National Science Day 2023: It is celebrated every year on 28 February in India to commemorate the remarkable work of Indian physicist CV Raman in the field of light scattering. Raman is known as one of the greatest scientists and an inspiration to many. This year’s edition is being celebrated under the theme of “Global Science for Global Wellbeing” in the light of India’s G20 Presidency. On the occasion of National Science Day, theme based science communication activities are organized across the country.
National Science Day 2023: History
In 1986, the Government of India designated 28 February as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman Effect”. Performing a simple experiment, Raman found that when a stream of light passed through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid was of a different colour. The discovery was immediately recognized as important in the scientific community and became the subject of over 700 papers in the first seven years after it was announced. Ramam was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for the same.
On the occasion of the first National Science Day (28 February 1987), the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) announced the establishment of the National Science Popularization Awards to recognize outstanding efforts in the field of science and communication.
National Science Day 2023: Facts and Significance
The NCSTC of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is the nodal agency to catalyze and coordinate the celebration of National Science Day across the country, especially in scientific institutions and research laboratories.
DST instituted the National Awards in 1987 to encourage, encourage and recognize outstanding efforts in the field of popularization and communication of science and to promote scientific temper.
Sir CV Raman, who received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award from his home country in 1954, began his experiments to study the scattering of light; And thus came Raman spectroscopy to observe vibrational, rotational and other low frequency modes in a system. It is commonly used in chemical laboratories and acts as a ‘fingerprint’ for the substance from which the light is scattered.
According to the academy’s citation, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”.