# E C George Sudarshan: The Man Who Loved Physics - Source: StoryWeaver (storyweaver.org.in), CC BY, Pratham Books, StoryWeaver, CC BY 4.0 - Reading level: Grade 5 - Subjects: People, Science - Topics: george, physics, nucleus, atom, called, particles - Length: 754 words, about 5 min - By: Ananya Dasgupta - Original: - Page: - Open in Sprouts: Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan made one of the greatest scientific discoveries in the 20th century. It wasn’t a machine or a device. It didn’t help make our everyday lives easier. What is this universe? Where did it come from? George’s discovery helped answer some of these very important questions. When George was a boy, he loved mathematics. Every day, he would walk miles to get to school, from his village in Kerala. His mother, Achamma, taught him how to add and subtract very large numbers. As he grew older, George discovered physics. He realized he loved it as much as maths. Maybe even a little bit more. As a young student at Madras Christian College, George met people studying zoology or botany and told them how physics was the science of everything. The love for physics grew and grew and grew. George wanted to know what the tiniest particles are. Our world is made up of tiny particles called atoms. Atoms are made of even smaller particles, neutrons, protons and electrons. George wanted to know everything about the atom and its nucleus. As a research student at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, George met the quantum physicist Paul A M Dirac. George assisted Dirac in making his lecture notes and greatly impressed him. It was also at TIFR that George met the physicist Robert Marshak, who asked George to join him at Rochester University in the United States of America, as his student. There, young George solved one of the biggest mysteries of the atom and its nucleus. George worked through the day. He worked through the night. It was lonely and George was far from home. He researched the work of many scientists. He studied many, many experiments. Until he was confident of his findings. Robert reported George’s findings at a small conference in Padua, Italy,in 1957. But very few in the science community got to know about this work. Before they could publish their work in a scientific journal, scientists Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann also came up with the same result by a different method. They published a paper and the whole world came to know of their work. George and Robert’s findings were published only two years later. For years, people did not recognize that it was George who had made the first breakthrough. However, later Feynman himself described the theory as “invented by Marshak and Sudarshan and published by Feynman and Gell-Mann.” Everyone realized George’s theory was right. They named his findings ‘vector minus axial vector’ or ‘V-A’ theory, an important step to the complete understanding of the atom and its nucleus. George Sudarshan made many more pathbreaking contributions to various fields of advanced physics like quantum optics and elementary particle physics. He was also first to put forward the idea of particles called Tachyons which can travel faster than light. Although George spent a large part of his life in the United States, he never gave up his strong ties with the world of Indian science. He set up the Centre for Theoretical Studies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. He was the Director at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai. In 1974, George was honoured with the Padma Bhushan and in 2007, with the Padma Vibhushan. Three years later, he was awarded the Dirac Medal. George was recommended for the Nobel Prize nine times. He died in 2018 at the age of 86. **What are atoms made of?** At the centre of an atom lies the nucleus. It is made up of protons and neutrons. Surrounding the nucleus is a cloud of electrons. This makes the atom not unlike a tiny solar system, with the nucleus as the sun and the electrons as planets orbiting it. **What is the ‘V-A’ theory?** The nucleus of the atom sometimes breaks down into smaller nuclei and other particles. This is called decay. This happens according to a rule called the ‘vector minus axial vector’ or ‘V-A’ theory. **What is physics?** Physics is the study of how everything in the universe behaves. People who study physics are called physicists. Some famous physicists are Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, C V Raman, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Homi Bhabha and George Sudarshan. **What can physics tell us about the universe?** Physics can tell us everything about the universe. It can tell us how the universe began and how it will end, why planets orbit the sun, how water flows in rivers, how snow is formed and why tsunamis happen. ## Picture credits - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 () - Siddhi Vartak, CC BY 4.0 ()