"Pierre and I are very interested in this newly discovered ray and are determined to study its properties. If you want to study this new ray, you must first measure it accurately and quantitatively. So I used the characteristics of electroscope discharge to measure, but I didn't use a general electroscope like Bekkerel, but used a device that can measure quantitatively. "
"Soon, we got interesting results. ..... This kind of radiation is actually one of the atomic characteristics of uranium, which has nothing to do with the physical and chemical properties of uranium salts. Any uranium salt, as long as it contains more uranium, will emit more radiation. "
"So I want to know more about whether there are other elements that can emit the same rays like uranium salts? I soon discovered that thorium has the same characteristics. Just as I was preparing to do further research on the radioactivity of uranium and thorium, I found a new and interesting situation. " This is different from the text. Madame Curie studied the radioactivity of other elements.
She examined the ore by radioactive method. And "if these minerals can produce the same rays, it can be determined that they contain uranium or thorium. If the radioactive intensity of these ores is directly proportional to the composition of uranium or thorium contained in the ores, it is not surprising, but actually it is quite different. Some ores are three to four times more radioactive than uranium. "
"I have carefully analyzed this phenomenon, and there is only one explanation: there is an unknown element in this ore, which is far more radioactive than uranium and thorium. Pierre agrees with my analysis, so I hope to find this unknown element as soon as possible. " You can clearly see from here that they are about to discover this unknown element.
"At first, I didn't expect this ore to contain a lot of new elements, because it has been repeatedly studied and analyzed. My preliminary estimate is that the content of new elements in this ore does not exceed one million. With the deepening of research, we found that my estimate is still too high, and the real content is far less than 1 million. This further shows that this new element is extremely radioactive.
If I knew from the beginning that this content was very little, I really don't know if I have the determination and courage to stick to it, because we have poor equipment and insufficient funds. In retrospect, I didn't know it would be so difficult, so I made up my mind.
After the real work, although difficulties were found, the research results kept emerging, so the motivation increased greatly, and those difficulties were not thought about. After several years of hard work, we finally isolated this new element, which is known as radium today. "
Extended data:
Radium can be used to treat cancer and has high commercial value. It is suggested that the Curies apply for a patent right, which will bring them great wealth. Madame Curie believes that it is against the scientific spirit to make profits from scientific inventions. She later said: "Radium is an element that belongs to all the people, and no one can make a fortune with it."
19 10, Madame Curie refined pure radium, and initially determined that its atomic weight was 235. 19 1 1 year, Madame Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry alone (her husband Curie died in a car accident on 1906).
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Marie Curie