When Rutherford died in 1937, Kapitsa was extremely sad. He wrote in a memorial article: "Rutherford was not only a great scientist, but also a great mentor. He trained so many outstanding physicists in his laboratory, and I am afraid that none of them Contemporary scientists can be compared with Rutherford. The history of science tells us that an outstanding scientist is not necessarily a great man, but a great mentor must be a great man." And the great character of this great man is in Scotland. Farmhouse bred.
His father’s ingenuity and his mother’s optimism, diligence, and simplicity are Rutherford’s role models
Rutherford’s father is a smart and brainy person. And creative. When he opened a flax factory, he experimented with several different methods of impregnating flax, using water power to drive the machinery, and selected fine local varieties. As a result, his products were considered to be the best in New Zealand. He also designed devices to improve work efficiency.
Under the subtle influence of his father, Rutherford also likes to use his hands and brain, showing his extraordinary creative talent. There was a clock in his house that had been used for many years. It kept stopping, which was a big delay, and everyone thought it could not be repaired. But Rutherford refused to throw it away easily. He took the old clock apart, readjusted every part in place, cleaned the sludge inside the clock for many years, and reinstalled it. As a result, it was not only repaired, but also accurate. At that time, cameras were still relatively expensive commodities, so Rutherford actually started making them himself. He bought several lenses and pieced them together to make a camera. He shot and developed his own photos and became a little photography enthusiast. Rutherford's ability to make and repair things by himself was extremely useful in his later scientific research work. Appear superior to others on many occasions.
When Rutherford traveled across the ocean to engage in research in the UK and achieved first-class results, he was invited to give a report to the British Academic Association. Just as he was using experiments to prove his statement, the instrument suddenly came out. Fault. Rutherford raised his head calmly and said to the audience: "There is a small problem. Please take a rest for 5 minutes, take a walk or smoke a cigarette. The instrument will be back to normal when you come back." Sure enough, in a few minutes Finally, I could watch his experiments again. It is difficult to have such self-confidence without the hands-on ability and experience cultivated over many years. A first-class physicist present at the time was quite emotional about this: "This young man (referring to Rutherford) will have an extremely bright future."
Rutherford's mother was born in knowledge. Family, her father is a very talented mathematician, and her mother is also a teacher.
As teachers, mothers play a key role in the education of their children. Her every move always affects the children's emotions. Therefore, in the face of the heavy negatives in life, she always remained an optimistic mother who worked hard and educated her children with her own attitude towards the difficulties in life. It was this kind of action education that enabled Rutherford to always maintain his true nature of studying hard and loving labor. Even after becoming famous, he still maintains this simple character. No wonder some reporters said after interviewing him that apart from his wise eyes, Rutherford was almost the same as a typical farmer.
There was no obvious difference between the young Rutherford and his siblings. If there is anything different, it is that I like to think and read.
A book that played an important role in Rutherford's life was the textbook "The Curriculum" written by Balfour Stuart, a professor at the University of Manchester, which he received from his mother when he was 10 years old. "Introduction to Physics", this book started to lead him to the path of studying science. This book not only gives readers some knowledge, but also describes a series of simple experimental processes in order to train their intelligence. Rutherford was attracted by the contents of the book and realized some truths from it. That is, exploring important natural laws from simple experiments, which had a significant impact on Rutherford's lifelong research work. After reading the book, Rutherford wrote his age and name crookedly on the page. He was one month shy of turning 11 years old at that time, which was calculated to be July 1882. Rutherford's mother has always treasured this textbook and often proudly holds it to tell her children the story of that year. It is particularly worth mentioning that the author of "Introduction to Physics" happened to be Thomson's teacher when he was in Manchester, and Thomson was Rutherford's graduate tutor at Cambridge University. Reading and thinking have been with Rutherford throughout his life. After he became a great scientist with great achievements, he still attached great importance to reading and thinking. Late one night, Rutherford saw the lights on in the laboratory, pushed the door in, saw a student there, and asked: "What are you doing so late?" The student replied: "I am working." When he learned that the students worked from morning to night, he asked dissatisfiedly: "Then when do you think about problems?"
Children studying on scholarships
Lu When Serford was 5 years old, he attended Quanlin Village Elementary School, where his mother and grandmother had taught. Later, due to the family's relocation, he transferred to Fox Hill Village Elementary School.
Rutherford's parents attach great importance to their children's education. Although the family income is only enough to make ends meet, they still have enough money for him to study. For this reason, the family scrimped on food and clothing and worked very hard in life to support him through college.
Many years later, at a very grand banquet, Rutherford said with emotion: "If it weren't for my father and mother, I would never have achieved what I have today."
