India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a gift to a remote place at our Theni District. We can spend 1500 Cr or more on infrastructure, and build what, one highway or railway. This development will build generations of knowledge, generations for knowledge. Edison, Einstein, we cannot categorize research that way. What Edison did was important. But what Einstein did is invaluable. It is still getting understood, Einsteins work spawned generations of scientists, several branches of science. But rest assured, this is an investment in the education sector in India, it will enhance the life of people, it will foster innovation and improvement. We will look back at this the way we look back the criticism and opposition at beginning of ISRO, the way we look at IITs., IIMs., IISc., today. We got the great Mullaperiyar Dam by the grace of Major Pennycquick even though the British Government did not provide enough money and the local well to do Jamidars also not supported financially to complete the dam, Pennycuick raised funds by selling his wifes jewelry to continue the work. Our fore, fore father contributed a good sum and in turn got a gift of Check dam at Palani Chetti Patti, near Theni. In Madurai, Major Pennycuicks statue has been installed at the state PWD office and his photographs are found adorning walls in people’s homes and shops. In 2002, his great grandson was honoured in Madurai, a function that was attended by thousands of people. The Periyar project, as it was then known, was widely considered well into the 20th Century as one of the most extraordinary feats of engineering ever performed by man. A large amount of manual labour was involved and worker mortality from malaria was high. It was claimed that had it not been for the medicinal effects of the native spirit called arrack, the dam might never have been finished. Now the situation, atmosphere, politics, infrastructure, scientific & technical etc. are different. The Central Government is well supports and the Scientists are very eager to do work, so we will support to the persons involved in this project, with real spirit (not Arrack) and joint hands to uplift this to internationally well known area. At Pottipuram, no one knows much about the INO and the underground laboratory. For the people of this sleepy village, the word neutrino could well be from a different world. A question about the underground lab evokes clueless glances. They only know that a factory being built in the hills by the people from Chennai. But close to the project site, one could see a lot of activity. Lorries run in with cement and steel pipes. A boundary wall covering the site is finished and so is the work for supplying water. Construction of approach roads is going on. There has not been much interaction between the people working on the site and the villagers. Identifying a site for the underground observatory was one of the first challenges faced by the INO team. The south Indian mountains became the preferred choice because they are made of dense rock. The Bodinayakanur West Hills near Pottipuram are made of charnockite ( hardest known variety of rock) suitable for an underground laboratory with a large magnetised iron Weighing 50,000,000 Kg, calorimeter (ICAL) detector will be the worlds most massive detector. The ecological and environmental costs of setting up the lab in Pottipuram are significantly lower than other suitable places in India. Prof. Mondal and his team have been running an outreach campaign to spread awareness about the project in educational institutions across the country and among other stakeholders. Despite the outreach efforts, doubts hang around. There are allegations that neutrino-gazing is just a cover story for setting up a storehouse for radioactive wastes from nuclear reactors. There are even allegations about radiation leaks and weaponisation of neutrinos. V.T. Padmanabhan, an environmental activist, and Joseph Makkolil, a scientist at the Cochin University of Science and Technology, say the construction for the underground lab could possibly cause earthquakes and affect the aquifers that feed three major river systems, the Periyar, the Vaigai and the Vaippar. Now with so many sophisticated machines and technology the underground lab and tunnel construction without environmental impact or rocking is so easy just like rat borrows. If we employ our granite mining contractors, they will easily cut the hard rock without any impact by getting double money for work charges as well as by selling the stone. There are also allegations that the project is part of the India-US nuclear deal. At least some of these allegations have found support from V.S. Achuthanandan, former chief minister of Kerala, who says the setting up of the INO was a highly guarded secret and it seemed to be a project to facilitate an American agenda. The neutrino rays will be fired from [Fermilab in] Chicago ... The secrecy is intriguing, he says. In our country even the top politicians play without knowing or searching the reality instead of supporting the project for future development. Prof. Mondal says that he had met Achuthanandan and explained to him the salient features of the project, but there is no reason to believe that the veteran communist leader has changed his views. Mondal and his colleagues say the project has been under discussion for several years before the nuclear deal was signed. In fact, a working group was constituted in 2000 to look at the possibility of setting up the INO at a workshop on high energy physics, held at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai. All relevant environmental tests and geotechnical analyses have been completed and clearances obtained. Moreover, in the first phase, the INO is looking exclusively at atmospheric neutrinos. KNOW ABOUT THE PROJECT: Neutrinos are neutral subatomic particles belonging to the lepton family, of which the electrons are the most famous. They pass through almost all matter with which they interact rarely and feebly. Studying neutrinos could help scientists zero in on the correct