Frederick Soddy 11778 226004896 2008-07-16T12:10:18Z Emerson7 191157 cleanup infobox; {{Infobox_Scientist |name = Frederick Soddy |image = Frederick Soddy (Nobel 1922).png |imagesize = 180px |caption = Frederick Soddy in 1922 |birth_date = {{birth date|1877|9|2}} |birth_place = [[Eastbourne]], [[England]] |residence = [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]] |nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]] |death_date = {{death date and age|1956|9|22|1877|9|2}} |death_place = [[Brighton]], England |field = [[Radiochemistry]] |work_institution = [[McGill University]]</br>[[University of Aberdeen]]</br>[[University of Glasgow]] |alma_mater = [[Aberystwyth University]]</br>[[Merton College, Oxford]] |doctoral_advisor = [[Ernest Rutherford]] |doctoral_students = [[Iimori Satosayu]] |known_for = [[Soddy's hexlet]]</br>[[isotope|Coining the term 'isotope']]</br>[[Descartes' theorem|Soddy circles]] |prizes = {{nowrap|[[Nobel Prize for Chemistry]] (1921) }} |religion = |footnotes = }} '''Frederick Soddy''' ([[2 September]] [[1877]] &ndash; [[22 September]] [[1956]]) was an [[England|English]] [[radiochemistry|radiochemist]]. ==Biography== Soddy was born in [[Eastbourne]], [[England]]. He went to school at [[Eastbourne College]], before going on to study at [[Aberystwyth University|University College of Wales at Aberystwyth]] and at [[Merton College, Oxford]]. He was a researcher at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] from 1898 to 1900. He married Winifred Beilby in 1908. In 1900 he became a demonstrator in [[chemistry]] at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], [[Canada]], where he worked with [[Ernest Rutherford]] on [[radioactivity]]. He and Rutherford realized that the anomalous behaviour of radioactive elements was due to the fact that they [[radioactive decay|decayed]] into other elements. This decay also produced [[alpha ray|alpha]], [[beta ray|beta]], and [[gamma ray|gamma radiation]]. When radioactivity was first discovered, no one was sure what the cause was. It needed careful work by Soddy and Rutherford to prove that atomic [[Nuclear transmutation|transmutation]] was in fact occurring. His work and essays popularising the new understanding of radioactivity was the main inspiration for [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The World Set Free]]'' (1914), which features atomic bombs dropped from biplanes in a war set many years in the future. Wells's novel is also known as ''The Last War'' and imagines a peaceful world emerging from the chaos. In ''Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt'' Soddy praises Wells’s ''The World Set Free''. He also says that radioactive processes probably power the stars. In 1903, with Sir [[William Ramsay]] at [[University College London]], Soddy verified that the decay of [[radium]] produced alpha particles composed of positively charge nuclei of [[helium]]. In the experiment a sample of radium was enclosed in a thin walled glass envelope sited within an evacuated glass bulb. Alpha particles could pass through the thin glass wall but were contained within the surrounding glass envelope. After leaving the experiment running for a long period of time a spectral analysis of the contents of the former evacuated space revealed the presence of helium. This element had recently been discovered in the solar spectrum by Bunsen and Kirchoff.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Experiments in Radioactivity, and the Production of Helium from Radium | author = [[William Ramsay]]; Frederick Soddy | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of London | volume = 72 | issue = | pages = 204–207 | year = 1903 - 1904 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0370-1662%281903%2F1904%2972%3C204%3AEIRATP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V | doi = 10.1098/rspl.1903.0040}}</ref> From 1904 to 1914, he was a lecturer at the [[University of Glasgow]] and while there he showed that [[uranium]] decays to [[radium]]. It was here also that he showed that a radioactive element may have more than one [[atomic mass]] though the chemical properties are identical. He named this concept [[isotope]] meaning 'same place' - the word 'isotope' was initially suggested to him by [[Margaret Todd (doctor)|Margaret Todd]]. Soddy later showed that non-radioactive elements also could have multiple isotopes. In addition he showed that an atom moves lower in [[atomic number]] by two places on alpha emission, higher by one place on beta emission. This was a fundamental step toward understanding the relationships among families of radioactive elements. Soddy published [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QD181xR1xS679/ ''The Interpretation of Radium''] (1909) and ''Atomic Transmutation'' (1953). In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at the [[University of Aberdeen]], where he worked on research related to [[World War I]]. In 1919 he moved to Oxford University as Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry. He received the 1921 [[Nobel Prize in chemistry]] for his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes. Soddy was also interested in [[Technocracy movement|Technocracy]] and the [[social credit]] movement, which is evidenced by his publication ''Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt'' (George Allen & Unwin 1926), which is used as a reference in the ''Technocracy Study Course''. Soddy himself, in a newsreel interview taken in his office and laboratory, presented in the early 30's a very nice admission and commendation for the development of Technocratic ideas in the United States.