Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, who made basic contributions to nuclear physics and

the understanding of atomic structure. Bohr was born in Copenhagen, the son of a physiology professor, and was educated at the University of Copenhagen, where he earned his doctorate in 1911. That same year he went to Cambridge, England, to study nuclear physics under British physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson, but he soon moved to Manchester to work with another British physicist, Ernest Rutherford. Bohrs theory of atomic structure (see Quantum Theory), for which he received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922, was published in papers between 1913 and 1915. His work drew on Rutherfords nuclear model of the atom, in which the atom is seen as a compact nucleus surrounded by a swarm of much lighter electrons (see Atom). Bohrs atomic model made use of quantum theory and the Planck constant (the ratio between quantum size and radiation frequency). The model posits that an atom emits electromagnetic radiation only when an electron in the atom jumps from one quantum level to another. This model contributed enormously to future developments of theoretical atomic physics. In 1916 Bohr returned to the University of Copenhagen as a professor of physics, and in 1920 he was made director of the universitys newly formed Institute for Theoretical Physics. There Bohr developed a theory relating quantum numbers to large systems that follow classical laws, and made other major contributions to theoretical physics. His work helped lead to the concept that electrons exist in shells and that the electrons in the outermost shell determine an atoms chemical properties. He also served as a visiting professor at many universities.

In 1939, recognizing the significance of the fission experiments (see Nuclear Energy: Nuclear Energy from Fission) of German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, Bohr convinced physicists at a scientific conference in the United States of the importance of those experiments. He later demonstrated that uranium-235 is the particular isotope of uranium that undergoes nuclear fission. Bohr then returned to Denmark, where he was forced to remain after the German occupation of the country in 1940. Eventually, however, he was persuaded to escape to Sweden, under peril of his life and that of his family. From Sweden the Bohrs traveled to England and eventually to the United States, where Bohr joined in the effort to develop the first atomic bomb, working at Los Alamos, New Mexico, until the first bombs detonation in 1945. He opposed complete secrecy of the project, however, and feared the consequences of this ominous new development. He desired international control. In 1945 Bohr returned to the University of Copenhagen, where he immediately began working to develop peaceful uses for atomic energy. He organized the first Atoms for Peace Conference in Geneva, held in 1955, and two years later he received the first Atoms for Peace Award. In 1997 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announced that the chemical element with the atomic number 107 would be given the official name bohrium (Bh), in honor of Niels Bohr.

Models of the Atom Experimental data has been the impetus behind the creation and dismissal of physical models of the atom. Rutherford's model, in which electrons move around a tightly packed, positively charged nucleus, successfully explained the results of scattering experiments, but was unable to explain discrete atomic emissionthat is, why atoms emit only certain wavelengths of light. Bohr began with Rutherfords model, but then postulated further that electrons can only move in certain quantized orbits; this model was able to explain certain qualities of discrete emission for hydrogen, but failed completely for other elements. Schrdingers model, in which electrons are described not by the paths they take but by the regions where they are most likely to be found, can explain certain qualities of emission spectra for all elements; however, further refinements of the model, made throughout the 20th century, have been needed to explain all observable spectral phenomenon.

Niels Bohr A Nobel Prize winner, Niels Bohr was known not only for his own theoretical work, but also as a mentor to younger physicists who themselves made important contributions to physical theory. As the director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen, Bohr gathered together some of the finest minds in the physics community, such as Werner Heisenberg and George Gawow. During the 1920s, the Institute was the source of many important works in quantum mechanics, and theoretical physics in general.

John Dalton

John Dalton (1766-1844), British chemist and physicist, who developed the atomic theory upon which modern physical science is founded. Dalton was born on September 6, 1766, in Eaglesfield, Cumberland County, England. He was the son of a weaver and received his early education from his father and at a Quaker school in his native town, where he began teaching at the age of 12. In 1781 he was appointed assistant to the Quaker school in Kendal and four years later became joint principal. In Kendal, Dalton came under the influence of scientist John Gough, who taught him mathematics, as well as meteorology and botany. He went to Manchester in 1793 and spent the rest of his life there as a teacher, first at New College and later as a private tutor. He died in Manchester on July 27, 1844. Dalton began a series of meteorological observations in 1787 that he continued for 57 years, accumulating some 200,000 observations and measurements on the weather in the Manchester area. Dalton's interest in meteorology led him to study a variety of phenomena as well as the instruments used to measure them. He was the first to prove the validity of the concept that rain is precipitated by a decrease in temperature, not by a change in atmospheric pressure. Dalton's first work, Meteorological Observations and Essays (1793), attracted little attention, however. In the following year he presented a paper on color blindness, a condition from which Dalton himself suffered, before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. This paper was the earliest description of this phenomenon of vision, which became known as Daltonism. Dalton's most important contribution to science was his theory that matter is composed of atoms of differing weights and combine in simple ratios by weight. This theory, which Dalton first advanced in 1803, is the cornerstone of modern physical science (see Atom; Chemistry; Physics). In 1808 Dalton's A New System of Chemical Philosophy was published. In this book he listed the atomic weights of a number of known elements relative to the weight of

