Abstract
DANYSZ and Wertonstein showed in 1915 (Comptes rendus, 161, 784; 1915) that when uranium oxide is bombarded by the α-rays of radium, not one in five million α-particles is effective in changing an atom of U into an atom of UX1. If we consider that with a layer of uranium containing 1 mgm. per cm.2 one α-particle in 20,000 penetrates to a distance less than 5 x 10-12 cm. from the nucleus, and that the emission of an α-particle from uranium seems to start at a distance greater than 5 × 10-12 cm., it is surprising that the unstable radioactive atom shows itself so stable.
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HERSZFINKIEL, H., WERTENSTEIN, L. An Attempt to Accelerate the Rate of Radioactive Transformation. Nature 122, 504 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122504a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122504a0
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