Scientist Rutherford. What nickname did physicist Ernest Rutherford receive due to the fact that students from afar recognized him by his steps and voice? Discovery of the law of radioactive transformations

Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 in the village of Spring Grove (also known as Brightwater) near Nelson, New Zealand, in the family of farmer James Rutherford and his wife Martha Thomson (a native of Hornchurch, Essex, England).

At birth, Ernest was mistakenly recorded under the name Ernest (from the English “earnest” - “serious”). As a child, Ernest went to school in Havelock, after which he continued his studies at college in Nelson. He works hard to get into Canterbury College, which was part of the University of New Zealand. At college, Ernest Rutherford becomes head of the debating society and hosts Active participation in student life.

At Canterbury College, Rutherford receives higher education defending bachelor's and master's degrees in the field humanities, as well as a bachelor's degree natural sciences, after which, for two years, he was enthusiastically engaged in research in the field of electrical engineering. In 1895, he went to England to improve his level of education, where from 1895 to 1898 he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He makes a significant breakthrough (and holds the record for a while) in discovering the distance that determines the length of an electromagnetic wave.

Works, research and contributions to science

In 1898, Rutherford replaced Hugh Longbourn Callendar as professor of physics, founded through the patronage of William MacDonald, at McGill University. This is where Rutherford will reach his heights research activities. His work at McGill University would culminate in him receiving the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Rutherford is engaged in in-depth research and practical study radioactivity phenomena. During this period, in 1899, he introduced the concepts of alpha and beta particles. The scientist describes this type of radiation as two distinct (easily distinguishable) types of particle stream radiation from the elements thorium and uranium. Based on their penetrating power, Rutherford clearly outlines the differences between these radiation rays.

In 1900, he received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of New Zealand. From 1900 to 1903 to research project Rutherford on the topic of elemental transmutation at McGill University is joined by junior researcher Frederick Soddy.

Rutherford discovers and accurately describes that radiation is a consequence of the spontaneous decomposition of atoms. The scientist observes in great detail, and subsequently describes, what a sample of radioactive material requires certain time to reduce its radioactivity by 2 times. Rutherford calls this time the “half-life.”

This discovery will later receive practical use: taking as a unit of measurement uniform speed decay of matter, the age of planet Earth will be determined, which turns out to be much older than the age assumed by scientists of that time.

In 1903, Rutherford discovered that the radiation (already discovered) emitted by the still unnamed radium (discovered in 1900 by the French chemist Paul Villard) has distinctive feature(from alpha and beta radiation), not previously described. He also notices that the new kind radiation has great penetrating power, and without wasting time, gives it its own name “gamma radiation”. In 1907, Rutherford was appointed professor of physics at the University of Manchester. In Manchester, the scientist continues to work with alpha radiation. Together with Hans Geiger, he develops a zinc sulfide reflective screen and ionization chamber designed to count alpha particles.

In 1907, Rutherford, together with Thomas Royds, conducted a chemical experiment involving the passage of alpha rays through a narrow window into a vacuum tube. Rays invariably generate in the tube spark discharge, as a result of which a spectrum is formed that changes its nature similarly to the alpha rays accumulated in the tube. The experiment further shows how a pure spectrum of helium gas begins to form. It follows from this that alpha rays almost do not ionize atoms, or rather, the nuclei of helium atoms.

In 1909, he joined forces with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden and conducted the Geiger-Marsden experiment, aimed at discovering and clearly demonstrating the true nuclear nature atoms. The experiment is carried out to obtain clearly defined results regarding the properties of alpha particles. Rutherford suggests that Geiger and Marsden obtain the deflection of alpha particles at large angles (there were no predetermined results of the experiment, since at the time of its conduct there was not the slightest theory in this regard). The desired deviations were found, but they were single in nature and had a smooth, clearly organized function of the deviation angle. The interpretation and results of this experiment in 1911 result in the presentation of Rutherford's model of the atom. According to his theory, even a small positively charged nucleus has electrons orbiting around it. In 1919, Rutherford went to the Cavendish Laboratory, where he conducted (for the first time in history) an experiment on the transmutation of one substance into another, turning nitrogen into oxygen using a nuclear reaction. He carried out this experiment together with Niels Bohr, putting forward a theory about the existence of neutrons and their supposed ability to compensate for the repulsive property of positively charged protons, generating a force of nuclear attraction that keeps the nucleus from decay.

