Ernest Rutherford Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : Quoted in J. B. Birks, Rutherford at Manchester (1962)
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“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 -
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“If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : Quoted in N.T. Bailey's The Mathematical Approach to Biology and Medicine Chapter 2 (p. 23)
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“From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of alpha particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift alpha particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“The greatest contributor to the feeling of tension and fear of war arose from the power of the bombing aeroplane. If all nations would consent to abolish air bombardment . . . that would mean the greatest possible release from fear.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“We haven't got the money, so we've got to think.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : R. V. Jones in Bulletin of the Institute of Physics (1962) vol. 13, p. 102
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“You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.”
-- 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 must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics". Book by Mauro Dardo, p. 69, 2004.
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“It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back to hit you.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom" by E. N. da C. Andrade, (p. 111), 1964.
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“Now I know what the atom looks like.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "Rutherford, Simple Genius". Book by David Wilson, 1983.
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“I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies...”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“A theory that you can't explain to a bartender is probably no damn good.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "The Language of God". Book by Francis Collins, p. 60, 2006.
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“You know, I am sorry for the poor fellows that haven't got labs to work in.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "Einstein: The Man and His Achievement". Book by Gerald James Whitrow, p. 42, 1973.
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“The more physics you have the less engineering you need.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
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“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 -
“Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist.”
-- 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 -
“If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
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“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 -
“That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is stamp collecting.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "In Defence of ‘Stamp Collecting’" by Matthew Wale, conscicom.org. June 29, 2017.
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“When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all — except life. We shall have found the basis of everything — of the earth we walk on, of the air we breathe, of the sunshine, of our physical body itself, of everything in the world, however great or however small — except life.”
-- Ernest RutherfordSource : "The Wit and Wisdom of the 20th Century: A Dictionary of Quotations". Book by Frank S. Pepper, p. 226, 1987.
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“[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 α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
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“I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)”
-- Ernest Rutherford -
“Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.”
-- Ernest Rutherford
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