The Story of Madame Curie and Radium

1. What's the story of Madame Curie and Radium?

1896, French physicist becquerel published a work report, which introduced in detail the uranium element he discovered through many experiments. Uranium and its compounds have a special ability, which can automatically and continuously emit an invisible ray, which is different from ordinary light and can make photographic negatives become sensitive through black paper. It is also different from Roentgen rays found in the absence of high vacuum.

Uranium and its compounds constantly emit rays and radiate energy outward. This aroused the great interest of Madame Curie. Where does this energy come from and what is the nature of this unusual ray? Madame Curie was determined to uncover its secret. From 65438 to 0897, Madame Curie chose her own research topic-the study of radioactive substances.

This research project has brought her into a new scientific world. She worked hard to open up a virgin land, and finally completed one of the most important discoveries in the history of modern science, and discovered the radioactive element radium, which laid the foundation of modern radiochemistry and made great contributions to mankind.

Radium is a highly radioactive element, located in the seventh period of the periodic table of chemical elements, IIA family, atomic number 88, element symbol Ra. Pure metal radium is almost colorless, but when it comes into contact with air, it will react with nitrogen to generate black radium nitride (Ra3N2).

All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, and the most stable isotope is radium -226, which has a half-life of about 1600 years and will decay into radon -222. When radium decays, it will produce ionizing radiation, which will make fluorescent substances glow. It is a new element discovered by Madame Curie, and the discovery of radium has made great contributions to science.

2. The story of Madame Curie and Radium

More than a century of beauty

1998 is the centenary of Madame Curie's discovery of radioactive element radium.

One hundred years ago,1898 65438+February 26th, the French Academy of Sciences was packed with people. A solemn and slightly tired young beauty stepped onto the platform, and the audience was suddenly silent. Her name is Marie Curie, and she and her husband pierre curie will announce an amazing discovery here today: natural radioactive element radium. Originally, she wanted her husband to make this report, but pierre curie insisted that she speak, because no woman had ever been on the podium of the French Academy of Sciences before. Marie Curie is wearing a long black dress, and her white and dignified face shows a firm and slightly indifferent expression, while her slightly sunken big eyes make you feel that you can see through everything and the future. Her report shocked the audience, physics entered a new era, and her beautiful and solemn image was fixed in history and everyone's heart.

Madame Curie was not the first person to discover radioactivity, but she was a key figure. Before her, 1896 65438+ 10, German scientist Roentgen discovered X-rays, which are artificial radioactivity; 1896 in may, French scientist becquerel discovered that uranium salt can make film sensitive, which is natural radioactivity. This is still an accidental discovery, but Madame Curie immediately raised a new question. Are other substances radioactive? Is there another brand-new field in the material world? Others found shells on the beach, but she wanted to study how shells were born, how long they were and how they washed up on the beach. Others touched her for vines, and others picked leaves and asked her for roots. She coined the word radioactivity. Two years later, she discovered polonium, then radium, and the tip of the iceberg was exposed. In order to extract pure radium, the Curies got a ton of industrial waste residue which may contain radium. They set up a pot in the yard, melted it one by one, and then sent it to the laboratory for dissolution and precipitation analysis. The so-called laboratory is an abandoned shed where autopsy bodies were once parked. Mary stirred the slag in the pot in the smoky fire all day, leaving acid and alkali burns on her skirt and hands. One day, Mary, who was extremely tired, rubbed her sore lower back and asked Pierre across a table full of test tubes and measuring cups, "What do you think this radium will look like?" Pierre said, "I just hope it has beautiful colors." After three years and nine months, they finally extracted 0. 1g radium from several tons of slag. It really has a very beautiful color, and it emits a slight blue fluorescence in the dark broken wooden shed. It also automatically releases heat, and the heat released in one hour will melt the same weight of ice.

