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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Cockcroft
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(1897–1967, kt 1948) Scientist who in 1932 at the *Cavendish Laboratory, together with the Irish physicist Ernest Walton, achieved the first artificial disintegration of an atom by means of accelerated protons. The protons were directed at lithium nuclei with the resulting release of alpha particles (helium nuclei). It was the start of nuclear fission, and Cockcroft was later closely involved with Britain's *nuclear power programme; he became in 1946 the first director of the atomic energy research establishment at Harwell. He and Walton shared the 1951 Nobel prize for physics.
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