For three long years, Marie sifted through tons of pitchblende.

漫长的三年里, 玛丽筛选了数吨沥青混合物。

Was it even possible to separate the radium from the pitchblende?

是否有可能将放射性同位素从沥青共混物中来?

She decided to test a rock called pitchblende.

决定测试一种叫做沥青闪的岩。

When Marie tested the pitchblende, she found it gave off even more rays than uranium alone!

当 Marie 测试沥青闪，发现它发的射线比单独的铀还多！

She tried to separate the polonium from the pitchblende—but she failed.

试图将钋从沥青闪中来——但失败了。

The amounts of polonium in the pitchblende were too tiny.

沥青共混物中的polonium含量太小了。

Next, by focusing on a super-radioactive ore called pitchblende, the Curies realized that uranium alone couldn't be creating all the radiation.

接下来， 通过专注于一种超放射性矿——沥青铀矿，居里夫妇意识到， 仅靠铀元素无法产生所有这些辐射现象。

This sample is derived from here, it is pitchblende, or uraninite, a compound of oxygen and uranium, about 90% of uranium.

这个样本来源于此处， 它是沥青铀矿， 又称铀矿， 是由氧和铀组成的化合物，约含90%的铀。

The pitchblende contained another mysterious metal that was giving off rays.

沥青闪中含有另一种发射线的神秘金属。

By separating it out of the pitchblende.

通过将其从沥青混合物中来。

She was getting tiny amounts of radium out of the pitchblende.

从沥青混合物中提取了少量的放射性元素。

All together, Marie used eight tons of pitchblende and four hundred tons of water before she was done!

Marie 在完成之前总共使用了 8 吨沥青闪和 400 吨水！

There had to be something else—another metal— mixed into the pitchblende! That other metal, whatever it was, had even more energy than uranium.

必须有别的东西 - - 另一种金属 - -混入 Pitchblende！另一种金属，无论它是什么，都比铀的能量还大。

By 1902, the Curies had extracted a tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride salt from several tons of pitchblende, an incredible feat at the time.

到1902年， 居里夫妇已从数吨沥青铀矿中提取十之一克纯氯化镭盐，这在当是一项不可思议的壮举。

He tested a piece of pitchblende, the principal ore of uranium, and found it to be seven hundred million years old—very much older than the age most people were prepared to grant the earth.

他测试了一块沥青铀矿, 发现它有七亿年的历史 - - 比大多数人准备给予地球的年龄大得多。