Gratis Course

Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays. Even though this has nothing to do with nuclear radiation, it helps to understand science. Because a few years later, Henri Becquerel discovered nuclear radiation. A sensation.

Marie Curie, a pioneer of nuclear chemistry, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium and for the isolation of radium.

Next Nobel Prize for the discovery of isotopes. If you irradiate elements with neutrons, they can capture them and form new isotopes.

Enrico Fermi had already observed nuclear fission without knowing it. Atomic nuclei can be fissioned. This was finally shown in a spectacular work by Otto Hahn, Lise-Meitner and Fritz Strassmann in 1938.

In the last video we talked about nuclear forces, mass defects, and nuclear energy. What are the nuclear forces and what do we know about how nuclei are held together?

In this chapter we will look at important decay types like alpha-decay, beta-minus and beta-plus decay. The special feature of these decays is that new elements are formed.

When do these decays actually take place? How long do they take and do the times vary?