INDIAN SCIENTISTS
Indian scientists have played a stellar role in the development of India. In the short span of its post-independence history India has achieved several great scientific achievements. Indian scientists have proved their mettle in the face of international sanctions and have made India one of the scientific powerhouses of the world. Here is a brief profile of famous Indian scientists.
C.V. Raman
C.V. Raman is one of the most renowned scientists produced by India. His full name was Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. For his pioneering work on scattering of light, C.V. Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. Homi Bhabha
Homi Bhabha, whose full name was Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, was a famous Indian atomic scientist. In Independent India, Homi Jehnagir Bhabha, with the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation of a scientific establishment and was responsible for the creation of two premier institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.Jagdish Chandra Bose
Jagdish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh). His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Jagadish Chandra Bose had his early education in village school in Bengal medium.Meghnad Saha
Meghnad Saha was born on October 6, 1893 in Sheoratali, a village in the District of Dacca, now in Bangladesh. He was the fifth child of his parents, Sri Jagannath Saha and Smt. Bhubaneshwari Devi. His father was a grocer in the village. Meghnad Saha had his early schooling in the primary school of the village.M. Visvesvaraya
Sir M. Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860 in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore (present day Karnataka). His father Srinivasa Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and Ayurvedic practitioner. His mother Venkachamma was a religious lady. He lost his father when he was only 15 years old.Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist. He is known for his work in Quantum Physics. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Vikram Sarabhai
Vikram Sarabhai was one of the greatest scientists of India. He is considered as the Father of the Indian space program. Apart from being a scientist, he was a rare combination of an innovator, industrialist and visionary. Anil Kakodkar
Dr Anil Kakodkar is a very distinguished nuclear scientist of India. He is presently the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) as well as the Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.APJ Abdul Kalam
Apart from being a notable scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country and is also often also referred to as the Missile Man of India.Birbal Sahni
Birbal Sahni was a renowned paleobotanist of India, who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. Also a great geologist, Sahni is credited for establishing the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Born on 14 November in the year 1891 at Behra in the Saharanpur District of West Punjab, Birbal was the third son of Ishwar Devi and Prof. Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasa Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.
Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar was a distinguished Indian scientist. He was born on 21 February 1894 at Shahpur, which is located in Pakistan in present times. His father passed away sometime after the birth of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. As such, he spent his childhood days with his maternal grandfather who was an engineer and it was here that he developed an interest in science and engineering.Har Gobind Khorana
Har Gobind Khorana is an American molecular biologist born on 9 January 1922 to an Indian Punjabi couple. For his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1968.Raja Ramanna
Handpicked by the founder of India's nuclear program, Dr. Homi Bhabha, Dr. Raja Ramanna was a celebrated physicist and nuclear scientist that India had ever produced. A multifaceted personality, Dr. Raja Ramanna played the roles of a technologist, nuclear physicist, administrator, leader, musician, Sanskrit literature scholar, and philosophy researcher.Ganapathi Thanikaimoni
Ganapathi Thanikaimoni, a successful botanist of his days, is remembered till date for his widespread contribution in the field of palynology. His researches and projects not only helped India to make its presence felt on the world stage of botany, it also furthered public relations between two countries.
Harish-Chandra
For those who quiver at the thought of calculations and numerical deductions, unless when counting money, mathematics can be the equivalent of hell on earth. And for such 'math atheists' a mathematician like Harish Chandra can very well seem like a mirage. Harish Chandra is one amongst those few people who often G. N. Ramachandran
Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran, popularly referred to as G. N. Ramachandran surely must be included in the list of one of the best scientists that 20th century India had produced. The best known work of G. N. Ramachandran till date is the Ramachandran plot, which the scientist had conceived along with Viswanathan Sasisekharan, to understand the structure of peptides.Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Economic census, population census, agricultural surveys and various other large scale and in depth samples and surveys that have been admired the world over for their scope and accuracy owes its popularity and worldwide acceptance to the grit, determination and genius of one man, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.
Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao
Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao was one of the greatest physicists of 20th century India. His work in spectroscopy led to the development of the Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in Physics. Kotcherlakota Rangadhama Rao is also known for his long association with the Andhra University in which he served as professor of Physics and subsequently.Salim Ali
Yellapragada Subbarao
"You've probably never heard of Dr. Yellapragada Subba Rao, yet because he lived you may be well and alive today; because he lived you may live longer". A famous adage quoted by American author, Doron K. Antrim, Yellapragada Subbarao was one of those rare people who made several significant contributions.
Sam Pitroda
Venkataraman Ramakrishnan
History
The history of science and technology in the Indian Subcontinent begins with prehistoric human activity at Mehrgarh, in present-day Pakistan, and continues through the Indus Valley Civilization to early states and empires. The British colonial rule introduced some elements of western education in India. Following independence, science and technology in the Republic of India has included automobile engineering, information technology, communications as well as space, polar, and nuclear sciences.
