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Marie Curie: A Life
From Beginning to End
(Biographies of Women in History)
Hourly History
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" ... That’s not to say the Curies didn’t experience professional conflict. Scientists make their name by proving their theories first. There were other scientists working on radioactivity who disagreed with the Curies’ hypotheses or sought to undermine their efforts. Of course, Marie also experienced prejudice for the simple fact of her being a woman. Initially the Nobel Prize committee intended to offer the prize to Pierre and Henri alone.
"In 1903, four leading scientists, Marie’s former mentor Gabriel Lippmann amongst them, wrote a nominating letter that ignored Marie’s contribution to the discovery of radium and polonium. The letter described how Pierre and Henri had worked side by side to come to their discovery. They wrote, “it appears impossible for us to separate the names of the two physicists, and therefore we do not hesitate to propose to you that the Nobel Prize be shared between Mr. Becquerel and Mr. Curie.”
"One lone committee member, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, came to Marie’s defense. His criticism, combined with a strongly-worded complaint from Pierre, was successful, and the committee added Marie’s name to the nomination. In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize. She would remain the only female Nobel laureate in the sciences until 1935 when her daughter followed in her trail-blazing footsteps."
Humanity owes gratitude to Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, for this, as much as for his work in mathematics - and to Pierre Curie, for his support for Marie Curie!
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"“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
"—Marie Curie"
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Here, author begins lying after the first sentence.
"Maria Sklodowska, later Marie Curie, was born near the ancient center of Warsaw on November 7, 1867. ... "
So far, fine. But -
" ... From the moment of her birth, Curie joined the Polish struggle for independence from the oppressive rule of Russia’s tsars. ... "
How's that, exactly? It's a lie, except the author wishes to emphasise the fact that Poland was then ruled by Russia and Polish people weren't happy about it.
But this has been the history of Poland for most of its history, ruled by either Germany or Russia, even before Germany was united.
" ... The Sklodowskis were zealous patriots and passionate intellectuals. As a result, Curie developed a deep love for her homeland and a respect for education that would influence the rest of her illustrious life.
"Occupied Warsaw in the late nineteenth century was not an easy place for a young Polish woman to pursue her dreams. In her quest for education and a career that would grant her independence, Curie came up against significant obstacles. Her mother died when she was ten years old, leaving an emotional wound that would never fully heal. The Sklodowski family was not wealthy, and there was no way to pay for young Curie to study overseas. As women were not permitted to study at Polish universities, Curie carried out her own higher education in secret."
Here, for some reason, author blanks out the most obvious known fact, of her father encouraging and supporting two daughters and providing the inspiration for education and excellence in academic pursuit.
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"It’s surprising to learn that Curie worked as a governess during her early adult years. She had to earn a living, and with no outlet for her scientific genius, she lived in the homes of wealthier families and taught their children to read and write. When Curie moved to Paris and enrolled in the University of Paris, she continued to struggle to make ends meet. Living alone in a freezing garret, Curie still later looked back on her student years as some of her happiest."
Why is it surprising? This was one of the few ways a respectable young unmarried woman of middle class with strained circumstances could help her family make ends meet.
"Even after Curie had made the incredible discoveries of two radioactive elements, she had to fight for recognition. The spoils of fame never interested Curie, only the funding she might secure to improve her lab, hire assistants, and continue her work uninterrupted. Known for her modest lifestyle, any money Curie had left over from prizes and awards she gave to her friends and family. She converted her second Nobel Prize winnings into French war bonds during World War I and lost everything. Curie and her husband, Pierre, declined to patent the radium-isolation process. Their hope was that radiology could do more good in the world if it could be developed without restrictions."
That fight for recognition was chiefly due to misogyny on part of West, unwilling to admit that women were no less than males, due to an abrahmic creed imposed on society and Inquisition having terrified society for centuries.
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"Family also meant the world to Curie, and the Sklodowski siblings were remarkably close throughout their lives. Irene and Eve, Curie’s loving daughters, had the utmost respect for their mother and worked hard to preserve her legacy.
"Despite the prejudice that surrounded her, Curie’s genius shone through. Marie Curie developed the theory of radioactivity and discovered two new elements. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first and only person to win twice in two different sciences. The world Curie left behind was better—for Poles, for women, and for scientists—than the one she had been born into. In her life and work, Marie Curie created that positive change."
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"“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"Maria Salomea Sklodowska was born on November 7, 1867. Both of her parents, Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski, were teachers in Warsaw, then a part of the Russian Empire. Bronislawa was a pious woman, and the Sklodowskis named their fifth child after Mary, the Black Virgin of Czestochowa, a symbol of both intense Catholic faith and Polish national pride."
"Black Virgin"????
Is that one of the rare recognitions of the fact that church worships a son of a Jewish, West Asian woman?
Or is this from an earlier religion that church conceals by pretending that all those deities in grottos across Europe are nothing but the said Jewish woman, mother of the king of Jews?
Just as the church took over Saturnalia, when people of Europe wouldn't stop celebrating it, and so church thereafter lied, and pretended ever since then, that it's the birthday of their object of worship, which in fact was months away.
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"Curie referred to her mother’s death as “the first great sorrow of my life,” and she struggled for years with a profound depression caused by her loss. At the time of her mother’s death, Curie was attending the private school of Madame Jadwiga Sikorska. Here, the staff and students lived a double life with two different schedules. One schedule was in Russian and included the subjects the authorities chose. The other was the real schedule that included Polish language studies, history, and geography. The whole school collaborated in this illusion and lived in a state of constant alertness against inspection by the Russian authorities.
"Already overwhelmed by the death of her mother, Curie began to struggle at school. She was an exceptional student, but the emotional toll of their shared deception gave her anxiety and she would regularly break down in lessons. Madame Sikorska suggested that Wladyslaw take Maria out of school for a year before the fourth grade. Instead, Wladyslaw took the unexpected measure of sending his daughter to the government-run Gymnasium Number Three in Warsaw. Writing about her years at the gymnasium after the fact, Curie described them as unbearable. She and her classmates “lost all joy of life, and precious feelings of distrust and indignation weighed upon their childhood.”
"Yet in a letter written while she was at the gymnasium, Curie described enjoying school. With her friend Kazia, Curie found ways to undermine Russian oppression and continued her studies of Polish subjects and language. She graduated from Gymnasium Number Three in 1883. Like her sister Bronia and brother Jozef before her, she finished first in her class and was awarded the gold medal."
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"“All that I saw and learned that was new delighted me. It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at least permitted to know at liberty.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"Marie wrote of the first time she ever saw Pierre. He was standing in a French window opening onto a balcony. She wrote, “He seemed to me very young, though he was at that time 35 years old. I was struck by the open expression of his face and by the slight suggestion of detachment in his whole attitude. His speech, rather slow and deliberate, his simplicity, and his smile, at once grave and youthful, inspired confidence.”
"Marie and Pierre had much in common—their upbringings, their financial troubles, their views on religion and politics, and their passion for their work. Before long, Pierre and Marie were in love. Pierre made his intentions clear and asked Marie to marry him. Later, he told her that asking him to marry her was the only act he had performed in his life without hesitation. Marie’s painful experience with Kazimierz Zorawski and her love of her Polish homeland both gave her pause. She had always imagined that if she married she would marry a fellow Pole.
"Marie spent the summer of 1894 back in Poland, during which time she and Pierre exchanged many letters. Pierre’s aim was to convince Marie to move in with him in Paris and marry him. But Marie was reluctant to give up her precious independence, and on her return to Paris she moved into another apartment alone.
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"However, in the summer of 1895, soon after Pierre earned his Ph.D. and presented ground-breaking work on magnetism, Marie wrote to her family to announce hers and Pierre’s engagement. Things moved quickly. Pierre was granted a professorship at the Sorbonne, and on July 26, 1895, Pierre and Marie were married. The wedding took place at the Sceaux Town Hall in a no-frills ceremony during which Marie wore a simple navy blue suit—the same outfit she later came to wear as a laboratory uniform. Marie’s father and sisters, Helena and Bronia, came to the wedding and the joyful reception took place at the Curie home. Afterward, Marie and Pierre set off to Brittany for their honeymoon, bringing their new matching bicycles with them.
"The first years of the Curie marriage were spent working, enjoying dinners with the Physics Society, the occasional trip to the theatre, and riding their beloved bicycles. Unless they were at their separate places of work, Marie and Pierre did everything together. Marie studied for a teaching certificate that would allow her to work in French secondary schools. She also always continued with her own studies.
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"In the spring of 1897, Marie discovered she was pregnant. Irene Curie was born on September 12, 1897, a healthy 6.6 pounds in weight. Marie hired a wet nurse for Irene and began recording data on Irene’s development in a dedicated notebook. After Irene’s birth, things changed dramatically for the Curies. Marie was now a qualified teacher and worked at the École Normale Supérieure. She also published her first article in the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry on the magnetism of tempered steel. Then, with Pierre’s encouragement, Marie decided it was time she began her own original research in pursuit of a doctorate.
"Curie was intrigued by a recent discovery. Uranium minerals, it seemed, gave off peculiar rays. While the rest of the population indulged in the café culture and lavish entertainments of fin de siècle Paris, Marie stayed in her laboratory. Here, she made it her mission to discover the nature of these uranium rays and their source."
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"“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"At the turn of the nineteenth century, Europe was in thrall to the latest scientific and technological sensations. In 1891, electricity came to the streets of Paris and replaced the city’s gas street lamps. The telephone, the motion picture, steam-powered machinery, and indoor plumbing changed the lives of ordinary Parisians. Anything seemed possible, and the atmosphere in what many believed was the most modern city in the world was electric.
"In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German professor, discovered the existence of x-rays. Within a year, several scientists had discovered the nature of these rays; x-rays are electromagnetic rays identical to those that make up visible light, only shorter. In Paris, the scientific community dedicated itself to exploring the possibilities of this discovery. In 1896, one hundred papers were presented to the Academy of Sciences (also known as “the Institute”) on the subject of x-rays.
