Informant38

Arrhenius was an important Swedish chemist who early in the twentieth century wanted the then-new developments in atomic science to be a part of the domain of chemistry rather than of physics. It is partly due to his influence that Ernest Rutherford, who inferred the nature of the nuclear atom (electrons spread out around a small positively charged nucleus) from the results of Geiger and Marsden's scattering experiments, was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry instead of Physics. Rutherford used to say ``All science is either physics or stamp collecting.'' He described electrons in the nuclear model of an atom as being ``like a few flies in a cathedral.'' Rutherford made some early progress in radio transmission (``wireless communication'') but gave it up when someone told his advisor J. J. Thomson (discoverer of the electron) that prospects for commercialization were poor. Lord Kelvin (yes, the Kelvin of the temperature scale, and too many accomplishments to list) tried and failed to get financial backing for Rutherford's experiments. Guglielmo Marconi also did not have outside funding. At age twenty-one he made the necessary breakthroughs working in a laboratory he set up in his parents' home.

great glossary and oddments from weirdo brainiacs @Stammtisch Beau Fleuve