En-Nobeled Britons

This was Britain's year for Nobel Prizes in science. Last week the committee of eminent Swedes, which passes out the $40,588 awards, gave the 1947 physics and chemistry prizes to Sir Edward Victor Appleton and Sir Robert Robinson--both big names in science but little known to the U.S. man in the street.

Pre-Radar. Sir Edward, 55, Secretary of Britain's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is an outstanding authority on radio waves. He is the father of two daughters (Rosalind, 20, dances in the Anglo-Polish Ballet), a detective-story fan, likes golf, his garden and piano, and is a fairly regular churchgoer. Appleton's probings in the upper atmosphere, where he located two layers of ionized gases, resulted in the first use of reflected radio waves to measure the distance of an unseen object. Just in time for World War II, the technique developed into Britain's secret weapon: radar.

Life Chemicals. Sir Robert, 61, an ardent mountain climber and chess player, since 1945 president of Britain's ancient & honorable Royal Society, is an organic chemist whose forte is exploring the intricate compounds found in living organisms. He synthesized the delicate substances which color fruits and flowers. He put together artificial sex hormones more powerful than the natural ones. At present he and his chemist-wife Gertrude Maud, whom he met in a laboratory, are working on the production of synthetic penicillin. Organic chemists admire Sir Robert as a master of laboratory strategy. Biochemists honor him for pioneering in the mysterious chemistry of life.

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