Marie Curie
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Marie Curie
The First Woman Nobel Laureate    
 
In science we must be interested in things, not                  in persons
Marie Curie
The                life of Marie Curie contains prodigies in such number that one would                like to tell her story like a legend. She was a woman; she belonged                to an oppressed nation; she was poor; she was beautiful. A powerful                vocation summoned her from her motherland, Poland, to study in Paris,                where she lived through years of poverty and solitude. There she                met a man whose genius was akin to hers. She married him; their                happiness was unique. By the most desperate and arid effort they                discovered a magic element, radium. This discovery not only gave                birth to a new science and a new philosophy: it provided mankind                with the means of treating a dreadful disease.
Eve Curie in Madame Curie by her Daughter
(translated by Vincent Sheean)
Marie Curie was the first to use the term `radioactivity’.                Through her discovery of radium, Marie paved the way for nuclear                physics and cancer therapy. She was the first woman in Europe to                earn a doctorate degree (1902). She was the first woman to win a                Nobel Prize. In 1903 the Nobel Prize for physics was jointly awarded                to Marie, her husband Pierre Curie (1859-1906) and Henri Becquerel                (1852-1902) for the discovery of radioactivity. She was the first                woman to be appointed as lecturer and professor at the Sorbonne                University in Paris (1906). She was the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes. In 1911 she was awarded the second Nobel Prize                in chemistry for her discovery and isolation of pure radium and                radium components. She was the first mother-Nobel laureate of a                daughter -Nobel Laureate.
Marie Curie (her original name was Marya Sklodowska)                was born on November 07, 1867 in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland.                She was the fifth and the last child of her parents Bronislawa and                Vladislav Sklodowska. At the time of her birth, Poland had not been                an independent country. It had been divided up among Austria, Prussia                and Russia. Warsaw was in the part of Poland that was under the                control of Russia. Czar Alexander II, the then Ruler of Russia,                hoped to stamp out Polish nationalism by keeping the people ignorant                of their culture and language. It is said that when the Czar was                assassinated by revolutionary students in 1881, Marie and her best                friend Kazia celebrated by dancing around the desks in their classroom.
After the birth of Marie, her family’s fortune                deteriorated. Her birth led her mother to resign her position as                a head of a school, where the family had resided until then. They                moved to a boys’ high school, where her father taught mathematics                and physics. However, the Russian supervisor in charge of the school                fired him for his pro-Polish sentiments. And subsequently he was                forced into a series of progressively lower academic posts. Her                mother after fighting for five years against tuberculosis died at                the age of 42 in May 1878. At the time Marie Curie was 10 years                old. In 1873 Sklodowski lost his job. He was replaced by a Russian                teacher. At about the same time her father lost most of his savings                through an unwise investment in a scheme promoted by a brother-in-law.                Sklodowksi never forgave himself for losing the family savings in                a bad investment. However, his children honoured him for nurturing                them emotionally and intellectually. He read classics of literature                to his children. He also exposed to the scientific apparatus he                had once used teaching physics in school but now he had kept them                in home as Russian authorities removed laboratory instruction from                the Polish curriculum. Marie Curie wrote : “I easily learned                mathematics and physics, as for as these sciences were taken in                consideration in the school. I found in this ready help from my                father, who loved science… unhappily, he had no laboratory                and could not perform experiments.
Marie did very well in her school studies. She                was awarded a Gold medal at her high school graduation in 1883.                However, her joy was overshadowed by the fact that she had to shake                the hand of the grandmaster (of course a Russian) of education in                Russian Poland. After finishing her school education she suffered                from depression. Her father persuaded her to spend a year with cousins                in the country. This was the only year in which she lived a carefree                life.
While she was very good student in school but in                her early days but she did not show any startling characteristic                to indicate that one day she would become the most famous woman                scientist in the world. To quote her daughter Eve Curie who wrote                a marvelous biography of Marie : “I have attempted to show Marya Sklodovska, child and adolescent, in her studies and at play.                She was healthy, honest, sensitive and gay. She had a loving heart.                She was, as her teachers said,” remarkably gifted”;                she was a brilliant student. But on the whole no startling characteristic                distinguished her from the children who grew up with her : nothing                had indicated her genius.”
Marie had a brilliant aptitude for study and a                great thirst for knowledge. However, as being a woman, as mentioned                earlier, she had no hope for advanced study in Poland of those days.                So she along with her sister Bronya started attending the Floating                University. The name `Floating University’ derived from the                fact it was an illegal night school and its classes met in changing                locations. This was to evade the watchful eyes of the Russian authorities.                The Floating University was founded by students who hoped that their                grass-roots educational movement would lead to eventual Polish liberation.                To quote Marie Curie: “It was one of those groups of Polish                youth who believed that the hope of their country lay in a great                effort to develop the intellectual and moral strength of the nation…We                agreed among ourselves to give evening courses, each one teaching                what he knew best”.
It was obvious that the education given by the Floating University                could not be matched the education provided by any major European                university which admitted women. However, Marie became familiar                with progressive thought and also with new developments in the sciences.                Both Marie and her sister nurtured a hope of going to Paris and                study at the Sorbonne University. However, their father was not                in a position to send them to Paris for higher studies. Bronya was                earning some money by giving private tuition. Marie also tried to                earn some money by private tuition but without much success. Both                the sisters realized that individually they would not able to earn                enough money to enable them to go to Paris. So they decided that                one of them will go first by pulling their resources together. But                then they had to decide who would go first. Marie asked her sister                to go first. Bronya replied :
“Why should I be the first to go ? Why not                the other way round ? You are so gifted – probably more gifted                than I am. You would succeed very quickly. Why should I go ?”
However, Marie had her own reason which seemed                more practical. She argued :
“Oh, Bronya, don’t be stupid ! Because                you are twenty and I am seventeen. Because you’ve been waiting                for hundreds of years and I’ve got lots of time. That’s                what father thinks too, it is only natural that the elder should                go first. When you have your practice you can bury me in gold – in fact, I count on it. We’re doing something intelligent                at last, something that will work…”
To earn money Marie decided to work as governess.                Her first stint as a governess was quite unpleasant. Describing                her experience she wrote to her cousin Henrietta Michalovska : “Since                we separated my existence has been that of a prisoner. As you know                I found a place with the B——’s, a family of lawyers.                I shouldn’t like my worst enemy in such a hell ... It was                one of those rich houses where they speak French when there is company                - a chimney sweeper’s kind of French - where they don’t                pay their bills for six months, and where they fling money out of                the window even though they economise pettily on oil for the lamps.                They have five servants. They pose as liberals and, in reality,                they are sunk in the darkest stupidity. And last of all, although                they speak in the most sugary tones, slander and scandal rage through                their talk - slander which leaves not a rag on anybody... I learned                to know the human race a little better by being there. I learned                that the characters described in novels really do exist, and that                one must not enter into contact with people who have been demoralised                by wealth.” (emphasis not in original).
In 1886 she went to take up the job as a governess in a village                which was 100 kilometers away from Warsaw. Her salary was 500 rubles                a year. It seemed Marie liked the job here, as evident from her                letter to Henrietta written on February 03, 1886 : “I have                now been with M. and Mme Z . for one month : so I have had time                to acclimatize myself in the new post. Up to now all have gone well.                The Z.s are excellent people. I have made friends with their eldest                daughter, Bronka, which contributes to the pleasantness of my life.                As for my pupil, Andzia, who will soon be ten, she is an obedient                child, but very disorderly and spoilt. Still, one cannot require                perfection….”
She established friendly relation with the family                to such an extent that they supported Marie when she decided to                teach some of the peasant children to read and write in Polish.                It may be noted that such an activity was strictly prohibited in                Poland. While working here she fell in love with the eldest son                of the family, a mathematics student at the Warsaw University and                they decided to marry. But her employers, the parents of the boy,                absolutely refused to allow it. Though she felt humiliated at the                turn of events she stayed in her post till her contract was over.                This is because she knew her responsibility. She had to send money                to her sister in Paris.
In mid- 1889 Marie came back to Warsaw. She had                got an appointment in the house of some rich industrialist. After                finishing this assignment she started living with her father. She                again joined the Floating University. During this time she had also                an opportunity for entering a laboratory for the first time. It                was in an institute called “The Museum of Industry and Agriculture” which was teaching science to young Poles. At the time it was directed                by her cousin Joseph Boguski. The name of the institute was to mislead                the Russian authorities. A museum would not arouse suspicion. Commenting                her experience Marie wrote : “I had little time for work in                this laboratory. I could generally get there only in the evening                after dinner, or on Sunday, and I was left to myself. I tried to                reproduce various experiments described in the treatise on physics                or chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. From time                to time a little unhoped for success would come to encourage me,                and at other times, I sank into despair because of the accidents                or failures due to my inexperience. But on the whole, even though                I learned, to my cost, that progress in such matters is neither                rapid nor easy, I developed my taste for experimental research during                these first trials.”
Finally the moment, for which she was waiting,                arrived. In November 1891 she set off for Paris. She had just turned                24. She travelled in the cheapest class on the three -day journey                by rail. She enrolled at the Sarbonne University. She had to struggle                hard in her studies. After finishing school she had been away from                her studies for six years. She was mostly self- taught and so there                were inheritable gaps in her knowledge. Moreover, though she had                good knowledge of French but it was not the same technical French                spoken by her fellow students and professors at the Sorbonne University.
At first she lived in the home of her sister, Bronya,                who married another Polish patriot, Casimir Dluski, whom she had                met in Medical school. The Dluskis’ home, however, was an                hour’s journey by horse -drawn bus from the university. So                Marie had to waste two hours a day of valuable working time. Moreover,                the Dluski apartment was a meeting place for Poles, full of distraction                from work. The young doctor was frequently called out to his patients                in the middle of the night which meant disturbance of sleep for                others. In the absence of visitors Casimir played the piano which                was also a source of distraction for Marie from her studies. So                within few months Marie moved to the Latin Quarter, the artists’ and students’ neighbourhood, close to the university. She                had to struggle a lot. There was no comfort for her. To quote her                daughter Eve curie :
“All the rooms Marie was to inhabit were                alike in discomfort and cheapness of rent. The first was situated                in a poorly furnished house where students, doctors and officers                of the neighbourhood garrison lived. Later on the girl, in search                of absolute calm, was to take an attic like a servant’s room                at the top of a middle-class house. For fifteen or twenty francs                a month she found a tiny nook which was lit from a loop-hole giving                directly on the slope of the roof. Through this skylight appeared                a small square of the sky. There was no heat, no lighting, no water… No service, of course : even one hour of cleaning a day would have                overweighed the expense side of the budget. Transportation costs                were suppressed : Marie went to the Sorbonne on foot in all weathers.                Coal was kept down to a minimum : one or two sacks of “lumps” for the winter, which the girl brought from the merchant on the                corner and hoisted up the steep stairs herself to the sixth floor,                bucketful by bucketful, stopping at each floor to breathe. Lights                were at minimum : as soon as night fell, the student took refuge                in that blessed asylum called the Library of Sainte-Genevieve, where                the gas was lighted and it was warm. Seated at one of the big rectangular                tables with her head in her hands, a poor Polish girl could work                until they closed the doors at ten O’ clock. From then on                all that was needed was enough oil to keep the light going in her                room until two in the morning. Then, with her eyes reddened by fatigue,                Marie left her books and threw herself on the bed.”
Marie was obsessed by her dreams. She was harassed                by poverty. But she was proud of living alone and independently                in a foreign country. She wanted to achieve something and she had                so much confidence in herself that she knew that she would achieve                the target one day. In a letter written during this period to her                brother, Marie wrote:
“It is difficult for me to tell about my life in detail; it                is so monotonous and, in fact, so uninteresting. Nevertheless I                have no feeling of uniformity and I regret only one thing, which                is that the days are so short and that they pass so quickly. One                never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains                to be done, and if one didn’t like the work it would be discouraging.
