Marie Curie

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d confidence. A conversation began between us and became friendly; its object was some questions of science upon
which I was happy to ask his opinion."
Although she was insistent from the very start that she would go back to Poland in half a year to assist her subjugated
country in whatever way she could, Pierre Curie was most intent to see her more and more often. The result was that she
returned to Paris in October 1894 after spending the summer months in Poland. The next summer witnessed their wedding
and the beginning of a most extraordinary partnership in scientific work. By mid-1897 Curie could list as her scientific
achievements two university degrees, a fellowship, and a monograph on the magnetization of tempered steel. Their first
daughter, lrene, had just been born, and it was in that euphoric atmosphere that the Curies' attention turned to the mysterious
radiation from uranium recently discovered by Antoine Henri Becquerel. It was Curie's hunch that the radiation was an
atomic property and therefore had to be present in some other elements as well. Her search soon established the fact of a
similar radiation from thorium, and she coined the historic word “radioactivity”.
While searching for other sources of radioactivity, the Curies had before long to turn their attention to pitchblende, a
mineral well known for its uranium content. To their immense surprise the radioactivity of pitchblende far exceeded the
combined radioactivity of the uranium and thorium contained in it. From their laboratory two papers reached the Academy of
Sciences within 6 months. The first, read at the meeting of July 18, 1898, announced the discovery of a new radioactive
element, which the Curies named polonium after Curie's native country. The other paper, announcing the discovery of
radium, was read at the December 26 meeting.
To substantiate the existence of the new elements and to establish their properties, the Curies had t...