Marie Skłodowska-Curie (née Maria Skłodowska) was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest of five children in the family of Władysław and Bronisława (Bogushka) Skłodowski. Maria was brought up in a family where science was respected. Her father taught physics at the gymnasium, and her mother, until she fell ill with tuberculosis, was the director of the gymnasium. Maria's mother died when the girl was eleven years old.

Maria Sklodovskaya studied brilliantly in both primary and secondary school. Also in at a young age She felt the attractive power of science and worked as a laboratory assistant in her cousin's chemistry laboratory.

There were two obstacles on the way to realizing Maria Skłodowska's dream of higher education: family poverty and the ban on admitting women to the University of Warsaw. Maria and her sister Bronya developed a plan: Maria would work as a governess for five years to enable her sister to graduate from medical school, after which Bronya would shoulder the costs of higher education sisters. Armor received medical education in Paris and, having become a doctor, invited Maria to her place. In 1891, Maria entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). In 1893, having completed the course first, Maria received a licentiate degree in physics from the Sorbonne (equivalent to a master's degree). A year later she became a licentiate in mathematics.

In the same year, 1894, in the house of a Polish emigrant physicist, Maria Sklodowska met Pierre Curie. Pierre was the head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. By that time, he had conducted important research on the physics of crystals and the dependence of the magnetic properties of substances on temperature. Maria was researching the magnetization of steel. Having first become close because of their passion for physics, Maria and Pierre got married a year later. This happened shortly after Pierre defended his doctoral dissertation. Their daughter Irène (Irène Joliot-Curie) was born in September 1897. Three months later, Marie Curie completed her research on magnetism and began looking for a topic for her dissertation.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium compounds emit deeply penetrating radiation. Unlike X-rays, discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen, Becquerel radiation was not the result of excitation from an external energy source, such as light, but an internal property of uranium itself. Fascinated by it mysterious phenomenon and attracted by the prospect of starting new area research, Curie decided to study this radiation, which she later called radioactivity. Starting work at the beginning of 1898, she first of all tried to establish whether there were substances other than uranium compounds that emitted the rays discovered by Becquerel.

She came to the conclusion that of the known elements, only uranium, thorium and their compounds are radioactive. However, Curie soon made a much more important discovery: uranium ore, known as uranium pitchblende, emits Becquerel radiation stronger than uranium and thorium compounds, and at least four times stronger than pure uranium. Curie suggested that uranium resin blende contained an as yet undiscovered and highly radioactive element. In the spring of 1898, she reported her hypothesis and the results of her experiments to the French Academy of Sciences.

Then the Curies tried to isolate a new element. Pierre put aside his own research in crystal physics to help Maria. In July and December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of two new elements, which they named polonium (in honor of Poland, Marie's homeland) and radium.

In September 1902, the Curies announced that they had succeeded in isolating radium chloride from uranium resin blende. They were unable to isolate polonium, since it turned out to be a decay product of radium. Analyzing the compound, Maria found that the atomic mass of radium was 225. The radium salt emitted a bluish glow and warmth. This fantastic substance has attracted the attention of the whole world. Recognition and awards for its discovery came to the Curies almost immediately.

Having completed her research, Maria wrote her doctoral dissertation. The work was entitled "Research on Radioactive Substances" and was presented to the Sorbonne in June 1903.

According to the committee that awarded Curie her degree, her work was the greatest contribution ever made to science by a doctoral dissertation.

In December 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Becquerel and the Curies. Marie and Pierre Curie received half the award "in recognition... of their joint research into the phenomena of radiation discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Curie became the first woman to be awarded Nobel Prize. Both Marie and Pierre Curie were ill and could not travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony. They received it the following summer.

It was Marie Curie who coined the terms decay and transmutation.

The Curies noted the effect of radium on human body(like Henri Becquerel, they were burned before they realized the dangers of handling radioactive substances) and suggested that radium could be used to treat tumors. The therapeutic value of radium was recognized almost immediately. However, the Curies refused to patent the extraction process or use the results of their research for any commercial purposes. In their opinion, extracting commercial benefits did not correspond to the spirit of science, the idea of ​​free access to knowledge.

In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and a month later, Maria became the official head of his laboratory. In December, their second daughter, Eva, was born, who later became a concert pianist and biographer of her mother.

