Alchemy IS Possible

Despite millennia of doubt, James Chadwick opened the door for the transformation of elements into other elements — along the way, the two remaining subatomic particles were discovered

Bohr’s initial model of the atom changed the way we thought about the physical reality of subatomic particles in the biggest way imaginable, but it was still only applicable to a hydrogen atom. Further, the model was 95.782% concerned with electrons. The model was very loosely concerned with whatever was in the nucleus only because of the positive charge that was speculated to be in there. Here’s some electrical engineering for you: opposites charges attract (Paula Abdul — YOU’RE UP!), and Bohr had to account for that in his model.

Other than that, though, nobody knew what the heck was going on in the nucleus of an atom. Rutherford showed previously that a nucleus seemed to be a hard, densely packed wad that contained positive charge. Beyond that, it was a mystery, so that’s where we’re headed today, and along the way, chemists figured out the “secret” of elemental transmutation (that’s a fancy way of saying “turning one element into another”) — something that alchemists had sought after for thousands of years.

We’ve covered Ernest Rutherford previously, and if you’re surprised that he’s elbowing his way into this discussion, you shouldn’t be — take a look at the man’s CV! After his work on the nucleus, he continued…