Abstract
IT is now well established that the change of one atom into another can only be effected by the addition or subtraction of one of the constituent particles of the atomic nucleus, for example, an electron, proton, neutron or α-particle. Such a transformation was first accomplished in 1919 for the element nitrogen by bombarding it with swift α-particles from radioactive substances. About one α-particle in 100,000 comes so close to the nucleus that it enters and is captured by it. This violent disturbance results in the expulsion of a proton with high speed, and the formation of a new nucleus of mass 17. A number of light elements can be transformed by α-particle bombardment in a similar way, and in most cases a proton is ejected.
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RUTHERFORD Recent Researches on the Transmutation of the Elements*. Nature 131, 388–389 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131388a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131388a0