Marie lived happy life- she had a favorite job, her scientific achievements received worldwide recognition, she received the love and support of her husband. As she herself admitted: “I found in marriage everything I could have dreamed of at the time of our union, and even more.” But in April 1906, Pierre died in a street accident. Having lost her closest friend and workmate, Marie withdrew into herself. However, she found the strength to continue working. In May, after Marie refused the pension granted by the Ministry of Public Education, the faculty council of the Sorbonne appointed her to the department of physics, which had previously been headed by her husband. When Curie gave her first lecture six months later, she became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne.

In the laboratory, Curie concentrated her efforts on isolating pure radium metal rather than its compounds. In 1910, she managed, in collaboration with André Debierne, to obtain this substance and thereby complete the cycle of research begun 12 years earlier. She convincingly proved that radium is chemical element. Curie developed a method for measuring radioactive emanations and prepared for the International Bureau of Weights and Measures the first international standard of radium - a pure sample of radium chloride, with which all other sources were to be compared.

In 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Curie the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for distinguished services in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." Curie became the first two-time Nobel Prize winner. The Royal Swedish Academy noted that the study of radium led to the birth of a new field of science - radiology.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute established the Radium Institute for radioactivity research. Curie was appointed director of the department basic research and medical uses of radioactivity.

During the war, she trained military medics in the applications of radiology, such as detecting shrapnel in the body of a wounded person using X-rays.

She wrote a biography of Pierre Curie, which was published in 1923.

In 1921, together with her daughters, Curie visited the United States to accept a gift of 1 gram of radium to continue her experiments.

In 1929, during her second visit to the United States, she received a donation, with which she purchased another gram of radium for therapeutic use in one of the Warsaw hospitals. But as a result of many years of working with radium, her health began to deteriorate noticeably.

Curie died on July 4, 1934 from leukemia in a small hospital in the town of Sancellemose in the French Alps.

In addition to two Nobel Prizes, Curie was awarded the Berthelot Medal of the French Academy of Sciences (1902), the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London (1903), and the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1909). She was a member of 85 scientific societies around the world, including the French medical academy, received 20 honorary degrees. From 1911 until her death, Curie took part in the prestigious Solvay Congresses on Physics, and for 12 years she was an employee of the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie($1867$ - $1934$) - French (Polish) experimental scientist (physicist, chemist), teacher, public figure. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry, the first two-time Nobel laureate in history.

Biography

Note 1

Maria Skłodowska, better known as Marie Curie, was born in Warsaw in modern Poland on November 7, 1867.

Her parents were teachers and she was the youngest of five children. When Maria was 10 years old she began studying at a girls' high school. She then received her education at the third girls' gymnasium, from which she graduated in 1883 with a gold medal. Another year spent in rural areas in her father's family, where she helped him regain his physical and mental strength after the painful experiences associated with the death of his mother and sister. After returning to Warsaw, she gave private lessons in mathematics, physics, foreign languages(she knew Polish, Russian, German, English and French).

In $1891, Maria finally went to Paris, where she entered the Sorbonne University. She threw herself into research, but it cost money. Curie survived by saving a lot of money, and lived on buttered bread and tea. Her health sometimes suffered due to her poor diet.

Curie received a master's degree in physics in 1893 and received another degree in mathematics the following year.

At the Sorbonne she met Pierre Curie, he was also a teacher. Maria and Pierre quickly found common topics for conversation. $26$ July $1895$, Maria Sklodowska and Pierre Curie entered into legal marriage without wedding ring and a priest. The ceremony was accompanied only by immediate family and a few friends.

Marie Curie had two daughters, Irene and Eva. Irene continued the family tradition scientific research. Together with her husband, Frédéric Joliot, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Eva is the author famous biography about his mother. She became a citizen of the United States and died in New York at the age of $102.

Note 2

In 1934, Marie Curie went to a sanatorium in Passy, ​​France, to try to rest and regain her strength. She died there on July 4, 1934, from aplastic anemia, which can be caused by long-term exposure to radiation.

Marie Curie made many breakthroughs during her life. She is the most famous female scientist of all time, and has received numerous posthumous honors.

Scientific achievements

Marie and Pierre Curie were dedicated to scientific work and also completely devoted to each other. First, they worked on separate projects. She was fascinated by the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that uranium emitted rays much weaker than the X-rays discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Curie took Becquerel's work several steps further with her own experiments on uranium rays. She found that the rays remained the same regardless of the state or shape of the uranium.

The pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium. They also discovered the presence of another radioactive material, and named it radium.

Note 3

Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. She received the prestigious award along with her husband and Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity.