Due to family problems, The fees are limited, and a considerable part of the tuition fees have to be paid by yourself. When he was in elementary school, Rutherford used his summer vacation to participate in labor. The brothers made 13 pounds in one session. This money is almost enough for one semester's tuition. Rutherford deeply understood the difficulties of parents. He knew that if he wanted to go to school, he had to rely on his own labor to earn money. Later, he heard that students with excellent academic performance could get scholarships, so he studied harder. He was so attentive when he was studying that even someone hitting him on the head with a book would not distract him.
After leaving elementary school, Rutherford had to rely on scholarships for most of his tuition. He took an exam to compete for a state government scholarship and received a scholarship to study at Nelson College, which exempted him from paying tuition and provided food. As a result, Rutherford won this scholarship with a score of 580 points (out of 600 points). While studying at Nelson College, he won many awards and was awarded a scholarship to study at a New Zealand university in his final year. Among the 10 winners, he ranked 4th.
After entering Canterbury College of the University of New Zealand, Rutherford studied harder, and his math and physics scores were among the best.
Due to his excellent academic performance, Rutherford received a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science, and a Master's degree when he graduated from college. It was enough to earn money to support his family, but Rutherford was determined to achieve more in scientific research. Big results. While studying at school, he had already applied for a scholarship to study in Cambridge. Since the scholarship was available every other year, he continued his research at school for another year after graduating from university. Rutherford applied for the British Exhibition Scholarship, which was established with money earned from the 1851 International Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, England. The purpose of this scholarship is to award students with particularly outstanding academic performance and promising talents to enter prestigious British institutions of higher learning. Students from Commonwealth countries have the opportunity to receive this scholarship.
Rutherford took the exam. As a result, both Rutherford and a man named McLaughlin met the admission requirements, but there was only one place. The grant committee decided to award the scholarship to McLaughlin after debate. Rutherford had no choice but to go home and wait for future opportunities. One day in April 1895, Rutherford was digging potatoes in the vegetable garden. Mother happily ran to the vegetable garden, holding the telegraph newspaper in her hand, shaking it in the air, shouting loudly: "You have picked it up! You have picked it up!" Rutherford didn't understand what his mother was doing, "Who picked it up?" Got it? What did you get?" Rutherford asked puzzledly. It was only when he saw the telegram that he realized that the foundation committee had changed its mind and awarded him the scholarship. He immediately threw down the shovel in his hand and jumped with joy: "This may be the last potato I want to dig!"
It turns out that the situation has changed. McLaughlin has got married, and the foundation gave him The scholarship could not support two people anyway, and McLaughlin decided to stay in New Zealand.
In September of this year, Rutherford borrowed money for travel, said goodbye to his parents, boarded a passenger ship bound for England, and began his voyage dedicated to science.
In 1898, Rutherford was assigned to serve as chairman of the physics department at McGill University in Canada, where his work earned him the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He demonstrated that radioactivity is the natural decay of atoms. But he was not very happy because he considered himself a physicist, not a chemist. One of his famous sayings is, "Science only has one subject: physics, and the rest are nothing more than stamp collecting activities." He noticed that in a sample of radioactive material, the decay time of half of the sample is almost constant. This is the "half-life" of the material, and he also established a practical method for this phenomenon, using the half-life of the material as a clock to detect it. The age of the Earth, it turns out, is much older than most science thought.
In 1909, Rutherford and his student Marsden used alpha particles to hit a thin gold foil at the University of Manchester in England. He found that most of the particles could pass through the gold foil, and only a few would jump back. He joked that it was like the Navy shooting a piece of paper with a 15-inch cannon, but the shell would bounce back and hit him. Finally, he proposed an atomic model similar to the large solar system planetary system. He believed that the atomic space was mostly empty, and electrons rotated around the atomic nucleus like planets, overturning the plum pudding atomic model used at that time. In March 1911, Rutherford announced his unexpected discovery at a meeting of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and in May of the same year, he published his paper in the "Journal of Philosophy".
When Thomson was promoted to Dean of Trinity College in 1919, he recommended Rutherford to return to Cambridge University as the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, where he trained a large number of Nobel Prize winners. , his students include Denmark's N. H. D. Bohr, Germany's Hahn, New Zealand's Marston, the former Soviet Union's P.L. Kapitsa, Australia's Oliphant, and Britain's Chadwick and Cowherd Eleven Nobel Prize winners including J. P. Cockcroft. Rutherford was a great mentor. In 1933, his students Dirac and Schr?dinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Dirac told Rutherford that he did not want to be famous and wanted to refuse the honor. Rutherford said to him: "If you do this, you will be more famous, and people will trouble you even more." Rutherford is known as the father of modern nuclear physics.