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The Radioactivity Papers: Polonium, Radium, and the Birth of a New Science, 1898-1903
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 18 2026
Pages: 76
Weight: 0.25
Height: 0.16 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Read the papers in which a new science was being born.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Marie and Pierre Curie et al began investigating a strange phenomenon first observed in uranium. Their experiments soon led them beyond uranium itself-to substances of astonishing activity, to the discovery of polonium and radium, and ultimately toward a radically new understanding of matter and energy.
The Radioactivity Papers brings together twelve landmark scientific papers from 1898 to 1903, presented in clear, modern English. Rather than telling the story of these discoveries from a distance, this collection allows readers to follow the research as it actually developed: experiment by experiment, uncertainty by uncertainty, and discovery by discovery.
Within these papers, readers will encounter investigations into uranium and thorium radiation; the discovery and naming of polonium and radium; attempts to determine radium's atomic weight; experiments on induced radioactivity; the chemical, electrical, magnetic, and physiological effects of radioactive rays; early work on radioactive emanation; and the remarkable discovery that radium continuously releases heat.
What began in these experiments would help open the way to an entirely new understanding of the atom. The study of radioactivity became one of the foundations of nuclear physics, contributing eventually to the development of nuclear energy, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, radioactive dating, particle physics, and modern theories of atomic structure and decay.
The result is a rare opportunity to watch scientists confronting phenomena for which the existing physics and chemistry of their time did not yet have adequate answers-and to see the beginnings of ideas that would reshape twentieth-century science.
This edition has been translated into clear, accessible modern English while remaining faithful to the scientific meaning and character of the original papers. Where appropriate, occasional words and phrases from the original French are retained alongside their English meaning, allowing readers to encounter something of the language in which these discoveries were first described.
Ideal for readers interested in Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, the history of physics, chemistry, radioactivity, atomic theory, nuclear science, and the development of modern science, this collection preserves the immediacy of one of the great scientific revolutions at the moment it was taking place.
Twelve papers. Six extraordinary years. The beginnings of a new science-and of the nuclear age that followed.
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