Sophia Curie biography. Biography of Marie Curie

In the French Pantheon, Marie Curie is the only woman among the great Frenchmen. Her ashes were reburied here in 1995 by personal order of the country's president, Francois Mitterrand. But if there had been not only a French, but even a worldwide pantheon of humanity, Marie would still have remained the first and unique, like the first milligrams of pure radium, extracted by her hands from several tons of radioactive brew.

Manya didn’t remember how old she was when she first saw this dream: a dimly lit room with a stove humming in the corner and thick, dusty leather-bound books standing on the shelves and many strange vessels and flasks covered with labels with incomprehensible signs and numbers. And also someone dressed in long black clothes, one by one taking vessels from the shelf, mixing their contents and heating them over the fire. Manya tried every time to see the stranger’s face, but nothing came of it; he always stood with his back to her. She was terribly curious - what he was doing there and why he was sighing all the time. Probably, she thought, this is a wizard who can’t reproduce something...
This dream, which came to Mana both in childhood and in her youth, was mixed in her head with other childhood memories, real and tragic. She always remembered the day when her beloved sister Zosya died of typhus. And my mother was too weak to attend the funeral.
Here she fastens a black cape on Mana and, moving from window to window, follows the funeral procession until it disappears around the corner. The house is cold and empty. Now it will never be the same as before: there are five children in the family of teacher Sklodovsky, Manya is the youngest, fifth child, she is “mother’s” most beloved daughter, pampered and looked after. Now she has only two sisters and brother Jozef left. And what needs care most of all now is the mother herself – she is completely exhausted from incessant coughing. And Manya begins to torment herself with thoughts about how to connect the dream about the wizard with reality and ask him for a miraculous drink for her mother’s recovery.
Busy with these thoughts, she will be very surprised to find in her dad’s office in the closet the same glass flasks as in the dream. And dad will simply call them “physical” devices. Funny word...

Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, where the January uprising was suppressed 3 years before her birth. Then, to intimidate the rebellious Poles, gallows were installed on the broken barricades and the five instigators were publicly executed. The fate of other rebels was also unenviable - they were taken to hard labor in Siberia. At the end of the reprisal against the rebels, pacified Poland was flooded with Russifiers. City signs on buildings were written in Russian, and teachers of educational institutions were required to “teach only in Russian.” But the teachers of Madame Sikorskaya’s boarding school, where Manya’s parents assigned her, turned out to be not entirely law-abiding and even free-thinking - they secretly taught students Polish language and the history of Poland. If the controller showed up unexpectedly, Polish books were hidden in the dormitory. During such checks, Manya was invariably called to communicate with the controllers - she had an excellent memory, and she spoke Russian better than anyone else. One day, after the official left, the girl burst into tears, explaining her tears by saying that she didn’t know how to lie, and if you don’t know how to do something, then you shouldn’t do it.
While the Sklodowski children were receiving their first education, their father was unexpectedly fired from his job. A former graduate of St. Petersburg University, principled and passionate, Vladislav Sklodowski was not “flexible” enough to work with the director of the gymnasium, Mr. Ivanov. The Sklodovskys had to move out of their government-owned apartment, and the head of the family, in order to feed everyone, had to take up tutoring. At first Sklodowski gave lessons to out-of-town high school students, and then decided to provide his students with both board and shelter. At the same time, another unpleasant event became the topic of family conversations for a long time: Sklodowski invested all his savings in a dubious enterprise of one of his relatives, which, of course, went bankrupt.
And then a completely dark streak began in Mani’s life: 2 years after Zosya’s death, her mother died of consumption. And she, a 10-year-old girl, no longer believes in God. Manya doesn’t believe in her wizard either. He didn’t save his mother and after her death he stopped dreaming about him completely. Food in the house was now prepared by a visiting housekeeper, and the simplest dresses were bought for the girls.
Many years will pass, and Marie Curie's daughter Eva will unsuccessfully prove to her famous mother that she needs to buy at least one decent dress instead of the gray and darned one, so as not to frighten the photographers...

In June 1883, Manya graduated from the state gymnasium in the Krakow suburb with a gold medal. Farewell, teachers, especially Mademoiselle Meyer, who was so outraged by the girl’s manner of always standing upright. Now no one, except family, no longer called 16-year-old Manya by this childish name. The sisters were all very jealous of their brother - he entered the medical faculty, where they were not allowed to go: women were not admitted to higher educational institutions of the Russian Empire.
The Mani sisters were eager to go to Paris. They saw it as a kingdom of freedom, knowledge, and unlimited possibilities. What if you manage to get into the Sorbonne? But this required a lot of money, but there was none. After the final exams, Maria was sent to the village to stay with her family for a whole year to gain strength. This year became the only carefree one in her life. She writes to a friend that all she does is read “stupid” novels, eat strawberries, ride horses, catch crayfish at night by torchlight, and swim. “I find genuine satisfaction in this state of utter stupidity.” She spent the winter in Zvol, near the Carpathians, on the border with Galicia. Maria especially remembers the Maslenitsa carnival – “Kuliga”.
Dressed as a Krakow peasant woman, she and everyone else went around the estates in a sleigh, where dances were held in each one and everyone was invariably fed to the fullest. The fun ends in the morning. And then, as in the best carnival traditions, after the night ball, Maria threw away the tattered chevre shoes that she had sewn only yesterday. “When they played the waltz, I already had invitations for several dances ahead,” she recalled.

After a year, Maria returned to her “beloved Varshavochka”, and it was her turn to help her father.

