Curie, Pierre. Curie Pierre: scientific achievements

Pierre Curie and Maria Sklodowska

What kind of trials did not befall Maria, the daughter of a large physics teacher, Wladyslaw Sklodowski from Warsaw, before she made a real revolution in world science. She had to go through humiliating poverty, hunger, through many hardships, lose and regain faith in true love.

At the age of 18, Skłodowska was invited as a governess to a rich estate near Warsaw. The owners' son, a student Kazimierz, became interested in the smart and charming Maria. The passion was mutual. However, Kazimierz’s parents believed that a marriage with a governess would cover their family with shame, and the young man did not dare to contradict them. Maria had to look for another job. She began teaching children Polish.

And then a letter arrived from Paris from Bronya’s sister, who had recently married a medical student: “Isn’t it time for you to somehow arrange your life, my little Manya? If you collected a few hundred rubles this year, then next year you could come to Paris... You really need to save a few hundred to enroll at the Sorbonne... I guarantee you that in two years you will receive an academic degree..."

In the fall of 1891, Maria Sklodowska first crossed the threshold of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Sorbonne. She studied with passion and enviable tenacity. And in the evenings she returned to the modest apartment of her sister and brother-in-law. But noisy companies often gathered here, so Maria chose to rent a room near the Sorbonne, where nothing would distract her from her studies. We had to save on literally everything; there wasn’t even enough money for heating. From Paris, Maria wrote to a friend that she “buried, closed, sealed and forgot” her plans to start a family. She decided that she would never marry and devote herself to science.

Perhaps everything would have happened if not for a chance meeting. Maria was looking for a laboratory to conduct experiments. Having learned about this, her friend's husband Jozef Kowalski promised to introduce Maria to a young scientist who might have suitable premises at the School of Physics and Chemistry, where he teaches. This young scientist was Pierre Curie.

Sklodowska described in her memoirs her impressions of the meeting in Kowalski’s house: “When I entered the room, I saw young man tall with brown hair and large light eyes. His face was serious and handsome, and the slight unkemptness in his large figure betrayed a dreamer, absorbed in his thoughts.” Pierre Curie remained a bachelor at thirty-five. An Alsatian and Protestant by origin, he was the son and grandson of physicians. At the age of sixteen, Pierre became a bachelor of natural sciences, and at twenty-four he was appointed head of the practical work at the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry.

Curie was fascinated by this fragile girl, her gray eyes and blond hair. And when he turned the conversation to physics, he was amazed at the high level of her knowledge.

After meeting at the Kowalskis’, they met at the Physical Society and at conferences. One day Pierre presented Maria with his scientific report with the dedication: “Mademoiselle Sklodowska - with respect and friendship from the author.”

Pierre and Maria took long walks around the outskirts of Paris and had conversations while picking flowers. Unlike the rather complacent Curie, Sklodowska was more purposeful. Under her influence, Pierre published his doctoral dissertation and completed his work on magnetism.

At first they were united by physics, but very soon their friendship grew into a deeper feeling. Pierre and Maria, by all accounts, made a surprisingly harmonious couple. But Sklodovskaya - stubborn, principled - resisted changes in her personal life. She was 26 years old, which at that time was considered the age of an old maid. In addition, marriage with a Frenchman seemed to her almost a betrayal of her native Poland...

But Pierre was persistent, and Maria said yes. They got married on July 26, 1894 in the city hall of Seau, the day after Pierre defended his doctoral dissertation.

The newlyweds had nothing but two bicycles, bought on the eve of the wedding with money donated by one of the cousins. They took a honeymoon trip through the villages of Ile-de-France on bicycles.

In October, the couple rented an apartment. “Our first home,” Maria recalled, “a small, very modest apartment of three rooms was on Glacier Street, not far from the School of Physics. Its main advantage is the view of the large garden. The most necessary furniture was donated by our parents. The servants were beyond our means. I was burdened with household chores, but I got used to them during my student life.

Our lives were completely devoted to scientific work, and many days were spent in the laboratory, where Schutzenberger allowed me to work with my husband...

We lived very friendly, our interests coincided in everything: theoretical work, research in the laboratory, preparation for lectures or exams. During the eleven years of our marriage, we were almost never separated, and therefore our correspondence over the years took up only a few lines. Days of rest and vacations were devoted to walking or cycling, either in the countryside in the vicinity of Paris, or on the sea coast or in the mountains.”

Maria was expecting a child, and now she had to take care of her health. Professor Sklodovsky, who spent the summer in France, insisted that his daughter live with him in Port Blanc, at the Hotel At the Gray Rocks. This is how the couple separated for the first time.

Pierre Curie wrote to her (in Polish!): “My little girl, dear, sweet girl, whom I love so much, I received your letter today and was immensely happy. I have no news except that I miss you terribly: my soul follows you..."

Maria answered him: “Come quickly... I’m waiting for you from morning to evening...”

Maria was already eight months pregnant when Pierre finally came to see her in Port Blanc. And they, as if nothing had happened, went to Brest on bicycles!

But the unborn child was already eager for freedom, forcing his parents to hastily return to Paris. On September 12, Dr. Curie himself delivered his daughter-in-law; he was the first to take Irene in his arms when no one suspected that she was destined to become a Nobel laureate.

Maria once wrote: “Life is not easy, but what can you do - you must have perseverance, and most importantly, believe in yourself. You must believe that you were born into the world for some purpose, and achieve this goal, no matter what the cost.”

