Who discovered gamma radiation?
Physicists credit French physicist Henri Becquerel with discovering gamma radiation. In 1896, he discovered that uranium minerals could expose a photographic plate through a heavy opaque paper. Roentgen had recently discovered x-rays, and Becquerel reasoned that uranium emitted some invisible light similar to x-rays. He called it “metallic phosphorescence.” In reality, Becquerel had found gamma radiation being emitted by radium-226. Radium-226 is part of the uranium decay chain and commonly occurs with uranium.
