Maria Sklodowska-Curie (born November 7, 1867 - died July 4, 1934) - French (Polish) experimental scientist, physicist and chemist, one of the founders of the theory of radioactivity. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize, the first person to receive the Nobel Prize twice and the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in two different sciences - physics and chemistry. Together with her husband Pierre Curie, she discovered the elements of radium and polonium. Founder of the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw.
Not a single woman in the world has been able to achieve such popularity in the field of science, which went to Marie Curie during her lifetime. Meanwhile, when you look at the details of her biography, you get the impression that this scientist did not have sharp bursts and failures, failures and sudden rises that usually accompany genius. It seems that her success in physics is only the result of titanic work and the rarest, almost incredible luck. It seems that the slightest accident, a zigzag of fate - and there would be no great name Marie Curie in science. But maybe it just seems.
Childhood
And she began her life in Warsaw, in the modest family of the teacher Joseph Sklodowski, where, in addition to the youngest Mana, two more daughters and a son were growing up. They lived very hard, the mother died long and painfully from tuberculosis, the father was exhausted to treat his sick wife and feed his five children. He may not have been very lucky, he did not stay in profitable places for long. He himself explained this by the fact that he did not know how to get along with the Russian administration of the gymnasiums. In fact, the spirit of nationalism prevailed in the family, and much was said about the oppression of the Poles. The children grew up under the strong influence of patriotic ideas, and Maria was left with the complex of an undeservedly humiliated nation for her entire life.
In the absence of earnings, the Skłodowskys gave part of the house to the boarders - children from nearby villages who studied in Warsaw - because the rooms were constantly noisy and restless. Early in the morning Manya was raised from the sofa, because the dining room in which she slept was needed for the breakfast of the boarders. When the girl was 11 years old, her mother and older sister died. However, the father, who was withdrawn into himself and immediately sharply aged, did everything to make the children fully enjoy life. One by one, they graduated from high school and all with gold medals. Manya was no exception, she showed excellent knowledge in all subjects. As if anticipating that his daughter would face serious trials in the future, the father sent the girl to the village to stay with relatives for a whole year. Perhaps this was her only vacation in her life, the most carefree time. “I can't believethat there is some kind of geometry and algebra, - she wrote to a friend, - I completely forgot them."
Pierre and Marie Curie
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Training
In Paris, Maria, who was already 24 years old, entered the Sorbonne, and a life full of hardships began. She plunged headlong into her studies, refused any entertainment - only lectures and libraries. There was a catastrophic lack of funds even for the most necessary. There was no heating, no lighting, no water in the room where she lived. Maria herself carried bundles of firewood and buckets of water to the sixth floor. She gave up hot food a long time ago, since she herself did not know how to cook, and she did not want to, and she did not have money for restaurants. Once, when the sister's husband came to Mary, she fainted from exhaustion. I had to somehow feed a relative. But in a few months the girl was able to master the most difficult material from a prestigious French university. This is incredible, because over the years of vegetation in the village, despite persistent studies,she is very far behind - self-education is self-education.
Maria became one of the best students of the university, she received two diplomas - physics and mathematics. However, it cannot be said that in four years she was able to do anything significant in science, or one of the teachers later recalled her as a student who showed outstanding abilities. She was just a conscientious, diligent student.
Meeting Pierre Curie
In the spring of 1894, perhaps the most significant event in her life happened. She met Pierre Curie. By the age of twenty-seven, Maria was unlikely to harbor illusions about her personal life. This unexpected love seems all the more wonderful. Pierre by that time turned 35, he had long been waiting for a woman who could understand his scientific aspirations. Among brilliant people, where ambitions are so strong, where relationships are burdened by the complexities of creative natures, the case of Pierre and Maria, who created a surprisingly harmonious couple, is the rarest, which has no analogues. Our heroine pulled out a lucky ticket.
Marie Curie with her daughters Eva and Irene in 1908
A new direction - radiation
Maria Curie began her doctoral dissertation. After looking at recent articles, she is interested in the discovery of Becquerel's uranium radiation. The topic is completely new, unexplored. After consulting with her husband, Maria decided to take up this work. She pulls out a lucky ticket for the second time, not yet knowing that she was at the very peak of scientific interests of the 20th century. Then Maria could hardly have imagined that she was entering the nuclear era, that she would become the guide of humanity in this new complex world.
