Marie Curie: A Life (Radcliffe Biography Series)

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Robert William Reid (1974). Marie Curie. New American Library. pp.63–64. ISBN 978-0-00-211539-1. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016 . Retrieved 15 March 2016. The [research] idea [writes Reid] was her own; no one helped her formulate it, and although she took it to her husband for his opinion she clearly established her ownership of it. She later recorded the fact twice in her biography of her husband to ensure there was no chance whatever of any ambiguity. It [is] likely that already at this early stage of her career [she] realized that... many scientists would find it difficult to believe that a woman could be capable of the original work in which she was involved. [35] Pierre, Irène, and Marie Curie, ca. 1902 A picture book for children aged three to seven. It is a guide for young children and their parents to explore death and bereavement together. It can help to start difficult conversations or explore the questions that may come up after someone dies.

This book will help adults better understand how children process grief. The author uses academic research methods to study the mourning process in different age groups, including their changing interactions with family and friends and their support needs. Barker, Dan (2011). The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God. Ulysses Press. p.171. ISBN 978-1-56975-846-5. Archived from the original on 2 November 2015 . Retrieved 7 September 2015.Marie regularly refused all those who wanted to interview her. However, a prominent American female journalist, Marie Maloney, known as Missy, who for a long time had admired Marie, managed to meet her. This meeting became of great importance to them both. Marie told Missy that researchers in the USA had some 50 grams of radium at their disposal. “And in France, then?” asked Missy. “My laboratory has scarcely more than one gram,” was Marie’s answer. “But you ought to have all the resources in the world to continue with your research. Someone must see to that,” Missy said. “But who?” was Marie’s reply in a resigned tone. “The women of America,” promised Missy. Marie, too, was an idealist; though outwardly shy and retiring, she was in reality energetic and single-minded. Pierre and Marie immediately discovered an intellectual affinity, which was very soon transformed into deeper feelings. In July 1895, they were married at the town hall at Sceaux, where Pierre’s parents lived. They were given money as a wedding present which they used to buy a bicycle for each of them, and long, sometimes adventurous, cycle rides became their way of relaxing. Their life was otherwise quietly monotonous, a life filled with work and study.

Robert William Reid (1974). Marie Curie. New American Library. pp.61–63. ISBN 978-0-00-211539-1. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016 . Retrieved 15 March 2016.In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered the existence of X-rays, though the mechanism behind their production was not yet understood. [30] In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emitted rays that resembled X-rays in their penetrating power. [30] He demonstrated that this radiation, unlike phosphorescence, did not depend on an external source of energy but seemed to arise spontaneously from uranium itself. Influenced by these two important discoveries, Curie decided to look into uranium rays as a possible field of research for a thesis. [14] [30]

She was acutely aware of the importance of promptly publishing her discoveries and thus establishing her priority. Had not Becquerel, two years earlier, presented his discovery to the Académie des Sciences the day after he made it, credit for the discovery of radioactivity (and even a Nobel Prize), would instead have gone to Silvanus Thompson. Curie chose the same rapid means of publication. Her paper, giving a brief and simple account of her work, was presented for her to the Académie on 12 April 1898 by her former professor, Gabriel Lippmann. [36] Even so, just as Thompson had been beaten by Becquerel, so Curie was beaten in the race to tell of her discovery that thorium gives off rays in the same way as uranium; two months earlier, Gerhard Carl Schmidt had published his own finding in Berlin. [37]Around 1886, Heinrich Hertz demonstrated experimentally the existence of radio waves. It is said that Hertz only smiled incredulously when anyone predicted that his waves would one day be sent round the earth. Hertz died in 1894 at the early age of 37. In September 1895, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio signal over a distance of 1.5 km. In 1901 he spanned the Atlantic. Hertz did not live long enough to experience the far-reaching positive effects of his great discovery, nor of course did he have to see it abused in bad television programs. It is hard to predict the consequences of new discoveries in physics. a b L. Pearce Williams (1986). "Curie, Pierre and Marie". Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 8 . Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, Inc. p.332. L. Pearce Williams (1986). "Curie, Pierre and Marie". Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 8 . Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, Inc. pp.331–332. Never too young to know: death in children’s lives by Phyllis Silverman (1999) (Oxford University, Press Inc) Results were not long in coming. Just after a few days, Marie discovered that thorium gives off the same rays as uranium. Her continued systematic studies of the various chemical compounds gave the surprising result that the strength of the radiation did not depend on the compound that was being studied. It depended only on the amount of uranium or thorium. Chemical compounds of the same element generally have very different chemical and physical properties: one uranium compound is a dark powder, another is a transparent yellow crystal, but what was decisive for the radiation they gave off was only the amount of uranium they contained. Marie drew the conclusion that the ability to radiate did not depend on the arrangement of the atoms in a molecule, it must be linked to the interior of the atom itself. This discovery was absolutely revolutionary. From a conceptual point of view it is her most important contribution to the development of physics. She now went through the whole periodic system. Her findings were that only uranium and thorium gave off this radiation.

At the prize award ceremony, the president of the Swedish Academy referred in his speech to the old proverb: “union gives strength.” He went on to quote from the Book of Genesis, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” To prove their discoveries beyond any doubt, the Curies sought to isolate polonium and radium in pure form. [32] Pitchblende is a complex mineral; the chemical separation of its constituents was an arduous task. The discovery of polonium had been relatively easy; chemically it resembles the element bismuth, and polonium was the only bismuth-like substance in the ore. [32] Radium, however, was more elusive; it is closely related chemically to barium, and pitchblende contains both elements. By 1898 the Curies had obtained traces of radium, but appreciable quantities, uncontaminated with barium, were still beyond reach. [39] The Curies undertook the arduous task of separating out radium salt by differential crystallization. From a tonne of pitchblende, one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride was separated in 1902. In 1910, she isolated pure radium metal. [32] [40] She never succeeded in isolating polonium, which has a half-life of only 138 days. [32] She was also an active member in committees of Polonia in France dedicated to the Polish cause. [62] After the war, she summarized her wartime experiences in a book, Radiology in War (1919). [61] Postwar yearsMuddles, Puddles and Sunshine: Your Activity Book to Help When Someone Has Died (Early Years) (2001) by Diana Crossley and Kate Sheppard (Hawthorn Press) Curie is the subject of the 2013 play False Assumptions by Lawrence Aronovitch, in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life. [106] Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play, Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries. [107] Lauren Gunderson's 2019 play The Half-Life of Marie Curie portrays Curie during the summer after her 1911 Nobel Prize victory, when she was grappling with depression and facing public scorn over the revelation of her affair with Paul Langevin. Mould, R. F. (1998). "The discovery of radium in 1898 by Maria Sklodowska-Curie (1867–1934) and Pierre Curie (1859–1906) with commentary on their life and times". The British Journal of Radiology. 71 (852): 1229–54. doi: 10.1259/bjr.71.852.10318996. PMID 10318996. In the last ten years of her life, Marie had the joy of seeing her daughter Irène and her son-in-law Frédéric Joliot do successful research in the laboratory. She lived to see their discovery of artificial radioactivity, but not to hear that they had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it in 1935. Marie Curie died of leukemia on July 4, 1934. Epilogue Super Science Friends, an American Internet animated series created by Brett Jubinville featuring Hedy Gregor as Marie Curie.