When Donald Trump claimed that US scientists split the atom in his inaugural speech, he likely didn't anticipate the online debate his statement would spark.
Many people pointed out that the honor should go to an Anglo-New Zealander, as it was Sir Ernest Rutherford, a Kiwi scientific genius at Victoria University of Manchester, who made the breakthrough in 1919.
In simple terms, that claim is correct, but for experts in the field, the full answer to who did it first is almost as complex as the science itself.
As particle physicist Dr. Harry Cliff noted, even the term "splitting the atom" is "problematic." What is an atom?
Atoms are the building blocks of all matter, consisting of a nucleus and orbiting electrons.
First proposed in Ancient Greek philosophy, atoms were initially thought to be the smallest particles in existence, with their name derived from the Ancient Greek word for indivisible.