ABSTRACT
Radiation is a phenomenon characterized more by its ability to cause biological effects than where it originates. Radiation was first discovered by German scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel, who received the Nobel Prize of Physics in 1903 for his work. Many of the terms associated with radioactivity come from those early pioneers in radiation physics: Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923) and Pierre (1859-1906) and Marie Curie (1867-1934), who also received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their work on radiation. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) is considered the father of nuclear physics. He developed the language that describes the theoretical concepts of the atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Particles named and characterized by him include the alpha particle, beta particle, and proton. Rutherford won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1909 for his work.
