Giants of Science 'Ernest Walton'

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, Ireland's only Nobel Prize winning scientist, was born in County Waterford in 1903. From an early age he excelled in maths and science. 1111s, 121, I know them all. And he won a scholarship to study at the famous Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 1927. Sorry, wait, would I like a scholarship to study at the famous Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge? Sound of the Euro! In Cambridge the task set to Walton and his research partner Sir John Cockcroft was to split the nucleus of an atom using artificially accelerated protons. Yeah but that's never been done. I see, what's a pronoun? Together they set about building a device which could fire particles small enough to break apart the nuclei of atoms. Yeah like that except smaller. They designed and built what is today called a Cockcroft-Walton circuit which could deliver a massive charge of 700 kilovolts. Using this apparatus they've achieved their breakthrough on the 14th of April 1932 breaking apart the nucleus of a lithium atom. Oh result magic man, we left it out of it! The experiment showed that a huge energy release could be obtained from a nuclear reaction proving Einstein's E equals mc squared formula. Story? Albert? Ah no, no problemo. Ah yeah, ah yeah. He turned down an invitation to work on the US military's Manhattan Project to build the first nuclear bomb. Ask me molecules! In 1951 he and Cockcroft were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. You'll never beat the iris! Oh now everybody! Low, low!