At the end of summer 2011 when Marie Curie was participating the Solvay Conference in Brussels, she received a telegram from Nobel Committee in Sweden. She was awarded the second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She was recognized for producing a sufficient amount of two new elements, polonium and radium, for establishment their atomic weight and other unusual and radioactive properties.
Written by Martin Nowak Friday, 08 March 2013 23:45
John Adams, the first vice president of the United States, second president and illustrious Founding Father, was one of the great political thinkers in history.
After American independence was achieved, and the federal Articles of Confederation showed their weaknesses, Adams became a supporter of a new federal charter, or constitution, for the United States. In 1787 he wrote and had published a collection of essays in support of revamping the federal government. Entitled A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America, the book argued in support of a strong chief executive, a sovereign and superior bicameral legislature, and a system of checks and balances to control any possible dangerous concentration of power.
Adams’ book brought up examples of historical attempts at democracies and republics, including those of Greece, Rome, England and Poland. He devoted two chapters to Poland, using its example as a nation threatened by its neighbors with little freedom for the common man due to its weak central government. He showed himself to be well educated as to the current situation in that country and in its history.
The discovery of strange X-ray radiation by Rentgen, the radiation that showed bare bone in human hand became the most novel scientific curiosity. Henri Bequerel found that salts of uranium were also a source of this strange radiation. They made a mark on photographic paper without any access to the external light. So Marie naturally decided to follow up and investigate it. Pierre and Jacques Curie invented the electrometer (see the photo on the right) based on piezoelectric quartz that could detect very small amount of electricity. It was known that this strange radiation caused changes in the electric field, so Curies electrometer was a very suitable device to experiment with these strange and penetrating rays.
