Google Doodle today: A tribute to Indian mathematician and physicist Satyendra Nath Bose

On Saturday (June 4), Google paid tribute to Indian physicist and mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose, with its creative doodle. On the same date 98 years back, June 4, 1924, Bose sent his paper on quantum formulations to Albert Einstein. The great Einstein soon recognized it as a significant discovery in quantum mechanics and to date, Bose is known best for his contribution to the Bose-Einstein Condensate.

SN Bose was born in Kolkata on January 1, 1894. Bose went to Kolkata's prestigious institutions - Hindu School and then Presidency College. According to news reports, it was Bose's accountant father who ignited his passion for maths.  Before leaving for work every day, he would leave Bose with an arithmetic problem which he would then solve, thus stoking his interest in a subject that we would go on to master later in life. He pursued a Bachelor of Science degree at Calcutta’s Presidency College and earned a Master’s in Applied Mathematics at the University of Calcutta.

According to Britannica, "Bose, a graduate of the University of Calcutta, taught at the University of Dacca (1921–45) and then at Calcutta (1945–56). Bose’s numerous scientific papers (published from 1918 to 1956) contributed to statistical mechanics, the electromagnetic properties of the ionosphere, the theories of X-ray crystallography and thermoluminescence, and unified field theory. Bose’s Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta (1924) led Einstein to seek him out for collaboration."

When he began giving lectures on physics by end of 1917, while teaching postgraduate students Planck’s radiation formula, doubts crept in. Bosequestioned the way particles were counted. He then started to experiment with his own theories and came up with the report - Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta, which he sent to a reputed science journal, The Philosophical Magazine. However, the journal rejected his papers and it was then that he decided to mail his paper directly to the great physicist Albert Einstein. And Einstein agreed with him and in no time, applied Bose’s formula to a wide range of phenomena. He had Bose's paper translated and published in German under Bose's name.

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SN Bose's theoretical paper became one of the most important findings in quantum theory. Soon, recognition followed at home as the Indian government, recoginising his contribution to physics, bestowed him with the Padma Vibhushan - the highest civilian award in the country.