Science in our life

D.R.Bhagat
National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28th February to commemorate the great discovery known as Raman Effect by the Indian physicist Sir C.V.Raman. The discovery was concluded on 28th February, 1928 in presence of some of his brilliant students. It was discovered that when a light of certain wavelength is passed through a transparent medium some of the light is scattered forming some weak lines of different wavelengths which were termed as Raman Lines and the phenomenon came to be known as Raman Effect. The significance of this discovery was quickly recognised by the scientists around the world and it was treated as one of the greatest discoveries of science. This discovery became useful in the study of molecular and crystal structures of different substances and also applied for the analysis of aqueous solutions. It also confirmed the quantum nature of light. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930 for this great discovery. He was the first Indian and the first Asian to get the Nobel Prize in physics. He was also the first scientist to be decorated with Bharat Ratna in 1954.
C.V.Raman, an icon of Indian science was born on 7th November, 1888 at Trichirappalli in Tamil Nadu. From very young age he developed admiration in physics and mathematics. He was a highly brilliant student and passed his matriculation examination at the age of 11 and graduated from Presidency College Madras in 1904 at the age of 16. He obtained his M.A. degree in physics in 1906 with highest distinctions. He appeared in the Indian Accounts Services examination in 1907 and qualified the same with first ranking. He was posted as Assistant Accountant General in Finance Department at Calcutta. Here he met with Dr Amrit Lal Sircar who was the honorary secretary of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science. Having great curiosity for research, he got a chance to use the laboratory of this association for his experiments. He used to work in the laboratory early in the morning before leaving for office and after returning from his office he performed experiments in the laboratory till late night. For his unending love for physics, he resigned from the lucrative government post in 1917 and joined as Professor of physics in the University of Calcutta and continued his research in the same laboratory. Once while returning from London after attending the conference of universities by sea route in 1921, he started thinking about the reason for blue colour of the sea. He did not agree that the blue colour of the sea is due to the reflection of the blue sky. An idea stuck to his brilliant mind that the blue colour could be due to the scattering of sun’s light by water molecules.
On reaching Calcutta he immediately started performing experiments and within a month prepared a research paper on Molecular Scattering of Light and sent it to the Royal Society of London. This paper got much appreciation from scientists of many countries. The Royal Society of London honoured him by electing him as its member in 1924. In1933, he moved to Bangalore where he was appointed as the director of Indian Institute of Science. He was the first Indian to hold this post. In 1934, he founded the Indian Academy of Science and tried to get many scientists to work with him. In 1948, a new research institute named as Raman Research Institute was founded in Bangalore and Raman was appointed as its first director. No doubt Raman is widely known for his great discovery of Raman Effect, he has done remarkable work in acoustics especially the vibrations produced by Indian musical instruments. Throughout his life he remained dedicated to the cause of science and hence the National Council for Science and Technology communication decided in 1986 to celebrate 28th February as National Science Day every year.
The Indian science history dates back to about 5ooo years. Many brilliant scientists and creative minds were born here who made great achievements in different areas of science right from introducing the concept of Zero to exploring the wonders of astronomy. Even the concept of the atom was first proposed by the Indian Scientist Kanada about 2500 years ago and another milestone was achieved by Sushruta, a medical expert by performing the first plastic surgery by mending the nose of a person almost during the same period. Aryabhat was  the first to propose that the earth is round and it rotates on its own axis creating day and night. Many other modern Indian scientists and mathematicians made great contribution to science. Jagdish Chander Bose was the first to invent wireless telegraphy but the Italian scientist Marconi got the patent registered in his name before Bose approached for the same. S.N.Bose discovered Bose-Einstein statistics along with Einstein which is a well known branch of modern science today. Bhabha was a well known atomic scientist and discovered the famous Cascade Theory of Electron Showers for the study of cosmic rays. S.Chandershekhar discovered that stars formed black holes as they die. He also worked on mass and structure of the stars and was awarded the Noble prize for physics in 1983. Similarly Hargobind Khorana, Ramanujam and C.N.R Rao have made great contributions in the field of science and mathematics. Presently there are many science colleges and universities in India imparting scientific knowledge but there has been no proportional increase in the number of scientists of world repute. The scientific temper is lacking in most of the science students of India. These colleges and universities generally give thrust on bookish knowledge and enable the students to get more marks and a good earning job. They fail to create the scientific temper among most of the students and make them innovative. The scientific research is not encouraged as warranted. India lacks exclusive research centres to give an opportunity for research to the aspiring students and scientific minds. There are only a few number of Noble prize winners in the field of science as compared to scientists of Europe and America.
National Science Day is celebrated as a science festival throughout the country. Seminars, science exhibitions and other science related functions are held in universities, colleges and in other science establishments. The basic purpose of celebrating this day is to spread the message about the significance of science in our daily life and to popularise science and technology. Different themes are selected for every year. The theme for the year 2014 is “Fostering scientific temper” which is very vital for a scientist to encourage him for research.

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