Having completed her research on magnetism, Marie Skłodowska-Curie became interested in the discovery of Becquerel's uranium radiations. Pierre put aside his own research in crystal physics to help his wife. In July and December 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of two new elements, which they named polonium, after Poland, and radium.

The couple had to leave Glacier Street because little Irene needed a garden where the girl could develop freely. The decision was made quickly: a vacant house was found on Kellerman Boulevard, spacious enough for Dr. Curie to live here with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

For four years the Curies isolated radium from the ore. They carried out their experiments in a small building that belonged to the School of Physics and Chemistry. The former workshop now served them as both a storage room and a laboratory. No amenities, dampness, hopelessly outdated instruments... While Pierre was busy setting up delicate experiments, Maria poured liquids from one vessel to another, stirring the boiling material in a cast-iron basin for several hours in a row.

In addition, Pierre lectured at the university. But his salary was not enough to support his family, and in 1900 Maria began teaching physics in Sèvres, in educational institution, which trained secondary teachers.

In 1902, a great victory came to the Curies - they managed to isolate small quantity radium, a white shiny powder.

The following December, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Becquerel and the Curies. Marie and Pierre received half the award "in recognition... of their joint research into the phenomena of radiation discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Skłodowska-Curie became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Both Maria and Pierre were ill and were unable to come to Stockholm for the award ceremony. They received it the following summer.

“The award of the Nobel Prize,” wrote Skłodowska-Curie, “was for us important event due to the prestige associated with these awards, which were established quite recently at that time. From a material point of view, half of this bonus was a significant amount. From now on, Pierre Curie could transfer teaching at the School of Physics to Paul Langevin, his former student, a physicist with great erudition. In addition, he invited a preparator for his work.”

In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and a month later Maria became officially named head of the laboratory. But even the most modest laboratory needed loans and had to fight for every franc...

In December 1904, their second daughter, Eva, was born, who would become a concert pianist and biographer of her mother.

Their family life was happy and joyful, they worked together, and scientific research was not hindered by the birth of their daughters Irene and Eva. And suddenly everything ended. The tragedy happened on April 19, 1906. Pierre, as usual, left the house in the morning, heading to work. And he never returned... He died under the wheels of a horse-drawn carriage.

Maria, inconsolable in her grief, refused the honors that were due at the funerals of celebrities; she only asked that she be allowed to host them in So, in the narrowest circle, and if a minister must be present, namely the Minister of Public Education, then let him come there as a private person: famous politician Aristide Briand also considered it necessary to pay his last respects to the deceased.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie was only thirty-eight years old, and she needed to get her daughters on their feet. All her research, all her discoveries will be dedicated to Pierre. She refused the pension assigned by the Ministry of Public Education (“I am still young enough to earn a living for myself and my daughters”), but agreed to accept the chair of physics at the Sorbonne, which was previously headed by her husband.

According to the rules, the course of lectures was supposed to begin with words of gratitude to the predecessor. Maria uttered the phrase with which Pierre completed his course last semester... In her diary she will constantly refer to him: “I wanted to tell you that the alpine broom is in bloom, and wisteria, and hawthorn, and irises are also beginning to bloom... You should I really liked all this..."

In 1911, Sklodowska-Curie became a two-time Nobel Prize laureate, and 24 years later her daughter Irene received the same award. And yet, Maria is forced to admit: “There is no need to lead such an unnatural life as I led. I devoted a lot of time to science because I was passionate about it, because I loved scientific research... All I wish for women and young girls is simple family life and the work they like.”

Marie Skłodowska-Curie died from radiation exposure. She died on July 4, 1934. Sixty years later, the couple reunited - their remains were transferred to the Paris Pantheon and buried nearby.

The history of all times and peoples does not know an example of two married couples in two successive generations making such a great contribution to science as the Curie family. (Professor V.V. Alpatov)

The life of Pierre and Marie Curie is shining example cooperation of the Principles, the interaction of which gave remarkable discoveries in the field of subtle energies. This is a powerful married battery of scientists that revolutionized the science of the 20th century.

Marie Curie (1867 - 1934) - physicist and chemist, one of the creators of the doctrine of radioactivity, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, an honorary member of one hundred and six different scientific institutions, academies and scientific societies. Together with her husband Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906) in 1898, she discovered polonium and radium, studied radioactive radiation, and coined the term radioactivity. In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1911 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Maria was born in 1867 into a large and friendly Polish family, the Skłodowskis. Her father and mother dedicated themselves school education, which could not but have a positive impact on their children. WITH early years Maria was a good student and was exceptionally persistent and ambitious. She graduated from high school with a gold medal. However, she early had to think about earning an independent income through tutoring and even being a governess for some time in one of the rich Polish families. Having saved a certain amount of money, Maria in 1891, at the age of 24, went to Paris to the Sorbonne to study at the Faculty of Natural Sciences to obtain higher education. Leading the life of a recluse, Maria studied persistently and purposefully. She crossed out all kinds of entertainment from her life plans and friendly parties and lived extremely modestly, without any comfort. Step by step, she accumulated knowledge in the fields of mathematics, physics and chemistry, and mastered the basics of experimental techniques in one of the laboratories. She really liked the laboratory climate, which she would not change throughout her creative life.

