Rethinking Intuition

William Ramsay, a British physicist and chemist, was the son of an engineer and the nephew of geology professors. He was probably most well known for his work in chemistry, although he made significant contributions to nuclear physics. In 1904 Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his demonstration that helium is continually produced during the radioactive decay of radium. This research and its subsequent explanation by Ernest Rutherford laid the foundation for the emerging discipline of nuclear physics. After completing his education at Glasgow University in chemistry, and receiving his Ph.D. in 1872 from the University of Tubingen, Ramsay taught at University College in Bristol until 1880 and then at University College in London until his retirement in 1912. His research studies of helium led Ramsay to search for new gases on the periodic table. With the help of Morris Travers, Ramsay discovered the elements neon, krypton, and xenon. In 1904 Ramsay discovered radon. 020