Book Description
This is the first 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 the Second World War, 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 a fascinating insight into the life and work of the man who discovered the neutron. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a first class scientific biography
i found this to be a finely written story of an interesting life - how rare and refreshing to have a complicatedscientific subject described in good english that is neither condescending nor too complicated.
well done mr brown! i look forward to your further works.

little remembered these days
If you ask a typical physics undergrad for who discovered the neutron, you'll likely get a null answer. Chadwick is not widely remembered these days, which is why Brown's biography of him is a salutary reminder of his achievements.

We see how Chadwick's life spanned the seminal developments of modern physics, to which he made his worthy contributions. The book is also a good exposure to the international academic environments before World War 2. Especially the traditional British ivory tower.

It is the chapters on WW2 and later that we see Chadwick, and indeed physics generally, emerge and interact strongly with the real world. His efforts in directing the British contribution to the Manhattan Project may indeed be mostly overlooked today. But that may be primarily that the remembrance of the entire British effort was always overshadowed by the prodigious investment in manpower and resources that the Americans were able to bring to bear, in developing the atomic bomb.

Chadwick's involvement in the Manhattan Project was certainly appropriate. The chain reaction involves a heavy nucleus capturing a slow neutron. Which triggers fission and the production of more neutrons and excess energy. As the discoverer of the neutron, and the premier authority on how to generate and manipulate these, he was one of the obvious, key members of the Project.

An Impressive Breakthrough
In order to become more well-rounded in his studies of physics, Chadwick went to Germany before the outbreak of the first world war and was locked up as an enemy of the Germans when the war came.The total breakdown inthe existing order of things might help explain why the British were sokeen on finding the subatomic particle structure of matter.The previousdiscovery of the mass and charge of an electron and experiments withradium, which naturally decays, had indicated that atoms might be capableof being broken into smaller parts.The discovery of the neutron in 1932paved the way for experiments in chain reactions in which neutrons, whichwere the products of splitting atoms, were used to split other atoms.Thepowers which have had uses for this knowledge have been so quick to put itto use that it is still considered a great secret from anyone that isn't amember in good standing of their club.This book may be read as adescription of the life of a man who was a member of the club before anyoneknew that there was a club.About the earliest sign in the book that somekind of club was being formed was when Chadwick obtained some Germanradioactive toothpaste, for people who need to have teeth that glow in thedark, and tried to figure out what was in it during World War One. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. on January 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1082 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick.(Review)
Author: William Lanouette
Publication: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1998
Publisher: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Volume: 54Issue: 1Page: 61(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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