Pierre Curie (May 15, 1859 - April 19, 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in the field of crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity.
History of success
Before he joined the research of his wife, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Pierre Curie was already widely known and respected in the world of physics. Together with his brother Jacques, he discovered the phenomenon of piezoelectricity, in which a crystal can become electrically polarized, and invented a quartz balance. His work on the symmetry of crystals and his conclusions on the connection between magnetism and temperature have also been approved by the scientific community. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel and with his wife Maria Curie.
Pierre and his wife played a key role in the discovery of radium and polonium, substances that had a significant impact on humanity with their practical and nuclear properties. Their marriage founded a scientific dynasty: the children and grandchildren of famous physicists also became famous scientists.
Maria and Pierre Curie: biography
Pierre was born in Paris, in France, in the family of Sophie-Claire Depuy, the daughter of a manufacturer, and Dr. Eugene Curie, a free-thinking doctor. His father supported the family with modest medical practice, simultaneously satisfying his love for the natural sciences. Eugene Curie was an idealist and ardent Republican, and founded a hospital for the wounded during the 1871 Commune.
Pierre received his pre-university education at home. First taught by his mother, and then - father and older brother Jacques. He especially liked excursions to the countryside, where Pierre could observe and study plants and animals, developing a love for nature, which he had preserved throughout his life, which was his only entertainment and relaxation during his further scientific career. At the age of 14, he showed a strong penchant for exact sciences and began to study with a professor of mathematics, who helped him develop his gift in this discipline, especially the spatial representation.
As a boy, Curie observed the experiments conducted by his father, and gained a penchant for experimental research.
From pharmacologists to physicists
Pierre's knowledge of the physical and mathematical field brought him in 1875 a bachelor of science degree at the age of sixteen.
At 18, he received an equivalent diploma at the Sorbonne, also known as the University of Paris, but did not immediately enroll in doctoral studies due to lack of funds. Instead, he served as laboratory assistant in his alma mater, in 1878 becoming an assistant to Paul Desen, responsible for the laboratory work of physics students. At that time, his brother Jacques worked at the Sorbonne Mineralogy Laboratory, and they began a productive five-year period of scientific collaboration.
Successful marriage
In 1894, Pierre met his future wife, Maria Sklodowska, who studied physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne, and married her on July 25, 1895, having performed a simple civil marriage ceremony. Maria used the money received as a wedding gift to purchase two bicycles, on which the newlyweds made a wedding trip around the French outback, and which have been their main means of relaxation for many years. In 1897, a daughter was born to them, and a few days later Pierre's mother died. Dr. Curie moved to a young couple and helped take care of his granddaughter, Irene Curie.
Pierre and Maria devoted themselves to scientific work. Together they identified polonium and radium, became pioneers in the study of radioactivity, and were the first to use this term. In their writings, including Mary's famous doctoral work, they used data obtained using a sensitive piezoelectric electrometer created by Pierre and his brother Jacques.
Pierre Curie: biography of the scientist
In 1880, he and his elder brother Jacques showed that when a crystal is compressed, an electric potential arises, piezoelectricity. Soon after (in 1881), the opposite effect was demonstrated: crystals can be deformed under the influence of an electric field. Almost all digital electronic circuits today use this phenomenon in the form of crystal oscillators.
Prior to his famous doctoral dissertation on magnetism for measuring magnetic coefficients, a French physicist developed and improved extremely sensitive torsion scales. Their modifications were used by subsequent researchers in this area.
Pierre studied ferromagnetism, paramagnetism and diamagnetism. He discovered and described the dependence of the ability of substances to magnetize on temperature, known today as the Curie law. The constant in this law is called the Curie constant. Pierre also found that ferromagnetic substances have a critical transition temperature, above which they lose their ferromagnetic properties. This phenomenon is called the Curie point.
The principle that Pierre Curie formulated, the doctrine of symmetry, is that physical action cannot cause an asymmetry that is missing from its cause. For example, a random mixture of sand in zero gravity does not have asymmetry (sand is isotropic). Under the influence of gravity, asymmetry arises due to the direction of the field. Sand grains are “sorted” by density, which increases with depth. But this new directional relative position of the sand particles actually reflects the asymmetry of the gravitational field that caused the separation.
