The Discovery of Radium

In 1903, the Curies received the Nobel Prize in physics (with Becquerel) for the discovery of radioactivity. Three years later, Pierre Curie died at the age of 46, the victim of a tragic accident. Fie stepped from behind a carriage in a busy Paris street and was run down by a horse-driven truck. That same year, Marie became the first woman instructor at the Sorbonne. In 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of radium and polonium, thereby becoming the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. 

Marie Curie named polonium after her native country of Poland. She is also given credit for coining the world radioactivity. She is one of only two chemists to receive two Nobel Prizes. In 1903 both the Curies and Antoine-Henri Becquerel (1852—1908) shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on radioactivity in 1911 Madame Curie received the prize for chemistry for the discovery of radium and plonium. (The other scientist who received two Nobel Prizes was Linus Pauling [1901-1994], one for chemistry in 1954, and a Nobel Peace... 

Since the discovery of radium compounds, many radio-active substances have been isolated. Only exceedingly minute quantities of any of them have been obtained. The quantities of substances used in experiments on radio-activity are so small that they escape the ordinary methods of measurement, and are scarcely amenable to the ordinary processes of the chemical laboratory. Fortunately, radio-activity can be detected and... 

Eugene-Anatole Demarsay, 1852-1904. French chemist who discovered the element europium and gave spectroscopic proof of the discovery of radium by M and Mme. Curie. He investigated many terpcncs and ethers, and studied the volatility of metals at low temperatures and pressures... 

Harriet Brooks, 1876-1933 (Mrs. Frank Pitcher). In 1902 Rutherford and Miss Brooks studied the penetrating power of a-rays from various sources and made the first attempt to determine the density of radon by a diffusion method. Their study led to the discovery of radium A, B, and C. This photograph was taken in 1898 when Miss Brooks obtained her B.A., McGill University. 

Why tell again the story of the discovery of radium Because it contains all the features that show the nature of the true scientist. 

Clark C. 1987. Physicians, reformers and occupational disease The discovery of radium poisoning. Women Health 12 147-167. 

At the end of long and hard days, they isolated a new element. From pitchblende , an uranium ore, they obtained a new element which radiates rays similar to uranium. They named this new element polonium to honor the memory of Poland, Marie Curie s homeland. This discovery led to the discovery of radium which made the Curies famous. With the discoveries of these new radioactive elements, the number of such elements reached four. They were uranium, thorium, polonium and radium. 

Marie Curie discovered the element polonium, Po, in 1898. She named polonium after Poland, her homeland. Curie won two Nobel Prizes, one in Physics (1903) for sharing in the discovery of radioactivity, and one in Chemistry (1911) for the discovery of radium, which has been used to treat cancer. Radium-226 undergoes alpha decay to yield radon-222. 

Soddy came out firmly for his belief in the existence of the same elements having different atomic weights. He had the boldness to give a name to such elements. Isotopes—elements in equal places—was the word he coined. What an upheaval this created. What was left of chemistry and all its pretty theories—was it all a house of sand In 1897, on the discovery of radium, Professor Runge of Gottingen had cried out, Nature is getting more and more disorderly every day. What would he have said now Every time a scientist dug into the foundations of chemistry another rotten, unsafe timber was discovered ... 

In 1896 there came the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel and the discovery of radium by Pierre and Marie Curie. Soon thereafter it was recognized that radioactive changes involve the spontaneous conversion of atoms of one element into those of another. It then became necessary to change the definition of element this was done by saying that one element could not be converted into another by artificial means. 

The discovery of radium is one of the most interesting stories in science. The story has been told over and over again in books, articles, and motion pictures, and on television. 

Radium, the last metal in the alkaline earth metal group, has an intense white color and is extremely radioactive. In the dark, it glows and gives off a soft blue color. The French husband and wife chemist team Marie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) discovered radium in 1898. Along with the discovery of the electron and Albert Einsteins theory of relativity, the discovery of radium marked the beginning of the modern era of science. 

Marie Curie receives the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of radium. 

McClafferty, Carla Killough. Something Out of Nothing Marie Curie and Radium. New York Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2006. A highly readable account of the story of Marie Curie and the discovery of radium. 

Marie continued her research and discovered polonium (Po), which she named after her native Poland. In 1911, she became the first person to win a second Nobel Prize, this one for the discoveries of radium and polonium. In 1921, Marie Curie came to the United States, where she was given 1 g of pure radium, purchased with donations from American women interested in her work. 

The discovery of radium was the best substantiated one among the many alleged discoveries of radioactive elements, which soon followed. Every year more new discoveries were reported. Radium was also the first radioactive element obtained in the metallic form. 

The discovery of radium was one of the major triumphs of science. The studies of radium contributed to fundamental changes in our knowledge of the properties and structure of matter and gave rise to the concept of atomic energy. Finally, radium was also the first radioactive element to be practically used (for instance, in medicine). 

The radiochemlstry of lead has a history almost as long as the history of radiochemlstry Itself. In 1099j three years after the discovery of radioactivity by Becquerel and only a year after the discovery of radium and polonium by the Curies,... 

C. Remigius Fresenius once again deserves credit for noting, toward the middle of the nineteenth century, that new analytical techniques invariably lead to fresh sets of discoveries. Whereas the element germanium was found on the basis of "classical methods (Clemens Winkler, 1886), Fresenius observation clearly applies to the discovery of the alkali metals rubidium and cesium (by Robert W. Bunsen after he and G. R. Kirch-HOFF first developed emission spectroscopy in 1861). Other relevant examples include the discoveries of radium and polonium (by Madame Curie), hafnium (Hevesy and Coster, 1922), and rhenium (1. Tacke and W. Noddack, 1925), all with the aid of newly introduced X-ray spec-trometric techniques. This is also an appropriate point to mention the discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (19. 8), another accomplishment with strongly analytical characteristics 110]. 

FIGURE 7.3 Marie (Sklodowska) Curie (1867-1934) was a Polish-French scientist who shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for the discovery of radium and polonium and received another Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911 for isolating and characterizing radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel FMze and the only one of two to win in two different fields (Pauhng won in chemistry and peace). She also pioneered use of portable x-ray units for battle wounds in WWI. 

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