Radioactive Substances Book

"For the price of a movie ticket and a handful of popcorn, a reader can have a copy of Dr. Marie Curie's 1904 doctoral dissertation (English translation). This is not a typical dissertation, of course. For this research, she, her husband, and Henri Becquerel (her mentor) shared the Nobel prize in Physics in 1903 ... recommended for the historical significance, the interesting presentation of the results, and example of outstanding research under challenging conditions."--Florida Scientist, No. 1 2003 This volume reproduces the celebrated scientist's doctoral thesis, in which she proved beyond all doubt that radium is a chemical element. This work served as the prelude to Marie Curie's receipt of the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics, which she shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, and her mentor, Henri Becquerel. Here, Curie describes her methods of investigation and their results: establishing the atomic character of the radioactivity found in the compounds of uranium and thorium; the extraction from pitchblende of polonium and radium; the isolation of pure radium chloride; and the determination of the accurate atomic weight of radium. She also discusses her experimentation with the electric, photographic, luminous, heat, and color effects of radioactivity.Read More