GREAT SCIENTISTS: REMEMBERING SIR JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE

Jagadish Chandra Bose (Bust) in Kolkata India

Date: 23 August 2021

Source: Own work

Author: Sufe

under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

GREAT SCIENTISTS:

REMEMBERING SIR JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE

A POLYMATH WHO BRIDGED PHYSICS AND LIFE 

On this day, 23 November, we pause to remember one of India’s most visionary scientists — Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, who passed away in 1937. Bose was not just a physicist; he was a pioneer in biophysics, a botanist, a philosopher and even a science-fiction writer. His life and work bridged disciplines in a way that remains deeply inspiring today.

Born on 30 November 1858 in Mymensingh (in present-day Bangladesh), Bose grew up in a Brahmo Samaj family that valued egalitarianism, education, and a deep respect for nature.  He studied at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta and later went on to Cambridge, where he earned a B.A. in Natural Sciences. 

Bose’s contributions to wireless communication were pathbreaking. As early as the mid-1890s, he conducted experiments with millimetre-wave (microwave) radiation: he demonstrated generation, transmission, reflection, refraction, and polarization of electromagnetic waves.  He also developed one of the earliest semiconductor detectors, using galena crystals, which laid foundations for solid-state physics.  Though Guglielmo Marconi often gets credit for radio, Bose’s innovations strongly preceded many of the practical developments in wireless technology. 

But perhaps his most profound and poetic work came from his studies of plants. Far from treating plants as mere passive organisms, Bose believed they might have a kind of “life” or responsiveness akin to animals. To prove this, he invented a remarkable instrument called the crescograph, capable of measuring plant growth in tiny increments — even detecting minute movements as small as one-hundred-thousandth of an inch.  Using this, he showed that plants respond to stimuli like light, heat, chemicals and even anesthesia — much like nerve responses in animals.  In his book The Nervous Mechanism of Plants (1926), he described phenomena such as fatigue, excitation, and what he called a “death spasm” in plants.  Through this work, he essentially became a founding figure of what we might now call plant neurobiology.

Beyond his scientific inventions, Bose was deeply committed to the spirit of learning and discovery. In 1917, he founded the Bose Institute in Calcutta — envisaged not simply as a laboratory, but “a temple of science.”  He led the Institute as its first director and championed interdisciplinary research, linking biology, physics, botany, and environmental science.

Bose was also a man of principle and modesty: despite his ground-breaking work, he was reluctant to patent many of his inventions.  He believed science should serve humanity and not be limited for personal profit.

His legacy continues to resonate. A crater on the Moon is named after him, a tribute to his monumental impact.  Through his life, Bose modeled the union of deep scientific rigor with a spiritual and humanist worldview — a rare scientist whose curiosity about both the microworld of waves and the inner life of plants reflects a beautiful wholeness.

Today, on his memorial day, we celebrate not just his discoveries, but his courage — to think differently, to defy colonial discrimination (he once taught for three years without salary to demand equal pay),  and to build institutions rooted in Indian soil yet reaching for universal truth.

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose’s life reminds us: science is not just about machines and equations, but about life, sensitivity, and connection. His spirit remains a beacon for future generations of scientists, thinkers, and dreamers.

Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for its great help and support in creating this blogpost!

and SUFE and WIKIMEDIA COMMONS for the image 🙏🙏🙏