Francis William Aston Quotes

• It has long been known that the chemical atomic weight of hydrogen was greater than one-quarter of that of helium, but so long as fractional weights were general there was no particular need to explain this fact, nor could any definite conclusions be drawn from it.

  Francis William Aston

  Long, Needs, Weight

  Nobel Lecture, 1922.

  26 Copy quote

• Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this [atomic] energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dream of scientific fiction.

  Francis William Aston

  Dream, Stars, Mean

  Nobel Lecture, 1922.

  52 Copy quote

• Personally I think there is no doubt that sub-atomic energy is available all around us, and that one day man will release and control its almost infinite power. We cannot prevent him from doing so and can only hope that he will not use it exclusively in blowing up his next door neighbour. (1936)

  Francis William Aston

  Hope, Science, Men

  52 Copy quote

• If the atoms in [a] decimetre cube of lead were all put into a chain side by side the same distance apart as they are in the normal lead, the strings of atoms so formed would reach over six million million miles.

  Francis William Aston

  Distance, Science, Atoms

  9 Copy quote

• [S]uppose you make a hole in an ordinary evacuated electric light bulb and allow the air molecules to pass in at the rate of 1,000,000 a second, the bulb will become full of air in approximately 100,000,000 years.

  Francis William Aston

  Science, Light, Air

  10 Copy quote

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