Reflections on the discovery of fission

In this article an eminent scientist looks back on the fifty years since the discovery of nuclear fission. Starting with Enrico Fermi's work with neutrons in the 1930s, the author then introduces Neils Bohr's ideas about atomic structure. The puzzle of what happens when uranium was bombarded by neutrons was gradually unravelled. Finally by 1939 it was becoming realised that the uranium nucleus had split in two. Gradually physicists began to speculate on the possibility of harnessing some of the energy stored in the nucleus and on the idea of a chain reaction. As the end of the decade approached, workers in the field combined with military forces to develop a weapon based on this reaction, the Manhatton Project. The author notes how fast an obscure, esoteric piece of physics research, can be taken up into the military and political area. (UK)