India's Contribution to Science & Technology

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Kashi
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Kashi »

New head of Indian research giant to tackle funding issues and red tape

One of India’s largest and oldest research and development organizations has a new leader. Shekhar Mande, a structural biologist best known for his work on proteins, starts this month as director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Mande — most recently the director of the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) in Pune — says that a key goal for his new appointment will be to increase the organization’s focus on finding technical solutions for national problems, such as malnutrition, disease epidemics and access to clean drinking water.

But Mande arrives at a time when the CSIR faces major challenges. The organization’s 38 institutes are still reeling from a government order to increase its own funding three years ago. Subsequent hikes to employee pensions then put a dent in the council's already stretched budget.

“My highest priority is to take stock of CSIR’s funding situation,” Mande told Nature. Scientists also hope he will tackle the agency's entrenched bureaucracy.

Budget struggles

In 2015, the government told the publicly funded CSIR that its labs would need to increase their funding from sources outside the department of science and industrial research within 3 years by inventing a steady stream of "game-changing technologies". The organization already had a target to raise one-third of its budget from external sources, which was recommended by a CSIR review committee in 1986, but many institutes struggled to meet that benchmark.

The government’s 2015 statement created panic because it did not specify how much more cash the agency would need to raise. Many researchers worried that the directive implied that the CSIR might have to survive on its own cash flow in the future.  Since 2015, the council's funding from the science department has risen slightly, sitting between 39.8 billion rupees (US$0.54 billion) in 2015-16 and 47.4 billion rupees for 2018-19, but has not kept up with inflation.

The council faced another budget challenge when new rules on salaries and pensions for government employees were introduced in 2016. The agency was forced to pay additional personnel costs out of its existing budget.

The agency has heeded the government's order to increase its self-funding, says biologist Girish Sahni, who was CSIR director-general from 2015 until his retirement in August. Income from outside the science department has almost doubled, from 5.6 billion rupees (US$76 million) in 2015–16 to 9.6 billion rupees in 2017–18. This was raised through a mix of grants from other government agencies, industry partnerships, and revenue from CSIR patents, says Sahni. External industry sources now contribute close to 15% of the CSIR’s budget, he says, and this figure “is bound to climb”.

But the government still needs to determine what proportion of its budget the CSIR needs to raise from external sources, says Swaminathan Sivaram, a former director of the CSIR’s National Chemical Laboratory in Pune. “The government should be explicit [about] whether it expects CSIR to self-finance itself totally, or whether it will provide part [of the] money,” he says. Sivaram adds that it is unlikely that the organization will be able to meet its salary and equipment expenses without government funding, although it can raise money for research from other sources.

Mande says one of his goals will be to encourage Indian industry to spend more on research and development, which — with the exception of the biotech industry — it has historically been averse to doing.

Red tape

Several former and current CSIR scientists say that another challenge facing Mande is the CSIR’s enormous amount of financial and administrative red tape, which hobbles the organization’s productivity. Anil Koul, director of the CSIR’s Institute of Microbial Technology in Chandigarh, says Mande will have to make administrative and structural changes so that doing science at CSIR becomes less burdensome.

“I strongly believe reduced bureaucracy and optimized operational processes are critically important to improve the scientific outcomes and productivity, as well as develop a long-term sustainable R&D organization,” says Koul.

Mande should also continue Sahni's efforts to streamline the research programmes of the 38 institutes to make them more collaborative, says Koul.

Mande’s cross-disciplinary background — he started as a physics postgraduate before turning to protein crystallography, DNA fingerprinting and computational biology — might help to steer the organization towards doing more of this kind of research, he says.

“I see great growth opportunity for CSIR both in areas of fundamental sciences as well as stronger focus in translation and product-driven research,” says Koul.

And, despite the challenges ahead, Mande is optimistic about the CSIR’s future. “The period of renaissance for CSIR has just begun,” says Mande.
Shwetank
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Shwetank »

Amber G. wrote:
Amber G. wrote:Prof Abhay Ashtekar - Inspiration to many.
Theoretical physicist Prof. Abhay Ashtekar is the recipient of this year’s prestigious Einstein Medal![/b][/size]
One more physicist we have talked about in Brf.

(He was also an inspiration, guru and friend to many of us - IIRC Bade and me mentioned him in brf long time ago. Congratulations.

