SCIENTISTS CANNOT WALK LIKE SOLDIERS

I know some scientists: they are all «not from this world». They are not (or little) interested in money, they sit at work till late hours, their days-off and vacations are devoted to scientific calculations and preparation of symposium papers. Generally, they live with an air of detachment, in the world apart from the usual human world. Such a person is Kev Salikhov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Director of Kazan Ye.K.Zavoisky Physicotechnical Institute, Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences, Lenin Prize Winner. He dreams of some high matters. However, without those matters our life today could be just as hard and primeval as in the Stone Age

SCIENTISTS CANNOT WALK LIKE SOLDIERS

SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO LIFE

— Mr. Salikhov, can you tell me, a person with incomplete higher education, what can people find in science nowadays? There is no money, no prestige, and no recognition — just moving a brain gyrus. Incidentally, aren't you sorry the prestige of the scientist dropped in society to the level of the janitor?

— Of course, society's attitude towards science changed drastically. The prestige of the scientist dropped. However, I have my doubts answering your question. Society is too abstract. We are not aware of a housewife, a teacher or a shop assistant think about that: an abstract society.

I can be sure of one thing: whatever the situation in the country, in Tatarstan the attitude towards scientists and science will be above average. In 1988, I arrived here, at Kazan, from the Novosibirsk academic city. I can compare the two. Having come here, I felt right away that in Kazan the general attitude to scientists was much more considerate than in Novosibirsk, although the period was just as hard here as all over the country. Since theories have to be confirmed with facts, I'll tell you a simple story. In the early 90s, our Institute was not given any cash for salaries...

— You belong to the federal system and federal budget, aren't you?

— Yes, but cash was not supplied from Moscow. One month, two months... We were hungry; no appetite can be satisfied with knowledge. So I applied to the president of Promstroybank. We had never met each other before. So I arrived and told him: «I am Professor Salikhov, director of the Kazan Physicotechnical Institute. I need cash». I outlined the situation for him. In ten minutes time, the banker invited an employee and told him: «Send to the Institute as much cash as they request. They'll give it back later». We did give it back when we received our own money. Two months later.

— So he gave you, as it were, an advance.

— Exactly, but without any interest! What I am driving at: that shows societys attitude to us. He could have refused! The interest of society to science has been cooling everywhere, and not only in this country. There was a different period, but it will not come back, society grew colder to it.

— Well, I know how to renew the interest. For society to be excited over science, science has to be useful for society. Less basic research and more applied developments, so that any person could feel some tangible result.

— Maybe, I am wrong, but my viewpoint is different. Basic research is not determined by what one does: it is determined by how one does things. One can carry out basic research and even win a Nobel Prize just by studying how concrete may be hardened.

— Is it really such a problem?

— It's a problem, and not a small one, because concrete hardens finally within close to a month, and during the period, it can easily lose its shape and strength. That is just an example. At the same time, one can deal with physics of elementary particles. For discoveries in that field, one can win a lot as well. Because these are problems of equal importance. Very often, the boundary between basic and applied research has no meaning.

— But one cannot deal with theory exclusively, someone has to solve applied problems as well...

— Absolutely. That is what we are trying to do at the Institute: do both.

PLEASE READ OUT THE ENTIRE LIST!

— What are the practical problems solved by your Institute and what are the basic ones?

— Let me start with practical problems, because they are numerous. First, within the next two years we would like to bring our EMR tomograph to the world-best level. It is almost as good as that now, but it is still not a machine of the best category. The main point is that within three years all our districts will have EMR tomographs.

— What is its principle and what is so wonderful about it?

— Oh, that is a remarkable device. As you know, water contains two atoms of oxygen and one atom of hydrogen. There is a nucleus in the hydrogen atom, and the nucleus has a magnetic moment. In the presence of an external magnetic field, it moves like a top. Rotating like this, it is able to emit radio waves at a certain frequency. The frequency depends on the strength of magnetic field at the point... (During this part of the talk, when Professor became too academic, I revealed my old student's habit: to sleep at a lecture with my eyes open. — Reporters note.) Therefore, if we put a person into the magnetic field the strength of which is the same everywhere, all the protons will emit (as radio stations do) at the same frequency. Now, what if the magnetic field is not uniform? Some protons will be in one magnetic field, and others in another one. We know where which field is. Therefore, registering these radio waves at various frequencies, we can measure their intensity.