By 5500 BCE a number of sites similar to Mehrgarh had appeared, forming the basis of later chalcolithic cultures.The inhabitants of these sites maintained trading relations with Near East and Central Asia.
The size and prosperity of the Indus civilization grew as a result of innovation, which eventually led to more planned settlements making use of drainage and sewerage. Sophisticated irrigation and water storage systems were developed by the Indus Valley Civilization, including artificial reservoirs at Girnar dated to 3000 BCE, and an early canal irrigation system from circa 2600 BCE.
Cotton was cultivated in the region by the 5th millennium BCE—4th millennium BCE.Sugarcane was originally from tropical South and Southeast Asia. Different species likely originated in different locations with S. barberi originating in India
The inhabitants of the Indus valley developed a system of standardization, using weights and measures, evident by the excavations made at the Indus valley sites. This technical standardization enabled gauging devices to be effectively used in angular measurement and measurement for construction. Calibration was also found in measuring devices along with multiple subdivisions in case of some devices.
The world's first dock at Lothal (2400 BCE) was located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt. Modern oceanographers have observed that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as well as exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering. This was the earliest known dock found in the world, equipped to berth and service ships.
Excavations at Balakot (c. 2500-1900 BC), present day Pakistan, have yielded evidence of an early furnace. The furnace was most likely used for the manufacturing of ceramic objects. Ovens, dating back to the civilization's mature phase (c. 2500-1900 BC), were also excavated at Balakot.TheKalibangan archeological site further yields evidence of potshaped hearths, which at one site have been found both on ground and underground. Kilnswith fire and kiln chambers have also been found at the Kalibangan site.
View of the Asokan Pillar at Vaishali. One of the edicts of Ashoka (272—231 BCE) reads: "Everywhere King Piyadasi (Asoka) erected two kinds of hospitals, hospitals for people and hospitals for animals. Where there were no healing herbs for people and animals, he ordered that they be bought and planted."
Based on archaeological and textual evidence, Joseph E. Schwartzberg (2008)—a University of Minnesotaprofessor emeritus of geography—traces the origins of Indian cartography to the Indus Valley Civilization (ca. 2500–1900 BCE). The use of large scale constructional plans, cosmological drawings, and cartographic material was known in India with some regularity since the Vedic period (1 millennium BCE).Climatic conditions were responsible for the destruction of most of the evidence, however, a number of excavated surveying instruments and measuring rods have yielded convincing evidence of early cartographic activity.Schwartzberg (2008)—on the subject of surviving maps—further holds that: 'Though not numerous, a number of map-like graffiti appear among the thousands of Stone Age Indian cave paintings; and at least one complex Mesolithic diagram is believed to be a representation of the cosmos.' Archeological evidence of an animal-drawn plough dates back to 2500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization.
The earliest available swords of copper discovered from the Harappan sites date back to 2300 BCE.Swords have been recovered in archaeological findings throughout the Ganges–Jamuna Doab region of India, consisting of bronze but more commonly copper.
Early kingdoms
Ink drawing of Ganesha under an umbrella (early 19th century). It was made by Ink, calledmasi, an admixture of several chemical components,that has been used in India since at least the 4th century BC. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India.Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.
The Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The inscriptions on the edicts of Ashoka (1st millennium BCE) display this number system being used by the Imperial Mauryas.
The religious texts of the Vedic Period provide evidence for the use of large numbers. By the time of the last Veda, theYajurvedasaṃhitā (1200-900 BCE), numbers as high as were being included in the texts. For example, the mantra (sacrificial formula) at the end of the annahoma ("food-oblation rite") performed during the aśvamedha ("horse sacrifice"), and uttered just before-, during-, and just after sunrise, invokes powers of ten from a hundred to a trillion.The Satapatha Brahmana (9th century BCE) contains rules for ritual geometric constructions that are similar to the Sulba Sutras.
Baudhayana (c. 8th century BCE) composed the Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, which contains examples of simple Pythagorean triples, and as well as a statement of the Pythagorean theorem for the sides of a square: "The rope which is stretched across the diagonal of a square produces an area double the size of the original square."It also contains the general statement of the Pythagorean theorem (for the sides of a rectangle): "The rope stretched along the length of the diagonal of a rectangle makes an area which the vertical and horizontal sides make together."Baudhayana gives a formula for the square root of two.
The earliest Indian astronomical text—named Vedānga Jyotia— The Vedānga Jyotia details astronomical calculations, calendrical studies, and establishes rules for empirical observation. Since the Vedānga Jyotiṣa is a religious text, it has connections with Indian astrology and details several important aspects of the time and seasons, including lunar months, solar months, and their adjustment by a lunar leap month of Adhimāsa. Ritus and Yugas are also described. Tripathi (2008) holds that "Twenty-seven constellations, eclipses, seven planets, and twelve signs of the zodiac were also known at that time."
