|
The discovery of polonium and radium
Polonium and radium were discovered by Polish scientist, Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934). In 1898, together with her husband Pierre Curie, she isolated polonium out of the uraninite (uranium ore); the radioactive element was called polonium to honor the country of her birth. During the same year, together with P. Curie and chemist G. Bemont, she announced the discovery of radium. The name of this element gave birth to medical science of radiology, which uses ? radiation for treatment of tumors.
She was awarded the Nobel Prize twice: in 1903 together with H. Becquerel and P. Curie in the field of physics, for the discovery of radioactivity and radioactive elements, and independently in 1911 in the field of chemistry, for the work on the chemical and physical properties of polonium and radium, and for the work on the methods of isolation, purification and activity measurement of radioactive elements, as well as for isolating pure radium.
Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw. In 1891 she left for Paris to begin her studies. Between 1900 and 1905, as the first woman in history, she taught as a professor at the Sevres Universitz. In 1906 she took over the Faculty of Physics at the Sorbonne in Paris.
She participated in the I Solvay Congress in Brussels next to such world science authorities and Nobel Prize laureates as Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Jean-Pierre Perrin, Walter Hermann and Antoon Lorenz.
Due to the deteriorating health, she did not accept the offer to open a radiology lab in Warsaw, but she did take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Radium Institute and participated in its opening. After the outbreak of World War I, she organized the military radiology treatment.
In spite of serious illness, she worked actively at the Sorbonne. She was buried next to her husband at the Paris Pantheon.
|
