The element discovered by Marie Curie and named after her native country is polonium. Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery in July 1898 while investigating why pitchblende was more radioactive than its uranium content could explain.
The Curies chemically separated material from pitchblende, a uranium ore, and found evidence of a previously unknown radioactive element. They initially referred to it as “radium F.” Marie Curie later named it polonium after Poland, her birthplace. Poland was then divided among the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires, so the name also drew attention to its lack of political independence.
Polonium is a rare, highly radioactive metal with the symbol Po and atomic number 84. It occurs naturally in tiny quantities in uranium decay chains. Its most common isotope, polonium-210, emits powerful alpha particles and has a half-life of about 138 days, making even small amounts hazardous if swallowed or inhaled.
The Curies discovered polonium several months before radium. Their work helped establish radioactivity as a field of scientific research and earned Marie Curie a share of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.