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Olga Deshchenko, DOTmed News Reporter | January 10, 2011
But artificial radioactivity would cement their place in history. While working in the basement of the Radium Institute one day, the Joliot-Curies bombarded stable elements with nuclear projectiles and found that a normal element can be changed into a radioactive one. The discovery of artificial radioactive elements replaced the high cost and intensive labor involved in separating naturally occurring radioactive elements, and widened the potential for progress in nuclear physics and medicine.
“With the neutron we were too late. With the positron we were too late. Now we are in time,” Irène said to a student that January.
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After their discovery, the Joliot-Curies were involved in resisting the fascist movement (they were both members of the Socialist Party) and held academic positions in various institutions. Frédéric left the Radium Institute in 1937 and built the first cyclotron in Western Europe for his nuclear chemistry lab.
Tragically, Irène shared one last parallel with her mother – at the age of 58, she passed away from leukemia. Frédéric only lived without his wife for two more years before passing away from liver disease. The illnesses that led to the deaths of the Joliot-Curies were most likely the result of what solidified their place in medical history, radiation.
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