An Unsung Hero – II*
* NOTE: Sadly all the links in this post are broken. I do not think it discredits Brian’s work but I am looking for more robust references and details on Acharya Bose’s work on plant consciousness. If any of you have any links/references, pl do share in comments. Thanks
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.
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.
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.
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:
Scientist Jagadish Bose inducted into Pioneers Hall at U.S:
The Historical Electronics Museum in Baltimore….celebrated the life and work of India’s pioneering scientist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, on the 150th year of his birth Nov 15 by inducting him into Pioneers Hall of the Museum with a permanent exhibit.
…
The event was attended by about 100 scientists and technologists from across the US.
Dr Tapan Sarkar, Professor at Syracuse University, Dr. Raj Mittra, Professor at Penn State University, and Dr Peter Siegel from Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Caltech made presentations on different aspects of Bose’s contribution.
HISTORY OF SCIENCE:
Bose Credited With Key Role in Marconi’s Radio Breakthrough
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/279/5350/476
Extract from this web site.
Bondyopadhyay also explains why the controversy wasn’t nipped in the bud, pinning some of the blame on Bose’s scientific colleagues. “It is embarrassingly obvious that the British learned men of the day … never discovered Bose’s work, [despite its being] so prominently displayed in the most prestigious publication of the British empire. It is clear that they never read this esteemed publication [or] did not connect Bose’s work with Marconi’s use of the device.â€
This is what Prof CV Raman must have known. I do not think he expressed it in open, the professional he was. But surely he did the right thing at the right time staying in India itself.
About another Bose…From Satyendra Nath Bose deserved Nobel, says CERN chief TNN | Sep 4, 2012
KOLKATA: Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the director general of European organization for nuclear research CERN, says it is unfortunate that pioneering Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose did not win the Nobel Prize for work on quantum physics in the 1920s that provided the foundation of the Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate, a dense collection of bosons or particles with spin named after Bose.
Though several Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate, Bose never got the award in his lifetime. Since Nobel is not given posthumously, the award will continue to elude the scientist.
“It is ironical that Bose was not given the award despite his immense contribution to science. But it in no way undermines his stature as one of the leading physicists the world has had,” the CERN chief said on Monday.