Here it is - the twenty first century has arrived.  Except for children, perhaps, we all  thought we would never live to this day.

Indeed, the twenty-first century has come but it doesn't at all resemble the one that we imagined when reading Arthur Clark's novel. The new century... As if yesterday it wasn’t exactly the same... Fantastic tales of this millennium will be written by the dreamers of this century. As far as we are concerned, for us our fairy tales have already and sufficiently come true.

This century has brought a magic mirror to every family and you won't find a child who hasn't flown a magic carpet.

This century has also brought the most dangerous and daunting discoveries to the world. From a future perspective, however, it is possible that everything might look quite different.

To think about the greatest discoveries at the turn of the century, and more so with a person who himself has been a part of such discoveries, is really interesting.

"One physicist jokingly said: "Curiosity is the major driving force of science", smiles astrophysicist Jumber Lominadze, the secretary-academician of the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

"I am often asked how I could have worked on developing such a terrifying weapon as the nuclear weapon. Science exists to enable us to explain the mysteries of nature. Nothing on earth can stop a man until his curiosity is satisfied. Sometimes people say that it would've been better if nuclear energy hadn't been discovered. I cannot agree with this statement. It was the explanation of the greatest mystery of nature. However, subsequently, this discovery was used terribly by politicians. Einstein said: "A scientist is obliged to explain all the mysteries of nature, but how this is going to be used by people  is determined by politicians." Unfortunately, they tend to determine it very badly.

"When the Second World War broke out, Germany was very close to the discovery of the nuclear bomb. Einstein and other scientists addressed Roosevelt emphasizing a pressing need to create the atomic bomb because they feared that Germany would make the entire world kneel before it. When in 1945, the Americans were ready to test the bomb in Japan, it was again Einstein who begged Truman not to do so.

"The development of the nuclear bomb was a beautiful physics"- these words belong to a famous physicist of our day, Enriko Fermie. This was physics such as it did not exist before. This was substance in extreme conditions: the temperature of one million degrees and pressure above one million atmospheres..."

It was in the sixth grade that Jumber Lominadze decided to dedicate himself to physics. His father brought him Smith's "Nuclear Energy for Military Purposes" to read. The information provided in the book impressed the child immensely. In 1949 he finished school and passed examinations at the Physics Department of Tbilisi University. After two years he moved to Moscow to continue his studies at the Physics Department of the State University. However, for over a year he was not accepted there only because of one sentence written clearly in the Communist Party history textbook: "Political rogues Lominadze, Sirtsov and others hampered the realization of the new economic policy..." The aforementioned Besarion Lominadze was Mr. Jumber Lominadze's close relative. Ultimately, Jumber Lominadze was enrolled at the University and graduated with honors from the Department of Physics specializing in nuclear energy and substance structure. Upon graduation, he was sent to work at the classified facility "Cheljabinsk 70".

"After the Americans had tested their nuclear weapon in Japan, the Soviet Union spared no effort to create the weapon of a similar type. In "Cheljabinsk 70" the research was conducted right in front of me. The nuclear weapon had, obviously, done a frightening job: hundreds of thousands of people died in Japan. However, as the former Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher declared, rapid growth of nuclear armament has prevented the Third World War. Many politicians and scientists share this opinion. Indeed, it was fear that stopped this from happening. It is inappropriate, perhaps,  to quote here Rustaveli's aphorism: "Fear bears love", yet it is a fact that the fear factor has played a crucial role".

Before 1920’s, scientists thought that discoveries in physics were over, that all laws had been written down. All of a sudden, from 1924, an entirely new branch of physics - quantum mechanics began to emerge. It is difficult to define its essence in one word. But for assessment purposes, a phrase uttered half-humorously by the scientist can be applied: "Quantum mechanics is impossible to perceive, one should get used to it". This branch of science was a revolution in physics.

"If not for quantum mechanics, there would be neither laser nor nuclear physics  or its development. Scientists still continue work to gain control over thermonuclear reaction.

"Over billions of years an enormous amount of energy has been generated in the  universe from all stars, including the sun. It has been proved that a fusion reaction of heavy hydrogen occurs on the sun at the temperature of one million degrees centigrade. You will be surprised to learn that during experiments, 600 million degree temperatures have been obtained in thermonuclear devices on earth."

Stephen Hawking, a 58 year-old scientist, lives in Cambridge. At the age of 28, he became seriously ill and now he is unable to move and sits motionless.  This person has created a contemporary theory of the origin of the universe - quantum cosmology. This is what he concludes: "Our universe was created at some point in time meaning that someone has created it. And who could the creator be? Only God!" About his book "A Short History of Time" published in 1988, Hawking remarks: "I have written a book about the existence or non-existence of God".

