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In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics—the laws of thermodynamics, in particular—and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> While most of his proposals - "to abandon the [[gold standard]], let international [[exchange rate]]s float, use federal [[deficit spending|surpluses and deficits]] as [[Macroeconomic policy instruments|macroeconomic policy tools]] that could counter [[Business cycle|cyclical trends]], and establish bureaus of [[economic statistics]] (including a [[consumer price index]]) in order to facilitate this effort" - are now conventional practice, his critique of [[fractional-reserve banking]] still "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom".<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks of fossil fuels. Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism of economic growth is echoed by his intellectual heirs in the now emergent field of [[ecological economics]].<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref>
In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics—the laws of thermodynamics, in particular—and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> While most of his proposals - "to abandon the [[gold standard]], let international [[exchange rate]]s float, use federal [[deficit spending|surpluses and deficits]] as [[Macroeconomic policy instruments|macroeconomic policy tools]] that could counter [[Business cycle|cyclical trends]], and establish bureaus of [[economic statistics]] (including a [[consumer price index]]) in order to facilitate this effort" - are now conventional practice, his critique of [[fractional-reserve banking]] still "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom".<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref> Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks of fossil fuels. Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism of economic growth is echoed by his intellectual heirs in the now emergent field of [[ecological economics]].<ref>[[Eric Zencey]]: ''[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12zencey.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy].'' In: ''[[The New York Times]].'' April 12, 2009</ref>


He rediscovered the [[Descartes' theorem]] in 1936 and published it as a poem. The kissing circles in this problem are sometimes known as '''Soddy circles'''.
He rediscovered the [[Descartes' theorem]] in 1936 and published it as a poem, "The Kiss Precise", quoted at [[Problem of Apollonius#kiss_precise|Problem of Apollonius]]. The kissing circles in this problem are sometimes known as '''Soddy circles'''.


Soddy married Winifred Beilby, the daughter of Sir [[George Beilby]], in 1908. He died in [[Brighton, England]] in 1956.
Soddy married Winifred Beilby, the daughter of Sir [[George Beilby]], in 1908. He died in [[Brighton, England]] in 1956.

Revision as of 04:31, 23 January 2014

Frederick Soddy
Born(1877-09-02)2 September 1877
Eastbourne, Sussex, England
Died22 September 1956(1956-09-22) (aged 79)
Brighton, Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materAberystwyth University
Merton College, Oxford
Known forNuclear transmutation of radioelements
Radioisotopes
Coining the term isotope
Energy in economics
Soddy's hexlet
Soddy circles
AwardsNobel Prize for Chemistry (1921)
Lunar crater Soddy
Scientific career
FieldsRadiochemistry, Economics
InstitutionsMcGill University (1900-1903)
University of Glasgow (1904-1914)
University of Aberdeen (1914-1919)
Oxford University (1919-1936)
Academic advisorsErnest Rutherford
Doctoral studentsSatoyasu Iimori

Frederick Soddy (2 September 1877 – 22 September 1956) was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also proved the existence of isotopes of certain radioactive elements.

Biography

Soddy was born at 5 Bolton Road, Eastbourne, England. He went to school at Eastbourne College, before going on to study at University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and at Merton College, Oxford. He was a researcher at Oxford from 1898 to 1900.

In 1900 he became a demonstrator in chemistry at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he worked with Ernest Rutherford on radioactivity. He and Rutherford realized that the anomalous behaviour of radioactive elements was because they decayed into other elements. This decay also produced alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. When radioactivity was first discovered, no one was sure what the cause was. It needed careful work by Soddy and Rutherford to prove that atomic transmutation was in fact occurring.

In 1903, with Sir William Ramsay at University College London, Soddy verified that the decay of radium produced alpha particles composed of positively charged nuclei of helium. In the experiment a sample of radium was enclosed in a thin walled glass envelope sited within an evacuated glass bulb. Alpha particles could pass through the thin glass wall but were contained within the surrounding glass envelope. After leaving the experiment running for a long period of time a spectral analysis of the contents of the former evacuated space revealed the presence of helium. This element had recently been discovered in the solar spectrum by Bunsen and Kirchoff.[1]

From 1904 to 1914, Soddy was a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and while there he showed that uranium decays to radium. It was here also that he showed that a radioactive element may have more than one atomic mass though the chemical properties are identical. He named this concept isotope meaning 'same place' - the word 'isotope' was initially suggested to him by Margaret Todd. Later, J.J. Thomson showed that non-radioactive elements can also have multiple isotopes.

