Origine: Da un discorso del 1934 davanti alla British Association for the Advacement of Science; citato in Carlo Rubbia, Il dilemma nucleare, Sperling & Kupfer, 1987, p. 185. ISBN 88-200-0639-1
Ernest Rutherford:
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Ernest Rutherford frasi celebri
Ernest Rutherford: Frasi in inglese
“Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands”
As quoted in The Birth of a New Physics (1959) by I. Bernard Cohen
Contesto: It is not in the nature of things for any one man to make a sudden violent discovery; science goes step by step, and every man depends on the work of his predecessors. When you hear of a sudden unexpected discovery—a bolt from the blue, as it were—you can always be sure that it has grown up by the influence of one man on another, and it is this mutual influence which makes the enormous possibility of scientific advance. Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected.
As quoted in The Wit and Wisdom of the 20th Century : A Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Frank S. Pepper, p. 226
Contesto: When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all — except life. We shall have found the basis of everything — of the earth we walk on, of the air we breathe, of the sunshine, of our physical body itself, of everything in the world, however great or however small — except life.
Discussing the result of an experiment where about 1 out of 8000 alpha particles were scattered backwards when fired at a thin sheet of metal foil, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus, as quoted in Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom (1964) by E. N. da C. Andrade, p. 111, and in Nobel Laureates in chemistry, 1901-1992 http://books.google.com/books?id=jEy67gEvIuMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false by Laylin K. James, p. 57
Contesto: It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.
A. S. Eve, Rutherford (2013)
Contesto: The first point that arises is the atom. I was brought up to look at the atom as a nice hard fellow, red or grey in colour, according to taste. In order to explain the facts, however, the atom cannot be regarded as a sphere of material, but rather as a sort of wave motion of a peculiar kind. The theory of wave-mechanics, however bizarre it may appear... has the astonishing virtue that it works, and works in detail, so that it is now possible to understand and explain things which looked almost impossible in earlier days. One of the problems encountered is the relation between the electron, an atom and the radiation produced by them jointly; the new mechanics states the type of radiation emitted with correct numerical relations. When applied to the periodic table, a competent and laborious mathematician can predict the periodic law from first principles.
“We're like children who always want to take apart watches to see how they work.”
As quoted by Freeman Dyson, "Seeing the Unseen," New York Review of Books (Feb. 24, 2005), quoting Rutherford in the London Daily Herald
“All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”
As quoted in Rutherford at Manchester (1962) by J. B. Birks
Unsourced variants:
That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is stamp collecting.
Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.
That which is not measurable is not science. — (which is also attributed to Lord Kelvin)
“I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist.”
On his 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry, as quoted in Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics http://books.google.com/books?id=UQ3_ZwdrUUwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q&f=false (2004) by Mauro Dardo, p. 69
“Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.”
As quoted by John Kendrew in "J.D. Bernal and the Origin of Life," BBC Radio Talk (26 July 1968), and in Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, Third Edition http://books.google.com/books?id=vqTNfnKJVPAC&lpg=PA663&dq=rutherford%20%22shell%20at%20a%20piece%20of%20tissue%22&pg=PA662#v=onepage&q=rutherford%20%22shell%20at%20a%20piece%20of%20tissue%22&f=false by John Daintith, p. 662
“An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.”
As quoted in Einstein: The Man and His Achievement (1973) by G. J. Whitrow, p. 42
Variants:
If you can't explain your physics to a barmaid it is probably not very good physics.
As quoted in Journal of Advertising Research (March-April 1998)
A theory that you can't explain to a bartender is probably no damn good.
As quoted in The Language of God (2006) by Francis Collins, p. 60
“We've got no money, so we've got to think.”
As quoted in Quips, Quotes, and Quanta : An Anecdotal History of Physics (2007) by Anton Z. Capri, page 65.
Quoted by Edward Andrade in Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom http://books.google.com/books?id=VVoeXNceuVwC (1964)
Unsourced variant: We didn't have the money, so we had to think.
"The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity" in Philosophical Magazine (September 1902)
“I have broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter.”
As quoted by Richard Reeves, A Force of Nature The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford (2008) citing Ernest Rutherford Atom Man http://www.nzedge.com/ernest-rutherford/
As quoted in "Rutherford's Timebomb" in The New Zealand (15 May 2004) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3566551
