The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Small Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the Race to Split the Atom [Hardcover]

'A compelling, multilayered account of Cockcroft and Walton’s great struggle'

'Brian Cathcart tells this exhilarating story with both verve and precision'

'Engrossing … I greatly enjoyed it'

'A fascinating book'

Three quarters of a century ago, no one, not even the great Lord Rutherford (who discovered it), could describe the atomic nucleus. No theory was possible until it could be tamed experimentally and no satisfactory experiment seemed possible because it guarded its secrets so fiercely. And then, just at the point of despair, two young researchers at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge came along and, with paper-and-pencil calculations, hand-made apparatus and the occasional lump of plasticine, changed everything, egged on by Rutherford. This book tells the inspiring story behind the "miracle year" of British physics - 1932 - the atom was split, the neutron discovered and nuclear science born.

Born and educated in Ireland, Brian Cathcart was Reuters correspondent before joining the Independent on Sunday. He has written four previous books: Test of Greatness: Britain's Struggle for the Atom Bomb (1994), Were You Still Up for Portillo? (1997), The Case of Stephen Lawrence (1999), which won the Orwell Prize and the Crime Writers' Association Award for Non-Fiction, and Jill Dando (2001). Brian Cathcart lives in North London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.