Blackett, Patrick Maynard Stuart (1897-1974)

English physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for work in cosmic radiation and his perfection of the Wilson cloud chamber, an apparatus for tracking ionized particles, with which he confirmed the existence of positrons.

Blackett was born in Croydon, Surrey, and joined the navy in 1912; after World War I, he studied science at Cambridge. He held posts at various British academic institutions.

In 1924, working under physicist Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge, Blackett made the first photograph of an atomic transmutation, which was of nitrogen into an oxygen isotope. He continued to develop the cloud chamber and in 1932 designed one where photographs of cosmic rays were taken automatically. Later he discovered particles with a lifespan of 10−10 sec, which became known as strange particles.

In the 1950s he turned to the study of rock magnetism. He was made a life peer in 1969.