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Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
Roentgen was working in the lab when he noticed a strange fluorescence coming from a nearby table. Upon further observation he found that it originated from a partially evacuated Hittof-Crookes tube, covered in opaque black paper which he was using to study cathode rays. He concluded that the fluorescence, which penetrated the opaque black paper, must have been caused by rays. -
Henri Becquerel
Becquerel discovered x-rays by figuring out that a vacuum tube glows when struck by cathode rays. After noticing that, he placed a photographic plate wrapped in the opaque paper in the sun. -
Marie Curie
She discovered Radium and Polonium, two new radioactive elements. Curie first found these two elements in pitchblend, a radioactive mineral without Uranium. -
Hans Greiger
Geiger introduced the first successful detector of individual alpha particles. -
Marie Curie & Pierre Curie
Curie successfully produced pure Radium, and documented the properties of radioactive elements. They became important sources of radiation, specifically in nuclear medicine. -
James Chadwick
Chadwick shot beryllium atoms with alpha particles. This produced radiation, made of particles with a neutral charge. The particle became known as the neutron. -
Leo Szilard
Szilard discovered a nuclear chain concept. This idea was later used to make the atomic bomb. -
Luis Walter Alvarez
Alvarez discovered that radar could be used to detect submarines. -
Robert Oppenhiemer
Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. He is often known as the “father of the atomic bomb." -
Willard Libby
Libby realized that when plants and animals die they cease to ingest fresh carbon-14, thereby giving any organic compound a built-in nuclear clock. -
Teller, E. and Ulam, S.
They are credited with combining fission and fusion to create the hydrogen bomb.