31 Ernest Rutherford Quotes

Ernest Rutherford quotes

1. Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. ... The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.

2. All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

3. I came into the room which was half-dark and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience, and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the Earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me. Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the Earth, provided no new source [of heat] was discovered. That prophetic utterance referred to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! The old boy beamed upon me.

4. If you can't explain your physics to a barmaid it is probably not very good physics.

5. All scientific men will be delighted to extend their warmest congratulations to Tesla and to express their appreciation of his great contributions to science.

6. I have always been very proud of the fact that I am a New Zealander.

7. I have broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter.

8. I'm a simple man myself.

9. If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.

10. It was as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a sheet of tissue paper and it came back to hit you.

11. That man is an Euclidian point: position without substance.

12. That's the last potato I will ever dig.

13. The energy produced by breaking down the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformations of these atoms is taking moonshine.

14. The more physics you have the less engineering you need.

15. The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't.

16. We don't have the money, so we have to think. (or 'We didn't have the money, so we had to think.')

17. You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10 or 12 to 1.

1. You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.

2. [From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.

3. Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner.

4. All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.

5. You know, I am sorry for the poor fellows that haven't got labs to work in.

6. The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't.

7. I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies...

8. I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)

9. Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.

10. From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of alpha particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift alpha particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus.

11. An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.

12. A good scientific theory should be explicable to a barmaid.

13. Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

14. The great object is to find the theory of the matter [of X-rays] before anyone else, for nearly every professor in Europe is now on the warpath.