In 1906, Marie Curie experienced great grief. Her husband Pierre Curie died in an accident in Paris. Despite her great grief, she accepted her teaching position at the Sorbonne, becoming the institution's first female professor.

Note 4

Marie Curie received another great honor in 1911, winning a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry.

When World War I began in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to help the war effort. She advocated the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles were nicknamed " small curies".

In 1896, Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity while working on phosphorescence in uranium salts. While studying Roentgen's work, he wrapped a fluorescent material, potassium uranyl sulfate, in an opaque material along with photographic plates in preparation for an experiment that required bright sunlight. However, even before the experiment was carried out, Becquerel discovered that the photographic plates were completely overexposed. This discovery prompted Becquerel to study the spontaneous emission of nuclear radiation.

In 1903, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie “in recognition of his outstanding services in the discovery of spontaneous radioactivity.”

Becquerel married in 1874 Lucie Zoe Marie Jamin, the daughter of a physics professor. Four years later, his wife died during childbirth, giving birth to a son, Jean, their only child, who later became a physicist. In 1890, Becquerel married Louise Désiré Laurier. After receiving the Nobel Prize, he continued to conduct teaching and scientific work.

Becquerel died in 1908 in Le Croisic (Brittany) during a trip with his wife to her family estate.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Antoine Henri Becquerel was awarded numerous honors, including the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society of London (1900), the Helmholtz Medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin (1901), and the Barnard Medal of the American National Academy of Sciences (1905). ). He was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1899, and in 1908 became one of its permanent secretaries. Becquerel was also a member of the French Physical Society, the Italian National Academy of Sciences, the Berlin Royal Academy of Sciences, the American National Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (née Maria Skłodowska) was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest of five children in the family of Władysław and Bronisława (Bogushka) Skłodowski. Maria was brought up in a family where science was respected. Her father taught physics at the gymnasium, and her mother, until she fell ill with tuberculosis, was the director of the gymnasium. Maria's mother died when the girl was eleven years old.

Maria Sklodovskaya studied brilliantly in both primary and secondary school. At a young age, she felt the fascination of science and worked as a laboratory assistant in her cousin's chemistry laboratory.

There were two obstacles on the way to realizing Maria Skłodowska's dream of higher education: family poverty and the ban on admitting women to the University of Warsaw. Maria and her sister Bronya developed a plan: Maria would work as a governess for five years to enable her sister to graduate from medical school, after which Bronya would bear the cost of her sister’s higher education. Bronya received her medical education in Paris and, having become a doctor, invited Maria to join her. In 1891, Maria entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). In 1893, having completed the course first, Maria received a licentiate degree in physics from the Sorbonne (equivalent to a master's degree). A year later she became a licentiate in mathematics.

In the same year, 1894, in the house of a Polish emigrant physicist, Maria Sklodowska met Pierre Curie. Pierre was the head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. By that time, he had conducted important research on the physics of crystals and the dependence of the magnetic properties of substances on temperature. Maria was researching the magnetization of steel. Having first become close because of their passion for physics, Maria and Pierre got married a year later. This happened shortly after Pierre defended his doctoral dissertation. Their daughter Irène (Irène Joliot-Curie) was born in September 1897. Three months later, Marie Curie completed her research on magnetism and began looking for a topic for her dissertation.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium compounds emit deeply penetrating radiation. Unlike X-rays, discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen, Becquerel radiation was not the result of excitation from an external energy source, such as light, but an internal property of uranium itself. Fascinated by this mysterious phenomenon and attracted by the prospect of starting a new field of research, Curie decided to study this radiation, which she later called radioactivity. Starting work at the beginning of 1898, she first of all tried to establish whether there were substances other than uranium compounds that emitted the rays discovered by Becquerel.

She came to the conclusion that of the known elements, only uranium, thorium and their compounds are radioactive. However, Curie soon made a much more important discovery: uranium ore, known as uranium pitchblende, emits Becquerel radiation stronger than uranium and thorium compounds, and at least four times stronger than pure uranium. Curie suggested that uranium resin blende contained an as yet undiscovered and highly radioactive element. In the spring of 1898, she reported her hypothesis and the results of her experiments to the French Academy of Sciences.

Then the Curies tried to isolate a new element. Pierre put aside his own research in crystal physics to help Maria. In July and December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of two new elements, which they named polonium (in honor of Poland, Marie's homeland) and radium.

