Descendants of Marie Curie. Marie Skłodowska-Curie interesting facts. New direction - radiation

(1867-1934) Polish and French physicist and chemist, one of the founders of the modern doctrine of radioactivity, the only woman twice awarded the Nobel Prize

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw into a family of Russian gymnasium teachers. There were five children in their family, and the parents barely made ends meet.

Most of Maria Sklodowska's life was filled with a stubborn struggle for the most modest means of subsistence. The girl lost her mother early; at the age of 16 (in 1883), having graduated from a Russian gymnasium with a gold medal, she was unable to continue her education due to poverty. Maria had to start tutoring for wealthy families, work as a governess in provincial towns to help her family and save some money for further studies. But in Poland at that time, universities did not admit women.

In 1890, Maria's older sister got married and invited her to Paris. At the age of 24, Sklodowska entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Sorbonne, the famous University of Paris, and began attending meetings of the Physical Society, where new scientific discoveries were reported. She had to live on such modest means that it often came to the point of fainting from hunger.

The young Polish woman worked hard to fill the gaps in her education, showing great ability and exceptional hard work. In 1893, at the age of 26, she graduated from university and received two licentiate diplomas - in physics (1893) and mathematics (1894).

In the spring of 1894, an unexpected meeting with the young talented French physicist Pierre Curie changed her whole life. On July 25, 1895, the wedding of Pierre and Maria took place. From the same year, Marie Skłodowska-Curie began working in the laboratory of the Paris School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, where Pierre Curie became a professor in 1895.

In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered the amazing property of uranium compounds to emit “invisible rays” that cause ionization of air and can illuminate a photographic plate. Interested in his discovery, Marie Skłodowska-Curie begins researching the radioactive radiation of uranium salts and comes to the conclusion that it is a property of the uranium atoms themselves.

On September 12, 1897, her eldest daughter Irene was born. Soon Maria began working in the laboratory again with the aim of preparing her doctoral dissertation. In her first work, Skłodowska-Curie introduces the term “radioactivity”. In 1898, she proved the presence of radioactivity in thorium, which she reported on April 12, 1898 at a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences. From that time on, Pierre Curie also became involved in the search for radioactive elements and the study of their properties. As a result of joint intense and painstaking work on processing large quantities uranium tar, they come to the conclusion that there are two new radioactive elements, which explain the unusual activity of uranium oxide.

In July 1898, the Curies discovered one of these elements, polonium (named after home country Maria - Poland), and in December of the same year the second - radium. The discovery of these elements marked a new era in physics. But in order to isolate several decigrams of pure radium salt, it took four years of continuous, exhausting and, as it later turned out, extremely hazardous to health work, in which everything was a problem from the very beginning: there were no raw materials, no premises, no funds. The management of the School of Physics, where Pierre Curie taught, allocated him for work old barn in the courtyard, without a floor, with a leaking glass roof, without heating. In this barn, the staff of the Faculty of Medicine used to dissect corpses. Without any government assistance, spending their own modest funds on the purchase of equipment, raw materials, reagents, the Curie spouses performed the work of loaders, stokers, laboratory assistants, analytical chemists and research physicists. Marie Sklodowska-Curie worked for free all these years and was not even on the staff of the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, which owned the barn.

On June 25, 1903, Maria defended her doctoral dissertation. In November of the same year, the Royal Society awarded her and Pierre Curie the Davy Medal, one of England's highest scientific honors. And in December 1903, the Curies and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research into radioactivity. Due to poor health, Marie Curie was unable to travel to Stockholm to receive this high award, and the King of Sweden presented their Nobel diploma to the French minister.

The Curie couple gained worldwide fame. But it should be noted that both Maria and Pierre saw fame primarily as an obstacle to further research. Once Maria even refused the Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest award in France.

Skłodowska-Curie showed amazing dedication and readiness to sacrifice in the name of the interests of science and humanity. Repeatedly, working with very active substances, she received burns on her hands and experienced different kinds exposure to these substances. Similar experiments with radioactive substances paved the way for the treatment of cancerous tumors.

In 1906, Marie Skłodowska-Curie suffered an unexpected misfortune: Pierre Curie died while crossing the street under the wheels of a dray cart. This was a huge loss for Maria herself and her daughters: eight-year-old Irene and one-year-old Eva; it was also a huge loss for science.

Sklodowska-Curie continued the work she had begun with her characteristic tenacity and perseverance. Faculty exact sciences The University of Paris invited her to replace Pierre as a professor. Considering himself obligated to continue them general work, in 1906, Maria became the heir to his chair at the Sorbonne. France's first female Nobel laureate becomes France's first female professor.

Sklodowska-Curie continued to work on the problems of radioactivity and in 1910, together with the chemist Andre Debiere, obtained radium in the metallic state. For this achievement, she was awarded a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in chemistry. Marie Skłodowska-Curie is the only scientist to have received the Nobel Prize for scientific achievements twice. That same year, on the eve of the opening of the Brussels Radiological Congress, she produced the first standard of radium, kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

This year was very difficult for her: Eugene Curie, Pierre’s father, died, and her health, which had already given cause for concern for quite some time, could not stand it. Maria was near death and suffered major surgery kidneys, after which it took a very long time to recover.

She had to spend a lot of work before she was able to get a decent laboratory for the development of a new science of radioactivity. Now her concerns, in addition to scientific ones, are also connected with the construction of the Radium Institute in Paris, which was built in 1914. But the institute did not begin its work: the employees were mobilized into the army as the First World War broke out. World War 1914-1918 Marie Sklodowska-Curie begins work on the creation of X-ray units for military hospitals. Her eldest daughter Irene helps her with this and works with her mother on these installations. During the war, she organized 22 mobile and stationary X-ray units for X-ray and radiological services in French hospitals. Only after the end of the war was she able to begin work at the Radium Institute, of which she was director from 1914 until the end of her days.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie liked to spend her free time on country walks or working in the garden, where she grew flowers. She spent her holidays in the mountains or at the sea.

IN last years Maria's greatest joy in life was the successes of her laboratory's staff: the discovery of the fine structure of radium rays in 1929 by Rosenblum, a series of works by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie related to the discovery of neutrons in 1932 and artificial radioactivity in early 1934. She had the good fortune to observe the successes of nuclear physics, created under the leadership of E. Rutherford and N. Bohr.

