Manchester marks Rutherford centenary

BBC ^ | August 9, 2011 | Mark Kinver

[decimon]

Manchester is hosting a series of events to mark the centenary of a paper by Ernest Rutherford that changed the way we looked at the world and Universe around us.

In 1911, Rutherford, described as the father of nuclear physics, presented his research to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which - for the first time - described a "planetary structure" of atoms, one that we still recognise today.

"Before Rutherford, people had thought about atoms as an amorphous lump, the "plum pudding model" we sometimes hear about," explained Catherine Rushmore, science curator at the Museum of Science and Industry (Mosi).

"Rutherford pulled together all of the research that had been happening and realised that atomic structure had a really dense nucleus, which was positively charged, with negatively charged electrons circulating a long way away.

"It is almost like the Solar System, where we have the Sun in the middle and planets circulating around it," she told BBC News.

[decimon]

Center stage ping.

[Revolting cat!]

I'll drink to that!

[dangus]

The only problem, of course, is that Rutherford’s model is simply dead wrong.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon.

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[SunkenCiv]

http://www.google.com/search?q=Rutherfordπs+model

http://www.google.com/search?q=Rutherford%27s+model

[wideminded]

Rutherford was born in New Zealand in 1871 and did not come to Manchester until 1907.