Radioactivity
The work of Pierre and Maria on radioactivity was based on the results of X-ray and Henri Becquerel. In 1898, after careful research, they discovered polonium, and a few months later - radium, isolating 1 g of this chemical element from uraninite. In addition, they found that beta rays are negatively charged particles.
The discoveries of Pierre and Marie Curie required a lot of work. There was not enough money, and in order to save on transportation costs, they rode bicycles to work. Indeed, the teacher’s salary was minimal, but a couple of scientists continued to devote their time and money to research.
Discovery of polonium
The secret of their success lay in Curie's new chemical analysis method based on accurate radiation measurements. Each substance was placed on one of the capacitor plates, and air conductivity was measured using an electrometer and piezoelectric quartz. This value was proportional to the content of the active substance, such as uranium or thorium.
The couple tested a large number of compounds of almost all known elements and found that only uranium and thorium are radioactive. Nevertheless, they decided to measure the radiation emitted by the ores from which uranium and thorium, such as chalcolite and uraninite, are extracted. Ore showed activity that was 2.5 times greater than that of uranium. After treating the residue with acid and hydrogen sulfide, they found that the active substance in all reactions was associated with bismuth. Nevertheless, they achieved partial separation, noting that bismuth sulfide is less volatile than the sulfide of the new element, which they called polonium in honor of the motherland of Mary Curie of Poland.
Radium, Radiation and the Nobel Prize
On December 26, 1898, Curie and J. Bemont, the head of research at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, in their report to the Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of a new element, which they called radium.
The French physicist, together with one of his students, first discovered the energy of an atom by discovering the continuous emission of heat by particles of a newly discovered element. He also investigated the radiation of radioactive substances, and with the help of magnetic fields he was able to determine that some of the emitted particles were positively charged, others negatively, and still others were neutral. So found alpha, beta and gamma radiation.
Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife and Henri Becquerel. She was awarded in recognition of the extraordinary services that they provided with their research on radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Beckerel.
Last years
Pierre Curie, whose discoveries at first did not receive wide recognition in France, which did not allow him to occupy the Department of Physical Chemistry and Mineralogy at the Sorbonne, left for Geneva. The relocation changed the situation, which can be explained by his leftist views and disagreements about the Third Republic's policy regarding science. After his candidacy was rejected in 1902, in 1905 he was admitted to the Academy.
The prestige of the Nobel Prize prompted the French Parliament in 1904 to create a new professorship for Curie at the Sorbonne. Pierre said he would not stay at the School of Physics until there was a fully funded laboratory with the necessary number of assistants. His requirement was met, and Mary led his laboratory.
By the beginning of 1906, Pierre Curie was ready, finally, for the first time to begin work in proper conditions, although he was sick and very tired.
On April 19, 1906, in Paris during a lunch break, going from a meeting with colleagues on the Sorbonne, passing Ryu Dauphin slippery from the rain, Curie slipped in front of a horse-drawn cart. The scientist died in an accident. His untimely death, although tragic, nevertheless, helped him avoid death from what Pierre Curie discovered - radiation exposure, which later killed his wife. The couple are buried in the crypt of the Pantheon in Paris.
Scientist's legacy
The radioactivity of radium makes it an extremely dangerous chemical element. Scientists realized this only after the use of this substance to illuminate dials, panels, watches and other instruments in the early twentieth century began to affect the health of laboratory assistants and consumers. However, radium chloride is used in medicine to treat cancer.
Polonium received various practical applications in industrial and nuclear installations. It is also known as a very toxic substance and can be used as a poison. Perhaps the most important is its use as a neutron fuse for nuclear weapons.
In honor of Pierre Curie at the Radiological Congress in 1910, after the death of a physicist, a unit of radioactivity equal to 3.7 x 10 10 decays per second or 37 gigabecquerels was named.
Scientific dynasty
The children and grandchildren of physicists have also become major scientists. Their daughter Irene married Frederic Joliot and in 1935 they received the Nobel Prize in chemistry together . The youngest daughter, Eva, who was born in 1904, married an American diplomat and director of the United Nations Children's Fund. She is the author of Madame Curie's biography of her mother (1938), translated into several languages.
The granddaughter - Helene Langevin-Joliot - became a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Paris, and the grandson - Pierre Joliot-Curie, named after his grandfather - a famous biochemist.