In September 1902, the Curies announced that they had succeeded in isolating radium chloride from uranium resin blende. They were unable to isolate polonium, since it turned out to be a decay product of radium. Analyzing the compound, Maria found that the atomic mass of radium was 225. The radium salt emitted a bluish glow and warmth. This fantastic substance has attracted the attention of the whole world. Recognition and awards for its discovery came to the Curies almost immediately.

Having completed her research, Maria wrote her doctoral dissertation. The work was entitled "Research on Radioactive Substances" and was presented to the Sorbonne in June 1903.

According to the committee that awarded Curie her degree, her work was the greatest contribution ever made to science by a doctoral dissertation.

In December 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Becquerel and the Curies. Marie and Pierre Curie received half the award "in recognition... of their joint research into the phenomena of radiation discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Curie became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Both Marie and Pierre Curie were ill and could not travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony. They received it the following summer.

It was Marie Curie who coined the terms decay and transmutation.

The Curies noted the effect of radium on the human body (like Henri Becquerel, they received burns before realizing the dangers of handling radioactive substances) and suggested that radium could be used to treat tumors. The therapeutic value of radium was recognized almost immediately. However, the Curies refused to patent the extraction process or use the results of their research for any commercial purposes. In their opinion, extracting commercial benefits did not correspond to the spirit of science, the idea of ​​free access to knowledge.

In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and a month later, Maria became the official head of his laboratory. In December, their second daughter, Eva, was born, who later became a concert pianist and biographer of her mother.

Marie lived a happy life - she had a job she loved, her scientific achievements received worldwide recognition, and she received the love and support of her husband. As she herself admitted: “I found in marriage everything I could have dreamed of at the time of our union, and even more.” But in April 1906, Pierre died in a street accident. Having lost her closest friend and workmate, Marie withdrew into herself. However, she found the strength to continue working. In May, after Marie refused the pension granted by the Ministry of Public Education, the faculty council of the Sorbonne appointed her to the department of physics, which had previously been headed by her husband. When Curie gave her first lecture six months later, she became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne.

Great discoveries and people Lyudmila Mikhailovna Martyanova

Maria Skladowska-Curie (1867-1934) Polish-French experimental scientist, physicist, chemist, teacher, public figure

Skladovskaya-Curie Maria

(1867-1934)

Polish-French experimental scientist, physicist, chemist, teacher, public figure

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (née Maria Skłodowska) was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest of five children in the family of Władysław and Bronisława (Bogushka) Skłodowski. Maria was brought up in a family where science was respected. Her father taught physics at the gymnasium, and her mother, until she fell ill with tuberculosis, was the director of the gymnasium. Maria's mother died when the girl was eleven years old.

Maria Sklodovskaya studied brilliantly in both primary and secondary school. At a young age, she felt the fascination of science and worked as a laboratory assistant in her cousin's chemistry laboratory.

There were two obstacles on the way to realizing Maria Skłodowska's dream of higher education: family poverty and the ban on admitting women to the University of Warsaw. Maria and her sister Bronya developed a plan: Maria would work as a governess for five years to enable her sister to graduate from medical school, after which Bronya would bear the cost of her sister’s higher education. Bronya received her medical education in Paris and, having become a doctor, invited Maria to join her. In 1891, Maria entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). In 1893, having completed the course first, Maria received a licentiate degree in physics from the Sorbonne (equivalent to a master's degree). A year later she became a licentiate in mathematics.

In the same year, 1894, in the house of a Polish emigrant physicist, Maria Sklodowska met Pierre Curie. Pierre was the head of the laboratory at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. By that time, he had conducted important research on the physics of crystals and the dependence of the magnetic properties of substances on temperature. Maria was researching the magnetization of steel. Having first become close because of their passion for physics, Maria and Pierre got married a year later. This happened shortly after Pierre defended his doctoral dissertation. Their daughter Irène (Irène Joliot-Curie) was born in September 1897. Three months later, Marie Curie completed her research on magnetism and began looking for a topic for her dissertation.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium compounds emit deeply penetrating radiation. Unlike X-rays, discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen, Becquerel radiation was not the result of excitation from an external energy source, such as light, but an internal property of uranium itself. Fascinated by this mysterious phenomenon and attracted by the prospect of starting a new field of research, Curie decided to study this radiation, which she later called radioactivity. Starting work at the beginning of 1898, she first of all tried to establish whether there were substances other than uranium compounds that emitted the rays discovered by Becquerel.

