11 Facts About Franco Rasetti

Franco Dino Rasetti was an Italian physicist, paleontologist and botanist.

Franco Rasetti earned a Laurea in physics at the University of Pisa in 1923, and Fermi invited him to join his research group at the University of Rome.

Franco Rasetti measured a spectrum of dinitrogen in 1929 which provided the first experimental evidence that the atomic nucleus is not composed of protons and electrons, as was incorrectly believed at the time.

Franco Rasetti's colleagues included Oscar D'Agostino, Emilio Segre, Edoardo Amaldi, Ettore Majorana and Enrico Fermi, as well as the institute's director Orso Mario Corbino.

Franco Rasetti was one of Fermi's main collaborators in the study of neutrons and neutron-induced radioactivity.

Franco Rasetti devoted himself to geology, paleontology, entomology, and botany, becoming one of the most authoritative scholars of the Cambrian geological era.

Franco Rasetti died in Waremme, Belgium at the age of 100.

The Nature obituary noted that Franco Rasetti was one of the most prolific generalists whose work and writing are noted for the elegance, simplicity and beauty.

In dinitrogen Franco Rasetti observed that the lines originating from even levels are more intense.

The Raman spectrum observed by Franco Rasetti provided the first experimental evidence that this proton-electron model of the nucleus is inadequate, because the predicted half-integral spin has as a consequence that transitions from odd rotational levels would be more intense than those from even levels, due to nuclear spin isomerism as shown by Herzberg and Heitler for dihydrogen.

Franco Rasetti is credited with the first example of electronic Raman scattering in nitric oxide.