"Meanwhile, Curie’s attention was drawn to another recently discovered phenomenon—that of uranium rays. She began her research on Becquerel rays, named after the scientist who discovered them, in the winter of 1897. Rather than using the state of the art equipment available to her at the Sorbonne, Curie set up a lab in a storage space on the ground floor of Pierre’s school. Here she could work uninterrupted, without the interference of her professors and with the support of her more experienced husband.
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"Using sensitive scientific measuring instruments, some of which were devised by Pierre, the Curies set about determining the ionizing power of various elements. Had Marie stayed with elements and not moved on to other impure substances, she may never have made her famous discovery.
"In February 1898, Curie tested a sample of pitchblende. Chemist Martin Heinrich had discovered that pitchblende contained uranium in 1789. But it was Curie who determined that pitchblende contained another radioactive element, something that was able to produce an electrical current four times that of uranium itself. She also tested chalcocite and found similar results. Curie came to the surprising conclusion that she had discovered a mystery element that was far more active than uranium.
"By March, Pierre was so intrigued by his wife’s research that he abandoned his own work on crystals and joined her. There was only one way to prove Marie’s hypothesis. The Curies had to attempt to isolate this new element by chemical means. Marie and Pierre got hold of 100 grams of pitchblende and attacked it with various chemicals. By the end of 1898, the Curies were confident that they could prove the existence of not one but two brand new highly active elements.
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"Marie offered a brief account of her research to the Institute in April of 1898. In July, the Curies announced their discovery of polonium, a new metal element named after Marie’s country of birth. The Institute took notice of the Curies’ ground-breaking work and awarded Marie the 3,800-franc Prix Gegner. By December, the Curies had announced the discovery of a second element, radium.
"In 1899, Marie set about the formidable task of isolating polonium and radium. She carried out the chemical experiments while Pierre took on the role of physicist and explored the phenomenon of radioactivity. The Curies worked from a hangar at the School of Physics and Chemistry at Sorbonne where Pierre still worked as a professor. The space was large but ill-equipped as a laboratory. There was no hood to carry away poisonous gases caused by Marie’s chemical treatments and the roof let in water when it rained.
"Using ten tons of pitchblende, a by-product of uranium extraction, Marie and Pierre used differential crystallization to separate out radium salt. It took three years, but Marie succeeded in isolating pure radium and establishing a method for doing so later used in industry. With one ton of pitchblende, the Curies could create one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride in 1902. It wasn’t until 1910 that Marie was finally able to isolate pure radium metal. Unfortunately, not long after Marie’s success in the laboratory, she lost her father. She was devastated as she hadn’t been able to return to Warsaw to see him before he died.
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"Throughout these four years of toil, the Curies published their findings. A total of 32 scientific papers were submitted to the Institute under the Curie name, either as individuals or as a couple. As neither scientist was a member of the Institute at the time, the Curies could not present their findings in person. But in 1900 the Curies presented their research on radioactivity to a gathering of leading scientists at the International Congress of Physics in Paris. Also in 1900, Marie joined the faculty at the École Normale Supérieure. She became the first woman ever to teach at that institution, and Pierre joined the faculty at the Sorbonne. Despite difficult working conditions and constant homesickness, Marie looked back on these years as a happy time.
"At this point, no one knew that radium and polonium could be dangerous. The Curies mailed samples of luminous radium to scientists all over the world, and Marie carried a test tube of radium salts in her pocket. In 1901, Pierre published a paper describing an experiment on radioactive exposure’s effects on the skin. Pierre taped a piece of radioactive barium to his arm and left it there for ten hours. Reporting on the effect of the barium on his skin, he described a burn that worsened over time and took more than two months to heal. The Curies did notice that handling radioactive materials caused inflammation in their hands but thought little of it. The damage, they supposed, was superficial."
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"“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"In 1903, Curie finally got around to writing her dissertation which the Sorbonne faculty approved in May. In June, she defended her dissertation in the student’s hall of the Sorbonne. This was a celebratory event with many well-wishing friends and family in attendance. The Curies were then invited to give a speech at the Royal Society in London. The Society did not allow women to speak, ... "
Height of misogyny!
" ... so Pierre took to the stage alone and described the research he and Marie had carried out in depth."
What if, like many other males, he were not so gracious?
How many women had their work simply stolen by males?
"This happy time turned to tragedy when, in August 1903, Marie suffered a miscarriage five months into her second pregnancy. She was ill for the whole summer, but before long the Curies’ fortunes had turned again. In November 1903, a friend informed Marie in the strictest confidence that she, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel had won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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"Marie and Pierre had a reputation for butting heads with the scientific establishment in France. The idea that the French institutions rejected the Curies and treated them poorly is an enduring part of their legend. In reality the situation was more complex. The Curies received financial support from the Institute over many years, and some members supported their work. What the Curies needed was a suitable lab in which to work, but the Institute would not stretch to this expenditure. That’s not to say the Curies didn’t experience professional conflict. Scientists make their name by proving their theories first. There were other scientists working on radioactivity who disagreed with the Curies’ hypotheses or sought to undermine their efforts. Of course, Marie also experienced prejudice for the simple fact of her being a woman. Initially the Nobel Prize committee intended to offer the prize to Pierre and Henri alone.
"In 1903, four leading scientists, Marie’s former mentor Gabriel Lippmann amongst them, wrote a nominating letter that ignored Marie’s contribution to the discovery of radium and polonium. The letter described how Pierre and Henri had worked side by side to come to their discovery. They wrote, “it appears impossible for us to separate the names of the two physicists, and therefore we do not hesitate to propose to you that the Nobel Prize be shared between Mr. Becquerel and Mr. Curie.”
"One lone committee member, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, came to Marie’s defense. His criticism, combined with a strongly-worded complaint from Pierre, was successful, and the committee added Marie’s name to the nomination. In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize. She would remain the only female Nobel laureate in the sciences until 1935 when her daughter followed in her trail-blazing footsteps."
Humanity owes gratitude to Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, for this, as much as for his work in mathematics - and to Pierre Curie, for his support for Marie Curie!
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"The Nobel committee invited the Curies to Stockholm to receive their prize, but they declined. Marie’s health was still precarious, and both Curies were too dedicated to their work to make the journey at that time. But what seemed like a reasonable excuse to the Curies read as an affront by the Nobel committee. Perhaps the committee had a point—Pierre could have received the honor without Marie. However, it’s also possible the Curies didn’t realize at that point how important the prize would become. The Nobel Prize was established only two years before, in 1901.
"As a result of their Nobel Prize win, the Curies became famous. The Institute was much maligned in the press for its lack of support of the marvelous Curies. Sometimes writers diminished Marie’s role, sometimes they rejected her as a foreigner, and other times they claimed her as French. Marie was, according to one newspaper, “born Polish and . . . is French by adoption.” Seeing their names in the newspapers, whether in a positive or negative light, disturbed the Curies. Inundated with requests to photograph and interview them, all Marie and Pierre wanted to do was be left alone to work. The Curies received journalists who would not take no for an answer; these encounters always made their way into the newspapers.
"In December 1904, Marie gave birth to a healthy daughter she named Eve. And by 1905, the Curies could put it off no longer and finally accepted an invitation to go to Stockholm to deliver a lecture and collect their award money. The prize money allowed the Curies to hire a laboratory assistant for the first time and make some improvements to their home. The Curies also donated large sums of money to various worthy enterprises, including a sanatorium ran by Marie’s sister Bronia in Zakopane and aid for poor Polish students.
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"The recognition that came with winning the Nobel Prize brought more significant benefits to the Curies’ careers than money. In 1905, the Sorbonne gave Pierre a professorship and the chair of Physics. Later, Pierre was awarded a seat at the Institute. Despite these notable accolades, the Curies were still working without a proper laboratory, an issue the Sorbonne finally agreed to address.
"But before the Curies could enjoy the first fit-for-purpose laboratory, the unthinkable happened. On Thursday, April 19, 1906, Pierre attended a meeting of the Association of Professors of the Science Faculties at a hotel on rue Danton. Following the meeting, Pierre walked with his friend Jean Perrin back towards the Latin Quarter. Pierre left Jean and walked off in the direction of the Institute library. It was raining, and Pierre hurried toward his destination, crossing the rue Dauphine with his head down. A pair of horses pulling a 6,000-kilo laden wagon collided with Pierre, knocking him to the ground. The driver tried to jerk his horses to the left to avoid Pierre, but one of the rear wheels of his wagon rolled directly over Pierre’s skull. He died instantly."
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"Curie learned of her husband’s death at around 7 pm. She had spent the day at Fontenay-aux-Roses with her daughter Irene and returned to find Dean of Faculty of Sciences Paul Appell waiting in her home. Recalling that terrible night in her journal, Curie wrote, “I enter the room. Someone says: ‘He is dead.’ Can one comprehend such words? . . . I repeat your name again and always, ‘Pierre, Pierre, Pierre, my Pierre,’ alas that doesn’t make him come back, he is gone forever, leaving me nothing but desolation and despair.”
"Over subsequent days, Curie spent hours in the room with Pierre’s body as relatives and friends arrived at their home to see him. On Saturday, April 21, 1906, Pierre was buried at the cemetery in Sceaux. The ceremony was small with only a few invited guests. Tributes flooded in from fellow scientists and admirers of Pierre who wanted to pass on their condolences. When writing her autobiography, Curie said that in losing Pierre she also lost all hope and all support for the rest of her life.
"Shortly after Pierre’s death, the physics department at Sorbonne made the decision to pass the chair they had created for Pierre on to Marie. This was a momentous act as no woman had ever been appointed to teach at the Sorbonne, let alone occupy a chair there. However, there was dissent in the ranks of the science faculty over this decision and a compromise was reached. Marie would not occupy Pierre’s chair but she would be named chargé de cours and director of his laboratory, a chair in duties but not in name. On November 5, 1906, Marie Curie became the first female professor at the Sorbonne.
