Society, science & technology

This is an unusual book because of the subject matter it tackles. Pankaj Sekhsaria’s  Nanoscale  is based on his research in the relatively new field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), which looks at the association and interdependence of society, science and technological systems. According to Harvard University, STS came into its own as a formal academic field in the inter-war period and the early days of the Cold War, though one would assume that it would have been a matter of interest informally even earlier. The book focuses on how society influences or influenced work at four laboratories in India working on projects in the areas of nano-science and technology (A nano-meter is one billionth of a meter and to understand how small that is consider the fact that a virus is at least 100 nano-meters in size while the diameter of the human hair is around 80,000 nano-meters). 

Mr Sekhsaria looks closely at four cases — the indigenous scanning tunnelling microscopes (STMs) built by Professor (now retired) C V Dharmadhikari and his students in the physics department at the University of Pune, using commonly available as well as discarded items; the Centre of Nanobioscience in Pune, where nano-science and Ayurveda research is being carried out by a group of researchers from different disciplines; the highly efficient and and inexpensive water purification process using nanosilver embedded in ceramic coatings developed by the International Advanced Research Centre of Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI, Hyderabad) ; and finally, the treatment of retinal cancer (retinoblastoma) in children at Hyderabad’s LV Prasad Eye Institute. 

Each case raises a number of questions about society and its responses and also looks at how society influences science and technology. The stories do not always have a happy ending. In fact, three of the four cases do not end well, while the fourth can be called a work in progress. 

Nanoscale: Society’s Deep Impact on Science, Technology and Innovation in India  

Author: Pankaj Sekhsaria Publisher: Authors UpFront

Pages: 182

Price: Rs 495

 

Along the way, Mr Sekhsaria asks some sharp questions about conventional wisdom and also presents interesting insights. Each example has multiple lessons both for sociologists as well as scientists and technologies. He also points out that, sometimes, the assumption that not enough money is being earmarked for scientific research in India is not true — there is quite a lot of funding that has been allocated for nano-science and technology research, though the results may not always be visible to the average person. 

The first story of Professor Dharmadhikari and his STMs points to how Jugaad plays a role in even high tech research. The first STM, which improved the way of observing things at the molecular level, was built in IBM laboratories in Geneva in 1981 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. They got a Nobel for their efforts in 1986. By the mid-1980s, the professor in Pune University had also got deeply interested in STMs. He had started looking at how these highly advanced instruments could be built in India and at a lower cost given that university physics departments do not have unlimited resources. With a group of research students, he first built one, and then several others using all sorts of common available as well as discarded materials, including shaving razor blades, an empty refrigerator shell and the inflated tube of an automobile tyre. 

Dr Dharmadhikari would be one of the pioneers in scanning tunnelling microscopy in the world, not just in India, having been fascinated by the subject from the time he attended a workshop on Surface Science in Berlin in 1986, the same year Binnig and Rohrer were jointly awarded the Nobel prize for their efforts (they shared it with Ernst Ruska, whose work on electron optics and the building of the first electron microscope got him the other half of the Nobel prize that year). 

Despite his enormous contribution though, Dr Dharmadhikari possibly never got the kind of recognition he should have. He was highly regarded among a set of physical scientists in India and abroad but his work did not lead to commercialisation of the instruments he built. In fact, the fate of his prized instruments now that he has retired remains an open question. Will his former department consider them worth displaying and using — or get rid of them to make space for something new? The Dharmadhikari case also leads Mr Sekhsaria to question the conventional thinking and attitudes towards jugaad. 

Each case raises its own uncomfortable questions. His second case about researchers from different disciplines at the Centre of Nanobioscience in Pune working on Ayurveda looks at, among other issues, whether the scientific rigour that was a hallmark of the system in ancient times has been lost along the way, leading to a loss of credibility as well. The water purification candle leads him to examine why it was a commercial failure despite being more affordable and efficient than some of its more successful rivals. The most uncomfortable questions are raised in the case of treatment of retinoblastoma. 

This is a slim book but it requires your full engagement to understand the questions and nuances raised by each example. It could have done with a second round of proof reading. I doubt whether it will be a popular best seller — but it is extremely important and interesting for anyone interested in the development of science and technology simply because of the subject it tackles.