Pierre Curie was born on 15 May 1859 inParis, France, the son of Eugène Curie (1827–1910), a doctor ofHuguenot origin fromAlsace, and Sophie-Claire Depouilly (1832–1897). He was educated by his father, and in his early teens showed a strong aptitude formathematics andgeometry.
In 1878, Curie earned his License in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences at theSorbonne, and he worked as a laboratory demonstrator until 1882,[4] when he joined the faculty atESPCI Paris.[5]
In 1895, Curie received hisD.Sc. from the Sorbonne and was appointed Professor of Physics.[4] The submission material for his doctorate consisted of his research onmagnetism.[6] In 1900, he was promoted to Professor in the Faculty of Sciences, and in 1904 became Titular Professor.[7]
In 1880, Pierre and his older brother,Jacques, demonstrated that anelectric potential was generated when crystals were compressed, i.e.piezoelectricity.[8] To aid this work, they invented the piezoelectric quartzelectrometer.[9] In 1881, they demonstrated the reverse effect; that crystals could be made to deform when subject to anelectric field.[8] Almost alldigitalelectronic circuits now rely on this in the form ofcrystal oscillators.[10] In subsequent work on magnetism, he defined the Curie scale.[11] This work also involved delicate equipment – balances, electrometers, etc.[12]
Propriétés magnétiques des corps à diverses temperatures (Curie's dissertation, 1895)
Before his famous doctoral studies on magnetism, Curie designed and perfected an extremely sensitivetorsion balance for measuring magnetic coefficients. Variations on this equipment were commonly used by future workers in that area. He studiedferromagnetism,paramagnetism, anddiamagnetism for his doctoral thesis, and discovered the effect of temperature on paramagnetism which is now known asCurie's law. The material constant in Curie's law is known as theCurie constant. He also discovered that ferromagnetic substances exhibited acritical temperature transition, above which the substances lost their ferromagnetic behavior. This is now known as theCurie temperature. The Curie temperature is used to studyplate tectonics, treathypothermia, measurecaffeine, and to understand extraterrestrialmagnetic fields.[13] Thecurie is a unit of measurement (3.7 × 1010 decays per second or 37gigabecquerels) used to describe the intensity of a sample of radioactive material and was named after Marie and Pierre Curie by the Radiology Congress in 1910.[14][15]
Curie formulated what is now known as theCurie Dissymmetry Principle: a physical effect cannot have a dissymmetry absent from its efficientcause.[16][17] For example, a random mixture of sand in zero gravity has nodissymmetry (it isisotropic). Introduce agravitational field, and there is a dissymmetry because of the direction of the field. Then the sand grains can 'self-sort' with the density increasing with depth. But this new arrangement, with the directional arrangement of sand grains, actually reflects the dissymmetry of the gravitational field that causes the separation.
Curie worked withhis wife in isolatingpolonium andradium. They were the first to use the termradioactivity, and were pioneers in its study. Their work, including Marie Curie's celebrated doctoral work, made use of a sensitive piezoelectric electrometer constructed by Pierre and his brotherJacques Curie.[18] Curie's 26 December 1898 publication with his wife and M. G. Bémont[19] for their discovery of radium and polonium was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society presented to theESPCI ParisTech (officially theÉcole supérieure de physique et de Chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris) in 2015.[20][21] In 1903, to honor the Curies' work, theRoyal Society invited Pierre to present their research.[22] Marie was not permitted to give the lecture, soLord Kelvin sat beside her while Pierre spoke on their research. After this, Kelvin held a luncheon for Pierre.[22] While in London, Pierre and Marie were awarded theDavy Medal of the Royal Society.[23] In 1903, Pierre and Marie Curie, as well asHenri Becquerel, were awarded theNobel Prize in Physics for their research on radioactivity.[24]
Curie and one of his students, Albert Laborde, made the first discovery ofnuclear energy, by identifying the continuous emission of heat from radium particles.[25] Curie also investigated the radiation emissions of radioactive substances, and through the use of magnetic fields was able to show that some of the emissions were positively charged, some were negative and some were neutral. These correspond toalpha,beta, andgamma radiation.[26]
In the late nineteenth century, Curie was investigating the mysteries of ordinarymagnetism when he became aware of thespiritualist experiments of other French scientists, such asCharles Richet andCamille Flammarion. He initially thought the systematic investigation into the paranormal could help with some unanswered questions about magnetism.[27]: 65 He wrote to Marie, then his fiancée: "I must admit that those spiritual phenomena intensely interest me. I think they are questions that deal with physics."[27]: 66 Pierre Curie's notebooks from this period show he read many books on spiritualism.[27]: 68 He did not attend séances such as those ofEusapia Palladino in Paris in June 1905[27]: 238 as a mere spectator, and his goal certainly was not to communicate with spirits. He saw the séances as scientific experiments, tried to monitor different parameters, and took detailed notes of every observation.[27]: 247 Curie considered himself anatheist.[28]
