Radiochemistry and analytical chemistry · 1885–1966

George de Hevesy

Hevesy’s central idea was that a radioactive isotope can be followed through a chemical or biological system precisely because it is chemically indistinguishable from the stable form — the property that had frustrated the radiochemists, turned into a method. He applied it to lead in plants, to phosphorus metabolism in animals and to the exchange of atoms between compounds, founding the tracer technique. He received the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and famously dissolved two gold Nobel medals in aqua regia to hide them from occupying forces.