Even at the beginning of the 20th century, before the First World War, when time was flowing slowly and slowly, ladies wore corsets, and women who had already married had to observe decency (to keep house and stay at home), Curie Maria was awarded two Nobel Prizes: 1908 - in physics, in 1911 - in chemistry. She did a lot of the first things, but perhaps the main thing is that Maria made a real revolution in the public mind. Women after it boldly went into science, without fear from the scientific community, which at that time consisted of men, ridicule in their direction. The amazing person was Maria Curie. The biography below will convince you of this.
Origin
In girlhood, the name of this woman was Sklodowska. Her father, Vladislav Sklodovsky, once graduated from St. Petersburg University. Then he returned to Warsaw in order to teach mathematics and physics at the gymnasium. His wife, Bronislava, contained a boarding school in which girls from the gymnasium studied. She helped in all her husband, was a passionate lover of reading. In total, the family had five children. Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Manya, as she was called in her 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. The children of Skłodowski were distinguished by their curiosity and learning abilities, and it was simply impossible for Many to tear him from the book. Father encouraged as much as possible the passion for learning in his children. 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.
The situation in Poland
Poland at that time was part of the Russian Empire. Therefore, all high schools were controlled by Russian officials, making sure that all subjects were taught in the language of this empire. Children should even read Catholic prayers in Russian, and not in their native language, in which they prayed and spoke at home. Vladislav was often upset because of this. After all, sometimes a student who is capable of mathematics, who perfectly solved various problems in Polish, suddenly "went dumb" when he needed to switch to Russian, which he did not speak well. Having seen all these humiliations since childhood, Maria spent all her future life, however, like the rest of the state, torn apart at that time, was a fierce patriot, as well as a conscientious member of the Polish Polish community.
Sisters' Persuasion
It was not easy for the girl to grow up without a mother. Dad, always busy at work, pedagogue teachers in the gymnasium ... Manya was friends most of all with Bronya, his sister. They agreed as teenagers that they would definitely study further, after graduating from high school. In Warsaw, it was impossible for women to get higher education at that time, so they dreamed of the Sorbonne. The agreement was as follows: Armor will begin to study first, as it 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 much as possible. However, it turned out that the dream of Paris had to be postponed for almost 5 years.
Governess Work
Manya entered as a governess in the estate of Pike, to the children of a wealthy local landowner. The hosts did not appreciate the bright mind of this girl. At every step, they made her realize that she was just a poor servant. It was not easy for the girl to live in Pike, but she put up with it for the sake of Armor. Both sisters graduated from high school with a gold medal. Brother Jozef (also, incidentally, a gold medalist) left for Warsaw, enrolling in the medical faculty. Elya also received a medal, but her claims were more modest. She decided to stay with her father, to housekeeping. 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
Five children were from Maria’s employers. She taught the younger ones, but Kazimierz, the eldest son, often came for the holidays. He drew attention to such an unusual governess. She was very independent. In addition, which was very unusual for the girl of that time, she ran on skates, perfectly managed oars, skillfully ruled the crew and rode on horseback. And also, as she later admitted to Kazimierz, she loved writing poetry and reading books on mathematics, which seemed to her poetry.
After a while, a platonic feeling arose between the young people. Manyu was dismayed by the fact that the arrogant parents of his lover would never allow him to associate his fate with a governess. Kazimierz came for summer holidays and holidays, and the rest of the time the girl lived waiting for a meeting. But now it is 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 Maria, she will immediately understand that he will become her faithful husband. Everything will be different in the case of him - without wild dreams and outbursts of feelings. Or maybe Mary just gets older?
Device in Paris
The girl arrived in France in 1891. Armor and her husband, Kazimierz Dlussky, who also worked as a doctor, began to patronize her. However, resolute Maria (in Paris she began to call herself Marie) opposed this. She rented a room on her own, and also enrolled at the Sorbonne, at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Marie in Paris settled in the Latin Quarter. Libraries, laboratories and the university were located in the neighborhood with him. Dlussky helped his wife's sister transport a modest belongings on a handcart. Marie resolutely refused to settle with any girl in order to pay less for the room - she wanted to study until late and in silence. Its budget in 1892 was 40 rubles, or 100 francs per month, that is, 3 with a small franc daily. And it was necessary to pay for a room, clothes, food, books, notebooks and university studies ... The girl cut herself down in food. And since she studied very hard, she soon fainted right in the classroom. A classmate ran to ask for help from the Dlussky. And they again took Marie to her, so that she could pay less for housing and eat normally.
