A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford

Science News,  Jan 19, 2008  

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A FORCE OF NATURE: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford

RICHARD REEVES

A century ago, Ernest Rutherford was one of England's most famous scientists. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his investigations of radioactivity. He went on to publish even greater discoveries on the existence of the atomic nucleus and the nature of the atom, including his work with James Chadwick on the discovery of the neutron in 1932. (Rutherford himself had predicted the neutron's existence more than a decade earlier.) Rutherford's story comes to life in this biography by historian Reeves. Reeves chronicles Rutherford's journey from scholarship-winning farm boy to eminent physicist, describing how Rutherford's force of personality not only drove his own accomplishments but also inspired Nobel-winning work by more than a dozen of his students and coworkers. W.W. Norton & Co., 2007, 208 p., hardcover, $23.95.

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