Last time I mentioned it was when he became chair of LIGO/India's international advisory panel and was mentor to many of the people in LIGO team. I believe he is still at PennU.
There are several awards after Einstein and the one he seems to have won is called the Einsteain Prize] from American Physical Society , not medal.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^Thanks. Yes it is APS Einstein Prize (and not "medal" - another famous prize).
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

This ought to be a really big news in Indian Newspapers .. (It is here in US).

Rana Adhikari (Cal-tech) is one of the recipient of 2019 Breakthrough Prize (More money than Noble :) ).
2019 - New Horizons In Physics Prize - along with Lisa Barsotti and Matthew Evans (Caltech/MIT) and Brian Metzger ( Columbia University ),

Congratulations to Rana Adhikari. I am sure name is very familiar here. He is one of the leader for LIGO-INDIA. The main person who convinced Modi to LIGO India build.


In physics dhaga I am posting a lecture he gave in Bangalaru - If you are interested in Science - I HIGHLY recommend it.
(Just checked some Indian newspaper have this news)
Indian American Rana Adhikari wins ‘Oscar of Science’ Breakthrough Prize
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Pulikeshi »



If you have not seen this video it is worth every minute :mrgreen:
To have that level of skepticism and openness to test everything - science is indeed made of such ascetism...
I do think the gravity waves got to his shirt! :P
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ THANKS for posting this.
I am particularly happy to see some of the scientists and friends of my generation are getting the recognition, including from Indian newspapers and GOI. Even in BRF :) (Where in spite of silly nonsense of ALT-Tech dhaga we do get posts like above). And many of these scientists are now helping back Indian Institutes, students and public by giving back.


This year some of the most prestigious prizes have gone to our friends, gurus: (I have posted some of their work in Physics dhaga).
- Einstein Prize - Prof Abhay Ashtekar
- Dirac Medal - Prof Subir Sachdev (Harvard)
-New Horizon Prize - Prof Rana Adhikari (Caltech).

Rana Adhikari's one of the best presentation, if you are a serious student of physics and want to learn about gravitational waves and LIGO India is his lecture in Bangalaru. It is a 1 hour lecture but very enjoyable.
Einstein Lecture: Brightest Day Darkest Night
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Pulikeshi wrote: youtube >>ViMnGgn87dg

If you have not seen this video it is worth every minute :mrgreen:
To have that level of skepticism and openness to test everything - science is indeed made of such ascetism...
I do think the gravity waves got to his shirt! :P
Pulikeshi - The story told by Weiss (Rana's PhD supervisor in MIT - who won the Nobel for GW) is similar and *very* interesting. IIRC, he was on vacation with his wife, and son when people reached to him by phone and told if he saw his email..His wife remembers him uncharastically say something loud but again first thing he thought was it was a 'fake/test' signal to test the software etc.. (which they use to induce without telling the whole team).. he quickly found than all people in that team told him they did not introduce the signal.. than they tested *EVERY* raw data (took them months) and asked those "four-five" people (Like Rana' says) if any of them know anything. It took them almost another year of checking and rechecking before they announced the result.

For me what is amazing that nearly a 1000+ people in the team but NO ONE leaked it before the official announcement. (Sure there were rumors that something interesting was found ..but no one really leaked/claimed success b4 everyone agreed that the event was real). Weiss told the story many times so googling will give you more information if interested.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Pulikeshi »

It is a fascinating story - but Rana’s narration is priceless - really has a knack of making the story interesting.... :mrgreen:
Thanks for the details, always learn something new... will research more!
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Duplicate removed.
Last edited by Amber G. on 13 Nov 2018 22:41, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Contribution by another famous Indian Scientist is in News. - Fiber Optics!

I have mentioned this person's work in Physics dhaga over the years and this article is from MIT's recent @techreview.
(First time I read about Dr Narinder Kapany was an article by Dr M, L. Mehta in Vigyan in 1960! There was a Scientific article too. (BTW I still have the old copy of Vigyan )

Anyway I hope you like the article:


Image
The Indian Physicist who Bent Light


Very few people have the luck to live long enough to see how their work revolutionises the world. The Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany is one of those fortunate people. In 1953, he designed and manufactured a glass wire capable of transporting light, which he later coined fibre optics, an invention that has transformed all our lives. Without it, the Internet and modern telecommunications would not be possible, nor the most advanced biomedical instrumentation, nor the efficient use of solar energy. With fibre optics, this genius of physics—in addition to being an entrepreneur and inventor—achieved what his teachers had told him was impossible: to bend light.

