Irène Joliot-Curie (12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was born in Paris, France, the was the eldest of Marie and Pierre Curie's two daughters. She lost her father at the age of 8 because of an accident, leaving Marie Curie to raise them alone. Education was very important to her mother, who was a successful scientist already at that time. However, Irène’s studies were interrupted by war. During World War I, Irène participated in her mother’s work to help wounded soldiers using the new X-ray equipment. Irène, who was shy and introvert, became calm and steadfast facing danger. She taught physicians how to find shrapnel in bodies using X-ray and taught herself how to repair the equipment. She was awarded a military medal for her assistance in x-rays facilities (A Mighty Girl).
After the war, Irène continued to finish her doctorate degrees. When she went to assist her mother at the Radium Institute, Irène met chemical engineer Frédéric Joliot, whom she later married. Using Marie Curie’s supplies of polonium, the couple started researching atomic nuclei, the center of the atom consisting of protons and neutrons. However, research using radioactive materials was extremely difficult for most scientists because these elements were scarce (A Mighty Girl). That’s why the Joliot-Curies were intrigued to notice that if aluminum was exposed to polonium's alpha particle radiation, the aluminum also started release alpha particles and continued to do so even after the polonium was removed. An alpha particle, also represented by the Greek alphabet α, consists of two protons and two neutrons. An alpha particle radiation happens when an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle (CODATA Value). The Joliot-Curies realized that irradiating certain stable, non-radioactive elements can cause unstable, radioactive isotopes of others. This discovery means that Irène and Frèdèric had taken a non-radioactive element and made it radioactive. Radiation is dangerous, but it has also saved millions of lives thanks to their discovery of artificial radiation. Joliot-Curies’ groundbreaking experiment allowed scientists to produce radioactive elements quickly and easily, making them widely available for use in research and medical treatment. This landmark discovery won Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935 (Science History Institute).
Radiation blessed many people, but it also brought potential danger. If radiation collides with molecules, or structures of atoms, in the air or in your body, it throws out the electrons, the particles that “orbit” around the atomic nuclei of atoms. By throwing out electrons, you produce charged particles called ions. This means it is responsible for ionizing molecules, in other words, changing the positive/negative charge of molecules. If this happens in our body, the cells may die or experience a change called a mutation. This is also called radiation sickness. A lot of radiation can even cause death. Small doses of radiation over a long period of time can cause the cells to multiply; however, these cells are mutated; therefore sometime later cancer may occur (Cool, the Revision Website). The discovery of artificial radiation was a threat itself by increasing the chance and time of people exposing to deadly rays, especially when people at that time were not fully aware of the dangers and risks. Alas, Irène Joliot-Curie herself died of leukemia caused by long-term exposure to radiation (Famous Scientists). Her mother Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia, also believed to be caused by prolonged experiments associated with radiation (Biography.com).
The Joliot-Curies’ discovery has a significant role in medical therapy and biomedical researches. For instance, more people can receive the newest x-ray treatment and still be able to afford it. Moreover, cancer can also be cured with artificial radiation. Another example is that scientists and researchers can do radiation-relevant experiments without limited by the lack of radioactive elements by creating them easily and quickly themselves. However, artificial radiation is still a fatal threat if fallen onto the wrong hands. It is a potential danger to polluting our environment that can be almost permanent, or at least takes a long time to completely recover from the damage. Although radiation can help cure cancer, it can be the cause of cancer itself if not properly contained. Also, since radioactive materials are a lot more widely available, the wrong people might use them on twisted purposes such as murder or destruction, which leads to ethical and moral concerns (Hsu,2019).
The famous Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was an epic example of the environmental issues that the technique of artificial radiation brought. Artificial radiation is the base of nuclear fission, or the splitting of atoms, which is the heating source of nuclear energy. The disaster was one of the most severe nuclear accident in history and seriously damaged the land there. This accident was started by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The resultant of a series of damage to the nuclear plant lead to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination. 154,000 residents were forced to evacuate from the communities surrounding the plant. The plant's operator built walls along the coast and created a 1.5-kilometer-long "ice wall" of frozen earth to stop the flow of contaminated water after the tragedy happened. An ongoing intensive cleanup program to both decontaminate affected areas and decommission the plant will take 30 to 40 years. Although it was first caused by natural disasters, reports have shown that it was really the plant operator who failed to become aware of the danger in the first place and then resulted in the accident that could’ve been prevented. Therefore, natural causes had a part of this tragedy, but it was really mankind that had lead itself to destruction (Wikipedia, 2019). However, artificial radiation also brought positive effects to the environmental factor. Nuclear energy is actually quite clean compared to burning coal. It doesn’t cause any direct pollution unless nuclear waste is improperly disposed of and deposited.
An example of the ethical and moral factors that were affected by artificial radiation is modern medicine. Because of the popularization of x-ray machines, doctors won’t have to perform unnecessary surgeries, which increases the survival rate of their patients (Hsu, 2019). A downside of artificial radiation that is related to the ethical and moral factors is the nuclear propulsion that powers missiles. Missiles are effective weapons for military defense, but terrorists or corrupted governments might illegally use them on blasphemous purposes.
Although artificial radiation was an extremely crucial discovery of mankind, it had also brought indirect disasters because of humans ourselves. Only by understanding its potential danger as well as the crucial role it plays on medicine and chemistry can we really learn to control and tame it from harm. That was what Irène and Frèdèric would have wanted.
To learn more about Irène and Frèdèric Joliot-Curie, watch this video:
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