什麼是拉塞福

Rutherford, Ernest

受封為拉塞福男爵（Baron Rutherford）

紐西蘭裔英國物理學家。就讀於坎特伯裏學院後，搬往英國，就讀於劍橋大學，並在那裏與湯姆生在加文狄希實驗室一同工作。自1919年開始任加文狄希實驗室主席前，曾在蒙特婁的麥吉爾大學（1898～1907）和曼徹斯特的維多利亞大學（1907～1919）任教。1895～1897年間的實驗過程中，他發現了兩種射線形式，併為之命名，即α衰變和β衰變。之後證明α粒子實質上是氦原子，並將其使用於發現原子核的過程中。1902年與蘇第得出放射性轉換過程理論的結論。1919年成為使元素人工蜕變的第一人，1920年假設了中子的存在。其成就對了解放射性元素的蜕變有很大的影響，併成為20世紀大多數物理學的基礎。1908年獲諾貝爾獎。1914年受封為爵士，1931年成為貴族。為紀念拉塞福，因此以他的名字將第104個化學元素命名為鑪。

1871～1937年

Rutherford, Ernest

New Zealand-British physicist. After studies at Canterbury College, he moved to Britain to attend Cambridge Univ., where he worked with J. J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory. He would later teach at McGill University in Montreal (1898-1907) and Victoria University in Manchester (1907-19), before becoming chair of the Cavendish Laboratory (from 1919). At the laboratory in the years 1895-97 he discovered and named two types of radioactivity, alpha decay and beta decay. He later identified the alpha particle as a helium nucleus, and used it in his discovery of the atomic nucleus. With Frederick Soddy he formulated the transformation theory of radioactivity (1902). In 1919 he became the first person to artificially disintegrate an element, and in 1920 he hypothesized the existence of the neutron. His work contributed greatly to understanding the disintegration and transmutation of radioactive elements and became fundamental to much of 20th-century physics. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was knighted in 1914 and ennobled in 1931. Element 104, rutherfordium, is named in his honor.