The Incredible Life Of Scientist Marie Curie D
The famous scientist Marie Curi came from humble circumstances in Poland. Yet despite poverty and adversity around her, she rose to great heights in science with her discoveries and work on radiation changing the world forever and unbeknownst to her even having a hidden effect on her body. In 1910, when it became public that Marie had been having an affair with a married man, the public turned against the legendary scientist.
Although she was away when the scandal broke, when she returned home, she returned to a frightful scene on her doorstep. The origin of Marie Curi dates back to November 7th, 1867 when she was born in Warsaw, Poland, which at the time was called Congress Poland, a semi-autonomous polity within the Russian Empire.
As well, her name at birth was not Marie Kiri, but actually Maria Salamea Scaddovska. She was the youngest of five children born to teachers Bronny Shava and Vadishaf Skaddovski. Probably considering their profession, both parents instilled a passion for knowledge and education in their children, something that had an effect on the young Maria later becoming a famed scientist.
Despite this, the family was still poor in part due to the fact that their ancestors had taken part in failed uprisings against the Russian Empire and were punished as a result with their fortunes and properties stripped. Marie’s first taste of practical science occurred when her father, a teacher of math and physics, was banned from conducting laboratory instruction in Polish schools.
He then brought all of his equipment home and allowed his children to use it. In school, Marie was undoubtedly brilliant and performed well academically, even graduating high school early at the age of 15. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. After school, she suffered from quote nervous problems, which most likely would have been called depression in our time.
After spending some time in the countryside recovering, she decided to pursue higher education. Yet upon her return to Warsaw, she soon found out that she was not permitted to enroll in any university simply because she was a woman. To circumvent this, she would enroll in the so-called flying university, which was a clandestine and patriotic Polish institution that operated in the shadows, offering night classes away from the Sarist authorities and allowing women to enroll.
She and her sister Bronny Shava received their postsecary education here, and the two young women soon made a deal. They both agreed to a mutually beneficial arrangement in which Marie would get a job as a tutor in Warsaw to support her sister’s move to Paris to study medicine. In return, Bronnishava agreed to financially assist Marie 2 years later after her own graduation.
As it turned out, Marie spent some time briefly tutoring in Warsaw before moving to a small town in the Polish countryside where she got a job as a governness and stayed with the relatives of her father, the wealthy Gerovski family. Here she fell in love with the Gerovski’s son, Kajime, who himself would later become a mathematician.
Deeply in love, the young couple decided to get married. But they would face obstacles. Kajjimish’s parents, although fond of Marie, immediately rejected their union, not wanting their son to get married to someone so poor. The courtship was promptly broken off. This left Marie heartbroken and humiliated, and she responded with what she knew best, immersing herself in scientific textbooks and the pursuit of knowledge.
For the next few years, Marie continued to work towards her dream of becoming a scientist in Paris. She worked many different jobs, making varying amounts of money, helping to fund her future travel as well as her sister’s education. By 1891, now at the age of 24, it was finally time to leave for Paris.
As soon as she arrived, she got to work. After a brief stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Marie found a modest living space near the University of Paris, where she had enrolled to study physics, chemistry, and math. She lived frugally so as not to distract herself from her studies, which she was so focused on that at times she even forgot to eat and once even fainted from hunger.
To keep expenses low, she even opted out of heating her home, instead choosing to wrap herself in as much clothing as possible. All her hard work paid off when in 1893 she was awarded a degree in physics. She had finally achieved her dream of becoming a scientist and began working in a laboratory. This work funded her continuing education and she would earn a second degree one year later in chemistry.
Through her work, she met scientist Pierre Curi. Their mutual interests drew them together and they soon developed feelings for one another, beginning a new relationship. Eventually, Pierre proposed to Marie. She initially refused, stating that she planned to return to live and work in her home country of Poland.
Pierre, very much in love, was undeterred and said he would follow her to Poland and teach her French if necessary. In 1894, Marie returned to Warsaw to visit her family and seek work in her field. However, things were not as they were in Paris. After applying for a job at KKow University, she was denied.
The reason because she was a woman. Not too happy about her setback and telling Pierre about it, who was also dismayed, he replied in a letter that she should return to Paris and continue her studies. He convinced her that France was the only place where her talent could truly flourish. Marie came back to France and she and Pierre were married in a secular ceremony on July 26th, 1895.
Not really being the sentimental type instead of wearing the traditional white, Marie wore a dark blue outfit for her wedding day, which oddly enough she also wore for years afterward in her lab work because it was practical and did not show dirt and chemical stains easily. They were the perfect match with many shared interests including bike rides, travel, and most importantly, love of science.
