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Ernest Rutherford

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Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (1871-1937)
Born(1871-08-30)August 30, 1871
Brightwater, New Zealand
DiedOctober 19, 1937(1937-10-19) (aged 66)
Cambridge, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Canterbury
Cambridge University
Known forFather of nuclear physics
Rutherford model
Rutherford scattering
Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy
Discovery of proton
Rutherford (unit)
Coined the term 'artificial disintegration'
AwardsNobel Prize in Chemistry 1908
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsMcGill University
University of Manchester
Academic advisorsJ. J. Thomson
Notable studentsMark Oliphant
Patrick Blackett
Hans Geiger
Niels Bohr
Cecil Powell
Teddy Bullard
Pyotr Kapitsa
John Cockcroft
Ernest Walton
Charles Drummond Ellis
James Chadwick
Ernest Marsden
Edward Andrade
Frederick Soddy
Edward Victor Appleton
Bertram Boltwood
Kazimierz Fajans
Charles Galton Darwin
Henry Moseley
A. J. B. Robertson
George Laurence
Robert William Boyle
Signature

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PC, FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. He pioneered the orbital theory of the atom through his discovery of Rutherford scattering off the nucleus with his gold foil experiment. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.

Biography

Early years

Ernest Rutherford was the son of James Rutherford, a farmer, and his wife Martha (née Thompson, originally from Hornchurch, Essex, England). James had emigrated from Perth, Scotland, "to raise a little flax and a lot of children". Ernest was born at Spring Grove (now Brightwater), near Nelson, New Zealand. His first name was mistakenly spelt Earnest when his birth was registered. He studied at Havelock School and then Nelson College and won a scholarship to study at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand where he was president of the debating society, among other things. After gaining his BA, MA and BSc, and doing two years of research at the forefront of electrical technology, in 1895 Rutherford travelled to England for postgraduate study at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (1895–1898), and 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 and beta to describe the two distinct types of radiation emitted by thorium and uranium.

Middle years

In 1898 Rutherford was appointed to the chair of physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he did the work that gained him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. In 1900 he gained a DSc from the University of New Zealand, and from 1900 to 1903 he was joined at McGill by the young Frederick Soddy (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1921) and they collaborated on research into the transmutation of elements. Rutherford had demonstrated that radioactivity was the spontaneous disintegration of atoms. He noticed that a sample of radioactive material invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay — its "half-life" — and created a practical application using this constant rate of decay as a clock, which could then be used to help determine the age of the Earth, which turned out to be much older than most of the scientists at the time believed.

In 1900 he married Mary Georgina Newton (1876-1945); they had one daughter, Eileen Mary (1901-1930), who married Ralph Fowler.

In 1907 Rutherford took the chair of physics at the University of Manchester. There along with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden he carried out the Geiger-Marsden experiment, which discovered the nuclear nature of atoms. It was his interpretation of this experiment that led him to the Rutherford model of the atom, with a very small positively-charged nucleus orbited by electrons. In 1919 he became the first person to transmute one element into another when he converted nitrogen into oxygen through a nuclear reaction N(α,p)O. In 1921, while working with Niels Bohr (who postulated 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. Rutherford's theory of neutrons was proved in 1932 by his associate James Chadwick, who in 1935 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.

Later years

He was knighted in 1914. In 1919 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 that became extinct upon his unexpected death in hospital following an operation for an umbilical hernia (1937). Since he was a peer, British protocol required that he be operated on by a titled doctor, and the delay cost him his life. He is interred in Westminster Abbey alongside J. J. Thomson.

Legacy

His research, along with that of his protégé Sir Mark Oliphant, was instrumental in the convening of the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapons. He is famously quoted as saying: "In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

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

The following have been named in his honour:

Publications

  • Radio-activity (1904), 2nd ed. (1905), ISBN 978-1-60355-058-1
  • Radioactive Transformations (1906), ISBN 978-160355-054-3
  • Radiations from Radioactive Substances (1919)
  • The Electrical Structure of Matter (1926)
  • The Artificial Transmutation of the Elements (1933)
  • The Newer Alchemy (1937)

See also

References

  1. McLintock, A.H. (18 September 2007). "Rutherford, Sir Ernest (Baron Rutherford of Nelson, O.M., F.R.S.)". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (1966 ed.). Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. ISBN 9780478184518. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  2. Campbell, John (22 June 2007). "Rutherford, Ernest 1871-1937". The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Vol. 3 (1996 ed.). New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage,. ISBN 0478184514. Retrieved 2008-04-02. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  3. D.A. Ramsay (2001). "Book review of Rutherford, Scientist Supreme by J. Campbell". ISI Short Book Reviews. International Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  4. Michael Freemantle (2003). "ACS Article on Rutherfordium". Chemical & Engineering News. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  5. "ErnestRutherford Physics Building". Virtual McGill. McGill University. 24 January 2000. Retrieved 2008-04-02.

External links

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded byNew Creation Baron Rutherford of Nelson
1931-1937 		Succeeded byExtinct
Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1901–1925
1926–1950
1951–1975
1976–2000
2001–present
Presidents of the Royal Society
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