She was born inWarsaw, in what was then theKingdom of Poland, part of theRussian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestineFlying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her elder sisterBronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. In 1895, she married the French physicistPierre Curie, and she shared the 1903Nobel Prize in Physics with him and with the physicistHenri Becquerel for their pioneering work developing the theory of "radioactivity"—a term she coined.[3][4] In 1906, Pierre Curie died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elementspolonium andradium, using techniques she invented for isolating radioactiveisotopes.
Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment ofneoplasms by the use of radioactive isotopes. She founded theCurie Institute in Paris in 1920, and theCurie Institute in Warsaw in 1932; both remain major medical research centres. DuringWorld War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provideX-ray services tofield hospitals.
While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames,[5][6] never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.[7] She named the firstchemical element she discoveredpolonium, after her native country.[b]
Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at theSancellemozsanatorium inPassy (Haute-Savoie), France, ofaplastic anaemia likely from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I.[9] In addition to her Nobel Prizes, she received numerous other honours and tributes; in 1995 she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the ParisPanthéon,[10] and Poland declared 2011 the Year of Marie Curie during theInternational Year of Chemistry. She is the subject of numerous biographies.
Life and career
Early years
Władysław Skłodowski and daughters (from left) Maria,Bronisława, andHelena, 1890
Maria Skłodowska was born inWarsaw, inCongress Poland in theRussian Empire, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers[11] Bronisława,née Boguska, andWładysław Skłodowski.[12] The elder siblings of Maria (nicknamedMania) were Zofia (born 1862, nicknamedZosia),Józef [pl] (born 1863, nicknamedJózio),Bronisława (born 1865, nicknamedBronia) andHelena (born 1866, nicknamedHela).[13][14]
On both thepaternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence (the most recent had been theJanuary Uprising of 1863–1865).[15] This condemned the subsequent generation, including Maria and her elder siblings, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life.[15] Maria's paternal grandfather,Józef Skłodowski had been principal of theLublin primary school attended byBolesław Prus,[16] who became a leading figure in Polish literature.[17]
Władysław Skłodowski taught mathematics and physics, subjects that Maria was to pursue, and was also director of two Warsawgymnasia (secondary schools) for boys. After Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he brought much of the laboratory equipment home and instructed his children in its use.[13] He was eventually fired by his Russian supervisors for pro-Polish sentiments and forced to take lower-paying posts; the family also lost money on a bad investment and eventually chose to supplement their income by lodging boys in the house.[13] Maria's mother Bronisława operated a prestigious Warsaw boarding school for girls; she resigned from the position after Maria was born.[13] She died oftuberculosis in May 1878, when Maria was ten years old.[13] Less than three years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died oftyphus contracted from a boarder.[13] Maria's father was anatheist, her mother a devout Catholic.[18] The deaths of Maria's mother and sister caused her to give up Catholicism and become agnostic.[19]
When she was ten years old, Maria began attending J. Sikorska's boarding school; next she attended agymnasium (secondary school) for girls, from which she graduated on 12 June 1883 with a gold medal.[12] After a collapse, possibly due to depression,[13] she spent the following year in the countryside with relatives of her father, and the next year with her father in Warsaw, where she did some tutoring.[12] Unable to enrol in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, she and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestineFlying University (sometimes translated as "Floating University"), a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women students.[12][13]
Maria made an agreement with her sister, Bronisława, that she would give her financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later.[12][20] In connection with this, Maria took a position first as a home tutor in Warsaw, then for two years as agoverness inSzczuki with a landed family, the Żorawskis, who were relatives of her father.[12][20] While working for the latter family, she fell in love with their son,Kazimierz Żorawski, a future eminent mathematician.[20] His parents rejected the idea of his marrying the penniless relative, and Kazimierz was unable to oppose them.[20] Maria's loss of the relationship with Żorawski was tragic for both. He soon earned a doctorate and pursued an academic career as a mathematician, becoming a professor andrector ofKraków University. Still, as an old man and a mathematics professor at theWarsaw Polytechnic, he would sit contemplatively before the statue of Maria Skłodowska that had been erected in 1935 before theRadium Institute, which she had founded in 1932.[15][21]
