OUTSIDE LABORATORIES

Some of the most elite research institutions in the country are engaged in explaining what they do to school children and the public.

- Pritha Roy Choudhury

Rakesh Mandal has always been close to rivers. Four major rivers flow through his home district, Nadia, in West Bengal. Mandal loves watching the Ganga flow, the sky above it and the moon and stars. Every once in a while, he would see a wave that held its shape and form and was unchanged by collisions with other waves. He found them unremarkable.

“ We always saw waves, but never knew it is called soliton or solitary waves and that it happens due to the attraction of the moon,” said Mandal.

A soliton or solitary wave travels at a constant velocity without losing its shape and flattening out. Mandal, in Class 7 at Goragachha Madhyamik Shikshakendra, Nadia, learnt this through outreach programmes organised by Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata. He understands the Ganga better now.

The IISERs were established to be premier institutions for undergraduate teaching and research in the basic sciences. Scientific research is often opaque to the public. But some of the most elite research institutions in the country are actively engaged in explaining what they do – or, at least, the basics of it – to school children and the public at large. The programmes are meant to build scientific temper and also to draw children to the sciences.