Pierre Curie was born in Paris on May 15, 1859 into the family of a doctor. Together with his brother Jacques, he was engaged in scientific research at the Sorbonne. Two young physicists discovered a very important phenomenon - piezoelectricity and invented a new device - a quartz piezometer, used to convert electrical processes into mechanical ones and vice versa. Then Pierre Curie led the practical scientific work of students at the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry, while simultaneously conducting his theoretical work on crystal physics. These works end with a statement of the “principle of symmetry”, which will become one of the foundations modern science. The scientist constructs ultra-sensitive balances, the so-called Curie balances, for scientific purposes, then undertakes research on magnetism and achieves a brilliant result, discovering the fundamental law - Curie.

In 1894, at one of the meetings of the Physical Society, Pierre Curie met Maria Sklodowska. He was captivated by her beauty, clear and developed mind, and heart devoted to science. Under the influence of Maria, the scientist again takes up his work on magnetism and brilliantly defends his doctoral dissertation. Later, their relationship grew into a feeling of sublime friendship and love.

In such simple, restrained expressions, Marie will describe their first meeting,

which happened in the spring of 1894:

“When I entered, Pierre Curie was standing in the span of the glass door leading out

to the balcony. He seemed very young to me, although he turned

thirty-five years old. I was struck by the expression of his clear eyes and barely noticeable

constraint in the posture of a tall figure. His slow, deliberate speech, his

simplicity, seriousness and at the same time a youthful smile disposed one to complete

trust. A conversation began between us, which quickly turned into a friendly one.

conversation: he dealt with such scientific issues regarding which I

In his letter to his future wife, the thirty-five-year-old physicist writes: “Still, how wonderful it would be that which I do not dare to believe: namely, to spend our lives next to each other, spellbound by our dreams: your patriotic dream, our universal and our scientific dream.

Later, after the death of her husband, Marie Curie would write in her diary: “We were created to live together, and our marriage had to take place.”

From the biography of M. Curie, written by her youngest daughter Eva: “Wonderful are the first days of life together. Pierre and Marie ride around the roads of Ile-de-France on their famous bicycles. Sitting down in a mossy clearing somewhere in the forest, they have breakfast with bread and cheese, peaches and cherries. In the evening they stop at the first hotel they come across.

Marie and Pierre did nothing to decorate the three small rooms in which they lived. They even refused the furniture offered to them by Dr. Curie. Every sofa, every chair is just an extra item for wiping off dust in the morning and putting a shine on days of general cleaning. Marie has neither the strength nor the time for this. And why all these sofas and armchairs, since the young Curies, by mutual consent, canceled their receptions and parties?

The main thing for M. Curie throughout her life was selfless service to science. Being the authors of a unique technology for extracting radium from uranium-containing rocks, Maria and Pierre refused to patent it, which would have opened the way for them to receive large personal funds. They considered their discovery not a personal property, but the property of all humanity and willingly shared their technological achievements with everyone.

Pierre lived in the name of one ideal goal: to engage in scientific research side by side with the woman he loved, who shared the same interests. Marie’s life is more complicated: in addition to her favorite work, she has all the everyday, tedious responsibilities of a married woman.” Despite this, Marie copes with them brilliantly.

In 1897, the Curie couple gave birth to their first daughter, Irene, a future Nobel Prize winner. But the birth of a child did not distract Marie from work. In the same year, with an interval of three months, she gave the world her first child and the result of her first research (about magnetic properties ah hardened steels).

Since 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie have been working together to discover a new chemical element, which is radioactive. And from now on, in the work of the spouses it will no longer be possible to distinguish the contribution of each of them. “Pierre Curie's talent is known thanks to his own works before collaborating with his wife. His wife's talent is revealed to us in her first intuition of discovery, in her approach to the task. This talent will manifest itself later, when Madame Curie, already a widow, will be alone, without bending, to bear the entire burden of new discoveries and bring them to a harmonious flourishing. We have certain evidence that in this illustrious union of man and woman their contributions were equal.

May belief in this satisfy both our curiosity and our admiration. We will not separate a couple full of love for each other if their handwriting, taking turns, goes one after another in working notes and formulas; a couple who signed together almost every scientific paper they published. They write: “we found...”, “we observed...”, and only occasionally are forced to use such a touching turn of phrase as: “one of us discovered” (Curie E. Marie Curie).

The joint work of the Curies lasted eight years. For four years, under difficult conditions, scientists worked to isolate radium - without money, laboratory or help. The place of their experiments was an old barn, where they came after their main work, where they earned meager pennies; they came tired, exhausted, but still driven by an irresistible passion for science. They were forced to set aside funds from their salaries to buy huge quantities of processed uranium ore in order to isolate from it that mysterious substance that would later be called radium.

“All this time, Marie processes, kilogram by kilogram, tons of uranium ore sent in several stages from Joachimsthal. With amazing persistence, over the course of four years, she transformed herself every day in turn into a scientist, a qualified scientific worker, an engineer and a laborer. Thanks to her intelligence and energy, more and more concentrated products with more and more radium content appeared on the decrepit tables of the barn. Marie Curie is approaching her goal. Gone are the days when she stood in the courtyard in a cloud of smoke and watched the heavy cauldrons where the starting material was dissolved. The next stage in the work begins - purification and fractional crystallization of solutions of high radioactivity. Now we need an extremely clean room with equipment insulated from dust and the influence of temperature fluctuations. In the miserable barn, blown from all sides, dust floats around with particles of iron and coal, which are mixed with carefully cleaned processed products, which leads Marie to despair. Her soul hurts from daily incidents of this kind, which waste both time and energy. ...

Pierre Curie advises Marie to take a break. But he did not take into account the character of his wife. Marie wants to isolate radium, and she will. She pays no attention to overwork, or to difficulties, or to gaps in her knowledge that complicate her task.”

