#560 - The Incredible Life of Satyendranath Bose

by Swati Sengupta and illustrated by Devashish Verma

“The Incredible Life of Satyendranath Bose” by Swati Sengupta and illustrated by Devashish Verma. Published by Talking Cub, the children’s imprint of Speaking Tiger. A short biography of a great scientist who left an everlasting impression in the field of physics making his name immortal.

Satyendranath Bose aka Satyen loved numbers ever since he was a little boy. His father recognised his passion and encouraged him. In school, Satyen created history by becoming the only student to have ever scored 110 out of 100 in mathematics. He was blessed to be studying in Presidency College in Calcutta which had some of the most brilliant minds in the form of students as well as teachers of the likes of Jagadish Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Ray. Satyen himself would go on to propose theories in physics that would make him one of the greatest scientists of the world.

Satyen was always eager to learn and kept adding varied skills to his repertoire. His enthusiasm for knowledge knew no bounds. In 1924, he wrote a paper about the principles of Planck’s theory and Einstein’s light quantum hypothesis. He tried to get it published in the Philosophical Magazine. When there was no response from them, he decided to take matters into his own hands and sent the paper to Einstein himself. Impressed by this paper and Satyen’s work, Einstein translated it to German and got it published. Satyen’s findings were groundbreaking in the field of quantum mechanics. Read the book to know more about this unsung hero whose work was extended by none other than Einstein and get to know what an astonishing mind is capable of achieving.

The story of Satyen Bose proved to be awe-inspiring for both me and my ten year old son. We thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and couldn’t help feeling proud about Satyen’s achievements and never say die attitude. His perseverance and eagerness to learn new things be it in science, literature or music ensured that he accomplished great things. The fact that his work impressed even Einstein speaks volumes about him. The honour that was bestowed upon him during his visit to Europe shows how much he meant to the scientific community. The details of papers published by both Einstein and Satyen Bose have been explained by Professor Shiraz Minwalla as told to the author at the end of the book. This section took quite a bit of our reading time as it explained the concepts of quantum mechanics. Though this is not something that a typical middle grader could be expected to understand, an attempt has been made to simplify the topic and explain it. Despite this, we found some parts quite overwhelming and could not understand well enough. The topic itself being extremely complex makes it difficult to grasp too. I think this book will be revisited at a later point in time by my son when he has more background on the subject. Thanks to the book, my son and I got to know quite a bit about not just Satyen Bose but Einstein and basic concepts of quantum mechanics as well :)

The book is part of a series of short and illustrated biographies of Indian icons for younger readers by Talking Cub. The series aims to introduce readers to a diverse group of Indian achievers, both well-known and those who should be. The other books that we’ve read and loved in this series so far are on “Milkha Singh”, “Jhalkari Bai”, “Birsa Munda”, “Savitribai Phule”, “Bhagat Singh”, “Arati Saha” and “Anandibai Joshee”.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for children aged 10 and above.

Where to buy from?

The publishers Talking Cub here.

Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Talking Cub, for review. Thank you to Tanu, from Talking Cub, for sending across the book!