A Century of X-Rays and Radioactivity in Medicine: With Emphasis on Photographic Records of the Early Years celebrates three great discoveries-x-rays (1895), radioactivity (1896), and radium (1898)-and recalls the pioneering achievements that founded the new science of radiology and changed the face of medicine forever. Over 700 historical illustrations with full and informative captions are supported by short introductory essays to illuminate the fascinating radiological past in an easy-to-read style. The focus of this book is on the historically more interesting early years of discovery, invention, diagnosis, therapy, dosimetry, risk, and protection. Interspersed with a variety of radiological anecdotes, the photographic record is complemented by archival accounts of the pioneer scientists and physicians and their early patients. In the chapters on diagnostic techniques, radiotherapy, and nuclear medicine, the author contrasts old methods with newer technologies. He also includes two fascinating chapters on museum and industrial applications of radiography. The book is comprehensively indexed for easy retrieval of the wide variety of people, techniques, apparatus, and examples featured throughout this radiological journey.

Sir Isaac Newton once declared that his momentous discoveries were only made thanks to having 'stood on the shoulders of giants'. The same might also be said of the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick. Their discovery of the structure of DNA was, without doubt, one of the biggest scientific landmarks in history and, thanks largely to the success of Watson's best-selling memoir 'The Double Helix', there might seem to be little new to say about this story. But much remains to be said about the particular 'giants' on whose shoulders Watson and Crick stood. Of these, the crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose famous X-ray diffraction photograph known as 'Photo 51' provided Watson and Crick with a vital clue, is now well recognised. Far less well known is the physicist William T. Astbury who, working at Leeds in the 1930s on the structure of wool for the local textile industry, pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to study biological fibres. In so doing, he not only made the very first studies of the structure of DNA culminating in a photo almost identical to Franklin's 'Photo 51', but also founded the new science of 'molecular biology'. Yet whilst Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize, Astbury has largely been forgotten. The Man in the Monkeynut Coat tells the story of this neglected pioneer, showing not only how it was thanks to him that Watson and Crick were not left empty-handed, but also how his ideas transformed biology leaving a legacy which is still felt today.

With contributions by leading quantum physicists, philosophers and historians, this comprehensive A-to-Z of quantum physics provides a lucid understanding of key concepts of quantum theory and experiment. It covers technical and interpretational aspects alike, and includes both traditional and new concepts, making it an indispensable resource for concise, up-to-date information about the many facets of quantum physics.

H. G. J. Moseley (1887 - 1915), the son and grandson of distinguished English scientists, a favorite student of Rutherford's and a colleague of Bohr's, completed researches of capital importance for atomic physics just before the outbreak of World War I. He was urged to devote himself to scientific war work in England, but his duty as he aw it was to join the battle. He procured himself command of a signaling section in the Royal Engineers, a speedy trip to Gallipoli, and death in the bloody battle for Sari Bair. In this work the author presents a full record of Moseley's brief and brilliant career. It gives instructive detail about Eton, which, as Heilbron shows, offered more opportunity for acquiring a foundation in science than its emphasis on Greek and games would suggest; about Oxford, a scientific backwater in Moseley's time; and about Rutherford's thriving laboratory at the University of Manchester. It describes in detail Moseley's apprenticeship in experimental physics, his growth under the tight supervision of Manchester, and his classical independent work on X rays, which almost certainly would have brought him the Nobel Prize. An epilogue sketches the chief results secured by other in the decade after his death in the research lines he opened. Heilbron's account is informed by an unequaled acquaintance with the relevant manuscript material, including all of Moseley's known correspondence (most of which he discovered) and the paper of colleagues such as Bohr, W. H. Bragg, G. H. Darwin, F. A. Lindemann (Lord Cherwell), Rutherford, Henry Tizard, Georges Ubrain, and G. von Hevesy. An important feature of the book is the publication, in extenso, of Moseley's surviving correspondence. These letters are not only a rich source for historians of science and of education. Tehy are also splendid reading: well-written records of the maturing of a strong mind, pithy commentaries on the Establishment as Moseley saw it, and exciting notices of the course of one of the most important researches in modern physical science. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.