What Stars Are Made Of

What Stars Are Made Of
Author: Donovan Moore
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674237374

A New Scientist Book of the Year A Physics Today Book of the Year A Science News Book of the Year The history of science is replete with women getting little notice for their groundbreaking discoveries. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a tireless innovator who correctly theorized the substance of stars, was one of them. It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early twentieth-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what has been called “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy,” she was the first to describe what stars are made of. Payne-Gaposchkin lived in a society that did not know what to make of a determined schoolgirl who wanted to know everything. She was derided in college and refused a degree. As a graduate student, she faced formidable skepticism. Revolutionary ideas rarely enjoy instantaneous acceptance, but the learned men of the astronomical community found hers especially hard to take seriously. Though welcomed at the Harvard College Observatory, she worked for years without recognition or status. Still, she accomplished what every scientist yearns for: discovery. She revealed the atomic composition of stars—only to be told that her conclusions were wrong by the very man who would later show her to be correct. In What Stars Are Made Of, Donovan Moore brings this remarkable woman to life through extensive archival research, family interviews, and photographs. Moore retraces Payne-Gaposchkin’s steps with visits to cramped observatories and nighttime bicycle rides through the streets of Cambridge, England. The result is a story of devotion and tenacity that speaks powerfully to our own time.

Meghnad Saha

Meghnad Saha
Author: S. B. Karmohapatro
Publisher: Publications International
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

On the life and contribution of Meghnad Saha, 1893-1956, and Indian physicist.

Selected Papers, Volume 7

Selected Papers, Volume 7
Author: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1997-06-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780226101033

In these selections readers are treated to a rare opportunity to see the world through the eyes of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and sensitive scientists. Conceived by Chandrasekhar as a supplement to his Selected Papers, this volume begins with eight papers he wrote with Valeria Ferrari on the non-radial oscillations of stars. It then explores some of the themes addressed in Truth and Beauty, with meditations on the aesthetics of science and the world it examines. Highlights include: "The Series Paintings of Claude Monet and the Landscape of General Relativity," "The Perception of Beauty and the Pursuit of Science," "On Reading Newton's Principia at Age Past Eighty," and personal recollections of Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and others. Selected Papers, Volume 7 paints a picture of Chandra's universe, filled with stars and galaxies, but with space for poetics, paintings, and politics. The late S. Chandrasekhar was best known for his discovery of the upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf star, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He was the author of many books, including The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes and, most recently, Newton's Principia for the Common Reader.

Age of Entanglement

Age of Entanglement
Author: Kris Manjapra
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2014-01-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674727460

Age of Entanglement explores patterns of connection linking German and Indian intellectuals from the nineteenth century to the years after the Second World War. Kris Manjapra traces the intersecting ideas and careers of a diverse collection of individuals from South Asia and Central Europe who shared ideas, formed networks, and studied one another’s worlds. Moving beyond well-rehearsed critiques of colonialism towards a new critical approach, this study recasts modern intellectual history in terms of the knotted intellectual itineraries of seeming strangers. Collaborations in the sciences, arts, and humanities produced extraordinary meetings of German and Indian minds. Meghnad Saha met Albert Einstein, Stella Kramrisch brought the Bauhaus to Calcutta, and Girindrasekhar Bose began a correspondence with Sigmund Freud. Rabindranath Tagore traveled to Germany to recruit scholars for a new Indian university, and the actor Himanshu Rai hired director Franz Osten to help establish movie studios in Bombay. These interactions, Manjapra argues, evinced shared responses to the cultural and political hegemony of the British empire. Germans and Indians hoped to find in one another the tools needed to disrupt an Anglocentric world order. As Manjapra demonstrates, transnational intellectual encounters are not inherently progressive. From Orientalism and Aryanism to socialism and scientism, German–Indian entanglements were neither necessarily liberal nor conventionally cosmopolitan, often characterized as much by manipulation as by cooperation. Age of Entanglement underscores the connections between German and Indian intellectual history, revealing the characteristics of a global age when the distance separating Europe and Asia seemed, temporarily, to disappear.

The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India

The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India
Author: Somaditya Banerjee
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2020-05-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317024702

This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category "bhadralok physics" is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination. The term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific research. The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as "cosmopolitan nationalism," which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation.

Nucleus and Nation

Nucleus and Nation
Author: Robert S. Anderson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 728
Release: 2010-05-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226019772

In 1974 India joined the elite roster of nuclear world powers when it exploded its first nuclear bomb. But the technological progress that facilitated that feat was set in motion many decades before, as India sought both independence from the British and respect from the larger world. Over the course of the twentieth century, India metamorphosed from a marginal place to a serious hub of technological and scientific innovation. It is this tale of transformation that Robert S. Anderson recounts in Nucleus and Nation. Tracing the long institutional and individual preparations for India’s first nuclear test and its consequences, Anderson begins with the careers of India’s renowned scientists—Meghnad Saha, Shanti Bhatnagar, Homi Bhabha, and their patron Jawaharlal Nehru—in the first half of the twentieth century before focusing on the evolution of the large and complex scientific community—especially Vikram Sarabhi—in the later part of the era. By contextualizing Indian debates over nuclear power within the larger conversation about modernization and industrialization, Anderson hones in on the thorny issue of the integration of science into the framework and self-reliant ideals of Indian nationalism. In this way, Nucleus and Nation is more than a history of nuclear science and engineering and the Indian Atomic Energy Commission; it is a unique perspective on the history of Indian nationhood and the politics of its scientific community.

The Collected Works Of Meghnad Saha

The Collected Works Of Meghnad Saha
Author: Meghnad Saha
Publisher:
Total Pages: 666
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9788125000815

Professor Meghnad Saha (1893 1956), One Of The Founders Of Modern Science In India, Needs No Introduction To Scientists Or The General Public. His Theory Of Thermal Ionization Changed The Direction Of Astrophysics And His Early Brilliance Was Recognized In His Becoming A Fellow Of The Royal Society At The Age Of Thirty-Four. He Wrote Many Scientific, Semi-Scientific And Popular Articles. Apart From Their Intrinsic Interest These Writings Would Seem Relevant Even Today In The Context Of Indian Development. The First Volume Of The Collected Works Of One Of The Founders Of Modern Science In India Contains Over Thirty Articles On Astronomy And Astrophysics, Spectroscopy, Nuclear Physics, Cosmic Rays And Nuclear Energy. The Second Volume Contains Saha S Lectures, Articles, And Editorials Written Between 1922 And 1956 On Subjects Of Importance Such As River Management, Power, Fuel And Electricity Resources, Industrialisation And Planning. These Articles Reveal Saha S Concern For Economic Regeneration Through Scientific Planning. The Third Volume Contains Saha S Articles, Lectures, Editorials And Other Writings Published Between 1935 And 1956. Compiled Mainly From Science And Culture, Modern Review, Journal Of The Asiatic Society (Calcutta), Hindustan Standard And Amrita Bazar Patrika, These Articles Have Been Arranged Chronologically Under Different Subject Heads. Saha S Interest In Ancient Indian History And Astronomy Led To His Famous Work On The Origin Of The Saka Era And The Reform Of The Indian Calendar. The Fourth Volume Contains Saha S Articles, Lectures, Editorials, And Other Writings Published Between 1920 1956. These Have Been Compiled From Science And Culture, Modern Review, Journal Of The Asiatic Society, Caravan, Visvabharati News, Etc. The Articles Have Been Arranged Under Different Subject-Heads, Like Organisations And Institutions, Scientific Research, Humanism And Science, Archaeology And History, Travel, Science Reporting And Personalities.