The sisters earned money by giving private lessons, and in the evenings they attended the Free University. In this officially non-existent educational institution, young people, most often former students expelled for unreliability, and girls who considered themselves “enlightened emancipes”, replenished their knowledge. Lectures were given to them by professors who were not indifferent to the education of Polish youth. In this nihilistic community, overwhelmed by a sense of patriotism, fiery speeches were made about Polish autonomy and an attempt was being made on the life of the Warsaw governor. Maria once even gave up her passport for some revolutionary purposes unknown to her, although she herself did not share extremist views, believing that the most important thing for Poland now is education. She read a lot, including scientific literature. But it all seemed so small to her. If only we could go to Paris, at least to one of the Parisian libraries! Maria, being quite far from the “emancipe” that then came into fashion with their free love and constantly smoking cigarettes, in imitation of them she still cut off her beautiful hair.
“How nice it would be, after studying at the Sorbonne, to return home and be useful to the oppressed Poles...”- she thought. But this dream seemed impossible. Both of her sisters also dreamed and saved money - each for “their own Paris.” However, they managed to earn an insignificant amount from lessons. At this rate, one could get to the city of hopes by the age of 60, not earlier... And then Maria made a decision: Bronya should go to study in Paris, and she would get a job as a governess and send money to her sister for 5 years. Then, having received her diploma, Bronya will return to Warsaw, open a medical practice and, in turn, will help Manya, who dreams of becoming a student at the Sorbonne.
Maria accompanied her sister, trembling with excitement, to the station, whispering to her goodbye: “You are so happy!” And then, with the help of hairpins, she rashly pinned back the cut off curls: she perfectly understood that it was unlikely that anyone would want to hire a short-haired, and therefore unreliable, governess.
The hiring agency created a card for the candidate: “Maria Sklodowska. Good recommendations. Efficient. Desired position: governess. Fee: four hundred rubles a year.”
Maria took a place in the family of a lawyer, but did not last long there: “I lived like I was in prison. This is one of those noble houses where they speak French in public, don’t pay bills for six months, but waste money... play at liberalism. Here I understood better what the human race is like. I learned that the personalities described in novels exist in reality,”- she wrote to her sister.
Maria got a job with another family, in a remote province, in the hope that her new employers from the Sharki estate would be better than the previous ones. She was received well at her new place. After putting her charges to bed, Maria could read books taken from a very small library.
“During these few years of work, when I tried to determine my actual abilities, in the end I chose mathematics and physics. Books taken at random were of little help."- she later recalled.
Maria read three books at once, believing that sequential study of one subject could tire her brain, which was already quite overloaded. When, due to fatigue, the meaning of what she had read began to elude her, she took up algebraic and trigonometric problems, “because they do not tolerate inattention and mobilize the mind.”

“Gossip, gossip and more gossip...- she writes home, - I behave approximately... I go to church... I never talk about higher education for women. ...As for young people, there are few nice ones among them, and even fewer smart ones.”
However, one of these young people was still not as bad as the others.
She did not write to her father and sisters about her first love. Everything was like in a novel - the owners’ son Kazimierz, a young student, fell in love with her, a poor governess. However, the parents immediately made it clear to the heir that tying the knot with a poor governess was, to say the least, indecent. And, as a result, the friendly attitude towards Maria gave way to silent hostility. They spoke to her only when necessary, clearly indicating her place. She endured for the sake of Bronya, who, denying herself everything, lived in the Latin Quarter.
“There were difficult days, and only one thing softens the memories of them - that I came out of the situation with honor, with my head raised... (as you can see, I have not yet given up that manner of behavior that aroused Mademoiselle’s hatred of me Meyer)",- she wrote to a friend.
And here she is in Warsaw! And at home - a joyful letter from Bronya: in Paris, my sister married a Polish emigrant, who had to flee Russia due to suspicions of a conspiracy against Emperor Alexander II.
“You could come this fall and live with us, we will support you,”- wrote Bronya. And now, when the dream was just a stone's throw away, Maria was suddenly overcome by doubts. The old teacher Sklodovsky was sincerely happy that after 6 years of working as a governess, her daughter was finally at home. “I so want to give him a little happiness in his old age, but my heart breaks at the thought of my uselessly wasting abilities...”- she wrote in a response letter. However, are these same abilities worth anything? Maybe she was just deceiving herself all this time?

And suddenly again, after so many years, this dream! Low light. An alchemist's office full of secrets and ignorance. And still the same figure in black. Come on, she needs to see his face. And - finally he turns and she sees a face, it's a woman. Her hair is almost gray, her cheeks are sunken, but her eyes burn with an undisguised brilliance. This is a look winner. The next morning, Maria immediately sat down to write a letter to Bronya. Now she knew what to do, and at the last meeting she finally broke up with the indecisive Kazimierz, coldly telling him: “If you yourself do not find the opportunity to clarify our situation, then it is not for me to teach you this.” No, no more love. This is not necessary, it interferes with life. From now on, she is a pure priestess of science with a cold heart and mind. The same as the one in the dream. Forward to the Sorbonne, to the dream. And no matter what happens, never lower your head!

Maria traveled to Paris in fourth class, carrying a wooden suitcase, a bag of food for the journey, a folding chair and a mattress (there were no sleeping places in the carriages of this class).
And finally the long-awaited Paris. She didn't notice him. Montmartre, Bois de Boulogne, Champs Elysees... That's not what she's here for. Having left the imperial, she rushed to the Sorbonne, to this “summary of the Universe,” as it was then called.

And here Maria is a student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. There are few girls at the faculty, and male students immediately pay attention to the new girl. It's a pity that she is so unsociable and that only persons The males she pays attention to are venerable professors in tailcoats. She listened to them with her mouth open.
Now she called herself in the French manner - Marie Skłodowska and carefully got rid of her Slavic accent.
Yes, she loved her “Varshavochka”, but it was impossible not to love Paris too! At least because the Sorbonne is located there, where she spent the whole day, sat in the library, and carried out experiments in the laboratory.
But the day was so short, and she was unbearably sorry to sleep - too many precious hours were spent on this “useless” activity. From my sister's house to the Sorbonne it was more than an hour's journey - this was also an unacceptable waste of time. And Marie decided to rent a cheap room in the Latin Quarter.
She lived on 100 francs a month, and the lack of comfort did not frighten her at all. In winter, in the attic of the rented room, a tooth would not fall into place, but this was not a problem for her either - but she could sit until late in the warm library of Sainte-Genevieve... Without her sister’s supervision, Marie often forgot to eat, and when she remembered, she drank a mug of tea and ate a piece bread and butter. She didn’t know how to cook, and she didn’t want to - again, a waste of time. So those who spoke about her: "Mademoiselle Marie does not know what the broth is made from"- were not far from the truth.
Soon the student Skłodowska begins to faint from hunger, and her sister fattens her up at her place for several days. And then again books, with a bunch of which she rushed past all the Parisian temptations... As a result, her manic hard work was, of course, noticed by university teachers.
In 1893 she received a licentiate diploma in physical sciences, and in 1894 in mathematical sciences.

