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What the name
means: Polonium was named after
Poland, the home country of the chemist and
Nobel Laureate, Marie Curie.
Who identified
polonium? Marie Curie became
interested in radiation on hearing about
Henri Becquerel’s observations on how
pitchblende had fogged a photographic
plate. She and her husband, Pierre Curie
analysed a sample of pitchblende. After
removing uranium and thorium from the ore,
they used a new, sensitive electroscope to
keep trace of the radio active material
that remained. In 1898 they concluded that there
were probably new, radio active elements in
the sample and went on the isolate polonium
and radium.
About polonium:
Polonium is a silvery-grey metal
that is rare in the Earth’s crust since it
has a very short half life. |
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