Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose was a prolific and inventive experimental scientist. Born in what is now Bangladesh in 1858, his scientific career spanned more than 30 years and included a degree in natural sciences from Christ College, Cambridge, and a doctorate from the University of London in 1884. He studied under the likes of Lord Rayleigh, Sir James Dewar, and the great naturalist, Francis Balfour. In 1885, under great controversy, Bose assumed a faculty post in physics at Presidency College, Calcutta, India and remained there until his retirement in 1915. In 1917, he founded the institute which still bears his name and stayed technically active well into his 70s. At first, working with his own funds and only a tin smith, he managed to assemble the most sophisticated Hertzian wave apparatus of his day, and in only ten years, his fame had spread throughout Europe

Siegel, Peter H.

Caltech Authors - Main

April 2009  119
be  surmounted only called forth 
in Bose all the endurance and 
all the effort which are latent in 
manly natures, welding them to 
the fullest strength of character 
and intensity of thought by which 
alone a great life-task can be ac-
complished. In  contemplating 
the great  career of his fellow 
countrymen, the young India will 
be stimulated to put brain and 
hand to fine tasks, nothing fear-
ing. Thus will he be inspired not 
only to recover the noble intellec-
tual tradition of the Indian past, 
but to restate these traditions in 
modern times and find the great-
est challenge for mind and soul 
in achieving their vital relation 
with the  coming age.” [2]
While the above words of wisdom 
go back almost a hundred years, the 
advice is still relevant today, and it 
applies not only to young scientists 
from India, but to other parts of the 
world as well.
References
[1] D.L. Sengupta, T. Sarkar, and D. Sen, “Cen-
tennial of the Semiconductor Diode Detec-
tor,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 235–243 
Jan. 1998. 
[2] P. Geddes, The Life and Works of Sir Jagadis C. Bose. 
London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1920. 
Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose was a prolifi c and inventive experi-mental scientist. Born in what is 
now Bangladesh in 1858, his scientifi c 
career spanned more than 30 years 
and included a degree in natural sci-
ences from Christ College, Cambridge, 
and a doctorate from the University of 
London in 1884. He 
st udied u nder t he 
likes of Lord  Rayleigh, 
Sir James Dewar, and 
the great natural-
ist,  Francis Balfour. 
In 1885, under great 
controversy, Bose as-
sumed a faculty post 
in physics at Presiden-
cy College, Calcutta, 
India and remained 
there until his retirement in 1915. In 
1917, he founded the institute which 
still bears his name and stayed techni-
cally active well into his 70s. At fi rst, 
working with his own funds and only 
a tin smith, he managed to assemble 
the most sophisticated Hertzian wave 
apparatus of his day, and in only ten 
years, his fame had spread through-
out Europe. He received a knight-
hood in 1917; Fellowship in the Royal 
Society and the Austrian Academy of 
Sciences (including fellow members: 
Boltzmann, Doppler, Schrödinger, 
Lorentz…) in 1920 and 
1928, respectively; and, 
in 1935, two years be-
fore his death, served 
as a founding  Fellow 
of the Indian National 
Science Academy, In-
dia’s premier scientifi c 
society. Bose is widely 
recognized as one of 
India’s most infl uen-
tial and accomplished 
scientists. He earned the companion of 
the Order of the Indian Empire in 1903 
and the companion of the prestigious 
Order of the Star of  India in 1912. 
Between 1895 and 1928, Bose man-
aged to produce no less than 13 books 
and approximately 30 technical papers 
on subjects ranging from the genera-
tion, detection, and properties of high-
frequency (50 GHz) EM waves to the 
physiology and behavior of plants. He 
is now widely regarded as the father 
of mm waves and credited with the 
 invention or, at least, very early use and 
optimization of the following:
point contact diode •
pyramidal feed horn •
the first continuous mm-wave  •
spark gap generators
polarization filters made from  •
both wire and dielectric grids as 
well as birefringent crystals
a method for producing circular  •
polarization
cavity resonators •
the first mm wave field absorbers •
the first narrow band measure- •
ments of the absorption
scattering properties and index of  •
refraction of solids and liquids at 
mm wavelengths 
the use of resonant gaps for pro- •
ducing variable transmission at-
tenuators
the grating spectrometer •
the microwave lens.  •
Bose also demonstrated the transmis-
sion of microwaves through walls and 
buildings and their detection and use 
for performing remote signaling at long 
distances in 1894 in Calcutta, only one 
year after Tesla showcased much lower 
frequency transmissions for commu-
nications applications in the United 
States and three years before Marco-
ni’s famous wireless  demonstration at 
Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose: Traversing the 
Interdisciplinary Gap Between Physics and Biology
■ Peter H. Siegel
Peter H. Siegel is with the California 
Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. 
He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
The metal-
