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What was Toshiko Yuasa
like as a child? |
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| In the laboratory at the Tokyo University of Literature and Science ca. 1934. |
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Born in Tokyo in 1909, Toshiko suffered from poor health
as a child and had to stay at home much of the time. Sensitive and curious,
she was quick to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the world around her
and spent much of her time just thinking about things. Seeing a Japanese
poem scroll hanging on the wall, she would struggle to read the irregular
cursive calligraphy and to grasp the poem's meaning. Noticing the vapor
that rose from pieces of ice, she would think how odd it was that the ice
turned to vapor instead of water. Touching the seed pods of the impatiens
growing in the garden, she would wonder what inner power made them burst
open at a touch. When she did not understand something, she could never
rest until she had explored and investigated the matter to her satisfaction. |
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Why did she decide
to become a scientist? |
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| Toshiko Yuasa (right) in Paris with
Irène Joliot-Curie. |
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Hearing her father speak of such famous physicists as
Newton and Einstein, Toshiko came to feel a deep respect and admiration
for scientists. In school, she excelled at both language arts and mathematics,
but she still felt the need to get to the bottom of the many natural phenomena
that puzzled and fascinated her. When she entered Tokyo Women's Higher Normal
School, she decided to major in science.
Toshiko was entranced by the beauty of living organisms as viewed through
the microscope, and she at first thought of specializing in biology. However,
she found she had no aptitude for the delicate work of preparing specimens
for microscopic observation, so she instead chose to explore the basic principles
of natural phenomena through the study of physics.
Dr. Yuasa continued her studies at the Tokyo University of Literature and
Science, where she set to work exploring the structure of matter by breaking
down the light spectrum emitted by different atoms and molecules. One day
she came across a research paper on the discovery of artificial radioactive
elements by Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the daughter
and son-in-law of Marie Curie. Impressed by their research methods, she
resolved to carry out nuclear research under the couple's guidance.
In 1940, at the age of 30, Dr. Yuasa traveled to Paris on a French government
scholarship. Europe was at war, and France's research laboratories were
closed to foreigners. But Dr. Yuasa's passionate commitment to research
was persuasive enough to open those doors, and she was able to begin her
research of atomic nuclei under Frédéric
Joliot-Curie at the Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory of the Collège de
France. |
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| nucleus: The core of
an atom. Every atom has a positively charged nucleus orbited by negatively
charged electrons. The nucleus is made up of tightly bound particles:
protons, which have a positive charge, and (except in the case of
hydrogen) neutrons, which have roughly the same mass as protons but
carry no charge. The number of protons in an atomic nucleus is the
atomic number of that element. An ordinary hydrogen atom has just
one proton in its nucleus, oxygen has eight protons and eight neutrons,
and aluminum has 13 protons and 14 neutrons. |
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