Irène Joliot-Curie

Irène Joliot-Curie was a French chemist and physicist who shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Frédéric Joliot-Curie for discovering artificial radioactivity.

Frédéric Joliot-Curie: A French physicist who shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Irène Joliot-Curie for discovering artificial radioactivity. Her research partner and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize helped establish artificial radioactivity.
Artificial radioactivity: Radioactivity induced in a stable substance by nuclear bombardment, producing radioactive isotopes. This was the phenomenon Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie discovered in 1934.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry: An annual international award recognizing major contributions to chemistry. The 1935 award recognized the Joliot-Curies’ discovery of artificial radioactivity.
Neutron: An electrically neutral subatomic particle found in atomic nuclei. The Joliot-Curies’ experiments with beryllium radiation helped James Chadwick identify this particle.
Marie Curie: A Polish-French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity and discovered polonium and radium. Her mother introduced Irène to experimental radioactivity and trained her in wartime X-ray work.
Positron: The positively charged antiparticle of the electron, with the same mass as an electron. Its emission revealed that irradiated aluminum continued producing a radioactive product after bombardment stopped.
Nuclear chemistry: The study of radioactive substances, nuclear reactions, and changes in atomic nuclei. Her discovery became a foundational result for the field’s study of induced nuclear reactions.
Discovery of artificial radioactivity: The 1934 discovery that bombarding certain stable elements can create radioactive isotopes. This research, published by Irène and Frédéric, earned them the 1935 Nobel Prize.
Pierre Curie: A French physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for research on radioactivity. Her father’s work helped create the scientific tradition in which she was educated.
Alpha particle: A helium-4 nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons, emitted in some radioactive decays. Alpha-particle bombardment triggered nuclear reactions in the materials they studied.

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