Nuclear Physics in Photographs

Abstract

THE epoch-making discoveries in the field of nuclear physics during the past thirty years have been predominantly due to the development and use of methods of detection of single fast-moving nuclei and electrons. In the experiments of Lord Rutherford upon the scattering of α-particles which established the concept of the nuclear atom, in the discovery of the neutron and of artificial transmutation, and in the more recent investigations upon cosmic rays leading to the discovery of the positron and the meson, the part played by the detectors of single charged particles and quanta has been universal and indispensable. It is, therefore, very surprising to reflect that practically all this work has been done with only four basic techniques : the scintillation screen, the Geiger counter, the ionization chamber plus amplifier and the expansion chamber. Nuclear Physics in Photographs Tracks of Charged Particles in Photographic Emulsions. By C. F. Powell and G. P. S. Occhialini. Pp. ix + 124 (50 plates). (Oxford : Clarendon Press ; London : Oxford University Press, 1947.) 18s. net.