Category Scientist & Invensions

Sir C. V. Raman is best known for his work in the field of light scattering. Raman was intrigued by the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean Sea and wanted to unravel the mystery as to why water, a colourless liquid, appeared blue to the eyes.

    Thus, he began a series of experiments on the scattering of light which ultimately led to what came to be known as the ‘Raman Effect’. Raman also discovered that when light interacts with a molecule, the light can donate a small amount of energy to te molecule. As a result of this, the light changes its colour and the molecule vibrates.

   The change of colour can act as a ‘fingerprint’ for the molecule. Today, Raman spectroscopy, which relies on these ‘fingerprints,’ is used in laboratories all over the world to identify molecules and to detect disease such as cancer.

     Sir C. V. Raman received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. He was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, and is considered to be a scientist par excellence.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was, without doubt, a mathematical genius. Without any formal training in the subject, he made significant contributions to the theory of numbers, investigation of elliptical functions, infinite series, continued fractions, and Mock theta functions.

    Ramanujan showed a natural inclination towards mathematics when he was ten years old. By age 11 he had more mathematical knowledge than two college students who were lodgers at his home. He completely mastered advanced trigonometry by the age of 13, and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own.

   His memory for mathematical formulae and constants seems to have been boundless- he amazed classmates with his ability to recite the values of irrational numbers to as many decimal places as they asked for.

   Ramanujan went to Cambridge in April 1914, thanks to the help of Prof. G. H. Hardy. Two years later, he was awarded the equivalent of a PhD. for his work. The notebooks he had brought from India were filled with thousands of identities, equations and theorems which he had discovered for himself.

   In 1918 Ramanujan became the first Indian Mathematician to be elected a Fellow of the British Royal Society.

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose is one of the most famous among Indian scientists. He was a physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist, as well as a writer of science fiction.

  Bose proved by experimentation that both animals and plants share much in common. He demonstrated that plants are also sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various other external stimuli.

   Bose built a very sophisticated instrument called Crescograph which could record and observe the minute responses of plants to external stimulants. He authored two illustrious books and extensively researched the behavior of radio waves.

       Bose devised another instrument called ‘Coherer’. In 1917, he founded the Bose Institute, and dedicated it to the promotion of scientific studies in India.

Aryabhata was a great mathematician and astronomer in Ancient India. He wrote many mathematical and astronomical treatises. His chief work was the ‘Ayrabhatiya’ which was a compilation of mathematics and astronomy.

   Ayrabhatiya covers several branches of mathematics such as algebra, arithmetic, plane and spherical trigonometry. Included in it are theories on continued fractions, sum of power series, sine tables, and quadratic equations.

  Aryabhata also did a considerable amount of work in astronomy. He knew that the Earth is rotating on an axis around it. He discovered the position of nine planets and stated that these also revolved around the sun.

    Aryabhata stated that the correct number of days in a year is 365. He was the first person to mention that the Earth was not flat but, in fact spherical shape. This great man has been honored in many ways. The first Indian satellite was named ‘Aryabhata’. A lunar crater and Indian research centre also bear his name.