Before graduating from the Sorbonne and leaving for Warsaw, another important event happened in Marie’s life: she met Pierre Curie.
She immediately liked his simplicity and thoughtful speech, and he was pleasantly struck by the lack of coquetry in the young girl.
“Although we were born in different countries, our worldviews turned out to be surprisingly similar. Undoubtedly, this was due to the commonality of the spiritual environment in which we grew up in our families,”- Marie later wrote.
Pierre's father, Dr. Eugene Curie, an ardent anti-clerical and republican, instilled in his sons Pierre and Jacques that knowledge is the only and lasting value. Pierre often recalled how during the Paris Commune he helped his father carry the wounded from the barricades. Pierre could be called a child prodigy. Having received only a home education, he entered the Sorbonne at the age of 16, and at 18 he became a licentiate.
While doing research in the field of crystallography with his brother, the young scientist discovered the phenomenon of piezoelectricity. This discovery was fully appreciated everywhere except France, where he taught for many years at the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry, receiving a very modest salary.
As for women, 35-year-old bachelor Pierre Curie always thought of them as a serious obstacle in his path. After all, with them we had to forget about peace of mind, which a scientist simply needs.
Marriage was also not part of 27-year-old Marie’s plans. And Pierre suddenly saw in the short, blond Mademoiselle Sklodowska, dressed in a “blank” gray dress, not a possible obstacle, but, on the contrary, a creature who could live the same life as him and not be jealous of his laboratory.

But she refused his proposal.
Marie had other plans - a Polish woman could not leave her homeland, and therefore she had to go to Warsaw to use her knowledge “to maintain the national spirit”, and had no intention of returning to France. He wrote letters to her in which he urged her to “change her patriotic dream to a scientific dream.” For her sake, he was ready to move to Poland himself and teach French, and Marie returned...
There was no wedding dress, no rings. They got married at City Hall. With money donated by relatives, the newlyweds bought two bicycles and immediately went on a honeymoon out of town, where they often spent weekends. Rest, of course, is a waste of time, but it is also necessary for normal work.

"Life is not worth caring so much about"–– this phrase by Marie could well become the motto of the newlyweds.
They rented an apartment on Glacier Street with a beautiful garden. Marie loved flowers very much and could spend hours loosening flower beds and planting tulip bulbs. When going out of town, both invariably brought home a bouquet of wildflowers.
They treated issues of home comfort rather dismissively. A minimum of the cheapest furniture. There is a table to work on – and that’s the main thing.
Pierre obediently devoured everything that Marie cooked, or rather, tried to cook. Although, in general, they both treated food more than calmly. Once, many years later, when the couple were able to hire a cook, she, asking for a compliment, asked Pierre whether the steak, which the scientist had just swallowed with visible appetite, was tasty. “Was it a steak?- Pierre asked in surprise. - Well, it’s quite possible.”

In September 1897, the first daughter of the Curies, Irene, was born. Madame Curie amazed the midwife by not screaming even once during the birth. “We lived as if enchanted,” Marie recalled. And the reason for this was not only a caring husband and a healthy newborn, but again work.

The fact is that immediately after the birth of Irene, Marie was ready to give birth to another of her brainchild: she was looking for a worthy topic for her doctoral dissertation. She was fascinated by the discovery of Henri Becquerel, who suggested that uranium salts were a source of radiation of an unusual nature.
The leadership of the School of Physics and Chemistry allowed Marie to participate in Pierre's scientific research. They were given a glass-enclosed workshop. Marie was fluent in the measurement technique developed by the Curie brothers in the process of studying the properties of piezoelectricity. She measured the amount of radiation from uranium salts and made the assumption that there may be other elements or their compounds with similar properties.
Marie did a great job - she studied all the known chemical elements and discovered this property only in thorium compounds. She was convinced that she had discovered something new physical property, which she called radioactivity, and the compounds that possess it are radioactive.
The School had an extensive collection of minerals, and Marie, overcome with excitement, wanted to measure the exact radioactivity of each. And it turned out that some minerals have very high radioactivity, despite the low content of uranium or thorium. At this stage, Marie paused and began to look for her mistake, repeating and repeating the experiments. But since there was no mistake, she saw only one explanation: these minerals contained an unknown, new chemical element that was highly radioactive.
Now the only thing left to do was “small” - to highlight it. Marie was burning with impatience. Nothing could stop her: neither the leaking roof of the workshop, nor her own poor health - a tuberculosis outbreak in the lungs.
Pierre decided to help her and, temporarily leaving work on crystals, joined the experiments. In total, the Curies worked side by side for 8 years. “We found,” “we observed,” they wrote in their laboratory notebooks. At a certain stage of their work, they had a need for primary raw materials, and Marie suggested that uranium production waste would be suitable for this. They managed to purchase several tons of uranium tar, which still needed to be processed somewhere. The school could only provide a dilapidated barn on Laumon Street. In this plank shed on a concrete floor, Pierre and Marie worked seven days a week. They processed tons of radioactive ore and created a draft by opening windows and doors to ventilate the barn from harmful gases.
In the morning, Marie cooked porridge for her daughter, after which - all day long - she stirred another brew with a one and a half meter iron rod.
"It was heroic era in our life together"- Marie later recalled.

She carried bags of raw materials, heavy vessels, and poured liquids. I was so tired that when I came home I wanted to lie down and not get up, but what about Irene, we couldn’t forget about her. House, barn, house, barn.
Pierre, tired of the scientific race, persuaded his wife to stop work and rest, but the thinner Marie did not want to listen to him. First, she will highlight her element, and then you can rest.
Sometimes they dreamed together about the upcoming discovery: “What do you think it will look like?”- asked Marie. –– "He must be very handsome"- Pierre answered.
They dreamed of one element, but it turned out that they discovered not one, but two unknown radioactive elements. Marie named the first polonium in honor of her homeland, the second radium.
In 1898, the Curies officially announced their discovery. But only 4 years later, from 8 tons of waste, Marie managed to obtain one tenth of a gram of pure radium.
Then she went to the laboratory even at night so that she could constantly see his “emitting blue light.” One day at the door of the laboratory she whispers to Pierre: “Don’t turn on the light... It’s beautiful, just like we wanted.”
There, in the darkness, as if hanging in the air, her discovery glowed.

Finally, they will rest, Pierre decided. But rest didn’t work out again.
Successful scientists, they were complete failures when it came to everyday issues. Their expenses increased significantly - first with the birth of their daughter, then with their widowed father Pierre moving in with them.
He tried to get a chair at the Sorbonne, but to no avail, since everyone knew that Pierre Curie preferred to work rather than sit for hours in the reception rooms of influential people. Moreover, he needed not so much a teaching position as access to a good laboratory.
Marie taught at the High School for Women in Sèvres. And both of them were torn between the barn and teaching. Friends almost achieved that Pierre was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, which would have opened the way for him to the top, given him the opportunity to acquire a good laboratory, loans, and a decent salary. But the principled and completely devoid of ambition scientist refused the award, considering that he did not deserve it. “I have no need for an order, but I really need a laboratory,”- he wrote to the tall person.