The spirit of radium, alive and captivating, never ceased calling scientists to unravel its mystery. “And among the dark barn, glass vessels with precious radium particles, placed, in the absence of cabinets, simply on tables, on plank shelves nailed to the walls, shine with bluish phosphorescent silhouettes, as if hanging in the darkness.

- Look... look! - Maria whispers. She carefully moves forward, feeling for the wicker chair with her hand, and sits down. In the darkness, in silence, two faces are turned to a pale radiance, to the mysterious source of rays - to radium, their radium! (Curie E. Mapia Curie)

The experiments did not stop either in the heat or in the rain, although the ceilings of the barn were leaking, or in the winter cold, which made the fingers unruly. At any free moment, scientists ran to their brainchild, where the spirit of true cooperation, great self-sacrifice in the name of ideas and love for science reigned.

Over four years of experiments, Maria isolated one decigram of pure radium and established its atomic weight as 225.

In 1903, the Curies were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1904, Maria gave birth to her second daughter, Eva.

In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie - the authors of the discovery of polonium and radium - were at a ceremonial meeting held in their honor at the Royal Institution of London, where they were very warmly greeted by all of scientific England. In the following days, all of London wanted to see the authors of the famous discovery. In particular, lavish receptions and banquets were organized.

The heroes of the occasion - Maria and Pierre - were embarrassed by the sophistication of the surrounding audience, the splendor of the outfits and decorations present at the ladies' celebrations. The chic brooches and necklaces on many of them made an indelible impression. Maria, dressed in her usual modest black dress, found herself in such a brilliant environment for the first time in her life. Despite all his asceticism and indifference to external effects, Mary’s heart still trembled. Turning to her husband sitting next to her, she said with a truly feminine feeling of admiration: “Listen, Pierre, it’s still amazingly beautiful!”

But it was only a momentary weakness. Throughout her life, Maria showed exceptional modesty in solving personal everyday problems. For her, like for many other great scientists, the beauty of scientific research came first.

By combining her love for science and a man in one ardent passion, Marie committed herself to an unprecedented feat. Pierre's tender feeling for her and hers for him were of the same strength, their ideals were the same.

In a letter to her sister, the scientist writes: “I have a husband - you can’t even imagine a better one, this is a real gift from God, and the longer we live together, the more we love each other.”

On April 19, 1906, a tragedy occurred - Pierre Curie died under the wheels of a cab. After the death of her husband, Maria experienced a strong spiritual drama, however, even after his transition to another plane of existence, the spiritual connection between them remained.

“Dear Pierre,” Marie Curie wrote in her diary, “I am offered to take over your leadership: your course of lectures and the management of your laboratory. I agreed. I don't know if this is good or bad. You have often expressed a desire for me to teach some course at the Sorbonne. I would like to at least move our work forward. Sometimes it seems to me that this will make my life easier, and at times it seems to me that it is crazy for me to take on this.”

And yet, in these difficult days for her, her husband’s moral will determines the whole life path scientist: “No matter what happens, even if the soul separates from the body, we must work.”

Marie Curie is appointed professor of natural history at the Sorbonne - for the first time in the history of the French high school a woman receives a professorship. From 1906 to 1914 she continues her research, interrupted by the death of Pierre, and teaches at the Sorbonne and Sevres. M. Curie creates and delivers the world's first and only course of lectures on radioactivity. Edits and publishes “Proceedings of Pierre Curie”.

After M. Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1911, a slander campaign was launched against her, which led to the scientist becoming seriously ill. However, the construction of the radium institute continues. During the war of 1914 - 1918. Marie Curie creates two hundred and twenty mobile and stationary X-ray units that used radium emanations for medical purposes.

From 1919 to 1934 The scientist continues her research at the Radium Institute. She makes triumphant trips abroad, conducts extensive public activities, and creates a radium institute in Warsaw. In 1926 she was elected an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Marie Curie left the earthly plane on July 4, 1934.

The baton of the outstanding scientists Pierre and Marie Curie was picked up by their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie (1897 - 1956), who, together with her husband Frederic Joliot (1900 - 1958), discovered artificial radioactivity, positron radioactivity, and annihilation. They received the Nobel Prize for their contributions to science in 1935. “The history of all times and peoples does not know an example of two married couples in two successive generations making such a great contribution to science as the Curie family.

Pierre and Marie Curie can be considered an example of selfless service to science and selfless devotion to their work. The lives of both generations of Curies were literally sacrificed to science. Marie Curie, her daughter Irene and son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie died from radiation sickness resulting from many years of work with radioactive substances (Alpatov V.V. Preface to the third Russian edition. E. Curie. Marie Curie).

French physicist Pierre Curie was born in Paris. He was the younger of two sons of physician Eugene Curie and Sophie-Claire (Depully) Curie. The father decided to educate his independent and reflective son at home. The boy turned out to be such a diligent student that in 1876, at sixteen years of age, he received a bachelor's degree from the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Two years later he received a licentiate degree (equivalent to a master's degree) in physical sciences.

