Page 22 - SASTA Journal 2017

20 SASTA Journal Number 02 / 2017 Collinson & Co. Prize
by building a large cyclotron or particle accelerator, but as the rumblings of war started the U.K. Government wanted to upgrade the country’s defences by improving its radar system that gave an early warning signal of an approaching enemy.
In the late 1930’s radar was quite basic consisting of large unreliable equipment installed along the British coastline. Sir Mark’s group was asked to upgrade its ef ciency and usefulness. In 1940, they developed
the improved version of the magnetron – now used in microwave ovens, amongst other things. The device was portable and for the rst time could be own in planes and was instrumental in the winning of the battle for Britain in World War 2.
However, because the technology was easy to copy
the British Government put out the myth that they had found a secret way to improve pilots eyesight – the eating of carrots. (Carrots were easy to get in wartime England) advertisements during the war promoted the bene ts of carrots for night-time vision, including one that read “carrots keep you healthy and help you see in the blackout”. So, it was hoped to prolong the secret of radar on planes – a good example of Government spin!
As the war progressed a number of scientists in Germany defected to Britain and the U.S., especially those that were of Jewish origin, including Einstein, as staying in Germany was not a good career move for them at the time of the Nazis. Many of these émigrés came with stories of the Germans putting signi cant effort into trying to develop an atomic bomb, and so the race to be the rst to harness the power of the atom began.
One quite brilliant atomic physicist, Otto Frisch, joined Sir Mark in Birmingham. He was an expert in the new eld of nuclear ssion. Sir Mark brought him together with another Jewish German émigré, Rudolf pearls, and their work together led to the writing of a report ‘On the construction of a super bomb’.
The report predicted that not only was U235 a suitable material for nuclear ssion but a chain reaction and bomb of gigantic destruction could be built using it. Sir Mark was the rst person they told about their results and he had to decide what to do with the knowledge. He took their ndings personally to the War Ministry.
Next came a time of intense political and scienti c activity on both sides of the Atlantic. It was realised quite early on that it was not cost effective to duplicate research
and that it was safer to conduct much of it in the United States, and so the Manhattan Project was born in the race to be rst in developing and testing an atomic bomb. This is an interesting story in itself that I will leave to another time.
Like most scientists, Sir Mark was horri ed at the destruction the bomb caused when the newly developed weapon was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While having some pride “...that one’s gadget had worked” he was “...absolutely appalled at what it had done to human beings”, later saying “I have always been an advocate
of peace and had a hatred of war and even the nuclear weapons that I helped to develop. The job was only done because the other side were seeking to be the rst and so the alternative was unthinkable”.
9-10 Amber Washington,
Norwood Morialta High School
Royal Australian Chemical Institute - Chemical Education Group Prize
8 Cameron Coggins & Joshua Woodley,
Emmaus Christian College
The University of Adelaide - Faculty of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences Prize
11-12 Idris Kellermann Williams, Glenunga International
High School
The University of Adelaide - Faculty of Sciences Prize
11-12 Heather Button, Urrbrae Agricultural High School
Oliphant Medal
Alexandra Stephenson, Adelaide Hills Home School Group
Ms Monica Oliphant, prior to announcing the winner of the 2017 Oliphant Trophy, provided a short insight into the life of Sir Mark Oliphant.
“SASTA President, Vanessa Fay, distinguished guests, students, teachers, parents and friends. It is again a great honor and pleasure to be asked to
present the Oliphant Science Award.
As we near Sir Mark’s 116th birthday on 8th October, I thought this time I will talk a little of his Birmingham years as the work he did during that time had quite a large impact on world history.
Sir Mark had spent 10 very happy and productive
years from 1927 to 1936 in research at the Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge working with Lord Rutherford – the person he admired most above everyone else – the Father of Nuclear Physics.
But by 1937 it was time to go out by himself and run
his own laboratory and research, and he received a professorship at Birmingham University in the midlands of England. There he continued his atomic physics research