How Studying Clouds Led to Radar & The Atomic Bomb
The Impact of Divergent Thinking & Drawing Connections
A strange kind of glory | Atmospheric Phenomena (wordpress.com)
In 1894, Charles Thomas Rees Wilson (C.T.R Wilson), amazed by the cloud glory —colored rings surrounding shadows cast on mist and cloud—, sought to recreate it in a laboratory using a cloud chamber.
After months of experiments, Wilson noticed a few drops reappearing again and again each time he expanded a volume of moist, dust-free air. He hypothesizes radiation might create clouds and fired X-rays through his cloud chamber and created clouds.
In 1911, Charles Wilson took a photograph of his cloud streaks created by X-Rays shot at the droplets. Afterwards, he did more atmospheric science research. Little did he know, his cloud research set off a time bomb.
Cloud chamber images of (a) ionization generated by a cylindrical X-ray beam about 2mm in diameter, passing right to left and (b) magnified tracks of ions formed by X-rays. (From [PDF] The cloud chamber and CTR Wilson's legacy to atmospheric science (google.com).)
Radar:
After studying clouds, Wilson studied lightning, and how it interacted with different objects especially planes. He told his friend, Edward Appleton, of his research.
In 1915, Edward Appleton was researching why the new invention —radio — gives a crackling sound while onboard planes. Using Wilson’s research, he studied how the atmosphere impacted radio communication. Appleton shot radio waves into the atmosphere and discovered a layer which reflected radio waves allowing him to measure distance.
Watson Watt wanted to use radio waves to track storms. Using Appleton’s method, Watt bounced radio waves off storms from two radio transmitters and was able to track storms.
Later, he developed an invention for the British Air Ministry to track enemy planes called Radio Detection and Ranging (Radar).
The Atomic Bomb:
Cloudylabs » The first particles detectors
In 1911, Wilson showed his photo of cloud streaks created by X-Rays to his physicist friend, Ernest Rutherford.
The image depicted radiation ionizing an atom. Rutherford could now see what happens to an atom when it splits leading to more research and inventions in nuclear physics.
The most famous invention was dropped on August 1945 on Hiroshima. The Atomic Bomb was born from atmospheric research.
Divergent Thinking:
Going from Cloud research to radar and nuclear physics is an example of Divergent Thinking. Taking one idea and applying it in other areas.
Divergent Thinking is an essential trait of a Polymath. It forces you to look outwards and see how you can apply one idea in another field. Divergent thinking works well with open-ended situations which require creativity.
If you want to test your divergent knowledge, here’s an online test for Divergent Association Test:
Fast creativity test A quick and objective measure of verbal creativity
https://www.datcreativity.com/
Lastly, here is what scientists have accomplished using Wilson’s research on Clouds & Atmospheric Science:
Studying cosmic rays
Radioactivity & X-Rays
Development of nuclear weapons
Discovery of positron by Carl David Anderson
Discovery the transmutation of atomic nuclei by John Cockcroft and Ernest T. S. Walton.