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The Neutron – The Curie Family's Legacy
John W.
White A B and
Ailsa B.
White A
A
Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
B
Corresponding author. Email: jww@rsc.anu.edu.au
Australian Journal of Chemistry
64(7)
855-863 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CH11214
Submitted: 26 May 2011 Accepted: 1 June 2011 Published:
19
July
2011
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Abstract
This article is concerned with the scientific developments that led to the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge in 1932. The Rutherford atom with a heavy nucleus and the problem of the ‘intra-nuclear’ electrons (needed to reconcile nuclear mass and charge) coupled with Marie Curie's discovery of radium as a prime example of natural radioactivity coming from the nucleus were key milestones. Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie–Joliot almost discovered the neutron in 1931. But the predisposition of the thinking in Chadwick's laboratory allowed conclusive identification of the emission of a heavy neutral particle to be published about a month after the Curie–Joliot experiment. Their Nobel Prize came a few years later with the discovery of artificial radioactivity. 
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