Great to see Kamala Sohonie featured on google doodle today. She was (probably?) the 1st woman to get a science PhD in India – circa 1939. Also featured in the book “Lilavati’s Daughters” which I mentioned in my recent podcast
Going by the timelines, Iravati Karve got PhD in 1930, in anthropology, which is generally categorized as ‘social science’. Nevertheless, all inspiring. Iravati had deep connections with Pune, and taught Deccan College
Great to see Kamala Sohonie featured on google doodle. She was the 1st women to get a science PhD in India – circa 1939. Also featured in the book "Lilavati's Daughters" which I mentioned in my recent podcast
I discuss the legacy of two important individuals Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar and their students. I highlight their styles of doing research and how they inspired important schools of thought. I emphasize the role of economic privilege and gender. I discuss Bimala Buti and mention about interesting books on women in science : Lilavatis Daughters and Lab Hopping.
Goodby, John W. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar (1930–2004).” Nature 428, no. 6986 (April 2004): 906–906. https://doi.org/10.1038/428906a.
Gray, G. W., G. R. Luckhurst, and E. P. Raynes. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar. 6 August 1930 — 8 March 2004: Elected FRS 1983.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 53 (January 2007): 127–41. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2007.0015.
Wali, Kameshwar C. A Quest for Perspectives: Selected Works of S Chandrasekhar (With Commentary)(In 2 Volumes). IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1142/p175.
Wali, Kameshwar C. S Chandrasekhar: The Man Behind the Legend. PUBLISHED BY IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS AND DISTRIBUTED BY WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO., 1997. https://doi.org/10.1142/p030.
Albert A Michelson. Image credit : Nobel Prize webpage
Albert Abraham Michelson was a celebrated American experimental physicist. He was associated with one of the most famous experiments in physics : Michelson-Morley Experiment, which formed an important input for Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
Michelson’s ability to design and develop optical instruments including the interferometer named after him, was one of vital elements in his legendary pursuit to measure velocity of light. He continued to refine this measurement over a period of 40 years or so.
He was also the first American to win a Nobel prize in science (physics, 1907). Americans adored him, and he shot up to fame with his ingenious experiments and became a folklore of United States.
(Yes, you read it right, there was another guy called Dayton Miller who played a critical role in refining the experiment initiated by Michelson and Morley )
In Swenson’s book, there are two stanzas from a poem by Edwin Herbert Lewis that highlights Michelson’s legend. Below I reproduce the same :
But in Kyerson rainbows murmur the music of heavenly things. Is not this stranger than heaven that a man should hear around The whole of earth and the half of heaven and see the shadow of sound? He gathereth up the iris from the plunging of planet’s rim With bright precision of fingers that Uriel envies him. But when from the plunging planet he spread out a hand to feel How fast the ether drifted back through flesh or stone or steel The fine fiducial fingers felt no ethereal breath. They penciled the night in a cross of light and found it still as death. Have the stars conspired against him? Do measurements only seem? Are time and space but shadows enmeshed in a private dream?
But dreaming or not, he measured. He made him a rainbow bar, And first he measured the measures of man, and then he measured a star. Now tell us how long is the metre, lest fire should steal it away? Ye shall fashion it new, immortal, of the crimson cadmium ray. Now tell us how big is Antares, a spear-point in the night? Four hundred million miles across a single point of light. He has taught a world to measure. They read the furnace and gauge By lines of the fringe of glory that knows nor aging nor age. Now this is the law of Ryerson and this is the price of peace- That men shall learn to measure or ever their strife shall cease.
E.H. Lewis
Indeed humans shall learn to measure or ever their strife shall cease…
A lot of stuff related to energy conversion has its connection to Joule's apparatus which explored mech. equivalent of heat. He also played a critical role in identifying resistive heating : detrimental to all of electronics including mobile phones.. https://t.co/nITRhyGcqA
In my research group, we study the interaction of light with soft-matter from a photonics viewpoint.
Until now, I have supervised 11 PhD theses, 11 MS theses, a few post-docs and several undergraduate students at IISER Pune (see my group members – past and present). I continue to learn a lot from them.
