Sir CV Raman

One of the most prominent Indian scientists in history, C.V. Raman was the first Indian person to win the Nobel Prize in science for his illustrious 1930 discovery, now commonly known as the “Raman Effect”. It is immensely surprising that Raman used an equipment worth merely Rs.200 to make this discovery. The Raman Effect is now examined with the help of equipment worth almost millions of rupees.

Early Life:

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu on 7th November 1888 to a physics teacher. Raman was a very sharp student. After doing his matriculation at 12, he was supposed to go abroad for higher studies, but after medical examination, a British surgeon suggested against it. Raman instead attended Presidency College, Madras. After completing his graduation in 1904, and M.Sc. in Physics in 1907, Raman put through various significant researches in the field of physics. He studied the diffraction of light and his thesis on the subject was published in 1906.

Raman was made the Deputy Accountant General in Calcutta in 1907, after a successful Civil Service competitive examination. Very much occupied due to the job, he still managed to spare his evenings for scientific research at the laboratory of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences. On certain occasions, he even spent the entire nights. Such was his passion that in 1917, he resigned from the position to become the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.

Contributions and Achievements:

On a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, Raman curiously noticed the blue color of the glaciers and the Mediterranean. He was passionate to discover the reason of the blue color. Once Raman returned to India, he performed many experiments regarding the scattering of light from water and transparent blocks of ice. According to the results, he established the scientific explanation for the blue color of sea-water and sky.

There is a captivating event that served as the inspiration for the discovery of the Raman Effect. Raman was busy doing some work on a December evening in 1927, when his student, K.S. Krishnan, New Delhi, gave him the news that Professor Compton has won the Nobel Prize on scattering of X-rays. This led Raman to have some thoughts. He commented that if the Compton Effect is applicable for X-rays, it must also be true for light. He carried out some experiments to establish his opinion.

Raman employed monochromatic light from a mercury arc which penetrated transparent materials and was allowed to fall on a spectrograph to record its spectrum. During this, Raman detected some new lines in the spectrum which were later called ‘Raman Lines’. After a few months, Raman put forward his discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in a meeting of scientists at Bangalore on March 16, 1928, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

The ‘Raman Effect’ is considered very significant in analyzing the molecular structure of chemical compounds. After a decade of its discovery, the structure of about 2000 compounds was studied. Thanks to the invention of the laser, the ‘Raman Effect’ has proved to be a very useful tool for scientists.

Some of Raman’s other interests were the physiology of human vision, the optics of colloids and the electrical and magnetic anisotropy.

Later Life and Death:

Sir C.V. Raman became the Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1924. A year later, he set up Raman Research Institute near Bangalore, where he continued the scientific research until his death which was caused by a strong heart attack on November 21, 1970. His sincere advice to aspiring scientists was that “scientific research needed independent thinking and hard work, not equipment.”

Alexander Graham Bell

Only few people in this world leave their footprints on the sands of history, and these men of honour never die. One such grand personality is the greatest innovator of all times Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the first practical telephone. His other major inventions include: optical communications, hydrofoils, metal detector and aeronautic.

Early Years of Life

At that time, Bell had made great progress at both his Boston laboratory as well as at his family home in Canada and his work on harmonic telegraph entered a decisive stage. Bell got financial support from two wealthy patrons but he did not have the basic knowledge to continue with the experiment. He still he did not give up and kept trying.

Bell hired Thomas A. Watson, an experienced electrical designer, as his assistant. In 1875, an accident during the experiment led to the sound powered telephone, which was able to transmit voice like sounds. At last, after the patent issue made by Elisha Gray on March 10, 1876, Bell succeeded in making his telephone work.

Graham bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3, 1847. He was the only child, of Professor Alexander Melville Bell, out of the three, who didn't die due to tuberculosis at a young age. He received his early education at home from his father; however he then got admitted to Royal high School, Edinburgh, which he left at the age of 15, due to poor performance.

Bell moved to London to live with his grand father and enrolled at the Western House Academy, Scotland. For further studies he joined University of Edinburgh. His first invention came at the age of 12, when he built a homemade de-husking machine to be used at his neighbor’s mill. In return, he was given a small workshop within the mill which he used to carry out further experiments.

At the age of 23, Bell’s brother’s widow and his parents shifted to Canada, to stay with a family friend. After a short stay there, they purchased a farm near Brant ford, where Bell built his own workshop in the carriage house. After setting up his workshop, Bell continued his experiments with electricity and sound based on the work of Helmholtz.

By 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding; there was a great need to find an inexpensive way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line.

 The Bell Telephone Company was created in 1877. Bell company engineers brought about numerous improvements to the telephone making it the most successful product ever.

