Sir William Lawrence Bragg, CH, OBE, MC, FRS (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an English physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 with his father Sir William Henry Bragg. He was the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge when the epochal discovery of the structure of DNA was made by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in February 1953.
Bragg was born in North Adelaide, South Australia. He was an impressionable boy and showe...
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Sir William Lawrence Bragg, CH, OBE, MC, FRS (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an English physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 with his father Sir William Henry Bragg. He was the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge when the epochal discovery of the structure of DNA was made by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in February 1953.
Bragg was born in North Adelaide, South Australia. He was an impressionable boy and showed an early interest in science and mathematics. His father, William Henry Bragg, was Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Adelaide. Shortly after starting school aged 5, William Lawrence Bragg fell from his tricycle and broke his arm. His father had recently read about Röntgen's experiments in Europe and used the newly discovered X-rays to examine the broken arm. This is the first recorded surgical use of X-rays in Australia.
Bragg was a very able student. After beginning his studies at St Peter's College, in 1904 he went...
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