theory beyond the standard model and explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The INO aims at setting up an underground laboratory with a magnetised iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector to study the properties of naturally produced neutrinos in the earths atmosphere. A mega-science project under the 12th Five-Year Plan, the project is jointly funded by the department of atomic energy and the department of science and technology. The Union cabinet gave its final approval for the project on 24th December 2014. Did you know? * Neutrinos could revolutionise the global communication network. From a friendly chat on your mobile to a crucial message to initiate a financial transaction, it can speed up communication beyond imagination. * It could open up a way to communicate to submarines and space ships. * It could be a powerful tool to prevent nuclear proliferation as neutrino detectors can pick up all nuclear activity on earth. * It could be used in petroleum exploration. IRON CALORIMETER- Weighing 50,000 tonnes, ICAL will be the worlds most massive detector. About 30,000 active glass-based detectors called RPCs will be sandwiched between layers of iron, and detect charged particles such as muons produced in the rare interactions of neutrinos with the iron. As many as 3.7 million channels of electronics will carry signals from these RPCs to the main computer. Scientists believe that it was some asymmetry in favour of matter that allowed it to survive and they hope neutrinos—the second most abundant particles in the universe after photons—may offer a clue to this puzzle. They postulate that in neutrinos, there is a difference in the behaviour of matter and antimatter, which could help explain the preponderance of matter in the universe. Neutrinos were produced during the creation of the universe. The sun produces a trillion trillion trillion (1,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000) neutrinos every second. Trillions of them pass through our bodies every day. Apart from stars like the sun, they are produced by the collision of cosmic particles in the earths atmosphere and by nuclear reactors, too. Their existence was first predicted in 1930 by the maverick Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who bet a case of champagne that no one would ever detect them because they interact so weakly with matter. Twenty-six years later, two Americans, Frederick Reines and Clide Cowan, experimentally proved their presence and sent Pauli a telegram. We are happy to inform you that we have definitely detected neutrinos, wrote the duo. Pauli duly sent them a case of champagne. Reines, however, said they never got to taste it as it was finished by theoreticians in their lab. Six decades later, our knowledge of neutrinos remains elementary. In September 2011, the world stared in disbelief when a team of scientists said they found neutrinos could travel faster than light. Their experiment at the Grand Sasso National Laboratory in Italy was tracking neutrinos to quantify how often they changed types (flavour, in scientific terms: there are three types, known as electron, muon and tau neutrinos), by a process called oscillation. The experiment observed that the neutrinos covered the 730km between CERN, near Geneva, to the Grand Sasso lab, 60 billionth of a second quicker than light. The discovery would have been a challenge to Einsteins theory of relativity and centuries of conventional wisdom in physics. However, months later, a series of repeat experiments confirmed Einstein to be right and that a faulty mechanical connection was possibly behind the unusual initial result. It cost two leading scientists their jobs and made the scientific community all the more doubtful about dealing with neutrinos. What, however, makes the study of neutrinos interesting is that they hate rules, or at least the rules of the standard model of physics. The standard model, for instance, postulates that neutrinos do not have mass. This means they travel at the speed of light and are not subject to the flow of time. But scientists have shown that neutrinos change flavours. Oscillation is proof that they cannot travel at the speed of light and, therefore, have mass. Neutrino oscillations are the first known particle interactions that point towards physics beyond the standard model. Knowing more about them could revolutionise the way we study physics, says Naba Mondal, a professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai (TIFR), who leads a team of Indian scientists doing research on neutrinos. India has joined a select group of nations that study the various properties of neutrinos with the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), a mega-science project under the 12th Five-Year Plan. The main component of the project is an underground detector lab, which is coming up at Pottipuram village in Theni district of Tamil Nadu. The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its formal approval for the INO on December 24. The approval is expected to speed up the project and help it stick to its schedule of showing initial results by 2019. Prof. Mondal says by setting up the INO, India is taking up its rightful position in neutrino research. Indian scientists started experimental observation of neutrino interactions at the Kolar gold mines in Karnataka way back in the 1950s. The 2,700m-deep mine gave scientists an excellent opportunity to study neutrinos. The experiment, however, had to be shut down in 1992 after the gold reserves were exhausted. Watching the neutrinos was not a sustainable enterprise back then. The INO hopes to take off from what was left behind at Kolar, nearly 25 years later, with a proposed investment of Rs. 1, 500 crore. Its initial focus will be on atmospheric neutrinos. The heart of the project is an underground laboratory with a large magnetised iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector. When completed, it will be the worlds most massive magnetised detector with 50,000,000 Kg. of iron plates separated by resistive plate chambers. The