Marie Curie’s Discovery of Radioactivity

Marie Curie’s Discovery of Radioactivity

By Kristin Stevenson

Radioactivity is a starting point for many processes such as cancer treatment, dating techniques, rocks, and for molecular biology and modern genetics. It is also a source of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb. In 1897, Henri Becquerel, who at the time was studying X-rays, noticed that Uranium salt left an impression on a photographic plate. A young pioneering Marie Curie decided that she would try to find and understand the mysterious energy of the Uranium.

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She was the daughter of a professor of mathematics and physics. Marie has been described as a " brilliant and mature student with a rare gift of concentration"(Science, Marie Curie). This determination that she possessed allowed her to do many things not normally done by
a women. In 1891, Marie arrived in Paris and quickly passed a physics degree with flying colors, ranking first in her class. Only a year later, Marie passed her second degree in mathematics, graduating second in her class. The ambitious woman decided that she would then try for her Physics doctorate, and understands the mysterious energy of Uranium.

Marie was the first to coin the term "Radioactivity", she noted that there were other substances that exhibited this type of property. Together with her husband, Pierre Curie, she demonstrated that radioactivity was not the result of a chemical reaction but a property of an atom. Soon Pierre was observing the properties of radiation while Marie tried to locate and purify other radioactive elements. In 1898, Marie discovered Polonium and Radium.

One day, Pierre tested radium on his skin. It caused a burn and then a wound. Soon radium was being used as a cancer treatment. In 1903, Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Marie together with her husband and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. This caused quite a stir in the scientific community. The fact that a women had won the Nobel peace prize. Yet, in 1911, Marie was awarded her second Nobel Peace prize in Chemistry for the isolation of Radium.

Marie was the one who recognized the many benefits of radioactivity, from the medical field to the research of nuclear physics. When World War I broke out, Marie designed X-ray vehicles that would allow medical fields doctors to locate shrapnel and bullets inside the wounded. She trained over 150 women to work the X-ray
Machines.

Sadly, Marie Curie was the victim of her own passions. In July 1934, she died of leukemia as a result of her overexposure to radioactivity. Exhausted, almost blinded and her fingers burnt by her " dear" radium, she died to rejoin her husband.

In April 1995, Marie Curie’s ashes along with her husband’s were transferred to France’s Pantheon’s . She is the first woman to ever be interred in this crypt finally recognized for her contribution to the prestige of French scientific research.

Questions for Discussion

1. Why did Marie receiving a Nobel Peace prize cause such a controversy in the science community? List 5 reasons why the community felt they were justified.

2. What implications of Marie’s isolation of radium have for the science of Chemistry?

3. The accomplishments that Marie Curie had was justification for her being interred in the Pantheon. Can you list any other women scientist’s that should be interred?

4. Would Marie Curie be a Nobel Peace prizewinner had she not been married to Pierre Curie?

5. In your opinion, should Marie have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for physics, considering that she used an idea already observed by Henri Becquerel?

References

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/MarieCurie.html