" SCIENCE AND SOCIETY "
SIR,—The article by Dr. Douglas McKie in your issue of February 22nd lays undue emphasis on the share which Great Britain has had in the development of the practical use of scientific discovery. British scientists are pre-eminent in their record of fundamental discoveries in science, and especially in physics. Dr. McKie refers to the work of J. j. Thomson and Rutherford in its relation to the use of atomic energy, but far too little notice has been taken of the work of Sir James Chadwick, possibly because he is still alive. It was he who discovered the existence of the neutron, a discovery which earned him the Nobel Prize, and which was fundamental in the later experiments on nuclear fission. It is not too much to say. that without the discovery of the combination, in the neutron, of the proton and the electron in a manner different from that of the hydrogen atom, the breaking-up of the uranium 235 nucleus could not have been accomplished. The discovery of the neutron is almost as important as that of the electron itself, It has been the failure, in the past, of Great Britain to encourage a study of the application of fundamental scientific discoveries that has led to our having been outstripped in their application to practical use.—Yours
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