My Science School

                In the 19th century when India was excelling in various fields like fine arts, literature and philosophy, her contribution in the field of science was almost negligible. It was Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, who with his inventions in the second-half of the 19th century, not only made a name for himself but also put India on the science map of the world. 

               Bose was born on November 30, 1858, in a village of Bengal. After studying physics at the Calcutta University he went to England for further studies. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1884, and after coming back to India he became a professor of physical sciences at Presidency College, Calcutta from 1885 to 1915. He was a doyen of Indian science; a pioneer in the field of physical and plant physiological researches.

               He had a deep interest in animal and plant life right from his boyhood. After becoming the professor, he got an opportunity to work in his cherished field. He was the first to realize that both animals and plants have a great deal in common, but he did not have any instrument to prove it. To begin with, he designed and built a very sensitive machine for the detection of minute responses of living organisms to external stimuli. This instrument was called crescograph. It magnified the movement of plant tissues to ten thousand times of their original size and could record the reaction of plants to manures, noise and other stimuli. He is also credited with inventing a wireless transmission system that went unrecognized, much before Marconi. 

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            The first model of a ballpoint pen was patented in 1888 by an American John H. Loud for writing on rough surfaces. But a successful ballpoint-pen, like the modern one, could not be developed till 1943. In fact, the American Air Force is mainly responsible for its invention. The Air Force demanded a special type of pen which could be used by the aircraft crew during flights. They required a pen which would not spill ink due to the reduction in air pressure at high altitudes. Such a pen could only be a ballpoint pen and hence there was a very fast development of it after this demand. Later on it became so popular that even the common people began to use it.

            The ballpoint pen has a hollow body made up of some metal or plastic material. It has a cap, a spring and an ink-refill with a tiny brass ball (writing point) fitted at its one end. The cap controls the writing point. The spring helps the writing point to move up and down. The refill is generally made of polythene and is filled with different colours of ink. 

            The ink used in ballpoint pen is specially formulated to be thick so that it may not leak. Its flow, however, remains smooth and unbroken lines can be drawn with the help of these pens. The ink is drawn through internal ducts in the socket by capillary action (a phenomenon in which the surface of a liquid confined in a narrow-bore tube rises above level.)

            A ballpoint pen has many uses. No blotting paper or inkpot is needed when it is used. This pen writes fast. Its ink does not spill on paper. The words written by it are not affected by water. It has certain disadvantages also. Unlike a fountain pen it does not make broader or finer strokes. It tires the hand more quickly than an ordinary pen because more pressure has to be exerted which using it.

            In the 1960s, soft-tip pens were developed in Japan. In these pens, the ink flows through a pad when pad touches the writing surface. During 1980s ballpoint-pens with carbide tips became very popular.

          Invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison, the phonograph was a device meant for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound.

          The significance of this device was that it was the first to reproduce a recorded sound. Till then, other inventors had produced devices that could only record sounds.

          Edison’s phonograph originally recorded sound on to a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder. He patented it in 1878. The invention became popular across the globe very soon. Over the next two decades, the commercial recording, distribution, and sale of sound recordings became a new international industry.

          The next important invention was the gramophone disc. The waveform of sound vibrations were recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved into the surface of a rotating cylinder called the ‘record’.

          To recreate the sound, the surface was similarly rotated. Then, the playback stylus would trace the groove, and start vibrating. As a result, the recorded sound would be faintly reproduced. 

               The inconsequential number zero was a major invention which has had a tremendous impact on the history of mankind because it made the development of higher mathematics possible. Without the invention of zero higher mathematics would not have been developed to its present status.

               Although it is not known with certainty who invented it, yet there is no controversy about the claim that it was invented in India around 2nd-3rd century A.D. Right from the beginning of civilization, man has tried many different methods to write numbers. For this purpose, Greeks used letters of their alphabet and Egyptians, appropriate pictures. Romans used a complicated system. They used ‘X’ to represent 10, ‘C’ to mark 100 and ‘M’ for 1000. For 1 they used ‘I’, for 5 ‘V’, for 50 ‘L’ and for 500 'D’. They represented 4 by ‘IV’. If they had to write 1648, they wrote ‘MDCXLVIll’. This was indeed a complicated method.

               However long before the birth of Christ, the Hindus in India had invented a far better number system but without zero.