The Egyptian Papyrus of Kahun (1900 BCE) and literature of the Vedic period in India offer early records of veterinary medicine. Kearns & Nash (2008) state that mention of leprosy is described in the medical treatise Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE).However, The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicineholds that the mention of leprosy, as well as ritualistic cures for it, were described in the Hindu religious bookAtharva-veda, written by 1500–1200 BCE.
Cataract surgery was known to the physician Sushruta (6th century BCE).Traditional cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the field of vision.The eye would later be soaked with warm butter and then bandaged. Though this method was successful, Susruta cautioned that it should only be used when necessary.The removal of cataract by surgery was also introduced into China from India.
During the 5th century BCE, the scholar Pāṇini had made several discoveries in the fields of phonetics,phonology, and morphology.Pāṇini's morphological analysis remained more advanced than any equivalent Western theory until the mid-20th Century.
Metal currency was minted in India before 5th century BCE, with coinage (400 BCE—100 CE) being made of silver and copper, bearing animal and plant symbols on them.
Zinc mines of Zawar, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, were active during 400 BC.
Early iron objects found in India can be dated to 1400 BC by employing the method of radio carbon dating. Some scholars believe that by the early 13th century BC iron smelting was practiced on a bigger scale in India.
Post Maha Janapadas—High Middle Ages
The first iron pillar of Delhi (375–413 CE) was erected at the times of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, explains the existence of two types of ores for zinc metal, one of which is ideal for metal extraction while the other is used for medicinal purpose.
The Arthashastra of Kautilya mentions the construction of dams and bridges.
The use of suspension bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible by about the 4th century.
The stupa, the precursor of the pagoda and torii, was constructed by the 3rd century BCE.
Rock-cut step wells in the region date from 200-400 CE. Subsequently, the construction of wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds at Bhinmal (850-950 CE) took place.
During the 1st millennium BCE, the Vaisheshika school of atomism was founded. The most important proponent of this school was Kanada, an Indian philosopher who lived around 200 BCE. The school proposed that atoms are indivisible and eternal, can neither be created nor destroyed, and that each one possesses its own distinct viśeṣa (individuality). It was further elaborated on by the Buddhist school of atomism, of which the philosophers Dharmakirti and Dignāga in the 7th century CE were the most important proponents. They considered atoms to be point-sized, durationless, and made of energy.
By the beginning of the Common Era glass was being used for ornaments and casing in the region.Wootz originated in the region before the beginning of the common era.Wootz was exported and traded throughout Europe, China, the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East, where it became known as Damascus steel. Archaeological evidence suggests that manufacturing process for Wootz was also in existence in South India before the Christian era.
Model of a Chola (200–848 CE) ship's hull, built by the ASI, based on a wreck 19 miles off the coast of Poombuhar, displayed in a Museum in Tirunelveli.
The origins of the spinning wheel are unclear but India is one of the probable places of its origin.The device certainly reached Europe from India by the 14th century CE.
The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, the "wooden-worm-worked roller". This mechanical device was, in some parts of the region, driven by water power.The Ajanta caves yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century CE. This cotton gin was used until further innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.
Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.
Pingala stumbled upon both the Pascal triangle and Binomial coefficients, although he did not have knowledge of the Binomial theorem itself. A description of binary numbers is also found in the works of Pingala.
The use of negative numbers was known in early India, and their role in situations like mathematical problems of debt was understood.
The decimal number system originated in India.Other cultures discovered a few features of this number system but the system, in its entirety, was compiled in India, where it attained coherence and completion. By the 9th century CE, this complete number system had existed in India but several of its ideas were transmitted to China and the Islamic world before that time.
The concept of 0 as a number, and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India.In India, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number by the 9th century CE, even in case of division.
Brahmagupta (598–668) was able to find (integral) solutions of Pell's equation.
Conceptual design for a perpetual motion machine by Bhaskara II dates to 1150. He described a wheel that he claimed would run forever.
The trigonometric functions of Sine and 'Versine, from which it was trivial to derive the Cosine, were used by the mathematician, Aryabhata, in the late 5th century. The calculus theorem now known as "Rolle's theorem" was stated by mathematician, Bhāskara II, in the 12th century.
Akbarnama—written by August 12, 1602—depicts the defeat of Baz Bahadur of Malwa by the Mughal troops, 1561. The Mughals extensively improved metal weapons and armor used by the armies of India.
Indigo was used as a dye in India, which was also a major center for its production and processing.
Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product.
The cashmere wool fiber, also known as pashm or pashmina, was used in the handmade shawls of Kashmir.The woolen shawls from Kashmir region find written mention between 3rd century BC and the 11th century CE.
Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Gupta dynasty, and the earliest reference to candied sugar comes from India.
