Questions Marie Curie
Marie
Curie Biography.com
Physicist,
Scientist, Scientist(1867–1934)
Scientist
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win
the award in two different fields — physics and chemistry..
Born
Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie became the
first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two
different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with her husband Pierre Curie,
led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after
Pierre's death, the further development of X-rays. She died on July 4, 1934.
Early Life
Maria
Sklodowska, better known as Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw in modern-day
Poland on November 7, 1867. Her parents were both teachers, and she was the
youngest of five children, following siblings Zosia, Józef, Bronya and Hela. As a child Curie took after her
father, Wladyslaw, a math and physics instructor. She had
a bright and curious mind and excelled at school. But tragedy struck early, and
when she was only 10, Curie lost her mother, Bronislawa, to tuberculosis.
A
top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the men-only University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw's
"floating university," a set of underground, informal classes held in
secret. Both Curie and her sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad to earn
an official degree, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for more
schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out a deal with her sister. She would work
to support Bronya while she was in school and Bronya would return the favor
after she completed her studies.
For
roughly five years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her spare
time to study, reading about physics, chemistry and math. In 1891, Curie
finally made her way to Paris where she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris. She
threw herself into her studies, but this dedication had a personal cost. With
little money, Curie survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes
suffered because of her poor diet.
Curie
completed her master's degree in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in
mathematics the following year. Around this time, she received a commission to
do a study on different
types of steel and their magnetic properties. Curie
needed a lab to work in, and a colleague introduced her to French
physicist Pierre Curie. A romance developed
between the brilliant pair, and they became a scientific dynamic duo. The pair
married on July 26, 1895.
Discoveries
Marie
and Pierre Curie were dedicated scientists and completely devoted to one
another. At first, they worked on separate projects. She was fascinated with
the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that uranium
casts off rays,
weaker rays than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen.
Curie
took Becquerel's work a few steps further, conducting her own experiments on
uranium rays. She discovered that the rays remained constant, no matter the
condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure. This
revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics and Curie herself coined
the word radioactivity to describe the phenomena. Marie and Pierre had a daughter, Irene, in 1897, but their
work didn't slow down.
Pierre
put aside his own work to help Marie with her exploration of radioactivity.
Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive
element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country
of Poland. They also detected the presence of another radioactive material in
the pitchblende, and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had
produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique
chemical element.
Science
Celebrity
Marie
Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel
Prize in physics. She won the prestigious honor along with her husband and
Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. With their Nobel Prize win,
the Curies developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts,
and they used their prize money to continue their research. They welcomed a
second child, daughter Eve, the following year.
In
1906, Marie suffered a tremendous loss. Her husband Pierre was killed in Paris
after he accidentally stepped in front of a horse-drawn wagon. Despite her
tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post at the Sorbonne, becoming the
institution's first female professor.
Curie
received another great honor in 1911, winning her second Nobel Prize, this time
in chemistry. She was selected for her discovery of radium and polonium, and
became the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. While she received the
prize alone, she shared the honor jointly with her late husband in her
acceptance lecture.
Around
this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein
and Max Planck, to attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics. They gathered to discuss the many
groundbreaking discoveries in their field. Curie
experienced the downside of fame in 1911, when her relationship with her
husband's former student, Paul Langevin, became public. Curie was derided in
the press for breaking up Langevin's marriage. The press' negativity
towards Curie stemmed at least in part from rising xenophobia in France.
When
World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping
the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and
these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." After the
war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the
United States twice— in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to
establish a radium research institute in Warsaw.
Final
Days and Legacy
All
of her years of working with radioactive materials took a toll on Curie's
health. She was known
to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. In 1934, Curie went to the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy,
France, to try to rest and regain her strength. She died there on July 4, 1934,
of aplastic anemia, which can be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.
Marie Curie
made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. She is the
most famous female scientist of all time, and has received numerous posthumous
honors. In 1995, her and her husband's remains were interred in the Panthéon in
Paris, the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Curie became the
first and only woman to be laid to rest there.
Curie
also passed down her love of science to the next generation. Her daughter Irène
Joliot-Curie followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared the honor with her husband Frédéric
Joliot for their work on their synthesis of new radioactive elements.
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