One of Marie's other great accomplishments was her discovery of the elements Radium and Polonium named after Marie's birth country. Marie won her nobel prize in chemistry for this. Unlike her first nobel prize, she was given all of the credit for these discoveries but claimed that her husband had helped her as well.
Marie discovered these elements when examining uranium ore.
She noted that the uranium ore was expelling more
radioactivity than there should have been for pure uranium.
This meant that there had to be at least one other
radioactive element present that was contributing to the
overall radioactivity
Radium
| Radium is element number 88, it is a
silvery white alkaline earth metal. Of the 33 known
isotopes of radium all are radioactive. It is now used
in things such as self luminous paint and some forms of
radium are used to treat cancer and other diseases. |
 |
Polonium
 |
Polonium is element number 84 on the
periodic table and is described as silvery and shiny.
Radium also has 33 known isotopes with all of them being
radioactive. Polonium releases a large amount of alpha
particle which is then used for various applications
such as measuring thicknesses of materials or converted
into energy because of the large amont of heat it gives
off. |