C. V. Raman

National Science Day

Gonit Sora

Mar 3, 2014 • 3 min read

Hi, dear reader! I am so happy that one more person is going to read my article – Thanks to internet, thanks to computer, thanks to Laptop, Tablet, mobile, electricity. . and the list goes on! We are surrounded by instruments, gadgets, vehicles and what not! You forget to take your mobile with you to college and your day gets messed up, you don’t have internet pack and your mood switches off, you don’t have SMS pack and everything goes wrong! Simply, we can’t imagine living without the facilities science has given us. Since the primitive ages the society has developed through better and best scientific ideas. The term Sciences literally means “knowledge”. Modern day science is the result of continuous effort by our predecessors to know the nature better and to understand its rules. As said by the famous nuclear scientist Enrico Fermi

Whatever nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant it may be, men must accept for ignorance is never better than knowledge.

Its the never ending thirst for knowledge and the ever lasting quest for improvement that has gifted us all the necessities as well as luxuries of the present day. Science and scientific innovators and thinkers really deserve to be thanked for all that they have done or are doing for making the world a better place. Especially, they deserve to be thanked and remembered on National Science Day, the 28th of February. This article is dedicated to all those innovative ideas, all those hard working people and all those genius minds who have contributed their best to enlarge the scientific sphere of influence in the world.

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I am sure you must have heard about the great Indian Nobel Laureate, the brilliant Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. Sir C.V. Raman had worked from 1907 to 1933 at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, West Bengal in India during which he discovered the Raman Effect, which explains the scattering of light when passing through different liquids. I am not learned enough vto discuss further on this effect. I shall suggest some links below where you may read more on this remarkable discovery. For his studies on the scattering of light and subsequently for the discovery of Raman effect, Sir Raman was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1930, a time when India was struggling for its freedom from the British rule! He was the second Indian to receive Nobel Prize, the first being Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore in 1913. To mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Sir C.V.Raman on 28 February 1928, the Government of India had declared 28th February as National Science Day. The National Science Day is now celebrated all over the country in schools, colleges, universities and other academic institutions through seminars, talks and science exhibitions. These celebrations help in spreading the significance of scientific applications in everyday life. It provides a good platform to discuss various issues and implement new technologies for human welfare. The Science day gives an opportunity to the little scientific minded children of the country to make sure that their talent do not remain latent.

Each year National Science day comes with an inspiring theme representing the importance of various branches of science in our society. Lets have a look at the various Science day themes used over the years -“Our changing earth” (1999), “Recreating interest in basic science” (2000), “Information Technology for Science Education” (2001), “Wealth from Waste”(2002), “50 years of DNA & 25 years of IVF- The blue print of Life”(2003), “Encouraging Scientific Awareness in Community” (2004), “Celebrating Physics” (2005- International year of Physics), “Nurture Nature for our future”(2006), “More Crop Per Drop”(2007), “Understanding the Planet Earth”(2008), “Expanding Horizons of Science”(2009), “Gender Equity, Science & Technology for Sustainable Development”(2010), “Chemistry in Daily Life” (2011), “Clean Energy Options and Nuclear Safety”(2012) and “Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security”(2013). We see that the National Science day celebration has addressed very important issues related to the scientific development of our society. The National Science day theme for 2014 is “Fostering Scientific Temper”. Let us involve ourselves in celebrating National Science Day and let us strive together to spread scientific awareness among ourselves. We must remember that science will be a boon to the world only if we use it properly for the benefit of humankind and not for destruction. Its important to have a positive scientific temper to deliver the best to the society. Let us strive to develop that positive scientific temperament.

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