However, Maria's health began to deteriorate. Unfortunately, she developed cataracts in both eyes, and in 1924 she underwent surgery, after which she was forced to wear special glasses. Sometimes Maria suffered from attacks of renal colic. In the autumn of 1933, her health deteriorated sharply, and since May 1934 she no longer got out of bed.

On July 4, 1934, Marie Skłodowska-Curie died from a serious blood disease - leukemia, caused by prolonged exposure to large doses of radioactive radiation.

She devoted her life to the study of radioactivity, the creation of a large research center, the education of young French and foreign scientists and the development of international scientific relations; was elected a member of many academies of sciences, including a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and since 1926 - a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In the French Pantheon, Marie Curie is the only woman among the great Frenchmen. Her ashes were reburied here in 1995 by personal order of the country's president, Francois Mitterrand. But if there had been not only a French, but even a worldwide pantheon of humanity, Marie would still have remained first and unique, like the first milligrams of pure radium, extracted by her hands from several tons of radioactive brew.

Manya didn’t remember how old she was when she first saw this dream: a dimly lit room with a stove humming in the corner and thick, dusty leather-bound books standing on the shelves and many strange vessels and flasks covered with labels with incomprehensible signs and numbers. And also someone dressed in long black clothes, one by one taking vessels from the shelf, mixing their contents and heating them over the fire. Manya tried every time to see the stranger’s face, but nothing came of it; he always stood with his back to her. She was terribly curious - what he was doing there and why he was sighing all the time. Probably, she thought, this is a wizard who can’t reproduce something...
This dream, which came to Mana both in childhood and in her youth, was mixed in her head with other childhood memories, real and tragic. She always remembered the day when her beloved sister Zosya died of typhus. And my mother was too weak to attend the funeral.
Here she fastens a black cape on Mana and, moving from window to window, follows the funeral procession until it disappears around the corner. The house is cold and empty. Now it will never be the same as before: in the family of teacher Sklodovsky there are five children, Manya is the youngest, fifth child, she is “mother’s” most beloved daughter, pampered and looked after. Now she has only two sisters and brother Jozef left. And what needs care most of all now is the mother herself – she is completely exhausted from incessant coughing. And Manya begins to torment herself with thoughts about how to connect the dream about the wizard with reality and ask him for a miraculous drink for her mother’s recovery.
Busy with these thoughts, she will be very surprised to find in her dad’s office in the closet the same glass flasks as in the dream. And dad will simply call them “physical” devices. Funny word...

Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, on the outskirts Russian Empire, where 3 years before her birth the January uprising was suppressed. Then, to intimidate the rebellious Poles, gallows were installed on the broken barricades and the five instigators were publicly executed. The fate of other rebels was also unenviable - they were taken to hard labor in Siberia. At the end of the reprisal against the rebels, pacified Poland was flooded with Russifiers. City signs on buildings were written in Russian, and teachers of educational institutions were required to “teach only in Russian.” But the teachers of Madame Sikorskaya’s boarding school, where Manya’s parents assigned her, turned out to be not entirely law-abiding and even free-thinking - they secretly taught students Polish language and the history of Poland. If the controller showed up unexpectedly, Polish books were hidden in the dormitory. During such checks, Manya was invariably called to communicate with the controllers - she had an excellent memory, and she spoke Russian better than anyone else. One day, after the official left, the girl burst into tears, explaining her tears by saying that she didn’t know how to lie, and if you don’t know how to do something, then you shouldn’t do it.
While the Sklodowski children were receiving their first education, their father was unexpectedly fired from his job. A former graduate of St. Petersburg University, principled and passionate, Vladislav Sklodowski was not “flexible” enough to work with the director of the gymnasium, Mr. Ivanov. The Sklodovskys had to move out of their government-owned apartment, and the head of the family, in order to feed everyone, had to take up tutoring. At first Sklodowski gave lessons to out-of-town high school students, and then decided to provide his students with both board and shelter. At the same time, another unpleasant event became the topic of family conversations for a long time: Sklodowski invested all his savings in a dubious enterprise of one of his relatives, which, of course, went bankrupt.
And then a completely dark streak began in Mani’s life: 2 years after Zosya’s death, her mother died of consumption. And she, a 10-year-old girl, no longer believes in God. Manya doesn’t believe in her wizard either. He didn’t save his mother and after her death he stopped dreaming about him completely. Food in the house was now prepared by a visiting housekeeper, and the simplest dresses were bought for the girls.
Many years will pass, and Marie Curie's daughter Eva will unsuccessfully prove to her famous mother that she needs to buy at least one decent dress instead of the gray and darned one, so as not to frighten the photographers...

In June 1883, Manya graduated from the state gymnasium in the Krakow suburb with a gold medal. Farewell, teachers, especially Mademoiselle Meyer, who was so outraged by the girl’s manner of always standing upright. Now no one, except family, no longer called 16-year-old Manya by this childish name. The sisters were all very jealous of their brother - he entered the medical faculty, where they were not allowed to go: women were not admitted to higher educational institutions of the Russian Empire.
The Mani sisters were eager to go to Paris. They saw it as a kingdom of freedom, knowledge, and unlimited possibilities. What if you manage to get into the Sorbonne? But this required a lot of money, but there was none. Maria after final exams They sent us to the village to stay with our relatives for a whole year to gain strength. This year became the only carefree one in her life. She writes to a friend that all she does is read “stupid” novels, eat strawberries, ride horses, catch crayfish at night by torchlight, and swim. “I find genuine satisfaction in this state of utter stupidity.” She spent the winter in Zvol, near the Carpathians, on the border with Galicia. Maria especially remembers the Maslenitsa carnival – “Kuliga”.
Dressed as a Krakow peasant woman, she and everyone else in a sleigh traveled around the estates, where dances were held in each one and invariably everyone was fed to their heart's content. The fun ends in the morning. And then, as in the best carnival traditions, after the night ball, Maria threw away the tattered chevre shoes that she had sewn only yesterday. “When they played the waltz, I already had invitations for several dances ahead,” she recalled.

After a year, Maria returned to her “beloved Varshavochka”, and it was her turn to help her father.

