His profound contribution to modern physics might not have won him a Nobel Prize. But, it is impossible to erase his name from the history of science. Bose is remembered by students of science, particularly those who study physics, because of Bose-Einstein Statistics and also because of the word Bosons, particles named after him. “You do not know who he was. Half the molecules in the universe obey him,” so quipped a professor of physics, when a student shocked him once by asking who Satyendra Nath Bose was.
Even otherwise, Bose was not one who went after laurels and publicity. Despite being so easily achievable for him and being important for a career in research, Bose never bothered to complete his Ph.D. In fact, there were occasions in which lack of a doctorate actually came in his way, especially during the early years of his career.
Bose was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 1 January 1894. He was the eldest and the only male of seven children born to his parents. His father Surendranath Bose worked in the engineering department of East India Railway Company. The young Bose went to several schools and finally passed matriculation with flying colours from the Hindu School in Kolkata, considered to be one of the oldest schools in India. A trivia from his school days is that his math teacher once gave him 110 marks out of 100! The teacher’s logic for giving him more marks than the specified maximum limit was that Bose got answers right for all problems, including for the alternative questions, within the stipulated time.
As a boy, Satyendra Nath was influenced by the protests going all around against the British Rule. About those days, he wrote in his memoirs: “We must do something for our country just to show the British that we are no way inferior.” When he subsequently joined at the Presidency College for his Intermediate studies, among his teachers were renowned scientists like Jagadis Chandra Bose (not related) and Prafulla Chandra Ray, who inspired him to do well in life. For his Bachelor’s degree, Bose opted for a course in mixed (applied) mathematics. Interestingly, MeghanadSaha, who later became a legendary Indian scientist, was Bose’s classmate for both BSc and MSc. Both Bose and Saha, who were credited with paving the foundation for modern theoretical physics in India, remained friends forever.
From 1916 to 1921, both Bose and Saha were lecturers in the physics department of Calcutta University. During this period, they collaborated closely and authored two joint papers, besides doing an English translation of papers by Einstein and H. Minkowski from German. Subsequently, in 1921, Bose joined the Department of Physics of the then newly- founded Dacca University (now the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh), whereas Saha moved to the University of Allahabad a couple of years later.
Even as Bose was involved in teaching postgraduate students at Dacca, he was not happy with Max Planck’s radiation law. A discussion with Saha prompted him to try out a new derivation, which he thought was more logical. Bose sent a paper detailing his findings to the Philosophical Magazine, which had published his earlier works. However, this time, his paper was turned down.
What he did next was very daring, and became legendary. He sent the paper to Albert Einstein requesting him to arrange for its publication in Zeitschriftfür Physic. Einstein not only acknowledged the receipt of the letter and intimated Bose of his decision to publish it as it was an important contribution, but he also translated the paper into German, himself. The paper was published in August 1924, a couple of months before Bose embarked on his maiden European journey, which was to last two years. As a translator’s note, Einstein wrote: “Bose’s derivative of Planck’s formula appears to me to be an important step forward. The method used here also gives the quantum theory of an ideal gas, as I shall show elsewhere.” Scientists regard Bose’s work as a bridge between “the old quantum theory” propounded by Planck, Einstein and Neils Bohr and “the new quantum mechanics” of Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born and Paul A.M. Dirac. This signified the birth of quantum statistics.
The Bose-Einstein condensate is another classic proof of the excellence he stood for. Scientists had to strive for almost seven decades before they could prove the existence of such an extreme state of matter. Three American physicists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement in 2001.
Interestingly, in a biography, they wrote of Satyendra Nath Bose, Santimay Chatterjee, and Enakshi Chatterjee narrate an incident Bose’s joke on Bose-Einstein Statistics: “Professor P.A.M. Dirac had come to Kolkata along with his wife in the mid-fifties. They were sharing the same car with Bose. Bose let them have a back seat. The front seat, which Bose occupied along with the driver, did not have much room. Nevertheless, Bose asked some of his students to get in. Dirac, a little surprised, asked if it wasn’t too crowded. Bose looked back and said in his disarming fashion, “We believe in Bose Statistics.” Dirac explained to his wife, “In Bose Statistics things crowd together.”
His association with Einstein has been personally beneficial to Bose. It was Einstein’s postcard acknowledging the paper mentioned above that helped him get permission for a two-year study trip to Europe. During this visit, Bose spent nearly a year at Einstein’s lab and had the chance to interact with several giants in science, namely Marie Curie, Paul Langevin, Max Born, and Maurice de Broglie, from whom he learned X-ray crystallography, which he used extensively for teaching as well as research on minerals later on. A recommendation from Einstein ensured that Bose was made a professor of physics at Dacca University upon his return and subsequently the head of the department.
Bose spent the next two decades mostly teaching and carrying out research outside his core areas. For instance, he even fabricated X-ray diffraction cameras and dabbled in powder photography. During this period, he studied crystal structures and carried out studies on organic compounds. Also, at Saha’s behest, he investigated the problem of total reflection of radio waves in the ionosphere.
Bose returned to Kolkata in 1945 to become a professor of physics at Calcutta University. Almost three decades after his work on the Bose- Einstein Statistics, Bose published five papers on the Unified Field Theory. Though these were significant, they failed to have a similar impact as those published in 1924. Bose sent them to Einstein and wanted to discuss the work with him during a trip planned to Germany later. Before it materialised, Einstein passed away in 1955. It is said that the grief-stricken Bose tore up the paper, which is believed to have answered some of the scientific concerns raised by Einstein. The paper never saw the light of the day.
Bose was a great connoisseur of folk, Indian and / or western classical music. He played the instrument Esraj. One of his friends, who wrote on Indian music and benefitted from his interactions once said if Bose had not become a scientist, he might have become a master musicologist. Bose argued for teaching science to children in their mother tongue. To popularise science, he wrote books in Bengali and even set up an organisation for science popularisation called BangiyaBijnan Parishad in 1948.
In 1952, he became a nominated member of Rajya Sabha for a period of six years. In 1956, he was made vice-chancellor of the Visva Bharati University at Shantiniketan, a position he relinquished in 1958. The same year, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1959, Bose was appointed National Professor, a post he held until his death on 4 February 1974. On his death, his biographers Santimay Chatterjee and Enakshi Chatterjee say, “the public expression of sorrow was spontaneous and overwhelming.” “Clearly the common people had no idea of the scientific miracle which had made Bose a name; still less did they care about the complications of modern physics. But they were proud of him, proud of the legend that was Satyen Bose and fond of the man behind the legend.“