Applying the Brain

Raman believed that science came from the brain and not from equipment. When one of his pupils in Spectroscopy complained that he had only a 1 KW lamp, whereas his competitor abroad had a 10 KW lamp, Raman told him: ‘Don’t worry. Put a 10 KW brain to the problem.’ (Sunday Review, March 17, 1991). This is wholly true. Everything in this world depends on the brain. A lack of equipment can be compensated for by the brain, but no amount of equipment can ever compensate for a lack of brain power. None of the scientists born two to three hundred years before in the west had access to the superior equipment which is available to the university research student of today. Almost all of them worked with far less equipment. For instance, Newton worked with Kerosene lamps, as electricity had yet to be discovered. Yet it was scientists such as these who established the bases of modern western Science. This principle thus applies to everyone. Whenever a person feels ill-equipped in terms of money or resources, they should strive to compensate by applying extra brain power, an ample substitute for all other shortcomings. Brain power, nature’s greatest gift to humankind, is so astonishing in its reach that there is no deficiency for which it cannot provide a remedy. Here is another instance of the power of the brain. Mr. Kamal Alig, who studied at Aligarh University from 1976 to 1981, gives us an example from his student days of how the brain can compensate for all shortcomings. It seems