The sisters earned money by giving private lessons, and in the evenings they attended the Free University. In this officially non-existent educational institution young people expanded their knowledge, most often former students, expelled for unreliability, and girls who consider themselves “enlightened emancipes.” Lectures were given to them by professors who were not indifferent to the education of Polish youth. In this nihilist community, overwhelmed by a sense of patriotism, fiery speeches were made about Polish autonomy and an attempt was being made on the life of the Warsaw governor. Maria once even gave up her passport for some revolutionary purposes unknown to her, although she herself did not share extremist views, believing that the most important thing for Poland now is education. She read a lot, including scientific literature. But it all seemed so small to her. If only we could go to Paris, at least to one of the Parisian libraries! Maria, being quite far from the “emancipe” that had become fashionable at that time, with their free love and constantly smoking cigarettes, still cut off her beautiful hair in imitation of them.
“How nice it would be, after studying at the Sorbonne, to return home and be useful to the oppressed Poles...”- she thought. But this dream seemed impossible. Both of her sisters also dreamed and saved money - each for “their own Paris.” However, they managed to earn an insignificant amount from lessons. At this rate, one could get to the city of hopes by the age of 60, not earlier... And then Maria made a decision: Bronya should go to study in Paris, and she would get a job as a governess and send money to her sister for 5 years. Then, having received her diploma, Bronya will return to Warsaw, open a medical practice and, in turn, will help Manya, who dreams of becoming a student at the Sorbonne.
Maria accompanied her sister, trembling with excitement, to the station, whispering to her goodbye: “You are so happy!” And then, with the help of hairpins, she rashly pinned back the cut off curls: she perfectly understood that it was unlikely that anyone would want to hire a short-haired, and therefore unreliable, governess.
The hiring agency created a card for the candidate: “Maria Sklodowska. Good recommendations. Efficient. Desired position: governess. Fee: four hundred rubles a year.”
Maria took a place in the family of a lawyer, but did not last long there: “I lived like I was in prison. This is one of those noble houses where they speak French in public, don’t pay bills for six months, but waste money... play at liberalism. Here I understood better what the human race is like. I learned that the personalities described in novels exist in reality,”- she wrote to her sister.
Maria got a job with another family, in a remote province, in the hope that her new employers from the Sharki estate would be better than the previous ones. She was received well at her new place. After putting her charges to bed, Maria could read books taken from a very small library.
“During these few years of work, when I tried to determine my actual abilities, in the end I chose mathematics and physics. Books taken at random were of little help."- she later recalled.
Maria read three books at once, believing that sequential study of one subject could tire her brain, which was already quite overloaded. When, due to fatigue, the meaning of what she had read began to elude her, she took up algebraic and trigonometric problems, “because they do not tolerate inattention and mobilize the mind.”

“Gossip, gossip and more gossip...- she writes home, - I behave approximately... I go to church... I never talk about higher education for women. ...As for young people, there are few nice ones among them, and even fewer smart ones.”
However, one of these young people was still not as bad as the others.
She did not write to her father and sisters about her first love. Everything was like in a novel - the owners’ son Kazimierz, a young student, fell in love with her, a poor governess. However, the parents immediately made it clear to the heir that tying the knot with a poor governess was, to say the least, indecent. And, as a result, the friendly attitude towards Maria gave way to silent hostility. They spoke to her only when necessary, clearly indicating her place. She endured for the sake of Bronya, who, denying herself everything, lived in the Latin Quarter.
“There were difficult days, and only one thing softens the memories of them - this is that I came out of the situation with honor, with my head raised ... (as you can see, I have not yet abandoned the manner of behavior that aroused Mademoiselle’s hatred of me Meyer)",- she wrote to a friend.
And here she is in Warsaw! And at home - a joyful letter from Bronya: in Paris, my sister married a Polish emigrant, who had to flee Russia due to suspicions of a conspiracy against Emperor Alexander II.
“You could come this fall and live with us, we will support you,”- wrote Bronya. And now, when the dream was just a stone's throw away, Maria was suddenly overcome by doubts. The old teacher Sklodovsky was sincerely happy that after 6 years of working as a governess, her daughter was finally at home. “I so want to give him a little happiness in his old age, but my heart breaks at the thought of my uselessly wasting abilities...”- she wrote in a response letter. However, are these same abilities worth anything? Maybe she was just deceiving herself all this time?

And suddenly again, after so many years, this dream! Low light. An alchemist's office full of secrets and ignorance. And still the same figure in black. Come on, she needs to see his face. And - finally he turns and she sees a face, it's a woman. Her hair is almost gray, her cheeks are sunken, but her eyes burn with an undisguised brilliance. This is the look of a winner. The next morning, Maria immediately sat down to write a letter to Bronya. Now she knew what to do, and when last meeting She finally broke up with the indecisive Kazimierz, coldly telling him: “If you yourself do not find an opportunity to clarify our situation, then it is not for me to teach you this.” No, no more love. This is not necessary, it interferes with life. From now on, she is a pure priestess of science with a cold heart and mind. The same as the one in the dream. Forward to the Sorbonne, to the dream. And no matter what happens, never lower your head!

Maria went to Paris in fourth class, carrying a wooden suitcase, a bag of food for the journey, a folding chair and a mattress (there were no sleeping places in the carriages of this class).
And finally the long-awaited Paris. She didn't notice him. Montmartre, Bois de Boulogne, Champs Elysees... That's not what she's here for. Having left the imperial, she rushed to the Sorbonne, to this “summary of the Universe,” as it was then called.

And here Maria is a student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. There are few girls at the faculty, and male students immediately pay attention to the new girl. It’s a pity that she is so unsociable and that the only male persons she pays attention to are venerable professors in tailcoats. She listened to them with her mouth open.
Now she called herself in the French manner - Marie Skłodowska and carefully got rid of her Slavic accent.
Yes, she loved her “Varshavochka”, but it was impossible not to love Paris too! At least because the Sorbonne is located there, where she spent the whole day, sat in the library, and carried out experiments in the laboratory.
But the day was so short, and she was unbearably sorry to sleep - too many precious hours were spent on this “useless” activity. From my sister's house to the Sorbonne it was more than an hour's journey - this was also an unacceptable waste of time. And Marie decided to rent a cheap room in the Latin Quarter.
She lived on 100 francs a month, and the lack of comfort did not frighten her at all. In winter, in the attic of the rented room, a tooth would not fall into place, but this was not a problem for her either - but she could sit until late in the warm library of Sainte-Genevieve... Without her sister’s supervision, Marie often forgot to eat, and when she remembered, she drank a mug of tea and ate a piece bread and butter. She didn’t know how to cook, and she didn’t want to - again, a waste of time. So those who spoke about her: "Mademoiselle Marie does not know what the broth is made from"- were not far from the truth.
Soon the student Skłodowska begins to faint from hunger, and her sister fattens her up for several days. And then again books, with a bunch of which she rushed past all the Parisian temptations... As a result, her manic hard work was, of course, noticed by university teachers.
In 1893 she received a licentiate diploma in physical sciences, and in 1894 in mathematical sciences.

