A Force of Nature - Richard Reeves

Born in colonial New Zealand, Ernest Rutherford
grew up on the frontiera
different world from
Cambridge,
to which he won a scholarship at the
age of twenty-four. His work revolutionized
modern physics. Among his
discoveries were the
orbital
structure of the atom and the concept of
the "half-life" of radioactive
materials. Rutherford and the young
men working
under him were the
first to split the atom,
unlocking tremendous forcesforces, as
Rutherford himself predicted, that
would bring
us the atomic
bomb. In Richard Reeves's hands,
Rutherford comes alive, a ruddy, genial man
and
a pivotal figure in
scientific
history.