She came to the conclusion that of the known elements, only uranium, thorium and their compounds are radioactive. However, Curie soon made a much more important discovery: uranium ore, known as uranium pitchblende, emits Becquerel radiation stronger than uranium and thorium compounds, and at least four times stronger than pure uranium. Curie suggested that uranium resin blende contained an as yet undiscovered and highly radioactive element. In the spring of 1898, she reported her hypothesis and the results of her experiments to the French Academy of Sciences.

Then the Curies tried to isolate a new element. Pierre put aside his own research in crystal physics to help Maria. In July and December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of two new elements, which they named polonium (in honor of Poland, Marie's homeland) and radium.

In September 1902, the Curies announced that they had succeeded in isolating radium chloride from uranium resin blende. They were unable to isolate polonium, since it turned out to be a decay product of radium. Analyzing the compound, Maria found that the atomic mass of radium was 225. The radium salt emitted a bluish glow and warmth. This fantastic substance has attracted the attention of the whole world. Recognition and awards for its discovery came to the Curies almost immediately.

Having completed her research, Maria wrote her doctoral dissertation. The work was entitled "Research on Radioactive Substances" and was presented to the Sorbonne in June 1903.

According to the committee that awarded Curie her degree, her work was the greatest contribution ever made to science by a doctoral dissertation.

In December 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Becquerel and the Curies. Marie and Pierre Curie received half the award "in recognition... of their joint research into the phenomena of radiation discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." Curie became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Both Marie and Pierre Curie were ill and could not travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony. They received it the following summer.

It was Marie Curie who coined the terms decay and transmutation.

The Curies noted the effect of radium on the human body (like Henri Becquerel, they received burns before realizing the dangers of handling radioactive substances) and suggested that radium could be used to treat tumors. The therapeutic value of radium was recognized almost immediately. However, the Curies refused to patent the extraction process or use the results of their research for any commercial purposes. In their opinion, extracting commercial benefits did not correspond to the spirit of science, the idea of ​​free access to knowledge.

In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and a month later, Maria became the official head of his laboratory. In December, their second daughter, Eva, was born, who later became a concert pianist and biographer of her mother.

Marie lived a happy life - she had a job she loved, her scientific achievements received worldwide recognition, and she received the love and support of her husband. As she herself admitted: “I found in marriage everything I could have dreamed of at the time of our union, and even more.” But in April 1906, Pierre died in a street accident. Having lost her closest friend and workmate, Marie withdrew into herself. However, she found the strength to continue working. In May, after Marie refused the pension granted by the Ministry of Public Education, the faculty council of the Sorbonne appointed her to the department of physics, which had previously been headed by her husband. When Curie gave her first lecture six months later, she became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne.

In the laboratory, Curie concentrated her efforts on isolating pure radium metal rather than its compounds. In 1910, she managed, in collaboration with André Debierne, to obtain this substance and thereby complete the cycle of research begun 12 years earlier. She convincingly proved that radium is a chemical element. Curie developed a method for measuring radioactive emanations and prepared for the International Bureau of Weights and Measures the first international standard of radium - a pure sample of radium chloride, with which all other sources were to be compared.

In 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Curie the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for distinguished services in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." Curie became the first two-time Nobel Prize winner. The Royal Swedish Academy noted that the study of radium led to the birth of a new field of science - radiology.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute established the Radium Institute for radioactivity research. Curie was appointed director of the department of basic research and medical applications of radioactivity.

During the war, she trained military medics in the applications of radiology, such as detecting shrapnel in the body of a wounded person using X-rays.

She wrote a biography of Pierre Curie, which was published in 1923.

In 1921, together with her daughters, Curie visited the United States to accept a gift of 1 gram of radium to continue her experiments.

In 1929, during her second visit to the United States, she received a donation, with which she purchased another gram of radium for therapeutic use in one of the Warsaw hospitals. But as a result of many years of working with radium, her health began to deteriorate noticeably.

Curie died on July 4, 1934 from leukemia in a small hospital in the town of Sancellemose in the French Alps.

In addition to two Nobel Prizes, Curie was awarded the Berthelot Medal of the French Academy of Sciences (1902), the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London (1903), and the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute (1909). She was a member of 85 scientific societies around the world, including the French Academy of Medicine, and received 20 honorary degrees. From 1911 until her death, Curie took part in the prestigious Solvay Congresses on Physics, and for 12 years she was an employee of the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations.