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This is Space Time series 26 episode, 100 and six for
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broadcast on the fourth of September 2023. Coming up on
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Spacetime, the violent accretion disc of a super massive black
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hole studying the nearby monster Centaurus A and India's Lunar
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Rover confirms the existence of sulfur at the Moon's South Pole.
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All that and more coming up on Space Time.
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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
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Astronomers have for the first time ever captured the turbulent
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violence of an accretion disk in an actively feeding supermassive
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black hole. The findings reported in the Astrophysical
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journal letters provide scientists with their first
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direct observations of this hard to see region inside one of the
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biggest monsters in the universe.
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Supermassive black holes are the most powerful objects in the
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universe. There are intense gravity wells, regions of
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infinite density in zero volume where the gravitational pull is
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so strong that nothing, not even light can escape clouds of gas
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planets and even stars venturing too close to a black hole will
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be torn apart by the monster's intense gravity.
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There remains swirling around the black hole in an accretion
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disk like water swirling around the drain in a sink material in
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the accretion disk is constantly being crushed, stretched and
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ripped apart in the process, releasing vast amounts of energy
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at billions of degrees.
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The subatomic debris then passes beyond a point of no return
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called the event horizon. Once inside the event horizon, escape
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velocity becomes greater than the speed of light.
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And since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light,
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nothing not even light can escape a black hole. Hence, the
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name here matter is beatified as it falls forever towards the
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singularity, a place where the laws of physics as science
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understands them breaks down, but not all the material in the
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accretion disk is doomed to disappear into the black hole.
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Some of the superheated material is deflected along powerful
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magnetic field lines away from the event horizon and out
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towards the black hole spin axis which accelerates perpendicular
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out from the accretion disk into space.
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Here, the material is accelerated to relativistic
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speeds and focused into intense superluminal jets called
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quasars. These are the brightest objects in the known universe.
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They shine out like beacons in the darkness and can be visible
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over 13 billion light years away. Studying these accretion
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disks can therefore enhances science's understanding, not
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just of black holes but of the evolution of their host
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Galaxies.
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And maybe the universe itself. The problem is most accretion
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discs are actually quite difficult to study directly.
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That's because they're actually a long way away and really
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small.
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But scientists using the Gemini North telescope have now made
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the first detection of two near infrared emission lines coming
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from the accretion disc of a galaxy three ZW 02 in the
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process, placing new limits on the size of these magnificent
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structures. Emission lines are caused when an atom in an
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excited state drops to a lower energy level releasing light in
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the process.
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Now, since every atom has a unique set of energy levels, the
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emitted light has a discrete wavelength and acts like a
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fingerprint, identifying its origin emission lines commonly
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appear in spectra as thin sharp spikes.
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But in the unique environment of the swirling vortex of an
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accretion disk where the excited gas is under the supermassive
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black hole's gravitational influence and where it's moving
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at speeds of thousands of kilometers per second, those
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emission lines are broken into shallower peaks. The part of the
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accretion disk where these lines originate is called the broad
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line region.
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And evidence of an accretion disc can be found in a specific
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pattern of broad emission lines called a double peak profile.
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Now, because the accretion disc is rotating the gas on one side
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of the disc is moving away from the observer or the gas on the
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other side is moving towards the observer.
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And these relative motions act the same way as the Dora affect
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you hear. When a siren goes past changing pitch, the light waves
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moving away from the observer tend to be stretched, it's
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called red shifting. While those traveling towards the observer
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are compressed or blue shifted.
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So the result from all this is a broadened line with two distinct
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peaks, one are returning from each side of the rapidly
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spinning accretion disk. Now, these double peak profiles are a
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rare phenomenon. That's because their currencies limited to
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sources that can be observed or nearly face on.
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But in the few sources where it has been observed, the double
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peak tends to be found in the H alpha and H beta lines. Two
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emission lines for hydrogen atoms that appear in the visible
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wavelength range originating from the inner area of the broad
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line region near the supermassive black hole.
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These lines normally don't provide any evidence about how
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big the accretion disk is. But recent observations, the near
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infrared have revealed an area of the outer broadly region that
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has never been seen before.
