Kolkata, Jan 9 (IANS): Noble laureate American physicist David J. Gross on Tuesday said many of the major problems in today's world such as racism, bigotry, fanaticism of terror and threat to the environment are caused by the sheer ignorance of people.

He urged students to take responsibility to drive away these shortcomings from society.

"There are many problems and dangers that we all face: the massive inequalities that exist in and among the nations, persistence of useless war and violence, the danger of fanaticism of terror, the threats to the environment and to the health of our planet," Gross said during his address as the chief guest at the 52nd convocation of Indian Statistical Institute here.

"The cause of many of these problems is sheer ignorance - the ignorance of science that could solve many of the world's problems, the ignorance of basic facts such as all of us had a single mother only a few thousand generations ago, makes racism and bigotry still possible while the ignorance of other cultures promote fanatical nationalism."

"As the possessor of knowledge of the 21st century, one should take the responsibility to strive to dispel this ignorance," he told the students present at the event.

Gorss who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, however, stressed believing the wrong things or the illusion of knowledge is far worse than the ignorance.

"The reason that the fundamentalists are dangerous is not so much that they are ignorant but that they are certain that they possess the absolute truth. It is this certainty that that can lead to repression, bigotry, racism and fanaticism," he added.

Stating that students should best utilise the privilege of knowledge, he asked them to follow their heart in their in choosing the career and also advised them to "aim high and dare to fail".