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| Fig. 1: Marie Curie in 1903. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Maria Slodowska, more commonly known as Marie Curie, was born on November 7th in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. A photograph of her taken in 1903 is shown in Fig. 1. After receiving her early education from her father, she moved to Paris in 1891 to continue her studies at the Sorbonne, where would earn a degree in Mathematics and Physics. In 1894, Marie would meet her future husband Pierre Curie, a professor in the School of Physics. Marie Slodowska would become Marie Curie as she and Pierre would get married that next year. [1] The Curies would go on to succeed greatly in the field of chemistry as they built off the discovery of Henri Becquerel who discovered radioactivity in 1896. After nine years of marriage, Pierre passed away and Marie succeeded her husband as professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences. [2] She was the first woman to ever hold this position. She went on to be appointed Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, and partake as a member of the Coseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her passing. Despite all of Curie's incredible achievements, she always faced oppression from male scientists and never received great compensation for her work. By the late 1920s, Curie's health started to deteriorate and in 1934, presumably from radiation caused by her research. [3]
After Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896, the Curies made a massive contribution to the field of chemistry. At the start of 1898, the Curies announced their isolation of polonium, named after Marie's home in Poland and later that same year, they also announced their discovery of radium. This research was groundbreaking as Curies methods for the separation of radium allowed for careful study of its properties, especially therapeutic properties. As well, her research was incredibly beneficial during WWI as it was essential in the development of X-rays in surgery. X-Rays, discovered by a German physics professor named Wilhelm Rntgen in 1895, was a ground breaking discovery. X-Rays have wavelengths ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers. [1] Curie, on the other hand, used her newly found element radium to be the γ ray source on X-ray machines. γ-rays generally have a shorter wavelength and higher photon energy than X-rays. These new rays allowed for more accurate measurements than X-rays did. [3] Curie also helped ambulances equip X-ray equipment which she herself would drive to the front lines of war. The Red Cross decided to make Curie head of its radiological service for her bravery and intelligence. [1]
In 1903, for the Curies research into spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, the Curies and Becquerel would split the Nobel Prize for Physics. In 1911, Marie would receive her second Nobel Prize but this time in the field of chemistry in recognition of her research into radioactivity. In addition, in 1903, along with her husband, she received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society and in 1921, President Harding of the USA gifted her with one gram of radium on behalf of the women of America. [1]
© Brandon Lutnick. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] M. B. Ogilvie, Marie Curie: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2004).
[2] D. Brian, The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science (Turner, 2005).
[3] M. Caballero, "Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radioactivity," Physics 241, Stanford University, Winter 2016.
