Narlikar's life in science: A scientist for the people

Jayant Vishnu Narlikar passed away in the early hours of May 20, following a brief illness.

- Ajit Kembhavi

Jayant Vishnu Narlikar passed away in the early hours of May 20, following a brief illness. He was an internationally known astrophysicist and cosmologist, but he was also a great enabler. He made it possible for hundreds of aspiring young persons to succeed as scientists, and at the same time informed and inspired the general public across the country with his talks, books, and tales, in English, Marathi, and Hindi.

Narlikar first rose to fame as a student of Fred Hoyle at the University of Cambridge in England. With Hoyle, he worked in the 1960s on a new theory of gravity and the Steady State theory of the universe. These profound ideas received a great deal of attention, and the young Narlikar quickly became well-known in the rarified astronomical circles in the UK. He received many recognitions and awards, and a Padma Bhushan at the young age of 26.

Hoyle and Narlikar's ideas were interesting but controversial, and soon they appeared to clash with observations emerging from new radio telescopes, and the discovery of microwave radiation that was considered a remnant of a very hot primordial phase of the universe. Such a phase was not allowed by the Steady State theory.