India spends over $2.5bn on science and technology by participating and contributing towards the so called Mega Projects on the planet. Additionally we produce 5000 science doctorates per year, a vast resource. This would indeed imply a terra firma for harvesting rich rewards. Reminding ourselves that where there is basic science there is industrial growth and where there is industrial growth there is basic science, let's look deeper.
What is Mega Science and what are Mega Projects
In the early days Mega Science was defined as "big money, big machines" and was used to refer mainly to unique experimental apparatus like particle accelerators, ground or space telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope, and Space Exploration (ESA and ISS). However this definition has evolved since and now applies to complex research where not only very large sums of money, necessitating partnerships between different countries, are a requirement but also large teams of competent researchers, thus needing cross-border co-operations between countries and participating institutes often over long periods of time. Consequently an efficient technical coordination and streamlined resource management becomes mandatory over the project duration. The evolution of cross disciplinary competence is a natural outcome throughout the life of such a Mega Project.
Some examples of such research programs are found in studies of the Human Genome, Oceanographic studies, Weather Forecasting and Biodiversity. International facilities as those for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), International Thermo Nuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER), and Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) amongst others house Mega Science and Mega Projects. In these large international collaborations India is well represented. Her role in the local Large Hadron Collider experimental program at CERN, showed the entire world that we can participate in giant endeavours spanning the globe and have the technological wherewithal in both hardware and software technologies. Nonetheless no single country can keep its scientific and technological progress at par with international standards without the assistance of other countries.
As Betrand Russel once said: "almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to the progress in science". This desire to extend our knowledge and go beyond the present limits is part of our heritage and cultural life. Benefits follow naturally.
A Mega Project provides opportunities and platforms to work together facilitating first hand experiencing of work ethic and scientific and technological developments in other countries. By allowing access to sophisticated research facilities, it permits an interaction between colleagues at all levels thus filling the lacuna of know-how and knowledge resulting in an accelerated pace of development.
Coming to the point of education and outreach, nothing can beat the 'Black Hole' phenomena that suddenly glamorized particle physics all over the world, particularly in India. This is one example where a Mega science project caught the imagination (literally - remember the imaginary end of the world on Sept 10th 2008) and popularized science in the country. Little known CERN Laboratory in Geneva became the buzzword for all of September 2008 and thereafter. Several Institutes, students and teaching staff from remote corners of the country became interested to forge partnerships, sending interns and becoming part of the phenomena. As a very miniscule part of all this I had the proud privilege of hosting 11 Indian students for the very first time this summer at CERN. These students from the field of engineering were working as interns in various technological fields and have created a proud impact both at CERN, and in the country.
We absolutely need to continue and take these partnerships to another dimension namely bringing the large science into each classroom and into the common man's life.
What are commercial benefits from Mega Science projects?
As an incubator for invention and for the development of new products, services, ideas and organizations, cross-disciplinary frontier research results in ambitious initiatives. Did anyone predict the colossal impact the World Wide Web, developed at CERN for sharing scientific data among collaborators? To propose and defend a bold idea is only possible within a framework of likeminded competent people which is provided by a Mega Project.
Some of direct spin offs can be seen for example in medicine: CCD imagers designed for the Hubble Space Telescope now guide breast biopsy procedures reducing surgery costs by 75%. Adaptive optics from advance Telescopes help map the eye retina and are leading to improved surgery and corrective lenses. PET (Positron Emission Tomography) is a very important technique for localizing and studying certain types of cancer by using antimatter. Detectors developed at CERN replace film with digital detectors and digital X-rays allow radiologists to gather high-quality image and expose patient to much lower doses of X-rays. Mammograms are low-dose X-rays for the detection of breast cancer and around 9000 of the 17000 accelerators operating in the world today are used for medicine and therapy. The World Wide Web provides seamless access to information that is stored in many millions of different geographical locations. The Grid is an infrastructure that provides seamless access to computing power and data storage capacity distributed over the globe. The weather Grid system comprises thousands of interlinked computers helping to process complex weather data to improve forecasting. Distributed computing allows remotely located PCs work on small sections of huge amounts of data. Money and human lives can and are being saved using accurate weather forecasting. The list of spin-offs is endless.
In a nutshell, significant returns on financial investments are made in Mega Projects. Financial multipliers in the order of 2.7 for ESA and 3.7 for CERN clearly indicate that money invested in mega science generates two to four fold returns for the investors and industry at large.
International collaborations at CERN for example, have been very successful in technology transfer, where research developments have led to applications in other fields. A pioneering study carried out at CERN into the effect of the experience that technological industrial partners gain through working in the arena of Mega Science revealed variety of outcomes which included technological learning, the development of new products and markets, and impact on the firm's organization. Together, these findings implied ways in which CERN - and by implication other Mega Science Centers and Projects - could further boost technology transfer into spill-over benefits for industrial knowledge and enhance their contribution to industrial R&D and innovation. Important signs of development of new businesses, products and services, and increased internationalization of sales and marketing operations (38% new products and 60% new customers) have resulted after the international exposure and direct contractual relationship.
Urgent progress is needed in combining international networking and critical mass, stimulating reform of national laboratories, in putting together science and research, advanced academic and technical training, engineering and industry, in joining successfully the efforts and investments of national research agencies, laboratories and universities, in closing the gap between students and professionals at the most demanding international level. By giving priority to science, we look forward to celebrating and pushing technical ingenuity well beyond its limits, building a monument of human civilization and to the power of knowledge - called India! After all 'imagination is more important than knowledge' - Einstein!
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