The Neutron and the Bomb: Biography of Sir James Chadwick - Hardcover

Brown, Andrew P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198539924 ISBN 13: 9780198539926

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1997

Synopsis

This is a biography of Sir James Chadwick (1891-1974), the discoverer of the neutron and Nobel Laureate. His central role in the unfolding drama of nuclear physics is reflected in his publications and correspondence with other leading figures like Bohr and Rutherford. Chadwick's researches in radioactivity began as an 18-year old student, and culminated within four years with the observation of the continuous beta-spectrum - a finding which caused long and furious debate, In the 1920s, Chadwick rose to be the operations director of the Cavendish Laboratory under Rutherford's leadership. The discovery of the neutron came from an intense burst of work in 1932, after a decade of disappointment. While he changed the course in science, Chadwick's life was moulded by great events. In 1914 he was studying with Geiger in Berlin and spent the next four years in a remarkable internment camp. In World War II, he became Britain's foremost authority on the atomic bomb, and her chief scientist on the Manhattan Project. His voluminous correspondence gives a unique feeling of the tensions of those years, both for scientists and politicians. Chadwick's profound influence on atomic policy continued after the war, his career ended with the controversial mastership of a Cambridge college. This biography draws on Chadwick's extensive correspondence with many of the leading scientists of his day, and offers an insight into the life and work of the man who discovered the neutron.

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Review

"Andrew Brown has made good use of what seem to be all the available archives except for a few still classified as secret. There is already a substantial collection of biographies of modern physicists, and this book is a fine addition to their number." -- Nature

'His biography, based upon extensive historical and archival research, was conceived and written on a grand scale... Andrew Brown's biography beautifully reveals the scientific, diplomatic and personal achievements that formed the basis for those high honors.' -- Physics Today December 1997

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0198539924
• ISBN 13: 9780198539926
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 401