As primeiras investigações da Marie Curie sobre elementos radiotivos

Abstract

In the early years of research of the phenomenon we call “radioactivity”, there was no theory of those phenomena. Research was guided by analogies and conjectures during this pre-theoretical stage. The chosen experimental method had also a strong influence since it constrained what could be observed or tested. Marie Curie’s early researches, in 1898, was strongly dependent on the electric method of measurement she employed. However, the development of her work was chiefly dependent on the adoption of a new hypothesis: the assumption that the emission of uranium radiation was an atomic process. This paper presents a reconstruction of the steps followed by Marie Curie during this phase of her work. Special emphasis is given to the hypotheses and conjectures that directed her research.