By IANS
New Delhi : From Aryabhatta’s mathematical milestone of working out the value of pi some 1,500 years ago to India’s yet-to-be-launched moon mission – India’s major scientific developments were proudly displayed aboard the Science Express train that will visit 57 towns across the country over the next seven months.
Flagged off by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel from the Safdurjung Railway Station here Tuesday, the white-coloured train aims to kindle scientific curiosity among the Indian youth.
“Science Express will travel the length and breadth of this country to propagate scientific temper. It will propagate science among the youth of India and reach every state,” Manmohan Singh said.
The train has eight coaches and features contributions of India and Germany in the fields of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, biology, chemistry and space sciences.
Looking like a long science laboratory with its special interiors, the train is fitted with flat screens to display various scientific developments, prototypes of space missions of India and Germany, mathematical inventions, pictures and explanatory write-ups about outer space, the sun, black holes and many such matters.
“Aryabhatta worked out the value of pi 1,500 years back as 3.141 and India invented zero – the foundation of mathematics and computer language,” said an electronic plaque, which is fixed besides another one proclaiming India’s contribution to higher education through Nalanda University.
The mock-ups of Chandrayan-I, India’s yet-to-be launched moon mission, light combat aircraft, plaques on the milk revolution of India and the rare tribal language of Andaman Nicobar Islands were all on display in the air-conditioned coaches lit up by fibre optic (LED) lights.
“India’s heritage in science, metallurgy, astronomy and arts is more than 4,500 years old – evidence of which is found in our scriptures like the Vedas, artefacts at excavation sites, records of early scholars who came to visit India, the land of the golden peacock,” said a write-up in a coach displaying India’s growth in space science.
Germany’s achievement in deciphering the internal turmoil of the sun, the black holes in space, three dimensional image pictures of Mars and the impact of climate change were also on display.
“Our people and volunteers of department of science and technology will be on board throughout the country to demonstrate and explain to students and visitors about every subject on display,” Vilas Wakhare, assistant manager (R&D) of German chemical company BASF, told IANS.
The train will halt at 57 cities, including Patna, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Dimapur, Jalandhar, Howrah, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kozhikode, Mangalore and Chennai.