Category Great Scientist

Why is it said that Edison’s contribution to the development of the electric bulb is unmatchable?

          We saw that during the 1800s, many inventors have worked hard to develop an effective light bulb. But, the most successful among these inventors was Thomas Alva Edison.

          Edison’s serious research into making a practical incandescent lamp began around 1878. He wanted to invent a safe, yet cheap electric light that could replace the earlier ones. Between 1878 and 1880, he conducted many experiments, with carbon filaments, platinum, and other metals. In 1879, he successfully tested a bulb with a carbon filament that lasted 13.5 hours.

          The following year, Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1200 hours. This marked the beginning of commercially made light bulbs in 1880.

          As we know, this is just one of the many inventions made by Edison.

          Thus, Edison’s contributions remain unparalleled and, for his tireless work, he was rightfully described as one of the greatest inventors. 

Who invented light bulbs with tungsten filaments that are widely used today?

Scientists and inventors have used a number of filaments for incandescent bulbs in the past. But today, the most popular one is the tungsten filament.

It was William David Coolidge, who developed a method to manufacture tungsten filaments in 1910.

The biggest advantage of tungsten was that it had a high melting point, and was able to withstand heat and corrosion. That is exactly what attracted inventors to it. Besides, using inert gases inside the bulb increased its luminescence.

As years passed, the element was used in other lamps too, including halogen, fluorescent, mercury vapour etc. Tungsten is perhaps the most durable type of filament used in bulbs even today.

It is said that Thomas Alva Edison himself knew that tungsten would prove to be the best choice for filaments. But in his day, the technology and machinery required to produce the wire in fine form was not available.

Ashok Das

 
 
Ashok Das (born March 23, 1953) is an Indian American theoretical physicist, an author and award winning teacher of Physics. He is professor of physics at University of  Rochester  and  Ajunct professor of Physics at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata and India and Institute of Physics, Bhabaneswar, India.
 
 Das was born in  Puri, Odisha. He received his BS (honours) in 1972 and MS in 1974 in physics from University of Delhi. He did his graduate studies in supersymmetry and supergravity at State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his PhD (Spin 3/2 Fields and Supergravity Theories) in 1977.
 
He was a research associate at the City College of New York, the University of Maryland and at Rutgers University before joining the University of Rochester in 1982. He was promoted to professor in 1993 and is still there. He is also the adjunct professor of physics at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in India.
 
Das’ research is in the area of theoretical high energy physics. He works on supersymmetry and supergravity. In recent years, he has worked extensively on non-linear integrable systems, which are systems which in spite of their complicated appearance can be exactly solved. He has also been working on finite temperature field theories, generalization of the Standard Model to incorporate CP violation, and problems in quantum field theory and string theory.
 
Institutions:
  • University of Rochester
  • Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata
Fields
  • Theoretical Physics
Awards
  • William H.Riker University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2006)
  • Fulbright Fellowship (1997, 2006)
  • Rockefeller Foundation Award (2004)
  • Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator (1983-1989)
  • Edward Peck Curtis Award (1991)

To know more about Ashok Das Click  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashok_Das 

Patcha Ramachandra Rao

Patcha Ramachandra Rao (21 March 1942 – 10 January 2010) was a metallurgist and administrator. He has the unique distinction of being the only Vice-Chancellor (2002–05) of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who was also a student (1963–68) and faculty (1964–92) at that institution. From 1992 to 2002, Rao was the Director of the National Metallurgical Laboratory Jamshedpur. After his tenure as Vice-Chancellor of B.H.U., in 2005, he took the reins of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) as its first Vice-Chancellor. He was to serve DIAT until his superannuation in 2007. From 2007 till the end, Rao was a Raja Ramanna Fellow at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Institutions

  • Indian Institute of Technology (BHU)
  • National Metallurgical Laboratory
  • Defence Institute of Advanced Technology
  • Indian Institute of Science, Osmania University?

Fields

  • Metallurgy
  • Material science
  • Engineering

Awards

  • Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1985)
  • National Metallurgist Award (2004)
  • Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Gold Medal. INSA (2005)?

Honorary positions

·        President, The Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM), India Chapter

·        President, Indian Institute of Metals

·        Vice-President, Materials Research Society of India

·        Vice-President, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

·        Sectional President, Materials Science Section, Indian Science Congress

 

To know more about Patcha Ramachandra Rao Click  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patcha_Ramachandra_Rao

Why is C. V. Raman considered to be a scientist par excellence?

Sir C. V. Raman is best known for his work in the field of light scattering. Raman was intrigued by the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean Sea and wanted to unravel the mystery as to why water, a colourless liquid, appeared blue to the eyes.

    Thus, he began a series of experiments on the scattering of light which ultimately led to what came to be known as the ‘Raman Effect’. Raman also discovered that when light interacts with a molecule, the light can donate a small amount of energy to te molecule. As a result of this, the light changes its colour and the molecule vibrates.

   The change of colour can act as a ‘fingerprint’ for the molecule. Today, Raman spectroscopy, which relies on these ‘fingerprints,’ is used in laboratories all over the world to identify molecules and to detect disease such as cancer.

     Sir C. V. Raman received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. He was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, and is considered to be a scientist par excellence.

Why Srinivasa Ramanujan is considered a mathematical genius?

Srinivasa Ramanujan was, without doubt, a mathematical genius. Without any formal training in the subject, he made significant contributions to the theory of numbers, investigation of elliptical functions, infinite series, continued fractions, and Mock theta functions.

    Ramanujan showed a natural inclination towards mathematics when he was ten years old. By age 11 he had more mathematical knowledge than two college students who were lodgers at his home. He completely mastered advanced trigonometry by the age of 13, and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own.

   His memory for mathematical formulae and constants seems to have been boundless- he amazed classmates with his ability to recite the values of irrational numbers to as many decimal places as they asked for.

   Ramanujan went to Cambridge in April 1914, thanks to the help of Prof. G. H. Hardy. Two years later, he was awarded the equivalent of a PhD. for his work. The notebooks he had brought from India were filled with thousands of identities, equations and theorems which he had discovered for himself.

   In 1918 Ramanujan became the first Indian Mathematician to be elected a Fellow of the British Royal Society.