Tag: physics

  • ‘Just a tiny facet of some horrible ongoing thing,’ A physicist’s tale of Palestine

    ‘Just a tiny facet of some horrible ongoing thing,’ A physicist’s tale of Palestine

    Physicist Nabil Iqbal, a professor at Durham University, posted a thread on X (Twitter) detailing his experience of teaching in a physics school co-organized by him in the West Bank. He shared that students from Gaza, both undergrads and from the University of Gaza, would send in applications but were never granted travel permits from Israel.

    He reminisces about the time they would conduct Zoom meetings with the physics enthusiasts and check their assignments on the phone. They would also wonder about the time they will get to talk ‘physics’ in person.

    Iqbal recently got connected to one of his students in Gaza. She told him that if this is the end, she wants us to remember that she is a physics student and that she wanted to teach others to be as inspired by science as she is.

    This story is a clear reminder of how such bright minds are wasted in ravaging wars.

  • ‘And this is the lesson we are teaching our children,’ Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy criticises Single National Curriculum

    ‘And this is the lesson we are teaching our children,’ Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy criticises Single National Curriculum

    Oscar-winner filmmaker, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy recently took to social media and criticised the Single National Curriculum (SNC). She shared pictures of English textbooks of grade one and five.

    Sharmeen shared a picture of a grade five English textbook on her Instagram stories and wrote, “And this is the lesson we are teaching our children: What do you see?”

    Sharing another picture of the English book of grade one, she wrote, “Grade 1 is a 4-5-year-old. What are we telling our girls? Cover up at that age? Those who designed these textbooks should be held responsible. #Ziapartdeux”

    “And this is the physics being taught. Proponents of SNC, have you even read the books you are endorsing,” the Oscar winner wrote, posting an image of a page of a physics book.

    Single National Curriculum is a ‘uniform’ system of education, which means the same curriculum for everyone. Single National Curriculum has been started to be implemented in madressahs and from grades one to five in both public and private schools in Punjab.

  • Hardliners smear portrait of Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam outside National Science College

    A group of youngsters, allegedly science students, has smeared a portrait of the only Nobel laureate physicist from Pakistan and champion of science in the developing world, Dr Abdus Salam.

    A video doing rounds over the internet showed the group, consisting of State Youth Parliament Pakistan members, painting the portrait black while raising slogans against the minority Ahmadiyya community, of which Dr Salam was a member, outside Gujranwala’s National Science College.

    “They are students of so-called science colleges, what a shame,” read a strongly-worded post by Facebook page ‘The Hoodbhoyist’ that describes itself as a “social club for liberal, secular, humanists and progressive”.

    When he won the Nobel prize in 1979, Dr Salam became the very first Pakistani to achieve this distinction, and only the fourth from the subcontinent.

    Born in 1926 in a remote village in Punjab, British India, Salam was a child prodigy. He came from humble beginnings, growing up in a small brick house with a large family of eleven. While Salam’s legacy looms large in the world of physics, he is largely forgotten in Pakistan because of his faith.

    “Salam — The First ****** Nobel Laureate” — a feature-length film on Dr Salam’s life — was released on Netflix in October last year.

    It has won accolades on the international film festival circuit, including DFW South Asian Film Festival, South Asia Human Rights Festival, South Asian International Film Festival and the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal, among others.