In science, electron, symbol e⁻, is a lepton, one of the four types of fermions (quarks, leptons, antiquarks, and antileptons), with a rest mass of 9.11E-31 kg (0.511 MeV), an electric charge of -1.60E-19 coulombs, a spin of ½, is considered an elementary particle, and characterized as obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics. [1]
Etymology
The concept of electricity being divided up atomically into particles or quantities was introduced in 1874 by Irish physicist James Stoney, in his paper "On the Physical Units of Nature", wherein, based on earlier charge distribution theory of Swedish chemist Jacob Berzelius, he postulated that the exchange of a certain "quantity of electricity" between atoms and molecules is what accounts for the chemical bond:
"For each chemical bond which is ruptured within an electrolyte a certain quantity of electricity traverses the electrolyte which is the same in all cases."
Later, in 1891, Stoney assigned the name "electron", based on the Greek word for amber, for the fundamental unit of negative electricity. [3]
Other
In circa 1963, Chinese-born English biophysicist (chnops-physicist) Mae-Wan Ho became intrigued by Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent Gyorgyi’s idea that life is interposed between two energy levels of the electron, after which she spent the three decades searching for this idea, resulting in her 1993 book The Rainbow and the Worm: the Physics of Organisms. [2]
Quotes
The following are related quotes:
“Perhaps our genius for unity will some time produce a science so broad as to include the behavior of a group of electrons and the behavior of a university faculty, but such a possibility seems now so remote that I for one would hesitate to guess whether this wonderful science would be more like mechanics or like a psychology.”
— Gilbert Lewis (1925), Anatomy of Science
References
1. Gribbin, John. (1998). Q is for Quantum: an Encyclopedia of Particle Physics (pg. 119). Simon & Schuster.
2. Ho, Mae-Won. (1993). The Rainbow and the Worm: the Physics of Organism (thermodynamics, 60+ pgs). World Scientific, 1998.
3. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (pg. 216). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
External links
● Electron – Wikipedia.
