Thread by @Kickass_monk

This is a thread on the forgotten Indian scientists. I will attempt to add the details and achievements of one such unsung hero every day.These are the scientists who are unfortunately not well known 2 Indians but have made significant/path-breaking contributions in their fields.

1. MCWani was the co-discoverer of anti-cancer drugs Taxol and camptothecin that r a gold standard in treating ovarian, breast, lung& colon cancers. He has got many awards lk the Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award by AACR. He has more than 128 research papers to his name&>5000citations

cc: @madrasmami23 @OnlyNakedTruth @GautamDesiraju @vedic___ @BradBit97 @ARanganathan72 @hamsanandi @bhulskings @Ateendriyo

2. 1/2 HRBawaskar,born2 poor farmer, is an authority on scorpion(Sc)&snake(kraite)bites.With poor resources(no funding!)bt strong obs. skills he prepared a paper on 51 cases of Sc stings,tht was pub in prestigious Lancet journal (originally rejected by an Ind Jour due2poor Eng!)

2. 2/2 In1984 he became the 1st person2use Prazosin as antidote4 scorpion stings&treated many patients successfully.This remedy was adopted by many countries.He’s curr res. on lead levels in petropump workers&ppl using surma&lipstick.Sadly his work is still not recognized by GOI!

3.Rarely ucome acrss some1 who transforms science &who doesnt only not get a Nobel but also unk 2 many.I am ref2 Y Subbarow who disc ATP as cell’s energy source,dev methotrexate an anticancer drug&antibiotics lik tetracycline whic eradicated plague epidemic in Guj&Mah in1994 1/2

3.Some misc facts about him. 1. For discovering Methotrexate he is known as the father of Chemotherapy. He also discovered Hetrazen which is internationally used against filariasis. A fungus called Subbaromyces splendes is named in his honor. 2/2

@Ramayan_bot @SirJambavan

I happened to read an article which suggested that he was devout Hindu and also conversant with a lot of our ancient scriptures. He was greatly influenced by the Ramakrishna Mission&wanted 2become a monk but couldnt due2financial situation. He also studied comparative religions.

4. 1/2 GDNaidu,fondly called the Edison of India, was a school dropout but a serial inventor who inv the first electric motor in Ind&a tamper-proof vote rec machine. In agriculture, his strong belief&research in Siddha med helped 2 produce new varieties of cash crops like cotton.

4. 2/2 He was also grt philanthropist who gave lot of grants&est India’s 1st polythechnical inst in Coimbatore. Anyone visiting Coimbatore must see the museum which houses his many inventions.A pity tht a valuable gem like him never got a Bharatratna!
@madrasmami23 @vedic___

5.1/4 Birbal Sahni was the great son of mother India&1st Ind scientist who worked for Palaeobotany,an interest kindled due2repeated tours of Himalayas w his father.He grad 4mPunjab Uni&went2 Emmanuel College,Cambridge,4 higher studies. In 1919 he was awarded hon DSc 4m London Uni

5.2/4 He perf extensive res on Indian conifers&fossil plants 4m Rajamahal Hills, & Gondwana plnts of salt range.He disc new species of petrified wood in Rajmahal Hills aka SAHNIoxylon Rajmahalense aft him.He instituted new plant group Pentoxyleae which gained worldwide attention.

5.3/4 Besides, he disc moulds 4 making terracotta coins 4m Khokra Kot mounds of Rohtak dist and desc the process of coin minting in ancient Ind in his monograph“The Technique of Casting Coins in Ancient India”, which made him 1st Indian 2 contribute 2 Numismatics (study of coins)

5.4/4 He had over 130 publications&published in prestigious journals like PNAS.He was the 1st Indian Botanist2 get elected2 FRS of London.He founded the Ind palaeobotanist commitee4publishing research papers which hlped to est the WORLDS ONLY palaeobotanical institute in Lucknow.