At the beginning of 1890, Bronisława—who a few months earlier had marriedKazimierz Dłuski, a Polish physician and social and political activist—invited Maria to join them in Paris. Maria declined because she could not afford the university tuition; it would take her a year and a half longer to gather the necessary funds.[12] She was helped by her father, who was able to secure a more lucrative position again.[20] All that time she continued to educate herself, reading books, exchanging letters, and being tutored herself.[20] In early 1889 she returned home to her father in Warsaw.[12] She continued working as a governess and remained there until late 1891.[20] She tutored, studied at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training (1890–1891) in a chemistry laboratory at theMuseum of Industry and Agriculture atKrakowskie Przedmieście 66, near Warsaw'sOld Town.[12][13][20] The laboratory was run by her cousinJózef Boguski, who had been an assistant inSaint Petersburg to the Russian chemistDmitri Mendeleyev.[12][20][22]
Life in Paris
In late 1891, she left Poland for France.[23] In Paris, Maria (or Marie, as she would be known in France) briefly found shelter with her sister and brother-in-law before renting agarret closer to the university, in theLatin Quarter, and proceeding with her studies of physics, chemistry, and mathematics at theUniversity of Paris, where she enrolled in late 1891.[24][25] She subsisted on her meagre resources, keeping herself warm during cold winters by wearing all the clothes she had. She focused so hard on her studies that she sometimes forgot to eat.[25] Skłodowska studied during the day and tutored evenings, barely earning her keep. In 1893, she was awarded a degree in physics and began work in an industrial laboratory ofGabriel Lippmann. Meanwhile, she continued studying at the University of Paris and with the aid of a fellowship she was able to earn a second degree in 1894.[12][25][c]
Their mutual passion for science brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another.[12][25] Eventually, Pierre proposed marriage, but at first Skłodowska did not accept as she was still planning to go back to her native country. Curie, however, declared that he was ready to move with her to Poland, even if it meant being reduced to teaching French.[12] Meanwhile, for the 1894 summer break, Skłodowska returned to Warsaw, where she visited her family.[25] She was still labouring under the illusion that she would be able to work in her chosen field in Poland, but she was denied a place atKraków University because ofsexism in academia.[15] A letter from Pierre convinced her to return to Paris to pursue a PhD.[25] At Skłodowska's insistence, Curie had written up his research onmagnetism and received his own doctorate in March 1895; he was also promoted to professor at the School.[25] A contemporary quip would call Skłodowska "Pierre's biggest discovery".[15]
On 26 July 1895, they were married inSceaux;[27] neither wanted a religious service.[12][25] Curie's dark blue outfit, worn instead of a bridal gown, would serve her for many years as a laboratory outfit.[25] They shared two pastimes: long bicycle trips and journeys abroad, which brought them even closer. In Pierre, Marie had found a new love, a partner, and a scientific collaborator on whom she could depend.[15]
New elements
Pierre and Marie Curie in the laboratory,c. 1904
In 1895,Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the existence ofX-rays, though the mechanism behind their production was not yet understood.[28] In 1896,Henri Becquerel discovered thaturanium salts emitted rays that resembled X-rays in their penetrating power.[28] He demonstrated that this radiation, unlikephosphorescence, did not depend on an external source of energy but seemed to arise spontaneously from uranium itself. Influenced by these two important discoveries, Curie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis.[12][28]
She used an innovative technique to investigate samples. Fifteen years earlier, her husband and his brother had developed a version of theelectrometer, a sensitive device for measuring electric charge.[28] Using her husband's electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample to conduct electricity. Using this technique, her first result was the finding that the activity of the uranium compounds depended only on the quantity of uranium present.[28] She hypothesized that the radiation was not the outcome of some interaction of molecules but must come from the atom itself.[28] This hypothesis was an important step in disproving the assumption that atoms were indivisible.[28][29]
In 1897, her daughterIrène was born. To support her family, Curie began teaching at theÉcole normale supérieure.[23] The Curies did not have a dedicated laboratory; most of their research was carried out in a converted shed next to ESPCI.[23] The shed, formerly a medical school dissecting room, was poorly ventilated and not even waterproof.[30] They were unaware of the deleterious effects ofradiation exposure attendant on their continued unprotected work with radioactive substances. ESPCI did not sponsor her research, but she received subsidies from metallurgical and mining companies and from various organisations and governments.[23][30][31]
Curie's systematic studies included two uranium minerals,pitchblende andtorbernite (also known as chalcolite).[30] Her electrometer showed that pitchblende was four times as active as uranium itself, and chalcolite twice as active. She concluded that, if her earlier results relating the quantity of uranium to its activity were correct, then these two minerals must contain small quantities of another substance that was far more active than uranium.[30][32] She began a systematic search for additional substances that emit radiation, and by 1898 she discovered that the elementthorium was also radioactive.[28] Pierre Curie was increasingly intrigued by her work. By mid-1898 he was so invested in it that he decided to drop his work on crystals and to join her.[23][30]
The [research] idea [writes Reid] was her own; no one helped her formulate it, and although she took it to her husband for his opinion she clearly established her ownership of it. She later recorded the fact twice in her biography of her husband to ensure there was no chance whatever of any ambiguity. It [is] likely that already at this early stage of her career [she] realized that... many scientists would find it difficult to believe that a woman could be capable of the original work in which she was involved.[33]
She was acutely aware of the importance of promptly publishing her discoveries and thus establishing herpriority. Had not Becquerel, two years earlier, presented his discovery to theFrench Academy of Sciences the day after he made it, credit for the discovery of radioactivity (and even a Nobel Prize), would instead have gone toSilvanus Thompson. Curie chose the same rapid means of publication. Women were not eligible for membership of the Académie des Sciences until 1979, so that all her presentations had to be made for her by male colleagues;[34] her paper, giving a brief and simple account of her work, was presented for her to theAcadémie on 12 April 1898 by her former professor,Gabriel Lippmann.[35] Even so, just as Thompson had been beaten by Becquerel, so Curie was beaten in the race to tell of her discovery that thorium gives off rays in the same way as uranium; two months earlier,Gerhard Carl Schmidt had published his own finding in Berlin.[36]At that time, no one else in the world of physics had noticed what Curie recorded in a sentence of her paper, describing how much greater were the activities of pitchblende and chalcolite than that of uranium itself: "The fact is very remarkable, and leads to the belief that these minerals may contain an element which is much more active than uranium." She later would recall how she felt "a passionate desire to verify this hypothesis as rapidly as possible."[36] On 14 April 1898, the Curies optimistically weighed out a 100-gram sample of pitchblende and ground it with a pestle and mortar. They did not realise at the time that what they were searching for was present in such minute quantities that they would eventually have to process tonnes of the ore.[36]
In July 1898, Curie and her husband published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named "polonium", in honour of her native Poland,[37] which would for another twenty years remainpartitioned among three empires (Russia,Austria, andPrussia).[12] On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they named "radium", from the Latin word for 'ray'.[23][30][38][39] In the course of their research, they also coined the word "radioactivity".[12]
Pierre and Marie Curie,c. 1903
To prove their discoveries beyond any doubt, the Curies sought to isolate polonium and radium in pure form.[30] Pitchblende is a complex mineral; the chemical separation of its constituents was an arduous task. The discovery of polonium had been relatively easy; chemically it resembles the elementbismuth, and polonium was the only bismuth-like substance in the ore.[30] Radium, however, was more elusive; it is closely related chemically tobarium, and pitchblende contains both elements. By 1898 the Curies had obtained traces of radium, but appreciable quantities, uncontaminated with barium, were still beyond reach.[40] The Curies undertook the arduous task of separating out radium salt by differentialcrystallisation. From a tonne of pitchblende, one-tenth of a gram ofradium chloride was separated in 1902. In 1910, she isolated pure radium metal.[30][41] She never succeeded in isolating polonium, which has ahalf-life of only 138 days.[30]
Between 1898 and 1902, the Curies published, jointly or separately, a total of 32 scientific papers, including one that announced that, when exposed toradium, diseased,tumour-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells.[42]
In 1900, Curie became the first woman faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure and her husband joined the faculty of the University of Paris.[43][44] In 1902 she visited Poland on the occasion of her father's death.[23]
In June 1903, supervised byGabriel Lippmann, Curie was awarded her doctorate from theUniversity of Paris.[23][45] That month the couple were invited to theRoyal Institution in London to give a speech on radioactivity; being a woman, she was prevented from speaking, and Pierre Curie alone was allowed to.[46] Meanwhile, a new industry began developing, based on radium.[43] The Curies did not patent their discovery and benefited little from this increasingly profitable business.[30][43]
Nobel Prizes
1903 Nobel Prize portrait1903 Nobel Prize diplomaMarie Curie's business card as professor at the Faculty of Sciences
