Marie curie discoveries. Physicist Maria Sklodowska-Curie: biography, activities and interesting facts

Maria Sklodowska-Curie short biography French (Polish) physicist, chemist, teacher is described in the article. You can supplement the report on Marie Curie.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie biography briefly

Maria Sklodowska studied at a private school and at a gymnasium. Mary's father awakened in her a love of poetry and literature. But special attention in the family was paid to the study of mathematics and physics.

She graduated from the gymnasium at the age of 15, and in 1884 she went to the village as a home teacher, to the family of a wealthy landowner.

At the age of 24, she entered the University of Paris - Sorbonne.

Maria Sklodowska studied hard and persistently, eliminated the existing problems in knowledge and brilliantly passed the exams.

In 1894, Maria met Pierre Curie. Joint work in the laboratory and mutual sympathy bound them forever. They had 2 daughters. After the death of her husband, she continued their joint work.

In 1898, Pierre and Marie discovered a new element - polonium. In the same year, they theoretically substantiated the existence of radium, which only five years later they were able to obtain experimentally by processing more than a ton of ore.

In 1906, after Pierre's death, Marie is offered the position of head of the department of physics, formerly held by her late husband, and a professorship at the Sorbonne, which she willingly accepts, intending to create a world-class scientific laboratory.

Awarded the Nobel Prize: in physics (1903) and in chemistry (1911), the first twice Nobel laureate in history

Marie Curie died of what?
On July 3, 1934, the founder of radiology died from radiation sickness, the signs of which she did not pay due attention to.

Pierre Curie was a native Parisian who grew up in a doctor's family and received a good education, first at home, then at the Paris Sorbonne University. At the age of 18, he was already a licentiate of physical sciences - this academic degree stood between a bachelor and a doctor. In the early years of his scientific career, he worked with his brother in the laboratory of the Sorbonne, where he discovered the piezoelectric effect.

In 1895, Pierre Curie married Maria Skłodowska, and after a few years they began to explore together. This phenomenon, which consists in changing the composition and structure of the nuclei of atoms with the emission of particles, was discovered in 1896 by Becquerel. This French physicist was familiar with the Curies and shared his discovery with them. Pierre and Maria began to study a new phenomenon and found that thorium, compounds, all compounds of uranium and uranium are distinguished by radioactivity.

Becquerel left work on radioactivity and began to investigate the phosphors that interested him more, but one day he asked Pierre Curie for a test tube with a radioactive substance for a lecture. She lay in her vest pocket and left redness on her skin, which Becquerel immediately reported to Curie. After that, Pierre conducted an experiment on himself, carrying a test tube with radium for several hours in a row on his forearm. This caused him to develop a severe ulcer that took several months to resolve. Pierre Curie was the first scientist to discover the biological effects of radiation on humans.

Curie died in an accident, falling under the wheels of a carriage at the age of 46.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie

Maria Sklodowska was a Polish student, one of the best students of the Sorbonne. She also studied physics, conducted independent research and became the first female teacher at the Sorbonne. Three years after her marriage to Pierre Curie, Marie began working on her doctoral dissertation on radioactivity. She studied this phenomenon no less enthusiastically than her husband. After his death, she continued to work, began to act as professor of the department, who was Pierre Curie, and even headed the radioactivity research department at the Radium Institute.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie isolated pure metallic radium, proving that it is an independent chemical element. She received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery and became the only woman in the world with two Nobel Prizes.

Marie Curie died due to radiation sickness, which developed as a result of constant interaction with radioactive substances.

Polish, then French chemist. Born in Warsaw in a family of intellectuals during the difficult period of the Russian occupation that fell to the lot of Poland. While studying at school, she helped her mother maintain a boarding house, serving in it as a maid. After leaving school, she worked for a time as a governess for wealthy families in order to earn funds for her sister's medical education. During this period, the engagement of Sklodowska with a young man from the family where she served (the parents considered such a marriage of their son unworthy of their social position and missed a brilliant opportunity to improve their family gene pool), upset by the groom's parents, falls on Sklodowska's engagement. After her sister received a medical education in Paris, Sklodowska herself also went to study there.

The brilliant results of the entrance exams in physics and mathematics attracted the close attention of leading French scientists to the young Pole. The result was her engagement in 1894 to Pierre Curie and marriage to him the following year. In those years, studies of the phenomenon of radioactivity were just beginning, and there was no end to work in this area. Pierre and Marie Curie took up the extraction of radioactive samples from the ores mined in Bohemia, and their study. As a result, the couple managed to discover several new radioactive elements at once ( cm. Radioactive decay), one of which was named curium in their honor, and another - polonium in honor of Mary's homeland. For these studies, the Curies were, together with Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), who discovered X-rays, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1903. It was Marie Curie who first introduced the term "radioactivity" - after the name of the first discovered by Curie of the radioactive element radium.

