History of the Atom

He was born in Cheetham Hill, a suburb of Manchester, England.

He was born in Kiel, Schleswig, Germany.

She was born in Warsaw, Poland.

He was born in Morrison, Illinois (United States).

He was born in Spring Grove, New Zealand.

He was born in Ulm, Württemburg, Germany.

He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He was born in Vienna, Austria.

He was born in Bollington, England.

He was born in Dieppe, France.

A. He also went on to propose a model for the structure of the atom. His work also led to the invention of the mass spectro-graph.
B. Thomson performed a series of experiments in 1897 designed to study the nature of electric charge in a high –vacuum cathode-ray tube, an area being investigated by many scientists at the time.

He was born in Würzburg, Germany.

A. Elements that were radioactive gave out strange, unknown rays that seemed to be very similar to the recently discovered X-rays. This is how she knew where to look for radium and polonium. Marie Curie discovered two new elements of the periodic table (polonium and radium) and conducted extensive research on radioactivity.
B. Marie Curie had lumps of fairly common minerals called pitchblende. It's called pitchblende because it is black. It is also radioactive. As no trace of uranium could be found in pitchblende, she knew it must contain something else that was radioactive and that is was probably a new element, or two! To find the new elements she had to grind the pitchblende in a pestle and mortar. Little did she know at the time, but she would have to grind over a ton of pitchblende to extract about 0.1 grams of radium. It was only because she was dealing with such tiny amounts of the material that she lived as long as she did. It did kill her in the end; she died of cancer.

A. In 1905, Albert Einstein published an analysis in which he devised a mathematical way to predict the size of both atoms and molecules. At the time, the science of atoms was still in its infancy, but Einstein's test was crucial in leading the way towards testing the reality of atoms.
B. The jittery motion of tiny observable particles had been described by botanist Robert Brown as early as 1827, and was not surprisingly known as Brownian motion. Using this insight, and some associated mathematics, Einstein was able to accurately calculate the average distance an immersed visible particle would travel in a given time. His mathematical laws governing the movements of invisible particles could be tested and measured by observing the motion of the visible— simply using a microscope and a stopwatch, and a fluid containing many uniformly sized tiny, yet visible, particles.

A. Ernest Rutherford's famed Gold Foil Experiment of 1909 demonstrated that atoms were made up of a charged nucleus orbited by electrons. He published his findings in 1911 with a description of what he called the Rutherford model of the atom.
B. Focusing on uranium, Rutherford discovered that placing it near foil resulted in one type of radiation being easily soaked up or blocked, while a different type had no trouble penetrating the same foil. He labeled the two radiation types “alpha” and “beta.” Through further experimentation involving firing alpha particles at foil, Rutherford made the groundbreaking discovery that nearly the total mass of an atom is concentrated in a nucleus. In so doing, he gave birth to the nuclear model, a discovery that marked the inception of nuclear physics and ultimately paved the way to the invention of the atom bomb.

A. He also determined that there was a smallest 'unit' charge, or that charge is 'quantized'.
B. In 1909, Millikan began a series of experiments to determine the electric charge carried by a single electron. He began by measuring the course of charged water droplets in an electric field. The results suggested that the charge on the droplets is a multiple of the elementary electric charge, but the experiment was not accurate enough to be convincing. He obtained more precise results in 1910 with his famous oil-drop experiment in which he replaced water (which tended to evaporate too quickly) with oil.

A. Niels Bohr was one of the foremost scientists of modern physics, best known for his substantial contributions to quantum theory and his research on the structure of atoms.
B. In 1912, Bohr was working for the Nobel laureate J.J. Thompson in England when he was introduced to Ernest Rutherford, whose discovery of the nucleus and development of an atomic model had earned him a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908. Under Rutherford's tutelage, Bohr began studying the properties of atoms. Combining Rutherford's description of the nucleus and Planck's theory about quanta, Bohr explained what happens inside an atom and developed a picture of atomic structure.

A. Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized our understanding of atomic and subatomic processes. The quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level.
B. Planck had sought to discover the reason that radiation from a glowing body changes in color from red, to orange, and, finally, to blue as its temperature rises. He found that by making the assumption that energy existed in individual units in the same way that matter does, rather than just as a constant electromagnetic wave - as had been formerly assumed - and was therefore quantifiable, he could find the answer to his question. The existence of these units became the first assumption of quantum theory.