In 1932, this theory of the existence of neutrons was proven by James Chadwick, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935 for this discovery.

Personal life

In 1900, Rutherford married Maria Georgina Newton. They have a daughter, Eileen Maria.

Awards and honors

In 1908, Rutherford received the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary discoveries and successful research into the process of decomposition of substances and its consequences. chemical properties radioactive substances. In 1914, Rutherford was knighted. In 1916, the scientist was awarded the Sir James Hector medal. In 1919, Rutherford returned to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he was appointed head of the laboratory. During this time, he became the scientific mentor of a number of researchers - James Chadwick, John Douglas Cockcroft, Edward Victor Appleton and Thomas Sinton Walton, each of whom received a Nobel Prize for work in the field of atomic reactions, the discovery of the neutron, visual demonstrations and chemical experiments on questions elementary particles and ionosphere. In 1925, Rutherford was awarded the honorary Order of Merit to Great Britain. In 1931 he received the honorary title of Baron Rutherford of Nelson and Cambridge in the County of Cambridge.

After his death, Rutherford was given the honor of being buried in Westminster Abbey, next to J. J. Thomson and Sir Isaac Newton.

Death

Ernest Rutherford suffered from an umbilical hernia, and as a sign of special honor (as a bearer of the British Order of Merit), only a titled surgeon could operate on him. Due to a long search for a suitable candidate, time was lost, and on October 19, 1937, Rutherford suddenly died in a hospital.

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Rutherford Ernest (1871-1937), English physicist, one of the creators of the doctrine of radioactivity and the structure of the atom, founder of a scientific school.

Born on August 30, 1871 in the city of Spring Brove (New Zealand) in a family of Scottish emigrants. His father worked as a mechanic and flax farmer, his mother was a teacher. Ernest was the fourth of the 12 Rutherford children and the most talented.

Already at the end of primary school, as the first student, he received a bonus of 50 pounds sterling to continue his education. Thanks to this, Rutherford entered college in Nelson (New Zealand). After graduating from college, the young man passed exams at the University of Canterbury and here he seriously studied physics and chemistry.

He participated in the creation of scientific student society and made a report in 1891 on the topic “Evolution of the Elements,” where the idea was first voiced that atoms are complex systems, built from the same components.

At a time when J. Dalton’s idea of ​​the indivisibility of the atom dominated physics, this idea seemed absurd, and the young scientist even had to apologize to his colleagues for “obvious nonsense.”

True, 12 years later Rutherford proved he was right. After graduating from university, Ernest became a teacher high school, but this activity was clearly not to his liking. Fortunately, Rutherford - best graduate year - awarded a scholarship, and he went to Cambridge - science Center England - to continue studying.

At the Cavendish Laboratory, Rutherford created a transmitter for radio communication within a radius of 3 km, but gave priority to the Italian engineer G. Marconi for his invention, and he himself began to study the ionization of gases and air. The scientist noticed that uranium radiation has two components - alpha and beta rays. It was a revelation.

In Montreal, while studying the activity of thorium, Rutherford discovered a new gas - radon. In 1902, in his work “The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity,” the scientist first expressed the idea that the cause of radioactivity is the spontaneous transition of some elements to others. He found that alpha particles are positively charged, their mass is greater than that of a hydrogen atom, and their charge is approximately equal to the charge of two electrons, and this is reminiscent of helium atoms.

In 1903 Rutherford became a member of the London Royal Society, and from 1925 to 1930 he served as its president.

In 1904, the scientist’s fundamental work “Radioactive Substances and Their Radiations” was published, which became an encyclopedia for nuclear physicists. In 1908, Rutherford became a Nobel laureate for his research into radioactive elements. The head of the physics laboratory at the University of Manchester, Rutherford created a school of nuclear physicists, his students.

