Allow me, first of all, to tell you that I am happy to speak today before the Academy of Sciences which has conferred on Mme. Curie and myself the very great honour of awarding us a Nobel Prize. We must also tender you our apologies for being so tardy in visiting you in Stockholm, for reasons quite outside our control.
我今天必须与你交谈，以放射性物质的性质，特别是镭的性质。我无法专门提及我们自己的调查。在1898年我们对这一主题的研究开始，我们是唯一的，与BeCerelel一起对此问题感兴趣;但从那时起，已经完成了更多的工作，今天不再能够通过卢瑟福等大量物理学家提出调查结果，如卢瑟福，德国，埃尔斯特和地理会，杰塞，Kauffmann，Crookes，Ramsay和Soddy，仅提到我们在我们对放射性物质知识中取得重要进展的几个人。
I shall give you only a rapid account of the discovery of radium and a brief summary of its properties, and then I shall speak to you of the consequences of the new knowledge which radioactivity gives us in the various branches of science.
Becquerel discovered in 1896 the special radiating properties of uranium and its compounds. Uranium emits very weak rays which leave an impression on photographic plates. These rays pass through black paper and metals; they make air electrically conductive. The radiation does not vary with time, and the cause of its production is unknown.
MME。Curie in France and Schmidt in Germany have shown that thorium and its compounds possess the same properties. Mme. Curie also showed in 1898 that of all the chemical substances prepared or used in the laboratory, only those containing uranium or thorium were capable of emitting a substantial amount of the Becquerel rays. We have called such substances放射性。
Radioactivity, therefore, presented itself as an atomic property of uranium and thorium, a substance being all the more radioactive as it was richer in uranium or thorium.
MME。Curie has studied the minerals containing uranium or thorium, and in accordance with the views just stated, these minerals are all radioactive. But in making the measurements, she found that certain of these were more active than they should have been according to the content of uranium or thorium. Mme. Curie then made the assumption that these substances contained radioactive chemical elements which were as yet unknown. We, Mme. Curie and I, have sought to find these new hypothetical substances in a uranium ore, pitchblende. By carrying out the chemical analysis of this mineral and assaying the radioactivity of each batch separated in the treatment, we have, first of all, found a highly radioactive substance with chemical properties close to bismuth which we have called polonium, and then (in collaboration with Bémont) a second highly radioactive substance close to barium which we called radium. Finally, Debierne has since separated a third radioactive substance belonging to the group of the rare earths, actinium.
这些物质仅存在于迹线的形式，但它们具有比铀的数量级的巨大放射性为200万倍。在治疗大量材料之后，我们成功地获得了足够量的显着的钡盐，以便能够通过分馏方法从其纯盐的形式从其中提取。镭是碱土金属系列中钡的较高同源物。其原子量由MME确定。居里是225.镭的特征在于一种不同的光谱，首先被Demarçay发现和研究，然后通过弯曲和跑步，埃克纳和哈希。镭的频谱反应非常敏感，但它比放射性要小得多，以揭示覆盖痕迹的存在。
The general effects of the radiations from radium are intense and very varied.
各种实验：静电镜排出。- 光线通过几厘米的铅。- 通过镭诱导的火花。- 铂铂磷酸磷酸，威末和昆塔石的激发。- 光线着色玻璃。- 辐射从这些物质上辐射作用后的氟和超荧光的热致发光。- 用镭加油片。
A radioactive substance such as radium constitutes a continuous source of energy. This energy is manifested by the emission of the radiation. I have also shown in collaboration with Laborde that radium releases heat continuously to the extent of approx. 100 calories per gram of radium and per hour. Rutherford and Soddy, Runge and Precht, and Knut Ångström have also measured the release of heat by radium, this release seems to be constant after several years, and the total energy released by radium in this way is considerable.
The work of a large number of physicists (Meyer and Schweidler, Giesel, Becquerel, P. Curie, Mme. Curie, Rutherford, Villard, etc.) shows that the radioactive substances can emit rays of the three different varieties designated by Rutherford as a-, b− and g -rays. They differ from one another by the action of a magnetic field and of an electric field which modify the trajectory of the a -and b -rays.
The b -rays, similar to cathode rays, behave like negatively charged projectiles of a mass 2000 times smaller than that of a hydrogen atom (electron). We have verified, Mme. Curie and I, that the b -rays carry with them negative electricity. The a -rays, similar to the Goldstein’s canal rays, behave like projectiles 1,000 times heavier and charged with positive electricity. The g-rays are similar to Röntgen rays.
