Is peace possible?

Kathleen Lonsdale was a groundbreaking chemist who was instrumental in developing the science of crystallography. She was also a midlife convert to Quakerism who campaigned for peace and prison reform. Horrified by the dropping of the first atomic bombs, Lonsdale felt that the entire scientific community was now tainted by the violence it had enabled. Published in 1957, ‘Is Peace Possible?’ was her attempt to make amends for this communal guilt by demonstrating that science can bring peace as well as war, and can address the ‘big questions’ generally left to the humanities.