The Discovery of Artificial Radioactivity

Frédéric Joliot was born in Paris on 19th March 1900. His older brother was killed in the first few days of the 1914-1918 war. Frédéric joined the École de physique et chimie industrielles in Paris, where he studied physics at the top of his class. In December 1924, director of studies, Paul Langevin, presented him to Marie Curie; he became her personal assistant at the Radium Institute, which was created for her in 1909 by the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute. Marie Curie assigned her daughter, Irène, then her assistant, to guide the young man. Frédéric and Irène married in 1926. Shortly after, they decided to carry out experiments together; Irène would continue to sign their publications under her maiden name. They prepared very intense sources of polonium on very small surfaces, thanks to the Radium D1 stocks accumulated by Marie Curie: the alpha particles emitted by radioactive polonium served as projectiles to explore nuclei.