I've done it!

I have done it! I transmuted one element into another through nuclear reaction. I could not have done this without Niels Bohr, my assistant who received a Nobel Prize in Physics. What a brilliant man! With his help, I was able to theorize that an attraction occurred between particles of different charges. The attractive force between the protons and neutrons kept the nuclei from breaking apart! I have solved it! Oh, people will live to see this day! I have unlocked the secrets to life itself! My theory was proven by another special assistant of mine, James Chadwick. A splendid man indeed! My other scientific research on radioactivity of thorium and uranium was also very rewarding. With my young helper, Frederick Soddy, I was able to discover the transmutation of elements. Who knew that radioactivity was an abrasion of the atom? Who knew that half-life was the time required for half of the atoms to decay? No one would have possible demonstrated this without my work. I have no intention to boast of my intelligence, but it is simply the truth. Although I have to give credit to Paul Villard for discovering-but not naming-the type of radiation from radium. I,in the end, did research and experimentation in a much greater depth and in addition, I gave the type of radiation its name-the gamma ray. In continuation, as chair of Physics in the University of Manchester, I worked with alpha radiations and have concluded that an alpha particle's charge is two. With this discovery, I carried out an experiment with Thomas Royds who took the alpha particles and saturated them through a thin window. How unpredictable the results were! Royds and I obtained a spectrum of helium gas! Is not life unpredictable? One may never know what to expect. Likewise, my gold foil experiment produced capricious results. I assumed that the paths of alpha particles could not have possibly been altered by a nearby encounter with an electron. Little did I expect that the alpha particles were deflected at large angles, some right at me! I have proven that the atom is divisible, contrary to Democritus and Dalton's theories. I shall now continue with even greater scientific research....
Cordialement,
Ernest Rutherford


Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford
Chemistry: Matter and Change(textbook)
Dingrando, Laurel, Kathleen Tallman, Nicholas Hainen, and Cheryl Wistrom. Chemistry:Matter and Change. California. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2007. 94-95.