This beautiful pale blue fluorescence in the old wooden shed was bought with the life and belief of a beautiful woman. It seems that this great discovery that opens a new era of science should not fall on a woman. For thousands of years, beauty has always been a woman's highest honor and biggest capital. As long as you are lucky enough to get this, don't ask the rest. Mo Bosang said in his masterpiece "The Necklace": "Women have no social class and no racial differences; Their beauty, elegance and charm are the symbols of their life experience and family. " Madame Curie belongs to that kind of beauty. Her portrait is now hung in scientific research and teaching institutions all over the world, and we can still see her once elegant demeanor. But she just didn't use this capital, and it was from this point that she conquered herself. When she was a primary school student, she showed God's love for her, and her beautiful appearance was enough to please everyone around her. But there is something more precious in her character, that is, the backbone that people often add to men. She is firm and courageous, with lofty and persistent pursuit. In order not to be disturbed by beauty, she deliberately cut her blonde hair very short. She said to her brother, "There is no doubt that everyone in our family has talent, and this talent must be shown by one of us!" " After graduating from high school, she worked as a governess in the city and the countryside for seven years, saved a little tuition and came to Paris to study. At that time, there were few female students in universities. This beautiful exotic woman with high forehead, blue eyes and slender figure quickly became the center of discussion. In order to see her better, or to get together and say a few words, male students often crowded in the corridor outside the classroom, and her girlfriend even had to drive away these admirers with an umbrella handle. But she dismissed the excitement. She arrives first every day and sits in the front row, giving those searching eyes a ruthless back of the head. She is always wrapped in a layer of frosty armor, which makes those "groupies" afraid to approach. She used to live at her sister's house. In order to be quiet, she rented a small attic, ate only one meal a day and studied hard day and night. It was too cold to sleep at night, so I pulled a chair on my body to get a little warmth. This kind of undivided enterprising spirit is hard for even ordinary men to achieve. Song Yu said that a beautiful woman looked at him on the wall for three years without being tempted; Fan Zhongyan studied in a ruined temple before entering Jinshi. He cooked a bowl of porridge in the morning, cooled it and divided it into four portions, which is the daily ration. On the other side of the world in France, a Polish woman is so calm, so persistent, so able to endure the biting cold. At the tender age of 25, she is indifferent to the tide of suitors. As long as she loosens her hand a little and turns her head back, she will fall back into the soft embrace and praise bubble, but she is ambitious and ambitious, and she knows that only the flower of discovery and creation can be invincible. So she is willing to let acid and alkali gnaw at her soft hands and let the choking smoke wrinkle her beautiful forehead.

Marie Curie could have lived in another way. She can live a relaxed and happy life in admiration and praise, while being young and beautiful, just like a modern girl eating a youthful meal. But she didn't. She knows her deeper value and farther goal. The idiom "a little taste" refers to people's understanding of the outside world, but I don't know how many people often have a little taste for themselves. A few years ago, a mother told me that her daughter's grades had dropped. Why? Answer: "I know I love beauty, and I always use a pencil rod as her curling iron in class." Beauty is an addition to man, just as meter is an addition to poetry. Rhyme is difficult to write, but beauty is difficult. If it is done well, it will be earth-shattering, and if it is not done well, it will wither and wither. Marie Curie let women all over the world know that they have more important things besides "life experience" and "family background".

1852, Mrs. Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, which led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Lincoln said that it was a little woman who triggered the revolution to liberate slaves. Madame Basto discovered radium about 50 years later. It was a little woman who triggered a revolution, a scientific revolution. It directly led to Lu Se's exploration of atomic structure, the explosion of the atomic bomb and the arrival of the atomic age. More importantly, the philosophical significance of this discovery. Philosophers say that things are always changing; Western philosophers say that people can't step into the same river twice; In A.D. 1082, Su Dongpo, an oriental philosopher, looked at the moon at Chibi and sighed, "Gai must look at it from its own changes, so heaven and earth cannot flash;" From its constant point of view, things are infinite. " Now, Madame Curie has proved that radium is such a substance that it can't exist in an instant. It can continuously emit light, heat and radiation, burn people's skin, penetrate black paper to make the film sensitive and make the air conductive. In an instant, it is itself, but it is not itself. Philosophy permeates the pores of every atom. Marie Curie almost completed this great natural discovery and discovered the meaning of life. She is also constantly changing. When the work is fruitful, the laser line is silently eroding her body. Her beautiful and healthy face is fading away, and she gradually becomes dizzy and tinnitus, and her face is pale and weak. Unfortunately, Boolean died young, and social discrimination against women added to her heavy burden in life and thought. But she doesn't care about anything, just works silently. She changed from a beautiful little girl, a dignified and determined female scholar, to a new term "radiation" in science textbooks, to a new unit of measurement in physics, to a series of scientific theorems, and she became an eternal milestone in the history of science. "Never change to see", she gets eternity. "I hate that spring is nowhere to be found and I don't know where to turn in." Just like the substitution reaction of chemistry, her youth and beauty were transferred into science textbooks and into the history of human culture.

