Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (1871-1937) - British physicist of New Zealand origin. Known as the "father" of nuclear physics. Creator of the planetary model of the atom. 1908 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Ernest Rutherford, which we will talk about in this article.

So, before you is a short biography of Rutherford.

Biography of Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 in the village of Spring Grove (New Zealand). He was raised and raised in the family of a farmer, James Rutherford, and his wife, Martha Thompson, who worked as a school teacher.

In addition to Ernest, 11 more children were born in the Rutherford family.

Childhood and youth

From an early age, Ernest was distinguished by curiosity and hard work. He had a phenomenal memory and was also a healthy and strong child.

The future scientist graduated with honors from elementary school, after which he entered Nelson College. His next educational institution was Canterbury College, located in Christchurch.

During this period of his biography, Rutherford studied chemistry and physics with great interest.

At the age of 21, Ernest received an award for writing the best work in mathematics and physics. In 1892 he was awarded the title of Master of Arts, after which he began to conduct scientific research and experiment.

The first work of Rutherford was called - "Magnetisation of iron in high-frequency discharges." It examined the behavior of high frequency radio waves.

An interesting fact is that Ernest Rutherford was the first to assemble a radio receiver, ahead of its official creator Marconi. This device turned out to be the world's first magnetic detector.

By means of the detector, Rutherford managed to receive the signals that his colleagues, who were from him at a distance of about a kilometer, were giving him.

In 1895, Ernest was awarded a grant to study in Great Britain. As a result, he was fortunate enough to travel to England and work at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University.

Scientific activity

In Britain, the scientific biography of Ernest Rutherford developed as well as possible.

At the university, the scientist became the first doctoral student of its rector Joseph Thomson. At this time, the guy was researching the ionization of gases under the influence of X-rays.

At the age of 27, Rutherford became interested in the study of uranium radioactive radiation - "Becquerel rays". It is curious that Pierre and Marie Curie also carried out experiments on radioactive radiation with him.

Later, Ernest began to deeply research the half-life, which refined the characteristics of substances, thereby opening the half-life process.

In 1898 Rutherford went to work at McGill University in Montreal. There he began to work closely with the English radiochemist Frederick Soddy, who at that time was a simple laboratory assistant in the chemical department.

In 1903, Ernest and Frederick presented to the scientific world a revolutionary idea about the transformation of elements in the process of radioactive decay. They also soon formulated the laws of transformation.

Later, their ideas were supplemented by Dmitry Mendeleev using the periodic system. Thus, it became clear that the chemical properties of a substance depend on the charge of the nucleus of its atom.

During the biography of 1904-1905. Rutherford published two works - "Radioactivity" and "Radioactive transformations".

In his works, the scientist concluded that atoms are a source of radioactive radiation. He did a lot of experiments on translucent gold foil with alpha particles, observing particle flows.

Ernest Rutherford was the first to put forward the idea of the structure of the atom. He suggested that the atom is in the form of a drop with a positive charge, with negatively charged electrons inside it.

Later, the physicist formulated the planetary model of the atom. However, this model ran counter to the laws of electrodynamics deduced by James Maxwell and Michael Faraday.

Scientists have been able to prove that an accelerated charge is deprived of energy due to electromagnetic radiation. For this reason, Rutherford had to continue refining his ideas.

In 1907 Ernest Rutherford settled in Manchester, where he took a job at the University of Victoria. The following year, he invented the alpha particle counter with Hans Geiger.

Later, Rutherford began to collaborate with Niels Bohr, who was the author of quantum theory. Physicists have come to the conclusion that electrons move around the nucleus in an orbit.

Their groundbreaking model of the atom was a breakthrough in science, prompting the entire scientific community to reconsider their views on matter and motion.

At the age of 48, Ernest Rutherford became a professor at the University of Cambridge. At that time in his biography, he enjoyed great prestige in society and had many prestigious awards.

In 1931 Rutherford was awarded the title of Baron. At that time he set up experiments on the splitting of the atomic nucleus and the transformation of chemical elements. In addition, he investigated the relationship between mass and energy.

Personal life

In 1895, an engagement was made between Ernest Rutherford and Mary Newton. It is worth noting that the girl was the daughter of the hostess of the boarding house, in which the physicist lived then.

Young people got married 5 years later. Soon the couple had their only daughter, whom they named Eileen Mary.

Death

Ernest Rutherford died on October 19, 1937, 4 days after an urgent operation due to an unexpected disease - a strangulated hernia. At the time of his death, the great scientist was 66 years old.

Rutherford was buried with full honors at Westminster Abbey. An interesting fact is that he was buried next to the graves of Newton, Darwin and Faraday.