ICAL, which will detect the neutrinos, will be placed inside an underground cave, accessible through a horizontal tunnel, which will be 1,900m long. The detector requires a rock cover of 1,000m or more in all directions since the atmospheric neutrinos are seen in the company of a huge flux of cosmic waves, and the rock cover will help filter those cosmic waves out. The INO scientific management board is headed by the director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, while the project management board is chaired by the director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Sekhar Basu, director of BARC, says he expects the INO to complement several other neutrino experiments going on in different countries. Not many detectors, however, are studying atmospheric neutrinos at present. If we succeed, we could lead other countries of the world, he says. China, could, however, steals a march over India. It has started work on a neutrino observatory in the Jiangmen province, with goals similar to that of the INO. With the cabinet giving its approval for the project, the INO should ensure that it does not lose its first-mover advantage in studying atmospheric neutrinos, says Jaiby Joseph, a nuclear physicist, who is part of the INO team. Such support from the government is crucial in exploring the unlimited potential of neutrino research. Neutrinos may have a role to play in oil and gas exploration as well as in detecting nuclear reactions. Nuclear reactors produce neutrinos, which cannot be hidden by any shield. A network of neutrino detectors will be able to monitor all nuclear activity on earth, says Amol Dighe, an INO collaborator, who teaches theoretical physics at TIFR. In the communication sector, for instance, neutrinos offer countless possibilities. If we have to send a signal to the other side of the earth today, it has to go around the earth (using satellites or ionosphere). But a signal sent using neutrinos can go directly through the earth in a straight line and so it reaches faster. Although this is speculative, neutrinos can improve the speed of communication, says Dighe. In 2012, a team of American researchers at Fermilab in Chicago sent a message via neutrinos through 240 metres of hard rock. The message, which simply read neutrino, was sent using a beam of neutrinos. This application could revolutionise the way we communicate with remote targets like submarines and even the functioning of stock markets. Forbes magazine, for instance, estimates that traders using neutrino-based communication will get a 44 millisecond advantage for a London-Sydney transaction, which is a lot of time in high-velocity trading. Other than the commercial and technological applications, the INO should be seen as an attempt to promote the development of basic science in India, says Mustansir Barma, former director of TIFR. Vivek Datar, who heads the nuclear physics division at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), agrees. He says no country has achieved the developed nation tag without a sizeable investment in basic sciences. Cutting-edge science research also involves technology development, which may not exist or may not even be foreseen. This is true of all experiments, including the INO. Some student might be inspired to take up an experiment at the INO and make a path-breaking discovery, says Datar. The INO has started a graduate training programme to train the young science talent of India in experimental and theoretical aspects of neutrino physics and to create a talent pool for such large projects. A number of universities and scientific institutions have joined hands in the collaboration to make the project a success. Prof. Mondal says while the theory group in the Indian basic science field is strong, experimentalists are few. The absence of adequate facility is the key reason behind this. We hope the INO to give an opening to the young science talents, he says. It will also be an opportunity to introduce the industrial sector, including the private players, into the world of basic science. Far away from such mundane fights on earth, there could be yet another potential application for the neutrinos. It has been proved that neutrinos can be encoded with messages. As they could travel to places beyond billions of light years without undergoing any change that could well be the way for us earthlings to send out a message to the aliens. Science has not yet reached there. The INO could well be the beginning. Participating Institutes: Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) spelling out the operational aspects of the project and the mode of utilisation of available funds was signed by seven primary project partners: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata,Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, Harish Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad and Institute of Physics (IOP), Bhubaneswar.[1] Thirteen other project participants include: Aligarh University, Aligarh, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Calcutta University (CU), Kolkata, Delhi University (DU), Delhi, University of Hawaii (UHW), Hawaii, Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), Shimla, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB), Mumbai, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, North Bengal University(NBU), Siliguri, Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Tamil Nadu and Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim. ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Contact: R. THIAGARAJAN, Retd. Principal Scientist, CMFRI, ICAR. Kajanapara Homestay Rajakad Road, KAJANAPARA – 685 619 Rajakumari Village, Udumbanchola Taluk, Idukki Dist., Kerala, India. ------------------------------------------------------ 114 & 115, Subban Street, THENI - 625 531 Theni Dist., Tamilnadu, India. --------------------------------------------------------------- Mobile: +91 9539225838 +91 9789541536 E-mail: thiagarajan12345@yahoo thiagarajan1541943@gmail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:34:08 +0000