Marie Curie

Marie Curie, who won Nobel Prize twice for her work on radioactivity, was born in Polish on November 7, 1867. Born as Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, she became the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize and the only woman to be awarded for two fields, physics and chemistry. She worked with her husband, Pierre Curie , and discovered polonium and radium. After her husband's death, she developed X-rays and died on July 4, 1934.

Discovery

Curie was fascinated with the work of a French physicist Henri Becquerel , who discovered that uranium casts off rays, than weaker X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen.

Curie took Becquerel's work and conducted her own experiments on uranium rays, discovering that rays remains constant no matter what condition or form uranium is. This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics and Curie started to concentrate on radioactivity. She eventually made a theory of radioactivity, discovered a way to isolate radioactive isotopes, and found two elements, polonium and radium.

Theory of Radioactivity

Curie defined theory of radioactivity by stating that ethereal energy radioactive atoms emit must originate from the atom itself, perhaps through some form of decay.

Radioactive isotope

Radioactive isotope or radioisotope are natural or artificially created isotope of a chemical element which has an unstable nucleus that decays, and emits alpha, beta, or gamma rays until it becomes stable.

Polonium

Polonium is an element named after Poland, the place where Curie was born. Polonium is a silver-grey radioactive semi-metal, and is used for antistatic devices and research purposes. Polonium is an alpha-emitter, and is used as an alpha-particle source in the form of a thin film on a stainless steel disc.

Radium

Radium is a soft, shiny and silvery radioactive metal.It has few uses because it is so highly radioactive and therefore is dangerous. Radium-223 is sometimes used to treat prostate cancer that has spread to the bones. Because bones contain calcium and radium is in the same group as calcium, it can be used to target cancerous bone cells. It gives off alpha particles that can kill the cancerous cells.

Connectedness

How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?

This topic is highly related to what I am interested in since it both contains information from the two subjects I am interested in, physics and chemistry.

How is it connected to your major?

Curie's invention is highly connected to my field, which is biomedical enginnering. Her invention of radium is being used for medical purpose, and her research related to radioactivity consequently resulted in current version of X-ray. It is highly crucial for biomedical enginners to understand the study Curie did.

Is there an interesting industrial application?

X-ray is widely used throughout the medical field until now. Curie's development is frequently applied in industry. Radioactive isotopes are used in industry to help efficient producing, and radium and polonium are sometimes used for industrial purpose.

History

Marie Curie was born in Poland in November 7, 1867. She concentrated on fields of radioactivity, and was awarded Nobel Prize twice.

Marie Curie

Contents

Marie Curie

Discovery

Theory of Radioactivity

Radioactive isotope

Polonium

Radium

Connectedness

History

See also

Further reading

External links

References

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