Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with Marie Curie and Pierre Curie for his discovery of radioactivity in 1896. This happened when a piece of pitchblende ruined some photographic film and he investigated. Other scientists had seen film similarly ruined but did not discover why.

The SI unit becquerel named after him. One becquerel (Bq) is equal to one radioactive decay process per second. He was the third person in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.

Biography
Becquerel was a scientist born in Paris on December 15, 1852. He came from a family from well-known scientists. His father and grandfather were also scientists who studied things like light and metals. His father, Alexander Edmond Bequerel, for instance had done research on phosphorescence and solar radiation. In his education, Becquerel studied about science and engineering. In 1878, he became an assistant in the Museum of Natural History and later chair in applied physics, previously held by his father, at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. As an engineer, Becquerel was promoted engineer-in-chief at the Department of Bridges and Highways in 1894. 

He was appointed a professor, teaching on applied physics in the Department of Natural History at the Paris Museum in 1892. He also became a professor at the polytechnic where he studied.

Becquerel did a lot of experiments with light and crystals. But his biggest discovery was in 1896 when he found out about natural radioactivity. He was curious about X-rays, which were just discovered, and wondered if they were related to a type of glow called phosphorescence. He used some special salts that glow in the dark, which he got from his father, and found out that they could make a photographic plate foggy even when covered with paper. This was because the salts had uranium in them, and uranium gives off invisible rays that can pass through paper.

Becquerel's discovery was very significant in physics and won part of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

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Category:1852 births
Category:1908 deaths
Category:French academics
Category:French Nobel Prize winners
Category:French nuclear physicists
Category:Scientists from Paris
Category:Nobel Prize in Physics winners