Beginning of Essay
Ernest Rutherford was born at Bridgewater, close to Nelson, New Zealand. His parents had emigrated to New Zealand from Britain approximately 30 years earlier. Rutherford was a successful all-round student at school, though did not show any real interest in scien ....

Middle of Essay
.... carrying out work with radioactivity. At the age of 28 Rutherford took up the position of professor at the University of McGill in Montreal, Canada, carrying out research into radioactivity. The some of the most important work was in the identification of the alpha, beta and gamma radiation. In 1902, with the collaboration of Frederick Soddy, he enunciated and verified the 'spontaneous transformation' theory of radioactive decay, whereby a radioactive atom changes to a different atom on the emission of radiation. In 1903 Rutherford published a general paper on radioactivity and in 1904 published his first book on radioactivity. In 1906 the then pr ....