<ref>[http://www.technocracy.org/Archives/History%20&%20Purpose-r.htm History and Purpose of Technocracy by Howard Scott]</ref> He rediscovered the [[Descartes' theorem]] in 1936 and published it as poem. The kissing circles in this problem are sometimes known as '''Soddy circles'''. The lunar crater [[Soddy (crater)|Soddy]] is named after him. He died in [[Brighton, England]]. ==See also== *[[Problem of Apollonius]] *[[Technocracy Incorporated]] ==Bibliography== * ''Radioactivity'' (1904) * ''[http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QD181xR1xS679/ The Interpretation of Radium]'' (1909) ''(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; [[DjVu]] & [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QD181xR1xS679/1f/interpretation_of_radium.pdf layered PDF] format)'' * ''The Chemistry of the Radioactive Elements'' (1912-1914) * ''Matter and Energy'' (1912) * ''Science and Life'' (1920) * ''Wealth, virtual wealth and debt. The solution of the economic paradox'' (1926) * ''The Interpretation of the Atom'' (1932) * ''Money versus Man'' (1933) * ''The Story of Atomic Energy'' (1949) * ''Atomic Transmutation'' (1953) ==References== {{reflist}} *{{cite journal | title = Frederick Soddy: The scientist as prophet | author = Mansel Davies | journal = Annals of Science | volume = 49 | issue = 4 | pages = 351 – 367 | year = 1992 | doi = 10.1080/00033799200200301 | url = }} *{{cite journal | title = The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment | author = George B. Kauffman | journal = Isis | volume = 88 | issue = 3 | pages = 564 | year = 1997 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-1753%28199709%2988%3A3%3C564%3ATWMNFS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F | doi = 10.1086/383825}} *{{cite journal | title = The economic thought of Frederick Soddy | author = Daly, Herman E. Winter | journal = History of Political Economy | volume = 12 | issue = 4 | pages = 469–488 | year = 1980 | url = }} *{{cite journal | title = Soddy, Frederick and the Practical Significance of Radioactive Matter | author = Freeman M. I. | journal = Britisch Journal for the History of Science | volume = 12 | issue = 42 | pages = 257–260 | year = 1979 | doi = | url = }} *{{cite journal | title = From Alchemy to Atomic War: Frederick Soddy's "Technology Assessment" of Atomic Energy, 1900-1915 | author = Richard E. Sclove | journal = Science, Technology, & Human Values | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 163 | year = 1989 | url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-2439%28198921%2914%3A2%3C163%3AFATAWF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2 | doi = 10.1177/016224398901400203}}, pp. 163-194 *{{cite book | title = The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment. | author = Linda Merricks | publisher = Oxford University Press | place = Oxford New York | pages = 223 | year = 1996 }} *{{cite book | title = Frederick Soddy: 1877-1956. | author = A. N. Krivomazov | publisher = Nauka | place = Moscow | pages = 208 | year = 1978 }} *{{cite book | title = Frederick Soddy (1877-1956): Early Pioneer in Radiochemistry (Chemists and Chemistry) | author = [[George B. Kauffman]] | publisher = D. Reidel Pub. Co. | place = Dordrecht; Boston; Hingham | pages = 272 | year = 1986 | id = ISBN 978-9027719263 }} ==External links== *[http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people/Soddy,+Frederick Annotated bibliography for Frederick Soddy from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues] {{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1901-1925}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Soddy, Frederick}} [[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]] [[Category:English chemists]] [[Category:Discoverers of chemical elements]] [[Category:Technocracy movement]] [[Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford]] [[Category:Alumni of Aberystwyth University]] [[Category:Old Eastbournians]] [[Category:People from Eastbourne]] [[Category:1877 births]] [[Category:1956 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Aberdeen]] [[ar:فردريك سودي]] [[bn:ফ্রেডেরিক সডি]] [[ca:Frederick Soddy]] [[de:Frederick Soddy]] [[es:Frederick Soddy]] [[fi:Frederick Soddy]] [[fr:Frederick Soddy]] [[he:פרדריק סודי]] [[hu:Frederick Soddy]] [[id:Frederick Soddy]] [[io:Frederick Soddy]] [[it:Frederick Soddy]] [[ja:フレデリック・ソディ]] [[nds:Frederick Soddy]] [[nl:Frederick Soddy]] [[nov:Frederick Soddy]] [[oc:Frederick Soddy]] [[pl:Frederick Soddy]] [[pt:Frederick Soddy]] [[ro:Frederick Soddy]] [[ru:Содди, Фредерик]] [[sk:Frederick Soddy]] [[sq:Frederick Soddy]] [[sr:Фредерик Соди]] [[sv:Frederick Soddy]] [[sw:Frederick Soddy]] [[tr:Frederick Soddy]] [[uk:Содді Фредерік]] [[zh:弗雷德里克·索迪]]