Curie, the

Ra.dia.tlon Units. Units in use for activity of a radionucHde, ie, the curie, the roentgen (exposure to x and gamma rays), the rad (absorbed dose), and the rem (dose equivalent), should eventually be replaced by the becquerel (Bq), coulomb per kilogram (C/kg), gray (Gy), and the sievert (Sv), respectively. 

Exposure to low doses of radiation causes no short-term damage but makes the body more susceptible to cancers. In particular, people who have been exposed to increased radiation levels have a much higher incidence of leukemia than the general population has. Marie Curie, the discoverer of radium, eventually died of leukemia brought on by exposure to radiation in the course of her experiments. Medical researchers estimate that about 10% of all cancers are caused by exposure to high-energy radiation. 

These elements have all been named for famous scientists or for the places of their creation. For example, americium, berkelium, and californium were named after obvious geographical locations. Nobelium was named for the Nobel Institute, although later study proved it was not really created there. Curium was named for Marie Curie, the discoverer of radium. Einsteinium was named for the famous physicist, Albert Einstein. Fermium and lawrencium were named for Enrico Fermi and Ernest O. Lawrence, who made important discoveries in the field of radioactivity. Mendelevium was named for the discoverer of the periodic chart. 

Then, in 1932, Irene Joliot-Curie (the daughter of Marie Curie) and her husband, Jean Joliot, published a paper reporting that gamma rays were produced when paraffin was bombarded with alpha particles. When Rutherford and Chadwick read the paper, they didn t believe it. They suspected that what the two French physicists had seen was not gamma rays but neutrons. 

The amazingly rapid development of the science of radioactivity is largely due to the brilliant work of M. Pierre Curie and his wife, Mme. Marie Sklodowska Curie. The former was born in Paris on May 15, 1859, and was educated by his cultured parents. Many happy hours were spent on excursions to the country, and thus this city child grew up in intimate contact with nature, collecting plants and animals and enjoying them in quiet contemplation. While serving as director of the laboratory under Paul Schiitzenberger at the School of Physics and Chem-... 

Mme. Curie and her daughter, Mme. Joliot-Curie. The latter published many papers on the radioactive elements. During World War I, while still very young, she assisted her mother in the radiological service to the wounded. With her husband, Dr. F. Joliot of the Institut de Radium in Paris, she prepared artificial radioactive elements. 

Sometimes the nucleus can be changed by bombarding it with another type of particle. This is referred to as induced radioactivity. In 1934, Irene Curie, the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and her husband, Frederic Joliot, announced the first synthesis of an artificial radioactive isotope. They bombarded a thin piece of aluminum foil with ot-particles produced by the decay of polonium and found that the aluminum target became radioactive. Chemical analysis showed that the product of this reaction was an isotope of phosphorus. 

Ion-exchange (or ion) chromatography uses vertical columns loaded with ionic resins with either mobile anions or mobile cations (typically acidic cations and aminium anions) to separate ionic salts dissolved in water. These resins can separate even rare earth salts from each other and would have been a godsend to Marie Curie The charge, polarizability, and size of the solvated ion and the properties of the anionic or cationic resins are factors that influence the separability. 

French alchemist who, during the Second World War, worked as an assistant to Jean-Frederic Joliot-Curie, the grandson of Marie... 

Curie, Marie. Pierre Curie. The Macmillan Company, New York. 1926. Czapek, Frederick. Chemical Phenomena in Life. Harper Brothers, London. 1911. 

Leslie spent 1909 to 1911 with Curie, the only English woman in Curie s group.05 Leslie s work involved the extraction of new elements from thorium. For a chemist used to working with grams of pure chemicals in beakers, the manipulation of... 

Source of 7-radiation. We applied a cylinder of Co with an activity of about 6 to 7 curies. The dose rates in reaction vessel I were 1.1 to 1.3 X 10 rad per hour (Fricke dosimeter). The dose rates in the dilatometers were 200, 50, and 22.2 rad per hour, depending on the distance from the source. These values were determined by an electrostatic dosimeter, which was dipped in the dilatometers. The absolute error in this case may be it 20% the proportions between the three values are exact. 

One of those who did so was a graduate student named Marie Sklodowska Curie. Marie had been born in Warsaw, Poland, as Marya Sklodowska. In 1891, she moved to Paris, France, to study physics. Three years later she met another physicist, Pierre Curie. The two were married in 1895. 

The process by which radium is obtained is similar to that used by the Curies. The metal is separated from other substances found in pitchblende by a long series of chemical reactions. 

About 30 years after the discovery of the electron, Irene Joliot-Curie (the daughter of the famous scientists Marie and Pierre Curie) discovered that when alpha particles hit a sample of beryllium, a beam that could go through almost anything was produced. 

Electromagnetic rays emitted by radioactive materials are classifiable into three distinct groups alpha a), beta (/3), and gamma (7). Seminal studies by Pierre Curie, the Curie team s major investigator of these rays, include his study of cr-rays, his demonstration that /3-rays are negatively charged, and his observation (with Marie Curie) that radium causes induced radioactivity. 

To perpetuate the name of Curie, the quantity of emanation in equilibrium with one gn.m of radium was termed a curie. This is an inconveniently large amount and the milli-micro curie is frequently used as a practical unit. It is the quantity of emanation in equilibrium with one millionth of a milligram of radium. Since one-fiftieth of this can be detected with a sensitive electroscope, this method of detecting the presence of radio-elements is extraordinarily sensitive — more so even than the spectroscope. The above definition of the curie has now been superseded. In July 1950 the Joint Commission on Standards, Units and Constants of Radioactivity defined the curie as the quantity of any radioactive nuclide in which the number of disintegrations per second is 3-700 X io10. 

M. Curie, Pierre Curie, The Macmillan Company, New York (1929). 

Minamata Disease is defined as neuropathy arising from intake of fish and shellfish containing high concentrations of methylmer-cury. The outbreak is dependent on factors that include mercury concentrations in water, bioconcentration and biomagnification of mercuric compounds by aquatic plants and animals, and continuous daily intake of mercury-contaminated fish in large quantities. Minamata Disease patients have neurological symptoms that include paresthesia, visual field... 

Pauling, Linus Carl (1901-1994) American chemist and peace activist was among the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and orthomolecular medicine. He is one of only two p>eople to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes), and the only person to have been awarded each of his prizes without sharing it with another recipient. 

Curie The basic unit of radioactive decay an amount of radioactivity equivalent to that produced by 1 g of radium, mainly 2.22 X 10 disintegrations per minute. 

However, scientists (and the public) are often more interested in the relative hazard posed by the dose of a radioactive substance than the absolute amount (in grams or curies). The dose of radiation received has commonly been expressed in a couple of ways. The dose can be expressed as a rad (radiation absorbed dose) that is equal to 0.01 J of energy absorbed per kg of absorber and it is not limited to the type of radiation. This is a reasonable dimension since the amount of energy absorbed is related to the subsequent damage. The rad has been replaced by the International System of Units (Systeme International [SI]) measurement unit called the gray that is equivalent to 100 rad. 

Curie. The quantity of radioactive material, evaluated according to its radioactivity now replaced by Becquerel (Bq), the si unit of activity. 

---