In December 1903 theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel theNobel Prize in Physics,[47] "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on theradiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."[23] At first the committee had intended to honour only Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, but a committee member and advocate for women scientists, Swedish mathematicianMagnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, alerted Pierre to the situation, and after his complaint, Marie's name was added to the nomination.[48] Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.[23]
Curie and her husband declined to go toStockholm to receive the prize in person; they were too busy with their work, and Pierre Curie, who disliked public ceremonies, was feeling increasingly ill.[46][48] As Nobel laureates were required to deliver a lecture, the Curies finally undertook the trip in 1905.[48] The award money allowed the Curies to hire their first laboratory assistant.[48] Following the award of the Nobel Prize, and galvanised by an offer from theUniversity of Geneva, which offered Pierre Curie a position, the University of Paris gave him a professorship and the chair of physics, although the Curies still did not have a proper laboratory.[23][43][44] Upon Pierre Curie's complaint, the University of Paris relented and agreed to furnish a new laboratory, but it would not be ready until 1906.[48]
Caricature of Marie and Pierre Curie, captioned "Radium", in the London magazineVanity Fair, December 1904
In December 1904, Curie gave birth to their second daughter,Ève.[48] She hired Polish governesses to teach her daughters her native language, and sent or took them on visits to Poland.[7]
On 19 April 1906, Pierre Curie was killed in a road accident. Walking across theRue Dauphine in heavy rain, he was struck by ahorse-drawn vehicle and fell under its wheels, fracturing his skull and killing him instantly.[23][49] Curie was devastated by her husband's death.[50] On 13 May 1906 the physics department of the University of Paris decided to retain the chair that had been created for her late husband and offer it to Marie. She accepted it, hoping to create a world-class laboratory as a tribute to her husband Pierre.[50][51] She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.[23]
Curie's quest to create a new laboratory did not end with the University of Paris, however. In her later years, she headed the Radium Institute (Institut du radium, nowCurie Institute,Institut Curie), a radioactivity laboratory created for her by thePasteur Institute and theUniversity of Paris.[51] The initiative for creating the Radium Institute had come in 1909 fromPierre Paul Émile Roux, director of the Pasteur Institute, who had been disappointed that the University of Paris was not giving Curie a proper laboratory and had suggested that she move to the Pasteur Institute.[23][52] Only then, with the threat of Curie leaving, did the University of Paris relent, and eventually the Curie Pavilion became a joint initiative of the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute.[52]
In 1910 Curie succeeded in isolating radium; she also defined an international standard for radioactive emissions that was eventually named for her and Pierre: thecurie.[51] Nevertheless, in 1911 theFrench Academy of Sciences failed, by one[23] or two votes,[53] to elect her to membership in the academy. Elected instead wasÉdouard Branly, an inventor who had helpedGuglielmo Marconi develop thewireless telegraph.[54] It was only over half a century later, in 1962, that a doctoral student of Curie's,Marguerite Perey, became the first woman elected to membership in the academy.
Despite Curie's fame as a scientist working for France, the public's attitude tended towardxenophobia—the same that had led to theDreyfus affair—which also fuelled false speculation that Curie was Jewish.[23][53] During the French Academy of Sciences elections, she was vilified by the right-wing press as a foreigner and atheist.[53] Her daughter later remarked on the French press's hypocrisy in portraying Curie as an unworthy foreigner when she was nominated for a French honour, but portraying her as a French heroine when she received foreign honours such as her Nobel Prizes.[23]
In 1911, it was revealed that Curie was involved in a year-long affair with physicistPaul Langevin, a former student of Pierre Curie's,[55] a married man who was estranged from his wife.[53] This resulted in a press scandal that was exploited by her academic opponents. Curie (then in her mid-40s) was five years older than Langevin and was misrepresented in the tabloids as a foreign Jewish home-wrecker.[56] When the scandal broke, she was away at a conference in Belgium; on her return, she found an angry mob in front of her house and had to seek refuge, with her daughters, in the home of her friendCamille Marbo.[53]
1911 Nobel Prize diploma
International recognition for her work had been growing to new heights, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, overcoming opposition prompted by the Langevin scandal, honoured her a second time, with the 1911Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[15] This award was "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."[57] Because of the negative publicity due to her affair with Langevin, the chair of theNobel committee,Svante Arrhenius, attempted to prevent her attendance at the official ceremony for her Nobel Prize in Chemistry, citing her questionable moral standing. Curie replied that she would be present at the ceremony, because "the prize has been given to her for her discovery of polonium and radium" and that "there is no relation between her scientific work and the facts of her private life".
