Abstract
AT a meeting of the Physical Society held on June 16 the tenth Duddell medal was presented to Prof. Wolfgang Gaede (see NATURE of Feb. 11, p. 195). The presentation was followed by the delivery of the eighteenth Guthrie lecture by Prof. Manne Siegbahn, professor of general physics in the University of Uppsala, on “Studies in the Extreme Ultra-Violet and the Very Soft X-Ray Region”. It is largely due to Prof. Siegbahn's technical and experimental skill, backed by a wide knowledge of physical science, that our present acquaintance with atomic structure has made such remarkable progress. In 1912, von Laue first gave experimental proof that the X-rays resembled light in all respects except that the lengths of their ether waves were many thousands of times shorter. His method was based upon the supposition that the ordered array of the atoms in a crystal would act upon X-rays just as, in familiar ways, a grosser array of particles or lines or obstructions of any kind act upon the longer waves of light, so causing such phenomena as the halo round the moon, or the colours of mother of pearl, or the iridescence of wings and wing cases of certain insects. The successful experiment at once opened the way to two separate lines of research, both of which have been rich in results. The first has led to our rapidly growing knowledge of the crystalline state of matter, including the bodies which are crystals par excellence. The other was first followed by Moseley and Darwin, who employed the new methods in the investigation of the X-rays themselves.
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Prof. Manne Siegbahn. Nature 131, 901–902 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131901b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131901b0