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A fascinating history of physicist Ernest Rutherford, who developed the key concepts underlying modern physics today.
By the mid-nineteenth century, physicists believed they had discovered the last secrets of the universe. Then a new world opened up: one of waves, particles, and new, fundamental forces. This mysterious world swiftly captured the public imagination, not least because of the technical revolution that emerged from it, giving the world everything from radio to TV, X-ray machines, smoke detectors, and more.
One of the key movers of this new world was Ernest Rutherford, who became popularly known as the “father of the atom” in recognition of his pioneering role in particle physics. But he was far more than that. Through his roles at Manchester University and then the Cavendish Laboratory in England, he steered a new generation of highly influential physicists such as Niels Bohr, helping to shape much of the way we understand physics today—from quantum mechanics to the “standard model” of particles.
This immersive history explores the discovery of that science, using Rutherford’s life as a vehicle to steer the journey. It explains just why this science seized the public imagination of the day, and why Rutherford’s contribution was integral not just to the technical revolution of the twentieth century, but to the way we now understand the nature of the universe. And it explains how that science works, in engaging, accessible terms.
“Biographer Matthew Wright illuminates the astonishing career of perhaps the greatest hands-on scientist to live and work through the iconoclastic revolution that gave rise to the nuclear age … Impeccably researched and gives insight into Rutherford’s driven personality and insatiable appetite for hard work … One test of good science writing (and good biography) is how often you feel compelled to look something up while you’re reading it.”
—Pat Sheil, The Sydney Morning Herald
Contents
Introduction
1 The summer of 96
2 The origins of Rutherford’s science
3 Young Rutherford
4 Electrodynamics at Canterbury
5 A good keen scientist
6 Tom Tiddler’s ground
7 A mass of energy
8 Journey to the center of the atom
9 Disintegrating atoms
10 The crocodile
11 Elder statesman
12 Ernest Rutherford and the birth of modern physics
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index