"There are unique phenomena known as black holes. What are they? Had our sun been twice as heavy, after a certain period of time when the main source of its energy – hydrogen - burns out, the sun would collapse inward at a tremendous speed. The sun’s diameter, which is currently 1,400 thousand kilometers, would become approximately 3 kilometers. It would be a compact body - a black hole with amazingly high density. This is the theory that Hawking is trying to tackle with. Nowadays black holes have been discovered. They possess a tremendous gravitational force. It is possible that in the distant future man will use this energy."
The established universe stands to one side, but its mysteries, which science constantly seeks to explain, stand to the other. Isn't such excessive curiosity really a blasphemy and don't we sometimes seem to forget the price of obtaining the forbidden fruit?

When studying such issues, sometimes scientists turn to the Bible for help. About the creation of the universe, the Bible says: "Day one of the creation and not the first day". Scientists do not deny the existence of God.

For instance, Einstein said: "Did God have any choice when he was creating the Universe? ... If I were God, I would have created the Universe in the same manner".

Niels Bore: "It is none of our business to discuss how God should rule the Universe".
Steve Hawking: "We must find out what God had in mind".

The birth of the computer has played a tremendous role in the discoveries of the century. Isn't the creation of a machine, capable of performing a billion operations in a second, a miracle?  Information gets disseminated at the speed of light. Currently scientists are grappling with the idea of creating a machine that would challenge the mind of a man. A new field of science has even been created to study computer intellect. However, scientists conclude that the intellectual capability of today’s machine is at the level of an earthworm.

According to Gordon Moor's law, the speed and complexity of computer operations double every 18 months. If this process continues, it could happen that in ten years’ time the computer might develop the ability to think of its own. Nevertheless, it seems to me that replacing the mind of a man, which has been developing and improving in the course of millions of years, with something else is impossible. How can human emotions be replicated?"

Yet the greatest achievement of the twentieth century was the discovery of a double spiral in a gene.

"The development of genetic engineering will render fight against genetic diseases possible. And such a time is not too far away. However, a great deal of caution needs to be taken in this area as well, to ensure that these discoveries are not abused".

Almost everything in the universe is subject to a certain logic and regularity. It is curious to know to what extent such logic applies to Mr.Lominadze's life considering his current occupation.  As a matter of fact, he has the answer ready to this question:

"I'm often asked what am I, a man who has spent his entire life in science, doing in the Central Electoral Commission as a chairman?  Firstly, the Academy of Sciences and the Central Electoral Commission are located at a stone's throw from each other - it takes 5 minutes to get from one place to the other.  Secondly, the thing is that my predecessors - the academicians Merab Aleksidze and Vano Kiguradze were mathematicians. It is true that I am not a mathematician and I work in theoretical physics, but I can also count. If I were serious in responding to this question, I'd say that I work in astrophysics and I need only paper, a pencil and something very important - a brain."

"Science is the satisfaction of one's curiosity at the expense of the state", agrees Mr. Lominadze with the observation of one scholar. At the same time, he fears that considering the country's budgetary problems, these words may have adverse implications when the issue of financing science is concerned.

"Yet even greater surprises are to be anticipated in the coming millennium and the role of Georgia in deciphering them is going to be far from modest. The works of Georgian scientists that are being discussed worldwide allow us to make such a statement."

"For example, for eleven years the 36 year-old Gia Dvali has been conducting research in the United States. Currently he is a professor at New York University. He has published a book in conjunction with his American colleagues, Ahmed Dawkott (an Iranian, born in the USA) and Domopoulos (Greek). These three surnames (under the abbreviation: ADD have attracted worldwide attention. There is a notion of "Reference Index" in science meaning that if you have carried out a study and someone has used it, your name will be indicated as a reference source. If 20-30 people refer to a scientist in a year, it is considered to be a very good indicator, if their number exceeds 60, then it is incredibly good. There are around 1,700 references of the works published by ADD in 1998 and in subsequent years.
"What is the reason for this? Why is this work so interesting? Our universe has existed for 12 billion years. They say that Newton discovered the law of gravity and Einstein made it more complicated. However, it is still unclear why the force of gravity is relatively weak in comparison to the other three fundamental forces of nature. Gia Dvali and his colleagues have proposed a very interesting idea: of the four dimensions known to date, they have added other dimensions. If this postulate is applied, everything will change and, what is most important, the force of gravity may not prove so weak at the short distance. To test this theory, three extremely expensive experiments are being conducted in the United States. Two thin plates are taken and placed at a distance of 0.2 mm. The force of gravity will be measured between these two plates.

"There are many gifted young Georgian people working and doing research abroad. This is where our wealth is. In Russia there are institutes that have suffered 80 percent brain drain. Georgians do not like to live elsewhere but they can do nothing about it... People need the backing and assistance of the state."

Thus, the twentieth century has elapsed... The mind and the intellect of this century comprise Georgian intellect as well, but obviously, with a non-Georgian name.
What is going to happen in the new century? Perhaps in this century Georgian intellect will bear a Georgian name...

TINATIN DVALISHVILI