Lawrence Bragg pushes X-ray crystallography, started in Adelaide by his father William, to help unveil DNA helix
X-ray crystallography work by father and son William and Lawrence Bragg (inset), started at Adelaide University, had important sequels such as the unveiling of DNA. At Cambridge University, Lawrence Bragg helped create a Cavendish Laboratory research group, including Francis Crick and James Watson, who identified DNA’s double helix.
Lawrence Bragg in England in the 20th Century would extend the work with X-rays to reveal atomic structures, started by his father William as Elder professor of mathematics and experimental physics (1896 to 1908) at Adelaide University in South Australia.
Lawrence, who had been tutored by his father at Adelaude University before moving to Cambridge University, shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in prysics with his father "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”.
At 25, the youngest Nobel laureate, Lawrence Bragg received the Military Cross for service in World War I.
In 1919, Lawrence Bragg was appointed Langworthy professor of physics at Victoria University, Manchester. Here he fostered a school of X-ray crystallography devoted mainly to studying of inorganic structures, notably silicates, metals and alloys.
In 1921 at Cambridge, he married Alice Grace Jenny Hopkinson who pursued a successful municipal career. (His grandmother Alice, wife of famous Charles Todd, South Australia's astronomer and meteorologist, telegraphs department superintendent and postmaster general, who named Alice Springs in her honour.)
In 1937, Lawrence Bragg became director of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, but a year later succeeded Ernest Rutherford as Cavendish professor of experimental physics at Cambridge University. Here, he joined the attack upon the structures of the proteins, haemoglobin and myoglobin.
After serving again in World War II, Lawrence started applying X-rays to proteins, and helped create a research group at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory.
The group investigated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Lawrence Bragg oversaw Francis Crick and James Watson, who identified DNA’s double helix. Lawrence Bragg's X-ray crystallography was key to understanding many chemicals, including silicon: the basis of computer chips. DNA unlocked genetic evolution and molecular biology.
In 1954, Lawrence Bragg was appointed to the positions earlier held by his father William at the Royal Institution. At his retirement in 1966 he had seen the subject of X-ray crystallography, pioneered by his father and himself, grow from unveiling the structures of the simplest crystals to that of enormously complicated molecules containing thousands of atoms.
He visited Australia in 1960 and spoke at Adelaide University of the latest triumphs of crystallography. He also received the Hughes, Royal and Copley medals of the Royal Society. He died in 1971.
