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Primary sourceBook1903 (reprinted 1904)

Radio-active Substances

Marie Curie · 1903 (reprinted 1904)

Marie Curie's English-language paper on radioactive substances, reprinted from Chemical News in 1903 and republished in 1904.

This is Curie's own paper, translated into English, spreading her discoveries on radioactivity to an international audience.

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Radio-active SubstancesPDF · 110 pages
Marie Curie, Radio-active Substances, reprinted from Chemical News, 1903; this edition London, 1904. Scanned by Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a paper by Marie Curie (named here as Mdme. Sklodowska Curie), originally presented as a thesis to the Faculty of Sciences in Paris and reprinted from the journal Chemical News in 1903, with this edition from 1904. The scanned copy is held in a digital archive, originally from Harvard Medical Library.

Why it matters

This paper let English-speaking scientists read Curie's findings directly, spreading her discoveries about radioactive substances beyond France. It shows how quickly her research reached an international scientific audience.

Look closer

  • Why would Curie's French thesis be reprinted in an English chemistry journal?
  • What clues on the title page tell you this is a scientific publication aimed at other researchers?
  • What does it suggest that the book passed through a medical library collection focused on the history of radiology?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Marie Curie on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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