Curie

1 French chemist (born in Poland) who won two Nobel Prizes; one (with her husband and Henri Becquerel) for research on radioactivity and another for her discovery of radium and polonium (1867-1934) [syn: Marie Curie, Madame Curie, Marya Sklodowska]

2 French physicist; husband of Marie Curie (1859-1906) [syn: Pierre Curie]

3 a unit of radioactivity equal to the amount of a radioactive isotope that decays at the rate of 37,000,000,000 disintegrations per second [syn: Ci]

English

Etymology

Named after Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906) joint winner of 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with his wife Marie Curie.

Noun

1. a unit of radioactivity defined as 3.7×1010 decays per second

Derived terms

• megacurie
• microcurie
• millicurie

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Italian

Noun

curie

1. Plural of curia

The curie (symbol Ci) is a unit of radioactivity, defined as

1 Ci = 3.7×1010 decays per second or becquerels.

This is roughly the activity of 1 gramme of the radium isotope 226Ra, a substance studied by the pioneers of radiology, Marie and Pierre Curie. The curie has since been replaced by an SI derived unit, the becquerel (Bq), which equates to one decay per second. Therefore:

1 Ci = 3.7×1010 Bq

and

1 Bq = 2.70×10−11 Ci

The unit is named after Pierre and/or Marie Curie

References