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Ernest Rutherford

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1750-1900; Engineers and inventors

   CAPTION: Ernest Rutherford

   Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson
   Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson
        Born      August 30, 1871
                  Spring Grove, New Zealand
        Died      October 19, 1937
                  Cambridge, England
     Residence    UK
    Nationality   New Zealand-English
       Field      Physicist
    Institution   McGill University
                  University of Manchester
     Alma Mater   University of Canterbury
                  Cambridge University
     Known for    Being the 'father' of nuclear physics
   Notable Prizes Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908
   Note that he is the father-in-law of Ralph Fowler. Note that although
   Rutherford did not have a PhD, J. J. Thomson is considered to be the
   equivalent of his doctoral mentor.

   Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM PC FRS ( 30 August
   1871 – 19 October 1937), was a nuclear physicist from New Zealand. He
   was known as the "father" of nuclear physics, he pioneered the orbital
   theory of the atom, in his discovery of Rutherford scattering off the
   nucleus with the gold foil experiment.

Early years

   Rutherford was born at Spring Grove, (now in Brightwater), near Nelson,
   New Zealand. He studied at Nelson College and won a scholarship to
   study at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand. In 1895, after
   gaining his BA, MA and BSc, and doing two years of research at the
   forefront of electrical technology, Rutherford travelled to England for
   postgraduate study at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
   (1895- 1898), and was resident at Trinity College. There, he briefly
   held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves
   could be detected. During the investigation of radioactivity he coined
   the terms alpha, beta, and gamma rays.

Middle years

   In 1898 Rutherford was appointed to the chair of physics at McGill
   University, in the country of Canada, where he did the work which
   gained him the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He had demonstrated that
   radioactivity was the spontaneous disintegration of atoms. He noticed
   that in a sample of radioactive material it invariably took the same
   amount of time for half the sample to decay — its " half-life" — and
   created a practical application for this phenomenon using this constant
   rate of decay as a clock, which could then be used to help determine
   the actual age of the Earth that turned out to be much older than most
   scientists at the time believed.

   In 1907 he took the chair of physics at the University of Manchester.
   There he directed the Geiger-Marsden experiment that discovered the
   nuclear nature of atoms and was the world's first successful
   "alchemist": he converted nitrogen into oxygen. While working with
   Niels Bohr (who discovered that electrons moved in specific orbits)
   Rutherford theorized about the existence of neutrons, which could
   somehow compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges of
   protons by causing an attractive nuclear force and thus keeping the
   nuclei from breaking apart.

Later years

   Lord Rutherford of Nelson on the New Zealand 100 dollar note
   Enlarge
   Lord Rutherford of Nelson on the New Zealand 100 dollar note

   He was knighted in 1914. In 1917 he returned to the Cavendish as
   Director. Under him, Nobel Prizes were awarded to Chadwick for
   discovering the neutron (in 1932), Cockcroft and Walton for splitting
   the atom using a particle accelerator and Appleton for demonstrating
   the existence of the ionosphere. He was admitted to the Order of Merit
   in 1925 and in 1931 was created Baron Rutherford of Nelson of Cambridge
   in the County of Cambridge, a title which became extinct upon his
   death.

Impact and legacy

   Rutherford was known as the "crocodile". Engraving by Eric Gill at the
   original Cavendish site in Cambridge.
   Enlarge
   Rutherford was known as the "crocodile". Engraving by Eric Gill at the
   original Cavendish site in Cambridge.

   His research, along with that of his protege, Sir Mark Oliphant was
   instrumental in the convening of the Manhattan Project. He is famously
   quoted as saying: "In science there is only physics; all the rest is
   stamp collecting." He is also reputed to have stated that the idea of
   using nuclear reaction to generate useful power was "moonshine".

   Things named after Rutherford include:
     * the element rutherfordium, Rf, Z=104. (1997)
     * craters on Mars and the Moon
     * a building of the modern Cavendish Laboratory in the University of
       Cambridge, UK
     * the physics and chemistry building at the University of Canterbury,
       New Zealand
     * the physics building at McGill University, Montreal, Canada
     * Rutherford College, a school in Auckland, New Zealand
     * a house at his own high school, Nelson College
     * a house at Rangiora High School, Rangiora, New Zealand
     * a house at Macleans College, Auckland, New Zealand
     * a house at Cashmere High School, Christchurch, New Zealand
     * a college at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK
     * a lecture theatre at the University of Manchester.

   At the site of the original Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, there is
   an engraving by Eric Gill on the side of the Mond Laboratory: it was
   commissioned by Rutherford's colleague Peter Kapitza, whose nickname
   for Rutherford was "the crocodile".
     * Rutherford was the subject of a play by Stuart Hoar.
     * Rochester and Rutherford Hall a boarding house at the University of
       Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Quote

   "The energy produced by the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone
   who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is
   talking moonshine." 1933

   "All science is either physics or stamp collecting", in J. B. Birks
   "Rutherford at Manchester" (1962)

   "I have always been proud of the fact that I am a New Zealander",
   Auckland 1925

   "It was almost as incredible as if you fired a fifteen inch shell at a
   piece of tissue paper and it came back to hit you", on the particle
   scattering experiment 1909

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