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A team of astronomers from Brazil's National Laboratory Of
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Astrophysics have for the first time detected two near infrared
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double peak profiles in the broad line region of the black
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hole in galaxy three ZW 02, the hydrogen line originates in the
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inner area of the broad line region and a neutral oxygen line
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originates in the outskirts of the region, an area that's never
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been observed before.
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These are the first double peak profiles to be found in the near
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infrared and they emerged quite unexpectedly during routine
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observations using the Gemini's near infrared spectrograph. Back
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in 2003 observations of three ZW 002 1St revealed evidence of an
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accretion disk.
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And then a 2012 study found similar results and this meant
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there was a black hole that had been actively feeding. So in
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2021 the Brazilian team set out to supplement these findings
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with fresh observations in the near infrared using Gemini,
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which has the advantage of being able to observe the entire
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infrared spectrum in one go.
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And that's actually quite a big advantage. You see other
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telescopes require the user to switch between multiple filters
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in order to cover the same range that's time consuming. And also
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it introduces uncertainties such as changes in atmospheric
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conditions and the problems of calibration changes between
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observations.
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But because Gemini North is capable of making simultaneous
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observations across multiple bands of light, the team were
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able to capture a single clean, consistently calibrated spectra
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in which multiple double peak profiles were revealed.
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The observations not only confirm the theorized presence
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of an accretion disc but also advance science's understanding
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of this broad line region. It also provides clear evidence of
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the feeding process and the inner structure of an active
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galactic nuclei. By comparing these observations with existing
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disc models.
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The authors have been able to extract parameters that provide
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a clearer picture of three Z 02 super massive black hole as well
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as the broad lion region of its surrounding accretion disk. The
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observations suggest that the hydrogen alkaline exists at a
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radius of 16.77 light days as measured from the supermassive
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black hole.
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And the neutral oxygen line originates at a radius of 18.86
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light days. By comparison, the distant ward of Pluto is just
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5.5 light hours from earth. In other words, the accretion disk
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around this black hole is larger than our solar system.
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In fact, the outer radius of the broad line region is estimated
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to be 52.43 light days. The model also indicates that three
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ZW 00 two's broad line region has an inclination of about 18
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degrees with respect to the earth and the super massive
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black hole at its center.
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Well, it's somewhere between 400 million and 900 million times
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the mass of our Sun. A true monster. This is Space Time
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still to come stabbing the monster galaxy and black hole
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Centaurus A and India's Lunar Rover confirms the presence of
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sulfur on the Lunar South Pole. All that are more still to come
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on Space Time.
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Well, while we're on the subject of black holes, astronomers have
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combined two major Australian radio telescopes and several
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optical telescopes to study complex mechanisms that are
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fueling jets of material blasting out of a supermassive
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black hole some 55 million times more massive than the Sun.
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The research focused on a nearby radio galaxy known as Centaurus
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A which it's somewhere between 11 and 13 million light years
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away. Is the nearest radio galaxy to the earth radio
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Galaxies are those with active galactic nuclei or a GNS,
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meaning their central supermassive black holes are
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busy consuming material releasing vast amounts of energy
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in the process.
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A report in the monthly notices, the Royal Astronomical Society
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shows that as well as detecting the plasma that's fueling the
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large plumes of material.
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The galaxy is famous for the authors also found evidence of a
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galactic wind or high speed stream of particles moving away
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from the galaxy's core, taking energy material with it as it
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impacts the surrounding galactic environment. These new
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observations of Centaurus A will allow astronomers to apply the
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knowledge to hypotheses and simulations of how Galaxies
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evolve.
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One of the study's authors, Ben McKinley from the Curtin
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University node of the International Center For Radio
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Astronomy Research says the galaxy's proximity just down the
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road in astronomical terms, makes Centaurus say a perfect
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cosmic laboratory for studying the physical processes
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responsible for moving material and energy away from the
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galactic core.
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Centaurus A has been a popular target for astronomers in the
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southern hemisphere for decades due to its size, its elegant
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dust lanes and its prominent plumes of material.