Pierre Curie's grandfather, Paul Curie (1799–1853), a doctor of medicine, was a committed Malthusian humanist and married Augustine Hofer, daughter of Jean Hofer and great-granddaughter of Jean-Henri Dollfus, great industrialists fromMulhouse in the second half of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th century.Through this paternal grandmother, Pierre Curie is also a direct descendant of the Basel scientist and mathematicianJean Bernoulli (1667–1748), as isPierre-Gilles de Gennes, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Curie was introduced toMaria Skłodowska by their friend, physicistJózef Wierusz-Kowalski.[29] Curie took her into his laboratory as his student. His admiration for her grew when he realised that she would not inhibit his research.[further explanation needed] He began to regard Skłodowska as his muse.[30] She refused his initial proposal, but finally agreed to marry him on 26 July 1895.[31][32]
It would be a beautiful thing, a thing I dare not hope if we could spend our life near each other, hypnotized by our dreams: your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream. [Pierre Curie to Maria Skłodowska][31]: 117
The Curies had a happy, affectionate marriage, and they were known for their devotion to each other.[33]
Pierre and Marie Curie's daughter,Irène, and their son-in-law,Frédéric Joliot-Curie, were also physicists involved in the study ofradioactivity, and each also received Nobel prizes for their work.[34] The Curies' other daughter,Ève, wrote a noted biography of her mother.[35] She was the only member of the Curie family to not become a physicist. Ève marriedHenry Richardson Labouisse Jr., who received a Nobel Peace Prize on behalf ofUNICEF in 1965.[36][37] Pierre and Marie Curie's granddaughter,Hélène Langevin-Joliot, is a professor of nuclear physics at theUniversity of Paris, and their grandson,Pierre Joliot, who was named after Pierre Curie, is a noted biochemist.[38]
On 19 April 1906, while crossing the busyRue Dauphine in the rain at the Quai de Conti, Curie slipped and fell under a heavy horse-drawn cart; one of the wheels ran over his head, fracturing his skull and killing him instantly.[39]
Both the Curies experiencedradium burns, both accidentally and voluntarily,[40] and were exposed to extensive doses of radiation while conducting their research. They experiencedradiation sickness and Marie Curie died from radiation-inducedaplastic anemia in 1934. Even now, all their papers from the 1890s, even her cookbooks, are radioactive. Their laboratory books are kept in special lead boxes and people who want to see them have to wearprotective clothing.[41] Most of these items can be found at theBibliothèque nationale de France.[42] Had Pierre Curie not died in an accident, he would most likely have eventually died of the effects of radiation, as did his wife; their daughter,Irène; and her husband,Frédéric Joliot.[43][44]
In April 1995, Pierre and Marie Curie were moved from their original resting place, a family cemetery, and enshrined in thecrypt of thePanthéon in Paris.
"In recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" (withMarie Curie)
^Kürti, N.; Simon, F. (1938). "LXXIII. Remarks on the "Curie" scale of temperature".The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science.26 (178):849–854.doi:10.1080/14786443808562176.
^Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967.[1]Archived 4 July 2018 at theWayback Machine
^Redniss, Lauren (2011).Radioactive. New York, New York: HarperCollins. p. 30.
^P. Curie, Mme. P. Curie, and M. G. Bémont,Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris, 1898 (26 December), vol. 127, pp. 1215–1217.
^"2015 Awardees".American Chemical Society, Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences. 2015.Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved1 July 2016.
^"Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award"(PDF).American Chemical Society, Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences. 2015.Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved1 July 2016.
^Lagowski, Joseph J. (1997).Macmillan encyclopedia of chemistry. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. p. 1293.ISBN0-02-897225-2.
^abcdeHurwic, Anna (1995).Pierre Curie, Translated by Lilananda Dasa and Joseph Cudnik. Paris: Flammarion.ISBN9782082115629.
^Warren Allen Smith (2000). Who's who in hell: a handbook and international directory for humanists, freethinkers, naturalists, rationalists, and non-theists. Barricade Books. p. 259.ISBN9781569801581. Retrieved 4 February 2017. Curie, Pierre (1859–1906) A co-discoverer of radium, Pierre Curie was an atheist.
^Redniss, Lauren (2011).Radioactive. New York, New York: HarperCollins. p. 26.
^Redniss, Lauren (2011).Radioactive. New York, New York: HarperCollins. p. 33.
^Redniss, Lauren (2010).Radioactive : Marie And Pierre Curie : a tale of love and fallout (1st ed.). New York: HarperEntertainment.ISBN978-0-06-135132-7.
