Marie Curie 1911 (63)

Marie Curie 1911 (63)

Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, in what was then the Russian Empire, with Poland having been divided up amongst various European nations due to war and subsequent treaties. When she was only 10 years old her mother died of tuberculosis, a short time after her elder sister had died of typhus. Despite this setback, Marie struggled on with her studies, graduating high school at age 15 with impressive marks. Soon after graduation however, she succumbed to depression and had to take a year off, staying with relatives in the countryside.

Marie’s collaboration with her husband, Pierre Curie, was instrumental in their groundbreaking research on radioactivity — a term they coined. This collaboration would prove to be influential in the world of science, underlining the power of intellectual synergy.

Beyond her significant contributions to science, Marie Curie set an example for women in academia, becoming the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win in two different sciences. Her life serves as a beacon of resilience, intellect, and dedication.

Marie Curie’s life story is a powerful narrative of relentless dedication to scientific discovery, even in the face of adversity. Her journey underscores the impact that passion, hard work, and collaboration can have on advancing human knowledge.

As we chart our own paths, let Curie’s perseverance inspire us to overcome obstacles and continue seeking knowledge. Her legacy serves as a reminder that curiosity and determination can illuminate the darkest corners of our understanding, forever altering the landscape of human achievement.

Madame Marie Curie is a scientific icon remembered for her pioneering work in the field of radiation research. She discovered Radium and Polonium, defining their atomic weight and their place in the periodic system, and she was the first to discover methods for extracting pure Radium salts and metal. Marie Curie, who first coined the term “radioactivity”, was key in developing methods for quantitatively measuring radioactivity and for discovering its effect on living cells. Curie was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, first in 1903 in Physics and then again in 1911 in the field of Chemistry. She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, and along with Linus Pauling, is one of only two to have done so in two separate fields. In addition, Curie was the first woman in history to earn a Ph.D. at a French university. She is in general remembered for her scientific brilliance and for her diligence and perseverance in the face of tremendous discrimination and hardship.

The Curies became research workers at the School of Chemistry and Physics in Paris. It was here that they began the work in the field of radioactive substances, recently discovered by Henri Becquerel.  He found that rays of Uranium passed through solid matter.  Marie noticed that samples of the mineral called pitchblende, containing uranium ore, were much more radioactive than the pure element uranium.  Marie was therefore convinced that she had discovered a new chemical element, but other scientists doubted her results.  Using acids to distill this unknown element, they eventually extracted a black powder 330 times more radioactive than uranium, which they named polonium.  It earned its place as number 84 on the elemental table.

After having extracted polonium from the pitchblende, they realized that the liquid leftover after its removal was still radioactive.  Further investigation revealed the presence of a substance they named radium.  The work required to extract radium was physically demanding, and being radioactive, we can only assume their symptoms of ill-health were symptoms of radiation sickness.  In 1911, Sorbonne built its own radium institute for studying radioactivity and the treatment of cancer.  During World War 1 Marie Curie developed the first mobile X-Ray unit used to diagnose injuries on the battlefields.

She received numerous awards, prizes, and honorary degrees for her contributions to cancer research and imaging technology.

“A triumph for heritage preservation! Marie Curie’s Paris lab, where the Polish-born Nobel laureate pioneered groundbreaking research, gets a reprieve from demolition. Let’s keep the legacy of this extraordinary scientist alive!” he wrote. However, activist Baptiste Gianeselli, a key figure in the campaign to save the laboratory and have it listed as a historic monument, said the fight is not over.

Marie Curie had no intention of settling down to a traditional life of wife and mother however. Instead she set out to earn her doctorate -– a thing utterly unheard of in France at that time. Pierre’s father moved in to help with Irène, and Marie found her imagination fired by the field of radiation research, only just then discovered by Henri Becquerel and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Because so much attention was already on Röntgen’s X-rays, she turned her attention to Uranium radiation reported by Becquerel, of which almost nothing was known at the time.

Working in the lab she shared with Pierre, she soon discovered that the level of radiation emitted depended only on the quantity of the Uranium contained in a compound, and not on the types of other elements that the compound contained. This meant that the “radioactivity”, as she dubbed it, was not the result of a reaction between elements, but was instead the result of something going on within the Uranium atoms themselves.

At the same time that Marie was discovering additional radioactive properties—and elements. She found that like Uranium, Thorium also emitted radiation. And as she and Pierre began working together, isolating radioactive elements from a Uranium ore compound called “pitchblende”, they managed to uncover two entirely new elements, each highly radioactive. These they named “Radium” and “Polonium”, the latter in honor of Marie’s native Poland. Their groundbreaking work on the elements and their properties, and their research into potential applications, brought them much needed funding from industry and earned them the Nobel Prize for physics. In addition, Marie earned her doctorate degree, becoming the first woman in France to achieve that distinction.

But on 19 April 1906, tragedy struck: Pierre slipped and fell in the street, and his head was crushed under the wheels of a heavy wagon, killing him instantly. Somehow, despite the blow, Marie managed to persevere, bringing her attention back to her research and to the constant effort to find funding. Then, in a surprise move, the Sorbonne offered her Pierre’s former post in the Physics department, making Marie their first female professor. Respect for her work continued to grow, especially her work developing methods for Radium extraction, and in she was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time entirely on her own right.

On 4 July 1934, at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France at the age of 66, Marie Curie died. The cause of her death was given as aplastic pernicious anaemia, a condition she developed after years of exposure to radiation through her work.