After the tragic death of Pierre in 1906, Marie Curie refused the pension offered by the Sorbonne University and continued her research. She managed to prove that as a result of radioactive decay, the transmutation of chemical elements occurs, and, thereby, lay the foundation for a new branch of the natural sciences - radiochemistry. For this work, Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 and became the first scientist to win twice the most prestigious award for achievements in the natural sciences. (In the same year, the Paris Academy of Sciences rejected her candidacy and did not accept Marie Curie into its ranks. Apparently, two Nobel Prizes seemed to the gentlemen academicians not enough to overcome their tendency to discriminate on national and gender grounds.)

During World War I, Marie Curie was active in applied medical research, working at the front with a portable X-ray machine. In 1921, a subscription was opened in America to raise funds for the purchase of 1 gram of pure radium for Marie Curie, which she needed for further research. During her triumphant tour of America with public lectures, the key to the box of precious radioactive metal was presented to Curie by US President Warren Harding himself.

The last years of Marie Curie's life were filled with important international initiatives in science and medicine. In the early 1930s, Marie Curie's health deteriorated sharply - the huge doses of radiation received by her during many years of experiments affected - and in 1934 she died in a sanatorium in the French Alps.

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, before the First World War, when time was measured and unhurried, ladies wore corsets, and women who were already married had to observe decency (housekeeping and staying at home), Curie Marie was awarded two Nobel Prizes: in 1908 - in physics, in 1911 - in chemistry. She did a lot of things first, but perhaps the main thing is that Mary made a real revolution in the public mind. Women after her boldly went into science, without fear from the scientific community, which at that time consisted of men, of ridicule in their direction. Marie Curie was an amazing person. The biography below will convince you of this.

Origin

The maiden name of this woman was Sklodowska. Her father, Vladislav Sklodovsky, graduated from St. Petersburg University in his time. Then he returned to Warsaw to teach mathematics and physics at the gymnasium. His wife, Bronislava, ran a boarding school where schoolgirls studied. She helped her husband in everything, was a passionate lover of reading. In total, the family had five children. Maria Sklodowska-Curie (Manya, as she was called in childhood) is the youngest.

Warsaw childhood

All her childhood passed under the cough of her mother. Bronislava suffered from tuberculosis. She died when Mary was only 11 years old. All the children of the Sklodovskys were distinguished by curiosity and learning abilities, and it was simply impossible to tear Manya away from the book. The father encouraged the passion for learning in his children as best he could. The only thing that upset the family was the need to study in Russian. In the photo above - the house in which Maria was born and spent her childhood. Now there is a museum here.

The situation in Poland

Poland at that time was part of the Russian Empire. Therefore, all the gymnasiums were controlled by Russian officials who ensured that all subjects were taught in the language of this empire. Children even had to read in Russian, and not in their native language, in which they prayed and spoke at home. Vladislav often got upset because of this. After all, sometimes a student capable of mathematics, who perfectly solved various problems in Polish, suddenly became "stupid" when it was required to switch to Russian, which he did not speak well. Having seen all these humiliations since childhood, Maria all her future life, however, like the rest of the inhabitants of the state, torn apart at that time, was a fierce patriot, as well as a conscientious member of the Parisian Polish community.

Sisters Persuasion

It was not easy for a girl to grow up without a mother. Dad, always busy at work, pedantic teachers at the gymnasium ... Manya was best friends with Bronya, her sister. They agreed as teenagers that they would definitely study further, after graduating from the gymnasium. In Warsaw, higher education was impossible for women at that time, so they dreamed of the Sorbonne. The agreement was as follows: Bronya will be the first to start her studies, since she is older. And Manya will earn money for her education. When she learns to be a doctor, Manya will immediately begin to study, and her sister will help her as best she can. However, it turned out that the dream of Paris had to be postponed for almost 5 years.

Work as a governess

Manya became a governess at the Pike estate, to the children of a wealthy local landowner. The owners did not appreciate the bright mind of this girl. At every step they let her know that she was just a poor servant. In Pike, the girl's life was not easy, but she endured for the sake of Armor. Both sisters graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal. Brother Jozef (also, by the way, a gold medalist) left for Warsaw, enrolling in the Faculty of Medicine. Elya also received a medal, but her claims were more modest. She decided to stay with her father, run the household. The 4th sister in the family died as a child when her mother was still alive. In general, Vladislav could rightfully be proud of his remaining children.

