In such elements, the ratio between the number of protons and neutrons is not energetically optimal, and the nucleus cannot be held together anymore. The radioactive materials, as those studied by Marie Curie, are formed by heavy atoms with nuclei composed of a large number of protons and neutrons that tend to “decay” spontaneously. The story involves Cherenkov radiation – the same radiation used by the CTAO telescopes to study the high-energy gamma-ray Universe.īut let’s start with some scientific context. There is a lesser-known part of the story, documented in Marie’s laboratory notebooks and narrated by her daughter Eve in the book “Madame Curie. This is the part of the story we all know, and that made Marie Curie famous around the world. Fascinated by this new discovery, the Curies dedicated their life to studying radioactive elements and the origin of radioactivity, leading to a completely different comprehension of the atoms. At the end of the 19th century, Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium emitted a type of radioactivity similar to X-rays, but its true nature was unknown. Marie and her husband, Pierre Curie, were two of the pioneers in the study of radioactivity. Maria Salomea Skłodowska–Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, the only woman to do so twice and the only person to obtain it in two different scientific disciplines: physics and chemistry. When you think about women that strongly impacted the history of science, Marie Curie will most likely come to your mind. Credit: Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons).
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