Google on Saturday celebrates the anniversary of the Birth of -140 șTefania Mărăcineanu, one of the pioneering women in the discovery and research of radioactivity.
Mărăcineanu graduated with the title of physical and chemical science in 1910, and began his career as a teacher at the Central School for Girls in Bucharest. During this time, he received a scholarship from the Romanian Ministry of Science and then decided to conduct a postgraduate research at the Radium Institute in Paris.
In particular, at that time, the Institute became the center of radioactivity study throughout the world under the direction of physicist Marie Curie. Maracineanu began working on his PhD thesis about Polonium – the same element found by Curie.
During his research on the Polonium half -life, mărăcineanu noticed that the half -life seems to depend on the type of metal he placed. This makes him think that the alpha rays from polonium have transferred several metal atoms to radioactive isotopes. His research leads to what is most likely is the first example of artificial radioactivity.
To complete the PhD in physics, Mărăcineanu entered the Sorbonne University in Paris. After working for four years at the Astronomy Observatory in Meudon, he returned to Romania and established his first laboratory for radioactivity studies.
Mărăcineanu dedicated most of his time to examine artificial rain, which included a trip to Algeria to test the results. He also studied the relationship between earthquakes and rainfall, so the first reported that there was a significant increase of radioactivity in earthquakes that lead to earthquakes. The work of Mărăcineanu was recognized by the Romanian Academy of Sciences in 1936 where he was chosen to serve as a research director, but he never received global recognition for the discovery.