Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | June 21, 2015Professor Paul Dirac died in Florida, US, in October 1984 at the age of 84. Recipient of the Nobel Prize and many other awards, he was considered- after Newton and Einstein- the greatest scientist of modern times. He is known mainly for his development of quantum mechanical theory- in effect the physics of the smallest part of the atom- and his effective prediction of anti-matter before it had been experimentally discovered. His "anti-matter" and "anti-universe" became the leading physical ideas for explaining the character and contents of the contemporary universe, its origin and history. J.G. Crowther's obituary to Dirac in Guardian (4 November 1984) was fittingly given the headline "Prophet of the anti-universe".Dirac's discovery of the first anti-particle, known as a positron, revolutionised the world of nuclear physics. Students were naturally interested to know how he arrived at this world-shaking discovery. His answer often proved somewhat disconcerting. "When people asked him how he got his startling ideas about the nature of sub-atomic matter, Crowther writes, "He would patiently explain that he did so by lying on his study floor with his feet up so that the blood ran to his head." [Highlight1] Dirac's answer might appear tongue-in-cheek, but in fact what he said was quite true. Great intellectual feats can only be accomplished by letting all the blood of one's body run to one's head- by channelling all one's energy into the intellectual pursuit one had undertaken.Few people actually do this. They rather tend to diversify their efforts. Their failure to concentrate on a single goal renders all their efforts incomplete and ineffective. Every worthwhile task demands all the strength that an individual can muster. The only way to be successful in one's work is to give it all one has.
Related Articles
Article
People often point out that the world is beset by numerous problems such as economic debt, oppression, genocide, inequality, lack of opportunities, and poverty and that these problems cannot and should not be passively…
Article
Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist who was deeply moved by the trials and tribulations of his people, gave a concrete shape in his stories of their unenviable existence. He inevitably incurred the…
Article
Waking up in the morning to the noisy chirrup of the birds, a man noticed a broken egg lying on the ground. It had obviously fallen from a nest built by sparrows just under the ceiling of his modest dwelling. Wearily he…
Article
The American space shuttle, Challenger, built at a cost of one billion dollars, was launched into space on January 28, 1986. But within one minute after its lift-off, it exploded violently, reducing itself and its…
Article
Mr. Ram Ratan Kapila ran a refrigerator and air-conditioner business by the name of Kapsons, with its offices at Asif Ali Road in New Delhi. Requiring a captivating name for his firm, he advertised for one in the…
Article
The Speaking Tree Blog | January 01, 2024
According to the law of nature laid down in the Quran in the chapter Al-Baqarah (The Heifer), ‘minority’ and ‘majority’ are relative terms. It is not quantity that matters but…