Science & technology

Birth of James Chadwick

20 October 1891

James Chadwick was born on 20 October 1891 in Bollington. An English physicist, Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932 while working at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, building on experiments by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie. The discovery explained the mass of atomic nuclei and gave scientists a new tool for splitting atoms, since neutrons carry no electric charge and can penetrate nuclei easily. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935. During the Second World War he headed the British contribution to the Manhattan Project, and later became Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He was knighted in 1945.

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This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.