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Universe
Dark matter pulls the universe and dark energy pushes, both mysteries that endure. And the discovery that a majority of the universe is made up of stuff that makes gravity push rather than pull was a gamechanger, says Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt. The US-born Australian astronomer along with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter from the US discovered the stuff, later termed dark energy, in 1998. The three won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011. Explaining the significance of their discovery that changed the understanding of how the universe functions, Schmidt told PTI, "Dark energy is really saying (that) there is energy tied to space itself. If we didn't have dark energy, the universe would be curved and the universe wouldn't accelerate -- and that changes how cosmic objects, such as galaxies, looks. It really makes a difference," the astronomer, who was visiting Ashoka University for the Lodha Genius Programme, added. The term dark energy is intentionally similar to dark matter. Dark
India has always been a great nation contributing to the global understanding of the universe from the time of the Vedas to modern-day scientific advances, former ISRO chairman S Somanath said here on Saturday while citing ancient texts like 'Mahasalila' and 'Surya Siddhanta'. Addressing the 60th annual convocation of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, he emphasised the need for a connection between research organisations, academia and industry, which he, however, added remained a "distant dream." "On this occasion, I would like to highlight the rich and glorious knowledge tradition that India had, which has now been brought to light. From the Vedas to the modern-day scientific advances, India has always been a great nation contributing to the global understanding of the universe," said Somanath. Science and other forms of human knowledge progressed considerably in this part as the world's first source of knowledge, providing scientific insight into astronomy, geography, ...