Born in 1864 Marie Curie, one of the great pioneering
scientists, remains the only person to win Nobel prizes in both Physics and
Chemistry. She initiated the theory of radioactivity and discovered two new
elements. With her husband Pierre, also a Nobel Prize laureate, they designed
techniques to analyse radioactive uranium minerals that she suspected contained
new elements, discovering Radium and Polonium. Their equipment included an
ionisation chamber to convert the mineral's radiation to electric charge and an
electrometer to measure the tiny currents generated. Isolation of the first
element, Radium, took many years of chemical processing. Following their
discoveries Marie went on to demonstrate the benefits of radiotherapy to treat
cancer. During WW1 she personally deployed field X-Ray machines and later
founded the Curie Institutes for medical research in Paris and Warsaw. However,
the dangers of radiation exposure were not known, she kept a jar of luminous
Radium by her bedside as a nightlight and radioactive samples in her pocket.
She died at the age of 66 from a rare form of anaemia it is believed resulted
from overexposure to X-Rays from her life saving war work. It took until the
1980's to decontaminate her laboratory sufficiently to open it as a museum!
Did you know that you may have a device based on Marie
Curie's research equipment in your house? It is the ionising Smoke Detector.
Smoke particles, which are electrically charged, entering the detectors'
ionisation chamber will trigger the alarm.
The pioneering work of Marie Curie and her husband Pierre
continue to have a profound affect on our world today, particularly in medical
research and treatment of cancer. You may also recognise the daffodil emblem
for the Marie Curie appeal for cancer care.
- John Faulkner
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