Polonium and radium; radioactivity as an atomic property
Polonio y radio; la radiactividad como propiedad atómica
- Date
- 1898 · confidence high
- Place
- School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, Paris, France
- Credited to
- Marie Curie; Pierre Curie
- People
- 👤 Marie Curie1867–1934👤 Pierre Curie1859–1906
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Marie Curie demonstrates that radioactivity is a property of the atom, not of the molecule, and together with Pierre isolates two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium, by processing tonnes of pitchblende. She coins the term 'radioactivity'.
1903 Nobel Prize in Physics shared with Becquerel; 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Marie Curie for the isolation of radium.
What it led to
- Nuclear physics and radiochemistry
- Radiotherapy (curietherapy)
- Sources of radiation for Rutherford
- Artificial radioactivity (Joliot-Curie, 1934)
Built on
- Becquerel's radioactivity
- Pierre Curie's piezoelectric electrometer
Made possible
- Brachytherapy
- Radium luminescent paints
- Curium standard