(In December 1898, the Curies reported to the Academy of Sciences: "The various reasons we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element to which we propose to give the name of Radium. The new radioactive substance certainly contains a very ...
Scientific discovery can be achingly slow, but it was moving swiftly in the 1890s. X-rayshad beendiscovered in Germany just a few days before Christmas in 1895. Several months later, while researching these new X-rays, the French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered another new myst...