Mount Everest has been an enigma for centuries. While an object of worship historically, it presented itself as a tantalising puzzle to the measurement-obsessed surveyors of the East India Company. However this puzzle presented itself in the way it did, only because of an ambitious enterprise that sought to answer a much more fundamental question: What is the exact shape of the earth? 

In the first of a  two-episode deep dive, we look into the exploits of William Lambton, who pioneered India's first 'Big Data' exercise called Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston

‘Our whole universe was in a hot dense state and then 14 billion years ago expansion started it .’

This episode is about a scientist and one of the giants of cosmology who would have disagreed with the BareNakedLadies theme song to the Big Bang Theory. Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, who passed earlier this month, was, as a scientist, best known for advancing alternate interpretations to the mainstream consensus that the Universe began as Big Bang. But there is much more to him - institution builder, science writer, astrology-debunker and passionate advocate of everyone honing a scientific temper.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston

Listen to more Rearview podcast episodes:

This week, we explore the lives of three Indian scientists, Kamala Sohoni, Anna Mani, and Janaki Ammal, who were the first women to get doctorates in science in India, making them the first women scientists in India. Spanning meteorology, botany, and nutritional sciences, they had long careers in prominent scientific departments – even heading some of them – at a time when these were overwhelmingly male bastions. Drawing on their published works, we explore their experiences as women scientists, their views on sexism, and whether they worked to improve working conditions for other women scientists.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Recorded, edited, and produced by Jude Francis Weston

Science isn’t always the noble pursuit of truth. Ambition and greed can sometimes corrupt even promising scientists. This episode delves into one of the all-time great hoaxes perpetrated by Indian palaeontologist and geologist, Vishwajit Gupta, of Panjab University. Over decades, he passed off fossils from different parts of the world as ‘Himalayan fossils’ and was widely commended by an unsuspecting scientific community, until Australian geologist John Talent ripped apart his facade. Gupta’s fraud was similar to what is considered the greatest hoax in science ever, namely, Piltdown Man.

How did Gupta carry out his crimes, and how did Talent expose him? Listen in

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Audio edited and produced by Jude Francis Weston

In this episode we dive into the life of Dr Subhash Mukherjee, an obstetrician and gynaecologist from erstwhile Calcutta, who should have been one of India’s most famous and decorated doctors but whose life too a very tragic turn. Dr Mukherjee pioneered techniques in what was then, the fledgling science of In Vitro Fertilisation but his work was ridiculed and denigrated by the establishment, so much so, that it influenced his unfortunate decision to end his life.

Why didn’t Mukherjee get the credit he deserved? How did the world eventually learn of his genius. Listen to the Rearview to find out.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston 

Homi Bhabha, back from England, and embroiled into the scientific institutions of colonial India begins work on his vision of setting up independent scientific institutions. How did he manage to carve out a virtually uninhibited line of communication with Jawaharlal Nehru? How did he get a free hand to shape the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research? Why In spite of resources and patronage,  has the nuclear story in India nit achieved its potential?

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston 

In this episode of The Rearview, we delve into the early years of Homi Jehangir Bhabha, considered the Father of India's atomic energy program. How he gave up a promising career as a theoretical physicist, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics, and was as accomplished a musician and artist as he was a scientist.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston 

In this episode of The Rearview, we chronicle the life of Salim Ali, India's foremost ornithologist and conversationalist. His childhood aim was to be a renowned hunter but the feathered beings charmed him off this ambition. During his lifetime, he carried out extensive bird surveys of the subcontinent - from the far reaches of Afghanistan to the icy plateau of Tibet, Bhutan, Pakistan, and India. His books are still used as field guides for both amateur and professional birders. Later in his life he tirelessly campaigned to conserve India's varied ecosystems - from the Silent Valley to the Bharatpur wetlands.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Recorded by Aniket Singh Chauhan and Jude Francis Weston

Produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston.

References:

AIR Archives Radio Autobiography of Dr. Salim Ali

The Fall of a Sparrow

The Book of Indian Birds

JBS Haldane was an avowed communist fired by a belief, shared by several intellectuals in the early 20th century, that scientific progress had the potential to shape society. However, Haldane's support for Communism was tested, particularly by the controversial Soviet biologist, Trofim Lysenko, the most influential scientist in the Joseph Stalin regime. Eventually, Haldane was disillusioned by being constantly hounded by the British Secret Service. The episode concludes with his eventual passage to India where he played a key role in setting up biostatistics research at the Indian Statistical Institute.

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston 

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane a British-born scientist who moved to India at the age of 65-years. He was a pioneer in the field of population genetics, the man who bridged the gap between Darwinian and Mendelian theories, a scientist without science degree, and a Marxist, a public intellectual who made science accessible to his generation and a forever rebel. 

The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas.

Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair

Produced and edited by: Jude Francis Weston