Narinder Kapany began to be interested in the technological applications of the theories he studied in Agra (India).
Narinder Kapany was born on 31 October 1926 in Moga, Punjab (north of India) to a wealthy Sikh family. He studied physics at the University of Agra (India) while working in a factory for the design and manufacture of optical instruments, where he began to be interested in the technological applications of the theories he studied.

After graduating in 1952, he moved to London to study for a doctorate at the Imperial College in London with the prestigious British physicist Harold Hopkins, a researcher in the field of optics. Kapany sought to achieve a system that would allow the use of light as a means of transmitting information, picking up the baton from earlier celebrated scientists. One of these was the Frenchman Claude Chappe, who in the 18th century developed a kind of optical telegraph, considered the first attempt to use light as a vehicle for the exchange of information. His idea was to position towers facing each other but separated by dozens of kilometres and to use mirrors to reflect messages encoded in the form of light.

Almost a century before, the Irishman John Tyndall discovered that light could travel within a jet of water. Starting from these earlier ideas, Kapany undertook the task of developing a material through which light could travel, adapting itself to its shape and curvature. In 1953, while working on his thesis, he achieved his goal in a nascent form.

In 1954, he published his breakthrough in the journal Nature, where he explained how he had directed a beam of light through a set of 75-centimetre-long glass wires while hardly losing any signal in the transmission. However, those first fibres had a problem: the light dissipated and could not cover distances greater than nine metres. But even so, Kapany had opened the door for many other researchers to work in that field and perfect his invention, which he later dubbed “fibre optics” in an article in Scientific American.
Image
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Supratik »

Another one ignored.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ From what I know Shri Kapany has won "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman" award and in many circles is known as "Father of Fiber Optics" (Because he was the first one to coin this term in SA article)..but .. he was listed as one of the "unsung heroes" in the list of top scientists/inventors of 20th century by Fortune. I believe he is a former IOFS officer.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

I recently received this article which I enjoyed and thought I will share it here. It is well written article about the great meteorologist Anna Mani. I think not many people know about her here. The article is in Hindi but I am also putting a link from Nobelprize_series regarding her.
Hindi article:
भारत की शुरूआती महिला वैज्ञानिकों में से एक थीं अन्ना मनी, जिन्होंने भारत में मौसम विज्ञान से जुड़े तमाम ऐसे छोटे-बड़े उपकरणों के विकास में योगदान दिया जिसकी वजह से आज हम सटीक भविष्यवाणी करने में सक्षम हैं।

Anna Mani was among very few woman in India around that time who studied Physics. She was a student of (Nobel Laureate) C. V. Raman. (C. V. Raman's younger brother was also a great meteorologist.)

Very nice writeup in English is for example here: http://nobelprizeseries.in/tbis/anna-mani
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Supratik »

Number of patents double in two years.

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/indians-g ... first-time
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Supratik »

Superconductivity at ambient temperature from IISC, Bangalore. This is controversial but a major scientific breakthrough if true.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... 246496.ece
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Rahul M »

Supratik wrote:Superconductivity at ambient temperature from IISC, Bangalore. This is controversial but a major scientific breakthrough if true.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... 246496.ece
if proven this might be worth a Nobel.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Rahul M wrote:
Supratik wrote:Superconductivity at ambient temperature from IISC, Bangalore. This is controversial but a major scientific breakthrough if true.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... 246496.ece
if proven this might be worth a Nobel.
Please do see my comments in Physics dhaga.
viewtopic.php?p=2357696#p2357696
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »

There is definitely some issue in data shown. However assuming that the IISC scientists are able to validate their hypothesis, what's the probability that this new gold-silver SC nano material can evolve into applications are commercially viable ?
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

They have evidently given photographic evidence. Will post link later. It's from the latest Hindu newspaper
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Supratik »

See my posts in physics thread.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... epage=true

The Hindu article about video evidence
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Thanks for posting this. I have also posted this in physics dhaga,
Varoon Shekhar wrote:https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... epage=true

The Hindu article about video evidence
FYI - The video evidence written above in Hindu was with the authors (Authors told us that they have the video evidence too) for many months but they did not release it earlier - a normal and wise thing to do - as they wanted to be sure that the experiment is reproducible/reliable . (I was aw

I am glad they released it. It may give clinching evidence.


