Scientific Accomplishments
Marie Curie was a Polish-born, French physicist and chemist. Curie was famous for her work on radioactivity. Her scientific achievements included a scientific theory, the finding of new techniques, discoveries of new elements, and much more.
Theory of Radioactivity In 1896, Henri Becquerel had already discovered that salts of uranium spontaneously emitted rays similar, or, in other words, the existence of radioactivity. Marie Curie chose to look at uranium rays as a field of research for her doctorate thesis. Fifteen years previously, her husband, Pierre Curie, and his brother invented the electrometer to measure electrical charge. She used the electrometer to look at her samples, and discovered that the uranium rays made the air around the sample conduct electricity. By using this technique, Curie found that the radiation activity depended on the amount of uranium present. She came to a conclusion that the radiation came from the uranium atom itself, and not from the interaction of molecules. This was considered to be the single most important piece of scientific work that Curie had conducted. Curie was honored, along with her husband and Becquerel, with the Nobel Prize in Physics, for these findings on radioactivity.
Technique for Finding Radioactive Components, and Discovery of New Elements Curie and her husband together studied radioactive materials, especially the uranium ore pitchblende. They found out that pitchblende, curiously, was more radioactive than the uranium that was extracted from it. By 1898, they came upon a logical explanation; pitchblende contained traces of another component far more radioactive than uranium. These traces, however, were so small that they had to grind tons of pitchblende, which later took a great toll on their health. Nonetheless, they persevered until she and her husband finally published a paper in the same year announcing the findings of two new elements: polonium and radium. Even still, the amounts of radium were contaminated with other elements, so Curie kept on persevering with the difficult task of separating the radium from it, even as her husband had died. In 1911, Curie accepted the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of those two elements.
What Curie’ s Findings Did: Through Curie’ s lifelong scientific work, she was able to do many other things. Using her findings on radioactive elements, she oversaw the world’ s first studies concerning the treatment of cancers via radiation. She also pushed for the use of mobile radiography units to treat wounded soldiers during WWI. She even founded the Radium Institute for radioactivity and medical research. Marie Curie’ s lifelong research was a monumental contribution to science as we know it.