Current Science: Some early history

Krishnan, Riki and Balaram, P (2007) Current Science: Some early history. In: Current Science, 92 (1). pp. 129-138.

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Abstract

1932, the year in which Current Science was born, saw the world in the midst of transition. Europe, then the centre of science had the First World War well behind it and was purposefully heading towards the Second War. The demand for selfgovernance and independence in India was rapidly zaining ground. The major revolution in atomic physics had already reached its high point. C. V. Raman had announced the discovery of the ‘Raman effect’ in 1928 and had been recognized with the Nobel Prize, in a remarkably short span of time by 1930. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the undisputed centre of the science renaissance in India. Raman, Meghnad Saha and Satyendranath Bose were already justly famous for their work. The historical tradition that descended from J. C. Bose and P. C. Ray was well established. Despite the political and economic uncertainties of the time, science was rapidly acquiring a modern dimension in India. It is in this environment that the need for an interdisciplinary science journal was first felt within the growing scientific community. Discussions at the Indian Science Congresses, held in the 1920s, crystallized into a questionnaire by Martin Forster, a chemist, who was then the Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. The questionnaire circulated in 1931 sought to elicit views on the need for a science journal. Responses must undoubtedly have been encouraging since less than a year later Current Science made its first appearance, its inaugural issue dated July 1932. In commemorating seventy-five years of publication of this journal, we look back on the early years.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Current Science
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Biophysics Unit
Date Deposited:	28 Mar 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:35
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/9937

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