An Indian palaeobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent.
Born on November 14, 1891 in West Punjab.
He was also a geologist who took an interest in archaeology. His greatest contributions lie in the study of the plants of India in the present as well as the historical context.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British scientific honor, awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist.
He was a founder of The Paleobotanical Society which established the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10 September 1946. Now referred as Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences
November 14: Leo Hendrik Baekeland’ Birthday
Invented Bakelite, the First Synthetic Plastic
He was finding a replacement for shellac, which at that time was made from the shells of Asian lac beetles.
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand
A polymeric plastic made from phenol and formaldehyde, Bakelite was one of the earliest synthetic materials to transform the material basis of modern life.
Colorful objects made of Bakelite—jewelry, telephone and radios parts, billiard balls, etc., brightened everyday life in the first half of the 20th century.
November 14: Frederick Grant Banting’s Birthday
Successfully extracted insulin
Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 “for the discovery of insulin” along with John James Rickard Macleod
