7 ELEMENTAL MATTERSCHEMISTRY
timents in virtually every ory of cry in print.
today y-turally occurring ones plus acouple of dozen t ed in labs. tual number is sligentiousbecause ts exist for only milliontssometimes argue over ed or not. In Mendeleyev’s dayjust sixty-ts part of o realize t ts as t make a complete picture, t many pieces ed, s in whey werefound.
No one knoally, s migomic ain is tanyt is found neatly into Mendeleyev’s great scheme.
teentury great surprise for cs. It began in 1896 of uranium salts on a e out some time later, o discovert ts , just as if te o ligs ting rays of some sort.
Considering tance of urned tter over to a graduate student for investigation. Fortunately tudent émigré from Poland named Marie Curie. orking certain kinds of rocks poured out constant and extraordinary amounts of energy,yet diminisectable il Einstein explained t ting mass into energy in an exceedingly efficient way.
Marie Curie dubbed t “radioactivity.” In ts—polonium, ry, and radium.
In 1903 tly ary, in 1911, to ry and p McGill University in Montreal t Ruterested in tive materials. it immense reserves of energy s of matter,and t tive decay of t for most of th.
t radioactive elements decayed into ots—t one dayyou om of uranium, say, and t you om of lead. trulyextraordinary. It aneously.
Ever tist, Rut to see t ticalapplication in ticed t in any sample of radioactive material, it alook t of time for o decay—ted teady, reliable rate of decay could