Marie Curie by Caitlin

In November of 1867, Maria Skłodowska, today more commonly known as Marie Curie, was born to a polish family in Warsaw. She grew up in a well educated home, where learning was highly valued. Throughout her life, Marie Curie made many great scientific discoveries that helped the advancement of the atomic theory. These include her discovery of polonium and her discovery of radium. These contributions altered history.

The discovery of polonium began with Marie Curie experimenting with pitchblende, a radioactive mineral. She noticed that unrefined pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium that she separated from it. She concluded that pitchblende contained at least one other radioactive element. Curie had to refine several tons of pitchblende to receive tiny amounts of polonium. One ton of uranium contains only 100 micrograms of polonium. She officially discovered this element in France in 1898.

Marie Curie’s next discovery was radium. She devised a way to separate radium from its radioactive residues. This made it possible for her to study the therapeutic properties of radium, which became one of her main interests. Marie Curie had to extract radium in the form of radium chloride, out of a substance called uraninite. Like she did with Polonium, she extracted uranium from this substance and found it was still radioactivity, so she continued researching until she found radium.

In summary, Marie Curie is one of the world’s greatest scientific minds. She helped with the development of the atomic theory by contributing to the idea of radioactivity, discovering polonium, and discovering radium. Among these great accomplishment, she also became the first woman to win Nobel prizes in two different subjects. She did these things through meticulous research and astounding perseverance.

Facts:

●     Her daughter also won a Nobel Prize.

●     First woman to win a Nobel Prize.

●     Curie name polonium after her home country, Poland.

Question:

●     What do you think the world would be like without Marie Curie’s work?