A Scottish physicist, C. T. R. Wilson invented the cloud or expansion chamber, which enabled physicists to track the paths of individual atoms and electrons. It was described by the physicist W. B. Lewis as being "to the atomic physicist what the telescope is to the astronomer." Lord Ernest Rutherford described the cloud chamber as "the most original and wonderful [invention] in scientific history." For his invention, Wilson shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for physics with Arthur Holly Compton . Wilson is also credited with the discovery of cosmic rays , that is, speeding atomic nuclei from outer space that enter Earth's atmosphere.

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson was born on the 14th of February, 1869, in Glencorse, near Edinburgh, Scotland, to John Wilson, a sheep farmer, and his second wife, Annie Clark Harper Wilson. When Wilson senior died in 1873, the family moved to Manchester. There Wilson first attended a private school then...