Before graduating from the Sorbonne and leaving for Warsaw, one more thing happened in Marie’s life. an important event: She met Pierre Curie.
She immediately liked his simplicity and thoughtful speech, and he was pleasantly struck by the lack of coquetry in the young girl.
"Although we were born in various countries, our worldviews turned out to be surprisingly related. Undoubtedly, this was due to the commonality of the spiritual environment in which we grew up in our families,”- Marie later wrote.
Pierre's father, Dr. Eugene Curie, an ardent anti-clerical and republican, instilled in his sons Pierre and Jacques that knowledge is the only and lasting value. Pierre often recalled how during the Paris Commune he helped his father carry the wounded from the barricades. Pierre could be called a child prodigy. Having received only a home education, he entered the Sorbonne at the age of 16, and at 18 he became a licentiate.
While doing research in crystallography with his brother, the young scientist discovered the phenomenon of piezoelectricity. This discovery was fully appreciated everywhere except France, where he taught for many years at the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry, receiving a very modest salary.
As for women, 35-year-old bachelor Pierre Curie always thought of them as a serious obstacle in his path. After all, with them we had to forget about peace of mind, which a scientist simply needs.
Marriage was also not part of 27-year-old Marie’s plans. And Pierre suddenly saw in the short, blond Mademoiselle Sklodowska, dressed in a “blank” gray dress, not a possible obstacle, but, on the contrary, a creature who could live the same life as him and not be jealous of his laboratory.

But she refused his proposal.
Marie had other plans - a Polish woman could not leave her homeland, and therefore she had to go to Warsaw to use her knowledge “to maintain the national spirit”, and had no intention of returning to France. He wrote letters to her in which he urged her to “change her patriotic dream to a scientific dream.” For her sake, he was ready to move to Poland himself and teach French, and - Marie is back...
There was no wedding dress, no rings. They got married at City Hall. With money donated by relatives, the newlyweds bought two bicycles and immediately rode off to Honeymoon out of town, where they often spent weekends. Rest, of course, is a waste of time, but it is also necessary for normal work.

"Life is not worth caring so much about"–– this phrase by Marie could well become the motto of the newlyweds.
They rented an apartment on Glacier Street with a beautiful garden. Marie loved flowers very much and could spend hours loosening flower beds and planting tulip bulbs. When going out of town, both invariably brought home a bouquet of wildflowers.
They treated issues of home comfort rather dismissively. A minimum of the cheapest furniture. There is a table to work on – and that’s the main thing.
Pierre obediently devoured everything that Marie cooked, or rather, tried to cook. Although, in general, they both treated food more than calmly. Once, many years later, when the couple were able to hire a cook, she, asking for a compliment, asked Pierre whether the steak, which the scientist had just swallowed with visible appetite, was tasty. “Was it a steak?- Pierre asked in surprise. - Well, it’s quite possible.”

In September 1897, the first daughter of the Curies, Irene, was born. Madame Curie amazed the midwife by not screaming even once during the birth. “We lived as if enchanted,” Marie recalled. And the reason for this was not only a caring husband and a healthy newborn, but again work.

The fact is that immediately after the birth of Irene, Marie was ready to give birth to another of her brainchild: she was looking for a worthy topic for her doctoral dissertation. She was fascinated by the discovery of Henri Becquerel, who suggested that uranium salts were a source of radiation of an unusual nature.
The management of the School of Physics and Chemistry allowed Marie to participate in scientific research Pierre. They were given a glass-enclosed workshop. Marie was fluent in the measurement technique developed by the Curie brothers in the process of studying the properties of piezoelectricity. She measured the amount of radiation from uranium salts and made the assumption that there may be other elements or their compounds with similar properties.
Marie did a great job - she studied all the known chemical elements and discovered this property only in thorium compounds. She was convinced that she had discovered something new physical property, which she called radioactivity, and the compounds that possess it are radioactive.
The School had an extensive collection of minerals, and Marie, overcome with excitement, wanted to measure the exact radioactivity of each. And it turned out that some minerals have very high radioactivity, despite the low content of uranium or thorium. At this stage, Marie paused and began to look for her mistake, repeating and repeating the experiments. But since there was no mistake, she saw only one explanation: these minerals contain an unknown, new chemical element, which is highly radioactive.
Now the only thing left to do was “small” - to highlight it. Marie was burning with impatience. Nothing could stop her: neither the leaking roof of the workshop, nor her own poor health - a tuberculosis outbreak in the lungs.
Pierre decided to help her and, temporarily leaving work on crystals, joined the experiments. In total, the Curies worked side by side for 8 years. “We found,” “we observed,” they wrote in their laboratory notebooks. At a certain stage of their work, they had a need for primary raw materials, and Marie suggested that uranium production waste would be suitable for this. They managed to purchase several tons of uranium tar, which still needed to be processed somewhere. The school could only provide a dilapidated barn on Laumont Street. In this plank shed on a concrete floor, Pierre and Marie worked seven days a week. They processed tons of radioactive ore and created a draft by opening windows and doors to ventilate the barn from harmful gases.
In the morning, Marie cooked porridge for her daughter, after which - all day long - she stirred another brew with a one and a half meter iron rod.
“It was a heroic era in our life together,”- Marie later recalled.

She carried bags of raw materials, heavy vessels, and poured liquids. I was so tired that when I came home I wanted to lie down and not get up, but what about Irene, we couldn’t forget about her. House, barn, house, barn.
Pierre, tired of the scientific race, persuaded his wife to stop work and rest, but the thinner Marie did not want to listen to him. First, she will highlight her element, and then you can rest.
Sometimes they dreamed together about the upcoming discovery: “What do you think it will look like?”- asked Marie. –– "He must be very handsome"- answered Pierre.
They dreamed of one element, but it turned out that they discovered not one, but two unknown radioactive elements. Marie named the first polonium in honor of her homeland, the second radium.
In 1898, the Curies officially announced their discovery. But only 4 years later, from 8 tons of waste, Marie managed to obtain one tenth of a gram of pure radium.
Then she went to the laboratory even at night so that she could constantly see his “emitting blue light.” One day at the door of the laboratory she whispers to Pierre: “Don’t turn on the light... It’s beautiful, just like we wanted.”
There, in the darkness, as if hanging in the air, her discovery glowed.

Finally, they will rest, Pierre decided. But rest didn’t work out again.
Successful scientists, they were complete failures when it came to everyday issues. Their expenses increased significantly - first with the birth of their daughter, then with their widowed father Pierre moving in with them.
He tried to get a chair at the Sorbonne, but to no avail, since everyone knew that Pierre Curie preferred to work rather than sit for hours in the reception rooms of influential people. Moreover, he needed not so much a teaching position as access to a good laboratory.
Marie taught at the High School for Women in Sèvres. And both of them were torn between the barn and teaching. Friends almost achieved that Pierre was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, which would have opened the way for him to the top, given him the opportunity to acquire a good laboratory, loans, and a decent salary. But the principled and completely devoid of ambition scientist refused the award, considering that he did not deserve it. “I have no need for an order, but I really need a laboratory,”- he wrote to the tall person.

Four years spent in the barn took its toll on the couple's health. Marie was simply terribly thin, Pierre periodically suffered from attacks of pain, which were considered rheumatic.

Wladyslaw Skłodowski died in 1902.
Marie rushed to Warsaw from Paris too late - the coffin had already been closed. She demanded to open it and cried, blaming herself for not being with her father when he died. After returning to Paris, she experienced severe apathy, even work ceased to interest her. The shock she suffered was so great that she, being pregnant, was unable to carry the child to term.
“I’m so used to the idea of ​​having this child that I can’t console myself. The child, a girl, was in good condition and was still alive. And how I wanted her"…
She could not look at Irene without horror, she was always afraid that something might happen to her.
Pierre found himself in bed again due to severe pain. Everything was bad... But they didn't complain. And only once Pierre said quietly: “But still hard life you and I have chosen...

They continued to study radium. Marie's hands often peeled from contact with the new substance, and her fingers looked as if they had been eaten away by acid—she wore gloves in public. Noticing this, Pierre decided to conduct an experiment on himself: he exposed his hand to radium. A severe burn appeared on the skin, which did not go away for a long time. Then, together with medical scientists, Pierre began experimenting on animals. It turned out that the new element is capable of destroying tissue affected by the disease, including cancerous tumors.
Investigating the properties of a new element, Marie successfully defended her dissertation and received doctorate. In November 1903, the British Royal Society awarded Marie and Pierre the honorary Davy Gold Medal.
Having brought the award home, the scientist thought for a long time about where to hide it. And a little later, Pierre’s friends watched little Irene selflessly rolling a medal on the floor.
And now - world recognition, it came very quickly. In December 1903, the Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that it had awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to the Curies and Henri Becquerel for their discovery of radioactivity.
70 thousand francs were very useful to the spouses. They were able to pay off their debts and take a break from exhausting teaching. But fame, as such, was very burdensome for them: they had to go to receptions where the Curies looked more than strange.
He is in a shabby tailcoat, in which he lectured for so many years, she is in a dull black dress, without any jewelry, not even a wedding ring.
One day Marie caught the eye of her husband, who was looking with great interest at a diamond necklace on the chest of a lady. Marie's surprise knew no end.
“I’m wondering how many laboratories could be built if this were sold,”- the scientist explained to his wife, reflecting on the fact that it seems that the only goal of all these dressed-up people and journalists is to deprive them of the opportunity to work further. “They went so far as to convey the conversation between our daughter and the nanny and describe our tiger cat», - Pierre was indignant. Needless to say, Marie did not spend a centime of the amount received on her wardrobe.

...Their second daughter Eva was 2 years old when Pierre died.
On April 19, 1906, while crossing Dauphine Street, he was hit by a heavy truck. The scientist died instantly, the pavement was splattered with the blood and brain of the famous physicist. Marie envied her daughters, who, due to their youth, did not understand that their father was “completely dead.”
Newspapers wrote that at the funeral the widow Curie looked like she was crazy. After the tragedy, Marie began to keep a diary in which she addressed the deceased Pierre.
“I put in your coffin several periwinkles from our garden and a small portrait of the one whom you called “the sweet, intelligent student and loved so much... I lowered the veil to look at everything through the black crepe... The sight of the sun causes me suffering. I feel better in cloudy weather like the day you died.”
Marie was very sorry that she had almost no letters from Pierre - in 11 years of marriage they had never been apart for a long time.

Thanks to the efforts of friends, the Council of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the Sorbonne invited Marie to take Pierre's place.
Marie hesitated, but still accepted the offer in the hope that “thanks to this, it will somehow be easier for her.”
For the first time at the Sorbonne and in France in general, a woman was appointed to the position of professor.
The first lecture took place in the large amphitheater of the university.
“The first rows look like the stalls of a theater. Ladies in evening dresses, men in top hats"- wrote the capital's press. All of Paris came to see the widow Curie. Will her voice tremble, will her face turn pale?
The first lecture was supposed to begin with words of gratitude about his predecessor. But this time the newspapermen had absolutely nothing to profit from: Marie behaved as usual. A decisive look, head thrown back proudly. The speech is dry and impartial.

Marie moved to Seau, where Pierre was buried. I went every day to lectures and to the laboratory. She often came to an abandoned barn on Lomon Street and sat for a long time in the dark on a rickety stool.
In a letter to a friend she wrote: “Instinct makes the caterpillar weave its cocoon. The poor thing must weave it even when she cannot finish it, and yet she works with unfailing perseverance. If she fails to finish her work, she will die without ever turning into a butterfly. Let each of us weave his own cocoon, without asking why or why.”

At the Sorbonne, she taught the world's first course on radioactivity and continued her research. Close colleagues advised her to stand as a candidate for the Academy of Sciences, and she agreed. But intrigues swirled around, and as a result of the vote it was rejected. On election day, the President of the Academy arrogantly declared to the gatekeepers: “Let everyone through except women”...
In 1911, Marie received a second Nobel Prize - in chemistry for obtaining radium: now radioactive substances could be systematized. And Marie became not only the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, but also the first scientist to receive it twice. However, fame and honors did not appeal to her as before.
In 1913, she and her daughters, in the company of Albert Einstein and his son, hiked through the Alps and were amazed at how Einstein jumped over dangerous cracks and climbed almost vertical cliffs.

