A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford (Great Discoveries (Paperback))

ISBN: 0393333698

Author: Reeves, Richard

Condition: New

"Starred Review. Reeves deploys his considerable writing skill in portraying Rutherford's personality ... capturing the full aspect of the man."-Booklist Born in colonial New Zealand, Ernest Rutherford grew up on the frontier-a different world from Cambridge, to which he won a scholarship at the age of twenty-four. His work revolutionized modern physics. Among his discoveries were the orbital structure of the atom and the concept of the "half-life" of radioactive materials. Rutherford and the young men working under him were the first to split the atom, unlocking tremendous forces-forces, as Rutherford himself predicted, that would bring us the atomic bomb. In Richard Reeves's hands, Rutherford comes alive, a ruddy, genial man and a pivotal figure in scientific history.