MARIE CURIE AND THE STUDY OF RADIOACTIVITY
Marie Curie was born, Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867. She grew up in Warsaw, Poland. She would become famous for her research on radioactivity. Marie Curie was the first woman to ever win a Nobel prize, and the first ever to win two Nobel prizes. She is most famous for the discovery of Radium and Polonium. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science, but also began a new era in medical research and treatment.
Maria was the last of five children. Her oldest sister died of Typhus, one sister became a teacher and a brother and a sister both became physicians. Her family was not very rich, but education was
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During Marie's time, the atom was thought to be the smallest particle in existence. At first, Marie and Pierre Curie believed that perhaps the atom was covered with cosmic rays. Marie tested numerous elements to find if other ones than Uranium would make the air conduct electricity better.
Pierre was so interested in Marie's work, that he joined forces with her. Her research had revealed that two uranium ores, pitchblende and chalcolite were much more radioactive that pure uranium. Marie concluded that the highly radioactive nature of these ores may possibly be due to undiscovered elements.
In July of 1898, Marie and Pierre Cure discovered Polonium. They named the element after Marie's birth country, Poland. Chemically, this new element was very similar to bismuth, but it contained radioactivity, so it must be new. In December of 1898, the Curie's discovered yet another element. They named this one radium, from the Latin word for ray. The two new elements had completely different chemical properties, but they both had very strong radioactivity.
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
He goes off and tells the story of Marie Cruz’s findings of new elements and her deep love for chemistry. Although Marie passes away, her legacy lives on through her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie. Irene and her husband found a way to cultivate radioactive elements which allowed her to earn Nobel Prize. Kean states that a great injustice was done to Lise Meitner, her discovery of protactinium was not awarded with a Nobel Prize. Ch.
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.
The story of radium girls has to begin with the discovery of radium in 1898 by
Marie Sophie Germain was born in Rue Saint-Denis, Paris, France, on April 1, 1776, in a wealthy Persian family. Ambroise-Francois, her father, was a rich man who was assumed to be a wealthy silk merchant, or a goldsmith. Ambroise was elected as the representative of the bourgeoisie to Etats-Généraux en 1789, which had involved his daughter to witness many discussions with her father and his peers. When she was 13, The French Revolution broke out. Enforcing her to remain indoors,as she turned to her father’s library to take away her boredom where she became interested in mathematics. Pouring her time into each book as she had taught herself Latin and Greek, allowing her to read other famous mathematicians work such as Isaac Newton.
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.
The infamous ‘Radium Girls’ disaster stemmed from one of the most influential scientific discoveries of the late 19th century; the element of Radium. French chemists Marie and Pierre Curie first reported the discovery of Radium in 1898 (Sutera, 2013, p. 1) when they found it embedded within small amounts of Uranium Ore (Carter, 1 Paragraph 5). Marie and Pierre were surprised to note that this amazing new element glowed in the dark (Carter, 2007, p. 1). Little did the French scientists know that this interesting new element would have a sublethal effect on hundreds of young factory workers in the years to come.
The first origins of the Manhattan Project began as early as 1930, with physicists such as Albert Einstein, who knew of the power of the single atom. Though it wasn’t until later in the decade that German physicists were able to take those thoughts produce the first artificial nuclear reaction, and even document the theory. Due to the publication of the theory, many people began to realize the immense power that could come from such a tremendous reaction of atoms.
Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755 in Vienna Austria. She was the daughter of Marie
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,
His discovery to radioactivity helped a lot of other scientists. If Henri hadn't discovered it Ernest Rutherford
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
Along the way to becoming the Director, Meitner was not always accurate in her scientific discoveries which is common among scientists with long winded careers as there is more time to make errors due to the amount of time they spend researching theoretical findings. Scientific communities tend to receive errors which come in part of the breakthrough progresses as proof that can be detrimental to some scientists’ careers as their entire life’s work becomes refuted; although in particular, Meitner’s errors were limited. Amongst these mistakes was her strong dismissal of the transuranic element process discovered by Enrico Fermi, which is when elements with an atomic number that surpasses 92 and have characteristics which make them radioactive and able to be synthesized by different weight particle cross exposure. This was a breakthrough discovery in the scientific community specifically the chemical society, as Uranium was the heaviest element of the time and this synthesis would change that definite fact. Meitner did not discover this fact but lacked support for this discovery with her partner Otto Hahn and his associate, Fritz Strassmann, as they felt it was not a probable occurrence. The group of scientist spent much of their time discrediting other scientists and fortifying their own
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.
They now began the tedious and monumental task of isolating these elements so that their chemical properties could be determined. During the next four years, working in a leaky wooden shed, they processed a ton of pitchblende, laboriously isolating from it a fraction of a gram of radium. In 1903,