WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

       Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, the Indian physicist who made his motherland proud by becoming the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, was a scientist par excellence. He displayed a brilliant mind even as a child and passed his matriculation examination at a much younger age as compared to other students. As the son of a lecturer in mathematics and physics, the young Raman was exposed to an academic environment from the very beginning. A topper throughout his academic days, he was deeply interested in research; in fact he began his research work on optics and acoustics even while he was a student. Even though he started his career as a Deputy Accountant General, still he could not keep away from research, often staying up whole nights to discover new things in the field of physics. He was intrigued by the blue colour of glaciers and the Mediterranean sea and wanted to unravel the mystery that why water, a colorless liquid, appeared blue to the eyes. Thus began a series of experiments on the scattering of light which ultimately led to what came to be known as the ‘Raman Effect’ for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

     

                ‘Water – The Elixir of Life’ Sir C V Raman praises the importance of water, which is the life giving force to all. The scientist says that man attempted to seek an imaginary elixir of life, the divine Amrita, to confer him immortality. But it ended in vain. According to him, water is the true elixir of life. One day he stood on the line that separated the Libyan Desert from the valley of Nile in Egypt. On one side he could see the Libyan Desert where there is no existence of life. It is a desert because of the shortage of water. On the other side he could see the fertile areas crowded with people. This remarkable difference is brought out by the Nile River from its source, till it flows down in to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile River makes lands fertile and life happy and this magic is possible because of the availability of water.