Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 (under the category Early Influence). Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1982. Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
Alpha particle. Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be produced in other ways.
The nucleus was postulated as small and dense to account for the scattering of alpha particles from thin gold foil, as observed in a series of experiments performed by undergraduate Ernest Marsden under the direction of Rutherford and German physicist Hans Geiger in 1909.