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Cosmologist

As this is one of the most fascinating, complex and deep studies of the entire universe, it takes a very special type of mind to make a success of this career.
You will need dedication, a probing, inquisitive brain, perseverance, a love of science, excellent mathematical skills, a thirst for knowledge, an encyclopedic knowledge of many different subjects, the ability to make many accurate notes and observations, a willingness to re-learn facts which have been proved to be erroneous but still possible, an Alice-in Wonderland joy of living and a constant desire for new information.

Cosmology is the study of thought that deals with the structure and history of the universe as a whole. Human curiosity has been concerned with what the universe is really like for as long as time itself and the subject matter in this profession is mind-boggling for the simple reason that the laboratory is the universe itself! The trouble with this profession is that there is no clear demarkation between science and other human pursuits. The scientist, guided by the knowledge of his time, proposes a theory that takes into account what is known but which, over and above this, forecasts what future experiments and observations should show. It is only if a theory submits itself to empirical tests that one can call it scientific. If such a test goes against the theory, then the theory has been disproved. If it agrees with the theory, then it becomes the task of the theorist to go on making more and more forecasts and stick his neck out.

If you are now totally confused, good, because that is the starting point of cosmology. Scientists in the late 19th century found that Newton's dynamics naturally led to a moving universe but the prejudices in favour of a static system were so tremendous that they had to shut up. Then, along came Einstein who was also influenced by the theory of a static universe and he forced his equations into a form that allowed them to prove a static solution. It was a mathematical curiosity that encouraged the Dutch astronomer De Sitter to show that Einstein's equations also had a solution that proved a universe in motion i.e., a universe with a motion of expansion, velocity proportional to distance. The first empirical evidence came from the astronomer Slipher, who measured the spectra of the galaxies and found a large predominance of red-shifts as opposed to blue-shifts. It is a well-known result from countless experiments, that the colour of the light from a receding source is shifted towards the red - a red-shift. If then, the apparent faintness of Hubble's galaxies is interpreted as a result of their distances, and the `red shift' is interpreted as their velocity away from us, then it turns out that the velocity is proportional to the distance.

Your task might be to discover what keeps the stars and galaxies shining through into the empty night of the universe. What is the source of all this energy? (Candles give light because of the energy emitted when tallow combines with oxygen; electrical lights glow because electricity is forced through a fine wire). Whatever the source of the power, it must be unimaginably immense. Yet quasars, those starlike objects that may lie near the edge of the universe, can outshine entire galaxies.

Other posers are: if the universe was initially composed of elementary particles, where did they come from; what caused the source of the primeval particles to be there in the first place; is this evidence of some divine plan; are we not limited in what we see around us by our way of thinking; if we had different brains, could we not somehow have a different logic and see a very different picture or are we micro-organisms in a living celestrial body?

Are we alone in the universe? Serious suggestions have been put forward that life need not necessarily use water as a universal solvent but ammonia instead.

This would allow life to evolve on a planet such as Saturn which has an atmosphere composed of hydrogen, methane and ammonia.


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Courtesy: CareerExpo

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