[16] Blackett was particularly concerned by the poor quality of gunnery in the force compared with that of the enemy and of his own previous experience, and started to read science textbooks.

On his first night at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he met Kingsley Martin and Geoffrey Webb, later recalling that he had never before, in his naval training, heard intellectual conversation.

Eight of these were forked, and this showed that the nitrogen atom-alpha particle combination had formed an atom of fluorine, which then disintegrated into an isotope of oxygen 17 and a proton.

While seeking help for a psychiatric breakdown induced by the demanding Blackett, Oppenheimer admitted to trying to poison his tutor with an apple laced with toxins.

In 1932, Blackett partnered with Giuseppe Occhialini to devise a system of Geiger counters which took photographs only when a cosmic ray particle traversed the chamber.

In 1933, Blackett discovered fourteen tracks which confirmed the existence of the positron and revealed the now instantly recognisable opposing spiral traces of positron/electron pair production.

However, his work on the subject led him into geophysics, where he later helped process data relating to paleomagnetism, and also provided strong evidence for continental drift.

In 1957, Blackett gave the presidential address ("Technology and World Advancement") to the British Association meeting in Dublin[23] In 1965, he delivered the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.

He was director of Operational Research with the Admiralty from 1942 to 1945, and his work with E. J. Williams improved the survival odds of convoys, presented counter-intuitive but correct recommendations for the armour-plating of aircraft and achieved many other successes.

During the war he criticised the assumptions in Lord Cherwell's dehousing paper and sided with Tizard who argued that fewer resources should go to RAF Bomber Command for the area bombing offensive and more to the other armed forces, as his studies had shown the ineffectiveness of the bombing strategies, as opposed to the importance of fighting off the German U-boats, which were heavily affecting the war effort with their sinkings of merchant ships.

In the aftermath of World War II, Blackett became known for his radical political opinions, which included a belief that Britain ought not to develop atomic weapons.

Outraged Americans characterized Blackett's statements and his opposition to their development of atomic weapons as a Stalinist apology full of political prejudices.

[9] As a result of these controversies, Blackett was considered too far to the left for the post-war Labour Government to employ, and he returned to academic life.

He used his prestige in the scientific community to try to persuade fellow scientists that one of their first duties should be to help ensure a decent life for all mankind.

[28] Before underdevelopment became a popular issue, Blackett proposed in a 1957 presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science that his country should devote 1% of its national income to the economic improvement of the Third World, and he was later one of the prime movers in the founding of the Overseas Development Institute.

[29] During the 13 years when the Labour Party was out of office, Blackett was the senior member of a group of scientists who met regularly to discuss scientific and technological policy.

[9] Blackett's suggestions directly led to the creation of the Ministry of Technology as soon as the Wilson government was formed, and he insisted that a top priority should be revival of Britain's computer industry.

The Blackett Laboratory is part of Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences and has housed the Physics Department since its completion in 1961.

[25] Edward Bullard said that he was the most versatile and best loved physicist of his generation and that his achievement was also without rival: "he was wonderfully intelligent, charming, fun to be with, dignified and handsome".

[36] In 2016, the house that Blackett lived in from 1953 to 1969 (48 Paultons Square, Chelsea, London) received an English Heritage blue plaque.