how did scientist’s find out about nuclear radiation??

Question: how did scientist's find out about nuclear radiation??

Asked by rob96 to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Sarah Burl answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  Becquerel and Rutherford were both involved in discovering radiation in the 1890’s. Becquerel found that photographic plates covered to keep out light became fogged, or partially exposed, when uranium compounds were anywhere near the plates. This fogging suggested that some kind of ray had passed through the plate coverings. Rutherford found that there were three different types of radiation, alpha, beta and gamma with different properties.
  See http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html formore details
- Mark Fogg answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  It was through the work of many really good scientists and I believe it was largely down to Antoine Becquerel, Ernest Rutherford and Marie and Pierre Currie.
  
  I had to Google this one as Physics is not my specialty, but I found this web site that tells the story very well. It taught me a few things too! 😉
  
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/radioactivity.php
- Mark Travis answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi Rob,
  
  Good detailed article about the people involved here:
  
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/historical_background.php
  
  Lots of scientists contributed, especially Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford. Ernest Rutherford actually did a lot of his research here at the University of Manchester. As he didn’t really know what he was dealing with at the time, there are still a few places in the buildings that are contaminated with radioactivity!
- Michael Loughlin answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  thanks for this question…i can point you towards this webpage that i think is cool ( excuse the geekness)
  
  http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/chrono.htm#beg
  
  iw ould say 1869 Crookes noticing fogging of early photographic plates caused by what we now know to be radiation emitted
  
  but nice to see people theorising about things Waaaaaay before ever having the techniques to prove…Worked a lot like that in microbiology vaccines against viruses came way before we ever saw them
- Panos Soultanas answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  Hi Rob,
  
  Radiation was discovered by the French scientist Henri Becquerel in 1896. He discovered that ceratin atoms disintegrate by themselves. Becquerel was researching the principles of fluorescence, and found that certain minerals glow (fluoresce) when exposed to sunlight. He utilized photographic plates to record this fluorescence.
  
  One of the minerals Becquerel worked with was a uranium compound. On a day when it was too cloudy to expose his samples to direct sunlight, Becquerel stored some of the compound in a drawer with his photographic plates. Later when he developed these plates, he discovered that they were fogged (exhibited exposure to light). Becquerel questioned what would have caused this fogging. He knew he had wrapped the plates tightly before using them, so the fogging was not due to stray light. In addition, he noticed that only the plates that were in the drawer with the uranium compound were fogged. Becquerel concluded that the uranium compound gave off a type of radiation that could penetrate heavy paper and expose photographic film.

Question: how did scientist's find out about nuclear radiation??

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