Neutron scattering has become a key technique for investigating the properties of materials
on an atomic scale. The uniqueness of this method is based on the fact that the wavelength
and energy of thermal neutrons ideally match interatomic distances and excitation energies
in condensed matter, and thus neutron scattering is able to directly examine the static and
dynamic properties of the material. In addition, neutrons carry a magnetic moment, which
makes them a unique probe for detecting magnetic phenomena. In this important book, an …

Since its discovery 50 years ago, the neutron has commanded public attention and respect.
As an intermediary in nuclear fission, it is woven into the political fabric of modern life and
seems destined to remain so. But the neutron plays many other, less prominent and
controversial roles as well. It has, for example, technological applications in fields as diverse
as logging oil wells, detecting art forgeries and doping electronic semiconductor materials,
as D. Allan Bromley has reviewed in these pages.