ERNEST Rutherford is one of the most illustrious scientists that the world has ever seen. He achieved enduring international fame because of an incredibly productive life, during which he altered our view of nature on three separate occasions. Combining brilliantly conceived experiments with much hard work and special insight, he explained the perplexing problem of naturally occurring radioactivity, determined the structure of the atom, and was the world's first successful alchemist, changing nitrogen into oxygen.
Rutherford received a Nobel prize for the first discovery, but the other two would have been equally worthy candidates, had they been discovered by someone else. Indeed, any one of his other secondary achievements - many of which are now almost forgotten - would have been enough to bring fame to a lesser scientist. For example, he invented an electrical method for detecting individual ionizing radiations, he dated the age of the Earth, and briefly held the world record for the distance over which wireless waves could be detected. He predicted the existence of neutrons, he oversaw the development of large-scale particle accelerators, and, during the First World War, he led the allied research into the detection of submarines.
In the September issue of Physics World magazine (information), John Campbell from the Physics Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand talks about the life and times of Ernest Rutherford.