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But McKinley says that being so close to earth and so big
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actually makes studying this galaxy a bit of a challenge.
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That's because most of the telescopes capable of resolving
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the details needed for this type of work have fields of view
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which is smaller than the area of the sky that Centaurus takes
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up.
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So to undertake their observations. McKinley and
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colleagues use the Murchison wide field ray radio telescope
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in Outback, Western Australia and the Parkes radio telescope
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in the central west of New South Wales, both of which have large
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fields of view, thereby allowing them to image a large portion of
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the sky and see all of Centaurus 's Ale.
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Once Murchison is a low frequency radio telescope, it
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has superb sensitivity allowing the large scale structure of ST
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Tous A to be imaged in great detail. And the 64 m Parks
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observatory commonly known as the dish can complement these
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observations.
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Additional observations from several optical telescopes were
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also used in this work including the magnificent Magellan
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telescope in Chile, as well as several smaller telescopes such
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as the to observatory in Canberra and the high view
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observatory in Auckland, also known as NGC 51 28 Centaurus A
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is in the constellation Centaurus.
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It was discovered back in 18 26 by Scottish astronomer James
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Dunlop from his home in Parramatta. Nowadays, Parramatta
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is located in the middle of Sydney's sprawling western
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suburbs about 200 years ago. It was a mixture of pristine
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forests and rural pasture lands.
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There's considerable debate in the literature regarding
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Centaurus A's fundamental properties such as its exact
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distance from our solar system, also whether it's a lenticular
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galaxy or an elliptical 11 thing scientists are sure about is
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that it's the most powerful radio source in the region with
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an active galactic nuclei that's been extensively studied.
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The galaxy is also the fifth brightest in the night sky
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making it ideal not just for professional astronomers but
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also amateur astronomers as well. It's best visible from the
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southern hemisphere or from very low northern latitudes by
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comparing radio and optical observations of the galaxy.
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The killing. And colleagues also found evidence that stars
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belonging to Centaurus are extending far further out from
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the galactic core than previously thought. And that's
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led to speculation about whether the winds and jets emanating
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from the galaxy could be physically pushing those stars
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away.
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Centaur so close by. And so with our radio telescopes and the
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optical telescopes as well, we're able to see it in more
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detail than any other radio galaxy in the universe. And so
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by learning about Centaurus, a, we can then assume that similar
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things are happening in radio Galaxies further away.
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And we can put that into our cosmological simulations and try
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and work out basically how the universe has evolved in time
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since the Big Bang. We've used two radio telescopes in
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Australia and three optical telescopes to study the closest
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radio galaxy Centaurus.
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A in new detail, we're looking for relationships between the
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optical and the radio emission and what's happening with the
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interaction between the supermassive black hole and the
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environment around the galaxy Centaurus A is unique in that it
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's the closest radio galaxy by far.
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So we can use very long baseline interferometry to study those
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jets in the best detail of any other supermassive black hole
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outside of our own galaxy. So we know quite a lot about the jets.
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It actually gets harder when you look further out from the jets,
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the jets create these radio loaves that are actually quite
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large on the sky. And that makes it more difficult for some radio
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telescopes to have much smaller small fields of view.
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So the merch and wide field array that we've used and parks
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as well, you're actually able to map the whole radio source and
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really learn what's happening in those radio loads that are
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created by the jet. How are the jets created?
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So there's a super massive black hole in the middle of the galaxy
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and matter spirals into that super massive black hole and
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forms what's called an accretion disk and things become super hot
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and then super fast they enter that disk. And so basically as
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the supermassive black hole eats matter, some of that matter is
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shot out in jets that go either side, sort of perpendicular to
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the galaxy.
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And it's because this matter, mostly electrons traveling close
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to the speed of light. When you get electrons traveling that
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fast, they create radio waves. And so that's why we see these
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bright jets when we look at the galaxy with a radio telescope.
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And these powerful jets are formed and that shoot out these
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are the same sort of things that when we see across the universe
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we call them quasars. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. And
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they've got other names too. Blazers and a GNS. I take it
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that's all the same thing. Just depends on how we see it and
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where it.