She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, and remains alone withLinus Pauling as Nobel laureates in two fields each. A delegation of celebrated Polish men of learning, headed by novelistHenryk Sienkiewicz, encouraged her to return to Poland and continue her research in her native country.[15] Curie's second Nobel Prize enabled her to persuade the French government to support the Radium Institute, built in 1914, where research was conducted in chemistry, physics, and medicine.[52] A month after accepting her 1911 Nobel Prize, she was hospitalised with depression and a kidney ailment. For most of 1912, she avoided public life but did spend time in England with her friend and fellow physicistHertha Ayrton. She returned to her laboratory only in December, after a break of about 14 months.[57]
In 1912 theWarsaw Scientific Society offered her the directorship of a new laboratory in Warsaw but she declined, focusing on the developing Radium Institute to be completed in August 1914, and on a new street named Rue Pierre-Curie (today rue Pierre-et-Marie-Curie).[52][57] She was appointed director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.[58] She visited Poland in 1913 and was welcomed in Warsaw but the visit was mostly ignored by the Russian authorities. The institute's development was interrupted by theFirst World War, as most researchers were drafted into theFrench Army; it fully resumed its activities after the war, in 1919.[52][57][59]
World War I
Curie in a mobile X-ray vehicle,c. 1915
DuringWorld War I, Curie recognised that wounded soldiers were best served if operated upon as soon as possible.[60] She saw a need for field radiological centres near the front lines to assist battlefield surgeons,[59] including to obviate amputations when in fact limbs could be saved.[61][62] After a quick study of radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics, she procured X-ray equipment, vehicles, and auxiliary generators, and she developed mobileradiography units, which came to be popularly known aspetites Curies ("Little Curies").[59] She became the director of theRed Cross Radiology Service and set up France's first military radiology centre, operational by late 1914.[59] Assisted at first by a military doctor and her 17-year-old daughterIrène, Curie directed the installation of 20 mobile radiological vehicles and another 200 radiological units at field hospitals in the first year of the war.[52][59] Later, she began training other women as aides.[63]
In 1915, Curie produced hollow needles containing "radium emanation", a colourless, radioactive gas given off by radium, later identified asradon, to be used for sterilising infected tissue. She provided the radium from her own one-gram supply.[63] It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were treated with her X-ray units.[19][52] Busy with this work, she carried out very little scientific research during that period.[52] In spite of all her humanitarian contributions to the French war effort, Curie never received any formal recognition of it from the French government.[59]
Also, promptly after the war started, she attempted to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the war effort but theFrench National Bank refused to accept them.[63] She did buywar bonds, using her Nobel Prize money.[63] She said:
I am going to give up the little gold I possess. I shall add to this the scientific medals, which are quite useless to me. There is something else: by sheer laziness I had allowed the money for my second Nobel Prize to remain in Stockholm in Swedish crowns. This is the chief part of what we possess. I should like to bring it back here and invest it in war loans. The state needs it. Only, I have no illusions: this money will probably be lost.[60]
She was also an active member in committees ofPoles in France dedicated to the Polish cause.[64] After the war, she summarised her wartime experiences in a book,Radiology in War (1919).[63]
Postwar years
In 1920, for the 25th anniversary of the discovery of radium, the French government established a stipend for her; its previous recipient wasLouis Pasteur, who had died in 1895.[52] In 1921, Curie toured the United States to raise funds for research on radium.Marie Mattingly Meloney, after interviewing Curie, created aMarie Curie Radium Fund and helped publicise her trip.[52][65][d]
In 1921, U.S. PresidentWarren G. Harding received Curie at the White House to present her with the 1 gram of radium collected in the United States, and the First Lady praised her as an example of a professional achiever who was also a supportive wife.[2][67] Before the meeting, recognising her growing fame abroad, and embarrassed by the fact that she had no French official distinctions to wear in public, the French government offered her aLegion of Honour award, but she refused.[67][68] In 1922, she became a fellow of theFrench Academy of Medicine.[52] She also travelled to other countries, appearing publicly and giving lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Czechoslovakia.[69]
