Ernest Rutherford Quotes - Page 2

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• Splitting the atom is like trying to shoot a gnat in the Albert Hall at night and using ten million rounds of ammunition on the off chance of getting it. That should convince you that the atom will always be a sink of energy and never a reservoir of energy.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Night, Gnats, Trying

  10 Copy quote

• I congratulate you both on a fine piece of work which I am sure will ultimately prove of importance. I am personally very much interested in your results... In the past I have tried a number of experiments... but without any success.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Past, Numbers, Pieces

  7 Copy quote

• A good scientific theory should be explicable to a barmaid.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Barmaids, Should, Theory

  5 Copy quote

• I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Race, Order

  28 Copy quote

• You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Odds, Should

  17 Copy quote

• If, as I have reason to believe, I have disintegrated the nucleus of the atom, this is of greater significance than the war.

  Ernest Rutherford

  War, Believe, Apology

  7 Copy quote

• If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Design, Needs, Funny Science

  8 Copy quote

• The year 1896 ... marked the beginning of what has been aptly termed the heroic age of Physical Science. Never before in the history of physics has there been witnessed such a period of intense activity when discoveries of fundamental importance have followed one another with such bewildering rapidity.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Hero, Science, Years

  7 Copy quote

• Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Talking, Stamp Collecting

  "Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists". Book by John Daintith, Third Edition, p. 662, 2008.

  7 Copy quote

• Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. .... The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Character, Matter, Chemicals

  "The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity," Philosophical Magazine, Sept. 1902

  24 Copy quote

• From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of alpha particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift alpha particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Hydrogen Atom, Long, Atoms

  "Collisions of *3 Particles with Light Atoms. IV. An Anomalous Effect in Nitrogen," Philosophical Magazine, June 1919

  23 Copy quote

• The greatest contributor to the feeling of tension and fear of war arose from the power of the bombing aeroplane. If all nations would consent to abolish air bombardment . . . that would mean the greatest possible release from fear.

  Ernest Rutherford

  War, Mean, Air

  5 Copy quote

• The great object is to find the theory of the matter [of X-rays] before anyone else, for nearly every professor in Europe is now on the warpath.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Europe, Rays, Matter

  9 Copy quote

• [From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Character, Science, Two

  4 Copy quote

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