Radioactivity and radiochemistry
Radiactividad y nacimiento de la radioquímica
- Date
- 1896-1898 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris (École de Physique et Chimie), France
- Credited to
- Henri Becquerel; Marie and Pierre Curie
- People
- 👤 Henri Becquerel1852–1908👤 Marie Curie1867–1934👤 Pierre Curie1859–1906
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Becquerel observes that uranium salts emit spontaneous radiation; Marie Curie shows that it is an atomic property, coins 'radioactivity' and, with Pierre, isolates polonium and radium by chemically separating tonnes of pitchblende.
Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, shared; Marie Curie, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.
What it led to
- Radiochemistry
- Transmutation of elements
- Nuclear medicine
- Nuclear physics
Built on
- Rontgen's X-rays (1895)
- Curies' piezoelectric electrometer
Made possible
- Actinium1899
- Radiotherapy1896–1903
- Uranium-lead radiometric dating1905-1907
- radioactive tracers