In Paris, on Pierre Curie Street, they built their dream - the Radium Institute.

Funds for it were provided by the Pasteur Institute and the Sorbonne.
Marie carefully studied the design of the building, demanded that the rooms be made large and bright, and planted trees and flowers in the small garden of the institute.
But the First World War began. The laboratory was empty - the employees went to the front.
Marie created 220 mobile and stationary X-ray units for field hospitals. Then, having sent her daughters to Brittany, she herself remained in Paris so that in the event of occupation the institute would not be looted. She transported her first gram of radium - her main treasure - in an ordinary traveling bag to Bordeaux and hid it in a safe there.
Rich ladies gave her limousines, and she turned them into mobile X-ray units and traveled to hospitals in them, sometimes getting behind the wheel herself. I slept in a tent, sat in a dark room, and the flow of wounded was endless. On special courses she trained radiology nurses and converted field doctors, who considered x-rays quackery, to her “faith.”
“At first, surgeons, having found a fragment in the very place indicated by fluoroscopy, were surprised and delighted, as if at the sight of a miracle,”- Marie recalled.
The war, which had deprived her of her last health and the money she had invested in worthless war loan shares, was over. The Radium Institute began to fill with people again.
Marie's daughters were almost adults. Irene took after her mother: her phrases were always thoughtful, her judgments were categorical, she worked at the Radium Institute. Eva loved entertainment, jewelry and beautiful dresses. In the summer they vacationed in Brittany, in a “colony” of teachers from the Sorbonne, in a modest house on the banks of the English Channel.
Marie was no less proud of her success in swimming than of her scientific discoveries.
In 1920, journalist Mrs. Meloni came to her from America. They immediately liked each other - both did not waste words, and Marie immediately got down to business. She said that her laboratory had only one gram of radium (this was the very first gram); that it was used to make emanation tubes for medicinal purposes, but there is not enough of it for scientific work. One gram of radium costs 100 thousand dollars, and the laboratory will never be able to buy it. Marie knows that the United States has 50 grams of the substance...

After her conversation with Marie, Mrs. Meloni developed an incredible fundraiser for American women. And so the money was collected. Marie was invited to America. She rode with fear: receptions, applause, loud speeches frightened her. The honors rendered touched her soul much less than the bouquet presented to her by one gardener. He was cured of cancer using radium and vowed to breed a special variety of roses for Marie.
The US President in Washington handed her a lead casket with a golden key in which she would take a gram of radium from America. The press attacked her so actively that she had to get off the trains on the opposite side and flee from the newspapers along the sleepers. Mixed with this burdensome attention from society and the press was a strange weakness with dizziness, growing every day.

Marie's strength was running out... She was already 65, and the mirror spoke of this more than eloquently. Thinning hair, sunken cheeks. So this is how they become priestesses of science. She still likes to work while sitting on the floor. But a new misfortune comes - she gradually loses her sight. But no one should know about this. Marie makes bright, noticeable marks on the scales of laboratory instruments. But soon she could no longer see even with strong glasses. She was practically blind, but her head - as always - was proudly thrown back. After four eye surgeries, her vision partially returned. But some other mysterious illness is draining her strength every day. The examinations did not clarify anything: no organs affected by the disease were found. And - pernicious anemia was mistaken for the flu or for old, untreated tuberculosis. She went with Eva to the sanatorium, and on the way she became very ill.

When, many years after Marie's death, her laboratory notebook was brought to a Geiger counter, the device erupted with a loud, rapid crackling sound. Radium brought her worldwide fame, which she did not need, and took her life. In a barn on the Rue Laumont, radioactive dust hung in the air, and Marie and Pierre carried test tubes with drugs in their pockets. It turned out that ionizing radiation can kill not only cancer cells, but also a living organism.

The high temperature burned her. IN last days Eva did not allow any gatherings at her mother’s bedside so as not to frighten her. She also hoped to recover.
On July 3, the temperature dropped sharply. “Now I’ll definitely get through it”- she said joyfully to Eve.
Her eldest daughter Irene and her husband arrived the day before, but Marie does not invite anyone. During her agony, she constantly says in the tone of a scientist observing an experiment: "I'm away."

She died at dawn on July 4, 1934. After her death, Irene and her husband added the Curie surname to theirs. In 1935, the world learned of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Irène and Frederic Joliot-Curie.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie received two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry, thus making history as the only woman to twice receive the highest award in the scientific world.

Maria was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw into a large, friendly and intelligent family. Her father was a teacher of physics and mathematics, and her mother ran a prestigious boarding house for girls from best families. But soon the happy times for the Skłodowski family ended: the father lost all his savings, Maria’s sister Zosia died, and then her mother died of consumption. Despite these tragedies, Maria continued to study well and was the best student at the gymnasium. At that time women could not go to university, so Maria continued her education in the underground « Free University", in which lectures were given by professors from real universities secretly in the apartments of students or teachers.

Loved sports and swimming, loved cycling

Maria's older sister also strived for knowledge; they both dreamed of studying at the Sorbonne. The sisters agreed to help each other. First Bronya went to Paris, and Maria got a job as a governess, worked for 5 years and sent money to her sister. Then Maria herself came to Paris, enrolling in the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Sorbonne in 1891. Maria studied from night to morning, read thousands of books. In 1893 she finished the course first and received degrees in physics and mathematics.

In 1894 Maria met Pierre Curie, who ran a laboratory at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. Are common scientific interests brought the couple together, a year later they got married. In this happy but short-lived marriage, two daughters were born.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered rays that emitted uranium compounds. The Curies decided to study these rays in more detail and discovered that uranium ore has even greater radiation than uranium, thorium or their compounds. In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced the discovery of two new radioactive elements - radium and polonium. But they failed to isolate any of these elements to provide decisive evidence.

Marie Curie is the founder of the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw.

The couple began hard work: it was necessary to extract new elements from uranium ore. It took them 4 years. At that time, the harmful effects of radiation on the body were not yet known, and tons of radioactive ore had to be processed. In 1902 they succeeded isolate a tenth of a gram of radium chloride from several tons of ore, and in 1903 Maria presented her doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne on the topic “Study of radioactive substances.” In December 1903, Becquerel and the Curies received the Nobel Prize.

