Chronologies

Milestones in the history of radioactivity

The end of the 19 th century witnessed a series of scientific discoveries that marked the decades to come. Knowledge nowadays considered commonplace, such as the atom and its structure, was the center of controversy among physicists and chemists at the time. The discovery of radioactivity revolutionized our understanding of matter.

1895
In November, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.

1896
At the Museum of Natural History, Henri Becquerel discovered that the element uranium emits penetrating radiation (natural radioactivity).

1897
J.J. Thomson characterized the electron by measuring its speed and charge-to-mass ratio, and showed that all atoms contain electrons.

1898
Pierre and Marie Curie discovered polonium and radium at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry (EPCI) in Paris. To determine the atomic mass of radium, the Curies processed several tonnes of a natural uranium ore, pitchblende (1 tonne of which yields 1 to 2 mg of radium chloride).
Marie Curie coined the term radioactivity.

1899
Several scientists demonstrated that uranium emits two types of radiation. In January, Ernest Rutherford called them respectively a and ß radiation . On 6 November, Pierre and Marie Curie published a paper in which they reported a singular property of radium: “induced radioactivity”.

1900
In April, Paul Villard identified ? radiation.

1901-1904
Jean Perrin (and independently Hantaro Nagaoka) imagined a representation of atoms as miniature solar systems.

1901-1903
Ernest Rutherford and Frederic Soddy demonstrated the “period” (according to the law of radioactive decay) that characterizes each radioactive element. They showed that radioactivity is the transmutation of one element into another.

1906
Ernest Rutherford identified a radiation as a helium particle.

1910
In collaboration with André Debierne, Marie Curie isolated metallic radium and determined its atomic mass.

1911
Frédéric Soddy established the existence of isotopes. Ernest Rutherford demonstrated the presence of a nucleus at the center of the atom.

1913
Niels Bohr worked out a model of the atom in which electrons orbit the nucleus.

1919
Ernest Rutherford performed the first artificial nuclear transmutation, by transforming nitrogen into oxygen through particle bombardment.

1928
Hans Geiger and Karl Müller developed a new “Geiger-Müller” counter (improvement of the “Geiger counter” of 1908).

1930
Ernest Lawrence built the first cyclotron at Berkeley.

1932
James Chadwick demonstrated the existence of the neutron.

1934
Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie discovered artificial radioactivity. They created for the first time a radioactive element (by bombarding an aluminium sheet with particles emitted by polonium), which they baptized radiophosphorus.

1938
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann reported the fission of uranium.

1939
Frédéric Joliot, Hans Halban, Lew Kowarski and Francis Perrin demonstrated the possibility of the chain reaction and therefore of its energy applications (they showed that fission is accompanied by great release of energy and by the emission of neutrons which can break open other uranium nuclei, and so on).

Landmarks in the medical and biological applications of radioactivity

The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in November 1895 revolutionized the medical world. Thereafter, it was possible to look inside the human body. The idea of using X-rays to treat skin diseases arose after a notable observation: the taking of X-ray images required considerable exposure times, and the skin of operators and patients alike developed red patches. These were the beginnings of the utilization of radiation in cancer treatment.

1895
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (in Germany) discovered X-rays and the possibility of taking radiographs.

1896
In July, Dr Victor Despeignes (in Lyon) announced the first treatment of cancer using X-rays.

1897
Dr Antoine Béclère installed the first radioscopy apparatus in a Paris hospital.

1898
In December, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.

1900
Two Germans, Otto Walkhof and Friedrich Giesel, reported their observations on the biological effects of radium on the skin and drew a parallel with the action of X-rays.

1901
Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel published a note entitled “The physiological action of radium rays”.
Henri Danlos, a dermatologist at the Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, published his findings on radium treatment of lupus.
Physicians conducted numerous studies of other diseases.
Perthes, a German, developed the technique of deep radiotherapy.

1904-1906
Jean Bergonié (a radiologist) and Louis Tribondeau (a histologist) showed that cancer cells are more sensitive to X-rays than healthy cells, thus providing the first biological basis for radiation therapy utilizing X-rays.

1905
Recognition of the beneficial action of radium rays in treating tumors of the skin and of the cervix. Birth of Curietherapy.

1906
Armet de Lisle (a radium industrialist) financed the setting up of the first laboratory devoted to studies of the biological and medical effects of radium. Radium therapy was on the verge of major developments.

1909
In December, the University of Paris and the Institut Pasteur decided to build the Radium Institute.

1914-1918
Marie Curie, who was assistant to Antoine Béclère, the director of the army's radiology department, equipped special vehicles with radiology equipment. They were dubbed “little Curies”.
The army designed mobile surgical units for treatment of the wounded at the warfront.

1918
Creation of the French-British-American Cancer League.

1920
Creation of the Curie Foundation.

1921-1928
Creation of twenty-one cancer treatment centers, the Paul-Brousse hospice in Villejuif, and the Paris health and social security service.

1923
Georg de Hevesy (in Sweden) used isotopes as biochemical tracers (notably in botanical studies), an idea he had already conceived in 1913.

1924
American physicians Blumgart and Weiss first used a tracer (radium C) in man to measure the speed of blood circulation from one arm to the other.

1934
Discovery of artificial radioactivity by Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

By offering the possibility of creating radioactive isotopes of all natural elements, the discovery of artificial radioactivity heralded the emergence of nuclear medicine. The uses of isotopes range from medical research to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

From the Radium Institute to the Institut Curie

1909
The University of Paris and the Institut Pasteur joined forces to finance the setting up of the Radium Institute. The Radium Institute comprised the Curie Pavilion, which was run by Marie Curie and dedicated to research in physics and chemistry, and the Pasteur Pavilion, which was headed by Dr Claudius Regaud and devoted to the study of the biological and medical effects of radiation.

1914-1918
Marie Curie, helped by her daughter Irène, gave radiology courses to the Radium Institute's women workers.
From 1918, Claudius Regaud focused his work at the Radium Institute on the use of radiation to treat cancer. In July, he was allocated eighteen beds, roentgen therapy equipment, apparatus for radium therapy, and premises at the Pasteur Hospital.

1920
Stimulated by Marie Curie and Claudius Regaud, and thanks to a donation by Baron Henri de Rothschild, the Institut Pasteur and the Radium Institute created the Curie Foundation, a center for radiotherapy. The Foundation was approved by the state on 27 May 1921.

1922
The Curie Foundation in the rue d'Ulm in Paris opened its first dispensary on 29 November.

1932
Creation of the Trouillet-Rossignol Pavilion in the rue d'Ulm (now devoted to research into human genetics and chromosomal alterations).

1936
Opening of the Curie Foundation hospital in the rue Lhomond, Paris.

1956
Inauguration of a second wing of the rue d'Ulm hospital on 14 March.

1958
The Orsay extension of the Curie Laboratory was opened (now the Nuclear Physics Institute).

1965
An eight-floor polyclinic was built on the site of the old dispensary in the rue d'Ulm.

Extension of the Pasteur Pavilion at Orsay which was subsequently renamed the Raymond Latarjet Laboratory.

1970
The Radium Institute and the Curie Foundation joined forces to form the Institut Curie in 1978.

1991
Opening of the new Claudius Regaud Hospital on 21 June.

1993
Creation of the Garet Transfer Laboratory (collaborative research between clinicians and biologists).

1995
Opening of the Cell Biology Laboratories (Constant Burg Laboratories) on the site of the rue Lhomond hospital.