MARIE CURIE
Marie Curie was born on November 7th, 1867 in the
Russian part of Poland as the fifth child of two wellknown
teachers. She was a physicist and chemist who
conducted experiments on radioactivity.
In 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen
discovered the existence
of X-rays, though the
mechanism behind their
production was not yet
understood. In 1896
HenriBecquerel discovered
that uranium salts emitted
rays that resembled
X-rays in their penetrating
power. He demonstrated
that this radiation,
unlike phosphorescence,
did not depend on an
external source of energy
but seemed to arise
spontaneously from
uranium itself. Influenced by these two important
discoveries, Marie decided to look into uranium rays as a
possible field of research for a thesis. (Tadeusz Estreicher
(1938). “Curie, Maria ze Skłodowskich”. Polski słownik
biograficzny, vol. 4 (in Polish). p. 111.)
With some experiments, she found out that the
finding that the activity of the uranium compounds
depended only on the quantity of uranium present. She
hypothesized that the radiation was not the outcome
of some interaction of molecules but must come from
the atom itself. This hypothesis was an important step
in disproving the ancient assumption that atoms were
indivisible. (Marie Curie – Research Breakthroughs
(1807–1904)Part 1”. American Institute of Physics.
Retrieved 7 November 2011.) In July 1898 Curie and
her husband published a joint paper announcing the
existence of an element which they named “polonium”,
in honour of her native Poland, which would for
another twenty years remain partitioned among three
empires. On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced
the existence of a second element, which they named
“radium”, from the Latin word for “ray”. In the course of
their research, they also coined the word “radioactivity.”
Between 1898 and 1902 the Curies published, jointly or
separately, a total of 32 scientific papers, including one
that announced that, when exposed to radium, diseased,
tumor-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy
cells. In June 1903, supervised by Gabriel Lippmann,
Curie was awarded her doctorate from the University of
Paris. That month the couple were invited to the Royal
Institution in London to give a speech on radioactivity;
being a woman, she was prevented from speaking, and
her husband alone was allowed to.
On 4 July 1934, she died at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium
in Passy, in Haute-
Savoie, from aplastic
anemia believed to
have been contracted
from her long-term
exposure to radiation.
The damaging effects
of ionising radiation
were not known at
the time of her work,
which had been
carried out without
the safety measures
later developed. She
had carried test tubes
containing radioactive
isotopes in her pocket,
and she stored them in
her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light that the
substances gave off in the dark. Curie was also exposed
to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a
radiologist in field hospitals during the war. Although her
many decades of exposure to radiation caused chronic
illnesses (including near blindness due to cataracts) and
ultimately her death, she never really acknowledged
the health risks of radiation exposure. She was interred
at the cemetery in Sceaux, alongside her husband
Pierre. Sixty years later, in 1995, in honour of their
achievements, the remains of both were transferred
to the Panthéon, Paris. She became the first—and so
far the only—woman to be honoured with interment
in the Panthéon on her own merits. Because of their
levels of radioactive contamination, her papers from
the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle.
Even her cookbook is highly radioactive. Her papers are
kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult
them must wear protective clothing. (James Shipman;
Jerry D. Wilson; Aaron Todd (2012). An Introduction to
Physical Science. Cengage Learning. p. 263.) She was the
first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and
only woman to win twice, the only person to win twice
in multiple sciences, and was part of the Curie family
legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman
to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in
1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her
own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Ayşenur GÖKALP
9-A
CHEMISTRY
DEPARTMENT
THE CLAPPER 2014 - 2015
59