Tag: marie curie

Marie Curie – The First Woman who won Nobel Prize

Marie Curie was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who is best known for her pioneering work in the field of radioactivity. She was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes in different scientific fields. Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867, and grew up in a family of educators. She was a highly intelligent and curious child, and had a passion for learning from a young age.

Source – https://www.atomicarchive.com/

In 1891, Curie moved to Paris to pursue further studies in physics and chemistry. It was there that she met her future husband, Pierre Curie, who was also a physicist. Together, the couple began to study the properties of radioactive materials, a field that was still in its infancy at the time. They discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, and Marie coined the term “radioactivity” to describe the phenomena they were observing.

Their work on radioactivity earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, making Marie the first woman to receive this prestigious award. However, their research also had significant consequences for their health, as they were exposed to high levels of radiation in their laboratory work. Pierre died in 1906 from a tragic accident involving a horse-drawn carriage, leaving Marie to continue their research alone.

In 1911, Marie was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her discovery and isolation of pure radium. She was the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes, and remains the only person to have won them in two different scientific fields. Despite her success, Marie faced significant discrimination as a woman in the male-dominated scientific community of her time. She was not allowed to join the French Academy of Sciences until 1962, more than 30 years after her death.

Marie Curie’s contributions to science and medicine have had a lasting impact on our understanding of the world. Her work on radioactivity helped pave the way for modern cancer treatments, and her discoveries of new elements and their properties expanded our knowledge of the basic building blocks of matter. Her legacy also serves as an inspiration to generations of women and girls who aspire to pursue careers in science and technology.

In addition to her scientific achievements, Marie was also a dedicated humanitarian. During World War I, she used her knowledge of radiology to develop mobile X-ray units that could be used to diagnose and treat wounded soldiers on the front lines. She also served as a role model and mentor to other women in science, including her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, who also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Marie Curie died in 1934 at the age of 66, from complications related to her exposure to radiation. She was buried in the Panthéon in Paris, alongside other French national heroes, becoming the first woman to be interred there on her own merits. Today, she is remembered as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, whose groundbreaking discoveries continue to inspire and inform our understanding of the natural world.

The Marie Effect

Maria Salomea Sktodowska was born on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw , Poland. She was the 5th child born to father Vladislav and Mother Bronislava sklodowska , who were both teachers. Because of bad investments, the family lost its savings and had to move to a private school where her mother taught.

Maria started her schooling in 1874, and she was the youngest and the smartest in her class. During that time, Warsaw was under Russian rule which banned polish dictums. Russian government forbade any polish women to attend university of Warsaw. So Marie and her older sister Bronya ,would pool their finances so that first her older sister ( Bronya ) could complete her education, and then Marie could attend University of Paris. Manya ( as Maria was also called) spent 6 years as governess and taught peasant children how to read and write.

She also attended secret meetings of “Floating University ” where they read scientific studies. By 1891,she had collected enough money to continue her studies in Paris. She moved there and lived with her sister and her husband and changed her name to Marie. She attended the Sorbonne University and then later moved to the student area , a tiny attic sized housing. In 1893,she earned her master’s degree in Physics, and then studied Mathematics on a scholarship.During this, she also got a job to study magnetism properties of various types of steel for French company.

She later met Pierre Curie and they got married in 1895 , and gave birth to daughter Irene the following year.

Later she decided to make French physicist Henri Becquerel and his discovery of mysterious Uranium rays in 1896 as her topic of physics doctorate. She began studying Uranium type rays radiated from other elements and found that Thorium also gave out such rays. Most of Uranium type rays given off by rocks called pitchblende- gave more radiation than she expected.

She announced in July,1898 that she found a new element and named it POLONIUM , after Poland and also invented the word ‘ radioactive ‘ , and later she also founded Radium.

To prove that she had indeed found those new elements, she had to produce pure radium. And finally on 21 july 1902 she reported the weight of 1 radium atom. In 1903, she became the first woman in Europe to receive doctorate in science. Radium began to be used for treating cancer cells, and the new treatment began to be called ‘ Curie treatment’. Marie and Pierre were awarded the Humphry Davy medal ; England’s highest award in chemistry.

The same year , she and her husband ,along with Henri Becquerel , were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics .In 1906, Pierre died by falling off horse drawn wagon.

In 1911, Marie won Nobel Prize in chemistry for her work in radioactivity.

She died in 1934 of aplastic anaemia due to prolonged exposure to radiation .

Later, in 1935,Irene and her husband Fredrick, were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry .