Radioactive Transformations

Radioactive Transformations describes Ernest Rutherford's Nobel Prize-winning investigations into the mysteries of radioactive matter. In this historic work, Rutherford outlines the scientific investigations that led to and coincided with his own research--including the work of Wilhelm Rӧntgen, J. J. Thomson, and Marie Curie--and explains in detail the experiments that provided a glimpse at special relativity, quantum mechanics, and other concepts that would shape...
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Radioactive Transformations describes Ernest Rutherford's Nobel Prize-winning investigations into the mysteries of radioactive matter. In this historic work, Rutherford outlines the scientific investigations that led to and coincided with his own research--including the work of Wilhelm Rӧntgen, J. J. Thomson, and Marie Curie--and explains in detail the experiments that provided a glimpse at special relativity, quantum mechanics, and other concepts that would shape modern physics.

This new edition features a comprehensive introduction by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek which engagingly explains how Rutherford's early research led to a better understanding of topics as diverse as the workings of the atom's nucleus, the age of our planet, and the fusion in stars.