Frederick Soddy

Intra-Atomic Charge

That the intra-atomic charge of an element is determined by its place in the periodic table rather than by its atomic weight, as concluded by A. van den Broek (Nature, November 27, p. 372), is strongly supported by the recent generalisation as to the radio-elements and the periodic law. The successive expulsion of one α and two β particles in three radio-active changes in any order brings the intra-atomic charge of the element back to its initial value, and the element back to its original place in the table, though its atomic mass is reduced by four units. We have recently obtained something like a direct proof of van den Broek’s view that the intra-atomic charge of the nucleus of an atom is not a purely positive charge, as on Rutherford’s tentative theory, but is the difference between a positive and a smaller negative charge.

Experiments in radioactivity, and the production of helium from radium

Of recent years many investigations have been made by Elster and Geitel, Wilson, Strutt, Rutherford, Cooke, Allen, and others on the spontaneous ionisation of the gases of the atmosphere and on the excited radioactivity obtainable from it. It became of interest to ascertain whether the inert monatomic gases of the atmosphere bear any share in these phenomena. For this purpose a small electroscope contained in a glass tube of about 20 c. c. capacity, covered in the interior with tin-foil, was employed. After charging, the apparatus if exhausted retained its charge for thirty-six hours without diminution.

Social Relations of Science

ABSENCE abroad has prevented me from responding sooner and expressing, as invited, an opinion on the proposals in the article entitled “Social Relations of Science” printed in NATURE of April 23. Though to me they come too late and too tainted with officialdom and regimentation to appear to be much more than a wish to be in at the shouting, it would be churlish not to express gratitude that they are, at least, explicit and capable of being intelligently discussed.

Transmutation the Vital Problem of the Future

The advances of the last fifteen years consequent upon the discovery of the property of radioactivity by M. Becquerel in 1896, and of the separation from uranium minerals of the new element radium by M. and Mme. Curie have brought many changes of outlook upon science. Isolated questions of the most extraordinary diversity have been profitably reconsidered. It is only necessary to cite at random a few of the special problems in individual sciences, to which the new knowledge has been applied, to illustrate the fruitfulness of the new subject in realms unconnected and apparently far remote from its own. Some of these, for example, are the origin of the pleochroic halos in certain minerals, the medicinal efficacy of certain spas, the occurrence of explosive gases in certain mines other than those from which coal is gained, the colours of gems, the high temperature gradient of the Simplon tunnel and the electrification of the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of mountain tops. The explanation of all the various manifestations of energy associated with radioactivity has been found in the discovery of naturally occurring processes of transmutation progressing continuously and invariably within the radio-elements. Of these new fundamental sub-atomic processes, all the varied phenomena of radioactivity, — the spontaneous and continuous emission of light and heat, the expulsion of α-, β- and γ- rays and of radioactive ‘emanations’, the generation of electricity and the energetic chemical reactions, — are merely incidents.

Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., F.R.S

ALTHOUGH all my life I have cherished the greatest admiration for the great physicist whose death the scientific world is mourning, my personal contact with Sir Joseph Thomson was almost confined to the one period, nearly forty years ago, in 1903–4, when I was working in the late Sir William Ramsays laboratory in London. But to me it was a notable one, and it left the same enduring impression,, felt and retained by all the youthful researchers then invading his laboratory at Cambridge, or indeed who have ever been his students, that “J. J.” was on the side of the angels, meaning ourselves.

Generalisations and Modern Cosmogonies

PROF. R. A. MILLIKAN in his retiring presidential address of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (NATURE, Jan. 31, p. 167), refers to the assumption “that the radiation laws which seem to us to hold here cannot possibly have any exception anywhere” as “precisely the sort of sweeping generalisation that has led us physicists into error half a dozen times during the past century”. This emboldens me to ask again whether there is any evidence whatever for the uniform propagation of radiation in all directions in space from a sun or a star. I asked it (NATURE, NOV. 29, 1913, p. 339) at the time of Millikans “fifth significant discovery”, when radioactivity was indicating the necessity of extending the cosmical time scale. Since then all modern cosmogonists, it seems to me, have constructed systems designed primarily to account for the maintenance of solar and cosmical energy on the scale demanded by this natural, but perhaps unwarranted, assumption.

The Mystery of Money

I Do not think the writer of the very full review published in NATURE (Nov. 27) of my book, “Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt,” really understands my new theory of money or the solution of the economic paradox, which he states, surely rather prematurely and prophetically, will be rejected by every student of economics. After all, I suppose every student of chemistry rejected the theory of atomic disintegration when it was first proposed a quarter of a century ago.

Science and Economics

F. S. M., the writer of the article “Labour and Science in Industry”, in his rejoinder to my letter (NATURE, April 14, p. 498) does not seem to grasp my main point, that the present economic system has no sound physical foundation, and that it was an element of physical reality—for example, the laws of the creation of wealth as distinct from debt—that I wished introduced into the proceedings of the Economics section of the British Association. If the section has been proceeding on this road for a good many years now, as claimed, I apologise. But I am surprised at the slow progress it has made.

Organisation of Scientific Work

I TRUST the rank and file of scientific investigators throughout the Empire will wake up to the urgent need of combined energetic action. The proposals to centralise under the control of a few official departmental heads the body of actual scientific investigators in India, thus creating a few highly paid administrative posts for senior men and effectually killing all initiative, enthusiasm, and liberty of action on the part of those actually carrying on the investigations, is perfectly in accord with what has happened in this country since, in an evil day, the Government assumed the control of scientific and industrial research. It is a proposal that appeals, naturally, to the official without knowledge of the way in which scientific discoveries originate, and anxious to secure a body of cheap and docile labour, even though it be mediocre in calibre, and to those few who hope to secure for themselves these senior lucrative administrative posts. To genuine investigators such posts, however highly paid, would be unattractive, and under such a system there seems every inducement for men of originality and scientific ability to give the service a wide berth. Whereas the crying need in India, as everywhere, is for men of high calibre and honest, independent mental outlook, anxious only to secure favourable conditions under which they may be left free to pursue their creative work, and, this being secured, careless of wealth, rank, and power save as the necessary antecedents to the essential condition.

The Twin Ideals: An Educated Commonwealth

THESE volumes consist of a series of essays and articles, mostly written originally for the daily Press, on a very large variety of topics, classified under the heads:—Universities; education; medicine; venereal disease; milk and neglected children; town planning and playgrounds; rural life; national parks and the work of explorers; bush nursing; travel and immigration; social; music; electoral reform; Imperial and Australian politics. The author, a Melbourne medical man and consultant, who has taken an active part in the affairs of the Melbourne University, in Australian public and medical questions, and, during the war, in the Australian Army Medical Corps, tells in his preface of the growth of his own faith, away from the original university ideal of leavening the affairs of State by the production of a few well-trained thinkers, towards the twin ideals of Imperial federation and the production of an educated proletariat as necessary for the salvation of the Empire. The first is necessary for the security precedent to any scheme of social betterment, without which the foundations of society are hollow, and the second, the effective education of all adolescents in realities, is forced by the spectacle in Australia of the superficiality and insincerity of popular government. But is not the original university ideal of at least equal importance?The Twin Ideals: An Educated Commonwealth.By Sir James W. Barrett. Vols. i. and ii. Pp. xxxii + 512 and xx + 504. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 25s. net.