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"In September 1910, Marie, Paul, and Jean Perrin attended the International Congress of Radiology and Electricity in Paris, traveling separately. Perhaps brought on by the stress of the situation, Marie was ill and unable to take part in any social engagements. The Congress decided that Marie should prepare the international standard for radium against which all other samples of radium would be measured. This was a great honor. The unit of measurement was named a “curie” in honor of her and the late Pierre Curie."
"With the stress of her unconventional private life ongoing, Marie made her famous bid for admittance to the French Academy of Sciences. Marie was the only Nobel Prize-winner who was not a part of the French Academy. She was a member of the Swedish, Dutch, Czech, and Polish academies and played a pivotal role in the International Radium Standard Committee. If successful, Marie would be the first woman elected to the Academy in the 215-year history of the Institute of France. Marie’s candidacy was put to the vote, and it seemed the whole of France had an opinion on whether she was worthy of this accolade.
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"Curie stayed behind the scenes, but the simple act of putting her name forward opened her up to criticism from all quarters of French society. She was judged harshly by many who suggested that by allowing her nomination Curie showed a lack of nobility and dignity. Others accused her of being an assistant to her more able husband and thus unworthy of the academy.
"In the end, the Academy voted against Curie’s election to the academy in a vote tipped by one or two members. The editor of L’Intransigeant said, “In posing her candidacy herself, in protesting to the newspapers that she was indeed a candidate, she had displayed a lack of reserve that was not her own sex.” Writing on the public’s view of Curie, he said, “They have applauded the lesson in patience and modesty that the Institute has just inflicted.”"
French taliban?
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" ... The campaign against Marie now took on a more vicious tone with public outcries against the “foreign woman” trying to destroy a good French home. Untrue rumors that Marie was Jewish fueled xenophobic attitudes in the right-wing press. Even in Marie’s inner circle of friends and colleagues, Marguerite Borel is one of the only people who publicly defended Marie. Marguerite insisted this moralistic attack was the result of “xenophobia, jealousy, and antifeminist reflexes.”
"But Marie’s nationality was nowhere near as threatening as her gender. Marie’s desire to be happy and to pursue not only her work but a relationship with the man she loved made her a figurehead for the growing feminism in France. She never had the opportunity to defend herself in court, however, as the Langevin affair never went to trial. Instead, Paul settled the matter with Jeanne out of court, an admittance that he had been in the wrong.
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"As the Langevin scandal staggered on, destroying Curie’s reputation in France, the rest of the world paid attention to her achievements in the study of radioactivity. In 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Curie a second time with the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The prize was awarded “in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.”
"On December 10 and 11 of 1911, Curie attended the ceremonies in Stockholm with her sister Bronia and daughter Irene. During Curie’s formal Nobel lecture she mentioned colleagues who had assisted her research but also made a point of speaking in the first person. Making it clear that the discovery of radium furnished proof of her hypothesis and that isolating radium was undertaken by her alone, Curie boldly silenced those who sought to discredit her.
"This display of strength after so much stress took its toll. On her return to Paris, Curie was rushed to hospital with a kidney ailment. A patch of lesions around one of her kidneys and her uterus was causing infection and surgery was recommended. Curie was also suffering from a severe bout of depression. For the next two years, she wasn’t able to work and rested in England with a friend, Hertha Ayrton. ... "
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"As the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and still only one of two people with a prize in two different fields (Linus Pauling is the other), Marie Curie’s star was still rising. Now, the intellectual establishment of Poland wanted to reclaim their remarkable scientist. A delegation headed by Henryk Sienkiewicz tried to convince Curie to return to Poland. Next, the Warsaw Scientific Society offered Curie directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw in 1912, but she declined.
"This offer from Warsaw combined with her second Nobel Prize win gave Curie leverage. She set about convincing the French government to offer fund a new research center. The Radium Institute, now Curie Institute, was finally built in 1914, a joint initiative of the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute, dedicated to research in chemistry, physics, and medicine. Curie was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory within the Institute that is located on rue Pierre-Curie. Yet before work at the Radium Institute could begin in earnest, history interrupted. Within weeks, most of the researchers in Paris had been drafted into the French Army to fight in the First World War."
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"“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"From the outbreak of war, Curie put her scientific pursuits aside to work in the interests of her country. Her first wartime assignment was to take responsibility for France’s stash of radium held at the Radium Institute. Curie was urged to move the radium to a safe location in Bordeaux in preparation for the German invasion of France which she did in person. Financially, Curie gave everything she could to the war effort. She invested the winnings from her second Nobel Prize as French war bonds. They immediately lost most of their worth. Curie also tried to donate her gold medals, but the Bank of France refused to accept them. Always keen to serve her native land, Curie also donated to Polish aid and even knitted garments for soldiers.
"But Curie soon recognized that the best way she could serve her native and adopted countries was with the fruits of her scientific mind. It soon became clear that the French Army’s health service was lacking in the latest medical equipment. Notably, Curie recognized that wounded soldiers had the best chance of surviving if they were operated on as soon as possible. Curie resolved to find a way to make x-rays readily available to soldiers on the front lines. She needed to get both x-ray equipment and an electrical generator out into the field. To solve this problem, Curie designed a mobile radiography unit that became known as the petite Curie (little Curie). The first military radiology center was in operation by late 1914, manned by Curie herself and her daughter Irene at Criel, 20 miles behind the front line at Compiegne.
"Together, Marie and Irene opened 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war and sent 20 mobile units out into the field. Irene traveled all over the front lines, training doctors and surgeons in using the equipment. Incredibly, Irene also obtained her certificates from the Sorbonne during the war years. Irene passed mathematics (1915), physics (1916), and chemistry (1917) with distinction while Europe was at war.
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"Later, Curie trained hundreds of young women to become manipulatrices (x-ray technicians) who were then assigned to radiology posts around the country. Curie praised these women, who came from a variety of educational backgrounds, in a book she wrote about her wartime experiences, La radiologie et la guerre (Radiology and War).
"By the time the First World War came to an end, an estimated one million soldiers had been treated with Curie’s x-ray units. For some, the availability of an x-ray saved their life. Others were not so lucky; all told, 1,375,800 French men and women died. Germany’s losses were even higher. More than 9 million soldiers of different nationalities died in the course of the First World War, and 20 million people died as a result of the war.
"Curie was working in her laboratory when victory was announced in Paris. In a joyful display, she had a laboratory attendant drive her up and down the streets of Paris in one of her petite Curies. Curie never received any formal acknowledgment from the French government of her efforts during the war, nor did she ask for any. To Curie, the Allied victory was proof that “pure science” could benefit humankind in unexpected ways. Furthermore, following the Treaty of Versailles, Poland became a sovereign nation for the first time in 123 years."
Germans hated that last part.
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"On May 20, Curie attended a reception in the Blue Room of the White House. There President Warren G. Harding presented Marie Curie with a key. The key opened a leather case containing an hourglass, a symbol of the gram of radium presented to France as a gift from America. In the days before Curie met President Harding, the French government offered her the Legion of Honour award. It had become embarrassingly clear that Curie was being presented with the highest honors overseas with no official French distinction to wear. With characteristic dignity, Curie politely declined."
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"“All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"Researchers working under Curie at the Radium Institute made some of the most important scientific discoveries of the interwar years. In 1929, Salomon Rosenblum made a scientific leap when he exposed actinium, prepared by Marie, to a very strong electromagnet. Rosenblum’s discovery of a six-line spectrum helped to confirm the quantum theory. In 1939, Marguerite Perey discovered a new radioactive element in 1939 that she named francium.
"As the Radium Institute expanded to the size of a small city and research funds flooded in, its wealth of radioactive sources grew. Soon it could longer be denied that exposure to strong radioactive elements was taking its toll on the health of Curie’s workers. Radiation poisoning is a silent and invisible killer that affects each individual differently. This, combined with the ways radiation was being used to kill cancerous cells, led scientists to think of radioactivity as a positive force for longer than they should have. That’s not to say that the scientific community was unaware of the harmful effects of exposure to radiation. X-ray burns were well documented, and Curie’s own fingers were scarred by “radiodermatitis.” There was also the case of the dial painters working for the U.S. Radium Corporation.
"In 1925, a young woman named Margaret Carlough sued the Radium Corporation, blaming her working conditions for causing her ill health. Margaret painted luminous watch dials and, like the other dial painters, pointed her brush with her lips. By 1928, it was acknowledged that 15 dial painters had died from radiation poisoning, and Margaret won her case. What everyone still got wrong, even after this much-publicized case, was how much radiation was too much.
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"When Curie heard about the dial painters in the United States, she was dealing with a tragedy closer to home. Two of her technicians had died from exposure to radiation when preparing the chemical Thorium X in a small factory on the outskirts of Paris. Marcel Demalander died of severe anemia while Maurice Demenitroux died of leukemia. The French government stepped in with safety measures for those working with radioactive materials and ordered regular blood testing. By the late 1920s, many of these blood tests were showing abnormalities, including that of Irene Curie.
"Considering how much radioactivity Marie had been exposed to, especially in the early days of her career, it’s remarkable that she was so little affected until the last years of her life. What ailments she did suffer from she kept secret, going to extreme lengths to hide from her students that she could barely see. Curie had surgery on her cataracts in the late 1920s but still could not bear the thought of retirement. She wanted to spend her later adult years the same way she had spent her early years, working in her laboratory. Yet her status prevented her from doing so.
"In 1929, Curie set out on a second trip to America to accept another gift of one gram of radium. This time the radium was destined for the new Radium Institute in Warsaw. Curie had laid the foundation stone for the Polish Institute in 1925, and it was opened in 1932 with Marie’s sister Bronia as its director.