Four years spent in the barn took its toll on the couple's health. Marie was simply terribly thin, Pierre periodically suffered from attacks of pain, which were considered rheumatic.

Wladyslaw Skłodowski died in 1902.
Marie rushed to Warsaw from Paris too late - the coffin had already been closed. She demanded to open it and cried, blaming herself for not being with her father when he died. After returning to Paris, she experienced severe apathy, even work ceased to interest her. The shock she suffered was so great that she, being pregnant, was unable to carry the child to term.
“I’m so used to the idea of having this child that I can’t console myself. The child, a girl, was in good condition and was still alive. And how I wanted her"…
She could not look at Irene without horror, she was always afraid that something might happen to her.
Pierre found himself in bed again due to severe pain. Everything was bad... But they didn't complain. And only once Pierre said quietly: “But still hard life you and I have chosen...

They continued to study radium. Marie's hands often peeled from contact with the new substance, and her fingers looked as if they had been eaten away by acid—she wore gloves in public. Noticing this, Pierre decided to conduct an experiment on himself: he exposed his hand to radium. A severe burn appeared on the skin, which did not go away for a long time. Then, together with medical scientists, Pierre began experimenting on animals. It turned out that the new element is capable of destroying tissue affected by the disease, including cancerous tumors.
Researching the properties of the new element, Marie successfully defended her dissertation and received her doctorate. In November 1903, the British Royal Society awarded Marie and Pierre the honorary Davy Gold Medal.
Having brought the award home, the scientist thought for a long time about where to hide it. And a little later, Pierre’s friends watched little Irene selflessly rolling a medal on the floor.
And now - world recognition, it came very quickly. In December 1903, the Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award Nobel Prize in physics to the spouses Curie and Henri Becquerel for the discovery of radioactivity.
70 thousand francs were very useful to the spouses. They were able to pay off their debts and take a break from exhausting teaching. But fame, as such, was very burdensome for them: they had to go to receptions where the Curies looked more than strange.
He is in a shabby tailcoat, in which he lectured for so many years, she is in a dull black dress, without any jewelry, not even a wedding ring.
One day Marie caught the eye of her husband, who was looking with great interest at a diamond necklace on the chest of a lady. Marie's surprise knew no end.
“I’m wondering how many laboratories could be built if this were sold,”- the scientist explained to his wife, reflecting on the fact that it seems that the only goal of all these dressed-up people and journalists is to deprive them of the opportunity to work further. “They went so far as to convey the conversation between our daughter and the nanny and describe our tiger cat,”- Pierre was indignant. Needless to say, Marie did not spend a centime of the amount received on her wardrobe.

...Their second daughter Eva was 2 years old when Pierre died.
On April 19, 1906, while crossing Dauphine Street, he was hit by a heavy truck. The scientist died instantly, the pavement was splattered with the blood and brain of the famous physicist. Marie envied her daughters, who, due to their youth, did not understand that their father was “completely dead.”
Newspapers wrote that at the funeral the widow Curie looked like she was crazy. After the tragedy, Marie began to keep a diary in which she addressed the deceased Pierre.
“I put in your coffin several periwinkles from our garden and a small portrait of the one whom you called “the sweet, intelligent student and loved so much... I lowered the veil to look at everything through the black crepe... The sight of the sun causes me suffering. I feel better in cloudy weather like the day you died.”
Marie was very sorry that she had almost no letters from Pierre - in 11 years of marriage they had never been apart for a long time.

Thanks to the efforts of friends, the Council of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the Sorbonne invited Marie to take Pierre’s place.
Marie hesitated, but still accepted the offer in the hope that “thanks to this, it will somehow be easier for her.”
For the first time at the Sorbonne and in France in general, a woman was appointed to the position of professor.
The first lecture took place in the large amphitheater of the university.
“The first rows look like the stalls of a theater. Ladies in evening dresses, men in top hats"- wrote the capital's press. All of Paris came to see the widow Curie. Will her voice tremble, will her face turn pale?
The first lecture was supposed to begin with words of gratitude about his predecessor. But this time the newspapermen had absolutely nothing to profit from: Marie behaved as usual. A decisive look, head thrown back proudly. The speech is dry and impartial.

Marie moved to Seau, where Pierre was buried. I went every day to lectures and to the laboratory. She often came to an abandoned barn on Lomon Street and sat for a long time in the dark on a rickety stool.
In a letter to a friend she wrote: “Instinct makes the caterpillar weave its cocoon. The poor thing must weave it even when she cannot finish it, and yet she works with unfailing perseverance. If she fails to finish her work, she will die without ever turning into a butterfly. Let each of us weave his own cocoon, without asking why or why.”

At the Sorbonne, she taught the world's first course on radioactivity and continued her research. Close colleagues advised her to stand as a candidate for the Academy of Sciences, and she agreed. But intrigues swirled around, and as a result of the vote it was rejected. On election day, the President of the Academy arrogantly declared to the gatekeepers: “Let everyone through except women”...
In 1911, Marie received a second Nobel Prize - in chemistry for obtaining radium: now radioactive substances could be systematized. And Marie became not only the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, but also the first scientist to receive it twice. However, fame and honors did not appeal to her as before.
In 1913, she and her daughters, in the company of Albert Einstein and his son, hiked through the Alps and were amazed at how Einstein jumped over dangerous cracks and climbed almost vertical cliffs.

In Paris, on Pierre Curie Street, they built their dream - the Radium Institute.

Funds for it were provided by the Pasteur Institute and the Sorbonne.
Marie carefully studied the design of the building, demanded that the rooms be made large and bright, and planted trees and flowers in the small garden of the institute.
But - the First began World War. The laboratory was empty - the employees went to the front.
Marie created 220 mobile and stationary X-ray units for field hospitals. Then, having sent her daughters to Brittany, she herself remained in Paris so that in the event of occupation the institute would not be looted. She transported her first gram of radium - her main treasure - in an ordinary traveling bag to Bordeaux and hid it in a safe there.
Rich ladies gave her limousines, and she turned them into mobile X-ray units and traveled to hospitals in them, sometimes getting behind the wheel herself. I slept in a tent, sat in a dark room, and the flow of wounded was endless. In special courses, she trained radiology nurses and converted field doctors, who considered X-rays to be quackery, to her “faith.”
“At first, surgeons, having found a fragment in the very place indicated by fluoroscopy, were surprised and delighted, as if at the sight of a miracle,”- Marie recalled.
The war that deprived her last health and the money she had invested in worthless war loan shares was gone. The Radium Institute began to fill with people again.
Marie's daughters were almost adults. Irene took after her mother: her phrases were always thoughtful, her judgments were categorical, she worked at the Radium Institute. Eva loved entertainment, jewelry and beautiful dresses. In the summer they vacationed in Brittany, in a “colony” of teachers from the Sorbonne, in a modest house on the banks of the English Channel.
Marie was no less proud of her success in swimming than of her scientific discoveries.
In 1920, journalist Mrs. Meloni came to her from America. They immediately liked each other - both did not waste words, and Marie immediately got down to business. She said that her laboratory had only one gram of radium (this was the very first gram); that it was used to make emanation tubes for medicinal purposes, but there is not enough of it for scientific work. One gram of radium costs 100 thousand dollars, and the laboratory will never be able to buy it. Marie knows that the United States has 50 grams of the substance...