Together with them, he studied the atom and in 1911 finally came to the planetary model of the atom, which he wrote about in an article published in the May issue of the Philosophical Journal. The model was not accepted immediately; it was established only after it was refined by Rutherford’s students, in particular N. Bohr.

The scientist died on October 19, 1937 in Cambridge. Like many great men of England, Ernest Rutherford rests in St. Paul's Cathedral, in the "Science Corner", next to Newton, Faraday, Durenne, Herschel.

(1871-1937) English physicist, founder of nuclear physics

Ernest Rutherford was born in Spring Grove (now Brightwater) in New Zealand, into a simple Scottish family. His father, James Rutherford, was a wheelwright, and his mother, Martha Thomson, was a teacher. Ernest was the fourth child of twelve children. Since childhood, he was a very observant and hardworking boy. After graduating primary school As the best student, Ernest received a scholarship to continue his education at Nelson Provincial College, where he entered the fifth grade in 1887. Already here his exceptional abilities for mathematics manifested themselves; he was also good at physics, chemistry, literature, Latin and French languages. As a child, Ernest was fond of designing various mechanisms: he built models of water mills, cars, and even made a camera.

After graduating from college, he attended Canterbury College of the University of New Zealand in Christchurch. Here Rutherford begins to study physics and chemistry more seriously, working in student circles and is even one of the initiators of the creation of a scientific student society at the university.

After reading an article by German physicist Heinrich Hertz about the discovery of electromagnetic waves, Rutherford decided to investigate their properties. But a problem arose in detecting incoming electromagnetic waves. He was able to establish that their presence can be judged by the demagnetization of iron. This was twenty-three-year-old Rutherford's first real discovery.

In 1894, Ernest graduated from college with honors and received a master's degree in physics and mathematics. He became a high school physics teacher, but did not succeed in this field. In 1895, he was awarded the largest scholarship - the “1851 scholarship”, which provided the opportunity for internships in the best laboratories in the country. In the fall of 1895, Rutherford arrived in Cambridge, the scientific center of England, and began working at the Cavendish Laboratory under the guidance of the outstanding English physicist Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940).

Ernest continues his research in the field of electromagnetic waves, and in 1896 he manages to establish radio communication at a distance of about 3 kilometers. The practical side of radio communications interested him little, and therefore he stopped his work in this area, and donated the transmitter to the Italian engineer G. Marconi, who used it in his research. At this time, Rutherford, together with J. J. Thomson, began work on studying the ionization of gases and air using various methods, including X-rays. But after Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity in 1896, Rutherford began comparing the rays of Roentgen and Becquerel.

In 1898, he received a position as professor of physics at McGill University in Montreal and arrived in Canada in September of the same year. He worked at McGill University for 9 years - until 1907 - and did a lot important discoveries. In 1898, Rutherford began researching uranium radiation, the results of which were published in 1899 in the article “Radiation of Uranium and Electrical Conductivity Created by It.” By studying uranium radiation in a magnetic field, Rutherford found that it consists of two components. He called the first component, which deviates in one direction and is easily absorbed by a sheet of paper, alpha rays, and the second, which deviates in the opposite side and having greater penetrating power - beta rays.

In 1900, Villard discovered another component in the radiation of uranium, which did not deviate in a magnetic field and had the greatest penetrating power; it was called gamma rays. In 1900, while studying the radioactivity of thorium, Rutherford discovered a new gas, later called radon. Together with the English physicist and chemist Frederick Soddy, in 1902-1903 he developed the theory of radioactive decay and established the law radioactive transformations. Rutherford predicted the existence transuranic elements. The result of the scientist’s nine-year work in Montreal is more than 50 published scientific articles and the book “Radioactivity”, which summed it all up known to science knowledge about this phenomenon.

