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Marie Curie
-Life and achievementsThe Childhood
Manya Sklodowska, future Marie Curie, was born the 7th November 1867 in an
old neighborhood of Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest out of the 5 children the
physics professor Sklodowski had. She grew up surrounded by her family’s love and was
an incredibly sensible child: having learnt to read faster than her older sister, Bronia, and
seeing that this upset her, Manya burst into tears and apologized as if she had done
something wrong.
At school she was the best in her class and was the one her teacher would always
bring upfront whenever the severe Russian inspector came. From a young age Manya
faced the tsarist oppression as her father was not as obedient as the officialities wanted
him to be. This is the main reason why the Sklodowska family came to encounter
poverty, Manya’s mother being obliged to manufacture the children’s footwear.
The years to come would be dark ones: when Manya was 9 her sister died and
later on, when she was 11 her beloved mother passed away. This unfortunate childhood
brought Manya closer to her sister Bronia and her father, with whom she had long
discussions on scientific topics.
After the dark years of childhood Manya enjoyed a happy teenage .At the age of
16 she finishes her secondary school and is awarded the golden medal for her
achievements. At this point her father decides it’s time for her to spend a year in the
country-side before she settles her mind about a career. This year would be the happiest
period in her life, as she would later admit.
Her Youth
In September 1884 Manya returns home and regains her passionate intellectual
life but as her family is having financial problems, she begins tutoring, for a living. At 18,
Manya takes a heroic decision for such a young girl: she accepts a spot as a nanny, in
order to help Bronia with her school tuitions, as she was studying in Paris. Bronia
promised she would help Manya get into Sorbonne, so it was a fair trade. At first thing
were pretty sour and painful as a nanny: “I’ve learnt here to know people better. I’ve
found that heroes in novels do exist and that you mustn’t come into contact with people
that fortune and wealth have distorted.” She leaves Warsaw and works at another family,
in the countryside. This time she feels welcome into the family, and even falls in love
with the eldest brother. The 2 lovebirds decide to get married but the boy’s parents
refuse: “You won’t marry a nanny! “. Manya feels redemption as she finds out her sister,
Hela, broke her engagement due to the same social status reasons. “You make a good
impression of people indeed: if they don’t want to marry young girls with no fortune, to
hell with them! nobody asked them…but why is there a need for insults, why torment an
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innocent girl’s soul?”The most painful thing for her is the fact that she lost her
confidence, as she wrote on the 10th December 1887:”My plans for the future are as
modest as they get: my dream is to have a corner of my own, where I could live with
dad”. “There were moments I consider amongst the most painful of my entire life. I felt
everything in a violent way, with great physical violence, but then I shake, because my
vigorous nature is stronger and I feel I’ve woken up from a nightmare…a principle is not
to let yourself knocked down nor by people nor by events.”
Meanwhile, Bronia marries one of her colleagues and invites Manya to stay with
them, and therefore achieving her dream of studying at Sorbonne. Manya rushes to start a
new life, to follow her scientific urge. She feels she’s dreaming as she crosses the
doorstep of Sorbonne, when she attend the courses of Paul Appell (mathematics), Gabriel
Flippant and Edmond Bonty (physics). Manya works hard to complete her knowledge,
and by this time she reads until midnight, works all day and feeds herself poorly, as she
has only 40 rubles per month spending money. All these are not enough to take her down;
as she is fueled by the joy her work gave her, and the thrill of meeting famous physicians
like Aime Cotton, Jean Perrin, and Charles Maurain. At her exams she is the headliner: in
1893 she is the first at the license exam for physics and in 1884 she takes the second
place in the license exam for mathematics. Earning these titles meant that she could now
search for a job and maybe conduct the scientific research she has been dreaming about.
Madame Curie
At the same time, she meets Pierre Curie, a
most renowned physician: he passed the baccalaureate
at 16, was licensed at 18,at 22 he was already working
at Sorbonne and at 24 he was chief of experiments at
Paris’s school for physics and chemistry, where he had
the opportunity of conducting numerous experiments.
When he meets Manya, Pierre, who thought geniuswomen are rare and that “when we dedicate all our
thoughts to something, we have to fight women”, has
the most pleasant surprise of finding Manya to be the
one who shares both his scientific dreams and his
happiness dreams. In order not to lose such a woman,
after a few weeks after their first meeting, Pierre
proposes to Manya.
Pierre and Manya’s marriage was a happy one:”
We were very united, both of us being interested in any
theoretical aspect or practical one, courses and exams
preparation .For 11 years we almost never separated”
said Marie Curie. Their relationship was not only a
sentimental one, but also one between two elite researchers, who had the joy of being the
first ones to step into a new field of science: radioactivity.