semiconductor 
point-contact 
detector diode is 
perhaps Bose’s 
most influential 
invention. 
 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2009.932241 
120  April 2009
 Salisbury Plane in the United King-
dom. The metal-semiconductor point-
contact  detector diode 
is perhaps Bose’s most 
influential invention. 
It formed the basis for 
many of his later exper-
iments on the behavior 
and reaction of materi-
als (metals and insula-
tors) and living organ-
isms to EM radiation. 
In one of his most in-
teresting monographs, 
presented at the Royal 
Institution, London, one Friday evening 
in May 1901, Bose relays the results of 
his many experiments on the galvanic 
response of inorganic matter, plants, 
and animals to electrical, chemical, 
mechanical, and EM stimulation. In 
that discourse, he describes an artifi-
cial retina composed of galena inside a 
metal cavity with a small hole and lens 
that he says mimics the eye. He calls it 
a tejometer, tej being the Sanskrit word 
for radiation. He then describes how his 
tejameter responds through an attached 
galvanometer to EM radiation from the 
optical through the radio regime. He 
anticipates and properly uses the term 
radiometer to describe the sensitive de-
tection mechanism. He 
goes even further by 
replacing the artificial 
glass lens with a  water 
lens in an attempt to 
mimic a real eye and 
concludes that water 
absorbs the invisible 
Hertzian wave energy, 
exclaiming how lucky 
we are that the natural 
eye absorbs this radia-
tion and protects us by 
“veiling our sense against insufferable 
radiance” in these “days of space-sig-
naling by Hertzian waves” [1]. 
In my own view, one of the most 
interesting aspects of Bose’s chosen 
career path was his emphasis on cross-
disciplinary investigations. Educated 
in the natural sciences and for most 
of his early years a practicing ap-
plied physicist/engineer, Bose dared 
to cross the often rigid boundary be-
tween the physical and life sciences. 
Bose’s early training in the medical 
field combined with his long-time 
fascination with physiology guid-
ed him into a prolific 
number of experiments 
on animals and plants, 
especially in their re-
sponses to the newly 
discovered EM waves 
that had been the basis 
of his early work. This 
path was by no means 
an easy one, nor was it 
well accepted. In a dra-
matic incident in which 
Bose presented some 
of his many experi-
ments on the galvanic 
responses of plants and 
animal tissues to elec-
trical and EM stimula-
tion to an audience at 
the Royal Institution in 
 London near the turn 
of the century, he was 
publicly chastised by 
the likes of renowned 
physiologist Sir John 
Burdon-Sanderson and 
two Oxford physicists 
in attendance, who told Bose he 
should not have abandoned physics 
for biology. Bose’s  papers in this area 
were subsequently held up by the 
Royal Society, and, eventually, Bose 
 determined that he could best dis-
tribute his ideas and experiments on 
the unifying themes he saw linking 
the physical and life sciences by pub-
lishing his papers in his own books. 
His work in this area covers more 
than 2,500 pages and six volumes! He 
describes his experiences in trying to 
cross disciplinary boundaries in his 
dedication speech for the opening of 
the Bose Institute in 1917.
“In the pursuit of my investiga-
tions I was unconsciously led 
into the border region of physics 
and physiology and was amazed 
to find boundary lines vanish-
ing and points of contact emerge 
between the realms of the liv-
ing and non-living. It was with 
great hope that I announced 
my results before the Royal So-
ciety—results demonstrated by 
experiments. But the physiolo-
gists present advised me, after 
my address, to confine myself to 
Bose was and 
remains a 
pioneer, not 
only in mm 
waves, but in his 
personification of 
the true man of 
science. 
Bose’s Major Contribution to RF Solid State
Electronics: The Point Contact Rectifier “Coherer”.
Now used routinely from 10 to 10,000 GHz!
Millimeter-Wave Patterned
Point Contact Diode circa 1970
(JPL/Univ. of Virginia)
THz Planar Point Contact
Schottky Diode circa 2000 Current-Volatge of Bose Coherer
Current-Volatge of PC Diode2500 GHz Schottky Diode (JPL)300 GHz Diode Circuit (JPL)
Examples of point contact diodes used at terahertz frequencies using Bose’s coherer concept.
April 2009  121
physical investigations in which 
my success had been assured, 
rather than encroach on their 
preserve…Thus no conditions 
could have been more desperate 
than those that confronted me 
for the next twelve years . . . yet 
it made me stronger in my deter-
mination, that I should make the 
path of those who would follow 
me less arduous.” [2]
Bose’s hope for the institute that 
bore his name was that it would be 
a place where “the lines of phys-
ics, of physiology and of  psychology 
 converge and meet and here will 
 assemble those who would seek one-
ness amidst the manifold.” Despite 
the rhetorical statements to the con-
trary in every funding agency, there 
is little doubt that scientists today 
face similar hurdles when they try 
to  “encroach into fields that have not 
been their mainstay.”
To be fair, many of Bose’s explana-
tions for his observed effects due to 
EM radiation were later proven to be 
misguided. He maintained that many 
of the actions observed in conductors 