Curie visited Poland for the last time in early 1934.[15][77] A few months later, on 4 July 1934, she died aged 66 at theSancellemoz sanatorium inPassy, Haute-Savoie, fromaplastic anaemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation, causing damage to her bone marrow.[52][78]
The damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time of her work, which had been carried out without the safety measures later developed.[77] She had carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket,[79] and she stored them in her desk drawer, remarking on thefaint light that the substances gave off in the dark.[80] Curie was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist in field hospitals during the First World War.[63] When Curie's body was exhumed in 1995, the FrenchOffice de Protection contre les Rayonnements Ionisants (OPRI) "concluded that she could not have been exposed to lethal levels of radium while she was alive". They pointed out that radium poses a risk only if it is ingested, and speculated that her illness was more likely to have been due to her use of radiography during the First World War.[81]
She was interred at the cemetery inSceaux, alongside her husband Pierre.[52] Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their achievements, the remains of both were transferred to the ParisPanthéon. Their remains were sealed in a lead lining because of the radioactivity.[82] She became the second woman to be interred at the Panthéon (afterSophie Berthelot) and the first woman to be honoured with interment in the Panthéon on her own merits.[10]
Because of their levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.[83] Even her cookbooks are highly radioactive.[84] Her papers are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.[84] In her last year, she worked on a book,Radioactivity, which was published posthumously in 1935.[77]
The physical and societal aspects of the Curies' work contributed to shaping the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.[85]Cornell University professorL. Pearce Williams observes:
The result of the Curies' work was epoch-making. Radium's radioactivity was so great that it could not be ignored. It seemed to contradict the principle of the conservation of energy and therefore forced a reconsideration of the foundations of physics. On the experimental level the discovery of radium provided men like Ernest Rutherford with sources of radioactivity with which they could probe the structure of the atom. As a result of Rutherford's experiments with alpha radiation, the nuclear atom was first postulated. In medicine, the radioactivity of radium appeared to offer a means by which cancer could be successfully attacked.[41]
In addition to helping to overturn established ideas in physics and chemistry, Curie's work has had a profound effect in the societal sphere. To attain her scientific achievements, she had to overcome barriers, in both her native and her adoptive country, that were placed in her way because she was a woman.[15]
She was known for her honesty and moderate lifestyle.[23][85] Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep.[12][31] She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates.[15] In an unusual decision, Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process so that the scientific community could do research unhindered.[86][e] She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her.[85] She and her husband often refused awards and medals.[23]Albert Einstein reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame.[15]
As one of the most famous scientists in history, Marie Curie has become an icon in the scientific world and has received tributes from across the globe, even in the realm ofpop culture.[87] She also received many honorary degrees from universities across the world.[67]
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win inmultiple sciences.[88] Awards and honours that she received include:
Entities that have been named after Marie Curie include:
Thecurie (symbol Ci), a unit of radioactivity, is named in honour of her and Pierre Curie (although the commission which agreed on the name never clearly stated whether the standard was named after Pierre, Marie, or both).[96]
The element with atomic number 96 was namedcurium (symbol Cm).[97]
The Marie Curie–Sklodowska Medal and Prize, an annual award conferred by the London-basedInstitute of Physics for distinguished contributions to physics education[104]
Curie is the subject of the 2013 playFalse Assumptions byLawrence Aronovitch, in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life.[109] Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play,Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries.[110] Lauren Gunderson's 2019 playThe Half-Life of Marie Curie portrays Curie during the summer after her 1911 Nobel Prize victory, when she was grappling with depression and facing public scorn over the revelation of her affair with Paul Langevin.