It has been shown that while water protons are in healthy tissue, they have certain features, as if they were a certain radio station. A proton occurring in a tumor works as another radio station. Its features are different, different frequency, and we can distinguish between them. On these grounds, we can conclude that these are healthy tissues, and those are tumor tissues.

— It means that we can have complete diagnosis the body, doesn't it?

— Absolutely complete! That will be one of the principal achievements of the 21st century. To date, EMR tomography reached a point when we can use it to read the human body as a book; we can see how the nervous impulses run to certain parts of the brain, to the center of pleasure, to the centers of pleasure or pain... Observing this, we can be absolutely aware of the persons emotional status.

Incidentally, that was done totally on a grant from the Tatarstan Government. We were unable to do that on our budget, because that was not basic research, and money is allocated for that. We applied to President Shaimiyev, and he supported us.

— Not bad. What else can be of interest for an ordinary person?

— Many things. Another interesting direction is headed by Sergey Chernikov. We have compiled such a set of software that allows us to study strength and various dynamic features of complex structures, such as a car or tractor. Earlier, something like that was used while testing aircraft, so we adjusted all that for surface machines. Recently, the UAZ Plant decided to change the car body. They applied to us. We calculated seventeen versions of the body and showed the week points. They want to have a longer body, and we point out the problems, which unit has to be strengthened, and what can break. The computer display shows where and how the units breaks: it turns red. This complex has already been introduced at the Zaporozhsky Plant, and we are installing it at KamAZ. In Russia, this is unique, nobody else produces it. There are similar things in the world, though.

Khaibullins laboratory also reached a very useful result. They used a well-known theory for practical purposes. Its a physical phenomenon: it the surface of a solid body is bombarded with ions, the ions get into the solid, start losing their energy and brake. However, nature is complicated. Fast ionizing particles, while getting into the solid, first lose a small part of their energy, then after some time they explode and release all their energy. The distance at which they explode depends on the speed they arrive at the surface. The greater the speed, the deeper the explosion.

Our colleagues managed to use the effect to paste a film. Knowing the film thickness, they calculate the required speed, then shoot, the ions get through the film and release their energy exactly in the boundary area. Releasing the energy, they melt the film slightly, and the film sticks ideally to the surface.

This is an application of academic physics for things that are of use for everybody. That's applied physics.

WE DO NOT NEED ANY BREAD! WE NEED WORK!

— Mr. Salikhov, is there any need for scientific personnel in the country? That was not easy work before, and I think it is particularly so now. However, under the old regime, it was prestigious, and there was money.

— In principle, I do not think it is so bad now. I mean, it could be much worse, we have already tried it on ourselves. The main point is that in science, at least in our science, we do not care for hardships in the last analysis. Do you know why a scientist has become a scientist? Surely not because of rational ideas! People just catch science. One lives in such an interesting world, and that life is as full as anything on this Earth. It has everything. Victories and defeats, disappointment, joy, and love... Exploration of the completely unknown, the beauty of the unexplored... All that makes a person enthusiastic.

In this country, there are still very many people who caught science. They are the gold and diamond fund of Russia.

However, we do need cash. Not for ourselves, but to buy equipment. That is a very serious problem, because almost all our machines, instruments, and devices are obsolete, sometimes by several generations, and there is no chance for us to upgrade the machines.

— What kind of machines do you need?

— We need urgently a radio spectroscopy center. This is the main point today. Do you see the portrait of Yevgeny Zavoisky on the wall? He is the founder of this Institute, and he discovered electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). But we lack two latest generators of paramagnetic resonance spectrometers! Every laboratory in the world has them. Even in Portugal, where they do not have a clear idea of what EPR is, they have them, but we do not have them in Russia. No two last generations!

— Are the instruments so expensive that we are unable to purchase them?

— Yes, they are very expensive, about $1 million, but I think that the state can buy one or two of them for the whole country. That is a necessary thing, because it is one of the principal methods of scientific research. It has a million useful properties. It can be used to measure the age of any object. Name one! In the West, radio spectrometers are used even to monitor manure. To say nothing of the fact that any wine-growing company uses a spectrometer. In Spain, thousands of winegrowers have it, because they want to follow wine quality in real time. Any chemical enterprise must have it to monitor their technology and to make sure they turn out high-quality products.

— Does it mean that the state is being near-sighted in this case? Or are they too stingy?

— I don't know. I do not envy the statesmen that have to work today in the hardest settings of shortage of everything. It may be that the state has to solve some other top priority problem. However, I am sure that they will get down to science at last.

Dmitry AKSYONOV