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Ernest Rutherford

! scientist · # tag · @ author
1871–1937 · Nuclear physics, Radiochemistry
British physicist of New Zealand origin, the 'father of nuclear physics'. He discovered the atomic nucleus in the famous alpha-particle scattering experiment. He explained the nature of radioactivity, discovered the proton, and proposed the nuclear model of the atom. He was the first to achieve artificial transmutation of elements (transmutation).

Biography

Born in New Zealand. Studied at Canterbury College, then at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under J.J. Thomson. Professor at the University of Manchester and University of Cambridge. Winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on radioactivity.

Key discoveries

💡 When Rutherford learned that he had received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry rather than Physics, he joked that it was the only time he had managed to turn from a physicist into a chemist.
Quote: "All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
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Related tags
electromagnetismnucleosynthesis
Related laws
Rutherford scattering formula
Related scientists
Ralph AlpherJames Clerk MaxwellShuji NakamuraWilhelm WienLudwig BoltzmannAlbert A. MichelsonRichard FeynmanJ. J. Thomson

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