Ștefania Mărăcineanu

She was a Romanian physicist. She discovered artificial radioactivity at The Radium Institute of Paris (France). Artificial radioactivity results after the bombardment of stable nuclei with neutrons or accelerated particles. Working on her PhD thesis on polonium constant (1924), Ştefania Mărăcineanu observed such a phenomenon: the metal lead in support of devices is influenced by radioactive polonium, beginning to emit radiations in its turn, which persisted after the polonium did not act! Alas, the Nobel Prize (1935) for the discovery of artificial radioactivity went to Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie. She returned to Bucuresti and undertook interesting experiments of obtaining artificial rain in the country and abroad, using radioactive salts, getting some results (in Bărăgan, the Sahara, etc.). She published valuable works concerning the link between earthquakes and rainfall and was the first to report that on the eve of an earthquakes there is a significant increase in radioacti