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" ... Meanwhile, Irene Curie was walking in her mother’s footsteps in more ways than one.
"In October 1926, Irene had married Frederic Joliot. Over the next few years the Joliot-Curies had two children, a daughter they named Helene and a son named Pierre. Frederic was, like Pierre Curie, a physicist while Irene was a chemist like her mother. From 1931, the Joliot-Curies collaborated on a series of exciting discoveries, including being the first to create an artificial radioactive element. That particular discovery won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.
"Marie did not live to see her daughter and son-in-law awarded the Nobel Prize however. In May 1934, she was taken to a Sanatorium in the Savoy Mountains to seek a cure for her ill health. There, doctors advised her that she did not have tuberculosis but “pernicious anaemia in its extreme form.” Eve was with her mother through her last days. On July 3, Marie took her temperature and saw that it had dropped. She went to sleep that night believing her health was on the mend. She died at dawn on July 4, 1934."
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" ... Marie and Pierre started a Curie family legacy that includes five Nobel Prizes. The first two prizes were awarded to Marie and Pierre together. The third was awarded to Marie alone, and the fourth and fifth were awarded to Marie and Pierre’s daughter Irene and her husband Frederic Joliet-Curie. Today there are four major radioactivity research laboratories: The Curie Institute in Paris, the Cavendish Library in the United Kingdom, the Institute for Radium Research in Austria, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Germany.
"Awarded honorary degrees from universities across the world and with numerous institutions and locations named after her, Marie Curie is synonymous with scientific achievement. Being the first to do something was Marie’s specialty. The first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first woman entombed in the Pantheon on her own merits, Marie Curie was a trail-blazer in the truest sense. Her contribution to science helped shape the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Forcing a reconsideration of the foundation of physics, Marie Curie’s work prompted our exploration of the structure of the atom with both wonderful and terrible results."
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CONTENTS
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Table of Contents
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Introduction
Early Life and Loss
Fighting for Education
The Flying University and Sorbonne
Becoming Marie Curie
Ground-breaking Discoveries
The Nobel Prize
The Death of Pierre Curie
Scandals
Curie’s First World War Efforts
The Discovery that Killed Her
Conclusion
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REVIEW
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Introduction
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Here, author begins lying after the first sentence.
"Maria Sklodowska, later Marie Curie, was born near the ancient center of Warsaw on November 7, 1867. ... "
So far, fine. But -
" ... From the moment of her birth, Curie joined the Polish struggle for independence from the oppressive rule of Russia’s tsars. ... "
How's that, exactly? It's a lie, except the author wishes to emphasise the fact that Poland was then ruled by Russia and Polish people weren't happy about it.
But this has been the history of Poland for most of its history, ruled by either Germany or Russia, even before Germany was united.
" ... The Sklodowskis were zealous patriots and passionate intellectuals. As a result, Curie developed a deep love for her homeland and a respect for education that would influence the rest of her illustrious life.
"Occupied Warsaw in the late nineteenth century was not an easy place for a young Polish woman to pursue her dreams. In her quest for education and a career that would grant her independence, Curie came up against significant obstacles. Her mother died when she was ten years old, leaving an emotional wound that would never fully heal. The Sklodowski family was not wealthy, and there was no way to pay for young Curie to study overseas. As women were not permitted to study at Polish universities, Curie carried out her own higher education in secret."
Here, for some reason, author blanks out the most obvious known fact, of her father encouraging and supporting two daughters and providing the inspiration for education and excellence in academic pursuit.
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"It’s surprising to learn that Curie worked as a governess during her early adult years. She had to earn a living, and with no outlet for her scientific genius, she lived in the homes of wealthier families and taught their children to read and write. When Curie moved to Paris and enrolled in the University of Paris, she continued to struggle to make ends meet. Living alone in a freezing garret, Curie still later looked back on her student years as some of her happiest."
Why is it surprising? This was one of the few ways a respectable young unmarried woman of middle class with strained circumstances could help her family make ends meet.
"Even after Curie had made the incredible discoveries of two radioactive elements, she had to fight for recognition. The spoils of fame never interested Curie, only the funding she might secure to improve her lab, hire assistants, and continue her work uninterrupted. Known for her modest lifestyle, any money Curie had left over from prizes and awards she gave to her friends and family. She converted her second Nobel Prize winnings into French war bonds during World War I and lost everything. Curie and her husband, Pierre, declined to patent the radium-isolation process. Their hope was that radiology could do more good in the world if it could be developed without restrictions."
That fight for recognition was chiefly due to misogyny on part of West, unwilling to admit that women were no less than males, due to an abrahmic creed imposed on society and Inquisition having terrified society for centuries.
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"Family also meant the world to Curie, and the Sklodowski siblings were remarkably close throughout their lives. Irene and Eve, Curie’s loving daughters, had the utmost respect for their mother and worked hard to preserve her legacy.
"Despite the prejudice that surrounded her, Curie’s genius shone through. Marie Curie developed the theory of radioactivity and discovered two new elements. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first and only person to win twice in two different sciences. The world Curie left behind was better—for Poles, for women, and for scientists—than the one she had been born into. In her life and work, Marie Curie created that positive change."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 1. Early Life and Loss
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"“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"Maria Salomea Sklodowska was born on November 7, 1867. Both of her parents, Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski, were teachers in Warsaw, then a part of the Russian Empire. Bronislawa was a pious woman, and the Sklodowskis named their fifth child after Mary, the Black Virgin of Czestochowa, a symbol of both intense Catholic faith and Polish national pride."
"Black Virgin"????
Is that one of the rare recognitions of the fact that church worships a son of a Jewish, West Asian woman?
Or is this from an earlier religion that church conceals by pretending that all those deities in grottos across Europe are nothing but the said Jewish woman, mother of the king of Jews?
Just as the church took over Saturnalia, when people of Europe wouldn't stop celebrating it, and so church thereafter lied, and pretended ever since then, that it's the birthday of their object of worship, which in fact was months away.
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"At the time of Curie’s birth, the people of Poland were enduring a period of systemic and brutal suppression. The January Uprising of 1863-1864 was the Polish people’s second major attempt to overthrow their Russian ruler. The Sklodowski family watched in horror as the revolutionaries’ efforts failed. Both sides of Curie’s family were involved in efforts to restore Polish independence and suffered in the wake of the uprising’s defeat.
"At the time of Curie’s birth, the people of Poland were enduring a period of systemic and brutal suppression. The January Uprising of 1863-1864 was the Polish people’s second major attempt to overthrow their Russian ruler. The Sklodowski family watched in horror as the revolutionaries’ efforts failed. Both sides of Curie’s family were involved in efforts to restore Polish independence and suffered in the wake of the uprising’s defeat.
"The Sklodowskis were szlachta. Previous generations of the szlachta class of Polish landed gentry fought for the republic and participated in parliament. Unlike British aristocracy, to whom titles were of paramount importance, Polish szlachta were without titles. More numerous than nobles of other European countries, they were also usually less wealthy. The Sklodowski family and Bronislawa’s family, the Boguskis, were minor szlachta, with little land or wealth to show for their families’ illustrious pasts.
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"Poland’s Russian rulers tried to absorb Poland into Russia and wipe every trace of Polish national identity from the minds of its youth. As teachers, Wladyslaw and Bronislawa worked to keep the idea of Poland alive in their students. Bronislawa became headmistress of a private school located on Freta Street in Warsaw in 1860. She and Wladyslaw took up residence in an apartment next to the classrooms.
"Over the next seven years, Bronislawa bore five children while managing and teaching at the school. Wladyslaw taught mathematics and physics and was the director of two Warsaw gymnasia for boys. Russian authorities did not trust any academic institution run by Poles, so Bronislawa and Wladyslaw were forced to placate the authorities who inspected their classrooms, yet continued to undermine their determined Russification of the country.
"Despite the demands of raising a family and holding down demanding jobs, the Sklodowski family thrived during this period. Curie’s brother Jozef later referred to these years as the “happiest time.” Wladyslaw and Bronislawa took an active role in their children’s educations. Playful learning techniques, such as creating a collage of historical events or a giant paper map of the world, instilled a love of education in all their offspring. Under pressure from Russian authorities, Wladyslaw halted laboratory instruction at school but brought the equipment home to teach his children. This early instruction in the use of laboratory equipment made a huge impact on young Curie.
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"But trouble soon found the Sklodowskis. The Russian officials in charge of Wladyslaw’s school resented him, and in the mid-1870s he lost his directorship. This was a blow to Wladyslaw’s self-esteem and the family’s finances. Due to a bad investment in a countryside mill, Wladyslaw had already squandered the family’s savings. Now his career and his children’s futures were in jeopardy.
"But trouble soon found the Sklodowskis. The Russian officials in charge of Wladyslaw’s school resented him, and in the mid-1870s he lost his directorship. This was a blow to Wladyslaw’s self-esteem and the family’s finances. Due to a bad investment in a countryside mill, Wladyslaw had already squandered the family’s savings. Now his career and his children’s futures were in jeopardy.
"In 1871, when Curie was four years old, Bronislawa became ill with tuberculosis. At some point in the next year or so, she gave up her position as headmistress and the family began taking in boarders to survive. Bronislawa, on the advice of the best doctors in Warsaw, tried many remedies to rid herself of this terrible disease. But it would be a few years before Robert Koch isolated the tubercle bacillus and proved that the most disastrous disease stalking Europe in the nineteenth century was actually contagious. It would be decades more until a worthwhile treatment was discovered.
"Bronislawa’s nurse and companion during her illness and her many rest cures abroad was her eldest daughter Zosia. At some point when Zosia was back home in Warsaw and living in the family apartment she caught typhus. Bronia, another Sklodowski sister, caught the disease at the same time. Bronia recovered from her ordeal, but Zosia died aged 14. The grief of losing her eldest daughter and ravages of a long-term illness led to Bronislawa’s premature death in 1878 at 42 years old.
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"Curie referred to her mother’s death as “the first great sorrow of my life,” and she struggled for years with a profound depression caused by her loss. At the time of her mother’s death, Curie was attending the private school of Madame Jadwiga Sikorska. Here, the staff and students lived a double life with two different schedules. One schedule was in Russian and included the subjects the authorities chose. The other was the real schedule that included Polish language studies, history, and geography. The whole school collaborated in this illusion and lived in a state of constant alertness against inspection by the Russian authorities.
"Already overwhelmed by the death of her mother, Curie began to struggle at school. She was an exceptional student, but the emotional toll of their shared deception gave her anxiety and she would regularly break down in lessons. Madame Sikorska suggested that Wladyslaw take Maria out of school for a year before the fourth grade. Instead, Wladyslaw took the unexpected measure of sending his daughter to the government-run Gymnasium Number Three in Warsaw. Writing about her years at the gymnasium after the fact, Curie described them as unbearable. She and her classmates “lost all joy of life, and precious feelings of distrust and indignation weighed upon their childhood.”
"Yet in a letter written while she was at the gymnasium, Curie described enjoying school. With her friend Kazia, Curie found ways to undermine Russian oppression and continued her studies of Polish subjects and language. She graduated from Gymnasium Number Three in 1883. Like her sister Bronia and brother Jozef before her, she finished first in her class and was awarded the gold medal."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 2. Fighting for Education
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"“It is good when a person has had at least one such crazy summer in her life.”
"—Helena Sklodowska"
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"On Curie’s graduation from the gymnasium, the Sklodowski family was faced with the question of what she should do next. Her brother Jozef made the easy transition from the gymnasium to medical school in Warsaw, but life would never be that simple for Curie. She had two options: either study abroad in Paris or Saint Petersburg or become a teacher in Poland. The Sklodowski family was in no financial position to send Curie or her older sister abroad to university, so teaching seemed inevitable.
"On Curie’s graduation from the gymnasium, the Sklodowski family was faced with the question of what she should do next. Her brother Jozef made the easy transition from the gymnasium to medical school in Warsaw, but life would never be that simple for Curie. She had two options: either study abroad in Paris or Saint Petersburg or become a teacher in Poland. The Sklodowski family was in no financial position to send Curie or her older sister abroad to university, so teaching seemed inevitable.
"But there was a third option. Maria was 15 years old when she graduated from school, but already there was talk of matching her with a husband. In the spring of 1884, Wladyslaw sent his daughter to live in the countryside for a year of rest. Wladyslaw had two motivations for sending Maria away and forbidding her from any intellectual pursuits—first, that Marie might find a husband at one of the all-night dances held by the countryside social set, and second, that a change of lifestyle would cure Curie of her debilitating depression."
" ... Wladyslaw, like most Poles, believed that healthy communion with the Polish land could cure whatever ailed you.
"Living between the country manor houses of her uncles Henryk and Wladyslaw, Curie spent the summer in a state of blissful happiness. Taking a complete break from her studies, she wrote to a friend, “I can’t believe geometry or algebra ever existed. I have completely forgotten them.” Curie adored living without a schedule and spending time outdoors with Polish mother earth. When winter rolled around, she moved south to the home of her uncle Zdzislaw in Skalbmierz in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. In Skalbmierz, located on the edge of Austria, Curie could celebrate her Polish heritage without fear of reprisal.
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"Zdzislaw’s wife, Maria Rogowska, must have been a revelation to the now 16-year-old Curie. Maria hired domestic staff and spent her time running a business, wearing trousers, and smoking cigarettes in the company of men. During her summer at Skalbmierz, Maria encouraged Curie and her sister Helena to go to as many parties as they possibly could. Looking back on these happy days, Helena wrote, “the summer passed as quickly as a dream, but the memory of it has been lasting . . . It is good when a person has had at least one such crazy summer in her life.”
"After that magical summer, Curie and Helena returned to Warsaw to live with their father in a small apartment on Nowolipki Street. Money was tight for the family. Wladyslaw had stopped taking in boarders and was a few years from retirement with no savings. As things stood, Curie and her sisters had no hope of attending university abroad. As Curie had no thoughts of marriage she decided to take a practical route and became a private tutor.
"The Sklodowski sisters never let go of their insistence that they deserved the same right to education as their male counterparts. As a means to an end, Curie and Bronia joined the enigmatic Flying University. The Flying University was an underground educational academy founded by Jadwiga Szczawinska-Dawidowa. Dawidowa invited prominent Warsaw scientists, historians, and philosophers to teach a broad curriculum to young Polish women yearning for higher education. The university met for two hours a week with the promise of a degree after six years of study.
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"Still struggling to make ends meet, Curie took a governess position in a family of lawyers, a situation she loathed and soon quit. She then took another position with the Zorawski family in the village of Szczuki in northern Poland. It was with a heavy heart that Curie took the long journey to a new home where she would occupy the role of educator and hired help.
"Still struggling to make ends meet, Curie took a governess position in a family of lawyers, a situation she loathed and soon quit. She then took another position with the Zorawski family in the village of Szczuki in northern Poland. It was with a heavy heart that Curie took the long journey to a new home where she would occupy the role of educator and hired help.
"It was around this time that Curie and her sister Bronia hatched a plan to get them both to university. Bronia was to study medicine in Paris first with financial support from Curie. After Bronia graduated she would then pay for Curie’s education. Curie must have found some comfort in the hope that her governess days were already numbered.
"Curie was relatively happy with the Zorawski family. She continued her self-education, preparing for the day that she would join the French students at the Sorbonne. Around this time, she decided to pursue science over literature and sociology, her next two favorite subjects. She also developed the habit of independent work. Curie’s ability to self-teach and to persevere without encouragement would play a major role in her later accomplishments. In line with her positivist politics, Curie added to her exhausting schedule by teaching a local group of peasant children to read."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 3. The Flying University and Sorbonne
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"“All that I saw and learned that was new delighted me. It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at least permitted to know at liberty.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"It was while working for the Zorawski family that Curie experienced her first heartbreak. She fell in love with her employer’s son, Kazimierz Zorawski, but their romance was ill-fated. During the four years Curie worked for the Zorawski family she and Kazimierz were engaged and estranged a number of times.
"Kazimierz felt as strongly about Curie as she did about him, but Curie’s lack of wealth led the Zorawskis to reject her as a match for their son. She was heartbroken, not once but time and time again as Kazimierz went back and forth between defying and conceding to his parents. During his tumultuous relationship with Curie, Kazimierz earned his doctorate in mathematics. Kazimierz went on to become an accomplished professor at Krakow University, the eventual site of an iconic statue of Marie Curie.
"In the spring of 1889, Curie left the Zorawski family and took on another governess position on the Baltic coast. Things didn’t go well with her new family, but Curie persevered. Anything was better than the humiliation and awkwardness she had endured because of her and Kazimierz’s romance.
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"At the beginning of 1890, Curie’s fortunes seemed to turn. Bronia was engaged to be married to Kazimierz Dluski, a Polish physician and social and political activist. As soon as they were married, Curie received the letter for which she had been waiting for four years. Bronia invited her sister to join her in Paris and finally attend university.
"But surprisingly, Curie declined. Feeling responsible for her father, she stayed in Warsaw for another year, during which time she saved money and attended the Flying University. During this last year in Warsaw, Curie had access to a laboratory for the first time in her life. Curie’s cousin, Józef Boguski, had returned from studying in Saint Petersburg under Dmitri Mendeleev. Recognizing his cousin’s passion for knowledge, Dmitri invited Curie to begin her practical scientific training at the laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture. It seems Curie was left to her own devices in the lab where she tried out the experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry.
"At the end of the summer of 1891, after one last unsuccessful attempt to overcome the difficulties in her relationship with her beloved Kazimierz, Curie left Warsaw. Aged 23, Curie arrived in Paris in November 1891 and on arrival became known as Marie instead of Maria. At first, she lived with Bronia, who was now pregnant, and her husband. The Dluskis lived in a second-floor apartment close to the Gare du Nord in an area known as Little Poland. But within a few months, Curie had moved into a garret apartment of her own and began her studies in physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the Sorbonne. She thrived at the Sorbonne where her professors encouraged independent learning with minimal supervision.
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"Curie lived in four different apartments during her time in Paris, each of them on the top floor and each of them damp, cold, and sparse. She did her own housekeeping which kept her rent low and carried her own coal up six flights of stairs to heat her small stove. During winter it was not unusual for the water she kept in a basin to freeze overnight. Yet Curie looked back on this period of solitary study, for which she had waited so long, as one of the happiest of her life.
"Curie was one of 23 women out of a class of 1,825 students enrolled in the science faculty of the Sorbonne in 1891. She studied under some of the most important scientific minds of the day. Gabriel Lippman, a scientist who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1908, noticed Curie and became her mentor. In 1893, Curie was awarded a degree in physics, ranked first in her class. Her academic achievements were astounding, and despite the pull of her family in Warsaw she decided to stay in Paris for another year to earn a second degree. In 1894, Curie was awarded a mathematics degree, ranked second in her class.
"When studying for her mathematics degree, Curie held the first professional position of her career. The Society for the Encouragement of National Industry hired her to assist Professor Lipmann in a study of the magnetic properties of various steels. Curie took to the task with gusto but complained about the insufficient laboratory space she had been given to carry out her work. Professor Lipmann called on a few acquaintances to find a suitable working laboratory for Curie. One of these acquaintances was Pierre Curie, who was glad to help.
"Marie finished her last exam at the Sorbonne in August of 1894. As planned, she boarded a train to Warsaw where she was to live with her father—but, of course, she had already left her heart in Paris."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 4. Becoming Marie Curie
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"“It would be a fine thing, just the same, in which I hardly dare believe, to pass our lives near each other, hypnotized by our dreams: your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream.”
