Research Catalog

Title

Light is a messenger : the life and science of William Lawrence Bragg / Graeme K. Hunter.

Author

Hunter, Graeme K.

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxi, 301 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• "Light is a Messenger is the first biography of William Lawrence Bragg, who was only 25 when he won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics - the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. It describes how Bragg discovered how to use X-rays to determine the arrangement of atoms in crystals and his pivotal role in developing this technique to the point that the structures of the most complex molecules known to Man - the proteins and nucleic acids - could be solved. Although Bragg's Nobel Prize was for physics, his research profoundly affected chemistry and the new field of molecular biology, of which he became a founding figure.
• This book explains how these revolutionary scientific events occurred while Bragg struggled to emerge from the shadow of his father, Sir William Bragg, and amidst a career-long rivalry with the brilliant American chemist, Linus Pauling."--Jacket.

Subject

• Bragg, William Lawrence, Sir, 1890-1971
• Bragg, William Lawrence, Sir, 1890-1971
• Bragg, William Lawrence 1890-1971
• Bragg, Lawrence , 1890-1971
• Bragg, William Lawrence
• X-ray crystallography
• Physicists > Australia > Biography
• Crystallography, X-Ray
• 33.01 history of physics
• 51.01 history of materials science
• Physicists
• Kristallografie
• Röntgendiffractie
• Australia

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• Biographies (form)
• Biographie.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [252]-291) and index.

Contents

A shy and reserved person: Adelaide, 1886-1908 -- Concatenation of fortunate circumstances: Cambridge, 1909-14 -- Our show is going famously: World War One -- A system of simple and elegant architecture: Manchester, 1919-30 -- Plus-plus chemistry: Manchester, 1931-7 -- Supreme position in British physics: The National Physical Laboratory and Cambridge, 1937-9 -- He will have to be Sir Lawrence: World War Two -- A message in code which we cannot yet decipher: Cambridge, 1945-53 -- The art of popular lecturing on scientific subjects: The Royal Institution, 1954-66 -- A very difficult affair indeed: retirement, 1966-71.

ISBN

• 019852921X
• 9780198529217

LCCN

2004049227

OCLC

• ocm54806124
• 54806124
• SCSB-1347067

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library