Google Doodle Marks 158th Birthday Of Jagdish Chandra Bose: Why We Should Know About Him

To celebrate the 158th birthday of crescograph inventor, botanist and biophysicist Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose, Google is featuring a doodle of the pioneer. The illustration on the Google home page shows Dr. Bose with the crescograph instrument he invented to measure the growth and movement of a plant. Incidentally, the doodle appears in various countries that include the U.S., Japan, France and India, the inventor's home country (although his birthplace is located in modern day Bangladesh, which was once a part of India).

According to the Google Doodle Blog, the pioneer's work included radio and microwave science research. Bose has wireless telecommunication innovations to his credit, and his accomplishments in this field earned him the honor of having a moon crater named after him, called the Bose Crater that is on the Moon's far side.

In addition, Jagdish Chandra Bose is also considered the father of the radio and demonstrated the science of electromagnetic waves in 1895, The Christian Science Monitor reports. The innovator sent electromagnetic waves across 75 feet and through a wall to ring a bell remotely and explode gunpowder during a public demonstration in Kolkata.

Jagdish Chandra Bose also invented the Mercury Coherer, a radio wave receiver that was used by Guglielmo Marconi to make an operational two-way radio. However, the contribution of Bose in this matter is relatively unknown because of his reluctance to patent his inventions.

The crescograph, which can be seen in the doodle, was invented to magnify plants by 10,000 times to measure the growth and movement of plants, making it convenient to identify similarities between plants and animals. The scientist also suggested that pleasant sounds helped in plant growth while harsh noises hampered it, and thereby argued that this was the evidence that plants possessed a nervous system like humans. Moreover, he also tested how plant tissues reacted to temperature variations, chemical inhibitors and seasonal changes to prove they too understand affection and feel pain.

Jagdish Chandra Bose also published The Story of the Missing One, a short story that is known as one of the first Bengali science fiction stories, making the man a literary figure, too. The multihyphenate innovator, who died at the age of 78, was also knighted during his lifetime for his rich contributions in the field of science.