The laboratory
As Manya Sklodowska, now Marie Curie, was on the lookout for a subject for her
thesis, her attention was grabbed by Mr. Becquerel’s recent discovery of substances that
emit radiations. Marie had the idea of examining metal minerals. Thus she found that
minerals such as: pehblend , orangite, contain uranium and are much more active than
pure uranium (for example pehblend is 3 times more active). In this aspect, the Curies
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decide to study the radioactive elements contained in pehblend ( U3O8), Pierre leaving
aside all his other experiments. It wasn’t long before they discover 2 new elements :
polonium and radium. In a note presented before the Academy of Science on the 26th
December they stated: “We have obtained chlorites of this substance that are 900 times
more active than pure radium. Mr. Demarcay was kind enough to examine a line in the
substance’s scepter that was proven not to belong to any known element.” Although
radium’s existence was demonstrated, the element had not yet been isolated and its pure
mass was unknown. In this aspect Jean Perrin, Nobel Prize laureate, said: “In this
collaboration Mrs. Curie’s own influence is remarkable. Pierre Curie was more of a
physician and was greater interested in the radiation’s proprieties, and was not interested
in the efforts of obtaining a <flacon>, as chemists say. This effort is due to Mrs. Curie’s
stubbornness and perseverance. It would not be exaggerated to say that this is the
foundation of the edifice of radioactivity as science.
The extraction of radium from one of the most complex minerals was not an easy
task by far…it was not one that could be done in a lab either, it belonged to industry.
Marie Curie did not have an adequate laboratory where she could conduct her
experiments under normal conditions. She conducted the chemical part of their research
and this means she handled the manipulation of raw materials and would often carry up
to 20 kgs. The conditions in her so-called-laboratory were inhumane too: apart from the
toxic atmosphere she had to endure temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius for up to a few
days in a row.
Little Irene
12th September 1897: little Irene Curie is born, just before the discovery of radium
(12th may 1898). Since then, Marie had to handle two simultaneous hard but passionate
tasks, taking care of her children: Irene and the radium. Both of them were exhausting but
Marie showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever. In October 1900 Marie Curie is appointed
physics professor at Sevres, replacing Lucien Poincare. She did not have her doctorate
degree yet, and further more the courses of a female professor were sensational at that
time in history, but her discovery of radium was all the proof they needed to recommend
her for the position.
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Revolutionizing Sevres
This young woman, of an unbelievable shyness, who wanted to pass unnoticed,
attracted attention everywhere she went and opened new doors for women. Mrs. Curie
taught physics to 1st and 2nd year students and had a very powerful connection with her
students, being a true road model for them: “Mrs. Curie’s classes enlightened us. She
dizzied us and gave us confidence; she attracted us with her simplicity, sensibility, wish
to of as much use to us as possible and with her sense of both our unawareness and
potential”. Marie Curie fascinated her students because she made herself easily
understood and because she dramatically increased the number of practical lessons, prior
to whom the students did not have access. The students now actually participated in
experiments, not just watching from behind their desks.
Mrs. Curie did not look after her students only intellectually, as she had a very
developed sense of justice: she organized the reform that did not oblige girls to take more
exams than the others. Together with Paul Appell they were the first professors who
fought against gender discrimination in these schools and were the ones who succeed in
ending this unjust situation.
Toys and prizes
In the fall of 1903 the Curies received the Davy golden medal on behalf of the
Royal Society, and Irene took the medal as “the pretty new toy coin”. Almost
simultaneous the Curies find out they have been awarded, together with Henry Becquerel,
the Nobel Prize for physics.
This is a time of changes in the Curie family. At first they seem to be for the
better, because for the first time the Curies can afford a nanny, to travel more and even to
go to the theatre more often. The downside of this is their lack of intimacy, which they
loved so much: they are assaulted by reporters, by letters and even Irene can’t play in the
park anymore as she is questioned by everyone.
Death on more than four wheels
“Marie Curie followed her husband’s coffin to the pit. There she sat a moment
frozen, with the same fixed and harsh look ; but when someone brought a bouquet of
flowers and placed it near the coffin she grabbed it with a sudden movement and started
tearing the flowers apart one by one and throwing them on the coffin. She did this slowly,
organized, looking as if she had forgotten about anyone around her, who, moved by her
action, did not move a finger. The ceremony master thought righteous to tell her it was
time to receive condolences. Then, letting the bouquet fall to the ground, she left the
grave and without any word returned by her father-in-law”. These are the words written
in a Parisian newspaper on the 22nd April 1906, words that managed to shock and sadden
the entire world.
