Nuclear reaction Common light particles are often abbreviated in this shorthand, typically p for proton, n for neutron, d for deuteron, α representing an alpha particle or helium-4, β for beta particle or electron, γ for gamma photon, etc. The reaction above would be written as Li-6(d,α)α. In 1919, Ernest Rutherford was able to accomplish transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen at the University of Manchester, using alpha particles directed at nitrogen N + α → O + p. This was the first observation of an induced nuclear reaction, that is, a reaction in which particles from one decay are used to transform
Nuclear fission The feat was popularly known as "splitting the atom", and would win them the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for ""Transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles"", although it was not the modern nuclear fission reaction later discovered in heavy elements, which is discussed below. Meanwhile, the possibility of "combining" nuclei—nuclear fusion—had been studied in connection with understanding the processes which power stars. The first artificial fusion reaction had been achieved by Mark Oliphant in 1932, using two accelerated deuterium nuclei (each consisting of a single proton bound to a single neutron) to create a helium-3 nucleus. After