Miscellaneous references and biographical works

“Resumen la radiactividad como fenómeno físico, ha traído beneficios y desaciertos al mundo científico y a la humanidad. su descubrimiento atribuido principalmente a antoine henri becquerel, marie sklodowska-curie y a pierre curie, quienes a finales del siglo xix observaron y clasificaron los elementos e isótopos radiactivos uranio, torio, polonio y radio. estos elementos en su estado natural ionizan el aire que los circunda y son capaces de producir grandes cantidades de energía, de ahí su aplicación en centrales nucleares. en el año internacional de la tabla periódica, es propicio recordar la obra de marie sklodowska-curie, quien dedicó su vida a los estudios sobre la radioactividad, incluso murió por estar expuesta a ella sin protección. el presente trabajo está dedicado a su memoria, una breve biografía y sus contribuciones científicas, los efectos cuestionados por el uso de isótopos radiactivos, algo de historia sobre la radiactividad y su relación con la tabla periódica de los elementos. palabras clave: becquerel; isótopos radiactivos; marie curie; radioactividad; tabla periódica. código unesco: 2305.06-radioisótopos. abstract radioactivity as a physical phenomenon has brought benefits and mistakes to the scientific world and to humanity. its discovery mainly attributed to antoine henri becquerel, marie sklodowska-curie and pierre curie, whom at the end of the 19th century observed and classified the elements and radioactive isotopes uranium, thorium, polonium and radio. these elements in their natural state ionize the air around them and are capable of producing enormous quantities of energy, hence their application in nuclear power plants. in the international year of the periodic table, it is appropriate to remember the work of marie sklodowska-curie, who dedicated her life to studies on radioactivity; even she died because of exposure to it without protection. the present paper is dedicated to her memory, a brief biography and her scientific contributions, the effects questioned by the use of radioactive isotopes, some history about radioactivity, and its relationship with the periodic table of the elements.”

“(Marie skłodowska-curie and radioactivity) there is no other woman in the history of science better known than marie curie. she was the first woman professor at the sorbonne, the university of paris, after more than six hundreds years, the first woman to obtain a nobel prize, the first scientist to obtain a second. but above all these honours, marie was a passionate person, whose curiosity and spirit of adventure kept her alive beyond the limits of her strength. it is astonishing how there are still some persons, usually men, that still consider her as an assistant of her husband, neglecting the relevance of her discovery, the radioactivity. it is even more difficult to understand how distorted is the picture of her that had reached us, that of a sad women, wearing always black dresses. and marie was just the opposite: a lively and passionate woman, who devoted her life to science as everybody knows, but did many other things as well: fought to defend her country and loved passionately her daughters and the men she felt in love with, specially her husband. correo electrónico: adela@us.es solicitado en enero 2013 por el director de la revista. la ciencia y parís a finales del siglo xix en las últimas décadas del siglo xix la ciencia parecía un edificio completo y bien construido en el cual materia y energía eran mundos separados que se regían por leyes di-ferentes. en la descripción de la materia los ‘atomistas’, se-guidores de las teorías de dalton, estaban ganando la batalla a los partidarios del ‘éter’. las leyes formuladas por james clerk maxwell pocos años antes explicaban y predecían el comportamiento de las ondas electromagnéticas con tanta precisión como la ley de la gravitación universal propuesta por newton tres siglos antes predecía la trayectoria de los planetas. pero una serie de descubrimientos realizados en apenas veinte años alrededor de 1900, trastocaron gran parte de los pilares sobre los que se asentaba el conoci-miento de la naturaleza. entre ellos se encontraba el de la radioactividad, que puso de manifiesto que materia y energía podían transfor-marse una en otra. los principales artífices de este descu-brimiento fueron pierre curie, un genial pero desclasado profesor de la escuela industrial de física y química de pa-rís, y su mujer, una polaca recién licenciada en física y mate-máticas en la universidad de la sorbona. la ciudad en la que vivían pierre y marie curie a finales del siglo xix, la ciudad luz, era la capital del mundo: l…”

“This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series les prix nobel. it was later edited and republished in nobel lectures. to cite this document, always state the source as shown above.”

“At the outbreak of world war i (wwi), marie curie-skłodowska (1867-1934) was already a famous scientist who had received two nobel prizes, one for physics and one for chemistry. during wwi marie and her daughter irène dedicated themselves to using mobile x-ray equipment in the care of wounded soldiers. she visited battlefields in france and belgium with a ‘petite curie’: a car equipped with a portable x ray machine, which was driven by a dynamo; 20 of these petites curies were used during wwi. approximately 1.2 million wounded were examined radiologically during this war. she also instructed the women, the ‘manipulatrices’, who operated these machines. after wwi, marie curie concentrated once more on the development of the institut du radium, now the institut curie in paris.”