19 agos 1895 anni - Jean Frederic Joliot and Irene Curie (1900-1958 and 1897-1956, respectively)

Descrizione:

Discovered artificial radioactivity.
The bombardment of aluminum with alpha particles resulted in the emission of neutrons and positrons. As expected, the neutrons were emitted only as long as the aluminum was being bombarded by alpha particles. What astonished Frédéric and Irène was the continued emission of positrons long after the alpha source had been removed from the target. Immediately, Frédéric and Irène performed careful analyses, which showed that the alpha bombardment had produced a positron-emitting radionuclide of phosphorus from the aluminum. Not only had they produced the first artificial radionuclide, they were the first to experimentally confirm transmutation, the conversion of one element into another element! Up to this point, the only radioactive materials available for medical and scientific research were those that occurred naturally. Now a method was available for creating a wide new variety of radioisotopes.
They made contributions to the construction of France’s first nuclear reactor.

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