Scientific work
The work began rather prosaically. The woman methodically studied samples containing uranium and thorium and noticed deviations from the intended results. This is where Mary's genius was manifested, she expressed a daring hypothesis: these minerals contain a new, hitherto unknown radioactive substance. Soon Pierre joined her work. It was necessary to isolate this unknown chemical element, determine its atomic weight in order to show the whole world the correctness of their assumptions.
For four years, the Curies lived as recluses, they rented a shabby shed, in which it was very cold in winter and hot in summer, streams of rain poured through the cracks in the roof. For 4 years they at their own expense, without any helpers, isolated radium from the ore. Maria took on the role of a laborer. At the time when her husband was engaged in the formulation of subtle experiments, she poured liquids from one vessel to another, for several hours in a row she stirred the boiling material in a cast-iron basin. During these years she became a mother and took over all the household chores, since Pierre was the only breadwinner in the family and was torn between experiments and lectures at the university.
The work progressed slowly, and when the main part of it was completed - all that remained was to make accurate measurements on the latest instruments, and there were none - Pierre gave up. He began to persuade Maria to suspend the experiments, to wait for better times when the necessary instruments would appear at their disposal. But her wife did not agree and, having made incredible efforts, in 1902 isolated a decigram of radium, a white shiny powder, which she did not part with all her life and bequeathed it to the Institute of Radium in Paris.
Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw
Glory. First Nobel Prize
Glory came quickly. At the beginning of the 20th century, radium seemed to naive mankind as a panacea for cancer. From different parts of the globe, the Curies began to receive tempting offers: the French Academy of Sciences issued a loan for the release of radioactive substances, and began to build the first factories for the industrial production of radium. Now their house was full of guests, correspondents of fashion magazines strove to interview Madame Curie. And the pinnacle of scientific fame is the Nobel Prize! They are wealthy and able to afford to maintain their own laboratories, recruit employees and buy the latest devices, despite the fact that the Curies refused to receive a patent for the production of radium, giving their discovery to the world disinterestedly.
The death of her husband
And so, when life seemed to be streamlined, filled, comfortably accommodating both personal life, and lovely little daughters, and favorite work, everything collapsed in one piece. How fragile earthly happiness is.
1906, April 19 - Pierre, as always, went to work in the morning. And never returned … He died terribly ridiculous, under the wheels of a horse-drawn carriage. Fate, which miraculously gave Mary a beloved, as if greedy, took him back.
How she managed to survive this tragedy is hard to imagine. It is impossible to read the diary lines written in the first days after the funeral without excitement. “… Pierre, my Pierre, you are lying there like a poor wounded man, with a bandaged head, forgotten to sleep… We put you in a coffin on Saturday morning, and I supported your head when you were carried. We kissed your cold face with our last kiss. I put in your coffin a few periwinkles from our garden and a small portrait of the one whom you called “a sweet sensible student” and loved so much … The coffin is boarded up and I don't see you. I will not allow you to cover it with a terrible black rag. I cover it with flowers and sit down next to … Pierre sleeps in the ground with his last sleep, this is the end of everything, everything, everything …"
Monument to Maria Sklodowska-Curie
Lecture at the Sorbonne
But this was not the end, Maria had 28 more years of life ahead. Her work and strong character saved her. Already a few months after Pierre's death, she gave her first lecture at the Sorbonne. There were much more people gathered than a small audience could accommodate. According to the rules, it was supposed to begin the course of lectures with words of gratitude addressed to the predecessor. Maria appeared at the lectern to a storm of applause, nodded her head dryly in greeting and, looking in front of her, began in an even voice: "When you stand face to face with the successes achieved in physics …" This was the phrase on which I finished my course last semester Pierre. Tears rolled down the cheeks of the audience, and Maria monotonously continued her lecture.
Nobel laureates
1911 - Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize twice, and a few years later her daughter Irene received the same award.
During World War I, Maria created the first mobile X-ray units for field hospitals. Her energy knew no limits, she did an enormous scientific and social work, she was a welcome guest at many royal receptions, they wanted to get to know her like a movie star. But one day she will say to one of her immoderate admirers: “There is no need to lead such an unnatural life as I did. I devoted a lot of time to science because I had an aspiration for it, because I loved scientific research … All I wish women and young girls is simple family life and work that interests them."
Death
Marie Curie became the first person in the world to die from radiation. Years of working with radium made themselves felt. Once she bashfully hid her burned, twisted hands, not fully understanding how dangerous her and Pierre's brainchild was. Madame Curie died on 4 July from pernicious anemia due to bone marrow degeneration from prolonged exposure to radiation.
I. Semashko