabrication based the self-assembly and self-organization in soft materials based on control of scale instabilities in small systems. I will illustrate the basic principles by examples from directed dewetting of thin (5 nm-100 nm) polymer liquid films, elastic contact instability of soft solid films, electric field modulation of interfaces, directed electrospinning and diffraction patterned induced self-organization. |