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Amazon.com Review
If you want to understand how something works, you can dismantle it and study its pieces. But what if the thing you're curious about is too small to see, even with the most powerful microscope? Brian Cathcart's The Fly in the Cathedral tells the intriguing story of how scientists were able to take atoms apart to reveal the secrets of their structures. To keep the story gripping, Cathcart focuses on a time (1932, the annus mirabilis of British physics), a place (Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory), and a few main characters (Ernest Rutherford, the "father of nuclear physics," and his protégés, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton).
Rutherford and his team knew that the long-accepted atomic model was held together by nothing more than trumped-up math and hope. They hoped to find out what held oppositely charged protons and electrons together, and what strange particles shared the nucleus with protons. In a series of remarkable experiments done on homemade apparatus, these Cambridge scientists moved atomic science to within an inch of its ultimate goal. Finally, Cockcroft and Walton--competing furiously with their American and German peers--put together the machine that would forever change history by splitting an atom. The Fly in the Cathedral combines all the right elements for a great science history: historical context, gritty detail, wrenching failure, and of course, glorious victory. Although the miracles that occurred at Cambridge in 1932 were to result in the fearful, looming threat of atomic warfare, Cathcart allows readers to find unfiltered joy in the accomplishments of a few brilliant, ingenious scientists. --Therese Littleton
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Radioactivity, Science, Scientists, Nuclear fission, Kernphysik, Cambridge / Cavendish Laboratory, Biography, History, Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge, England), Nuclear physics, Physicists, biographies, Physics, Physique nucléaire, Histoire, Kernsplitsing, Nuclear physics, history, Scientists, biography, Science, history, Great britain, biography, Nuclear energy, ResearchPlaces
England, Cambridge, Gro britannien, Great BritainShowing 8 featured editions. View all 8 editions?
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The fly in the cathedral: how a small group of Cambridge scientists won the race to split the atom
2005, Penguin Books
in English
0670883212 9780670883219
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2
The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom
January 5, 2005, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
0374157162 9780374157166
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3 |
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4
The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom
December 27, 2005, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
0374530262 9780374530266
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zzzz
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5
The fly in the Cathedral
2005, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
- 1st American ed.
0374157162 9780374157166
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6
The fly in the cathedral
2004, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
- 1st American ed.
0374157162 9780374157166
|
cccc
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7
The fly in the cathedral: how a small group of Cambridge scientists won the race to split the atom
2004, Viking
in English
0374530262 9780374530266
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zzzz
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8
The fly in the cathedral: how a small group of Cambridge scientists won the race to split the atom
2004, Viking
in English
0670883212 9780670883219
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zzzz
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Book Details
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"For many years Cambridge railway station was not to be found in Cambridge at all, but in the countryside a mile or so out of town."
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- Created April 29, 2008
- 9 revisions
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December 17, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 5, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
October 8, 2017 | Edited by MARC Bot | merge duplicate works of 'The fly in the cathedral' |
August 5, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |