New Delhi, February28
Today, on February 28, India celebrates National Science Day in honor of the discovery of the Raman Effect. The Raman Effect was a groundbreaking discovery made by physicist Sir CV Raman, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1930. The Indian government designated February 28 as National Science Day in 1986 to commemorate the announcement of this discovery.
The Raman Effect is the phenomenon in which when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different color. Raman’s discovery was immediately recognized as groundbreaking in the scientific community, being the subject of over 700 papers in the first seven years after its announcement.
CV Raman was born to a family of Sanskrit scholars in Trichy (present-day Tiruchirapalli) in the Madras Presidency in 1888. He gained a solid reputation as a top scientific mind in India and the West and eventually made his way to England. It was on the return journey to India that Raman would make an observation that would change his life and science forever.
While passing through the Mediterranean Sea, Raman was most fascinated by the sea’s deep blue color. Dissatisfied with the then-accepted answer, his curious mind delved deeper. He soon found out that the color of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules. Fascinated by the phenomenon of light-scattering, Raman and his collaborators in Calcutta began to conduct extensive scientific experiments on the matter – experiments that would eventually lead to his eponymous discovery.
The Raman Effect has deep implications far beyond Raman’s original intentions. For quantum theory, in vogue in the scientific world at the time, Raman’s discovery was crucial. The discovery would also find its use in chemistry, giving birth to a new field known as Raman spectroscopy as a basic analytical tool to conduct nondestructive chemical analysis for both organic and inorganic compounds.
Today, Raman spectroscopy has a wide variety of applications, from studying art and other objects of cultural importance in a non-invasive fashion to finding drugs hidden inside luggage at customs. The uses of Raman spectroscopy have only ballooned over time.
This year’s National Science Day is being celebrated under the theme of “Global Science for Global Wellbeing,” in light of India’s G20 presidency. As India looks to sustainable development and global cooperation, it is important to remember the groundbreaking scientific discoveries made by Indian scientists like CV Raman.
