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.

Even in his lifetime, Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley, who died at Gallipoli in 1915, was widely regarded as the most promising British physicist of his generation. Had he survived, he could well have won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1916. His death provoked in Britain a reassessment of the role that scientists might play in war. This book of essays by eleven scholars is a commemoration of his life, his work, and his ongoing legacy. Linked with the 2015 exhibition 'Dear Harry ... Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War, held at the Oxford Museum of the History of Science. This book charts his brief career, military service and his lasting influence in a field of science which is rapidly developing, and foreshadowing the innovation of new materials. For Science, King and Country speaks to both historians and to scientists, and draws on a wealth of newly discovered archival material, artefacts, and interpretations. Together, it presents a comprehensive account of a young scientist whose brief but mercurial career led the way to a new understanding of nature, and to shaping the future of chemistry and physics ever since.

In A Tale of Seven Elements, Eric Scerri presents the fascinating history of those seven elements discovered to be mysteriously "missing" from the periodic table in 1913.

A gripping tale of exploration aboard H.M.S. Challenger, an expedition that laid the foundations for modern oceanography From late 1872 to 1876, H.M.S. Challenger explored the world’s oceans. Conducting deep sea soundings, dredging the ocean floor, recording temperatures, observing weather, and collecting biological samples, the expedition laid the foundations for modern oceanography. Following the ship’s naturalists and their discoveries, earth scientist Doug Macdougall engagingly tells a story of Victorian-era adventure and ties these early explorations to the growth of modern scientific fields. In this lively story of discovery, hardship, and humor, Macdougall examines the work of the expedition’s scientists, especially the naturalist Henry Moseley, who rigorously categorized the flora and fauna of the islands the ship visited, and the legacy of John Murray, considered the father of modern oceanography. Macdougall explores not just the expedition itself but also the iconic place that H.M.S. Challenger has achieved in the annals of ocean exploration and science.

Work on Atomic Physics (1912 - 1917)

The story of the false entries, good-faith errors, retractions, and mistakes that occurred during the formation of the Periodic Table of Elements as we know it.

2012 marked the centenary of one of the most significant discoveries of the early twentieth century, the discovery of X-ray diffraction (March 1912, by Laue, Friedrich, and Knipping) and of Bragg's law (November 1912). The discovery of X-ray diffraction confirmed the wave nature of X-rays and the space-lattice hypothesis. It had two major consequences: the analysis of the structure of atoms, and the determination of the atomic structure of materials. This had a momentous impact in chemistry, physics, mineralogy, material science, and biology. This book relates the discovery itself, the early days of X-ray crystallography, and the way the news of the discovery spread round the world. It explains how the first crystal structures were determined, and recounts which were the early applications of X-ray crystallography. It also tells how the concept of space lattice has developed since ancient times, and how our understanding of the nature of light has changed over time. The contributions of the main actors of the story, prior to the discovery, at the time of the discovery and immediately afterwards, are described through their writings and are put into the context of the time, accompanied by brief biographical details.