Stories from June 2009
Marking centenary of Rutherford’s discovery in Cheltenham
Institute of Physics News
2 June 2009
"As incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you". This was Lord Rutherford' s description of the results published by Geiger and Marsden exactly one hundred years ago in June 1909, which showed that alpha particles were scattered by a very thin sheet of gold foil. The Geiger-Marsden experiment led Rutherford directly to the conclusion that atoms, the building blocks of matter, have internal structure and revealed the existence of the atomic nucleus.
The Institute of Physics (IOP) has set up an afternoon of lectures to mark Rutherford’s contribution to physics. As part of the Cheltenham Science Festival, Professor Jim Al-Khalili from the University of Surrey will be chairing talks on the subject on Thursday, 4 June.
Al-Khalili will introduce the event followed by talks, the first one being from Rutherford’s great-granddaughter, Professor Mary Fowler, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, who will talk about the man himself and show family snaps.
Other presenters include Dr Gary Mathlin, University of Bath, and physicist Professor Paddy Regan, a nuclear physicist from the University of Surrey, whose presentation discusses how Rutherford’s great insight of the concept of the Atomic Nucleus and its subsequent experimental confirmation by Geiger and Marsden has spawned a plethora of different science and technological areas, ranging from understanding the fundamental nature of matter, to energy production and medical diagnosis techniques.
Each talk will be followed by a question and answer session giving the audience a chance to ask further questions.
Alison Rivett, regional officer for the South-West at the IOP, said “Rutherford was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and a pioneer of the nuclear age. His Geiger-Marsden experiment led to a whole new field of study: nuclear physics. The IOP lecture afternoon is a great way to celebrate the life of a man whose work changed our world forever.”
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