Maria's family happiness did not last long, in 1906 Pierre died under the wheels of the carriage. Despite the fact that Maria was incredibly saddened by the death of her beloved husband, she found the strength to continue their common research.

In 1906 she became the first female teacher at the Sorbonne, received a second Nobel Prize in 1911 and became head of the radioactivity research department at the newly founded Radium Institute. In subsequent years, Marie Skłodowska-Curie received more than 20 honorary awards academic degrees, was a member of 85 scientific societies from around the world.

During the First World War, Marie Curie, together with eldest daughter, who was still a teenager at the time, traveled to hospitals with the first X-ray machine and trained doctors to take x-rays in order to more successfully perform operations on the wounded.

Marie Curie wore her permanent talisman on her chest - an ampoule of radium.

The most talented and brilliant scientist, the selfless Maria Sklodowska-Curie, undermined her health over the years of working with radioactive elements, as she did not take any safety measures.

In 1934 she died of chronic radiation sickness

Marie Curie-Skłodowska was one of the first women to climb in the Tatras and went to the mountains in trousers.

The married couple Pierre and Marie Curie were the first physicists to study the radioactivity of elements. The scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the development of science. After her death, Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of an independent chemical element, radium.

Pierre Curie before meeting Maria

Pierre was born in Paris, in the family of a doctor. The young man received an excellent education: first he studied at home, then became a student at the Sorbonne. At the age of 18, Pierre received the academic degree of licentiate in physical sciences.

At first scientific activity the young man, together with his brother Jacques, discovered piezoelectricity. During the experiments, the brothers concluded that as a result of compression of a hemihedral crystal with oblique edges, electrical polarization of a specific direction occurs. If such a crystal is stretched, electricity is released in the opposite direction.

After this, the Curie brothers discovered the opposite effect about the deformation of crystals under the influence of electrical voltage. Young people created piezoquartz for the first time and studied its electrical deformations. Pierre and Jacques Curie learned to use piezoquartz to measure weak currents and electric charges. The brothers' fruitful collaboration lasted five years, after which they separated. In 1891, Pierre conducted experiments on magnetism and discovered the law on the dependence of paramagnetic bodies on temperature.

Maria Sklodovskaya before meeting Pierre

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in the family of a teacher. After graduating from high school, the girl entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Sorbonne. One of the best students at the university, Sklodovskaya studied chemistry and physics, and devoted her free time to independent research.

In 1893, Maria received a licentiate degree in physical sciences, and in 1894 the girl became a licentiate in mathematical sciences. In 1895, Marie married Pierre Curie.

Research by Pierre and Marie Curie

The couple began studying the radioactivity of elements. They clarified the significance of Becquerel's discovery, which discovered the radioactive properties of uranium and compared it with phosphorescence. Becquerel believed that the radiation of uranium is a process reminiscent of the properties of light waves. The scientist was never able to reveal the nature of the discovered phenomenon.

Becquerel's work was continued by Pierre and Marie Curie, who began studying the phenomenon of radiation from metals, including uranium. The couple coined the word “radioactivity,” revealing the essence of the phenomenon discovered by Becquerel.

New discoveries

In 1898, Pierre and Maria discovered a new radioactive element and named it polonium in honor of Poland, Maria's homeland. This silvery-white soft metal filled one of the empty windows of Mendeleev's periodic table of chemical elements - the 86th cell. Late that year, the Curies discovered radium, a shiny alkaline earth metal with radioactive properties. He occupied the 88th cell of the periodic table of Mendeleev.

After radium and polonium, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered a number of other radioactive elements. Scientists have found that all heavy elements located in the lower cells of the periodic table have radioactive properties. In 1906, Pierre and Maria discovered that an element contained in the cells of all living creatures on Earth - the isotope of potassium - is radioactive. Click to learn about other discoveries that brought scientists worldwide fame.

Contribution to the development of science

In 1906, Pierre Curie was hit by a dray and died on the spot. After the death of her husband, Maria took his place at the Sorbonne and became the first woman professor in history. Skłodowska-Curie lectured on radioactivity to university students.

During the First World War, Maria worked on the creation of X-ray machines for the needs of hospitals and worked at the Radium Institute. Skłodowska-Curie died in 1934 due to a severe blood disease caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.

Few of the Curies' contemporaries understood how important scientific discoveries Physicists managed to accomplish this. Thanks to Pierre and Maria, a great revolution took place in the life of mankind - people learned to produce atomic energy.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a Polish scientist who discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium.

Maria was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw. Is the fifth and youngest child teachers Bronislava and Wladyslaw Sklodowski. Maria's older siblings (whom the family called Mania) were Zofia (1862-1881), Josef (1863-1937, general practitioner), Bronislawa (1865-1939, physician and first director of the Radium Institute), and Helena (1866). -1961, teacher and public figure). The family lived poorly.

When Maria was 10 years old, her mother died of tuberculosis, and her father was fired for his pro-Polish sentiments and was forced to take lower-paid positions. The death of her mother, and soon of her sister Zofia, caused the girl to abandon Catholicism and become an agnostic.

Marie Curie (center) as a child with her sisters and brother

At the age of 10, Maria began attending a boarding school, and then a gymnasium for girls, from which she graduated with a gold medal. Maria couldn't get higher education, since only men were accepted into Polish universities. Then Maria and her sister Bronislava decided to take courses at the underground Flying University, where women were also accepted. Maria suggested that we take turns learning, helping each other with money.

Bronislava was the first to enter the university, and Maria got a job as a governess. In early 1890, Bronisława, who had married the doctor and activist Kazimierz Dłuski, invited Maria to move with her to Paris.

It took Skłodowska a year and a half to save money to study in the capital of France; for this, Maria again began working as a governess in Warsaw. At the same time, the girl continued her studies at the university, and also began a scientific internship in the laboratory, which was led by her cousin Jozef Boguski, an assistant.

The science

At the end of 1891, Sklodowska moved to France. In Paris, Maria (or Marie, as she would be called later) rented an attic in a house near the University of Paris, where the girl studied physics, chemistry and mathematics. Life in Paris was not easy: Maria was often malnourished, fainted from hunger and did not have the opportunity to buy warm winter clothes and shoes.

