Thanks to a comment left on this blog, I was alerted to this website maintained by Brian Champness and dedicated to the memory of one of the greatest scientists that India has produced in modern times - Sir J C Bose.
I have written about Acharya Bose before…but he deserves far more attention than one single post…and I was very glad when I came across Brian’s site in which he explores aspects of consciousness and feelings in plants - a subject first studied by Sir Bose and now coming inder increasing interest from scientists around the world.
Some excerpts from “Are Plants Conscious?” (emphasis mine):
The Indian scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was both physicist and plant physiologist. In his early life he invented a new type of coherer - an early form of radio signal detector - which enabled him to transmit radio waves over distance a full year before Marconi. He spent much of the rest of his life exploring minute responses to external stimuli applied to plants. He demonstrated that plant tissues under different kinds of stimulation produce electric responses similar to those produced by animal tissues. His extraordinary experimental results were achieved by using a range of ultra sensitive measuring instruments - also his own invention. He was the first Indian scientist to be elected to The Royal Society - in London, 1920.
His plant sensitivity findings can be explained in a number of ways. Some scientists prefer to use conventional materialist explanations in terms of the flow and transmission of chemical and bio-chemical substances. And, as V.A. Shepherd has pointed out, Bose “had argued all along the importance of electrical signalling in plants, and the world has now come around to this view.”  Others, mainly in the East, see Bose’s findings as providing support for ancient Hindu vedantic theories of consciousness - even in plants. Bose himself was comfortable with both approaches to the explanation and understanding of his findings.Â
This project uses J CÂ Bose’s life and work as a inspirational base from which to explore these different kinds of explanation, and their implications.
Brian - a retired psychologist and researcher who was born in then then Calcutta (and - in a wonderful coincidence - on a street now called Acharya JC Bose Road!) - is a devoted Indophile and “….has now postponed organising Chamber Music concerts in order to concentrate on the life and times of one of India’s great scientists, and to look at how his work has been developed and explained.”
In an email he explained his interest in Acharya Bose’s work:
…Even more exciting was (J C Bose’s) his work on electrical communication within plants. He designed and conducted hundreds of experiments on how plants respond to stimuli, showing among other things that they use electrical in addition to chemically based communication.Â
Of most interest to me is how these results have been interpreted and explained. In particular, as an old experimentalist I am increasingly interested in how ancient Hindu wisdom would interpret the results, in terms of consciousness and other vedic concepts. Â
On his website, Brian mentions about the philosophical and spiritual aspects of his interest:
How does this (Sir J C Bose’s) approach to the understanding of consciousness compare with some of the ideas on ‘levels of consciousness’ in present day psychology, philosophy and neurology?
“In Hinduism there are two categories of knowledge (i) para vidya - the spiritual knowledge and (ii) apara vidya - material knowledge. Scientifc knowledge is the realm of apara vidya. Spiritual knowledge - knowledge of God and life - belongs to para vidya. Hinduism points out that scientific knowledge can lead to spiritual knowledge.” Singh ibid.
How far did Bose journey into the apara vidya realm in the way he discussed and thought about his work?
Brian is looking for references and more material to help him explore these questions…If any of you have read or studied about these aspects of Vedic philosophy or science before, please do get in touch with him @ bose AT areplantsconscious.com
Via his website, I also learnt of several programmes being organised to commemorate the 150th birthday of Sir Bose and Cambridge University in UK will be unveiling a wall plaque in his memory on the 150th anniversary day, 30th November 2008.
Brian mentioned in his email that “…I hope that the book and CD will help to make sure that Sir J C Bose is a little less unsung!” - I am sure it will, Brian.
My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Brian Champness for his work and dedication to ensure that Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose becomes a little less unsung. Thank you Brian.
Related Posts:
An Unsung Hero…Â
Atoms, Neurons and Consciousness… Â
.
August 27th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Indian Science and Mathematics, Science & Mathematics in Ancient India, Spirituality & Philosophy |
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Many of you may have come across this information about “Ancient Indian Scientists” before. I received it in a chain email but I shall be most grateful if any reader(s) have links or references to the original source(s).
There are many assertions and statements here that have not been verified or explained (see e.g. the entry on Acharya Bharadwaj who is credited with advances in aviation technology*). We need to source and evidence these it to make it more credible.
