The Times of Wednesday publishes an account of a scientific
discovery by M. Curie, perhaps the first of French physicists, which will excite universal interest. Chemists have been greatly excited by observing qualities in the new metal, " radium," of a most unexpected kind, and M. Curie now announces after an investigation of many months that it "possesses the extraordinary property of continuously emit- ting heat, without combustion, without chemical change of any kind, and without any change in its molecular structure, which remains spectroscopically identical after many months of continuous emission of heat." He finds, further, that " radium maintains its own temperature at a point 1.5 deg. Centigrade, or 2.7 deg. on our ordinary scale, above its sur- roundings." The "radium" after emitting heat for months remains undiminished, and the best explanation is that it attracts to itself, and then emits, some form of " ambient energy " the existence of which was unsuspected. In other words, a new force has been discovered in Nature. Whether it can ever be utilised is uncertain, though a perpetual light would be invaluable, for the metal is exceedingly scarce ; but the discovery will direct physicists to inquiries in a perfectly new direction.
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