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Is, it's basically the same thing. I think quasars are
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normally the classified as the ones that are sort of from the
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early universe really far away. And so they're really compact
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and really, really bright and the name comes from quasi
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stellar object.
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So they sort of look like stars because they're just single
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points, whereas radio Galaxies is sort of the same thing, but
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it's generally the things that are closer and you can start to
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resolve them and see more of the structure. I think blazer is to
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do with the orientation angle of the radio galaxy.
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So there's this sort of grand unified theory of active
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galactic nuclei where people think it's all basically the
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same thing. But depending on the different orientations of the
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radio galaxy, depends on whether you're classified as a blazer or
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a radio galaxy or a quasar.
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And what you guys have been doing is looking at what happens
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when this jet shoots out from the black hole and interacts
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with the surrounding interstellar medium, I guess.
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Yeah, that's right. So as the jet propagates out when it hits
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gas, that's going around the galaxy. So some other studies
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have found these big h one clouds clouds of hydrogen that
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are going around the surrounding the galaxy.
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And as they interact with that, they can create more radio
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emission and X ray emission, the jets can trigger star formation
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as well and they can ionize the surrounding gas. So you end up
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UV radiation from the A causes electrons to be knocked off the
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hydrogen. And we can detect this with the optical telescopes by
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looking for different radio emission lines.
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People are often very surprised when they hear that black holes
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which are these things like giant vacuum cleaners. Some
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people envisage them as being that are just sucking up the
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universe around them. But as well as that, they do generate
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these powerful jets, they're feeding and these jets can push
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material away from the line of fire, I guess you'd call it. And
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in the process that can lead to increased star formation as
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well.
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Yeah, that's right. So we see these bright optical filaments
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that we describe in the paper and we show an image of it. And
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yeah, the bright new stars in those filaments are thought to
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be caused by interactions from the AGN with the surrounding
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gas.
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And they're a lot further out than originally thought too,
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the.
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Stars, this deep optical image that we have shows this shell
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surrounding the galaxy. But yeah, we've seen additional sort
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of cloud of stars that seems to propagate out sort of in line
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with the radio jets, but not quite out, quite a far distance.
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And it's not exactly clear the mechanism that's causing that.
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But due to the alignment with the radio galaxy jets and loads,
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we sort of speculate that it has something to do with, with
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propagation because of the ATM.
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Has proven to be quite a valuable astronomical tool,
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isn't it?
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The wide field array? Yeah, it's really good because of the wide
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field of view. So we lack the spatial resolution of a lot of
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other telescopes. But we can see across a really wide field of
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view.
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If you look up at the sky and imagine 14 full moons across.
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That's how big sur would be if you could see it with your eyes.
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And most telescopes can see a tiny tiny fraction of that at
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any one time. So with the M we are able to see the whole galaxy
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and image image it across a wide range of wavelengths.
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And that's especially important with something like Centaurus A
00:19:20
because it is so close.
00:19:21
Yeah, that's right. So part of our paper was also comparing our
00:19:25
observations with some older observations. One set of
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observations was done with the Australia telescope compact
00:19:32
array, which is another inner fero which has a narrow field of
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view, but is able to look in sort of more spatial detail and
00:19:39
then also the very large array in the US.
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And so there was new observations from the very large
00:19:44
array that disputed the fact that there's this large scale
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jet connecting the inner radio loads of with the outer radio
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loads.
00:19:53
And our observations show that the very large array of
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observations from the northern hemisphere are probably not
00:19:59
correct because of difficulties they have observing the source
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because it's so low in the sky in the north. So, and we've
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shown there is large scale jet connecting the inner lobes to
00:20:09
the outer lobes.
00:20:10
Do we know what these jets are composed of? You mentioned
00:20:12
electrons earlier?
00:20:13
Yeah, sure. So we think, yeah, they're mostly electrons because
00:20:17
electrons are small enough that they can be accelerated to close
00:20:19
to the speed of light and cause this radio emission that we see
00:20:23
it's much harder to.