Madame Curie's fame spread all over the world from the moment she discovered radium, and it has been one hundred years now. This is the honor she bought with all her youth, faith and life. She won 10 awards, 16 medals and 107 honorary titles, especially two Nobel Prizes. She could have enjoyed any prize or honor, but she treated fame and fortune like dirt. She gave prizes for scientific research and war to France, and gave those medals as toys to her 6-year-old daughter. She is not tired of the beauty given by God, how can she bear the reputation given by the world? According to who is short and who is long, the man changed his name to intensive learning. As always, she buried herself in her work and left her beloved laboratory at the age of 67. Until 40 years after her death, there were still rays in her used notebook. Einstein said: "among all the world celebrities, Marie Curie is the only one who has not been spoiled by fame." She is practical and realistic, detached and free from vulgarity, and knows her own goals and values. It is difficult for ordinary people to know these two points, eliminate interference and remain unchanged for life, but Madame Curie did. She made us understand that people have multiple values and need multi-layer development. Some people stop at the form and sell their appearance; Some people stop at courage and show their strength; Some people stop at their hearts and have their own skills; Some people seek reason and use their wisdom. Zhuge Liang fought all his life and swallowed Cao Wu, but he didn't wear armor or a blade. * * * command the army and the people, in the war with new China, but never according to rank, don't back a gun. Great voices are heard, the road is invisible, and people with great wisdom are not obsessed with shape, strength and technique. They live calmly, think quietly, make persistent progress, go straight to the highland of wisdom, control the law freely, and always maintain a rational beauty.

Madame Curie is such a great man standing on the highland of wisdom.

3. What happened when Madame Curie refined radium?

Maria Skoro Dovskaya, a famous Madame Curie, is known as "the mother of radium". She was born on10.7 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, under the rule of Russian czar invaders. Her father is a physics professor at Warsaw University, which made her interested in scientific experiments since she was a child.

189 1 year, she went to Paris for further study and obtained two master's degrees. After finishing her studies, she intends to return to her motherland to serve the enslaved Polish people. However, she and the young French physicist Pierre? Curie's acquaintance changed her plan. 1895, she married Pierre. 1897, she gave birth to a daughter, a future Nobel Prize winner.

Madame Curie noticed the research work of French physicist becquerel. Since Roentgen discovered X-ray, becquerel discovered another kind of "uranium ray" when he was checking a rare mineral "uranium salt", which his friends called Becquerel ray.

The ray discovered by Bekkerel aroused great interest of Madame Curie. Where does the energy of radiation come from? Madame Curie saw that no one in all laboratories in Europe had studied uranium rays in depth at that time, so she decided to enter this field.

At Pierre's repeated requests, the headmaster of the physics and chemistry school allowed Madame Curie to use a damp hut for physics and chemistry experiments. At the room temperature of 6 degrees Celsius, she devoted herself to the study of uranium salts.

Madame Curie received a strict advanced chemistry education. When studying uranium salt ore, she thinks there is no reason to prove that uranium is the only chemical element that can emit radiation. She determined the elements one by one according to Mendeleev's periodic law of elements. As a result, she soon discovered that another thorium compound can automatically emit rays, which are similar to uranium rays and have similar intensity. Madame Curie realized that this phenomenon is not just the characteristics of uranium, and it must be given a new name. Madame Curie called it "radioactivity", and uranium, thorium and other substances with this special "radioactivity" function were called "radioactive elements".

One day, Madame Curie thought, are minerals radioactive? With Pierre's help, she identified all the minerals that could be collected in a few days. She found that pitchblende was much more radioactive than expected.

After careful study, Madame Curie had to admit that the contents of uranium and thorium in these pitchblende can never explain the radioactivity she observed.

Where did this unusually high radioactivity come from? There is only one explanation: these bituminous minerals contain a small amount of new elements that are more radioactive than uranium and thorium. Madame Curie has checked all the known elements in her previous experiments. Madame Curie concluded that this is a new element that humans have not yet known, and she wants to find it!

Madame Curie's discovery caught Pierre's attention, and the Curies marched into the unknown elements together. In the damp studio, through the joint efforts of the Curie couple, in July 1898, they announced the discovery of this new element, which is 400 times more radioactive than pure uranium. To commemorate Madame Curie's motherland-Poland, the new element was named polonium (meaning Poland).

