Century of nuclear science
25 May 2011
It was 100 years ago today that Ernest Rutherford put forward the 'planetary' theory of the atom with a very small positively charged nucleus orbited by electrons, a discovery that underpinned advances in fields as diverse as medicine, geology, agriculture, space exploration – and power generation. Rutherford's other scientific discoveries include fundamentals such as the half-life nature of radioactive decay, which he used to measure the age of the Earth. He also coined the terms alpha, beta and gamma for the types of radioactive decay and worked with Hans Geiger to create a device to count alpha particles. Rutherford received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on half-lives and became known as the father of nuclear physics after his atomic model was enhanced by later physicists to result in the modern model of the atom. After his death in 1937 Rutherford's body was interred in London's Westminster Abbey near that of Sir Isaac Newton.