Physics and radiochemistry · 1867–1934
Marie Skłodowska Curie
Born in Warsaw, Marie Skłodowska moved to Paris for further study and developed research on the radiation first investigated by Becquerel. Her quantitative comparisons of substances helped turn radioactivity into a way of searching for unknown constituents. She worked with Pierre Curie on polonium and radium and continued research after his death. She received Nobel Prizes in Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911, and organized mobile X-ray teams during the First World War.
Contribution & context
Her work joined measurement, chemical separation, and an atomic interpretation of . Radium identification, purification, and metal isolation were successive achievements.
Marie Curie: FactsEarly Study of Radioactivity: Marie Skłodowska Curie (1898), annotated translation
Discoveries in context
When a mineral was more active than its uranium ↗
Photographic effects and electrical measurements led from unexpected uranium rays to evidence for previously unknown elements.
Elements that arrive by decay ↗
Several elements were first found as short-lived members of radioactive series, and explaining them forced chemists to accept that one place in the table can hold atoms of different mass.
Sources & further reading
- Marie Curie: Facts ↗Nobel Prize OutreachHistorical account · Source checked
- Early Study of Radioactivity: Marie Skłodowska Curie (1898), annotated translation ↗Le Moyne College — Carmen Giunta, classic chemistry papersOriginal research · Source checked
Sources and further reading. What the review labels mean