Title: The Defining Years in Nuclear Physics, 1932-1960s
Abstract: This is a very readable book provided one has the background knowledge of a physicist. There are many diagrams, experimental graphs and basic equations interspersed with excerpts from original papers and letters between some of the principal protagonists. As the title implies, the book deals exclusively with nuclear physics. The historical development of nuclear models, the understanding of radioactivity and the development of relevant instrumentation are discussed in detail. We obtain an insight into the character of people in the account of Dirac's agonizing over the negative energy solutions for the free electron and Pauli's cynicism is well illustrated in his letter to Dirac: `I do not believe in your perception of ``holes'' even if the ``anti-electron'' is proved'. In the chapter dealing with the discovery of fusion, our appetite is wetted by the opening sentence of Otto Hahn's letter to Lise Meitner: `There is something odd about ``radium isotopes'' that for the moment we don't want to tell anyone but you'.
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 38
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