NATURE August 27, 1960 VOL. 187 OBITUARY
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
738 NATURE August 27, 1960 VOL. 187 400 150 :;' S 300 ~ d 100 .5 t- o:> ~ .:l [lj 0 50 200 ",,,':':' 200 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 Mean annual precipitation (mm.) !!, ' Fig. 4 also quite possible that the variations in the specific cffisium-137 activity in precipitation are smaller. If the values for Bergen and station 1 are excluded the mean value of the cffisium-137 deposit is 18·7 mc./km." and the standard deviation is 3·5 mc./km.". 100 200 300 400 500 600 The corresponding precipitation values vary within ± Precipitation (mm.) Nov. 1, 1958, to sampling date 20 per cent. This precipitation interval applies to Fig. 3 the greater part of Sweden, and the above value can thus be regarded as a reasonable mean value for the since the beginning of considerable global fall-out, country. and the zirconium + niobium-95 deposit with the Peirson has recently published a corresponding precipitation since the autumn, 1958. study concerning the deposit in the United Kingdom As can be seen in Figs. 2 and 3, a strong linear on samples taken during the summer, 1959". In relationship seems to exist between cffisium-137 Fig. 4, Pierson's and our values of the cffisium-137 deposit and precipitation (p = 0·99 with the 95 deposit are plotted against the mean annual precipita per cent confidence limit 0 ·95 and 1'00), whereas the tion. No significant differences between the two zirconium + niobium-95 values are more scattered sets of values can be detected. As the latitude of the (p = 0·74 with the 95 per cent confidence limits British sampling sites is 50-55° N., while the Swedish 0·35 and 0 ·90). In the case of zirconium + niobium- sites are at 60-63° N., this concordance is of interest. 95, the value for Bergen has not been included because For the selection of sampling sites and for carryi ng of the later sampling date. out the sampling we are indebted to Dr. L. The larger irregularities in the zirconium + Fredriksson at the Royal Agricultural College, niobium-95 values are not unexpected. Large Ultuna. variations in the specific activity of precipitation 1 Gustafson, P. F., Science, 127, 1240 (1958). have been observed between samples taken simul • Low, K., and Edvarson, K., Nature, 183, 1104 (1959). taneously at different locations", and such variations , Peirson, D. R., and Salmon, L., Nature, 184, 1678 (1959). will be reflected in Fig. 2. Corresponding variations • Edvarson, K., and Low, K., The Concentration of Some Fission Pro duct Nuclides in the Ground Level Air during the Period Sept. in the case of cffisium-137 will be levelled out because 1957-Dec. 1959, F.O.A. 4 A 4132-4727, 1960 (to be published). of the long period of accumulation. Of course it is • Lindblom, G. (private communication). OBITUARY Prof. Max von Laue, For.Mem.R.S. made him choose physics and mathematics, and in 1898 he began to read physics at the University of PROF. MAX VON LAUE, former director of the Fritz Strassburg-probably against the will of his father Haber-Institut of the Max Planck Gesellschaft in and step-mother, who would have liked him to become Berlin Dahlem, died in Berlin on April 24 a few an officer in the Prussian Army. In 1899 he moved months after his eightieth birthday. to G6ttingen, where he came under the spell of David In an autobiographical note, Max von Laue once Hilbert, whom he regarded as probably the greatest described the early influence upon him of his excellent genius he ever met in his life. However, it was science teacher at the Gymnasium in Strassburg, and Waldemar Voigt who taught him to apply mathe also his great interest in H. v. Helmholtz's popular matical methods to physics. v. Laue became a lectures. These were the determining factors which theoretical physicist, and, after a short interlude in © 1960 Nature Publishing Group No. 4739 August 27, 1960 NATURE 739 Mlmich~Bhort., becaUJ3e Boltzmann's chair was still tures in a volume dCldicated to three octogenarians vacant and there was no one to teach theoretical Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn and Max von Laue. v. physics~he went to Berlin. It is likely that during Laue himself was never interested in developing his t.hese years, 1902-4, the fundamentals were laid for discovery into a tool for crystal structure analysis ; t.he discovery which, ten years later, brought Laue instead, he followed the course of developing the world fame and a Nobel Prize in Physics. It was optical backgrotmd of X-ray diffraction, work whieh indeed one of the greatest discoveries of the century. is recorded in the various editions of his book, He