Marie Curie: Radium & Polonium

Marie Curie

In December of 1895, Marie joined two physicists in researching the rays that were given off in X-rays. She continued the research by studying various chemical compounds that contained uranium. She discovered that if there was a certain amount of uranium used (or compounds containing a certain amount of uranium atoms), you would get a certain intensity of the radiation. Nothing else would make a difference. She worked on the rays using an electrometer her husband created years earlier.

Marie Curie: Radium & Polonium

Date of Birth:

Date of Death:

November 7, 1867

Place of Birth:

July 4, 1934

Official Name:

Warsaw, Poland

Biography:

Maria Sklodowska

Maria spent much of her study time in Paris, France. She discovered radium and polonium from intensive research, along with her husband Pierre Curie.

Marie and other scientists found this behavior to be strange and unique. Depending on how you would treat a substance, there should be a change in properties, colors, smell, or hardness. Marie suspected that there was something happening to the uranium atoms that was giving the rise to the rays. She also discovered that it was not only uranium that this was occurring. After trying out different chemical compounds, she discovered that there were compounds that contained and uncommon element, thorium. It gave of rays, just like uranium. To describe the behavior of these two elements, she made up the term "radioactivity".

As Marie was studying the mineral pitchblende, which was rich in uranium, she found that it was giving off too much radiation than it was supposed to. It didn't contain any thorium, either. She then realized that there was an unknown element that was causing all of this excessive radiation. After much intensive research, Marie and her husband found that there were not one, but two elements! She named one "polonium", after her native homeland and the other "radium", Latin for ray.

Radium

Symbol:

Ra

Atomic Mass:

(226)

Polonium

Uses:

Atomic Number:

Polonium is a rare and highly radioactive element, just like radium. Polonium has no stable isotopes.

88

Polonium is present in tobacco smoke as early as the 1960s.

Polonium is found in humans and also in seafood.

Electron Configuration:

2-8-18-32-12-8-2

Group/Period:

Group 2, Period 7

Radium

Polonium

Uses:

Symbol:

Po

Atomic Mass:

(209)

Radium opens new doors to tr. eatment for cancer and other illnessess. Radium is used for medical purposes, various experiments on atoms, and is even used for glow-in-the-dark items.

Atomic Number:

84

Electron Configuration:

Doctors from hospitals would insert tubes containing radon that comes from minerals containing radium, and inserts the tubes into the spots of the patients where the radiation would kill/destroy the diseased tissue.

2-8-18-32-18-6

** A gram of radium could fuel thousands of experiments, as well as expensive equipment and cash for the Radium Institute that Marie Curie founded in hinor of her husband. **

Works Cited

Information:

"Radium." WebElements Periodic Table of the Elements. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.webelements.com/radium/>.

"Marie Curie: Her Story in Brief." Marie Curie: Her Story in Brief. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. <http://www.aip.org/history/curie/brief/index.html>.

Background:

Mihir Raut