Marie Curie

Hi, my name is Joshua. I was working with janie & hannah on marie curie. Marie Curie was the daughter of a secondary-school teacher. She received a general education in local schools and some scientific training from her father. In 1891 she went to Paris to continue studies at the Sorbonne where she obtained Licentiateships in Physics and she gained her Doctor of Science Degree in 1903. In 1906 her husband Pierre Curie died in a tragic car accident and she then took his place as Professor of General Physics in Facility of Sciences, this was the first time a woman had held this position. She was also appointed Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris.

When Marie Curie realized that some uranium and thorium compounds had stronger radiation than uranium, she made the following hypothesis: there must be an unknown element in the compound, which had a stronger radiation than uranium or thorium. Her work got the interest of her husband, Pierre Curie, who stopped his own research on crystals and joined the research with his wife. And Marie was proven right: in 1898 the Marie and her husband discovered two new radioactive elements: radium (named after the Latin word for ray) and polonium (named after Marie's home country, Poland).

Radium: On 26^th December 1898, Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie announced that they had discovered the existence of a second element, which they named ‘Radium’ for its intense radioactivity.

Polonium: In July 1898 the Curie’s published a paper together saying they had discovered a new element, which they called ‘Polonium’ in honor of her birthplace Poland.

RADIOACTIVITY: Radioactivity is important today because it is used to kill cancerous tissue.

POLONIUM: Polonium is important today because it can provide thermoelectric power in space satellites.

RADIUM: Radium is very important today because it is used in cancer treatment, medicines, preservatives in food and luminous pant.