Abstract
IN another part of this issue we print the concluding part of Sir Ernest Rutherford's account of his researches on the disintegration of the atoms of some elements by means of α-rays. The theory of atomic structure which postulates a small positive nucleus and sparsely distributed surrounding electrons indicates that a permanent change in the atom requires the disruption of the nucleus itself. This nucleus is also, according to modern views, an association of simpler parts, probably only units of positive and of negative electricity, which are the same in all atoms. If this arrangement can be altered, we should change one atom into another, or others. The forces binding the components of the nuclei of stable atoms must be very great, and in overcoming them a large expenditure of energy will be required. The swift α-particle expelled from radium is by far the most concentrated source of energy known, and by firing these α-particles through matter, collisions with the atomic nuclei might be expected to break up the latter.
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Contemporary Alchemy. Nature 109, 601–602 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109601a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109601a0