© ATOM 2012 A STUDY GUIDE BY KATY MARRINER & Eryn o’mAHONY http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-148-5 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au DRIVEN TO DIFFRACTION Written and directed by Richard Jasek for Above L-R: Stephen Sheehan as William Lawrence Bragg in a still from the film Kojo Productions. This study guide ‘It is with a feeling of awe that we has been written for secondary students at examine the new science.’ all year levels. This guide provides – William Henry Bragg information and suggestions for learning activities in riven to Diffraction tells the story of Use your notes to write an advertisement for Biology, Chemistry, father and son physicists, William Henry a scientist that would appear in the employ- History, Laboratory Skills Certificate 111, Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg. Part ment section of a newspaper. D Media, Science and human interest story and part science lesson, the After you have watched Driven to Diffraction, Physics. Driven to documentary explores the discoveries and legacy review the draft of your advertisement. What Diffraction is also an of the Nobel Prize winning duo. Regarded as two do you need to change? excellent resource of the most important scientists of the twentieth for use by Science faculties to support century, the Braggs’ development of X-Ray Famous scientists: a research project professional learning. crystallography made possible an astonishing for Years 7 and 8 list of scientific advancements in DNA, cancer The Australian therapies, solid state electronics, modern • Can you name any famous scientists? Why Curriculum: Science provides pharmaceuticals and radio astronomy. are they famous? opportunities for Had you heard of William Henry Bragg and students to develop As a classroom resource, Driven to Diffraction pro- William Lawrence Bragg before watching an understanding motes the importance of understanding science Driven to Diffraction? of important and highlights science as a human endeavour. • William and Lawrence Bragg are often science concepts and processes, the referred to as Australian scientists, even practices used to What’s a scientist? though William was not born in Australia and develop scientific Lawrence only spent his childhood and ado- knowledge, of • Describe your perception of a scientist. What lescence in Australia. science’s contribution do they look like? What do they wear? Where Can you name any other Australian scientists, to our culture and society, and its 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION would they work? What would they do for past and present? What contributions have applications in our leisure? they made to scientific understanding? lives. The story of Do William and Lawrence Bragg fit with your • Working with a partner, make a digital story William and Lawrence perception of a scientist? about the achievements of another Australian Bragg as told in • What skills and qualities do you need to be a scientist. Your subject may be a scientist from Driven to Diffraction reflects these scientist? the past or the present. understandings. Discuss your answer to this question with • Why is it important to know the history of others in the class. Science? DURATION: 55 min 2 INTRODUCING INTRODUCING INTRODUCING WILLIAM HENRY BRAGG WILLIAM LawrENCE BRAGG GWENDOLINE BRAGG William Henry Bragg was born on William Lawrence Bragg was born Born in 1871 in Adelaide, South 2 July 1862 in Cumberland, England. on 31 March 1890 in Adelaide, South Australia, Gwendoline Todd was the Australia. daughter of Charles Todd, Postmaster • What do we learn about William General and Government Astronomer Bragg’s childhood and adolescence Lawrence Bragg received his elementary of South Australia. in Driven to Diffraction? Why are education at St. Peter’s College and these details important? entered Adelaide University in 1904 to In 1889, she married William Bragg. study mathematics, chemistry and phys- They had three children, a son William Having graduated from Cambridge in ics when he was fifteen. He graduated Lawrence born in 1890, a son Robert 1885, William Bragg was appointed with first class honours in 1908. Charles born in 1891 and a daughter Elder Professor in Mathematics and Gwendolen Mary born in 1907. Physics at the University of Adelaide in When the family moved to England in Australia. During his time at the univer- 1909, Bragg entered Trinity College, Prior to her marriage to William Bragg, sity, Bragg became an able and popular Cambridge. After initially excelling Gwendoline studied painting at the lecturer. He encouraged the formation of in mathematics, he transferred to Adelaide School of Design. Both the student union, and the attendance, the physics course in the later years Gwendoline and her husband painted free of charge, of science teachers at of his studies, and graduated with landscapes in watercolours and exhib- his lectures. At the end of 1908, Bragg first class honours in 1911. In 1914, ited at the South Australian Society of