After her conversation with Marie, Mrs. Meloni developed an incredible fundraiser for American women. And so the money was collected. Marie was invited to America. She rode with fear: receptions, applause, loud speeches frightened her. The honors rendered touched her soul much less than the bouquet presented to her by one gardener. He was cured of cancer using radium and vowed to breed a special variety of roses for Marie.
The US President in Washington handed her a lead casket with a golden key in which she would take a gram of radium from America. The press attacked her so actively that she had to get off the trains on the opposite side and flee from the newspapers along the sleepers. Mixed with this burdensome attention from society and the press was a strange weakness with dizziness, growing every day.

Marie's strength was running out... She was already 65, and the mirror spoke of this more than eloquently. Thinning hair, sunken cheeks. So this is how they become priestesses of science. She still likes to work while sitting on the floor. But a new misfortune comes - she gradually loses her sight. But no one should know about this. Marie makes bright, noticeable marks on the scales of laboratory instruments. But soon she could no longer see even with strong glasses. She was practically blind, but her head - as always - was proudly thrown back. After four eye surgeries, her vision partially returned. But some other mysterious illness is draining her strength every day. The examinations did not clarify anything: no organs affected by the disease were found. And - pernicious anemia was mistaken for the flu or for old, untreated tuberculosis. She went with Eva to the sanatorium, and on the way she became very ill.

When, many years after Marie's death, her laboratory notebook was brought to a Geiger counter, the device erupted with a loud, rapid crackling sound. Radium brought her worldwide fame, which she did not need, and took her life. In a barn on the Rue Laumont, radioactive dust hung in the air, and Marie and Pierre carried test tubes with drugs in their pockets. It turned out that ionizing radiation can kill not only cancer cells, but also a living organism.

She was burned heat. IN last days Eva did not allow any gatherings at her mother’s bedside so as not to frighten her. She also hoped to recover.
On July 3, the temperature dropped sharply. “Now I’ll definitely get through it”- she said joyfully to Eve.
Her eldest daughter Irene and her husband arrived the day before, but Marie doesn’t invite anyone. During her agony, she constantly says in the tone of a scientist observing an experiment: "I'm away."

She died at dawn on July 4, 1934. After her death, Irene and her husband added the Curie surname to theirs. In 1935, the world learned of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Irène and Frederic Joliot-Curie.

Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie coined the term “radioactivity” and discovered two elements: radium and polonium. Not only was she the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, but when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she became the first double winner of this prestigious award and the only one in two disciplines.

Marie Curie: biography of her early years

Born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, she was the youngest of five children of Władysław and Bronisława Skłodowski. After her father lost his job, the family suffered from poverty and was forced to rent out rooms in their small apartment to guests. Religious as a child, Maria became disillusioned with her faith after her sister died of typhus in 1876. Two years later from tuberculosis, terrible disease, which affects the bones and lungs, Skłodowska-Curie’s mother died.

Maria was a brilliant student and graduated in 1883 high school with a gold medal. In Russia, which then included part of Poland, where the Skłodowski family lived, girls were prohibited from studying at higher education institutions. educational institutions. Maria, at her father’s suggestion, spent a year at her friends’ dacha. Returning to Warsaw the following summer, she began making a living as a tutor and also began attending classes at the “Flying University,” an underground group of young men and women who tried to quench their thirst for knowledge at secret meetings.

In early 1886, Maria was hired as a governess by a family living in Shchukki, but the intellectual loneliness she experienced there strengthened her determination to fulfill her dream of becoming a university student. One of her sisters, Bronya, was already in Paris by that time, where she successfully passed her medical exams. In September 1891, Maria moved in with her.

Study and research in Paris

When classes at the Sorbonne began in early November 1891, Maria entered the physics department. By 1894, she was desperately looking for a laboratory where she could study magnetic properties steel alloys. She was advised to visit Pierre Curie at the School of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Paris. In 1895, Pierre and Marie married, and so began a most extraordinary partnership in scientific work.

By mid-1897, Curie had received two higher educations, completed graduate school, and also published a monograph on the magnetization of hardened steel. When her first daughter, Irene, was born, she and her husband turned their attention to the mysterious radiation from uranium discovered by Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908). Maria intuitively felt that radiation was a property of the atom and therefore must be present in some other elements. She soon discovered similar radiation from thorium and coined the historical term “radioactivity.”

Outstanding discoveries

In their search for other sources of radioactivity, Pierre and Marie Curie turned their attention to uraninite, a mineral known for its uranium content. Much to their surprise, the radioactivity uranium ore far exceeded the combined radiation of the uranium and thorium contained in it. Within six months, two papers were sent to the Academy of Sciences. The first, read at a meeting on July 18, 1898, concerned the discovery of the element polonium, named after Marie Curie's home country, Poland. The second was read on December 26 and reported on a new chemical element, radium.

From 1898 to 1902, after processing several tons of uranium ore, the couple extracted extremely precious hundredths of a gram of radium. But they were not the only reward for Curie’s superhuman efforts. Maria and Pierre have published, jointly or separately, a total of 32 scientific papers over the years. One of them said that under the influence of radium, diseased tumor cells are destroyed faster than healthy ones.

Confession

In November 1903, the Royal Society of London awarded the outstanding scientist one of its highest awards, the Davy Medal. A month later, there was an announcement by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm that three French scientists, A. Becquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie, had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Finally, even academics in Paris began to stir, and a few months later, Marie was appointed head of research at the Paris university.

In December 1904, the couple's second daughter, Eva, was born. The following year, Pierre was elected to the Academy of Sciences, and the couple traveled to Stockholm, where on June 6 he delivered the Nobel Lecture, which was their joint address. Pierre ended his speech by saying that every major scientific advance has a twofold impact. He expressed the hope that “humanity will derive more benefit from new discoveries than harm.”