In 1878, Curie became a demonstrator at the physical laboratory of the Sorbonne, where he began researching the nature of crystals. Together with his older brother Jacques, who worked in the mineralogical laboratory of the university, Curie spent four years intensively experimental work in this area. The Curie brothers discovered piezoelectricity - the appearance of electric charges on the surface of some crystals under the influence of an externally applied force. They also discovered the opposite effect: the same crystals under the influence electric field experience compression. If alternating current is applied to such crystals, they can be forced to oscillate at ultra-high frequencies, at which the crystals will emit sound waves beyond the range of human hearing. Such crystals have become very important components of radio equipment such as microphones, amplifiers and stereo systems. The Curie brothers developed and built a laboratory device such as a piezoelectric quartz balancer, which creates electric charge, proportional to the applied force. It can be considered the predecessor of the main components and modules of modern quartz watches and radio transmitters. In 1882, on the recommendation of the English physicist William Thomson, Curie was appointed head of the laboratory of the new Municipal School industrial physics and chemistry. Although the school's salary was more than modest, Curie remained head of the laboratory for twenty-two years. A year after Curie's appointment as head of the laboratory, the brothers' collaboration ceased, as Jacques left Paris to become professor of mineralogy at the University of Montpellier.

In the period from 1883 to 1895, Curie carried out a large series of works, mainly on the physics of crystals. His articles on the geometric symmetry of crystals have not lost their significance for crystallographers to this day. From 1890 to 1895, Curie studied the magnetic properties of substances at various temperatures. Based on large number experimental data in his doctoral dissertation established a relationship between temperature and magnetization, which later became known as Curie’s law.

Working on my dissertation. Curie in 1894 met Maria Skłodowska, a young Polish physics student at the Sorbonne. They married in July 1895, a few months after Curie defended his doctorate. In 1897, shortly after the birth of her first child, Marie Curie began research into radioactivity, which soon absorbed Pierre's attention for the rest of his life.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium compounds constantly emit radiation that can illuminate a photographic plate. Having chosen this phenomenon as the topic of her doctoral dissertation, Marie began to find out whether other compounds emit “Becquerel rays.” Since Becquerel discovered that the radiation emitted by uranium increases the electrical conductivity of the air near the preparations, she used the Curie brothers' piezoelectric quartz balancer to measure the electrical conductivity. Marie Curie soon came to the conclusion that only uranium, thorium and compounds of these two elements emit Becquerel radiation, which she later called radioactivity. Maria, at the very beginning of her research, committed important discovery: uranium resin blende ( uranium ore) electrifies the surrounding air much more strongly than the uranium and thorium compounds it contains, and even than pure uranium. From this observation, she concluded that there was a still unknown, highly radioactive element in the uranium resin blende. In 1898, Marie Curie reported the results of her experiments to the French Academy of Sciences. Convinced that his wife's hypothesis was not only correct but also very important, Curie left his own research to help Maria isolate the elusive element. From that time on, the interests of the Curies as researchers merged so completely that even in their laboratory notes they always used the pronoun “we”.

The Curies set themselves the task of separating uranium resin blende into chemical components. After labor-intensive operations, they obtained a small amount of a substance that had the greatest radioactivity. It turned out. that the isolated portion contains not one, but two unknown radioactive elements. In July 1898, the Curies published an article “On the radioactive substance contained in uranium pitchblende,” in which they reported the discovery of one of the elements, named polonium in honor of the birthplace of Maria Skłodowska. In December they announced the discovery of a second element, which they named radium. Both new elements were many times more radioactive than uranium or thorium, and constituted one millionth part of uranium pitchblende. To isolate enough radium from the ore to determine its atomic weight, the Curies processed several tons of uranium resin blende over the next four years. Working in primitive and harmful conditions, they carried out chemical separation operations in huge vats installed in a leaky barn, and all analyzes were carried out in a tiny, poorly equipped laboratory Municipal school.

In September 1902, the Curies reported that they had isolated one tenth of a gram of radium chloride and determined atomic mass radium, which turned out to be equal to 225. (Curie was unable to isolate polonium, since it turned out to be a decay product of radium.) The radium salt emitted a bluish glow and warmth. This fantastic-looking substance attracted the attention of the whole world. Recognition and awards for its discovery came almost immediately.

The Curies published a huge amount of information about radioactivity that they collected during their research: from 1898 to 1904 they published thirty-six papers. Even before completing his research. The Curies encouraged other physicists to also study radioactivity. In 1903, Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy suggested that radioactive radiation associated with the decay of atomic nuclei. As they decay (losing some of the particles that form them), radioactive nuclei undergo transmutation into other elements. The Curies were among the first to realize that radium could also be used for medical purposes. Noticing the effect of radiation on living tissues, they suggested that radium preparations could be useful in the treatment of tumor diseases.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Curies half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition... of their joint investigations into the phenomena of radiation discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel", with whom they shared the prize. The Curies were ill and were unable to attend the awards ceremony. In his Nobel lecture, given two years later, Curie pointed out potential danger, which radioactive substances represent if they fall into the wrong hands, and added that “he is among those who, together with Nobel, believe that new discoveries will bring more harm to humanity than good.”

Radium is an element that is extremely rare in nature, and its prices, taking into account its medical value, increased rapidly. The Curies lived poorly, and the lack of funds could not but affect their research. At the same time, they decisively abandoned the patent for their extraction method, as well as the prospects for the commercial use of radium. In their opinion, this would be contrary to the spirit of science - the free exchange of knowledge. Despite the fact that such a refusal deprived them of considerable profits, the Curies' financial situation improved after receiving the Nobel Prize and other awards.

