Introduction
Why we are choosing this topic:
When radium was first found by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, it soon became an additive to every product and was considered as a health product which could be sold at a higher price back in the 20th century. radium chocolate had even been announced that it could make people younger. Yet, such products were soon prohibited. How did its discoverer die? Why were those products prohibited? Are there any stories in history related to the Age of Machines? All of these are the reasons and motivations for us to investigate this topic.
Introduction to Marie Curie:
Marie Curie was born on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She later moved to France. She studied at the University of Paris for physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Then, she became the first female professor at her alma mater and also the first woman who won two Nobel prizes (Physics Nobel Prize which she shared with her husband Pierre Curie and a physicist Henri Becquerel in 1903; Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1911. She contributed a lot to the development of radioactivity, and also the discovery of two new elements (polonium and radium), which radium nowadays are widely used for treating cancer.
Pierre Curie was born on 15 May 1859. He was educated by his father, who was a doctor. He worked as a laboratory instructor later when he grew up. In 1880, Pierre and his older brother Jacques demonstrated an electric potential was generated when crystals were compressed. Most of the digital electronic circuits nowadays rely on this. Pierre later met Marie and they got married, discovering polonium and radium.
Introduction to Radium:
Pierre and Marie Curie’s greatest discovery is undoubtedly radium. They discovered it at the year 1898. Radium’s name came from the Latin word ‘radius’, which means radioactive. It is an extremely radioactive metal and is even more dangerous than uranium. By breathing, ingestion or overexposure, radium will cause cancer and death to living beings. Even Marie Curie herself died of radium. However, this property has been used to treat cancer as it gives out gamma rays continuously.
Pic. 3.1 ~ Powdered radium.
Radium is the sixth element of group 2 in the periodic table, atomic number 88 and symbol ‘Ra’. Pure radium is silvery-white colored. It forms radium nitride when reacted with nitrogen. Radium has four natural isotopes. Radium-226 is the most common one. The isotopes are produced through decaying uranium or thorium, and then slowly decays into lead. Note that Radium is extremely radioactive as mentioned and carcinogenic. Radium is the heaviest element among the alkaline earth metals.
Pic. 3.2 ~ Decay chain of thorium.
In nature, radium is mostly found in uranium ores. Radium is extremely rare that about 7 tons of uranium ore produce 1 gram of radium. This explains why radium was so rare and not discovered until the 19th century when technology was more advanced.
Pic. 3.3 ~ Uranium ore.
Discovery of Radium
Marie Curie and Pierre Curie first made a device to test the radioactivity of different metals. They found natural uranium ore more radioactive than pure uranium. Thus, they suggested that there was an extremely radioactive chemical inside natural ores other than radium.
Pic. 4.1 ~ Simple photo demonstrating their suggestion.
The two of them continued their experiment on natural uranium ore. In 1898, they announced there were 2 extremely radioactive chemicals in natural uranium ore instead of 1. They believed one of them were the most radioactive chemical of that time, and had similar properties to barium (atomic number 56). One has been already extracted from chemical processes and being named polonium. They had strong evidence that there was another element other than polonium, but they had to find out its properties so they could further prove it was a new element. Months later, Andre Debierne joined the couple and successfully isolated a third radioactive element other than the original 2, naming it ‘actinium’.
Pic. 4.2 and Pic.4 .3 ~ Polonium and actinium respectively
No progress was made until 4 years later. Marie Curie continuously treated uranium ores. 7 tons of uranium ore were processed by her and finally, a pure radium chloride weighing 0.1 gram was made. By that, she could finally determine there was a new element ~ radium.
Main Body
Key to her success:
Marie Curie was so successful because of the classical reason- perseverance. She was born in a poor family. Her father couldn’t support her sister and her to study. However, she didn’t give up studying because of this. She became a governess and read when she had a pastime in order to fulfill her thirst for knowledge. At that time, female was not allowed to receive higher education, not to mention her economic condition. When her sister invited her to visit the University of Paris, she instantly fell in love with science after her first glimpse. Yet, she did not have enough money to move to France. She did not give up her dream and worked harder and harder to save more money for it. This shows her perseverance.
Pic. 5.1 ~ Marie Curie doing her experiments.
Pic. 5.2 ~ “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the ONLY one whom fame has not corrupted.” – Albert Einstein.
Marie Curie could not have discovered radium on her own. She sought help from her husband, Pierre Curie. The two worked together for days and nights and finally discovered radium. Actually, we cannot neglect Pierre’s effort to it. Also, Andre Debierne joined the couples and helped them a lot in their discovery. He even found a new element that Marie Curie did not have expected. Help from others is also one important ‘ingredient’ to discovering radium.
How radium changed the world
Radium is an extremely radioactive chemical as mentioned, which gives out a continuous light. Mixed with other chemicals, radium was first used as a luminous paint. However, workers often died because of overexposure to radium, while some suffered from strange diseases. Radium Girls are a significant example of radium’s negative impacts. Because of this, this practice ended.
Pic. 6.1 ~ Illuminating paint on a clock face
Nowadays, radium is rarely used and only used to treat certain types of cancer. The needle shown below is used to treat some of the cancers. One specialty of radium is that it is treated as calcium in the body. So when radium enters bones, it can damage mutating bone cells, curing bone cancer.
Pic. 6.2 ~ How radium cures bone cancer. (Xofigo contains radium 223.)
How does radium affect our life
Discovered by Marie Curie, radium has caused great impact on the whole society. Radium was used for the illuminating part on clock faces. Yet, female workers that brush illuminating paint on clock faces were completely unprotected, while male workers wore protective armour. The death of Marie Curie was caused by overexposure to radium, thus reminded the society the danger of radioactive substances. Therefore, some female workers suffered from disease due to radiation, and thus Radium Girls (girls who overexposed to radium at the factory) appeared.
Pic. 7.1 ~ Protective armour back in the 20th century.
Those Radium Girl went on trial for compensation as they were not well-protected. This raised the society’s attention to female power, as well as the importance of protection against radiation. Finally, the trail was settled by giving every Radium Girls $10,000 and all medical and legal expenses would be paid by the company. This marked the milestone of the rise of labour rights and female power back in industrial revolution which also paved the way for the fight for rights nowadays.
Conclusion
What we can learn from Marie Curie
Marie Curie was never satisfied with any fame or achievement. She was not satisfied when she earned her first Nobel Prize and stopping her scientific investigations. Instead, she kept on working, and finally, another Nobel Prize for her.
Marie Curie did not enjoy her own fame and fortune with her husband. She donated all her prizes to encourage female education and her research centre for further investigation.
Pic. 8.1 ~ Perseverance.
Marie Curie is also extremely perseverant, as mentioned above. Her story encouraged us not to give up easily, and then our efforts will pay off. Even though Marie Curie did not enjoy a long life, her story is well remembered and will always be one of our motivations to success, as what she did in the past.
Pic. 8.2 ~ “Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it”
Never just sit there and envy others’ success, be the change that you want to see.
Reference list
1. https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele088.html
Basic information of radium.
2. https://eic.rsc.org/feature/radium-a-key-element-in-early-cancer-treatment/2020217.article
How to treat cancer with radium.
3. https://www.elsevier.com/books/alkaline-earth-metal-halates/miyamoto/978-0-08-029212-0
Basic chemistry knowledge of the alkaline-earth metals (including radium)
4. http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783642362699
Book on alkaline-earth metal compounds (including radium).