Discovery of Radium
Casa – Oh no!
What have you done?
Have you been playing with those radioactive
rocks again?
Asa – Radio-what?
I don't feel so good, what are those rocks?
Casa – Haven't you heard of radioactivity?
Marie Curie?
She coined the term to describe something
that emits radioactive particles!
Asa – Oh wow!
Did she also stumble upon it accidentally
like I just did?
Casa – Err..no.
She worked hard for it.
She in fact went onto become the only scientist
to have ever won not one but TWO Nobel Prizes
– one in Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in
1911!
Asa – Really?
Casa – Why don’t we go and find out how
it all started?
Casa – Marie, along with her husband Pierre
discovered that 'pitchblende' – a naturally
occurring mineral emitted a strong radiation
that she couldn’t explain.
Asa – Oh wow, what was it?
Casa – By July of the same year in 1898,
they discovered 'Polonium' – which they
extracted from 'pitchblende'.
Asa – Did Polonium cause the radioactivity?
Casa – No!
In December they announced they'd discover
one more element – 'Radium', which was highly
radioactive!
Here you can see Marie and her fellow scientist
Andre – Louis Debierne working on isolating
radium in its metallic state from Radium Chloride.
Asa – So you mean, the Radium that glows
in the dark in my bedroom was discovered by
her?
Casa – You can say that.
Asa – Wow!
What a cool lady!
