Simon Says
Mathures Paul caught up with BBC broadcaster and science writer Simon Singh who was in Kolkata recently
IN five billion years’ time, the sun may swallow us up. And that, according to Dr Simon Singh — BBC broadcaster and science writer who was in town recently to address students of Jadavpur University — is that! He has written critically acclaimed books like Fermat’s Last Theorem, the first book about mathematics to become a number one bestseller in the UK, The Code Book, a history of cryptography, and The Big Bang, a history of the universe.
“We have always wondered where the universe came from. When the Big Bang theory was propounded around 100 years ago, nobody believed it. The universe was formed 14 billion years ago, it exploded and the debris formed the galaxy. So, there are three questions that need answers — what is the universe, who came up with the theory, and why do we believe in it? My book is essentially the story of the Big Bang theory. It begins with the theoretical foundations laid by Albert Einstein and his General Theory of Relativity. But it was Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest from Belgium, who proposed the idea of a universe born at a single instant in the past — ‘a day without a yesterday’ — and expanding outwards from that moment. While theorists developed this hypothesis, it was up to the observational astronomers to test the theory against reality. Later, Edwin Hubble, using some of the biggest telescopes of the time, found that all galaxies were racing apart from each other. Not only that, but the further away a galaxy was, the faster it was moving,” he said.
But wasn’t gravity supposed to hold back flying objects? “Gravity should pull it back and the universe might collapse some day. Sometime back we realised that the universe was not slowing down. It’s moving faster apart due to anti-gravity or dark energy. Eventually the energy will be more distributed and the universe will cool down and simply die. Before that happens, other galaxies that are heading towards us may clash with ours.”
Would it leave us homeless? “In 100 years we have gone from no power to flying. In another 100 years we may travel to other galaxies.”
Simon Singh is better known for another title, The Code Book. Through anecdotes, he has explained coding and decoding theories down the ages. “The battle between code makers and breakers is far from over. At this point in time, code makers are leading the race. High-end encryption techniques are being prepared and software to scramble messages, like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), is becoming popular. Coding can be done in two ways — substitution and steganography. In substitution, a letter is replaced with another and the technique was popular for many hundred years. With steganography, the message is hidden. For example, if an egg is hard-boiled and special ink is used on it, the message gets absorbed in the egg without leaving any trace on the shell. It’s said that even the Kamasutra, among other arts, teaches women the art of coding. The method of coding is also used in digital photographs. Every pixel has a brightness level and this can be tweaked a bit to hide a message.”
An interesting coding technique prevalent ages ago was that of tattooing on the head. “There’s a story about a Greek commander who would send messages through the art of tattooing. The messenger’s head was shaved and tattooed with the message. Once the hair grew back, he was sent on the errand and on arriving at his destination, his head was shaved to allow the message to be read! I guess steganography would be used often by human rights groups. Some countries ban you from sending encrypted messages because it looks like you’re sending random noise. But using steganography means you can’t be arrested for something they can’t find.”
Dr Singh is a former columnist for The Independent on Sunday, has reviewed books for papers such as The New York Times and The Observer and has written feature articles for papers, including The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. He has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of Nesta, the National Museum of Science and Industry, and co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors’ Scheme. He’s planning a new book next year but as yet doesn’t have a topic in mind.
IN five billion years’ time, the sun may swallow us up. And that, according to Dr Simon Singh — BBC broadcaster and science writer who was in town recently to address students of Jadavpur University — is that! He has written critically acclaimed books like Fermat’s Last Theorem, the first book about mathematics to become a number one bestseller in the UK, The Code Book, a history of cryptography, and The Big Bang, a history of the universe.
“We have always wondered where the universe came from. When the Big Bang theory was propounded around 100 years ago, nobody believed it. The universe was formed 14 billion years ago, it exploded and the debris formed the galaxy. So, there are three questions that need answers — what is the universe, who came up with the theory, and why do we believe in it? My book is essentially the story of the Big Bang theory. It begins with the theoretical foundations laid by Albert Einstein and his General Theory of Relativity. But it was Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest from Belgium, who proposed the idea of a universe born at a single instant in the past — ‘a day without a yesterday’ — and expanding outwards from that moment. While theorists developed this hypothesis, it was up to the observational astronomers to test the theory against reality. Later, Edwin Hubble, using some of the biggest telescopes of the time, found that all galaxies were racing apart from each other. Not only that, but the further away a galaxy was, the faster it was moving,” he said.
But wasn’t gravity supposed to hold back flying objects? “Gravity should pull it back and the universe might collapse some day. Sometime back we realised that the universe was not slowing down. It’s moving faster apart due to anti-gravity or dark energy. Eventually the energy will be more distributed and the universe will cool down and simply die. Before that happens, other galaxies that are heading towards us may clash with ours.”
Would it leave us homeless? “In 100 years we have gone from no power to flying. In another 100 years we may travel to other galaxies.”
Simon Singh is better known for another title, The Code Book. Through anecdotes, he has explained coding and decoding theories down the ages. “The battle between code makers and breakers is far from over. At this point in time, code makers are leading the race. High-end encryption techniques are being prepared and software to scramble messages, like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), is becoming popular. Coding can be done in two ways — substitution and steganography. In substitution, a letter is replaced with another and the technique was popular for many hundred years. With steganography, the message is hidden. For example, if an egg is hard-boiled and special ink is used on it, the message gets absorbed in the egg without leaving any trace on the shell. It’s said that even the Kamasutra, among other arts, teaches women the art of coding. The method of coding is also used in digital photographs. Every pixel has a brightness level and this can be tweaked a bit to hide a message.”
An interesting coding technique prevalent ages ago was that of tattooing on the head. “There’s a story about a Greek commander who would send messages through the art of tattooing. The messenger’s head was shaved and tattooed with the message. Once the hair grew back, he was sent on the errand and on arriving at his destination, his head was shaved to allow the message to be read! I guess steganography would be used often by human rights groups. Some countries ban you from sending encrypted messages because it looks like you’re sending random noise. But using steganography means you can’t be arrested for something they can’t find.”
Dr Singh is a former columnist for The Independent on Sunday, has reviewed books for papers such as The New York Times and The Observer and has written feature articles for papers, including The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. He has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of Nesta, the National Museum of Science and Industry, and co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors’ Scheme. He’s planning a new book next year but as yet doesn’t have a topic in mind.
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