Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews
Rutherford, Scientist Supreme by John Campbell AAS Publications: Christchurch, New Zealand, 1999. 516 pp. Figs., tables, 16 color plates, 32 black-and-white plates. ISBN 0-473-05700-X. reviewed by John F. C. Turner
Rutherford, Scientist Supreme is a biography of Ernest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson, a man known primarily for the discovery of the nuclear atom. It is a rare book, not simply a biography or even a scientific biography but a political scientific biography, written from a strongly Antipodean point of view— a slant that the author openly acknowledges from the first. As with all books, it is for the reader to decide the value thereof and this book has much of interest embedded in a difficult and disorganized matrix. A pure biography or scientific biography it is not; to read it as such is to open oneself to disappointment. Indeed, Rutherford’s life was relatively apolitical; his politics appeared to be humane and pragmatic, and so it seems a shame to read a book on such a deserving subject that does not follow closely this approach. John Campbell, a professor of physics at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, clearly has a deep love of the man and has condensed a mammoth amount of research into a relatively slim 500-or-so pages. His subject, chosen because of the natural standing of Rutherford and the fact that he was born in New Zealand, is fortuitous, as there is a need for scientific biography and there are few, if any, full biographies of Rutherford. However, the book often obscures the complete man in its mass of detail. It is clear nevertheless that he was a New Zealander. I gained more knowledge of flax farming in New Zealand and its exposure to prevailing world economic conditions or of the New Zealand colonial examination system than I gained of Rutherford the human and his relationships with his work and with others. Indeed, flax farming is so often repeated throughout that a suitable title would be “Physics and flax farming in fin de siécle New Zealand” or more pithily “Flax and flux”. If the point of scientific biography is to demystify science and shine light on the work and person of scientists who rank among the cultural colossi of the 20th century, then this book does little to advance that cause. If it is a slightly repetitious mass of anecdotes and an oral history of a colonial country making its way at the turn of the 20th century, producing a scientific master, strung between occasional toothpicks of physics, then it is successful. If the latter definition is preferred, then the choice of a subject, who as a scientist of Rutherford’s standing is atypical, is brave and also atypical. As a practicing research scientist who recognizes the importance of Science
edited by
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
as a cultural phenomenon, I feel that it is essential that the division alluded to by C. P Snow in The Two Cultures be addressed; scientific biography is one way to do this and it saddens me to find that far from even taking the field, this book remains behind in the changing rooms. Let us turn to the science. Rutherford was a big man intellectually. Unlike many famous physicists of the era, he was also an experimentalist, and a brilliant one to boot. The list of people with whom he worked is extraordinary, and there is a whiff of the excitement that must have been abroad as the old physics was eased out and the new physics eased in over the first three decades of the 20th century. I found this excitement tangible in the text, though well concealed; whether I would have done so if I did not know this period well is less obvious to me. The practice of science was well brought through and the sheer drive of the man was present; though again, if I had not worked with people like this and had not experienced this drive, would I fully understand it? I cannot say. One aspect of Rutherford’s character that was conspicuous was his self-effacement, lacking in many great scientists; for this alone it is worth reading this book. He was brilliant and big enough as a human to allow others credit where it is due. This lack of egomania is often scarce in the practice of science. Of the man, it is less easy to say what I took away. The organization of the book and its political style are such that the thread, Rutherford’s life, is barely visible. There is a laundrylist approach, which is disorganized and distracting. We don’t need the words of songs sung at degree ceremonies to tunes that are now unknown, though it may be very interesting to find them as a source. Of Rutherford’s personality and his familial relationships, there is little. This may reflect the quality of the man, but that should be an assertion of the text, not a question of the reader on closing the covers. There is huge detail in the book, which is clearly a labor of love, and Campbell is obviously a zealot in the cause of Rutherford; but the detail is never assimilated into a whole picture of the man and his work, which is disappointing. A good editing would have performed wonders. If the point of biography is to establish a picture of the subject, then it is hard to say that Rutherford, Scientist Supreme is a successful biography. However, if the point of this biography was to outline Rutherford’s undertakings and the fact that he was a New Zealander, then it is successful. I learned something about Rutherford’s pivotal role in many areas of physics, though the man himself remains a mystery; I also discovered that flax farming was big in New Zealand. John F. C. Turner is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1600;
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 78 No. 3 March 2001 • Journal of Chemical Education
313
