i io On the Campus 



distinguished, the Nobel Prize for that year, as recog- 

 nition of her researches in physics: in 1911 she alone 

 received the Nobel Prize for chemistry, $40,000. 



What had she been doing? Was she seeking some- 

 thing practical, in the sense of the street? Did she 

 strive to discover some article which, when found, the 

 world entire should use and accordingly must buy ? Did 

 she seek to exploit the resources of her country, secur- 

 ing control of natural wealth, and so enabling herself 

 and friends to fix for years the price of some essential 

 commodity ? Not at all ; not one of these things did she 

 dream of. She discovered polonium and radium, two 

 most obscure, unheard-of metals, extracted with almost 

 infinite pains, labor, and skill, in minute amounts from 

 pitchblende, a mineral found in mountainous countries 

 and of probably volcanic origin. Of radium, the more 

 famous of these metals, there is perhaps scarcely an 

 ounce to be seen, taken all together, in all the labora- 

 tories of the world; so difficult is it to secure. Yet 

 radium in its peculiar properties is a substance fascinat- 

 ing beyond compare. Why ? Because it modifies all our 

 previous theories as to the constitution of the physical 

 world. Radium gives off a certain peculiar radiation; 

 mysterious particles emanate as if from sources inex- 

 haustible. Go down to the physics laboratory at the 

 University and see the radium clock. I have seen an 

 audience of thousands watching in breathless interest 

 the rise and fall of those golden petals; pulsating 

 whether we watch or not, pulsating for days and years 

 it may be, or for centuries together, as if to realize at 

 last the dream of perpetual motion ! 



