ロックフェラー財団とNiels Bohrのサイクロトロン開発
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概要
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The cyclotron was invented and developed in the 1930s as an experimental device for nuclear physics. The Rockefeller Foundation was deeply involved in the construction and operation of cyclotrons, not only in the United States, where this machine was invented, but also in many other countries. The Foundation's grants, however, were designated not for nuclear physics research but for so-called Experimental Biology, a research program launched by Warren Weaver, then the Rockefeller Foundation's Director for the Natural Sciences. One exception to this policy was the funding granted to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In order to justify their new experimental biology program, Weaver and his associates strongly desired the participation of Bohr, a renowned physicist. To accomplish this purpose, they drew Georg Charles von Hevesy, who desired to escape Nazi Germany, to Bohr's laboratory to participate in the experimental biology project in Copenhagen. Their cyclotron was used to produce radioactive isotopes, which were essential to Hevesy's research using isotope tracer techniques. Hence the Foundation made this exception, twice awarding grants to Bohr, who wanted to do nuclear research, for the construction and operation of a cyclotron.
- 2009-06-25