Rutherford's name becomes famous, and he receives an invitation to take the position of professor in the physics department at the University of Manchester and director of the physics laboratory. On May 24, 1907, Ernest Rutherford returned to Europe and began work on unraveling the nature of alpha particles and their passage through matter, the study of which he began in Canada. For his research on the transformation of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

In Manchester, Rutherford creates a team of outstanding researchers from different countries the world, among whom were the German physicist Hans Geiger (1882-1945), the English physicist Henry Moseley (1887-1915), the New Zealand physicist, then a final year student, Ernest Marsden (1889-1970) and other scientists. In an atmosphere of collective scientific creativity the largest were made scientific discoveries Rutherford. In 1908, he and Geiger designed a device for recording individual charged particles, called the Geiger counter. In 1909, he discovered the nature of alpha particles: they are doubly ionized helium atoms. In 1911, based on the results of experiments carried out by his students Marsden and Geiger, he established the law of scattering of alpha particles by atoms various elements, which led him in May 1911 to the creation of a new model of the atom - the planetary one. According to this model, an atom is like solar system: in the center there is a massive positive nucleus with a diameter of about 10 12 cm, around which negative electrons rotate in circular orbits. Number of elementary positive charges contained in the atomic nucleus coincides with serial number element in D.I. Mendeleev’s table, its shell contains the same number of electrons, since the atom as a whole is electrically neutral.

Before Rutherford could exclaim, “Now I know what an atom looks like!”, Marsden and Geiger had to detect and count more than 2 million barely visible scintillations (flares) of alpha particles.

In 1912, the outstanding Danish physicist Niels Bohr came to Manchester. He managed to eliminate the contradictions in the planetary model of the atom proposed by Rutherford. His work resulted in the Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom, which laid the foundation for quantum and nuclear physics.

In 1914, Rutherford put forward the idea of ​​artificially transforming atomic nuclei. But the first one that started World War interrupted research and scattered the friendly team across different countries at war with each other. Rutherford himself was involved in military research and was developing acoustic methods to combat German submarines. At the front in 1915, at the age of 28, Henry Moseley, one of his best students, who made his name famous with a major discovery in spectroscopy, was killed x-rays. James Chadwick was in German captivity, Marsden fought in France, and Niels Bohr returned to Copenhagen. Only after the war was Rutherford able to resume his research.

In 1919 he moved to Cambridge, where he became a professor. Cambridge University and succeeds his teacher J. J. Thomson, becoming director of the Cavendish Laboratory. The scientist held this post until the end of his life. Continued research brings brilliant results: artificial nuclear reaction conversion of nitrogen into oxygen, which laid the foundations modern physics kernels. In 1920, Rutherford predicted the existence of the neutron, a neutral particle equal in mass to a hydrogen nucleus. Such a particle was discovered in 1932 by his student and collaborator Chadwick, who became a Nobel laureate in connection with this. Led by Rutherford, the Cavendish Laboratory became a scientific Mecca for physicists from all countries.

He treated his students with exceptional care, affectionately calling them “boys,” and did not allow them to work in the laboratory longer than six o’clock in the evening, and on weekends he did not allow them to work at all. He led his students like a “benevolent father of the family,” and they lovingly called their teacher “dad.” Every day Rutherford gathered his employees over a cup of tea to discuss not only scientific problems and the results of experiments, but also issues of politics, art and literature. The great scientist was completely devoid of any stiffness, snobbery and desire to create an atmosphere of admiration around himself.

Soviet physicists Yu. B. Khariton, A. I. Leipunsky, K. D. Sinelnikov, L. D. Landau and others also studied with him. In 1921, the young Soviet physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (1894-1984) came to Rutherford in Cambridge and worked there for 13 years. He became active employee and friend of Rutherford, lived up to the hopes of his teacher, achieving outstanding scientific results. In 1971, on the initiative of P. L. Kapitsa, for the 100th anniversary of the scientist’s birth in our country, anniversary medal Rutherford and a collection of his works was published.

He was a member of all academies of sciences in the world, since 1925 - a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences Soviet Union; from 1903 a member of the Royal Society of London, and from 1925 to 1930 - its president. In 1931 he was created a baron and became Lord Nelson. A great experimenter for his scientific merits was awarded all the awards of the scientific world.

