What Becquerel had discovered was radioactivity. Contributions: Pierre and Marie were award the Noble Prize in Physics in for their work on radioactivity. Marie Curie became the first woman to be awarded the nobel prize and the first person to obtain two nobel prizes when she won the prize for the discovery of Polonium and Radium in Though it was Henri Becquerel that discovered radioactivity, it was Marie Curie who coined the term.
Using a device invented by her husband and his brother, that measured extremely low electrical currents, Curie was able to note that uranium electrified the air around it. Further investigation showed that the activity of uranium compounds depended upon the amount of uranium present and that radioactivity was not a result of the interactions between molecules, but rather came from the atom itself.
Using Pitchblende and chalcolite Curie found that Thorium was radioactive as well. She later discovered two new radioactive elements: Radium and Polonium which took her several years since these elements are difficult to extract and extremely rare.
Unfortunately, the Curies died young. Pierre Curie was killed in a street accident and Marie died of aplastic anemia, almost certainly a result of radiation exposure. Contributions: Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. With his gold foil experiment he was able to unlock the mysteries of the atomic structure.
He received the noble prize in chemistry in In at the University of Manchester, Rutherford was bombarding a piece of gold foil with Alpha particles. Rutherford noted that although most of the particles went straight through the foil, one in every eight thousand was deflected back. He concluded that though an atom consists of mostly empty space, most of its mass is concentrated in a very small positively charged region known as the nucleus, while electrons buzz around on the outside.
Rutherford was also able to observe that radioactive elements underwent a process of decay over time which varied from element to element. In , Rutherford used alpha particles to transmutate one element Oxygen into another element Nitrogen.
Papers at the timed called it "splitting the atom. We now have the essentials to utilize radioactive elements. Roentgen gave us x-rays, Becquerel discovered radioactivity, the Curies were able to discover which elements were radioactive, and Rutherford brought about transmutation and the "splitting of the atom. Time showed the damaging effects of radiation exposure and the incredible destruction that could be harnessed from these elements.
Radioactive isotopes are presently used in many aspects of human life today. Most people recognize radioactivity's contributions to industry, research and war, but it is even used within many peoples homes. In May he announced that the element uranium was indeed what was emitting the radiation. Becquerel initially believed his rays were similar to x-rays, but his further experiments showed that unlike x-rays, which are neutral, his rays could be deflected by electric or magnetic fields.
Many in the scientific community were still absorbed in following up on the recent discovery of x-rays, but in Marie and Pierre Curie in Paris began to study the strange uranium rays. They figured out how to measure the intensity of the radioactivity, and soon found other radioactive elements: polonium, thorium and radium.
Soon Ernest Rutherford separated the new rays into alpha, beta and gamma radiation, and in Rutherford and Frederick Soddy explained radioactivity as a spontaneous transmutation of elements. Becquerel and the Curies shared the Nobel Prize for their work on radioactivity. Somewhat less well known is the fact that forty years earlier, someone else had made the same accidental discovery. Abel Niepce de Saint Victor, a photographer, was experimenting with various chemicals, including uranium compounds.
Like Becquerel would later do, he exposed them to sunlight and placed them, along with pieces of photographic paper, in a dark drawer. Upon opening the drawer, he found that some of the chemicals, including uranium, exposed the photographic paper.
Niepce thought he had found some new sort of invisible radiation, and reported his findings to the French Academy of Science. She and her husband, Pierre, soon discovered two new radioactive elements, which she named polonium, after her native land of Poland, and radium, because it radiates. These two new elements filled holes in the periodic table and displayed much higher levels of radioactivity than uranium.
Over four years, working under poor conditions and spending their own funds, the Curies processed more than a ton of uranium ore to isolate a mere gram of radium salt. Radium became highly desirable because it was about two million times as radioactive as uranium. This radiation took its toll on them and other unaware researchers, though. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of two new elements, Curie remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry.
Marie suffered from radiation-induced lesions and died of leukemia, likely caused by radiation. She was active in research almost until her death in After years of schooling, Curie began her life and research in Paris. Curie received a commission to conduct research post graduation, and found lab space with Pierre Curie, a friend of a colleague.
He was also a professor at Sorbonne. The Curies were married two years later. At the start of their relationship, Pierre and Marie worked on separate project, but after the birth of their first child, Pierre began to conduct research with Marie on x-rays and uranium. Curie was studying uranium rays, when she made the claim the rays were not dependent on the uranium's form, but on its atomic structure. Her theory created a new field of study, atomic physics, and Marie herself coined the phrase "radioactivity.
Marie and Pierre spent time working with pitchblende. Pitchblende is a mineral that is the crystallized form of uranium oxide, and is about 70 percent uranium. Also used in in the discovery of uranium. Marie and Pierre discovered not only polonium, but also radium, through their work with pitchblende.
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