"—Pierre Curie in a letter to Marie"
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"Pierre Curie was born on May 15, 1859, on rue Cuvier in Paris, France. Pierre’s mother Sophie-Claire Depouilly was the daughter of a major manufacturer, and his father Eugene Curie was a doctor. Eugene was a Republican and a radical political activist. In 1871, when the people of France rose up against the conciliatory government in Versailles, Eugene was on the front lines with the rebels. Eugene’s politics made it difficult for him to progress in his career, and he worked as a low-paid school doctor within the Republican government.
"Pierre Curie was born on May 15, 1859, on rue Cuvier in Paris, France. Pierre’s mother Sophie-Claire Depouilly was the daughter of a major manufacturer, and his father Eugene Curie was a doctor. Eugene was a Republican and a radical political activist. In 1871, when the people of France rose up against the conciliatory government in Versailles, Eugene was on the front lines with the rebels. Eugene’s politics made it difficult for him to progress in his career, and he worked as a low-paid school doctor within the Republican government.
"Pierre was home-schooled, and in line with his father’s anticlerical stance he was not baptized and was not involved with the church. Once Pierre began working with a tutor when he was 14, he progressed rapidly and aged 16 was admitted to the Sorbonne. At 18, Pierre completed a degree in science and became an assistant in the Sorbonne physics laboratory where he published original work on mineralogy. Working with his brother Jacques, Pierre published a series of papers on the subject of piezoelectricity. The Curie brothers discovered that crystals generate an electrical charge when placed under pressure.
"In 1883, Pierre became an instructor at the School of Physics and Chemistry. It was here that Pierre met Marie. Love was not on Pierre’s mind on the day Marie walked into his laboratory. Like Marie, Pierre had been unlucky in love in the past and had resolved himself to a solitary life of scientific study. Pierre’s first love had died when he was 20 years old, and the trauma of that event led him to commit to living the life of a priest.
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"Marie wrote of the first time she ever saw Pierre. He was standing in a French window opening onto a balcony. She wrote, “He seemed to me very young, though he was at that time 35 years old. I was struck by the open expression of his face and by the slight suggestion of detachment in his whole attitude. His speech, rather slow and deliberate, his simplicity, and his smile, at once grave and youthful, inspired confidence.”
"Marie and Pierre had much in common—their upbringings, their financial troubles, their views on religion and politics, and their passion for their work. Before long, Pierre and Marie were in love. Pierre made his intentions clear and asked Marie to marry him. Later, he told her that asking him to marry her was the only act he had performed in his life without hesitation. Marie’s painful experience with Kazimierz Zorawski and her love of her Polish homeland both gave her pause. She had always imagined that if she married she would marry a fellow Pole.
"Marie spent the summer of 1894 back in Poland, during which time she and Pierre exchanged many letters. Pierre’s aim was to convince Marie to move in with him in Paris and marry him. But Marie was reluctant to give up her precious independence, and on her return to Paris she moved into another apartment alone.
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"However, in the summer of 1895, soon after Pierre earned his Ph.D. and presented ground-breaking work on magnetism, Marie wrote to her family to announce hers and Pierre’s engagement. Things moved quickly. Pierre was granted a professorship at the Sorbonne, and on July 26, 1895, Pierre and Marie were married. The wedding took place at the Sceaux Town Hall in a no-frills ceremony during which Marie wore a simple navy blue suit—the same outfit she later came to wear as a laboratory uniform. Marie’s father and sisters, Helena and Bronia, came to the wedding and the joyful reception took place at the Curie home. Afterward, Marie and Pierre set off to Brittany for their honeymoon, bringing their new matching bicycles with them.
"The first years of the Curie marriage were spent working, enjoying dinners with the Physics Society, the occasional trip to the theatre, and riding their beloved bicycles. Unless they were at their separate places of work, Marie and Pierre did everything together. Marie studied for a teaching certificate that would allow her to work in French secondary schools. She also always continued with her own studies.
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"In the spring of 1897, Marie discovered she was pregnant. Irene Curie was born on September 12, 1897, a healthy 6.6 pounds in weight. Marie hired a wet nurse for Irene and began recording data on Irene’s development in a dedicated notebook. After Irene’s birth, things changed dramatically for the Curies. Marie was now a qualified teacher and worked at the École Normale Supérieure. She also published her first article in the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry on the magnetism of tempered steel. Then, with Pierre’s encouragement, Marie decided it was time she began her own original research in pursuit of a doctorate.
"Curie was intrigued by a recent discovery. Uranium minerals, it seemed, gave off peculiar rays. While the rest of the population indulged in the café culture and lavish entertainments of fin de siècle Paris, Marie stayed in her laboratory. Here, she made it her mission to discover the nature of these uranium rays and their source."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 5. Ground-breaking Discoveries
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"“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"At the turn of the nineteenth century, Europe was in thrall to the latest scientific and technological sensations. In 1891, electricity came to the streets of Paris and replaced the city’s gas street lamps. The telephone, the motion picture, steam-powered machinery, and indoor plumbing changed the lives of ordinary Parisians. Anything seemed possible, and the atmosphere in what many believed was the most modern city in the world was electric.
"In 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German professor, discovered the existence of x-rays. Within a year, several scientists had discovered the nature of these rays; x-rays are electromagnetic rays identical to those that make up visible light, only shorter. In Paris, the scientific community dedicated itself to exploring the possibilities of this discovery. In 1896, one hundred papers were presented to the Academy of Sciences (also known as “the Institute”) on the subject of x-rays.
"Meanwhile, Curie’s attention was drawn to another recently discovered phenomenon—that of uranium rays. She began her research on Becquerel rays, named after the scientist who discovered them, in the winter of 1897. Rather than using the state of the art equipment available to her at the Sorbonne, Curie set up a lab in a storage space on the ground floor of Pierre’s school. Here she could work uninterrupted, without the interference of her professors and with the support of her more experienced husband.
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"Using sensitive scientific measuring instruments, some of which were devised by Pierre, the Curies set about determining the ionizing power of various elements. Had Marie stayed with elements and not moved on to other impure substances, she may never have made her famous discovery.
"In February 1898, Curie tested a sample of pitchblende. Chemist Martin Heinrich had discovered that pitchblende contained uranium in 1789. But it was Curie who determined that pitchblende contained another radioactive element, something that was able to produce an electrical current four times that of uranium itself. She also tested chalcocite and found similar results. Curie came to the surprising conclusion that she had discovered a mystery element that was far more active than uranium.
"By March, Pierre was so intrigued by his wife’s research that he abandoned his own work on crystals and joined her. There was only one way to prove Marie’s hypothesis. The Curies had to attempt to isolate this new element by chemical means. Marie and Pierre got hold of 100 grams of pitchblende and attacked it with various chemicals. By the end of 1898, the Curies were confident that they could prove the existence of not one but two brand new highly active elements.
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"Marie offered a brief account of her research to the Institute in April of 1898. In July, the Curies announced their discovery of polonium, a new metal element named after Marie’s country of birth. The Institute took notice of the Curies’ ground-breaking work and awarded Marie the 3,800-franc Prix Gegner. By December, the Curies had announced the discovery of a second element, radium.
"In 1899, Marie set about the formidable task of isolating polonium and radium. She carried out the chemical experiments while Pierre took on the role of physicist and explored the phenomenon of radioactivity. The Curies worked from a hangar at the School of Physics and Chemistry at Sorbonne where Pierre still worked as a professor. The space was large but ill-equipped as a laboratory. There was no hood to carry away poisonous gases caused by Marie’s chemical treatments and the roof let in water when it rained.
"Using ten tons of pitchblende, a by-product of uranium extraction, Marie and Pierre used differential crystallization to separate out radium salt. It took three years, but Marie succeeded in isolating pure radium and establishing a method for doing so later used in industry. With one ton of pitchblende, the Curies could create one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride in 1902. It wasn’t until 1910 that Marie was finally able to isolate pure radium metal. Unfortunately, not long after Marie’s success in the laboratory, she lost her father. She was devastated as she hadn’t been able to return to Warsaw to see him before he died.
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"Throughout these four years of toil, the Curies published their findings. A total of 32 scientific papers were submitted to the Institute under the Curie name, either as individuals or as a couple. As neither scientist was a member of the Institute at the time, the Curies could not present their findings in person. But in 1900 the Curies presented their research on radioactivity to a gathering of leading scientists at the International Congress of Physics in Paris. Also in 1900, Marie joined the faculty at the École Normale Supérieure. She became the first woman ever to teach at that institution, and Pierre joined the faculty at the Sorbonne. Despite difficult working conditions and constant homesickness, Marie looked back on these years as a happy time.
"At this point, no one knew that radium and polonium could be dangerous. The Curies mailed samples of luminous radium to scientists all over the world, and Marie carried a test tube of radium salts in her pocket. In 1901, Pierre published a paper describing an experiment on radioactive exposure’s effects on the skin. Pierre taped a piece of radioactive barium to his arm and left it there for ten hours. Reporting on the effect of the barium on his skin, he described a burn that worsened over time and took more than two months to heal. The Curies did notice that handling radioactive materials caused inflammation in their hands but thought little of it. The damage, they supposed, was superficial."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 6. The Nobel Prize
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"“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"In 1903, Curie finally got around to writing her dissertation which the Sorbonne faculty approved in May. In June, she defended her dissertation in the student’s hall of the Sorbonne. This was a celebratory event with many well-wishing friends and family in attendance. The Curies were then invited to give a speech at the Royal Society in London. The Society did not allow women to speak, ... "
Height of misogyny!
" ... so Pierre took to the stage alone and described the research he and Marie had carried out in depth."
What if, like many other males, he were not so gracious?
How many women had their work simply stolen by males?
"This happy time turned to tragedy when, in August 1903, Marie suffered a miscarriage five months into her second pregnancy. She was ill for the whole summer, but before long the Curies’ fortunes had turned again. In November 1903, a friend informed Marie in the strictest confidence that she, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel had won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
................................................................................................