A. Heisenberg is widely considered as one of the most influential figures in nuclear physics, particle physics and quantum field theory.
B. Starting in 1925, Heisenberg set to work trying to come up with a quantum mechanics that relied only on properties that could, at least in theory, be observed. With help and inspiration from several colleagues, Heisenberg developed a new approach to quantum mechanics. Basically, he took quantities such as position and velocity, and found a new way to represent and manipulate them.

A. A powerful model of the atom was developed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1926. Schrödinger combined the equations for the behavior of waves with the de Broglie equation to generate a mathematical model for the distribution of electrons in an atom.
B. Erwin Schrödinger built upon the thoughts of Bohr yet took them in a new direction. He developed the probability function for the Hydrogen atom (and a few others). The probability function basically describes a cloud-like region where the electron is likely to be found.

A. His ideas were a basis for developing the wave mechanics theory. This theory has greatly improved our knowledge of the physical nature on the atomic scale.
B. Louis de Broglie studied at the Lycée Janson of Sailly. Before studying physics he got a degree in history, and then got a degree in science three years later. He was in the war from 1914-1918, and while stationed at the Eiffel Tower he studied technical problems. He then got his doctor’s degree in 1924 after delivering his thesis, Recherches sur la Théorie des Quanta, which was research on the quantum theory. This thesis contained important findings which he had obtained in a course of about two years.

A. With Ernest Rutherford's help, Chadwick discovered the neutron by demonstrating a neutral particle with a mass the same as a proton through a reaction between gamma rays and a wax sample.
B. After nearly a decade of research, Chadwick's team had no proof of the neutral particle until an experiment by Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie was able to eject protons from wax by using gamma rays. The light bulb turned on when Chadwick learned that gamma rays contained enough energy to eject protons. Upon this revelation, Chadwick returned to his laboratory to further examine the Joliot-Curie experiment. Upon his discovery, he submitted his findings to the science journal, Nature, to announce the possibility of the existence of the neutron. Chadwick was not convinced he had discovered a new fundamental particle until physicist Werner Heisenberg showed him otherwise.

She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize – She actually won two! Her daughter also won a Noble Prize in chemistry. She had an affair with a former student of her husband, Pierre Curie. Albert Einstein and Marie Curie met in Brussels at the prestigious Solvay Conference in 1911.

Ernest Rutherford was one of J.J. Thomson’s successful students. He was knighted in 1914. He was denied permission to teach each time he applied for a job. The element 'rutherfordium' was named in his honor.

With such a wonderful discovery, Thomson received a Nobel Prize in 1906 in physics. When he was only 14, he went to the Owens College in 1870. He was awarded with Second Smith Prize and Second Wrangler. In 1883, he got MA with Adams Prize.

In 1918, Planck was given the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Lorentz Medal in 1927, the Copley Medal in 1929 and the Goethe Prize in 1945. The asteroid 1069 was named after him as "Stella Planckia" by the International Astronomical Union in 1938. He was a gifted musician and composer as well. In February of 1944, his home was completely destroyed by allied bombs and all of his papers were lost.

He was honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for his study of the elementary electronic charge and the photoelectric effect. In his sophomore year in college at Oberlin, he was asked to teach an introductory-level physics class. During WWI, he worked on military applications of aeronautics and meteorology.

He was a great musician. If the whole “genius” thing didn’t work out, Einstein could have become a violinist. He could have been the President of Israel. When Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, died, Einstein was offered the position, but he declined. He married his cousin. After Einstein divorced his first wife, Mileva Maric, he married his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal. He won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics. His brain was stolen. After Einstein died, the pathologist who did his autopsy took his brain without permission and kept it in a jar for twenty years. Yoda, from Star Wars, was modeled after the appearance of Albert Einstein.

He got his PhD at the age of 23. He won the Nobel Prize in 1933. As homage to his work, a crater on the dark side of the moon is named large crater Schrödinger.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. During World War II Bohr, fearing arrest by the Germans, escaped to Britain from where he went to the US to work on the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. The Manhattan Project lead to the development of the first atom bomb. His son, Aage Bohr, was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975.

He was knighted in 1945 for his achievements in physics. When World War I started, he was a prisoner at the Ruhleben Internment camp near Berlin. For his discovery of the neutron Chadwick received the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935, the Copley Medal in 1950 and the Franklin Medal in 1951.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize by Albert Einstein and eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the 'creation of quantum mechanics.’ He’s also the recipient of the Max Planck Medal in 1933. He was captured by American troops during World War II and sent to England.

He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1929. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he offered his services to the army in the development of radio communications. He became the 7th duc de Broglie upon the death without heir in 1960 of his older brother, Maurice, 6th duc de Broglie, also a physicist.