Published By: Sayan Paul

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose: Contributions in the field of science

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, one of the founders of modern-day experimental science and whose scientific contributions are still significant in today's world.

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, mostly known as J. C. Bose, is regarded as one of the greatest scientists ever in India and he had interest in all the fields of science; especially biology, physics, botany and archeology. After studying natural science in Christ's college in Cambridge, Bose came back to India and started teaching physics at the Presidency College. He left the job after some years and started doing research on several topics. Throughout his whole life, he made himself devoted into science and found many new things.

  1. Acharya J. C. Bose discovered electromagnetic waves during his early days in the field of research. For this, the Royal Society of England awarded him with the degree of "Doctor in Science".
  2. Many aren't aware that J. C. Bose was the actual person behind the invention of radio communication. He invented wireless telegraphy and designed an instrument called 'Coherer' which could detect and capture radio waves. But he neither announced his discovery commercially nor filed for a patent. Two years later, Italian scientist Marconi introduced similar demonstration and received all the credits for radio communication.
  3. In 1985, he presented a paper on "The Polarisation of Electric Rays by Double Reflecting Crystals" at the "Asiatic Society of Bengal'. One year later, the Royal Society of London published this paper.
  4. Bose had immense love for plants and he was the first person who revealed the fact that just like animals, plants too have feelings and emotions. To prove his point, he designed a new instrument called Crescograph and did an experiment at the Royal Society of London in 1901. He also said that plants breathe, have a life cycle and even, they die at a certain age. After doing several experiments, he discovered that both humans and plants have some features in common. Bose then did further research and experiments on fertilizer effects, pesticides and light on plants.
  5. He established the 'Bose Institute' at Kolkata, India in 1917 and served as its director for 20 years. It's Asia's first institute to do interdisciplinary research and after over 100 years, it's still one of the most famous research institutes in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Microbiology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Plant Biology, Environmental Science and several others.
  6. Apart from being a brilliant scientist, Bose was also a great writer and wrote several books on science and also a science fiction named 'Niruddesher Kahini'.
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose's life and works inspire thousands of people to work in the field of science and technology. In his honour, 'The Indian Botanic Garden' was renamed as the 'Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden' in 2009.