Customer Reviews

Ernest Rutherford: And the Explosion of Atoms (Oxford Portraits in Science)

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This is a superbly done history of science. As a book in a series of brief "science portraits" published by Oxford, Heilbron presents a clear picture of Rutherford's contribution to unfolding of the mystery of the atom. He is able to do this in part because Rutherford's emphasis of experiment over mathematically derived theory and because Rutherford worked from visual models. Because it is a brief history all the complexities of continental discussions about the appropriateness of atom models are left out. Nonetheless Heilbron's explication of Rutherford's use of cathode ray tubes, radioactive sources, and detectors is much easier to follow than some other descriptions of the atomic science of the times. The tubes, electric and material deflectors, detectors, tease out elemental facts about atoms and their constituents. Filling in the periodic table is a real scientific puzzle whose solution is understandable and fascinating. When Bohr comes up with his model of the atom based on quantum leaps, we know that science is in a new ball game where Rutherford's outlook and methods need serious revision.

It is nice to know that Rutherford plays a less jingoist role in WWI than some of his colleagues both in England and on the continent. By the war's end we see him like Planck playing more a role in the organization of science than innovative research. Although not wanting his linear accelerator to be bettered by the Berkeley scientists cyclotron, Rutherford accedes to the fact that the cyclotron is a superior research tool.

I enjoyed Heilbron's style of writing with hints of wry humor. We can see how Rutherford and his associates have fulfilled the dream of alchemists: transforming gold into lead. This a very readable book which means, in the field of the history of science, that it excels.

Charlie Fisher emeritus professor and author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World