Jagadish Chandra Bosu - inventor of Radio, proof of plant, inorganic models

Physicist turned plant biologist Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on 30 November 1858 in Faridpur in Dacca District, Bangladesh to a well-to-do family. Jagadishchandra Bose was born on the 30^th of November 1858 in Faridpur in Dacca District. But Jagadishchandra Bose’s education was really remarkable; it was dye to his father. In India and in other countries there was a strong belief that only Westerners could achieve anything worthwhile in science. Bose proved this wrong concept. He showed that there were geniuses elsewhere too.

There is an interesting story about a demonstration that Bose gave in England. On that day he wanted to show some new things that he had found out. He had come to the conclusion that plants can feel pain like animals; that when we pinch them they suffer; and that they die in a few minutes after they are poisoned. Bose wanted to show experiments to prove these conclusions. A number of scientists and other leading men and women had gathered to hear him. Bose started the experiments by injecting poison into a plant. The plant should have shown signs of death in a few minutes. On the contrary, nothing happened. The learned audience started laughing. Even at this adverse moment Bose showed admirable calmness. He thought quickly. The poison that he injected into the plant did not kill it. So, he supposed that it would not hurt him also. With full confidence he got ready to inject the poison into himself. At that instant a man got up and confessed that instead of poison he had put similar colored water. Now, Bose conducted the experiment again with real poison, whereupon the plant withered and died as expected.

Innovation: Inventor of various scientific missions and gave lectures on electromagnetic waves, the effects of electromagnetic waves on living and nonliving matter, and plant physiology. Initiated detailed study of coherer leading to his discovery of the common nature of electric response to all forms of stimulation, in animal and plant tissues as well as in some inorganic models.

During the years 1894-1900, Bose performed pioneering research on radio waves and created waves as short as 5 mm. Bose’s work actually predates that of Guglielmo Marconi who is most often associated with the development of radio. Unlike Marconi who sought to commercialize his work with radio waves, Bose was purely interested in radio waves as a scientific endeavor. Bose also developed equipment for generating, transmitting, and receiving radio waves and used it to demonstrate conclusively the waves’ properties such as reflection, total reflection, refraction, double refraction, and polarization. Bose also experimented with galena to form an early type of semiconductor diode, which may be used as a detector of electromagnetic waves.

After about 1900, Bose began pursuing another longtime interest—animal and plant physiology. His contributions to this field were pioneering. He introduced many delicate and sensitive instruments, such as the Chrestograph, which was used for recording plant growth. It could magnify a small movement as much as a million times. Plants grow every second by 1/50,000th of an inch! Electricity was then his special field of work. He had successfully worked at transmitting electro-magnetic waves from one place to another. He had determined the type of instruments required both at the transmitting end and at the receiving end; he had found out what the distance should be between these two ends. He was using the instruments he had himself made. Bose demonstrated his discoveries at the Royal Society in England.

Awards: In 1917 he founded the Bose Research Institute in Calcutta which was the first scientific research institute in India. That same year a knighthood was conferred on Bose. In 1920 he became the first Indian scientist to be elected to Great Britain’s prestigious Royal Society.

The British Government honored him more than once. In 1915 when retired from service he was made an Emeritus Professor. He was honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society (F.R.S) in 1920. In 1927 he presided over the Indian Science Congress....More >>>