The life of the scientist was also the subject of a 2018 Korean musical, titledMarie Curie. The show was since translated in English (asMarie Curie a New Musical) and has been performed several times across Asia and Europe, receiving its officialOff West End premiere inLondon'sCharing Cross Theatre in summer 2024.[111]
Curie has appeared on more than 600 postage stamps in many countries across the world.[112][113]
Between 1989 and 1996, she was depicted on a 20,000-zloty banknote designed byAndrzej Heidrich.[114] In 2011, a commemorative 20-zloty banknote depicting Curie was issued by theNational Bank of Poland on the 100th anniversary of the scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[115]
In 1994, theBank of France issued a 500-franc banknote depicting Marie and Pierre Curie.[116] As of the middle of 2024, Curie is depicted on French50 euro cent coins to commemorate her importance in French history.[117]
Marie Curie was immortalized in at least one colorAutochrome Lumière photograph during her lifetime. It was saved in Musée Curie in Paris.[118]
^Poland had beenpartitioned in the 18th century among Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and it was Maria Skłodowska Curie's hope that naming the element after her native country would bring world attention to Poland's lack of independence as a sovereign state.Polonium may have been the first chemical element named to highlight a political question.[8]
^Sources vary concerning the field of her second degree.Tadeusz Estreicher, in the 1938Polish Biographical Dictionary entry, writes that, while many sources state she earned a degree in mathematics, this is incorrect, and that her second degree was in chemistry.[12]
^Marie Skłodowska Curie was escorted to the United States by the American author and social activistCharlotte Kellogg.[66]
^However,Patricia Fara writes: "Marie Skłodowska Curie's reputation as a scientific martyr is often supported by quoting her denial (carefully crafted by her American publicist,Marie Meloney) that she derived any personal gain from her research: 'There were no patents. We were working in the interests of science. Radium was not to enrich anyone. Radium... belongs to all people.' As Eva Hemmungs Wirtén pointed out inMaking Marie Curie, this claim takes on a different hue once you learn that, under French law, Curie was banned from taking out a patent in her own name, so that any profits from her research would automatically have gone to her husband, Pierre."Patricia Fara, "It leads to everything" (review of Paul Sen,Einstein's Fridge: The Science of Fire, Ice and the Universe, William Collins, April 2021,ISBN978 0 00 826279 2, 305 pp.),London Review of Books, vol. 43, no. 18 (23 September 2021), pp. 20–21 (quotation, p. 21).
^abJulie Des Jardins (October 2011)."Madame Curie's Passion".Smithsonian Magazine.Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved11 September 2012.
^Kabzińska, Krystyna (1998). "Chemiczne i polskie aspekty odkrycia polonu i radu" [Chemical and Polish Aspects of Polonium and Radium Discovery].Przemysł Chemiczny (The Chemical Industry) (in Polish).77:104–107.
^Miłosz, Czesław (1983).The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 291.ISBN978-0-520-04477-7.Undoubtedly the most important novelist ofthe period was Bolesław Prus...
^abRobert William Reid (1974).Marie Curie. New American Library. p. 6.ISBN978-0-00-211539-1.Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved15 March 2016.Unusually at such an early age, she became what T.H. Huxley had just invented a word for: agnostic.
^Curie, P.; Curie, M. (1898)."Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende" [On a new radioactive substance contained in pitchblende](PDF).Comptes rendus (in French).127:175–178.Archived from the original on 23 July 2013.Si l'existence de ce nouveau métal se confirme, nous proposons de l'appeler polonium, du nom du pays d'origine de l'un de nous. [If the existence of this new metal is confirmed, we propose to call it polonium, after the country of origin of one of us.]English translation.
^Curie, Pierre; Curie, Marie; Bémont, Gustave (1898)."Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende" [On a new, strongly radioactive substance contained in pitchblende)].Comptes rendus (in French).127:1215–1217.Les diverses raisons que nous venons d'énumérer nous portent à croire que la nouvelle substance radioactive renferme un élément nouveau, auquel nous proposons de donner le nom de radium. [The various reasons we have just listed lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element, which we propose to give the name radium.]English translationArchived 6 August 2009 at theWayback Machine
^Mould, R. F. (1998). "The discovery of radium in 1898 by Maria Sklodowska-Curie (1867–1934) and Pierre Curie (1859–1906) with commentary on their life and times".The British Journal of Radiology.71 (852):1229–54.doi:10.1259/bjr.71.852.10318996.PMID10318996.
^Opfell, Olga S. (1978).The Lady Laureates. Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. London: Scarecrow Press. p. 161.
^Carreras Ezquerra, Miguel (21 December 2011)."Marie Curie, científica universal" [Marie Curie, Universal Scientist].La Oca Loca (in Spanish). Retrieved16 November 2023.
^Paul W. Frame (October–November 1996)."How the Curie Came to Be". Oak Ridge Associated Universities.Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved16 November 2021.
^"Curium".Chemistry in its element. Royal Society of Chemistry. Archived fromthe original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved27 August 2012.
Dzienkiewicz, Marta (2017).Polish Pioneers: Book of Prominent Poles. Translated by Monod-Gayraud, Agnes. Illustrations: Rzezak, Joanna; Karski, Piotr. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry.ISBN9788365341686.OCLC1060750234.
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