28th February National Science day

Some people remember February for other days. The 28th February National Science day Do you know why we celebrate National Science day?

In 1921 iconic Indian physicist CV Raman was on board a ship and on his way home from London when a question struck him, 

why is the sea really blue? He wasn't convinced with the notion that the sea was blue because of the colour of the sky, so in March 1928 he published a theory that came to be known as Raman scattering or Raman effect. Raman scattering refers to the change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules and this is called as Raman effect and hence every year, India celebrates National Science Day to remember the discovery of the Raman Effect, a discovery that also earned him the Nobel Prize in 1930 in the field of Physics.

A breif introduction:

Sir Chandrasekhar venkataraman India's second Nobel laureate and the first one to get in the field of science.He convinced Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai to expound students in IISC Bangalore while he was a head there. 

Early life:

CV Raman was born on 7th November 1888 in Tamil Hindu family to Chandrashekharan Ramanathan and Parvathi ammal. Raman's father was a lecturer who taught mathematics and physics in Mrs. PV Narasimha Rao College Visakhapatnam in India and later joined presidency College in Madras. At an early age Raman moved to the city of Visakhapatnam and studied at Saint Aloysius Anglo Indian High school.

Education:

Raman passed his matriculation examination at the age of 11 and he passed his F.A. examination with the scholarship at the age of 13. In 1902 Raman joined presidency College in Madras where his father was a lecturer in mathematics and physics. In 1904 he passed his bachelor of arts examination of University of Madras he stood first and won the gold medal in physics. In 1907 he gained his master of sciences degree with the highest distinction from University of Madras.

Raman effect:

In the year 1917 Raman resigned from his government service after he was appointed the first palit professor of physics at University of Kolkata. At the same time he continued doing research at the Indian association for the cultivation of science Calcutta where he became the honorary secretary. In 1926 professor Raman established the Indian journal of physics and he was the first editor the second volume of journal published his famous article "A new Radiation"  reporting the discovery of Raman effect. 

On 28 February 1928 Raman lead an experiment with KS Krishnan, on the scattering of light when he discovered what now is called the Raman effect.

It gave further proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman had a complicated professional relationship with K.S.Krishnan who surprisingly did not share the award but is mentioned prominently even in the Nobel lecture. CV Raman was conferred a knighthood and medals and honorary doctorate by various universities.

Noble prize:

He did eventually win the 1930 Nobel prize in physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect.

 He is the first Asian and first non-white to receive any Nobel prize in the sciences before him Rabindranath Tagore also Indian had received the Nobel prize for literature in 1913.

In 1933 Raman left IISC to join Indian institute of Science in Bangalore as its first Indian director. Later in 1947 he was appointed as the first national professor by the new government of independent India. Raman retired from the Indian institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman research institute in Bangalore Karnataka later he served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970 in Bangalore at the age of 82.

In 1954 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.