SODDY, FREDERICK (1877— ), British scientist, was born at Eastbourne, Sussex, on Sept. 2, 1877, and was educated at Eastbourne college, the University college of Wales, Abery stwyth and Merton college, Oxford. From 19oo-2 he held the post of demonstrator of chemistry at the McGill university, Montreal, where he carried out research work on radioactivity with Sir E. Rutherford, and for the next two years he worked under Ramsay at University college, London, becoming in lecturer in physical chemistry and radioactivity at the University of Glasgow. Ten years later he went to Aberdeen university as professor of chemistry, but he left there in 1919 to become Lee's professor of inorganic and physical chemistry in the university of Oxford. He made many valuable contributions to the science of radioactivity, and with Sir E. Rutherford he developed the disintegration theory of the radioactive elements. As a result of his study of the disintegration series of the radio-elements Soddy concluded that certain elements should exist in two or more forms which may have different atomic weights, but are indistinguish able and inseparable chemically ; these forms he called "isotopes." This theory, which probably constitutes Soddy's main contribu tion to scientific knowledge, was first published in 1912 and has since been brilliantly confirmed in many directions. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1921. He was elected F.R.S. in 1910 and was a member of many British and foreign scientific societies, being president of the Röntgen Society 1905-6.
(See X-RAYS, NATURE OF.) His numerous scientific publications, chiefly on radioactivity, include Radioactivity (1904); The Interpretation of Radium (1909) revised and enlarged by a section on the "Structure of the Atom" (1920) ; Chemistry of the Radioactive Elements (Part I., 1912; Part II., 1914) ; Matter and Energy (1912) ; Science and Life (1920) ; Cartesian Economics (1922); Inversion of Science (1924) SoDERBLOM, NATHAN (1866-1931), Swedish ecclesi astic, was born in Trono on Jan. 15, 1866, and educated at the University of Uppsala. After the Lambeth Conference in 1908, Siiderblom worked with success to secure an approach to "evan gelical catholicity" among various Christian societies, and played an important part in the preparations for the universal Christian Conference on Life and Work held at Stockholm in August 1925. He had been appointed archbishop of Uppsala in 1914. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.