Hans Geiger: The Physicist Who Gave Us an Ear for the Atomic World

On September thirtieth, eighteen eighty-two, Johannes Wilhelm Geiger was born in Neustadt an der Haardt, Germany. He was a physicist, and his academic field was atomic and experimental physics.

Geiger's groundbreaking work involved detecting and measuring radioactive radiation. While working with Ernest Rutherford in Manchester, he developed an instrument capable of counting individual alpha particles – one of the first particle counters. This device, later known as the Geiger counter, revolutionized the study of radioactivity and atomic physics. It gave scientists the ability not only to detect radioactive radiation but also to measure its intensity quantitatively. The counter's characteristic sound – a sharp, audible "click" for each particle it registered – became an icon of science. Geiger's invention was crucial for later experiments that led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus and for the development of nuclear physics. It remains a fundamental tool in the field to this day.