“My husband and I had been so carefully united by our affection and our widespread work that we handed almost all of our time collectively.” – Marie Curie
Many are acquainted with Marie Curie as the primary girl to win a Nobel Prize and the primary particular person, and solely girl, to win two. Nevertheless, she and her husband are additionally noteworthy as being the first couple to win a Nobel Prize. The couple additionally obtained varied different honors together with the Davy Medal, the Matteucci Medal, and having the Curie image “Ci” (a unit of measurement in radioactivity) named after them. Collectively they made a few of the most important scientific discoveries of the early 1900s.
Whereas their accomplishments are effectively documented, their relationship was additionally the topic of admiration, and so they had been even described because the mannequin married couple. This publish offers a bit extra perception into why that’s.
Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw of Congress, Poland, within the Russian Empire on November 7, 1867. Her father, Wladyslaw Sklodowski, allowed her to have an educator’s affect in each the themes of physics and arithmetic from an early age. Finally, Marie and her sister attended the Floating College, which was an illegal night school, as a way to progress their training. She then labored as a governess for a couple of years earlier than following her sister to Paris the place she might research on the Sorbonne, also referred to as the College of Paris.
Pierre Curie was born in Paris on Could 15, 1859. His father, Eugène Curie, was a health care provider and taught Pierre arithmetic and geometry. He earned his Bachelor’s diploma by age 16 and the equal of a Grasp’s diploma by 18 (he ultimately earned his doctorate in 1895). He additionally attended the Sorbonne.
Marie was launched to Pierre Curie in 1894 by Polish physicist Józef Wierusz-Kowalski. Pierre then took her in as a pupil in his laboratory, and so they later began relationship. Pierre recommended marriage that very same yr though Marie didn’t settle for straight away largely as a consequence of considerations about being separated from her nation and household. She went on trip again to Poland that yr and had plans to transition again there, however Pierre satisfied her to return by a collection of letters. They corresponded forwards and backwards all through her trip there. They had been married in July of 1895.
(Enjoyable reality: Marie Curie was at all times extraordinarily sensible, and insisted that her wedding dress be a dark color as an alternative of the standard white so she might put on it of their lab.)
All through their relationship, they shared their analysis and labored in tandem in the direction of the discoveries that might ultimately result in their renown. Nevertheless, getting there was removed from glamorous. A few of their most vital findings had been from experiments that had to be conducted in a storeroom shed. This was an impediment, because the shed didn’t have the best tools for figuring out the elements of polonium and radium and was along with each of them having full-time jobs and caring for his or her daughter, Irène, born in 1897. (I also needs to point out that they had one other daughter, after their mixed Nobel Prize win in 1904, Eve Curie. Extra about her later.)
Regardless of their challenges, they received the Nobel Prize collectively in 1903 (together with Henri Becquerel) for their discovery of radium. Nevertheless, Marie was not initially included within the award, and Pierre had to write a letter to make sure she was credited for her a part of the analysis. This occasion was not the final time Marie was excluded from the identical recognitions as Pierre, and he even refused a cross of the Legion of Honor as a result of Marie was not additionally included.
On April 19, 1906, Pierre attended a reunion of the Affiliation of Professors of the Schools of the Sciences. As he left the reunion and crossed the rue Dauphine, he was hit by a truck coming from the Pont Neuf and fell below its wheels. The concussion triggered prompt dying. You can read coverage from the incident here. Marie later wrote Pierre’s biography and received another Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for the invention of polonium. These are just some of the various different accomplishments she went on to earn as a consequence of her devoted analysis.
Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934 on the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie (France). She died as a consequence of harm to her bone marrow triggered from long-term publicity to radiation, which resulted in her physique failing to make blood cells. Nevertheless, her oldest daughter continued her research and later went on to win a Nobel prize in 1935. Her youthful daughter, Eve Curie, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF in 1965.
There are plenty of classes we are able to be taught from observing the connection between Marie and Pierre Curie. They shared a typical dream and fervour which was one of many causes for his or her highly effective bond. It’s simple to admire them for his or her dedication to one another and science. To that time, I need to go away you with one of many many stunning quotes from Pierre’s love letters to Marie:
“It will, nonetheless, be an attractive factor by which I hardly dare consider, to cross by life collectively hypnotized in our desires: your dream to your nation; our dream for humanity; our dream for science.”
Extra Assets:
- Marie Curie: A Gift of Radium: a weblog publish from Inside Adams, from the Science, Expertise, and Enterprise Division of the Library of Congress.
- A Tribute to Nobel Laureate Madame Marie Sklodowska-Curie: a weblog publish from 4 Corners of the World, from the European Division of the Library of Congress.
- Marie Curie: Topics in Chronicling America: a analysis information from the Serials and Authorities Publications Division of the Library of Congress.
- Curie, Marie, 1867-1934. Pierre Curie, by Marie Curie, translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg, with an introduction by Mrs. William Brown Meloney, and autobiographical notes by Marie Curie. New York: The Macmillan Firm, 1923.
- Pasachoff, Naomi E. Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity. New York: Oxford College Press, 1996.
Uncover extra:
- Search Chronicling America* for added newspaper protection of Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and extra. And tell us what you discover within the feedback!
*The Chronicling America historic newspapers on-line assortment is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and collectively sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