Ernest Rutherford died on October 19, 1937 at the age of 66. His death was a huge loss for science, numerous students and all humanity. Great physicist buried in Westminster Abbey - in St. Paul's Cathedral, next to the graves of I. Newton, M. Faraday, C. Darwin, W. Herschel, in one of the naves of the cathedral, called the “Science Corner”.

Rutherford Ernest (1871-1937)
An outstanding world-famous physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (1908), one of the creators of atomic physics, who combined the genius of an experimenter with deep theoretical knowledge.
He was born in New Zealand into the family of a small farmer, where he was the fourth of 12 children, so he began to work with early age. His efficiency allowed him to graduate from school with excellent results (580 points out of 600 possible) and receive a scholarship for further education in England. Interestingly, he received news of this while harvesting a potato plantation and prophetically remarked: “This is obviously the last potato I dig.”
The potato, indeed, was the last, but Rutherford had to “dig” for the rest of his life, only now in science. His scientific activity started in known to physicists around the world at the Cavendish Laboratory, from which 17 Nobel laureates emerged. Under the leadership of the greatest scientist of the time, J.J. Thomson Rutherford “dug” so deeply that his young colleagues gave him the nickname “Rabbit”. He was interested in a wide range of issues. This and electromagnetic waves, and the passage of current through gases, and radioactivity. It was the study of radioactive radiation that brought him worldwide fame and glory. By using magnetic field He divided radioactive radiation into α and β rays, he discovered the law of radioactive decay, he substantiated the possibility of transformation of some elements into others during radioactive decay.
In 1908, Ernest Rutherford became a Nobel laureate in... chemistry (at that time radioactivity was related not to physics, but to chemistry). On this occasion, Rutherford himself said: “I have dealt with many different transformations ... but the most remarkable transformation was that I turned in an instant from a physicist to a chemist.”
However, in physics, Rutherford's achievements and discoveries are so significant that they would be enough for several similar awards. Let us recall just a few of them:

1. Experiments on the scattering of α-particles, which led to the planetary model of the atom.
2. The world's first nuclear reaction, carried out by bombarding nitrogen atoms with alpha particles, the result of which was the conversion of nitrogen into oxygen (more precisely, into ozone - an isotope of oxygen). By the way, Rutherford carried out 17 different nuclear reactions.
3. Discovery of the proton, which is integral part nuclei of any atom (1919). The proton was discovered during the first nuclear reaction.

