National Science Day 2023: The Raman Effect

Context

Every year, National Science Day is observed on February 28 to honor the announcement of the discovery of the "Raman Effect."

Probable Question

What is the Significance of National Science Day? (150 words, 10 marks)

About National Science Day

In 1986, the Government of India, designated February 28 as National Science Day.

• Purpose of celebrating National Science Day: To enhance scientific temper, popularization of science, and encourage innovative activities by infusing scientific temperament in the masses and creating a positive scientific research culture.
• Nodal Agency: The National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) of the Ministry of Science and Technology is the Nodal Agency to support the NSD celebration.
• Theme of National Science Day 2023 edition: “Global Science for Global Wellbeing”, in light of India’s G20 presidency.

About the Raman Effect

• The 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 color. It is 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. 
• It was discovered when Raman was conducting a deceptively simple experiment. 
• In their first report to Nature, titled “A New Type of Secondary Radiation,” CV Raman and co-author KS Krishnan wrote that 60 different liquids had been studied, and all showed the same result.
• Raman would go on to verify these observations using a spectroscope, publishing the quantitative findings in the Indian Journal of Physics on March 31, 1928.

Also Read: What are lab grown diamonds? 

Significance of the Raman Effect

• Ground-breaking discovery: This discovery was immediately recognized as groundbreaking in the scientific community, being the subject of over 700 papers in the first seven years after its announcement.
• Quantum Theory: For quantum theory, in vogue in the scientific world at the time, Raman’s discovery was crucial.
• Usage in Chemistry: The discovery gave 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. 
• Wide-usage: 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.

About Sir CV Raman

Biography

•  Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born to a family of Sanskrit scholars in Trichy (present-day Tiruchirapalli) in the Madras Presidency in 1888.

Education

• At the age of only 16, He received a BA degree from Presidency College in Madras and was placed first in his class. 
• While studying for his MA degree, at the age of 18, he got published in the Philosophical Magazine: this was the first research paper ever published by Presidency College.

Significant Contributions

• Raman raised the profile of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), doing some award-winning research as well as conducting public demonstrations with charisma.
• He found out that the color 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 of the “Raman Effect”.

Recognition

• By 1921, CV Raman had gained a solid reputation as a top scientific mind both in India and in the West.
• The Raman Effect was the discovery that won physicist Sir CV Raman his Nobel Prize in 1930. 

News Source: The Indian Express

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-sci-tech/national-science-day-2023-the-raman-effect-which-cv-raman-won-the-nobel-for-8470138/

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