SATYENDRA NATH BOSE – SCI & TECH

News: Hundred years ago, Satyendra Nath Bose changed physics forever

 

What's in the news?

       An article in The Hindu about Satyendra Nath Bose.

 

About Satyendra Nath Bose:

       Satyendra Nath Bose was born on January 1, 1894 in Calcutta.

       His father Surendranath Bose was employed in the Engineering Department of the East India Railway.

       Satyendra Nath Bose is known for his work in Quantum Physics.

       He is famous for “Bose-Einstein Theory” and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.

       Satyendra Nath Bose had his schooling from Hindu High School in Calcutta.

       He passed the ISc in 1911 from the Presidency College, Calcutta securing the first position.

       Satyendra Nath Bose did his BSc in Mathematics from the Presidency College in 1913 and MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915 from the same college.

       In 1916, Calcutta University started M.Sc. classes in Modern Mathematics and Modern Physics. S.N. Bose started his career in 1916 as a Lecturer in Physics in Calcutta University from 1916 to 1921.

       He joined the newly established Dhaka University in 1921 as a Reader in the Department of Physics.

       In 1924, Satyendra Nath Bose published an article titled Max Planck’s Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis.

       This article was sent to Albert Einstein. Einstein appreciated it so much that he himself translated it into German and sent it for publication to a famous periodical in Germany – ‘Zeitschrift fur Physik’.

       The hypothesis received a great and was highly appreciated by the scientists. It became famous to scientists as ‘Bose-Einstein Theory’.

       In 1926, Satyendra Nath Bose became a Professor of Physics in Dhaka University.

       Though he had not completed his doctorate till then, he was appointed as professor on Einstein’s recommendation.

       In 1929 Satyendra Nath Bose was elected chairman of the Physics of the Indian Science Congress and in 1944 elected full chairman of the Congress.

       In 1945, he was appointed as Khaira Professor of Physics in Calcutta University. He retired from Calcutta University in 1956.

       The University honoured him on his retirement by appointing him as Emeritus Professor.

       Later he became the Vice Chancellor of the Viswabharati University.

       In 1958, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, London.

       Satyendra Nath Bose was honoured with ‘Padmabhusan’ by the Indian Government in recognition of his outstanding achievement.

       He died in Kolkata on February 4, 1974.

 

Go back to basics:

Bose-Einstein condensate:

       A Bose-Einstein Condensate is so named because its existence was posited almost a century ago by Albert Einstein and Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose.

       This exotic material only exists when atoms of certain elements are cooled to temperatures near absolute zero.

       At that point, clusters of atoms begin functioning as a single quantum object with both wave and particle properties.

 

When was it first created?

       BEC was created by scientists in 1995.

       Using a combination of lasers and magnets, scientists cooled a sample of rubidium to within a few degrees of absolute zero.

       At this extremely low temperature, molecular motion comes very close to stopping.

       Since there is almost no kinetic energy being transferred from one atom to another, the atoms begin to clump together. There are no longer thousands of separate atoms, just one “super atom.”

 

Significance:

       A BEC is used to study quantum mechanics on a macroscopic level. Light appears to slow down as it passes through a BEC, allowing scientists to study the particle/wave paradox.

       A BEC also has many of the properties of a superfluid, or a fluid that flows without friction.

       BECs are also used to simulate conditions that might exist in black holes.