Eminent scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose was the first to prove that plants have feelings. Born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh in present-day Bangladesh, Jagdish Chandra Bose is credited with inventing wireless telegraphy a year before Marconi patented his invention. Jagdish's father Bhagabanchandra Bose served as a Deputy Magistrate. Young Jagdish Chandra Bose had his early education in his village school before moving to Kolkata, West Bengal in 1869. He graduated in physical sciences in 1879, before leaving for England in 1880.
He studied medicine at the London University for a year but could not complete the course due to his ill health. He moved to Cambridge after getting a scholarship to study Natural Science at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1885, he came back to India with a B.Sc. degree. Upon his return, he was offered lectureship at Presidency College, Kolkata, but on a salary that was half of what was paid to his English colleagues. Though he accepted the job, he refused to draw his salary in protest till the time the college conceded his demand and he was paid full salary from the date of joining. Many of his students went on to become famous in their own right, which include names like Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha.
In 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose started devoting his time and energy to pure research. He carried out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and other scientific processes. He shifted from physics to the study of metals and plants. Jagdish Chandra Bose showed that plants too have life and invented an instrument to record the pulse of plants. Besides his research, he founded the Bose Institute at Kolkata, mainly dedicated to the study of plants. This great scientist died on November 23, 1937.
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