C. V. Raman by Dilip Salwi, Rupa*, 95 rupees, ISBN 8171677851 Reviewed by Maggie McDonald
鈥淭HERE is only one solution to India鈥檚 economic problems and it is science, more science and still more science,鈥� so says Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for proving the existence of photons. Dilip Salwi reveals that the equipment for this world-class discovery cost only a few hundred rupees and Raman鈥檚 paper in Nature inspired 150 research papers in six months.
One of the Charitavali series on national heroes, Salwi鈥檚 biography, C. V. Raman, is a brief round-up of the main events and discoveries of Raman鈥檚 life with many photographs of Raman and his colleagues. Also in the series are biographies of physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, who gave his name to the boson particle, and astrophysicist Meghnad Saha, founder of India鈥檚 National Academy of Sciences. There鈥檚 a strong emphasis throughout on how these scientists helped India build up its scientific establishment.
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