Marie Sklodowska Curie

Curie, Marie Sklodowska. (1867-1034). Physical chemist, born in Warsaw, received doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1904 succeeded husband,... 

Because of its extremely low abundance, short half-life, and high radioactivity, neither francium nor its compounds have economic applications. see also Alkali Metals Curie, Marie Sklodowska Mendeleev, Dimitri Radioactivity. 

Because of their metallic properties and low mass, Be and Mg are used to form lightweight alloys for structural purposes. Ca sees less industrial use, although the phosphate is sometimes utifized in fertilizers. Sr and Ba have no significant industrial applications. Both Be and Ra are used in various devices, the former because it is quite transparent to x-rays and the latter because it is a ready source of both a- and y-radiation. Mg and Ca are essential to all living systems for many reasons the other alkali earths have no known biological roles, see also Beryllium Cesium Curie, Marie Sklodowska Davy, Humphry Francium Magnesium Potassium Rubidium Wohler, Friedrich. 

It was another four years before Becquerel s radiation became tmder-stood as the production of /3-rays (high energy electrons), but by then there was no question that Becquerel had discovered the instability of some atomic nuclei, and that he was richly deserving of the 1903 Nobel Prize that he shared with Pierre and Marie Curie, see also Curie, Marie Sklodowska Rontgen, Wilhelm. 

Although nominated several times, Meitner never did receive the Nobel Prize for physics that many scientists considered her due. Only now, with element 109 having been named Meitnerium (symbol Mt) has she finally received some recognition for her crucial work. Meitner retired to England where she died at the age of eighty-nine, see also Barium Curie, Marie Sklodowska Fischer, Emil Hermann Nuclear Eission Protactinium Radiation. 

Polonium is a strong emitter of a-particles approximately 1 gram of °Po emits 140 watts of heat energy. For this reason, it is used as a source of thermoelectric power in satellites. It is also utilized as a source of neutrons (when mixed with beryllium), as an antistatic device in industrial equipment, and in brushes that remove dust from photographic film, see also Curie, Marie Sklodowska Halogens Radioactivity Radium Uranium. 

Curie, Marie Sklodowska (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) Polish-bom chemist-physicist Marie was the first woman to teach at the University of Paris. She married French physicist-chemist Pierre Curie in 1895, and the couple collaborated on research into radioactivity, discovering the elements polonium and radium. She and her husband shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work she was the first woman so honored. After her husband died, she continued her research and received the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first person to receive the award in two different disciplines. She founded the Radium (later Curie) Institute. 

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