Meet Pierre
Once, fellow student Marie invited her to visit a famous physicist from Poland. Then the girl first saw the man with whom she was destined to subsequently gain world fame. At that time, the girl was 27, and Pierre was 35 years old. When Marie entered the living room, he stood in the opening of the balcony. The girl tried to examine him, and the sun blinded her. So met Maria Sklodowska and Pierre Curie.
Pierre was devoted to science with all his heart. Parents tried several times to introduce him to the girl, but always in vain - all of them seemed to him uninteresting, stupid and petty. And that evening, talking to Marie, he realized that he had found an equal interlocutor. At that time, the girl carried out the work commissioned by her by the Society for the Promotion of National Industry, on the magnetic properties of various steel grades. Marie had just started researching at Lipmann's laboratory. And behind Pierre, who worked at the School of Physics and Chemistry, there was already a study on magnetism and even the "Curie law" he discovered. Young people had something to talk about. Pierre was so carried away by Marie that he went to the fields early in the morning in order to pick daisies for his beloved.
Wedding
Pierre and Marie July 14, 1895 got married and went to Ile de France on a 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 from the University of Sorbonne, the first in her release. At the end of 1897, a study on magnetism was completed, and Curie Maria began to search for a topic for her dissertation. At this time, the couple met Henri Becquerel, a physicist. He discovered a year ago that uranium compounds emit radiation that penetrates deeply. It was, unlike X-ray, an internal property of uranium. Curie Maria, carried away by a mysterious phenomenon, decided to study it. Pierre postponed his work in order to help his wife.
First discoveries and Nobel Prize
Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898 discovered 2 new elements. They called the first of them polonium (in honor of the homeland of Marie, 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 uranium ore. Pierre and Marie Curie worked from morning to night in the alkalized shed, exposed to radiation. Spouses were burned before they realized the dangers of research. However, they decided to continue them! Spouses in September 1902 received 1/10 grams of radium chloride. But they could not isolate polonium - as it turned out, it was a decay product of radium. The warm and bluish glow emitted radium salt. The attention of the whole world was attracted by this fantastic substance. In December 1903, the spouses were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in collaboration with Beckerel. Curie Marie became the first woman to receive her!
Loss of husband
The second daughter, Eve, was born to them in December 1904. By that time, the material situation of the family had improved significantly. Pierre became a professor of physics at the Sorbonne, and his wife worked with her husband as the head of the laboratory. A terrible event occurred in April 1906. Pierre shot down the crew to death. Maria Sklodowska Curie, having lost her husband, colleague and best friend, fell into depression for several months.
Second Nobel Prize
However, life went on. The woman concentrated all her efforts on isolating metallic radium in its pure form, 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 membership in the French Academy of Sciences in the wake of great success, but the debate unfolded, the persecution in the press began, and as a result, male chauvinism won . In 1911, Marie was awarded the 2nd Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She became the first laureate to be awarded her twice.
Work at the Radiyev Institute
For the study of radioactivity, the Radium Institute was established shortly before the First World War. Curie worked here in the field of basic research on radioactivity and its medical applications. In the war years, she trained military medical doctors in radiology, for example, to detect shrapnel in the body of a wounded person using X-rays, and delivered portable X-ray machines 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 as follows: 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 United States, where she was met with triumph and where she was presented with 1 g of radium to continue the experiment (its value, 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 Maria died of leukemia. This happened in the French Alps, in a small hospital located in Sancellemose.
Marie Curie University in Lublin
In honor of the Curie spouses, the chemical element curium was named (No. 96). 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 higher education institutions in Poland. Maria Curie-Skłodowska University was founded in 1944, in front of it is a monument, shown in the photo above. The first rector and organizer of this educational institution was Associate Professor Heinrich Raabe. Today it consists of the following 10 faculties:
- Chemistry.
- Biology and biotechnology.
- Arts.
- The humanities.
- Philosophy and sociology.
- Pedagogy and psychology.
- Earth sciences and spatial planning.
- Mathematics, physics and computer science.
- Rights and management.
- Political science.
- Pedagogy and psychology.
The University of Marie Curie was chosen by more than 23.5 thousand students, of whom about 500 were foreigners.