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"It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."

— Ernest Rutherford

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Physicists from New Zealand Physicists from the United Kingdom University of Cambridge faculty Nobel laureates in Chemistry British peers

Original Language: English

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From a lecture delivered on October 15, 1936 at Cambridge University, discussing the result of an experiment in 1909 where alpha particles were scattered backwards when fired at a thin sheet of metal foil, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus. The full lecture was reprinted in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge arranged by the History of Science Committee 1936.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford

From a lecture delivered on October 15, 1936 at Cambridge University, discussing the result of an experiment in 1909 where alpha particles were scattered backwards when fired at a thin sheet of metal foil, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus. The full lecture was reprinted in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge arranged by the History of Science Committee 1936.