00:20:27
That's astronomer Professor Ben McKinley from the Curtin
00:20:30
University nerd of the International Center For Radio
00:20:33
Astronomy Research and this is Space Time. Still to come. India
00:20:39
's Luna rover confirms the presence of sulfur at the Moon
00:20:42
South Pole. And later in the Science Report Discovery of a
00:20:46
cancer drug that could target HIV silent cells all that and
00:20:51
more still to come on Space Time.
00:21:09
India's Pragyan or Wisdom Lunar Rover has confirmed the presence
00:21:14
of sulfur at the Moon's South Pole. It's the first major
00:21:18
discovery by the tiny six wheeled rover since the Chandra
00:21:21
N Three S Vikram or valid ascent vehicle became the first
00:21:25
spacecraft to touch down near the Lunar South Pole iro.
00:21:29
The Indian Space Research Organization says the detection
00:21:33
of sulfur was made by the 26 kg rover's laser induced breakdown
00:21:37
spectroscopy instrument. It says these in situ measurements
00:21:41
confirm the presence of sulfur in the region unambiguously
00:21:45
something not feasible using instruments on orbiters.
00:21:48
The spectroscopic analysis also confirmed the presence of
00:21:51
aluminum calcium iron chromium and titanium together with
00:21:56
manganese silicon and oxygen and it's still continuing its search
00:22:00
for signs of frozen water. The solar powered rover will spend
00:22:04
half a loon a day.
00:22:05
The equivalent of 14 earth days exploring the terrain around
00:22:09
this relatively unmapped landing site, transmitting images and
00:22:12
scientific data back to mission managers on Monday, the rover's
00:22:17
exploration route had to be changed after venturing too
00:22:20
close to a 4 m wide crater. The rover's journey of exploration
00:22:24
on the Moon isn't fast traveling at just 10 centimeters per
00:22:28
second.
00:22:29
So as to minimize shark and damage from the Moon's rugged
00:22:32
terrain. The Chandra three or Moon three in Sanskrit mission
00:22:37
has captivated the Indian public 's imagination since its launch
00:22:41
six weeks ago, its successful touchdown on the Lunar surface
00:22:45
last week was viewed by thousands of cheering
00:22:47
Spectators.
00:22:49
An achievement made even more poignant by the Russian Lander
00:22:53
Lunar 25 crashing in the same region while attempting its own
00:22:56
competing landing. Mind you it hasn't been all beer and
00:23:00
skittles for the Indian Space Agency. A previous landing
00:23:03
attempt back in 2019 by the Chan Andrean two ended in failure.
00:23:08
In fact, only three other nations had achieved a soft
00:23:11
landing on the Moon, the Soviet Union, the United States also
00:23:15
the only country to have sent people there. And China. But
00:23:19
India is fast becoming a major player in the space industry. In
00:23:23
2014, India became the first Asian nation to achieve orbit
00:23:27
around Mars.
00:23:28
And it hopes to undertake its first manned space flight into
00:23:31
earth orbit next year. And Israel has just launched its
00:23:35
first scientific mission to observe the Sun.
00:23:38
The Aita L One will study the Sun from the Lagrangian L one
00:23:42
position about 1.5 million kilometers from earth Aita,
00:23:46
which means Sun in Hindi will be placed into a halo orbit around
00:23:50
L one which is a sort of gravitational balancing point
00:23:53
between the earth and the Sun. The orbit is shared by a number
00:23:57
of other Sun studying spacecraft including the joint NASA ESA
00:24:01
solar and Heliospheric observatory spacecraft.
00:24:04
Soho a ditch's mission is to try and understand the dynamics of
00:24:08
the solar wind using its seven scientific payloads including an
00:24:12
electromagnetic and particle light detector which will
00:24:14
observe the Sun's outmost layers, the photos sphere and
00:24:18
Chromos sphere. But the tiny spacecraft's first task will be
00:24:22
getting from earth orbit out to L one.
00:24:25
We'll keep you informed. This is Space Time and time. Now to take
00:24:46
a brief look at some of the other stories making news in
00:24:48
science this week with the science report, scientists have
00:24:52
found an existing blood cancer drug that shown promise in
00:24:56
killing silent HIV cells.
