(briefing courtesy of North Anna Nuclear Power Station)
Famous People in the Field
of Nuclear Science
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Polish physicist, in 1898, named the emissions (alpha & beta) from uranium radioactivity
Discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium
worked with cloud chambers and magnetic fields to bend radiation.
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with her husband (Pierre) and Becquerel
First Woman to receive Nobel Prize In 1911 she received an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her work on radium and radium compounds.
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
In 1911, Rutherford established the nuclear model of the atom.
He theorized that atoms are constructed much like the solar system.
That is, a heavy part, called the nucleus, forms the center.
Particles of negative electricity, called electrons, form the outer part, most of which consists of empty space.
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
"It was as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
1905, produced the theory of relativity (E=mc2)
This resulted in the shocking conclusion that time depends on the observer.
When moving at high speeds Effective mass increases Time slows Length shrinks
only the speed of light remains the same.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Experimenters have carried extremely accurate atomic clocks on high-speed jets on around-the-world journeys. And when they compared these clocks to the extremely accurate clocks they left at home, the traveling clock had indeed gone slower and lost time. But by very little.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
received the 1921 Nobel Prize for work in mathematical physics & stating the law of the Photoelectric Effect Einstein proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles
Also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation
Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958)
an American physicist worked with particle accelerators
A machine that accelerates atomic particles between poles of an electromagnet and directs them into material
These accelerators have produced many of the elements beyond uranium.
Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958)
Also, these machines have greatly enhanced the capacity to produce radioactive substances.
Received the 1939 Nobel Prize for creating the Cyclotron accelerator
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)
An Italian-born American physicist began bombarding elements with neutrons in 1934
In 1938, He came to America to escape the Fascist regime
Created theory of beta decayTheory on the origin of cosmic rays
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)
designed the first atomic pile and produced the first nuclear chain reaction on Dec. 2, 1942 (birth of the reactor)
Reactor under the football stands of the University of Chicago
Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999)
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Glenn Seaborg
Co-discovered Plutonium and 9 other elements
Element 106 - Seaborgium named after him Only living person to have element named after him
Identified more than 100 isotopes Figured out how transuranium elements fit in the periodic table
Identified medical isotopes - saved his mother’s life with discovery of Iodine-131