Madame Curie Chapter Summary & Analysis - Part 2: Chapter 12 Summary

Part 2: Chapter 12 Summary

At the end of 1897, Marie decides to pursue a doctorate in physical science. She and Pierre have watched with interest Henri Becquerel's work on uranium, in which he found that uranium salts emit something like X rays (recently discovered by Henri Poincaré), rendering the surrounding air a conductor. For her doctoral research, Marie sets out to discover the nature of this phenomenon.

Pierre approaches the director of the school of Physics, and is able to get Marie the use of a cold, damp studio on the ground floor of the school. Although the equipment is rudimentary, Marie is not discouraged. When she discovers that another element, thorium, emits rays like uranium, she is able to prove that the phenomenon is not limited to uranium and names it radioactivity.

She then measures the radioactivity of all the active minerals and discovers that the radiation is much stronger than can be...
(read more)