"Marie and Pierre had a reputation for butting heads with the scientific establishment in France. The idea that the French institutions rejected the Curies and treated them poorly is an enduring part of their legend. In reality the situation was more complex. The Curies received financial support from the Institute over many years, and some members supported their work. What the Curies needed was a suitable lab in which to work, but the Institute would not stretch to this expenditure. That’s not to say the Curies didn’t experience professional conflict. Scientists make their name by proving their theories first. There were other scientists working on radioactivity who disagreed with the Curies’ hypotheses or sought to undermine their efforts. Of course, Marie also experienced prejudice for the simple fact of her being a woman. Initially the Nobel Prize committee intended to offer the prize to Pierre and Henri alone.
"In 1903, four leading scientists, Marie’s former mentor Gabriel Lippmann amongst them, wrote a nominating letter that ignored Marie’s contribution to the discovery of radium and polonium. The letter described how Pierre and Henri had worked side by side to come to their discovery. They wrote, “it appears impossible for us to separate the names of the two physicists, and therefore we do not hesitate to propose to you that the Nobel Prize be shared between Mr. Becquerel and Mr. Curie.”
"One lone committee member, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, came to Marie’s defense. His criticism, combined with a strongly-worded complaint from Pierre, was successful, and the committee added Marie’s name to the nomination. In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize. She would remain the only female Nobel laureate in the sciences until 1935 when her daughter followed in her trail-blazing footsteps."
Humanity owes gratitude to Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, for this, as much as for his work in mathematics - and to Pierre Curie, for his support for Marie Curie!
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"The Nobel committee invited the Curies to Stockholm to receive their prize, but they declined. Marie’s health was still precarious, and both Curies were too dedicated to their work to make the journey at that time. But what seemed like a reasonable excuse to the Curies read as an affront by the Nobel committee. Perhaps the committee had a point—Pierre could have received the honor without Marie. However, it’s also possible the Curies didn’t realize at that point how important the prize would become. The Nobel Prize was established only two years before, in 1901.
"As a result of their Nobel Prize win, the Curies became famous. The Institute was much maligned in the press for its lack of support of the marvelous Curies. Sometimes writers diminished Marie’s role, sometimes they rejected her as a foreigner, and other times they claimed her as French. Marie was, according to one newspaper, “born Polish and . . . is French by adoption.” Seeing their names in the newspapers, whether in a positive or negative light, disturbed the Curies. Inundated with requests to photograph and interview them, all Marie and Pierre wanted to do was be left alone to work. The Curies received journalists who would not take no for an answer; these encounters always made their way into the newspapers.
"In December 1904, Marie gave birth to a healthy daughter she named Eve. And by 1905, the Curies could put it off no longer and finally accepted an invitation to go to Stockholm to deliver a lecture and collect their award money. The prize money allowed the Curies to hire a laboratory assistant for the first time and make some improvements to their home. The Curies also donated large sums of money to various worthy enterprises, including a sanatorium ran by Marie’s sister Bronia in Zakopane and aid for poor Polish students.
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"The recognition that came with winning the Nobel Prize brought more significant benefits to the Curies’ careers than money. In 1905, the Sorbonne gave Pierre a professorship and the chair of Physics. Later, Pierre was awarded a seat at the Institute. Despite these notable accolades, the Curies were still working without a proper laboratory, an issue the Sorbonne finally agreed to address.
"But before the Curies could enjoy the first fit-for-purpose laboratory, the unthinkable happened. On Thursday, April 19, 1906, Pierre attended a meeting of the Association of Professors of the Science Faculties at a hotel on rue Danton. Following the meeting, Pierre walked with his friend Jean Perrin back towards the Latin Quarter. Pierre left Jean and walked off in the direction of the Institute library. It was raining, and Pierre hurried toward his destination, crossing the rue Dauphine with his head down. A pair of horses pulling a 6,000-kilo laden wagon collided with Pierre, knocking him to the ground. The driver tried to jerk his horses to the left to avoid Pierre, but one of the rear wheels of his wagon rolled directly over Pierre’s skull. He died instantly."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 7. The Death of Pierre Curie
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"Curie learned of her husband’s death at around 7 pm. She had spent the day at Fontenay-aux-Roses with her daughter Irene and returned to find Dean of Faculty of Sciences Paul Appell waiting in her home. Recalling that terrible night in her journal, Curie wrote, “I enter the room. Someone says: ‘He is dead.’ Can one comprehend such words? . . . I repeat your name again and always, ‘Pierre, Pierre, Pierre, my Pierre,’ alas that doesn’t make him come back, he is gone forever, leaving me nothing but desolation and despair.”
"Over subsequent days, Curie spent hours in the room with Pierre’s body as relatives and friends arrived at their home to see him. On Saturday, April 21, 1906, Pierre was buried at the cemetery in Sceaux. The ceremony was small with only a few invited guests. Tributes flooded in from fellow scientists and admirers of Pierre who wanted to pass on their condolences. When writing her autobiography, Curie said that in losing Pierre she also lost all hope and all support for the rest of her life.
"Shortly after Pierre’s death, the physics department at Sorbonne made the decision to pass the chair they had created for Pierre on to Marie. This was a momentous act as no woman had ever been appointed to teach at the Sorbonne, let alone occupy a chair there. However, there was dissent in the ranks of the science faculty over this decision and a compromise was reached. Marie would not occupy Pierre’s chair but she would be named chargé de cours and director of his laboratory, a chair in duties but not in name. On November 5, 1906, Marie Curie became the first female professor at the Sorbonne.
................................................................................................
"In September 1910, Marie, Paul, and Jean Perrin attended the International Congress of Radiology and Electricity in Paris, traveling separately. Perhaps brought on by the stress of the situation, Marie was ill and unable to take part in any social engagements. The Congress decided that Marie should prepare the international standard for radium against which all other samples of radium would be measured. This was a great honor. The unit of measurement was named a “curie” in honor of her and the late Pierre Curie."
"With the stress of her unconventional private life ongoing, Marie made her famous bid for admittance to the French Academy of Sciences. Marie was the only Nobel Prize-winner who was not a part of the French Academy. She was a member of the Swedish, Dutch, Czech, and Polish academies and played a pivotal role in the International Radium Standard Committee. If successful, Marie would be the first woman elected to the Academy in the 215-year history of the Institute of France. Marie’s candidacy was put to the vote, and it seemed the whole of France had an opinion on whether she was worthy of this accolade.
................................................................................................
"Curie stayed behind the scenes, but the simple act of putting her name forward opened her up to criticism from all quarters of French society. She was judged harshly by many who suggested that by allowing her nomination Curie showed a lack of nobility and dignity. Others accused her of being an assistant to her more able husband and thus unworthy of the academy.
"In the end, the Academy voted against Curie’s election to the academy in a vote tipped by one or two members. The editor of L’Intransigeant said, “In posing her candidacy herself, in protesting to the newspapers that she was indeed a candidate, she had displayed a lack of reserve that was not her own sex.” Writing on the public’s view of Curie, he said, “They have applauded the lesson in patience and modesty that the Institute has just inflicted.”"
French taliban?
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 8. Scandals
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" ... The campaign against Marie now took on a more vicious tone with public outcries against the “foreign woman” trying to destroy a good French home. Untrue rumors that Marie was Jewish fueled xenophobic attitudes in the right-wing press. Even in Marie’s inner circle of friends and colleagues, Marguerite Borel is one of the only people who publicly defended Marie. Marguerite insisted this moralistic attack was the result of “xenophobia, jealousy, and antifeminist reflexes.”
"But Marie’s nationality was nowhere near as threatening as her gender. Marie’s desire to be happy and to pursue not only her work but a relationship with the man she loved made her a figurehead for the growing feminism in France. She never had the opportunity to defend herself in court, however, as the Langevin affair never went to trial. Instead, Paul settled the matter with Jeanne out of court, an admittance that he had been in the wrong.
................................................................................................
"As the Langevin scandal staggered on, destroying Curie’s reputation in France, the rest of the world paid attention to her achievements in the study of radioactivity. In 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Curie a second time with the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The prize was awarded “in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.”
"On December 10 and 11 of 1911, Curie attended the ceremonies in Stockholm with her sister Bronia and daughter Irene. During Curie’s formal Nobel lecture she mentioned colleagues who had assisted her research but also made a point of speaking in the first person. Making it clear that the discovery of radium furnished proof of her hypothesis and that isolating radium was undertaken by her alone, Curie boldly silenced those who sought to discredit her.
"This display of strength after so much stress took its toll. On her return to Paris, Curie was rushed to hospital with a kidney ailment. A patch of lesions around one of her kidneys and her uterus was causing infection and surgery was recommended. Curie was also suffering from a severe bout of depression. For the next two years, she wasn’t able to work and rested in England with a friend, Hertha Ayrton. ... "
................................................................................................
"As the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and still only one of two people with a prize in two different fields (Linus Pauling is the other), Marie Curie’s star was still rising. Now, the intellectual establishment of Poland wanted to reclaim their remarkable scientist. A delegation headed by Henryk Sienkiewicz tried to convince Curie to return to Poland. Next, the Warsaw Scientific Society offered Curie directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw in 1912, but she declined.
"This offer from Warsaw combined with her second Nobel Prize win gave Curie leverage. She set about convincing the French government to offer fund a new research center. The Radium Institute, now Curie Institute, was finally built in 1914, a joint initiative of the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute, dedicated to research in chemistry, physics, and medicine. Curie was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory within the Institute that is located on rue Pierre-Curie. Yet before work at the Radium Institute could begin in earnest, history interrupted. Within weeks, most of the researchers in Paris had been drafted into the French Army to fight in the First World War."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 9. Curie’s First World War Efforts
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"“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"From the outbreak of war, Curie put her scientific pursuits aside to work in the interests of her country. Her first wartime assignment was to take responsibility for France’s stash of radium held at the Radium Institute. Curie was urged to move the radium to a safe location in Bordeaux in preparation for the German invasion of France which she did in person. Financially, Curie gave everything she could to the war effort. She invested the winnings from her second Nobel Prize as French war bonds. They immediately lost most of their worth. Curie also tried to donate her gold medals, but the Bank of France refused to accept them. Always keen to serve her native land, Curie also donated to Polish aid and even knitted garments for soldiers.
