What was Pierre Curie's work on radioactivity?
Our work on radioactivity stemmed from observing the spontaneous emission of rays from certain substances, notably uranium salts. We employed an electrometer, which I developed with my brother, to measure the faint electrical currents produced by these emissions. This allowed for precise quantification. We sought to isolate the source of this intense activity in pitchblende, a uranium ore. Through painstaking chemical separation, we discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, both far more radioactive than uranium, confirming that radioactivity was an intrinsic property of the atom itself.
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