"The most remarkable property of the radio-active bodies is their power of spontaneously and continuously radiating energy at a constant rate, without, as far as is known, the action upon them of any external exciting cause. The phenomena at first sight appear to be in direct contradiction to the law of conservation of energy, since no obvious change with time occurs in the radiating material. The phenomena appear still more remarkable when it is considered that the radio active bodies must have been steadily radiating energy since the time of their formation in the earth's crust."
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Radio-activity
Radio-activity is a book written in 1904 (a 2nd edition was published in 1905) by Ernest Rutherford. This was the year prior to Albert Eistein's paper on the special theory of relativity would be published. The following quotes are from the 1st edition of Radio-activity, unless otherwise noted. Rutherford's theory of radioactivity was initially opposed by Pierre Curie, who believed, due to conservation of energy concerns, that radioactive substances causing the energy to be produced from the env
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