Sign In
Learn bits
Science & Tech., Today in News
Mahesh

01/03/23 09:36 AM IST

National Science Day 2023

In News
  • In 1986, the Government of India, under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, designated February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman Effect”.
  • Theme- Global Science for Global Wellbeing
Raman Effect
  • The Raman Effect was the discovery which won physicist Sir CV Raman his Nobel Prize in 1930.
  • Conducting a deceptively simple experiment, Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
  • This discovery was immediately recognised as groundbreaking in the scientific community.
  • Raman Effect refers to the phenomenon in which when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
  • This happens due to the change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
  • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
  • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.
  • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.
About Raman
  • Raman was born to a family of Sanskrit scholars in Trichy (present-day Tiruchirapalli) in the Madras Presidency in 1888.
  • At the age of only 16, He received a BA degree from Presidency College in Madras, and was placed first in his class.
  • In 1907, he got married and settled down in Calcutta as an assistant accountant general.
  • While still a full-time civil servant, Raman began after-hours research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS).
  • Raman raised the profile of IACS, doing some award-winning research as well as conducting public demonstrations with charisma.
  • At the age of 29, he finally resigned from his civil services job and took up a professorship in Presidency College, Calcutta.
About the discovery
  • While passing through the Mediterranean Sea, Raman was most fascinated by the sea’s deep blue colour.
  • Dissatisfied with the then-accepted answer (“the colour of the sea was just a reflection of the colour of the sky”), his curious mind delved deeper.
  • He soon found out that the colour of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules.
  • Fascinated by the phenomenon of light-scattering, Raman and his collaborators in Calcutta began to conduct extensive scientific experiments on the matter – experiments that would eventually lead to his eponymous discovery.
Significance
  • The discovery would also find its use in chemistry, giving birth to a new field known as Raman spectroscopy as a basic analytical tool to conduct nondestructive chemical analysis for both organic and inorganic compounds.
  • With the invention of lasers and the capabilities to concentrate much stronger beams of light, the uses of Raman spectroscopy have only ballooned over time.
  • Today, this method has a wide variety of applications, from studying art and other objects of cultural importance in a non-invasive fashion to finding drugs hidden inside luggage at customs.
Source- Indian Express

More Related Current Affairs View All

10 Jan

Rural landowners in Delhi want repeal of Sections 33 and 81 of Delhi Land Reforms Act

'Both sections dealing with the use and sale of agricultural land have come under the spotlight ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.' This can only be done by the Central gove

Read More

10 Jan

Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 18th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas  in Bhubaneswar.' The event is held once every two years to “honour the cont

Read More

10 Jan

Deciphering the Indus script

'Recently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced a $1-million prize for experts or organisations in the event of their success in deciphering the scripts of the Indus Val

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps