In the history of science, the name of Marie Curie is like a brilliant star, illuminating the road of radioactive research. However, people's understanding of her often stays on the simple title of "Madame Curie". Today, let us unveil the dust of history and re understanding this great female scientist.
I. Discovery of RadiumOn December 26, 1898, Marie Curie submitted an epoch-making report to the French Academy of Sciences. She and her husband Pierre Curie announced the discovery of a new element - radium, which is one million times more radioactive than uranium. Five months earlier, they also discovered another new element - polonium, named after Marie's motherland, Poland.
II. Marie Curie's Early LifeOn November 7, 1867, Marie Sklodowska was born into a family of a middle school teacher in Warsaw, Poland. In 1891, when she was 24 years old, she went to study in Paris and entered the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Paris. In 1894, because she wanted a better experimental environment, Marie met Pierre Curie, the director of the laboratory of the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry at that time. A year later, the two got married in Paris. From then on, Marie took her husband's surname and became "Marie Curie".
III. Challenges in the Scientific CommunityIn 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of "radium". After this announcement, it caused a great uproar in the scientific community. You say you have discovered this thing, but where is it? Show it to us!In order to refine pure radium, the Curies sold all their valuable things and used all their savings to buy more than ten tons of pitchblende slag and began a difficult purification experiment. After tens of thousands of extractions over 45 months, they finally obtained 10 grams of radium chloride.
IV. Controversy over the Nobel PrizeAs everyone knows, in 1903, the Curies won the Nobel Prize in Physics that year to recognize their contributions to radioactive research. And Marie Curie's bumpy fate began from then on.First of all, this prize was not won by the Curies alone, but was shared with others. The one who shared half of the prize was a scientist named Antoine Henri Becquerel. Becquerel is a well-known French physicist. He comes from a family of scientists. His father and grandfather are famous scientists, and his grandfather is also a member of the Royal Society. Becquerel was the first to discover natural radioactivity in 1896 (although he initially mistakenly thought it was fluorescence).In fact, Becquerel's discovery of natural radioactivity is certainly meritorious, but he did not make any significant research and theoretical achievements afterwards. The main work was done by the Curies. Of course, it is not unreasonable for Becquerel to win the Nobel Prize, but what is puzzling is that among the winners nominated by four famous scientists at that time, Marie Curie's name was not on the list at first. The one who ranked first was Becquerel. And what about the Curies who made significant contributions? Pierre Curie was described by the outside world as "Becquerel's assistant", and Marie Curie was called "Pierre Curie's assistant".But in fact, for the concept and theory of radioactivity, Marie Curie is the real pioneer, and her husband Pierre is her assistant. In April 1895, the French Royal Academy read Marie Sklodowska's paper "Radioactivity of Compounds of Uranium and Thorium" - at that time she was not married to Pierre Curie (Pierre Curie joined later, two years after his wife's research on radium, and helped improve the experimental instrument).Because of her husband's insistence, Marie Curie finally appeared on the list of winners. But it is said that Becquerel once said: "Madame Curie's contribution is to be a good assistant to Mr. Pierre Curie. This gives us reason to believe that God created women to be the best assistants to men."
Anyway, Marie Curie was finally recognized from the Nobel Prize in 1903. But what awaits her next is an even crueler fate.
V. Turbulence in Personal LifeA photo of the Curies on their honeymoon. The bicycle was a wedding gift they bought for themselves.On April 19, 1906, three years after winning the Nobel Prize, Pierre Curie was hit by a carriage on the road and died on the spot. The couple had supported each other all the way. Now only 39-year-old Marie Curie is left alone.Then, Paul Langevin entered her life. Langevin is five years younger than Marie. He is Pierre Curie's student and also a highly talented scientist. After Pierre Curie's death, Langevin became Marie's good friend and a reliable scientific researcher. At Marie's most difficult time, it was Langevin who helped her step by step. Marie Curie declined the pension from the French government and said that she could support herself and her daughter by teaching at the Sorbonne. The first class she taught at the Sorbonne was prepared with the help of Langevin.As time went by, friendship between the two gradually turned into love - but Langevin was a married man. Langevin, who came from a poor family, married the daughter of a small grocery store owner. It's hard to say whether this marriage is right or wrong. But because of the huge gap in education and knowledge between the two, Langevin gradually had no common language with his wife - his wife didn't want him to engage in any research and only hoped that he could earn more money to support the family. For a wife who has not received much education, this is not a very excessive request. The wife has to raise children and take care of the family, and she also has her own difficulties. But Langevin's pursuit is certainly not only this. Coincidentally, Jeanne's temper seems to be rather fierce. It is said that she once broke Langevin's head.At first, Marie Curie wanted to mediate. She even criticized Langevin for being too rude to his wife. But gradually, she found that the conflict between the two was irreconcilable, and she fell deeply in love with Langevin, so she began to persuade them to divorce.In 1910, Langevin rented a small house next to the Sorbonne in Paris in his own name. That place became where he and Marie Curie were together. Marie called that house "our place".Unfortunately, Langevin's divorce failed. What's worse, his wife got the love letter Marie Curie wrote to him, and then these letters were leaked to the French media. The whole of France was in an uproar - how could boring scientific research be more interesting than celebrity gossip? Newspapers such as "Le Journal", "Le Petit Journal", and "L'Oeuvre" in France began to report Marie Curie and Langevin's "mysterious love affair" in succession and began to publish a large number of her letters (but without presenting the originals). Some media even began to speculate whether the two had an "affair" when Pierre was alive.In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for separating pure metallic radium and became the only person in history to win both the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Marie Curie had angrily fought back and warned not to violate her privacy, but soon she was overwhelmed by a greater public sentiment - some French people began to attack her residence, smash her windows with stones, and some people shouted "Get out, foreigner" or "adulteress"... A love letter of uncertain authenticity was exposed. In that letter, Marie Curie revealed her desire for sex. French men who are naturally romantic seem to be furious at women expressing such desires. Marie began to have a new title: Polish slut.A group of French scientists who had originally supported Marie Curie also began to change their positions. They jointly wrote a letter asking Marie to leave France, including Paul Appell, Marie's most loyal comrade. For this reason, Appell's daughter had a big fight with her father (the daughter is Curie's student). The daughter who never contradicted her father declared that she would break off relations with her father and said a sentence: "If Marie Curie were a man, none of this would happen!"After her husband's death, Marie Curie raised her two daughters independently. Her eldest daughter, Irène Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband in 1935.
VI. War and DedicationThis may indeed be the case. Marie Curie's lifelong friend Einstein was also in a mess in his personal life, but few people cared about this. In this matter, Einstein did write a letter to support Marie: "If two people love each other, then no one has the right to interfere."What about Langevin, the man who also has to bear the responsibility? After being separated from Curie for a period of time, he returned to his wife - on the condition that his wife allowed him to openly have a female secretary as his lover. Many years later, Langevin was also allowed by his wife to be with a young female student. In order to support this female student lover, Langevin even asked Marie Curie to arrange a position for this student in the institute.For the next three years, Marie Curie lived in a hospital run by nuns to escape everything. And except for her, everyone else actually had no losses.In 1914, the French public's interest in discussing Marie Curie's scandal significantly decreased because in this year, World War I broke out.Facing the French people who threw stones at her windows, called her "adulteress", and asked her to leave France, Marie Curie took the following actions:First of all, she took the Nobel medal to the bank, hoping to donate it to the government to help win the war. When she learned that the bank refused to melt the medal, Marie Curie took out all her Nobel Prize money and bought French war bonds.Then, Marie Curie closed her newly built "radium laboratory" and began to study X-rays. Her reason was that during the war, the research on radium elements was of little significance, but X-rays might be useful on the battlefield.Marie Curie first persuaded the French government to let her become a radiologist for the Red Cross, and then persuaded her wealthy friends to donate vehicles and money (the Curies could have easily become billionaires, but they gave up the patent application for radium because Marie Curie believed that this was the common wealth of science).At the end of October 1914, Marie Curie learned X-ray science and human anatomy, got a driver's license, and mastered basic car repair skills. Then, she assembled a generator, a hospital bed, and a mobile X-ray machine on a "Renault" truck.In order to persuade the government and soldiers to believe that X-rays are of great help in examining army wounded, Marie Curie, 47 years old, risked her life and drove to the front line by herself to let the wounded soldiers get on the truck for examination. Bullet fragments and shrapnel fragments, which were originally difficult to find, were all exposed under the irradiation of X-rays, greatly reducing the difficulty of surgical operations. Officers and soldiers gradually began to admire this little woman in front of them. They affectionately called the small truck driven by Madame Curie "Little Curie". And many soldiers did not know that this woman who examined their wounds in person was a two-time Nobel Prize winner.Marie Curie found that working alone was far from enough. She needed more vehicles and more X-ray machines to help the wounded. So, she opened an X-ray training class for 150 women and asked her daughter Irène to come to the battlefield to continue managing the X-ray machine. Then she retrieved her radium element again and began to collect radioactive gas (radon) and make hollow needles to disinfect infected tissues.In 1918, World War I finally announced the end of the war. On the day the news of the armistice came, Marie Curie was collecting radon in the laboratory. After hearing the news, she immediately hung the French flag on the window and then drove "Little Curie" onto the street to celebrate. At that moment, she seemed happier than many French people.
VII. Later Years and DeathIn 1934, Marie Curie, 67 years old, reached the end of her life. Due to long-term exposure to radioactivity (especially during the period of researching X-rays), Marie Curie suffered from malignant leukemia. After her death, the French government realized that her X-ray research may have saved hundreds of thousands of French soldiers, and then awarded her a medal.Because Marie Curie had been working in a radioactive environment for a long time, her clothes, experimental equipment, and various notebooks were all full of radioactivity. People could only touch them by wearing special protective clothing. At that time, finally no one cared about her other personal life anymore, but was in awe of her noble personality dedicated to science.Einstein said: "Among all the famous people in the world, Marie Curie is the only one who has not been spoiled by fame."In July 1913, Madame Curie and Einstein's family went on a two-week hiking trip in the Alps. The children walked in front and played. Madame Curie and Einstein followed slowly behind and discussed physical problems. This photo is called one of the most moving photos in the physics community by many people.
VIII. Jean-S SaysSome people were once indignant about the title "Madame Curie". Because Marie Curie has her own name. After her husband passed away, she won many honors through her own efforts, but she is still called "Madame Curie". In fact, I think that in the Chinese context, "Madame" is more of a respectful title rather than representing marital subordination.But from some other aspects, Marie Curie did encounter a lot of injustices. The reason why she went to university in Paris was that universities in Warsaw did not accept female students. Although she graduated from university with excellent grades, she could only be a female middle school teacher. She was not qualified to read her paper at the French Academy of Sciences. In 1911, she narrowly missed being elected as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences by one vote. The reason was that "there are no female academicians in the academy". After Pierre Curie died, the laboratory had nothing to do with his wife. Later, it was only after Marie applied in many ways that she regained research qualifications.There is also her relationship. Admittedly, even if Langevin's marriage is unfortunate, it is not a reason for her to get involved before his divorce. But she also tasted various consequences. As for Langevin, as a man, the responsibility for cheating seems to be completely absent. As long as he finally returns to his family, everything can be forgiven, leaving Marie alone to bear the ridicule and even insult of others. It is worth mentioning that Langevin's original wife Jeanne later allowed him to have a lover. What kind of helplessness and pain is this?Marie Curie once calmly said to her daughter: "In a world where men make the rules, they think that the function of women is sex and reproduction." Is this so? Isn't it so? Look at some men who cheat now. Instead, the public will first blame the injured woman: Is she not gentle enough to her husband because she is busy with her career? Does she not understand her husband's hard work? As long as he is willing to turn back, forgive him! A woman cannot live without a family! A woman is a winner in life only when she has children and a husband! This is the "winner" set by the male worldview, right?It must be admitted that today's story about Marie Curie is not so much showing her great personality and scientific achievements as recording her efforts and struggles to vindicate women. In the scientific community that advocates rationality and objectivity the most, the success of female scientists is already so difficult. Let alone in other industries? This is also the greatness of Marie Curie as a female scientist.