U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration in an inauguration speech that Americans “split the atom” prompted vexed social media posts on Tuesday by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland. Ernest Rutherford is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the nucleus while working at a British university in 1917. The achievement is also credited to an English and an Irish scientist working at a laboratory developed by Rutherford — but not to Americans. The mayor of Rutherford’s New Zealand birthplace said he would invite the next U.S. ambassador to the country to visit a memorial at the site.
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