On this day - Marie Curie

Marie Curie was a Polish-born physicist and chemist and one of the most famous scientists of her time. Together with her husband Pierre, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903, and she went on to win another in 1911.

Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on 7 November 1867, the daughter of a teacher. In 1891, she went to Paris to study physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne where she met Pierre Curie, professor of the School of Physics. They were married in 1895.

She developed a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined) and techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes.  She also discovered two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today.

During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres.  After a quick study of radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics she procured X-ray equipment, vehicles, auxiliary generators, and developed mobile radiography units, which came to be popularly known as petites Curies ("Little Curies").  She became the director of the Red Cross Radiology Service and set up France's first military radiology centre, operational by late 1914.

Marie and her husband worked together investigating radioactivity, building on the work of the German physicist Roentgen and the French physicist Becquerel. In July 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of a new chemical element, polonium. At the end of the year, they announced the discovery of another, radium. The Curies, along with Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

Marie received a second Nobel Prize, for Chemistry, in 1911.

Curie died in 1934 due to aplastic anaemia brought on by exposure to radiation – including carrying test tubes of radium in her pockets during research (she also stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light that the substances gave off in the dark) and her World War I service in mobile X-ray units created by her.  She was exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment.

Marie and Pierre Curie experimenting with radium, a drawing by André Castaigne

Because of their levels of radioactivity, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.  Even her cookbook is highly radioactive.  Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.

For more information visit:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml
http://prlabpak.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/radium.html

 

Radium

Radium is a chemical element with symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in colour. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226, which has a half-life of 1601 years and decays into radon gas. Because of such instability, radium is luminescent, glowing a faint blue

Radium, in the form of radium chloride, was discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in 1898. They extracted the radium compound from uraninite and published the discovery at the French Academy of Sciences five days later. Radium was isolated in its metallic state by Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne through the electrolysis of radium chloride in 1910. Since its discovery, it has given names like radium A and radium C2 to several isotopes of other elements that are decay products of radium-226.

Radium is not very interesting to biologists because it is not necessary for life. It is, in fact, quite harmful to life due to its radioactivity and chemical reactivity. However, this did not stop a 30-year radium craze in the United States, where some people and manufacturers claimed radium to be a "wonder drug" and added it to all sorts of items, from toothpastes and suppositories to foods and even to drinking water, claiming it prevented or cured all sorts of ailments, ranging from arthritis and cancer to mental illness.  Yet at the same time that radium's health effects were being touted, it was also being added to pesticides and insecticides.

Radium is luminescent, glowing a lovely pale blue colour. This quality led to it being incorporated into a paint for watch and clock hands and dials in the United States, causing the deaths of many dial painters (all young women) who used their lips to give their paint brushes a fine point. These women, dubbed "Radium Girls", ended up suffering from a number of health problems such as anemia and cancer. Some Radium Girls ingested so much radium that their hair, hands, faces and arms glowed a luminous pale blue in the dark.

Radium covered watch hands under UV light

It wasn't as though there wasn't adequate warning of radium's dangers; its discoverer, Nobel-laureate Marie Curie, noted that a vial containing radium that she carried in her pocket caused an ulcer to appear on her skin. She later died of aplastic anaemia, most likely due to her years of exposure to radiation.