Penetration and Deflection

Sounds like a counterinsurgency strategy, but it’s how the atomic nucleus was discovered

Okay, so subatomic particles exist — Sir JJ proved that beyond any doubt. This discovery got the chemist gears turning: what does an atom actually look like?? What does it consist of?

The first structural model of an atom has a decidedly British name (first coined by Lord Kelvin and advanced by the Sir Doctor himself, JJ Thomson): the “plum pudding” model. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m merikan, and I can honestly say I’ve never had plum pudding. In fact, the only way I’ve ever heard about plum pudding is from the JJ Thomson model of an atom.

Update: I’ve just learned there are no actual plums in plum pudding. Instead, there are raisins. Thank you, Brits, for making this all straightforward.

The “plum pudding” structural model of the atom hypothesized that all subatomic stuff was situated in a sphere, which was the center of the atom. The electrons would just float around randomly in the sphere, like p̶l̶u̶m̶s̶ raisins in plum pudding (hence the name). The model left a lot of questions on the table: how are electrons removed, how many electrons are in the pudding, etc.

While the debate over plum pudding was raging on, researchers were forging ahead in yet another novel discipline of chemistry: radiochemistry. In this field, we encounter the pioneering Marie Curie, who was undoubtedly one of the most influential…