hydrogen. His weights were not entirely accurate but they form the basis for the modern periodic table of the elements (see Elements, Chemical; Periodic Law). Dalton arrived at his atomic theory through a study of the physical properties of atmospheric air and other gases. In the course of this investigation he discovered the law of partial pressures of mixed gases, often known as Dalton's law, that is, the total pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the separate pressures that each of the gases would exert if it alone occupied the whole volume. In 1804 and 1809 Dalton was invited to deliver courses at the Royal Institution in London. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1822 and was awarded the society's gold medal in 1826. In 1830 Dalton became one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy of Sciences. John Dalton British physicist and chemist John Dalton is best known for developing the atomic theory of elements and molecules, the foundation of modern physical science. While pondering the nature of the atmosphere during a meteorological study in the early 1800s, Dalton deduced the structure of carbon dioxide and proposed that an exact number of atoms constitute each molecule. He held that all atoms of a given element are identical and different from the atoms of every other element. The first to classify elements according to their atomic weights, Dalton set the stage for a revolution in scientific thought. He contributed a great deal to the field of meteorology and also, in 1794, became the first to describe the condition known as color blindness. Alpha Particles Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons that act as a single particle. An alpha particle is identical to the nucleus of a Helium atom. When alpha particles are emitted from an unstable radioactive nucleus, the atom is transmuted into a different element.

F.Kinetic Theory and Statistical Mechanics The modern concept of the atom was first proposed by the British chemist and physicist John Dalton in 1808 and was based on his studies that showed that chemical elements enter into combinations based on fixed ratios of their weights. The existence of molecules as the smallest particles of a substance that can exist in the freethat is, gaseousstate and have the properties of any larger amount of the substance, was first hypothesized by the Italian physicist and chemist Amedeo Avogadro in 1811, but did not find general acceptance until about 50 years later, when it also formed the basis of the kinetic theory of gases (see Avogadro's Law). Developed by Maxwell, the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, and other physicists, it applied the laws of mechanics and probability to the behavior of individual molecules, and drew statistical inferences about the properties of the gas as a whole. A typical but important problem solved in this manner was the determination of the range of speeds of molecules in the gas, and from this the average kinetic energy of the molecules. The kinetic energy of a body, as a simple consequence of Newton's second law, is mv2, where m is the mass of the body and v its velocity. One of the achievements of kinetic theory was to show that temperature, the macroscopic thermodynamic property describing the

system as a whole, was directly related to the average kinetic energy of the molecules. Another was the identification of the entropy of a system with the logarithm of the statistical probability of the energy distribution. This led to the demonstration that the state of thermodynamic equilibrium corresponding to that of highest probability is also the state of maximum entropy. Following the success in the case of gases, kinetic theory and statistical mechanics were subsequently applied to other systems, a process that is still continuing.

J. J. Thomson (1856-1940), British physicist and Nobel laureate. Sir Joseph John Thomson was born near Manchester, England, and educated at Owens College (now part of Victoria University of Manchester) and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. At Cambridge he taught mathematics and physics, served as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, and was (1918-40) master of Trinity College. He was also president of the Royal Society (191520) and professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institute of Great Britain (1905-18). Thomson was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the conduction of electricity through gases. He is considered the discoverer of the electron through his experiments on the stream of particles (electrons) emitted by cathode rays. A theorist as well as an experimenter, Thomson advanced in 1898 the plum-pudding theory of atomic structure, holding that negative electrons were like plums embedded in a pudding of positive matter. Thomson was knighted in 1908. Sir Joseph Thomson British physicist Sir Joseph Thomson won the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics. Perhaps best remembered as the discoverer of the electron, he also conducted research into the conduction of electricity by gasses.

Rutherfords Nuclear

Scientists realized that if all atoms contain electrons but are electrically neutral, atoms must also contain an equal quantity of positive charge to balance the electrons negative charge. Furthermore, if electrons are indeed much less massive than even the lightest atom, then this positive charge must account for most of the mass of the atom. Thomson proposed a model by which this phenomenon could occur: He suggested that the atom was a sphere of positive charge into which the negative electrons were imbedded, like raisins in a loaf of raisin bread. In 1911 British scientist Ernest Rutherford set out to test Thomsons proposal by firing a beam of charged particles at atoms. Rutherford chose alpha particles for his beam. Alpha particles are heavy particles with twice the positive charge of a proton. Alpha particles are now known to be the nuclei of helium atoms, which contain two protons and two neutrons. If Thomsons model of the atom was correct, Rutherford theorized that the electric charge and the mass of the atoms would be too spread out to significantly deflect the alpha particles. Rutherford was quite surprised to observe something very different. Most of the alpha particles did indeed change their paths by a small angle, and occasionally an alpha particle bounced back in the opposite direction. The alpha particles that bounced back must have struck something at least as heavy as themselves. This led Rutherford to propose a very different model for the atom. Instead of supposing that the positive charge and mass were spread throughout the volume of the atom, he theorized that it was concentrated in the center of the atom. Rutherford called this this concentrated region of electric charge the nucleus of the atom.

Ruthford atomic theory

Atomic structure