Discovery

MARIE CURIE

DISCOVERY

Pierre and Marie Curie in their lab in Paris. Bettmann/Corbis Collection.

"It is my hypothesis that radioactivity is an atomic property"

— Marie Curie, Nobel Acceptance Speech, 1911

Marie Curie in her lab.
​​​​​​​Nobelprize.org. Sveriges Television AB 2010.

At the time of the Curie's studies, many people were working on the topic of radio waves and radiation, and W. Roentgen  had discovered X-rays in 1895. 

WHAT IS RADIATION?

​Rays emanating from certain minerals can penetrate materials impenetrable for ordinary lights. 

For her degree, Marie worked on a thesis on radiation, which had been discovered by her teacher Henri Becquerel. While measuring radioactivity with Pierre's instruments, they discovered an element 400 times more radioactive than Uranium, and named it Polonium in honor of Marie's native country.  

In 1898, Polonium was added to the Periodic Table of Elements

sci-news, Oct 4, 2017 by News Staff / Source

Marie Curie's thesis for a doctorate of science (PhD) in physics, 1903. www.nobelprize.org

Later, when studying Radium, another radioactive element, they discovered radiation is not dependent on the organization of atoms inside the molecule, but is actually something happening inside the atom itself. This discovery showed atoms were not inert but
activity happened within them! 
. ​

The room where experiments on uranium ore took place - the laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris, ca. 1900 Wellcome Collection (CC by 4.0)

Marie and Pierre's discovery really advanced studies in radiation as they realized that only certain elements produce these rays of energy, which Marie called radioactivity. 
To prove the existence of  new elements, they needed to isolate certain amounts and describe their properties. This arduous work of separation and analysis in enormous pits became a famous image of their work. 

Unfortunately, at the time they did not realize how damaging the exposure to radiation was for their own bodies, and both had serious health issues for the rest of their lives. 

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