@SrijanFn @vedic___ @NileshOak

I have already tweeted about the following scientists before, so just providing the link.
6. MKV Bappu

https://twitter.com/Kickass_monk/status/1069836863161024513

7. PC Vaidya

https://twitter.com/Kickass_monk/status/1078182836065185792

8.1/2 HNChatterjee was scientist 4m Bengal who formulated the world’s 1st effective ORS therapy 4treating dhydration in cholera&diarrhea.He rehydrated 186 patients WITHOUT“western” IV treatment using raw leaf juice of an exotic Bengal plant,Coleus aromaticus&pub in Lancet in 1953

8.2/2 However,western readership thought it was too gud 2b true&termed his study “unscientific”.Many still believe that this was racist & one of the many instances of showing off the Western supremacy.Sadly not many Indians know even about his existence!
@Kunthavi5 @rvaidya2000

9.1/3PN Bose was geologist 4m Bengal who pioneered major indus dev in Ind.He grad in geology 4m London Uni& firmly held that tech advancement was the only way that would help Ind out of the colonial clutches.His many invaluable discoveries bolstered the economy of Independent Ind

9.2/3 He was the 1st 2discover the coal deposits during his expeditions2 Darjeeling.His most significant find was the iron ores in Mayurbhanj dist of Odisha&was instrumental in urging JNTata to setup its steel plant there. To date Odisha is India’s largest producer of iron ore.

9.3/3 He was the 1st 2 discover petroleum in Assam&was the 1st 2 advocate the use of microsections to help petrological work.He also helped in founding Jadavpur Uni. Besides he has also written many books, the greatest being History of Hindu Civilization during British Rule.

@pattaprateek @RajivMessage @Garden_Treeman @IndianInterest

10.1/3 Bhau Daji was born in a very poor Saraswat Brahmin family in Goa. He was a child prodigy and graduated in medicine from Grant Medical College. After graduating he started researching on Leprosy, a disease that had gripped all corners of India at the time.

10.2/3 An intense interest in Sushruta Samhita helped him research on various herbs in the A'veda system.He used xtracts of Hydnocarpus inebriens (chaulmoogra oil) 4successfully treating leprosy.The treatment became famous &sought by Dutch governor 4 treatment in their colonies.

10. 3/3 In fact chaulmoogra oil remained the only hope in the management of leprosy till the discovery of dapsone in 1941. Sadly, more importance is given to the missionaries of charity for leprosy than Bhau Daji's work in the evolution of antileprotic management.

11.1/4 GThanikaimoni was a great scientist who made the nation proud with several contributions in the field of botany. After getting his Masters from Madras Uni, he got his DSc of U of Montepellier where he researched on pollen morphology&plant evolution&made significant discov

11.2/4 He gave an accurate pollen morphology description of many eastern tropical plants&publ his findings which got him global recognition. He was a passionate fossil pollen researcher&his research helped 2reconstruct past hist of Indonesia, Kampuchea&Thailand btw 600-1900 AD

11. 3/4 He also was an environmentalist&played in instrumental role in preserving the mangrove ecosystem as he was aware tht these trees were the primary defense 4 any Tsunami.He partnered w UNESCO’s Asia &Pacific Mangrove Proj 2 educate every1 abt the imp of preserving mangroves

11.4/4 Sadly he had an untimely demise when his plane Panam 73 was hijacked in Karachi,where he was shot while protecting a child.His monumental,5 vol Index on Morphology of the Pollen Grains of Angiosperms (9224 genera covering 5618 publ) provides ref 2 all researchers till date

12.1/3 JCGhosh,was an Ind chemist who immensely contributed2 develop S&T in India. In college he was a student of Acharya PCRay. Their res on the theory of strong electrolytes invited grt appreciation 4m eminent sci like Plank,Bragg&Haber.@ 24 he was awarded DSc 4m Calcutta Uni.

12.2/4As Chem chair@Dacca Uni,he did globally acclaimed studies on photocatalysts,technical gas rxn&agri chem like phosphatic fertilizers. In 1939 he joined IISC where he investigated Fischer-Tropsch rxn 4 synthesizing hydrocarbons&the mech of NH3 synthesis 4m Nitrogen&Hydrogen.

12.3/3He was instrumental in setting up the Central Glass&Ceramic research inst which made India’s 1st optic glass.Luckily he was 1 of the few who was recognized by the Govt- Padma award in 1954, the same year when Nehru gave himself the Bharat Ratna, what a striking contrast!

