Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose was among the few early scientists who understood the meaning and importance of Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity, an alumnus of University of Calcutta whose records are yet to be broken and a polymath who had a wide range of interests in varied fields, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature, and music.

He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, collaborating with Albert Einstein in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award - the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India.

Early Life

Bose was born on 1st January, 1894 and educated in Calcutta. After passing matriculation in 1909, he joined the intermediate science course at the Presidency College of Calcutta; where his teachers included Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sarada Prasanna Das, and Prafulla Chandra Ray. In 1913, he received a Bachelor of Science in mixed mathematics from Presidency College, standing first.

Then he joined the newly formed Science College where he again stood first in the MSc mixed mathematics exam in 1915. His marks in the MSc examination created a new record in the annals of the University of Calcutta, which is yet to be surpassed. His illustrious classmates included Meghnad Saha who came second in both BSc and MSc examinations.

Thereafter, Bose joined the newly established physics department of the university as a research scholar and lecturer (1917), then moved to the new University of Dacca (now Dhaka, in Bangladesh) as a Reader in 1921. Since he had not done a doctorate, Einstein’s recommendation helped him become a professor and head of the department there. He returned to Calcutta University in 1945.

Science in Calcutta in the 1920s

“Certain places, at certain times, produced a bumper crop of brilliant minds and good ideas” and it includes Calcutta (1840–1920) in the list of these places.

After Bengal’s partition was annulled and when the capital was shifted to Delhi, the 1920s was the last decade perhaps, to have produced a flush of creativity in Calcutta. In the field of science, this period saw the emergence of C V Raman, S N Bose and Meghnad Saha, the likes of which has not happened in the country since then. Many factors must have contributed to such a flourishing environment—the stewardship of the university by Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, a mathematician himself; the scientific climate having been created by the likes of J C Bose and P C Ray; and the urge for self-expression in a country reeling under colonial rule. Major breakthroughs like Saha’s equation of thermal ionisation (1920), Bose–Einstein (now, Bose) statistics (1924) and Raman effect (1928) have to be seen in this historical context.

Research Career

Satyendra Nath Bose, along with Meghnad Saha, presented several papers in theoretical physics and pure mathematics from 1918 onwards. In 1924, while working as a Reader (Professor without a chair) at the Physics Department of the University of Dhaka, Bose wrote a paper titled “Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta”. This paper was seminal in creating the important field of quantum statistics.

Though it was rejected for publication by the Philosophical Magazine of the Royal Society, Bose was so confident that he sent it with a personal, handwritten letter to Albert Einstein. It required the genius and insight of Einstein to appreciate the significance of this work. He translated it into German and sent it for publication in the prestigious journal Zeitschrift für Physik with a note that said, “In my opinion, Bose’s derivation of Planck formula constitutes an important advance. The method used here also yields the quantum theory of the ideal gas as I shall discuss elsewhere in more detail.”

As a result of this recognition, Bose was able to work for two years in European X-ray and Crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie Curie, and Einstein. Most importantly, this became the basis of Bose statistics. Einstein adopted the above idea and extended it to atoms. This led to the prediction of the existence of phenomena which became known as Bose–Einstein condensate, a dense collection of bosons (which are particles with integer spin, named after Bose), which was demonstrated to exist by experiment in 1995. Thus, Bose is rightly regarded as the originator of quantum statistics and an important figure behind quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

Return to Dhaka and Calcutta

After his stay in Europe, Bose returned to Dhaka in 1926. He did not have a doctorate, and so ordinarily, under the prevailing regulations, he would not be qualified for the post of Professor he applied for, but Einstein recommended him. He was then made Head of the Department of Physics at Dhaka University. He continued guiding and teaching at Dhaka University.

Bose designed equipment himself for an X-ray crystallography laboratory. He set up laboratories and libraries to make the department a center of research in X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, magnetic properties of matter, optical spectroscopy, wireless, and unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real gases with Meghnad Saha. He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Science at Dhaka University until 1945.

When the partition of India became imminent (1947), he returned to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) and taught there until 1956. He insisted every student design his own equipment using local materials and local technicians. He was made professor emeritus on his retirement. He then became Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. He returned to the University of Calcutta to continue research in nuclear physics and complete earlier works in organic chemistry. In subsequent years, he worked in applied research such as extraction of helium in hot springs of Bakreshwar.

Bose, the Nobel Prize and After

S.N. Bose was nominated by K. Banerji (1956), D.S. Kothari (1959), S.N. Bagchi (1962), and A.K. Dutta (1962) for the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his contribution to Bose-Einstein statistics and the unified field theory. Bose's work was evaluated by an expert of the Nobel Committee, Oskar Klein, who did see his work worthy of a Nobel Prize. Probably Nobel Committee had not been particularly in favour of theoretical physics. No wonder even Einstein did not receive the prize, even for his most important work: the theory of relativity. Much later, Stephen Hawking also did not.

Bose, however, never regretted the fact that he did not receive the Nobel Prize and was always content with the recognition that came his way. When Bose himself was once asked that question, he simply replied, "I have got all the recognition I deserve"— probably because in the realms of science to which he belonged, what is important is not a Nobel, but whether one's name will live on in scientific discussions in the decades to come.

Bose was honoured with title Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government in 1954. In 1959, he was appointed as the National Professor, the highest honour in the country for a scholar, a position he held for 15 years. He was the president of the Indian Physical Society and the National Institute of Science. He was elected general president of the Indian Science Congress. He was the vice-president and then the president of Indian Statistical Institute. In 1958, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was nominated as member of Rajya Sabha.

In 1986, the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences was established by an act of Parliament, Government of India, in Salt Lake, Calcutta. One of the main academic buildings of University of Rajshahi, the No 1 science building has recently been named after him.

Bose’s lifelong interest to use the mother tongue as a means of instruction for science, even at the post-graduate and research levels was indomitable. His zeal to popularise science through the vernacular medium made him establish Bangiya Bijnan Parishad and start the science magazine Jnan o Bijnan (1948), perhaps the first in a vernacular language in India. Being a Bengali, he devoted significant time to promoting Bengali as a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the development of the region.

Let us Conclude

Satyendra Nath Bose is a truly inspirational figure. His commitment towards science and love for mother tongue are major takeaways from his life.

The incident related to the publishing of the paper - “Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta”, teaches us that one failure is not the limit. Sometimes we do not achieve something because we deserve even more!

The Nobel Prize incident from his life teaches us that our goal should be to do our best to serve science and society and not to care for recognitions.

As we enter the new era of 2022, what would be a better New Year Resolution than imbibing these values of Bose into our lives. It would really be great to start the new year this way, and it will also help us all move a step forward towards our aim of Aatmanirbhar Bharat - the self-reliant India of 21st century!

On this note, we - Igniting Indian Tech-eez wish you a very happy, learning-enriched and COVID-19 free New Year 2022. Keep Hustling!