Another strand of my research is the history of science. I am interested in the historical evolution of ideas in physical sciences and technology. I research the life and work of past scientists, innovators, and people driven by curiosity, and I write about them from an Indian and Asian perspective. My motivation is to humanize science.
Writing has been an integral part of my life since my childhood (1980s), and I have been in the process since the ‘pre-internet’ era. I have been blogging since 2008 or so. You can access my old blog site here.
You can access and listen to my audio podcast – Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science, on -Spotify, YouTube (audio), Google Podcast or Apple podcast (all links below).
As an extension of my blog, I am starting a podcast in my individual capacity :
Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science
In several Indian languages, including Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi and many more, the word – Pratidhvani (ಪ್ರತಿಧ್ವನಿ/प्रतिध्वनि) – means resonance, reflection (of sound). Through my podcast, I intend to reflect on my thoughts as an academic scientist on some topics related to science, technology, history and philosophy of science. Listen to my first podcast, and let me know what you think.
Thanks to the invitation of Prof. Hajime Ishihara, I visited Osaka from 29th April to 2nd May 2023.
I arrived in Osaka on Saturday (29th Apr). On 30th Apr (Sunday) I headed out to visit the famous Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto with 2 PhD students from Ishihara’s group : Hideki Arahari and Takao Horai
Kiyomizudera Temple towards the right and beautiful landscape surrounding it.
Apart from the temple, we had a wonderful time exploring the Nishiki Market and Kamo river.
On 1st May, I visited Osaka University to officially meet Prof Ishihara, his group and other research groups in the university. We had a wonderful discussion on optical manipulation and major projects related to it especially in Japan, and undoubtedly Osaka has emerged as a major center in optical manipulation.
with Prof. Ishihara
I was delighted to see so many students and research groups interested in optical trapping/manipulation and related science and technology. I learnt about some very interesting applications of optical manipulation. Also, it was great to see such a great sense of humor in this group of researchers. It was truly amazing.
Science + Humor …..we had a great time..
I also visited labs of Prof. Ashida and Prof Ito, and got a very nice overview of their work including optical manipulation in liquid helium and photochemical reactions in an optical trap.
At 4pm, I gave my talk on “Optical Manipulation based on Opto-Thermal Gradients“. I elaborated on the role of absorption and related thermal gradient in optical manipulation. I presented some of our ongoing work on optical manipulation with structured light. The talk was attended by at least 30 to 40 people, and I was informed that students from various groups in Osaka were present (there are a few universities). The quality of questions and the follow up discussion was very good, and really enjoyed it.
Finally, the day ended with a wonderful dinner at a tofu-themed Japanese restaurant. We had wonderful discussion on history and philosophy in our countries, and was very interesting.
Dinner with Professors Ishihara, Ito, Ashida and Yokoyama
My trajectory in Japan has been Yokohama –> Tokyo –> Okinawa –> Osaka. After 16 days, one conference talk and 4 research seminar across Japan, I am now heading back from Osaka to Tokyo (and writing this blog) on Shinkansen – the bullet train. Tomorrow, I will be leaving to India.
In Japanese, the word ‘Osaka’ also means ‘a large hill’. Japan’s geography has many large hills (see a picture of Mt. Fuji I took from the moving Shinkansen), and metaphorically speaking Japanese like to scale complex landscapes of life by bringing culture with science and technology. There is a lot to learn from this approach to life.
the majestic Mt. Fuji
Osaka, optical manipulation and the perennial ascent towards knowledge. What a memorable trip this has been.
To Japan and to all the people I met here – Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu !
Here is the video blog on the Cup Noodles Museum at Yokohama. I visited this place recently, and was inspiring. Also, has some connections to history of science and scientists. Some notes/references at the end.
Below is a video blog featuring Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop as part of history of optical manipulation. Also pictured in the blog are : Giorgio Volpe (UC, London) and Agnese Callegari (University of Gothenburg). Pictures taken at OMC 2023 in Yokohama, Japan.
Friese, M.E.J. et al. (1998) ‘Optical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particles’, Nature, 394(6691), pp. 348–350. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/28566.
He, H. et al. (1995) ‘Direct Observation of Transfer of Angular Momentum to Absorptive Particles from a Laser Beam with a Phase Singularity’, Physical Review Letters, 75(5), pp. 826–829. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.826.
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Physics 