Evidence of inoculation and variolation for smallpox is found in the 8th century, when Madhav wrote theNidāna, a 79-chapter book which lists diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications.He included a special chapter on smallpox (masūrikā) and described the method of inoculation to protect against smallpox.
Late Middle Ages
Jantar Mantar, Delhi—consisting of 13 architectural astronomy instruments, built byJai Singh II of Jaipur, from 1724 onwards.
Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1340 – 1425) and his Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics developed and founded mathematical analysis.The infinite series for π was stated by him and he made use of the series expansion of to obtain an infinite series expression, now known as the Madhava-Gregory series Their rational approximation of the error for the finite sum of their series are of particular interest. They manipulated the error term to derive a faster converging series for . They used the improved series to derive a rational expression, for correct up to nine decimal places
The development of the series expansions for trigonometric functions(sine, cosine, and arc tangent) was carried out by mathematicians of the Kerala School in the 15th century CE. Their work, completed two centuries before the invention of calculus in Europe, provided what is now considered the first example of a power series (apart from geometric series).
In 1500, Nilakantha Somayaji of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, in his Tantrasangraha, revised Aryabhata's elliptical model for the planets Mercury and Venus. His equation of the centre for these planets remained the most accurate until the time of Johannes Kepler in the 17th century.
The Seamless celestial globe was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589-90 CE), and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.The scholar Sadiq Isfahani of Jaunpur compiled an atlas of the parts of the world which he held to be 'suitable for human life'.The 32 sheet atlas—with maps oriented towards the south as was the case with Islamic works of the era—is part of a larger scholarly work compiled by Isfahani during 1647 CE. According to Joseph E. Schwartzberg (2008): 'The largest known Indian map, depicting the former Rajput capital at Amber in remarkable house-by-house detail, measures 661 × 645 cm. (260 × 254 in., or approximately 22 × 21 ft).' The Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes.
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a pyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 CE. As a part of an embassy to India by Timurid leader Shah Rukh (1405–1447), 'Abd al-Razzaq mentioned naphtha-throwers mounted on elephants and a variety of pyrotechnics put on display.
Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in theVijayanagara Empire by as early as 1366 CE. From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in the region was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 CE by the Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.
In A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, James Riddick Partington describes Indian rockets, mines and other means of gunpowder warfare:
The Indian war rockets were formidable weapons before such rockets were used in Europe. They had bam-boo rods, a rocket-body lashed to the rod, and iron points. They were directed at the target and fired by lighting the fuse, but the trajectory was rather erratic. The use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges of gunpowder is mentioned for the times of Akbar and Jahāngir.
By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad. Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut(1504) and Diu (1533).Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century.
The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic and Persian works. During medieval times, the diffusion of Indian and Persian irrigation technologies gave rise to an advanced irrigation system which bought about economic growth and also helped in the growth of material culture.
The founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the 15th century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who introduced weavers from Central Asia.
Colonial era
§ The armies of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore employed rockets whose gunpowder was packed in metal cylinders instead of paper ones.
Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British.
§ Extent of the railway network in India in 1871; construction had begun in 1856.
§ The Indian railways network in 1909.
§ Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose is known for his work on the Bose-Einstein statistics during the 1920s
By the end of the 18th century the postal system in the region had reached high levels of efficiency.
According to Thomas Broughton, the Maharaja ofJodhpur sent daily offerings of fresh flowers from his capital to Nathadvara (320 km) and they arrived in time for the first religious Darshan at sunrise.Later this system underwent modernization with the establishment of the British Raj.
The British education system, aimed at producing able civil and administrative services candidates, exposed a number of Indians to foreign institutions.
Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858–1937), Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974), Meghnad Saha (1893–1956), P. C. Mahalanobis (1893–1972), Sir C. V. Raman (1888–1970), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995), Homi Bhabha (1909–1966), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920),Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), Har Gobind Khorana (1922–2011), and Harish Chandra (1923–1983) were among the notable scholars of this period.[109]
Extensive interaction between colonial and native sciences was seen during most of the colonial era. Scientists from India appeared throughout Europe.By the time of India's independence colonial science had assumed importance within the westernized intelligentsia and establishment.
People’s point of view on science
Science helps explain what happens out there. Many things that have happened is due to some science.
How does your body function? Why is the ozone so important? Why does some make up not like my skin?
A lot of questions have someone in science figuring that out. Many things the plague most of man is due to some form of science and someone in science to figure it out.
When you take the class it helps you figure out and think about what is and what can be around you.
curiosity is the key to science....
Personally, I have always loved science because I have always had an inquiring mind & like to understand nature. I know some people find science boring, but it should really be viewed as a "tool" to help understand nature & the Universe as a whole.
It's much more than a class in school; it's the study of how everything works in the universe, ranging from the human body to the gravitational pull of stars. It's nothing short of incredible!