"But Curie soon recognized that the best way she could serve her native and adopted countries was with the fruits of her scientific mind. It soon became clear that the French Army’s health service was lacking in the latest medical equipment. Notably, Curie recognized that wounded soldiers had the best chance of surviving if they were operated on as soon as possible. Curie resolved to find a way to make x-rays readily available to soldiers on the front lines. She needed to get both x-ray equipment and an electrical generator out into the field. To solve this problem, Curie designed a mobile radiography unit that became known as the petite Curie (little Curie). The first military radiology center was in operation by late 1914, manned by Curie herself and her daughter Irene at Criel, 20 miles behind the front line at Compiegne.
"Together, Marie and Irene opened 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war and sent 20 mobile units out into the field. Irene traveled all over the front lines, training doctors and surgeons in using the equipment. Incredibly, Irene also obtained her certificates from the Sorbonne during the war years. Irene passed mathematics (1915), physics (1916), and chemistry (1917) with distinction while Europe was at war.
................................................................................................
"Later, Curie trained hundreds of young women to become manipulatrices (x-ray technicians) who were then assigned to radiology posts around the country. Curie praised these women, who came from a variety of educational backgrounds, in a book she wrote about her wartime experiences, La radiologie et la guerre (Radiology and War).
"By the time the First World War came to an end, an estimated one million soldiers had been treated with Curie’s x-ray units. For some, the availability of an x-ray saved their life. Others were not so lucky; all told, 1,375,800 French men and women died. Germany’s losses were even higher. More than 9 million soldiers of different nationalities died in the course of the First World War, and 20 million people died as a result of the war.
"Curie was working in her laboratory when victory was announced in Paris. In a joyful display, she had a laboratory attendant drive her up and down the streets of Paris in one of her petite Curies. Curie never received any formal acknowledgment from the French government of her efforts during the war, nor did she ask for any. To Curie, the Allied victory was proof that “pure science” could benefit humankind in unexpected ways. Furthermore, following the Treaty of Versailles, Poland became a sovereign nation for the first time in 123 years."
Germans hated that last part.
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"Curie was finally celebrated by the French government in 1920, 25 years after her discovery of radium, when a stipend was established for her. This money alleviated her poverty, but the war years had been hard on Curie. When she had donated her second Nobel Prize winnings to the war effort, she had given away the bulk of her wealth.
"In 1921, Curie set her sights on America. She was in possession of less than a gram of radium in Paris, America had around fifty grams, divided between laboratories all over the country. Europe was ravaged by war, but America was the land of opportunity. It was with this in mind that Curie welcomed a journalist named Missy Meloney into her humble office in Paris for an interview. Meloney was sympathetic to Curie’s hopes that radium could be used in medical applications and established the Marie Curie Radium Fund to raise money to buy one gram of radium. The fund-raising was a success and served to publicize Marie Curie’s 1921 tour of the United States.
"Curie’s idea of a short tour of the United States during which she hoped to see America’s natural sights and avoid too many tiring appearances contrasted with Meloney’s. Her campaign to bring Curie to America took on a life of its own. By the time Curie boarded the Olympic in May of 1921, she had committed to a seven-week stay. During this time she would receive ten honorary college degrees and numerous honors and awards.
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"On May 20, Curie attended a reception in the Blue Room of the White House. There President Warren G. Harding presented Marie Curie with a key. The key opened a leather case containing an hourglass, a symbol of the gram of radium presented to France as a gift from America. In the days before Curie met President Harding, the French government offered her the Legion of Honour award. It had become embarrassingly clear that Curie was being presented with the highest honors overseas with no official French distinction to wear. With characteristic dignity, Curie politely declined."
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September 22, 2022 - September 22, 2022.
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Chapter 10. The Discovery that Killed Her
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"“All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child.”
"—Marie Curie"
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"By the time her American tour was at an end, Curie’s health was failing. She had canceled a number of engagements with symptoms ranging from low blood pressure, anemia, and dizziness. There can be no doubt now that Curie’s health issues were the result of 20 years of exposure to radioactivity. But at the time, neither Curie nor any doctor who examined her would accept a link between illness and radium.
"Back in Paris, Curie turned her attention once more to her Radium Institute. The Institute did not technically belong to Marie, but she ran it as though it did. She referred to researchers at the Institute as her workers and kept abreast of every going on within the laboratory’s many walls. Curie invited female researchers into her lab (in 1931, 12 of her 37 researchers were female, a huge number for that time) and supported Polish scientists with generous stipends.
"Even as Curie aged and her eyes became clouded by cataracts, she was inspired by the discovery of new radioactive elements. Wherever she traveled, she sought out radioactive samples and urged her scientists and colleagues to do the same. Curie inspected the samples, measured them, and added them to her beloved laboratory collection.
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"Researchers working under Curie at the Radium Institute made some of the most important scientific discoveries of the interwar years. In 1929, Salomon Rosenblum made a scientific leap when he exposed actinium, prepared by Marie, to a very strong electromagnet. Rosenblum’s discovery of a six-line spectrum helped to confirm the quantum theory. In 1939, Marguerite Perey discovered a new radioactive element in 1939 that she named francium.
"As the Radium Institute expanded to the size of a small city and research funds flooded in, its wealth of radioactive sources grew. Soon it could longer be denied that exposure to strong radioactive elements was taking its toll on the health of Curie’s workers. Radiation poisoning is a silent and invisible killer that affects each individual differently. This, combined with the ways radiation was being used to kill cancerous cells, led scientists to think of radioactivity as a positive force for longer than they should have. That’s not to say that the scientific community was unaware of the harmful effects of exposure to radiation. X-ray burns were well documented, and Curie’s own fingers were scarred by “radiodermatitis.” There was also the case of the dial painters working for the U.S. Radium Corporation.
"In 1925, a young woman named Margaret Carlough sued the Radium Corporation, blaming her working conditions for causing her ill health. Margaret painted luminous watch dials and, like the other dial painters, pointed her brush with her lips. By 1928, it was acknowledged that 15 dial painters had died from radiation poisoning, and Margaret won her case. What everyone still got wrong, even after this much-publicized case, was how much radiation was too much.
................................................................................................
"When Curie heard about the dial painters in the United States, she was dealing with a tragedy closer to home. Two of her technicians had died from exposure to radiation when preparing the chemical Thorium X in a small factory on the outskirts of Paris. Marcel Demalander died of severe anemia while Maurice Demenitroux died of leukemia. The French government stepped in with safety measures for those working with radioactive materials and ordered regular blood testing. By the late 1920s, many of these blood tests were showing abnormalities, including that of Irene Curie.
"Considering how much radioactivity Marie had been exposed to, especially in the early days of her career, it’s remarkable that she was so little affected until the last years of her life. What ailments she did suffer from she kept secret, going to extreme lengths to hide from her students that she could barely see. Curie had surgery on her cataracts in the late 1920s but still could not bear the thought of retirement. She wanted to spend her later adult years the same way she had spent her early years, working in her laboratory. Yet her status prevented her from doing so.
"In 1929, Curie set out on a second trip to America to accept another gift of one gram of radium. This time the radium was destined for the new Radium Institute in Warsaw. Curie had laid the foundation stone for the Polish Institute in 1925, and it was opened in 1932 with Marie’s sister Bronia as its director.
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" ... Meanwhile, Irene Curie was walking in her mother’s footsteps in more ways than one.
"In October 1926, Irene had married Frederic Joliot. Over the next few years the Joliot-Curies had two children, a daughter they named Helene and a son named Pierre. Frederic was, like Pierre Curie, a physicist while Irene was a chemist like her mother. From 1931, the Joliot-Curies collaborated on a series of exciting discoveries, including being the first to create an artificial radioactive element. That particular discovery won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.
"Marie did not live to see her daughter and son-in-law awarded the Nobel Prize however. In May 1934, she was taken to a Sanatorium in the Savoy Mountains to seek a cure for her ill health. There, doctors advised her that she did not have tuberculosis but “pernicious anaemia in its extreme form.” Eve was with her mother through her last days. On July 3, Marie took her temperature and saw that it had dropped. She went to sleep that night believing her health was on the mend. She died at dawn on July 4, 1934."
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September 22, 2022 - September 23, 2022.
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Conclusion
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" ... Marie and Pierre started a Curie family legacy that includes five Nobel Prizes. The first two prizes were awarded to Marie and Pierre together. The third was awarded to Marie alone, and the fourth and fifth were awarded to Marie and Pierre’s daughter Irene and her husband Frederic Joliet-Curie. Today there are four major radioactivity research laboratories: The Curie Institute in Paris, the Cavendish Library in the United Kingdom, the Institute for Radium Research in Austria, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Germany.
"Awarded honorary degrees from universities across the world and with numerous institutions and locations named after her, Marie Curie is synonymous with scientific achievement. Being the first to do something was Marie’s specialty. The first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first woman entombed in the Pantheon on her own merits, Marie Curie was a trail-blazer in the truest sense. Her contribution to science helped shape the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Forcing a reconsideration of the foundation of physics, Marie Curie’s work prompted our exploration of the structure of the atom with both wonderful and terrible results."
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September 23, 2022 - September 23, 2022.
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Marie Curie: A Life
From Beginning to End
(Biographies of Women in History)
Hourly History
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September 22, 2022 - September 23, 2022.
Purchased September 22, 2022.
Series Information:
Biographies of Women in History
Book 4
ASIN:- B07HYYNFYH
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5002410459
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