几种放射性物质，如镭，溶素和钍也比通过直接辐射起作用;周围的空气变得放射性，Rutherford假设这些物质中的每一个都发出不稳定的放射性气体，他称之为散发，并且在放射性物质周围的空气中蔓延。
由此使放射性的气体的活性根据具有时间常数的指数律而自发地消失，其是每个活性物质的特征。因此，它可以表示，从镭散发出每4天的一半减少一半，即每55秒从钍的一半，每3秒从actinium一半从actinium到半秒钟。
将固体物质放置在放射性物质周围的活性空气存在下，本身变得暂时放射性。这是MME的诱导放射性的现象。居里和我已经发现了。诱导的放射性相似的放射性，如散发，同样不稳定，并根据每个人的指数法，自发地破坏。
实验：一个玻璃管，充满了来自巴黎带来的镭的散发物。- 来自诱导放射性的光线通过光线排出电镜。- 渗透作用下硫化锌的磷光。
最后，根据Ramsay和Soddy，镭是氦的连续和自发生产的座位。
铀，钍，镭和散射的放射性似乎在几年的时间内是不变的;另一方面，据指数律法，波利昂的降低，它在140天内减少了一半，几年后几乎完全消失了。
这些都是由大量物理学家努力建立的最重要的事实。他们已经广泛研究了几种现象。
The consequences of these facts are making themselves felt in all branches of science:
The importance of these phenomena for physics is evident. Radium constitutes in laboratories a new research tool, a source of new radiations. The study of the β -rays has already been very fruitful. It has been found that this study confirms the theory of J. J. Thomson and Heaviside on the mass of particles in motion, charged with electricity; according to this theory, part of the mass results from the electromagnetic reactions of the ether of the vacuum. The experiments of Kauffmann on the β -rays of radium lead to the assumption that certain particles have a velocity very slightly below that of light, that according to the theory the mass of the particle increases with the velocity for velocities close to that of light, and that the whole mass of the particle is of an electromagnetic nature. If the hypothesis is also made that material substances are constituted by an agglomeration of electrified particles, it is seen that the fundamental principles of mechanics will have to be profoundly modified.
The consequences for chemistry of our knowledge of the properties of the radioactive substances are perhaps even more important. And this leads us to speak of the source of energy which maintains the radioactive phenomena. At the beginning of our investigations we stated, Mme. Curie and I, that the phenomena could be explained by two distinct and very general hypotheses which were described by Mme. Curie in 1899 and 1900 (Revue Générale des Sciences, January 10, 1899, and Revue Scientifique, July 21, 1900).
在第一个假设中，可以认为放射性物质从外部辐射借用它们释放的能量，并且它们的辐射将是二次辐射。假设空间不断地穿过非常穿透的辐射，这是不是荒谬的，这是秘密物质能够在飞行中捕获的非常渗透的辐射。根据Rutherford，Cooke和MCLennan的最近的工作，这个假设似乎有助于解释来自大部分物质的极其弱辐射的一部分。
在第二个假设中，可以认为放射性物质从自己吸引它们释放的能量。然后，放射性物质在进化过程中，它们会尽管某些状态的表观不变性，但它们会逐渐和缓慢地转化。如果与与相同重量的物质重量的化学反应中的热量进行比较，则镭释放的热量在几年内释放的热量是巨大的。然而，这种释放的热量仅代表了纳米量的变化中所涉及的能量，即使多年来也不能理解它。DI这导致令人捕容，转换比普通化学转化更深远，即原子的存在甚至是股权，并且一个是在存在元件的转化的存在下。
The second hypothesis has shown itself the more fertile in explaining the properties of the radioactive substances properly so called. It gives, in particular, an immediate explanation for the spontaneous disappearance of polonium and the production of helium by radium. This theory of the transformation of the elements has been developed and formulated with great boldness by Rutherford and Soddy who state that there is a continuous and irreversible disaggregation of the atoms of the radioactive elements. In the theory of Rutherford the disaggregation products would be, on the one hand, the projectile rays, and on the other hand, the emanations and the induced radioactivities. The latter would be new gaseous or solid radioactive substances frequently with a rapid evolution and having atomic weights lower than that of the original element from which they are derived. Seen in this way the life of radium would be necessarily limited when this substance is separated from the other elements. In Nature radium is always found in association with uranium, and it can be assumed that it is produced by the latter.
因此，这是元素嬗变的真实理论，尽管不是炼金术师理解它。无机物质必然会通过年龄发展，并按照不变的法律。
通过意想不到的后果，放射性现象在地质中可能很重要。例如，已经发现，镭总是伴随矿物质的铀。它甚至发现，在所有矿物质（Boltwood）中，亚烷镭的比率是恒定的。这证实了来自铀的创造镭的想法。该理论可以扩展，以试图解释矿物质中经常发生的元素的其他关联。可以想象在地球表面上的位置或它们在可能是地质周期级的时间的时间内形成某些元件。这是地质学家必须考虑的新观点。
埃斯特和地质的表明，镭的散发性质非常普遍，并且放射性可能在气象中发挥着重要的部分，其中空气的电离引发了水蒸气的冷凝。
Finally, in the biological sciences the rays of radium and its emanation produce interesting effects which are being studied at present. Radium rays have been used in the treatment of certain diseases (lupus, cancer, nervous diseases). In certain cases their action may become dangerous. If one leaves a wooden or cardboard box containing a small glass ampulla with several centigrams of a radium salt in one’s pocket for a few hours, one will feel absolutely nothing. But 15 days afterwards a redness will appear on the epidermis, and then a sore which will be very difficult to heal. A more prolonged action could lead to paralysis and death. Radium must be transported in a thick box of lead.
It can even be thought that radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature, whether it is ready to profit from it or whether this knowledge will not be harmful for it. The example of the discoveries of Nobel is characteristic, as powerful explosives have enabled man to do wonderful work. They are also a terrible means of destruction in the hands of great criminals who are leading the peoples towards war. I am one of those who believe with Nobel that mankind will derive more good than harm from the new discoveries.