I want you to pass your doctor’s thesis                ... it seems that life is not easy for any of us. But what of that                ? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.                We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this                thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. Perhaps everything will                turn out very well, at the moment when we least expect it ...”
Irrespective of tremendous hardships Marie not                only completed in 1893 her master degree in physical science but                stood first. For her spectacular success she was awarded an Alexandrovitch                Scholarship, worth 600 rubles, when she came to Warsaw for the summer.                The scholarship was meant for an outstanding Polish student wishing                to work abroad. The scholarship enabled her to return Paris and                take the master degree examination in mathematics in 1894 after                one more year of study. This time she stood second. It may be noted                that Marie after getting her first paid employment returned her                scholarship money 600 rubles to the Alexandrovitch Foundation so                that they could use it to give another young student the same opportunity                she had enjoyed.
At Sorbonne Marie had the opportunity to hear some                of the very well-known physicists and mathematicians like Marcel                Brillouin, Paul Painleve, Gabriel Lippmann and Paul Appell.
Before completing her mathematics degree Marie                was commissioned by the Society for the Encouragement of National                Industry to do a study, relating magnetic properties of different                steels to their chemical composition. For this work she needed a                laboratory where she could do the work. One of her acquaintances,                a Polish physicist, M. Kovalski, Professor of Physics in the University                of Fribourg, who was visiting Paris at that time suggested that                Pierre Curie might be able to assist her. Pierre, who had done pioneering                research on magnetism, was Laboratory Chief at the Municipal School                of Industrial Physics and Chemistry in Paris. So Marie met Pierre,                a meeting that would change not only their individual lives but                also the course of science. With Pierre’s assistance Marie                could find rudimentary lab space at the Municipal School.
When Marie met Pierre, he was 35 years, eight years                older then Marie. Though Pierre was an established physicist, he                was an outsider in the French scientific community. He was a dreamer,                an idealist, whose sole aim in life was to devote his entire life                in the pursuit of science. He was totally indifferent to recognition.                The Municipal school of Industrial Physics, which he was heading,                trained engineers. His research work concerned with crystals and                the magnetic properties of bodies at different temperatures. With                his brother he had discovered piezoelectricity, which means that                difference in electrical potential is seen when mechanical stresses                are applied on certain crystals, including quartz.
Marie, too was an idealist. And like Pierre she                had also an urge to pursue science single-mindedly. Pierre and Marie                immediately discovered an intellectual affinity, which was very                soon transformed into deeper feelings. Initially Marie had no plans                to settle in France. On being asked by Piere whether she was going                to remain in France permanently Marie replied : “Certainly                not. This summer, if I succeed in my master’s examination,                I shall go back to Warsaw. I should like to come back here in the                autumn, but I don’t know whether I shall have the means to                do so. Later on I shall be a teacher in Poland; I shall try to be                useful. Poles have no right to abandon their country.” After                her success in her mathematics examination Marie returned to Warsaw                for a vacation. She was not sure whether she would return to Paris                or not.
Pierre wrote her frequently. He argued strongly that by leaving                Paris for good she would be abandoning not just him, but a promising                career in science. In one of his letters Pierre wrote : “We                have promised each other haven’t we ! to be at least great                friends. If you will only not change your mind ! For there are no                promises that are binding ; such things cannot be ordered at will.
It would be a fine thing, just the same, in which                I hardly dare believe, to pass our lives near each other, hypnotised                by our dreams : your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and                our scientific dream.
Of all those dreams the last is, I believe, the                only legitimate one. I meant by that we are powerless to change                the social order and, even if were not, we should not know what                to do : in taking action, no matter in what direction, we should                never be sure of not doing more harm than good, by retarding some                inevitable evolution. From the scientific point of view, on the                contrary, we may hope to do something ; the ground is solider here,                and any discovery that we may make, however small, will remain acquired                knowledge.”
Marie came back to Paris and in July 1895 she married                Pierre. In 1896, Marie passed her teacher’s diploma, coming                first in her group. Their daughter, Irene, the future Nobel Laureate,                was born in September 1897. Pierre persuaded the authorities for                allowing Marie to work in the School’s laboratory.
In 1897 Marie decided to take a physics doctorate.                Her choice of a thesis topic was influenced by two recent discoveries                by other scientists. In December 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923)                had discovered a kind of ray that could travel through solid wood                or flesh and yield photographs of living people’s bones. Roentgen,                who became the first Nobel Laureate in physics, dubbed these mysterious                rays X-rays, with X standing for unknown.
In 1896 Antonine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), showed                that uranium compounds, even if they were kept in the dark, emitted                rays that would fog a photographic plate. This was an accidental                discovery. He was trying to find out whether the new radiation discovered                by Roentgen could have a connection with fluorescence. The scientific                community initially ignored Bacquerel’s intriguing finding.                Marie decided to make a systematic investigation of the mysterious                uranium rays for her doctorate degree. As the topic was quite new                she did not have long bibliography of published papers to read.                Thus she was able to begin experimental work on them immediately.                She had an excellent aid at her disposal, an electrometer for the                measurement of weak electrical current. This new kind of electrometer                was invented by Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques. It was based                on piezoelectric effect. This device was very useful as she decided                to determine the intensity of the radiation of uranium compounds                by measuring the conductivity of the air exposed to the action of                the rays.
While working on this topic she discovered that                thorium gives off the same rays as uranium. Thus she proved that                uranium was not the only radioactive element. She also demonstrated                that the strength of the radiation did not depend on the compound                that was being studied. It depended only on the amount of uranium                or thorium present in the sample. This was a very surprising result.                Because as we know different compounds of the same element have                very different chemical and physical properties. But in case radiation                given off by uranium and thorium it mattered only how much uranium                or thorium a compound contained. Based on her findings Marie concluded                that the ability to radiate did not depend on the arrangement of                the atoms in the molecules but it must be linked to the interior                of the uranium itself and not to its interaction with something                else. It had to be an atomic property. And from a conceptual point                of view it is her most important contribution to the development                of physics. That radioactivity was an atomic phenomenon was demonstrated                by Rutherford and his pupils. After these discoveries Marie decided                to study the natural ores that contain thorium and uranium. She                found that two uranium minerals, pitchblende and chalcocite, were                more active than uranium itself so she hypothesized that a new element                that was considerably more active than uranium was present in small                amounts in these ores.
Pierre, after being fascinated with new vistas                that were opening up from Marie’s research, gave up his own                research into crystals and symmetry in nature and joined Marie in                her project. They found that the fractions containing bismuth or                barium showed strongest activity. By the end of June 1898 they found                a substance which was 300 times more strongly active than uranium.                In this research paper announcing their findings they wrote : “We                thus believe that the substances that we have extracted from pitchblende                contain a metal never known before, akin to bismuth in its analytic                properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed, we                suggest that it should be called polonium after the name of the                country of origin of one of us.” The term `radioactivity’ was first used in this paper read on December 26, 1898. They announced                the existence of an additional very active substance that behaved                chemically almost like pure barium. They suggested the name `radium’ for the new element.
In their joint work Pierre observed the properties                of the radiation while Marie, for her part, purified the radioactive                elements. It turned out that in order to extract even tiny traces                of radium one would require to process tonnes of the ore, pitchblende.                Moreover Curies would require to buy this costly raw material. Pitchblende                was expensive because uranium salts produced from it was used in                industry to make glazes. But luckily for Curies the residue of the                ore after the uranium had been extracted was almost worthless and                could be brought cheaply. Being persuaded by Professor Edward Suess                (1831-1914) and the Academy of Science of Vienna, the Austrian government                which was the proprietor of the state factory, presented a ton of                residue to the Curies. And what is more if they require more they                could obtain it at the mine on the best terms. However, they had                to pay for its transportation from Austria to Paris. They processed                it in a dilapidated shed. While describing about the shed Eve Curie                wrote : “The Faculty of Medicine had formerly used the place                as a dissecting room, but for a long time now it had not even been                considered fit for a mortuary. There was no floor and an uncertain                layer of bitumen covered the earth. It was furnished with some worn                kitchen tables, a blackboard which had landed there for no known                reason, and an old cast iron stove with a rusty pipe.
A workman would not willingly have worked in such                a place : Marie and Pierre, nevertheless, resigned themselves to                it. The shed had one advantage : it was so untempting, so miserable,                that nobody thought of refusing them the use of it”. Marie                and Pierre were really grateful to the Director of the institute                for allowing them to use it. Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932),                who traveled from Berlim to Paris to see how they worked, wrote                : “At my earnest request, I was shown the laboratory where                radium had been discovered shortly before. It was a cross between                a stable and a potato cellar, and if I had not seen the work table                and items of chemical apparatus, I would have thought that I was                played a practical joke.”
After struggling under the most adverse circumstances,                Marie finally isolated almost pure radium chloride. She had just                obtained one tenth of a gram. She took it to the French chemist                Eugene Demarcay (1852-1904), who had first identified the new elements                spectroscopically. He now had enough to determine its atomic weight,                which he calculated as 225.93. Marie defended her doctoral thesis                on June 15, 1903. Among the three members of the Examination committee                were two future Nobel Laureates – Gabriel Lippman (1845-1921)                and Ferdinand Frederic Henri Moissan (1852-1907). The Committee                was of the opinion that the findings represented the greatest scientific                contribution ever made in a doctoral thesis. The same year Marie                and Pierre were awarded half the Nobel Prize in physics “in                recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by                their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by                Professor Henri Becquerel.” The other half went to Becquerel                for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. The announcement                of 1903 Nobel Prize for physics aroused tremendous curiosity of                the press and the public. Earlier only the Prizes for Literature                and the Peace used to be widely covered by the press. The Prize                in science were not given publicity because they were considered                all too esoteric to be able to interest the general public. After                getting the prize Marie wrote : “We have been given half of                the Nobel Prize. I do not know exactly what that represents : I                believe it is about seventy thousand francs for us, it is a huge                sum. I don’t know when we shall get the money, perhaps only                when we go to Stockholm. We are obliged to lecture there during                the six months following December 10th.
We did not go the ceremonial meeting because it                was so complicated to arrange. I did not feel strong enough to undertake                such a long journey (forty-eight hours without stopping, and more                if one stops along the way) in such an inclement season, in a cold                country and without being able to stay there more than three or                four days : We could not, without great difficulty, interrupt our                courses for a long period.
We are inundated with letters and with visits from                photographers and journalists. One would like to dig into the ground                somewhere to find a little peace. We have received a proposal from                America to go there and give a series of lectures on our work. They                ask us how much we want. Whatever the sums may, we intend to refuse.”
In 1914 Marie helped found the Radium Institute.                Throughout the first World War Marie devoted herself to the development                of the use of X-ray radiography. She trained army’s radiologist                nurses at the Radium Institute, at what is now know as the Curie                Institute. She equipped more than 20 vans that acted as mobile field                hospitals and about 200 fixed installations with X-ray apparatus.                She obtained funds from charitable institutions such as the Red                Cross and adopted X-ray equipment to make portable radiology units.                She persuaded rich women to donate cars to carry those instruments.                Marie travelled with one of the cars herself operating the X-ray                equipment at field hospitals to locate shell fragments in the bodies                of wounded soldiers. Her elder daughter Irene helped her in her                effort. Together they trained 150 other radiographers. The total                number of men examined by these installation exceeded a million.                After the end of the war, Marie undertook a campaign to raise funds                for the Radium Institute. She was persuaded by Marie Maloney, an                American journalist, to tour the United States for publicising the                project in 1921. Meloney herself campaigned to raise funds from                American women to purchase a gram of radium for Marie. The ten United                States’ President Warren G. Harding presented her the radium                thus purchased.
