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Monday, 6th October 2008 (1829 views)

The significance of a ground-breaking experiment conducted by Ernest Rutherford to modern science has been highlighted.

It comes as the 100th anniversary of Rutherford winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry approaches.

One of his experiments, which consisted of him firing particles at a sheet of gold foil, had "vast implications" for scientific progress, according to the Nelson Mail.

The fact that the particles were deflected off the golden sheet revealed much about the "architecture of the subatomic world", the paper noted.

Rutherford was born in Nelson in New Zealand and went on to win the 1908 Nobel accolade for his work into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

Gold has many applications in modern science ranging from its use as a catalyst to tiny amounts being used to deliver drugs into the body.

Recently, a team from Worcester Polytechnic Institute won a grant to use the precious metal to help produce high-tech artificial limbs.

 

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