When Marie Curie was announced that Pierre had been hit by a truck and died,
could not conceive this and asked, waiting to be argued with: “Pierre is dead…for ever?”
Hard times followed for Marie: the bond with her husband was so powerful that
Marie suddenly found herself in a frightening loneliness. Even her friends found
themselves to be indiscrete when trying to share her pain, a pain which she wanted to
handle alone:
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“I walk down the street as if I’m hypnotized, without caring for anything. I will
not commit suicide, because I don’t even have that wish; but amongst all those trucks
isn’t there one that would make me have the same destiny as my lover?”
“I will tell you I don’t even like nor the sun nor flowers: simply seeing them
makes me suffer, as I feel better when the weather is cloudy, just like the day you died.
And if I don’t hate good weather it’s because my children need it”.
These somber statements are pierced by a ray light, her children, who are too young to
understand her pain, but who need her more than ever. Marie Curie refuses the financial
support offered by the government to her as well as to Pasteur’s widow.
Comeback
On the 13th May 1906 the Council of the Faculty of Science in Paris decides to
keep Pierre Curie’s desk at Sorbonne and give it to Marie Curie, who gladly accepts,
wanting to be closer to everything her husband loved and wanting to continue his work.
At this point she decides “whatever happens, even if I were a soulless body, I must work
no matter the cost” .
In the same fall as Pierre’s death Marie teaches her first lesson at Sorbonne,
where she is the first woman to become professor. She continues her research as well,
proving everyone who said she was merely Pierre’s assistant that they were wrong. Her
classes in Sorbonne are very reputed and in 1908 she becomes titular, while her
researches conclude in a flacon of pure radium – the future etalon of radioactivity.
The whole world admires the polish scientist, multiple universities awarding her
with the title Doctor Honoris Causa. Furthermore, in 1911, the Academy of Science in
Stockholm awards her the second Nobel Prize, for chemistry, for the preparation of a
flacon of pure radium.
Samples of radium containments
The first world war
During all this time, Irene grows fonder of her mother’s world. At 17, Irene looks
after her little sister, as their mother is too busy caring the wounded. Upon her mother’s
return, Irene and Marie help doctors moving and setting up the x-ray machines, as well as
training the personnel needed to operate them. The connection between Marie and Irene
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develops, becoming best friends too, thus preparing the tight collaboration which will
later on manifest in the Radium Institute.
The Radium Institute
The Radium Institute was founded by Marie
Curie as a temple of science and an eulogy for
Pierre. Here young students had the opportunity
to conduct scientific research under the
supervision of Marie Curie. She was not just the
director of this institute, she was a relentless
researcher herself, enduring fatigue, hunger and
all the other unimportant aspects of the human
body. It is this spirit of sacrifice and her capability
to completely depersonalize and focus of her
entire soul upon the thing that she’s doing that
sets Marie Curie apart from the rest of the world,
for she is truly unique and a fighter in the true
meaning of the word.
The new substances
Marie Curie and her husband showed that out of pehblend (U3O8), by strictly
chemical procedures, a radioactive substance can be extracted. They suggested that the
substance might actually be a new chemical element, for which they proposed the name
of polonium. Shortly after, during research, they encountered a second substance, very
radioactive and completely different from the first. The chemical proprieties of the
second substance were identical to those of barium, thus they enounced a demonstration
in favor of discovering a new element:
1. Barium and its compounds are not usually radioactive, while the Curies
demonstrated that radioactivity is an atomic propriety that persists in any
chemical or physical form of matter.
2. The first substances, in the form of hydrated chlorates, had a radioactivity 60
times greater than that of pure uranium. By dissolving these in water and by
precipitating the alcohol, the precipitated part is far more active than the dissolved
part. In this manner the Curies have obtained hydrated chlorates that were 900
times more active than uranium. Thus the radioactivity is explained by the
presence of a radioactive element, whose chlorate is less soluble in alkalized
water than barium’s.
3. Being asked, Mr. Demarcay analyzed the chemical scepter of the substances the
Curies sent him. He found a barely visible line when he analyzed the substance
60x more active, while at the 900x more active substance the line in the scepter
was very clear. Thus the intensity of the line is proportional with the radioactivity.
Considering these rock-solid arguments the Curies decided to name the new element
Radium.
Curiosity: By placing some active substance (polonium/radium) on a sleek layer of aluminum, over which a
thin layer of barium platocyanide, the platocyanide will appear to glow, in the dark. By this means a source
of light that uses no energy is built. This is in total contradiction to Carnod’s theories.
Iulia Rasinar & Radu Gadei
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