Light is a Messenger: The Life and Science of William Lawrence Bragg
Graeme K. Hunter
Abstract
This book is a biography of William Lawrence Bragg, who was only twenty-five when he won the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics — the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. It describes how Bragg discovered the use of X-rays to determine the arrangement of atoms in crystals and his pivotal role in developing this technique to the point that 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 foun ... More
This book is a biography of William Lawrence Bragg, who was only twenty-five when he won the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics — the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. It describes how Bragg discovered the use of X-rays to determine the arrangement of atoms in crystals and his pivotal role in developing this technique to the point that 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 — he was director of the research department where Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA. He held a number of important scientific posts, including Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University and Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. 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.
Keywords:
William Lawrence Bragg,
Nobel Prize,
X-rays,
Sir William Bragg,
Linus Pauling,
physics,
chemistry,
molecular biology,
proteins,
nucleic acids
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2004 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198529217 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198529217.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Graeme K. Hunter, author
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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