               Later zero was invented. Unlike many ancient systems, today we have a zero to represent nothing. It was introduced in the modern role by Hindu mathematicians. It was brought to Europe about the year 900 A.D. by the Arab traders, and is called the Hindu-Arabic System. In this system, all numbers are written within the nine digits – 1, 2, 3, 4, .5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and the zero (sunya). Here each figure has a value according to the place in which it is written. The Romans didn’t have a zero in their system.

               Zero has some peculiar properties. When it is added or subtracted from any number, the result remains the same. When any number is multiplied by zero, it becomes zero. It is the only number which can be divided by any other number, but it cannot divide any other number. The expression 0/0 is neither meaningless nor meaningful. In fact, it is indeterminate. Zero is similar to all other natural numbers.

               In a nutshell, zero is a number smaller than any finite positive number, but larger than any finite negative number. Division by zero is an undefined operation. It may be regarded as the identity element for addition in the field of real numbers.

               The invention of zero became the turning point in the development of culture and civilization – without which progress of modern science, industry and commerce was inconceivable.

 

            A hospital is an institution devoted to the care and treatment of sick people. Do you know when and how did hospitals come into being?

            The history of hospitals began in Babylonia, Greece and India. These early hospitals were temples. Very little medicines were given to patients. Hospitals existed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 437 B.C. and were established in India somewhat earlier during the time of Buddha. Eighteen hospitals built by Emperor Ashoka in 3rd century B.C. are said to have some characteristics similar to modern hospitals.

            The advent of Christianity gave impetus to the establishment of hospitals. Their growth accelerated during the crusades which began by the end of the 11th century.

            Three persons – Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur, and Lord Lister contributed most to the growth of hospitals in modern times. Florence Nightingale known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ was a great reformer of hospital conditions and re-organizer of nurses training programmes.

            Louis Pasteur contributed a lot in germ theory and Lord Lister put his research in practice. Developments in anaesthesia made it possible to perform major and more difficult operations.

            The first hospital in North America was built in Mexico City in 1524 by Cortez. The French established a hospital in Canada in 1639 at Quebec City.

            During the 20th century, outstanding contributions have been made by scientists in the field of medicine and surgery. As a result, the number of hospitals has greatly increased. Today we have private hospitals, military hospitals, general hospitals and also specialized hospitals for mental diseases, tuberculosis, heart diseases, cancer and eye disorders etc.

            The largest hospital in the world is the District Medical Centre in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. It covers 478 acres and includes five hospitals, with a total of 5600 beds. At present China has the greatest number of hospitals — 61929 in 1989.

 

An elevator or a lift is a car that moves in a vertical shaft carrying passengers or freight from one floor to another in a multi-storeyed building. Most modern elevators are propelled by electric motors with the help of a counterweight through a system of cables and pulleys. Do you know who invented the elevator?

Elevator was not invented by one man or in a single day. Its development is a result of combined efforts made by several people.

The practice of lifting loads by mechanical means during building construction goes back to Roman times. The Roman architect-engineer Vitruvius Pollio in the 1st century B.C. had described lifting platforms that used pulleys and capstans, operated by humans, animals or water power. In 1800 A.D. steam power came to be used to operate such devices in England. In the early 19th century, a hydraulic lift was introduced. These lifts were used only to hoist freights because they were most unreliable.

In 1853, Elisha Graves Otis introduced a safety device and gave birth to the first passenger elevator. This was put into service in the Haughwout Department Store in New York City in 1857. It was powered by steam. It climbed five floors in less than a minute. Improved versions of the steam - driven elevators came into use in the next three decades, but the most significant progress was made after 1889. In 1894, push button operations were introduced. After that many design improvements were made.

Once the problems of safety, speed and height were overcome, attention was turned to convenience and economy. Soon more sophisticated elevators came to cater to the need of tall buildings. Their speeds were increased to 365 m per minute. Automatic operations were also introduced by the 1950s, eliminating the need of operators.

 

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               Hippocrates, a Greek physician, is known as ‘the father of medicine’. He was born on the island of Cos where he later founded the first school of medicine. He lived between 460 BC to 377 BC. Modern medical students make a promise to be ethical in their work which is known as the Hippocratic Oath.