1898 to 65438+February, the Curies announced the discovery of a second radioactive element, which is more radioactive than polonium. They named this new element "Radium". However, at that time, no one could confirm their discovery, because according to the tradition of chemistry, when a scientist announces the discovery of a new element, he must get the physical object and accurately determine its atomic weight. However, in Madame Curie's report, there are no atomic weights of needles and radium, and there are no samples of radium at hand.

The Curies decided to prove it with real objects. At that time, pitchblende containing polonium and radium was a very expensive mineral, mainly produced in the San Joachimstahl mine in Bohemia. People refine this mineral and extract uranium salts to make colored glass. For the poor Curie couple, how can they afford the necessary expenses for this job? Their wisdom constitutes financial resources. They predict that after uranium is extracted, new radioactive elements contained in minerals will definitely still exist, so they can be found in mineral residues after uranium salt extraction. After many twists and turns, Austria decided to send a ton of slag to the Curie couple, and promised that if they needed a lot of slag in the future, they could supply it on the most favorable terms.

The laboratory conditions of the Curies are extremely poor. In summer, because the ceiling is glass, it is sunburned like an oven. In winter, people are freezing with cold. The Curies overcame unimaginable difficulties and tried to extract radium. Madame Curie immediately threw herself into the extraction experiment. She melted more than 20 kilograms of waste residue in a smelting pot, stirred the boiling substance with a thick iron bar for several hours, and then extracted only one millionth of trace substances from it.

They work from 1898 to 1902. After tens of thousands of refining, they treated dozens of tons of slag and finally got 0. 1 g radium salt, and its atomic weight was determined to be 225.

Radium was born!

The Curie couple confirmed the existence of radium, which made the whole world pay attention to the radioactive phenomenon. The discovery of radium triggered a real revolution in the scientific community.

Madame Curie finished her doctoral thesis entitled (Research on Radioactive Substances). 1903, Madame Curie received a doctorate in physics from the University of Paris. In the same year, the Curies and becquerel won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

4. The story of Madame Curie refining radium

After Becker's pioneering observation and research on the radioactivity of uranium, he found that uranium rays, like X rays, can make air and other gases conduct electricity, and thorium compounds were also found to have similar properties.

Starting from 1896, Madame Curie and her husband made a systematic discovery, looking for this effect in various elements and their compounds and natural objects.

She determined the elements one by one according to Mendeleev's periodic law of elements. As a result, she soon discovered another thorium compound, which also automatically emits rays, similar to uranium rays and close in intensity.

Madame Curie realized that this phenomenon is not just the characteristics of uranium, and it must be given a new name. Madame Curie named it "radioactive", and uranium, thorium and other substances with this special "radiation" function are called "radioactive elements".

In the measurement, she made another dramatic discovery. In a kind of pitchblende from Bohemia, she found that its radioactive intensity was many times greater than originally thought.

1898 65438+In February, the Curies announced that they had discovered a second radioactive element, which was more radioactive than polonium, and they named it "radium".

(4) Extended reading of the story of Madame Curie and Radium.

Pure metal radium is almost colorless, but when it comes into contact with air, it will react with nitrogen to generate black radium nitride (Ra3N2).

The discovery of radium triggered a real revolution in the scientific community. 1903, the curies both won the nobel prize in physics. Madame Curie's great success is by no means easy. It embodies the sweat and tears of the Curie couple, which is the crystallization of their painstaking efforts.

5. The story of Madame Curie's arduous discovery of radium.

Thank you for inviting me.

Madame Curie's notebook is still radioactive. How did she discover radium?

1896, physicist becquerel published a work report, detailing the uranium element he discovered through many experiments. Uranium and its compounds have a special ability. Uranium and its compounds constantly emit rays and radiate energy outward.

6. The story of Madame Curie and Radium, fifty words.

Madame Curie was poor for most of her life, and the arduous process of extracting radium was completed under harsh conditions. Madame Curie refused to patent any of his inventions and used the Nobel Prize and its prize money for future research.

After the Curie couple discovered radium, when a glittering gold medal worth millions of francs smiled at her; When success, honor and congratulations flood in, it shows that they have noble qualities: no boasting, modesty and selflessness! A newspaper reporter came to interview her and wanted to report her story.

She replied firmly: "What matters in science is what has been studied, not the individual of the researcher." Several friends suggested that they apply for a patent right to produce radium. Marie Curie made this decision on behalf of her husband: "This should not be done. This is against the scientific spirit. We should not take advantage of this to make a profit. "

They used this great discovery widely in industry and medicine without seeking any personal gain.

