Isolating Radium: The Curie Breakthrough

Marie Curie processed several tons of pitchblende residue in a shed to isolate a decigram of radium chloride by 1902. She measured radioactivity precisely and coined the term itself. The work won the 1903 physics Nobel Prize alongside Pierre and Becquerel, and chemistry honored her again in 1911. Her notebooks remain radioactive and are stored in lead boxes..

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