               Doctors at the Hippocratic School of medicine were taught that diseases were the result of improper functioning of parts of the body, rather than of possession by demons as was believed superstitiously in those days. But Hippocrates and his followers did not know about the structure of the human body. They believed that diseases were caused by the imbalance of four vital fluids — blood, bile, phlegm and black bile. Hippocrates also pointed out that malaria and certain other diseases were associated with particular localities or climate conditions. 

               Hippocrates and other members of the school have written more than 50 books on medicine. Some of the descriptions of diseases in these books are very clear and accurate. In his writings, some of which may in fact be by other members of his circle, is found the important theory which tells that every disease is related to the natural law just like everything else and therefore should be carefully observed and treated accordingly. But this theory is not wholly accepted in modern medical science. However, no other medical books as scientific as these were written until modern times. 

            Sir C.V. Raman was one of the greatest scientists of India who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his outstanding discovery in Physics. It was named after him and is known as ‘The Raman Effect’.

            Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was born on 7th November, 1888 at Tiruchirappally in Tamil Nadu. Raman was a very brilliant student right from his childhood. After passing his matriculation at the age of 12, he was admitted to the Presidency College, Madras. From there he passed his B.Sc. in 1904 and M.Sc. in Physics in 1907 with the first position in the University. While he was a student in the Presidency College, he modified Melde’s theory on sound.

            In 1907 after passing a civil service competitive examination, he became the Deputy Accountant General in Calcutta. In 1915, he met Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the Secretary of the Indian Science Association. Raman joined this Association as a member, and started his research work. In the year 1917, he resigned from his post and became the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University. 

            During a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, he observed with wonder, the brilliant blue colour of the Mediterranean, and later the blue colour of glaciers. After returning to India, he experimented on the diffusion of sunlight during its passage through water, transparent blocks of ice and other materials. He then explained the reason for the blue colour of the ocean. His studies on scattering of light led him to the discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in 1928. ‘Rama Effect’ describes the change in the frequency of light passing through transparent mediums. He used monochromatic light from a mercury arc and the spectroscope to study the nature of diffused radiations emerging from the material under examination. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.

            In 1933, he became the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He held this post for 10 years. In 1934, he sponsored the foundation of the Indian Academy of Sciences, of which he became President. In 1943, the Raman Research Institute was set up by him. Then he conducted research work for the rest of his life. He died on 21st November, 1970 at Bangalore.

 

            Milking machine is a device used for milking the cows. The first milking machine was patented by an American engineer I.O. Colvin in 1860. It had four rubber teat cups which were connected to a vacuum chamber attached to the side of a pail. The chamber was similar in appearance to a bellows and a vacuum was created by pumping the handle after the cow’s teats had been placed in the rubber cups. It was gradually realized that continuous suction caused pain to the cow and often caused internal bleeding which contaminated the milk.

            In 1889 William Marchland of Kilmarnock, Scotland patented an elaborate suction milking machine. It also had some problems. Its improved version was produced by Dr. Alexander Shields of Glasgow in 1895. This model was very costly for the farmers. This was further improved in the early 20th century by several firms in Scotland.

            The modern carousel milking machine consists of a large slow-moving platform, powered by an electric motor, with places for several cows. As the cows approach the platform, they are placed at their own feeders and a milking machine is attached to each cow. The milk produced is collected in glass containers.

            Since the late 1960s the animal feeding methods in milking parlours have advanced dramatically. Many of the parlours are computerized and some include electronic sensors which pickup signals from small transmitters fixed around each cow’s neck and which reveal the animal’s feeding requirements. Automatic dispensers then provide the requisite ration. 

          The great scientist Sir Humphry Davy was once asked by a friend to name his greatest discovery to which he replied ‘Michael Faraday’. Faraday was then working as his assistant. Later his contributions in the field of electromagnetism and electrochemistry led to the invention of many things including dynamo and motor.

          Born in 1791 in a poor blacksmith family, Faraday began his career at the age of thirteen as an errand boy in a bookshop and moved along the pavements of London carrying and delivering newspapers. But his curious and inquisitive mind accompanied by hard work enabled him to reach great heights. His considerate employer in the bookshop taught him the art of book production. Thus Faraday found an access to books and devoted his spare time to reading. He had always the inherent desire to achieve something great.

