YOLA 12A: The Life and Work of Marie Curie - p3

wounded
During World War I, Marie Curie, with help from her daughter Irene, worked to develop the use of X-radioactivity, including the mobile units which came to be known as 'Little Curies’, used to treat wounded soldiers.

in earnest
In 1918, the Radium Institute, whose staff Irene had joined, began to operate in earnest, and became a centre for nuclear physics and chemistry.

applications
Marie Curie, now at the highest point of her fame and; from 1922, a member of the Academy of Medicine, researched the chemistry of radioactive substances and their medical applications.

campaign
In 1921, accompanied by her two daughters, Marie Curie made a triumphant journey to the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Women there presented her with a gram of radium for her campaign.

inauguration
Marie gave lectures around the world and, in addition, witnessed the development of the Curie Foundation in Paris and the inauguration in 1932 in Warsaw of the Radium Institute, where her sister Bronia became director.

accumulate
One of Marie Curie's outstanding achievements was to have understood the need to accumulate intense radioactive sources.

abundant
Gathering radioactive sources was essential to treat illness, but also to maintain an abundant supply for research.

stock
The existence in Paris at the Radium Institute of a stock of 1.5 grams of radium made a decisive contribution to the success of the experiments undertaken in the years around 1930.

neutron
This work prepared the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick and, above all, for the discovery in 1934 by Irene and Frederic Joliot Curie of artificial radioactivity.

exposure
A few months after this discovery, Marie Curie died as a result of leukaemia caused by exposure to radiation.

gave off
Marie Curie had often carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket remarking on the pretty blue-green light they gave off.

immense
Marie Curie's contribution to physics was immense, not only in her own work, the importance of which was demonstrated by her Nobel Prizes, but because of her influence on future generations of nuclear physicists and chemists.