Short read: For semiconductors and GPS, thank C V Raman, Satyendra Nath Bose, Einstein — and hay fever in 1925

Scientific discoveries and developments can have far reaching consequences towards human progress and hence it is important to recognise, acknowledge and celebrate them. It is the 100^th anniversary of the biggest breakthrough in quantum physics, a field that continues to contribute to our progress through developments in semiconductors and GPS. This piece in the Indian Express acknowledges the contributions in the field from key scientists including our very own Satyendra Nath Bose and CV Raman.

“Almost 100 years ago, in June 1925, the young German scientist Werner Heisenberg went to Helgoland, an island off Germany, to recover from his nagging hay fever. While recovering in solitude, he was also thinking about a question that had been bothering him: How to construct a coherent framework to understand the microscopic world of atoms? His research in the serene Helgoland laid the foundations for quantum physics, one of the most successful scientific theories in human history, which also shapes the emerging technologies.

Quantum physics is counterintuitive. In the words of American physicist Richard Feynman, “no one understands it”. Yet, surprisingly, it has touched every aspect of our lives. From nuclear power to semiconductors, computers, electronics, lasers, and medical diagnostic tools such as MRI scanners, all have emerged from the principles of quantum physics. Commemorating these achievements, the United Nations had declared 2025 as the Year of Quantum Science and Technology. The emerging quantum technologies hold promise for precise atomic clocks, navigation systems, quantum computers for solving certain classes of hard problems, high-resolution sensors, and secure messaging and banking transactions. They represent a market worth $1-2 billion today, though back in the 1920s, it was an emerging and poorly understood science.

… Throughout the 1920s, many other scientists were working to decode the quantum puzzle. In 1924, French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed in his doctoral thesis that material particles, such as electrons and protons, can behave like waves. This was so radical that his doctoral committee remained unconvinced, but finally yielded when Einstein stated that deBroglie had “lifted a corner of the great veil”. Building on this picture, in 1925, the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger developed a wave equation that now bears his name. This landmark equation made it easier to apply quantum principles to subatomic particles and even the whole universe. In 1924, Satyendra Nath Bose, then working in Calcutta, wrote to Einstein about his method of counting photons. Einstein recognised the novelty and expanded its scope leading to the prediction of a new state of matter, the Bose–Einstein condensate, which was observed decades later.

C V Raman’s experiments with light in 1929 provided direct evidence of quantum effects in light-matter interactions, earning him the 1930 Nobel Prize. By 1927, as Paul Dirac declared, quantum physics was a “complete theory of dynamics”. There has been no looking back since. Thanks to these developments, semiconductors emerged in the 1950s, lasers in the 1960s, high-density hard disks in the 1990s, and sensing devices in the 2000s. This is a story of how investment in basic sciences returns dividends for over a century. The governments must resist the urge to cut funds for basic research.

One century after the Helgoland breakthrough, quantum principles have also entered popular culture through the mythical Schrödinger cat, which can be alive and dead at the same time. It overthrew the foundational ideas of Newton’s laws and transformed our perception of the universe. So profound was this change that every reigning doctrine — from communism and Buddhism to Vedanta — took positions on what quantum science means for its worldview. In 1925, Heisenberg may not have anticipated this impact on technology and life that continues to unfold to this day.”

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