          One day Faraday got the opportunity to attend a lecture by Sir Humphry Davy. Faraday noted down his lectures and sent them to Sir Humphry along with suitable diagrams. In return Sir Humphry offered him the post of a laboratory assistant and Faraday served him for a long time.

          When Faraday got the opportunity to work on his own, his genius flourished. Chemistry was his first love and he invented stainless steel, liquid chlorine, new kinds of optical glasses, benzene etc. he also propounded the laws of electrolysis. He got instant fame when he ventured into the field of electricity. Oersted had earlier discovered that electricity could produce magnetic effects but Faraday started thinking of the reverse phenomenon. He thought if electricity could produce magnetic effects then there must be a way for magnetism to produce electricity. Later he invented the ‘magneto electric machine’ that had a spinning disk between the poles of a magnet which became the forerunner of a dynamo. A dynamo converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. It consists of a powerful magnet and in between the poles of it a suitable conductor (a coil) is rotated. The mechanical energy generated by rotation is thus converted into an electric current in the coil.

          Faraday could not make money out of his inventions as he never bothered for money. Though at some stage of his life he earned a lot of money, he remained poor in his later days. He was generous, charitable and deeply religious. He died in 1867. 

            Dr. Hargobind Khorana is one of the renowned biochemists of the world. He developed a method for the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). For his independent contributions, he was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, along with M.W. Norenberg and R.W. Holley.

            Dr. Hargobind Khorana was born on 9th January 1922 at Rajpur in Punjab (now in Pakistan). He studied in a village school, and distinguished himself right from the beginning by winning many scholarships.

            He passed his B.Sc. examination from D.A.V. College, Lahore and obtained his M.Sc. degree in chemistry in 1945 from Punjab University, Lahore. His main interest was biochemistry. He went to Manchester University, in England for higher studies. There he worked under Prof. A. Robertson and got his Ph.D. in 1948. In the same year he came back to India, but could not get a suitable job. He remained without a job for several months, and finally a disappointed man, he went back to England for further research. There he worked with Nobel laureate, Sir Alexander Todd at Cambridge University. And in 1952 he went to Canada and got married to the daughter of a Swiss M.P.

            In 1953, Dr. Khorana was elected as the head of Organic Chemistry Group of Commonwealth Research Organization. He remained in this position upto 1960. In 1960 he went to the United States of America and started working with Norenberg on the creation of artificial life. In the Institute for Enzyme Research at the University of Wisconsin, he developed methods to synthesize RNA and DNA. Due to his research it has now become possible to treat some hereditary diseases.

            In 1970, he joined the Massachusset Institute of Technology as Professor of Biology. In addition to the 1968 Nobel Prize, he has been honoured with many prestigious international awards.

            He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and was conferred with the honorary degree of D.Sc. by Punjab University, Chandigarh.

          Today, medical sciences have become so advanced that many limbs of the body are made artificially and replaced by the competent surgeons. This advancement has come to this stage after a long process. The first person who made the artificial limbs was a French surgeon named Ambroise Pare (1510 - 1590).

          In the 1500s, surgery was not practiced by physicians but it was one of the specialties of the hair cutting profession. As a young boy Pare had the barber’s training. In 1541 he became a barber surgeon in Army. Eventually he became surgeon to the French king Henry II and to the king’s three sons who later succeeded him.

          Ambroise Pare was a very popular surgeon largely because he introduced many improvements in the existing methods. For example, he gave up the practice of cauterizing wounds with boiling oil; instead he tied off the exposed arteries and covered the wounds with simple dressings. 

          Pare developed several artificial limbs such as arms and hands. He made an arm that could be bent of the elbow and a hand with movable fingers. Even today Pare is considered as the first person to devise artificial limbs.

          Today we have modern artificial legs and muscle activated electric arms driven by electric motors. They have become very useful for the patients who have lost their natural limbs.

               ‘Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’. Thomas Alva Edison, the greatest inventor of all times, is the most suitable example of his own saying. This great outstanding US inventor had the credit of making 1001 inventions. Can you imagine a world without electric light, recorded music, cinema etc., which are the contributions of this great genius?

               Edison was born on February 11, 1847 at Milan, Ohio. His father was an incharge of a light house at Lake Huron. Although he could not continue his studies in his school, he was very inquisitive from his boyhood to learn by understanding. When he was only ten years old he set up a laboratory in the basement of his father’s working place. He loved to mix liquids and powders to observe the reactions.

