He doubted the sea just reflected the sky, and won a Nobel Prize

In 1921, crossing the Mediterranean by ship, physicist C. V. Raman questioned the standard explanation that the sea's blue color was merely reflected sky. Chasing a better answer, he studied how light changes wavelength when it scatters off molecules. In 1928 he confirmed the effect now named after him, and in 1930 became the first Asian scientist to win a Nobel Prize.

— C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan, A New Type of Secondary Radiation — Nature, 1928; Nobel Prize in Physics, 1930