Editing Frederick Soddy (section)

== Scientific career ==
In 1900, he became a demonstrator in [[chemistry]] at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], where he worked with [[Ernest Rutherford]] on [[radioactivity]].<ref>{{cite book | title=13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything | author=John Gribbin | publisher=Icon Books | place=London | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-84831-918-9}}</ref><ref name=Nobel/>
He and Rutherford realized that the anomalous behaviour of radioactive elements was because they [[radioactive decay|decayed]] into other elements.
This decay also produced [[alpha ray|alpha]], [[beta ray|beta]], and [[gamma ray|gamma radiation]]. When radioactivity was first discovered, no one was sure what the cause was. It needed careful work by Soddy and Rutherford to prove that atomic [[Nuclear transmutation|transmutation]] was in fact occurring.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Trenn |first1=Thaddeus J. |last2=Stuewer |first2=Roger H. |date=1978-09-01 |title=The Self – Splitting Atom : The History of the Rutherford – Soddy Collaboration |url=https://pubs.aip.org/ajp/article/46/9/960/1041096/The-Self-Splitting-Atom-The-History-of-the |journal=American Journal of Physics |language=en |volume=46 |issue=9 |pages=960 |doi=10.1119/1.11543 |bibcode=1978AmJPh..46..960T |issn=0002-9505}}</ref>

In 1903, with Sir [[William Ramsay]] at [[University College London]], Soddy showed that the decay of [[radium]] produced [[helium]] gas.<ref name=Nobel/> In the experiment a sample of radium was enclosed in a thin-walled glass envelope sited within an evacuated glass bulb. After leaving the experiment running for a long period of time, a spectral analysis of the contents of the former evacuated space revealed the presence of helium.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1098/rspl.1903.0040 |doi-access= |title=Experiments in radioactivity, and the production of helium from radium |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |year=1904 |volume=72 |issue=477–486 |pages=204–207 |s2cid=96923410 }}</ref> Later in 1907, Rutherford and [[Thomas Royds]] showed that the helium was first formed as positively charged nuclei of helium (He<sup>2+</sup>) which were identical to [[alpha particle]]s, which could pass through the thin glass wall but were contained within the surrounding glass envelope.<ref>*[http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/royds.html Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Royds (1909). "The Nature of the α Particle from Radioactive Substances". ''Philosophical Magazine''.'''17'''.281]</ref>

From 1904 to 1914, Soddy was a lecturer at the [[University of Glasgow]]. [[Ruth Pirret]] worked as his research assistant during this time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pirret|first1=Ruth|last2=Soddy|first2=Frederick|date=1911|title=LXXVII. The ratio between uranium and radium in minerals. II|journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science|volume=21|issue=125|pages=652–658|doi=10.1080/14786440508637078|issn=1941-5982|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2509261}}</ref> In May 1910 Soddy was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref name="frs"/> In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at the [[University of Aberdeen]], where he worked on research related to [[World War I]].

In 1913, Soddy showed that an atom moves lower in [[atomic number]] by two places on alpha emission, higher by one place on beta emission. This was discovered at about the same time by [[Kazimierz Fajans]], and is known as the [[radioactive displacement law of Fajans and Soddy]], a fundamental step toward understanding the relationships among families of radioactive elements. In 1913 Soddy also described the phenomenon in which a radioactive element may have more than one [[atomic mass]] though the chemical properties are identical. He named this concept [[isotope]] meaning "same place".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Soddy|first=Frederick|date=1913|title=Intra-atomic Charge|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/092399c0|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=92|issue=2301|pages=399–400|doi=10.1038/092399c0|bibcode=1913Natur..92..399S |s2cid=3965303 |issn=1476-4687}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Giunta|first=Carmen|date=2017|title=Isotopes: Identifying the Breakthrough Publication|url=http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v42-2/v42-2%20p103-111.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721020025/http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v42-2/v42-2%20p103-111.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-21 |url-status=live|journal=Bulletin for the History of Chemistry|language=en|volume=42|issue=2|pages=103–111|doi=|issn=}}</ref> The word was initially suggested to him by [[Margaret Todd (doctor)|Margaret Todd]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Britton|first=Kate|date=August 2017|title=Archaeological Futures: A stable relationship: isotopes and bioarchaeology are in it for the long haul|journal=Antiquity|volume=91|issue=358|pages=853–864|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.98|issn=0003-598X|hdl-access=free|hdl=2164/8892|s2cid=164265353 }}</ref> Later, [[J. J. Thomson]] showed that non-radioactive elements can also have multiple isotopes.

The work that Soddy and his research assistant [[Ada Hitchins]] did at Glasgow and Aberdeen showed that [[uranium]] decays to [[radium]].<ref name="Ionium">{{cite journal|last1=Soddy|first1=Frederick|last2=Hitchins|first2= A. F. R.|title=XVII. The relation between uranium and radium.—Part VI. The life-period of ionium|journal=Philosophical Magazine|series=6|date=August 1915|volume=30|issue=176|pages=209–219|doi=10.1080/14786440808635387|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430828}}</ref><ref name="ThoriumLead">{{cite journal|last=Soddy|first=Frederick|title=The Atomic Weight of "Thorium" Lead|journal=Nature|date=15 February 1917|volume=98|issue=2468|pages=469|doi=10.1038/098469a0|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=Soddy%20Hitchins;id=mdp.39015038751890;view=plaintext;seq=793;start=1;size=10;page=search;num=469|access-date=12 April 2014|bibcode=1917Natur..98Q.469S|s2cid=3979761|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Soddy published [[iarchive:interpretationof00sodd|''The Interpretation of Radium'']] (1909) and ''Atomic Transmutation'' (1953).

In 1918, working with the Scottish scientist [[John Arnold Cranston]], he announced the discovery of an isotope of the element later named [[protactinium]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Soddy|first1=Frederick|last2=Cranston|first2=John A.|date=1918-06-01|title=The parent of actinium|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character|volume=94|issue=662|pages=384–404|doi=10.1098/rspa.1918.0025|bibcode=1918RSPSA..94..384S |doi-access=free}}</ref> This slightly post-dated its discovery by the Germans [[Lise Meitner]] and [[Otto Hahn]]; however, it is said their discovery was actually made in 1915 but its announcement was delayed due to Cranston's notes being locked away whilst on active service in the [[First World War]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH3023&type=P | title=University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of John Arnold Cranston | access-date=28 November 2015 | archive-date=11 March 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200311015550/http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH3023&type=P | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1919, he moved to the University of Oxford as the first [[Dr Lee's Professorships|Dr. Lee's Professor]] of Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry.  He received the 1921 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes.

His work and essays popularising the new understanding of radioactivity was the main inspiration for [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The World Set Free]]'' (1914), which features atomic bombs dropped from biplanes in a war set many years in the future. Wells's novel is also known as ''The Last War'' and imagines a peaceful world emerging from the chaos. In ''[[Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt]]'' Soddy praises Wells's ''The World Set Free''. He also says that radioactive processes probably power the stars.