Tom Breton wrote:
> Joseph A Nagy Jr <pagan_prince at charter.net> writes:
>>>>discoveries would have STILL been made, those theories voiced, and our world changed. Look at Marie
>>Curie, one of the more famous female scientists of the 19th Century(?). Our present understanding of
>>X-rays is due to work she pioneered (and she was Polish to boot!).
>>> That was Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. (discovering X-rays, not being
> Polish) For an overview, see http://www.softcode.com/X_ray.html>
Never said she discovered them, now did I? *sighs*
I said:
"Our present understanding of X-rays is due to work she pioneered (and she was Polish to boot!)."
Okay, so wrong radition. *coughs*Radium*coughs*
http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm
To qoute, though:
"MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE opened up the science of radioactivity. She is best known as the discoverer
of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the first person to win two Nobel prizes. For
scientists and the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and
energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a
new era in medical research and treatment."
So my radiation was off (could of sworn she worked with X-Rays, though).
http://www.aip.org/history/curie/resbr1.htm
To qoute:
"With numerous experiments Marie confirmed Becquerel's observations that the electrical effects of
uranium rays are constant, regardless of whether the uranium was solid or pulverized, pure or in a
compound, wet or dry, or whether exposed to light or heat. Likewise, her study of the rays emitted
by different uranium compounds validated Becquerel's conclusion that the minerals with a higher
proportion of uranium emitted the most intense rays. She went beyond Becquerel's work, however, in
forming a crucial hypothesis: the emission of rays by uranium compounds could be an atomic property
of the element uranium--something built into the very structure of its atoms.
MARIE'S SIMPLE HYPOTHESIS would prove revolutionary. It would ultimately contribute to a fundamental
shift in scientific understanding. At the time scientists regarded the atom--a word meaning
undivided or indivisible -- as the most elementary particle. A hint that this ancient idea was false
came from the discovery of the electron by other scientists around this same time. But nobody
grasped the complex inner structure or the immense energy stored in atoms. Marie and Pierre Curie
themselves were not convinced that radioactive energy came from within atoms--maybe, for example,
the earth was bathed in cosmic rays, whose energy certain atoms somehow caught and radiated? Marie's
real achievement was to cut through the complicated and obscure observations with a crystal-clear
analysis of the set of conclusions that, however unexpected, were logically possible.
Marie tested all the known elements in order to determine if other elements or minerals would make
air conduct electricity better, or if uranium alone could do this. In this task she was assisted by
a number of chemists who donated a variety of mineral samples, including some containing very rare
elements. In April 1898 her research revealed that thorium compounds, like those of uranium, emit
Becquerel rays. Again the emission appeared to be an atomic property. To describe the behavior of
uranium and thorium she invented the word "radioactivity" --based on the Latin word for ray."
Although my claim of her work in X-rays was false, my comment:
"Our present understanding of X-rays is due to work she pioneered (and she was Polish to boot!)."
Only remains false if we keep the X in X-rays.
*shrugs* Hey, I'm only human, I can be wrong every now and then.
