This article first appeared in the New Zealand Herald on 19 May 2004 to mark the 100th anniversary of Ernest Rutherford's famous lecture at the Royal Institution. This reprint is to honour Rutherford's 150th birthday on 30 August 1871. The classic story of a major scientific paradigm shift hinges on an oft-repeated anecdote from the lecture, but, as is often the way, the real story is somewhat more nuanced... I've kept the original version with minor edits, I'll add some relevant citations and links soon.
On May 20, 1904, Ernest Rutherford gave a lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain about the structure of atoms. That Friday night in London, Rutherford had every reason to be confident. The boy from colonial Brightwater, southwest of Nelson, was on the cutting-edge of a revolution that was shaking traditional scientists to the core and was taking the general public along for a fascinating ride.
But Rutherford had reason to be anxious, because his lecture would touch upon a particularly sensitive issue – the age of the Earth. Worse still, upon entering the lecture hall crammed with 800 people, Rutherford had spotted the chief protagonist of this bitter debate, Lord Kelvin, the pre-eminent scientist of the Victorian era. The scene was set for a classic moment in science – the young brilliant upstart from the colonies facing down a patriarch of the English establishment.
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