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BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: Bonhams/BNPS
Aston (Back, left) with fellow boffins at Cambridge including Ernest Rutherford.
British Nobel prize that led to the Atomic bomb.
The Nobel Prize awarded to a British chemist Francis William Aston for a scientific breakthrough that laid the groundwork for the nuclear age has emerged for sale for a staggering £400,000.
The 23-carat gold medal was handed to Aston in 1922 upon his discovery of isotopes - atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons.
Aston's success was in part due to his creation of the 'mass spectograph' - a piece of apparatus that measured atoms, molecules and ions and sorted them by their mass - said to be one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.
His groundbreaking work is today used in carbon dating, forensics, drug testing in sport, managing supply of anaesthetic and finding environmental toxins in food and water supplies.
Aston's Nobel Prize is now being sold among an archive of eight other medals, photographs and personal letters at London auction house Bonhams.
Pic: Bonhams/BNPS
Aston (Back, left) with fellow boffins at Cambridge including Ernest Rutherford.
British Nobel prize that led to the Atomic bomb.
The Nobel Prize awarded to a British chemist Francis William Aston for a scientific breakthrough that laid the groundwork for the nuclear age has emerged for sale for a staggering £400,000.
The 23-carat gold medal was handed to Aston in 1922 upon his discovery of isotopes - atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons.
Aston's success was in part due to his creation of the 'mass spectograph' - a piece of apparatus that measured atoms, molecules and ions and sorted them by their mass - said to be one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.
His groundbreaking work is today used in carbon dating, forensics, drug testing in sport, managing supply of anaesthetic and finding environmental toxins in food and water supplies.
Aston's Nobel Prize is now being sold among an archive of eight other medals, photographs and personal letters at London auction house Bonhams.
©Bonhams 19 May 2016 5337x3428 / 1.7MB