Trump claims US 'split the atom', New Zealand says that's not true
WeirdNews
Trump claims US 'split the atom', New Zealand says that's not true
(Web Desk) - A small town mayor in New Zealand has responded decisively to Donald Trump, after the freshly sworn-in US president heaped praise on American scientists for splitting the atom.
Mr. Trump's inauguration address mentioned a list of crowning American achievements such as ending slavery, launching into space, and the moment they "split the atom."
The mayor of Nelson in New Zealand's South Island seized on the subatomic slight, pointing out that work to split the atom was actually pioneered by Kiwi-born physicist Ernest Rutherford.
"I was a bit surprised by new President Donald Trump in his inauguration speech about US greatness claiming today Americans 'split the atom' when that honour belongs to Nelson's most famous and favourite son Sir Ernest Rutherford," Mayor Nick Smith wrote on social media.
Credited with splitting the nucleus of an atom during experiments at the UK's Manchester University in 1917, Rutherford was "the first to artificially induce a nuclear reaction by bombarding nitrogen nuclei with alpha particles," Smith said.
He added that he would invite the incoming US ambassador to visit the Rutherford memorial in Nelson, population 50,000, "so we can keep the historic record on who split the atom first accurate."
Ben Uffindell, editor of a satirical New Zealand news website called The Civilian, also took issue with Mr. Trump's claim.
"Okay, I've gotta call time. Trump just claimed America split the atom. That's THE ONE THING WE DID," Uffindell wrote on social media.
Widely regarded as the "father of nuclear physics," Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1908 for earlier work on radioactivity.
Rutherford remains one of New Zealand's most famous sons, and his face still adorns the country's $100 bill.