7 N 14 + 2 α 4 = 8 O 17 + 1 p 1

Having become a venerable scientist, Rutherford acquired a new nickname - “Crocodile”. A crocodile is a creature that cannot move backwards. Rutherford always went forward and, knowing about his nickname, did not take offense at his colleagues.
E. Rutherford generously shared his ideas with students who came to him from different countries. This is the Englishman D. Chadwig, who discovered the neutron predicted by Rutherford in 1932; this is the Russian physicist P.L. Kapitsa, Rutherford’s best student; this is the German physicist G. Geiger, who designed a counter for α and β particles; this is the Dane N. Bohr, who became on a par with his teacher in the development of atomic physics, etc. By the way, all of the above students of Rutherford are Nobel laureates.
From Kapitsa’s memoirs about Rutherford: “... he treated people with exceptional care, especially his students. ... He was not allowed to work longer than 6 o’clock in the evening in the laboratory, and on weekends he was not allowed to work at all.” He argued that “the bad people are those who work too much and think too little.” He repeatedly reminded his deputy: “Anyone who has his own ideas needs to be helped to implement them, even if they seem not particularly important or even impossible to implement, because mistakes teach no less than successes. ... Don't forget that many of your boys' ideas may be better than your own and you should never envy your students' successes. ... The students make me seem young.”
Feeling fatherly care, the students paid him mutual love. P.L. Kapitsa noted that the saying “Simplicity is the greatest wisdom” is fully applicable to Rutherford. And, indeed, despite his world fame, Rutherford always remained simple in communication, in work and in life in general.
Now few people know that in 1932 he was elevated to the rank of lord and called Lord Nelson (like Lord Kelvin), but he himself practically did not use this name, remaining a simple farmer’s son.
Rutherford's teaching career was not so successful. In class, he was constantly captivated by stories about new scientific ideas and prospects, and as a result, students did not have time to master the program material. Excitingly presented in lectures physical aspects the question being studied, he was almost never able to bring to the final result mathematical conclusions related to this issue. Having made a mistake in the proof, he embarrassedly put down the chalk and said: “If you draw all the conclusions correctly, it will turn out as I said.” Rutherford once demonstrated the decay of radium. The screen flickered on and off. He commented on the experience like this: “Now you see that nothing is visible, and why nothing is visible, you will now see.” Most likely, Rutherford never prepared for lectures, considering it unnecessary to waste time on what could be read in a textbook.
Interestingly, Rutherford's name often overlaps with Newton's name. So, Rutherford married a girl named Mary Newton (the namesake of the great scientist); the fact is noted that a branch from an apple tree fell on Rutherford’s head in the garden, just as an apple fell on Newton; even Rutherford's grave is next to Newton's.
As for Rutherford's death, it came as a complete surprise to everyone. In the fall of 1937, he suffered a strangulated hernia, and died on the fourth day after the operation. Rutherford is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, known as Westminster Abbey. His sarcophagus is installed in the so-called “science corner”, where I. Newton, M. Faraday, C. Darwin are buried. A simple monument over the scientist’s ashes confirms his modesty. But the unfading monument to the great Rutherford became atomic physics, the father of which he is and which received brilliant development in the works of his many students.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908

The formulation of the Nobel Committee: “For his research in the field of decay of elements in the chemistry of radioactive substances.”

When writing an article rather than a book about a Nobel laureate, there are two things in particular: difficult cases. The first option: very little is known about our hero, and we have to do a separate search to gather material for the article. The second option: our hero is super famous, his name has become a household name, and the memories of eyewitnesses often contradict each other. And here another question arises - the question of choice. Our case is exactly like this. There are very few laureates who are as famous as our character. Even fewer have received the Nobel Prize in such a way that the nomination itself in his case became the most bright case trolling in the history of science. Although back in 1908, only a musical scene by Edvard Grieg could be called trolling. But what else can you call a prize in chemistry awarded to a physicist to the core, who himself has repeatedly emphasized that all sciences “are divided into physics and stamp collecting”? On the other hand, the name of this person in different time were called whole three chemical element. Have you already guessed who our hero is? Of course, it's him, New Zealand's first Nobel laureate, Sir Ernest Rutherford. He is with light hand the first hero of our Nobel cycle and his student Pyotr Kapitsa - Crocodile.

Rutherford can be considered lucky. Born further than in the province - not in some Devonshire, not in Edinburgh, and not even in Sydney or Wellington - in the New Zealand province, in a farming family - he managed to make his way, but a scholarship named after the 1851 World Exhibition for the gifted provincials, received it only when the one to whom it was awarded refused it.

Nevertheless, the Rubicon was crossed (as he wrote to his bride), the money for the ship was borrowed, and with a prototype of a radio wave detector (Marconi and Popov did about the same thing), Rutherford set off for England. He was not allowed to further develop the detector - the British Post Office put all the money on Marconi. And the New Zealander enrolled in the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge.

By the way, the Cavendish Laboratory is named not after the chemist Henry Cavendish (who was the 2nd Duke of Devonshire), but after the 7th Duke, William Cavendish, Chancellor of Cambridge, who donated money to open the laboratory. It's like an English mega-grant. By the way, very successful: on currently 29 employees of this project received Nobel Prizes (including our Kapitsa).

Rutherford became a doctoral student with Gee-Gee himself (J. J. Thomson), the discoverer of the electron (Thomson was the winner of the “Nobel in Physics” in 1906, not for the electron, but for his studies of the passage of currents in gases). And then we can simply list only the main achievements of Rutherford, a great experimenter and physicist (Dr. Andrew Balfour gave a caustic definition and recognition of Rutherford: “We got a wild rabbit from the country of the antipodes and he digs deep”).

