January 1992 No. 24 Newsletter of the Indian Academy of Sciences the afternoon of 8 November 1991 on "Doing 57th Annual Science in India: Problems, Limitations and Challenges" under the chairmanship of Meeting Prof. C N R Rao . There were 7 main speakers: A Chakravorty, R Chidambaram, R Jayaraman, D Balasubramanian, R A Mashelkar, N Mukunda and R Narasimha and 8 speakers from the At the invitation of the National Chemical audience. Prof. C N R Rao led the discussion. Laboratory, Pune, the 57th Annual Meeting of He was of the view that the experimental work the Academy was held at Pune ftom 8 to 11 in both chemistry and physics was poor. November 1991. A Chakravorty spoke of the mammoth The Meeting began with the inaugural contradictions that exist. R Chidambaram while session on the morning of Friday, 8 November agreeing with C N R Rao about the poor quality at the National Chemical laboratory (NCl) of experimental phYSiCS, remarked that the Auditorium. Dr R A Mashelkar, Director, NCL velocity of Rand 0 is much lower in India than welcomed the delegates. Since the Academy elsewhere, due to bureaucratic procedures, held its last meeting in Pune in 1983, a apathy on the part of scientists in accepting 'Research Belt' had come into being in Pune, conditions as they are, the lack of adequate consisting of the Poona University, the Centre peer groups, poor interaction between scientists, for Development of Advanced Computing poor access to knowledge and information and (C-DAC), the National Informatics Centre (NIC) the difficulties in travel, particularly to attend (Western Region), the Inter-University Centre international conferences. One of the main for Astrophysics and Astronomy (lUCAA), the drawbacks was our value system and the import National Centre for Radio Astrophysics with its of equipment with not enough indigenous Giant Metre Radio Telescope (GMRT) Project, development of instruments. Another the National Chemical laboratory (NCl), the shortcoming was the lower value placed on National Institute of Virology (NIV), the Indian applied science and scientists, when compared Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), the to basic sciences. R Jayaraman pointed out how Armament Research and Development scientists in universities are looked down upon Establishment (ARDE), the Explosives Research by others and how problems in the seventies and Development laboratory (ERDL) and the and eighties are completely different. After Mechanical Engineering Research and 1980, when DST identified thrust areas in Development Organization (MERADO). All these research and after the Baroda meeting on research institutions located on Homi Bhabha Biology which marked a turning point in Road were involved in organizing the 57th research in Biological Sciences, the situation had Annual Meeting. improved considerably. He also spoke of the Prof. C N R Rao, President of the Academy disappointing lack of dedication among the spoke of the traditions established by its younger scientists and of the difficulties faced founder, Professor Raman, and of the aims of by scientists in speedy publication of papers, the Academy. He next introduced the Fellows availability of perishable and other materials, and Associates present to the audience - a time­ etc. honoured custom established by its Founder­ o Balasubramanian presented a brighter President. He then delivered the Presidential picture and said that it was far easier to work Address related to his research in the areas of in biophysics in India than elsewhere. He "Metal Clusters and Molecular Carbon Balls". quoted the example of G N Ramachandran and The first session was a Discussion Meeting in the vibrant school he built. R A Mashelkar also was more optimistic. While the growth in some of its general features. The second talk industrial research was brisk, this was not, was by K Kishore of the Indian Institute of however, synonymous with technological Science, Bangalore on "Kauzmann's paradox development. He said that industrial Rand 0 is and configurational entropies in long chain poor at present, though India is the largest molecules". He described the glass-forming producer of sugar, bicycles, fans, sewing attributes of long chain molecules (mol. wt. machines etc.; our technology is archaic 300-1000). because of protection and lack of competition. The Evening lecture on 9 November at the He spoke of motivating fresh science graduates Fergusson College Auditorium was given by to do industrial research and of accountability Dr Deepak Nayyar, Chief Economic Adviser and and how there must be a change in our Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of attitudes and healthy competition in industry. N Economic Affairs, New Delhi, on the "Crisis in Mukunda spoke of the need for a minimum and the Economy". A brief