By all accounts, the marriage was a happy one, and they would have two daughters together. In 1895, the scientific community was a buzz with the recent discovery of something new, X-rays. Marie Curi was immediately fascinated and shifted her focus to research on radioactivity. Together with her husband, Marie Curi discovered the element of radium and her pioneering research led her to coin the very term radioactivity.
Following their discovery, a massive and very profitable industry emerged around the element. But the Curies would never see the fruits of their labor. Sticking to their ethics, they humbly refused to patent their discovery, believing that scientists should focus on benefiting humanity over personal gain.
Perhaps because of this very modesty, the couple didn’t have a proper laboratory in which to conduct their work, conducting their research in a converted shed. The shed lacked ventilation, came with a leaky roof, and was freezing in winter, and became stiflingly hot in the summer. In hindsight, this was a terrible idea when working with radiation, and the Curies were entirely unaware of the newfound and dangerous effects of radiation exposure.
Radium was not the only elemental discovery the Curies made. In fact, shortly before that groundbreaking discovery, the couple had found another new element, which they named fittingly in honor of Marie’s homeland, Pelonium. Although she had endured much rejection there, she still held much love for her country of origin and hoped the recognition would draw worldwide attention to Poland’s struggle for independence.
The couple’s research on radioactivity did not go unnoticed and for their very important contributions they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903. The Swedish Academy initially planned to only compliment Pierre and Henry Beckarel, but Pierre insisted that Marie receive equal recognition.
This was actually unprecedented as Marie was the first woman in history to receive the award and it was also the very first time a married couple had received the Nobel Prize. This would be the first of many accomplishments with the Cury family eventually amassing a total of five Nobel Prizes. Sadly, in 1906, Pierre was struck by a horsedrawn vehicle and killed.
This was very hard for Marie, but in a rather strange way, it advanced her career. Pierre had occupied a chair in the physics department at the University of Paris, and in recognition for the couple’s work, after he died, they offered her the job, to which she accepted, becoming the first female professor at the university.
For the next 5 years, Marie continued her important research with the university’s resources behind her. In general, she was ignored by the press until in 1911, they got their hands on a very shocking story. Revelations soon came out that Marie was involved in an affair with Paul Lange, who had been a student of her late husband and was a married man.
The media caused a great scandal in the press, which was seized upon by her academic rivals. Kuri was 5 years older than Lre and was thus portrayed as having taken advantage of the younger man. She was slandered by many papers for her foreign background and even some entirely unfounded anti-semitic attacks.
Although in Belgium when the scandal broke upon her return to Paris, she returned home to a frightful display, an angry mob right outside her house. There’s no knowing what they’d have done to her, and she took refuge by staying with a friend. Albert Einstein even comforted her in his correspondence, writing that she should just ignore the low sensationalist tabloids.
Despite the whole affair, Marie was resilient and had overcome many challenges already. She simply got on with life. In fact, despite the launch vent scandal, she was awarded yet another Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911. This was another significant achievement for her as she was now the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice and the first person to win it in two different fields, physics and chemistry.
For whatever reason, despite these accomplishments, Marie’s mental health soon suffered greatly. And only a month after her acceptance, she was hospitalized for kidney troubles and depression. She followed this by avoiding public appearances for the next 14 months. This all changed with the outbreak of World War I, and Marie was galvanized to put her scientific abilities to good use and make a difference.
She recognized that wounded men had better chances of survival if they were operated on immediately and developed mobile radiography units so that field hospitals could conduct X-rays. These were known among French forces as petit curi to further help the French war effort as much as she could.
Marie even offered to donate her Nobel Prize medals to the French national bank. As they were made of gold, she hoped their value would be an increase to their treasury. However, this was politely refused, but she did spend the remaining money from her Nobel Prize winnings to buy war bonds.
The French never forgot her generosity. After the war, Marie founded the Cury Institute in Paris, a private nonprofit foundation that conducts research in medicine, biology, and biopysics. 12 years later and in the face of all the obstacles that she had experienced as a woman in Poland, she founded a second cury institute in Warsaw which became a lasting tribute to her legacy as both are active medical research centers to this day.
Marie died in 1934 in the mountains of southeastern France. The cause was determined to be alastic anemia which had damaged her bone marrow. It is believed that this condition was a result from long-term radiation exposure over the course of her career, as well as unprotected radium and X-ray exposure during World War I.
Even her lab notebooks, diaries, and personal papers remain so infused with radium 226 to this day that they are kept in lead lined boxes, and any researcher wishing to handle them must wear protective gear. Marie’s legacy was honored by the French Republic who ined her remains in the Paris Pantheon, the very highest honor.
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