National Science Day

National Science Day 2013 Theme is - “Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security”

Save Our Mother Rivers and Secure Our future to be Safe .....

In India we belive the rivers of our country are our mother (Jeevan Dayani) but it is also very true that how much now we are caring them.On the one way we use to worship our rivers and on the other hand not caring them.

Worship of river ganga at varanasi

Most of the Indian rivers and their tributaries viz., Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari, Krishna, Sone, Cauvery Damodar and Brahmaputra are reported to be grossly polluted due to discharge of untreated sewage disposal and industrial effluents directly into the rivers. The indiscriminate dumping and release of wastes containing hazardous substances into rivers lead to environmental disturbance which could be considered as a potential source of stress to biotic community. River water pollution leads sever impact on living community. Some recent studies show terrific facts like; Death of ghariyals in the Chambal sanctuary, pesticide pollution in Yamuna River etc.

The Ganga Basin, the largest river basin of the country, houses about 40 percent of population of India. During the course of its journey, municipal sewages from 29 Class-I cities (cities with population over 1,00,000), 23 Class II cities (cities with population between 50,000 and 1,00,000) and about 48 towns, effluents from industries and polluting wastes from several other non-point sources are discharged into the river Ganga resulting in its pollution. The NRCD records, as mentioned in audit report, put the estimates of total sewage generation in towns along river Ganga and its tributaries as 5044 MLD (Million Litres per Day). According to the Central Pollution Control Board Report of 2001, the total wastewater generation on the Ganga basin is about 6440 MLD.

The pollutants include oils, greases, plastics, plasticizers, metallic wastes, suspended solids, phenols, toxins, acids, salts, dyes, cyanides, pesticides etc. Many of these pollutants are not easily susceptible to degradation and thus cause serious pollution problems. Contamination of ground water and fish-kill episodes are the major effects of the toxic discharges from industries. Discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents leads to number of conspicuous effects on the river environment (Table 3). The impact involves gross changes in water quality viz. reduction in dissolved oxygen and reduction in light penetration that’s tends loss in self purification capability of river water. 

Table 3 : Environmental implications of the discharge of sewage and industrial effluents
S.N.	Factor	Principal environmental effect	Potential ecological consequences	Remedial action
1.	High biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) caused by bacterial breakdown of organic matter	Reduction in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration	Elimination of sensitive species, increase in some tolerant species; change in the community structure	Pretreatment of effluent, ensure adequate dilution
2.	Partial biodegradation of proteins and other nitrogenous material	Elevated ammonia concentration; increased nitrite and nitrate levels	Elimination of intolerant species, reduction in sensitive species	Improved treatment to ensure complete nitrification; nutrient stripping possible but expensive
3.	Release of suspended solid matter	Increased turbidity and reduction of light penetration	Reduced photosynthesis of submerge plants; abrasion of gills or interference with normal feeding behavior	Provide improved settlement, insure adequate dilution
4.	Deposition of organic sludges in slower water	Release of methane and hydrogen as sulphide matter decomposes anoxically, Modification of substratum by blanket of sludge	Elimination of normal benthic community loss of interstitial species; increase in the species able to exploit increased food source	Discharge where velocity adequate to prevent deposition
Other poisons
1.	Presence of poisonous substances	Change in water quality	Water directly and acutely toxic to some organisms, causing change in community composition; consequential effect on pray- predator relation; sub- lethal effects on some species	Increase dilution
Inert solids
1.	Particles in suspension	Increased turbidity. Possibly increased abrasion	Reduced photosynthesis of submerged plant. Impairing feeding ability through reduced vision or interference with collecting mechanism of filter feeders (e.g. reduction in nutritive value of collected material).Possible abrasion	Improve settlement
2.	Deposition of material	Blanketing of substratum, filing of interstices and/or substrate instability	Change in benthic community, reduction in diversity ( increased number of a few species)	Discharge where velocity adequate to ensure dispersion
Source: S. C Santra

ALLAHABAD, India — Standing at the shores of the Sangam — the calm expanse of gray-blue water where the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet — it’s not hard to sense the profound spiritual significance the spot holds for millions of Hindu pilgrims.

Crossing it, however, can be a harrowing experience. But if we not care then can we feel this type of ambiance in future, think what we are going to give our next generation???

HOW TO CONSERVE WATER????????

WE NEED TO LEARN FROM RAJASTHAN

ANCIENT INDIAN TECHNOLOGY OF HARVESTING WATER

DO you know the Full form of COMPUTER  ?

In this world million and billions of people using computer but very few of them know the full form of it. It may be like silly but i think every user and non- user should have to know it.
Computer is an advanced electronic device that takes raw data as input from the user and processes these data under the control of set of instructions (called program) and gives the result (output) and saves output for the future use. It can process both numerical and non-numerical (arithmetic and logical) calculations.The basic components of a modern digital computer are: Input Device,Output Device,Central Processor. A Typical modern computer uses LSI Chips.

Full form of computer is :

C= Common 
O= Oriented

M= Machine
P= Particularly
U= United and used under
T= Technical and
E= Educational
R= Research

Algae Lamp eats carbon dioxide more than trees

Algae lamp that eats carbon dioxide 150-200x than trees.

Biochemist pierre calleja invented algae lamp which is shortly seen on streets.

Earth atmosphere is filling up with CO₂ and we seem to be the major cause of that. The generally accepted solution seems to be cutting back on emissions as quickly as possible, but implementing such cuts is problematic because everyone has to agree to do more in this competitive world, which essentially ends up costing a lot of time and money for such cleaning.

T Instead of relying entirely on cutting emissions, why don’t we start taking CO₂ out of the atmosphere? That’s exactly what biochemist Pierre Calleja is trying to do, and his solution almost sounds too good to be true.

How HP designed a laptop with 32 hours of battery life

When Hewlett-Packard engineers begin designing a new laptop, they bring in the battery experts like John Wozniak on the very first day. That’s part of what enabled HP to create a laptop with a 32-hour battery life.

And that also tells you how important energy efficiency has become in modern electronics, where the demand for thin, powerful, and lightweight is putting an enormous amount of stress on battery technologists. The battery has been called “the most humble and unsexy of inventions.” But it will likely be one of the most important technology battlegrounds of the future. Batteries are a $50 billion industry, and that could become bigger with more breakthroughs. People are far more productive when they don’t have to hunt down outlets to charge a laptop.

Wozniak, HP’s battery guru, has to deal with requests from all sides. Industrial designers want thin batteries in thin laptops. Marketing people also want lighter weight. But engineers like Wozniak can only show the designers what they have to currently work with and what they might have in the near future.

“It depends on the timing of the launch,” Wozniak (no relation to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak) said at a press event at HP’s original garage headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. “We’ll tool up and produce a couple of different options. It’s like a puzzle game, and you see what kind of battery is going to fit with a certain kind of design.”

HP created a 32-hour solution last year for the launch of its HP EliteBook 8460p laptop for business users. To get to 32 hours, you had to add an HP BB09 ultra-extended life notebook battery, which attaches to the bottom of the laptop. That adds more than a pound to the weight. Some new solutions can push the life of a laptop to 36 hours.

I’m trying one of those out right now. The standard battery gives the machine about 10 or so hours of life, according to the meter HP provided. But the life goes way up if you snap on the extended battery pack. That battery pack has nine cells (the pink cylinders pictured below) in it and adds the equivalent of 100 watt hours, which is the legal limit; any more and HP would have to ship it as dangerous goods. Once you snap it on, the notebook has about 200 watt hours of battery life.

“It comes with a price of added weight,” Wozniak said.

While improving battery efficiency is important to getting longer laptop battery life, the improvement has been gradual. So HP has focused on better power management for its laptops, turning the power down or powering components off when not in use.

If you keep the operation on a light level, with six or seven watts usage, then you can stretch the battery life out to 28 or 32 hours, Wozniak said. You can do that by reducing the number of times your laptop sends out wireless signals and by reducing the screen brightness.

