A cyclotron is a particle accelerator. It is an electrically powered machine which produces a beam of charged particles that can be used for medical, industrial and research processes.
As the name suggests, a cyclotron accelerates charged particles in a spiral path, which allows for a much longer acceleration path than a straight line accelerator.
Kolkata now has three functioning cyclotrons, essential for experimental nuclear physics, the latest among which will help hospitals treat cancer patients. thestatesman.com/opinion/a-city…
But the story of the first one, whose construction started in 1969, makes one marvel at the grit, determination and ingenuity of that heroic generation of Indian scientists, working under all but impossible conditions. thestatesman.com/opinion/a-city…
Meghnad Saha, the iconic astrophysicist, known for discovering the thermal ionisation equation, was the very first person in India to opt for cyclotron, the accelerator for studying the nucleus.
On 11 January 1950, Nobel Laureate Professor Madame Curie Joliot inaugurated the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta, established by Meghnad Saha. An astrophysicist of world renown by then, Meghnad Saha oddly enough veered towards Nuclear Physics around that time.
Saha’s student, B. D. Nagchaudhuri was already working in the laboratory of Professor E. O. Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron at Berkeley, California.
90% of the cyclotron had been made in 🇮🇳, long before the slogan became fashionable. In the 60's there was virtually no readymade technology infrastructure that could meet the demand of a cyclotron.The 200-ton magnet was built by Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi.
The country’s biggest cyclotron facility that can produce radioisotopes vital for diagnosis and treatment of cancer became operational on 20-Sept-2018.
One of the key drivers of this project was Padmashree Dr. Sekhar Basu, Former Secretary to GoI , Atomic Energy Department and Chairman, passed away in Kolkata 2020 due to Covid ,he had taken keen intrest to develop Cyclotron Technology for the production of Medical Isotopes .
This high-energy and high-yielding machine will bring down imports, while raising the possibility of exporting radioisotopes in the future.
The three cyclotrons are a marvellous example of the hard work by our scientists & engineers spanning over many decades that deserves a cheering applause & #Kolkata is now a city with cyclotrons in the frontier.
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Paramount - The Revolutionary Sherbet shop of Kolkata
As heat wave hits summer,a cool sherbet that quenches thirst as well as caters to taste buds is indeed a bliss
Know about this heritage institution in this 🧵
Located in the most vibrant area of Kolkata in the vicinity of reputed heritage educational institutions, in College Street near Mahabodhi Society
Paramount Juice centre has made a name & fame for itself among Kolkata people for more than a century
The enterprise was started by Nihar Ranjan Majumder who was originally from Barisal ( now in present-day Bangladesh) in 1918 relocated to Kolkata
The World’s largest Democracy’s 1st election was a mammoth task with humongous challenges ,an unsung hero made it possible & estd the frame work of conducting elections in India~He is Sukumar Sen,1st Election commissioner of Independent India.
A🧵on forgotten history
As the Constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was anxious to get the elections underway as soon as possible.
Govt of India passed Representation of the People Act in 1950 & 1951 successively which provided the framework for the elections
With the sun setting on Raisina Hill on December 16, 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi reached Parliament @ 5:30 pm & informed the world “Dacca is now the free capital of a free country."
Here is a Master 🧵 on 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose a Bengali scientist -a biologist, a physicist, a botanist and also a writer of science fiction & was also 1st in the world to initiate interdisciplinary research
Bose demonstrated how plants responded to various stimuli, demonstrating the electrical nature of this conduction. He is considered a pioneer in the field of biophysics.
Bose contrived a very sophisticated instrument called the crescograph, which could record and observe plants minute responses to external stimulants
Academy Museum described Statyajit Ray’s Movie “ Shatranj ke Khiladi” as an “elegant dissection of colonialism”
A 🧵 on the Movie
Shatranj Ke Khilari was the first and only full-length Hindi / Urdu feature film made by Ray. It had an ensemble star including Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Richard Attenborough, Shabana Azmi, and Tom Alter. The movie was released on 3rd October, 1977
Its a story of two aristocratic friends immersed in playing chess while a bloodless coup on Awadh by a handful of British soldiers was underway .
Kolkata’s Durga puja pandals have theme that educate masses on various social/historical/cultural aspects through Art.
One such unique theme is of Dum Dum Park’s Tarun Dol’s puja-depicting history of the Legend of Netaji Subhas Bose & the Women Freedom fighters of Bengal 🔥
Durga puja & Netaji has an interesting history entangled - When Subhas Bose was imprisoned in Presidency Jail ( Alipore ,Calcutta),Bose demanded that Bengali prisoners be allowed to perform the Durga Puja in Jail premises & wrote to the Superintendent of the Presidency Jail
It is said that after Puja during the immersion time when his nephew & other family members came to receive the idol he slipped in a letter to his nephew Sisir Bose to sent a letter to Mian Akbar Shah -a NWFP Forward Bloc member & the plan for Great escape was put into action