00:24:58
The discovery by researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute has
00:25:02
already been shown to help delay the virus from re emerging in
00:25:05
patients being treated with anti retroviral cocktails. Hidden HIV
00:25:10
cells known as Latin infection are responsible for the virus
00:25:14
permanently remaining in the body and cannot be treated by
00:25:17
current therapies.
00:25:18
The new findings published in the journal cell reports,
00:25:21
medicine are based on research in which scientists looked at
00:25:24
blood cells from patients infected with HIV and the impact
00:25:27
of the cancer drug venetoclax, both alone and in combination
00:25:31
with another drug known as S 63 845 they found that Venita
00:25:37
claques killed HIV, one lately infected cells and that the
00:25:42
drugs were able to delay the time it took for the virus to
00:25:44
bounce back once antiretroviral therapy had stopped a clinical
00:25:49
trial based on the findings will now be launched in Denmark and
00:25:52
Australia to test whether veda claques can be used as a
00:25:55
potential pathway to develop a cure for HIV.
00:25:59
There are an estimated 40 million people worldwide
00:26:02
currently living with HIV. The virus that causes AIDS included
00:26:08
in that count are more than 29 Australians.
00:26:13
Scientists have developed a new test which could help predict
00:26:16
who's likely to get dementia in the next 14 years. A report in
00:26:21
the British medical journal claims the test known as the UK
00:26:24
Bio bank dementia risk score was developed using data from over
00:26:28
200 people.
00:26:30
It works by looking at 11 predictive factors. These
00:26:34
include age education, a history of diabetes, a history of
00:26:38
current depression, a history of stroke, parental dementia,
00:26:41
economic disadvantage, high blood pressure, high cholesterol
00:26:45
living alone and being male.
00:26:48
The researchers also looked at whether people had the gene apo
00:26:52
E which is a known risk factor for dementia. When they use the
00:26:56
test on a separate group of 70 people aged between 50 73
00:27:01
the test performed better at predicting who would develop
00:27:03
dementia over 14 years than three other current dementia
00:27:07
tests.
00:27:09
Well, the biggest search in more than half a century has been
00:27:12
underway in the Scottish Highlands looking for the
00:27:14
elusive Loch Ness Monster. Hundreds of amateur researchers
00:27:18
and enthusiastic Nesi hunters from around the world have been
00:27:21
braving the pelting rains in order to scour the 36 kilometer
00:27:25
long 240 m deep lock, using everything from drones and
00:27:30
thermal imaging cameras to sophisticated sonars and
00:27:33
underwater hydrophones.
00:27:35
With the aim of unraveling a mystery that's captivated the
00:27:38
world's attention for generations. Reports of an
00:27:42
aquatic monster lurking in the lochs murky depths go back to
00:27:46
ancient times. There are even rock carvings in the area
00:27:49
depicting a mysterious beastie with flippers.
00:27:52
The earliest written record of the creature can be found in the
00:27:55
biography of the Irish Monk Saint Columba in the year 5, 65.
00:28:00
Since then, there have been thousands of alleged sightings
00:28:03
as commonly describing a prehistoric marine ripped off
00:28:06
from the age of the dinosaurs known as a plesiosaur. Of
00:28:10
course, chances of actually finding the mythical beast range
00:28:14
from slim to nonexistent.
00:28:16
Hundreds of blurry images and a couple of not bad fakes have
00:28:19
turned up. But if there really is something there, then it's
00:28:23
more likely to be a giant sturgeon, a humongous catfish or
00:28:27
possibly a new species of giant eagle. Other possibilities
00:28:31
include a lost seal or shark that swam along the canal
00:28:34
connecting the loch to the North Sea.
00:28:37
However, to be honest, the end of the legend really happened
00:28:40
back in 2018. That's when scientists from Otago
00:28:43
University, New Zealand undertook a detailed
00:28:46
environmental DNA search of the lock and they found no
00:28:50
unexplained DNA sequences in the lake's dark waters. Absolutely
00:28:54
nothing that could be attributed to Nese.
