September 14, 2009

Hannan - An enquiry into the Truth !

I hope that many of you have seen the news in the Matrubhumi Daily (14th September 2009) - Front page (See the online version : http://bit.ly/2Iq2Rj , seems like Matrubhumi removed the online version today - 17 september 2009). The news is about a girl called Hannan Binth Hashim - a child prodigy on Astrophysics who is honoured by Nasa and other various Science and Technology Centres around the world for her exceptional works in the field of Astrophysics, She is said to have introduced to NASA by APJ Abdul Kalam.

After the news came in Matrubhumi yesterday, many of our ministers including M.A Baby and all called her and appreciated (thanks for their great mind), but how many of us dared to cross-check the news to see if it is true.

The same news was published in the Indian Express,The Indian express published it on 19th June 2009,page 5,second column. You can find the link here http://bit.ly/2Yu0Ta .

While the news in Indian express came out, I was glad to see an Indian child prodigy, and I have informed about this to some of my professors.To my shock, they have asked me to check the validity of the news and told me that it is a fake news.


Please see the result of my quick googling and research on this news. (Most of the European countries have something called Media Watch, an agency to criticise and verify the news, so most of the media people are conscious while making the news.Sadly, we don't have any such thing in India.).

Facts about the news

1 . There is nothing called American Institute of theoretical physics or American Journal of theoritical physics (The news says that she is publishing her works in that journal).

2. There is no sign of any reputed Science Journals or Magazines published about her theory yet (Do a simple google search, all you can find is the replicas of the news came in Indian express and nothing else like a Scientific paper or anything like that).

3. I couldn't find any proof of appreciation by APJ Abdul Kalam, Barak Obama or any other members of any Scientific Community.

4. Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology competition is only Open to United State nationals.
5. She is said to have presented papers and took lectures in various scientific communities, meetings and Institutes. Is there any video lecture or anything related to any of these. This is an information era - why couldn't I find anything in the Internet.
6. There is no information about a course offered by Nasa Space School available even in the official Nasa site - For-Students Site (checkout : http://bit.ly/AZrFX).

The Space School actually offers a 5 day workshop,The students will experience a 5 day engineering mission to land a rover on the surface of Mars ( Any interesting student team can participate : http://bit.ly/ejXiU ).
7. She is saying in one news that we don't have enough facilities to learn her subjects in India, checkout Indian Institute of Astrophysics (http://www.iiap.res.in/) and Indian Institute of Sciences (http://bit.ly/FRzaY).
8. Above all read the two news and one can find contradictions in the statements, that itself verifies the unautheticity of the news and how ignorant our media persons are.
9. And why Honorable APJ Abdul Kalam recommended her to NASA while we have ISRO here.
10. After all, see this old scandals about another Indian Child Prodigies.
http://bit.ly/3sc5Kp

11.The theory she is working on is expected to disprove Einstein, it is about the speed of light, she is trying to prove that the speed of light may vary, but this was suggested even before many years (See the link : http://bit.ly/4td9GV).

I am not personally against Hannan or her abilities, I do wish if there is a few original child prodigies from India.What I still don't understand is why media people are this much ignorant and what Hannans can gain from such fake media publicity ?
Please do check carefully before you believe anymore news in the media, and see how ignorant our media is. Let us hope for the best.

This article was published on 9/14/09 by Dharan P Deepak

20 comments:

shobana said...

Great people always analyse, even the simple thing in great way.....

"Enquiery"-is it enquiry

shobana said...

but it is really interesting, like a court argument...

Dathan said...

Thank u for understanding the real fact.

NextDoorNerd said...

Thanks Shobhana for pointing out the mistakes..

NextDoorNerd said...

Thanks to one of my friend for pointing out the Hoot - http://www.thehoot.org, an Indian media watch dog...

LEKSMI said...

I accept the universe!

saran said...

the media is simply giving hype to some shitty news before even cross-checking the facts. if it is true, the girl needs appreciation. and if it ain't true, some one needs to sue her for whatever she have and whatever she's ever gonna have...!! This news needs to undergo a validation test.. mathrubhoomi people just need some news for their publicity. they never care to analyze the truth.

NextDoorNerd said...

But why the parents are ready to support these kind of activities.. I still don't understand it..

I'm certain that it is not gonig to do any good in the future... right ??

Anonymous said...

She is my friend's niece. I will get more details and comment here.
Salam, Dubai

NextDoorNerd said...