Replacing a hard drive with a solid state flash memory drive also helps. HP found it could improve battery life 18 percent on the HP EliteBook 8460p when it used flash memory instead of a hard drive.

HP also used Intel’s Sandy Bridge integrated graphics — combining a microprocessor and graphics on the same chip — rather than a stand-alone graphics chip. That saved another 26 percent in power savings.

While processor speeds and storage capacity keep racing ahead, Wozniak said batteries are getting about 3 – 5 percent better each year in energy density, or the amount of energy produced by a battery in a given space. Plenty of attempts have been made to stretch that out. But the disappointments are myriad.

Wozniak said a silver zinc battery showed promise, with 40 percent better energy density. But the chemistry of the battery broke down after just 40 or 50 charges. To satisfy consumers, rechargeable batteries should last for hundreds or thousands of charges.

Some technologies have tried replacing carbon graphite anodes with silicon anodes, since silicon can store more energy. But the problem is that it swells in size. The silicon has to be encapsulated in carbon, offsetting some of the gains.

Batteries produce hydrogen gas when they are charging, resulting in the swelling. And since hydrogen is explosive, the risk of a fire or explosion is very real when it comes to battery operation. Batteries can corrode over time as well and leak dangerous chemicals.

That’s why the circuitry around a battery, which can help measure its charge and improve its efficiency, has to be physically separated from the battery itself.

Lithium ion batteries are the rechargeable types used in laptops; they’re lighter than other kids of batteries and come in a variety of shapes. They’re powerful, but the cell’s capacity diminishes over time. The batteries can also get hot when they’re in use.

Some battery cells are round (see the pink cells in the picture) and others are flat, or prismatic, (like the one pictured above)

“This has been familiar in the history of energy,” Wozniak said. “There are theoretical disruptive technologies. I don’t know what the next one is. There are a lot of new chemistries. The Holy Grail for the battery industry is to have a non-flammable electrolyte.”

The electrolyte is the chemical solution (either wet or dry) that causes a reaction that produces electrons. HP itself once did its own fuel cell battery replacement technology research, but it sold that business off. Now Wozniak stays in close touch with the suppliers that manufacture cells.

Right now, the thinnest battery cell size is about 2.8 millimeters, with the total battery thickness at 5 millimeters. The thinnest Ultrabooks (the thin, fast computers Intel is promoting this year) are about 18 millimeters thick for 13-inch models and 21 millimeters for 14-inch and larger displays. Intel requires that the battery lives be at least five hours.

Wozniak believes that the cells can be brought down to 2.5 millimeters without too many trade-offs in energy density.

The biggest consumers of energy in laptops and tablets today are the displays. Touchscreens take more energy than normal displays.

HP also put ambient light sensors on all of its EliteBook models. Those sensors adjust the display brightness based on how much light is available in a room. Toward the end of the year, Wozniak expects to see Ultrabooks that operate on five watts of power, compared to 25 watts for many laptops in the past.

“[Battery life is] going to get better and better, because a lot of resources are going into solving it,” Wozniak said.

PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN.

PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN.

Let the world know what we stand for.

• There are 3.22 Million Indians in America.
• 38% of Doctors in America are Indians.
• 12% of Scientists in America are Indians.
• 36% of NASA employees are Indians.
• 34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians.
• 28% of IBM employees are Indians.
• 17% of INTEL employees are Indians.
• 13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

>>>You may know some of these facts. These facts were recently published in aGerman Magazine, which deals with>>>>>>>

WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA

1.  India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number System. Aryabhatta invented zero.
3. The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. 
4. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
5.  Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software reported in Forbes magazine,July’1987.
6. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, thefather of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.
7. The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The veryword Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The Word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.
9. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
10. Budhayana first calculated the value of pi, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians 
11. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India; Quadratic equations wereby Sridharacharya in the 11th century; The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10 6(10 to the power of 6) whereas Hindus Used numbers as big as 1053 (10 to the power of 53) with specific names as Early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 1012(10 to the power of 12).
12. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.
13. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion in the worldscientific community that the pioneer of Wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
14. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
15. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
16. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts. 

