| Description: | [DBS seminar] Prof Milind Gajanan Watve (IISER Pune) -- Undergraduates and scientific revolutions |
| Date: | Friday, Sep 02, 2016 |
| Time: | 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. |
| Venue: | 110, Lecture Hall Complex |
| Details: | Most people think that undergraduate years are a necessary prerequisite for a research career. It is also possible to see research as a prerequisite for undergraduate education. Undergraduates can not only contribute to science in a small way, they can potentially trigger revolutions in science. We have largely failed to utilize the young minds with naïve and crazy questions for bringing in paradigm shifts. I will illustrate this principle using a commonly known disease in India called type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes looks very different if viewed from the point of view of a naïve youngster trying to learn about the disease using his curiosity and questioning mind. The current textbook theory of type 2 diabetes has survived only because students do not ask questions and teachers do not entertain them. The example will demonstrate that revolutions in science will be much easier and less painful if undergraduate questioning is encouraged and taken seriously. |
| Calendar: | Meeting Calendar (entered by abhadra) |