Mind the vital instrument

The following makes the first instilment of Dr. M Ali Asgar's original article titled "Establishment of an Interactive science discovery centre in Asia-Pacific region."
By way of introducing the idea of establishing a science discovery centre in our region, where scientists from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brunei and Bangladesh can interact in their creative activities, I would like to reflect on the following aspects. The act of discovery as a phenomenon, the process of making scientific discovery, the conditions for discovery, the importance of new discovery at this time of rapid growth in scientific knowledge and its relevance to developing countries, the need for inter-country cooperation in our region and the way a science discovery centre can be made to work.
Although a distinction is made between discovery and invention, where the former usually refers to finding out new phenomena or laws of nature and the latter to creating new devices; and also between science and technology referring to know why and know how respectively, we will use these terms in a more general way to include technology within science and invention and innovation within discovery.
The act of discovery: Scientific discovery is an act of creating new knowledge generating new ideas, concepts and relations between natural objects and events. In its generalized meaning, where the world discovery includes invention and innovation as well, our increasingly fuller and more accurate knowledge of the universe and the power to control the environment are derived from the discovery of new laws of nature, new products and process instruments and devices and acquisition of new information and understanding. The successful act of this discovery requires no doubt, elaborate apparatus, long preparation, information and investment, but the most important instruments in discovery must always be the human mind.
TO BE CONTINUED

The author is President Bangladesh Physical Society and Fellow Bangladesh Academy of Science.