| Great Scientists |
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| Biographies of Great Indians & Hindus |
VIKRAMA SARABHAI |
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Study of Cosmic Rays What are mesons and cosmic rays? If we split any substance on the Earth we get only three fundamental particles - electrically charged negative particles (electrons), positive particles (protons) and neutral particles (neutrons). If the weight of the electron is taken as 1, then the weight of protons and neutrons is 1836. But it has been discovered that there are other types of particles besides these three in space. The weight of particles not belonging to these classes is different from the weights of electrons, protons or neutrons. These other particles are called mesons. Scientists who have done research on mesons are of the opinion that they are produced by cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are very fine and very powerful and come from somewhere outside the Earth. They race to the earth from al directions. Every minute, day and night, about 600 such cosmic rays pass through the human body. They can pass through rocks hundreds of meters thick. Vikram Sarabhai conducted research on the changes in the intensity of cosmic rays. His very first scientific paper was on the periodical variation of the intensity of cosmic rays' It was published (1942) in Bangalore in a scientific journal. This research helped him later to take up the studies of interplanetary space (space between planets), the relationship between the sun and the earth and earthmagnetism. During this period, he did research for sometime a, the Poona Central Meteorological Station. Here he got the idea of establishing a cosmic ray research institute. In 1943, he went to the Himalayan peaks in Kashmir to study the intensity of cosmic rays at such high places. There he conceived a brilliant idea. This was to establish a research center at a great height above the surface of the earth. In 1945, the Second World War ended. Sarabhai again went to Cambridge to continue his study of cosmic rays. In 1947 he got his Ph.D. for this work. A student does not get the Ph.D. Degree by passing an examination. He has to choose a professor to guide him. The professor suggests a subject for deep study and research. The student has to study the subject by himself under the professor's guidance; he has to organize the information he gets from his experiments; he has to draw his own conclusions, and gather all these into a large scientific article or 'thesis'. This thesis is then sent to four specialists in the subject. Only if they agree that the work and the thesis deserve a doctorate will the Ph.D. Degree be conferred on thestudent. It is, therefore, no easy task to secure a Ph.D. Degree. Although Sarabhai
went to Cambridge in 1945, he had started his work for the Ph.D. Degree in 1942. His
family used to go to Kashmir every summer. Vikram would carry his cosmic ray research
equipment to Kashmir. Apharwat, on the banks of Lake Alpathari, is about 13,000 feet above
sea level. It was here, that Sarabhai continued his research. In his Ph.D. thesis he
included photographs of the equipment he used there. |
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