The study of atomic structure is among the most important topics in modern physics, and in this age of nuclear fission and fusion the atomic nucleus has top priority as an object of intensive investigation and experimental research. This modern survey, originally published in 1958, presents all the available important facts about the nuclei of atoms in an unusually readable text.

After a clear summary of early theory and experiment in radioactivity, the author devotes chapters to the nuclear model of the atom (Rutherford’s equation, Mendeleyev’s periodic table and nuclear charge, X-ray measurements, Bohr’s theory of excitation, etc.), mass of nuclei (measuring techniques, work of Thomson and Aston, isotopes, nuclear binding energy, methods for separating isotopes, etc.), disintegration of nuclei (Rutherford’s disintegration of nitrogen, Blackett’s work, the neutron, Curie-Joliot experiments, nuclear transformations, etc.), the positron (cosmic rays, Bothe’s experiments, work of Skobeltsyn, birth and death of positrons and electrons, etc.), artificial transformation of nuclei (Cockcroft and Walton, Van de Graaff generators, acceleration of ions, cyclotrons, betatrons, synchrotons, cosmotrons, etc.), artificial radioactivity (Curie, Joliot, Fermi, low-energy neutrons, isomerism, new elements, etc.), mesons (Bethe, radiative loss, showers, Yukawa, types of meson, etc.), the neutrino (Pauli’s theory, K capture, Allen’s experiments, etc.), structure of nuclei, forces acting between nuclear particles, fission, transuranium elements, nuclear chain reactions, reactors, atomic energy and thermonuclear reactions.

This is an extremely accurate, up-to-date, very thorough coverage of these important topics on a verbal level, completely free of nationalistic bias. It does not limit itself to the familiar material in most books on the atom, but presents much material that is not generally known except to specialists in the field. Yet because of its clear non-mathematical treatment, it can be read with full understanding as an introduction or survey for the beginning student and layman; it is also a first-rate summary for the specialist, indicating chains of development that might not have been clear to him, and formulating many difficult concepts in clear language.