Today is the birthday of Marie Curie, noted female scientist and nuclear physicist. Check out these resources on PBS Learning Media highlighting her important work.
Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation of polonium, named after the country of Marie's birth, and radium. Mme. Curie developed methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful study of its properties, therapeutic properties in particular. In 1910 she successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's existence beyond a doubt. She also documented the properties of the radioactive elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where they are used to treat tumors.
https://youtu.be/w6JFRi0Qm_s
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6JFRi0Qm_s
Nobel Prize Marie Curie