Radioactive Substances
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Here is the celebrated scientist's doctoral thesis, the prelude to her receipt of the 1903 Nobel Prize. Curie discusses establishing atomic character of radioactivity from compounds of uranium and thorium; extraction from pitchblende of polonium and radium; isolation of pure radium chloride; determination of atomic weight of radium; and more.
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As a Doctorate in Biochemistry myself, I found this thesis fantastically refreshing and wish that modern day science writing adopted the old ways.
Madame Curie is able to very succinctly express all results, methodologies and discuss its implications in a very straightforward way.
For me, this thesis is a time capsule for how radioactivity was understood before it was understood. At times, Curie attempts to provide answers to such a complex enigma without all current knowledge of radioactive materials and advances in quantum physics, and is able to do so very satisfactorily.
Curie had good feelings about the nature of subatomic matter, and that is visible from her inferences.
I found it particularly funny how she nonchalantly describes measuring radioactivity both at midday and midnight in order to assess if radiation from the sun was the primary source of radioactive induction in radium. Although anecdotal, it provides a good glimpse of how us scientists may attempt the most simple (and sometimes, ridiculous) experiments just to understand these “black hole enigmas” where nothing is known and the little we know is confusing.
