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The History of Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction
William H. Brock
From the earliest exploration of natural materials and their transformations to today’s materials science, chemistry has always been the central discipline that underpins both the physical ...
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3. Gases and atoms
William H. Brock
in The History of Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction
Until the mid-18th century, chemists had no understanding of the role of air in chemical changes. The Chemical Revolution was not merely conceptual, but also instrumental in that it ...
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6. Synthesis
William H. Brock
in The History of Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction
‘Synthesis’ considers how the shape and scale of chemistry has been transformed since the start of the 20th century. A series of world wars; a shift from coal to oil as the feedstock for ...
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1. The fly in the cathedral
Frank Close
in Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction
‘The fly in the cathedral’ charts the discovery of the nuclear atom and the start of modern atomic and nuclear physics. It began in 1895 with the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen and ...
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1. Opening the nuclear Pandora’s box
Claudio Tuniz
in Radioactivity: A Very Short Introduction
‘Opening the nuclear Pandora's box’ takes us through the history of the discovery of radioactivity starting from the French laboratories of Henri Becquerel and Marie and Pierre Curie in the ...
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3. Food and water
Claudio Tuniz
in Radioactivity: A Very Short Introduction
‘Food and water’ shows how ionising radiation is used to improve food properties and agricultural products, and control pests. Gamma rays and electron beams are used to sterilize seeds, ...
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2. Productive ambiguity
J. L. Heilbron
in Niels Bohr: A Very Short Introduction
‘Productive ambiguity’ begins with Bohr’s move to Cambridge in 1911 to work with J. J. Thompson on the electron theory and to publish an English translation of his thesis. He did not ...
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Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction
Frank Close
Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction gives an account of how this area of physics has progressed since the discovery of the electron at the end of the 19th century, which ...
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3. Powerful forces
Frank Close
in Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction
Why do atomic nuclei exist at all? A large nucleus contains many protons in close proximity. Why do these protons, all with the same electrical charge, not mutually repel? ‘Powerful forces’ ...
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2. Nuclear alchemy
Frank Close
in Nuclear Physics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Nuclear alchemy’ outlines the further discoveries of protons (the carriers of positive charge in atoms) by Ernest Rutherford and neutrons (particles with no electrical charge) by James ...
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6. Detectors: cameras and time machines
Frank Close
in Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Detectors: cameras and time machines’ explores methods of investigating particles. Early methods for detecting particles used scintillating material which flashed on contact with ...
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Radioactivity: A Very Short Introduction
Claudio Tuniz
Radioactivity: A Very Short Introduction explains radioactivity and discusses its fundamental role in nature. Radioactivity remains misunderstood and feared perhaps because ...
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5. Classical physics and its cure
J. L. Heilbron
in The History of Physics: A Very Short Introduction
During the 19th century, physics became a recognized profession and its practitioners ‘physicists’. It and they acquired special training facilities in universities and technical schools ...
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