In his inaugural address on Tuesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of statements that have been labeled as false and misleading. Among these was his claim that Americans "split the atom," which sparked strong discontent on social media among New Zealanders, who believe this achievement belongs to a highly respected New Zealand scientist.
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04-03, 2025Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel laureate, is revered as the father of nuclear physics. Many believe that he first consciously split the atom through artificially induced nuclear reactions in 1917 while working at the University of Manchester in England. This accomplishment is widely regarded as a significant milestone in the history of science, marking a pivotal moment in understanding atomic structure.
Furthermore, British scientists John Douglas Cockcroft and Irish scientist Ernest Walton are also credited for their research conducted in the British laboratory established by Rutherford. They also achieved atomic splitting in 1932, further advancing the field of nuclear physics. It is important to note that this achievement is not attributed to American scientists, highlighting the international collaboration in scientific discovery.
In his inaugural address, Trump listed a series of achievements to emphasize America's greatness, including "crossing deserts, scaling mountains, facing countless dangers, winning the Wild West, ending slavery, saving millions from tyranny, saving millions from poverty, harnessing electricity, splitting the atom, sending humans to paradise, and placing the universe of human knowledge in human hands." These accomplishments were intended to showcase American ingenuity and progress across various domains.
New Zealand politician Nick Smith, the mayor of Nelson, the city where Rutherford was born and educated, expressed that he was "a bit surprised" by Trump's statement. He wrote on Facebook: "Rutherford's pioneering research in radio communications, radioactivity, atomic structure, and ultrasonic technology was completed at Cambridge University and Manchester University in England, and McGill University in Montreal, Canada." Smith stated that he would invite the next U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand to visit Rutherford's birthplace memorial "so that we can maintain the accuracy of the historical record of who first split the atom."
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of History and Heritage Resources website also credits Cockcroft and Walton with the milestone of splitting the atom, although the website also describes Rutherford's earlier achievements in mapping atomic structure, hypothesizing the central atomic nucleus, and identifying the proton. Trump's remarks have sparked widespread online discussion about Rutherford among New Zealanders, whose schoolchildren study his work, and his name appears on buildings, streets, and institutions. His portrait appears on the 100 New Zealand dollar note. Ben Uffindell, editor of the satirical news website _The Civilian_, wrote on X: "Okay, I have to call time on this. Trump just claimed America split the atom. That was the only thing we did."