Together with Ji-Gi he studied the ionization of gases x-ray radiation. In 1898, he showed that radioactive radiation is a complex thing, and separated from it “alpha rays” and “beta rays.” Now we know that these are helium nuclei and electrons. By the way, chemical nature Rutherford's Nobel lecture was devoted to alpha rays.

Detection experiment diagram complex composition radioactive radiation. 1 - radioactive drug, 2 - lead cylinder, 3 - photographic plate

In 1901 - 1903 together with the future Nobel laureate in chemistry in 1921, Frederick Soddy, discovered the natural transformations of elements during radioactive decay (for this Rutherford received a Nobel). At the same time, the “emanation of thorium” - gaseous radon-220 - was discovered and the law of radioactive decay was formulated.

But he (or rather, his students Geiger and Mardsen) conducted his most famous experiment in 1909. A study of the passage of alpha particles through gold foil showed that some helium nuclei are thrown back. “It is as if you were shooting a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and the shell came back and struck you,” Rutherford wrote. It was so open atomic nucleus and a planetary model of the atom appeared, in which electrons rotate around the nucleus. We will tell you what Bohr did with it later in the article about Niels Bohr (after all, Bohr’s son Oge was also a Nobel laureate), but now we will continue.

During the First World War, Rutherford works on detecting enemy submarines (Rutherford is a “signal officer”), and at the same time, in 1917, begins experiments on the artificial transformation of elements.

Two years later, these experiments were successfully completed: in 1919, in the same Philosophical Magazine, where he and Soddy talked about the transformation of elements during natural radioactive decay, the article “An Anomalous Effect in Nitrogen” was published, which reported the first artificial transformation of elements).

In 1920 he predicted the existence of the neutron (it was later discovered by Rutherford's student Chadwick).

Coat of arms of Rutherford

During the war, Rutherford also becomes a nobleman. Despite the fact that Rutherford received a blow from the king in 1914, he officially became Baron Rutherford Nelson in 1931 with the approval of the corresponding coat of arms. The coat of arms features two kiwi birds, symbols of New Zealand and two exponential curves showing how the number of radioactive atoms decreases over time during radioactive decay. He telegraphed via submarine cable to his eighty-eight-year-old mother: “So - Lord Rutherford. The credit is more yours than mine. Love, Ernest."

But Sir Ernest's most important legacy is, of course, his school. 12 of his students became Nobel laureates- we have already written about one of them in. Kapitsa was truly Rutherford's favorite and best student. post-war period. As we have already said, it was he who gave the boss the nickname “Crocodile”. As Kapitsa himself explained, this animal never turns back and therefore can symbolize Rutherford’s insight and his rapid progress forward, and in Russia they look at the crocodile with a mixture of horror and admiration. They say that it was Kapitsa’s departure (or rather, the inability to return to Cambridge) that had a devastating effect on Rutherford and the laboratory.

The crocodile died in 1937, very young by our standards - only 66 years old, and his old teacher, Ji-Gi, said a memorable word over him. The last book, which he released, was non-fiction. “Modern alchemy” - it’s clear what it’s about.

If we write about the memory and honor of our hero, then one list will be longer than our article. Grave in Westminster Abbey - next to Newton, asteroid Rutherfordia... Honorary membership and many awards. The only strange thing is that he has only one Nobel Prize, the rest went to his students.

A separate and almost detective story is associated with the perpetuation of the name of the Crocodile in the periodic table. For some time, rutherfordium was element 106 (now seaborgium), for some time it was element 103 (lawrencium), but after long disputes between Americans and Russians about names and priorities, rutherfordium became element 104 of the periodic table, first synthesized in Dubna.

Well, I would like to end with the words of the sub-dean of Westminster Abbey during the service for the deceased Baron Rutherford Nelson, obviously addressed to whom: “We thank You for the labors and days of our brother Ernest.”