Abstract
ONE of the most important consequences of the study of the chemistry of the products of radioactive change has been the discovery of isotopesand the interpretation, in consequence, of the Periodic Law in terms of modern views of atomic structure. It is one of the few fields in the vast borderland between physics and chemistry, overrun of recent years by an advancing swarm of mathematicians and physicists, armed with all sortsof new-fangled weapons, in which the invaders have found the chemist already in possession. The broad highways they have hewn thereto are already dusty with the feet of pilgrims and are being watered by the tears of candidates for “Honours.” But the somewhat intricate bye-ways through which the chemist first found his way into this virgin territory, and the views on the road before it was in sight, may still preserve something of their pristine interest.
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SODDY, F. The Origins of the Conception of Isotopes. Nature 112, 208–213 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112208a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112208a0
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