(6) Extended reading of the story of Madame Curie and Radium:

Marie Curie (1867165438+1October 7th-1July 4th, 934), born in Warsaw, is called "Madame Curie" and her full name is Marie Sklodowska Curie (Maria Sk? Odowska Curie), a famous Polish scientist, physicist and chemist in France.

Madame Curie's achievements include initiating the theory of radioactivity, inventing the technology of separating radioactive isotopes, and discovering two new elements: polonium and radium. Under her guidance, people used radioisotopes to treat cancer for the first time. Due to long-term exposure to radioactive substances, Madame Curie died of malignant leukemia on July 3, 1934.

reference data

Network-Madame Curie

7. The whole story of Madame Curie and Radium

(7) Extended Reading of the Story of Madame Curie and Radium Marie Curie (1867165438+10/7/934), born in Warsaw, was called "Madame Curie" and her full name was Marie. Odowska Curie), a famous Polish scientist, physicist and chemist in France.

8. Who has the complete story of Madame Curie's discovery of radium?

1896, becquerel, a French and China physicist, published a work report, detailing the uranium element he discovered through many experiments. Uranium and its compounds have a special ability. Uranium and its compounds constantly emit rays and radiate energy outward.

This aroused the great interest of Madame Curie. Where does this energy come from and what is the nature of this unusual ray? Madame Curie was determined to uncover its secret.

1In July, 898, the Curies proposed to the Academy of Sciences "On a new radioactive substance in pitchblende", indicating that a new radioactive element No.84 was found, which was 400 times stronger than uranium and similar to bismuth. Madame Curie suggested naming this new element polonium after her native Poland. Since then, the Curies have worked closely together to establish the earliest radiochemistry working method.

1902, after three years and nine months of refining, the curies separated a trace (one gram) of radium chloride RaCl2 from several tons of residue, and the atomic weight of radium was 225. The exact number was 226.

Curie and his wife finally completed one of the most important discoveries in the history of modern science, and discovered the radioactive element radium, which laid the foundation of modern radiochemistry and made great contributions to mankind.

(8) Extended reading of the story of Madame Curie and radium Marie Curie, born in Warsaw, is called "Madame Curie" and her full name is Marie Sklodowska Curie (Maria Sk? Odowska Curie), a famous Polish scientist, physicist and chemist in France.

In the experimental research, Madame Curie designed a measuring instrument, which can not only measure whether a substance has radiation, but also measure the intensity of radiation. After repeated experiments, she found that the intensity of uranium rays is directly proportional to the uranium content in the material, but has nothing to do with the existing state of uranium and external conditions.

Madame Curie made a comprehensive investigation of known chemical elements and all compounds, and made an important discovery: an element called thorium can automatically emit invisible rays, which shows that the phenomenon that an element can emit rays is not only the characteristics of uranium, but also the same characteristics of some elements. She called this phenomenon radioactivity, and called elements with this property radioactive elements. The radiation they emit is called "radiation".

At the end of 1902, Madame Curie extracted one tenth of extremely pure radium chloride and accurately determined its atomic weight. Since then, the existence of radium has been confirmed.

Radium is a natural radioactive substance, which is extremely difficult to obtain. Its shape is shiny white crystal like fine salt. Radium has a slight blue fluorescence, and it is this beautiful light blue fluorescence that blends into a woman's beautiful life and unyielding faith. In spectral analysis, it is different from the spectral line of any known element.

Radium is not the first radioactive element discovered by human beings, but it is the most radioactive element.

9. The story of Madame Curie and Radium

(9) Extended Reading of the Story of Madame Curie and Radium Marie Curie (1867165438+10/7/934), born in Warsaw, was called "Madame Curie" and her full name was Marie. Odowska Curie), a famous Polish scientist, physicist and chemist in France.

1903 Mr. and Mrs. Curie and becquerel won the Nobel Prize in physics for their research on radioactivity.191kloc-0/won the Nobel Prize in chemistry again in, becoming the first person in the world to win the Nobel Prize twice. Madame Curie's achievements include initiating the theory of radioactivity, inventing the technology of separating radioactive isotopes, and discovering two new elements: polonium and radium.

Under her guidance, people used radioisotopes to treat cancer for the first time. Due to long-term exposure to radioactive substances, Madame Curie died of malignant leukemia on July 3, 1934.