marie curie CHEMIST AND PHYSICIST By Valerie Bodden Content Consultant Peter Soppelsa PhD Assistant Professor History of Science University of Oklahoma Essential Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com IN SCIENCE WOMEN
SEARCHING FOR TREASURE on on a cold day in early 1899 Marie Curie stood in the courtyard outside her run-down laboratory in Paris France The 31-year-old scientist watched workers unload sack after sack from a truck onto the ground Impatient with the pace of the work she walked over to one of the bags and opened it Then reaching into the sack with both hands she scooped out a handful of brown dust and held it to her face The material was pitchblende a mineral compound consisting of up to 30 elements including uranium Many tons of pitchblende had been scrapped in the forests of Bohemia present-day Czech Republic after the uranium had been extracted from it At the time uranium was commonly used in ceramics and photography Marie Curie and her husband Pierre would soon become famous for their work 5 ONE CHAPTER
