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Out from the Shadows: The Story of Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot-Curie 1x56

This film focuses on physicist and radiochemist Irene Joliot-Curie, eldest daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. Working with her husband, Frederic Joliot, Irene demonstrated how it is possible to artificially create radioactive isotopes of elements that are not naturally radioactive. This discovery, for which she gained the Nobel Prize (thus following in her parents’ footsteps), opened a new field of radioactive research crucial to a host of applications in chemistry, biology and medicine. Artificial radioactivity has enabled crucial advances in cancer therapy. But the discovery of artificial radioactivity was also an important step towards the discovery of nuclear fission, made in 1938, and the development of the atomic bomb, completed in 1944. In this film, her professional accomplishments and struggles are explored.

 

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