Picture of Ernest Rutherford
The Bettmann Archive. From painting by James Gunn (1932).
Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand-born physicist who lived between 1871-1937. He is considered the father of nuclear physics because of his discoveries on atomic structure. Rutherford believed that an atom is like a small planetary system, with the protons and neutrons in the center (like the sun), circled by electrons (like planets).
Rutherford also studied radioactivity. He named and identified alpha and beta particles, and showed how an element changes when it experiences radioactive decay.
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This special issue of The Earth Scientist, which focuses on Earth System science, was sponsored by The Pennsylvania State University TESSE Team. The issue features the work of middle and high school teachers, and graduate and undergraduate students who have participated in the TESSE program from 2006 - 2009.
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Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who lived between 1885-1962. He investigated atomic structure, modifying Rutherford's old model of an atom. Bohr also claimed that an atom's chemical properties are determined
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Florence Bascom was one of the first female geologists in the United States and her fellow scientists thought she was one of the nation’s most important geologists. She lived from 1862 until 1945 and
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Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who lived between 1867-1934. She contributed greatly to our understanding of radioactivity and the effects of x-rays. She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw,
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Albert Einstein was a German physicist who lived between 1879-1955. Probably the most well-known scientist of the twentieth century, Einstein came up with many original theories and invented modern physics.
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Robert Goddard was an American physicist who lived between 1882-1945. He was a pioneer of modern rocketry who discovered that liquid fuel is more efficient than solid fuel. Although Goddard's first rocket
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Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who lived between 1901-1976. He developed new theories in quantum mechanics about the behavior of electrons which agreed with the results of previous experiments.
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Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer who lived between 1889-1953. His observations of galaxies helped him develop the idea of an expanding universe, which forms the basis of modern cosmology, the study
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