On April 19, 1906 Pierre while hurrying to cross                a road he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon with a load of military                uniforms, weighing some six tons. He was killed instantly. The top                of his skull was crushed by the left rear wheel of the vehicle.
After Pierre’s death, Marie was appointed                as a professor at the Sorbonne University. She was the first woman                to be appointed at Sarbonne. Marie continued to produce several                decigrams of radium chloride. And finally with Andre Debierne, she                isolated radium in metallic form. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel                Prize in chemistry `in recognition of her services to the advancement                of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium,                by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds                of this remarkable element’. The discovery and isolation of                radium is regarded as the greatest event in chemistry since the                discovery of oxygen. The fact that an element could be transmuted                into another element, revolutionised chemistry and signified a new                epoch. Some people have questioned the decision of the Nobel Committee                awarding Marie a second Nobel Prize in chemistry. According to them,                the second award was also given for the same discovery, for which                Marie and her husband Pierre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics                in 1903.
Her alleged love affair with Paul Langeven, her                colleague at Sorbonne and her husband’s collaborator scandalized                France. It shook the University world in Paris and the French Government                at the highest level. It made headlines on the first pages of newspapers.                Her situation in Paris became impossible. She became a prisoner                in her own house. Svante Arrhenius, a senior member of the Swedish                Academy Sciences, wrote to Marie suggesting that she should not                come to Stockholm to receive her second Nobel Prize. In fact Arrhenies                pointed out that if the Swedish Academy knew the full details of                the affair it would not have awarded her the Prize. However, Marie                made it a point to attend the function. She insisted that her private                life should not be linked to her scientific works. In her Nobel                lecture delivered on December 11 in Stockholm, she declared that                she also regarded this prize as a tribute to Pierre Curie. She said                :
“Before approaching the subject of the lecture,                I wish to recall that the discovery of radium and that of polonium                were made by Pierre Curie in common with me. We also owe to Pierre                Curie in the domain of radioactivity, some fundamental studies which                he carried out either alone or in common with me or in collaboration                with his pupils.
The chemicals work which had as its aim the isolation                of radium in the state of pure salt and its characterisation as                a new element was carried out especially by me, but is intimately                linked with the work in common. I therefore believe I shall interpret                exactly the Academy’s thought in admitting that the high distinction                bestowed upon me is motivated by this work in common and this constitutes                a homage to the memory of Pierre Curie”
On July 4, 1934 Marie died of leukemia. She was                67. The leukemia was caused by her long exposure to hard radiation.
In April 1995 Marie and Pierre Curie’s remains                were enshrined under the famous dome of the pantheon in Paris alongside                the author Victor Hugo, the politican Jean Jaures and the Resistance                fighter Jean Moulin. The Pantheon is the memorial to the nation’s                great men”. Here some of the France’s most distinguished                personalities lay buried. Marie was the first woman to be honoured                on her own merit.
It may be noted here though Marie and Pierre worked under the most                adverse circumstances they refused to consider taking a patent as                being incompatible with their view of the role of researchers. If                they had taken a patent it would have facilitated their research                and spared their health.
We would like to end this article by quoting what                Curie had to say for making a better world : “You cannot hope                to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that                end, each of us must work for an own improvement and, at the same                time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular                duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”
For Further Reading :
1. Eve Curie, Madame Curie, Paris Gallimard, 1938.                In English, Doubleday, New York : Doubleday
2. Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Autobiographical                Notes, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923.
3. Elisabeth Crawford, The Beginnings of the Nobel                Institution, The Science Prizes 1901-1915, Cambridge : Cambridge                University Press. 1984.
4. Rosalynd Pflaum, Grand Obsession: Madame Curie                and Her World, New York : Doubleday, 1989.
5. Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life, New York :                Simon & Schuster, 1995.
6. Robert Reid, Marie Curie, London : William Collins                Sons & Co Ltd 1974.
7. John Gribbin & Mary Gribbin, Curie in 90                Minutes. Hyderabad : Universities Press (India) Limited, 1997.
Marie Curie