How Did Marie Curie Contribute To Modern Science

Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution provides a comprehensive breakdown of the discoveries that defined the Scientific Revolution and the history behind them. The story of the scientific revolution truly begins with a separation between the Catholic Church and the denizens of Europe brought on by the Protestant Reformation. This separation led directly to the questioning of the church and what they deemed to be true. The growing suspicion of the church applied not only to the politics and religious views but the scientific “facts” the church was built upon. The suspicion of these scientific facts quickly grew to an open challenging of these facts, The Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution is something we have all studied in our grade school years and the discoveries of people such as Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei are well documented and arguably common knowledge but Jardine’s book Ingenious Pursuits encapsulates the scientific revolution in a new light. Jardine accomplishes this by telling the stories of some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution. These stories reveal the collaborations of some of histories most brilliant minds as well as the secrecy amongst them and uncover the motives that fueled many of these accomplishments.

When Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896, it inspired Marie and Pierre to investigate it further. They researched a lot of substances for any signs of radioactivity, and discovered something that was more radioactive than uranium. They discovered radium, an element that damaged tissue, so they used that to fight against cancer. “They found that the mineral pitchblende was more radioactive than uranium and concluded that it must contain other radioactive substances. From it they managed to extract two previously unknown elements, polonium and radium, both more radioactive than uranium” (Nobel Media). These discoveries led to radium being used to treat cancer and other diseases, and them getting their first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. After Pierre passed away, she continued with her own studies. Marie successfully isolated radium and proved its existence. She also studied the properties and compounds of these radioactive elements. “She also documented the properties of the radioactive elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where they are used to treat tumors” (Nobel Media). This discovery led to the further development of X-rays and her receiving her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Marie Curie was the first woman ever to win two Nobel Prizes in two fields and in multiple sciences, two incredible

The pioneering work of Becquerel in 1896 (the discovery of uranium), and the Curies (who subsequently discovered radium and polonium and the energy and heat given off by these new elements which they called radioactivity) led to the remarkable work of Ernest Rutherford. He was a physicist, whose experiments showed that some heavier elements spontaneously changed or decayed into lighter elements (unstable 'parent' elements giving off protons and neutrons to form a 'daughter' element) through the process of radioactivity. He discovered that radioactive materials decay at a very predictable rate, and that lead was the final decay product of uranium. Using Rutherford's ideas, Bertram Boltwood pioneered a method of radiometric dating in 1907. He hypothesized that since he knew how long it takes uranium to break down, he could measure the proportions of lead in uranium ores, and use his calculations to date how long those ores had existed,

The woman who changed science as we know it was never even supposed to even happen except the reason they got the information from her was because she never even knew what was going on when they were trying to figure what disease she had, the doctors took her cells and found something astonishing… they were immortal however the thing they didn’t know about this cell is how to feed it. After a while they gave it the right nutrition and now it’s in many places in the world today,

My paper is about Irene Joliot – Curie the Nobel – Peace Prize winner that created the first artificial radioactive element. Her life was very successful and fulfilling. Irene’s life was very successful, because she accomplished many things and inspired future scientist. Her and her mom’s work was very useful in World War I. Her work with radiation also became very important to new discoveries of atoms.

One of the most prolific eras in our world’s history is the Scientific Revolution. During this time men began to think outside the realm of possibility and delved themselves deep into the exciting unknown world of science. The innovative minds of these people churned out inventions like gunpowder and the printing press, as well as, inventive new ways of thinking like the scientific method. Aside from the inventors and innovators, there were also the publicists and writers without whom no one would know or understand the new ideas of the time. One such person was Margaret Cavendish who was born and raised in England. She received the same education that a lady during her time did. However, due to her husband, Sir Charles Cavendish, she was exposed to the world of science. The subject intrigued her so much that she ended up publishing her own theory on atoms. Though her atomic theory contains many scientific Renaissance ideals, it is still seen as a major contribution of thought during the Scientific Revolution.

While perusing the work of household names in the scientific field, we find how instrumental they were in facilitating life changing scientific breakthroughs. One can easily be lured

Marie Curie was born in Poland. Even as a little girl she always dreamed of being a scientist. She ended up making discoveries about the material that makes up the universe. She discovered two new elements: polonium and radium. She and her husband’s discovered what caused x-rays. They also found out several facts about atoms no one ever knew. Marie was lucky because her family knew that education was important. She was the youngest of five siblings. Even though Marie was smart and did very well in school she still had a tough childhood. Where she lived was experiencing troubles that sometimes put her in danger. When she was ten her mother died from tuberculosis. This event drove her even harder to achieve. Marie graduated and wanted to

As I was pacing back and forth to find an interesting biography, I spotted a spine of a book that was entitled “Science of Radioactivity”, and was automatically enthralled. The book included not only the biography of Marie Curie but also a detailed synopsis of the people around her. “...Pierre was only a boy...he sensed that his intelligence would flourish.” (Pasachoff, 30). Knowing how they contributed to Marie’s life was fascinating.

His discovery to radioactivity helped a lot of other scientists. If Henri hadn't discovered it Ernest Rutherford

Curie thus began studying uranium radiation and made it her doctoral thesis. With the aid of an electrometer built by Pierre, Marie measured the strength of the radiation emitted form uranium compounds and found it proportional to the uranium content, constant over a long period of time and influenced by external conditions. She detected a similar immutable radiation in the compounds of thorium. While checking these results, she made the discovery that uranium pitchblende and the mineral chalcolite emitted four times as much radiation as their uranium content. She realized that unknown elements, even more radioactive then uranium must be present.

     It was not easy for Marie and Pierre to convince the science community of their new findings. Marie succeeded in separating the radium from the barium, but it wasn't easy. She had to treat very large amounts of pitchblende, but she had plenty of pitchblende to use. (The Curie's

This is what led Curie to take Becquerel’s work a few steps further and conduct her own experiments on uranium rays. She discovered that the rays were constant no matter what form or condition of the uranium. She theorized the rays came from the atomic structure. This idea was revolutionary and created its own field in science, known as the atomic physics, this is when Marie coined the word “radioactivity” to describe the phenomena. Even when they had their first daughter Irene in 1897 there work did not slow. Pierre then stopped his own studies to help Marie with her new discovery of radioactivity. In 1898 they discovered a new radioactive element. They named it polonium after Marie’s native country, Poland. They detected the presence of another radioactive element and called this radium. In 1902 they had extracted pure radium to prove its existence as a unique chemical element.

Nuclear knowledge has existed for a long time. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Department of Energy relates, ―By 1900, the physicists knew the atom contains large quantities of energy‖ (par 11). Many others formed good theories, such as Ernest Rutherford and Einstein’s contribution with his equation E=mc^2. In 1934

With her experiments, she became the first woman in France to get a doctorate. Curie decided to continue Henri Becquerel’s experiments with X-rays. She came up with the groundbreaking idea that the rays were actually an atomic property. The paper she wrote reporting her discoveries had to be presented through her professor because women weren’t allowed to address the Academy of Sciences. With this, she continued her work to find new elements. First, she found polonium, which is named for her home country, and then she discovered radium. Pierre and Marie’s greatest work was done in a run-down shed. They worked from 1898 to 1902. The Curies could have made a fortune if they patented their process of extracting and refining radium, but they decided share their knowledge with the world.