QUOTES ABOUT INDIA 

Albert Einstein said:We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worth while scientific discovery could have been made. 

Mark Twain said:India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most structive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said:If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. 

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

Time line of Indian Scientist and their contribution

Apastamba (600 BC - 540 BC)

Mathematics

Apastamba was the author of one of the most interesting Indian Sulbasutras from a mathematical point of view. The general linear equation was solved in the Apastamba's Sulbasutra. He also gives a remarkably accurate value for √2 upto to five decimal places. As well as the problem of squaring the circle, Apastamba considers the problem of dividing a segment into 7 equal parts.

ACHARYA SUSHRUTA (600 BC)

Medicine & Plastic Surgery

A  genius who has been glowingly recognized in the annals of medical science. Born to sage Vishwamitra, Acharya Sudhrut details the first ever surgery procedures in "Sushrut Samhita" a unique encyclopedia of surgery. He is venerated as the father of plastic surgery and the science of anaesthesia. Sushruta lays down the basic principles of plastic surgery by advocating a proper physiotherapy before the operation and describes various methods or different types of defects, viz., (1) release of the skin for covering small defects, (2) rotation of the flaps to make up for the partial loss and (3) pedicle flaps for covering complete loss of skin from an area.

ACHARYA KANADA (3000 BC - 1000 BC or 6th Century BC) 

Atomic Theory

Many believe that Kanada originated the concept of atom. Adherents of the school of philosophy founded by Kanada considered the atom to be indestructible, and hence eternal. They believed atoms to be minute objects invisible to the naked eye which come into being and vanish in an instant.

CHARYA CHARAK (3rd to 2nd century BC)

Medicine 

Acharya Charak has been crowned as the Father of Medicine. His renowned work, the "Charak Samhita", is considered as an encyclopedia of Ayurveda. His principles, diagoneses, and cures retain their potency and truth even after a couple of millennia. When the science of anatomy was confused with different theories in Europe, Acharya Charak revealed through his innate genius and enquiries the facts on human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, blood circulation and diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis, heart disease, etc. In the "Charak Samhita" he has described the medicinal qualities and functions of 100,000 herbal plants.

ARYABHATA- I (476AD–550 AD ):

Mathematics and Astronomy

AryaBhatt was the first indian Mathematician and Astronomer. His famous treatise  was the "Aryabhatta-siddhanta" but more famously the "Aryabhatiya",  It is believe that he was born in Patliputra in Magadha, modern Patna in Bihar. He did the tremendous works in Mathematics and Astronomy. His works in Mathematics were Place value system and zero, Pi as irrational, Mensuration and trigonometry, indeterminate equations, Algebra.

His works in Astronomy were Motions of the solar system, Eclipses, Sidereal periods, Heliocentrism.

ARYABHATA II (920AD- 1000AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

 He was the author of the Maha-Siddhanta. It consists of eighteen chapters and was written in the form of verse in Sanskrit. The initial twelve chapters deals with topics related to mathematical astronomy and cover the topics that Indian mathematicians of that period had already worked on. The various topics that have been included in these twelve chapters are: the longitudes of the planets, lunar and solar eclipses, the estimation of eclipses, the lunar crescent, the rising and setting of the planets, association of the planets with each other and with the stars. The next six chapters of the book includes topics such as geometry, geography and algebra, which were applied to calculate the longitudes of the planets.

BaudhAyana (800 BC-740BC)

MathematicsBaudhayana was an Indian mathematician, who was most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sutra—appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars—called the Baudhayana Sulbasutra, which contained several important mathematical results. He is older than other famous mathematician Apastambha.

He is accredited with calculating the value of pi (π) to some degree of precision, and with discovering what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem.

