April 25

Through My Eyes

Friday April 25

( Let's journey from our native land ...)

"On the eastern coast of the subcontinent of India, in the old state of Bengal, there stands on four acres of ground off the Acharaya Prafullachandra Road, north of Calcutta University, a complex of buildings made of fine grayish and purple sandstone in the classic design of pre-Mohammedan India. The main edifice, known as the Indian Temple of Science, bears an inscription: "This temple is dedicated to the feet of God for bringing honor to India and happiness to the world".

Just inside the entrance are glass cases containing a series of intriguing instruments devised more than fifty years ago to measure the growth and behavior of plants, down to their minutest detail, by magnification of these processes up to 100 million times. The instruments stand in their cases, in mute testimony to the genius of a great Bengali scientist whose work united in one man the fields of physics,physiology, and psychology, and who found out more about plants than anyone before and perhaps after him, but who remains almost unmentioned in classical histories of subjects in which he specialized.

...In 1899 Bose noticed the strange fact that his metallic coherer for receiving radio waves became less sensitive if continuously used but returned to normal after a period of rest. This led him to the conclusion that metals, however inconceivably, might exhibit a recovery from fatigue similar to that which took place in tired animals and people. Further work began to convince Bose that the boundary line between so-called "nonliving" metals and "living" organisms was tenuous indeed...Shortly thereafter it dawned on Bose that if the striking continuity between such extremes as metals and animal life were real he should also be able to get similar effects in ordinary vegetable plants, which, because they were held to have no nervous systems, were universally reckoned as unresponsive. ( We'll read more of this later!) I promise to add more tomorrow...

Through my eyes

* This is,of course, more from The Secret Life of Plants!


	Through My Eyes Friday April 25 ( Let's journey from our native land ...) "On the eastern coast of the subcontinent of India, in the old state of Bengal, there stands on four acres of ground off the Acharaya Prafullachandra Road, north of Calcutta University, a complex of buildings made of fine grayish and purple sandstone in the classic design of pre-Mohammedan India. The main edifice, known as the Indian Temple of Science, bears an inscription: "This temple is dedicated to the feet of God for bringing honor to India and happiness to the world". Just inside the entrance are glass cases containing a series of intriguing instruments devised more than fifty years ago to measure the growth and behavior of plants, down to their minutest detail, by magnification of these processes up to 100 million times. The instruments stand in their cases, in mute testimony to the genius of a great Bengali scientist whose work united in one man the fields of physics,physiology, and psychology, and who found out more about plants than anyone before and perhaps after him, but who remains almost unmentioned in classical histories of subjects in which he specialized. ...In 1899 Bose noticed the strange fact that his metallic coherer for receiving radio waves became less sensitive if continuously used but returned to normal after a period of rest. This led him to the conclusion that metals, however inconceivably, might exhibit a recovery from fatigue similar to that which took place in tired animals and people. Further work began to convince Bose that the boundary line between so-called "nonliving" metals and "living" organisms was tenuous indeed...Shortly thereafter it dawned on Bose that if the striking continuity between such extremes as metals and animal life were real he should also be able to get similar effects in ordinary vegetable plants, which, because they were held to have no nervous systems, were universally reckoned as unresponsive. ( We'll read more of this later!) I promise to add more tomorrow... Through my eyes * This is,of course, more from The Secret Life of Plants!