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Primary sourceBook1904

Recherches sur les substances radioactives

Marie Curie · 1904

Marie Curie's 1904 research work on radioactive substances, presented as a thesis at the Faculté des Sciences de Paris.

This is Curie's own major research publication on radioactive substances, a primary record of her scientific work.

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Title page of the 1904 second edition of Recherches sur les substances radioactives by Madame Sklodowska Curie, a thesis presented at the Faculté des Sciences de Paris. Published in Paris by Gauthier-Villars. Handwritten number 5 and a note appear in the top right corner.
Marie Curie, Recherches sur les substances radioactives, 1904. Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of the 1904 second edition of Recherches sur les substances radioactives, a research work by Marie Curie (here named Madame Sklodowska Curie), published in Paris by Gauthier-Villars. It was presented as a thesis to the Faculté des Sciences de Paris. The record held is an image scan of the title page, with a handwritten number and note added later.

Why it matters

This work set out Curie's research into radioactivity, the field she helped found. It shows her as a woman working at the highest level of French science at a time when this was extremely rare, and documents the kind of formal academic publication through which new scientific ideas were tested and shared.

Look closer

  • What does the title page tell us about how and where this research was published?
  • Why might a handwritten number and note have been added to this copy?
  • What does this document NOT show us about the actual experiments behind it?

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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