title: Ernest Rutherford: And the Explosion of Atoms (Oxford Portraits in Science)
author:  J. L. Heilbron 
description: Grade 9 Up-An introduction to the life and times of the great physicist from his birth in New Zealand in 1871 to his death in 1937. Rutherford's contributions include inventing a detector for electromagnetic waves, creating the disintegration theory of radioactivity, and, first and foremost, discovering the basic structure of the atom. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 and worked on methods of locating submarines during World War I. The book includes numerous captioned, black-and-white photographs of Rutherford, his colleagues, and their laboratories and equipment. Sidebars and diagrams help to explain the many complex principles and equations. The book covers Rutherford's research in fine detail as well as that of many of his colleagues including Hans Geiger, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, and J. J. Thomson. The author has finely interwoven the political and social context of the time into the significance of his subject's contributions in this authoritative work. A challenging read, it is best suited for serious students with some background in science.<br /><i>Maren Ostergard, Bellevue Regional Library, WA</i><br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
  
  
  The impact of modern theoretical physics on the history of the World
  
  
  by
  
  
  Percy Seymour
  
  
  Introduction
  
  
  
  
  
  “The pen is mightier than the sword” is a very old saying. Normally it is
  taken to mean that words and diplomacy are far better ways of settling
  disputes than swords and guns. However, in the twentieth century it took on a
  very different meaning altogether. In the first twenty years of the 20
  
  
  th
  
  
  century, most theoretical physics was carried out entirely with pen and paper.
  Pen and paper, in the hands of Albert Einstein, showed us the close links
  between space, time, matter and energy. Pen and paper, in the hands of Ernest
  Rutherford and Niels Bohr, gave us a better understanding of the actual
  structure of atoms and the nuclei of atoms. These discoveries were developed
  by a host of other people to build the first atomic bomb. Seventy years ago
  two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, instantly killing over 100 th