The British physicist Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (1871-1937), discovered transmutation of the elements, the nuclear atom, and a host of other phenomena to become the most prominent experimental physicist of his time. In searching...

Ernest Rutherford's explanation of radioactivity earned him the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry, but his most renowned achievement was his classic demonstration that the atom consists of a small, dense nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. He also...

Ernest Rutherford's explanation of radioactivity earned him the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry, but his most renowned achievement was his classic demonstration that the atom consists of a small, dense nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. He also...

Biographies of Ernest Rutherford are studded with superlatives: "founder of nuclear physics"; "certainly the greatest scientist to emerge from New Zealand"; "a remarkable team leader"; and "one of the greatest experimentalists of all time. " His...

Ernest Rutherford was one of the giants in the field of atomic physics as science was just beginning to understand this world of infinitesimal yet powerful reactions. He did important research on radiation and coined such words as "alpha," "beta," and...