Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

New Zealanders and Science

4 Later Scientists

4 Later Scientists

The works of individual scientists are so numerous in the more recent period of New Zealand science, that only a brief selection is here possible. Rutherford's own publications are extremely technical, and their greatness can be appreciated only by the trained physicist. They include Radioactivity (Cambridge, 1904), Radioactive Substances and their Radiations (Cambridge, 1913), later revised with the co-operation of J. Chadwick and C. D. Ellis and page 158published as Radiations from Radioactive Substances (Cambridge, 1930), and a lecture, The Newer Alchemy (Cambridge, 1937). There is an excellent biography, Rutherford (Cambridge, 1939), by A. S. Eve, himself a professor of physics at McGill University, and a more popular but inferior book, Man of Power (London, 1939), by Ivor B. N. Evans. Mellor's principal work is A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry (London, 1922-37), a vast and exhaustive work. The lighter side of his nature and his facility as a draughtsman are shown in the delightful humorous reminiscences, Uncle Joe's Nonsense (London, 1934). Cockayne's books on New Zealand botany are well written and illustrated with fine photographs. New Zealand Plants and their Story (2nd ed., Wellington, 1919), Vegetation of New Zealand (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1928), and the Trees of New Zealand (Wellington, 1928), written with E. Phillips Turner, are classics in their subjects. The cosmic theories of Bickerton and their substantiation by Gifford have been widely published in books and scientific periodicals. The most lucid exposition of his theory may be found in Bickerton's The Genesis of Worlds and Systems (Christchurch, 1879), The Romance of the Heavens (London, 1901), The Evidence and Scope of the Theory of Impact (Christchurch, 1905), and The Birth of Worlds and Systems (London, 1911). Gifford's work is found in many scientific publications, including Scientia (Milan, 1919-), January 1927, April 1930, April 1931, September-October 1932, October-November 1934, January 1938, The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology (Wellington, 1918-), and page 159 Southern Stars (Wellington, 1934-). Cotton's main work is the invaluable Geomorphology of New Zealand, Part I: Systematic (Wellington, 1922), but he is also the author of many scientific papers.