HISTORIC NOTE #1: Chalcite is a naturally occurring mineral that contains uranium. Marie had observed, as she did with pitchblende (see ep. #7), that chalcite was more radioactive than uranium itself and thus hypothesized that another, unknown radioactive element was present. To test this hypothesis, she and Pierre created artificial chalcite (from uranium and copper phosphate) as a control. The fact that it was no more radioactive than the uranium further indicated the validity of her theory.
HISTORIC NOTE #2: The "fairy lights" scene is true. Marie first observed this phenomenon late one night when she was checking in on her lab and did refer to the radioactive glow as "fairy lights." In fact, she and Pierre would often go to the lab late at night just to marvel at their glowing samples. It was a proof that they were on the right track, and Marie likely felt that she had stumbled across something quite magical with her discovery.
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