For Science, King & Country: The Life and Legacy of Henry Moseley
Alan Dronsfield reviews a biography of the talented young researcher who developed the concept of atomic numbers
If I was offered the chance to meet with any chemist from history it would have to be young Henry Moseley, who lived from 1887 to 1915. Moseley was undoubtedly a genius, but was tragically killed in the first world war, and if I could go back in time I would have added my concerns to those of his family and senior research colleagues by pointing out to him that there were ways of securing a British victory other than joining up as a front-line soldier. Had he offered up his undoubted scientific talents to support the war effort as a ‘back-room boffin’, he would have avoided the sniper’s bullet in the ill-conceived Dardanelles campaign of 1915. He was killed during the Battle of Gallipoli on 10 August 1915, aged only 27.