Marie Curie, “Radio-Active Substances”, 1904.

Marie Curie, “Radio-Active Substances”, 1904 is a classic book in the history of science.  The book consists of four (4) chapters and the “table of contents” shown BELOW.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I. Radioactivity of Uranium and Thorium.

Radio-active Minerals. Measurement of the Intensity of Radiation. Radioactivity of the Compounds of Uranium and Thorium. Is Atomic Radioactivity a general Phenomenon? Radio-active Minerals.

Chapter II. Method of Research. Polonium, Radium, Actinium.

Spectrum of Radium. Extraction of the New Radio-active Substances. Polonium. Preparation of the Pure Chloride of Radium. Determination of the Atomic Weight of Radium. Characteristics of the Radium Salts. Fractionation of Ordinary Barium Chloride.

Chapter III. Radiation of the New Radioactive Substances.

Methods of Investigation of the Radiation. Energy of Radiation. Complex Nature of the Radiation. Action of the Magnetic Field. Deflected β-Rays. Charge of the Deflected Rays. Action of the Electric Field upon the Deflected β-Rays of Radium. Relation of the Charge to the Mass for a Particle Negatively Charged Emitted by Radium. Action of the Magnetic Field upon the α-Rays. Action of the Magnetic Field on the Rays of other Radio-active Substances. Proportion of β-Rays in the Radiation of Radium. Penetrating Power of the Radiation of Radio-active Bodies. Ionizing Action of Radium Rays on Insulating Liquids. Various Effects and Applications of the Ionizing Action of the Rays Emitted by Radio-active Substances. Fluorescent and Luminous Effects. Evolution of Heat by the Salts of Radium. Chemical Effects produced by the New Radio-active Bodies. Physiological Effects. Influence of Temperature upon Radiation.

Chapter IV. Communication of Radioactivity to Substances.

Initially Inactive. Activity Induced in an Enclosed Space. Part played by Gases in the Phenomena of Induced Radioactivity. Dissipation in Free Air of the Induced Activity of Solid Bodies. Dissipation of Activity in a Confined Space. Velocity of Destruction of the Emanation. Variation of Activity of Liquids rendered Active and of Radium Solutions. Theory of Radioactivity. Another Form of Induced Radioactivity. Induced Radioactivity with Slow Dissipation. Radioactivity Induced upon Substances in Solution with Radium. Dissemination of Radio-active Particles and Induced Radioactivity of the Laboratory. Activity induced outside the influence of radioactive substances.  Variations of activity of radioactive bodies. Effects of solution. Variations of radioactive salts on heating. Theory of the interpretation of the causes of variations of radium salts after solution and after heating. Nature and cause of the phenomenon of radioactivity. Conclusions.

COMMENTS.

The following is a pair of the most famous scientific books of the millennium.  Two (2) books from each century are listed.  One exception is the inclusion of the microscope, shown in red. Marie Curie, “Radio-Active Substances”, 1904 was among the top twenty (20) scientific books of the millennium.

BOOKS FAMOUS IN SCIENCE.

ELEVENTH CENTURY.

Alhazen, “Optics”, 1021.

Avicenna, “Canon of Medicine”, 1025.

TWELFTH CENTURY.

Avenzoar, Book of Simplification Concerning Therapeutics and Diet’, 1162.

Averroes, “General Principles of Medicine”, 1162.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

Johannes Sacrobosco, “On the Sphere of the World”, 1230.

William of Saliceto, “Anatomia (Chirurgia)”, 1275.

FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

Guido de Vigevano, “Anothomia Philippi Septimi”, 1345.

Nicole Oresme, “Livre du ciel et du monde”, 1377.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Claudius Ptolemy, “Cosmographia”, 1477.

Johannes Regiomontanus, “Theoricae Novae Planetarum”, 1496.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Nicolaus Copernicus, “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres”, 1543.

Andreas Vesalius, “On the Fabric of the Human Body”, 1543.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Galileo Galilei, “Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems”, 1632.

Robert Hooke, “Micrographia”, 1665.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, “Microscopic Observations”, 1682.

Isaac Newton, “Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, 1687.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Carl Linnaeus, System of Nature’, 1735.

Antoine Lavoisier, Elements’ of Chemistry’, 1789.

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Charles Darwin, “Origin of the Species”, 1859.

Dmitri Mendeleev, “Principles of Chemistry”, 1869.

TWENTIETH CENTURY.

Marie Curie, “Radio-Active Substances”, 1904.

Albert Einstein, “Special Relativity”, 1905.

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.

Victor McKusick, “Online  Mendelian Inheritance in Man”, 2003 includes the human DNA sequence.