John Edwin Field. 20 September 1936—21 October 2020

John Field was a brilliant experimental physicist who made major contributions to the physics and chemistry of solids. His research interests spanned a very wide range of topics, most of them involving energetic phenomena. These areas included the strength properties of solids, fracture growth, impact and erosion phenomena, shock physics, reactivity of solids, explosive initiation, lasers, acoustics and medical physics. Within the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group in the Cavendish Laboratory, he developed the best-equipped high-speed camera facility in any university in Europe, including seven that achieved frame rates in excess of 10 6 frames per second. In addition to the cameras, extensive use was made of ultrasonics, optical and electron microscopy, mass spectroscopy and thermal techniques. He played an important national role in advising the Ministry of Defence on a wide range of topics in energetic phenomena and materials science, which led to practical engineering solutions. He was an outstanding supervisor of doctoral students, who remember him fondly.

The Discovery of the First Exoplanet Orbiting a Solar-Type Star

Didier Queloz is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory (University of Cambridge) and Geneva University. He was jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star”. In the first part of his conversation with Mejd Alsari he discusses the impact of his 1995 discovery on the theory of planetary systems formation.

A Dispute Between the Cavendish and Caltech: The Emergence and Ubiquity of the α‎-Helix

Bragg, Kendrew, and Perutz at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, published in 1950 proposals for the nature of the folding of the constituents (the amino acid residues) of proteins such as keratin, the constituent of hair and wool. Almost immediately, Pauling and Corey at the California Institute of Technology published a series of strong critical articles, in which they repudiated the model proposed by the Cambridge trio. Also, they proposed a new motif for the structure of proteins—the so-called alpha-helix. Its nature and importance are described herein, and its subsequent validity (demonstrated by Kendrew at the Cavendish Laboratory and Phillips et al. at the DFRL) was demonstrated by the work done in the United Kingdom on the X-ray studies of the oxygen-storage protein myoglobin and on the enzyme known as lysozyme found in egg white and in human tears.

The Summing Up: The Astonishing Successes of the LMB and the Dawn of a New Structural Biological Era

The contrast between the related pre-World War II attitudes to scientific research and those of the current era are described and how this affects modern research. There follows a summary of the numerous major achievements in advanced research conducted at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) from its existence as a biological unit at the Cavendish Laboratory from 1957 onwards. The impressive commercial successes of the LMB, made possible by recent changes in the policy of the Medical Research Council, are also outlined. The second half of the chapter describes the arrival, importance, and immense potential of electron cryo-microscopy (which is described in a non-technical manner) in structural molecular biology, with examples drawn from the study of neurodegenerative diseases and other areas of biology.

Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Peterhouse, and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory

The accidental way in which Perutz and Kendrew met and the influence of the brilliant, versatile physicist J. D. Bernal upon them and on the third Nobel Laureate chemist Dorothy Hodgkin are described. Perutz and Kendrew, each a member of Peterhouse (a Cambridge College), were also guided by W. L. Bragg of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and later at the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, London where, in 1953, they became visiting scientists and adept in the popularization of science. The founding of the new subject of molecular biology and the objection to it by some biologists are outlined. The joint efforts of Perutz and Kendrew in establishing two new major research centres—the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg—is outlined. A brief trajectory of their initial work on haemoglobin is also given.

Contributions of Cambridge College Life to Structural Biology: Peterhouse as an Exemplar

How does university life add depth and quality and also opportunity to professional research? This is the key question discussed in this chapter. In answering it, the pre-eminent work of Aaron Klug and his cross-fertilizing interactions with his colleagues in the Cambridge College Peterhouse are analysed. Klug, who won the Chemistry Nobel Prize outright, made many revolutionary discoveries in structural molecular biology, especially the determination of the structure of viruses. He also devised new techniques in electron microscopy that are now of great importance in present-day research in molecular biology. Klug’s indebtedness to colleagues of Peterhouse, including Kendrew and Perutz, and his early mentor at the Cavendish Laboratory Lawrence Bragg, as well as a brief account of the current research pursued by members of Peterhouse and the famous confrontation in 1952 between Erwin Chargaff and Crick and Watson are also described.

William James Stirling CBE. 4 February 1953—9 November 2018

James Stirling's wide-ranging contributions to the development and application of quantum chromodynamics were central in verifying QCD as the correct theory of strong interactions, and in computing precise predictions for all types of collider processes. He published more than 300 papers on a vast range of phenomenological topics, including some of the most highly cited of all time in particle physics. His research, always full of insight, focused on the confrontation of theoretical predictions with experimental results. Amongst many key contributions, he developed the helicity amplitude method and used it to show that the CERN ‘monojet’ events, thought to be a possible signal of new physics, were due to vector boson plus jet production. The method has since facilitated the calculation of many other important processes. At Durham he formed a famous long-standing collaboration that set the standard for determining the quark and gluon distributions in the proton. Besides his intellectual brilliance, his personal qualities of humility, modesty, diligence and fairness made him an outstanding scientific leader and administrator. He played a major role in the foundation of the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology in Durham and served as its first Director. In 2005 he was appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Durham. He moved to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 2008, becoming Head of the Department of Physics in 2011. Then in 2013 he was appointed to the newly created position of Provost, the chief academic officer, at Imperial College, London, from which he retired in August 2018.

The museum in the lab: historical practice in the experimental sciences at Cambridge, 1874–1936

This paper explores the hoarding, collecting and occasional display of old apparatus in new laboratories. The first section uses a 1936 exhibition of Cambridge's scientific relics as a jumping-off point to survey the range of historical practices in the various Cambridge laboratories. This panoramic approach is intended to show the variety and complexity of pasts that scientists had used material to conjure in the years prior to the exhibition. Commerce and commemoration emerge as two key themes. The second part turns to the Cavendish Laboratory (experimental physics) to explore the highly specific senses of time and memorialization at play in the early years of the laboratory (c.1874–1910), and the way these were transformed over the subsequent generations leading up to the 1936 moment. The key figure here is James Clerk Maxwell, whose turn to history involved a mix of antiquarianism and modernism. The paper concludes with an attempt to characterize the meanings and significances of ‘the museum in the lab’. This phenomenon ought to be understood in terms of the wide range of ‘collections’ present in laboratory spaces.

The two Tabors

The book contains three autobiographical chapters, one from each of the authors. In this one Andrew Briggs (A.B.) presents some of his experiences. Professor David Tabor was an important scientific and personal influence on A.B. in his doctoral work at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. A visit to Mount Tabor in Israel gave a memorable opportunity for reflection on the connection between spiritual matters and physical, geographical matters. Another important influence was the humble Christian and great nineteenth-century physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell had a verse from Psalm 111 inscribed over the doors of the Cavendish laboratory. When the laboratory was moved into new premises, A.B. asked whether the inscription could be included. This was agreed by the relevant committee. It reads: ‘The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein’: a lovely motto for scientists.