In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered spontaneous radiation. He was studying uranium salts to see if sunlight would trigger them to emit rays like X-rays. His experiment involved placing the salts on a photographic plate wrapped in black paper and exposing them to sunlight. When cloudy weather forced him to pause, he stored the materials in a dark drawer. Later, upon developing the plate, he found a clear image of the uranium crystals, showing that they emitted powerf

Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (1867–1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, and the only person ever to win in two different scientific fields: Physics and Chemistry. Curie, considered one of the pioneers of modern physics, was among the first women to earn a doctorate in France at a time when women were often barred from universities. Together with her husband, Pierre Curie, she discovered polonium and radium; the name polonium was given in hon