Date:13/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/13/stories/2007011303960500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Unprecendented change in the last 50 years'

Staff Reporter

Martin Rees delivers Science and Technology Lecture

EMINENT: President of the Royal Society, London, Martin Rees (right) and Chairman of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister C.N.R. Rao at a lecture in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Bangalore: "In just a tiny sliver of the Earth's history — within the last 50 years — little more than one hundredth of a millionth of the Earth's age, the planet has seen unprecedented change. There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been for at least half a million years — perhaps, even the last 20 million years. And the planet became an intense emitter of radio waves from television, cellphone, and radar transmissions."

These words of warning came from Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, and President of the Royal Society, London, who delivered the 12th Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Lecture here on Friday. The lecture was organised in collaboration with Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and Indian Institute of Science.

Lord Rees, the author of the book, "Our Final Century," in which he has said he thinks "The odds are no better than 50/50 that our present civilisation will survive to the end of the present century," spoke of the ethical responsibilities of scientists.

"Human actions are ravaging the earth — we are destroying the book of life even before we have read it. Scientists surely have a special responsibility. It is their ideas that form the basis of new technology. They should not be indifferent to the fruits of their ideas," he said. On the enduring legacy of Albert Einstein, he said that 21st century physics rests on Einstein's theory of general relativity, which forms the basis of understanding of cosmology, gravity and black holes.

Congress president and chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation Sonia Gandhi, who could not attend, said , "Few are better qualified than Lord Rees to tell us about the choices which we face and of the role which science and scientists might play in helping us to make the right ones."