The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Small Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the Race to Split the Atom
- ISBN-10
- 0140279067
- ISBN-13
- 9780140279061
- Category
- Nuclear fission
- Pages
- 308
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2005
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics
- Author
- Brian Cathcart
Description
The splitting of the atom, performed in a shabby Cambridge lab in April 1932, was a triumph of ingenuity over adversity. John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, under the stern gaze of the brilliantly eccentric Lord Rutherford, cobbled together handmade or recycled components - while American rivals had state-of-the-art equipment - to make one of the great scientific breakthroughs of all time. In Brian Cathcart's hands, this remarkable tale of success on a shoe string - packed with larger-than-life characters, struggles against the odds, personal tragedy, love and bloody-minded determination - makes for one of the most inspiring stories of scientific derring-do ever told.
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