Literature in focus: The history of radioactivity



René Bimbot, an expert in nuclear physics, will be coming to present his book - The History of Radioactivity. The work provides a summary of our accumulated knowledge of radioactivity and its applications, from its discovery to the present day. Presented in layman's terms, and backed by plenty of illustrations, the work creates the link between the rudimentary knowledge available in the times of Becquerel and the Curies and contemporary physics. It takes us on a great physics adventure, from the nucleus to the quark, from artificial radioactivity to radiotherapy, from the discovery of fission to nuclear reactors, not forgetting dating methods. Finally, the work provides a wealth of practical information on radiation and on matters relating to nuclear waste.

A former Research Director at the CNRS, a heavy-ion physicist at the Orsay Nuclear Physics Institute, René Bimbot is no stranger to CERN. At the beginning of the 1980s, he worked on the CERN Synchrocyclotron, before joining the GANIL experiment in 1985.

René Bimbot
The History of Radioactivity
Thursday 30 November, 4.00 p.m.
Central Library reading room
Tea and coffee will be served