returned to England. During Bragg’s Bragg was elected to a Fellowship at Arts in 1896. twenty-three years in Australia, he saw Trinity College. Bragg graduated from the number of students at the University Cambridge University with first class • View examples of Gwendoline of Adelaide almost quadruple, and honours in 1912. After finishing his Bragg’s watercolours at: was responsible for the development studies, he stayed on to work at the http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an5836938 of its excellent science school. Whilst Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge http://www.friendsasa.com/sasa in Adelaide, Bragg played tennis and University. historyproject_Update.html golf, and as a founding member of the • What credit does Gwendoline Bragg North Adelaide and Adelaide University • What do we learn about Lawrence deserve for her husband and son’s Lacrosse Clubs, contributed to the intro- Bragg’s childhood and adolescence successes? duction of lacrosse to South Australia. in Driven to Diffraction? Why are these details important? • Detailed biographies of William • Detailed biographies of Lawrence Bragg can be read online at: Bragg can be read online at: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ bragg-sir-william-henry-5336 bragg-sir-william-henry-5336 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ William_Henry_Bragg William_Lawrence_Bragg SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/ http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/ bsparcs/exhib/nobel/braggw.htm bsparcs/exhib/nobel/braggl.htm http://www.eoas.info/biogs/ http://www.eoas.info/biogs/ P000252b.htm P001998b.htm http://www.nndb.com/ http://www.nndb.com/ Above L-R: William Henry Bragg, people/533/000099236/ people/538/000099241/ c. 1926; William Lawrence Bragg, c. 1906; Michaela Cantwell as Gwendoline Bragg 3 1 William Bragg’s early experiments 2 Radio waves him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. 3 William Bragg worked with his father-in-law Charles Todd to pioneer radio transmission Assisted by Robert Chapman and Arthur Rogers, in Australia. In his role as Superintendent of William Bragg’s attempts to replicate Röntgen Telegraphs, Todd was responsible for the building experiments pioneered Australia’s use of X-rays. of the overland single-wire telegraph line that William made the first X-ray tube in Australia. linked Australia to the rest of the world in 1872. When a six-year-old Lawrence fell from his His interest in communication technologies tricycle and broke his elbow, his father made use turned to radio transmission in the late 1890s. of the new technology. This incident is the first Bragg demonstrated Guglielmo Marconi’s radio 4 recorded surgical use of X-rays in Australia. technology in Adelaide in 1897, and then went to England to meet Marconi and learn more This is also an excellent example of how science about wireless transmission. In 1899, working and technology are interrelated. The glass tube with Arthur Rogers, Bragg sent the first wireless that William produced allowed him to apply his telegraph messages in Australia. scientific understanding and produce X-rays. The tube would have been produced by glass blow- • Radio is the transmission of signals from one ing. Glass blowing is a technique employed by place to another through the use of radio both scientists and artists. waves. Why was the discovery of radio waves • Watch the YouTube clip on glass blow- important? ing at <http://www.youtube.com/ • Working as a class, make a list of the ways watch?v=O1xb48Y6EdA>. that we now use radio waves. Do you think many modern scientists pro- • How are radio waves transmitted and re- duce their own instruments using the glass ceived? Which materials block radio waves? blowing technique? Which materials allow transmission of radio • How would scientists have studied bone waves? structure prior to the discovery of X-rays? • Visit <http://nobelprize.org/educational/ Röntgen Rays physics/x-rays/> to learn more about X-rays. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physi- Lawrence Bragg’s first SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION cist. In 1895, Röntgen produced and detected discovery electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays. His achievement earned Lawrence Bragg’s first scientific discovery was the discovery of a species of cuttlefish. Sepia braggi was named in his honour. Bragg’s inter- 1: William Lawerence Bragg (left) with William Henry Bragg est in the natural sciences stemmed from the 2: William Lawrence Bragg, Cambridge 1915 considerable amount of time he spent alone in 3: Cambridge street scene 4: The DNA double helix the garden and walking along the beach. 4 This page: Scenes from the film, featuring Michaela Cantwell as Gwendoline, Brad Williams as William Lawrence and Stephen Sheehan as William Henry It is common in science for a new species to be named after the person who made the discovery. Some scientists, however, name insignificant or ugly specimens after their enemies.