attended Max Planck'B lectures on theoretical "R6ntgenstrahl lnterferenzen". optics and Lurnmer's on special problems of optics. After a short spell as professor in Zurich and Laue remarked that during these formative yearR he Frankfurt, von Laue returned to Berlin as professor acquired his 'optical instinct' which Btood him in of theoretical physics and co-director, with his life such good Btead later. The subject given to him by long friend, A. Einstein, of the Kai'ler-Wilhelm Planck for his dissertation was "Theory of Inter lnstitut fiir Physik. He remained in Berlin all his ference on Plane Parallel Plates". life, becoming, after the Second World War, director Laue became the devoted pupil of Planck, and of the Fritz-Haber-Institut. Well over 200 papers, Berlin his Rpiritual home. After two more years on almost every a:;pect of theoretical physies, and a postgraduat.e work in Gottingen, he returned in 1905 number of books-among them a short history of to Berlin as leet-m'er and as Planck's assistant. 1'0 physics-were the result of his work. However, in was Einstein's annU8 mirabilis. Laue's early work on spite of his lively interest, he never contributed to I'elativity~with his many eontributions to thermo the development, of quantum m.3chanies. He shared, dynarnies, t.he t.heory of radiation and also his with his friends Planck and Einstein, certain reserva phenomenological t,heory of superconduetivity-seem, tions towards its final consequences. to-day, unjustly eclipsed by his X-ray diffraetion Berlin, after the First World War and before 1933, work. It led to his monograph on the special theory had become one of t,he great, centres of learning. of relativit,y (1910)-the first ever Wl'itten~and later A regular ocientific event was the "Laue Colloquium" to another on the general theory of relativit.y. at the Physies Department in Reichstagc;ufer, un In 1909, v. Laue moved t.o Munich, and it. was forget.table to anybody who had the good fortune to t,here, in 1912, that he made one of the greatest and attend it regularly. Every week, and under the mOAt far-reaching discoveries of our own age, tho chairmanship of v. Laue, there took place a gathering diffraction of X-rays by crystals. The scientific of eminent. men of science, of those who later became atmosphere in Mtmich at this time was especially eminent, and of everybody else interested in new favourable for this discovery. W. C. Rontgen was developments of physics. Planck, N clrnst, Einstein, Atill active, and A. Sommerfeld, a firm believer in the Schroedinger, Lise Meitner, R. Ladenburg and, later, wave natm'e of X-rays, had succeeded Boltzmann. Debye and G. Hertz all attended regularly. Among Sommerfeld's influence in theoretical phy::;ics through those who came to great eminence later on were F. his own research and by his teaching was probably Simon, J. von Neumann, L. Szilard, E. Wigner and greater than that of anyone else. Also in Mtmich wat; F. London. It waR a very democratic institution, and Paul von Groth, t,he mineralogist, continuing the everybody was allowed t.o ask questiong, intelligent t.radition of Leonhanl Sohncke, who in his time had and, sometimes, silly ones. All thill, and the spiritual contributed greatly to the theory of crystals. There values of this period, came to an abrupt end in 1933. was, too, young P. P. Ewald seeking advice on wave The material d~struction which followed during the optics, whose work suggested to v. Laue the idea of War was a direct condequence of thc political cvents t,he experiment performed by W. Friedrich and P. of 1933. It was dW'ing these fateful years that von Knipping. The second experiment, using copper Laue showed the greatness of his per'lonality. He sulphate as crystal, showed the result whieh v. Laue beeame a lonely and very courageous fighter for predicted. Many research workOI's before this had tl'uth and integrity against tyranny and the evils of sent X-rays through crystals, limiting their observa a wicked regime. He was probably the only member t,ions to the direct beam, without noticing anything of the Acadcmy who latmched a solemn protest of interest. It was left, t.o v. Laue's genius to expect, against Einstein's expulsion from the Pruss ian and find, diffracted rays on the photographic plate. Academy of Sciences. The era of 'Aryan physics' The theory of one- and two-dimensional gratings, sO began, and it was deereed, mainly by obscure men, but well known t,o v. Laue, was easily extended to a tmforttmately also by two great physicists, who throe-dimensional g'l'ating such as he proved to exist, sprang out of oblivion, t.hat, Einstein's and other in t,he regular arrangement of atoms in erystals.