Marie Curie 1

Marie Curie
Term Paper 2

Leonard Gordon Salt lake Community College Howard G. Dumars April 17, 2014

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Madame Marie Curie was named Maria Sklodowska at birth. Her family and friends called her by a nickname, Manya. She was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, the city that had once been the capital of Poland. 2 Marie was the youngest of five children (three sisters and a brother.) 1 Marie was one of the most important scientists of all time. She was a physicist and a chemist; also she was a pioneer in the study of radiation. Marie was one of the first woman scientists to win worldwide fame, and indeed, one of the great scientists of this century. She won two Nobel Prizes; one for Physics in 1903, and another for Chemistry in 1911. She died of a rare blood disease (aplastic anemia) in 1934. Marie performed pioneering studies with radium and contributed profoundly to the understanding of radioactivity. 4 Both of Maries parents were educators and wanted their daughters to have the same education as their son. Marie graduated first in her class at the age of 15 but was denied enrollment into the University of Warsaw because the school did not accept woman. At the age of 17, Marie became a governess to help pay for her sister, Bronia, to attend medical school in Paris. Marie continued to study on her own until she registered for school in the fall of 1891, at Sorbonne in Paris, to study physics and mathematics. Marie tried living with her sister while attending school but Sorbonne was an hour commute; Marie resented the lost time, not to mention the money wasted on carfare. Marie ended up moving to the Latin Quarter, which was close to the university and her living arrangements were basic. Marie kept herself warm during the winter months by wearing every piece of clothing she owned. Rumor has it; she fainted from hunger because she was too absorbed in study to eat. Marie finished first in her master's degree physics course in the summer of 1893 and second in math the following year.

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While searching for lab space she was introduced to Pierre Curie, professor of the School of Physics. Marie and Pierre were married in 1895. 3 The Curies worked together investigating radioactivity, building on the work of the German physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Rntgen, and the French physicist, Antoine Henri Becquerel. In July 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of a new chemical element, Polonium Po. At the end of the year, they announced the discovery of another, Radium Ra. The Curies, along with Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. 3

September 12, 1897, the Curies first child, Irne Joliot-Curie, was born in Paris, France. Pierre's father, Dr. Eugene Curie, delivered the baby. Pierres father and grandfather were both physicians. Marie kept records of every stage of their daughter's development with the same meticulous care that she used to keep track of her experimental work. A few weeks after Irne's birth, Dr. Curie lost his wife to breast cancer, and he moved into Marie and Pierres home. With Dr. Curie in the home helping raise Irne, Marie could carry out her lab work fully confident that Irne was in excellent hands.

In 1898, being led by Theseus' thread of penetrating radiation, Marie managed to separate a substance having chemical properties similar to those of bismuth Bi, which she called Polonium Po, in honor of her native country. Still more work, and another substance chemically similar to barium was separated and received the name of radium Ra; it was two million times more radioactive than Uranium U. 4 Pierre was known for being so consumed in thought that he wasnt careful while walking or riding his bicycle and that was probably the cause of his death. April 19, 1906, Pierre was tragically killed crossing a busy street in downtown Paris, France; he was run over by a military

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horse-drawn wagon weighing over six tons. Remarkably, Marie returned to her work right away. The French government proposed to support her and the children with a state pension. Marie refused, insisting that she was perfectly capable of supporting herself and the children. Crushed by the blow, I did not feel able to face the future. I could not forget, however, what my husband used sometimes to say, that, even deprived of him, I ought to continue my work. 7

During World War I Marie saw an opportunity to use medical radiation to treat injuries from the battlefront. Marie helped out the war effort by constructing and using portable X-ray machines. Using tubes of radioactive gas, called Radon Rn, derived from Radium Ra, Marie set up 200 stationary, and 20 mobile, X-ray stations to help doctors identify and treat bullet and shrapnel wounds as well as broken bones. Radon tubes were even used by doctors to destroy a patient's diseased tissue, a foreshadowing of today's cancer treatments. Marie trained her daughter Irne as an assistant, and she convinced wealthy people to donate vehicles for the mobile stations. She also convinced automobile body shops to transform their cars into vans and put X-ray machines in them, these vans were nicknamed, "Little Curies," which gave soldiers immediate attention on the battle field. She sold off the gold medals awarded to herself and to Pierre by the Nobel Prize committee to fund the war effort. After the war she continued her fundraising for the Radium Institute, even traveling to the U.S. in 1921. There, in addition to donations and publicity, she received a gift of one gram of Radium Ra, a gift that effectively doubled her research supply of the costly substance. 6

By 1920, Marie was suffering from medical problems, likely due to her exposure to radioactive materials. On July 4, 1934, in Passy, Haute-Savoie, France, she died of aplastic anemia, a blood disease that is often caused by too much exposure to radiation. 5 Marie

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Sklodowska-Curie was one of the most important scientist of all time and her accomplishments are astounding. Marie and Pierre discovered Polonium Po, and Radium Ra. Marie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and was the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes. Not only that, but she also was the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in two different fields, Chemistry and Physics. Marie raised money to build a hospital and laboratory, which focused on radiology using X-rays and radium to treat and cure diseases. The element, Curium Cm, the 96th element in the periodic table, was named after the Curies. In 1934, Maries daughter, Irne and her husband, Frdric Joliot-Curie, discovered artificial radioactivity at the Radium Institute. Irne and Frdric received the 1935 Nobel Prize for their discovery. Marie would have been so proud.

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1. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html 2. http://www.aip.org/history/curie/brief/01_poland/poland_1.html 3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml 4. http://www.physics.purdue.edu/wip/herstory/curie.html 5. http://www.livescience.com/38907-marie-curie-facts-biography.html 6. http://www.nndb.com/people/718/000029631/ 7. https://www.aip.org/history/curie/brief/06_quotes/quotes_11.html