“A voyage to Europe in the summer of 1921 gave me the first opportunity of observing the wonderful blue opalescence of the Mediterranean Sea. It seemed not unlikely that the phenomenon owed its origin to the scattering of sunlight by the molecules of the water. To test this explanation, it appeared desirable to ascertain the laws governing the diffusion of light in liquids, and experiments with this object were started immediately on my return to Calcutta in September, 1921. It soon became evident, however, that the subject possessed a significance extending far beyond the special purpose for which the work was undertaken, and that it offered unlimited scope for research. It seemed indeed that the study of light-scattering might carry one into the deepest problems of physics and chemistry, and it was this belief which led to the subject becoming the main theme of our activities at Calcutta from that time onwards.”
The renowned physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman founded the Indian Journal of Physics, sponsored the establishment of the Indian Academy of Sciences and was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him." In his Nobel Prize lecture he gave an insight into how his research began.
Read the full lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1930/raman/lecture/
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