Skladovskaya studied during the day and taught in the evening, earning mere pennies for a living. In 1893, Marie received a degree in physics and began working in the industrial laboratory of Professor Gabriel Lippmann.

At the request of an industrial organization, Maria began to study the magnetic properties of various metals. In the same year, Sklodovskaya met with Pierre Curie, who became not only her colleague in the laboratory, but also her husband.

In 1894, Skłodowska came to Warsaw for the summer to see her family. She still harbored illusions that she would be allowed to work in her homeland, but the girl was refused at the University of Krakow - only men were hired. Sklodowska returned to Paris and continued working on her Ph.D. thesis.

Radioactivity

Impressed by two important discoveries by Wilhelm Roentgen and Henri Becquerel, Marie decided to study uranium rays as a possible dissertation topic. To study the samples, the Curie spouses used innovative technologies for those years. Scientists received subsidies for research from metallurgical and mining companies.

Without a laboratory, working in the institute's storage room, and then in a street shed, in four years the scientists managed to process 8 tons of uraninite. The result of one experiment with ore samples brought from the Czech Republic was the assumption that scientists were dealing with another radioactive material in addition to uranium. Researchers have identified a fraction that is many times more radioactive than pure uranium.

In 1898, the Curies discovered radium and polonium - the latter was named after Marie's homeland. The scientists decided not to patent their discovery - although this could bring the spouses a lot of additional money.

In 1910, Maria and the French scientist Andre Debiernoux succeeded in isolating pure metallic radium. After 12 years of experiments, scientists were finally able to confirm that radium is an independent chemical element.

In the summer of 1914, the Radium Institute was founded in Paris, and Maria became head of the department for the use of radioactivity in medicine. During the First World War, Curie invented mobile X-ray units called “petites Curies” (“Little Curies”) to treat the wounded. In 1915, Curie came up with hollow needles containing "radium emanation", a colorless radioactive gas given off by radium (later identified as radon), which was used to sterilize infected tissue. More than a million wounded military personnel have been successfully treated using these technologies.

Nobel Prize

In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Curies and Henri Becquerel the Physics Prize for their achievements in the study of radiation phenomena. At first, the Committee intended to honor only Pierre and Becquerel, but one of the committee members and an advocate for the rights of women scientists, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gustav Mittag-Leffler, warned Pierre about this situation. After his complaint, Maria's name was added to the list of honorees.

Marie is the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize. The fee allowed the couple to hire a laboratory assistant and equip the laboratory with appropriate equipment.

In 1911, Marie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and became the world's first two-time winner of this prize. Maria was also awarded 7 medals for scientific discoveries.

Personal life

While still a governess, Maria fell in love with the son of the mistress of the family, Kazimierz Lorawski. The young man's parents were against his intentions to marry poor Skłodowska, and Kazimierz could not resist the will of his elders. The breakup was extremely painful for both, and Lorawski regretted his decision until his old age.

The main love of Maria's life was Pierre Curie, a physicist from France.

Mutual interest in natural sciences united the young people, and in July 1895 the lovers got married. The newlyweds refused religious services, and instead of a wedding dress, Sklodovskaya wore a dark blue suit, in which she later worked for many years in the laboratory.

The couple had two daughters - Irene (1897-1956), a chemist, and Eva (1904-2007) - a music and theater critic and writer. Maria hired Polish governesses to educate the girls. native language, and also often sent them to Poland to visit their grandfather.

The Curie spouses had two common hobbies, in addition to science: traveling abroad and long bicycle rides - there is a photo of the spouses standing next to bicycles purchased at wedding gift relative. In Pierre Sklodowska found both love and best friend, and a colleague. The death of her husband (Pierre was run over by a horse-drawn carriage in 1906) caused Marie's severe depression - only a few months later the woman was able to continue working.

In 1910-11, Curie maintained a romantic relationship with Pierre's student, physicist Paul Langevin, who was married at that time. The press began to write about Curie as a “Jewish homewrecker.” When the scandal broke, Maria was at a conference in Belgium. Upon returning, Curie discovered an angry crowd in front of her house; the woman and her daughters had to hide with her friend, writer Camille Marbot.

Death

On July 4, 1934, 66-year-old Marie died at the Sancellemos sanatorium in Passy, ​​in eastern France. The cause of death was aplastic anemia, which, according to doctors, was caused by prolonged exposure to radiation on the woman’s body.

The fact that ionizing radiation has a negative effect was not known in those years, so many experiments were carried out by Curie without safety measures. Maria carried tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pocket, stored them in her desk drawer, and was exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment.

Radiation became the cause of many of Curie's chronic illnesses - at the end of her life she was almost blind and suffered from kidney disease, but the woman never thought about changing dangerous work. Curie was buried in the cemetery in the town of Seau, next to Pierre's grave.

Sixty years later, the remains of the couple were transferred to the Parisian Pantheon, a tomb outstanding people France. Maria is the first woman awarded burial in the Pantheon for her own merits (the first was Sophie Berthelot, buried with her husband, physical chemist Marcelin Berthelot).

• In 1903, the Curies were invited to the Royal Institution of Great Britain to give a report on radioactivity. Women were not allowed to give speeches, so only Pierre presented the report.
• The French press hypocritically insulted Curie, pointing out her atheism and the fact that she was a foreigner. However, after receiving the first Nobel Prize, Curie began to be written as a heroine of France.
• The word "radioactivity" was coined by the Curies.
• Curie became the first woman professor at the University of Paris.
• Despite her enormous assistance during the war, Marie did not receive official gratitude from the French government. In addition, immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, Maria tried to donate her gold medals to support the French army, but the National Bank refused to accept them.
• Curie's student Marguerite Perey became the first woman to be elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1962, more than half a century after Curie attempted to join it. scientific organization(Edouard Branly, the inventor who helped Guglielmo Marconi develop the wireless telegraph, was chosen instead).
• Curie's students included four Nobel laureates, including his daughter Irene and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
• The records and documents that Maria kept in the 1890s are considered too dangerous to process due to high level radioactive contamination. Even Curie's cookbook is radioactive. The scientist's papers are stored in lead boxes, and those who want to work with them have to wear special protective clothing.
• A chemical element was named in honor of Curie - curium, several universities and schools, an oncology center in Warsaw, an asteroid, geographical objects and even the clematis flower; her portrait adorns banknotes, stamps and coins different countries peace.