First lover

Maria's employers had five children. She taught the younger ones, but Kazimierz, the eldest son, often came for holidays. He drew attention to such an unusual governess. She was very independent. In addition, which was very unusual for a girl of that time, she ran on skates, perfectly handled the oars, skillfully drove the carriage and rode. And also, as she later admitted to Kazimierz, she was very fond of writing poetry, as well as reading books on mathematics, which seemed to her poetry.

After a while, a platonic feeling arose between the young people. Manya was plunged into despair by the fact that the arrogant parents of his lover would never allow him to connect his fate with a governess. Kazimierz came for summer vacations and holidays, and the rest of the time the girl lived in anticipation of a meeting. But now it's time to quit and go to Paris. Manya left Pike with a heavy heart - Kazimierz and the years illuminated by first love remained in the past.

Then, when Pierre Curie appears in the life of 27-year-old Mary, she will immediately understand that he will become her faithful husband. Everything will be different in the case of him - without violent dreams and outbursts of feelings. Or maybe Maria will just get older?

Device in Paris

The girl arrived in 1891 in France. Armor and her husband, Kazimierz Dlussky, who also worked as a doctor, began to patronize her. However, the determined Maria (in Paris she began to call herself Marie) opposed this. She rented a room on her own, and also enrolled in the Sorbonne, in the natural faculty. Marie settled in Paris in the Latin Quarter. Libraries, laboratories and the university were in the neighborhood with him. Dlussky helped his wife's sister to carry modest belongings on a handcart. Marie resolutely refused to settle down with any girl in order to pay less for a room - she wanted to study until late and in silence. Its budget in 1892 was 40 rubles, or 100 francs a month, that is, 3 and a half francs a day. And it was necessary to pay for a room, clothes, food, books, notebooks and university studies ... The girl cut herself off in food. And since she studied very hard, she soon fainted right in the classroom. A classmate ran to ask for help to the Dlusskys. And they again took Marie to them so that she could pay less for housing and eat normally.

Acquaintance with Pierre

One day, a fellow student of Marie invited her to visit a famous physicist from Poland. Then the girl first saw the man with whom she was destined to subsequently win world fame. At that time, the girl was 27, and Pierre was 35 years old. When Marie entered the living room, he was standing in the balcony opening. The girl tried to examine it, and the sun blinded her. This is how Maria Sklodowska and Pierre Curie met.

Pierre was devoted to science with all his heart. Parents have already tried several times to introduce him to a girl, but always in vain - they all seemed to him uninteresting, stupid and petty. And that evening, after talking with Marie, he realized that he had found an equal interlocutor. At that time, the girl was carrying out work commissioned by the Society for the Promotion of National Industry, on the magnetic properties of different grades of steel. Marie had just begun her research in Lipmann's lab. And Pierre, who worked at the School of Physics and Chemistry, already had research on magnetism and even the "Curie law" discovered by him. The young people had a lot to talk about. Pierre was so carried away by Marie that early in the morning he went to the fields in order to pick daisies for his beloved.

Wedding

Pierre and Marie got married on July 14, 1895 and went to Ile-de-France for their honeymoon. Here they read, rode bicycles, discussed scientific topics. Pierre, even to please his young wife, began to learn Polish ...

Fateful acquaintance

By the time of the birth of Irene, their first daughter, Marie's husband had already defended his doctoral dissertation, and his wife graduated first in her graduation from the Sorbonne University. At the end of 1897, a study on magnetism was completed, and Curie Marie began to look for a topic for a dissertation. At this time, the couple met a physicist. He discovered a year ago that uranium compounds emit radiation that penetrates deeply. It was, unlike X-ray, an intrinsic property of uranium. Curie Marie, fascinated by the mysterious phenomenon, decided to study it. Pierre set aside his work in order to help his wife.

The first discoveries and the award of the Nobel Prize

Pierre and Marie Curie discovered two new elements in 1898. They named the first of them polonium (in honor of Marie's homeland, Poland), and the second - radium. Since they did not isolate either one or the other element, they could not provide evidence of their existence to chemists. And for the next 4 years, the couple extracted radium and polonium from Pierre and Marie Curie from morning to night worked in a crevice barn, being exposed to radiation. The couple suffered burns before realizing the dangers of the research. However, they decided to continue them! The couple received 1/10 gram of radium chloride in September 1902. But they failed to isolate polonium - as it turned out, it was a decay product of radium. Radium salt gave off warmth and a bluish glow. This fantastic substance attracted the attention of the whole world. In December 1903, the couple was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in collaboration with Becquerel. Curie Marie was the first woman to receive it!

