Yesterday, my friend Sreejit read me (as it was in Malayalam) a front page story (not news) about a genius in the making, who goes by the name Hannan Binth Hashim. This girl at the age of 14 (or 15 according to other blog, newspaper reports), is trying hard to disprove Einstein. According to her un-published, un-available, un-verifiable article which is going to be (un-)published in a un-googleble journal called American journal of Theoretical Physics. She has even surpassed many physicists who is trying for the great nirvana “Grand unified theory” and unified two great theories from two fields, Special theory of relativity and Darwin’s theory of evolution. (Did I say before, she is going to dis-prove theory of relativity?)
What a motivation for a lazy and once upon a time astronomer like me.One small kid in our backyard who is going to dis-prove Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The news was also published long back in expressbuzz. Do they really cared to verify the facts before giving her the credits. Lets see few things from the article
Hannan’s meeting with Boston-based scientist Hind Rattan Award winner Dr Soumya Soumya “>Vasudevan was a turning point in her life. Dr Soumya, now her mentor, introduced Hannan to renowned scientist and Nobel laureates.
There is no Hind rattan winner by the name Dr. Soumya vasudevan, but there is one Dr. Soumya Vishwanathan (http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=3160). She is a doctor of medicine in Worcester at present.
At the Houston school, Hannan was credited with designing a rocket bound for the orbit of the Mars which was later launched by NASA on an experimental basis
The houston school (http://www.spacecenter.org/spaceschool.html) from where Hannan was graduated is only a 5 day school where the participants “will experience a 5-day engineering mission to land a rover on the surface of Mars!” and gets Graduation certificate at the end of “FIVE” days. So, designing a rocket in five days . . .
She is also part of the X-Lunar Google Prize, a project to send to the moon a robot that can walk along the lunar surface for 500 kilometers scraping ice off its surface
Google has anounced $30million for which ever team lands a robot on moon …. The prize is not claimed by anybody till (as of 16th Sept, 2009)
She soon approached the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Pune. On the advice of Professor MS Raghunath of TIFR, she went to the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and then the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). IIA Professors HC Bhatt, C Shivaram, and Dr Jayant Murthy are now assisting Hannan in her research.
The replies from Prof H C Bhat and Prof Jayant Murthy (in a private communication with K P. Rajesh, IIT, Chennai)
” . . not guided Ms Hannan at all. She has visited our institute a couple of times and requested use of our library. [My] only interaction with her has been to give her official permission to use the library for 2 days, some months ago. She has never discussed any science with me and never revealed what she has been doing.”
and,
“Unfortunately, this girl is flat out lying. I met her twice, as I would any student, and told her that she needed to study hard and learn a lot more physics and mathematics before making wild claims like that.”
The mails are self-explanatory I hope
Hannan has been in touch with India’s former scientist –president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam whose first response to her mail detailing about her theory was that he doesn’t know what this girl is talking about! It was Kalam who introduced her to NASA.
No doubt he did not understand anything. About introducing to NASA, does anybody remember the boy from Balia who claimed he cleared a NASA exam which only Kalam has cleared and became a celebraity overnight ?
Hannan’s meeting with Boston-based scientist Hind Rattan Award winner Dr Soumya Vasudevan was a turning point in her life. Dr Soumya, now her mentor, introduced Hannan to renowned scientist and Nobel laureates.
Astronaut Michael Collins was present at her convocation ceremony at Houston. There she could also meet Dr Satish Reddy who was part of the team that successfully fixed the US spacecraft ‘Endeavour’.
US president Barack Obama, whom she will be meeting in this US trip, has recently mailed her asking about her research and preparation for the Siemens competition. She will be meeting Obama in this visit. Neil Armstrong has already expressed his interest in meeting Hannan. She has been invited to visit Spain, Belgium, France, Lebanon and Qatar.
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