In October 1904, Curie was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and Marie Curie became head of the laboratory previously headed by her husband. In December of the same year, Curie's second daughter was born. Increased income, improved research funding, plans to create a new laboratory, admiration and recognition from the world scientific community should have made the following years of the Curies fruitful. But, like Becquerel, Curie died too early, not having time to enjoy his triumph and accomplish his plans. On a rainy day on April 19, 1906, while crossing a street in Paris, he slipped and fell. His head fell under the wheel of a passing horse-drawn carriage. Death came instantly.

Marie Curie inherited his chair at the Sorbonne, where she continued her radium research. In 1910, she managed to isolate pure metal radium, and in 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1923, Marie published a biography of Curie. Eldest daughter Curie, Irène (Irène Joliot-Curie), shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband; the youngest, Eva, became a concert pianist and biographer of her mother. Serious, reserved, completely focused on his work, Curie was at the same time a kind and sympathetic person. He was quite widely known as an amateur naturalist. One of his favorite pastimes was walking or cycling. Despite being busy in the laboratory and having family concerns, the Curies found time for walks together.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Curie was awarded several other awards and honors, including the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London (1903) and the Matteucci Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Italy (1904). He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences (1905).

Marie and Pierre Curie

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw into the family of a teacher, Władysław Skłodowski, where, in addition to Maria, three more daughters and a son grew up.

My father taught mathematics and physics at various secondary schools in Warsaw. He was a highly educated man and an excellent teacher. My mother ran a girls' school for many years. She died when Maria was only nine years old.

Maria spent her summer holidays with her brothers and sisters every year at her relatives in the village. Interestingly, Einstein later said that Madame Curie did not hear birds singing. Apparently, under the influence of bitter experiences and complete absorption in science, she lost the feeling of unity with nature.

There were no difficulties for Maria at school. Already at the age of four, she learned to read with one of her older sisters. Thanks to her extraordinary memory, the girl was always at the top of her class. She graduated from high school with a gold medal. She was distinguished by extraordinary diligence and hard work. Maria strove to complete the work in the most thorough manner, avoiding inaccuracies, often sacrificing sleep and regular meals for this purpose. She studied so intensively that, after graduating from school, she was forced to take a break to improve her health. In addition, in Tsarist Poland there were no educational institutions for women, and there was not enough money to attend university abroad - in France or Switzerland, since the father's income was very modest. Maria herself suggested that her older sister Bronislava, who wanted to become a doctor, go to Paris first. She intended to work as a home teacher during this time and support her sister from her own means. Later, she also had to go to study in Paris.

For six years Maria was a governess. She spent most of this time in the village, in the house of a landowner, far from Warsaw. In her free time, she taught the children of tenants, farm laborers, employees and estate workers to read and write in Polish. She bought notebooks and writing materials herself. “These kids give me a lot of joy and consolation,” she wrote to a friend.

In those few hours that were left to herself, Maria worked through physics and mathematics textbooks. She felt increasingly attracted to these sciences. “When I feel completely unable to read a book fruitfully, I begin to solve algebraic and trigonometric problems, since they do not tolerate errors of attention and return the mind to the straight path,” this is her attitude towards the exact sciences.

During these years, 19-year-old Maria experienced first-hand social injustice and class prejudice. Her master's son fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. “They don’t marry governesses,” was the answer the son received when he asked for consent to the marriage. And he obeyed his parents' demands. Maria was disappointed and deeply hurt, and not only in her own personal feelings. If she did not have to take care of her sister, she wrote to her brother, she would certainly quit.

When the contract was completed, Maria returned to Warsaw. Here she entered the laboratory for the first time. With constant success she repeated the physical and chemical experiments. These activities deepened her love for natural science and determined her choice of profession.

Bronislava became a doctor; in 1891, Maria, at the age of 24, was able to go to Paris, to the Sorbonne, where she studied chemistry and physics, while her sister earned money for her studies.

Maria first lived with her sister, but then moved to the university quarter to work without interference and be closer to the laboratories. Since she did not receive material support and had to spend her little money with the greatest economy cash, she lived in squalid conditions. In the attic closet where she lived, it was so cold in winter that the water in the washbasin froze. It took good health and an iron will to endure such a life for years.

The girl did not allow herself any pleasure then. She did not allow anything to distract her from her scientific work. Under the impression of past difficult experiences, she crossed out love and marriage “from the program of her life.” Her heart belonged only to science. She knew only one goal: to complete her studies as quickly and successfully as possible.

She was first in physics exams, and second in mathematics the following year. The brilliant successes of Maria Skłodowska allowed friends in her homeland to secure a Polish foreign scholarship for her. She gave Maria the opportunity to stay for another year in Paris to continue her experiments and prepare her doctoral dissertation.

Her hard work and abilities brought her to attention and she was given the opportunity to conduct independent research. Maria Sklodowska became the first female teacher in the history of the Sorbonne.

In 1894, Maria Skłodowska met Pierre Curie. They were introduced by her friend's husband, who wanted to help Maria find a room for experiments. Pierre taught at the School of Physics and Chemistry. Pierre Curie, son of a Parisian doctor, was six years old older than Maria Sklodowska. Modest and devoid of the slightest ambition, the scientist was one of the most talented physicists of his time. Maria treated him with great respect; he was already a famous scientist, the discoverer of piezoelectricity, and she was just yesterday’s student.

When they first met, their conversation quickly turned into scientific conversation. She asked questions and listened carefully to the answers. He became more and more interested. Pierre was fascinated by the fragile girl, her gray eyes and blond hair. They met at conferences, at the Physical Society. Pierre and Maria took long walks around the outskirts of Paris, picked flowers and talked endlessly about science. Soon Pierre presented Maria with his scientific report with the inscription: “Mademoiselle Sklodowska - with respect and friendship from the author.” Maria was collected and purposeful. She simply forced Pierre to publish his doctoral dissertation and formalize his work on magnetism.

