Unfortunately the forces required are so great that the alchemists could not possibly have been successful. It was not until 1919 that a scientist, Lord Rutherford, at Cambridge University, for the first time actually broke through the impenetrable barrier around the atomic kernel and succeeded in making one element from another, in altering the basic nature of one atom so completely that it became a different atom.
Rutherford's discovery opened the way to a significant increase in our knowledge of the fundamental constitution of matter All over the world scientists are to-day engaged in atom-smashing. The results are not only transforming the sciences of physics and chemistry and producing an immediate practical effect in the field of medicine, but have been responsible for bringing to a conclusion the greatest war that has ever been waged in the world's history. For the atomic bomb was a direct outcome of this research.
Dr. Solomon, who has taken an active part in the work of one type of atom smasher, the cyclotron, at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, has here explained for the layman the nature, purpose, and results of these epoch-making advances. This is popular science in the best sense of the term, a volume that reveals to he non-scientific reader the great sweep of modern research.
SCIENCE NEWS
II
Edited by JOHN ENOGAT and R. E. PEIERLS
THIS second issue of Science News is devoted entirely to the subject of Atomic Energy, which is indeed science news in its most spectacular form. All the articles have been written by scientists who, at the time when the plans for it were made, were working at Los Alamos, UJS.A., on the project which eventually led to the first atomic bomb. Some are British, some American.
The first article contains a general survey of the whole field, and forms the key to the rest. The second and last articles explain the general background. The remainder deal with special aspects of the field.
EDITORIAL NOTE
THE RELEASE OF ATOMIC ENERGY R. E. Peierls
ATOMS AND NUCLEI H. A. Bethe
PRODUCTION OF ATOMIC FUEL BY ISOTOPE SEPARATION R. E. Peierls
THE TAMING OF ATOMIC POWER AND THE PRODUCTION OF PLUTONIUM H. L. Anderson
THE PHYSICS OF THE BOMB P. Morrison
RADIOACTIVE TRACERS M. Argo and E. Teller
THE TOOLS OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS O. R. Frisch
THE THINGS WE SEE—INDOORS AND OUT
By ALAN JARVIS
“Because day-in, day-out,” says the author of this introductory volume to a new series of books under the PENGUIN imprint, “we see so much, and because so much of what we see is familiar, our sense of awareness of our environment and our faculty of discrimination become blurred. We see, as we live, by habit." His aim, and that of the other authors who follow him, is to increase our enjoyment of things around us by bringing a fresh and seeing eye to bear on them to encourage us to view them critically and to understand them better. The text and illustrations provide us with information and visual comparisons which will enable us to “understand the real potential of machine production and give clearer and less prejudiced guidance to the designers who set the machines to work.” For it is the public, in so far as it shows critical interest instead of indifference, that determines the shape of the things we see.
Among further volumes in preparation are:
HOUSES Lionel Brett
FURNITURE Gordon Russell
POTTERY AND GLASS A. B. Hollowood
TEXTILES AND WALLPAPERS Anthony Hunt
LETTERING AND PRINTING John Tarr
GARDENS Lady Allen of Hurtwood
SHIPS David Pye
PUBLIC TRANSPORT Cristian Barman
SHOP WINDOWS AND EXHIBITIONS Masha Black
H. G. WELLS
The following ten volumes of his works have now been added to the Penguin series:
KIPPS
TONO-BUNGAY
THE INVISIBLE MAN
THE NEW MACHIAVELLI
LOVE AND MR. LEWISHAM
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU
THE HISTORY OF MR. POLLY
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD
THE TIME MACHINE AND OTHER STORIES
Copyright
First published in the NEW YORKER, August, 1946
Published in Penguin Books
November 1946
Made and printed in Great Britain
for Penguin Books Ltd. by C. Nicholls and Co. Ltd.
London, Manchester, Reading