                                             

 Brahmagupta (598AD – 668AD)

Mathematics and Astronomy

He wrote some important works on Mathematics and astronomy. Brahma sphutasiddhanta is the tremendes work written by him in the year 628 BC. Which contains some remarkable advanced ideas, including a good understanding of the mathematical role of zero, rules for manipulating both negative and positive numbers, a method of computing square root, methods of solving linear and some quadratic equations, and rules for summing series, Brahmagupta’s Identity and the Brahmaguota’s theorem? Brhmasphuta-siddhanta is one of the first mathematical books to provide concrete ideas on positive numbers, negative numbers, and zero.

 Bhaskara I (611 AD - 680 AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

He is the first to write numbers in the Hindu-Arabic decimal system with a circle for the zero, and who gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work. His works are the Mahabhaskariya, the Laghubhaskariya and the Aryabhatiyabhasya. Bhaskara's probably most important mathematical contribution concerns the representation of numbers in a positional

BHASKARACHARYA II (1114 AD - 1183 AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

BHASKARACHARYA is also known as Bhaskara II is also a famous indian mathematician and astronomer. Bhaskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. His main works were the Lilavati (dealing with arithmetic),Bijaganita (Algebra) and Siddhanta Shiromani (written in 1150) which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita 

Birbal Sahani (1891 - 1949)

He holds the credit of establishing the Paleobotanical Society that went on to set up the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10 September 1946. Professor Sahni was respected by all academicians and scholars of his time both in India and abroad. He was appointed the Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in the year 1936, which is the biggest British scientific honor. And for the first time since its inception, this award was given out to an Indian botanist.

He attended the Emmanuel College at Cambridge in the year 1914. And after this, he pursued further studies under Professor A.C. Seward and was given the D.Sc. degree from London University in the year 1919. Birbal Sahni then came back to his native country India to work as the professor of Botany at the highly esteemed Banaras Hindu University at the holy city of Varanasi. 

Halayudha (10th century ad)

Mathematics

Halayudha was a 10th century Indian mathematician who wrote the Mṛtasanjivani. Mṛtasanjivani is a commentary on Pingala's Chandah-shastra which containing a clear description of Pascal's triangle .

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1909-1966)

 physics

Homi Bhabha was born on 1909 in Mumbai. Son of a barrister, he grew up in a privileged environment. In Mumbai he attended the Cathedral & John Connon School and then Elphinstone College, followed by the Royal Institute of Science.

In 1937, together with W. Heitler, a German physicist, Bhabha solved the riddle about cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are fast moving, extremely small particles coming from outer space. When these particles enter the earth’s atmosphere, they collide with the atoms of air and create a shower of electrons. Bhabha’s discovery of the presence of nuclear particles (which he called mesons) in these showers was used to validate Einstein’s theory of relativity making him world famous.

 JyeSThadeva (1500AD – 1610AD)

Mathematics

 Jyesthadeva was an astronomer-mathematician of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics founded by Sangamagrama Madhava . He is best known as the author f Yuktibhasa, a commentary in Malayalam of Tantrasamgraha by Nilakantha Somayaji . In Yuktibhasa, Jyesṭhadeva had given complete proofs and rationale of the statements in Tantrasamgraha. This was unusual for traditional Indian mathematicians of the time. An analysis of the mathematics content of Yuktibhasa has prompted some scholars to call it "the first textbook of calculus".

Katyayana (200BC)

Mathematics

He was the author of a Sulbasutra which is much later than the Sulbasutras of Baudhayana and Apastamba. It would also be fair to say that Katyayana's Sulbasutra is the least interesting from a mathematical point of view of the three best known Sulbasutras. It adds very little to that of Apastamba written several hundreds of years earlier. Katyayana was neither a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today, nor a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like Ahmes. 

Manava (750BC - 690 BC)

 Mathematics

He was the author of one of the Sulbasutras: documents containing some of the earliest Indian mathematics. Manava's Sulbasutra, like all the Sulbasutras, contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of π. There appear therefore different values of π throughout the Sulbasutra, essentially every construction involving circles leads to a different such approximation. Manava's work which give π = 25/8 = 3.125.

Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri (1559AD–1664AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

He is third student of Achyuta Pisharati, was of Madhava of Sangamagrama's  Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. He was a mathematical linguist (vyakarana). His most important scholarly work, Prkriya-sarvawom, sets forth an axiomatic system elaborating on the classical system of Panini. However, he is most famous for his masterpiece, Narayaneeyam, a devotional composition in praise of Guruvayoorappan (Sri Krishna) that is still sung at the temple of Guruvayoor.

Meghnad Saha (1893-1956)

Physics

Meghnad Saha was born on 6 October 1893 in Sheoratali village near Dhaka in present day Bangladesh. By 1920, Meghnad Saha had established himself as one of the leading physicists of the time. His theory of high-temperature ionization of elements and its application to stellar atmospheres, as expressed by the Saha equation, is fundamental to modern astrophysics; subsequent  development of his ideas  has  led  to increased knowledge of  the pressure and temperature distributions of stellar atmospheres.

NAGARJUNA (931 AD) 

Chemistry and Metallurgy

He was an extraordinary wizard of science born in the nondescript village of Baluka in Madhya Pradesh. His dedicated research for twelve years produced maiden discoveries and inventions in the faculties of chemistry and metallurgy. Textual masterpieces like "Ras Ratnakar", "Rashrudaya" and "Rasendramangal" are his renowned contributions to the science of chemistry.  As the author of medical books like "Arogyamanjari" and "Yogasar", he also made significant contributions to the field of curative medicine.

Panini (520 BC - 460 BC)

Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology

Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Panini was born in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus river in present day Pakistan.

A treatise called Astadhyayi (or Astaka ) is Panini's major work. It consists of eight chapters, each subdivided into quarter chapters. In this work Panini distinguishes between the language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication

Prafulla Chandra RAY (1861-1944)

 Chemistry

Prafulla Chandra was born on 2 August 1861 in Raruli-Katipara, a village in the District of Khulna (in present day Bangladesh). His publications on mercurous nitrite and its derivatives brought him recognition from all over the world.Equally important was his role as a teacher - he inspired a generation of young chemists in India thereby building up an Indian school of chemistry. Prafulla Chandra believed that the progress of India could be achieved only by industrialization. He set up the first chemical factory in India, with very minimal resources, working from his home. In 1901, this pioneering effort resulted in the formation of the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd.

Sridhara (870AD – 930AD)

Mathematics 

Sridhara was an Indian mathematician known for two treatises: Trisatika (sometimes called the Patiganitasara) and the Patiganita. He wrote on practical applications of algebra and was one of the first to give a formula for solving quadratic equations.

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937)

Science

Bose was  born on 30 November  1858, in Myemsingh, Faridpur, a part of the Dhaka District now in Bangladesh. He was an excellent teacher, extensively using scientific demonstrations in class. Bose also started doing original scientific work in the area of microwaves, carrying out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and polarization. He developed the use of galena crystals for making receivers, both for short wavelength radio waves and for white and ultraviolet light. Many of the microwave components familiar today - waveguides, horn antennas, polarizers, dielectric lenses and prisms, and even semiconductor detectors of electromagnetic radiation - were invented and used by Bose in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He also suggested the existence of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, which was confirmed in 1944. Bose then turned his attention to response phenomena in plants. He showed that not only animal but vegetable tissues, produce similar electric response under different kinds of stimuli – mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920)

 Mathematics

Ramanujan was born in Erode, a small village in Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887.His research paper on Bernoulli numbers, in 1911, brought him recognition and he became well known in Chennai as a mathematical genius. Ramanujan made outstanding contributions to analytical number theory, elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series. His published and unpublished works have kept some of the best mathematical brains in the

world busy to this day.

Sir C. V. Raman (1888-1970)

Mathematics

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu on 7 November 1888.He made enormous contributions to research in the areas of vibration, sound, musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction, photoelectricity, colloidal particles, X-ray diffraction, magnetron, dielectrics,etc. In particular, his work on the scattering of light during this period brought him world-wide recognition. He was knighted in 1929, and in 1930, became the first Asian scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discoveries relating to the scattering of light (the Raman Effect). After retirement, he established the Raman Research Institute at Bangalore, where he served as the Director. The Government of India conferred upon him its highest award,the Bharat Ratna in 1954.

