Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Chemistry History of Science and Technology Nuclear Engineering Physics |
| Learning Resource Type: | Community - Award/Recognition/Scholarship |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | Nobelprize.org |
| Description: | Feature on the Nobel Prize website. Excerpt: "In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie were awarded half the Nobel Prize in Physics. The citation was, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Henri Becquerel was awarded the other half for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. In a letter to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, Pierre explains that neither of them is able to come to Stockholm to receive the prize. They could not get away because of their teaching obligations. He adds, "Mme Curie has been ill this summer and is not yet completely recovered." That was certaintly true but his own health was no better. Not until June 1905 did they go to Stockholm, where Pierre gave a Nobel lecture." |
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| Keywords: | Marie Curie, Madam Curie, Pierre Curie, discovery of radium, polonium, Nobel Prize |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | Epilogue: " For the physicists of Marie Curie's day, the new discoveries were no less revolutionary. Although admittedly the world did not decay, what nevertheless did was the classical, deterministic view of the world. Radioactive decay, that heat is given off from an invisible and apparently inexhaustible source, that radioactive elements are transformed into new elements just as in the ancient dreams of alchemists of the possibility of making gold, all these things contravened the most entrenched principles of classical physics. For radioactivity to be understood, the development of quantum mechanics was required. But it should be noted that the birth of quantum mechanics was not initiated by the study of radioactivity but by Max Planck's study of radiation from a black body in 1900. It was an old field that was not the object of the same interest and publicity as the new spectacular discoveries. It was not until 1928, more than a quarter of a century later, that the type of radioactivity that is called alpha-decay obtained its theoretical explanation. It is an example of the tunnel effect in quantum mechanics. Much has changed in the conditions under which researchers work since Marie and Pierre Curie worked in a drafty shed and refused to consider taking out a patent as being incompatible with their view of the role of researchers; a patent would nevertheless have facilitated their research and spared their health. But in one respect, the situation remains unchanged. Nature holds on just as hard to its really profound secrets, and it is just as difficult to predict where the answers to fundamental questions are to be found." |
| Difficulty: | Medium |
| Interactivity Level: | Very Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | 2008 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/curie/ |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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