Light Is a Messenger: The Life and Science of William Lawrence Bragg

by Graeme K. Hunter

Overview

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 nucelic 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198529217
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/21/2004
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

University of Western Ontario

Table of Contents

0. Introduction1. Adelaide, 1886-19082. Cambridge, 1909-19143. World War One, 1914-19194. Manchester, 1919-19305. Manchester, 1931-19376. Teddington and Cambridge, 1937-19397. Second World War, 1939-19458. Cambridge, 1939-539. Royal Institution, 1954-196610. Retirement, 1966-197111. Epilogue