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apr11-letter.pdf

Dear Mr. Editor:

I read with avid interest the recent article on the bibliometric impact of E. Rutherford’s many contributions to physics [1]. The article reinforces in a quantitative manner the substantial contributions Rutherford has made to 20th century physics. However, it does contain in its introductory paragraph an egregious historical error. In that paragraph, the authors regurgitate the following, which they attribute to J. Campbell: “His three major experimental discoveries in atomic physics during that period – the model of the atom from the scattering of alpha and beta particles, nuclear fission, and radioactive decay – could each have earned him a Nobel Prize…” [2]. Rutherford’s place in the pantheon of modern physics is secure, but to nonchalantly attribute him with the discovery of nuclear fission does his legacy a disservice, and unnecessarily distorts historical reality. In fact, on December 22, 1938 - some 14 months after Rutherford’s death - Hahn and Strassman submitted a manuscript claiming quite unexpectedly, the detection of barium from the neutron bombardment of uranium [3]. Literally within days, Meitner and Frisch had correctly interpreted these results as being due to nuclear fission thus completing the discovery of fission - a process in which Rutherford played no direct role [4]. It is unfortunate that the authors of this article chose to paraphrase such patently incorrect information in their otherwise fine piece on Rutherford’s scientific influence.

Eduardo Galiano, Ph.D., P.Phys.
Associate Professor, Laurentian University

1. W. Marx, M. Cardona and D.J. Lockwood, “Rutherford’s impact on science over the last 110 years: a bibliometric analysis”, Physics in Canada, 67 (1):35-40 (2011).
2. J.A. Campbell, “Rutherford and the Nobel Prize”, Physics in Canada, 65 (1), 13-22 (2009).
3. O. Hahn and F. Strassmann, "Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle", Naturwissenschaften, 27 (1): 11–15 (1939).
4.  L. Meitner and O. Frisch, "Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction", Nature, 143 (3615): 239 (1939).