The Hindu Business Line : Unravelling the mysteries of science

Meet Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a science conspiracy buster and scientist-communicator, whose passion to make the most difficult of science easy to understand is taking him on a mission to several countries.

In India recently to popularise science, on behalf of the Australian Government, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, said: “I enjoy answering science questions to people and help make their lives better.”

For example, he says, early to bed and early to rise, indeed is definitely not the best adage to be used to your teenage kid.

Late nights

Don’t parents of teenage kids feel pushed to their wits end in understanding their late nights and tough wake up calls in the mornings?

All your doubts about their disinterest in studies, fear of teachers or exams et al are ill- founded. They are innocent of all these. It is their biological clock that is at work, says Karl, who is with the University of Sydney, Australia.

As children grow up they tend not to sleep early and once asleep, the body requires a good 10 hours of sleep. So next time, don’t lose your cool early morning, but try to understand this scientific fact, he advises.

Lie detectors, a myth

Lie detectors are a myth, he says springing a surprise on you. They often, in fact, end up catching the innocent. They don’t work and are a cover up for the Government, he feels.

The lie detector doesn’t actually detect lies - it measures stress, but it is easily fooled. The instrument measures changes in heart rate, breathing etc. Hardened criminals are good at beating the instrument as they don’t sweat nor will their heart race, but on the contrary, an innocent chappie could show these symptoms during interrogation, he explains.

A Swede by origin, Kruszelnicki has degrees in Physics and Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine and Surgery from Australia and US. He has authored 26 books, including the latest ‘Please Explain’, where he reaches out to the common persons, with simple, witty and story based explanations of science.

As a hobby to bust science mysteries or conspiracies, he has delved into the popular ones like the Bermuda triangle (Where planes vanished forever), that man did not land on the moon, the CIA made AIDS etc.,

His formula for effective communication of science or any new knowledge is straight forward. “My technique is as old as the hills. I use parables, tell stories, which people can talk at the dinner table or taverns. The stories should interest the average person on the street. I remove all the boring stuff and package the exciting ones.

How can we get youngsters, especially in countries like India back to science, especially in the face of the lure of IT?

Says Dr Karl, you have to invest in education, especially to ensure that it brings out a lot of good teachers. In school, you just require one bad teacher to take away students from science. However, it is a paradox that in most poor nations teachers are respected, but paid less. In the West, except the Scandinavian countries, teachers are not paid high.

“I feel education is the biggest return on investment any country can make. For example, in Australia 16 per cent of the people are university graduates and they contribute 32 per cent of the total tax collected. Therefore, higher the education, better the living conditions in the country.

In India, half of the country cannot make it wealthy, because of lack of education. The problem is compounded with women facing the brunt of the neglect. Dr Karl suggest that education system should be like the Military — highly disciplined and free.

Is your son also into science? No, he has taken to Econometrics. Why not science? Because, he had a bad teacher.

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