Ernest Rutherford Quotes

29 Sourced Quotes

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

Ernest Rutherford
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

Ernest Rutherford
About James Chadwick book:
I have read with pleasure this little book of my friend Dr. J. Chadwick. It is a clear and accurate account of radioactive phenomena written by one who has a first-hand knowledge of the facts.
Of the book 'Radioactivity And Radioactive Substances'

Ernest Rutherford
Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.

Ernest Rutherford
The march of discovery has been so rapid that it has been difficult even for those directly engaged in the investigations to grasp at once the full significance of the facts that have been brought to light.

Ernest Rutherford
It is my personal conviction that if we knew more about the nucleus, we should find it much simpler than we suppose. I am always a believer in simplicity, being a simple fellow.

Ernest Rutherford
My work on the atom goes on in fine style. Several atoms succumb each week.

Ernest Rutherford
Experiment without imagination or imagination without recourse to experiment, can accomplish little, but for effective progress, a happy blend of these two powers is necessary.

Ernest Rutherford
It is essential for men of science to take an interest in the administration of their own affairs or else the professional civil servant will step in — and then the Lord help you.

Ernest Rutherford
The atom will always be a sink of energy and never a reservoir.

Ernest Rutherford
These experiments show that the uranium radiation is complex and that there are present at least two distinct types of radiation - one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the alpha-radiation, and the other of more penetrative character which will be termed the beta-radiation.

Ernest Rutherford
[Atom] a nice, hard fellow, red or grey in color according to taste.

Ernest Rutherford
It seems to me that you would have to assume that the electron knows beforehand where it is going to stop.

Ernest Rutherford
I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist.

Ernest Rutherford
We're like children who always want to take apart watches to see how they work.

Ernest Rutherford
An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.

Ernest Rutherford
I have broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter.

Ernest Rutherford
We cannot control atomic energy to an extent which would be of any value commercially, and I believe we are not likely ever to be able to do so.

Ernest Rutherford
It is not in the nature of things for any one man to make a sudden violent discovery; science goes step by step, and every man depends on the work of his predecessors. When you hear of a sudden unexpected discovery—a bolt from the blue, as it were—you can always be sure that it has grown up by the influence of one man on another, and it is this mutual influence which makes the enormous possibility of scientific advance. Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected.

Ernest Rutherford
The year 1896...marked the beginning of what has been aptly termed the heroic age of Physical Science. Never before in the history of physics has there been witnessed such a period of intense activity when discoveries of fundamental importance have followed one another with such bewildering rapidity.

Ernest Rutherford
I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity.

Ernest Rutherford
Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. … The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.

Ernest Rutherford
I came into the room which was half-dark and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience, and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the Earth, where my views conflicted with his.
To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me.
Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the Earth, provided no new source [of heat] was discovered. That prophetic utterance referred to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! The old boy beamed upon me.

Ernest Rutherford
The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.

Ernest Rutherford
[From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the alpha radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the beta radiation.

Ernest Rutherford