Marie Curie : Biography
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Marie Curie : Biography
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a
Nobel Prize, in Physics, and with her later win, in Chemistry, she became the
first person to claim Nobel honors twice. Her efforts with her husband Pierre
led to the discovery of polonium and radium, and she championed the development
of X-rays.
Who
Was Marie Curie?
Marie
Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person —
man or woman — to win the award twice. With her husband Pierre Curie, Marie's efforts led to the
discovery of polonium and radium and, after Pierre's death, the further
development of X-rays. The famed scientist died in 1934 of aplastic anemia
likely caused by exposure to radiation.
Childhood
and Education
Maria
Sklodowska, later known as Marie Curie, was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw
(modern-day Poland). Curie was the youngest of five children, following
siblings Zosia, Józef, Bronya and Hela.
Both
of Curie’s parents were teachers. Her father, Wladyslaw, was a math and physics
instructor. When she was only 10, Curie lost her mother, Bronislawa, to
tuberculosis.
As a
child, Curie took after her father. She had a bright and curious mind and
excelled at school. But despite being a top student in her secondary school,
Curie could not attend the male-only University of Warsaw. She instead
continued her education in Warsaw's "floating university," a set of
underground, informal classes held in secret.
Both Curie and her sister Bronya dreamed of going abroad
to earn an official degree, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for
more schooling. Undeterred, Curie worked out a deal with her sister:
She would work to support Bronya while she was in school, and Bronya would
return the favor after she completed her studies.
For roughly five
years, Curie worked as a tutor and a governess. She used her
spare time to study, reading about physics, chemistry and math.
In 1891, Curie finally made
her way to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne. She threw herself into her
studies, but this dedication had a personal cost: with little money, Curie
survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes suffered because
of her poor diet.
Curie completed her master's degree in
physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the following year.
Marriage
to Pierre Curie
Marie
married French physicist Pierre Curie on July 26, 1895. They were introduced by
a colleague of Marie’s after she graduated from Sorbonne University; Marie had received a
commission to perform a study on different types of steel and their magnetic
properties and needed a lab for her work.
A
romance developed between the brilliant pair, and they became a scientific
dynamic duo who were completely devoted to one another. At first, Marie and
Pierre worked on separate projects. But after Marie discovered radioactivity,
Pierre put aside his own work to help her with her research.
Marie suffered a tremendous loss in 1906 when Pierre was
killed in Paris after accidentally stepping in front of a horse-drawn wagon.
Despite her tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post at the Sorbonne,
becoming the institution's first female professor.
In 1911, Curie’s relationship with her
husband's former student, Paul Langevin, became public. Curie was derided in
the press for breaking up Langevin's marriage, the negativity in part stemming
from rising xenophobia in France.
Children
In
1897, Marie and Pierre welcomed a daughter, Irène. The couple had a second
daughter, Ève, in 1904.
Irène
Joliot-Curie followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared the honor with her husband, Frédéric
Joliot, for their work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements.
In
1937, Ève Curie wrote the first of many biographies devoted to her famous
mother, Madame Curie, which became a feature film a few years
later.
What Did Marie Curie Discover?
Curie
discovered radioactivity, and, together with her husband Pierre, the
radioactive elements polonium and radium while working with the mineral
pitchblende. She also championed the development of X-rays after Pierre's
death.
Radioactivity,
Polonium and Radium
Fascinated
with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that
uranium casts off rays weaker than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen,
Curie took his work a few steps further.
Curie conducted her own experiments on uranium rays and
discovered that they remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the
uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure.
This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics. Curie herself
coined the word "radioactivity" to describe the phenomena.
Following Curie’s discovery of
radioactivity, she continued her research with her husband Pierre. Working with
the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898.
They named the element polonium, after Curie's native country of Poland.
They
also detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende
and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a
decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical
element.
Development of
X-rays
When World War I broke
out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to help the cause. She
championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical
vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies."
After
the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the
United States twice — in 1921 and in 1929 — to raise funds to buy radium and to
establish a radium research institute in Warsaw.
Marie
Curie's Nobel Prizes
Curie
won two Nobel Prizes, for physics in 1903 and for chemistry in 1911. She was
the first woman to win a Nobel Prize as well as the first person—man or
woman—to win the prestigious award twice. She remains the only person to be
honored for accomplishments in two separate sciences.
Curie
received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, along with her husband and Henri
Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. With their win, the Curies
developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts, and they
used their prize money to continue their research.
In
1911, Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her
discovery of radium and polonium. While she received the prize alone, she
shared the honor jointly with her late husband in her acceptance lecture.
Around
this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max Planck, to attend
the first Solvay Congress in Physics and discuss the many groundbreaking
discoveries in their field.
Death
Curie died on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, believed
to be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.
She was known to carry test tubes of
radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. Her many years working with
radioactive materials took a toll on her health.
Marie Curie's Legacy
Curie
made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. Remembered as a leading figure in
science and a role model for women, she has received numerous posthumous
honors. Several educational and research institutions and medical centers
bear the Curie name, including the Curie Institute and Pierre
and Marie Curie University (UPMC).
In 1995, Marie and Pierre's remains were interred in the Panthéon in Paris,
the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Marie became the first and
one of only five women to be laid to rest there. In 2017, the Panthéon
hosted an exhibition to honor the 150th birthday of the pioneering
scientist.
The story of the Nobel laureate was
back on the big screen in 2017 with Marie Curie: The
Courage of Knowledge, featuring
Polish actress Karolina Gruszka. In 2018, Amazon announced the development of
another biopic of Curie, with British actress Rosamund Pike in the starring
role.
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