13.1/5AC UKIL was a great scientist and educationist who did massive wrk in est TB research in India. As a child he was inspired by his father,&took med.@26 he grad in med 4m Calcutta Uni. In 1921 he went2 Eur 2study Bacteriology where he was influenced by Prof Calmette, TB xpert

13.2/5Till the 30s, the knowledge of TB in Ind was highly inadequate. Dr. Ukil provided impetus into TB research by studying its epidemiology, diagnosis, bacteriology, treatment, control and preventions.Much of his wrk continue 2provide a solid foundation for current TB research

13.3/5 He was also an able admin&staunch nationalist.He started the National Res Lab in 1935 w JCRay&HGhosh,2counter policy of Brit 2wards Indian res.He also founded Inst of Chem Biol.,a premier research inst in Kolkata.He was a part of org committee that setup Ind Med Associatio

13.4/5 Dr Ukil was conferred the Baraclay Medal by Asiatic Society&Gold Medal by TB Association of India. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,London. In 1970 he passed away,&India lost a distinguished son,patriot,scientist,educationist 🙏

13.5/5 In addition to TB research, he also had worked on malaria. He discovered a new pathological anaerobic organism which was named after him as Ukil's bacillus. He had more than 50 publications to his name and some of them are given in the link below.

Unfortunately, not many in the list have full access. Sorry about that.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=U…

14.1/4Radhanath was a grt mathematician 4m Bengal whose achievements were undeniably monumental.Brn 2a poor family,he worked hard 2get in Hindu Coll where he became interested in Math.Even as student he publ in Gleaning of Science desc a novel method 4drawing tangent btw 2circles

14.2/4 Due2 finance prblms he quit coll&joined Trignometric survey of India (see pic1) as a “computer”, given his proficiency in Math. He worked as a geosurveyor and surveyed many areas in Bengal and North India (Dehradun), a work that was published in the book (see pic2)

14.3/4 The major achievement of his work was 2estimate the height of peak XV (i.e. Mt Everest). Using a theodolite, he calc the height 2 be~29000 ft, the official height is 29030 ft and there4 his error was just 0.09% !!a big achievement indeed! @DimpleAtra

14.4/4Besides Math,he also helped in the up-gradation and modernization of weather forecasting,which became very useful 4shipping companies in those days.The grt scientist passed away in 1870,leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of scientific contributions. @blog_supplement

15.1/4Samanta Chandrasekhar was a great astronomer in 19th century, also known as second Bhaskara. He was born in Khandapora, Odisha. Even as a child he could identify the stars&was a self-taught mathematician &astronomist. By 15 he mastered all basics of astronomy
@ShefVaidya

15.2/4@23 he started2modify Surya Siddantha as it wasnt accurate in calculatig the longitude of planets. He recorded his obs in buk, which years later would bcome the famous Siddantha Darpana (SD)(see pic). In this he recorded many new formulae&xact longitude of moon&many planets

15.3/4With no telescope&only selfmade instrmnts,he did his calculations.W simple wood&bamboo he made yantras4 meas time&p'tary posns.He contested heliocentric model&prop a model wher Mars,Mercury,Jupiter,Venus&Saturn move around the Sun,which mvs around the earth w other planets

15.4/4 He was the last link in the line of great Indian astronomers.He passed away in 1904 amidst poverty. The only consolations in his life was the title of Harichandan Mahapatra&Mahamahopadya by Puri King&British govt respectively.His book SD is still highly referred in Odisha

16.1/4 Sambu Nath de was 1 of the greatest scientists in India&a pioneer in cholera pathogenesis. He attended Calcutta Med Coll. with a scholarship. During this period he drew Prof MN De’s attn, a reputed pathologist who took him as his student&kindled De’s interest in pathology.

16.2/4 He went 2London 4PhD where he worked on brain changes.During his rearch,his test animals died suddenly&on investigating he found the cause2b pulmonary edema.His brilliance was exemplified whn he turned this disaster2his adv by changing his res 2 edema&got his PhD in 2 yrs!

16.3/4 Back home he intro new paradigm in cholera (C) research.Contrary2popular belief that C was caused by endotoxin, he proposed, using the famous rabbit ileal loop model, the exotoxin nature of C something which was discovered almost 60 years after the discovery of V.cholerae!

16.4/4 De’s work was nominated4Nobel prize but in India his work is hardly recognized. His discovery impinged in other fileds like Biochem&immunology. In fact his work was involved in contributing to >11000 publications. His story is an inspiration 2 all future researchers.