The unsung heroes of science

Mukundarajan V N
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Science is a collaborative endeavour. No scientific invention or discovery is original. Looks counter-intuitive, isn’t it? Scientific breakthroughs do not happen all of a sudden, they take earlier theories, conjectures and theses to their logical conclusions. They build on and expand the work in a discipline left unfinished by earlier pioneers in the field.

When we think of scientists, we immediately imagine people like Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. The progenitors and precursors of great scientific inventions, however, do not get the fame they deserve. We seldom ask, for example, about who sowed the seeds of the digital age in which we are living.

Claude Shannon is one such unsung hero. He can be called the father of the Information Age. He was a brilliant mathematician and engineer. His 1948 paper “ A Mathematical theory of Communication”, can be called the Magna Carta of the Information Age. He coined the term ‘bit’ or binary digit.

Claude Shannon was a true Karmayogi — a man for whom work was its own reward. He never chased awards and prizes although they chased him. He pursued science as an enterprise of curiosity. He gave few interviews. Humility was his second self.

He was uncomfortable with the publicity that his paper evoked. He said, “I don’t think I was ever motivated by the notion of winning prizes, although I have a couple of dozen of them in the other room. I was more motivated by curiosity. Never by the desire for financial gain. I just wondered how things were put together. Or what laws or rules govern a situation, or if there are theorems about what one can’t or can do. Mainly because I wanted to know myself.”

Unsung heroes like Claude Shannon deserve a place in the pantheon of great scientists. A biography of this great scientist has been recently published — “A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age.” authored by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman.

Let’s hope that posterity will remember Claude Shannon for his contribution to the creation of the digital age.

Mukundarajan V N
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