Radon
Radón (Rn, Z=86)
- Date
- 1900 · confidence high
- Place
- Halle, Germany
- Credited to
- Friedrich Ernst Dorn (and Ernest Rutherford)
- People
- 👤 Ernest Rutherford1871–1937👤 Friedrich Ernst Dorn1848–1916👤 Robert Bowie Owens1870–1940
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Dorn observed that radium emitted a radioactive gas ('radium emanation'); Rutherford and Owens had detected thorium's emanation in 1899. Ramsay and Gray isolated it in 1910.
Attribution between Dorn and Rutherford is a matter of historiographical debate.
What it led to
- Rutherford and Soddy's theory of radioactive decay
- Health risk of radon in homes
- Brachytherapy with radon seeds
Built on
- Discovery of radium
- Electroscope
Made possible
- Radon seeds
- Domestic radon detectors