abstract of his lecture is continuous high quality work. reproduced in this issue. The speakers from the audience spoke of The first talk in the third session on Monday, the problems they face. P R Pisharoty summed 11 November under the chairmanship of Prof. up the feelings of many in the audience when E S Raja Gopal, was by M lakshmanan of he listed the essential ingredients for good Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli on the sCience as ambition, courage and hard work. "AnalytiC structure of integrable and chaotic The session came to a close with a concluding dynamical systems". He spoke of how the speech by the Chairman. concepts of soliton and chaos have A symposium on "Extragalactic Astronomy revolutionized our understanding of dynamical and Cosmology" was held in the forenoon of systems in recent times. These nonlinear Saturday, 9 November under the chairmanship dynamical systems possess a multitude of of Prof. R Cowsik. A brief report on the mathematical properties, where analysis is symposium is given in this issue. imperative to the understanding of their physical There were 1 2 lecture presentations by properties. Fellows and Associates in the afternoon of The next talk was by Y Singh, Banaras Hindu Saturday, 9 November and in the forenoon of University, Varanasi on "Behaviour of excess Monday, 11 November. electrons in a classical bath". The last talk in The first session under the chairmanship of this session was by S V Subramanyam, Indian Prof. R Kumar consisted of three talks. Institute of Science, Bangalore on "Unusual S K Ghosh of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, properties of low-dimensional systems". He Bombay spoke on the "Density description of gave examples of low-dimensional electrically many-electron systems". He showed that the conducting systems which have unusually large density functional theory not only leads to anisotropy in electrical conductivity. The studies computational economy due to its single-particle were carried out in a miniature high pressure framework, but also provides a rigorous cell in which electrical conductivity foundation and important generalizations of measurements can be made at pressures of several widely used chemical concepts like 8 GPa, temperature down to 1 K and magnetic electro negativity, hard soft acid base, valency fields up to 7 Tesla. etc. P K Chattaraj of Indian Institute of The last session under the chairmanship of Technology, Kharagpur next spoke on "Non­ Prof. S S Jha had four speakers. A K Sood, linear chemical dynamics". He described the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore spoke on quantum fluid density functional theory that he "High pressure spectroscopy of C60 and other had developed to study the ion-atom collision novel systems". The next talk was by and atom-field interaction problems in terms of Darshan Ranganathan of the Indian Institute different time-dependent properties. The last talk of Technology, Kanpur on "The design of novel of the session was by T P Radhakrishnan, chemical models for enzyme action". She University of Hyderabad, who spoke on "Spin described how the understanding of some of coupling in non-Kekule systems and organic the most vital biological operations of nature, ferromagnetism". He critically reviewed the at a molecular level, and the design of various models proposed during the last two chemical models to simulate these, have decades to achieve ferrimagnetic or provided novel concepts in synthetic organic ferromagnetic coupling of spins in organic chemistry. system, if not ferromagnetic ordering. The last two talks were by S K Brahmachari, The second session was held that afternoon Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on under the chairmanship of Dr S Varadarajan. "Structural motifs in DNA as regulatory signals" B J Cherayil of the Indian Institute of Science, and G Shanmugam, Madurai Kamaraj Bangalore spoke on "Starburst polymers" and University, Madurai on "Cell cycle regulation". Brahmachari spoke of the novel approach used by him to delineate the DNA structural elements Council for the responsible for regulation of gene expression in vivo. Shanmugam described mammalian cell cycle regulation mechanisms. Triennium The Annual Meeting came to a close with concluding remarks by Prof. S S Jha and Prof. 1992-94 H Sharat Chandra. A full day excursion to Mahabaleshwar was The outgoing Council held an election in December to constitute the Council for organized on Sunday, 10 November. The 1991 the next triennium 1992-94. The composition Business Meeting of Fellows was held at Green of the new Council is as follows: Hill Campus, Mahabaleshwar, before a visit by the delegates to Old Mahabaleshwar and Arthur R Narasimha, National Aeronautical Laboratory, Seat Point via Elphinstone Point and