Bell further carried out his experiments in communication. He came up with the photophone-transmission of sound on a beam of light, which was a precursor of fiber-optics. He helped the deaf to learn new speech techniques. Altogether he received 18 patents in his name out of which he shared 12 with his collegues

Final years:

On August 2, 1922 Bell died of diabetes at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, at age 75, leaving behind a wife and two daughters. He was buried at the Beinn Bhreagh Mountain. During his funeral every phone in North America was silenced in honor of the great inventor.

Galileo Galilie

Some names in the history of inventions can never be forgotten as they bless us with their numerous creative inventions that have now become a need of every man. Among such great personalities one name that is always remembered is that of Galileo Galilie.

Early Life:

This renowned scientist was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa. Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and flautist who played a vital role in the Scientific Revolution. This great man was the first to use a refracting telescope to make imperative astronomical discoveries. His accomplishments also include improvements to the telescope and support for Copernicanism. No doubt for this reason Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy, “father of modern physics,” and “the Father of Modern Science.” In praise of Galileo Stephen hawking said “Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science.

Contributions and Achievements: 

Galileo started his career with the motion of uniformly accelerated objects, taught in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses, as the subject of kinematics. Further coming to Galileo’s career path and his immense learning, in 1609 Galileo learned about the invention of the telescope in Holland. From the barest description he constructed a vastly superior model with his efficient observation.

As a professor of astronomy at University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the conventional theory of his time that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Later at University of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo’s observations with his new telescope convinced him of the truth of Copernicus’s sun-centered or heliocentric theory. Galileo’s support for the heliocentric theory got him into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church in 1615. In February 1616, although he had been cleared of any offence, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as “false and contrary to Scripture”, and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. In 1633 the Inquisition convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant (publicly withdraw) his support of Copernicus.

They sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him serve his term under house arrest at his villa in Arcetri outside of Florence. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Therefore his originality as a scientist lay in his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success with which he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way for modern mathematical and experimental physics. Isaac Newton used one of Galileo’s mathematical descriptions, “The Law of Inertia,” as the foundation for his “First Law of Motion.”

Later Life:

Galileo became blind at the age of 72. His blindness has often been attributed to damage done to his eyes by telescopic observations he made. The truth is he was blinded by a combination of cataracts and glaucoma. Galileo died at Arcetri in 1642, the year Isaac Newton was born leaving behind his resourceful creations.

J.J.Thomson

Sir Joseph John Thomson, more commonly known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist who stormed the world of nuclear physics with his 1897 discovery of the electron, as well as isotopes. He is also credited with the invention of the mass spectrometer. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 and was knighted two years later in 1908.

Early Life and Education:

Born in 1856 in Cheetham Hill near Manchester, England, J. J. Thomson was the son of a Scottish bookseller. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1876. He received his BA in 1880 in mathematics and MA in 1883.

Contributions and Achievements:

J. J. Thomson was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society 1865. He was a successor to Lord Rayleigh as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics. His favorite student Ernst Rutherford later succeeded him in 1919. The early theoretical work of Thomson broadened the electromagnetic theories of James Clerk Maxwell’s, which revolutionized the study of gaseous conductors of electricity, as well as the nature of cathode rays.

Inspired by Wilhelm Röntgen’s 1895 discovery of X-rays, Thomson demonstrated that cathode rays were actually some speedily moving particles. After measuring their speed and specific charge, he concluded that these “corpuscles” (electrons) were about 2000 times smaller in mass as compared to the hydrogen ion, the lightest-known atomic particle. The discovery, made public during Thomson’s 1897 lecture to the Royal Institution, was labeled as the most influential breakthrough in the history of physics since Sir Isaac Newton.

Thomson also researched on the nature of positive rays in 1911, which significantly helped in the discovery of Isotopes. He proved that isotopes could be broke by deflecting positive rays in electric and magnetic fields, which was later named mass spectrometry.

J. J. Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1906. He was knighted in 1908. He published his autobiography “Recollections and Reflections” in 1936. Thomson is widely considered to be one of the greatest scientists ever, and the most influential pioneer of nuclear physics.

Later Life and Death:

J. J. Thomson was made the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1918, where he remained until his death. He died on August 30, 1940. He was 83 years old. Thomson was buried close to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey.

marie curie

The famous chemist and physicist, Marie Curie was the first person in the history to be awarded with the two Nobel Prizes in diverse fields of science (chemistry and physics). She is notable for her theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. Her work has received great appreciation from many scientists all over the world.

Early Life

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She was the fifth and the youngest daughter of a secondary-school teacher. Her early years were very difficult with her mother and her sister passing away. She received her early education from some local school and her father taught her mathematics and physics, subjects that Marie was to pursue. She lived in Warsaw until she was twenty-four years old and later moved to Paris to receive higher education at the Sorbonne. There she obtained Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences.

