The Raman effect
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan found in 1928 that light scattered by molecules changes colour slightly. Landsberg and Mandelstam in Moscow saw the same effect in crystals at almost the same time.
Independent discoveriesPhysics & chemistry
Indian claim
The Raman effect was discovered by C. V. Raman in Calcutta, and he rightly won the 1930 Nobel Prize, the first for an Asian scientist in science.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Raman and K. S. Krishnan observed the effect in liquids at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science; 28 February 1928 is marked as National Science Day.
- Raman published first, in 1928, and explained the effect correctly; the Nobel Prize in Physics 1930 went to him alone.
Commonly credited to
Grigory Landsberg and Leonid Mandelstam observed the same scattering at about the same time, and Russian physicists call it 'combinational scattering'.
Evidence for the other claim
- Landsberg and Mandelstam saw the new lines in quartz in February 1928, around the same time as or slightly before Raman, but published months after him.
- Adolf Smekal predicted the effect in theory in 1923.
- K. S. Krishnan's key role is often under-recognised.
What historians and scientists say
The effect was discovered independently in Calcutta and Moscow at almost the same time. Raman published first and his work was decisive, which is why the effect carries his name.