674 



NA TURE 



[November 18, 1922 



highly indebted, and myself more than any one else. 

 He gave me all that a younger partner can give 

 to the older one. He took an enthusiastic part in the 

 development of the Leyden laboratory, where he was 

 to take over my part of the work. The plans for 

 the extension of the laboratory in which he had all 

 the time worked in a very disadvantageous location, 

 were all made in conjunction with him. It is a great 

 pity that he has been taken away before the beautiful 

 new buildings for his department could be opened. 

 We had both assisted in the preliminary dedication by 

 putting, according to local use, the flag on the roof. 



His many - sidedness made him spread widely the 

 benefits of science and of its culture. He wrote, e.g., 

 an extensive and most interesting history of the 

 development of physics in Holland during the last 

 150 years. 



The main part of Kuenen's work lies in thermo- 

 dynamics. He wrote many papers on it and also 

 lucid and comprehensive books treating the equation 

 of state and the equilibrium of liquid and gaseous 

 phases of mixtures. By his masterly repetition 

 of Galitzine's experiments he much aided science, 

 proving that they could be explained by the influence 

 of small admixtures. 



Thegreatachievement of Kuenen was his fundamental 

 work on gaseous mixtures. He was the first to fill 

 out experimentally for a complete series of mixtures 

 of two gaseous substances in different proportions, a 

 surface diagram that can be considered as the analogue 

 of Andrews' line diagram for a single substance. 

 The genius of van der Waals, then depressed by deep 

 mourning, took a new flight when he was asked to 

 work out in connexion with Kuenen's measurements 

 his theory of binary mixtures given before only in 

 sketch. Kuenen discovered then retrograde condensa- 

 tion, and from van der Waals' more extended theory 

 deduced a complete explanation of this process. I 



still hold in vivid remembrance how Kuenen, putting in 

 action his magnetic stirrer, the simple but fundamental 

 contrivance by which he succeeded in eliminating re- 

 tardation, had the satisfaction of demonstrating to van 

 der Waals the retrograde condensation, and of seeing 

 van der Waals looking in deep reflection at the beautiful 

 phenomenon, which at once put his theory beyond any 

 doubt. An admirable interaction of Kuenen's experi- 

 ments and van der Waals' deductions followed. 



Kuenen's discovery of mixtures with minimum 

 critical temperatures and maximum vapour pressures 

 led to many important discussions on the properties 

 of the transversal plait on the free energy surface for 

 the mixtures. A happy extension of his research, 

 partly with Robson, was the study of different pairs 

 of substances, which are not miscible in all proportions 

 in the liquid state. It brought experimental material 

 for the investigation of the longitudinal plait in con- 

 nexion with the transverse one, where the theory of 

 plaits of Korteweg had to be combined with van der 

 Waals' theory, forming an imposing whole, that 

 showed the way in what seemed once a labyrinth. 

 A posthumous work of Kuenen with Verschoyle and 

 van Urk continuing the work with Prof. Clark on the 

 retrograde condensation of mixtures of oxygen and 

 nitrogen makes the last as well as the first of his papers 

 belong to his great life-work. Kuenen leaves in- 

 corporated in science a diversity of images systematising 

 in the light of theory the full life of concrete facts in 

 a wide domain and constituting a lasting monument 

 to his genius. H. Kamerlingh Onnes. 



Dr. Albert A. Sturley, instructor in physics at 

 Yale University, and formerly professor of physics in 

 the University of King's College. Windsor, Nova Scotia, 

 died in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., on October 

 22, at the age of thirty-five years. 



Current Topics and Events. 



H.M. the King has. approved of the following 

 awards this year by the president and council of the 

 Royal Society : A Royal medal to Mr. C. T. R. 

 Wilson, for his researches on condensation nuclei 

 and atmospheric electricity ; and a Royal medal to 

 Mr. J. Barcroft, for his researches in physiology, and 

 especially for his work in connexion with respiration. 

 The following awards have also been made by the 

 president and council : The Copley medal to Sir 

 Ernest Rutherford, for his researches in radioactivity 

 and atomic structure ; the Rumford medal to Prof. 

 Pieter Zeeman, for his researches in optics ; the Davy 

 medal to Prof. J. F. Thorpe, for his researches in 

 synthetic organic chemistry ; the Darwin medal to 

 Prof. R. C. Punnett, for his researches in the science 

 of genetics ; the Buchanan medal to Sir David 

 Bruce, for his researches and discoveries in tropical 

 medicine ; the Sylvester medal to Prof. T. Levi- 

 Civita, for his researches in geometry and mechanics ; 

 and the Hughes medal to Dr. F. W. Aston, for his 

 discovery of isotopes of a large number of the elements 

 by the method of positive rays. 



no. 2768, VOL. I ro] 



The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stock- 

 holm, has awarded the Nobel prizes for physics and 

 chemistry for 1921 and 1922 as follows : Physics, 

 192 1, Prof. Albert Einstein, Berlin, for his theory 

 of relativity and general work in physics ; 1922, 

 Prof. Niels Bohr, Copenhagen, for his researches on the 

 structure of atoms and radiation. Chemistry, 1921, 

 Prof. F. Soddy, Oxford, for his contributions to 

 the knowledge of the chemistry of the radioactive 

 elements and the nature of isotopes ; 1922, Dr. F. W. 

 Aston, Cambridge, for his investigations of elements 

 and isotopes with the mass-spectrograph. The Nobel 

 prize for medicine is reserved for next year, and that 

 for peace will be announced on December 10, the 

 anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, when the 

 prizes will be presented by the King of Sweden. 



The well-known periodical, Curtis' s Botanical 

 i.' 1 izine, which appeared regularly from its founda- 

 tion in 1787 until the end of 1920, has now fortunately 

 reappeared under new auspices. The first part of 

 Volume 148 has just been published by Messrs. H. F. 



