D R Bhagat
The Indian science history dates back to 3000 years. Many scientists and creative minds were born here who made great achievements in diverse fields of science like physiology, physics, chemistry, mathematics and astronomy. Some of them were much ahead of their times who made great discoveries which has greatly helped in bringing the science to the present level. Aryabhat, who lived in the 5th century A.D was a great mathematician and an astronomer. He gave the concept of Zero and changed the course of mathematics in the world. He also did a great work in astronomy. He was the first to deduce that the earth is round and that it rotates on its own axis forming day and night. He also declared that moon is dark and it shines only because of the sun light and the eclipses are caused by the shadow cast by the earth on the moon. He was the first to compute the circumference of the earth as 24835 miles which is very close to modern day calculations of 24900 miles. Sage Kanada who lived in the 6th century B.C was the first proponent of the atomic theory. He stated that the Parmanu (atom) is indivisible and the whole world is made up of atoms. He added that there are varieties of atoms that are different as the different classes of substance. Each Parmanu has a peculiar property which is the same as the class of substance it belongs to. He also noted that Parmanu or the atoms have a tendency to combine together to form what we call now molecules. Centuries later Dalton gave his Atomic Theory based on these facts. Another scientist Sushruta who also lived in 6th century B.C was a surgeon. He wrote ‘Sushruta Samhita’ explaining his surgical methods. In his book he described how to pull out teeth and how to fix broken bones.
He was also expert in removing kidney stones. He performed the first ever plastic surgery to mend nose of a person about 26 centuries ago and came to be known as father of the plastic surgery. Charka was another genius in medicines who contributed to the science of Ayurveda. He was born around 300 BC. He wrote a famous treatise called ‘Charka Samhita’ which is used as a reference book even today.
He was the first to present the concept of digestion, metabolism, immunity and the fundamentals of genetics. He also calculated the number of bones in the human body. He is still called the father of medicine. Bhaskaracharya who lived in 12th century A.D was a genius in mathematics and astronomy.
He wrote books on arithmetic, algebra, calculus, trigonometry and astronomy. In his book on astronomy, he wrote about the gravitational force that helps to keep the planets in their respective orbits much before the rest of the world even thought about it.
His work on calculus predates Newton and Leibniz.
Among the modern Indian scientists, the discovery made by C.V Raman is known as one of the greatest discoveries in science. He discovered a new phenomenon of scattering of light.
When a light ray of certain wavelength is passed through a transparent medium, some of the light is scattered forming some spectral lines of different wavelengths. These lines came to be known as Raman Lines and the phenomenon came to be known as Raman Effect.
This great discovery was made on 28 February 1928 and this day is now celebrated as National Science Day. The significance of this discovery was quickly recognized by the scientists all over the world.
The discovery became useful in the study of molecular and crystal structures. This discovery also proved the particle nature of light.
He also explained that the blue colour of the sea is not due to the reflection of the sky but due to the scattering of sun’s light by water molecules.
He was the first Asian to get Nobel Prize in physics. Satyender Nath Bose was another Indian scientist who made a mark in the history of science.
He wrote an article “Max Plank’s Law and Light Quantum hypothesis” at the age of 19 which was published in an internationally reputed science journal and received the attention of many scientists of the world.
In 1925 he visited Berlin to work with Einstein who was the greatest scientist of the century.
On the basis of his published article and in working with Einstein, he created a new chapter in the newly discovered Quantum Mechanic. This was known as Bose-Einstein Statistics which deals with the study of gas like behavior of certain particles which came to be known as bosons after his name.
They also predicted a new state of matter which could be made by cooling the bosons to very low temperature to cause them to condense resulting into a new form of matter. This was known as Bose-Einstein Condensate and is the 5th state of matter.
This was actually made by two scientists of University of Colorado after more than 50 years. Both of them were awarded with the Nobel Prize. But Bose was never considered for Nobel Prize which he deserved for his great achievements.
Ramanunjam was a great and self taught mathematician who was born in 1887 in Tamil Nadu. At the age of 13, he got a book of trigonometry from a college student which was not even a subject of his class.
He studied this book thoroughly and mastered it within a short time. He even discovered some theorems and formulae of his own. He sent about hundred theorems to prof G.H.Hardy, a renowned mathematician at Cambridge University who came to know about the genius of Ramanunjam from his work and invited him to Cambridge to work with him.
The notable works of this collaboration were the Partition Theory that counts the number of ways a natural number can be decomposed into smaller parts. They also worked on Divergent Theory of numbers.
He discovered Bernaulli Numbers independently which are extremely important in number theory and analysis.
Prof Hardy remarked that Ramanunjam played with mathematics like a child plays with toys.
He was elected as the member of the London Mathematical society in 1917 and Fellow of Royal Society of London in 1918 and also the fellow of Trinity College. S.Chandrashekhar another Tamil Nadu born scientist is a big name in astronomy.
He worked in the University of Chicago and Yerkes Observatory in America.
His contributions to the science of astronomy are the evolution and structures of stars, the Theory of White Dwarf stars and the mathematical theory of black holes. These theories are widely accepted till date. He got the Noble prize in Physics in 1983.
NASA in his honor has renamed their X-ray astrophysics facility as the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Jagdish Chander Bose was a great scientist who was both a Physicist and a biologist.
He is the real inventor of Wireless Telegraphy. But before he could register his patent, Marconi an Italian scientist had got this patent secured in his name and came to be known as inventor of wireless telegraphy.
Bose discovered that plants feel pain like animals.
He also found that plants shrink a little during the night.
He further discovered that plants always grow towards light even if they have to bend and that all plants respond to touch of a man. To honor this great scientist, a crater on far side of the moon has been named after him.
There are more Indian scientists like APJ Abdul Kalam, Birbal Sahni, Meghnand Saha, Shanti Sarup Bhatnagar, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai and many others who contributed a lot for the development of science and took India to great heights in the field of sciences. Our scientists are the real wealth of India.
