National Science Day was celebrated in India on 28 February 2015. This year the theme for the day was “Science for Nation Building”.
The day is celebrated every year to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect* by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on 28 February 1928.
Who was C V Raman?
- An Indian Scientist
- First Indian Nobel Laureate in science
- He was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930
National Science Day
- In 1986, the National Council for Science and Technology Communications (NCSTC) recommended the Union Government to designate 28 February as National Science Day.
- The recommendation was accepted by the Government and it designated 28 February as National Science Day in 1986.
- The first National Science Day was celebrated on 28 February 1987.
*What is Raman Effect?
- Raman Effect is a phenomenon in which light changes its wavelength when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
- When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam.
- Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength. However, a small part has wavelengths different from that of the incident light and this phenomenon is a called as the Raman Effect.
- This phenomenon was discovered by CV Raman while working in a laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of science, Kolkata.
World Science Day
- World Science Day for Peace and Development
- Celebrated worldwide annually on 10 November.
- The day was established by UNESCO in 2001 to demonstrate to the wider public why science is relevant to their daily lives and to engage them in debate on related issues.