Depression

The joyful period in the life of the married scientific team did not last long. On a rainy afternoon on April 19, 2006, Pierre was hit by a heavy crew and died instantly. Two weeks later the widow was invited to take over her late husband's post. Awards from scientific societies around the world began to pour in for the woman, who was left alone with two small children and who had the enormous burden of leading radioactivity research. In 1908 she edited the collected works of her late husband and in 1910 published her great job Traité de radioactivité. After some time, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize for the second time, this time in chemistry. However, she was unable to defeat the Academy of Sciences, which Once again denied her membership.

Einstein's support

After the public learned of her romantic relationship with estranged married colleague Paul Langevin, Marie Curie was branded a homewrecker and accused of using her late husband's work and not achieving her own achievements. Although she was awarded a second Nobel Prize, the nominating committee recommended that she not travel to Stockholm to accept the award. Albert Einstein sent a letter to the depressed Curie, in which he admired her and advised her not to read newspaper articles directed against her, but to “leave them to the reptiles for whom they were fabricated.” She soon recovered, went to Sweden and received a second Nobel Prize.

Radiology and war

During World War I, Maria devoted much of her time to equipping field hospitals and vehicles with primitive X-ray equipment to treat the wounded. These machines were dubbed “little Curies” in the combat zone. Maria, who turned 50 by the end of the war, had spent most of her physical strength and savings, patriotically invested in war bonds. But her devotion to science was inexhaustible. In 1919 she was reinstated at the Radium Institute, and two years later her book “Radiology and War” was published. In it, she informatively described the scientific and human experience gained by this branch of science during the war. At the end of World War I, her daughter Irene, a physicist, was appointed as an assistant in her mother's laboratory.

A gift from the American people

Soon a landmark visit took place at the Radium Institute. The visitor was William Brown Meloni, editor of a leading magazine in New York and representative of many women for whom, over the years, scientist Maria Curie served as an ideal and inspiration. A year later, Meloni returned to report that a nationwide subscription in the United States had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to purchase 1 gram of radium for her institute. She was also invited to visit the United States with her daughters and personally collect the valuable gift. Her trip was an absolute triumph. At the White House, President Warren Harding gave her a golden key to a small metal box that contained a valuable chemical element.

The beauty of science

Physicist Marie Curie rarely spoke publicly on topics not related to scientific issues. One exception was her speech in 1933 at a conference on the future of culture. There she defended science, which some participants accused of dehumanizing modern life. “I am one of those,” she said, “who thinks that science has great beauty. The scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician; he and the child are presented with natural phenomena that amaze him like a fairy tale. We must not allow all scientific progress to be reduced to mechanisms, machines and gears, although such machines are beautiful in their own way.”

last years of life

The most touching moment What brightened the life of Marie Curie was probably the marriage of her daughter Irene with the most gifted employee of the Radium Institute, Frédéric Joliot, which took place in 1926. She soon saw clearly that their union would be reminiscent of her own amazingly creative collaboration with Pierre Curie.

Maria worked almost until the very end and successfully completed the manuscript of her latest book, Radioactivity. In recent years, her youngest daughter Eva has provided her with great support. She was also her mother's faithful companion when Marie Curie died on 07/04/34. The biography of the outstanding physicist was interrupted in Sancellmoz, France. Albert Einstein once said that she is the only celebrity who has not been spoiled by fame.

Marie Curie: interesting facts

The brilliant female physicist personally provided medical care French soldiers during the First World War. She helped equip 20 ambulances and hundreds of field hospitals with primitive X-ray machines to make it easier for surgeons to find and remove bullets and shrapnel from wounded soldiers. This and radon sterilization of wounds saved the lives of a million people.
Curie became the first recipient of two Nobel Prizes and remains the only one to receive them in different disciplines.

Initially, her name was not mentioned in the nomination for the Nobel Foundation's physics award. However, through the efforts of committee member Magnus Gustav Mittag-Leffler, professor of mathematics at Stockholm University College, and her husband, the official nomination was expanded.
The Marie Curie University, founded in 1944, is one of the largest in Poland. state universities countries.
The physicist did not know about the dangers of radioactivity. She spent every day in a laboratory full of hazardous materials. At home, Curie used a sample of the radioactive substance as a night light at her bedside. Until the very end, Maria did not know that her discovery was the cause of her pain and illness. Her personal belongings and laboratory records are still so contaminated that they cannot be safely inspected or studied.
Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie also won the prestigious award. She and her husband were recognized for their achievements in the synthesis of new radioactive elements.
The word "radioactivity" was coined by Pierre and Marie Curie.
The 1943 film Madame Curie, directed by American director Mervyn LeRoy, was nominated for an Oscar.

Marie Curie went down in history as an outstanding physicist and chemist, a pioneer in the study of radiation.

She and her husband Pierre discovered previously unknown chemical elements - polonium and radium. Together they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

A few years later, in 1911, Maria received another one - in the field of chemistry.

Childhood. Studies

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She was the youngest of five children: she had three older sisters and a brother.

Her parents were teachers and tried to ensure that their children received a decent education. Maria studied diligently and was distinguished by her hard work.

Sklodowska graduated from school at the top of her class at the age of 15. Maria and her older sister Bronya wanted to continue their education.

However, only men were admitted to the University of Warsaw. Therefore, at the age of 17, the girl worked as a governess to help pay for her sister’s studies at a medical school in Paris.

All this time she continued to study independently and soon entered the Sorbonne, settling in a modest home with her sister. After paying for housing, they often only had money left for bread and tea. However, when it came time for final exams, Maria again came out top in her class.

Scientific activity

In July 1893, Maria Skłodowska received a master's degree in physics and a scholarship that allowed her to obtain a second degree in mathematics. In 1894 she met Pierre Curie. He was a brilliant scientist, and by that time had already invented several instruments for measuring magnetic fields and electricity. They married in the summer of 1895.

Marie Curie was very interested in the reports of Wilhelm Roentgen on the discovery of x-rays, as well as Henri Becquerel on the radiation emitted by uranium ores. She decided to use devices invented by her husband to measure the weak electrical currents she discovered near uranium.

Her research showed that exposure to rays is constant, even if uranium ore processed in different ways. She confirmed Becquerel's observation: more uranium in the ore produces more intense radiation.

She then put forward a revolutionary hypothesis: the detected radiation was a natural property of uranium atoms. This meant that the generally accepted view of the atom as the smallest particle of matter was false. Pierre was so interested in his wife's research that he put aside his own developments and joined his wife's research.

Marie and Pierre Curie in the laboratory photo

The laboratory became crowded, and the Curies moved to an old barn, where they processed the ore themselves. In July 1898, scientists published their findings: bismuth compounds contained a previously unknown radioactive element. The Curies named it polonium, in honor of Mary's homeland, Poland.

By the end of the same year, they identified another radioactive element - radium, which they named after the Latin word radius - ray. In 1902, the Curies announced their success in extracting purified radium. In 1903, Maria became the first woman in Europe to receive a doctorate in physics.

In November of the same year, the Curies, along with Henri Becquerel, were chosen as laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the understanding of the structure of the atom. In 1911, after Pierre's death, Maria was awarded the second Nobel Prize in Chemistry - for the discovery of the elements polonium and radium.

In 1914, when the war broke out, Marie Curie organized the supply of portable X-ray machines for doctors to the front and trained doctors to use them. Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia on July 4, 1934. The cause of this blood disease was prolonged radioactive exposure.

After the death of her husband, Maria replaced him as a teacher, becoming the first female teacher at the Sorbonne.
In 1944, a new discovered chemical element, curium, was named in honor of Marie Curie.
Marie Curie's daughter, Irene, also managed to receive a Nobel Prize for the discovery of artificial radioactivity.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie is one of the most unique women in the history of world science. She became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, the first scientist to win the prize twice, and the only person, who received the Nobel Prize in two different sciences - physics and chemistry.

Childhood

The life of Maria Sklodowska was not easy. Polish by nationality, she was born in Warsaw, the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, which was part of the Russian Empire. In addition to her, the family had three more daughters and a son. The father, teacher Vladislav Sklodovsky, was exhausted to feed his children and earn money for the treatment of his wife, who was slowly dying of consumption. Maria lost one of her sisters as a child, and then her mother.

Years of study

Maria Sklodowska, already in her school years, was distinguished by exceptional hard work, perseverance and diligence. She studied, forgetting about sleep and food, graduated from high school with flying colors, but intensive studies caused such damage to her health that after graduation she had to take a break for a while to improve her health.

She strove to obtain higher education, but the opportunities for women in this regard in Russia at that time were significantly limited. However, there is information that Maria still managed to graduate from the underground women’s higher courses, informally called the “Flying University.”

The desire for education was characteristic not only of Maria, but also of her sister Bronislava, however, due to cramped financial circumstances, this was not very realistic. Then they agreed to study in turns, and before that to earn money as governesses. The first was Bronislava, who entered the medical school in Paris and received a medical degree. Only after this was 24-year-old Maria able to enter the Sorbonne and study physics and chemistry, while Bronislava worked and paid for her education.

Maria established herself as one of the best students at the Sorbonne, upon graduation she received two diplomas at once - in physics and mathematics and became the first female teacher in the history of the Sorbonne. Thanks to her hard work and abilities, she also received the opportunity to conduct independent research.

Marriage and scientific work

The fateful meeting of Maria Skłodowska with her future husband, Pierre Curie, took place in 1894. At that time he headed the laboratory at the Municipal School industrial physics and chemistry, and, undoubtedly, the commonality of scientific interests played an important role in their mutual interest. A year later they got married and went on their honeymoon on bicycles.

After becoming Skłodowska-Curie, Marie continued her active scientific work. She devoted her doctoral dissertation to the problem of new radiations. After a year of intensive work, she gave a presentation at a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on materials that, like uranium, have radiation (thorium). The report noted that uranium-containing minerals emit much more intense radiation than uranium itself.

In 1898, the Curies discovered a new element, which received the name polonium (the Latinized name for Poland) as a sign of respect for Mary’s homeland. At the same time, they managed to theoretically substantiate the existence of radium - it was obtained experimentally only after 5 years, which required the processing of more than a ton of ore. Maria conducted experiments with radioactivity in a barn adjacent to her husband’s laboratory.

Nobel Prizes

The defense of Marie Sklodowska-Curie's doctoral dissertation took place in 1903, and in the same year she, together with her husband and A.A. Becquerel received the Nobel Prize in Physics. In addition, the Royal Society of London awarded the couple a medal.

It is worth noting that the Curies did not file a patent for the radium they discovered, so as not to impede the development of a new field in industry and technology.

The implementation of many creative plans of the Curie spouses was prevented tragic death Pierre in 1906, he fell under the wheels of a freight cart. Maria was left alone with her little daughter Irene in her arms.

In 1910, a number of French scientists nominated Marie Curie for elections to the French Academy of Sciences. The case is unprecedented, since until then there had not been a single female academician in France. This caused a long and fierce debate among academics, and the opponents of the woman scientist managed to vote her out in the elections with a margin of only two votes.

However, the scientific merits of Marie Sklodowska-Curie found international recognition - in 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for outstanding services in its development, the discovery of radium and polonium and their study. By the way, it was the Curies who introduced the term “radioactive” into scientific circulation.

It’s amazing how Maria, who worked with radioactive materials all her life, gave birth to two healthy daughters. Family traditions outstanding scientists were continued by their daughter Irene, who became the wife of the chemist Frederic Joliot and in 1935 also received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Respect for the family of scientists was so great that Irene’s husband, like Irene, began to bear the double surname Joliot-Curie.

World War I

Realizing the promise of research in the field of radioactivity, the University of Paris, together with the Pasteur Institute, literally before the outbreak of the First World War, in August 1914, established the Radium Institute, in which Curie received the position of director of the department of fundamental research and medical use radioactivity.

During the war, she trained military doctors practical application radiology, including the detection of shrapnel in the body of the wounded using X-rays. She helped create radiological installations in the front-line zone and provide first aid stations with portable X-ray machines. She outlined the experience gained during this period in the monograph “Radiology and War” (1920).

last years of life

The last years of Marie Sklodowska-Curie's life were devoted to teaching at the Radium Institute and leading scientific work students, as well as the active promotion of radiological methods in medicine. A tribute to the memory of Pierre Curie was the biography of her husband written by her, published in 1923.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie did not forget her homeland, Poland, which gained independence after the First World War. She traveled there several times and advised Polish researchers.

She also visited the USA: in 1921, the Americans presented her with 1 gram of radium so that she could continue her research, and in 1929, a second visit to the USA brought her donations that were enough to purchase another gram of radium, which she donated for the treatment of patients in one of the Warsaw hospitals.

Meanwhile, her own health was steadily deteriorating. It’s simply amazing that she managed to live to the age of 67, because all experiments with radioactive elements were carried out without any protection.

Pierre and Marie Curie understood the broad prospects for their use in medicine, but apparently did not know about their detrimental effects on health, what is today called radiation sickness. Moreover, Maria wore a small vial of radium on a chain on her chest, and all her notes, personal belongings, clothes and even furniture are still preserved today high level radioactivity, life-threatening.

