John Joly
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John Joly (November 1, 1857 – December 8, 1933) was an Irish scientist, possibly most famous for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. He is also known for developing techniques to accurately estimate the age of a geological period, based on radioactive elements present in minerals.
Joly was born in Holywood House, Bracknagh, County Offaly, Ireland. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, to become a graduate in engineering in 1882 and later become Professor of Geology there. In his career he wrote over 270 books and scientific papers. In 1884 he patented a method of colour photography.
Joly's paper "Uranium and Geology" was given as an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science which met in Dublin in 1908. This work described radioactive materials in rocks and their part in the generation of the Earth's internal heat.
Joly, along with Henry Horatio Dixon, put forward the cohesion-tension method. This is now thought to be the main mechanism for the upward movement of water in plants.
He died in Dublin, Ireland.
His second cousin Charles Jasper Joly became Astronomer Royal for Ireland in 1897.
A crater on Mars was named in his honor.
[edit] External links
- http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/08/article2/article2.html
- http://www.irishmidlandsancestry.com/content/offaly/people/literature_irish.htm
- Works by John Joly at Project Gutenberg
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