This process was repeated with aluminum and magnesium in short order. This discovery was to transfigure the periodic table of the time, eventually adding more than 400 radioisotopes. Through isolation and concentration of these new 'artificially' radioactive isotopes, many became available within a few years for medicine, research, and eventually weapons. Their discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of the relationships between elements, leading to an understanding of the fission of heavier elements to lighter ones, and the fusion of lighter elements to heavier ones. In later years, they extended their work to the identification of the products of nuclear fission and became embroiled in the surrounding social issues concerning the uses of radioactivity.
Some scientists are theoreticians, some are experimentalists, some are superb administrators.
Irene Joliet-Curie was all three. She was the director of the Curie Laboratory, a member of the Commissariat of Atomic energy, and a professor at the Sorbonne. Although she won many awards for her contributions to science, she was never admitted to the French Academy of Science. In 1911, the Insititut de France voted to maintain it's all male status. This apporved institutional policy denied a seat in the Academy to Marie Curie.