My dream was to be a 'scientist' even before I knew what a scientist did. Ashoke Sen More Quotes by Ashoke Sen More Quotes From Ashoke Sen One of the questions that always puzzled human history is, what are we, and everything around us, made of. Ashoke Sen questions everything always history I work in string theory. This is a branch of physics which assumes that the elementary objects in the universe are not particles but one-dimensional objects, that is, strings. Ashoke Sen universe physics theory work Doing physics is a lot of fun if you like it. Ashoke Sen doing you physics fun Good teachers have joined Presidency from different parts of the country and even abroad. We have got idealistic teachers, and we are relying on their idealism. But state universities pay their teachers less than the central ones. If salary is not on a par with central institutes, teachers would tend to leave for those places. Ashoke Sen teachers leave good country The beauty of string theory is that it is all about mathematics. For that, you don't need resources or labs. Just sit in your room and do the maths. Ashoke Sen your you mathematics beauty The beauty of science is to imagine more than we can prove. And string theory gives you a radically different interpretation of the universe. Ashoke Sen you universe beauty science In theoretical physics, one can, in principle, work from anyplace as long as one has a computer and Internet connection. So I do not find any disadvantage of being in Allahabad. Ashoke Sen internet physics work long Indian science has a bright future. Ashoke Sen bright bright-future future science There are no excuses for theoretical physicists not to perform and deliver. Ashoke Sen deliver perform excuses theoretical My work on symmetries of string theory is on what is known as strong-weak coupling duality, or S-duality. Ashoke Sen string duality theory work My work on black holes was on the connection between black holes and elementary particles. Ashoke Sen connection between black work My work indicated that if we consider smaller and smaller black holes, at some stage, the properties of black holes become indistinguishable from those of elementary particles. Ashoke Sen some stage black work One of the main successes of string theory is that it has been able to unify the general theory of relativity, which describes gravity, and quantum mechanics. Ashoke Sen general quantum gravity theory Throughout my work, I have assumed that the standard model is correct, and hence, the Higgs boson should be found. Although this is not directly connected to string theory, the discovery of the Higgs boson demonstrated the power of theoretical reasoning. Ashoke Sen theory power work discovery To me, the most exciting thing about the discovery of the Higgs particle is that its existence was predicted fifty years before its discovery through experiment. Ashoke Sen through me existence discovery Theoretical physics hardly requires any research funding, so I never felt the need. The overall government and institutional support has been good enough for my work. Ashoke Sen good support government work I came to realise that string theory offers us the best hope of finding a unified theory of all matter and forces. Ashoke Sen finding best hope matter I had been interested in particle physics, which deals with the fundamental constituents of matter. Ashoke Sen which been physics matter In many ways, string theory attempts to go beyond Einstein's dream... an all-encompassing description of nature that works at large distances where gravity becomes important as well as small distances where quantum mechanics is important. Ashoke Sen small nature important dream Since my work is theoretical, the financial needs are very little. Doing the research itself is the toughest challenge. Ashoke Sen challenge doing research work