Issue 61

28 April - 11 May 1998

Living separate lives

PMS Blackett: Science and politics in twentieth century Britain

Over 100 people attended a two-day conference earlier this month to commemorate the life and work of P.M.S. Blackett, on the 101st anniversary of his birth and the 50th anniversary of his Nobel Prize.

Arranged by the Department of Physics and the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, the conference was a joint venture between the British Society for the History of Science, the Royal Society, the Operational Research Society, and the University of Manchester, a list testifying to Blackett’s multifaceted involvement in twentieth century British science.

Blackett was unusual among British scientists and socialists in that he had been a career naval officer in his youth. After more than a decade at Cambridge as a student and member of staff he headed the departments of physics at Birkbeck (1933-37) and Manchester (1937-1953), before moving to Imperial, where he was head of department until 1964. In the 1960s he was president of the Royal Society, and scientific adviser to the Ministry of Technology.

The conference was unusual in that most of the speakers either knew Blackett well or had met him at least once, if only as a child. From the Manchester and Imperial years we heard Sir Bernard Lovell, Sir Arnold Wolfendale, Harry Elliot, Ted Irving, and through Tom Kibble, who of course also knew Blackett, Sir Clifford Butler (who was unfortunately unable to be present).

The historian Sir Michael Howard recalled Blackett’s involvement in the emergent strategic studies community of the 1950s, and Tony Benn invoked Blackett the socialist scientist who was his scientific adviser as Minister of Technology in the 1960s. David Edgerton gave an overview of Blackett’s presences and absences in the history of twentieth century British science.

The Blackett that emerged was a figure with an extraordinary range of commitments and interests. Fifty years ago, in 1948, Blackett not only won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the positive electron, but also published a highly controversial book attacking the building of British nuclear weapons. He also announced his seeming discovery of a fundamental law of nature, causing the press to compare him to Newton and Einstein.

Another key theme were the apparent contradictions in Blackett’s life: he insisted on the importance of pure science, but nevertheless argued for the unity of pure and applied research; and as a left wing strategic thinker he kept his distance from CND.

Blackett seems to have been a rather distant figure who lived many separate lives, each of which touched on important aspects of the history of twentieth century Britain.