OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
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In 1897 J.J. Thomson ‘discovered’ the electron. The previous year, he and his research student Ernest Rutherford (later to ‘discover’ the atomic nucleus), collaborated in experiments to work out why gases exposed to x-rays became conducting.
This talk will discuss the very different mathematical educations of the two men, and the impact these differences had on their experimental investigation and the theory they arrived at. This theory formed the backdrop to Thomson’s electron work the following year.