1857–1937

Gustave Bémont

Announced radium in 1898.

Element

88RaRadium
1898

In 1898 Marie and Pierre Curie, working with Gustave Bémont, found a second new element in the uranium ore pitchblende, far more radioactive than uranium. From ten tonnes of ore they got about a milligram of it. They named it radium, from the Latin for ray.

Explore radium

Keep exploring

Where the dates and stories on this page come from; each event on the timeline links to its own source.