nPostednDecember 26, 2013
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Fornscientists, there is often a rush to publish findings before someonenelse does—a rush to announce a discovery, just in case someone elsenis working in the same area and about to discover the same thing!
Fornscientists, there is often a rush to publish findings before someonenelse does—a rush to announce a discovery, just in case someone elsenis working in the same area and about to discover the same thing!n
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nOnnthis date in 1898, Marie and Curie announced that (a mere five days earlier) they had isolatednfrom a complex mineral called pitchblende an “active” elementnthat they named radium.
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nWhatnI mean by “active” is that pitchblende gives off radiationnsimilar to X-rays. Two years earlier another scientist had discoverednthat uranium gives off such radiation, and uranium is definitelynpresent in pitchblende. But the radiation from pitchblende is fourntimes stronger than the radiation from uranium itself, Marie found,nso she was certain that another, much more active element could alsonbe found in the mineral.
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nWhatnI mean by “active” is that pitchblende gives off radiationnsimilar to X-rays. Two years earlier another scientist had discoverednthat uranium gives off such radiation, and uranium is definitelynpresent in pitchblende. But the radiation from pitchblende is fourntimes stronger than the radiation from uranium itself, Marie found,nso she was certain that another, much more active element could alsonbe found in the mineral.
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nAndnshe was right! But it took quite a bit of time and labor to prove itnand to isolate the tiny amounts of radium in the mineral. From a tonnof pitchblende, only one-tenth of a gram (around 2/10,000ths of anpound) of radium could be collected!
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| Pitchblende |
nLearnnmore about radioactivity here.
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nLearnnmore about radium here.
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nLearnnmore about Marie Curie here. I must mention here that Curie is the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in two different sciences (physics and chemistry)!
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nAlsonon this date:
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Anniversarynof the commissioning of a hospital ship
Anniversarynof the commissioning of a hospital ship
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nBoxingnDay
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nBoxingnDay
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nAnniversarynof the patent for the Frisbee
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nAnniversarynof the patent for the Frisbee
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nPlannahead:
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn holidays
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in January
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