Life of scientist exciting than movie-star: S Chandrasekhar

"Life as a scientist is more exciting than a short-lived movie star," senior scientist S Chandrasekhar today said as he impressed upon youngsters to become scientists.
"While youngsters are after celebrities, I strongly believe scientists can attain much more celebrity status than the cricketers or movie stars, whose status is short-lived," he said.
"With the advancement of their age, the status of the scientists get bigger, so I believe the life as a scientist is more exciting than a short-lived movie star", Chandrasekhar, who is Director of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad said here.

He was addressing the 18th Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) meet on "National Symposium in Chemistry", which concluded at Panjab University (PU) today.
The three-day event was organised by PU and Institute of Nano Science and Technology here.
Chandrasekhar stressed on the translational research so that the academic laboratory work could be translated into products, which are useful to the masses.

Noting that a scientist can get inspiration from anything and anywhere, he said, "While snake venom has inspired to discover drugs like Captopril for lowering BP (bloood pressure), marine sponges inspired discovery of drugs for cancer," he said.

He also stressed on environment protection, emphasising the need for practising green chemistry.
"If we can make chemicals without polluting the plant for human well being, that will be monumental," he said.
Calling pollution by pharma industry a myth, he said, the sector saves lives of people suffering from TB, cancer, brain disorders and many more.
"Thus the public and policy makers should encourage chemistry as the central science rather than criticising it. The natural wealth of India and big coast lines for marine chemicals is the way forward for our country," he said.