Unit 15b, Nuclear Physics

The husband and wife team shown at left, Marie and Pierre Curie, were the founders of a family that eventually won five Nobel Prizes. More than 100 years later, Marie Curie is still the only person to win a Nobel in two different sciences. Like Mme Curie's prizes, this unit spans Chemistry and Physics. We will examine some models of what happens when an atomic nucleus is unstable, and investigate how the understanding of the atom developed by the Curies and others changed science and society in the 20th century.