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Apr 23, 2024 · Ernest Rutherford (born August 30, 1871, Spring Grove, New Zealand—died October 19, 1937, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England) was a New Zealand-born British physicist considered the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867). Rutherford was the central figure in the study of radioactivity, and with his concept of the nuclear ...
- Lawrence Badash
Apr 2, 2014 · A pioneer of nuclear physics and the first to split the atom, Ernest Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his theory of atomic structure. Dubbed the “Father of the ...
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Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PRS, HonFRSE (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. Rutherford has been described as "the father of nuclear physics", and "the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday".
- Discovery of alpha and beta radiation. Starting in 1898 Rutherford studied the radiation emitted by uranium. He discovered two different types of radiation, which he named alpha and beta.
- The age of planet Earth and radiometric dating. Rutherford realized that Earth’s helium supply is largely produced by the decay of radioactive elements.
- Discovery of the atomic nucleus. After his move to the University of Manchester, Rutherford and two of his researchers – Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden – carried out in 1909 one of the landmark experiments in science – the gold foil experiment.
- Discovery of nuclear reactions. Rutherford achieved the first deliberate transformation of one element into another. In 1919 he converted nitrogen atoms into oxygen atoms by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles.
Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays, and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.
Rutherford model, description of the structure of atoms proposed (1911) by the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford. The model described the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged core called a nucleus, around which the light, negative constituents, called electrons, circulate at some distance.
When the McDonald Chair of Physics at McGill University in Montreal became vacant in 1898, Rutherford left for Canada to take up the post. There, he did the work that gained him the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, demonstrating that radioactivity was the spontaneous disintegration of atoms.