               At the age of 12, he began selling newspapers and candy in trains. As a very keen observer he learnt some preliminary techniques of telegraphy from the Station Master, which led him later to work as a roving telegrapher. During his stint as a supervisor in a Telegraph company he created a stock printer. With the money received from it, he set up a laboratory for carrying out his experiments and research work. In subsequent years he invented phonograph - the machine for recording and reproducing sound. Edison thus had made man’s voice immortal. In 1878, he demonstrated the light bulb - a carbon filament electric bulb. 

               While experimenting on electric lamp, he discovered an important scientific principle known as ‘Edison effect’. This discovery led to the invention of electron valves and the modern electronics industry rests on this principle. In 1882, he set up a power generating station which supplied power to a few residents of New York City. Later he developed the kinetograph which was the first step towards motion picture camera. Cinema houses are here today because of the inventive genius of Edison. His other inventions include the spheres of X-rays, telephone and other electronic items. His inventions made him one of the richest men in America.

This great genius passed away on 18 October, 1931.

 

 

          Galileo, even after 350 years of his death, is still considered as one of the greatest scientists of the world. He was the first man to disprove many old notions about nature and to use modern scientific methods.

          He was born in the town of Pisa, Italy, in 1564. His father was a merchant and taught music in his spare time. Young Galileo was a talented boy, interested in music and painting. He used to make scientific toys in his childhood. He was a keen observer. Galileo studied at the University of Pisa.

          When in an evening he went to chapel to pray, it was getting dark and the caretaker was lighting the candles in candelabra which hung from the roof by a chain. When he released it, it started swinging to and fro. Young Galileo observed it keenly and noticed that with each swing it covered shorter distance. Galileo felt that although the distance of the swing was becoming less and less, yet the time taken in each swing was the same. There was no watch during those days. It was a problem for him to test his idea. Immediately an idea flashed in his mind. He knew that the beat of human pulse is fairly regular. He felt his own pulse and then counted the number of beats for each swing. To his great delight his observation seemed to indicate that his idea was correct. This discovery was used 60 years later in making the pendulum clocks.

          At the age of 23 Galileo became Professor of mathematics at Pisa University. After two years of teaching he was declared the best teacher. During those days he had read in a religious book that if two bodies of different weights are allowed to fall simultaneously from the same height, the heavier body will hit the ground first. He proved this statement to be wrong. From the leaning tower of Pisa he dropped two spheres, one of 100 pounds and the other of 1 pound simultaneously. This great experiment was seen by thousands of people. It was highly surprising to everybody that both the spheres hit the ground at the same time.

          Galileo made the first telescope of the world. He observed many heavenly bodies through it. With his telescope he saw the satellites of Jupiter and studied many stars of the Milky Way.

         Galileo established the validity of the views of Copernicus. Copernicus had said that the earth is not the centre of the universe but it is simply a member of the solar system. Galileo proved for the first time that the sun was the centre of universe and that the earth revolves around the sun. These views of Galileo were published in a book.

          His discoveries offended the leading churchmen because he had disproved many notions cherished by religious people. As a result he was put in prison. By that time he had become quite old. The authorities were willing to pardon him if he accepted that his statements were wrong. He was pressurized; Galileo bowed before the authorities and said, “I am in your hands. God only knows the truth, but I feel earth revolves around the sun”. Later in 1637, Galileo became blind and in January 1642 the great discoverer died.

 

          Albert Einstein, the mathematical physicist famous for his Theory of Relativity, is called the father of modern physics. He was born on March 14, 1879 at Ulm in Germany. When he was only one year old, his family moved to Munich. Einstein spent his boyhood there. He was shy and dreamy in his childhood. Since his mother was fond of playing piano, he also learnt it from her.

          Right from the beginning, Einstein showed a keen interest in scientific instruments. He was very sharp in mathematics, but just mediocre in other subjects. When he was fifteen, his family moved to Italy. From there he was sent to the Zurich University of Switzerland. Here his genius began to flower. He turned to be an extraordinary scholar of physics and mathematics.

          He completed his education in the year 1900. He wanted to become a teacher, but could not get a teaching job of his choice. Finally he joined the Swiss Patent Office at Berne as a clerk. He married a young Yugoslav science student, Mileva Marec. The couple had two sons.

 

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