“He was a king, then he was a slave
He was weak and then brave!
When he was at the top and then down pedestal
He knew that at every place he was a mere mortal!”
A great fact is that no one knows everything!
You will always know something that someone else may not know!
So if you have an idea, do not hesitate to share even if it sometimes makes no sense or goes against conventional concepts!
Not convinced!?
Well, read this story from Nexus to get convinced!
Many times you may have an idea or a suggestion but you will not say it aloud or you may hesitate. This is natural especially if you are with your peers and of course there always be someone more clever or more intelligent than you!
Remember that inventions are not done by following conventions! Innovations needs you to think out of the box which actually means that you have to think or have an idea which is not routine!
Even if your invention or discovery is different or not explained by the current concepts then just know that it simply is not your time! Have patience and you will be rewarded!
So the novel Nexus tells the story of the chemist Dan Shechtman. In April 1982, while observing through an electron microscope, Shechtman saw something that all contemporary theories in chemistry claimed simply could not exist: the atoms in a mixed sample of aluminium and manganese were crystallised in a pattern with a fivefold rotational symmetry! It was like discovering even Viruses have chlorophyll!
At the time, scientists knew of various possible symmetrical structures in solid crystals, but fivefold symmetry was considered against the very laws of nature!
Shechtman’s discovery of what came to be called quasicrystals sounded so unbelievable that it was not accepted for even a peer reviewed journal to publish! It was a big issue that he was a junior scientist with no previous major invention or reputation! He also was not working in his own laboratory but in the laboratory of someone else!
The one thing which worked for him was that his research was solid and his documentation was good, so the editors of the journal Physical Review after reviewing the evidence, eventually published Shechtman’s article in 1984.
It was like he had unleashed a bomb!
If you thought that his colleagues and boss supported him in spite of your own experiences then you are wrong!
His claims were dismissed by most of his colleagues, and he was blamed for mismanaging his experiments.
The head of his laboratory also turned on Shechtman. In a dramatic gesture, he placed a chemistry textbook on Shechtman’s desk and told him, ‘Danny, please read this book and you will understand that what you are saying cannot be.’ Shechtman boldly replied that he saw the quasicrystals in the microscope – not in the book!
During this time you must remember that every person, however great is still a mortal! In this case that ‘mortal’ was a two time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling!
Linus was of course one of the most eminent scientists of the twentieth century and he led a brutal personal attack on Shechtman.
In a conference attended by hundreds of scientists, Pauling proclaimed,
‘Danny Shechtman is talking nonsense, there are no quasicrystals, just quasi-scientists.’!
The only consolation was that it was the twentieth century and not the dark ages where he would have been imprisoned or killed. Or worse, put on a stake and burned!
He of course got a place in another lab. The evidence he presented turned out to be more convincing than the existing chemistry textbooks and the views of Linus Pauling.
Several colleagues repeated Shechtman’s experiments and replicated his findings.
A mere ten years after Shechtman saw the quasicrystals through his microscope, the International Union of Crystallography – the leading scientific association in the field – altered its definition of what a crystal is.
Chemistry textbooks were changed accordingly, and an entire new scientific field emerged – the study of quasicrystals!
There is more to come! In that extra garnish on the pudding and much to the annoyance of many self proclaimed experts who were simply ‘mortals’; In 2011, Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery!
Of course not many stories have such happy endings and many times the justice or the redemption takes time to come or may not come at all but that does not mean that you do not try!
Everyone in this world whether he or she is the CEO or even a worker, is at the end of the day a mortal and nothing else! He or she has to eat with his or her mouth only!
So next time you have an idea or you want to put something in front of your peers, do not hesitate! The best judge of your work is that man or woman in the mirror!
Like I mentioned before, new invention does not happen by following convention! Unconventional reminds me of the birthday celebrity of today Upendra!
Now sleep and if you want to say or write something, don’t wait… Just do it!
Someday is today!
Shubh ratri!
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