Today, to access her records and personal belongings, which are a national treasure of France and located in the National Library in Paris, it is necessary to wear a protective suit, since the decay period of radium 226 is more than one and a half thousand years.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie died from aplastic radiation anemia on July 4, 1934. She was buried with her husband, but in 1995 the ashes of the Curies were solemnly transferred to the Paris Pantheon.

The memory of the Curies is immortalized in the title chemical element curium and the unit of measurement curie (Ci), and Marie Skłodowska-Curie is called the “mother of modern physics.” There are several monuments to her in Poland.

Maria Skłodowska (married Curie) was the youngest of five children of Bronisław and Władysław Skłodowska. Both of her parents were teachers.

WITH early years the girl followed in her father's footsteps, being keenly interested in mathematics and physics. Having received her primary education at the school of J. Sikorskaya, Maria entered the women's gymnasium, from which she graduated in 1883 with a gold medal. She was denied admission to the men's University of Warsaw, and therefore she can only agree to the position of teacher at the Flying University. However, Maria is in no hurry to give up her dream of obtaining the coveted academic degree, and concludes with her older sister Bronislava makes a deal that at first she will support her sister, for which in the future her sister will help her.

Maria takes on all sorts of jobs, becoming a private tutor and governess in order to earn money for her sister’s education. And at the same time, she is engaged in self-education, enthusiastically reading books and scientific works. She also begins her own scientific practice in a chemistry laboratory.

In 1891, Maria moved to France, where she entered the Sorbonne University in Paris. There her name is converted into the French name Marie. Due to the fact that she had nowhere to wait for financial support, the girl, trying to earn a living, gives private lessons in the evenings.

In 1893 she received a master's degree in physics, and the following year - a master's degree in mathematics. Maria begins her scientific work with research various types steel and their magnetic properties.

The search for a larger laboratory leads her to meet Pierre Curie, at that time a teacher at the School of Physics and Chemistry. He will help the girl find a suitable place for research.

Maria makes several attempts to return to Poland and continue her scientific activity in her homeland, but there she is denied permission to carry out this activity, simply because she is a woman. She eventually returns to Paris to earn her Ph.D.

Scientific activity

In 1896, Henry Becquerel's discovery of the ability of uranium salts to emit radiation inspired Marie Curie to conduct new, more in-depth studies of this issue. Using an electrometer, she discovers that the rays emitted remain unchanged, regardless of the state or type of uranium.

After studying this phenomenon more closely, Curie discovers that the rays originate from the atomic structure of the element, rather than being the result of molecular interactions. It was this revolutionary discovery that would become the beginning of atomic physics.

Since the family could not exist solely on earnings from research activities, Marie Curie took up teaching at the École Normale Supérieure. But at the same time, she continues to work with two samples of uranium minerals, uraninite and torbernite.

Interested in her research, Pierre Curie gave up in 1898 own work with crystals and joins Maria. Together they begin a search for substances capable of emitting radiation.

In 1898, while working with uraninite, they discover a new radioactive element, which they call "polonium", in honor of Mary's homeland. All in the same year, they will discover another element, which will be called “radium”. Then they will introduce the term “radioactivity”.

So that not a shadow of doubt remains about the authenticity of their discovery, Pierre and Maria embark on a desperate undertaking - to obtain polonium and radium from uraninite. pure form. And, in 1902, they managed to isolate radium salts by fractional crystallization.

During the same period, from 1898 to 1902, Pierre and Maria published no less than 32 articles in which they described in detail the process of their work with radioactivity. In one of these articles, they argue that cells affected by tumors are destroyed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radiation.

In 1903, Marie Curie received her doctorate from the University of Paris. In the same year, Pierre and Marie Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, which they would accept only in 1905.

In 1906, after the death of Pierre, Maria was offered the position of head of the physics department, which her late husband had previously occupied, and a professorship at the Sorbonne, which she willingly accepted, intending to create a world-class scientific laboratory.

In 1910, Marie Curie successfully obtained the element radium and determined the international unit of measurement radioactive radiation, which would later be named after her - Curie.

In 1911, she again became a Nobel Prize laureate, this time in the field of chemistry.

International recognition, along with the support of the French government, helped Skłodowska-Curie found the Radium Institute in Paris, an institution aimed at conducting research in the fields of physics, chemistry and medicine.

During World War I, Marie Curie opens a radiology center to help military doctors care for wounded soldiers. Under her leadership, twenty mobile radiological laboratories are being assembled, and another 200 radiological units are being placed in field hospitals. Based on available evidence, more than a million wounded were examined with the help of its X-ray machines.

After the war, she will publish the book “Radiology at War,” in which she will describe in detail her wartime experiences.

Over the following years, Marie Curie travels around different countries in search of funds necessary to continue research into the properties of radium.

In 1922 she became a member of the French Academy of Medicine. Maria was also elected as a member of the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation at the League of Nations.

In 1930, Marie Skłodowska-Curie became an honorary member International Committee atomic scales.

Main works

Marie Curie - in addition to the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium, as well as the isolation of radioactive isotopes - was responsible for the introduction of the term “radioactivity” and the formulation of the theory of radioactivity.

Awards and achievements

In 1903, for outstanding achievements in joint research into the phenomenon of radioactivity, discovered by Professor Henry Becquerel, Marie Curie, together with her husband Pierre Curie, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In 1911, Maria again became a Nobel Prize laureate, this time in the field of chemistry, for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, for isolating radium in its pure form, as well as for studying the nature and properties of this wonderful element.

Buildings, institutions, universities, public places, streets and museums will be named in her honor, and her life and works will be described in works of art, books, biographies and films.

Personal life and legacy

Maria was introduced to her future husband, Pierre Curie, by the Polish physicist, Professor Jozef Kowalski-Wierusz. Mutual sympathy arises instantly, because both were captured by a common passion for science. Pierre invites Maria to marry him, but is refused. Without despair, Pierre again asks for her hand, and on July 26, 1895 they are married. Two years later, their union was blessed with the birth of their daughter Irene. In 1904, their second daughter Eva was born.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie, who suffered from hypoplastic anemia due to prolonged exposure to radiation, died on July 4, 1934 at the Sancellmoz sanatorium in Passy, in the department of Haute-Savoie. She was buried next to Pierre in the French commune of So.

However, sixty years later their remains will be transferred to the Paris Pantheon.

Marie Curie became the first female Nobel laureate, and the only woman to receive this prestigious award in disparate fields of two different sciences. Thanks to Mary, the term “radioactivity” appeared in science.