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When Herbert Becker and Walter Bothe directed alpha particles (helium nuclei) at beryllium in 1930, a strong, penetrating radiation was emitted. One hypothesis was that this could be high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In 1932, however, James Chadwick proved that it consisted of a neutral particle with about the same mass as a proton. Ernest Rutherford had earlier proposed that such a particle might exist in atomic nuclei. Its existence now proven, it was called a "neutron".