Some excerpts below (statements on which I need help are marked in italics):
***
ARYABHATT (476 CE), ASTRONOMER and MATHEMATICIAN
Born in 476 CE in Kusumpur (Bihar), Aryabhatt’s intellectual brilliance remapped the boundaries of mathematics and astronomy. In 499 CE, at the age of 23, he wrote a text on astronomy and an unparallel treatise on mathematics called “Aryabhatiyam.” He formulated the process of calculating the motion of planets and the time of eclipses. Aryabhatt was the first to proclaim that the earth is round, it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space - 1000 years before Copernicus published his heliocentric theory. He is also acknowledged for calculating p (Pi) to four decimal places: 3.1416 and the sine table in trigonometry. Centuries later, in 825 CE, the Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibna Musa credited the value of Pi to the Indians… And above all, his most spectacular contribution was the concept of zero (- need help in clarifying/verifying this)
***
BHASKARACHARYA II(1114-1183 CE), ALGEBRA
Born in the obscure village of Vijjadit (Jalgaon) in Maharastra, Bhaskaracharya’s work in Algebra, Arithmetic and Geometry catapulted him to fame and immortality. His renowned mathematical works called “Lilavati” and “Bijaganita” are considered to be unparalled and a memorial to his profound intelligence. Its translation in several languages of the world bear testimony to its eminence. In his treatise “Siddhant Shiromani” he writes on planetary positions, eclipses, cosmography, mathematical techniques and astronomical equipment. In the “Surya Siddhant” he makes a note on the force of gravity: “Objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon, and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction.” Bhaskaracharya was the first to discover gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton.
Keep Reading…
April 28th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Indian Medicine & Ayurveda, Indian Science and Mathematics, Medieval Indian History, Miscellaneous, Science & Mathematics in Ancient India, Spirituality & Philosophy, Technology in India |
4 comments
I recently stumbled across this article “Time Travel Machine Outlined” which provides food for thought for those who deride the stories in the puranas about “Vimanas” as mere myths.
The report talks about recent research at Haifa’s Israel Instt. of Technology that “could possibly enable distant future generations to travel into the past”
The hypothesis is - if space-time is bent far enough, so that time lines actually turn back on themselves to form a loop, such a manipulation could essentially get objects/people “back in time”.
Physicist Amos Ori whose findings are detailed in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal “Physical Review D” is quoted in the article as saying “We know that bending does happen all the time, but we want the bending to be strong enough and to take a special form where the lines of time make closed loops…We are trying to find out if it is possible to manipulate space-time to develop in such a way.”
Now there is still a very way to go before any of this becomes a reality. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating idea.
This reminded me of something I wrote more than two years ago about Vimanas but never got around to circulating widely. In an article titled, “Vimanas – Science Fiction or Unexplained Mystery?”, I explored the idea of whether there might be something more to the stories about Vimanas in our sacred texts than pure fantasy.
Keep Reading…
September 6th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Indian Science and Mathematics, Science & Mathematics in Ancient India, Technology in India |
2 comments
Some of you may have read an article I wrote more than two years ago, titled: “Does no one remember the Hindu contribution to Mathematics?”
I stumbled across a related piece recently: “Indians predated Newton ‘discovery’ by 250 years”
Dr George Joseph at the University of Manchester suggests in his latest research that the “Kerala school” identified the ‘infinite series’- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350 - hundreds of years before Newton.
His team also revealed that the Kerala School ”discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places”.
The story also mentions:
“…there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.
That knowledge, they (the researchers) argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself.”
Dr Joseph is the author of ‘The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics”
The discovery does not suggest that Newton’s accomplishments were any less commendable but as Dr Joseph says: “…other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus- infinite series.”
Related Posts:
Does no one remember the Hindu contribution to Mathematics? for some more links on Kerala School, pl. see comment #2 to this post.
Does no one remember the Indian contribution to Technology? and
An Unsung Hero…
August 20th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Indian Science and Mathematics, Science & Mathematics in Ancient India |
4 comments
Thanks to Mohit who first alerted me to this site maintained by Varun Aggarwal on Sir J C Bose - the unsung hero of Indian Science.
Varun’s site details Sir J C Bose’s contribution to the field of physics and demonstrates beyond any doubt that he was the inventor of the radio which is mistakenly credited to Marconi (see also this wikipedia entry on Sir J C Bose).
The wikiepdia entry mentions, so spectacular were Bose’s achivements that Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that “J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time”
I am partly ashamed and partly embarrassed by my own ignorance of Sir Bose’s amazing inventions and discoveries. But I suspect I am part of a large majority of Indians.