and dielectrics exposed to low-level 
EM fields or electrical currents were 
mechanical in nature and involved 
molecular movement due to induced 
stress and strain. He also believed 
that low-frequency vibrational motion 
caused systematic changes in the dc 
current flow in wires. This explanation 
led him to conclude that relaxation ef-
fects were extremely important, both 
in metals and other inorganic materi-
als, and later in falsely correlating this 
observed response in materials with 
that of responses in living organisms. 
Bose’s overriding interest in biology 
and medicine (he studied medicine at 
the University of London for a short 
time in 1880 before attending Cam-
bridge and later received a doctor of 
science degree from that institution in 
1884) pushed him towards his many 
controversial papers on the nature and 
reaction of living organisms (plants) 
and animal tissues to electrical stimu-
lation, EM radiation, chemical expo-
sure, temperature, and  mechanical 
stress. In these experiments, Bose 
measured the galvanic response of 
plants to current pulses, poisons, heat, 
vibration, high-intensity light, and 
even mm waves. He developed his 
own apparatus for holding, isolating, 
and quantifying electrical responses, 
including a very unusual and early 
type of rotating drum recorder that 
used both pen and ink driven by a 
galvanometer needle, as well as a pho-
tographic recorder that used a mirror 
to deflect a strong focused light beam 
from the galvanometer needle onto a 
moving photographic film. In order to 
measure the impact of various stimu-
lants on plants, and especially for his 
many experiments on the rate of plant 
growth, he developed what he termed 
a crescograph (from the 
Latin verb crescre, to 
grow). This mechani-
cal apparatus used a 
clever series of levers 
and a clock mecha-
nism to magnify the 
change in height in-
duced through contact 
of the plant stem with 
the mechanism by 
some 1,000 times and 
record the change on 
a moving plate. The 
idea was to auto-
matically record, more immediately, 
changes in plant height due to various 
external stimuli. Bose went on to con-
clude that the shortest wavelengths of 
RF energy he could produce, which 
he successfully measured to be 6 mm 
(50 GHz), were effective in modify-
ing the growth rate of plants. Experi-
ments were conducted at distances 
of up to 200 m. Bose found that plant 
growth rate was retarded whenever 
strong RF radiation was present but 
recovered when the radiation was 
removed. Bose also used the cresco-
graph to examine the affect of visible 
light, chemical agents, and tempera-
ture on plant growth, and he tried to 
quantify the energy storage associ-
ated with photosynthesis. He further 
tried to correlate the physiological 
response mechanisms in plants with 
those of animal tissues, even conclud-
ing that variation in the conduction 
of current in plants is the equivalent 
of nerve impulse transmission in ani-
mals.  Although these experiments 
were extremely difficult and likely 
fraught with systematic and random 
errors, they formed the basis for much 
of the later work on the  physiological 
links between external stimuli and the 
basic chemical mechanisms that in-
duce response in organic matter. Bose 
himself wrote, “The  intricate mecha-
nism of life can only be elucidated by 
extension of our power of investiga-
tion, often in the realm of the invis-
ible. It is only from facts so obtained 
that a fully satisfactory theory can be 
 established in regard to the diverse 
 activities of life; it is not improbable 
that these will some 
day  be   u lt i m ate ly 
t raced to physico-
 chemical  reactions” 
[3]. I think most en-
gineers and biologists 
today would  concur 
w i t h  J .  C .  B o s e ’s 
 vision and with his 
careful  experimental 
 approach to the ac-
quisition of knowl-
edge. Indeed, Bose 
was and remains a 
pioneer, not only in 
mm waves, but in his personification 
of the true man of science. 
Additional fun facts, quotes, general 
historic information, and many dia-
grams of the various apparatus Bose 
designed and constructed can be found 
in [4]. For a copy contact the author at 
phs@caltech.edu.
References
[1] J.C. Bose, “Discourse presented at the Royal 
 Institution,” May 1901, in Collected Physical Papers 
of Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose. London: Longmans, 
Green and Co., 1927, pp. 259–276. 
[2] J.C. Bose, “Inaugural address in dedication of 
the Bose Institute, 30 Nov. 1917,” in The Life and 
Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose, P. Geddes, Ed. Lon-
don: Longmans, c1920, pp. 227–241.
[3] General Summary from Collected Physical Papers 
of Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose, London: Longmans, 
Green and Co., 1927, pp. 374–397.
[4] P.H. Siegel, “Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose: Tra-
versing the interdisciplinary gap between 
physics and  biology,” presented at the  opening 
of the Bose exhibit at the National Electronics 
Museum, Baltimore, MD, Nov. 2008.  
Bose found that 
plant growth rate 
was retarded 
whenever strong 
RF radiation 
was present but 
recovered when 
the radiation was 
removed.


Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose: Traversing the interdisciplinary gap between physics and biology

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