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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Boson, Satyendranath Bose
Mains level: Not Much
Born on January 1, 1894, Bose collaborated with Einstein to develop what we now know as the Bose-Einstein statistics. We take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.
Satyendra Nath Bose
- Born on January 1, 1894, Bose grew up and studied in Kolkata, where he solidified his position as an exemplary academician.
- His father, an accountant in the Executive Engineering Department of the East Indian Railways, gave him an arithmetic problem to solve every day before going to work, encouraging Bose’s interest in mathematics.
- By the age of 15, he began pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree at the Presidency College, and later finished his MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915.
Career as researchers
- These were tough times for Indian researchers as World War I had broken out and, European scientific journals came to India quite infrequently.
- Not only this, most of the research papers weren’t available in English and both Bose and Saha had to learn scientific terms in German and French languages to read published works.
- However, the new skill came in handy for them in 1919, when they published English translations of Albert Einstein’s special and general relativity papers.
- Two years later, Bose was appointed to the position of Reader in Physics at the University of Dhaka. It was here that he made his most significant contributions to physics.
Association with Einstein
- Bose wrote a letter to Albert Einstein in 1924 about his breakthrough in quantum mechanics.
- He claimed that he had derived Planck’s law for black body radiation (which refers to the spectrum of light emitted by any hot object) without any reference to classical electrodynamics.
- Impressed by Bose’s findings, Einstein not only arranged for the publication of the paper but also translated it into German.
- This recognition catapulted Bose to fame and glory.
Breakthrough in the invention of Boson
- He went on to work with Einstein and together they developed what is now known as the Bose-Einstein statistics.
- Today, in honour of his legacy, any particle that obeys the Bose-Einstein statistics is called a boson.
- On his 129th birth anniversary, we take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.
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