00:28:58
Well, they may just have reached the surface of the Moon and are
00:29:01
planning to launch their first manned mission into orbit next
00:29:04
year. But India's times a modern scientifically advanced space
00:29:07
faring nation may wind up being rather short lived. You see
00:29:12
Indian authorities are dumbing down the country's education
00:29:15
system.
00:29:16
They're cutting key scientific topics from the curriculum,
00:29:19
including the periodic table and evolution. Tim Mendham from
00:29:24
Australian Skeptics says the move is being pushed along by a
00:29:27
strong nationalist movement within the government in India.
00:29:30
There's a bit of a drive on to promote what they call Hindu.
00:29:33
Science, locally developed science that supposedly goes
00:29:37
back thousands of years to show that we don't need all this
00:29:40
stuff. We had it all before. In India, there's a suggestion that
00:29:44
what's happened now is that especially for 15 to 16 year old
00:29:47
students in high school, in secondary schools in India, in
00:29:50
their science classes, all references to evolution.
00:29:53
A periodic table, climate related topics have been cut
00:29:57
from textbooks. So kids who are studying biology at that level,
00:30:01
which is the general level of people doing science are not
00:30:04
being taught evolution, which is being criticized by saying not
00:30:06
teaching evolution in biology. It's like not using numbers in
00:30:09
mathematics. It's the basis of it, it's the core of it, it's
00:30:12
highly important.
00:30:14
So by having it cut out, it implies there's a certain bias
00:30:17
in what things are being presented, not just downplayed,
00:30:19
it's actually cut out of the textbooks has been taken and
00:30:23
have taken all these subjects out. The authorities claim that
00:30:26
the content is covered elsewhere and that it's difficult to
00:30:29
explain and they say it might be irrelevant anyway. Well, it's
00:30:32
not irrelevant.
00:30:33
Obviously, evolution is not irrelevant to biology in the
00:30:35
same way as the periodic table is not irrelevant to chemistry
00:30:38
and it's difficult. Well, that's up to the teachers, isn't it the
00:30:41
way you teach? You can teach evolution pretty
00:30:43
straightforward. You don't have to become a phd at high school
00:30:46
level and the content is covered elsewhere.
00:30:47
Well, that's hard to say because basically it means that kids who
00:30:50
go up to age 15, 16 and who don't choose to go into science
00:30:54
classes and not being taught their stuff. Hopefully it's
00:30:57
taught later on for the time being anyway. But that's only
00:30:59
for people who choose to do science. So the general public
00:31:02
is not going to hear about evolution, periodic tables,
00:31:05
climate change, energy sources, all sorts of things like that.
00:31:08
There is a general anti science pseudo science move that's going
00:31:12
on in India, whether it's in education, even at university
00:31:15
level, there are some very strange theories put forward
00:31:17
such as the Indian God with an elephant head on a man is
00:31:21
evidence of advanced surgery by Indians thousands of years ago
00:31:25
that all sorts of strange things that have been put forward in
00:31:29
Indian circles, often by people who should know a lot better get
00:31:32
a move on to try and stop this, but it's having a hard time.
00:31:36
So it is supported at the highest levels of politics.
00:31:38
Is this just one political party or is this across the board?
00:31:42
It's mainly Modi's party? Well, the claims are actually being
00:31:44
put forward as a general movement and it's definitely
00:31:46
being supported by Prime Minister for the last 10 years
00:31:50
and it's hurting India's development.
00:31:52
What does that do for India? It 's now the world's largest
00:31:55
country in terms of population. What's that? Going to do for the
00:31:58
development of the nation.
00:31:59
It's also a country that is pushing itself as an advanced
00:32:01
nation. It's got a huge university education resource.
00:32:04
It's got a lot of research they're trying to sort of push
00:32:07
through. But this is obviously one, it makes them look a bit
00:32:09
silly and two, it'd be raising people who really don't have a
00:32:12
broad enough understanding of what's going on.
00:32:14
That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics and that's
00:32:33
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