LOSS TO SCIENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20511, 30 May 1938, Page 7

LOSS TO SCIENCE

UH LORD RUTHERFORD ROYAL SOCIETY'S TRIBUTE Tribute to the iate Lord Rutherford was paid by the president, Professor W. P. Evans, at the annual meeting of the council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. “The death of Lord Rutherford,” he •aid, “was felt throughout the whole world, for his achievements had proved him the most brilliant experimenter of our time and had assured him a prominent and illustrious place In the annals of science,” Professor Evans said. “In rapid succession an 1851 Exhibition Scholar from Canterbury College in the University of New Zealand, Professor of Physics at McGill University, Montreal, Professor of Physics at Manchester University, and Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge University—where he proved himself a worthy successor to such men of genius as Maxwell, Rayleigh, and Thomson—he startled the scientific world by his work on radioactivity, by his revolutionary ideas on tha constitution of the atom, and by his really marvellous experiments on the transmutation of elements—experiments which gave him, perhaps, his greatest renown. The Oh arm of Simplicity “In the scientific work he was scrupulously honest; he did pot delude himself or the world of science by unreliable experiments or deductions. He wrote and spoke with the charm of simplicity. He was devoted to his work, because he was enthusiastic in the cause of science, not because he thought of his own advancement, and for that reason he was always a great colleague, ready to give others their due ere.lit, and careful that all who helped him should receive full recognition. “All who knew him hoped that his Inspiration might be available for many a year to come (he was only 66 years old), but that was not to be,*and the world is left deeply poorer. In Rutherford a great* man passed; and for obvious greatness there Is no substitute.*'