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A Major Breakthrough |
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Marie and Pierre Curie had their first child in September 1897, and with the houehold in order Marie wantd to choose a topic for her doctorate research. No woman at this time had been awarded a doctorate in science. Marie choose to expand on a discovery made by a French physicist henri becquerel. He reported to the Fench Academy of sciences that uranium compounds, even if they were kept in the dark, emitted rays that would fog a photographic plate. Though the scientific community did not pay much attention to Becquerel's findings, Becquerel did make some key observations for example that gases which the rays passed through were able to coduct electricity. Because of the fact that little research had been done on uranium rays and that Marie had an excellent tool at her disposal, Marie began a systematic investigation of these mysterious rays. hte helpful tool Marie Curie had was electrometer. It as device made by her husband and his brother for measuring extremely low electrical currents. Just after a few days, Marie discovered that thorium gives off the same rays as uranium. Further studied lead her to the conclusion that it was not the amount of the compound that was studied but the amount of uranium of thorium in the |
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copound that determined the strength of fadiation. Marie next determined the strenghth of radiation. Marie next determined that the ability to radiate was linked to the interior of the atom itself and not the arrangment of atoms. This is arguably her most important contribution to the evelopment of physics. She then examined the whle periodic table and found that only uranium and thorium gave off this radiation. From here, Marie studied thenatural ores that contain uranium and thorium and found that pitchblende was four to five times move active then was motivated by the amount of uranium. IWth all of Marie's findings, with all of Marie's findings, her husband, Pierre decided to give up his reseach and join his wife's project. Together they found the stroung activity came from fractions containing biismuth or barium. As Marie continued her analysis, she found that any time she took a fraction away from the bismuch , a sesidue with greater activity was left. at the end of June 1898, they believed they had found a new element and named oif polonium, after her home country Poland on decemer 26, 1898m tget established another very active substance and it was named radium |
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My Pages |
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Marie Curie |
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A Little History |
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Continued Works=Continued Success |
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Nobel Prizes |
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Triumph through Struggles |
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Bibliography |
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Melanie Wagnoer |
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Physics 212 |
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April 16, 2003 |
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