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Article: The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick.(Review)
- Article from:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Article date:
- January 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick By Andrew Brown Oxford University Press, 1997 384 pages; $35.00
In its extensive coverage of Hiroshima's fiftieth anniversary, the New York Times mentioned James Chadwick only once, biographer Andrew Brown calculates. Yet Chadwick was a Nobel laureate for his 1932 discovery of the neutron--that sub-atomic particle with no electrical charge that can penetrate and split the nucleus of an atom. When the atomic target was uranium, or its man-made partner plutonium, the result was nuclear weapons.
Chadwick was in on the A-bomb's creation as well: In 1943, he headed the British team at Los Alamos; and ...