Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity, for which he won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics (along with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie who had found additional radioactive elements).
Becquerel was born in Paris into a family which produced four generations of scientists, including Becquerel's own son Jean. He studied science at the École Polytechnique and ...
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Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity, for which he won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics (along with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie who had found additional radioactive elements).
Becquerel was born in Paris into a family which produced four generations of scientists, including Becquerel's own son Jean. He studied science at the École Polytechnique and engineering at the École des Ponts et Chaussées. In 1890 he married Louise Désirée Lorieux.
In 1892, he became the third in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1894, he became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways.
In 1896, while investigating phosphorescence in uranium salts, Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity. Investigating the work of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Becquerel wrapped a fluorescent substance, potassium uranyl sulfate, in photographic plates and black...
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