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Who will be the legends of our time?

I've been reading more and more of late on Physics and Physicists and the sorts of work conducted in the recent past. I had come across this Airtel ad



a while back which goes into some detail about the many people who have made India what it is and it got me thinking... what will be the names they use in the future? The ad is a bit off... for example, there were many others (like Tesla and Marconi) working on radio communication during the same time as Bose...

It is truly amazing to me to look into the fascinating contribution of physicists from India. People such as Jagdish Chandra Bose and his namesake Satyendra Nath Bose (after whom the quantum physics particle boson is named) have made incredible contributions to our understanding of our world. But they are just some of the great names that come from the sub-continent. Still others like Ramanujan show a fascinating side of humanity; the need to learn, the need to be curious.

I am a big fan of the advertising agency that does Airtel's ads; their marketing is subtle and I for one wouldn't have guessed they were in the telecommunication business (well apart from the -tel in their name).



Somehow, they have captured an idea on film that speaks about communication in a different light than the number of minutes of talk time you have or the number of GB of data bandwidth you are allowed to use. Sprinkle in a little bit of the genius that is AR Rahman, and you have a winning advertising campaign. So are they the heros of our time? I am sure Rahman is, but can an advertising agency?

If we could step back to Physics for a second, I wonder if you can name a contemporary physicist. Or a mathematician or biologist for that matter. Because I can't. It isn't because they don't exist; there are plenty of very worthy scientists out there who win the Nobel prize every year (and probably a hundred more who don't win for every one that wins) but it feels like they have almost no impact on our lives. I feel like we are more obsessed with Lady Gaga or the lunatic fringes of political society than we are with science and the advancement of knowledge. I don't know what it was like for the great minds of the past during their lifetimes, but whatever the case, their work has had a lasting impact on the world in one way or the other.

Anyway, I am not quite sure where I was headed with this post... oh yeah, I was pondering who the people of the future will look back upon as someone who had made an incredible contribution to life as they will come to know it. I don't know. And I am sad I don't know. Can you think of any?
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