Marie Curie-Sklodowska
Radioactivity The name radioactivity was given to
the phenomenon of the emission by certain
elements of radiation capable of penetrating
through a substance, ionizing air, and of causing
photographic plates to darken*. This phenomenon
was first discovered (in 1896) in uranium
compounds by the French physicist A. Becquerel.
Soon after this,
Marie Curie-Sklodowska found that thorium
compounds also possess radioactivity. In 1898,
together with her husband, the French physicist
Pierre Curie, she discovered two new radioactive
elements in uranium ores, which according to her
suggestion were named polonium (from the Latin
Polonia—Poland) and radium (from the Latin
radius—ray). The new elements were found to be
much more powerful sources of radioactive
radiation than uranium and thorium. Marie Curie-
Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on November 7,
1867.
In her youth, she took an active part in the
revolutionary movement as a member of a circle
organized by pupils of her father, a teacher of
mathematics and physics in a secondary school.
After graduating from the Paris University,
Sklodowska together with Pierre Curie began to
study radioactivity. For her outstanding discoveries
in this field, she was awarded the degree of Doctor
of Science (physics). After her husband’s death (in
1906), Curie-Sklodowska continued her scientific
activities involving the investigation of the
radioactive elements.
In 1910, she was the first to obtain metallic radium.
She was awarded the Nobel prize twice (in
chemistry and in physics). Since 1926, she was an
honorary member of the USSR Academy of
Sciences. Investigations of the Curies and of the
British physicist 'Ernest Rutherford showed that
radioactive radiation is not homogeneous: a
magnetic field causes it to divide into three beams,
one of which does not change its original direction,
while the other two deviate in opposite directions.
The rays that do not deviate in a magnetic field and,
consequently, carry no electric charge, were called
gamma rays.
They are electromagnetic radiation similar to X-rays
and having a very high penetrability. The deflection
of the other two beams under the action of a
magnetic field indicates that these beams consist
of electrically charged particles.
The opposite directions of the observed deflections
witness that one beam contains negatively charged
particles (this kind of radiation was named beta ray),
while the other (alpha rays) contains positively
charged particles. The beta rays were found to be a
stream of rapidly moving electrons. This was
another confirmation of the fact that electrons are
among the particles which atoms consist of. The
positively charged alpha rays were found to consist
of particles whose mass equals that of a helium
atom, and whose charge, in absolute value is double
that of an electron. Rutherford proved by direct
experiments that these particles are charged
helium atoms. He placed a thin-walled fuled glass
tube containing a small amount of radium into a
larger tube from which the air was then evacuated.
The alpha rays penetrated through the thin walls of -
the inner tube, but were retained by the thick walls
of the other tube, so that the alpha particles
remained in the space between the two tubes.
Spectral analysis indicated the presence of helium
in this space. The results of the experiment signified
that radium atoms in the process of radioactive
emission disintegrate (decay), transforming into
atoms of other elements, particularly into helium
atoms. It was later shown that another product of
radium decay is the element radon. The latter is also
radioactive and belongs to the noble gas family.
Similar conclusions were arrived at in studying
other radioactive elements
