For her groundbreaking research into radioactivity, the Polish scientist Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934) and her husband Pierre Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize in November 1903. Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1911. Marie was again honoured, this time independently, with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of polonium and radium. With this exceptional achievement, Skłodowska-Curie made history as the first woman, and moreover the first person, to receive this prestigious award twice. Do you know how her most important discovery - the element radium - came about?

The story of the discovery of radium

It was only after her marriage to Pierre Curie in 1895 that Marie Skłodowska-Curie was able to devote herself fully to research in radiochemistry. Thanks to her husband's intercession with the French physicist and chemist Henri Becquerel, she was given the opportunity to participate in radiation research, which allowed her to begin work on her doctorate. Based on Becquerel's discovery that uranium made the air a conductor of electricity, Skłodowska-Curie, together with her husband, developed an innovative method of chemical analysis that allowed the precise measurement of radioactivity. After initial research on several elements, on 17 February 1898 Marie began research on a new substance, uranite.

The research quickly showed that the radiation of this substance was much stronger than in pure uranium samples. The public announcement of this discovery made it possible to move the experiments to a larger scale - from a small laboratory to a nearby wooden shed that had previously served the university as a dissecting room. In the following years, almost 10 tonnes of uranite were tested. Working conditions were harsh, the space inadequately protected and protected from precipitation.

Plaque commemorating the discovery site

Today, there is a plaque at the site where the element with atomic number 88 was separated in July 1902. The site is located on the grounds of a physics and chemistry college that has been in operation since 1882 - the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris located in the Latin Quarter at 10 Vaquelin Street. A bronze rectangular plaque with a convex inscription proclaims:

"ICI SE TROUVAIT LE LABORATOIRE DANS LEQUEL PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE ONT DÉCOUVERT LE RADIUM 1898-1902" (Here was the laboratory where Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium between 1898 and 1902).

The name of the element comes from the Latin word "radius" - radius. The discovery of this element is also recalled by plaques on the fence of the school, which tell the story of the eminent scientists and highlight the importance of the discovery made by a former lecturer at this university.