The Planetary Atom: A Fictional Account of George Adolphus Schott the Forgotten Physicist

Foreword by Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry This largely imaginary biography recreates the life and times of George Adolphus Schott, a contemporary of Rutherford and Bohr, who criticized the Planetary Atom which was proposed to account for celebrated observations by Rutherford. Schott proved the Planetary Atom to be incompatible with fundamental properties of physics. Unfortunately, his work was cast aside because of Bohr's success in accounting for the structure of the atom. Later, it was found that Schott had, in fact, predicted important effects. Nonetheless, his contribution was forgotten and his discovery of Synchrotron Radiation was attributed to another. In The Planetary Atom, Schott's interactions with eminent scientists of the time are reconstructed. The novel rehabilitates an unjustly forgotten British researcher and restores him to his rightful place as one of the great scientists of his time.