During colonial rule, as India
was reeling under scarce scientific infrastructure, a visionary philanthropist,
Dr Mahendra Lal Sarcar, came forward to establish an institution entirely
funded by his earnings from his medical practice, where Indians could pursue
science through original research. Thus, the Indian Association for the
Cultivation of Science (IACS) was established in Kolkata on July 29, 1876.
As IACS just celebrated its 150th
anniversary, it stands not merely as India’s oldest scientific research
institution devoted to the pursuit of fundamental research in the frontier
areas of basic sciences, but also as a living testimony to some of the greatest
scientific minds it has nurtured over its long journey. It has indeed inspired generations of
researchers by cultivating a legacy of intellectual curiosity and scientific
excellence through talks delivered by the brilliant minds of that era, like JC
Bose, Father Eugene Lafont and Ashutosh Mukherjee among all those who passed
through its portals.
Until the early decades of the 20th
century, IACS was the only research institution in India where higher research
in the physical sciences could be pursued. It thus attracted brilliant brains
like KS Krishnan, S Bhagavantam, L Srivastava, NK Sethi, and C Prosad from all
over India to carry out research in Physics. Their pioneering contributions in
the fields of molecular light scattering, experimental wave optics and
magnetism, etc., built India’s foundation in modern physics.
Among the most celebrated
Scientists associated with IACS is Prof CV Raman, whose quest for research is
pretty inspiring. Shortly after joining the Accountant General’s office in
Calcutta in 1907, one day, young Raman, while going to the office, having
noticed the brass signboard: ‘Indian Association for Cultivation of Science’,
jumped off the tram and knocked on the door of the institute and befriending
the inmates, he acquired unrestricted access to the institute.
From the next day onwards, Raman
used IACS as his experimental research base by leading a double life with a
grueling schedule: Every day, from 5.30 am to 9.30 am he did research at IACS
labs; 10 am to 5 pm attended to his government job at the finance office; and
back at the IACS labs from 5.30 pm to 10 pm he carried on with his experiments
in physics. He pursued his research thus for almost a decade, till he resigned
the government job in 1917 to accept the professorship of Physics at the
University of Calcutta. He pursued his research interests at IACS not because he
was paid to do it but purely out of his insatiable curiosity to unravel
nature’s mysteries. This passion of Raman for research eventually led to one of
the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century.
It was in 1921, while sailing back
from Europe after attending a conference, that Raman was fascinated by the
striking blue color of the Mediterranean Sea. Wondering if Lord Rayleigh was
right in saying that the sea merely reflected the blue color of the sky, he
pulled out his pocket Nicol prism and blocked out the sky’s reflection, which
should have made the sea surface look colorless. Instead, Raman observed that
the blue color “far from being impoverished by suppression of the sky
reflection, was wonderfully improved thereby." This instantly made him
infer that the water itself was actively scattering the light and excited by
his observation, he drafted a paper in his cabin and mailed it to Nature
immediately on landing in Bombay.
On returning to IACS, Raman,
along with his brilliant student, KS Krishnan erected an experimental set up
consisting of: i) light source—raw sunlight focused through a telescope/basic
mercury vapour lamp; ii) filter—a cheap, violet-coloured glass filter (to
isolate a single wavelength of light); iii) target—beamed this light through
various purified liquid samples; and iv) detector —a pocket spectroscope and of
course, Raman’s own inquisitive eyes.
On February 28, 1928, when the
pure violet light was sent through the liquid, Raman noticed the scattered
light coming out the other side containing entirely new colours, such as green.
This change in colour happened because the photons of light were colliding with
the molecules of the liquid and exchanging energy with them. This quantum
phenomenon proved that light interacting with matter can emerge with altered
wavelengths carrying unique information about the substance being studied. And
thus emerged the ‘Raman Effect’, revolutionizing physics and chemistry forever.
This discovery won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, making him India’s
first Nobel Laureate in science.
Here, it is worth recalling a narration
in his biography written by Ramaseshan. It seems Raman had “booked two tickets
on a steamship for himself and his wife in July 1930, the year he got the Nobel
Prize, to enable them to reach Stockholm in early December! Prizes were not
announced until November. Had he waited until they announced, he would have
been unable to attend the ceremonies”. That was Raman’s confidence about winning
the Nobel!
There is another interesting
incident that tells about Raman’s confidence in the worth of his research. In
the summer of 1924, Raman, at the invitation of Robert Millikan, went to the US
to give some lectures at the California Institute of Technology. Apparently, he
was then not that well known in the US, and that must be one reason why very
few attended his lectures. Obviously, he was very unhappy about it. Perhaps, peeved
by it, he, in one of his conversations with Rosseland, reported to have said, “You
see Rosseland, no one knows me now. You just wait, when I go back to India, I
will make a great discovery and receive the Nobel Prize. Then everyone will
know me”. It appears at that time Rosseland just wrote Raman off, but later he
said: “I changed my mind when Raman made good on his promise”. And, to date, he
is the only Indian to get the Nobel Prize for work done by an Indian in India.
Today, Raman spectroscopy has become a powerful analytical tool across
industries worldwide.
Post-independence, Dr Meghnad
Saha of the ‘thermal ionization equation’, who became the Director of the IACS,
moved it to the Jadavapur campus and transformed it into a world-class
institute (1953 to 56) by establishing dedicated research laboratories for
active research. Much later, Dr Satyendra Nath Bose of Bose-Einstein statistics
and Bosons fame was elected as the President of IACS, and as National Professor,
he conducted research within IACS (1959-70), adding lustre to its ecosystem.
Thus, in fostering Indian
science, the IACS and Sir CV Raman will forever stand as heroes inspiring
generations of young scientists. Hail to IACS and Sir CV Raman!
**