In 1894, she met Pierre Curie, instructor in the School of Physics and Chemistry. Marie had begun her scientific career in Paris with an examination of the magnetic properties of various steels; it was their common interest in magnetism that brought Marie and Pierre together. The following year they got married.

Achievements

In 1896 when Henry Becquerel made his discovery of radio activity, the Curie’s became inspired to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis. In 1898 their brilliant researches led to the discovey of polonium, named after the country of Marie’s birth, and radium. In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honoured both Pierre Curie and Marie Curie with the Nobel Prize in Physics, for their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Becquerel.

Following the unfortunate death of her husband in 1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences. She was the first woman who had held this position. She was also employed as Director at the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.

After her husband’s death she continued with her efforts of developing methods for obtaining pure radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities. By 1910, she successfully isolated the pure radium metal.

In 1911, Curie was awarded with yet another Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry in recognition of her work in radioactivity.

All her life Marie promoted the use of radium and also set a great example of its use during World War I for healing the injuries of those who suffered. Her passion for science is reflected in all her efforts towards its advancement. She was also a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her death. Moreover since 1922 she had been a member of the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. In 1932 she also laid the foundation of Radium Institute  in Warsaw. Her work is recorded in various papers in scientific journals.

Death

The great scientist Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934 at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, in Haute-Savoie from aplastic anemia. 

Her name will always be written in golden letters for her tremendous contribution to the field of science.

Charles Babbage

Do you ever wonder who you have to thank for the powerful desktop or laptop you are now using for practically everything you do? You might say all thanks should be given to the computer companies of today but in fact, you have Charles Babbage to thank. The name might not be familiar to you just yet but read on because pretty soon, “Charles Babbage” will be on your mind every time you use your computer.

Who is Charles Babbage?

Charles Babbage was born on Dec. 26, 1791 in England. He was a polymath and became a mathematician, mechanical engineer, inventor, and philosopher. He had a lot of contributions to different scientific fields but his most famous work is probably coming up with the idea of a programmable computing device.

In fact, Charles Babbage is considered the “father of the computer” and is given credit for coming up with the first ever mechanical computer. It was very simple but it served as the blue print for other, more complex machines. Of course he had other works to his name in other fields and this is the reason he was often referred to as pre-eminent among other polymaths of his generation.

Try to pay a visit to the London Science Museum and you will find parts of his uncompleted works. Back in 1991, experts constructed a functioning difference engine basis on Babbage’s original designs. The engine was built to conditions that were around during the 19th century and the success of the completed difference engine indicated that the machine of Babbage would have functioned just fine.

His early life

There is some dispute about the birthplace of Charles Babbage but as stated in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Babbage was born at 44 Crosby Row at Walworth Road in London, England. A blue plaque has been placed along the junction of Walworth Road and Larcom Street to commemorate the birth of this brilliant man.

An obituary printed in The Times said he was born on Dec. 26, 1792 but a relative of Babbage wrote in to state that Babbage was actually born a year before in 1791. A baptismal certificate found in St. Mary’s Newington, London indicates that he was baptized on Jan.6, 1792 which supports the relative’s claim about the year of birth.

Charles Babbage was just one of four children born to Betsy and Benjamin Babbage. His father was a banker and he was the partner of William Praed. Together they founded Praed’s & Co. of Fleet Street London in 1801.

When he was 8 years of age, Charles Babbage was sent to Alphington near Exeter for schooling and to recover from a fever that nearly ended his life. For some years, he attended the King Edward VI Grammar School located in Totnes South Devin but he was in such poor health that he had to make the switch to private tutors.

Sometime later, he made his way to the 30-student Holmwood academy located in Bake Street in EinField Middlesex and he was placed under the tutelage of the reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a library where Babbage’s love of mathematics blossomed. As he was attending classes in the academy he was also learning from two other private tutors. At the age of about 16 or 17 Babbage went back to Totnes to study and had a tutor from Oxford. It was under this tutor that he learned enough about classic math to be admitted to Cambridge.

At Cambridge

Babbage went to Trinity College in Cambridge on Oct. 1810 and by that time he already taught himself some aspects of contemporary math. It was for this reason that he felt somewhat let down by the standard math instruction they had at Cambridge.

While in Cambridge, he teamed up with such notable names like John Herschel, George Peacock, and other friends to form the Analytical society. He was also a member of other clubs such as the Ghost club where they investigated supernatural happenings. The Extractors Club that he was a member of made it their mission to liberate members from the madhouse in the event that anyone was ever committed to one.

He transferred to Peterhouse in 1812 where he became the top mathematician although he did not graduate with honors. He did receive a degree without having to go through any examinations and that was in 1814. He was able to defend a thesis that was considered blasphemous with respect to the preliminary public disputation.