  

Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974)

 mathematics

Satyendra Nath Bose was born on New Year’s day, 1894 in Goabagan in Kolkata.

He excelled in academics throughout his education – Intermediate, B.Sc. and M.Sc. with applied mathematics. His teacher at the Presidency College was Jagadish Chandra Bose - whose other

stellar pupil was Meghnad Saha.

He worked as a lecturer of physics in the Science College of the University of Calcutta (1916-21) and along with Meghnad Saha, introduced postgraduate courses in modern mathematics and physics. He derived with Saha, the Saha-Bose equation of state for a nonideal gas.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1894-1955)

 Chemistry

Bhatnagar was born on 21 February 1894 at Bhera, in the district of Shapur in Punjab (now in Pakistan). When he was barely eight months old, his father passed away. He spent his next thirteen years under the care of his maternal grandfather in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar played a significant part along with Homi Bhabha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Vikram Sarabhai and others in building of post-independence Science & Technology infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s science policies.

Subramaniam Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)

 Astrophysics

Subramaniam Chandrasekhar, a nephew of Sir C.V. Raman, was born on 19 October 1910 in Lahore, (now in Pakistan). His first scientific paper, Compton Scattering and the New Statistics, was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1928. On the basis of this paper he was accepted as a research student by R.H. Fowler at the University of Cambridge. On the voyage to England, he developed the theory of white dwarf stars, showing that a star of mass greater than 1.45 times the

mass of the sun could not become a white dwarf. This limit is now known as the Chandrasekhar limit. 

He was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1983 for his theoretical work on the physical processes of importance to the structure of stars and their evolution. Chandra was a popular teacher who guided over fifty students to their Ph.D.s including some who went on to win the Nobel prize themselves!! His research explored nearly all branches of theoretical astrophysics and he published ten books, each covering a different topic, including one on the relationship between art and science.

Varahamihira (505 AD- 587 AD)

Mathematics and Astronomy

Daivajna Varāhamihira is well known as Varaha, or Mihira was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain. He wrote two books called "Pancha-Siddhantika" and "Brihat-Samhita".

"Pancha-Siddhantika" gives us information about older Indian texts which are now lost. This work mainly deals with the mathematical astronomy and it summarises five earlier astronomical treatises, namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vasishtha Siddhanta and Paitamaha Siddhantas.

VAGBHATA ( 7TH century ad)

Medicine 

Vagbhata completes the Great Three (Brhatrayi) of Ayurveda, with his predecessors, Caraka and Susruta. His identity and period are controversial but a major section of the scholarly community believes that he was a native of Sindh, who lived in the sixth century and write Astangahrdayam and Astangasngraha. The two texts frankly acknowledge the authority of Samhitas of Caraka and Susruta and closely follow in the footsteps of the earlier masters.The Legacy of Vagbhata is based on a study of Astangahrdayam and employs a thematic approach with the plentiful use of tables. As in the earlier volumes on Caraka and Susruta, great care has been taken in this volume on Vagbhata to maintain fidelity to the original text while ensuring easy readability for the students of Ayurveda, medicine and the sciences.

Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971)

 PHYSICS

Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 at Ahmedabad. He had his early education in a private school, ‘Retreat’ run by his parents on Montessori lines. He established the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad in 1948, in a few rooms at the M.G. Science Institute with Professor K.K. Ramanathan as Director. In April 1954, PRL moved into a new building and Dr. Sarabhai made it the cradle of the Indian Space Programme. At the young age of 28, he was asked to organize and create the ATIRA, the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research  association and was its Honorary Director during 1949-56.

Sarabhai pioneered India’s space age by expanding the Indian Space Research Organization. India’s first satellite Aryabhata launched in 1975, was one of the many projects planned by him. Like Bhabha, Sarabhai wanted the practical application of science to reach the common man. Thus he saw a golden opportunity to harness space science to the development of the country in the fields of communication, meteorology, remote sensing and education.