This is a public lecture by Jury Chair for the Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences, Prof. S.R. Srinivas Kulkarni, Director, Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA. The lecture will be Co-hosted by the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Infosys Science Foundation, and is going to be held at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, 4 PM, 29th November 2011.