News Magazine -2009 - Chemical Engineering Department - IISc

Nature is balancing a huge and really complicated web of food,hydrological, mineral ... cycles. We are a part of this messycontraption. We do not know how, where and what might come and hitus when we unknowingly disrupt a delicate balance between any twosimple moieties of the huge system. I would like to quote thispertinent dialogue from the movie MATRIX - part 1 "Smith toMorphius: You don’t belong to mammal species. Mammals reach anatural equilibrium with its surroundings…but you humans keepmultiplying till all natural resources are consumed. The only wayyou can survive is by shifting to a new area. There is anotherorganism in this world with similar pattern of survival. A Virus."This is so true. Municipalities and corporations that treat thewastes by sanitary landfill technique will eventually run out ofland. So why don’t we make 'reduce reuse & recycle' as our lifestylemantra? After all, catwalk without fur coats is not a sin. When theearth becomes hotter than manageable limits, don’t expect a supermanto lift and keep it near Krypton. It is high time to focus oninventing technologies that can repair the damage already done. Whyshould I use my energy and material resources on finding a thermallystable material with high tensile stress, elasticity, blah-blah thatis to be exclusively used(of course, it will be protected by apatent) for Barbie`s heels? I handle all my exams with last minutestudy. Any society is just a collection of individuals. It appearsthat even the society is going to look into these issues only afterSOS calls... but there is a key difference... unlike me who has aJan term if I fail in Aug, mankind as of now has only one earth tolive.BalakrishnanM.E. 1 st year5