March 19, 1900 - Birth of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, co-discoverer of artificially induced radioactivity

Jean Frédéric Joliot qualified as an engineer in 1923 and, after becoming Marie Curie's assistant at the Radium Institute in Paris, he graduated in science in 1927 and obtained his doctorate in 1930.

In 1926 he married Iréne Curie, daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, winners of the Noble Prize for Physics in 1903, whom he met when she was teaching him at the Institute to work with radioactivity.

In 1934, the couple published a report showing the preparation of artificial radioisotopes by bombarding light atoms (boron, aluminium, and magnesium). They observed that in the bombardment process, the atom absorbed an alpha particle while producing protons neutrons, and even positrons (the antiparticle of the electron). In this way, they obtained radioactive isotopes of elements that were not radioactive and revealed the possibility of applying their discoveries to achieve chemical changes in physiological processes. Their assumptions were later verified when the uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland was detected.

The Joliot-Curie experiments showed that the elements used as targets continued to emit positrons after the end of the bombardment, i.e. they behaved like a radioactive substance. Eventually, it became clear that any element with one or more stable types of nuclei could also have radioactive nuclei, now known as radioisotopes.

The discovery of the neutron in 1932 by Sir James Chadwick and of the positron by Carl D. Anderson were also the result of research carried out by the couple. Enrico Fermi's method using neutron bombardment, which led to the fission of uranium, is an extension of the Joliot-Curie procedure in which alpha particles were used to obtain artificial radioisotopes.

In 1935, Iréne and Frédéric were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie