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On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive compound radium chloride. From the article:
"On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. In 1898, the Curies discovered the existence of the elements radium and polonium in their research of pitchblende. One year after isolating radium, they would share the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with French scientist A. Henri Becquerel for their groundbreaking investigations of radioactivity."
"On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. In 1898, the Curies discovered the existence of the elements radium and polonium in their research of pitchblende. One year after isolating radium, they would share the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with French scientist A. Henri Becquerel for their groundbreaking investigations of radioactivity."
Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium
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20th April 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie prove the existence of radium by isolating radium...
Marie and Pierre Curie were both pioneering scientists in their own right, but as a research partnership they are most famous for their work on radioactivity...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on April 20, 1902 husband & wife Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive compound radium chloride.
Marie and Pierre Curie were both pioneering scientists in their own right, but as a research partnership they are most famous for their work on radioactivity. Inspired by the work of the French physicist Henri Becquerel who had been the first person to discover radioactivity, the Curies’ work won them the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics which they shared with Becquerel himself.
Marie had been born and raised in Poland but, since women were not permitted to attend university there, she moved to France to take up a place to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. Having secured degrees in both physical sciences and mathematics by 1894 she married Pierre, an established physicist, whom she had met through a mutual friend. Marie subsequently began to pursue a Ph.D. for which she studied the recently-discovered rays emitted by uranium.
Having coined the term radioactivity to describe the radiation she observed, Curie focused on the minerals pitchblende and torbernite in her search for materials that emitted more radiation than uranium itself. Inspired by his wife’s discovery that the element thorium was radioactive, Pierre dropped his own research in 1898 to work with her. In July they published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named polonium, and in December they did the same for radium.
To unequivocally prove their existence, the Curies sought to isolate them from pitchblende. Having processed tons of the mineral, they eventually obtained one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride on 20 April 1902, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHmGxXO4Wg
Images:
1. Pierre and Marie Curie shortly after their wedding.
2. Pierre and Jacques Curie's electrometer
3. Marie and Pierre Curie with their daughter Irène,1904
4. Marie Curie (1867 – 1934), one of just two female scientists to ever win a Nobel in physics, shown here in her lab with her husband and French chemist Pierre (1859 – 1906)
Background from {[https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200412/history.cfm]}
December 2004 (Volume 13, Number 11)
This Month in Physics History
December 1898: The Curies Discover Radium
Women physicists were a rarity in the 19th century, but even rarer were husband-and-wife collaborative teams. Pierre and Marie Curie made history not only in that respect, but also because their scientific teamwork led to the discovery of radioactivity and two new elements in the periodic table, for which they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics.
A native of Poland, Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska. Her father was a schoolteacher who had lost his prestigious position because of his pro-Polish sentiments at a time when Poland was divided up among Austria, Prussia and czarist Russia.
The family was poor, but her father exposed Marie and all her siblings to the classics of literature, as well as science.
Marie could not enroll at the University of Warsaw; women were not admitted. Instead, she, her sister Bronya, and several other friends attended a "floating university": an illegal night school whose classes met in changing locations to evade the czarist authorities. She worked as a governess for several years, helping pay for Bronya's tuition at medical school in Paris.
Finally, it was her turn. Marie set out for Paris, in the fall of 1891 to pursue studies at the University of Paris' prestigious Sorbonne. Although her math and science background was woefully inadequate, Marie worked hard to catch up with her peers, and eventually finished first in her master's degree physics course, also earning a second in mathematics the following year.
In the spring of 1894, Marie's search for laboratory space led to a fateful introduction to Pierre Curie, a scientist some 10 years her senior who had done pioneering work on magnetism.
The son of a respected physician, Pierre had the benefit of private tutoring as a child, soon demonstrating a passion and gift for mathematics. He earned a master's degree by age 18, and three years later discovered the piezoelectric effect with his older brother, Jacques.
They found that when pressure is applied to certain crystals, they generate electrical voltage, and when placed in an electric field, those same crystals became compressed. They used this effect to build a piezoelectric quartz electrometer to measure faint electric currents, which Marie would use in her research.
Pierre later discovered a fundamental relationship between magnetic properties and temperature. Today, the temperature at which permanent magnetism disappears is known as the "Curie point."
It was Marie who encouraged Pierre to write up this latter work as a doctoral thesis. He received his PhD in March 1895, along with a promotion to a professorship at the Municipal School, and the couple married three months later.
For her own doctorate, Marie chose to focus on the mysterious uranium rays discovered in early 1896 by Henri Becquerel, a few months after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of x-rays.
Marie conducted numerous experiments confirming Becquerel's observations that the electrical effects of uranium rays are constant, regardless of whether solid or pulverized, pure or in a compound, wet or dry, or whether exposed to light or heat. She also validated his conclusion that those minerals with a higher proportion of uranium emitted the most intense rays.
And she took those findings one step further, forming the hypothesis that the emission of rays by uranium compounds was an atomic property of the element uranium—something built into the very structure of its atoms. She coined the term "radioactivity" to describe this unique effect, which she also found in thorium compounds.
Intrigued by his wife's findings, Pierre joined forces with her. She had found that two uranium ores, pitchblende and chalcolite, were much more radioactive than pure uranium, and concluded their highly radioactive nature was due to as yet undiscovered elements. As a team, the Curies worked to separate the substances in these ores and then used the electrometer to make radiation measurements to "trace" the minute amount of unknown radioactive element among the fractions that resulted.
They discovered that one fraction was strongly radioactive, so even though it chemically behaved like bismuth, it had to be something new. They named this new element "polonium."
In December 1898, they discovered a second new element in a barium fraction, which they named "radium." To prove to a skeptical scientific community that these were indeed new elements, the Curies had to isolate them. It took Marie over three years to isolate one-tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride, and she never succeeded in isolating polonium because of its very short half-life: 138 days. Even as she was performing her experiments the polonium in her raw material was rapidly decaying.
Their combined work led almost immediately to the use of radioactive materials in medicine, since isotopes are more effective and safer than surgery or chemicals for attacking cancers and other diseases.
Even today, radioactive isotopes are used as "tracers" to track chemical changes and biological processes.
Pierre also quickly realized the potential for radioactive decay for dating materials; the age of the earth was determined to be several billion years, thanks to a study of uranium decay.
In 1903 the French Academy of Sciences nominated Becquerel and Pierre—but not Marie—as candidates for the Nobel Prize in physics. A Swedish mathematician named Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, a member of the nominating committee and an advocate of women scientists,—intervened, and Marie was included in the nomination. The three scientists were honored with the Nobel Prize in December 1903.
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny EspinosaCPT Richard Trione LTC Greg Henning Maj Robert Thornton SFC William Farrell SSG Michael Noll CWO3 Dennis M. SP5 Dennis Loberger 1SG Steven Imerman 1LT (Anonymous) Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM 1SG Steven Imerman SMSgt Tom Burns
Marie and Pierre Curie were both pioneering scientists in their own right, but as a research partnership they are most famous for their work on radioactivity. Inspired by the work of the French physicist Henri Becquerel who had been the first person to discover radioactivity, the Curies’ work won them the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics which they shared with Becquerel himself.
Marie had been born and raised in Poland but, since women were not permitted to attend university there, she moved to France to take up a place to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. Having secured degrees in both physical sciences and mathematics by 1894 she married Pierre, an established physicist, whom she had met through a mutual friend. Marie subsequently began to pursue a Ph.D. for which she studied the recently-discovered rays emitted by uranium.
Having coined the term radioactivity to describe the radiation she observed, Curie focused on the minerals pitchblende and torbernite in her search for materials that emitted more radiation than uranium itself. Inspired by his wife’s discovery that the element thorium was radioactive, Pierre dropped his own research in 1898 to work with her. In July they published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named polonium, and in December they did the same for radium.
To unequivocally prove their existence, the Curies sought to isolate them from pitchblende. Having processed tons of the mineral, they eventually obtained one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride on 20 April 1902, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHmGxXO4Wg
Images:
1. Pierre and Marie Curie shortly after their wedding.
2. Pierre and Jacques Curie's electrometer
3. Marie and Pierre Curie with their daughter Irène,1904
4. Marie Curie (1867 – 1934), one of just two female scientists to ever win a Nobel in physics, shown here in her lab with her husband and French chemist Pierre (1859 – 1906)
Background from {[https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200412/history.cfm]}
December 2004 (Volume 13, Number 11)
This Month in Physics History
December 1898: The Curies Discover Radium
Women physicists were a rarity in the 19th century, but even rarer were husband-and-wife collaborative teams. Pierre and Marie Curie made history not only in that respect, but also because their scientific teamwork led to the discovery of radioactivity and two new elements in the periodic table, for which they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics.
A native of Poland, Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska. Her father was a schoolteacher who had lost his prestigious position because of his pro-Polish sentiments at a time when Poland was divided up among Austria, Prussia and czarist Russia.
The family was poor, but her father exposed Marie and all her siblings to the classics of literature, as well as science.
Marie could not enroll at the University of Warsaw; women were not admitted. Instead, she, her sister Bronya, and several other friends attended a "floating university": an illegal night school whose classes met in changing locations to evade the czarist authorities. She worked as a governess for several years, helping pay for Bronya's tuition at medical school in Paris.
Finally, it was her turn. Marie set out for Paris, in the fall of 1891 to pursue studies at the University of Paris' prestigious Sorbonne. Although her math and science background was woefully inadequate, Marie worked hard to catch up with her peers, and eventually finished first in her master's degree physics course, also earning a second in mathematics the following year.
In the spring of 1894, Marie's search for laboratory space led to a fateful introduction to Pierre Curie, a scientist some 10 years her senior who had done pioneering work on magnetism.
The son of a respected physician, Pierre had the benefit of private tutoring as a child, soon demonstrating a passion and gift for mathematics. He earned a master's degree by age 18, and three years later discovered the piezoelectric effect with his older brother, Jacques.
They found that when pressure is applied to certain crystals, they generate electrical voltage, and when placed in an electric field, those same crystals became compressed. They used this effect to build a piezoelectric quartz electrometer to measure faint electric currents, which Marie would use in her research.
Pierre later discovered a fundamental relationship between magnetic properties and temperature. Today, the temperature at which permanent magnetism disappears is known as the "Curie point."
It was Marie who encouraged Pierre to write up this latter work as a doctoral thesis. He received his PhD in March 1895, along with a promotion to a professorship at the Municipal School, and the couple married three months later.
For her own doctorate, Marie chose to focus on the mysterious uranium rays discovered in early 1896 by Henri Becquerel, a few months after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of x-rays.
Marie conducted numerous experiments confirming Becquerel's observations that the electrical effects of uranium rays are constant, regardless of whether solid or pulverized, pure or in a compound, wet or dry, or whether exposed to light or heat. She also validated his conclusion that those minerals with a higher proportion of uranium emitted the most intense rays.
And she took those findings one step further, forming the hypothesis that the emission of rays by uranium compounds was an atomic property of the element uranium—something built into the very structure of its atoms. She coined the term "radioactivity" to describe this unique effect, which she also found in thorium compounds.
Intrigued by his wife's findings, Pierre joined forces with her. She had found that two uranium ores, pitchblende and chalcolite, were much more radioactive than pure uranium, and concluded their highly radioactive nature was due to as yet undiscovered elements. As a team, the Curies worked to separate the substances in these ores and then used the electrometer to make radiation measurements to "trace" the minute amount of unknown radioactive element among the fractions that resulted.
They discovered that one fraction was strongly radioactive, so even though it chemically behaved like bismuth, it had to be something new. They named this new element "polonium."
In December 1898, they discovered a second new element in a barium fraction, which they named "radium." To prove to a skeptical scientific community that these were indeed new elements, the Curies had to isolate them. It took Marie over three years to isolate one-tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride, and she never succeeded in isolating polonium because of its very short half-life: 138 days. Even as she was performing her experiments the polonium in her raw material was rapidly decaying.
Their combined work led almost immediately to the use of radioactive materials in medicine, since isotopes are more effective and safer than surgery or chemicals for attacking cancers and other diseases.
Even today, radioactive isotopes are used as "tracers" to track chemical changes and biological processes.
Pierre also quickly realized the potential for radioactive decay for dating materials; the age of the earth was determined to be several billion years, thanks to a study of uranium decay.
In 1903 the French Academy of Sciences nominated Becquerel and Pierre—but not Marie—as candidates for the Nobel Prize in physics. A Swedish mathematician named Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, a member of the nominating committee and an advocate of women scientists,—intervened, and Marie was included in the nomination. The three scientists were honored with the Nobel Prize in December 1903.
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny EspinosaCPT Richard Trione LTC Greg Henning Maj Robert Thornton SFC William Farrell SSG Michael Noll CWO3 Dennis M. SP5 Dennis Loberger 1SG Steven Imerman 1LT (Anonymous) Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM 1SG Steven Imerman SMSgt Tom Burns
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LTC Stephen F.
Marie and Pierre Curie, two French scientists working in the field of chemistry and physics, are known for pioneering work in the field of radioactivity and ...
Marie and Pierre Curie
Marie and Pierre Curie, two French scientists working in the field of chemistry and physics, are known for pioneering work in the field of radioactivity and discovering two radioactive elements. Their work helped to usher in an era of atomic science, leading to modern use of atomic power as a source of energy, a method of treating diseases, and the most feared weapon known to mankind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Oj5qyY1F0
Images:
1. painting by André Castaigne (1861–1929) which depicts the Curies looking at glowing radium. Pierre holding the glowing radioactive object is consistent with the way both of them handled this dangerous material
2. Radium Therapy Advertisement
3. Caricature of Pierre and Marie Curie published in Vanity Fair on December 22, 1904
4. Marie Curie driving a little Curie during World War I
Background from {[https://kimrendfeld.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/pierre-and-marie-curie-extract-radium-and-pay-a-high-price//]}
Pierre and Marie Curie Extract Radium – and Pay a High Price
Pierre and Marie Curie had discovered radium by measuring the radioactivity of pitchblende, an ore from which uranium was extracted. The radioactivity of pitchblende was much greater than that of pure uranium. In fact they found two different levels of radioactivity which led them to conclude that two different elements – radium and polonium – were present in the ore. As I discussed last time, the conclusions were good enough for most physicists to believe the discovery, but the chemists wanted to see the isolated elements. So, Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie undertook the task of separating the elements, particularly radium, from the pitchblende.
Separating radium from the pitchblende was not easy. As I noted last time, they had a laboratory to work in, even if it was space considered not good enough for cadavers. Then, of course, they needed to obtain the ore.
In one way, that was easy. Large quantities of pitchblende were available from a mine in Bohemia owned by the Austrian-Hungarian government. The ore was considered useless because the uranium had already been extracted from it. The Curies could have the ore at no cost; they just needed to transport it from the mine to Paris. An anonymous benefactor, believed by some historians to have been Baron Edmond de Rothschild, provided the funds to transport the material from Bohemia to Paris. So, they obtained several tons of pitchblende, which was delivered in large sacks.
The process of separating the radium from the ore was a tedious application of chemistry. It involved many steps in which the ore was ground, dissolved in acids and other liquids, separated or filtered, and tested for radioactivity. Once they had a residue which was more radioactive than the material that they started with, they repeated the process. A reasonable description of the process is shown in an episode of The Six Experiments That Changed the World.
A particularly nasty element of which they knew nothing is radon. Today, we are told to test our basements for this radioactive gas because it is quite harmful. It is a product of the radioactive decay of radium. Because the processes that the Curies were using involved frequent boiling of the materials, they were without doubt releasing this radioactive gas and then breathing it.
They were able to get some help, particularly from André Debierne and industrial firm, Central Chemical Products Company, which sold some of the scientific instruments invented by Pierre. The company took on some of the initial steps in the extraction with Marie concentrating on the final steps. After three years of tedious work, they were able to obtain one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride from about one ton of pitchblende.
Conducting this research was not the Curies’ only effort. Both of them were teaching. In addition, in 1897 Marie gave birth to their first daughter, Irene.
Many products purported to offer cures using radioactivity. In spite of the claims in the advertisement drinking radioactive water is not the path to great health. (Public domain via Wikipedia)
Both the hazards and benefits of radioactivity were quickly discovered. After hearing of a couple of burns incurred by other scientists, including Henri Becquerel, Pierre taped some radioactive barium to his arm. The result was a red burn that took 52 days to heal. By this time both Marie and Pierre were noticing that their fingers were sometimes hardened and painful. Some of these experiences led to experiments about the health benefits of radioactivity. Reports of cures or reduction in tumors were published. Many good books and web pages can provide much detail on the how radium and other radioactive elements were used and mostly misused in the early 20th century, so I will not pursue that topic further. Instead, I will focus on a few stories about the Curies.
What’s the Source of Radiation?
On the scientific side was the question of where the radioactive particles came from. Were they somehow emitted from the atom or did the atom do something to its surroundings and cause them to be created there? At the time of this discussion, the nucleus had not been discovered (more about that next time), so everyone talked of the atom as the smallest unit of an element. Ernest Rutherford took the view that these radioactive emissions were coming from the atom. Pierre Curie argued in favor of the radium atom causing the emissions to come from the surrounding material. Of course, neither of them had any experimental evidence for his point of view. Eventually, Pierre came around to Rutherford’s view, but until much later no evidence was available to support either of them.
Pierre and Marie Curie were nominated for the Nobel Prize for the first two years that it was given. However, they were passed over. In the third year of the prize, a rather strange event happened. Four members of the French Academy of Science sent a letter to the Nobel Committee in which they gave all of the credit for isolating radium to Pierre. They nominated Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for the prize and omitted Marie.
The committee that considers the nominations is supposed to work in strict confidence. However, one member of the committee, Mangus Mittag-Leffler, was a strong supporter of women in science. So, he wrote Pierre to tell him of this pending injustice. Pierre responded in such a way that the committee felt compelled to include Marie. The 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to both Curies and Becquerel. The citation was written was written very cleverly so that the Curies received the prize “in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.”
The 1903 citation did not mention the chemical separation of radium. That deliberate omission opened the way for Marie to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 “in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.” Thus Marie Sklodowska Curie became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and the first person to receive two prizes. (The second woman to receive a Nobel Prize was Marie and Pierre’s daughter Irene.)
The lack of caution in handling radioactive material greatly affected both of the Curies. They were too ill to attend the Nobel ceremony in 1903. The illness came and went, so in the summer of 1905, they felt well enough to travel to Stockholm where Pierre gave a Nobel lecture. However, he was soon feeling bad again.
On April 19, 1906, Pierre was walking in the rain. Apparently, he was not paying attention to traffic and walked in front of a horse-drawn wagon. He was killed instantly when the rear wheel of the wagon struck his head. Some historians believe that radiation poisoning contributed to his weakness. Thus, he was unable to avoid the fatal blow once he had accidently stepped in front of the wagon.
Marie was devastated and took a long time to recover from Pierre’s death. Eventually she did continue the research that she and Pierre had shared.
Part of the War Effort
In addition to her research, she provided a critical service during World War I. She learned that soldiers’ lives could be save if only X-ray equipment were available at or near the front. To address this need, she developed portable X-ray units.
For the first one, she received a gift from the Union of the Women of France. With this money, she purchased a Renault car and had it converted into an ambulance. She then had X-ray equipment installed in the car. She personally drove this vehicle to locations near the front lines, frequently accompanied by her daughter Irene. She obtained about 20 other vehicles and outfitted them in a similar way. The X-rays provided by the equipment in these vehicles, called “little Curies,” have been credited with saving the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers.
Marie’s work in radioactivity and its medical applications continued after the war. You can find many books, web pages, and videos about her. One of the most famous is a biography by her second daughter, Eve. If you are interested in more information, just search. A good short biography of both Curies is on the Nobel Prize website.
While the Curies were undertaking their work, a couple of other major contributions to our understanding of matter were being developed. The beginnings of quantum physics were under way as well as the use of radioactivity to probe deeply into the atom. In the next post, I will take a look at probing the atom and the building of a model of the nuclear atom. After that, we will back up a little in time and consider some of the early ideas in quantum physics.
Dean Zollman is university distinguished professor of physics at Kansas State University where he has been a faculty member for more than 40 years. During his career he has received four major awards — the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Oersted Medal (2014), the National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Distinguished Teacher Scholars (2004), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Doctoral University Professor of the Year (1996), and AAPT’s Robert A. Millikan Medal (1995). His present research concentrates on the teaching and learning of physics and on science teacher preparation.
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Marie and Pierre Curie, two French scientists working in the field of chemistry and physics, are known for pioneering work in the field of radioactivity and discovering two radioactive elements. Their work helped to usher in an era of atomic science, leading to modern use of atomic power as a source of energy, a method of treating diseases, and the most feared weapon known to mankind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Oj5qyY1F0
Images:
1. painting by André Castaigne (1861–1929) which depicts the Curies looking at glowing radium. Pierre holding the glowing radioactive object is consistent with the way both of them handled this dangerous material
2. Radium Therapy Advertisement
3. Caricature of Pierre and Marie Curie published in Vanity Fair on December 22, 1904
4. Marie Curie driving a little Curie during World War I
Background from {[https://kimrendfeld.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/pierre-and-marie-curie-extract-radium-and-pay-a-high-price//]}
Pierre and Marie Curie Extract Radium – and Pay a High Price
Pierre and Marie Curie had discovered radium by measuring the radioactivity of pitchblende, an ore from which uranium was extracted. The radioactivity of pitchblende was much greater than that of pure uranium. In fact they found two different levels of radioactivity which led them to conclude that two different elements – radium and polonium – were present in the ore. As I discussed last time, the conclusions were good enough for most physicists to believe the discovery, but the chemists wanted to see the isolated elements. So, Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie undertook the task of separating the elements, particularly radium, from the pitchblende.
Separating radium from the pitchblende was not easy. As I noted last time, they had a laboratory to work in, even if it was space considered not good enough for cadavers. Then, of course, they needed to obtain the ore.
In one way, that was easy. Large quantities of pitchblende were available from a mine in Bohemia owned by the Austrian-Hungarian government. The ore was considered useless because the uranium had already been extracted from it. The Curies could have the ore at no cost; they just needed to transport it from the mine to Paris. An anonymous benefactor, believed by some historians to have been Baron Edmond de Rothschild, provided the funds to transport the material from Bohemia to Paris. So, they obtained several tons of pitchblende, which was delivered in large sacks.
The process of separating the radium from the ore was a tedious application of chemistry. It involved many steps in which the ore was ground, dissolved in acids and other liquids, separated or filtered, and tested for radioactivity. Once they had a residue which was more radioactive than the material that they started with, they repeated the process. A reasonable description of the process is shown in an episode of The Six Experiments That Changed the World.
A particularly nasty element of which they knew nothing is radon. Today, we are told to test our basements for this radioactive gas because it is quite harmful. It is a product of the radioactive decay of radium. Because the processes that the Curies were using involved frequent boiling of the materials, they were without doubt releasing this radioactive gas and then breathing it.
They were able to get some help, particularly from André Debierne and industrial firm, Central Chemical Products Company, which sold some of the scientific instruments invented by Pierre. The company took on some of the initial steps in the extraction with Marie concentrating on the final steps. After three years of tedious work, they were able to obtain one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride from about one ton of pitchblende.
Conducting this research was not the Curies’ only effort. Both of them were teaching. In addition, in 1897 Marie gave birth to their first daughter, Irene.
Many products purported to offer cures using radioactivity. In spite of the claims in the advertisement drinking radioactive water is not the path to great health. (Public domain via Wikipedia)
Both the hazards and benefits of radioactivity were quickly discovered. After hearing of a couple of burns incurred by other scientists, including Henri Becquerel, Pierre taped some radioactive barium to his arm. The result was a red burn that took 52 days to heal. By this time both Marie and Pierre were noticing that their fingers were sometimes hardened and painful. Some of these experiences led to experiments about the health benefits of radioactivity. Reports of cures or reduction in tumors were published. Many good books and web pages can provide much detail on the how radium and other radioactive elements were used and mostly misused in the early 20th century, so I will not pursue that topic further. Instead, I will focus on a few stories about the Curies.
What’s the Source of Radiation?
On the scientific side was the question of where the radioactive particles came from. Were they somehow emitted from the atom or did the atom do something to its surroundings and cause them to be created there? At the time of this discussion, the nucleus had not been discovered (more about that next time), so everyone talked of the atom as the smallest unit of an element. Ernest Rutherford took the view that these radioactive emissions were coming from the atom. Pierre Curie argued in favor of the radium atom causing the emissions to come from the surrounding material. Of course, neither of them had any experimental evidence for his point of view. Eventually, Pierre came around to Rutherford’s view, but until much later no evidence was available to support either of them.
Pierre and Marie Curie were nominated for the Nobel Prize for the first two years that it was given. However, they were passed over. In the third year of the prize, a rather strange event happened. Four members of the French Academy of Science sent a letter to the Nobel Committee in which they gave all of the credit for isolating radium to Pierre. They nominated Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for the prize and omitted Marie.
The committee that considers the nominations is supposed to work in strict confidence. However, one member of the committee, Mangus Mittag-Leffler, was a strong supporter of women in science. So, he wrote Pierre to tell him of this pending injustice. Pierre responded in such a way that the committee felt compelled to include Marie. The 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to both Curies and Becquerel. The citation was written was written very cleverly so that the Curies received the prize “in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel.”
The 1903 citation did not mention the chemical separation of radium. That deliberate omission opened the way for Marie to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 “in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.” Thus Marie Sklodowska Curie became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and the first person to receive two prizes. (The second woman to receive a Nobel Prize was Marie and Pierre’s daughter Irene.)
The lack of caution in handling radioactive material greatly affected both of the Curies. They were too ill to attend the Nobel ceremony in 1903. The illness came and went, so in the summer of 1905, they felt well enough to travel to Stockholm where Pierre gave a Nobel lecture. However, he was soon feeling bad again.
On April 19, 1906, Pierre was walking in the rain. Apparently, he was not paying attention to traffic and walked in front of a horse-drawn wagon. He was killed instantly when the rear wheel of the wagon struck his head. Some historians believe that radiation poisoning contributed to his weakness. Thus, he was unable to avoid the fatal blow once he had accidently stepped in front of the wagon.
Marie was devastated and took a long time to recover from Pierre’s death. Eventually she did continue the research that she and Pierre had shared.
Part of the War Effort
In addition to her research, she provided a critical service during World War I. She learned that soldiers’ lives could be save if only X-ray equipment were available at or near the front. To address this need, she developed portable X-ray units.
For the first one, she received a gift from the Union of the Women of France. With this money, she purchased a Renault car and had it converted into an ambulance. She then had X-ray equipment installed in the car. She personally drove this vehicle to locations near the front lines, frequently accompanied by her daughter Irene. She obtained about 20 other vehicles and outfitted them in a similar way. The X-rays provided by the equipment in these vehicles, called “little Curies,” have been credited with saving the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers.
Marie’s work in radioactivity and its medical applications continued after the war. You can find many books, web pages, and videos about her. One of the most famous is a biography by her second daughter, Eve. If you are interested in more information, just search. A good short biography of both Curies is on the Nobel Prize website.
While the Curies were undertaking their work, a couple of other major contributions to our understanding of matter were being developed. The beginnings of quantum physics were under way as well as the use of radioactivity to probe deeply into the atom. In the next post, I will take a look at probing the atom and the building of a model of the nuclear atom. After that, we will back up a little in time and consider some of the early ideas in quantum physics.
Dean Zollman is university distinguished professor of physics at Kansas State University where he has been a faculty member for more than 40 years. During his career he has received four major awards — the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Oersted Medal (2014), the National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Distinguished Teacher Scholars (2004), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Doctoral University Professor of the Year (1996), and AAPT’s Robert A. Millikan Medal (1995). His present research concentrates on the teaching and learning of physics and on science teacher preparation.
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Marie & Pierre Curie, Henri Becquerel. The Discovery of Radioactivity and Radioactive Elements.
Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity, for work in this fie...
Marie & Pierre Curie, Henri Becquerel. The Discovery of Radioactivity and Radioactive Elements.
Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity, for work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person (and only woman) to win twice, the only person to win twice in multiple sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Pierre Curie (15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity. In 1903 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Henri Becquerel, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut1JxEjSFEg
Images:
1. The Curies, along with fellow scientist Henri Becquerel (left), received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of radioactivity.jpg
2. Antoine Henri Becquerel portrait mini 1903 Nobel prize for Physics
3. Pierre Curie portrait mini 1903 Nobel prize for Physics
4. Marie Curie portrait taken about 1903 when she was awarded her first Nobel Prize
Background from {[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/]}
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 was divided, one half awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity", the other half jointly to Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née Sklodowska "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
1. Antoine Henri Becquerel
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 15 December 1852, Paris, France
Died: 25 August 1908, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: École Polytechnique, Paris, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity."
Prize share: 1/2
Work
When Henri Becquerel investigated the newly discovered X-rays in 1896, it led to studies of how uranium salts are affected by light. By accident, he discovered that uranium salts spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation that can be registered on a photographic plate. Further studies made it clear that this radiation was something new and not X-ray radiation: he had discovered a new phenomenon, radioactivity.
2. Pierre Curie
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 15 May 1859, Paris, France
Died: 19 April 1906, Paris, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles (Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry), Paris, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Prize share: 1/4
Work
The 1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances and minerals for signs of radioactivity. 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.
3. Marie Curie, née Sklodowska
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died: 4 July 1934, Sallanches, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Prize share: 1/4
Also awarded: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Life
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers who believed strongly in education. She moved to Paris to continue her studies and there met Pierre Curie, who became both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity. The couple later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie was widowed in 1906, but continued the couple's work and went on to become the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, Curie organized mobile X-ray teams. The Curies' daughter, Irene, was also jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside her husband, Frederic Joliot.
Work
1903 Prize: The 1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances and minerals for signs of radioactivity. 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.
1911 Prize: After Marie and Pierre Curie first discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium, Marie continued to investigate their properties. In 1910 she successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's existence beyond a doubt. 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."
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Antoine Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and the discoverer of radioactivity, for work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person (and only woman) to win twice, the only person to win twice in multiple sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Pierre Curie (15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity. In 1903 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Henri Becquerel, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut1JxEjSFEg
Images:
1. The Curies, along with fellow scientist Henri Becquerel (left), received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of radioactivity.jpg
2. Antoine Henri Becquerel portrait mini 1903 Nobel prize for Physics
3. Pierre Curie portrait mini 1903 Nobel prize for Physics
4. Marie Curie portrait taken about 1903 when she was awarded her first Nobel Prize
Background from {[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/]}
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 was divided, one half awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity", the other half jointly to Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née Sklodowska "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
1. Antoine Henri Becquerel
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 15 December 1852, Paris, France
Died: 25 August 1908, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: École Polytechnique, Paris, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity."
Prize share: 1/2
Work
When Henri Becquerel investigated the newly discovered X-rays in 1896, it led to studies of how uranium salts are affected by light. By accident, he discovered that uranium salts spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation that can be registered on a photographic plate. Further studies made it clear that this radiation was something new and not X-ray radiation: he had discovered a new phenomenon, radioactivity.
2. Pierre Curie
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 15 May 1859, Paris, France
Died: 19 April 1906, Paris, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles (Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry), Paris, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Prize share: 1/4
Work
The 1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances and minerals for signs of radioactivity. 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.
3. Marie Curie, née Sklodowska
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903
Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died: 4 July 1934, Sallanches, France
Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
Prize share: 1/4
Also awarded: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Life
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers who believed strongly in education. She moved to Paris to continue her studies and there met Pierre Curie, who became both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity. The couple later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie was widowed in 1906, but continued the couple's work and went on to become the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, Curie organized mobile X-ray teams. The Curies' daughter, Irene, was also jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside her husband, Frederic Joliot.
Work
1903 Prize: The 1896 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to further investigate this phenomenon. They examined many substances and minerals for signs of radioactivity. 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.
1911 Prize: After Marie and Pierre Curie first discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium, Marie continued to investigate their properties. In 1910 she successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's existence beyond a doubt. 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."
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