Obituary: Luis Alvarez 1911–1988

Luis W Alvarez was probably the most versatile man of science of his generation. His creative work encompassed optics, cosmic radiation, the radioactivity of tritium, the magnetic moment of the neutron, the spin dependence of nuclear forces, nuclear physics, radar and its application to blind landing of aircraft, antisubmarine warfare, implosion techniques for nuclear weapons and methods of measuring pressures of shock waves, electron acceleration (microton), the tandem van de Graaff accelerator, the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber and its use, superconducting magnets, the use of cosmic radiation to search for possible chambers in an Egyptian pyramid, and asteroid extinction theory for the dinosaurs and other life. Some of this was done with collaborators, the last with his son, Walter.