Radioactivity Curies’ research

In 1903 the Nobel Prize in Physics was jointly awarded to three individuals Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and Becquerel. Marie was the first woman ever to receive this prestigious award. In addition, she received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911, making her the only person to receive two Nobel awards in science. Ironically, her cause of death in 1934 was of overexposure to radioactivity, the research for which she was so respected. 

Curie chose for her dissertation research the new topic of uranium rays, a phenomenon that had only recently been observed by Henri Becqiierel. The mystery was the source of the energy that allowed uranium salts to expose even covered photographic plates. Curie s first efforts in the field were systematic examinations of numerous salts to determine which salts might emit rays similar to those of Becquerel s uranium. After discovering that both thorium and uranium were sources of this radiation. Curie proposed the term radioactive to replace uranium rays. She also discovered that the intensity of the emissions depended not on the chemical... 

In 1921, Irene Curie (1897-1956) began research at the Radium Institute. Five years later she married Frederic Joliot (1900-1958). a brilliant young physicist who was also an assistant at the Institute. In 1931, they began a research program in nuclear chemistry that led to several important discoveries and at least one near miss. The Joliot-Curies were the first to demonstrate induced radioactivity. They also discovered the positron, a particle that scientists had been seeking for many years. They narrowly missed finding another, more fundamental particle, the neutron. That honor went to James Chadwick in England. In 1935,... 

In 1898 Mme. Curie in Paris and Professor G. C. Schmidt at the University of Munster, working independently, found that thorium, like uranium, is radioactive (43). This discovery opened up a vast new field of research as a result of which thorium is now known to be the parent substance of an entire series of radioactive elements. The story of their discovery will be reserved, however, for a later chapter. 

In 1898 there was discovered an element, radium, which con tinually and spontaneously emits light, heat, and other radiations. Investigation of these astonishing phenomena by the Curies and others revealed more than forty interrelated radioactive elements which, like radium, are unstable. They do not, however, occupy forty places in the periodic system, but are crowded into twelve places. The explanation for the existence of these numerous so-called radioactive isotopes and their genealogical descent from uranium and thorium were discovered independently by K. Fajans, F. Soddy, A. S. Russell, and A. Fleck. Since the original literature on the radioactive elements embraces such a vast field of research, the following account of their discovery is necessarily far from complete. 

Professor Curie continued his researches on the growth of crystals, and his young wife prepared for her examinations. Many chemists consider her dissertation (55) to be the most remarkable thesis ever presented for the doctorate. She continued the work begun by Becquerel, and tested most of the known elements, including a number of rare ones loaned by E.-A. Demarpay and Georges Urbain, with Prof. Curie s piezoelectric quartz electrometer, and found that thorium and uranium were the only ones whose compounds produced appreciable ionization (26, 54, 55). The radioactivity of thorium was discovered independently by Gerhardt Carl Schmidt, professor of physics at the University of Munster (25). 

Less than a year after her husband s death, Mme. Curie accepted a professorship at the University of Paris. With the able assistance of Professor Andre Debierne, who took charge of the laboratory and taught for many years an ever-increasing number of students from all parts of the world, she directed the instruction and research in radioactivity (86). When the university acquired new land, it laid out a street called the Rue Pierre Curie and built a laboratory for her. The Curie Institute and the Pasteur Institute work in close harmony, and Mme. Curie spent much of her time on researches dealing with the therapeutic properties of radium and radon (69). During World War I she had complete charge of the radiological service in French military hospitals. 

The creation, by neutron bombardment of uranium, of the so-called transuraniums is based on the discovery of artificial radioactivity by M. and Mme. Joliot-Curie. Irene Curie was bom in Paris in September, 1897, the elder daughter of M. and Mme. Pierre Curie of honored memory. Both in Poland and in France she had many relatives who were devoting their lives to science, and from her earliest childhood she lived in a scientific atmosphere, among distinguished chemists and physicists. When Irene was less than a year old, her mother discovered the radioactive element polonium, which was destined to play an important part in the later researches of both mother and daughter. A few months later M. and Mme. Curie discovered another element of even greater importance, which they named radium. 

Since other projectiles, such as neutrons, protons, and deuterons, have also been used to produce artificial radioactivity, the number of active elements thus created already exceeds by far the number of naturally occurring radio-elements (129, 130, 131). By January, 1940, three hundred and thirty artificial radioactivities had been described these include isotopes of every known element in the range of atomic numbers 1 to 85 inclusive, as well as isotopes of thorium (atomic number 90) and of uranium (atomic number 92) (132). Thus the work of M. and Mme. Joliot-Curie opened up vast avenues of research on the physical, chemical, and radioactive properties of these isotopes and on their therapeutic uses. In 1935 they were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry (133). 

