William and Lawrence Bragg, Father and Son: The Most Extraordinary Collaboration in Science
John Jenkin
Abstract
This book describes how Lawrence and William Bragg, son and father, invented, developed, and led the scientific field of X-ray crystallography for fifty years, transforming much of modern science. Attention is also given to William's early belief in the dual wave-particle nature of radiation, his eventual vindication, and the crucial roles both played during The Great War. The book highlights the intimate relationship between father and son that made their project possible, and emphasizes wider family and human relationships. For the first time, close attention is given to the crucial twenty-t ... More
This book describes how Lawrence and William Bragg, son and father, invented, developed, and led the scientific field of X-ray crystallography for fifty years, transforming much of modern science. Attention is also given to William's early belief in the dual wave-particle nature of radiation, his eventual vindication, and the crucial roles both played during The Great War. The book highlights the intimate relationship between father and son that made their project possible, and emphasizes wider family and human relationships. For the first time, close attention is given to the crucial twenty-three-year period in Australia (1886-1909) — when William matured into a notable scientist and Lawrence was born, raised, and educated — thereby providing a new vision of the colonial science experience. Finally, the following published criticisms of Lawrence Bragg are shown to be false: that his work had no great influence on physics then or later; that as a classical physicist in the age of quantum theory he was a scientific dinosaur; that he was ignorant of chemistry and biology and disinterested in both; that his relationship with his father was tense and cool, and with his mother distant.
Keywords:
relationships,
Australia,
radiation models,
X-ray crystallography,
The Great War,
science,
criticisms
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199235209 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2008 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235209.001.0001 |
