Abstract
Rutherford’s simple experiment with a chunk of radioactive material and a piece of gold foil initiated an explosion of inquiry into the structure of the atomic nucleus. An early discovery was that the quantum world was far more complex than had been imagined. In 1932 three elementary particles were known, the electron, proton, and neutron. By the end of World War II dozens of particle were known and more were on the way. And of course, the new nuclear knowledge led to the construction of the atomic bomb and nuclear power reactors, while nuclear radiation became a bête noire.
“If, as I have reason to believe, I have disintegrated the nucleus of the atom, this is of greater significance than the war.”
— Ernest Rutherford, in an apology for missing a meeting on antisubmarine warfare in 1917.
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita…‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ ”
— J. Robert Oppenheimer, upon testing the atomic bomb.
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- 1.
A material that emits light after exposure to different frequency electromagnetic radiation is called phosphorescent.
- 2.
Becquerel measured the mass-to-charge ratio using Thomson’s method and got the same value as the electron.
- 3.
Very important details!
- 4.
Z stands for Zahl, which is German for number, and is traditionally used to denote the number of electrons (which equals the number of protons). Z is the atomic number of an element.
- 5.
The positron is the antiparticle of the electron. It turns out all particles have paired antiparticles.
- 6.
See Ex. 7 for more about the dosage.
- 7.
The last natural element in the chart of the nuclides is uranium, and only 1 % of that is uranium-235. Was nature trying to tease us?
- 8.
All four men were refugees from fascist Europe.
- 9.
There is worry over Iran buying high speed centrifuges for enriching uranium. Are they attempting to build a nuclear bomb or merely enriching uranium for a domestic nuclear energy program?
- 10.
To be sure, the waste from burning coal is also highly dangerous. The method for dealing with this is to disperse it through the atmosphere!
- 11.
Used fuel from light water reactors contains approximately 95.6 % uranium (less than 1 % is uranium-235), 2.9 % stable fission products, 0.9 % plutonium, and 0.6 % other fission products.
- 12.
This means that the site selection was political rather than scientific.
- 13.
Running the reactor with the backup system down was against regulations.
- 14.
Which, of course, should not be present in your food!
- 15.
All of these men were distinguished physicists. It would take us too far afield to describe their careers, but I cannot resist noting that Condon was denounced by Hoover as a communist spy, and viciously attacked during the McCarthy era. One assailant said, “You have been at the forefront of a revolutionary movement in physics called …quantum mechanics. It strikes this hearing that if you could be at the forefront of one revolutionary movement …you could be at the forefront of another.”
- 16.
He said, “the limits of the Roman Empire could be inferred from the way in which potatoes are prepared: if they were just boiled with salt you were certainly beyond those limits.” England was assigned to “the domain of salted potatoes”.
- 17.
Curiously, the paper reporting the ideas of Alpher and Gamow includes Hans Bethe in the author list. Gamow was famed for his quirky sense of humor, and noting that the first three letters of the Greek alphabet are alpha, beta, and gamma, he decided to simply add Bethe’s name.
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Swanson, E.S. (2016). Nuclear Energy and Radiation. In: Science and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21987-5_8
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