That will be appreciated a lot..

Ratheesh said...

thanks for this news

NextDoorNerd said...

The online version of the news is removed by Matrubhumi.. but still they are not ready to apologise for their mistake...

I updated the article with the image of the original news paper article, since they have removed the online version...

Anoop said...

Good work, Nerd.

A disgraceful and indiscreet act by the media, indeed.

There are some orkut communities for Hannan Binth Hashim already. Lots of people have just believed the articles. I tried mailing the community owners the link to your blog. Hope they come to their senses.

Hannan may be a brilliant student who is a victim of misunderstanding, but a misplaced glorification of such magnitude by a leading Malayalam daily will only be perceived as a blot on her character.

Anonymous said...

Miss Hannan is either a very clever fraud or a highly imaginative kid who has mistaken fantasy for reality. Don’t spoil the kid by dancing to her tunes. Save her from her fantasies and guide her to the right path towards the study of science. She may grow out of her fantasy to become a great scientist, of course not right now, but later, much later, after years! I wish the poor girl a bright future.

Unknown said...

i am giving a very simple challenge for her from the very basics of special relativity.she will easily do it if she is a prodigy as everyone says.prove that del square E(x,y,z,t)=(1/c^2) d^2 E(x,y,z,t)/dt^2(where E is the electric field vector,c->speed of light,del->gradient operator,^->raised to) is invariant under lorentz transformation.

Unknown said...

i am giving a very simple challenge for her from the very basics of special relativity.she will easily do it if she is a prodigy as everyone says.prove that del square E(x,y,z,t)=(1/c^2) d^2 E(x,y,z,t)/dt^2(where E is the electric field vector,c->speed of light,del->gradient operator,^->raised to) is invariant under lorentz transformation.ie,if we change del to del',which corresponds to gradient operator with respect to an inertial frame which having spatial and temporal coordinates(x',y',z',t'),the above equation takes the same form in the 2 inertial frames in relative motion with respect to each other.(both the postulates of special relativity viz,constancy of speed light and the principle of relativity is preserved by the above transformation).i challenge her to do this simple problem infront of me.

Anonymous said...

Anybody who has even a little common sense can see it is a fraud.There were red flags all over. Here are some of the basic red flags.
* Neil Armstrong does not live in Lebanon. He lives near Lebanon,Ohio (There are place names like Lebanon, Angola, Bethlehem all over the US). This news about Armstrong is perpetuated in Muslim circles around the world (Another one is that he converted to Islam!)
*It is unthinkable for Barack Obama or Neil Armstrong to communicate regularly with anybody like this. They don't. In fact Armstrong is a recluse who shuns any public contacts.
*There is no way a 14 year old child can do the things that have been mentioned - designing rockets, and testing it in NASA in a few weeks. Those are done after years of design and trials by teams of engineers. Ignorance again!
I am glad that others have realized the fraud.
Just like what we see about miracle healers, God-men. Media cannot be believed at the outset. Not even CNN, NBC or FoxNews. Don't believe anything without verifying.

Kitten Kabuda said...

This story has been going on since April (in a slightly different name), as time goes on stories are just getting more elaborate to address the objections (like the eligibility of Westinghouse competition). Appears like a deliberate effort.

Please see here - from April 21, 2009
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/bengaluru/teen-test-einstein-theory-736

Anonymous said...

Just came across your posting - very interesting - even if it has not yet been admitted!

Another possible science scandal (here in the US), which has yet to come to light and that the media has yet to acknowledge was the bogus results of the 2004 Siemens science competition, in which that year's top winner claimed to have invented a NEW alternative energy technology that, in fact, was over 30 years old (but little known). Not only were the, so called, experts who were asked to judge the competition completely duped, but all those in the media were as well (well, that's not so hard to believe). It remains to be seen if Siemens will ever fess up, or if the media is going to go back and check that one out again.

For those curious, check into the 2004 Siemens competition results and the claimed "new" technology.

I think it is very important that, in particular, science scams and bogus science stories are ferreted out as quickly as possible, because people (and the media) tend to trust scientists far more than ordinary people - and that's the way it should remain. If scientists lose credibility (as with climate change research) then we are in serious trouble!

Anonymous said...

So sry I think ur new is fake, i mean she is my family member and I was there with here when she met apj Abdul Kalaam and she has a company called haqien she is the ceo . Pls I would recommend u remove this pathetic blogpost and write something relevant like seriously she is a great person .