Current Science

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Jagadish Chandra Bose observed rhythmic electrical oscillations or pulsations in living cells of the innermost layer of cortex, and linked them to upward pumping of water into the xylem1. Bose measured bioelectric potentials in Indian telegraph plant Desmodium (Bon Charal or forest churl) using the cresograph, a self-invented instrument, that consisted of an electric probe, a galvanometer, an electric dry cell and a thin copper wire. He connected the galvanometer to one point of a potted plant and the probe to another point of the plant, and slowly inserted the probe into the stem. The galvanometer showed momentary deflection for a longer period after the probe reached the innermost layer of the cortex. Bose observed a physiological motif and interlinked the measured pulsations in cellular electric potentials with oscillations in cell turgor pressure2.
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