C. V. Raman
C. V. Raman Lived 1888 – 1970. It was discovered by C. V. Raman that light may give a small amount of energy to a molecule when it interacts with it. The molecule vibrates and the light changes colour as a result. The molecule may use the colour shift as a “fingerprint.” Certain fingerprints are necessary for Raman spectroscopy. Throughout the world, laboratories use it to identify compounds, examine living cells without endangering them, and find illnesses like cancer. Starts On November 7, 1888, in the British Indian city of Trichinopoly, Madras Presidency, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born. Located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the city is today known as Tiruchirappalli. Chandrasekaran Ramanathan Iyer, a maths and physics teacher, was Raman’s father. Parvathi Ammal, his mother, learned to read and write from her husband. The family didn’t have much money when Raman was born. Among the eight children, Raman was the second. The Hindu caste of Brahmins, who are priests and scholars, included Raman’s family. Though Raman grew up with his father’s casual attitude towards religion, he did practice some Hindu rites and honoured cultural customs like vegetarianism. His father, on the other hand, paid little attention to religious things. The family relocated to Waltair (now Visakhapatnam) when Raman’s father acquired a better job as a college lecturer when he was four years old. Raman developed an early interest in science by reading the textbooks his father had used in school. He began taking out books on physics and mathematics from his father’s academic library as he became older. As he approached his adolescent years, his father, who had planned to pursue a master’s degree in physics, started teaching him from books he had purchased. Starting a degree programme at the age of 14 At the tender age of 14, Raman left for the renowned metropolis of Madras, which is now Chennai, in 1903 to live in a dormitory and start Presidency College’s bachelor’s programme. Raman’s parents were troubled by his unwell appearance when he came home from his first year of college. His grandparents could take care of him at the Madras house they built up for him. Raman had a great enthusiasm for science. He would show his younger siblings and sisters experiments when they were on vacation. He earned awards in English and physics when he finished his degree in 1904. His British professors pushed him to pursue a master’s programme in the UK. Raman was encouraged to remain in India by Madras’s civil surgeon, who informed him that his health was not strong enough to survive the British environment. This was probably very wise counsel. Born barely a year before Raman, the talented mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan journeyed from Madras to work at the University of Cambridge in 1914. This hurt Ramanujan’s health even though it produced some amazing mathematics. Nobel Laureate Mistakes 18-Year-Old Raman for a Physics Professor Raman continued his master’s degree studies at Presidency College after receiving a scholarship. After his extraordinary potential was acknowledged, he was allowed unrestricted access to the laboratories, where he conducted research according to his ideas. At the age of eighteen, Raman published his first scholarly paper in November 1906. When he had first given it to one of his lecturers, the teacher had not seemed to care. Raman sent his work straight to Philosophical Magazine, whereupon it was approved. It dealt with the behaviour of light and was titled Unsymmetrical diffraction-bands due to a rectangular aperture. The distinguished British physicist Lord Rayleigh wrote to Raman after his second paper appeared in Philosophical Magazine. Rayleigh wrote to “Professor Raman,” not realising that Raman was only a teenage pupil. At the age of 19, Raman received the highest honours for his master’s degree in physics in 1907 when he graduated. Part-time scientist and full-time government administrator Despite Raman’s desire to pursue a career in science, his brother convinced him to sit for the civil service examinations. Raman’s family was heavily indebted, and civil service employment paid well. Raman was employed for ten years as a civil servant in the Indian Finance Department in Calcutta, which is now Kolkata. He advanced fast to a senior role in this department. He studied the physics of drums and stringed instruments in his spare time. At the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), he carried out this effort. Before Raman discovered the IACS and started the process of bringing it back to life, it had been put into hibernation. Raman popularised science in Calcutta by giving public talks in addition to his research. Eventually, Full-Time Science Raman’s reputation as a highly skilled physicist was cemented by his remarkable lectures and part-time research activity. He was approached by the University of Calcutta in 1917 when they extended an offer for the Palit Chair of Physics. Raman, who is now 28 years old, took the big pay drop even though it meant he could finally devote all of his time to science, which meant more to him than money. Raman opted to teach lectures in addition to his research professorship since he was an engaging speaker and an inspiration to his students. The Raman Effect Raman and Rayleigh Scattering: Lord Rayleigh, one of the greatest physicists of his day, had thought the teenage Raman’s publications were the work of a professor. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904. The fact that Rayleigh was the first to explain why the sky is blue makes him significant to Raman’s tale. Then he explained that the colour of the sea was just a mirror of the colour of the sky. During the summer of 1921, Raman found himself on a ship deck in the Mediterranean Sea while travelling to Oxford for the Congress of Universities of the British Empire. As he took in the stunning blue hue of the Mediterranean Sea, he started to question Rayleigh’s interpretation of its hue. Rayleigh was right when he said that the reason the sky appears