"Radiations from Compounds of Uranium and of Thorium," Comptes Rendus 126: 1101 (1898).

Conjectured the radiation, which Henri Becquerel called uranic rays, emanated from atoms of uranium, and deduced from quantitative studies of the radioactivity of samples of coal and pitchblende that there were other radioactive elements besides uranium. She coined the word radioactive. With Pierre Curie, she discovered radium, polonium, and other heretofore unknown radioactive elements.

"New Radio-Active Element in Pitchblende," Comptes Rendus 127: 175 (1898) with P. Curie.


"Another New Radio-active Element," Comptes Rendus 127: 1215 (1898) with P. Curie and G. Bémont.

Nobel Prize (physics) with Pierre Curie 1903

for "joint researches on the radiation phenomenon discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Humphrey Davy Medal with Pierre Curie 1903

Nobel Prize (chemistry) 1911

for "discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element."

Recommended reading:

Reference material on Marie Curie, her life and her work, is readily available; some books in which one may read about the significance of her discoveries for physics, and her life, are:

Pais, Abraham Inward bound: of matter and forces in the physical world, Oxford University Press, New York 1986.

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch Nobel Prize women in science: their lives, struggles, and momentous discoveries ,Birch Lane Press, New York 1993.

Quinn, Susan Marie Curie: A life, Simon & Schuster, New York 1995.

Curie, Eve Madame Curie, Doubleday, 1938. Reprint. Da Capo, 1986.