In 1913, Soddy also showed that an atom moves lower in atomic number by two places on alpha emission, higher by one place on beta emission. This was discovered at about the same time by Kazimierz Fajans, and is known as the radioactive displacement law of Fajans and Soddy, a fundamental step toward understanding the relationships among families of radioactive elements. Soddy published The Interpretation of Radium (1909) and Atomic Transmutation (1953).

In May 1910 Soddy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society [2] In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at the University of Aberdeen, where he worked on research related to World War I. In 1919 he moved to Oxford University as Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes.

His work and essays popularising the new understanding of radioactivity was the main inspiration for H. G. Wells's The World Set Free (1914), which features atomic bombs dropped from biplanes in a war set many years in the future. Wells's novel is also known as The Last War and imagines a peaceful world emerging from the chaos. In Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt Soddy praises Wells’s The World Set Free. He also says that radioactive processes probably power the stars.

In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",[3] offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics—the laws of thermodynamics, in particular—and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".[4] While most of his proposals - "to abandon the gold standard, let international exchange rates float, use federal surpluses and deficits as macroeconomic policy tools that could counter cyclical trends, and establish bureaus of economic statistics (including a consumer price index) in order to facilitate this effort" - are now conventional practice, his critique of fractional-reserve banking still "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom".[5] Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks of fossil fuels. Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism of economic growth is echoed by his intellectual heirs in the now emergent field of ecological economics.[6]

He rediscovered the Descartes' theorem in 1936 and published it as a poem, "The Kiss Precise", quoted at Problem of Apollonius. The kissing circles in this problem are sometimes known as Soddy circles.

Soddy married Winifred Beilby, the daughter of Sir George Beilby, in 1908. He died in Brighton, England in 1956.

Honours and awards

He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1921 and the same year he was elected member of the International Atomic Weights Committee. A small crater on the far side of the Moon as well as the radioactive Uranium mineral Soddyite are named after him.[7]

Bibliography

See also

Notes

  1. ^ William Ramsay; Frederick Soddy (1903 – 1904). "Experiments in Radioactivity, and the Production of Helium from Radium". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 72 (477–486): 204–207. doi:10.1098/rspl.1903.0040. JSTOR 116464. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Library and Archive". Royal Society. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  3. ^ Eric Zencey: Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy. In: The New York Times. April 12, 2009
  4. ^ Eric Zencey: Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy. In: The New York Times. April 12, 2009
  5. ^ Eric Zencey: Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy. In: The New York Times. April 12, 2009
  6. ^ Eric Zencey: Mr. Soddy’s Ecological Economy. In: The New York Times. April 12, 2009
  7. ^ Soddyite Mineral Data

References

  • Mansel Davies (1992). "Frederick Soddy: The scientist as prophet". Annals of Science. 49 (4): 351–367. doi:10.1080/00033799200200301.
  • George B. Kauffman (1997). "The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment". Isis. 88 (3): 564. doi:10.1086/383825. JSTOR 236207.
  • Daly, Herman E. Winter (1980). "The economic thought of Frederick Soddy". History of Political Economy. 12 (4): 469–488. doi:10.1215/00182702-12-4-469.
  • Freeman M. I. (1979). "Soddy, Frederick and the Practical Significance of Radioactive Matter". British Journal for the History of Science. 12 (42): 257–260. doi:10.1017/S0007087400017313.
  • Richard E. Sclove (1989). "From Alchemy to Atomic War: Frederick Soddy's "Technology Assessment" of Atomic Energy, 1900-1915". Science, Technology, & Human Values. 14 (2): 163. doi:10.1177/016224398901400203. JSTOR 690079., pp. 163–194
  • Linda Merricks (1996). The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. p. 223. ISBN 0-19-855934-8.
  • A. N. Krivomazov (1978). Frederick Soddy: 1877-1956. Moscow: Nauka. p. 208.
  • George B. Kauffman (1986). Frederick Soddy (1877-1956): Early Pioneer in Radiochemistry (Chemists and Chemistry). Dordrecht; Boston; Hingham: D. Reidel Pub. Co. p. 272. ISBN 978-90-277-1926-3.

External links

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