Response in the Living and Non-living - Paperback

by Jagadish Chandra Bose (Author)

Jagadish Chandra Bose was one of the first scientists in the world to undertake interdisciplinary research by looking at plants from the vantage point of physics.

He subjected plant and animal tissues to various kinds of stimulus, and found that they all showed an electric response. Finding that this reaction occurred in metals as well as plants and animals, he then proceeded to study the differences in response under various conditions.

He found that all materials are numbed by cold, intoxicated by alcohol, wearied by excessive work, stupefied by anesthetics, excited by electric currents, stung by physical blows, and killed by poison. They all exhibit essentially the same reactions of fatigue and depression, together with the capacity for recovery and strength, and also permanent unresponsiveness, or death. All materials are responsive or unresponsive under the same conditions and in the same manner.

His investigations showed that in the entire range of responses - regardless of whether the subject is metallic, plant or animal - there are no exceptions. The living response, in all its diverse modifications, is a repetition of the responses seen in the inorganic. Further, the nature of the response is determined not by the play of an unknowable and arbitrary vital force, but by laws that do not change, and act equally and uniformly throughout both organic and inorganic matter.

This realization was always at the core of his work. He sought to show that all materials react to their environments according to the same laws; in other words, everything exists in the same field of consciousness.

This book was originally published in 1902.

"This work outlines some of his greatest work, the thin line between living and non-living material. This timely reprint is a testament to a remarkable man whose achievements in science beggar belief to this day."

"Bose is one of those geniuses who has been lost in history. I hope that anyone looking to expand their minds will enjoy the great adventure this read is."

Introduction by Paramahansa Yogananda
(from Autobiography of a Yogi)

1. The mechanical response of living substances

2. Electric response

3. Electric response in plants - method of negative variation

4. Electric response in plants - block method

5. Plant response - on the effects of single stimulus and of superposed stimuli

6. Plant response - on diphasic variation

7. Plant response - on the relation between stimulus and response

8. Plant response - on the influence of temperature

9. Plant response - effect of an sthetics and poisons

10. Response in metals

11. Inorganic response - modified apparatus to exhibit response in metals

12. Inorganic response - method of ensuring consistent results

13. Inorganic response - molecular mobility: its influence on response

14. Inorganic response - fatigue, staircase, and modified response

15. Inorganic response - relation between stimulus and response

16. Inorganic response - effect of chemical reagents

17. On the stimulus of light and retinal currents

18. Inorganic response - influence of various conditions on the response to stimulus of light

19. Visual analogues - Effect of light of short duration

20. Conclusion

Author Biography

JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE was born on November 30, 1858, Mymensingh, Bengal, India (now in Bangladesh), and died on November 23, 1937, Giridih, Bihar.

His work as both a physiologist and physicist led to the invention of highly sensitive instruments for the detection of minute responses by living organisms to external stimuli. This enabled him to measure the similarities in response between animal and plant tissues noted by many later researchers.

Bose's experiments on the quasi-optical properties of very short radio waves led him to make improvements on the coherer, an early form of radio detector, which contributed to the development of solid-state physics.

After earning a degree from the University of Cambridge (1884), Bose served as professor of physical science (1885-1915) at Presidency College, Calcutta. In 1917, he founded the Bose Institute in Calcutta, which still exists today (www.jcbose.ac.in).

To facilitate his research, he constructed automatic recorders capable of registering extremely slight movements; these instruments produced some striking results, such as his demonstration of the sense of feeling in plants.

Bose also found that non-living matter exhibits the same types of response to stimuli as do both animal and plant matter. This demonstration that everything exists in the field of consciousness was one of his most important discoveries.