FWIW - It is a nice video but nowhere close to clinching evidence (In My humble opinion note#1)..As I know more I will post my thoughts here. I am sure there will be more updates.

Note#1 - For those who may not be familiar with physics behind this video. Diamagnetism is a strong indication of superconductivity, but it is NOT clinching one (more details are needed). For example Gold is a diamagnetic (without being superconductor) although much weaker.. (Actually human body is diamagnetic :) - very weak though - and can levitate if tremendous magnetic field is present).
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »

Amber G. wrote:Thanks for posting this. I have also posted this in physics dhaga,
Varoon Shekhar wrote:https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien ... epage=true

The Hindu article about video evidence
FYI - The video evidence written above in Hindu was with the authors (Authors told us that they have the video evidence too)...

Note#1 - For those who may not be familiar with physics behind this video. Diamagnetism is a strong indication of superconductivity, but it is NOT clinching one (more details are needed). For example Gold is a diamagnetic (without being superconductor) although much weaker.. (Actually human body is diamagnetic :) - very weak though - and can levitate if tremendous magnetic field is present).
The video shows repulsion by what I assume is a handheld magnet of low field strength. An ordinary diamagnetic material like gold would not be repelled. Can we assume if other factors such as electrostatic repulsion is ruled out then this is a superconductor
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

tandav wrote:
Amber G. wrote:Thanks for posting this. I have also posted this in physics dhaga,

FYI - The video evidence written above in Hindu was with the authors (Authors told us that they have the video evidence too)...

Note#1 - For those who may not be familiar with physics behind this video. <snip>
The video shows repulsion by what I assume is a handheld magnet of low field strength. {Now a days one can have fairly strong hand held magnet - even buy from Amazon > 50 million Gauss Oersted } - An ordinary diamagnetic material like gold would not be repelled. Can we assume if other factors such as electrostatic repulsion is ruled out then this is a superconductor
I may put more technical reasoning in physics dhaga but short answer of what I think follows.

More I look at the video (and talking with other physicists who have looked at it) more questions and doubts I have. I don't know why the authors did not get more detailed data or try to replicate the results. There are at least half a dozen labs in India, I think, which can perform the experiment. (They can share the sample without giving away secrets -- at minimum they can invite IISc scientist - out side their close group - to validate).

On top of that TVR's comment(s) in the current Hindu article (about the you-tube video) and a few tweets , to me looks made-up. (some of us have asked the authors/Hindu editors/ TVR about this and I will let you know if we found something more).

Anyway - to answer your question:
Pure Bismuth, for example, will do levitation as shown in the video.

Gold and (and Silver) are much weaker diamagnetic but it seems at nano-particle level others have reported seeing stronger diamagnetism (without superconductivity). So unless I know more about the sample (and do some calculation) I am very doubtful if superconductivity is involved.

Frustrating part is LACK of clear data. I really think that those scientists ought to get some more clear data (using best lab they can have access to) and "share" the sample with trusted people (may be from inside IISc but outside the group), or let some people "observe" the data. They should make more detailed observation - and may be take some help from trusted theoretical physicists.

May be they are doing this - we will just wait till there is more clarity.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »



https://youtu.be/G-aoR8LtFzo

YouTube link from IISC is linked above. Would the Gurus here explain what is being shown. I see some repulsion, however I do not immediately observe "flux pining" which as per wiki is a feature of superdiamagnetism/ superconductivity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdiamagnetism
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Would the Gurus here explain what is being shown.
..
FWIW: Some points:
The video above is quite odd..not very scientific and sometimes YouTube Videos are just YouTube Videos. The clip refer to an arXiv article (not published). Let us wait till IISc or someone reputable puts something there.

Anyway it shows - diamagnetism. In common language, many metals (like iron) are ferromagnetic. They get attracted by magnetic field. (Both south poles or North Poles of a magnet will attract iron). Some elements are diamagnetic - they get repelled by magnets. Like Bismuth, gold, silver or even human body. The repelling force is quite weak so no one sees in ordinary life. But one can see, pure Bismuth doing its tricks etc.

