PERSONAL NEWS NEWS *

The death of Robert Hanbury Brown on which I have done since then has been professional career. In the radio domain, 16 January 2002 was sad news to a num- so exciting, so absorbing, or so worth- intensity interferometry meant the com- ber of worlds, within each of which he while’. In 1942, he went to Washington parison of the detected signals from two had left an indelible imprint. In World DC, to liaise with the US Navy, and different radio antennas pointed at the War II, Hanbury—as everyone knew remained there until 1947. The exper- same radio source, and the validity of the him—played a vital role in the develop- tise gained in the Allied effort to develop correlation was simply understood and ment of airborne . In the field of radar was applied at the end of the war easily demonstrated. In the optical domain, radio , the first of several new with great success to the new field of however, this correlation translated into windows that transformed our view of . Hanbury, having spent comparing the times of arrival of photons the universe over the last half century, he two years as a consulting engineer with from a given star at two different collec- was one of the pioneers. Applying ideas Watson-Watt, was among the last of the tors, and that is where the trouble started. borrowed from radio to optical astro- radar veterans to join this field. In 1949, Indignant physicists quoting from and nomy, Hanbury and his associates made Hanbury joined the Jodrell Bank Obser- brandishing sacred texts such as those by amazing and lasting contributions to our vatory, which was originally set up by Walter Heitler and Paul Dirac repeatedly knowledge and understanding of stars. In —another radar veteran— told Hanbury and his theoretical collabo- this process, he incidentally created a for the study of cosmic-ray showers. A rator, Richard Twiss, that such a scheme wholly new and important branch of 218-foot paraboloid that had been con- could not work. Such outcries were fundamental now known as quan- quelled only after laboratory experiments tum optics. Yet another world was India, and observations of with a pair of the land of Hanbury’s birth, where phy- searchlight mirrors showed the expected sicists and astronomers have lost a much correlations. esteemed and beloved friend. Unusual to If photons obey Bose statistics, there the end, he contracted no fewer than should be a correlation in their arrival three primary cancers and died peace- times at separated detectors. It is extraordi- fully in his sleep at a hospice in Ando- nary, and a tribute to the perception of ver, UK, from an aggressive lymphoma. Hanbury Brown and Twiss (sometimes Hanbury was born in 31 August 1916 thought to be three people), that an effect in Aravankadu in the Nilgiri hills of wholly consistent with theory and one southern India. Sent to England at age 8 that should have been predicted aroused to attend a preparatory school where no such dramatic reactions at first encoun- science was taught, Hanbury was all set ter—and not only from those who could to become a classics scholar at Ton- be dismissed as half-baked. I was present bridge, his next school. But his pas- at a Caltech colloquium at which Han- sion—science—was encouraged by his bury talked about it, and Richard Feyn- grandfather, Robert Hanbury Brown, man jumped up and said ‘It can’t work!’ who kept his own laboratory. In his inimitable style, Hanbury res- When a financial crisis in the family ponded, ‘Yes, I know. We were told so. precluded attendance at the University of But we built it anyway, and it did work’. Cambridge, Hanbury switched to Brigh- Late that night, Feynman phoned and ton Technical College. There he earned structed for this purpose was converted woke Hanbury up to say ‘you are right’. his B Sc degree in electrical engineering into a first-class by Han- He also wrote a letter in which he mag- in 1935 and subsequently received a bury and his colleague, Cyril Hazard, nanimously admitted his mistake and scholarship to Imperial College, London, with considerable effort. Some of the acknowledged the importance of this to pursue his Ph D. But this was not to many important discoveries made with phenomenon that, at first sight, appears be. In 1936, the rector , this instrument conflicted with the find- counterintuitive, even to quantum theo- who noticed that Hanbury was keener on ings of ’s group at Cam- rists. It is now at the heart of a whole field flying airplanes than attending lectures, bridge. The conflict established a much called quantum optics, with its own sacred yanked him out of college and sent him needed and healthy opposition to ensure texts that can be brandished as needed. I to Bawdsey Manor. This fairytale castle the proper advancement of this rapidly believe that Hanbury Brown is certainly was hidden away on the Suffolk coast, growing science. Hanbury inspired an among the omissions in physics that the where Robert Watson-Watt’s team was entire generation of aspiring radio astro- Nobel committee will never live down. developing radar in great secrecy. Of this nomers at Jodrell and elsewhere. The power of optical intensity inter- period Hanbury later wrote, ‘Nothing Hanbury is best known for his inven- ferometry is that it overcomes both the tion of the intensity interferometer to need for extreme mechanical stability increase the baseline range of radio inter- and the effects of atmospheric scintilla- ferometry. His brilliant idea of applying tion, which together are so severe that *Reprinted with permission from Physics Today, 55(7), 2002, pp. 75–76. Copyright this technique to optical astronomy un- the instrument Albert Michelson and his 2002, American Institute of Physics. predictably changed the course of his collaborator Francis Pease built in the