After Cambridge

It was easy for Charles Babbage after he left Cambridge for he was a most brilliant student. He became a lecturer at the Royal Institution where he talked about astronomy in the year 1815. A year after that, he was elected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. In the same year, he became a candidate for a teaching job at the HaileyBury College and he went with recommendations from people like John Playfair and James Ivory. He lost the spot to Henry Walter.

Babbage and his machines

His machines were considered as one of the very first mechanical computers ever to be invented. The fact that they were not actually used for computing was not due to a design flaw. Rather, it was to be blamed on lack of funding and some personality problems.

Babbage was the director in charge of building steam-powered machines and they did achieve some success; they also suggested that calculations could be done mechanically. For ten years after that, the government funded his projects which amounted to about £ 17,000 but it happened that the treasury lost faith in him and the funding stopped.

While the machines he came up with were mechanical and bulky they had a basic design that is similar to the modern computer. It is for this reason why he is often looked at as one of the pioneers of computers.

Death

Charles Babbage died on Oct. 18, 1871. He is buried in the Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Cause of death was “renal inadequacy”. One half of his brain is preserved in Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons while the other half can be viewed in the London Science Museum.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton, universally considered to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time, was an English mathematical and physicist, widely known for his outstanding contributions to physics, mathematics and optics. He also invented the calculus, and formulated the three laws of motion and the universal theory of gravitation. Newton proved that sunlight is the combination of several colors. He performed as the master of the Royal Mint in London and as the president of the Royal Society of London.

Early Life and Education:

Born on January 4, 1643, Newton was so frail at the time of his birth that the housemaids were unsure that the baby would live any longer. Isaac Sr. had died a few months before his birth, while his mother, Hannah Ayscough, married again to another man, Reverend Barnabas Smith, with whom she had three more children.

His mother left little Newton to live with her new husband while he was raised by his maternal grandmother. Newton had mostly a solitary childhood, though at 12, he joined the grammar school at Grantham. At school, once he had a fight with another boy, and whilst he was weaker, he still managed to win the fight and banged the opponent’s nose on the church wall. This kind of vindictive behavior endured throughout his lifetime.

Creating sundials, wooden objects and drawings were some of his favorite hobbies at school. He made a model windmill with a mouse on a treadmill for supplying power. A four-wheeled cart was also one of his creations which was powered by rotating a crank he had set up.

His mother called Newton back to manage the family farm when he was 17. He was never good at the job, though. A young Newton showed more interest in creating models and reading books. Luckily enough, his schoolmaster at Grantham, and his uncle William Ayscough, utterly impressed with Newton’s skill and determination, suggested his mother to let him stay at the school.

After finishing school in June 1661, Newton went on to join Cambridge University. There, he was annoyed with the traditional Aristotelian curriculum and shunned many of the assigned books, instead concentrating on his studies about science, mathematics and philosophy. He carefully and devotedly read books by Galileo, René Descartes, Euclid and Johannes Kepler. Within a year, he was able to record original insights in his notebooks.

Contributions and Achievements:

Not long after his graduation in 1665, the Cambridge closed down due to the plague epidemic for almost two years. Newton, therefore, returned to home where he came up with the calculus, which he termed as the “fluxional method.” Isaac Barrow, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, was immensely impressed with his work. Newton got his master’s degree in 1668, and assumed Barrow’s position after his resignation. His lectures were said to be too difficult for the students.

His contributions during 1669 and the early 1770s were mostly related to optics. He put forward a theory of colors. He also constructed a reflecting telescope which magnified objects 40 times. For this invention, he was honored by The Royal Society, where he was made a member in January 1672. An article was published during this time about his theory of colors in February 1672. When Robert Hooke challenged him in an inappropriate manner, Newton was furios. He had experimented with colors extensively for several years and was confident about his peculiar ability and research.

Newton published his legendary publication “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” in 1687, a masterpiece that introduced the world to the three laws of motion and the universal principle of gravitation.

His another notable rival was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who claimed to have invented the calculus first. As Newton’s Principia came after Leibniz’s calculus, some started to think that Newton borrowed his method from Leibniz. The truth was that Newton had invented the calculus between 1665 and 1666, but he was reluctant to publish his work for years, while Leibniz introduced his work in 1684. Leibniz actually received letters from Newton in 1671 and 1676 regarding mathematics, and he was either directly or indirectly influenced by Newton. The feud settled down in 1716 after Leibniz’s death.

Newton is also credited with the generalized binomial theorem, valid for any exponent.

Later Years and Death:

Newton soon got bored with academia, so he became the warden of the Royal Mint in 1696. He revolutionized its operations and was made a master of the Mint in 1700. He was also selected as the president of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death. Queen Anne knighted Newton in 1705. In his final years, Newton suffered from several physical illnesses. He died on March 20, 1727 in London, England.