As part of her Ph.D. research (Radioactive Substances, 1903), Marie Curie measured the atomic mass of radium, a new, radioactive element that she discovered. She knew that radium is in the same family as barium, so the formula of radium chloride is RaCl2- In one experiment, 0.091 92 g of pure RaCl2 was dissolved and treated with excess AgN03 to precipitate 0.088 90 g of AgCl. How many moles of Cl were in the RaCl2 From this measurement, find the atomic mass of Ra. 

Bccqucrcl invented a phosphoroscopc to study phosphorescence, He is most famous foi his discovery of natuial laclioactivity, a pi op city of uranium, in 1896. His discovery lead eventually to the atomic and nuclear age and the research work of Mane and Pierre Curie. Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with Marie and Pierre Cune for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity". 

Cherenkov( erenkov)Radiation is the very faint emission of a bluish light from transparent substances(such as glass, water, etc) developed in the vicinity of strong radioactive sources. This phenomenon, first observed by M-me Curie ca 1910 and later by other workers in the field of radioactivity, was not understood until P.A.Cherenkov explained it after conducting exhaustive studies in 1934-1938, incl. He also developed an instrument("Cheren-kov counter ) which became useful for research... 

Curie, Pierre (1859 1906). French chemist, educated at the Sorbonne, conducted researches on piezoelectricity magnetism, and became professor of physics at the Sorbonne. Pierre is known expecially for his work with his wife, Maria, on radioactivity leading to their discovery of polonium radium for which they were awarded with A.H.Becquerel the 1003 Nobel... 

Late in 1938, in Berlin-Dahlem, an experimenter in nuclear chemistry touched off a wave of excitement throughout the world which even reached the front pages of the most conservative newspapers. At the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, only a few miles from Hitler s Chancellery, three researchers had proceeded to repeat some experiments first performed by Enrico Fermi in Rome in 1934. The Italian scientist, in an attempt to produce the Curies artificial radioactivity in the very heavy elements by bombarding them with neutrons, believed he had created an element (No. 93) even heavier than uranium. 

Historically, the discovery of radioactivity dates back to 1896 when the French scientist Henri Becquerel believed that the afterglow observed in cathode ray tubes might be associated with phosphorescence, later realizing that this phenomenon was instead due to radiation. At first, this radiation was assumed to be similar to X-rays, but further research by Becquerel and a number of other notable scientists (including Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford) revealed that the nature of this radiation was more complex. Subsequently, it emerged that there were three principal forms of radioactivity that result from different types of radioactive (nuclear) decay. 

Marie Curie worked tirelessly to develop radioactivity as a new discipline in physics. With the help of five assistants, she studied the effects of radioactivity and developed the atomic theory of its origin. In 1911, Marie was awarded her second Nobel Prize— this time in chemistry, for the chemical processes discovered in the identification of radium and polonium and for the subsequent characterization of these elements. During World War I, she trained doctors in the new methods of radiology and, after learning to drive, personally transported medical equipment to hospitals. After the war, Madame Curie assumed leadership of the newly built Radium Institute in Paris. In 1920, a campaign was mounted in the United States to produce 1 gram of radium for Marie to support her research. She traveled to the United States to receive the precious vial of radium at the White House in 1921. 

The first samples of curium were so small they could be detected only by the radiation they gave off In 1947, the first significant sample of the element was produced. It weighed about 30 milligrams, or the equivalent of about one-thousandth of an ounce. The element was named for Polish-French physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934) and her husband, French physicist Pierre Curie (1859-1906). The Curies carried out some of the earliest research on radioactive elements. 

Curium was named after Polish-French physicists Marie and Pierre Curie, who conducted research on radioactive elements. 

Curie, Marie (1867-1934). Discovered and isolated radium research on radioactivity of uranium. Nobel Prize 1903 (with Becquerel) in physics in chemistry 1911. 

In 1903, the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with radioactivity. Pierre died in an accident in 1906, and Marie continued her research. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering polonium and radium. Marie Curie died of a type of cancer called leukemia. Exposure to radioactivity caused her cancer. 

Becquerel s discovery led other researchers, including Marie and Pierre Curie, to discover and study new radioactive elements. Many radioactive isotopes, or radioisotopes, now have important medical, agricultural, and industrial uses. 

The Curies focused their early research on studying radioactivity and the energy produced as radioactive atoms decayed. They discovered polonium and radium, and identified thorium as a radioactive element. Marie and Pierre s lives were characterized by poverty, even though they were celebrated in the world of science. Marie... 

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