Ernest Rutherford and the Birth of Modern Physics

How key concepts in modern physics came from the work of a New Zealander whom Einstein labelled ‘a second Newton’.

By the mid-nineteenth century, physicists believed they had discovered the last secrets of the universe. Then a new world opened up: one of waves, particles, and new, fundamental forces. This mysterious world swiftly captured the public imagination, not least because of the technical revolution that emerged from it, giving the world everything from radio to TV, X-ray mach…