Not only did it incorporate new discoveries, such as the existence of the electron, it also introduced the notion of the atom as a non-inert, divisible mass. Though defunct by modern standards, the Plum Pudding Model represents an important step in the development of atomic theory. Based on its appearance, which consisted of a “sea of uniform positive charge” with electrons distributed throughout, Thompson’s model came to be nicknamed the “Plum Pudding Model”. As part of the revolution that was taking place at the time, Thompson proposed a model of the atom that consisted of more than one fundamental unit. Thompson in the late 19th an early 20th centuries. This was the basis of the atomic theory devised by English physicist J.J. From its humble beginnings as an inert, indivisible solid that interacts mechanically with other atoms, ongoing research and improved methods have led scientists to conclude that atoms are actually composed of even smaller particles that interact with each other electromagnetically. For the ultimate honor he was buried in Westminster Abbey.įeatured image: Ernest Rutherford in academic regalia.Ever since it was first proposed by Democritus in the 5th century BCE, the atomic model has gone through several refinements over the past few thousand years. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1908 he was made a knight and then a peer with a seat in the House of Lords. Like Thomson, Rutherford garnered many honors. Thomson in the Cavendish Professorship at Cambridge and again gathered a vigorous research group, including James Chadwick, the discoverer of the neutron. Moseley (who obtained experimental evidence for atomic numbers).ĭuring World War I this Manchester research group was largely dispersed, and Rutherford turned to solving problems connected with submarine detection. At McGill University in Montreal, his first appointment, he worked with Frederick Soddy on radioactive decay.Īt Manchester University he collaborated with Hans Geiger (of Geiger counter fame), Niels Bohr (whose model of atomic structure succeeded Rutherford’s), and H. Throughout his career Rutherford displayed his ability to work creatively with associates, some of whom were already established at the institutions to which he was appointed and others of whom he attracted as doctoral or postgraduate students. Letter from Ernest Rutherford to Georg Bredig, 1912. There he began experimenting with the transmission of radio waves, went on to join Thomson’s ongoing investigation of the conduction of electricity through gases, and then turned to the field of radioactivity just opened up by Henri Becquerel and Pierre and Marie Curie. Thomson’s first graduate student at the Cavendish Laboratory. He was released from this task by a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he became J. Education and Early Careerīorn on a farm in New Zealand, the fourth of 12 children, Rutherford completed a degree at the University of New Zealand and began teaching unruly schoolboys. Rutherford on the New Zealand 100-dollar banknote. Most important, he postulated the nuclear structure of the atom: experiments done in Rutherford’s laboratory showed that when alpha particles are fired into gas atoms, a few are violently deflected, which implies a dense, positively charged central region containing most of the atomic mass. He discovered alpha and beta rays, set forth the laws of radioactive decay, and identified alpha particles as helium nuclei. A Series of DiscoveriesĪ consummate experimentalist, Rutherford was responsible for a remarkable series of discoveries in the fields of radioactivity and nuclear physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays, and proposed the laws of radioactive decay.
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