A well researched, well told story of the Cavendish lab and the work that culminated in the discovery of the neutron and the splitting of the atom in A well researched, well told story of the Cavendish lab and the work that culminated in the discovery of the neutron and the splitting of the atom in the early 1930s. Experimentation gets short shrift in histories of science as compared to theory, but Ernest Rutherford is as interesting as just about any theorist and using a simple apparatus to essentially visualize the atom itself as Rutherford did in his scattering experiment is about as impressive as any theoretical feat. This book takes those as its prelude and focuses on Walton, Cockcroft and to a lesser degree Chadwick and Rutherford's ongoing role.
In the process, the book tells the interesting story of the inception of larger scale experimentation that moved beyond tabletop experiments by gentleman scientists to large machinery using large amounts of energy and teams of researchers.
The book is more thoroughly researched journalistic history that delves more deeply into the engineering complexities of building the apparatus than into nuclear physics itself, the only reason for not giving it a full five stars....more
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