654 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 83, NO. 5, 10 SEPTEMBER 2002 PERSONAL NEWS

1920s at Mount Wilson could measure What was intended in 1961 to be a ble and enlivened boring administrative the diameters of only six supergiant stars. two-year sojourn in Australia turned out sessions. Some 40 years later, Australian support to be a 27-year saga, during which Hanbury had a delightful way with the enabled the building of the Narrabri Stel- Hanbury grew to love the country. He written and spoken word, and his books, lar Intensity Interferometer in New South received its highest honor, the Compa- both technical and popular, are as full Wales. With this unique instrument, nion of the Order of Australia, in 1986. of his humor as were his lectures, con- Hanbury and colleagues made the first Meanwhile, he made several visits to versations, and scintillating after-dinner measurements of the angular diameters India, another country he loved. As an speeches. Boffin (Adam Hilger, 1991), a of 32 main sequence stars and estab- honorary fellow and the first Raman brief autobiography, is recommended lished the first wholly empirical tempe- Visiting Professor of the Indian Aca- reading for anyone who would like a rature scale for hot stars, a major demy of Sciences, he spent time at the glimpse of Hanbury’s interesting, fulfill- contribution to fundamental astronomy. Raman Research Institute in Bangalore ing, and action-packed life. Hanbury initiated the next step of build- in 1974 and also toured the country, en- ing an instrument with even greater reso- thralling audiences wherever he went. In V. RADHAKRISHNAN lution after the closing of the Narrabri 1985, Hanbury presided over the 19th

Observatory; and the Sydney University general assembly of the International Stellar Interferometer (SVSI) went into Astronomical Union in Delhi. His wit and Raman Research Institute, operation in 1991. style made the public sessions memora- Bangalore 560 080, India

MEETINGS/SYMPOSIA/SEMINARS

Hands-on Training course on Molecular Markers: Tools for Chautauqua on Popper and Philosophical Perspectives for Genetic Variability Analysis Reliable Scientific Knowledge

Date: 18–31 October 2002 Date: 27 November 2002 Place: Lucknow Place: Bangalore

Contact: Kuldeep Kumar Lal This will be an assembly for education on Popper and his Canal Ring Road contribution to the definition of reliable scientific knowledge. P.O. Dilkusha Sir Karl Raimund Popper is regarded as one of the great Lucknow 226 002 philosophers of science, and arguably, the greatest philosopher Tel: (0522) 442440, 442441, 441735 of science that has ever been. Philosophy of Science is very Fax: (0522) 442403 broad in scope. It dates back to the earliest thinkers who paid E-mail: [email protected] attention to the process of acquiring reliable knowledge – the rules of inference, for example, as understood by the Stoics, and the tradition continued by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. This educational meeting will have a narrower focus – mainly National Seminar on ‘Teaching Chemistry’ on Popper’s critical rationalism. The meeting will try to exam- ine from a more practical viewpoint to what extent philosophi- Date: 14 December 2002 cal underpinnings must support our scientific investigations. Place: Kolkata Here, Popper’s vision is the most illuminating. Registration: Participation will be by invitation or by A one-day National Seminar on ‘Teaching Chemistry’ has been expression of interest. Please register for participation in the arranged with emphasis on ‘course contents’, ‘method of teach- Chautauqua. As no registration fees will be charged, parti- ing’ and ‘evaluation’. cipation will be restricted to about 25 delegates.

Contact: Dr Sanjib Ghosh Contact: Mr R. P. Thangavelu Department of Chemistry C-MMACS Presidency College Wind Tunnel Road 86/1 College Street Bangalore 560 037 Kolkata 700 073 Tel: (80) 522 3235 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (80) 522 0392 E-mail: [email protected]

Edited and published by P. Balaram and S. Ramaseshan, Current Science Association, Bangalore 560 080. Typeset by R D Typesetters, Bangalore (Ph: 3405672). Printed by Lotus Printers, Bangalore (Ph: 3209909).

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