Ireland is justifiably proud of its writers, musicians and scholars, but this patriotic pride does not always extend to our scientists. For example, how many people know that 2003 marked the centenary of the birth of Ireland's only Nobel laureate in science?
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton was born on October 6th, 1903 in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, the son of a Methodist minister from Tipperary. The ministry demanded that his father move from place to place every few years, and the young Walton was educated at Banbridge, Co Down and Cookstown, Co Tyrone before attending the Methodist College in Belfast. In 1922 he went to Trinity College Dublin on an entrance scholarship, graduating in 1926 with first-class honours in both mathematics and experimental physics, and receiving his M.Sc. degree one year later. That same year, the outstanding young student received a scholarship to join the world famous atomic research group led by Sir Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University.
In 1911, Rutherford had made the astonishing discovery that atoms consist almost entirely of empty space, with a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by negative charges (a discovery that was made by bombarding atoms with the high-energy alpha radiation emitted by radioactive materials). Scientists the world over wondered what could be inside the mysterious nucleus. However, attempts to probe the nucleus using Rutherford's earlier technique proved largely unsuccessful.
What was needed was a man-made, controllable beam of projectiles that could smash the nucleus - a "particle accelerator". Walton and his Cambridge colleague Cockcroft finally succeeded in constructing just such a device in 1932. The new accelerator was a significant development in 20th-century physics as it provided a tool for the study of the nucleus and its particles, but it was Walton's first use of the new machine that was to bring the brilliant young Irish researcher to the fore.
When firing the new high-energy particle beam at a hapless target of lithium atoms, Walton was greatly excited to observe evidence of helium nuclei on detector screens. Their high-energy beam had caused the nuclei of lithium atoms to disintegrate into nuclei of the lighter element helium. This was the world's first artificially induced transmutation of the atom, and it made front-page headlines around the globe. The experiment soon led to the transmutation of the atoms of countless other elements into one another, and the creation of new man-made, radioactive elements.
Incredibly, this is only half the story, as the "atom smashing" had important implications for each of the twin pillars of 20th-century theoretical physics - Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity.
In the former case, the experiment was a dramatic demonstration of a key quantum prediction (that the wave-like property of tiny particles would allow them to tunnel into the nucleus). Indeed, the experiment was designed to test this strange quantum prediction, and its success was a huge surprise to rival research groups.
The experiment also offered an important test for Einstein's famous Theory of Relativity. Since it was known that the atomic mass of the products of their nuclear reaction was less than that of the reactants, it was of great interest to determine whether the missing mass was released as energy - as predicted by the formula E=mc
Thus, with the first use of the new machine, the quiet, unassuming, 29-year-old Irish scientist had achieved a result that offered emphatic support for each of the twin theories of 20th century physics.
Not long after his famous experiment, Walton left the Cambridge research group to return to Trinity College, Dublin as a fellow, later to be appointed Erasmus Smith Professor.
Back home, resources for experimental research were extremely limited. However, Walton inspired an entire generation of students with his teaching, and a great many of his students went on to successful scientific careers at home and abroad. Indeed, he is remembered as fondly for the clarity of his teaching and his modest, unassuming manner, as for his brilliant achievements.
Although he died in 1995, Walton's experimental legacy also lives on. The pioneering circuit design he employed can be found in television sets the world over. His accelerator still plays a role at the cutting edge of scientific research as a component in today's sophisticated particle accelerators.
Such accelerators continue to provide the testing ground for the greatest mystery of science - the structure of matter and the nature of the forces that hold it together.