Marie Curie was a Polish chemist and physicist who practiced in France. She became well known for her dedication, passion, and persistence for her work; however, her most well known accomplishments include being the first person to win a Nobel Prize in two sciences and helping to discover radioactivity. Curie acquired her qualification in chemistry at the Chemical Laboratory of the Museum of industry and Agriculture. In 1903, Curie won part of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1911 she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Marie Curie’s achievements are even more remarkable when one notes that all of them were accomplished in a time when women were not welcomed in the field of science. Curie was liked by her friends and her colleagues, for she …show more content…
Check the periodic table and you can see that two protons and two neutrons are the nucleus of a helium-4 atom. Alpha radiation is actually fast moving He4 nuclei. When alpha decay occurs, the atomic number is reduced by two because two protons are removed. The atomic mass is reduced by four because two neutrons go along with the two protons… Beta decay occurs when a neutron in the nucleus splits into a proton, an electron, and a third particle called a neutrino. The proton stays behind in the nucleus, but the high-energy electron is ejected from the nucleus and is the source of beta radiation. This fast electron is still called a beta particle because it is the source of the beta rays observed by Henri Becquerel in 1895. The neutrino is also ejected from the nucleus, but neutrinos are weakly-interacting particles and normally have very little effect on matter. During beta decay, the atomic number increases by one because one new proton is created. The atomic mass stays about the same because neutrons and protons have nearly identical mass. Gamma decay is how nucleus gets rid of excess energy Gamma decay is not truly a decay reaction in the sense that the nucleus becomes something different. In gamma decay, the nucleus emits a high-energy photon but the number of protons and neutrons stay the same. The nucleus decays from a state of high energy to a state of lower energy. Gamma ray photons are energetic enough …show more content…
Gamma rays are considered to be one of the most dangerous forms of radiation, seeing as they have the ability to break apart atoms in living and inanimate things. This poses a serious health hazard; therefore, you must have heavy shielding and vast protections against gamma rays in order to protect yourself. Marie’s coining of the term “radioactivity” and the discovery of the very same thing show that she was not a woman of one science; rather, she liked to dabble in many different fields. Marie Curie died in 1934 in Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France, of aplastic anemia. Her death was caused by a prolonged exposure to radiation. This cause of death is obviously not a surprise when you think of what she spent her life doing: researching radiation. She was known for carrying test tubes of different radioactive materials around with her, such as radium. Though she may be dead now, her legacy lives on as arguably the most famous female scientist of all time. She has received many honors even after her death, such as the relocation of her remains to the Pantheon in Paris. The Pantheon is considered the final resting place of France’s greatest minds. Marie was the first and only woman to ever be laid to rest there as of