Jagadish Bose

1858 - 1937

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was an Indian physicist who worked in the field of radio and plant science, and is considered one of India's greatest scientist.

• Nationality

Indian

• Subject

Physics

• Fields

Biology, biophysics, botany, archeology

• Distinctions

Nominated 'Father of Radio Science' by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

'Father of Bengali science fiction'.

Bose Crater on the Moon.

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE), 1903.

• Publications

Response in the Living and Non-Living, 1902, exploring the parallels between animal and plant tissues.

The Nervous Mechanism of Plants, 1926.

Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), an 1894 paper on microwaves.

On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals, first scientific paper, 1895.

On a new electro-polariscope, 1895, paper published in the London journal Electrician

Bose wrote Niruddesher Kahini (The Story of the Missing One) in 1896, which is one of the first Bengali science fiction stories.

• Theories

Radio and microwave optics

Plant science: conductivity, cell membrane potential variation in response to microwaves, seasonal variation, and temperature.

Metal fatigue and parallels to living cells.

• Experiments/Discoveries

Crescograph, an instrument he invented to measure plant response to stimuli.

First to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals, studying wavelengths at the millimetre level. He is considered to have anticipated P- and N-type semiconductors by more than half a century.

Microwave receiver and transmitter (so-called Coherer), which Bose refused to patent, on the principle that knowledge belonged to all humanity.

Electrical response curve of cells to electrical stimuli, and the variation of this response in the presence of drugs, anaesthetics and poison.

Born and raised in British India, Bose went to Cambridge University and University of London. On his return to India, he became officiating professor of physics at Presidency college, where he encountered racism. He refused to accept a menial salry, far below that of his white counterparts, for three years, before this protest won him retrospective rights, and he was awarded the full salary, with arrears.

Despite the lack of financial support, or proper laboratory facilities, he was able to devise his own equipment and make breakthroughs in the field of wireless.

(Biographies of famous scientists no. 65)