Loss of a husband

Their second daughter, Eva, was born to them in December 1904. By that time, the financial situation of the family had improved significantly. Pierre became a professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and his wife worked for her husband as the head of the laboratory. A terrible event happened in April 1906. Pierre was killed by the crew. Maria Sklodowska-Curie, having lost her husband, colleague and best friend, fell into a depression for several months.

Second Nobel Prize

However, life went on. The woman concentrated all her efforts on isolating pure radium metal, and not its compounds. And she received this substance in 1910 (in collaboration with A. Debirn). Marie Curie discovered it and proved that radium is a chemical element. They even wanted to accept her for this as a member of the French Academy of Sciences in the wake of great success, but debates unfolded, persecution began in the press, and eventually won. In 1911, Marie was awarded the 2nd She became the first laureate to be awarded it twice.

Work at the Radiev Institute

The Radiev Institute was established for research on radioactivity shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Curie worked here in the field of basic research on radioactivity and its medical applications. During the war years, she trained military doctors in radiology, for example, to detect shrapnel in the body of a wounded person using X-rays, and delivered portable ones to the front line. Irene, her daughter, was among the doctors she taught.

last years of life

Even in her advanced years, Marie Curie continued her work. A brief biography of these years is marked by the following: she worked with doctors, students, wrote scientific papers, and also released a biography of her husband. Marie traveled to Poland, which finally gained independence. She also visited the USA, where she was greeted with triumph and where she was presented with 1 g of radium to continue the experiments (its cost, by the way, is equivalent to the cost of more than 200 kg of gold). However, interaction with radioactive substances made itself felt. Her health was deteriorating, and on July 4, 1934, Curie Marie died of leukemia. It happened in the French Alps, in a small hospital located in Sansellemosa.

Marie Curie University in Lublin

In honor of the Curies, the chemical element curium (No. 96) was named. And the name of the great woman Mary was immortalized in the name of the university in Lublin (Poland). It is one of the largest state-owned institutions of higher education in Poland. The Maria Curie-Skłodowska University was founded in 1944, in front of it there is a monument shown in the photo above. Associate Professor Heinrich Raabe became the first rector and organizer of this educational institution. Today it consists of the following 10 faculties:

Biology and biotechnology.

Arts.

Humanities.

Philosophy and sociology.

Pedagogy and psychology.

Geosciences and Spatial Planning.

Mathematics, physics and computer science.

Rights and management.

Political Science.

Pedagogy and psychology.

More than 23.5 thousand students have chosen the Marie Curie University, of which about 500 are foreigners.

Maria Sklodowska, who was born in 1867 in the capital of Poland - Warsaw, from childhood had a penchant for the natural sciences. Despite all the difficulties in studying them, associated with the restrictions in this area for females at that time, she achieved impressive success in her favorite subject. She received the second part of her surname - Curie - by marrying the French Pierre Curie.

Scientific discoveries of Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Maria Sklodowska-Curie chose the study of radioactivity as the main area of ​​application of her outstanding abilities. She worked on this topic together with her husband, studying the various properties of radioactive elements. Most of their experiments were carried out using one of the common minerals uraninite: in total, over the years of their work, they used more than eight tons of this ore.

The result of this painstaking work was the discovery of two new elements that were previously absent in the well-known system of chemicals - the periodic table. Studying the various fractions formed as a result of experiments on uraninite, the couple isolated an element that, by agreement among themselves, called radium, linking it to the Latin word "radius", which means "ray". The second element, obtained by them in the course of scientific work, received its name in honor of Poland - the birthplace of Maria Sklodowska-Curie: it was called polonium. Both of these discoveries took place in 1898.

However, constant work with radioactive elements could not but have a negative impact on the health of the researcher. She contracted leukemia and died on July 4, 1934, in her husband's homeland, France.

Recognition of scientific discoveries

Maria Skłodowska-Curie was recognized as an outstanding researcher during her lifetime. In 1903, the Nobel Committee awarded the Curies the Prize in Physics for their research on radioactivity. So Marie Skłodowska-Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. In 1910, she was nominated as a candidate for admission to the French Academy of Sciences. However, the scientific environment of that time was not ready for a woman to be among its members: before this case, only men were its members. As a result, with a margin of only two votes, a negative decision was made.

Nevertheless, already in the next year, 1911, the Nobel Committee again recognized her scientific merits - this time in the field. She was awarded the prize for the discovery of radium and polonium. Thus, Marie Skłodowska-Curie is twice a Nobel laureate, and among women such laureates do not exist until today.