Jagdish Chandra Bose
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Jagdish Chandra Bose (Bengali: জগদীশ চন্দ্র বসু Jôgdish Chôndro Boshu) (November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937) was a Bengali physicist from Undivided India, who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics. He is also considered as the father of Bengali language Science Fiction.
Early life
Bose was born in Mymensingh (ময়মনসিংহ) in Bengal (now in Bangladesh) (বাংলাদেশ) on November 30, 1858. His father, Bhagawan Chandra Bose worked as a tax collector for the British East India Company. His family originally hailed from the village Rarikhal, Bikrampur, in the current day Dhaka District of Bangladesh.Having started his studies in a local school, Bose studied at the St. Xavier's School and College at Kolkata. He passed the Entrance examination (equivalent to school graduation) of Calcutta University in 1875. He received a B.A. in Science from Calcutta University in 1879. Next, Bose went to England to study at Christ's College, Cambridge. He received a B.A. from Cambridge University and a B.Sc. from the London University in 1884. Following that, he returned to Kolkata and joined Presidency College as an assistant professor of physics.
Radio research
In November 1894 J.C. Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using electromagnetic waves, confirming that communication signals can be sent without using wires. This was one year after Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication in 1893. Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose said he was not interested in commercial telegraphy and others can use his research work. Later in 1899 Bose announced his invention of the "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at Royal Society, London.It appears that Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi. He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components. In 1954 Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semi-conducting crystal as a detector of radio waves. Further work at millimeter wavelengths was almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. J.C. Bose was at least this much ahead of his time. Just one hundred years ago, J.C. Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Calcutta at millimeter wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarizers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute[link] in Calcutta. Some concepts from his original 1897 papers have been incorporated into a new 1.3-mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Meter Telescope, Arizona, U.S.A. [link].
Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."
Career as a teacher
He was also known as an excellent teacher who believed in the use of classroom demonstrations, a trait apparently picked up while studying with Lord Rayleigh at Cambridge. He influenced many later Indian physicists, including Satyendra Bose (no relation) who later went on to be an influential figure in 20th century physics.He was greatly interested in Vedanta. While he was teaching at Presidency College in Kolkata, he met the famous Indian yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda. Their meeting is described in Yogananda's autobiography, in the chapter titled [India's Great Scientist, J. C. Bose].
Plant research
His next contribution to the science was in plant physiology. He forwarded a theory for the ascent of sap in plants in 1927, his theory contributed to the vital theory of ascent of sap. According to his theory the pumping action of the living cells in the endodermis junction were responsible for the ascent of sap in plants.
He was skeptical about the the-then most popular theory in ascent of sap, the tension-cohesion theory of Dixon and Joly, first proposed in 1894. His skepticism on the same turned true when Canny proposed the most successful 'The CP theory' backed by strong experimental evidence. Canny experimentally demonstrated the sort of pumping in the living cells in the junction of the endodermis, which JC Bose demonstrated 60 years earlier.
His research in plant stimuli were pioneering, he showed with the help of his newly invented crescograph that plants responded to various stimuli as if they had nervous systems like that of animals. He therefore found a parallelism between animal and plant tissues.
His experiments showed that plants grow faster in pleasant music and its growth retards in noise or harsh sound. This was experimentally verified later on. His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the demonstration of the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli (wounds, chemical agents) in plants, which were earlier thought to be of chemical in nature. These claims were experimentally proved by *Wildon et al (Nature, 1992, 360, 62–65). He also studied for the first time action of microwaves in plant tissues and corresponding changes in the cell membrane potential, mechanism of effect of seasons in plants, effect of chemical inhibitor on plant stimuli, effect of temperature etc,. And all studies were pioneering. He claimed that plants can "feel pain, understand affection etc," from the analysis of the nature of variation of the cell membrane potential of plants, under different circumstances. According to him a plant treated with care and affection gives out a different vibration compared to a plant subjected to torture.
Science Fiction
In 1896, Bose wrote `Niruddesher Kahini' the first Bangla Science Fiction. Later, he added the story in `Obbakto' book as `Polatok Tufan'. He's the first SF writer of Bangla.Legacy
Bose’s place in history has now been re-evaluated, and he is credited with the invention of the first wireless detection device and the discovery of millimetre length electromagnetic waves and considered a pioneer in the field of biophysics.Many of his instruments are still on display and remain largely usable now, over 100 years later. They include various antennas, polarizers, and waveguides, all of which remain in use in modern forms today.
Publications
- Nature published about 27 papers.
- J.C. Bose, Collected Physical Papers. New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1927
- Secret life of plants
- Researches into the Irritability of Plants
- The Ascent of Sap
- The Nervous Mechanisms of Plants
Honors
- Knighthood, 1916
- Fellow of the Royal Society (1920)
- Member of the Vienna Academy of Science, 1928
- President of the 1927 session of the Indian Science Congress Association
- Member of the League of Nations' Committee for Intellectual Cooperation
- Founding fellow of the National Institute of Sciences of India (now renamed as the Indian National Science Academy)
References
- G.L. Pearson, and W.H. Brattain, "History of Semiconductor Research," Proc. IRE, 43, pp.1794-1806, 1955
- Canny, M. J., Ann. Bot., 1995, 75, 343–357.
- Canny, M. J., Am. J. Bot., 1998, 85, 897–909.
- Canny, M. J., Am. Sci., 1998, 86, 152–159
- Wayne, R., Bot. Rev., 1994, 60, 265–367.
- Pickard, B. G., Bot. Rev., 1973, 39, 172–201.
- Davies, E., Plant Cell Environ., 1987a, 10, 623–631.
- Davies, E., in The Biochemistry of Plants, Academic Press, 1987b, vol. 12, pp. 243–264.
- Wildon, D. C. et al, Nature, 1992, 360, 62–65.
- Roberts, K., Nature, 1992, 360, 14–15
- C. Schaefer and G. Gross, "Untersuchungen ueber die Totalreflexion," Annalen der Physik, vol 32, p.648, 1910.
- J.M. Payne & P.R. Jewell, "The Upgrade of the NRAO 8-beam Receiver," in Multi-feed Systems for Radio Telescopes, D.T. Emerson & J.M. Payne, Eds. San Francisco: ASP Conference Series, 1995, vol. 75, p.144
External links
- [link] Science Magazine on Bose priority
- [Article on Jagadish Chandra Bose], Banglapedia
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- [JC Bose: 60 GHz in the 1890s]
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