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In 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie and Henry Becquerel won the Nobel Prize in
Physics for the discovery of radioactivity.
In 1911 Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of
radium and polonium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize; and
she is the only woman to win this prize in two different fields, physics and
chemistry.
As there are only about a hundred natural elements in the universe,
discovering two is quite a big thing! She called them polonium, after her
home country of Poland, and radium because it was radioactive.
Radioactivity
Radioactivity is a feature that we can find in matter. All matter is made up
of elements and elements made of atoms. Most atoms are stable and they
do not change over time.
However, radioactive atoms change over time. These atoms are unstable
and try to be more stable. In the process, they give off energy in the form
of radiation. This process is called radioactivity.
An example of Radioactivity:
When there are too many protons in a nucleus. In this case the element will
give off (emit) radiation in the form of positively charged particles.
Marie Curie worked a lot with radiation and she did not know that radiation
was dangerous, so she died because of it.
Now people who work with radiation have to wear special clothing and be
careful.