Please forward this post to your friends and colleagues…This is the least we can do for this great unsung hero.
Below are some excerpts from Varun’s site on “Achievements of Sir J. C. Bose in the field of communication“:
Sir J. C. Bose invented the Mercury Coherer (together with the telephone receiver) used by Guglielmo Marconi to receive the radio signal in his first transatlantic radio communication over a distance of 2000 miles from Poldhu, UK to Newfoundland, St. Johns in December 1901.
Guglielmo Marconi was celebrated worldwide for this achievement, but the fact that the receiver was invented by Bose was totally concealed.
In 1895, Sir J. C. Bose gave his first public demonstration of electromagnetic waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder. He sent an electromagnetic wave across 75 feet passing through walls and body of the Chairman, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal.
…Sir J. C. Bose holds the first patent worldwide to invent a solid-state diode detector to detect EM waves. The detector was built using a galena crystal. Have a look at Bose’s patent and wait for an interesting article on the same soon.
Sir J. C. Bose was a pioneer in the field of microwave devices. His contribution remains distinguished in the field and was acknowledged by the likes of Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, etc. Read what people thought about J. C. Bose. Refer to [1,2] to study the work of J. C. Bose in the field of microwave.
On his site, Varun appeals to young engineers to consider doing more research on the missing links regaridng the contribution of Sir J. C. Bose towards the invention of radio.
As he writes, “Though this page would probably have a variety of audience, I believe that every electronics/electrical engineer graduating out of India should know about the distinguished contribution of Sir J. C. Bose to the field of communication. Hopefully, this page will initiate interest in people to study the works of Bose and interesting discussions will ensue”.
Below are some more references for the more curious amongst you (from Varun’s site):
Dr. Probir K. Bondyopadhyay’s paper: “Sir J. C. Bose’s Diode Detector Received Marconi’s First Transatlantic Wireless Signal Of December 1901 (The “Italian Navy Coherer” Scandal Revisited).” [ 3, Proc. IEEE, Vol. 86, No. 1, January 1998.]
V. Aggarwal, “Jagadish Chandra Bose: The Real Inventor of Marconi’s Wireless Detector”, The Ancient Wireless Association Journal, July 2006, Vol. 47/#3, pp. 50-54) LINKS?????
http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/bose/bose.html : The Works of Jagadis Chandra Bose: 100 years of MM-wave Research. (Excellent description and photographs of devices built by Bose some 100 years back.)
www.boseinstitute.org/ : The Bose Institute.
http://www.antiquewireless.org/otb/marconi1901.htm and /marconi1901a.htm : Did Marconi Receive Transatlantic Radio Signals in 1901?, Parts 1 & 2. (A fresh look in Marconi’s experiment and an examination of its technicalities.)
June 17th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Indian Science and Mathematics, Technology in India |
2 comments
This article was forwarded by a friend from UK. It is an extract of the UK Chancellor Gordon Brown’s speech while on a recent visit to Bangalore, (Jan 17 ‘07).
Excerpts (emphasis mine):
“…Now as the Times of India has rightly said, India is poised: your time is now - “a pulsating dynamic new India is emerging…an India that does not follow but an India that leads…
…Let me first congratulate the Indian businesses here today for your individual and collective success - a success story now recognized and applauded in every continent.
…an India which has doubled your national income in just 15 years, doubled your share of world exports, lifted over a hundred million people out of poverty; an India that over the next five years will create one in every four of all new jobs in the world, and by 2020 an extra 200 million jobs - more than America, Europe and China combined.
And in less than three decades from now you will be the world’s third largest economy…
Nobody should be surprised about the high tech, high value, innovative quality and the progress from the country that invented the zero, and first calculated the value of “Pi”, and is now the only country outside America and Japan to have developed a super computer - a tribute to your enterprise.
…And let me here in Bangalore also celebrate the immense contribution of people of Indian origin in Britain: 1.5 million men and women, 2 per cent of the population but over 4 per cent of GDP, including some of Britain’s most successful young entrepreneurs …
Thirty years ago India and emerging Asia accounted for just one eighth of the world economy; ten years ago one fifth; now it is almost a third; and in the years to come half the world’s growth will come from China, India and emerging Asia.
…It is time to formally recognize on a more consistent and regular basis the reality of this emerging new world order…”
Full extract at http://www.thechilli.com/articles/misc/095_BrownSpeechBangalore.asp
February 17th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Indian Economy, Indian Science and Mathematics |
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