: Inspired by the discovery of X-rays, Becquerel wanted to see if phosphorescent materials emitted X-rays after being exposed to sunlight.
Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) was a Nobel Prize-winning French physicist renowned for his discovery of . His work laid the foundational stone for nuclear physics and changed our understanding of the atomic structure. The Discovery of Radioactivity (1896) antoine henri becquerel
: On a cloudy day in Paris, he placed uranium crystals on a photographic plate wrapped in black paper and tucked them in a dark drawer. : Inspired by the discovery of X-rays, Becquerel
: In 1899, he demonstrated that some radioactive rays (beta particles) could be deflected by magnetic fields, proving they were charged particles rather than waves. The Discovery of Radioactivity (1896) : On a
: This proved that radiation was an inherent property of certain atoms, a phenomenon later named "radioactivity" by his doctoral student, Marie Curie . Key Scientific Contributions