Ernest Rutherford
Did you know that 2008 is the centennial year of Sir Ernest Rutherford’s Nobel Prize win? In celebration, New Zealand’s most physics-ally-gifted son may be reaching out from the grave to murder fellow scholars. Well, so says the BBC and a lot of other news sources. Is this just classic colonial-bashing or did Sir R’s experiments leave a deadly legacy of radiation at the University of Manchester? Well the investigation is on-going but if you want to read more about Ernest, you can check out our Nobel prizes backgrounder, our kids fact sheet (with recommended reading and websites) or read some books about him.
26 September 2008 at 9:38 am
That’s a fascinating story. And there’s Rutherford’s den just down in the Arts Centre.
26 September 2008 at 1:50 pm
“New Zealand’s most physics-ally-gifted son may be reaching out from the grave to murder fellow scholars” is about as low-brow as media hype descends – you should be ashamed of yourself.
13 May 2009 at 9:04 am
say what? is that true ???? please write back my son wants to know.
13 May 2009 at 9:19 am
It’s going a bit far to say that Ernest himself was the culprit – but the BBC did report that an expert was investigating claims of radiation affecting staff in the building where Rutherford worked. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/7644030.stm
No result has been reported on the BBC site that I can find.
13 May 2009 at 11:42 am
Apparently there have been six cancer deaths from people who have worked in close proximity to the rooms that Sir Ernest used for some of his experiments.
Here is a link to a new article about it – http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1112930_radiation_probe_into_sixth_death
The University found no evidence of radiation in the buildings apparently but investigations are continuing…