In 1900, he became a demonstrator inchemistry atMcGill University inMontreal,Quebec, where he worked withErnest Rutherford onradioactivity.[9][2]He and Rutherford realized that the anomalous behaviour of radioactive elements was because theydecayed into other elements.This decay also producedalpha,beta, andgamma radiation. When radioactivity was first discovered, no one was sure what the cause was. It needed careful work by Soddy and Rutherford to prove that atomictransmutation was in fact occurring.[10]
In 1903, with SirWilliam Ramsay atUniversity College London, Soddy showed that the decay ofradium producedhelium gas.[2] In the experiment a sample of radium was enclosed in a thin-walled glass envelope sited within an evacuated glass bulb. After leaving the experiment running for a long period of time, a spectral analysis of the contents of the former evacuated space revealed the presence of helium.[11] Later in 1907, Rutherford andThomas Royds showed that the helium was first formed as positively charged nuclei of helium (He2+) which were identical toalpha particles, which could pass through the thin glass wall but were contained within the surrounding glass envelope.[12]
In 1913, Soddy showed that an atom moves lower inatomic number by two places on alpha emission, higher by one place on beta emission. This was discovered at about the same time byKazimierz Fajans, and is known as theradioactive displacement law of Fajans and Soddy, a fundamental step toward understanding the relationships among families of radioactive elements. In 1913 Soddy also described the phenomenon in which a radioactive element may have more than oneatomic mass though the chemical properties are identical. He named this conceptisotope meaning "same place".[14][15] The word was initially suggested to him byMargaret Todd.[16] Later,J. J. Thomson showed that non-radioactive elements can also have multiple isotopes.
In 1918, working with the Scottish scientistJohn Arnold Cranston, he announced the discovery of an isotope of the element later namedprotactinium.[19] This slightly post-dated its discovery by the GermansLise Meitner andOtto Hahn; however, it is said their discovery was actually made in 1915 but its announcement was delayed due to Cranston's notes being locked away whilst on active service in theFirst World War.[20]
In 1919, he moved to the University of Oxford as the firstDr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry. He received the 1921Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes.
In Soddy's 1922 paper "Radioactivity and the Evolution of the World" there is a section on Soddy's belief that knowledge in the form of myths had been passed down to the present day from an ancient, advanced civilisation.[21][22]
His work and essays popularising the new understanding of radioactivity was the main inspiration forH. G. Wells'sThe World Set Free (1914), which features atomic bombs dropped from biplanes in a war set many years in the future. Wells's novel is also known asThe Last War and imagines a peaceful world emerging from the chaos. InWealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt Soddy praises Wells'sThe World Set Free. He also says that radioactive processes probably power the stars.
In four books written from 1921 to 1934, Soddy carried on a "campaign for a radical restructuring of global monetary relationships",[23] offering a perspective on economics rooted in physics – thelaws of thermodynamics, in particular – and was "roundly dismissed as a crank".[23] While most of his proposals – "to abandon thegold standard, let internationalexchange rates float, use federalsurpluses and deficits asmacroeconomic policy tools that could countercyclical trends, and establish bureaus ofeconomic statistics (including aconsumer price index) in order to facilitate this effort" – are now conventional practice, his critique offractional-reserve banking still "remains outside the bounds of conventional wisdom" although a recent paper by theIMF reinvigorated his proposals.[23][24] Soddy wrote that financial debts grew exponentially at compound interest but the real economy was based on exhaustible stocks offossil fuels. Energy obtained from the fossil fuels could not be used again. This criticism ofeconomic growth is echoed by his intellectual heirs in the emergent field ofecological economics.[23]
The influence of his writing can be gauged, for example, in this quote fromEzra Pound:
Professor Frederick Soddy states that the Gold Standard monetary system has wrecked a scientific age! ... The world's bankers ... have not been content to take their share of modern wealth production – great as it has been – but they have refused to allow the masses of mankind to receive theirs.[29]
Though some activists have insubstantially accused Soddy of anti-Semitism, most of his biographers dispute this narrative and argue that among Soddy's friends and students were some Jews who held positive views of him.[5][6]
In 1908, Soddy married Winifred Moller Beilby (1885–1936), the daughter of industrial chemist SirGeorge Beilby and Lady Emma Bielby, a philanthropist to women's causes. The couple worked together and co-published a paper in 1910 on the absorption of gamma rays from radium.[34] He died inBrighton, England in 1956, twenty days after his 79th birthday.[2]
Oliver Sacks' autobiographyUncle Tungsten, in which Soddy, his work and his profound discoveries in atomic physics are extensively discussed and explained in Sacks' insightful and easily understandable language.
^Davies, M. (1992). "Frederick Soddy: The scientist as prophet".Annals of Science.49 (4):351–367.doi:10.1080/00033799200200301.
^Kauffman, G. B. (1997). "Book Review:The World Made New: Frederick Soddy, Science, Politics, and Environment Linda Merricks".Isis.88 (3):564–565.doi:10.1086/383825.
^abGeorge B. Kauffman (1986).Frederick Soddy (1877–1956): Early Pioneer in Radiochemistry (Chemists and Chemistry). Dordrecht; Boston; Hingham: D. Reidel Pub. Co. p. 272.ISBN978-90-277-1926-3.
^"Experiments in radioactivity, and the production of helium from radium".Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.72 (477–486):204–207. 1904.doi:10.1098/rspl.1903.0040.S2CID96923410.
