this is the story of 1930s when India
was under the colonial rule of the
British Empire just a few years ago sir
CV Raman had brought the first Nobel
Prize in Physics to the country in this
uncertain time when India was suffering
there was one student who was dreaming
of bringing the second Nobel to his
country and he was none other than
Raman's
own nephew Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Chandra completed his bachelor's in
physics from University of Madras and to
pursue his master's he went to the
scientific powerhouse of the day Trinity
College Cambridge while on the ship to
England chandra worked on the formation
of white dwarf stars he already had
scientific papers published under his
name and was a prodigy Chandrasekhar
derived a mass limit at the age of 19
while on that ship since he was born in
an open-minded Brahmin family he assumed
the community there would welcome him
and his discovery with open arms
but reality was far from what he had
thaught the scientific community in England
ignored him and his work as a result of
which he went into a deep depression he
had lost all hopes then came Arthur
Eddington for those who don't know about
Eddington he was the one who gave the
experimental verification of Einstein's
general theory of relativity back in
1919 Eddington had virtually
single-handedly established the field of
astrophysics and he was at the pinnacle
of his career Eddington started meeting
Chandrasekhar frequently
Chandra felt motivated that a man of
Eddington's reputation is helping him
out Eddington was also working on
similar subject and he encouraged him to
produce his results in a conference to be
held on January 11, 1935* in England - which
Chandra agreed but on January 10 he came
to know that Eddington too had a lecture
after him that do you want to same topic
he was puzzled but thought no more about it
on the day of conference all the leading
figures in astrophysics were at the
Society Chandra delivered his paper
showing a graph that made it
transparently clear that a star above a
certain mass would inevitably dwindle to
nothing and Beyond triumphantly he sat
down
assuming that Eddington would support
his conclusions but to his horror
Eddington instead used the full force of his
famed oratorical skills to demolish the
young man Had Eddington befriended Chandra in
order to destroy him?
Eddington argued that Chandra's theory
was mere mathematical game play with no
basis in reality how could something as
huge as a star possibly disappear?
Eddington's arguments were unfounded and highly
dubious but the weight of his reputation
was such that no one dare disagree
with him Chandra was not even given the
opportunity to reply the controversy
rumbled for years Chandra and Eddington
came across each other in many
conferences and it was Eddington who was
always favored but years later in one
meeting it was proved that it was
Chandra's theory that was correct on
that day they both had a brief meeting
"I'm sorry if I hurt you ", Eddington said
to Chandra. Chandra asked whether he had
changed his mind?
"no", Eddington retorted "what are you sorry
about then"? Chandra replied and walked
away Chandra was awarded the Nobel Prize
in 1983 for his work on white dwarfs
which he had done on that ship but the
emotional toll continued to torment him
until his death in 1995.
