Title: Rutherford's Path to the Nuclear Atom

Abstract:

Last year was the centennial of Rutherford's nuclear atom, one of his three fundamental discoveries and the one for which he has most international fame. This major event surprisingly formed no part of the International Year of Chemistry. John will talk about Rutherford's intriguing path to this discovery, during which path he unknowingly produced the evidence that practical particle acclerators were feasible. A shorter version of this talk was given at CERN's celebration of the nuclear atom last November.