He increasingly realized that he could not resist his attraction to the beautiful scientist girl. But Maria herself was not yet ready for serious relationship. She went to Poland for the summer. He begged her to come back, he almost demanded: “You have no right to give up science!” These words sound: “You have no right to leave me!” They carried on a lively correspondence. When she returned to Paris in the fall, he proposed to her. She refused. Pierre's stubbornness cost Mary's stubbornness. Gradually she softens. He turns to her sister for help, and together they manage to turn the hermit into beautiful woman ready for love and family happiness. Maria accepted his offer. Pierre's parents received her very warmly.

On July 25, 1895, he defended his dissertation, and the next day they got married. The ceremony is absolutely modest - not white dress, no gold rings, no wedding ceremony. The young people had only one wealth - a pair of brand new bicycles, a gift from one of their distant relatives. The main decoration of their lives is the amazing harmony of their personalities.

On September 12, 1897, their daughter Irene was born in Paris. The girl was raised by her paternal grandfather, who lived in their house, since her parents could not pay much attention to her due to intensive scientific work. Maria began work on her doctoral dissertation on the study of radioactivity.

Since 1998, the couple have been working together on the same problems. Also in 1898, polonium was discovered, an element named after Poland, Marie Curie's homeland. At the same time, the couple faced the question of patenting their discovery. And they decided not to take any steps in this regard, providing their discovery free of charge for the benefit of humanity. And they remained in poverty.

At the end of the same 1898, Maria and Pierre discovered another radioactive element, this time as a substance accompanying barium. It had an even greater, simply “unheard of” radiation intensity. That's why they called it "radium" ("radiating"). There was still a huge amount of work to be done to isolate the discovered elements so that chemists could see with their own eyes their existence and test the new substance in their usual ways. This became the goal for the coming years. In 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie finally obtained a decigram of pure radium chloride. It was white powder, which looked almost like regular table salt. All properties of the new element were determined already in 1902. The result, which cost a lot of effort, served as the foundation for a new doctrine of radioactivity.

The research successes of the Curie spouses aroused close attention in the world of scientists, but this initially did nothing to ease their difficult struggle for existence. Pierre continued to teach at the City vocational school physics and chemistry. Maria was an assistant professor of physics at an educational institution that trained teachers. The provision of a state laboratory was delayed from year to year due to bureaucratic delays and constant shortage money in the relevant administrative institutions.

When the dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Sorbonne informed Pierre Curie that he wanted to introduce him to the order, he received the answer: “I ask you, be kind enough to convey my gratitude to Mr. Minister and inform him that I have no need for the order, but I really need a laboratory.” . The Curies despised gold as a symbol of wealth and power. Marie Curie had no valuable jewelry; she never wore wedding ring. When the Curies were the first to receive the Davy Medal from the Royal Society in London in 1903, they gave the precious medal, minted from pure gold, to little Irene as toys.

In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie, together with Henri Becquerel, received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for outstanding services in joint research into the phenomena of radiation.” Now they finally have the opportunity to equip their laboratory with the necessary equipment and buy a bathtub for their apartment.

In 1903, in the 36th year of her life, Marie Curie defended her doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne on the topic she had chosen six years earlier. In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne. In 1905 he was elected academician to the French Academy of Sciences. Especially for him, the Department of General Physics and Radioactivity was formed at the University of Paris, although without a laboratory, since there was still no money for this.

In 1904, another daughter appeared in the family - Eva.

In June 1905, the Curies went to Stockholm, where Pierre read the traditional Nobel report. Concluding his speech, he said that in the wrong hands radium can become very dangerous. This question will arise with all its urgency in forty years. Pierre Curie pointed to Alfred Nobel's discoveries as a typical example of this. A new type of explosive discovered by Nobel could make it easier for humanity to carry out large-scale technical work; however, it could also become “a terrible instrument of destruction in the hands of high-ranking criminals who plunge nations into war.” Like Nobel, Pierre Curie was convinced that humanity was capable of putting new discoveries into the service of good rather than evil.

On April 19, 1906, at one of the Parisian intersections, the life of Pierre Curie was cut short under the wheels of a horse-drawn carriage: deep in his thoughts, the scientist went out onto the roadway, not paying attention to the traffic, he slipped and fell under the carriage. The wheel crushed his head, death came instantly. He was 46 years old, his widow Maria was 39. In her arms were the children Irene - 9 years old, Eva - 2 years old. “My life is so broken that it can no longer be arranged,” she wrote in 1907 to a friend of her youth.

Maria refused the honors and pension due to the widow of the great scientist, but agreed to accept the chair of physics at the Sorbonne, which was headed by her husband. She begins the course of lectures with the phrase with which her husband ended it last semester. She can't believe he's gone. In her diary she writes: “I wanted to tell you that the alpine broom is in bloom, and wisteria, and hawthorn, and irises are also beginning to bloom. You would really like all this.”

After the tragic death of her husband in 1906, Marie Curie threw herself into her work.

In 1909, Maria was appointed director of the department of basic research and medical applications of radioactivity.

In 1911, Marie Skłodowska-Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for her outstanding services in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium." She became the first - and to date, the only woman in the world - to win the Nobel Prize twice.