All superconductors are (strong) diamagnetic. And this is one way to see if a material became super-conductor.
(But showing something getting repelled and not knowing how strong the magnetic field -need not implies there is super-conductor)

Hope this helps. (For more or details see any good text-book or wiki :) )

In any case there are quite a few articles/YouTubeVideos etc are coming out in Indian Media/ social platforms about this "Nobel Prize Winning Discovery from IISc team. I think it is very premature - we do not even have a peer reviewed paper yet.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by hanumadu »

One the researcher claimed on twitter that they submitted the article for publishing along with data when he was asked for more data. He said data will be available through the journal if it is published.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ A few of the researchers are on twitter. There is a new update - article in arXiv, (just today) with some more data.. Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02291 (submitted by Saurav Islam).
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by hanumadu »

I read that researches from IIT Mandi have claimed similar results.
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/iit-mandi ... mperatures
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ Posted the arXiv article in the Physics dhaga a few days ago. Waiting for publication in a peer-reviewed journal to comment more but this (IIT) group does not replicate the results claimed by the IISc group.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »

hanumadu wrote:I read that researches from IIT Mandi have claimed similar results.
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/iit-mandi ... mperatures
The transition temperature in Arxiv paper here ranges between 160K to 250K. It appears to me that the nano Material preparation method results in a class of materials with varying Tc based on internal structure.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

xpost (from Physics dhaga)L
This week Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced, so here is a photo challenge for BRF..

There are many great physicist in this picture. At least three are world renowned and widely known. Can you identify them and tell us when and where this photo was taken.

Recently Nobel Committee released the name of all nominations (from 1901-9166) including those who did not win the prize. There is one in the picture who was nominated 8 times, another 4 times and the third, the most famous of all, was a polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist and archaeologist, and an early writer of science fiction but is perhaps best known as an Electrical Engineer.

Image

(Photo Credit: American Institute of Physics - Segre Archive)

How many can you identify?

(Seated, L-R) Meghnad Saha, Jagadish C Bose and Janan C Ghosh. (Standing L-R) Snehamoy Dutt, Satyendranath Bose, Debendra M Bose, Nikhil R Sen, Janendra Nath Mukherjee and Keshab C Nag.

Saha was nominated for Nobel 12 times, SN Bose 4 times.
Last edited by Amber G. on 07 Oct 2019 20:59, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Manish_P »

:shock: What a photo!

The gentleman sitting in the centre is Jagdish Chandra Bose.

Lot of Bengali scholars in that photo..
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ Yes. Other greats are Meghnath Saha, and SN Bose, among others. I have edited the original picture with the names of all - really well known personalities.
From the archives:

Here is SN Bose, with Zhou-en-Lai of China.
Image

and an Einstein's letter to SN Bose:
Image
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

x post: Very nice article. Worth reading in full.
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/ ... /PT.3.3267
Meghnad Saha: Physicist and nationalist

Deeply committed to the cause of Indian independence, Saha occasionally detoured from his physics to conduct a revolutionary mission or pen a populist manifesto.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »

Actorius Innovations and Research (AIR) a Pune based startup has a invented a fast blood test called Oncodiscover for early detection and monitoring of epithelial cancers (80% of all cancers). The technology use nanotechnology to bind to cancer specific cell surface protein and is able to detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) down to a few cells per billions which is an indicator for cancer malignancy.


https://www.indiatoday.in/education-tod ... 2019-08-19

https://www.actorius.co.in/oncodiscover
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by tandav »

I was leafing through a children's book called 365 inventions that changed the world. I found there were nearly no references to inventions from India. 50% of the inventions covered were attributed to China. Iron and steel attributed to central asia and China. Weaving was attributed to Iran (as per Irfan Habib)

The more important fact is that India has not invested adequately in unearthing and claiming its historical innovations. The navigational compass (matsyayantra) magnetic iron fish floating in oil held up by surface tension is not mentioned at all. Woodtz steel not mentioned.

We need to have a national mission to date our history and claim its innovative contributions to the world. It's very badly propagated and very easily counter claimed by other civilizations that have a better organized documentation system
Varoon Shekhar
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

^
That's disgusting. I wonder who wrote this book. In this day and age, there is absolutely no excuse to ignore, dismiss or belittle Indian achievements, which are numerous.
Amber G.
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Re: India's Contribution to Science & Technology

Post by Amber G. »

Meanwhile ad for this event caught my eye.
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