Marie Curie died in 1934, she was 66 years old. Maria died of leukemia. Her death is a tragic lesson - while working with radioactive substances, she did not take any precautions and even wore an ampoule of radium on her chest as a talisman. She was a member of 85 scientific societies around the world, including the French Academy of Medicine, and received 20 honorary degrees.

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M. Curie, E. Curie

PIERRE AND MARIE CURIE

Curie Marie

PIERRE CURIE

Translation from French by S. A. SHUKAREV

“... One can also imagine that in criminal hands radium can be very dangerous, and in connection with this one can ask the following question: is knowledge of the secrets of nature beneficial for humanity, is humanity mature enough to derive only benefit from it, or Is this knowledge harmful for him? In this regard, the example of Nobel’s discoveries is very typical: powerful explosives made it possible to produce amazing work. But they also turn out to be a terrible weapon of destruction in the hands of criminal rulers who drag nations into wars.

I personally belong to people who think like Nobel, namely, that humanity will derive more good than evil from new discoveries.”

Pierre Curie

Preface

Not without some hesitation, I accepted the offer to write a biography of Pierre Curie. I would prefer to entrust this task to one of the relatives or childhood friends of the deceased, who are well acquainted with his life, from childhood until recently. Jacques Curie, brother and comrade of Pierre's youth, bound to him by the most tender bonds of affection, did not consider himself able to complete this task, since he had lived away from Pierre since his appointment as a professor at the University of Montpellier. He therefore insisted that I write a biography, believing that no one could know and understand the life of his brother better than me. He told me all his personal memories of Pierre Curie. To this very important material, which I used in the widest possible way, I added some more details that I gleaned from the stories of my husband and some of his friends. In this way I reconstructed, as best I could, that part of his life that was not directly known to me. I tried to correctly convey the deep impression that his personality made on me over the years of our life together.

This story, of course, is imperfect and incomplete. But I hope, nevertheless, that the portrait of Pierre Curie, drawn by me, is by no means distorted and will help preserve his memory. I would like this story to revive for those who knew Curie those features of his personality for which he was especially loved.

M. Curie

The Curie family. Childhood and primary education Pierre Curie

Pierre Curie's parents were educated and intelligent people; they were not rich and had not been in secular society, limiting themselves to family ties and a small circle of close friends.

Pierre's father, Eugene Curie, was a doctor and the son of a doctor; little is known about more distant ancestors; What is certain is that they came from Alsace and were Protestants. Although Eugene Curie's father lived in London, the young man was brought up in Paris, where he studied natural sciences and medicine and worked as a laboratory assistant in the laboratories of the Museum at Gratiolet.

Dr. Eugene Curie was a remarkable personality who amazed all the people who came into contact with him. He was a tall man, probably blond in his youth, with beautiful blue eyes, which have not lost their liveliness and brilliance even in old age; his eyes retained a childish expression and shone with kindness and intelligence. Eugene Curie had extraordinary mental abilities, a strong attraction to the natural sciences and the temperament of a scientist.

He dreamed of devoting his life to scientific work, but, burdened with his family, he was forced to abandon this project and choose the profession of a doctor; however, he continued experimental research, in particular tuberculosis vaccination, at a time when the bacterial origin of this disease had not yet been fully established. Until the end of his life, Eugene Curie maintained the cult of science and regretted that he could not devote himself entirely to it. For scientific experiments he needed plants and animals, so Dr. Curie developed a habit of excursions: loving nature, he preferred life in the countryside.

During his humble career as a doctor, Eugene Curie showed remarkable dedication and selflessness. During the Revolution of 1848, while he was still a student, the government of the Republic awarded him a medal of honor "for honorable and gallant conduct" while caring for the wounded. Eugene Curie himself was wounded on February 24 by a bullet that shattered his jaw. Later, during a cholera epidemic, he remained to care for the sick in one of the quarters of Paris, abandoned by other doctors. During the Commune, he set up an outpatient clinic in his apartment, near the barricade, and treated the wounded; Because of this act of civic valor and progressive convictions, Eugene Curie lost some of his bourgeois patients. Then he took the position of medical inspector for the protection of minors. This service made it possible to live in the outskirts of Paris, in conditions more favorable than in the city for the health of him and his family.

Dr. Curie had strong political convictions. An idealist by temperament, he became passionately interested in the republican doctrine that inspired the revolutionaries of 1848. He was connected by friendship with Henri Brisson and with the members of his circle; a freethinker and anti-clerical, like them, Eugene Curie did not baptize his two sons and did not ascribe them to any cult.

Pierre Curie's mother, Claire Depully, was the daughter of a manufacturer from Puteaux; her father and brothers stood out for their technical inventions. The family came from Savoy; they were destroyed during the 1848 revolution. This misfortune and the unsuccessful career of Dr. Curie were the reason for the difficult financial situation of the family. Pierre Curie's mother, although raised for a comfortable existence, bravely and calmly endured difficult conditions and, with her extreme selflessness, made life easier for her husband and children.

In the modest and troubled family environment where Jacques and Pierre Curie grew up, an atmosphere of tender affection and love reigned. Speaking to me for the first time about his parents, Pierre Curie called them “exceptional people.” And they really were like this: he, a little domineering, with a lively and active mind, with a rare unselfishness, who did not want to use personal connections to improve his position, gently loving wife and sons and always ready to help those who needed him, and she, small, lively and, despite her poor health, which deteriorated after the birth of her sons, was always cheerful and active in a modest apartment, which she knew how to make attractive and hospitable.